Chapter 15: A Little Bit Dead. Yun Zhou: Liu Ming! Your spiritual body is a bit…

The bullet chat exploded instantly.

【??? Why is this Yun Zhou appearing now?! Isn’t this the First Cycle?! Or maybe Cycle X.1!】

【Exactly! In the First Cycle, logically speaking, Big Yun Zhou shouldn’t have any time to look for Little Yun Zhou at all!】

【Damn it, just how many cycles are there? You guys are making my head spin. Is this world okay? It feels like it’s been turned into a sieve.】

【It wasn’t much different from a sieve to begin with, was it? I feel like destruction is the only reason it even exists. I just feel bad for the protagonist wolf cub.】

【Alright, this cycle is a lost cause too. Let’s pack up and head to the next one.】

【Sigh, I thought adding an extra person to the team this time would change things. I’m out, I’m out.】

…

The appearance of “Yun Zhou” caused the hope of these unidentified viewers in the bullet chat to hit rock bottom. Paradoxically, this sparked a vague sense of competitiveness in Liu Ming.

By what right? By what right did they decide to abandon this cycle? Who said this cycle was destined for destruction?

He forced himself to calm down and began to piece together all the current information to judge the purpose of the “Yun Zhou” standing before him.

Although the figure before him shared Yun Zhou’s face, he was surrounded by a thick aura of Anomaly. He was clearly not human; his body was composed of viscous black liquid and mist. He didn’t even match the historical records of the previously sighted Y008 Kraken.

This was too bizarre…

Liu Ming pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, a small, uncontrollable habit he had when nervous or in deep concentration.

“Why aren’t you speaking? Have you turned into a mute?”

“Yun Zhou” tilted his head. A playful, child-like smirk appeared at the corners of his mouth, but his eyes were swirling with that eerie blackness.

Liu Ming struggled to force a twitch of his own lips. He could feel a terrifying pressure radiating from the humanoid figure. That pressure bore down directly on him, making it nearly impossible to breathe.

“Oh dear, oh dear, why still no words? Is it that you can’t speak, or are you… intentionally trying to provoke me?”

“Yun Zhou” arched an eyebrow. His temperament was one of madness and darkness, entirely different from the real Yun Zhou. His hand left Yun Zhou’s body as he straightened up, walking toward Liu Ming step by step.

Liu Ming: …That was disgusting to hear. If you’re so capable, stop pinning me down with your pressure while accusing me of being intentionally insulting.

But “Yun Zhou” seemingly lacked such capability. Immersed in his self-directed game, he walked toward Liu Ming with a grin. When he was still a short distance away, his entire form collapsed into wisps of black smoke and vanished.

Even the sense of oppression he brought lightened instantly. The suffocating feeling in the air dissipated, leaving only the “shasha” sound of the wind brushing over the ruined earth.

Yun Zhou leaned quietly against the mani stone mound. Everything around them became deathly still, as if the jagged rifts and black liquid were simply a natural part of this Mental Landscape.

But Liu Ming couldn’t believe that “Yun Zhou” had simply disappeared.

He quickly leaned down, kneeling on one knee. Silver-blue light flickered at his fingertips. The light condensed into thin snakes, then transformed from snakes into long, slender threads that plunged straight into the ground torn apart by the black liquid.

“Trying to scout my position?”

A ghostly voice, using Yun Zhou’s vocal cords, whispered past Liu Ming’s ear. The voice seemed to come from the distant horizon, yet the sound of breathing was clearly audible.

Liu Ming whipped around to turn, but his expression changed the moment he tried to stand: he couldn’t move!

A terrifying, bone-chilling pressure radiated from behind him. The vanished “Yun Zhou” re-materialized from the wisps of black smoke. His fingers brushed lightly behind Liu Ming. That horrific pressure, comparable to a Top Ten Sequence Anomaly, shrouded Liu Ming once more. Black mist swirled around him, concentrating its force to pin him ruthlessly to the ground.

“Well? Can you struggle free? Am I not impressive?”

“Yun Zhou” manipulated the smoke at his fingertips, waving it in front of Liu Ming like he was teasing a toy, wearing a thoroughly punchable smile.

Is this guy mentally ill?

Liu Ming frowned. He hated the feeling of being controlled, especially knowing the guy acting so high and mighty behind him was wearing Yun Zhou’s annoying face.

He had never been one to suffer in silence. He gave the “Yun Zhou” a massive eye-roll. “Are you a psychopath? If you’re sick, go get treated, okay?”

The smile on “Yun Zhou’s” face collapsed instantly. “You’re as boring as ever. Why aren’t you even a little bit afraid?”

Despite being pinned to the ground in a position of weakness, Liu Ming looked at him as if he were an idiot. “Why should I be afraid of you? I don’t have a phobia of smoke.”

“Yun Zhou’s” mouth twitched. “…I think you’re the one who’s sick. I wanted to have some fun, but forget it. An annoying guy like you, who’s the same in every cycle… you should just die.”

He didn’t hesitate any longer, preparing to turn into smoke and lunge forward, but his movements suddenly froze.

Something… was restricting his spiritual energy?

“Yun Zhou” looked down abruptly. A flash of silver-blue light streaked through the depths of the cracks in the ground beneath his feet. He frowned, wanting to dissolve into mist, but it was already too late.

Silver-blue threads erupted from the ground. The crisscrossing, interwoven lines formed an airtight net that instantly enveloped “Yun Zhou.” The moment the smoke touched the mesh, a significant portion of it dissipated—this was no ordinary net; it was formed from Liu Ming’s spiritual body, designed to decompose spiritual energy.

No matter how powerful “Yun Zhou” was, inside Yun Zhou’s Mental Landscape, he was merely a wisp of spiritual energy. While Liu Ming had leaned down earlier, feigning an investigation into the vanished “Yun Zhou,” he had used the distraction to quietly lay a trap capable of restricting or even dismantling spiritual energy.

“Stopping me? You can’t stop me.”

“Yun Zhou” shook his head. He didn’t seem surprised; in fact, he seemed quite familiar with Liu Ming’s methods.

Liu Ming’s brow furrowed. “It seems you know a lot about me.”

As the ever-vigilant heir to the Liu Family, he had never revealed his ability to use mental-type spiritual power to dismantle the mental strength of others. Yet, “Yun Zhou” hadn’t shown the slightest hint of shock upon seeing it.

“Indeed. It is precisely because I know you so well that you won’t be leaving my hands alive.”

“Yun Zhou” even went so far as to contemptuously flick the sturdy silk netting. He seemed completely unconcerned that the mist composing his body began to dissipate the moment it touched the threads. “This is formed from your Spiritual Body, isn’t it? Tell me, what do you think would happen to you if I crushed it?”

A Spiritual Body was the concentrated essence of a Corrector’s soul. If it were destroyed or severely damaged, the corresponding Corrector would face an equivalent catastrophe.

“Yun Zhou” flashed a bloodthirsty smile. “I wonder if your precious Liu Family could preserve your sanity, or if you’d be forced to spend the rest of your life as a mindless fool.”

Liu Ming took a step back, putting some distance between himself and the madman before him. He could see it clearly: if nothing else, this person’s hatred for him was genuine.

He shook his head. “Let me ask you something.”

“Yun Zhou’s” interest was piqued. He placed his hand threateningly against the silk threads. “Hmm? Go ahead.”

Liu Ming adjusted the glasses on the bridge of his nose. His blood-red eyes were like the finest rubies, shimmering with a calm, steady light. “You are currently inside Yun Zhou’s Mental Landscape, correct?”

“Yun Zhou” nodded. “That’s right.”

“Since you’re in someone else’s Mental Landscape…”

Liu Ming sighed and raised his hand, snapping his fingers. “…then you’d better listen to the Guide.”

It seemed his previous antics chasing Yun Zhou around had been so chaotic that everyone had forgotten he was still the heir of the Liu Family—the future District Chief of the First District, the most important of the seven human districts.

The moment the last word left his lips, those silver-blue silk threads erupted with a terrifying, icy radiance. The ears of “Yun Zhou,” formed of black mist, twitched uneasily. He struggled violently, only to find that he was unable to tear through those swaying, fragile-looking threads. Under the confinement of the silk, even the surrounding space was locked tight.

“Yun Zhou.”

Liu Ming’s eyes shone with a frightening intensity in the gloomy environment. He stood there, one hand still raised. “I can hold him for ten seconds. If you can’t drive him out within ten seconds, I’ll crush your Mental Landscape myself before he even gets the chance.”

Standing within the interwoven silk net, “Yun Zhou’s” expression suddenly turned serious. It wasn’t the gravity of facing a great enemy, but rather the irritation of a person who had just been slapped by a toy. Irritation, however, was still irritation.

“Hey, hey! I’m already in a bad enough spot, can’t you give my Mental Landscape a break?!”

Another voice, identical in tone to “Yun Zhou’s” but filled with a completely different youthful vitality and fearlessness, rang out from behind the silk net.

“Yun Zhou” whipped his head around to see the youth who had just collapsed in a breakdown before the mani stone pile. The true master of this Mental Landscape was standing there, gripping a telescopic long-handled Vajra Pestle, the tip pointed directly at the center of “Yun Zhou’s” back.

The massive grey wolf stood by his side, its golden eyes fixed intently on the uninvited spiritual power before them.

Yun Zhou’s condition wasn’t great. His expression was a mask of forced calm as he resisted the crushing pain, and his breath came in heavy gasps. However, his movements were decisive. He threw the heavy Vajra Pestle toward “Yun Zhou” as if it were a javelin.

“Yun Zhou” roared in fury. “You dare? If I have the power to breach your Mental Barrier, I have the power to destroy your Mental Landscape!”

His answer was the cold thrust of the pestle through his chest. Yun Zhou was swaying on his feet; the pain from his Mental Landscape being attacked left his consciousness blurred. It seemed he hadn’t even heard the threat.

If he didn’t hear it, he couldn’t be threatened. Perfect.

The fool defeats the master.

The entire Mental Landscape rose up in rebellion. The blizzard on the plateau froze in an instant. “Yun Zhou” watched helplessly as his body, molded from spiritual power, began to shatter uncontrollably under Yun Zhou’s resistance. His gaze turned icy as black cracks rapidly expanded, and countless streaks of black liquid began to flow across the ground…

He intended to destroy Yun Zhou’s Mental Landscape.

“You won’t be doing that.”

Liu Ming’s voice, carrying a light chuckle, cut him off. The youth made a grasping motion in the void, and “Yun Zhou’s” eyes were suddenly filled with endless shock.

Between the high mountains, across the sky, and deep within the earth, countless silver-blue silk threads began to shimmer and mend. The fractured darkness retreated rapidly as Yun Zhou’s entire Mental Landscape was held firmly in place by those seemingly fragile threads.

“No matter how badly it breaks, I can patch it back together. Now, just disappear quietly.”

With a punchable smirk on his face, Liu Ming closed his fingers into a fist. The silk threads layered over one another like mountains, surrounding “Yun Zhou” and dragging him down into the depths of the cracks in the earth.

The moment his body of black mist fell into the ground, it dissipated completely, turning into black fragments that were permanently banished from Yun Zhou’s Mental Landscape.

A second later, the world flipped. When Liu Ming opened his eyes again, the salty sea breeze brushed past him once more.

He was back on the observation deck of the seaside cliff. Yun Zhou was currently scrambling back up from under the railing with nimble movements. He used only one hand to haul himself up, while the other was busy rubbing his temple in pain.

“Ow, ow, ow! That thing was so annoying! Breaking into someone else’s Mental Landscape and causing a mess! No sense of boundaries at all!”

Liu Ming paused, looking at the youth before him. He had actually prepared for Yun Zhou to be uncooperative; after all, they had been bitter rivals not long ago. If he hadn’t protected Yun Zhou’s Mental Landscape just now, the boy might have actually died there.

“I didn’t expect us to have such good chemistry… Why did you trust me enough to coordinate like that…?”

Liu Ming hesitated for a long time, staring fixedly at Yun Zhou until the latter began to wonder if he had grown a third eye on his forehead. Only then did Liu Ming finally speak.

Yun Zhou immediately breathed a sigh of relief. “I thought you were going to ask something serious.” He flashed a clean, resolute smile. “Because I knew I would definitely win. I can hear it; the voice of destiny has been telling me all along that I’m going to win.”

So it was all based on intuition. He had actually thought the guy had finally used his head for once.

Liu Ming’s mouth twitched. “And what if you had lost?”

“Then we would have died together,” Yun Zhou said with a cheerful grin, uttering something truly terrifying. “But speaking of which, Liu Ming! Your Spiritual Body looks like it’s kind of dying!”

He looked toward Liu Ming’s shoulder, where a very wilted, silver-blue little snake lay curled. It looked half-dead.

Liu Ming’s body swayed. Now that “Yun Zhou’s” pressure had vanished, he finally stopped forcing himself to stand tall. “Didn’t you notice… cough, cough… that I’m kind of dying too?”

As soon as the words left his mouth, he collapsed forward.

Yun Zhou’s face paled in shock. “Holy crap, holy crap! Don’t you dare try to pin this on me!”