The rapidly rising transparent flames suddenly stopped swirling, and the flames even ceased burning above them, as if they had been frozen within some colorless and formless transparent ice crystal. An unknown aura spread out, making it seem as if something had appeared in the space, but even with the most subtle perception, nothing could be found. The appearance of this aura was more like some kind of law, which you could feel at all times, but could not explore, possessing an extremely abstract higher meaning.
The man in black stopped attacking with his fiery whip. He seemed to be trapped in a ball of cotton. Although he was very fast at the beginning, he quickly felt sluggish as he rose higher. It was like walking in water; the greater the force, the greater the resistance.
However, the man in black remained oblivious. Despite the constraints imposed upon him exceeding his limits, he continued his ascent towards the top of the giant pillar, seemingly unaware of the danger. A faint, soft azure light emanated from his black cloak, attempting to counteract the inexplicable binding force. However, the binding force was not applied directly to the man in black but rather formed a regional effect. Within this region, no matter how powerful one was, unless affected by this binding force, it was like a law.
The transparent flame suddenly began to shrink at a visible rate, the flame gradually diminishing, like a match extinguishing as the fuel burns out. Just as the transparent flame reached its smallest size and was almost extinguished, a layer of misty, faint blue light suddenly appeared around it, instantly injecting into the flame like mist. With the aid of the blue light, the transparent flame brightened again, but this was short-lived. An invisible force once again drained the terrifying heat energy contained within the flame, causing the transparent flame to constantly fluctuate in size.
The black-clad man's upward momentum had reached its limit, and his body froze motionless hundreds of meters in the air. The fiery whip in his hand was also affected by this invisible force; the seven transparent flames aligned in a straight line, flickering on and off. Although the azure light continuously channeled energy into the black-clad man and his fiery whip, the unseen rules still drew this energy away. Thus, the increase and decrease of energy became the primary means of their struggle, with the black-clad man and the transparent flames themselves serving as the communication tools in this struggle.
A glint of emerald light flashed in Ling Yun's eyes as he amplified the emerald pupil's energy-balancing effect. This was the first meaningful application of the emerald pupil since obtaining it from Blood Pupil. The ability to extract energy from an opponent's attack was Ling Yun's initial attempt to counter the black-clad man's bizarre attack. And it seemed to be working quite well.
In fact, even Xue Tong himself rarely used Bi Tong in his lifetime. Bi Tong's offensive capabilities were not strong, but it possessed a rare balancing ability, even forming a kind of domain-like law. Moreover, the range of application of the balancing ability was exceptionally wide, and it could be adjusted at will according to the user's consciousness. With this ability, Xue Tong could be said to have a trump card to save his life. If he had used Bi Tong immediately after being defeated by Lu Ximing, he would not have been captured and trapped in the core space. However, his arrogant personality ultimately led him to be trapped and unable to extricate himself. Even with his innate extraordinary eyes, he still ended up dying in confinement.
However, using Azure Eyes has a fatal flaw: it consumes energy too quickly. If used after a fierce battle when energy is almost depleted, Azure Eyes will quickly backfire on the user. This process occurs without warning or any indication, and the user may suddenly collapse and die while using it. This is why even Blood Eyes himself is reluctant to use Azure Eyes, only resorting to it in life-or-death situations.
However, Ling Yun is different. After copying Bi Tong's genes, the copied ability has fundamentally modified Bi Tong, retaining her original balancing ability but reducing her attack power. In exchange for an unnecessary price, all the balanced energy has been added to himself. In this way, the ability to use Bi Tong's own energy can be drawn from the balanced energy. Although the energy consumption of the two may not be the same, they can be roughly balanced without worrying about the backlash caused by energy consumption.
In a sense, after optimization, Bi Tong has become close to perfect.
Feeling the abundant energy flowing from the Azure Eye after being balanced, Ling Yun couldn't help but sigh slightly. The feeling of gaining without effort was indeed wonderful. Having immense energy out of thin air without diligent cultivation would obviously increase laziness. Another negative consequence of having no worries was a lack of ambition. Clearly, the Azure Eye was a technique that granted ability users a way to directly extract energy through brute force.
Ling Yun suddenly thought of the legendary dragons. It is said that dragons possess inherited power from birth, directly standing at the pinnacle of the world. However, no one has ever heard of a dragon being powerful enough to become a top-tier being in the world. Although their immense power has earned them the title of almost the most advanced creatures in the world, it also limits their potential for growth until they can become no stronger.
However, Ling Yun will not feel corrupted by this, and the laws of nature are both mysterious and fair. The balancing energy obtained from the Azure Eye will not truly form Ling Yun's own superpower; Ling Yun merely acts as a transfer and storage mechanism. The balancing energy is like a disposable consumable, and even if Ling Yun does not use it, it will slowly dissipate, like hot water in a thermos.
A slender figure, moving with lightning speed, suddenly shot up from the ground. In the brief moment that Ling Yun and the man in black were locked in a stalemate, Xiao Rou had already reshaped the telekinetic spear. Although the transparent flames had caused irreversible damage to the spear, it wasn't a physical object; rather, it was entirely formed from Xiao Rou's mental energy field. As long as the corresponding data was present in her consciousness, it could quickly reformate into a new telekinetic spear. Every superhuman has their most suitable weapon, and clearly, Xiao Rou was quite satisfied with the telekinetic spear.
Sensing the danger beneath him, the man in black abandoned his struggle with Ling Yun. His body suddenly curled up like a blanket, as if boneless, instantly forming a thick, pure black rope. Just as the telekinetic spear pierced him, it tightly coiled around the spearhead. It was unclear what his black cloak was made of, but after a flash of shimmering blue light, the sharp tip of the telekinetic spear and the azure flames could not cause him the slightest damage.
Xiao Rou seemed to have anticipated this situation. While still in mid-air, she suddenly released her grip and hurled the telekinetic spear far away. In the instant she released it, Xiao Rou used her ice magic again, instantly transforming the telekinetic spear into an ice spear emitting wisps of cold air! A thin layer of ice quickly appeared on the black-clad figure wrapped around the tip of the telekinetic spear, and the two floating sleeves suddenly froze into two statue-like ice hands.
With a soft thud, the black-clad man's telekinetic spear pierced deep into another giant pillar. Due to the immense force of Xiao Rou's throw, the black-clad man didn't even have time to react before he and the telekinetic spear were forcibly driven into the pillar. The hard pillar surface and the cloak rubbed violently against each other, and the black cloak even burst into blue flames the moment it entered the pillar. However, before the flames could engulf the black-clad man, the hole pierced by the spear tore him into strips the same shape as the hole.
A wisp of black smoke billowed out from the hole left after the telekinetic spear pierced the giant pillar. Because the action happened in the blink of an eye, the energy of the barrier supporting the decoration didn't even have time to react. It simply formed a circle with a retrograde blue glow inside the hole, but it was too late. On a smooth surface of the pillar next to the hole, a line drawing of a dark gray cloak appeared. At the same time, the entire pillar quickly turned gray. As Xiao Rou pierced the giant pillar, she also pierced the information storage device at its center.
Ling Yun slid down from the top of the giant pillar with lightning speed, covering a distance of dozens of meters in mid-air. The golden light emitted by his Eye of Illusion faintly swept across the semi-circular indentation supporting the decorative energy. He needed to figure out what kind of energy, besides the energy generated by the information carrier itself, was supporting the black-clad man's fierce attack. Whether it was the rolling blue lightning or the transparent flames, both were attack methods capable of easily injuring a school-level ability user. Judging from this alone, the supporting energy behind the figure in the decorative image must be a massive entity, and it was very likely that it was the energy of this massive barrier itself that was supporting it, because the giant pillar already represented a kind of energy transmission array, and the energy of the barrier could be instantly transmitted through the array.
However, speculation remains just speculation. Ling Yun needs to confirm one thing: even if the energy provided to the decorative figures doesn't possess the automatic selectivity of a living being, it can only mean one thing: deep within the barrier, there must be some intelligent being lurking. What Ling Yun needs to do is determine what's hidden behind the energy by tracking it. Energy is inherently formless and intangible, but under the Eye of Illusion, the connection between energy and its user reveals a peculiar characteristic. This tracking method is similar to how Ling Yun tracked down the powerful figure who kidnapped Xia Lan by leaving a trace of his aura, but it is many times more complex and difficult.
Or to put it simply, in the current world of superhumans, only Ling Yun is able to perceive the subtle, almost imperceptible connection between energy and its user.
Seemingly sensing that the figure in black had reverted to a line drawing, the azure light representing energy vanished instantly as if it were sentient, giving Ling Yun no chance to track it down. However, the golden light of the Eye of Illusion had already silently wrapped around it, like an invisible tiny insect carrying Ling Yun's perception, and it dissipated along with the faint azure light.
Ling Yun slid down from the top of the pillar and stood silently before a gigantic pillar that had turned a deathly gray. His expression shifted constantly, and the perception separated from his Eye of Illusion immediately changed. He felt as if he were experiencing a high-speed car race, flying forward at breakneck speed in an infinite space—a speed unimaginable to normal people. In just a brief moment, Ling Yun even felt suffocated. It was like the intense visual impact of a three-year-old child riding a vertical roller coaster, plummeting straight down from the highest point.
Xiao Rou glanced at him worriedly. Ling Yun noticed his girlfriend's concerned look, and waved his hand slightly, his fingers trembling, to indicate that he was alright. Xiao Rou nodded. For some reason, she had an inexplicable confidence in Ling Yun, as if no matter what trouble she faced, this young man could turn the impossible into reality. As long as that somewhat frail figure was present, the girl felt exceptionally at ease.
Xiao Rou smiled alluringly, and with a wave of her hand, a gleaming telekinetic spear flew back to her from hundreds of meters away. In an instant, the exquisite spear, crackling with countless golden lightning bolts, caused the girl's long hair and clothes to flutter. Under the soft, bright light, Xiao Rou lightly stepped into the void, shooting towards the dozens of sword-wielding warriors who had just appeared behind a dozen pillars like lightning. The light shone on her exquisite and flawless face, making her look like a beautiful goddess.
That exquisite and enigmatic moment became eternal, deeply etched in Ling Yun's obsidian-like eyes.
His senses suddenly stopped. After experiencing the breathtaking high-speed flight, he now felt as if he had fallen into a bottomless abyss. All around him was dense darkness. Without any reference points, Ling Yun could neither feel his own existence nor sense the movement of the energy he was clinging to. However, Ling Yun had a strange feeling that the energy was undergoing some kind of cyclical acceleration process, and that the dark space would not last long.
Suddenly, a burst of extremely bright light came through his senses. The light seemed to have an extremely high temperature. Even with just his senses, Ling Yun still felt an intense heat as if he were about to melt. The golden light of the Eye of Illusion shone to its extreme, and Ling Yun then realized that the light was actually a beam of light generated by the gathering of countless energies. At this moment, the cyan energy had gathered into a vast expanse. If the cyan energy accompanying his senses was just a drop of water, then the cyan energy had now become a boundless ocean, as unfathomable as an abyss.
After the cyan energy merged together, it remained unchanged. Ling Yun remained calm and silently detached himself from the cyan energy, about to enter the ocean of light like a fish swimming into the sea. Although separated by extremely bright light, Ling Yun could vaguely sense that there seemed to be a huge living organism in front of him.
Suddenly, a giant eye opened out of thin air in front of Ling Yun's tiny senses, and in an instant, a vast spiritual world completely swallowed Ling Yun!
Chapter 302 Totem
Perception is like a flickering candle in a storm, easily extinguished and swept away to some unknown distance. The instant the enormous eye opened, even Lingyun, who was infinitely far from perception, seemed to see a blazing sun rising directly before him. Immense power instantly swept away all obstacles in its path, then unleashed its most frenzied and powerful roar at Lingyun, who was smaller than a grain of sand.
The sky suddenly darkened, and the earth trembled slightly. Countless visible cracks crisscrossed the incredibly hard ground. All the moisture evaporated in an instant, turning into invisible water vapor. The immense heat quickly transformed the ground into a blazing furnace. In the center of the furnace, an unprecedented and rare pure white color was generated. All the flames gathered together, forming a huge shadow that kept changing until it formed a graceful woman composed entirely of flames.
This was a mysterious realm that Ling Yun had never entered before. The vast space was filled with a fiery aura like magma, and countless beams of cyan energy moved within it like snakes dancing in the air. The moment the perception roared out, it shielded itself completely, becoming as solid as a stone. Even so, when the raging torrent that could engulf an entire planet rolled over the perception, it still severely damaged the perception that existed only in the microscopic world.
Standing in the distance, Ling Yun's face suddenly turned as pale as paper. He coughed up a mouthful of unusually bright red blood. Even though he had fought against that enormous spiritual consciousness for a brief moment and then quickly shut down his senses, Ling Yun still inevitably suffered the strongest impact.
The immense power, like a ribbon of light, rapidly traveled back along the invisible channel of perception, breaking through the dozens of sensory defenses and illusionary mazes that Ling Yun had casually set up with overwhelming force. Just as it was about to strike Ling Yun's main body, the decisive young man resolutely chose a heroic act, severing all connection with his perception. Thus, the torrent abruptly stopped less than a few centimeters away from Ling Yun's main body. After stubbornly resisting the slowly closing microscopic channel for several seconds, it reluctantly retreated.
Ling Yun's back was pressed tightly against the giant pillar, and his vest was instantly soaked with sweat. His heart, which had been beating steadily, began to pound as hard as a drum. He had never felt so thrilled before. The spiritual power that surged like a raging storm brought him deep fear and shock. He never expected that his perception of tracking the energy of the decorative figure would reveal such a massive existence.
If that spiritual power was a towering mountain, then Lingyun was merely a tiny house. Standing beneath the towering mountain, the house could only feel a tremendous tremor—a power that Lingyun could not withstand. The difference between the two was like two extremes, just as even the strongest mouse could not fight a tiger.
Ling Yun was slightly out of breath when a deep question suddenly arose in his mind. If the energy supporting the decorative figures was this enormous entity, then even from an infinite distance, this entity could easily wipe him and Xiao Rou out of the barrier. So why did it choose to attack the two of them in such a clumsy way as supporting the decorative figures?
This is like a powerful god watching over his people within his domain. He is omnipotent within that domain, yet he refrains from any direct intervention, instead simply playing games with his people according to the rules he created. His people, with their limited wisdom, are currently unable to comprehend the god's true intentions.
Could it all just be a game? Ling Yun pondered silently, looking up at the towering, majestic temple outside the passage. Enveloped in mist, the temple appeared exceptionally grand and mysterious. The long, white marble staircase seemed so endless that it appeared as a straight, silvery line amidst the winding mountain path.
Ling Yun suddenly discovered a terrifying fact: if he kept staring intently at that temple, the temple would grow larger and larger in his field of vision until it filled his entire field of vision, and then seep into his mind bit by bit through his eyes, until it filled his consciousness, and then, like a balloon rising into the sky, it would burst with a bang and he would die.
Is human consciousness finite? Ling Yun had always taken it for granted that thought had no limits, but now it seemed that wasn't the case. He just had this strange feeling, and to some extent, the feelings of those with superpowers were often correct.
Could this also explain why people cannot look directly at the gods but can only worship and praise them? A bizarre thought suddenly occurred to Ling Yun: it's precisely because the gods are too powerful, beyond the capacity of human consciousness, that they can only choose to worship and praise. If gods truly exist in this world, Ling Yun stared at the grand hall, suddenly recalling the City of Death stored in his information. Perhaps there were similarities between the two, and the replication ability continued to relentlessly break down the data of death information.
Of course, if the City of Death were to appear here, even if it were just the tip of the iceberg, it could still turn the entire barrier into a lifeless, deathly color. That would be equivalent to an interstellar-level attack. Ling Yun couldn't even imagine what kind of existence such a monster, which should only exist in absurdity and imagination, would be. It was beyond the limits of his imagination.
A sudden surge of intense anger rose within Ling Yun. Upon learning of the existence of an insurmountable enemy, the fight had become a game. The feeling of having to conform to certain rules and having one's fate in the hands of others was simply unbearable. In an instant, Ling Yun felt an urge to destroy everything. A misty aura rippled around him, and countless micro-molecules condensed at the microscopic level began to solidify in the space, faintly exuding a sense of death.
Not dust, I am who I am, no one can control my destiny, no one. No one in heaven or on earth can! The boy roared inwardly, his arms suddenly trembling, an invisible gale sweeping across, instantly forming a death storm capable of dissolving everything, silently engulfing hundreds of giant pillars like an avalanche, turning countless decorative figures that were about to take shape into lifeless lines.
Xiao Rou turned around in surprise. After the psychic spear, crackling with electricity, turned the last sword-wielding warrior into a pile of rubble, the girl quickly ran back to Ling Yun's side, looking at her beloved with concern: "Yun, are you alright?"
"It's nothing, I just found out some things and I'm annoyed." Ling Yun said calmly, his pale face regaining its composure. "Xiao Rou, we need to destroy all the decorations here. This is a mission given to us by some being. Only by defeating them can we be qualified to pass her test."
"A test?" Xiao Rou repeated in surprise. She didn't know what Ling Yun had gone through, so she felt very confused. A faint unease suddenly arose in her heart. It was rare for Ling Yun, who rarely showed his emotions, to be so angry. However, Xiao Rou didn't think too much about it. The girl's mind was exceptionally simple. If it was going to be a fight, then so be it. Your strength is not a condition or reason for me to submit to you. No matter what, as long as she was with Ling Yun, even if she died, Xiao Rou would have no regrets. From childhood to adulthood, she had become accustomed to life and death. The girl no longer cared about death. It was this mentality that had forged the fearless Xiao Rou she was today.