Chapter 2167: Eye Gouging and Instance Disappearance
This was the first time Xu Huo had suffered such a severe blow since beginning his mental evolution. The moment the library tower was destroyed, his entire brain trembled violently, his vision went completely black, and a ringing filled his ears. In an instant, he not only lost the ability to think but also lost his sight and hearing. Unconscious, blood flowed from his eye sockets, nose, and ear holes, soaking his clothes and splattering to the ground as he swayed.
His passive defense items bought him less than a second, but in that brief gap, when he opened his eyes again, he was already in front of Dou Shengnan—her face twisted with a mix of anger and murderous intent as she forcibly split the defense barrier formed by the "rainbow light" in front of him, grabbed his throat with one hand, and twisted it violently to the side!
Xu Huo, whose mental world had been severely damaged, couldn't recover at all. He hadn't retrieved "Three Seconds of Life" from his personal panel, and the only self-rescue item left was "Pure Heart," but he didn't intend to use it here. So when Dou Shengnan grabbed him, he drew a time power from another space.
Since he couldn't escape, he completely abandoned his previous restraint this time. Instead of being cautious with the time power he drew in, he went all out, pulling toward himself the most suitable time force he could sense!
Sometimes like a stream, sometimes like a torrent, but the torrent of time was silent. So when it descended, the first things to quiet down were Xu Huo and Dou Shengnan, who had her hand clamped around his throat. Next came the black vortex spinning around them and the various objects flying into it. Even the wind seemed to stop. Starting from beneath their feet, everything—whether flowing or gushing water, licking flames and smoke, or floating dust—was pressed into stillness.
In the span of a breath, the slow-moving time spread from the battlefield to the entire Double-Bright Bird administrative district.
Unlike the frozen time brought by ordinary time items or scattered time rays, this time power seemed to lose control and expand continuously, instantly plunging the entire city into silence.
But for those wearing time-space items, this wasn't a dead end. As long as the time flow wasn't fast enough to cause instant decay, breaking free was only a matter of time. Elsewhere was unknown, but on the battlefield, the first to wake up were Xu Huo, Dou Shengnan, and Nie Xuan!
Xu Huo and Dou Shengnan faced each other. When Dou Shengnan grabbed his throat, Xu Huo was equally close to her. So when Nie Xuan stepped in to help and broke her arm, Xu Huo's fingers stabbed into her eye socket. Then, with a twist, as he gouged out her eyeball, a wisp of black light also flew from Dou Shengnan's eye, and his finger bones struck his right eye!
The pain, distinctly different from before, made Xu Huo's vision go dark again. This time, something had truly damaged his eyeball. But there was no time to worry about that now. He quickly raised a space barrier in front of him, only to be sent flying by the pale white arc of light bursting from Dou Shengnan's body the next second!
Under the influence of the time power, Dou Shengnan had aged several decades. Whether her strength would weaken in the short term was hard to say, but players all suffered from evolution aftereffects. If this could trigger an early degeneration for her, Nie Xuan considered it beyond expectations, especially since she had also lost an eye.
Dou Shengnan wanted to kill Nie Xuan to vent her fury. How could the Double-Bright Bird players, who had suffered heavy losses, let her go? They swarmed in to block her, determined to force her to use her ticket and enter a high-risk instance even if they couldn't kill her!
Of course, just because no one was paying attention to Nie Xuan now didn't mean he was free from surveillance. He had to go retrieve the item on behalf of Xu Huo. After the earlier battle, it didn't take a genius to guess what kind of item it was. Being specifically entrusted with the task meant that Li Chun couldn't retrieve it and might not be able to carry it easily. In other words, it was sizable, and taking it away quietly would be quite difficult.
He couldn't go to Double-Bird Pharmaceutical right now, so he sprinted out of the city in one breath, used teleportation items to cross half a district, and only dared to change his appearance and return to the Double-Bright Bird administrative district after several trips. There were plenty of outer zone players who had come to watch the excitement, so he blended in without standing out.
Before he could finish listening to the announcement, Xu Huo sank into the black vortex—Nie Xuan's injuries weren't as severe as Xu Huo's. When Dou Shengnan tried the same trick again, he was also thrown back, but he stabilized himself with an item. Looking up, he saw Xu Huo, his face covered in blood, barely conscious, half of his body already falling into the black vortex. Rescue was too late. Thinking that Xu Huo might be spat out because he hadn't cleared the instance, Nie Xuan immediately set up defenses in front of all nearby vortexes to prevent him from being targeted by Dou Shengnan the moment he emerged.
But three seconds passed, and the black vortex showed no movement!
What was going on?!
Nie Xuan's gaze darted back and forth across the black vortex, but no one came out!
"He actually escaped!" Dou Shengnan, not far away, was equally agitated. Realizing that Xu Huo had truly passed through the space teleportation channel, she flew into a rage and immediately turned her sights on Nie Xuan!
[Because the declaration has been destroyed, the game now announces that B-level instance "The Stolen Declaration" has disappeared. All players have failed to clear the instance...]
Not far away was a black vortex, but the repeated mental and physical trauma had pushed him to the brink of unconsciousness. He had no strength left to dodge, even though he wasn't sure if the black vortex would spit him out again... Unfortunately, misfortunes never come singly. At that moment, the game notification suddenly rang out:
"Pfft!" With most of his space defense items unusable, other items proved useless against this white light. Both defensive and offensive items were destroyed by the radiance. Xu Huo himself was severely injured, unable to control himself as he spat out a large mouthful of blood and flew backward, powerless!
His goal had been achieved, and a heavyweight player had arrived in Zone 008. Xu Huo's whereabouts were unknown, but he definitely wouldn't be back anytime soon. There was no need to continue this tug-of-war. So Nie Xuan immediately leaped toward the ground through the gap Dou Shengnan had just created, avoiding the black vortex and fleeing the battlefield!
Instead of going to Double-Bright Bird Pharmaceutical that night, he first contacted Dr. Dian from outside, stating that he was there to pick up something on behalf of Xu Huo and mentioned Li Chun's name.
"The item is a bit large. It might not be easy to take away." Dr. Dian looked out the window. Outside the branch office building, not only was there its own defense barrier, but also players arranged by the city government for protection. So tonight's battle hadn't affected him much. Dou Shengnan had already left Zone 008, and the Double-Bright Bird players had begun cleanup.
The person on the other end seemed to pause for a moment before pressing further: "May I ask roughly how big a box is needed?"
"At least fifty meters long." Dr. Dian opened a drawer, placed several torn pieces of paper with the "Double-Bright Bird" pattern inside, closed it, then raised his hand to signal the robot to shut down its visual functions before saying, "If it's inconvenient to come pick it up, I can keep it for a few more days."