I am the Arcane Archer, and all my skills are self-created.

pain.

Hua Zitong had never experienced this kind of pain in her entire life, no, in both of her lives combined.

It's not physical pain.

It was a pain deep within her consciousness. It felt like thousands of tiny needles were simultaneously piercing the most vulnerable core of her brain, or like something was tearing and colliding wildly deep within her soul.

Her power of law was originally weak; Gu Yuan said she only had "the afterimage of law".

But now, amplified by the resonant fragments, this afterimage has been forcibly magnified dozens of times, turning into an uncontrollable beast that rampages around inside her body.

Hua Zitong gritted her teeth and knelt on the ground, ready to die.

She wasn't the first to collapse, but she knew she was about to give up.

All around was a chorus of wails.

Zhui Feng lay on the ground, letting out a suppressed groan.

The shadows and the night wind had rolled together, and it was unclear who had bumped into whom.

Of the three people punished by Heaven, one had already moved out of the area covered by the resonance fragments and was huddled in a corner, panting heavily.

Two more veteran players followed suit and left, kneeling on the ground and vomiting.

"No... I can't take it..."

"It hurts too much... I'm getting out..."

Hua Zitong looked up, and through her blurry vision, she saw Li Wu's back.

He just stood there, motionless and silent.

"Why didn't he help us..." Zhui Feng's voice was squeezed out from between his teeth, tinged with resentment.

Li Wu spoke up.

"This is the first hurdle."

His voice was cold.

"The rejection reaction of the laws; your body and soul are adapting to a completely new power system."

"No one can help you through this process; you'll have to get through it on your own."

"What if we can't withstand it?" The Iron-Blooded Emperor's voice was ground out through his teeth.

"If you can't handle it, quit, but once you quit, don't expect to come back in anytime soon. Every time you re-enter, the rejection process will start all over again."

Hua Zitong's fingernails dug into her palm.

She cannot back down.

She is the vice president and the person Li Wu trusts the most.

If she's the first to leave, what about the others?

But this pain...

It really hurts so much.

Her consciousness began to blur, and the power of the laws within her body became increasingly violent.

She tried to suppress it with willpower, to restrain and control it.

But the more it is suppressed, the more it struggles and the stronger the backlash becomes.

Hua Zitong felt like she was about to explode.

Just then, footsteps stopped beside her.

Then, there was a very close sound.

"You're just putting on a brave face."

Li Wu.

He squatted down beside her.

Hua Zitong barely opened one eye and saw his face so close to hers.

There was no anxiety, no worry on his face.

No, it was actually in his eyes.

He just kept it very deep inside.

"Don't control it." Li Wu's voice was much softer than when she spoke to everyone else earlier; only she could hear it.

"What...?"

"You're trying to control the laws, which is wrong."

Hua Zitong gasped for breath: "If I don't control it... it will tear me apart..."

"No," Li Wu said. "The laws aren't monsters; they're a part of you."

"Try to stop thinking about how to control it, and feel its flow. Don't treat it as an enemy, treat it as your blood."

Hua Zitong's consciousness teetered on the brink of collapse amidst the excruciating pain.

Give up control?

When did Hua Zitong ever give up control?

She is a reborn person.

I died once in my previous life.

From the very first second she opened her eyes in this life, she was in control of everything: information, the situation, and people's hearts.

Control is the source of her sense of security.

But now Li Wu is telling her to give up.

Hua Zitong closed her eyes.

She took a deep breath.

Then, she let go.

No more suppression, no more resistance.

The power of the laws within his body was freed from restraint and erupted even more violently in an instant.

Hua Zitong's body trembled violently, and she almost fainted.

But she gritted her teeth and persevered.

She stopped fighting it.

She let it flow, like a river.

At first, it was chaotic and disorderly.

The afterimages of the laws darted around her body, causing her bones to ache.

But gradually...

Hua Zitong discovered something.

There is a pattern within those seemingly chaotic flows of forces.

It's very faint, but it definitely exists.

Like a river blocked by silt, it may look messy on the surface, but the nature of water is to flow downhill.

She followed that pattern to sense it.

Don't think, just feel.

Time becomes blurred at this moment.

Hua Zitong didn't know how long she had maintained this position. Ten seconds? A minute? Ten minutes?

All she knew was that, at a certain moment, the chaotic forces suddenly quieted down.

It's like finally finding its own riverbed.

Hua Zitong suddenly opened her eyes.

She extended her right hand.

In the center of the palm, a small rose, woven from black threads of law, is slowly blooming.

It is fragile and unstable; the petals are trembling slightly and could fall apart at any moment.

But it does exist.

This is the power of the laws.

It is her own power of law.

Chasing the Wind was the first to notice.

He was writhing on the ground in pain when he suddenly saw the energy fluctuations on Hua Zitong's body abruptly calm down, and a black object formed in her palm.

"Sister Hua... Sister Hua?!"

Others also looked over.

They saw Hua Zitong kneeling on the ground, her face still pale, with blood still dripping from the corner of her mouth.

But her hand held the black rose steadily, and her eyes held an unprecedented clarity.

"She did it," Gu Yuan said softly from the side.

Li Wu stood up and took two steps back.

"Do you see that?" he said to all those who were still struggling. "Don't control it, feel it. It's part of you, let it flow, let it find its own form."

This sentence is like an instruction.

Zhui Feng was the first to do so.

He stopped resisting, endured the pain, and tried to feel it.

After a dozen seconds, it failed.

But he was not willing to give up.

If Hua Zitong can do it, why can't he?

He continued to feel.

If once doesn't work, try twice; if twice doesn't work, try three times.

Thirty seconds later, a faint arc of electricity appeared on Zhui Feng's fingertip.

Although it only flashed for a moment and then disappeared, it was indeed something he activated himself.

"I've got it! I've got it!" Zhui Feng shouted.

Shadow gritted his teeth and closed his eyes.

A few seconds later, a faint shadow rippled around his body.

The night wind followed closely behind, and a dark dagger, barely visible, took shape in his palm before shattering, but he had already found his direction.

The Iron-Blooded Emperor was even more direct. He roared and clasped his hands together, and a blurry phantom of a battle axe materialized in his palms.

The phantom was extremely unstable, twisting back and forth, but the rudimentary form of that power was already there.

"Ha..." The Iron-Blooded Emperor grinned, his face covered in sweat and tears. "Not bad, I'm not useless yet."

One by one, more and more people began to find their footing.

The wails on the platform were gradually replaced by low gasps of surprise.

Li Wu watched all this without showing any emotion.

But he noticed a detail.

The shape of the black law rose in Hua Zitong's palm, the pattern of its petals, and the way it bloomed reminded him of someone.

The Sword and Rose Guild, led by the guild master "Sword Saint Rose".

That person's signature move is called "Rose Sword," and its core form is a black rose woven from sword energy.

Why does Hua Zitong use the same law form as Sword Saint Rose?

Li Wu glanced at her and temporarily suppressed the question in his heart.

Now is not the time to dwell on this.

Just as the team was gradually getting back on track, and the sounds of pain were being replaced by sounds of excitement.

"wrong."

Gu Yuan suddenly spoke.

His voice carried a tension that Li Wu had never heard in him before.

Everyone looked at him.

Gu Yuan pointed towards the edge of the platform.

There, a stone pillar of law that was originally running smoothly was now flickering violently.

The flashing frequency increased and the brightness increased, like a light bulb about to burn out.

Then... a blurry image was projected onto the surface of the stone pillar.

The image shows the moon.

Or rather, the half of the moon covered by dark matter.

The black, worm-like material was moving faster, and several slender tentacles were extending in a certain direction.

The direction they were extending was directly towards the platform they were on.

"They've noticed." Gu Yuan's voice was tense. "The Starbreakers have detected our energy fluctuations."