Chapter 1998: Showdown
This was not a question that required an answer, so the moment he spoke, the mutated plants in this block surged forward once again in a new wave. Under the influence of their combined spiritual power, these plants, which had already filled the streets and climbed the buildings, gradually packed the spaces between structures, completely turning this area into a green ocean. Moreover, this green ocean showed signs of spreading outward.
Seeing the mutated plants had already reached the tops of the buildings, the two men standing face to face vanished from their spots almost simultaneously.
Zheng Yuci's spiritual world symbol was the beehive, while Xu Huo's was the library tower. When these two spiritual worlds clashed, whether one could overwhelm the other depended on the strength of their individual spiritual power. Xu Huo was originally weaker than Zheng Yuci, but with the auxiliary spiritual power item "Realm of Thought" and the "City Sand Table," he was enough to contend with Zheng Yuci.
When facing him, Zheng Yuci was no longer as defensive as he had been against the Evil Ghost Mask. Instead, he tried to use the beehive within his spiritual world to completely engulf the library tower, or simply trap Xu Huo.
His spiritual world symbol was different from any Xu Huo had seen before. For example, the library tower, Bai Kou's mechanical door, or the stage of E Shu—these were often complete wholes. Pulling an opponent into the core of one's own spiritual world was the best way to deal with a powerful enemy, because within one's own spiritual world, the effects of spiritual interference could be maximized. However, the spiritual world Zheng Yuci displayed seemed not to be fixed. He repeatedly used man-high hexagonal barriers to form a relatively enclosed space to achieve his goals. The shapes were also highly variable, ranging from the circular barrier he used against the Evil Ghost Mask to partially assembled beehive forms, and even once completing the entire beehive structure.
Furthermore, although his beehive could be established, it was different from something like the library tower. The beehive was mostly transparent, so even when assembled, if one wasn't too far from the edge, they could still see the outside situation. This greatly diminished the effect of blocking and influencing vision.
Xu Huo didn't know if he was doing this intentionally, but whenever he was surrounded by hexagonal barriers, he would directly break through them using the spiral staircase or the library tower. However, as time passed, he faintly began to sense a characteristic of the beehive.
Zheng Yuci's spiritual world did not appear to be in a complete state. The assembled beehive could also be broken, and for fellow Mental Super Evolvers, it didn't have a strong imprisoning ability. But the longer it went on, the more solid these hexagonal barriers became, as if they were gradually materializing.
Spiritual power could be materialized. When a spiritual world was first formed, a core materialized object would naturally emerge. This materialized object actually represented the evolver's spirit, equivalent to the evolver themselves. Damaging or striking this materialized object would cause more severe harm to the evolver than a normal attack. As evolution deepened, the evolver could gradually control their spiritual power, giving it actual offensive capability.
At the beginning, spiritual power might only interfere with an opponent's thoughts. Once spiritual power could be projected outward into reality, a spiritual world was formed. This spiritual world could quickly influence others' senses, reaching a point where it could make illusions seem real. At this stage, the weaker a person's spiritual power, the easier they were to influence, even to the point of completely believing in things created within the spiritual world. Of course, this hadn't yet reached the stage of causing substantial harm. It required other attack methods from the evolver to completely subdue the opponent, unless it was hypnosis or had reached the level of directly controlling the opponent's mind to make them harm themselves.
To turn spiritual power into a true weapon, one had to reach the "materialization" stage—transforming spiritual power into various lethal things. For example, after Xu Huo's third evolution with Dr. Tang's help, he could directly use spiritual power to kill.
But this had its limits. First, materializing spiritual power consumed more energy. Second, the strength of materialization was directly proportional to the evolver's evolution level. So, Xu Huo had always been careful to control the range when using materialized spiritual power—materializing it when in use, and naturally not bothering to expend the effort when not.
Zheng Yuci was different. He seemed to have materialized all the hexagons he was currently using!
Looking up at the hexagons that sometimes scattered and sometimes combined, filling the sky, Xu Huo frowned. He took two steps and teleported several kilometers away, trying to see if he could escape the beehive's range and thus weaken its power.
Unfortunately, Zheng Yuci quickly followed, and throughout this process, he kept carrying those hexagonal barriers with him. Additionally, his spiritual world's materialized object was white, so in Xu Huo's eyes, Zheng Yuci had now become a super-large lighting tool. Wherever he went, a bunch of lights surrounded him.
Of course, this didn't actually mean the beehive had light. It was the effect of spiritual interference at work. The more real the beehive appeared, the deeper the influence.
Since changing locations had no effect, Xu Huo stopped wasting energy on constant teleportation. He continued to engage Zheng Yuci through the Spiritual Gate while slowly materializing his own spiritual power.
To other players, what a spiritual world showdown looked like was unimaginable. In the eyes of onlookers, Xu Huo and Zheng Yuci seemed to be constantly colliding in midair and then separating. One moment they were fighting, the next they vanished without a trace, reappearing somewhere else. Sometimes, people could still see them, but if someone was unlucky enough to enter their combat range, they might not even see them at all. However, Zheng Yuci's materialized object never disappeared and covered a large area. Sometimes, people could catch a glimpse of the hexagons flashing by. So, the most intuitive and convenient way to observe was to watch the activity of the mutated plants in the city.
Now, a large area near the city center had turned into a green ocean. Wherever the two moved, the green waves surged. Forget ordinary people—even players were nowhere to be seen. The East District players who had initially planned to clean up the situation, after sending out over a dozen elites equipped with spiritual interference devices only to have them killed, simply vacated the area for them. They only had the Spatial Super Evolver, referred to as Teacher Zhao, occasionally interfere with them to prevent them from causing more damage elsewhere.
"So this is what it looks like when Mental Super Evolvers fight," said some players who had come to watch, like Jiang Chengfeng and Qiao Qiao. Although being caught in the crossfire carried some risk, standing far enough away wasn't a big problem.
Given the player levels, someone remarked, "But for a B-level player to fight an A-level player for this long is already impressive. I wonder when he'll be killed."