353: The power of the mind, transformed into a snake

Xu Le suddenly felt a chill in his heart. Stepping back from the two men's attitude toward him, he only felt that they were incredibly terrifying.

Even a tiger does not eat its cubs; a being that could kill its own Bloodline so casually could never be labeled a 'good person.' At the very least, they were unscrupulous overlords.

Faced with a treasure that could assist in controlling rules, how could an overlord be willing to share it with others?

"The passage has been opened. Are you ready?" The Blood Marshal looked at the two of them.

Xu Le knew that the reason they hadn't attacked him was likely because they were worried the aftershocks of the battle would attract others.

If he didn't enter this world, they would worry about leaks and would probably... attack him directly.

He had to go inside and then find a way to kill them.

"Have you ever entered the Land of Guixu?"

"How could the Devil Emperor allow others to touch his treasure? Forget about entering, I haven't even seen it." The Nebula General shook his head.

He was telling the truth; he really hadn't been in. It was the Blood Marshal who had entered.

That meant the goal was to mislead Xu Le and hide information.

To make his death rate higher.

The Blood Marshal followed up with a bitter expression.

Xu Le nodded. "It's nothing. Let's go!"

"Wait!"

The Nebula General said, "I have a Divine Artifact here called the Concentric Lock. Perhaps it can help us regroup."

"Meaning we will be separated after we go in?" Xu Le asked.

He was now even more certain that the two of them were not telling him the truth.

These two could not be trusted!

Normally, entering together should mean staying together, right?

"Just to be safe!" the Nebula General explained.

"Fine!" The Blood Marshal generously took it and put it on his wrist.

Xu Le also took the Concentric Lock, and a prompt for the Concentric Lock popped up on his panel.

[Equipment] Seven Sons Concentric Lock (Partial)

[Rank] Divine Artifact · Heaven

[Equipment Traits] A mysterious resonance can be generated between the seven Concentric Locks; the user can roughly know the other party's location.

It didn't look like there were any traps or backdoors.

He followed suit and wore it on his hand.

"Go!"

The Blood Marshal grabbed the arms of the two and they jumped into the abyss together.

Like passing through a membrane... the Blood Marshal opened his eyes.

When he looked around, his face was so dark it could drip water.

Neither Xu Le nor the Nebula General were by his side.

Most importantly, this place was not like the Guixu controlled by the Devil Lord that he had visited twice before.

That place was a discarded world where various rules were anchored to objects—perhaps a dagger, perhaps a blade of grass—and one just had to take and refine them.

Of course, if one's rules were inferior to the other party's, they would be refined by the other instead.

But here, he had turned into a lowly multicolored great beast.

The high and mighty Blood Marshal had actually turned into a lowly mortal beast!

Dammit!

The Blood Rule vibrated, about to erupt, when a terrifying repulsive force came. It seemed that as long as he truly used the Blood Rule, he would be squeezed out of this world.

"Fine! I'll endure it. The Land of Guixu is hard to come by; I'll get some benefits first."

...The Nebula General found that he had turned into a black goshawk, flying in the sky.

Below, a grey rabbit was cautiously parting the weeds, searching for food.

Like instinct, the Nebula General was about to dive down to hunt.

He suddenly realized that he was not a lowly big bird.

This was the Land of Guixu.

If it was truly as the Master said, this place was extremely dangerous; a blade of grass or a tree could hide terrifying power of rules.

In a single encounter, one might be refined.

Must be careful... In the darkness.

Xu Le opened his eyes.

But he found only darkness.

His body was squeezed into a ball, and he had no sensation in his limbs.

Logically, at his current Realm, even if his eyes were gouged out and covered with a hundred layers of black cloth, he would certainly not be unable to see.

His terrifying Divine Soul was the best radar; every blade of grass and tree in the vicinity should be clearly visible.

He tried to mobilize the power of his Divine Soul, but felt as if separated by a wall.

And in the process, a terrifying repulsive force came from his body. Once he truly used his Divine Soul, he would be repelled and forced to leave.

Thinking of the importance of the Land of Guixu, he temporarily suppressed the thought and struggled with force. With a crack, the eggshell broke, and the head of a small snake poked out.

"Crap! How did I become a snake?"

"And a newborn non-venomous water snake at that."

Xu Le felt depressed, only hoping that the Blood Marshal and the Nebula General were in a similar newborn state.

No other reason than fearing his teammates might start with a luxury car while he had nothing.

Hunger came from his belly; it was time to eat.

He lowered his head and began to gnaw on the eggshell. Mentally, he felt it should be repulsive, but as it entered his stomach, it felt delicious. The blood in his body boiled as if he had obtained something he had long yearned for.

Even his Soul felt replenished.

When he had eaten the eggshell completely, a mysterious power flooded into his body.

It wasn't like blood Qi, it wasn't like mana, and it certainly wasn't like spirit.

It was more like a wonderful power.

Very familiar.

That was... Heart Buddha!

Xu Le's eyes lit up as he suddenly thought of an old friend he hadn't seen in a long time and that person's eerie power.

He had once used Divine Soul power to tinker with Universal Salvation, vaguely feeling it was different from the Heart Buddha's, but he never knew the root cause.

Now he finally understood that what he had created before was a knock-off version.

True Universal Salvation should utilize this newly acquired power from within the heart.

The previous Universal Salvation used powerful Divine Soul force to wash the opponent's Soul into one's own;

This current power, however, was like a gentle rain, causing the opponent to unknowingly become oneself.

The results looked similar, but the core was poles apart.

The latter could completely preserve one's own talent and intelligence, while the former could only turn the opponent into a high-grade robot.

"Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!"

"If I truly master this power, wouldn't my strength be able to reach a whole new level?"

Xu Le laughed out loud, but unfortunately, he was currently a snake and could only make a hissing sound.

Time to hunt!

He did not step onto the land. Although he was familiar with the land of the past, it held more crises.

Relatively speaking, there were far fewer dangers in the water.

Slipping into the water was like returning home. He didn't need to learn; whether it was swimming or hunting, everything was part of his instinct, just like a newborn baby knowing how to suckle.

He saw a group of tadpoles playing on the surface. Looking at their size, they were at least toad tadpoles, and several had already grown hind legs.

Normally, for tadpoles this large, the toad mother would have left long ago, but to save his life, he decided to be cautious.

After observing for another ten minutes and confirming there were no other dangers around, he aimed at several long-legged tadpoles and dashed out.

The tadpole swarm encountered a natural predator and scattered to escape, but their speed was still a notch below Xu Le's.

Soon, he swallowed more than ten long-legged tadpoles, and even more legless ones.

After eating so much food, he finally felt stuffed.

Finding a stone near some water plants and confirming it was safe, he crawled inside and hid.

Threads of wonderful power surged from his belly throughout his body. Xu Le became even more convinced that this place was not real.

The tadpoles he ate were not real tadpoles either, but some kind of rule fragments.

Based on the name of the Heart Buddha, he named this power heart power.