168: Chapter 168 Absorption

The Spirit form of the Shadow of a Thousand Eyes and a Thousand Tentacles expanded violently, black fog churning frantically. The tentacles that had originally hung down like a sea instantly stiffened, like nerves pulled taut by rage.

"Do you think... you can still suppress me like you did back then?!"

The voice was no longer a whisper; it exploded simultaneously from countless eyes and grievances, twisted, sharp, and filled with hatred suppressed for who knows how many ages.

The ancient sealer and the sealed, after long ages, collided head-on once more across life, death, and the void.

The Azure Dragon phantom lowered its head slightly; there was not a shred of pity in its dragon eyes, only a coldness that traversed the ages.

It was as if it were saying—I could crush you back then, and doing it again today would be just the same.

The next second, the Azure Dragon raised its claw. Boom! The rules of the entire Spirit world seemed to be forcibly rewritten.

The darkness was torn open by a single claw, and countless eyes began to shatter one after another.

The black tentacles that had originally attempted to invade Lin Mo's sea of consciousness shattered inch by inch under the Azure Dragon's claw shadow, like rotting branches and leaves crushed into a torrent, their resistance appearing pale and powerless.

The Shadow of a Thousand Eyes and a Thousand Tentacles let out a sharp, ear-piercing shriek, its Spirit form retreating frantically, yet there was nowhere left to retreat.

Because this strike from the Azure Dragon was not a simple crushing force. It was blood debt pressing upon blood debt, old grievances pressing upon old grievances.

The enmity between them had been carved into even more ancient times. The Azure Dragon had once suppressed it with its own hands.

And it, too, had firmly carved the humiliation of being crushed, sealed, and dragged back into the abyss into every inch of its will throughout the long seal.

Now, this humiliation had been awakened once again. How could it not be furious? And how could the Azure Dragon let it go?

Caught between these two ancient wills, Lin Mo only felt his sea of consciousness shaking violently.

He could even feel the long-dormant will within the Azure Dragon Mark being awakened bit by bit by the aura of the Evil Shadow, churning and roaring, carrying a cold reckoning from a superior existence.

"Sleep," the Azure Dragon whispered. Its dragon head bowed slightly, its dragon eyes indifferent, as if looking at a bug that should never have crawled out again.

The next moment, the dragon claw fell again. Boom—!!!

In that instant, Lin Mo's Spirit world felt as if the entire azure firmament had slammed down upon it. The darkness was forcibly torn in two.

The countless eyes on the outermost layer of the Evil Shadow's Spirit projection exploded first, like black stars detonated by thunder, leaving not even a trace of residue behind.

Immediately following, those black tentacles hanging in the void began to struggle frantically.

They were no longer filled with the sense of erosion and mockery as before; instead, they became extremely disheveled and panicked, like venomous snakes with their vitals stepped upon, twisting, convulsing, and retracting desperately, yet unable to escape the range covered by that dragon claw.

Crack—crack—snapping sounds rang out densely within the Spirit world.

Every time a tentacle shattered, it was as if a part of the Evil Shadow's own memories and power were being forcibly crushed and severed.

Its Spirit form retreated frantically, the black fog churning like a dying tide. Yet the suppression of the Azure Dragon phantom retreated faster, steadier, and colder than it did.

That sense of oppression was not a crude crushing; it was like placing an entire world back on top of its head, letting it be stripped of even the space to struggle, bit by bit.

"Arghhhhhh—!!!" The Shadow of a Thousand Eyes and a Thousand Tentacles finally let out a completely distorted shriek.

The voice no longer sounded like a deity, nor like a calamity; it sounded more like the dying howl of a beast pressed back into a trap by an ancient hunter.

All of its eyes began to bleed out mist like black blood. In the final tremors before those eyes shattered, they actually revealed an emotion called fear.

"You actually... dare to come back..." "You actually still dare... to stand before me..."

The Evil Shadow's voice was full of twisted malice, yet it carried an uncontrollable tremor. The Azure Dragon did not respond.

It simply lowered its head slowly; the indifferent coldness in its dragon eyes was like watching an ending that had been foreseen long ago. Then, the second claw fell. Boom—!!!

This claw seemed to press the old debts that hadn't been completely wiped away back then, along with today's new grievances, into the same abyss.

The Spirit projection of the Shadow of a Thousand Eyes and a Thousand Tentacles could finally hold on no longer. Its countless eyes exploded at the same time, the black fog scattered frantically like a breached dam, and the tentacles turned to ash one after another, collapsing into nothingness.

A series of tearing roars came from the depths of the void, as if some ancient seal were closing once again.

"No—!!!" The shriek finally lost all control, carrying a terror and unwillingness so sharp it was ear-piercing. Yet this time, there was no response.

Lin Mo violently spat out a mouthful of blood, his figure swaying violently, almost falling from mid-air. Yet his sea of consciousness was completely lit up by azure light in that instant.

The cracks in his mind that were almost torn open by the Evil Shadow were directly patched up by the Azure Dragon's will. And at the very moment the cracks healed, the Spirit projection of the Shadow of a Thousand Eyes and a Thousand Tentacles finally shattered completely.

The pitch-black fragments were like black stardust, splattering and scattering within Lin Mo's sea of consciousness, carrying remnants of will, memories, and ancient malice.

For any other Awakener, these fragments would be the most lethal sources of contamination. Even just a trace would be enough to cause their mind to fall completely, becoming the next vessel for the Evil Shadow's will.

But Lin Mo was different. This was his Spirit world. And the master of this battlefield was that Azure Dragon phantom, slowly retracting its sharp claws.

The azure light had not yet dissipated, and the dragon's might remained. Before those splattering black fragments could sink into the depths of his sea of consciousness, they were wrapped by a layer of blue-gold light.

That light was not ostentatious; instead, it was like the lingering aftertaste of the Azure Dragon's will remaining here, naturally repelling all foreign objects that did not belong to Lin Mo himself.

But this time, it did not directly crush those fragments. Instead, it slowly stripped them, purified them, and refined them.

Like an invisible dragon breath, it burned away all the malice, madness, and contamination within the Evil Shadow's will, leaving only the purest Spirit origin.

That was the essence of the will that the Shadow of a Thousand Eyes and a Thousand Tentacles had accumulated over who knows how many ages, the parts of the countless remnant souls it had devoured that had not yet been completely contaminated.

Now, these things had lost their master. They were like treasures cut from the belly of a giant beast, having lost their original spikes and toxicity, floating quietly in Lin Mo's sea of consciousness, and then began to surge toward him.

It was like a riverbed that had been dry for too long, suddenly receiving a torrential rain. Lin Mo's sea of consciousness expanded frantically at this moment.

His perception was continuously magnified; previously it was like holding a lamp to light the night, but now it was as if the moon had risen to the center of the sky, lighting up a corner of the entire darkness.

Not only that, but within the Evil Shadow's remaining memories, there was also a large amount of fragmented information. Complex, chaotic, and difficult to interpret.

But a part of it seemed to have been deliberately sifted by the Azure Dragon, as clear as if carved into his marrow. That was the combat instinct of the Shadow of a Thousand Eyes and a Thousand Tentacles. Now, these instincts were being absorbed by Lin Mo, inch by inch.

Meanwhile, in the outside world. The main body of the Evil Shadow let out an unprecedented, distorted, angry shriek.

The giant black eye in its very center saw its cracks expand suddenly, as if it were being dragged back into the cage of the old days by a will that had been hunting it from endless ages ago.

The cracks began to close. The seal began to flow back. The black fog retreated like a tide, yet it retreated extremely disheveled, like a defeated beast exposed on the spot by an old enemy and chased all the way back to its lair.

And in the midst of this chaos, no one noticed—a certain change was happening to Lin Mo.

He stood high in the sky, his Dragonborn Form not yet completely faded, dragon scale patterns still remaining on his neck and arms.

Yet the aura around him was already completely different from before. If the previous Lin Mo was a drawn blade, sharp and exposed, then at this moment, the blade's edge had an added layer of invisible chill.