The scorched earth of the battlefield trembled.
The howls of the Shadow Force pierced through the blood mist, like countless rusty blades scraping against everyone's eardrums.
Three deep, bone-revealing wounds appeared on Long Wu's dragon scale armor, each oozing eerie blue poisonous blood; Whitebeard's nine-ringed sword was chipped, with half a piece of rotten flesh from a Shadow Elite still stuck to its blade; even Aizen, the master of concealment, was clutching his ribs—where half a Shadow Bone Splinter was stuck, black blood dripping from between his fingers.
"Boss!" Long Wu wiped the blood from his face, the Crimson Dragon Battle Mark burning on his neck. "The more you kill these bastards, the more there are!"
If this continues...
Before he could finish speaking, a shadowy spear grazed his ear and embedded itself in the ground.
The moment the spear tip touched the ground, the entire rock sizzled and melted as if it had been doused with concentrated sulfuric acid, and the black smoke that billowed out was accompanied by a shrill cry like that of a baby crying.
Lin Yi stood atop the ruins, silver-purple light flowing from his fingertips into the ground.
He could clearly sense that every inch of land imbued with the power of spacetime was repelling shadow energy—but that wasn't enough.
The Night Owl's Shadow Essence is too cunning. As soon as the torn corpses of shadow creatures touch the ground, they ooze out a black, mud-like liquid and reform into new warriors.
"Chu Yao, what is the current Shadow Regeneration rate?" His voice was as steady as a precision instrument, but the wound on his palm, cut by the Key of Time and Space, was oozing silver-purple blood, each drop of which could create a crater the size of a bowl on the ground.
"Mainframe, current regeneration rate 120%." Chu Yao's projection appeared beside him, a pale blue virtual screen scrolling across her fingertips. "The Shadow Origin is drawing life force from within a three-kilometer radius as replenishment... Dragon Five's dragon blood, Whitebeard's battle aura, and even Aizen's concealment field are being converted."
Lin Yi's pupils contracted slightly.
He finally saw through Night Owl's tactics—using numbers to wear them down while simultaneously absorbing their strength.
Those constantly regenerating shadow creatures are nothing more than parasites that suck blood from their wounds.
"Hold on for three more minutes," he shouted, and the twelve spacetime vortexes behind him suddenly accelerated their rotation.
Star trails shattered into fragments within the vortex, and from one of the vortexes, the morning light spilled out—the sunlight of seven o'clock tomorrow morning; from the other vortex, snowflakes drifted out, carrying the chill of the twelfth lunar month of the year after next.
Spacetime turbulence began to spread across the battlefield.
The three shadow soldiers closest to Lin Yi suddenly froze. Their skin aged and shrank at a visible speed, turning into three desiccated corpses in the blink of an eye. The shadow archers further away suddenly swelled up, and countless shadow creatures the size of babies emerged from under their armor, like a decaying process that had been fast-forwarded.
"This is... time acceleration?" Whitebeard's nine-ringed sword suddenly trembled.
He saw the Shadow Captain charging towards him from twenty meters away, wielding a bone blade. But the blade was only halfway through its swing when the tip began to crack, turning from sharp to rusty, and finally shattering into dust with a clang.
"No." Aizen wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, his eyes shining. "It's spacetime stripping."
He's forcibly superimposing rules from different timelines into the same space.
Before he finished speaking, the spacetime vortex behind Lin Yi suddenly all turned in the same direction.
Twelve star trails intertwined above his head to form a silver net of light, and a pitch-black rift opened up in the center of the net, from the depths of which came a roar similar to that of a planet colliding.
"Time-space storm, activated."
His voice sounded like a glacier breaking.
When the first storm hit, everyone instinctively closed their eyes.
When they opened their eyes again, they saw silver-purple light bands sweeping across the battlefield like living things.
The shadow creatures that had just crawled out of the black mud were entangled by the bands of light and torn to pieces in the next second—not in a physical sense, but their souls were even stirred into the spacetime turbulence.
Some shadow creatures transformed into infant forms during the storm, while others turned directly into dust, and still others became lifeless rocks in mid-air.
"Boss! Look over there!" Long Wu suddenly pointed to the edge of the storm.
The once endless tide of shadows is now thinning at a visible rate.
The shadow creatures that hadn't yet been affected by the storm began to retreat frantically, their roars filled with an unprecedented fear—like mice suddenly seeing a cat.
"Chu Yao, coverage area!" Cold sweat beaded on Lin Yi's forehead.
He could feel that this spacetime storm was draining his original power; with each rotation of the twelve spacetime vortexes, it was as if a layer of his soul was being scraped away.
"Expanding!"
The current coverage radius is 500 meters, and the shadow regeneration rate has dropped to 30%! "A brief period of static appeared on Chu Yao's projection," "Abnormal vital signs detected in the mainframe, suggestion..."
"No advice needed," Lin Yi interrupted her, his fingertips digging into the wound on his palm.
Blood mingled with a stream of silvery-purple light spurted out, condensing into a translucent spacetime sword at the center of the storm. "Continue to expand."
The sound of swords piercing the sky.
The spacetime storm suddenly surged, instantly engulfing the entire battlefield.
The Shadow Commander, which was still putting up a stubborn resistance, was swept into the air by the storm. Its body twisted and turned in the storm. One second it was a ferocious demon form, and the next second it turned into a mass of mindless energy.
"An opportunity!" The white-bearded man's eyes lit up.
He shoved Long Wu aside, braced himself against the ground with his nine-ringed sword, and shot like an arrow into the deepest part of the battlefield—there lay a shadow elite overturned by the storm, a dark purple crystal hanging on its chest, the very core of the intelligence.
Long Wu reacted extremely quickly, and the Crimson Dragon Battle Mark instantly covered his entire body.
He smashed the shadow soldier blocking his way with a punch, and then Whitebeard rushed into the edge of the storm: "Old man!"
How dare you steal my credit?
You have to drink three jars of Daughter's Red wine to make up for it later!
Aizen's figure suddenly appeared above the Shadow Elite.
Seven thin silver threads, as fine as hair, flicked from his fingertips, precisely wrapping around the dark purple crystal. Just as he was about to pull it, he saw that the white-bearded man's nine-ringed sword was already positioned beneath the crystal.
The two exchanged a glance and exerted their strength simultaneously.
"Click—"
The crystal was pulled out.
At almost the same time, the spacetime storm began to weaken.
Lin Yi knelt on one knee, his forehead touching the ground, sweat creating a small crater in the scorched earth in front of him.
He could feel that the twelve spacetime vortexes were closing, and the last vortex even overflowed with the image of him eating steamed buns in the university cafeteria three years ago—his most precious memory fragment, which was being forcibly extracted at this moment.
"Got it!" Long Wu's roar pierced through the blood mist.
He charged into the crowd, holding a dark purple crystal stained with the black blood of the Shadow Elite. "Boss!"
This thing is burning hot!
Chu Yao's projection instantly enveloped the crystal.
A pale blue stream of data cascaded down like a waterfall, and countless lines of code flashed in her pupils: "Alternate-dimensional coordinates detected... Origin Devouring Project... Night Owl's goal is not to conquer Earth, but..."
"It involves extracting Earth's essence as energy to invade higher dimensions."
Everyone turned their heads abruptly.
Xuanmingzi was standing on the edge of the ruins at some unknown time.
He was still wearing the same blue robe, but the jade pendant at his waist was turning black.
The old man's gaze swept over Lin Yi, then over the dark purple crystal, and finally landed in the distance—where the figure of Night Owl was emerging from the shadowy mist.
"Old man, you knew all along?" The white-bearded man pointed his knife at Xuan Mingzi, his voice filled with suppressed anger.
Xuanmingzi did not answer.
He simply stared at Night Owl, a complex look flashing in his eyes: "He violated the trial rules."
The essence of shadow should not be used for...
"That's enough!"
The owl's voice struck everyone's eardrums like a heavy hammer.
His figure was three times taller than before, and his body was wrapped in pure black shadow chains, each chain strung with countless distorted human faces—the remnants of other dimensional civilizations that he had devoured.
"Lin Yi, you've cost me 100,000 Shadow Warriors." His voice held a morbid pleasure. "But it doesn't matter... Now, I'll personally take your life."
The ground began to collapse.
The shadowy mist beneath the owl's feet suddenly solidified into a throne made of bones and shadow energy.
He slowly sat down, his fingertips tracing the armrest of the throne, each stroke exploding into blood in the air: "Let me show you the true essence of shadow..."
"Shadow Erosion."
The moment the last two words were uttered, everyone felt a sudden darkness before their eyes.
When they opened their eyes again, they found themselves in absolute darkness.
There was no sound, no light, and they couldn't even hear each other breathing.
Long Wu instinctively reached for the dragon scale armor at his waist, but found that he couldn't lift his hand at all—something was crawling into his pores, cold and sticky, like countless small snakes.
"This is..." Aizen's voice trembled unusually, "A domain?"
"No." Lin Yi's voice came from the depths of darkness.
A silver-purple light rekindled in his palm, barely tearing a crack in the darkness. "It's the Night Owl's primordial domain."
He wants to...\"
"Crush it slowly."
The owl's laughter boomed in the darkness.
Where no one could see, Xuan Mingzi gazed in the direction of the night owl, his fingertips gently pressing against the blackened jade pendant at his waist.
A line of small characters appeared on the surface of the jade pendant—a warning left by an advanced civilization: when the Shadow Origin awakens "Shadow Erosion," the Trial Grounds will be closed ahead of schedule.
His fingers trembled slightly.
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