April 3rd, 9:00 AM.
After another twenty-four hours passed, another one of humanity's collective senses was eliminated.
Some people who were eating, savoring the delicious taste of food one second, chewing with great relish, found all flavor gone from their mouths the next second, as if they were chewing on wood. This caused many to immediately spit it out.
It was taste! The sense eliminated today was taste!
People quickly discovered this and felt fortunate about it.
Losing taste or smell was far better than losing hearing or touch.
Ever since visual elimination yesterday, people had relied on listening to audio to pass the time and endure these twenty-four hours. If hearing were eliminated next, being both blind and deaf would truly be a top-tier torment.
As for what would happen if touch were eliminated, no one could give a definite answer yet. The public knew it would certainly be more terrifying than the elimination of the other four senses combined, so they deliberately avoided thinking about it.
People initially felt fortunate that taste was eliminated today, but they would soon discover that eating without a sense of taste would be extremely unpleasant.
Everyone forced themselves to eat canned food, then continued listening to audiobooks or music to endure the time.
Only a very few people, relying on abilities, items, or some special medicines, could spare themselves this suffering.
Guan Tong was one of them.
At this moment, he was walking along a beach.
This was Rieming Island, territory of the Sakura Prayer Country. By manipulating the shadow line to cross the ocean, he arrived here, then used Body Swap. In the blink of an eye, he traveled from Andai State to this place.
The reason he came to this island was precisely because the location of "Fragment 5" was on this island.
The bombing operation by the Sakura Prayer Country was, of course, unforgivable to him.
Since the other party aimed to destroy him, he would naturally repay tooth for tooth and eye for eye. From the decision-makers to the executors, he certainly would not let any of them go.
But dealing with this matter was not urgent. Just like he wasn't in a hurry to eliminate Prince Lado, even if he wanted revenge, he would proceed only under foolproof circumstances.
Therefore, the purpose of his trip here was still to retrieve the fragment first.
Walking on the tidal flat now, the azure sea water and clear blue sky formed a beautiful picture.
Before coming, Guan Tong had looked up some information. This "Rieming Island" was originally a tourist destination of the Sakura Prayer Country, with many tourists from around the world coming here for vacation every year.
But after entering the Doomsday Rules era, countries closed their entry and exit channels, and the Sakura Prayer Country was naturally no exception. This Rieming Island was also transformed from a vacation island into an official base.
Guan Tong had used his Shadow to scout ahead. There was originally only one shrine attraction at the island's center. Now, several military camp-like buildings had been constructed around the shrine's periphery.
Only a handful of people lived in the core area. One particular main hall especially caught Guan Tong's attention because his Shadow could not infiltrate it.
That's right, when he manipulated the Shadow to infiltrate, it encountered an invisible barrier in front of that main hall. It was the same situation as when he previously faced some enemies and failed to invade with his Shadow.
This immediately made him realize that the building might be protected by an item or ability that could produce an effect similar to a "Mind Power barrier."
He was very curious about this because, until now, most items he encountered that could defend against Mind Power attacks were for personal protection. But this kind of large-scale barrier protection was a first.
Extrapolating from one to many, Guan Tong believed it was very likely that key locations and residences of key figures in powerful nations had this kind of special item protection, preventing silent infiltration by ability users like him.
As for why the royal palace of Andai State lacked this kind of protection, it was naturally because Andai State was a small country. Its current remaining population was estimated to be less than a million. Coupled with insufficient official control, even if citizens had similar items or abilities, the higher-ups would have no way of knowing.
But in countries like the Sakura Prayer Country, and even Suroma and Beixing, similar items and abilities must be plentiful. Some important places were definitely under the strictest protection, making Shadow invasion quite impossible.
"The location of Fragment 5 is in the shrine's core area. To enter, one must first pass through the several barracks on the periphery."
This wasn't difficult for Guan Tong, it was even easy. Because he had already discovered that the vast majority of soldiers in those barracks were currently in a state of blindness.
A group of blind soldiers posed a threat level infinitely close to zero to him. And this was what Guan Tong called "seizing the opportunity." If not for this [Five Senses Elimination] rule, he definitely wouldn't have come so easily.
However, the presence of soldier protection, plus the previous missile bombing, was enough to indicate that the holder of Fragment 5 was someone backed by the Sakura Prayer Country's official authorities.
Being backed by the official authorities meant receiving massive resource investment and possessing formidable strength, certainly not comparable to the likes of Basong.
Trying to take the fragment in a playful manner like he did with Basong was probably impossible.
But since he was already here, returning empty-handed was not part of Guan Tong's plan.
His plan was, even if he couldn't obtain the fragment, he would destroy the barracks and other buildings on this island, collecting some advance interest for his future retaliation against the Sakura Prayer Country's bombing of him.
...
Daming Shrine, Main Hall.
Before the Doomsday Rules era, this place was always closed, not allowing ordinary people to enter.
After entering the Doomsday Rules era, it became one person's exclusive meditation space.
In the center of this main hall stood a massive statue, its form extremely bizarre.
The lower half of this statue was a human torso, but from the waist up, eight snake heads grew out. Each snake head held an object in its mouth: a round mirror, a long rope, a short knife, a spirit talisman, and so on.
This looked less like a divine statue and more like some kind of monster, exuding an evil aura from head to toe that would make anyone who saw it feel extremely uncomfortable.
On a square cushion in front of the statue, Yamata no Orochi knelt, sitting calmly with her eyes closed, seemingly in the midst of cultivation.
This main hall was her exclusive cultivation space. No one else was allowed to enter. This wasn't her own request, but an order issued by the Divine Child.
As an orphan whose parents disappeared when she was young, she clearly remembered the day after the first Doomsday Rule ended.
At that time, what she searched for in the Ascension Store was the two characters for "bloodline." This was her lifelong obsession, wanting to know who her parents were and why they abandoned her.
However, the result after searching and exchanging produced a change she never expected.
After exchanging for [Yamata Blood], her body actually mutated. Her eyes became vertical pupils, and she could use some inexplicable, bizarre powers.
Not to mention others, she herself was frightened.
But soon, after news of "the woman with snake eyes" spread, people from the Sakura Prayer Country's official authorities came to her door and took her to a certain place in the capital.
There, she met the "Divine Child." This most revered existence in the Sakura Prayer Country actually knelt and bowed to her, saying she had awakened the bloodline of the Sakura Prayer Country's ancient god and was destined to become this nation's protector.
From then on, the Divine Child instructed her to discard her former surname and change it to "Yamata," representing the ancient god, keeping only the name "Purple."
Later, when the Chosen Team was established, she naturally became a member, receiving the most resource investment. Her strength increased rapidly. Over the course of a year, she had already attained power unimaginable to ordinary people, awakening many abilities emerging from the depths of her bloodline.
But was this what she wanted? She wasn't sure.
"Lady Yamata no Orochi." A voice came from outside the hall at this moment. "Instructor Mu Tiancheng wishes to see you."
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