Chapter 344: Return to the World
It has been half a month since Xiao Liu began to climb the Infernal Abyss.
Before setting off again, he never thought that he would spend so much energy and the world, and the depth of this infernal abyss was really terrifying when he thought about it now.
It was only less than an hour when it fell, but now Xiao Liu has spent half a month still not seeing the entrance to the abyss at the top.
Along the way, Xiao Liu has seen all kinds of insects, all kinds of strange things.
Once, Xiao Liu even encountered a group of mosquitoes larger than him, and launched a crazy attack on Xiao Liu in groups.
These mosquitoes also suck blood, and they have terrifying sharp mouthparts that can pierce the rocks of the abyss, and if they are pierced, I am afraid that a living person will be drained and turned into a dry corpse in a moment.
Another time, Xiao Liu and Xiao Bai even encountered a group of pitch-black mice, these rats are different from ordinary mice, although they are only about twice the size of normal mice, but these rats actually live by gnawing on rocks.
But when they found Xiao Liu, a species they had never seen in the abyss, they showed the same interest.
A large number of these black rats seemed to have discussed and were ready to change their tastes, and attacked Xiao Liu.
Their razor-sharp teeth that could chew through the rocks of the abyssal cliffs were enough to pierce through the body of any Earth Immortal Realm cultivator!
However, this heavy obstacle did not stump Xiao Liu, basically as soon as his group hypnosis came out, these messy creatures would be killed in seconds.
Every time, he survived the difficulties without danger.
Only once in a while, Xiao Liu had to choose to let Xiao Bai fuse into the Sky Splitting Sword to solve the enemy for him because of the excessive consumption of his divine soul.
Since then, whenever Xiao Liu feels that his soul has been consumed too much, he will try his best to find a place to temporarily settle down and repair for a few hours, and only after his mental power has returned to a perfect state will he continue to set off.
This is one of the reasons why it has taken him so long to climb to the top.
Xiaobai's ability to melt is indeed very rebellious.
After it is integrated into the Sky Splitting Sword, in fact, the Sky Splitting Sword is equivalent to realizing Xiaobai's body, it can move at will and attack independently, and even has the ability to fly.
The most important thing is that after the Splitting Sword has Xiaobai's integration, it already has some of its characteristics, that is, the enemy who is slashed by the Splitting Sword after the fusion will be attacked by a strong illusion in an instant, and it will suddenly become defenseless.
This phenomenon was also discovered by Xiao Liu through careful observation.
Such a useful skill, Xiao Liu likes it from the bottom of his heart, so he is better to Xiao Bai, there are a lot of spirit crystals containing soul power in the bag, Xiao Liu will give Xiao Bai a piece every few days, so that it can absorb the soul power inside to grow.
Now Xiaobai is just a child, in the early stage of it already has such a magical ability, Xiaoliu and Xiaobai are actually looking forward to how to defy the sky when it grows up.
Climbing along the way, Xiao Liu can be said to have seen many species that he has never seen or even heard of, and most of them are basically insects.
Even after Xiao Liu had some of Mo Wu's memories, most of these insects had never heard of them.
At the same time, Xiaoliu is not completely without gains.
In the process of using group hypnosis at such a high frequency, his soul power was consumed again and again, and then slowly recovered through meditation and breathing, which invisibly completed a kind of spiritual ascension.
Xiao Liu felt that his Divine Soul cultivation had completely stabilized at the level of the seventh level of the ground level, and even began to develop towards the middle and late stages of the seventh level.
At this rate, I'm afraid that by the time he climbs out of the abyss, the cultivation of the divine soul may have reached the eighth level of the ground level!
Thinking about it carefully, Xiao Liu is really an outlier now, his cultivation has fallen to almost nothing, and then he has re-cultivated the Forging Body Realm and has now reached the seventeenth level of the Forging Body Realm, which is an achievement that no one else dares to think of.
But no matter what, the seventeenth level of the Forging Body Realm is still the Forging Body Realm, and it is just the lowest realm among the many realms of cultivation.
But it was such a young man in the Body Forging Realm, and his Divine Soul cultivation was almost about to reach the peak of the Earth Immortal Realm.
Such a huge disparity, but in the same person, is almost never the case.
But Xiao Liu himself never felt that it was inappropriate, the Divine Soul Realm was from his previous penance, as for his own cultivation realm, according to the current speed, Xiao Liu is confident that he will return to or even surpass the level he reached in a short period of time.
This self-confidence is not blind.
Because Xiaoliu does have unique conditions.
Although his body had been reshaped, the tens of thousands of small whirlpools in his veins that could help him quickly absorb the Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi and even the Spiritual Qi still existed.
This indicates that as long as Xiao Liu completes his cultivation and steps into the Human Immortal Realm, it will be a starting point for him to progress by leaps and bounds.
At the same time, Xiao Liu also felt that his current dantian had changed a lot, and he had already discovered that his current dantian had been inexplicably replaced by the Forbidden Soul Ghost Bead.
This mysterious bead Xiaoliu has not been able to figure out its details until now.
However, Xiao Liu can feel that now that this forbidden soul ghost bead has replaced his dantian, the magical and weird Tai Chi Yin and Yang Array energy group inside has become very docile, and even Xiao Liu has a feeling that as long as his cultivation is improved and reaches the level of human fairyland, the energy group in this new dantian will be able to be driven at will!
Although this feeling has no basis, it is his own body, and Xiao Liu's feeling may really be realized.
After another repair and recovery, Xiao Liu felt that he was already in good spirits and had the conditions to hit the road again, so he set off again.
Basically, with his current physical condition, he rarely feels tired, and the reason why he rests is just to recover his soul consumption.
There is a unique way to restore the soul, not to absorb the energy of the outside world like restoring vitality, but to regulate one's mental state through meditation and breathing, so that the consumed soul will naturally recover.
This process usually takes a few hours.
Of course, these methods were all learned by Xiao Liu after he fused Mo Wu's memory.
It was only now that Xiao Liu discovered the difference in Mo Wu's original state.
Through his recent experience, Xiao Liu understands that after the normal consumption of the divine soul, it is not so troublesome to replenish and recover, but it takes some time to calm down and breathe it out.
At that time, after Mo Wu consumed soul power, he couldn't recover on his own every time, and he had to absorb drugs or items containing soul power to replenish it.
This in itself is a very abnormal phenomenon.
It's just that Xiao Liu didn't know so much at the beginning, and thought that it should be like this.
And Mo Wu didn't say much at that time, so it wasn't until now that Xiao Liu discovered this problem.
Every time he thinks of Mo Wu, Xiao Liu will inevitably remember, but because he has integrated into Mo Wu's memory, Xiao Liu is actually not so sad, in his feelings, his current self is actually equivalent to Mo Wu, and he is also Xiao Liu, a brand new individual produced after the fusion of their two lives.
Of course, this kind of thinking is actually wrong, because Xiao Liu is still Xiao Liu, and his person has not changed in any way, but because he has accepted Mo Wu's part of his memory, it will cause him to think so.
Most of the factors that influence a person's final self-definition are his memories.
At this moment, Xiao Liu felt that something seemed to be making a sound in front of him, and this situation was commonplace for him, so there was no surprise.
Barely a kilometer or so of the distance will be encountered, and you will encounter some strange species.
And this time, when he got closer, Xiao Liu found that what appeared this time was even more outrageous, it was a scorpion with two heads and a body.
The scorpion is about a meter long, but has two long necks sticking out, each with a snake-like head, but its eyes are barely visible.
The most obvious place is the tail of this scorpion, which is almost twice the length of their body!
Thick and with sharp spikes.
Now Xiaoliu is too lazy to study what special skills the other party has, and he has directly used group hypnosis at close range, and in the past half a month, the power of group hypnosis has also improved, so every time it can produce miraculous effects.
This time it should have been the same, those scorpions fell down one after another after suffering a mental shock, and one by one huge scorpion tails slipped down Xiao Liu's side, looking creepy.
Just as Xiao Liu was about to withdraw his attention from these things and continue to climb upward, suddenly a piercing hiss sounded directly on the right.
Xiao Liu's body stiffened, and he couldn't help but use his Demon Breaking Eye to look in that direction.
In his gaze, there was a dark cave about two hundred meters away on the right side, similar to the kind of cave that Xiao Liu was unconscious in the beginning, but at this time, two disgusting heads stretched out from this seemingly ordinary cave.
Xiao Liu could see at a glance that this kind of head looked like a snake, wasn't it the kind of scorpion that he shot down with group hypnosis just now?
But now this guy who showed his head was not at the same level as the group of Xiao Liu's spiritual attacks just now, just its two heads, each of which reached the size of Xiao Liu's whole person!
Under Xiao Liu's surprised gaze, the huge scorpion in the cave began to gradually reveal its entire body, and in an instant, a disgusting smell accompanied by a thick hostility invaded Xiao Liu, two hundred meters away.
"Roaring ββ!!"
There was a loud rumbling sound of piercing weirdness, and a large amount of rubble fell from the quaggar, the scorpion was too big, and it looked much more sane than the group that Xiao Liu had shot down before.
Its pitch-black tail, which was more than three meters thick, emitted a dark light, and the terrifying giant stinger swayed back and forth at the tip of the tail.
Soon this big guy will be killing Xiao Liu's side.
Maybe it was asleep just now, but it was awakened by Xiao Liu's indiscriminate group hypnosis, and when it woke up, it found that so many of its descendants of the same clan were dropped into the abyss by Xiao Liu, and it naturally felt angry, so at this time, even if Xiao Liu used group hypnosis, I'm afraid it would not have much effect!
Although the other party is powerful and terrifying, and it looks very scary, Xiao Liu did not panic, and the uselessness of group hypnosis does not mean that he has no other skills.
"Xiaobai, it's your time to play!
Xiao Liu summoned Xiao Bai on the spot, and Xiao Bai was startled when he saw the strange monster like a behemoth, but soon there was hostility in its dark swirl-like eyes.
In the next second, Xiao Bai did not hesitate to drill into the hollow splitting sword that had been prepared in Xiao Liu's hand, and then suddenly broke away from Xiao Liu's palm, quickly slashed the distance between him and the scorpion, and pierced one of its heads.
The size of the Sky Splitting Sword was nothing compared to the huge scorpion head, but Xiao Bai's fused Sky Splitting Sword really already had some power similar to that of a true immortal magic weapon.
The stab of what was supposed to be a plain white weapon pierced one of the scorpions' heads, causing it to let out an earth-shattering roar.
Seeing this, Xiaobai naturally ignored him, and began to frantically slash around the two huge heads of the scorpion.
After just a few breaths, the two heads of the scorpion were almost covered with wounds.
However, Xiao Liu did not have a happy expression in the observation from behind, because he found that although this scorpion seemed to be suppressed by Xiao Bai with the Sky Splitting Sword, in fact, its wounds were just some superficial skin wounds.
It looks miserable, but it doesn't hurt it at all!
So Xiaoliu couldn't help but call Xiaobai
"Xiaobai, don't just harass it, give it some fatal wounds! Don't forget that you can't last long in this state, you have to fight quickly!"
Xiaobai was playing on the rise, such a huge behemoth, but screamed under its teasing, but after hearing Xiaoliu's voice, it finally put away its playfulness and was ready to really bring some fatal injuries to the other party!
Suddenly, the Sky Splitting Sword slashed through a shining arc of light in the air, and Xiao Bai controlled it to bypass the front end of the strange scorpion, and then suddenly increased its speed, and slashed at a part of the scorpion's tail that was connected!
If this blow hits, the scorpion's thick tail will probably be cut off at least half!
However, what Xiaoliu and Xiaobai didn't expect was that when the Splitting Sky Sword hit the target and slashed at the link of the scorpion's tail, there was a crisp sound of "ding!"
Then Xiao Bai rebounded with a scream, and then returned to Xiao Liu's hands in embarrassment.
Xiao Bai's reaction was very unusual, so Xiao Liu hurried to see the state of the Sky Splitting Sword, it didn't matter if he saw it, Xiao Liu was shocked into a cold sweat on the spot.
I saw that there was an extra gap on the Sky Splitting Sword at this moment, and that was where Xiao Bai controlled it to slash the opponent's tail just now!
The scorpion's tail was so hard that it was shattered into a gap after fusing Xiao Bai's strength with the Sky Splitting Sword!
Xiao Liu immediately felt that it was difficult to do, since this scorpion was so strong, then he was afraid that he really didn't have the ability to kill the other party, so Xiao Liu just hesitated for a moment, then put away the Sky Splitting Sword, and at the same time let Xiao Bai be liberated from the fusion state and returned to the Naling Ring, and then he began to speed up and climb up and flee wildly!
As for the huge weird scorpion, after relieving himself, he immediately aimed his two heads at the direction of Xiao Liu's escape, and burst out with an earth-shattering roar!
It's not that it doesn't want to fight back just now, but because its most vulnerable place is actually its two heads, when its head was hit by Xiaobai's fusion splitting sword many times, in fact, Xiaobai's fusion ability has brought it some messy illusions, which led to horror like it, and it was also beaten stupid in a short time.
But not long after Xiaobai gave up attacking its head, the terrifying creature finally broke out!
Except for the two heads on its body, it was actually covered with that kind of black and shiny solid carapace, even where the carapace was linked, it still had terrifying defense and hardness!
Therefore, Xiao Bai's Sky Splitting Sword attack on it did not cause any damage to it, but shattered the Sky Splitting Sword!
This degree of hardness, although it is impossible to feel how powerful it is from it, Xiao Liu immediately judged that the person who appeared should not be his opponent, so he chose to flee immediately.
And because the scorpion had been seriously provoked before, Xiao Liu had killed many of his kindred, so at this time, it was crazy to launch a terrifying climbing speed with the eight pairs of powerful feet under its body, and chased towards Xiao Liu frantically!
Since Xiao Liu began to climb up, it was the first time he had encountered such a powerful enemy, maybe he was lucky before, maybe it was too bad luck this time, but no matter what, now he has no way out.
The terrifying scorpion below was even faster than him in terms of speed, and this creature had been living in the abyss for a long time, so it had long been accustomed to this way of moving.
On the other hand, Xiaoliu can only rely on the protruding part of the cliff to jump again and again, and the efficiency is much lower than that of the other party.
The two sides chased one after the other, Xiao Liu soon climbed the distance of a thousand meters again, there was some noise in front of him, Xiao Liu had no time to spend with these creatures, so the moment he passed by those strange insects, he used group hypnosis.
The strange insects didn't get close yet, and they immediately fell down with a clatter.
At this time, Xiao Liu paid close attention to the scorpion chasing him below, and he found that after the scorpion used group hypnosis, his body only paused for a moment, and then continued to chase after him as if it was nothing.
"I'm in trouble now......"
Xiaoliu finally felt that it was difficult.
Now his most effective attack method is to use the eightfold divine soul realm of the ground level to use the spiritual attack group hypnosis.
However, this attack is diffuse, which means that it is difficult to concentrate its power on a single enemy.
This is also the aspect that Xiaoliu is currently best at.
When encountering this kind of enemy that can't be killed, Xiao Liu's group spirit attack is a little weak.
At the same time, how long will this almost endless abyss end, Xiao Liu is now at a bottom in his heart, after all, he has been climbing for more than half a month, even if it continues for half a month, he will not feel strange.
Looking down, the huge scorpion is shaking its two heads and is speeding up, the distance between it and Xiao Liu is gradually shortening, if it goes on like this, I am afraid that it will not be long before it can really catch up with Xiao Liu and launch its bloody revenge!
Just when Xiao Liu felt anxious, he suddenly noticed a change.
In this bottomless abyss, it had been too long since he had seen the light before, so Xiao Liu had almost forgotten what the place with light looked like.
However, at this moment, his eyes seemed to be illuminated by a faint light, which made him unable to open his eyes for a while to look closely.
When he got used to it immediately, he immediately felt ecstatic, because it was light!
And it's the light that shines down from above!
Although this light is still very faint, since there is light, it means that it is not too far from the top of the abyss!
Thinking that he was about to leave this terrifying and disgusting bottomless abyss, Xiao Liu's current heart couldn't help but beat wildly.
"Get rid of this troublesome big guy!"
Xiao Liu saw hope, so he turned his heart across and began to climb with all his might, and the distance of each move expanded a lot.
But despite this, Xiao Liu still found that the huge scorpion behind him was still a little faster than his own speed, so he had to be cautious.
"Then it's up to me to see if it catches up first or if I get out first!
Xiao Liu knew that the huge scorpion seemed to be really angry, so he chased after it, and had already left the area where its species lived, but unfortunately it still refused to give up.
As long as it goes on like this, it will catch up with Xiao Liu sooner or later, and of course it may be that Xiao Liu will reach the top of the abyss first and escape.
So on the inner cliff of this infernal abyss, Xiao Liu started a speed competition with this terrifying and strange scorpion.
A day later, Xiao Liu felt that the sunlight emitted from above had become more and more intense, which proved that he was closer to the surface!
But for this day, Xiao Liu couldn't rest at all, in order to avoid the group of terrifying guys below who couldn't give up, he could only grit his teeth and insist on climbing up.
Even when encountering other obstacles along the way, Xiao Liu also chose to hide as much as possible, and if he could not use his soul, he would not use it.
Because he had to conserve his own strength and use group hypnosis when he was most at his worst.
It is precisely because of this that Xiao Liu actually has many colors on his body now.
These are the scars left by the strange creatures you encounter along the way.
Fortunately, Xiao Liu, with the help of the effect of the Demon Breaking Eye, was able to predict the attack trajectory of those creatures in advance, so he did not receive fatal damage, and those poisonous attacks were also dodged by him with all his might.
But after a day and a night of fleeing with all his might, Xiao Liu finally felt the double fatigue brought by physical and mental fatigue for the first time.
This fatigue is gradually intensifying with every movement of Xiao Liu, and if he continues in this state, he will be completely exhausted before long.
"Why don't I fuse the Sky Splitting Sword to stop it. β
Xiaobai also knew the situation of the two of them now, so he couldn't help but suggest.
But Xiao Liu shook his head and said
"You can't go on any more adventures. God knows what will happen if the Sky Slashing Sword shatters and you happen to be in the middle of it. I don't want to risk your life!"
Xiao Bai was fused into the Sky Splitting Sword before, but was shattered by the other party during the attack, and a gap appeared.
At that time, Xiao Bai let out a painful scream, so Xiao Bai after fusion should actually form a kind of characteristics of both glory and loss with the Sky Splitting Sword.
If you let it fuse the Sky Splitting Sword to attack the guy below this time, if there is an accident, the Sky Splitting Sword is really broken or broken, then Xiao Bai's life will probably be explained there!
There is such a risky thing, how could Xiaoliu let it try?
Xiao Bai still wanted to refute a few words, saying that he was very useful, but Xiao Liu had already stuffed it back into the Naling Ring, and then put all his mind into escaping.
When another day passed, Xiao Liu was already able to feel the relatively strong sunlight, which proved that the surface was very close to him, but he couldn't see it with the naked eye for the time being!
At this time, the terrifying enemy behind it had also approached a distance of less than five meters, and its two heads had big mouths and spit out bursts of fishy smell.
Xiao Liu knew that as long as he couldn't hold on, he would fall into the other party's mouth and become its food in the next moment.
Under this kind of oppression, Xiao Liu's body and spirit are actually overloaded!
The potential was squeezed out by him little by little, and at this moment, Xiao Liu's body was mixed with blood and sweat, and his clothes were already in tatters, and he looked inferior to a beggar on the whole.
"Hold on for a while, it's coming!!"
Xiao Liu kept repeating this sentence in his heart all the time, but after two days of persistence, he was really going to the limit!
"Roarββ!!!
The terrifying roar continued to sound, reminding Xiao Liu that the terrifying monster under him had been carried away by anger, and it seemed that if he didn't kill Xiao Liu, it would really chase him forever.
The most frightening thing is that this monster also maintained this speed to chase and kill Xiao Liu, two days and two nights, but it didn't show any signs of tiredness.
Even because it hasn't killed Xiao Liu after chasing it for so long, its anger value has reached its peak, and its murderous roar has never stopped!
"What a monster!!"
Xiao Liu's heart was also speechless, just passing by the area where they lived, as for doing so hard?
That monster can't reason with Xiao Liu, so Xiao Liu can only complain in his heart.
This life-and-death chase has passed for two more hours, Xiao Liu has used group hypnosis many times on the way, and he already feels extremely tired mentally, if it weren't for the fact that he would die if he stopped, maybe he would choose to fall down and sleep immediately.
At the same time, the physical aspect has long been overloaded, and at this moment, Xiao Liu's every movement will drive the muscles all over his body, which is an alarm from the body, if it continues like this, he may be wasted!
And at this time, the huge scorpion, the two frontmost heads have almost been attached to Xiao Liu's feet, maybe one of them will be bitten and dragged down by it if he is not careful!
"Isn't it too late!?"
Xiao Liu gritted his teeth and looked up, and the bright sun turned dark red at the moment, indicating that after these two hours, the outside world should have reached the time when the sun was about to set.
But he still didn't see the top.
Looking up at this time, there is a huge bulge not far away, blocking Xiao Liu's vision, maybe after crossing it, you can see how much distance there is!
At this moment, Xiao Liu was ready to fight, overcoming the huge obstacle raised above.
But suddenly, he felt his feet slip, and Xiao Liu thought he had stepped on the slippery rock, but when he saw where he landed, he was shocked.
It turned out that in the short period of time just now, the terrifying enemy behind it was a little closer, and then it actually opened its big mouth and stretched out two tongues more than two meters long in an attempt to entangle Xiao Liu with them.
But it just so happened that Xiao Liu was about to settle down and continue to climb and jump, which caused Xiao Liu to step on one of his tongues.
The tongue of this disgusting creature is full of organs that bulge like tentacles, and at the same time, there is a yellow disgusting liquid flowing, and Xiao Liu stepped on it and made it feel pain again!
So when Xiao Liu just wanted to find a place to borrow strength, this disgusting thing forcibly hooked one of Xiao Liu's calves with its tongue!
"Roar!!
After chasing for more than two days, this is the first time it has come into contact with Xiao Liu's body, so this guy burst out with a roar of excitement!
"Damn bad!
This situation is already very critical, Xiao Liu's own use of the Sky Splitting Sword can't reach the position below his legs, so in a hurry, he can only count on Xiao Bai!
When Xiao Bai heard the call, he immediately appeared outside, and then with its smug voice, the Sky Splitting Sword was fused into it again.
"Hey, I knew I was going to have to fix it in the end!
Xiao Bai left a sentence, and then immediately harnessed the Sky Splitting Sword and slashed downward.
"Poof!!"
To Xiao Liu's surprise, this time Xiao Bai slashed the monster's tongue, and obviously this part was very soft and couldn't compare to its shell.
So after the sword fell, its tongue that wrapped around Xiao Liu's leg was immediately broken!
The monster suffered more pain than all the previous ones combined, and its severed tongue spewed out a large amount of rich yellow liquid, and it screamed wildly!
"Roar!!Roar !!!"
Xiao Bai succeeded in one move, but it couldn't be proud, so he wanted to go up and make up for a few swords immediately to let this monster know his interests, but Xiao Liu's hurried call made him have to choose to turn back.
"Xiaobai, don't mess around, it's important to escape! We don't need to fight with it!"
When Xiao Bai returned, Xiao Liu found that there was a large amount of yellow slime emitting a foul smell on the sword body of the Sky Splitting Sword, and there was also a pungent smell and white smoke wafting up.
Xiao Liu looked at it fixedly, and was immediately surprised, because this yellow liquid was actually corroding the Sky Splitting Sword, causing many mottled marks to appear on the Sky Splitting Sword in a short period of time!
"Come out quickly, Xiaobai, be careful that even you will be corroded!"
Xiao Liu was startled and hurriedly let Xiao Bai come out of it, and the little guy was also scared when he saw the appearance of the Sky Splitting Sword.
And the Sky Splitting Sword seemed to be scrapped after accompanying Xiao Liu through so many ups and downs, so Xiao Liu simply threw it into the mouth of the monster that was still roaring below with all his might.
"Poof!", and the Sky Splitting Sword plunged into one of the monster's mouths, causing it to roar in pain again.
"Now!"
Taking advantage of the pain of the other party, Xiao Liu quickly used the last of his strength and began to climb upwards quickly, and finally crossed the obstacle of the huge rock above a few minutes later.
The scene in front of him made Xiao Liu even forget everything he had just experienced, because a round of red sun was slowly sinking at the end of the sky, and the large jungle reflected a different kind of beauty under the illumination of the setting sun, and the breeze was blowing on Xiao Liu's face and body, like a lover's hands gently caressing. The white clouds floating quietly in the air and the birds that occasionally sing happily make this world full of vividness and vividness.
At this moment, it was as if he had suddenly returned to the world from the eighteenth layer of hell, and Xiao Liu found that the earthly world was so beautiful! This made him stand in place excitedly for a long time, and there was no other action for a long time.
"I'm finally back!"