Chapter 20 The devil enters the body

Yun Bai opened his eyes and gave a self-deprecating, bitter smile.

"Since things have reached this point, I might as well continue to Cultivate. Since this was caused by my own reasons, it shouldn't be harmful. I'll go to the National Temple tomorrow morning, and I still need to go to the Scripture Pavilion to pick out a Cultivation Technique and buy weapons and armor. The appointment should also come down within these few days."

Yun Bai tried to circulate his Cultivation Technique to Cultivate again.

However, just as his mind sank into his cultivation and his thoughts were flying—

Thump, thump, thump!

Without any warning, his temples suddenly began to throb violently! It was as if all the blood in his body had instantly lost control and was surging madly toward his head! An indescribable, excruciating pain originating from the depths of his Soul exploded instantly!

"Ah…" Yun Bai wanted to cry out in pain, but he discovered with horror that his throat, his limbs, and even his entire body felt as if they were bound by invisible chains, completely losing control! He was like a stone statue nailed to the bed, with only his consciousness struggling frantically amidst the violent agony.

Just then, a shadow as black as ink, formed purely from malice, like the filthiest oil stain, suddenly infected his conscious perception and appeared before his "eyes"!

"Hehehe…" A cold, greedy, and endlessly malicious laughter vibrated directly in the core of Yun Bai's consciousness, nearly tearing his will into shreds.

"Who are you?!" Yun Bai roared through the intense pain, his consciousness like a candle in the wind.

[Warning! Warning! Sea of Consciousness is under high-intensity intrusion by an unknown spiritual entity! Repeat, Sea of Consciousness is under high-intensity intrusion by an unknown spiritual entity!] Xiao Liu's urgent, sharp alarm sounded like a funeral knell, exploding within Yun Bai's chaotic consciousness.

"Sea of Consciousness?!" Yun Bai was horrified.

He had only just peered into the mysteries of his own Sea of Consciousness for the first time, and the next moment he was subjected to such a violent attack! Could it be that this peculiar structure of the Sea of Consciousness really possessed a huge, fatal flaw?!

He couldn't care about the pain; he concentrated all his remaining energy and forcibly sank his consciousness back into his Niwan Palace, casting it toward that vast Sea of Consciousness.

The sight before him chilled him to the core.

The scene was just like the light distortion caused by violent spacetime fluctuations when Yun Bai used to perform spacetime travel.

In other words, something was trying to break into his Divine Sense sea!

Yun Bai tried to form a small figure within the Sea of Consciousness, but he found it impossible.

"Hahaha, a mere First Realm Mid-stage, attempting to condense a Primordial Spirit…" Yun Bai heard the other party speak in a trance.

"Give up your resistance… Submit to the feet of my Demon Race…"

Despair flooded Yun Bai like a cold tide.

He discovered helplessly that the only thing he could do right now was to force his fragile core of consciousness to gather into a hazy, glowing mist—this was the most fundamental "Soul Essence" of a living being, the primitive form of consciousness.

The next moment, that ink-thick shadow forcibly broke through the final barrier of the Sea of Consciousness and brazenly burst in.

"This Sea of Consciousness… how could it be like this…"

But this trace of surprise was instantly replaced by greed.

Like a starving ghost that had discovered a peerless delicacy, the black shadow lunged fiercely at the pale golden mist representing Yun Bai's Soul Essence!

"Argh—!" The moment his Soul Essence was touched, Yun Bai felt an indescribable pain, as if his Soul was being pierced by billions of red-hot steel needles simultaneously.

The black shadow was like a maggot attached to the bone, instantly wrapping around and entangling his Soul Essence mist.

Waves of power filled with the aura of destruction and decay were frantically corroding and devouring his golden mist.

For every bit that was devoured, Yun Bai's consciousness blurred a little more, and a fear originating from the very source of life—the fear of total annihilation—seized him!

Escape!

Yun Bai's remaining will drove the Soul Essence mist, fleeing desperately within the violent and chaotic space of the Sea of Consciousness.

However, the black shadow was faster, pursuing relentlessly.

It didn't seem to be in a hurry to devour him completely; instead, with the cruel pleasure of a cat playing with a mouse, it constantly pressured and toyed with Yun Bai, enjoying the despair of its prey's death throes.

"My speed is completely inferior to his! I can only let him play with me!" Yun Bai thought, feeling extremely anxious, "I must find a way."

But where could a solution come from?

"Xiao Liu! Xiao Liu!" Yun Bai was calling out to Xiao Liu frantically, but he discovered that his voice actually resonated throughout the entire Sea of Consciousness! Even that black mist could hear it.

In other words, what he said to Xiao Liu would be heard clearly by the other party.

Xiao Liu remained silent, giving no response to Yun Bai's calls.

"Xiao Liu?" Upon hearing this, the black mist became alert. It glanced at the strange scene of the Sea of Consciousness, and out of caution, it decided to end the battle quickly.

"Ah—" The excruciating pain of being devoured made Yun Bai let out a miserable scream.

Yun Bai's consciousness rapidly faded away amidst the intense pain and fear, and the golden mist became increasingly thin.

Just as he felt that he was about to dissipate completely, his gaze swept across the most chaotic and terrifying area in the center of the Sea of Consciousness—the "event horizon" surrounding the source core (micro black hole)!

He remembered Xiao Liu's analysis:

[Simulated black hole approaching extreme Kerr critical value]

[Black hole and White Hole maintain coexistence through the quantum gravitational field built by the "Number Six" quantum AI brain]

"Wormhole!" A crazy thought split the desperate darkness like lightning.

As a top-tier astronaut who had long executed deep space navigation missions, he certainly knew what encountering a wormhole in the Universe meant!

It meant that this was very likely a channel available for long-distance spacetime travel!

And if one wanted to safely enter the black hole mouth, one needed to carry a certain amount of "exotic matter"!

Only the negative mass characteristic of "exotic matter" could temporarily pry open the all-devouring mouth of a black hole, allowing one to enter safely.

And in Yun Bai's Sea of Consciousness, he boldly believed that his Soul Essence was the exotic matter that could safely traverse the Sea of Consciousness wormhole!

Because this was his Sea of Consciousness!

This wormhole was a part of his body!

Just like how using one's own organs in surgery would not cause rejection reactions!

His Soul Essence approaching his own source core should surely be problem-free.

He had a feeling in the dark that Xiao Liu was waiting for him there.

This black shadow, since it could invade the Sea of Consciousness, must be a spiritual entity! As long as it was a spiritual entity, without exotic matter, it would be torn to shreds by this source core's force field!

This black shadow was an outsider, an abnormal Divine Sense; how could the Sea of Consciousness source core tolerate it?

Although Yun Bai didn't understand the principles of these "fields" acting on the spiritual level at all, he knew that this was his only path to survival! To find life in death!

At this moment, it was time with no way back; if he didn't fight to the death, he would definitely be eaten clean by that black mist!

"Fight!" Yun Bai roared in his heart, his remaining will erupting with a final ruthlessness.

He no longer fled aimlessly, but suddenly turned around, transforming into a weak golden light, and rushed unhesitatingly toward the edge of that deep, terrifying, dark, and lightless sphere of the source core that radiated destructive gravity!

The terrifying tidal force was about to sweep over Yun Bai.

However, the next moment, a "cocoon" from unknown Origins wrapped around him, and all the lethal forces disappeared instantly!

"Hmm?" Seeing Yun Bai fleeing in all directions, the black mist thought he was just fleeing toward the direction of the source core in a panic. Furthermore, seeing that Yun Bai had no reaction after approaching the source core, it let down its guard.

"If he had any tricks, he would have used them long ago! What threat could a mere First Realm greenhorn pose?" The black mist thought to itself.

The black mist sneered and accelerated in pursuit.

Yun Bai pushed the speed of his Soul Essence to the limit, like a moth flying into a flame, fearlessly weaving through the violent energy turbulence.

The black shadow followed closely behind, the distance closing in more and more.

Just as it extended countless black tentacles condensed from evil thoughts, about to completely grab Yun Bai's thin Soul Essence—

Hum!!!

An irresistible, terrifying power that transcended understanding suddenly descended!

The black shadow suddenly let out a mental shriek that was miserable to the extreme. Its ink-thick body, the moment it approached the edge of the event horizon, was like being grabbed at both ends by an invisible pair of giant hands, viciously and infinitely stretched! Stretched!

From a condensed black shadow, it was instantly pulled into a long, thin, twisted, and constantly struggling black "noodle."

The evil spiritual power that constituted its existence was as fragile as thin paper in the face of this extreme spacetime distortion. The powerful gravitational lensing effect tore and deformed it, and even its terrified and desperate thoughts were stretched into intermittent noise!

"No—!!!"

Before the final mental wail had completely dissipated, that black "noodle," stretched to the limit, was sucked into that deep, lightless horizon like garbage thrown into a shredder, under the irresistible gravitational pull of the source core, with no power to resist!

Sss…

As if a drop of ink had fallen into a scorching furnace, the black shadow vanished without a trace instantly.

The terrifying pressure enveloping Yun Bai's Soul Essence and the excruciating pain that had been devouring his Soul receded suddenly like a tide.

Dead silence.

The violent energy turbulence within the Sea of Consciousness space lost the interference of the intruder and began to slowly calm down.

The source core continued to rotate silently, the waves of the source sea gradually subsided, and the White Hole jet also restored a stable direction.

Only the last trace of spatial ripple left by the stretched and swallowed black shadow slowly dissipated at the edge of the event horizon.

Yun Bai's Soul Essence mist, which was so thin it was almost transparent, had already forcibly plunged into the black hole.