Swish!
Soone from the Action Team took the initiative to attack first, hurling a black dagger at Guan Tong.
As the attacker watched the dagger fly close to Guan Tong, a surge of joy rose in his heart, and he activated his ability.
The black dagger imdiately erupted with a massive cloud of red fog—a neuroparalytic gas. A single breath would render one's entire body immobile, leaving them utterly at the rcy of others.
However, the mont the fog began to erupt, a large mass of black shadow enveloped it completely.
The dagger's wielder was shocked. Such a synchronized action made it seem as if the Shadow knew the secret ability of his dagger!
"Attack together!"
Liu Wen commanded everyone to act.
Yet, she quickly realized her judgnt had been a major mistake.
Originally, she believed that Guan Tong, having just returned from the epicenter, would be extrely weak, with very little Mind Power left, unable to muster much combat strength.
But what she didn't expect was that Guan Tong hadn't used up all his Mind Power.
The tens of millions of Ascendants from the official organization had transmitted over a billion units of Mind Power to him. He had used a billion at the Geomantic Pillar, but the remainder—the "change"—was left over.
And while this "change" was rely a fraction compared to the billion, for Guan Tong, it was a massive reserve of over two hundred thousand units!
Now, fueled by his rage, the already unstable Mind Power was being violently output in the form of shadows more ferociously than ever.
Countless shadow spikes extended from his body, frantically attacking all mbers of the Action Team. Moreover, a large number of shadow entities resembling monsters took shape, forming sothing akin to a monstrous shadow army.
Within the blink of an eye, dozens of bizarrely shaped shadow monsters fully materialized. Each was connected to the main shadow body by only a single shadow line, and their numbers completely surpassed the dozen-plus mbers of the Action Team.
The sudden change surprised the Action Team mbers, but they had no ti to think too much, as rely dealing with the dense barrage of shadow spike attacks had them scrambling.
Hundreds, even thousands, of shadow spikes erged from the front, sides, and even underground, stabbing at them from all directions. Several who failed to dodge or defend in ti were imdiately pierced like honeycombs, dying instantly.
The remaining mbers, though they managed to deploy defenses in ti, were still forced into a passive position and had to contend with the attacks from those shadow monsters.
Team Leader Liu Wen had already sensed sothing was wrong. She hadn't expected the Shadow to still possess so much Mind Power. Moreover, their team's multiple attacks had been easily neutralized by him, and so special-ability items had been evaded.
This gave rise to a terrifying thought within her: The Shadow can see through our abilities and item effects!
Her own ability allowed her to manipulate earth, forming giant rocky protrusions to attack ground targets. But ever since the fight began, Guan Tong had been moving rapidly, never staying in one place for more than a second.
Her ability required at least two seconds from activation to taking effect, which ant attacking a fast-moving Guan Tong was simply impossible for her.
Coupled with the fact that others' abilities and items were also easily countered, she concluded that Guan Tong could discern people's abilities.
If that were true, it would be utterly terrifying!
The most crucial aspect of Ascendant combat was intelligence. If the enemy knew all of their team's abilities, and combined that with a massive amount of Mind Power, their own advantages would vanish completely.
As Liu Wen thought this, six of the fifteen Action Team mbers had already been killed by Guan Tong.
"This won't do, this mission is probably..."
"Let
deal with him!"
Jiang Ming, who had only been defending and hadn't attacked until now, suddenly charged towards Guan Tong.
Liu Wen was startled: "Wait!"
Jiang Ming was the Commander's grandson, her only surviving relative in the world. If he died at the Shadow's hands, she wouldn't be able to account for it even if she returned alive.
She wanted to stop Jiang Ming, but it was already too late.
Jiang Ming charged at Guan Tong, the hatred on his face unconcealed: "Shadow, we et again!"
Guan Tong, fully encased in Shadow Armor, offered no response. He recognized Jiang Ming but simply didn't care.
With a raise of his hand, a giant shadow hand grasped towards Jiang Ming.
Jiang Ming sneered, allowing the shadow hand to grab him.
The mont they made contact, the shadow hand was rapidly absorbed into his body.
"Fool, have you forgotten my ability?"
Jiang Ming's ability to absorb Mind Power-based attacks had been exposed back at the Yongzhou base.
At that ti, Guan Tong had broken Jiang Ming's ability by expending a large amount of Mind Power to summon the Greataxe Warrior, attacking to surpass the absorption upper limit.
But this ti, the shadow hand Guan Tong activated consud even more Mind Power than summoning the Greataxe Warrior last ti, yet it failed.
However, the mont Jiang Ming used his ability to absorb the shadow hand's Mind Power, the [Civilization Observer] title Guan Tong wore triggered its insight effect.
[Mind Power Conversion]: Can absorb and store external Mind Power up to five tis the user's own Mind Power upper limit, and can release it in the form of attacks.
The information about Jiang Ming's ability unfolded in Guan Tong's mind, and he understood what was happening.
Last ti it was two tis; this ti, the absorption capacity had reached five tis. It seed this was the result of Jiang Ming continuously developing his own ability over the past few months.
Guan Tong wasn't surprised. Just as he kept opening new pages in the [Wordless Book], every Ascendant with aspirations to grow stronger would tirelessly delve deeper into developing and enhancing their own abilities or exclusive items, becoming significantly stronger at regular intervals.
Judging by Jiang Ming's progress, given enough ti, he might even raise the maximum absorption multiplier higher. Ten tis, fifty tis, even a hundred tis might not be impossible.
But did he really have that ti?
"Take it back!"
Jiang Ming's pupils turned white as his ability switched from absorption mode to release mode. He hurled all the absorbed Mind Power towards Guan Tong in the form of Mind Power needles.
"Boom!"
At the sa ti, a loud noise erupted beneath Guan Tong's feet—Liu Wen in the distance had finally seized the opportunity to activate her ability and create a rocky protrusion.
She was very confident in the destructive power of her rocky protrusions. She had tested it before; even high-strength steel materials would be pierced by the rocky spikes.
However, in Guan Tong's eyes, both of their attacks were completely transparent, already seen through.
A mass of shadow at his feet suddenly transford into a stone pillar continuously thrusting upwards. Guan Tong stood atop it, his body instantly elevated over ten ters.
Jiang Ming's Mind Power needles and Liu Wen's rocky protrusion attack both missed. They stared in shock at Guan Tong high above. The next mont, a giant shadow hand ford and pressed down from the sky!
"Try absorbing this one now."
Guan Tong's voice seed to ring right beside Jiang Ming's ear. Looking at the giant shadow hand descending upon him, an imnse sense of crisis enveloped him.
This... just how much Mind Power is contained within this?!
He instinctively wanted to dodge, but the giant shadow hand covered an area dozens of ters wide. There simply wasn't enough ti. So, he imdiately switched his ability back to absorption mode, thinking, With my upper limit of several hundred points of Mind Power, I can absorb at least a few thousand! If this shadow hand...
"Urk!"
The mont Jiang Ming made contact with the shadow hand, he knew he was wrong.
His ability failed completely. The Mind Power contained within this giant shadow hand far exceeded his absorption upper limit!
The giant shadow hand grabbed his body and lifted him into the air.
"Jiang Ming!" Liu Wen shouted a warning, "Use a teleportation item to escape, quickly!"
Hearing Liu Wen's shout, Jiang Ming struggled to free a hand to use an item, but it was utterly impossible.
The next mont, he was brought before Guan Tong by the shadow hand.
In that instant, Jiang Ming saw Guan Tong's true face—soone younger than him, who looked like he was still just a college student.
"You..."
"This ti, you're not so lucky."
After Guan Tong spoke, the giant shadow hand crashed down, slamming into the ground.
Splat—!
The surviving mbers of the Action Team watched in horror as Jiang Ming completely vanished.
On the ground, only a splattered red stain remained—the bloody ss of a body crushed into paste...
The giant shadow hand, as if having swatted a mosquito, slowly rose, seemingly searching for its next target.
"RUN!!!"
The eight still alive completely lost their will to fight. Their only thought now was to escape!
How naive! Why did we even participate in this operation?! The target is the Shadow, who earned the title "World's Number One Ascendant" long ago! How could we possibly kill him?!
All the lofty aspirations from before departure vanished. The few remaining were now filled only with regret and a desperate desire to survive.
Action Team Leader Liu Wen also knew the mission had failed. She could only order everyone to scatter and flee; perhaps a few might escape that way.
Standing atop the high shadow pillar, Guan Tong looked down coldly and indifferently at the few fleeing in all directions.
The [Wordless Book] appeared in his hand. He flipped to the sixth page and, using blood as ink, wrote a single character on it.
"Domain."
Boom!
Violent Mind Power surged into the page, and an effect driven by his subjective consciousness rapidly manifested.
Layer upon layer of shadow unfurled like a celestial curtain, then spread outwards in all directions.
The Action Team mbers who had scattered and fled far initially felt relieved when they saw no shadow pursuit, thinking happily that perhaps the Shadow had gone after others and they could escape.
But soon, they realized sothing was wrong.
Why did the sky turn dark?
Liu Wen, also in the midst of fleeing, felt the sky instantly darken. She paused slightly, then looked up, freezing completely in place.
Boundless layers of shadow enveloped the sky, blotting out the sun, even swallowing the light itself.
Then, an even more terrifying scene unfolded. Upon these shadow layers shrouding the sky, countless eyes densely opened.
These eyes swiveled around, seemingly searching for sothing. Soon, every fleeing Action Team mber was discovered. Each person was stared at by hundreds of eyes. This bizarre sight scared several of them out of their wits, making them think they were trapped in so nightmare.
Liu Wen swallowed hard. She knew the Shadow was telling them in the most direct way possible: You have nowhere to run.
"Commander, I'm sorry..."
Knowing she could not escape the Shadow's grasp, Liu Wen decisively bit down on a false tooth, using the poison within to commit suicide.
She was fortunate enough to die one second before Guan Tong launched his attack.
The next second, hundreds of "shadow spears" rapidly coalesced from the shadow layers in the sky and rained down like a downpour upon the locations pinpointed by the eyes, shooting down every last one of the remaining escapees without exception.
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