Chapter 2002: Thanks to You
The thin hexagons Zheng Yuci used possessed even greater destructive power than the previous ones. His purpose in trapping Xu Huo with hexagons was simple: the first time, he wanted to end the battle completely; this time, he wanted to test the strength of Xu Huo's second personality. Therefore, he wasn't even in a hurry to interfere with the shadow's detachment process.
The second personality's attempt to separate from the main body seemed to stimulate some nerve in him, and he spoke in an excited tone: "I've never seen a Super Evolver successfully produce a second personality. Mediocre Super Evolvers go mad at the very birth of a personality. This second personality has been nurtured well, and its form is also very good. Hmm, it even possesses self-awareness..."
He paused there, looking at Xu Huo with some curiosity. "Does the second personality not compete for dominance with the main personality?"
After observing for another two seconds, he overturned his previous guess and offered a new conclusion: "The main personality is suppressing the second personality."
As he reached this conclusion, he frowned at Xu Huo. "Why suppress the second personality? Since it can grow this large, it means you two can coexist peacefully. Suppressing it is equivalent to suppressing your overall strength... Why are you so stupid?"
The "stupid" Xu Huo really did want to push this "second personality" back. When he first underwent Mental Super Evolution, his Spiritual Realm contained four personalities. Besides his main personality, the other three were his adolescent self, his young adult self, and his childhood self. Among them, the adolescent and young adult personalities were both complete and obedient, not appearing on their own when not needed. Only the childhood personality had been a shadow from the moment it formed, probably related to his missing childhood memories. For this reason, he deliberately suppressed the childhood personality. In fact, this childhood personality was indeed disobedient, occasionally appearing on its own. Previously, it was always in shadow form, but now it seemed to have gained a physical body and had even grown a bit taller.
The memories of Dr. Zhang found during Tang Guangbo's help with his evolution made Xu Huo realize that this childhood personality had likely formed when he was very young. The process of retrieving his memories was also the process of unsealing this personality. But he had gone through childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood, all the way to the present. Throughout his growth, his emotions and personality had been sound. He was also satisfied with his current state and did not intend to release a childhood personality that might affect him at his current level of evolution. To prevent the childhood personality from appearing, he had already prepared to retreat, but unexpectedly, it still emerged.
The tug-of-war between the two sides put him at a disadvantage.
The shadow personality seemed to be stuffed inside Xu Huo's body, struggling outward with all its limbs. It took a while before it managed to extend one hand and one foot, but the other half of its body was still connected to Xu Huo. Thus, it stood side by side with Xu Huo, then slapped all of Zheng Yuci's hexagons into the ground from a distance. The moment it looked up, it and Xu Huo vanished from their spot again, flashing behind Zheng Yuci. Without needing to get too close, it directly grabbed his throat as he turned around.
Even though they were still about ten meters apart, Zheng Yuci's head tilted back slightly as his entire body was lifted upward. His left hand grabbed the invisible hand on his throat, while his right hand reached out in the same manner, seizing Xu Huo's throat and slowly lifting him. Speaking was already very difficult at this point, but he still insisted, "Let me help you..."
This "you" referred to the shadow personality. Zheng Yuci wasn't without a way to escape. He used this extreme one-for-one method not to actually kill Xu Huo, but to suppress Xu Huo's main personality, allowing the shadow personality to smoothly replace him.
"Let... go..." Xu Huo's neck and forehead veins bulged, but his body couldn't move. Even turning his head as much as possible, he could only barely see the shadow personality slowly merging back into his body while still choking Zheng Yuci.
At this moment, items were useless. He gritted his teeth and tentatively activated his trait, "Passerby A Who Never Dies." To his relief, the trait worked!
"Brother, I'm here to help!" As the pressure on his neck suddenly disappeared, Jiang Chengfeng suddenly appeared on one side. He clapped his hands together, and ten semi-transparent thin lines twisted from both sides toward Zheng Yuci in the middle!
Zheng Yuci, who had also freed himself from the shadow personality's grip, didn't move, but his expression wasn't good. Raising his hand, two hexagonal portals, one in front and one behind, teleported all the attacks away. At the same time, invisible spiritual power surrounded Jiang Chengfeng from all directions.
"Get down!" Xu Huo quickly opened a portal beneath Jiang Chengfeng's feet, directly pulling him behind himself. Frowning, he said, "What are you doing up here?"
"I saw you two choking each other in midair and was afraid you'd really get strangled to death... What? No gratitude?" Jiang Chengfeng said irritably.
"Thank you very much," Xu Huo said without turning his head, his gaze still fixed on Zheng Yuci.
However, Zheng Yuci wasn't very interested in Jiang Chengfeng. He examined Xu Huo with great interest. "You've evolved."
When the shadow personality returned to his body, Xu Huo felt that he had evolved again. The outward radius of his Spiritual Realm was one kilometer, which could be doubled with the help of items. But this brought immense consumption and pressure. Combined with the prolonged fighting, he had been barely holding on until the shadow personality appeared. But at this moment, not only had his fatigue completely vanished, but his control over the Spiritual Realm also seemed to have strengthened.
Spiritual Gates were like opening a passage between two different places. Whether this passage could be opened smoothly and how far it could reach depended on the obstacles within the Spiritual Realm. Ordinary buildings were different from walls made entirely of metal. And since his Spiritual Realm was interpenetrating with Zheng Yuci's, opening a Spiritual Gate wasn't actually that easy; both speed and quantity were compromised. Zheng Yuci must have also sensed Xu Huo's enhanced spiritual power from Jiang Chengfeng passing through the Spiritual Gate.
"Thanks to you," Xu Huo said with a slight curl of his lips.
"You swallowed the second personality?" Zheng Yuci reached out from a distance.
Sensing the almost tangible but invisible spiritual power surging through the air, Xu Huo raised an eyebrow. He deflected that power in the same manner, then distanced himself, tossing Jiang Chengfeng to the edge of the Spiritual Realm before looking at the person opposite him and saying, "Again?"
Zheng Yuci smiled. "I thought you were the weaker one, but it turns out you're not bad either. That's good."
As he spoke, the two were enclosed within a huge honeycomb barrier. Invisible spiritual power mixed with countless hexagons attacked Xu Huo from all directions. The surging white light almost obscured everything. Just as the light seemed about to shrink into a ball, countless black shadows shot out from the center in the next second, instantly shredding the light, and even the honeycomb barrier outside didn't escape. However, Xu Huo, who emerged afterward, violently spat out a mouthful of blood.
"The ignorant are fearless." Zheng Yuci stared at him, raising both hands and swinging them forward once again.
(Chapter End)