Chapter 1177: A Dangerous Signal
Following the text's instructions to find the center of the ruins space wasn't difficult. One only needed to avoid the spatial intersections and not jump from one space to another.
"These spaces all look similar. Since they're copies, they're most likely products of a time freeze," the Magician said.
"Could a momentary time freeze really create a new space?" Xu Huo expressed doubt.
"Not necessarily a real space." The Magician kicked aside a stone in front of him. The flying rock struck a floating slab, and instantly the entire passageway collapsed, along with the buildings suspended in the sky, crashing toward the ground. Amidst the rolling dust, he continued, "It's like the spaces within a spiritual realm—they can rival reality, but they aren't real after all."
The Magician could compress the scope of his spiritual realm to make materialized objects lethal, and like Bai Kou, he could establish independent stage spaces within it. In both respects, he surpassed Xu Huo.
However, he was also curious about the state of Xu Huo's spiritual realm. "You've already reached the level where you can directly attack people with spiritual power, so why can't you create a space? The advanced stage of spiritual evolution is learning how to hide your own spiritual realm, and creating a space to replace it is the most convenient method."
"Could it be that you're exceptionally gifted, and your different personalities have all undergone super evolution?"
"Not at all," Xu Huo said. "It's not multiple personality disorder either. The problem is that a segment of my memory is corrupted. I was worried that evolution might leave hidden dangers, so I created an independent personality. This independent personality occasionally disobeys."
"What a pity." The Magician said with some regret, "The personality you separated can materialize attacks, proving that your spiritual evolution has actually reached the same intensity. You just split it off. From the results, it's actually a regression."
Xu Huo didn't think so. "I separated it right at the beginning of my evolution."
Moreover, that personality represented his childhood memories. No matter how strong his spiritual power was, he couldn't have completed the construction of a spiritual realm during childhood. Besides, the shadow personality still operated within his Library Tower.
The Magician was momentarily puzzled, but he had more experience in this area. He speculated, "Perhaps the personality you separated evolved on its own. Although that possibility is very small, the human spiritual realm is inherently complex. The fact that you could split a segment of your memory into an independent personality shows that your evolutionary path is different from others."
"At least among the Super Evolvers I've encountered so far, there are no multi-personality evolvers. If there really were, only one main personality would evolve, and they'd have to guard against attacks from their other personalities. The likelihood of eventually driving themselves mad is very high."
"But just now, did it come out on its own? That's a dangerous signal."
Last time at Snow White's villa, Xu Huo had already realized that the Library Tower might not be able to contain the shadow personality anymore. So he asked, "Is there any solution?"
"For your situation, no." The Magician answered bluntly. "But for a player with split personalities, the best method is to not use spiritual power. You could try that."
"Don't be too pessimistic either. Once you become a B-rank or A-rank player and meet more powerful Super Evolvers, someone will surely have the answer."
More powerful Super Evolvers... Xu Huo could only think of one person. His expression darkened.
"Super evolution isn't as good as others make it out to be. Plenty of people have aftereffects." The Magician wiped his moth badge and said meaningfully.
Soon, the two found the center of the ruins space—where the spatial rays were most densely concentrated, which could be considered the center.
Over a dozen rays passed through a complete rectangular boulder, spreading outward at an angle like an inverted cone. The tip of the cone was the intersection point of these rays, buried beneath the stone.
"Let me be clear upfront," the Magician said first. "When we flip the stone, it could be an item, or something else with time attributes. There's an even worse scenario: what's pressed underneath is a segment of intercepted time power. I don't know how it's preserved, but once it's disturbed, this space might collapse. Not only will we lose the chance to evolve, we might die under the time rays."
Xu Huo understood this well. Nie Xuan's situation was the third type, and he had only been accidentally injured by Lawrence Li. Accompanying super evolution was a drastic shortening of lifespan, with no clear idea of when death would come.
"But if it's an item, even a damaged one, it's still an opportunity," he said solemnly.
"Exactly." The Magician asked, "Do you want to go first, or shall I?"
Xu Huo took a step back and gestured with a "please" motion.
The Magician was cooperative. "If I succeed, I'll find a way to compensate for your loss."
Xu Huo smiled and shook his head. "No need. It's just a matter of each relying on their own ability."
What the Magician could take, he might not be able to. Likewise, what he could take, the Magician might not.
The Magician smiled. "I'm starting to appreciate you. Whether this works out or not, let's consider each other half-friends."
Xu Huo continued to retreat, gripping "Three Seconds of Life" in his hand.
The Magician also made basic defenses, but to be safe, he directly pulled out a ticket.
The ticket might not be useful now, but it could work if the space collapsed.
Both sides maintained a distance of over fifty meters from the central stone slab. Then, the Magician used spatial rays to flip the stone. But the change happened in an instant. As the slab shifted slightly, the time rays running through it began to run wild and rampage. With its movement, everything connected to the time rays within this space began to collapse and perish.
First came the buildings suspended in the air, followed by the disappearance of numerous duplicate spaces. The former destroyed the ruins space where Xu Huo and the Magician stood, while the latter swallowed up any players who had carelessly entered them—the time frozen at a certain moment vanished, and those within could only disappear without a sound!
However, those still in the ruins space were unaware of this. All they could see were the continuously falling buildings and the crumbling sky and ground. Worse still, the vanished island reappeared, descending from what seemed like an endless sky. Midway, it was affected by the time rays, causing its trees and soil to rapidly weather. The once intact island quickly fractured, and countless fragments poured down like a torrential rain!
"It seems our luck isn't good enough." The Magician dodged a time ray and called out to Xu Huo in the distance, "Farewell."
He left decisively. Xu Huo, indifferent, merely twitched the corner of his mouth and expanded the coverage of his Cube Space as much as possible.
(Chapter End)