Swallowing the Stars: Starting with the Battle of Geniuses

Chapter 95 The Great Hollow Murder Case

"That kid's really good at pretending!"

"They were just chasing us around like madmen, and now they're acting all calm!"

"This esteemed person actually took a liking to him!"

The old men were extremely resentful, but after Zagalad's act of killing his companion because he disliked the noise, they didn't even dare to belittle Hunzhen or recommend themselves. They could only glare at Hunzhen hatefully, envying his good fortune.

As for the possibility of Hunzhen refusing?

Nonsense! That's a high-ranking member of royalty wanting to take him as a servant! Unless someone's completely out of their mind, there's no way they could refuse!

Hunzhen looked at Zagarad, who was admiring him, and slowly smiled.

"Um?"

Zagarard frowned. "I don't like your smile. Now, go back to that expression you were wearing. I'll only give you one chance."

Zagalad raised a finger, the threat obvious.

"Ten, nine, eight..."

Hunzhen did not agree, but slowly opened his mouth and began to count down in a strange way.

Zagalad's eyebrows furrowed tightly, his eyes turning icy cold: "I've changed my mind. What I hate most are clueless, pretentious charlatans like you. Die."

Amid the gloating gazes of the old men, a cluster of black flames emerged from Zagarad's fingertips.

He looked at Hunzhen, who was still counting down, and smiled cruelly: "As punishment for offending me, I will bestow upon you the cruelest and most painful way to die!"

"go!"

The flame looked weak and fragile, as if it would be extinguished with the slightest breeze. However, as soon as it left Zagarad's fingertips, everyone present immediately felt the terrifying power within that faint flame, and their expressions changed drastically.

"three."

Hunzhen, however, continued counting down.

The fire was like a shooting star, moving at a speed beyond the limits of the senses. None of the group, including Old Man Huo, could see the trajectory of the flames.

But then Hunzhen's aura suddenly surged, leaping from the ninth level of the Hengxing level to the first level of the Universe level, and then he quietly moved his feet.

It lightly dodged the attack of the flames.

boom!

Black flames exploded in the pitch-black night, and the aftershocks alone caused the obediently standing old men of the Heng Star level to fall over. The unluckiest one was even blown away by half of his body and was clearly not going to live.

Hunzhen was completely unharmed, not even a speck of dust stuck to the corner of his clothes.

Zagarard narrowed his eyes slightly: "A cosmic-level life form, a spatial understanding that touches the threshold of the laws—is this all you're relying on? Ridiculous!"

He lunged forward suddenly, intending to twist Hunzhen's head off.

"One, zero."

The countdown finally ended at this moment.

A sudden gust of wind arose.

Zagalad's expression changed instantly.

His hand stopped in front of Hunzhen, and he said in a low voice, "'Wind Devourer,' you knew all along that it would appear at this time!?"

The black wind, like the invisible hand of a giant, began to exert a terrifying pull on everyone.

Sand and gravel flew everywhere, and some weak vegetation was uprooted, instantly forming a terrifying sandstorm.

"It's...it's the Great Void! How could the Great Void's anomaly happen today!"

"Are we really that unlucky!?"

"Which bastard jinxed us before we even left?!"

The old men were also panicked and cried out in alarm.

At this moment and in this place, there was nothing around them to shield them from the wind. They couldn't resist the terrifying gravity alone, let alone the influence of the wind!

At this moment, the wind-devouring phenomenon had just appeared, and the gravity was still relatively weak. However, the star system had almost lost its self-control and could only resist slightly by frantically consuming its primal force.

Only the three who displayed cosmic-level power maintained a relatively stable posture.

Zagarad was not afraid of the mere layer of wind-devouring energy.

He would have been somewhat wary before devouring Nofelix's flesh and blood.

But now, apart from the core crystal, he has devoured all the flesh and blood. Even though his condition has not fully recovered, he is confident that he will not be affected by the Devouring Wind.

What he was wary of was that the humans before him could predict when the wind-devouring phenomenon would occur, and that they could conceal their strength from him.

The former is too bizarre, while the latter is frightening.

"A realization of the laws at the threshold of the law level? Or is there something hidden?"

The human in front of him had just disguised himself as a ninth-level star, and even he hadn't noticed. Despite his tough talk, Zagarad was unsure of the other party's true strength.

But his pride as a nobleman made him unwilling to back down in front of inferior races, even if it meant his death.

With his mind made up, Zagarad took a step to the side and attacked Hunzhen.

To eliminate any potential dangers, Zagarad drew his life-bound black sword directly at this inferior race that had only displayed first-tier cosmic-level power.

The Dark Demons are a race favored by the laws of time, and this black sword, which is tied to their lives, is the most suitable divine weapon to unleash the power of time to the fullest extent.

As soon as the sword was drawn, black sword energy swept across the world, making the movements and facial expressions of the surrounding people seem to be slowed down many times over, which was ridiculous and laughable.

"Go!"

If even those who were affected were impacted in this way, then the impact on Hunzhen, who was targeted by Zagarad, was at least dozens of times greater than on the others.

However, something happened that shocked Zagarard.

The person in front of him seemed completely unaffected, casually dodging his attack.

"What kind of monster is this!?"

Zagarad could not believe it and swung the black sword with all his might.

In the blink of an eye, countless sword marks ravaged the earth, obscuring its original appearance.

Under the influence of the Devouring Wind, those mere Star-level beings had no time to dodge the aftershocks of the repeated slashes, and perished one by one with expressions of resentment.

Even Old Man Huo, who possessed the strength of a third-tier cosmic level expert, was in a very miserable state. After using all his trump cards, he was still nearly killed.

Just then, the black, swirling winds blowing from the direction of the great void became even more violent.

"No, no, no!"

Old Huo let out a terrified scream.

With more than half of his Force depleted and his defensive trump cards for survival exhausted, he would surely die without anyone's help!

He looked at Hunzhen with pleading eyes: "Help, help me!"

Hunzhen nodded slightly, dodging the black sword light as he moved to stand in front of Old Man Huo.

The panic on Old Man Huo's face instantly turned into ferocity. He unleashed his primal force and grabbed at Hunzhen: "There must be something on you! You must have a treasure that allowed you to survive the Devouring Wind!"

Suddenly, he noticed Hunzhen's mocking smile.

"Um?"

He reached out and found nothing, only to discover that the Hunzhen in front of him was just a phantom.

The black sword energy that rushed at high speed tore him to shreds.

Hunzhen casually scooped up the items, including Old Man Huo's storage items, and the storage items of the entire pursuit team before they were swallowed by the Devouring Wind.

"You used me to kill them..."

The sword energy suddenly subsided.

Hunzhen turned his head and saw Zagalad looking at him with an uncertain expression.

Cracks appeared on the black fleshy outer armor and the gray skin on its body, and gray blood was seeping out in thin streams.

No, it's not just that.

He lowered his head slightly, glanced at the wound that was struggling to heal, and said in a low voice, "You seem to know me better than I know myself. You even foresaw that I wouldn't be able to fully digest Noferic's flesh and blood?"

Easily dodging all his attacks, and even taking the opportunity to kill someone with another's help, Zagarad no longer dared to regard Hunzhen as an ant with only the strength of a first-level universe-level being on the surface.

He looked at Hunzhen, who maintained a calm expression, as if he were looking at a terrifying monster whose depths were unfathomable and whose form was inscrutable.

"Ha, you're a little smarter than I thought."

Hunzhen said with a half-smile, "Now that you've thought this far, why not think about it more carefully? What is the real purpose behind all this?"

As intelligence was updated, it became clear that Hunzhen's true strength was far from simple. Upon hearing this statement, it was as if a special keyword was triggered, and a flash of inspiration struck Zagarad's mind.

"You...you waited for Devouring Wind not to weaken me!"

Zagarad's eyes widened, and he roared, "Is it to use the Devouring Wind to hinder my resonance with the horde and conceal the information here!?"

"Oh, so 'this ability' is called Mass Resonance?"

Hunzhen smiled, not directly manipulating the surrounding space, but exerting indirect influence, causing the Devouring Wind to blow bigger and bigger in this area.

Zagarad was then shocked to realize that, without his knowledge, the strength of his Wind Devouring Technique had reached the third level, the level of the third layer of the Abyss.

His injuries suddenly worsened, not only because Hunzhen had anticipated his inadequate digestion, but also because of the slow, insidious attack of the Wind.

Splash splash ...

The gravity suddenly reached a limit that he could not withstand. No matter how hard he tried to suppress it, blood still gushed out from the wounds along his broken body, falling like a flowing river of blood towards the great void.

"roar--!!!"

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Zagalad's eyes widened in fury.

Two jet-black fleshy wings suddenly unfurled, and the dark torrent of time attempted to fight against the Devouring Wind.

This allowed him to slightly resist the gravity and the corrosive force from the depths of the abyss, but it also caused his energy to be consumed rapidly.

Just then, Hunzhen's mental power materialized and drilled into Zagarad's head.

Soul enslavement is undoubtedly the most efficient way to obtain information quickly.

However, the moment the tentacles of Hunzhen's soul power probed into Zagarad's sea of ​​consciousness, a terrifying premonition surged from Hunzhen's heart.

He raised an eyebrow and, without hesitation, discarded that fragment of his soul, his face turning slightly pale.

Just now, when the secret technique was about to be activated, Hunzhen used up today's simulation attempts.

In the simulation, the simulated human hesitated for only a moment before suffering a direct backlash from the power of the Abyss.

Even with the current strength of the simulated human, its soul has suffered considerable damage.

Unlike the simulated humans, the Hunzhen is not afraid of soul trauma. No matter how terrible the injury, as long as it does not cause immediate unconsciousness, it can be repaired through a soul inheritance.

But an even more terrifying consequence is that even Hunzhen (a legendary figure in Chinese mythology) has considerable reservations about it.

That is, as he speculated, the Abyss consciousness seemed to have its eye on the simulated humans.

Originally, after his planning over this period of time, everything that happened here would have been covered up by the wind-devouring phenomenon.

However, in the simulation, Zagarad's companions still recognized him as a murderer from an inferior race.

Subsequently, countless Lord-level Black Demons emerged to encircle and suppress them, forcing the Sims to hide and flee, almost signaling the collapse of this invasion of the Abyss.

Fortunately, in reality, he only touched his sea of ​​consciousness with the tentacles of his soul. The secret technique had not yet been truly used, and he had not touched the "forbidden zone." The consciousness of the abyss had not locked onto Hunzhen.

Before it could develop into something like a humanoid, Hunzhen nipped the crisis in the bud.

"So it really didn't work?"

Hunzhen sighed inwardly with some regret.

Hunzhen did not regret this slightly risky attempt.

Considering his true intentions, he will inevitably clash with the two royal families in the future.

Unless he gives up on possessing another body, a conflict is only a matter of time.

In this first layer of the abyss, where the power is weakest and far from the main camps of the two royal families, coupled with the cover of the wind-devouring phenomenon, if he doesn't dare to make any slightly stimulating attempts, the difficulty of doing so later will probably increase tenfold or a hundredfold.

Some extreme tests, if not done now, will be impossible to do later.

So he doesn't regret it.

It looked like it was on the verge of collapse, but the risks were still within his expectations.

The biggest takeaway, however, was not the crucial piece of information that "engaging in soul enslavement would directly expose oneself within the royal family."

Instead, it was a glimpse into the whole picture that allowed them to confirm the existence of the "Abyss Consciousness".

If even a tentative soul enslavement has elicited such a strong reaction, what about a cuckoo taking over another's body?

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the difficulty of possessing another body will be much higher than he anticipated.

But Hunzhen was not discouraged.

"Can't you live without being obsessed?"

The Star Prison Demon Lord's words of advice flashed through Hunzhen's mind.

If nothing unexpected happens, this statement will most likely be confirmed in the "Demon" requirement of the extra quest in the Purgatory Abyss.

"You can guess a thing or two from the name. Perhaps becoming a demon will reduce the abyss's hostility towards me, an outsider."

Since the Chaos City Lord has chosen the Purgatory Abyss as one of his targets, it proves that with his abilities, while there may be great risks involved in successfully possessing another body, it is by no means an impossible task.

It's not impossible; with the ability to simulate, one can be naturally confident.

What did you just do?

Zagarad noticed that Hunzhen's soul power had suddenly weakened.

And just now, he felt that the other party seemed to have launched a probing attack on him.

Before he could even understand what kind of attack it was, the opponent ended the offensive in a rather anticlimactic manner.

Zagalad was both suspicious and wary, and became extremely vigilant.

"How dare you ask me, your enemy, this question?"

Hunzhen looked at Zagarad with great interest, ignoring his sudden change in expression, and said calmly, "Oh, by the way, don't try to distract me with words. You can't escape."

Zagalad had no more hope and turned to flee.

The Black Demon Clan is not afraid of death, but when facing an opponent whose background is unknown, it is better to wait for another day to fight than to confront them head-on. This is his creed as a Black Demon Clan noble.

Both the Black Demon Clan, who are skilled in the laws of time, and the Silver Demon Clan, who are skilled in the laws of space, are extremely adept at escaping.

However, this time Zagalad faced an opponent far beyond his own level.

Even the strongest escape ability becomes meaningless.

Just as Zagalad thought he had escaped Hunzhen's control, he suddenly widened his eyes and discovered a horrifying fact.

"Wind Eater, Wind Eater is still only level three!"

Like a flower in a mirror or the moon's reflection in water, the scene before me suddenly changed drastically.

The truly bottomless, pitch-black abyss known as the "Great Hollow" came into view of Zagarad.

The largest diameter of the celestial body, Purgatory Abyss, is 1.3 light-years, and the huge cavity in the middle alone occupies a diameter of one light-year.

It can be said that each level of the Purgatory Abyss is a large void occupying more than half of the area, and the ring-shaped area where the natives live is only a small part.

Although the Great Hollow seems to be right in front of us, it is actually still a very long way off.

But its gravity has already genuinely affected the two of them.

The gravity here is so strong that even light cannot escape.

The so-called "wind-devouring" is the breath that comes from the abyss.

"It was the Wind Eater who killed you, not me."

Right beside him, Zagarad saw Hunzhen's calm and composed smile.

The power of the abyss assaulted him, and gravity peeled away pieces of flesh from his body.

"Alright, you're useless now."

Hunzhen reached out and pulled out a black gem-like crystal core from inside Zagarad's chest cavity.

The other white crystal core had already been playing with and admiring in his palm even earlier.

In the final moments of his life, Zagarad's pupils dimmed, and he felt a sense of absurdity and disbelief.

It was as if from the very beginning, everything about me was like that life crystal, manipulated at will in the other party's hands, allowing them to control me, and silently falling step by step into the abyss.

(End of this chapter)