That deadly glint rapidly magnified in Lin Yi's pupils; the shadow of death seemed to have already gripped his throat!
"Don't even think about it!"
At the critical moment, Lin Yi roared, and the spacetime power within his body began to operate at an unprecedented speed!
He didn't even have time to construct a complete spatial passage; he simply relied on his ultimate understanding of the laws of space to forcibly distort the space around him!
"Time-space distortion!"
Buzz—!
The owl's jet-black claws, imbued with the ultimate shadow energy, almost grazed past Lin Yi's afterimage!
The sharp claw wind tore through the air, leaving five bottomless black claw marks on the ground where he had been standing. The surrounding ground was instantly corroded by the shadow energy, emitting a terrifying "sizzling" sound!
"Hmm?" A hint of surprise flashed in Night Owl's eyes. His attack contained the ambush bonus of the Shadow Erosion Domain, and he was confident that even a strong person of the same level would find it difficult to dodge. Lin Yi actually avoided the vital point at the last moment!
Before Night Owl could launch another attack, Lin Yi's figure appeared dozens of meters away like a ghost, a bead of cold sweat seeping from his forehead.
In that brief moment, he truly felt the threat of death.
The Night Owl's attack after merging into the Shadow Eclipse Domain was even more bizarre and deadly than he had imagined!
"Your reaction isn't slow, but how many times can you dodge?" Night Owl sneered, his figure blurring again, like an ink droplet merging into water, instantly disappearing from the spot.
A warning bell rang in Lin Yi's mind, and he focused his mental energy intensely, sensing the fluctuations in every inch of the surrounding space.
"Chu Yao, analyze his movement patterns!"
"Understood! We are trying to capture his high-frequency spatial disturbances..." Chu Yao's voice carried a hint of anxiety.
"Left!" Relying on his fighting instincts, Lin Yi suddenly moved to the right.
*Sizzle!*
Another sharp claw gust grazed his ribs, sending a burning pain through him. Lin Yi groaned as his clothes were torn at his side, leaving a bloody gash. The shadow energy, like a leech, tried to invade his body.
"Power of spacetime, purify!" Lin Yi endured the excruciating pain and mobilized the power of spacetime to dispel the shadow energy at the wound, but the Night Owl's attacks were relentless, giving him no chance to catch his breath.
Each time, the owl seemed to emerge from nothingness, its attacks cunning and ruthless, aimed straight at the vital points.
Lin Yi, relying on his keen spatial perception as the [Master of Time and Space] and his endless displacement skills, narrowly dodged the attacks, but his space for maneuver was drastically compressed, and he also suffered several wounds of varying depths on his body.
His battle suit was stained with blood, making him look somewhat disheveled.
"Boss Lin Yi!" Long Wu roared anxiously, his huge dragon tail sweeping out to try to force Night Owl back. However, Night Owl was slippery in the Shadow Erosion Domain, and most of Long Wu's attacks missed, almost injuring his own men instead.
The other team members wanted to help, but Night Owl was too fast and his attack range was concentrated on Lin Yi. They couldn't get involved at all and could only watch helplessly as Lin Yi fought a bloody battle, feeling extremely anxious.
"This can't go on..." Su Qing watched Lin Yi constantly dodging and facing perilous situations. The color drained from her face, replaced by a resolute expression.
She took a deep breath, a complex emotion flashing in her beautiful eyes—guilt, struggle, but ultimately, determination.
Just then, Night Owl seized another opportunity, his figure appearing in Lin Yi's blind spot as if by teleportation. A dark beam of light, even more condensed than before, shot straight at Lin Yi's temple like a viper's tongue!
This strike was incredibly fast and incredibly ruthless!
Lin Yi's pupils shrank sharply; he could sense that he couldn't dodge this attack!
The operation of spacetime power has reached its limit, and it will be difficult to perform high-intensity reversal again in a short period of time!
"Lin Yi!" Chu Yao exclaimed, her voice trembling with tears.
"Boss!" Long Wu's eyes were bloodshot.
Just when everyone thought Lin Yi was doomed, a beautiful figure suddenly appeared in front of him!
It's Su Qing!
A hazy, moon-white light shone from her body; it was the basic protective skill of her awakened class, [Moon Priest]—"Moonlight Shield"!
"Pfft!"
The shadow beam pierced through the thin Moonlight Shield without any doubt, and continued its trajectory toward Su Qing's shoulder!
"Ugh!" Su Qing let out a painful groan, as if she had been hit hard, and staggered backward. A bloody hole that went straight through her shoulder was shocking to see. The shadow energy frantically corroded her wound, making her pretty face turn as white as paper in an instant.
"Su Qing!" Lin Yi caught the falling Su Qing and looked at the horrific injury on her shoulder and the ever-spreading black lines, his eyes wide with fury!
"I...I'm fine..." Su Qing said weakly, a trickle of blood escaping from the corner of her mouth, "You...you can't die..."
This scene stunned everyone.
Long Wu's enormous dragon eyes were filled with disbelief. He never expected that this woman, whom they had always doubted and even rejected, would use her own body to shield Lin Yi from a fatal blow at the most critical moment!
“This woman…” Long Wu muttered to himself, his prejudices crumbling at that moment.
He recalled his previous sarcastic remarks to Su Qing, and his face burned with embarrassment.
The other team members also had complex expressions, their gazes towards Su Qing filled with admiration and guilt.
"Night Owl! You're asking for death!" Lin Yi gently handed Su Qing to the support team member next to him for emergency treatment, his eyes flashing with overwhelming killing intent.
Su Qing's actions completely ignited the anger in his heart!
"Oh? Another one sent to their death?" Night Owl licked his lips. "But today, none of you will live!"
"Is that so?" Lin Yi's voice was icy cold. "You think this is the end?"
He took a deep breath, and the professional characteristics bestowed upon him by the game "Infinite" and the superpowers he had awakened in reality began to merge and resonate in an unprecedented way.
"Chu Yao, continue the analysis! Long Wu, cover my left flank! The rest of you, assist Su Qing, restrict Night Owl's range of movement, and don't let him easily blend into the shadows!" Lin Yi quickly issued the order, his voice carrying an unquestionable authority.
"Yes!" This time, everyone's response was full of power, including Long Wu's.
Su Qing's efforts allowed them to completely overcome their differences, and the team's cohesion reached an unprecedented level.
With a roar, Long Wu spewed dragon flames and swung his dragon claws. He no longer attacked recklessly as before, but consciously blocked the possible locations of the Night Owl.
Other ranged attackers also focused their fire, and although they could not directly hit Night Owl, they effectively disrupted his actions.
While receiving treatment, Su Qing endured the excruciating pain and chanted the support spell of the Moon Priestess. Faint beams of moonlight fell on her teammates, providing negligible but continuous healing and buffs.
The battle situation underwent a subtle shift due to Su Qing's courageous intervention and the team's regrouping.
With the pressure on Lin Yi reduced, he began to have more energy to observe the Night Owl's behavior patterns.
"Lin Yi!" Chu Yao's voice suddenly rang in his mind, tinged with urgency and gravity. "I've figured it out! Night Owl's Shadow Erosion Domain isn't just for combat; he... he seems to be using this domain to draw some kind of special negative energy from the city beneath our feet, and even from a wider area! His 'Shadow Erosion Project' is probably more terrifying than we imagine! Once the energy collection is complete, it could trigger a global catastrophe!"
Lin Yi's heart skipped a beat! Collecting energy? A global catastrophe?
No wonder Night Owl has maintained this massive Shadow Eclipse Domain; it turns out he had such a scheme in mind!
"Can we find the node or method by which he collects energy?" Lin Yi asked rapidly in his mind while dealing with the Night Owl's harassing attacks.
“We are trying to build an energy flow model… His collection method is very secretive and perfectly integrated with the Shadow Erosion Domain, but… it doesn’t seem to be without flaws!” Chu Yao’s voice carried a hint of uncertainty, but more so a focused effort to analyze the situation.
Night Owl seemed to have also noticed the change in team tactics and the unusual fluctuations in Chu Yao's mental energy. His offensive suddenly became even more ferocious and reckless!
"A bunch of ants, how dare you ruin my grand plan! Die!" Night Owl roared, the shadow energy within the Shadow Corrosion Domain surging violently, transforming into countless shadow tentacles that swept towards everyone like a tidal wave!
The team's defenses were instantly in grave danger!
Everyone felt unprecedented pressure, as if they would be swallowed up by the endless shadows at any moment.
Lin Yi's gaze was like lightning. In the shadows, he calmly dodged and parried, while his brain was working at lightning speed.
Chu Yao's discovery gave him a new direction.
If the owl is indeed collecting energy, then this process must have its own rules and core principles.
During a perilous dodge, Lin Yi seemed to catch a glimpse of an extremely discordant energy fluctuation deep within the Shadow Erosion Domain out of the corner of his eye.
The fluctuation was fleeting, so faint as to be almost imperceptible, but to Lin Yi, who possessed the [Master of Time and Space] and was extremely sensitive to energy flow, it was like a firefly in the dark.
"That is..." Lin Yi's heart skipped a beat, and a bold guess emerged in his mind.
He stared intently in that direction, trying to catch that fleeting anomaly once more.
Could that be the key to the owl's energy collection?
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