Chapter 1466 The Inner Core
Chapter 1466 The Inner Core
Wang Wei was about to close his eyes to share senses with the clone when he sensed something, so he looked in the distance. His eyes did not just see the void with cracks. Instead, his spatial sense saw a large sphere surrounded by smaller cubes.
'All personal dimensions are blocked? That's good news for Kong,' he thought. The sphere was the internal dimension of the trial's creature, and the surrounding cubes were the space ring/personal dimension of the people who entered.
The factions that took Huo Fenghuang and the others sealed them before locking them in their personal dimension or space-related artifacts. Normally, breaking into these dimensions is extremely arduous, but Kong succeeded.
First, he used a variant of a Void Breaking Array combined with his Transformation Dao; the array can analyze a space and transform or adapt to the correct properties to ensure maximum space tearing capabilities. However, that was not enough. Emperor Kong took a page out of Wang Wei's book and used a ceremony.
Ceremony is a unique form of magic that some consider a subcategory of Array. While arrays are better at utilizing the power of concrete Daos like the five elements, Yin-Yang, and Space-Time, ceremonies are better when using non-concrete Daos like commerce, friendship, or loyalty. Of course, the primary use of Ceremony Dao was to communicate with higher and unknown entities to use their powers.
Emperor Kong used the [History Lock] in his ceremony to levy the power of Heavenly Dao to help him break through these dimensions to save these people. His idea was ingenious, and with the chaos outside, the rescue operation proceeded smoothly when he saved Huo Fenghuang, Ao Shen, and Zhen Biyu. However, a problem occurred when he tried to save Jian Wushuang.
Kong got greedy and tried to take something in the personal dimension, which triggered a warning system. Soon, a swordsman appeared, and they started battling each other.
'His strength has reached 100%, but his boost is only 6-fold,' Wang Wei analyzed. Emperor Kong's cultivation was 94% and with the 6-fold increase, he also reached the peak of the Paragon Realm, but he was still at the bottom — even worse than Wang Wei.
'His opponent is way stronger than him — especially since he is a pure swordsman with the highest attack potency,' Wang Wei thought. 'However, Kong's Transformation Dao, in combination with his superb mastery of Array Dao, provides him with great versatility. However, his greatest advantage is that his opponent is an Extreme Path Swordsman with a weak body while he is a body refiner that has reached Elder Fiendgod's Fifth Level.'
If Kong plays his card correctly, he should win this battle. Of course, his opponent looked like someone with ample experience, so the latter should know his weakness and how to deal with body refiners. However, Wang Wei will still bet on Kong for a simple reason: luck.
'The only issue is how fast this battle will last.' It has been more common for battles at the Peak of the Paragon Realm to last years, even in yuan epochs. It's also possible for them to end in seconds, forming two extremes to show the vast difference between two individuals' peaks.
'Forget him for now,' Wang Wei thought before closing his eyes to focus on the clone inside.
. . .
As soon as Wang Wei entered the portal, he sensed grave danger, and his body moved instinctively. However, when he checked his previous location, he saw nothing. Then, his senses went on overdrive as everywhere indicated danger. Wang Wei turned into a gray light as he moved around with unparalleled speed.
'What's going on?' he thought, observing everything closely. He used all observation abilities before noticing this room did not contain some invisible entities but creatures so small they could be described as quantum-size.
'Well, that's embarrassing,' Wang Wei thought. He hadn't yet weaponized his quantum virus for use at a higher level, but he met an opponent who already had. He shook his head as he flew away. He sensed the spirit participle attached to the people ahead and flew in that direction.
Wang Wei stopped at an intersection in another area. He observed a profound darkness in the distance, which was not his primary concern. He saw two bodies floating in the void.
'It seems they floated from that area,' Wang Wei looked at them. 'And their faces: it looked like they saw some kind of horror.' He frowned and hesitated briefly before moving ahead. The silence was eerie as Wang Wei immediately sensed someone watching him. The constant whispers he could not remove from his mind did not help.
Wang Wei did not say much and continued his flight. Something attacked him but was repelled by his Innate Emptiness Shield. However, he still did not detect the attacker with his senses or reaction time. 'This is annoying,' he complained before rushing with an even greater haste. He faced numerous attacks, but all of them were useless.
However, midway through his journey, he sensed something was wrong and increased his focus. He looked down at his arm, and numerous pieces of his flesh were missing. The creepy part was this was self-immolation, meaning he did it to himself.
'My senses are duller than normal, and the influences of the whispers are subtle and almost undetectable,' he calmly analyzed before increasing his speed. By the time he reached the third area, he had even more self-immolated injuries.
'This is a defense mechanism,' he analyzed. 'The trial creature does not want anyone to reach its core, so these measures are to kill all intruders like a human's immune system.'
There should be more people dead in that black area, but Wang Wei could not notice it because of the circumstances. 'I'm also lucky because the creature should now be focused on the vanguard.' If he had not delayed, the intensity of the previous areas would have been drastically higher, and he may not have been able to pass.
Wang Wei flew into the third area and saw nothing but an endless white and black space. The concept of color seemed to have been absent in this area. He instantly raised his alert to the highest level. Then, this area mechanism materialized.
A group of black and white humanoid crickets with four arms and holding spears materialized. Wang Wei's expression immediately turned ugly. The leading cricket man had a terrifying aura that he was slightly similar to: A Primal Paragon. Additionally, all the hundreds of crickets behind all had peak Paragon strength. But that was not even the worst part. His senses told him an even more terrifying being was hiding in the shadows, waiting to appear.
Wang Wei did not hesitate to activate his [Nothingness Wheel] to enter an intangible state. Now that he had reached the Emptiness Stage of his Nothingness Technique, he could remain intangible for an extended period and survive even more potent attacks.
He flew to the area, and a bombardment of attacks reached him. Wang Wei made the wisest choice and focused on evading the ones from the Primal Ant and ignoring the others. However, one of them hit him.'
'Damn it, based on this situation, only five attacks are needed to break me out of my state.' The clone had 99% of his strength, meaning this data was not so far from his actual body. He knew the difference between Peak and Primal was vast, but now, he had a small taste. Wang Wei activated his ancestor's [Evading Technique]. Although his Dao did not allow him to use this technique to the fullest of its capabilities, it boosted his evading abilities immensely for this escape.
And, just as he was about to enter the next area, a sense of doom overwhelmed him. Wang Wei was decisive as he blew up his body, using the force from the explosion to push his soul to the next area. And even after entering, he did not stop flying in case the enemy followed him.
This area was odd. Numerous debris scattered in all directions, and they seemed to be lagging. One moment, they looked normal; the next second, they disappeared; then, they appeared to have aged by a million years, or they suddenly charged into black and white. Additionally, Wang Wei sensed a few different transcendent auras.
'These people had enough of this area and used their transcendent artifact to obliterate this area,' Wang Wei analyzed. Such news was great for him as that meant less trouble. 'It should not be far.' He sensed his spirit was closed and rushed to the next area. He did not immediately enter but used his [Nothingness Wheel] a second time to enter an intangible and invisible mode. Nothingness was invisible in the first place, so he only needed to copy that characteristic. Then, he entered the next area.
Wang Wei sensed he passed through a film before reaching the true inner core of this creature. The first thing he heard was the sounds of roaring, fighting, and chains clinking, so he looked at the source.