21: The battle was awesome!

"That's more like it! Seeking the Dao Studio, so you actually do know how to make a satisfying hack-and-slash game!" Zhou Yan uttered a sentence that left everyone bewildered.

While the audience below couldn't understand his words, the four Elders on the stage had already begun their analysis.

Looking at the dense sea of monsters before him, Zhou Yan felt no fear, only excitement.

"Clear the minions first to restore my state, then find an opening to take out the BOSS." Zhou Yan quickly formulated a simple tactic.

As a veteran gamer, he was highly experienced in dealing with this pattern of a mob swarm combined with BOSS harassment.

Having made up his mind, Zhou Yan directly cranked his acceleration to the maximum.

Buzz—!

Everything in the outside world suddenly slowed down in his eyes. The drifting speed of the Vengeful Spirits turned into a sluggish crawl, and their open-mouthed roars were stretched into low, distorted, eerie sounds.

The chainsaw swung by the butcher was now so slow it seemed static; even the rust on the blade was clearly visible. The drifting hair of the Sorrowful Banshees brushed through the air strand by strand. Even the dust particles floating in the air were frozen mid-flight.

He moved. Exerting force with his feet, the ground dented slightly as his figure shot out like an arrow from a bow, leading the charge into the most densely packed area of monsters.

Striking with a straight right, he unleashed a Shattering Stone Fist.

Bang!

His fist pierced through the chest of a Zhou Family Vengeful Spirit without any resistance. The spirit's twisted, painful expression froze on its face, and its body, like struck glass, instantly exploded into countless points of light, dissipating into the air like a light drizzle.

[HP +1.5 (15% Lifesteal)]

[Stamina +1.5 (15% Stamina Steal)]

The cold System notification sounded in his mind. An imperceptible warm current and a trace of cool air merged into his body; his health ticked up slightly, and his stamina bar recovered a bit as well.

Without pausing, his left arm swung back, his elbow slamming like a hammer into the skull of a Dong Family Vengeful Spirit lunging from the side.

Bang!

With another dull thud, the spirit's head burst like a fragile watermelon, and its entire spiritual form collapsed and vanished.

[HP +1.5] [Stamina +1.5]

Turning sideways, he easily evaded the slow vertical swing of the Mad Butcher's chainsaw, even noting the chipped gaps on the blade. Zhou Yan shifted his right hand from a fist to a palm, fingers pressed together, and delivered a precise hand-knife strike to the butcher's thick neck.

Crack!

The tooth-aching sound of bone cracking rang out. The butcher's massive body stiffened before turning into points of light and disappearing, just like the other Vengeful Spirits.

[HP +1.5] [Stamina +1.5]

Zhou Yan's movements were fluid and seamless, without a hint of excess. Stepping, punching, side-kicking, elbowing... every attack landed precisely on a monster's vital point or directly crushed their fragile bodies.

The original owner of the body had mastered certain combat techniques, all of which Zhou Yan had fused and mastered over time.

Under the current powerful body coordination and Mental Energy, which were enhanced by his pseudo-Qi Refinement Stage, these techniques were executed even more brilliantly.

Combat skills combined with time acceleration resulted in staggering efficiency. Before a banshee's claws could even be raised, her form was blasted apart by a punch; the slow-moving Living Corpses were even more of a joke, being picked off with ease.

Bang bang bang bang!

A series of explosions rang out in rapid succession, like a string of firecrackers. Zhou Yan's figure flickered through the slowed crowd of monsters; wherever he passed, monsters crumbled into points of light.

His HP steadily climbed, soon returning to 1400, while his stamina bar remained almost entirely full, allowing him to maintain high-speed movement and attacks without any reservations.

He was like a tireless, precision harvesting machine, relishing the pleasure of mowing down enemies like grass.

However, the illusion monster finally moved.

It was always able to capture the tiny gaps in Zhou Yan's attack transitions or visual blind spots with extreme cunning. Its movement was eerie and unpredictable; rather than a straight dash, it flickered and jumped between distortion points in the surroundings like refracted light, making its trajectory incredibly difficult to track.

Swish!

An extremely faint sound of breaking air came through, and Zhou Yan felt a chill on his back.

The health digits on his status bar flickered.

"Caught the gap in my release?" Zhou Yan's manipulation of time was based on a fixed-range control.

He needed to constantly adjust the spatial position he wanted to accelerate, ensuring he remained within that range to achieve the acceleration effect.

Under the high intensity of combat, gaps were inevitable, giving that fellow an opportunity to strike.

Zhou Yan's gaze turned cold, but he didn't panic. This kind of monster that hides, ambushes, and possesses high speed was very common in games; usually, one just needed to hold the aggro or catch its pre-attack and post-attack animations.

Since this BOSS had low HP and low attack—being more of a nuisance due to its mechanics rather than a major threat—he stopped trying to actively search for the elusive creature. Instead, he refocused his attention on clearing the minions. Once the minions were gone, or if that fellow attacked again, there would always be an opportunity.

He increased his clearing speed. Fist winds howled, and leg shadows whipped like lashes. Monsters fell in swathes, turning into his supplies.

When only four or five minions remained in the vicinity, the lurking Beautiful Woman finally seemed to realize the threat. She let out a piercing shriek that was utterly inhuman.

This shriek seemed to be a signal.

The eyes of all the remaining monsters instantly turned crimson. The resentment and killing intent already present within them surged several times over, boiling like hot oil.

Completely abandoning any form of defense or evasion, they let out frantic roars and launched a final, suicidal collective charge at Zhou Yan from different directions, acting with a total disregard for their own lives.

A wave of terrifying negative energy surged toward him. Anyone with even slightly weak mental fortitude would likely fall into fear immediately—and as soon as even a trace of fear was exposed, the monsters would grow stronger, spiraling out of control.

Zhou Yan merely raised an eyebrow, a flash of understanding and excitement in his eyes—the kind a player feels when a BOSS enters a new phase.

"Enraged? Looks like we're entering Phase Two."

Facing this menacing, desperate counterattack lunging from all directions, he did not retreat but advanced. Only this time, the power he mobilized was no longer acceleration.

Time Reversal · Eighteen-fold

Range adjusted to maximum: 9x9x9.

An absolutely bizarre scene unfolded.

With Zhou Yan at the center, that nine-zhang square space seemed to be violently yanked backward by an invisible giant hand. At this moment, the Laws were forcibly twisted!

All the monsters lunging at him—their movements, their hideous twisted expressions, the spittle flying from their roars, even the energy fluctuations radiating from them—all of it was like a movie being rewound. They were pulled backward uncontrollably, violating the Laws of physics.

They still maintained their fierce lunging and biting postures, their consciousnesses clear, even able to feel their own frantic killing intent, yet their bodies completely betrayed their will, faithfully executing the command of 'Time Reversal'.

A Vengeful Spirit's forward lunge turned into an eerie, smooth backward slide; another killer's half-swung chainsaw violently retracted. (Zhou Yan: "Seriously, why are there so many chainsaw killers here? Is there a discount for buying same-type IPs together?")

Within this space shrouded by the force field, light and shadow were flowing in reverse, and sound was playing backward, creating an incredibly absurd and heart-palpitating sight.

And the Beautiful Woman, who had been using the environment and the mob swarm as cover, finally failed to escape this time. She was caught mid-flicker during an ambush, precisely snared by this terrifying space-Time Reversal field.

Ultimately, she could not be exempt from this great power involving the Law of Time. She was forced into a frozen state, caught in a somewhat comical and pathetic posture. She was in the middle of a lunging scratch, body leaning forward and claws extended, but because of the Time Reversal, the movement was frozen at its inception, making her look utterly powerless.

"Found you."

Zhou Yan's voice was as cold as a synthesized mechanical sound, devoid of any emotion. Within this Domain where all things reversed, he was the only individual unaffected and capable of free action.

However, he didn't immediately attack the stiff, struggling Beautiful Woman.

Because his gamer's itch had flared up.

His figure flickered!

He appeared like a teleporter in front of a butcher who was currently 'retreating' backward.

The rage on the butcher's face hadn't yet faded, but its eyes were filled with shock and confusion as it watched its own chainsaw move backward uncontrollably.

Bang!

Without the slightest hesitation, Zhou Yan's fist blew its head apart. After the explosion, he quickly appeared in front of the Beautiful Woman and delivered a light punch to her abdomen.

[HP +1.5]

[Fatal Strike Triggered]

Almost at the same instant the butcher exploded.

The frozen Beautiful Woman revealed her true form once more. On her mirror-like body, a crisp 'crack' sounded as a small patch of fine, web-like cracks burst open. Her entire body jolted violently, as if struck by an invisible heavy hammer, letting out a silent but extremely painful tremor.

Zhou Yan didn't even spare her a glance before his figure vanished again.

In the next instant, he appeared above an unfortunate Vengeful Spirit and stomped down!

Bang!

The spirit was crushed to pieces, turning into points of light. Zhou Yan repeated his trick, arriving before the Beautiful Woman once more for a light strike.

[HP +1.5]

[Fatal Strike Triggered]

The cracks on the Beautiful Woman spread and expanded in response. Like tempered glass being struck again, the cracks became more numerous and dense; a small fragment even chipped off, vanishing into the void in mid-air.

As expected, true damage could leave marks on this monster. He had long noticed that she only had one cracked spot and had been bothered by it for a while; Zhou Yan, with his slight obsessive-compulsive tendencies, now intended to cover her entire body in cracks.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Zhou Yan transformed into the coldest, most relentless assembly line worker, efficiently clearing those slow-moving, defenseless 'minions' within this reversed space-time. Every one of his flickers, every punch or kick, was inevitably accompanied by the total annihilation of a minion, followed by the tooth-aching sound of fracturing and the violent, painful tremors on the Beautiful Woman.

This was simply a public execution. The Beautiful Woman couldn't even flee, forced to endure this continuous barrage of strikes originating from the very Origin. Her health bar was falling slowly but at a desperate rate.

Outside the Secret Realm, the Elders and Disciples watching the battle were already dumbstruck, the scene falling into a dead silence.

"The... Law of Time? He can actually manipulate time to flow backward!"

"No, this is definitely not simple slowing or freezing! It's true reversal—the past within that small area is being overwritten!"

"Those monsters... they're moving backward. This... what an inconceivable Divine Ability."

"Why doesn't he just kill it? Why is he constantly torturing it? This is too cruel; illusion monsters' lives matter too!"

"What do you know? Illusion monsters don't feel pain."

"Look, that monster is about to break; its core is collapsing."

Under the horrified gazes of the crowd, the Beautiful Woman finally reached her limit after enduring countless stacked instances of true damage.

Crack—crack—crack—

The continuous sounds of fracturing became denser and denser until her mirror-like body could no longer maintain its form and completely shattered.

Countless shards shot out in all directions, but were instantly pulled back by the ongoing flow reversal. As the released energy was constantly regressed, the power connected to the Origin of this space transformed into a spatial turbulence.

A distorted, vibrating rift appeared where the Beautiful Woman had vanished. The rift wasn't large, just enough for one person to pass through; inside was a kaleidoscopic, indistinguishable Chaos void that radiated a heart-chilling suction.

[Current Mission Progress: 70%]

The cold System notification sounded in Zhou Yan's mind right on time.

"Oh? So it was just an Elite Monster."

"But this Elite Monster actually dropped a portal? Is this the entrance to the BOSS stage?" Zhou Yan raised an eyebrow; looking at the mission progress, he understood that this was just the beginning.

Previously, he would have complained about this dungeon being modified to be long and tedious, but now he found the changes wonderful—it was simply too satisfying. This gave him the interest to keep going; after all, only 30% remained.

The Time Reversal ended. The very last remaining minion—a monster that looked like a regular zombie from Plants vs. Zombies—regained its ability to move, but it just lay on the ground, making meaningless groans toward Zhou Yan, its threat completely gone.

Zhou Yan didn't even bother looking at it again. With a punch from a distance, a gust of fist wind completely pulverized it.

The field was cleared. Despite his HP being chipped by the minions and the Beautiful Woman's ambushes, he had leeched back to 1495 points, nearly full status.

"Alright, the trash is cleared. Time to enter the next scene."

He brushed off non-existent dust from his hands, his tone as relaxed as if he had just finished a daily quest.

Then, he leaped with fluid and precise movements, throwing himself directly into the spatial rift he had forcibly created in such an inconceivable manner. His figure was instantly swallowed by the chaotic flowing light and vanished.

After he disappeared, the spectator area outside the Secret Realm fell into a total, dead silence for over ten seconds.

Then, like a pot boiling over, a wave of uproarious exclamations, discussions, and screams of disbelief erupted!

"He went in! He actually just went in like that!"

"That rift... that's a crack in the Secret Realm Barrier! He actually punched right through it!"

"Reversing time, breaking through a realm with bare hands... can this... can this really be achieved by someone in the Qi Refinement Stage?"

"A monster! He's simply a monster!"

"Investigate! Immediately go investigate this boy's Origins!"

"Look, the rift is starting to shrink! Can he... can he still come back?"

Cries of alarm, doubt, and praise mixed together as the scene descended into Chaos. Everyone's eyes were glued to the giant light screen, which now only showed that eerie plain—once teeming with monsters but now swept clean—and the slowly mending spatial rift.

Zhou Yan's performance had completely exceeded the scope of their understanding.