- I'm really good.

- Or is this guy actually weaker than it seems, than Chu Xuan calculated?

- Hmm...... Chu Xuan should not have miscalculated. Fallen Maia, a weak, mutilated fourth-order creature. And since my current combat strength can break through the clear four beginnings, Zhao Fukong. Then the fire demon who is weaker than it is a little bit weaker...... It shouldn't be difficult to fight?

Zheng Zha stood at the top of the Tower of Turin. In his hands he held the large, extinguishing head of the Fire Demon.

His gaze swept around, and he was greeted by the vast underground lake. The so-called Tower of Turin stands right in the middle of the lake...... Probably in a central location, on an isolated island the size of a kilometer in circumference.

...... from the ground About 10,000 meters or so.

And the diagonal tunnel that he had just hit clearly penetrated several kilometers of rock formations.

- I've gotten stronger.

Zheng Zha thought, of course, it is also possible that the effect of Yan Yan after compression is too significant. He now turned his brain to think about it, and he could clearly perceive every small link and subtle step he took when compressing the flames. and the exact function of each trickle of energy in the body when it intersects with each other after pushing them into operation.

It's a complicated operation – you don't even realize it when you get your hands on it. But when I reviewed it, I found that the seemingly simple 'compression-release' process actually piled up at least tens of thousands of delicate steps. The vast flow of energy is broken down into countless tiny links, which are then nested and interlocked. Just restoring it requires planning a design blueprint that can be called huge, and at least Zheng Zhe's brain will be down for ten minutes.

- Indeed.

Zheng Qi thinks this is a correct value. And I feel like I'm really amazing to be able to do it to this extent. Compress the delicate skill that would take ten minutes to fight into a few tenths of a second or something......

- uh...... How do I do it?

Doubt.

In the heart of 'freedom', there should be no such doubts. Because if you are at 'ease', you will have complete confidence and even conceit in everything you do. All the results you have obtained should be taken for granted and natural. There is no need to spend any time thinking about it, or even reviewing it.

This thing was not needed.

But right now, it's here.

- I...... How, exactly?

More questions suddenly welled up in my chest.

And along with this question that welled up in his chest, he appeared with an immeasurable exhaustion and sourness. Some kind of unspeakable trauma surged out of his body, every cell of his own, every gene base pair. And this wonderful feeling only appeared in Zheng Zhe's body cognition a long time ago.

That was really a long time ago.

That was even as early as the end of the world, relying on the T stock solution to unlock the first-order gene lock, and then in the attempted test, for the first time, the opening time of the gene lock was pushed to the limit of perception. And the body's response is also a matter of course for what happens in one's own mind.

Is that...... Genetic disability, the pain caused by oneself.

Everything happens between lightning and fire.

The words that Zheng Zha said to Jiang Yu were just sound waves vibrating in the atmosphere. And in the last moment, he was still showing that silly smile to Jiang Yu, who rushed to break through the sky.

And now, he is drowning in the powerlessness caused by genetic disability, and the pain of regression.

He crossed one of his boundaries.

However, this boundary. But it was not crossed at the right time, in the right place, and in the right way.

What propelled him to this point was neither determination nor obsession. It's just that...... A very ordinary whim. A...... It is not very timely to flow out.

His talent threw him to this point with an understatement.

And this understatement made him not make up everything he should do in the first time.

His victory, sweet and delicious.

However, it is not clean.

…………………………

Jiang Yu stared at the Tower of Turin in front of him. Look at the close companion standing at the top of the tower underground. He was amazed at the strength that Zheng Zhe showed at this moment, and a vague guess also emerged in Jiang Yu's eyes.

Original darkness? - No, no, it can't be.

Zheng Zhe can't do it to this extent now. No matter how talented he is, no matter how open he is, he will be unreasonable. He also has to follow the steps of the power itself. There's no way he's going to skip a whole bunch of essential pre-positions and go straight to the finish line. Of course, more importantly, how could he, who didn't even break through the demons, carry the original darkness?

…… Demons?

In Jiang Yu's mind, a thought came to mind. Zheng Zhe's unusual performance not long ago was reflected in his memory...... He didn't take that little episode to heart at the time. But now...... He felt that everything seemed to have something to explain.

The fourth order of the genetic lock is the stage of the transformation of the essence of the organism. However, the transformed creatures are absolutely no longer mortal.

The transformation between the ordinary, the transcendental, should have required a lengthy process. Often, crossing boundaries should be a painstaking process, or a matter of course. And in that transformational step, which may be long, perhaps arduous. The mundane mind will naturally transform into a transcendent mind, with a completely different worldview and attitude than before.

This process can be called 'cultivation'. It is also the reason why the cultivator and other professional systems do not need to face too many other risks other than promotion itself when they enter the fourth order. Because even if you take the empowerment method, if you want to get to that position, you can't do it overnight. And in most cases, when crossing this boundary, the cultivator's heart is already naturally very different from the original stage.

It is only natural that the heart of God should replace the heart of mortals.

However, the Gene Lock is different - the fourth level of the Gene Lock will make this transition stage, which should require a long promotion process, directly achieved overnight. Mortal things become transcendent in an instant. And this means that although there is an extremely efficient speed in walking on this system, it is certainly not possible to advance, delay, segment, and lengthen the level of this mind like other cultivation systems, obsessions, heavenly positions, and even Shinto systems. Or even omitted altogether, removed—it is destined to face this obstacle the moment it crosses that line. And its strength can even be called magic for the holder of the gene lock.

Inner demons.

Zheng Zha's previous abnormal performance may not be able to be called the signs of demons.

So...... Does this mean that now he has unconsciously thrown that level behind him?

In Jiang Yu's mind, this thought was just an ordinary guess in the last moment.

In Jiang Yu's eyes, this judgment was confirmed as an undoubted result at this moment.

Zheng Zhe's power skyrocketed and there was an explanation. The sudden fourth-order breakthrough was unexpected, but it was not necessarily unreasonable. And since he broke through the fourth order at this moment. So, what about him next...... How will you face the karmic demons that will inevitably come with the promotion of the gene lock?

Be...... Get out of hand?

Or rather, before it gets out of hand. Be one step ahead and fall into the disability of energy exhaustion?

Jiang Yu thought it was one, but he would rather be two. And at the moment when his mind came to the judgment that the Tower of Turin was about to be touched by him. He got a result that was not entirely pessimistic.

Bad luck didn't hit him all the time, and he didn't need to spend all of his previous preparations on suppressing a companion who had fallen into a spiral of demonic control by opening the Fourth Order Genetic Lock for the first time. He saw Zheng Zhe in front of him with his own eyes, and his stupid face was overwhelmed by exhaustion and debilitating pain in an instant.

It's incapacitating, and that new move is extraordinarily powerful. Before he could fall into the Demon Explosion, he was ejected by the fourth-order genetic lock.

However, before Jiang Yu could breathe a sigh of relief. At the feet of Zheng Zhe, whose momentum suddenly became weak, on top of the remains of fallen Maia, a new ray of blazing fire suddenly emerged!

The fallen Maia is not completely dead. Just simply blasting through the chest and tearing off the head is far from the end of life for something beyond mortals!

The crimson flames erupted violently. From Zheng Zha's feet, from Zheng Zha's hands, the wreckage of fallen Maia has expanded into a huge and sinister predator!

It devoured Zheng Zha, and this man who was once extremely strong, but now so weak, was already in its mouth at this moment.

He couldn't escape—he didn't even have time to show a bitter and apologetic smile to Jiang Yu, who had rushed to help.

But at the moment before the giant mouth closed, everything in the moment finally returned to the rhythm that Jiang Yu was used to.

…………………………

- "It's different from Zhao Fukong. ”

Zhan Lan thought, in her spiritual vision. The will of the fallen Maia is a blazing fire.

Dangerous, blazing, and if you get close, you will be burned violently. But...... But it's not completely untouchable.

The Black Domain was breached.

Zheng Zhe's previous blow that exceeded everyone's imagination and ruined everyone's plan did not work. Even if the depraved Maia who recast her body was still fiery and strong, she was no longer like she was in the period before the start of the war, and there was nothing missing in her body or mind that could be broken through.

The Black Domain is still tenacious—but even the original Black Domain is in the realm of Zhan Lan's 'desperate efforts to break through'. And the moment the body is scattered, the price that needs to be paid for 'desperate' has also been transformed into the result of 'hard work'.

Zhan Lan was probably the first reincarnation to realize that the Fire Demon was not completely dead—although she didn't immediately equate the remnants of the Black Domain with the rebirth of the Fire Demon.

But even if she didn't think about it, her instinct, her subconscious urged her to act as quickly as she could.

Then let's move.

Gather your mental power, concentrate it, and then shape it. And at the same time, imagine.

Imagine yourself as a moth, and then, pounce on the fire in the distance.

Moths will always put out fires.

But the moths that put out the fire may not necessarily die in the blazing flames.

With the invisible sound of flapping wings, the moth's forelimbs turn into stretched bone sickles, and the moment it unfolds, it can cut through the burning flames.

- I always felt that I wasn't fit to be a moth.

The moth crashed into the flames.

The moth wings burned in the flames, and the delicate body disintegrated in the heat—burn marks crawled up to most of Zhan Lan's body in an instant. Her fingers were scorched, and her shell boiled and disintegrated.

But she had no body—she had a spirit, and where could she have a shell to carry the flames of the backlash? All the trauma she suffered was just a mental revolt. However, all these tribulations were dissolved by the body of the vessel of the shadow.

It hurts, but the injury isn't there.

So, in illusory pain. The flaming moth swung down its bony sickle.

'Peng-' the spiritual world, the flames that have been cut off, and its collapse flows to the present world.

And the flames of the present world stopped for a brief moment before completely engulfing Zheng Zha.

It failed.

Jiang Yu seized this failure and arrived in front of it.

The vessel it loves, the enemy it hates, the uninvited one it sees for the first time today. Right in front of it, in its mouth, it was snatched by an arm covered in pitch-black heavy armor. And when it finally broke free from its spiritual shackles and lowered the bite of the flames, all it touched was the edge of a dark cloak.

It failed.

Space becomes an insurmountable barrier, and it breaks through this tenacious wall of construction, consuming a precious moment.

It watched as its prey was removed and disappeared into its observation boundary.

A behemoth blocked it.

The behemoth gave it the impression that it was strong on the outside, but it had nine bloated heads, enough to completely obscure its vision on a physical level—it felt that it would only take two seconds at most to kill this big, inappropriate creature, even if it was lying on top of the cold body of water it hated the most, spewing nine pale springs of frost at it.

Ants, it's a nuisance.

The ancient fallen Maia showed its wrath, its prudence at this moment. It has lost its prey, so what needs to be done now is to start another war, another hunt.

It stood up, stretching its flamed limbs at the top of the Tower of Turin, built by the ridiculous, tiny, almost swarking group of dwarves it had cleaned up—it was instantly over a hundred meters tall. With a sword in one hand and a whip in the other. The wings spread out behind it are highly restrained flames.

'Peng-' wings, retracted once.

Long distances, crossed in an instant. The flaming sword of flame was about to slash off the huddled and slow Hydra's humanoid face.

It didn't cut it down.

The pitch-black figure blocked the end of the sword, and the palm raised by the figure was an invisible shield that stretched outward.

(End of chapter)