Chapter 1996: Super Evolution Power Full Display
Pulling the weapon twice without success, and with Zheng Yuci seemingly about to turn around, the Ghost Mask had to immediately change his attack approach. He directly abandoned the weapon in midair, using a long-range weapon to forcibly push both himself and Zheng Yuci in opposite directions.
Behind the Ghost Mask was the spacious rooftop, but Zheng Yuci had been standing at the edge of the top floor. Pushed like this, he seemed in immediate danger of falling—the Ghost Mask kept his eyes locked on him, yet Zheng Yuci, who had already turned around, merely took a step back to steady himself, then swung his hand forward, sending all the weapons frozen in midair flying ahead!
"Bang! Bang! Bang!" One after another, sharp prop weapons blasted a large hole in the rooftop. The Ghost Mask was forced to retreat. After the last prop passed through the building, he sidestepped and circled around toward Zheng Yuci from one side.
As an advanced player, leaping across the middle section of the roof that had been gouged out was easy, but he deliberately took a wide detour to divert Zheng Yuci's attention. When Zheng Yuci followed his movement and turned left, the Ghost Mask suddenly dropped down toward the lower floors, and the prop he had been blocking with his body shot straight at Zheng Yuci!
It was a palm-length spike. As it approached Zheng Yuci, it paused for just a moment before breaking through one of his defensive layers, plunging straight into his body, and passing through the other side in the next instant!
The prop's disappearance and reappearance were so seamlessly connected that there was no doubt it had pierced Zheng Yuci's chest and abdomen. Anyone who witnessed it would hardly question their eyes. But then, looking at the man who, despite being severely wounded, acted as if nothing had happened—his expression and posture unchanged—made one wonder if the event had actually occurred.
The sneak attack prop had returned to the Ghost Mask's hand. He was the closest to Zheng Yuci and could directly see whether the other was injured—in fact, not only was Zheng Yuci not hurt, his clothes weren't even torn. When the prop got close to him, it seemed to enter an abnormal space, neatly bypassing him.
"I knew killing you wouldn't be this easy." The Ghost Mask put away the spike prop and pulled a two-finger-wide metal band from his wrist. As he stretched it out, a shadowy strip about three meters wide appeared on the ground where Zheng Yuci stood. Once the shadow strip covered the entire rooftop, the Ghost Mask slammed both hands downward. The section of the building covered by the shadow seemed pressed by some force, collapsing neatly into the ground!
A gap was torn open in the center of the building, and dozens of floors were crushed together in an instant. As it hit the ground, a loud crash accompanied by a massive cloud of dust spread out, instantly covering several streets in all directions.
Sharp alarms and wailing cries rose up. The Ghost Mask, who had jumped down along with the collapsing building, darted back and forth through the dust several times before being hurled by a powerful force into the adjacent building!
The Ghost Mask crashed through a first-floor shop, paused for only a moment on the opposite street, then charged back into the dust.
Judging by the figure constantly moving within it, he was attacking Zheng Yuci without pause, props and instruments rotating in turns. With his movements, pits and cracks appeared on the surrounding streets, and nearby buildings were either pierced or cut through here and there. In just a few seconds, the street was left in ruins. Fallen streetlights or electronic screens were nothing; even the towering buildings looked ready to collapse!
This continued until Zheng Yuci walked out of the dust.
Indeed, though the Ghost Mask never stopped attacking, almost all his strikes missed. His traits didn't take effect, and most of his prop attacks were redirected through spiritual gates. During this time, he also tried to close in but was blocked by a defense barrier, creating this stark contrast:
He exhausted himself, nearly smashing everything on the street to pieces, while Zheng Yuci strolled out as if on a leisurely walk.
"How should I put it? That rebel looks like a bee buzzing around a flower, busy with who knows what." The observing Jiang Chengfeng sighed, then couldn't help comparing himself. "This Zheng Yuci is way too strong. How does he dodge so many props?"
Ordinary handheld weapons and attack props usually require contact with the target, which is relatively easy to defend against. As long as the defense barrier or the person reacts in time, blocking them is generally fine. But many props have long-range attack capabilities—like the cutting barriers extended by blade props, or the waist-slicing lines of that Agor super evolver, or props with special abilities that cause temporary deafness or blindness, or restraint and restriction props, or some bizarre effects... In short, though these props can be weakened by increasing distance or strengthening barriers, a player's defense barrier can't be active indefinitely. There's always a chance for someone to exploit a gap. Some traits might even bypass defense barriers. So in combat, a player can never be completely without blind spots. When caught off guard, low-level players using low-level props to kill advanced players has happened—rare, but not as rare as this scene.
"He's a mental super evolver," Xu Huo explained simply.
Zheng Yuci controlled his spiritual realm with extreme precision. Many times, he didn't even use defense props to teleport away the Ghost Mask's props, like on the rooftop. He opened very small spiritual gates on his chest and back to achieve that effect of appearing to pass through his body.
The same happened afterward. The Ghost Mask's attack props mostly failed. Two powerful ones were blocked by defense props—it was these two defenses that let Xu Huo roughly see what his defense props looked like. The Ghost Mask's long-range slashes were often directly severed when passing through Zheng Yuci, as if blocked by something, and the prop effect vanished.
Combining those two defenses against attacks and one instance where an electric whip bypassed Zheng Yuci's head, it could be judged that Zheng Yuci likely had a spherical defense layer around him. Based on when it appeared, it was probably a defense prop requiring activation by the user. The usage time wasn't clear yet, but its defense was top-notch. The Ghost Mask had used several A-grade props but hadn't even touched Zheng Yuci's clothes.
Xu Huo squinted, watching the man who had stepped onto the street. At a certain level of evolution, super evolution power held an overwhelming advantage over ordinary players. Though the Ghost Mask had plenty of props, Zheng Yuci, with his spiritual gates and two or three decent defense props, could wear him down to exhaustion.
(Chapter End)