Swallowing the Stars: Only in my later years did I come to the life-spending panel.

The surface of the fragments began to melt, turning into a chaotic light. Within the light, one could vaguely see a gigantic phantom, shrunk countless times, with a towering figure like a mountain, amber eyes, and a long tail like a dragon behind it.

Countless golden runes appeared out of thin air, enveloping the skin fragments and Zhou Mu's soul together. These runes surged from all directions, becoming denser and brighter, eventually coalescing into a light sphere the size of a human head, suspended in mid-air, slowly rotating.

Despite the excruciating pain, Zhou Mu took out the bottle of Azure Wave Marrow he had bought after the Dragon Star from his spatial ring and poured the green, mercury-like liquid onto the light sphere.

The moment the Azure Marrow came into contact with the sphere of light, it was instantly absorbed, and with each drop of liquid that fell, the sphere of light expanded by one size.

After the 300 grams of Azure Wave Marrow were completely absorbed by the light sphere, the light sphere expanded into a huge sphere with a diameter of two thousand meters, suspended in the center of the warehouse, emitting a chaotic light.

Zhou Mu sensed the feedback from the secret technique, and a message came from the sphere of light: the gestation period for the first clone was two years.

Two years...

Two years is not a long time, but a lot can be done in that time, and it should be enough to recover a lot of the aftereffects of the soul being severed.

Zhou Mu took out the consciousness-sensing helmet from his spatial ring, separated a wisp of his consciousness, and entered the virtual universe.

......

Virtual universe, Black Dragon Mountain Island, killing field.

In the grand hall, which resembled a city, Zhou Mu completed the binding of his bank account. He then walked past a backdrop that seemed to be a raging sea of ​​blood and entered a corridor, where the surrounding space suddenly changed dramatically.

Zhou Mu appeared in the vast starry sky, holding a golden book made of metal, which recorded how to use the Killing Field space.

"Number Seven, submit an application to select a third-tier opponent of the Eternal Star level who is comparable to my understanding of the laws and has been recognized by the fundamental laws of lightning."

The killing space began to change, and a figure materialized before him.

The man had white hair, a cold and stern face, and held a deep purple lightning spear, with lightning crackling around him.

Zhou Mu was stunned for a moment. The white-haired man looked exactly like him, but his eyes were completely different. They were sharp as knives, and the bloody aura was almost overflowing, as if he had experienced countless life-and-death battles and crawled out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

The white-haired man said nothing, then drew his gun and thrust.

too fast!

Zhou Mu's pupils contracted violently, and he retreated rapidly, but the spear was faster. The spear tip drew a deep purple arc in the air and pierced straight for his throat!

Even though they were at the same level of understanding of the laws, the opponent's gun was so fast that they could barely react!

Zhou Mu dodged to the side, conjuring a lightning spear in his hand, and thrust it out with a backhand.

The white-haired man didn't dodge. The moment his spear missed its target, he changed direction, sweeping the end of the spear and smashing it into Zhou Mu's spear. The immense force sent a shiver down Zhou Mu's spine, and the Thunder Spear flew out of his hand.

The next instant, the tip of the gun pierced his chest.

excruciating pain.

Although it takes place in a virtual universe, the killing field simulates pain to the extreme, making it indistinguishable from a real injury.

Zhou Mu looked down at the bloody hole in his chest, blood gushing out, his vision gradually blurring, his consciousness beginning to dissipate, and his body collapsing limply.

You are dead. Do you wish to be resurrected?

Zhou Mu gritted his teeth and chose to be resurrected once again.

The white light coalesced again, and he stood in the center of the training room once more. The white-haired man stood opposite him, expressionless, and thrust his spear forward again.

This time he held out for five moves.

You are dead. Do you wish to be resurrected?

resurrection!

This time he held out for ten moves.

He began to observe the rhythm of the white-haired man. This is not a GG, but a recommendation for the treasure book "Swallowing the Stars: Paying for Life in Late Hours".

Learn to anticipate the opponent's moves and adjust your position before they fire.

But the white-haired man's marksmanship was too fast, bringing his understanding of the laws to its extreme. It was so fast that Zhou Mu's prediction was always a step too slow. In the eleventh move, the spear tip pierced through Zhou Mu's left eye and exited through the back of his head.

You are dead. Do you wish to be resurrected?

resurrection!

Ten moves, twenty moves, thirty moves.

Zhou Mu couldn't remember how many times he had died, or how many times his throat had been pierced.

Every death felt so real it was maddening, and every resurrection carried the memory of the previous death, like being thrown into a meat grinder, crushed, and then reassembled.

Zhou Mu's marksmanship has started to change.

No longer pursuing flashy moves, no longer relying on the overwhelming power of rules and domains, but returning to simplicity, going back to the most basic thrust, sweep, chop, and flick.

He began to learn to find weaknesses in the white-haired man's attacks, to avoid the most fatal blows with the smallest movements, and to counterattack in the gaps between life and death. Judgments that once required thought to make have now become instincts.

Back on Earth, he crushed his opponents with laws, suppressed his enemies with domains, and swept away everything with telekinetic weapons.

Those opponents were too weak, so weak that they didn't need any skills or experience; they could be crushed simply by their stats.

Now, facing an opponent with the exact same understanding of the laws as himself but with a combat experience a thousand times greater, Zhou Mu realized where he fell short.

The difference isn't in strength, but in how you use that strength.

......

The 1700th battle.

When the white-haired man's spear pierced Zhou Mu's chest, the lightning wrapped around the spear tip transformed into nine arcs of electricity, biting towards Zhou Mu's vitals from different directions.

Zhou Mu's spear tip met the attack, and the tip exploded into a ball of lightning, transforming into an electric net that completely engulfed the electric arc.

The white-haired man changed his move, the gun trembled, and countless tiny arcs of electricity detached from the shaft, shooting towards Zhou Mu like a rain of pear blossoms. Each arc of electricity carried the penetrating power of the law of lightning, and its power was enough to pierce through the body of a star-level martial artist.

Zhou Mu did not retreat. His spear spun rapidly, transforming into a shield of light, and the electric arcs that struck it shattered into sparks of lightning.

Then the spear thrust forward, transforming into a thunder dragon that crashed into the white-haired man.

The white-haired man turned to the side, the tip of his spear touching the top of the thunder dragon's head. The thunder dragon exploded, turning into a sky full of lightning that covered an area of ​​a hundred meters.

The same laws of lightning, the same power, but different applications result in vastly different effects.

Zhou Mu gripped the spear tightly again. This time, he didn't rush to attack, but closed his eyes, sensing the lightning on the spear. The arcs of electricity began to change under his control, no longer shooting out randomly, but flowing along the spear shaft, from the rear to the tip, and back again. The flow accelerated, the tip began to glow, growing brighter and brighter, the arcs of electricity becoming increasingly dense.

Zhou Mu picked up his gun and charged again.

The two spears collided in the starry sky, and lightning exploded, turning into countless points of light.

This time, there were no fancy tricks or complicated dodges, only the purest head-on confrontation.

One shot, two shots, three shots...

Each collision exploded with arcs of electricity, and each collision was more violent than the last.

The 137th shot.

Zhou Mu's gun pierced the white-haired man's throat, and the white-haired man's gun pierced his heart.

The two stood face to face, the tips of their guns protruding from each other's backs. Lightning crackled at the wounds, scorching the flesh and stopping the bleeding.

Zhou Mu coughed up a mouthful of blood and then laughed.

The two fell down at the same time.

[You have defeated your opponent. Do you wish to continue?]