1097: Chapter 1097: Imitating the Abyss 1097: Chapter 1097: Imitating the Abyss “What is that?”
The private plane crossed the vast sea of clouds, accompanied by the puzzled inquiry of Wu Ganglie sitting beside him.
Li Cheng, who was reading a book by the sofa, lifted his head and looked out the window.
The bright sunlight illuminated the endless white clouds stretching out like grasslands.
Above the white clouds, in the clear firmant where only the sun used to hang, a gigantic planetary phantom shadow occupying half of the sky was slowly erging.
“Is that ‘the Ruins’?”
Wu Ganglie, sitting opposite Li Cheng, furrowed his eyebrows, “Wasn’t that ‘Blood Sun Mirage’ taken care of by ‘K’ last ti?”
“I’m afraid it’s not a ‘Phantom Shadow’.”
Li Cheng kept his head raised, gazing at the huge planet above the sky.
His eyes swept over the erald colors of that planet, over its desolate and ruined cities, “That is the real Ruins.”
In front of the massive planetary phantom shadow, the silhouette of a vertical, olive-shaped, blood-colored object also erged at the sa ti.
The shadow of that object stably hovered in front of the massive planet, as if marking the midpoint between the two celestial bodies.
rely gazing at that blood-colored shadow, Li Cheng felt a violent and savage whisper arising within his heart.
“Turn back!”
He withdrew his gaze and turned to look at Wu Ganglie, who was also staring at the sky with a tinge of red starting to show in his eyes, and quickly shouted.
A touch of thunder flashed over his body.
Wu Ganglie, whose eyes seed entranced, was awakened by the shout, struggled for a mont, withdrew his gaze, and looked at Li Cheng.
The crimson glow in his eyes gradually dissipated as he withdrew his gaze, and, like soone pulled out of the water, he leaned back on the sofa and took several deep breaths.
Then he looked at Li Cheng and said in a low voice, “It seems like there is sothing inside that is attracting .”
“It is probably so kind of ‘High-Level Contamination’.”
Li Cheng looked up at the surrounding staff mbers.
When he shouted just now, all of them had already instinctively turned their heads back, but their condition was much better than Wu Ganglie’s, with almost no impact.
“What exactly is that?”
Wu Ganglie gasped for air, asking in a low voice.
“I don’t know,”
Li Cheng shook his head, “It probably has sothing to do with this ti’s ‘Rong Guang Society’.”
“They’re moving so fast?”
Wu Ganglie paused, his heavy breathing began to ease slightly, “We haven’t even had ti to get there yet.”
“According to the information collected from He Ao’s side, they have been preparing for many years.
It’s only strange that they only started to act at this mont,”
Li Cheng slightly paused in his speech, he glanced again at the huge planet and shuttle-shaped object in the sky, and spoke slowly.
“What exactly is Rudel up to?”
Wu Ganglie couldn’t help but mutter.
“He can’t even manage the Western Lands himself,”
Li Cheng withdrew his gaze, “If it wasn’t for He Ao going over there to do a thorough cleanup this ti, we might not even know about this thing blowing up.”
“What should we do next?”
Wu Ganglie pressed his head down, asking in a low voice.
“That contamination is still not close enough,”
Li Cheng raised his head and glanced at the huge planetary phantom shadow overhead, “Only high-ranking Transcendents and those with particularly keen inspiration can feel it.
First, contact various organizations to have them try their best not to let people look up at the sky, to avoid causing contamination incidents.
The rest,”
He turned his eyes back in thought, “He Ao and Hao Yi are both over there; they should have discovered sothing.”
He turned to look at the secretary sitting beside him, “Have you received any ssages from He Ao or Hao Yi?”
“No,”
The secretary thought for a mont, opened the tablet in hand, “The last ssage received was from Yan Yue, saying that they had successfully reached Feklay and had t up with Lin Chichi.”
“Could sothing have happened to them?”
Wu Ganglie lowered his head, expressing his doubts, “Was the Rong Guang Society attacking them?
Are there multiple B-rank individuals on the other side?”
Hearing this conjecture, Li Cheng was startled, and then shook his head, “No, Hao Yi has the Velora, and he is extrely cautious.
He Ao is also not that easy to deal with; it’s not possible for them both to run into trouble at the sa ti.”
He sunk his gaze, tapping his fingers lightly on his thigh, then he seed to have felt sothing, turned his head, and looked toward the corridor of the plane beside him.
Bright electric light flickered in the profound depths of his eyes.
Woo—
As Wu Ganglie opened his mouth, intending to ask sothing, the roaring train whistle blasted in his ears.
Before he could react, Li Cheng had already stood up and opened a hidden compartnt nearby, pulling out a slender wooden case.
And as Li Cheng rose, a gale arose in the empty cabin.
“Ah!”
Accompanied by the screams of the secretary and the staff, an old-fashioned train with its upper-half and both ends subrged in the void erged from the void and stopped next to Li Cheng’s seat, aligning its door with him.
The secretary sitting next to Li Cheng had already flipped over and retreated to the window at the back.
Imdiately afterward, the train’s door was yanked open, and a young man covered in blood appeared behind the door; he looked at Li Cheng, one hand holding the door, the other hand reaching out, speaking calmly and rapidly, “Get on.”
Wu Ganglie stared dumbfounded at the scene before him; of course, he recognized the train and the young man inside, but he never expected the train to appear here in such a condition, in such a manner.
If it weren’t for the plane being large enough, the train would have blown the entire plane apart.
“Maintain order.”
Li Cheng glanced at Wu Ganglie and quickly said.
Then he grabbed the young man’s hand inside the train, holding the wooden case, and was pulled into the train.
The next second, accompanied by the roaring whistle, the speeding train entered the void.
The train rushing past stirred up all the pages within the car, scattering them everywhere.
…
“How are your injuries?”
Inside the swiftly moving train, ‘Hao Yi’ looked up at Li Cheng in front of him.
Li Cheng was heavily injured during the last Blood Sun event and had just regained freedom of movent a few days ago.
“Goya treated specifically before,”
Li Cheng spoke quickly, “I’ve recovered quite a bit, no issue joining the battle.”
“You’ve grown stronger.”
‘Hao Yi’ glanced at Li Cheng, feeling the electric light spreading within him, and took another look at the wooden case he was holding.
“A bit of new insight.”
Li Cheng did not conceal it either, replying candidly.
Such an aberrant talent.
Without an aberrant talent, it wouldn’t be possible to reach the verge of B-rank, the threshold of an Angel, within just a decade or so.
“He Ao isn’t here?”
Li Cheng shifted his gaze, glanced at the surroundings, and asked quickly.
“He’s in the ‘City of Rong Guang’,”
‘Hao Yi’ replied quickly, then he looked at the pitch-black ‘tunnel’ outside the window and smiled at the sowhat puzzled Li Cheng,
“Good news and bad news.
The good news is that this ti we don’t need to go through the puzzle-solving and investigative process.”
“And the bad news?”
Li Cheng looked at him.
“The bad news is,”
‘Hao Yi’ paused for a mont and smiled, “we’re going straight to the brawl, the opposition is very strong.”
“That may not be entirely bad news.”
Li Cheng smiled slightly.
As long as the enemy hasn’t succeeded, there’s hope to turn the tide of battle.
“In a certain sense, it can be understood that way,”
‘Hao Yi’ said, leading Li Cheng towards the front of the train, “I need to borrow your power to accelerate this train, the power I brought isn’t enough.”
“Alright.”
Li Cheng opened the wooden case he held, and the dazzling electric light instantly filled the entire carriage.
——
City of Rong Guang
At the top of a high-rise near ‘Ring One’, Ruilin raised her head, looking at the two rapidly solidifying planetary illusions, one large and one small, above her.
The larger one is covered in azure hues, with pure white flowing clouds drifting across.
And between those patches of azure, there are chunks resembling landmasses, floating amidst them.
The smaller planet, anwhile, is woven from blocks of grey-white and erald, with only a small amount of azure.
Beneath the phantasmagoric images of these two enormous planets, dazzling glows of red, yellow, and blue light intertwine and shine forth.
These glows trace and highlight along pathways, painting a massive radiant Array within the entirety of the round city.
Dong——
A booming chi of a clock tolls under the blood-red sky, as a form of terrifying yet invisible presence surges within the center of this Array.
The Polluted Monsters within ‘Ring One’ let out furious roars under the chi, emitting shrill screams.
Gunfire from afar has ceased; people in grey-brown clothing and those in lavish outfits have stopped their battles.
Under the sound of the chi, they all lie prostrate, as if ants worshipping a Divine Being.
Ruilin’s body involuntarily began to bow, but was ‘assisted’ by her sister beside her.
She raises her head to look at Ruilin, who is frowning deeply, and quickly asks, “What’s happening?”
“The President is activating so special ‘Formations’ constructed in the City of Rong Guang,”
Ruilin says rapidly, furrowing her brows, “That ‘Mister’ is trying to stop him.”
“How are things?”
Ruilin asks softly.
“Not good,”
Ruilin shakes her head slightly, “The President’s understanding of the City of Rong Guang far surpasses that ‘Mister’.
He’s using various powers left within the city to erode the parts ‘under control’ of that Mister.”
Boom——
At that mont, the entire city shudders suddenly, and the already shattered skies fracture further, revealing raw flesh as red as blood.
And Ruilin, with tightly knit brows, widens her eyes, opens her mouth in shock, and exclaims, “Has it succeeded?”
The radiance that pervaded the entire city stops shining at this mont, and the continuously tracing Array also halts.
And above that sky, the rapidly solidifying phantoms of the two planets also flicker for an instant, ceasing their solidification.
Stunned, Ruilin stares at the Obelisk encircled by nurous Polluted Monsters ahead, unable to comprehend what has happened for the mont.
It is then she sees that the surface of the gigantic Obelisk has at so point cracked open, and that ‘Mister’ along with the Angel girl rush out.
The chis in the sky stop at this mont, no longer sounding.
······
He Ao lifts his head, looking at the two massive planetary phantoms in the sky, his gaze becoming slightly focused.
With his partial control over the City of Rong Guang, he can distinctly sense that Ruoke En is trying to forcibly initiate a certain ritual.
Even though this ritual is missing so essential parts.
Though echoes of Ruoke En’s mories are no longer present in his mind, He Ao can still feel the ritual is missing three key nodes.
These three nodes correspond respectively to the powers of the three great Angels.
It seems that the three Rong Guang crystals prepared by Ruoke En, supposedly the tripartite dium previously used to manipulate the City of Rong Guang, are also crucial ritual items.
Therefore, he arranged the ‘ritual’ to extract the ‘Red Crystal,’ which was already veering towards stability within Ruilin’s body, in advance.
But now, He Ao has completely seized control of the Red Crystal, and he has also cast the Yellow and Blue Crystals into the Book of Bygone Days, as sacrifices for summoning the phantoms of the three great Angels from the past.
Nevertheless, despite the absence of key nodes, Ruoke En still utilizes the complex mystic Formation, reconstructs three temporary nodes, and makes use of the power of the City of Rong Guang he wields to forcibly initiate the Formation.
Of course, this whole process was begun while he was conversing with He Ao within the Obelisk.
The Obelisk’s thick presence to so extent interfered with He Ao’s Perception, dulling his Sensing of the external forces of the City of Rong Guang.
If he could seize this opportunity to kick off the ritual, He Ao, even with control over half the City of Rong Guang, would still be helpless.
Indeed, the Obelisk did interfere with He Ao’s Perception but Ruoke En miscalculated the strength of He Ao’s Soul.
This led to the actual interference with He Ao’s Perception by the Obelisk being not so severe.
The mont Ruoke En initiated the ritual, He Ao sensed the activation of the heritage site.
At the sa ti, he realized that, relying solely on the power in his hands, he was unable to halt the progression of the heritage site.
Ruoke En had operated the City of Rong Guang for many years, knowing the city like the back of his hand, and had laid various mystical Formations.
Even with Half control like Ruoke En, at many key nodes, He Ao could not defeat Ruoke En, who had ho-ground advantage.
At most, he could disrupt the ritual for a while, unable to thoroughly destroy it.
And behind Ruoke En, there lies an unknown Higher Being.
If the ritual were to reach a certain stage that would allow the Higher Being to extend support, the situation would instantaneously tip in Ruoke En’s favor.
Therefore, the first thing He Ao contemplated was how to prevent Ruoke En right at the beginning of the ritual.
A direct attack was certainly out of the question; there was no way he could win.
So he took advantage of the ‘Obelisk Perception Blockade’ intelligence gap, pretending that his perception was indeed largely blocked, in sync with the predicant he was trapped in within the obelisk.
Then, he launched a minor assault on the vital points of the ritual, feigning a repelled attack.
Without hesitation, he mobilized a third of all his controlled powers to strike at the obelisk, a stronghold located at the heart of the Array.
This third was, ‘theoretically’ under the ‘Perception Blockade’, the maximum amount of power he could mobilize.
He feigned the objectives of trying to ‘seize control of the core point of the obelisk to disrupt the ritual’ and ‘to free himself trapped inside the obelisk through its control’.
Ruoke En was a smart man, and He Ao believed that he would definitely consider these two aspects.
He Ao also believed that he was greedy enough to want to crush everything in one go.
Especially when the power inside the obelisk couldn’t ‘kill’ He Ao in a short ti.
As expected, Ruoke En abandoned the strong assault and directly mobilized most of his forces, preparing to ‘devour’ that third of He Ao’s power outright.
At the sa ti, He Ao found a way to break through the obelisk, breaking it open from the inside with the Regicide Evil Spirit.
The mont that breach opened, the ‘Perception Blockade’ that still had a bit of effect on He Ao completely vanished.
Imdiately afterward, He Ao summoned all his forces, seizing Ruoke En’s main force and briefly severing the escape energy route for these powers.
This was a ‘trap’ He Ao had specially set for Ruoke En, ‘slamming the door shut to beat the dog’.
Now, most of Ruoke En’s forces were trapped within the obelisk, while He Ao’s overwhelming majority of forces surrounded the obelisk.
The powers of both sides restrained each other, each montarily losing the ability to control the City of Rong Guang against the other.
But at the sa ti, because the main force was trapped and lacked enough force to drive, the ritual was also forced to a halt.
Actually, had Ruoke En not gambled on trying to devour He Ao in one swoop, maintaining mobility and relying on key forces to defend the obelisk resolutely,
He Ao would have had no way to deal with him.
But years of slaughter and ‘hunting’ had fostered in him a risk-taking nature, never letting go of any opportunities.
Based on his understanding of Ruoke En, He Ao had ‘tailor-made’ this ‘trap’ for him.
Of course, the biggest uncertainty was whether He Ao could make it out of the obelisk in ti.
Although even if he didn’t make it out, the trap would still be effective, albeit possibly not as stable.
Luckily, he found the fastest way and made his escape.
He Ao withdrew his gaze, looking towards the top of the obelisk.
The maid automaton grabbed him, soaring into the sky, and landed on the very top of the obelisk.
What appeared to be a sharp roof from afar was actually a platform.
Standing here, the blood-red sun seed so close, almost within reach.
The flesh on the platform writhed and converged into the figure of Ruoke En, who looked at He Ao with a smile, “Well played, ‘Turning the Tables’.
On my own turf, you’ve actually managed to gain such an advantage.”
“You’re too kind.”
He Ao gripped the Shadowless Sword, overlaying it with a Strengthening Magic Array crafted with Divine Sense, and responded with a smile.
“Let’s see if you can continue to achieve such stellar results in what cos next.”
Ruoke En said, smiling at He Ao.
The obelisk beneath his feet suddenly shattered, with a trifecta of light engulfing its smooth surface.
Imdiately after, the surface transford into nurous petal-like vast hands that spread open, and at the center of this expanse of giant floral hands was a dark abyss.
That was not the inside of the obelisk He Ao had just breached.
Vaguely, He Ao could even sense a whiff of the true Abyss.
Had Ruoke En fused himself with the obelisk entirely?
Was that center, a kind of ‘Mystical Array’ imitating the Abyss?
Was the power of the Abyss so easily borrowed?
In his contemplation, the maid automaton grabbed He Ao, rushing straight towards the enormous blood-red sun above.
The petal-like giant hands unfurled around, dancing like black dandelions in the wind, swiftly swirling around.
The dense and layered swarm surged toward He Ao and the maid automaton, ascending toward the sky above.
The Blood Sun’s crimson brilliance spilled over the cheeks of He Ao and the maid automaton, as well as upon each of those dense, black arms.
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