Chapter 1558: Water Floods the Book Tower
Neither side was surprised by the situation. Facing each other, Dou Shengnan crossed her index fingers in an X shape, and the darkness permeating Yue City automatically condensed into a cage, perfectly sealing Xu Huo in place. Just before the black cage fully closed, Xu Huo grabbed the door handle.
The maximum range of Xu Huo's fully controlled spiritual world could extend up to a kilometer, and his gate could only be opened within that range. However, due to the suppression of Dou Shengnan's spiritual power, his movement speed slowed. Though he continuously opened his spiritual gate without pause, every time he passed through it, the first thing he saw was still Dou Shengnan. Moreover, to prevent him from approaching the ship, she twisted the power within her black spiritual world, repeatedly intercepting him ahead.
In just a few seconds, the two exchanged positions over a dozen times almost face to face, yet they remained on nearly the same horizontal line.
She was an A-rank player, skilled in hypnosis. The longer this dragged on, the more Xu Huo would be at a disadvantage. After a brief thought, he took out the "City Sand Table" and directly moved the chess piece representing himself from the center of the board to its edge.
The "City Sand Table" was the only A-rank item among all his possessions that relied on his spiritual power to activate. The six pieces on the board represented people and buildings, meaning that as long as Xu Huo's spiritual power was strong enough, he could move any person or building within his spiritual world. But so far, he could only move people—and only himself.
That didn't matter, though. As long as it was enough to temporarily break free from Dou Shengnan's restraint.
As the sand table was stored back into his item slot, Xu Huo sank back into the darkness. Only when Dou Shengnan disappeared did he realize that he had been wrapped in something like a water balloon. Inside it, he couldn't perceive it, but when he passed through that layer, there was a clear sense of resistance.
This was likely a special product of Dou Shengnan's spiritual world. Logically, with his current level of evolution, even entering her spiritual world shouldn't have made it impossible to find the ship's trace. This situation strongly suggested that he had already entered her spiritual space, and the water balloon he had just passed through was merely one layer of it.
Dou Shengnan's spiritual world was different from his and Bai Kou's. Including some other Super Evolvers Xu Huo had encountered before, the worlds they initially created were usually ordinary spaces—like empty, vast rooms without doors or windows. But this black spiritual world, when released, carried a strange softness, making one feel as if they were soaking in water that wouldn't drown them.
Without seeing more specific materialized objects, it was hard to identify, but confirming that the "City Sand Table" could get him out was enough.
As this thought turned, Dou Shengnan also emerged from the first black sphere. At the same time, countless black cubes the size of fists floated around her. When these cubes appeared, Xu Huo could clearly feel the oppressive force of the spiritual world increase, and the range of his own spiritual world began to shrink.
Not wanting to follow her rhythm, he took out the "City Sand Table" again. But unexpectedly, Dou Shengnan, who had been some distance away, suddenly appeared right beside him!
The figure in the center of his vision seemed not yet fully dissipated, but the one beside him had already become nearly solid. At this moment, Dou Shengnan was like two alternating shadows of light and dark, and the materialized one, with absolute speed advantage, stabbed toward Xu Huo's throat!
He was already weaker in speed compared to her, relying entirely on experience and prediction to barely hold the line. Now, those floating black cubes had unknowingly attached many to him, not only imposing a heavy spiritual burden but also sealing off his spiritual gate, trapping him completely in a narrow gap.
Defense items were useless. Sensing that "Cat's Triple Life Loan" might not work this time, Xu Huo activated his trait "Truth Transcends All" to buy himself protection time, then used his spiritual power to form a massive long blade and slashed at Dou Shengnan!
Seeing the blade take shape, Dou Shengnan was somewhat surprised, but that was all. With her overwhelming spiritual power, she struck nearly twenty times in three seconds, each blow nearly fatal to Xu Huo!
After "Truth Transcends All" was upgraded to version 2.0, the protection time extended to six seconds, giving Xu Huo enough buffer. Though he could only passively take hits while stuck in the black cubes, he was absolutely safe during those six seconds. So he took out the "City Sand Table" again, moved the chess piece, and simultaneously used a materialized object to cleave through the black cubes beside him, slipping through a gap opened in the black space.
Passing through another water balloon, Xu Huo sensed the ship's presence while also feeling Dou Shengnan teleport behind him. The tingling sensation at his back triggered a reflex, and he activated the Book Tower!
But Dou Shengnan, entering the Book Tower, didn't even blink. She raised her hand, and the black spiritual power surged like a tide, bursting through every room on every floor, violently rushing toward the central spiral staircase, and quickly flooding a third of the Book Tower!
The black water wasn't real water but a symbol of spiritual power. Water flooding the Book Tower was enough to prove the gap between them!
The crisis, with a blade nearly at his throat, didn't make Xu Huo close the Book Tower. Lifted by the spiral staircase, he rose higher and higher, looking at Dou Shengnan, who was also elevated by the black water, and said, "In the Capital Safe Zone, both you and Jin Feixue held back. You did it to control Yue City up close and prevent other players from entering. But what about Jin Feixue?"
As he finished speaking, the spiral staircase beneath him suddenly twisted and closed, instantly forming a passage that plunged straight into the black water!
Sensing that Xu Huo had followed the staircase-formed passage into the depths of the Book Tower and judging that he was trying to escape, Dou Shengnan immediately dove into the water, precisely piercing into the staircase passage formed by spiritual power, intercepting and grabbing his hand.
Dou Shengnan's strike was originally aimed at Xu Huo's heart. The moment she grabbed his hand, she first felt surprised at her misjudgment, then a flash of disgust, followed by a frown:
The switch between several emotions took less than a second, finally settling on that frown. At that instant, feeling the hand she held gently squeeze back, Dou Shengnan's expression changed abruptly. She decisively pulled back and retreated, but following her hand came an incomplete human figure.
Only the outline of an arm and a head could be clearly discerned; the rest was more like a flowing mass, swinging in an arc through the air with her pulling force—this wasn't a complete person, but as he flew out of the staircase passage, he looked up and smiled at her:
"Hee hee!"