213: Chapter 214: Use Soul Attacks to Deal with a Reckless Man

As Lin Muyang moved his mind slightly, the soft golden light enveloping the burly Berserker, Brock, quietly dissipated like a receding tide.

Emerging from the 'Astral Stasis' state of absolute stillness and sensory isolation, Brock felt his consciousness abruptly yanked back to reality from a void of darkness.

There was no sense of time passing as he had expected; it felt as if he had only blinked, yet the surrounding environment and atmosphere seemed subtly different from just a moment before.

His tower-like, burly body still maintained the posture from the last moment before he regained consciousness: muscles tensed, center of gravity lowered slightly, fists clenched in front of him, veins faintly visible beneath his bronze skin, like a savage beast ready to strike.

The look of vigilance had not yet faded from his rugged face, which was weathered and marked by a hideous scar, and his copper-bell-like eyes rapidly scanned his surroundings.

Darkness remained; the void remained.

But... where were the people?

Alarm bells rang in Brock's heart.

He clearly remembered that the moment before he was enveloped by that eerie golden light and lost his perception, the twelve of them, along with seven giant dragons, had already surrounded that Xia Country boy named Lin Muyang.

Hansa Bami's dragon was still circling and roaring overhead, and that guy Slake seemed to be preparing to demand their surrender... The atmosphere should have been tense, murderous, and filled with oppression.

But now... the air was filled with a faint, indescribable burnt smell, mixed with the residual traces of strange energy interwoven with divinity and destruction.

Where were his companions? Where was Hansa Bami? Where was Slake? Where were those seven reassuring giant dragons?

Why did it feel so eerily quiet?

Brock's gaze rapidly swept across the scene.

He saw the ten companions and seven giant dragons still enveloped in golden light, frozen in place like sculptures, which made him breathe a slight sigh of relief; it seemed the strange control effect was still ongoing, and he wasn't the only one who had been hit.

But then, his pupils constricted.

Someone was missing!

That guy Slake, who always liked to put on aristocratic airs, spoke with an affected tone, and was surrounded by seven annoying magic orbs... was gone?

Not only was he gone, but the area around his original position was also empty, leaving only a few items that seemed to have lost their luster and were slowly drifting down into the endless darkness below, along with a familiar staff topped with an amethyst...

A sense of foreboding, like a cold viper, instantly coiled around Brock's heart.

Although that guy Slake had an annoying personality, his strength was solid, especially his numerous life-saving methods.

How could he... Could it be?

His gaze suddenly shifted to the target of their trip—Lin Muyang.

That young Summoner, whom they had regarded as prey to be toyed with at will, was still standing there, composed and unhurried, not having changed his stance in the slightest.

Beside him, in addition to the three young women mentioned in the previous intelligence, there were several more stunning figures with distinct temperaments, all breathtakingly beautiful and possessing unfathomable Auras!

So many young women, like stars surrounding the moon, guarded Lin Muyang in the center.

They were holy, demonic, noble, heroic, or mysterious... but without exception, their gazes toward him, Brock, held a sense of keen interest? Or perhaps, the playfulness of examining prey?

Especially that short-haired black-haired girl sitting on a huge black and white scythe, swinging her fair little legs.

She was resting her chin on one hand, her beautiful little face bearing a smile that intertwined innocence and cruelty, and those obsidian-like eyes were staring at him without blinking, as if admiring some interesting toy.

"Something is wrong! Very wrong!" Brock's heart sank to the bottom.

Slake's disappearance, the terrifying summons that had appeared beside Lin Muyang, and the way these young women looked at him... everything pointed to a possibility he was extremely unwilling to believe—in the short time he had lost consciousness, some kind of subversive change, extremely disadvantageous to them, had occurred!

However, before he could sort out this ominous premonition, and before he even had time to make any tactical adjustments or defensive postures—a strange, cold, dead, and soul-freezing fluctuation descended without warning!

Brock only felt as if his consciousness, his soul core, had been struck hard by an invisible heavy hammer!

No, not struck; it was more like being forcibly yanked out of a warm, familiar, and easily controlled vessel by an irresistible, immense force!

His vision instantly inverted, rotated, and zoomed out!

He saw his own hulking body, two meters and three centimeters tall, with knotted muscles full of explosive power, still maintaining the vigilant posture from when he had just regained consciousness, floating in the distant dark void like a frozen frame.

But his own perspective was rapidly moving away from that body, drifting further and further...

"This... is this?! Out-of-body experience?! No, is my soul being forcibly stripped away?!"

Brock was, after all, a top-tier expert at level 243, with extensive knowledge, and he instantly understood the strange state he was in.

An unprecedented chill instantly swept through his current intangible consciousness or soul body.

He immediately tried to control his body, wanting to go back inside.

He drove his will frantically, attempting to activate skills, trigger equipment, or even just simply move a finger...

However, there was no reaction.

The strong, proud fleshly body of his in the distance was like a puppet with cut strings, or a lifelike but lifeless wax statue, ignoring all his mental commands.

The tight bond of connection between him and his body seemed to have been mercilessly severed by some higher-level power!

"Damn it! It's that black-haired girl!"

Brock suddenly remembered that the moment he regained his vision and was observing vigilantly, he seemed to have caught a glimpse, out of the corner of his eye, of that black-haired girl sitting on the scythe, gently waving her fair, slender little hand in his direction.

He hadn't paid attention at the time, but now it seemed that casual wave was so fatal!

He recalled the scattered records in the intelligence regarding this girl named Gui Wanwan.

In the Tianhai City Provincial Tournament, she had almost turned the top Summoner of Tianhai City, Shi Yongxin, and his subordinate martial monks into vegetables with a single move...

At the time, global forces were highly concerned about this matter, but due to Xia Country's information blockade and the fact that Lin Muyang's rapid rise attracted most of the attention, there wasn't much analysis of Gui Wanwan's specific abilities, only that her methods were eerie and unpredictable, suspected to involve the spiritual or soul level.

Now it seemed, it was more than just involving the soul level!

This was simply a master of soul manipulation!

With a casual wave, she had forcibly struck the soul out of the body of a level 243 Berserker god with an SSS-rank "Indomitable War Soul" talent and terrifying physical strength!

"Soul attack... it really is a method specifically targeting the soul!"

Brock's heart sank to the bottom, and he even felt an uncontrollable panic.

Unlike physical attacks, magic attacks, or even rule attacks, soul attacks were one of the most mysterious, eerie, and difficult-to-defend-against fields in the Blue Star Class Transferee system.

Relevant skills, classes, and equipment were extremely rare, and the difficulty of cultivation was extremely high.

Soul-type Class Transferees who could reach a profound realm and pose a threat to experts of the same level were as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns.

And he, Brock, walked the path of extreme strength and physicality, and his "Indomitable War Soul" talent pushed his survivability and melee destructive power to a terrifying level.

He had once withstood the aftermath of a Forbidden Curse, fought with ease while being besieged by several experts of the same level, and even killed them in turn.

He believed that as long as he wasn't instantly annihilated into atoms, relying on the "Indomitable War Soul" characteristics of death-prevention, high damage reduction, and becoming stronger the more injured he was, combined with his top-tier defensive and restorative mythic equipment and skills, he was almost immortal!

Even a top-tier Magic God like Slake would have to go to great lengths to kill him, and in the end, it was likely he would only be able to repel him.

However, all this confidence and reliance appeared so pale and powerless in the face of pure and profound soul attacks!

His steel bones, his violent blood, his damage reduction and death-prevention, his mythic equipment... all of this defended against attacks on the physical and energy levels.

Regarding methods that struck directly at the soul's origin, although his resistance was higher than that of experts of the same level, it could definitely not be said to be very high!

Especially now that he was in a state where his soul had been forcibly stripped away, his connection with his body severed, those defensive skills and equipment effects that relied on the dual existence of body and spirit were almost completely ineffective at this moment!

"No! I cannot sit and wait for death!"

Brock's combat instincts were instantly triggered to the extreme.

Although he couldn't use conventional skills and equipment in his soul state, he was, after all, a top-tier expert, and his mental power had reached over 170,000 points, far exceeding ordinary Class Transferees.

He frantically drove his mental will, attempting to condense soul power and unleash some kind of defensive or counterattacking method on the soul level, even if it was just to re-establish a weak connection with his body!

However, just at this moment—the stunningly beautiful girl sitting on the scythe, as exquisite as a Night Elf but bearing an Aura of the netherworld, Gui Wanwan, once again raised her fair, almost transparent little hand.

This time, it was not a casual wave.

Her slender fingertips tapped lightly in the void, the movement elegant and freehand, as if dropping a pebble into calm water.

There was no earth-shattering momentum, no dazzling brilliance.

Only a point of darkness, deep to the extreme and seemingly capable of devouring all light and hope, bloomed from her fingertips, then, like ink dropped into clear water, silently stained and spread out, turning into strands of profound, archaic, pitch-black patterns filled with the implications of death and termination.

These patterns were not static; instead, they were like living things, winding and wandering in the void, outlining a heart-stopping pattern, as if it were a secret spell from the Nine Netherworlds, or perhaps a judgment written by the Yama who controlled the cycle of life and death.

【Death-Extinction Secret Spell】!

This was a brand-new ability that Gui Wanwan had only recently fully mastered and unlocked, stemming from a deeper resonance between her bloodline and the Yama Scythe.

Its effect was simple, direct, yet outrageously overbearing—judgment!

As long as her mental attribute was higher than the target's, she could directly trigger the laws of the netherworld to launch a destructive annihilation attack on the target's soul source!

Ignoring all physical defense, energy shields, damage reduction effects, and death-prevention traits!

This was the most pure, most primal annihilation of the soul!

The only limitation, or weakness, was the harsh judgment condition and the terrifyingly long cooldown time of several days.

Of course, under the coverage of Lin Muyang's unreasonable "Infinite Firepower" God-Tier Aura, the cooldown time was compressed to just over an hour, but for battles at Gui Wanwan's level, a cooldown of over an hour was still not short and needed to be used with caution.

However, using it here and now, against this Brock, was perfectly appropriate.

A level 243 Berserker god with an SSS-rank "Indomitable War Soul" talent, possessing a formidable body and surging blood energy, his physical defense and survivability could be called monstrous.

If it were a normal battle, even if other young women under Lin Muyang's command were to attack, wanting to thoroughly kill him would likely take some effort, and they might even be dragged into a war of attrition, triggering various tricky passive effects.

But as it happened, he encountered Gui Wanwan, the Yama Maiden who specialized in the way of the soul and whose mental attribute just happened to crush his.

Brock's mental attribute of over 170,000 was already top-tier among Blue Star humans, enough to look down on the vast majority of experts of the same level.

However, under the terrifying amplification of Lin Muyang's various Auras, Gui Wanwan's mental attribute had long since broken through the 300,000 mark!

This was a qualitative gap!

The difference between a child and an adult, a stream and a great river!

When the 【Death-Extinction Secret Spell】 patterns, containing the laws of the netherworld and the true meaning of death, spread like a silent tide across space toward Brock's stripped-away, intangible soul, Brock "saw" it.

He saw the dark patterns that represented termination and extinction.

He saw the terrifying power contained within those patterns that made even his soul tremble.

He saw the black-haired girl sitting on the scythe, the indifference on her beautiful face, as if she had just done a trivial thing.

He wanted to roar, wanted to struggle, wanted to burn his soul to make a final counterattack or escape.

But, locked under that profound secret spell, under that absolute mental attribute suppression, he felt as if he were an insect frozen in amber, his very thoughts becoming sluggish and stagnant.

All his struggles, all his will, were like a clay ox entering the sea, unable to stir up even the slightest ripple.

And then—the pitch-black secret spell patterns touched his intangible soul body.

There was no earth-shattering explosion, no shrill, desperate screams.

Only an indescribable feeling, as if his entire existence was being torn, disintegrated, and erased from its very foundation.

In Brock's vision, the intangible outline representing his soul's existence, like pencil marks being erased by an eraser, or snow exposed to the scorching sun, began to rapidly blur, become transparent, and dissipate from the "edge" touched by the secret spell patterns...

His last shred of consciousness seemed to hear the faint sound of something shattering; it was the sound of his soul's core collapsing.

Immediately after, boundless darkness and eternal silence devoured everything of him.