Chapter Ninety-One: The Two Who Lost Their Minds

Xiao Zi discovered that this place was actually another dimension.

In other words, it did not exist on Blue Star at all, but was an entirely independent space, only superimposed beneath the desert.

Even more pleasantly, he found that his spatial leap ability could actually let him jump between the two spaces.

However, just as the system had said, the cost of this skill was truly enormous.

He had used it only once, and the energy within his body was already nearly drained dry.

Still, that was not entirely a bad thing. The less energy he had, the less would leak out, and that meant he could hide in the shadows and watch the battle without being detected by the three spirit controllers from Sunfall.

With a furious roar from Iron Pillar, his forbidden domain unfurled in an instant across the space.

It was an exceedingly strange forbidden domain.

The moment it opened, countless purple blossoms burst into bloom from the ground, and the whole space seemed to turn into a sea of flowers.

After these flowers appeared, the air filled with pollen, and that pollen seemed to contain immense power as it danced endlessly through the sky.

Iron Pillar, meanwhile, looked at the revived statues with a smile.

“Have you ever smelled the fragrance of flowers?” he said, licking his lips. “Ah, I forgot. You have no sense of smell. But I can still let you feel what flower scent truly is.”

As soon as the words fell, the countless pollen grains seemed to boil, dancing wildly in the air.

As time passed, their movement grew more and more violent, until at last they surged together toward a single direction.

“Bloom, violet!”

As Iron Pillar’s voice slowly faded, the pollen turned ferocious once more, rushing toward the eerie statue creatures like a gale.

In less than a moment, every one of the strange statue beings was covered in pollen.

Iron Pillar held one hand aloft, his eyes narrowing slightly. Once the pollen had fully adhered to every strange creature, he clenched his hand into a fist.

“Tribulation!”

“Whooosh, whooosh, whooosh.”

The pollen began to smoke, making strange sounds. At the same time, all those statue creatures suddenly abandoned the fight and stood motionless upon the ground.

Not long after, they had completely reverted to statues.

“I never expected these things to be so easy to deal with.”

“Exactly. I didn’t expect it either. They don’t even resist when faced with death?”

“In the end, they’re just rocks given power. They can’t even dodge, and they have no fear of death. Once the energy is drained, they turn back into stone. They can’t be compared with ordinary level A beings.”

But as they reached this point in their discussion, the three of them were struck by a new doubt.

“Then who gave them that energy?”

At that thought, cold sweat broke out on all three of them again.

To bestow power upon so many statues at once was not something just anyone could do.

At that moment, Dehua suddenly whirled around, only to find the giant phantom once more blocking him dead in front.

“Ah!!!”

With his shriek, a brilliant blossom of blood burst open in the air.

“How did that dragon-man thing come back to life again?”

The other two looked toward him and saw that the dragon-man, who had been flattened before, was now standing there perfectly fine.

And from the look of it, it seemed to have pierced through the giant phantom and struck Dehua directly.

“He... he seems stronger than before!”

Once they realized this, the two of them instantly vanished from where they stood and reappeared to the left and right of the dragon-man.

Iron Pillar pointed at the dragon-man with one hand. “No matter how strong you are, you can never defeat us inside my forbidden domain.”

As he spoke, the pollen of the sky rushed toward the dragon-man all at once.

But the dragon-man wore a smile of unclear meaning. He said nothing more, simply leaping forward and throwing a punch at Iron Pillar.

Yet just as his fist was about to reach Iron Pillar, it struck nothing but empty air.

“Hahaha, interesting. Your forbidden domain can actually alter the trajectory of my attack!”

The words had barely left his mouth when his entire body was surrounded by pollen, and in less than an instant he became a cold statue.

“These statues are not simple! Find a way out, now! Otherwise we’ll be worn down to death in here!”

Once they understood this, the three of them immediately began searching for a way out.

They naturally knew this was another dimension, but between spaces there would always be some weak points. Given the right method, they could still construct a teleport gate and leave.

Yet before they had searched for long, they all stopped at once and turned toward what lay behind them.

“Damn it, again? Is this thing a pain or what?”

And then they were thrown back into battle once more.

By the time they had defeated those statue-like strange beings for the fourth time, the energy of all three was nearly exhausted.

If they did not find a way out soon, they would truly be finished.

“Quick, quick, quick!”

Iron Pillar rushed through the desert temple at his fastest speed, straining every sense to feel out the positions of the two spaces, trying to find a weak point that could send them back.

“I found it!”

At last, his efforts were rewarded.

“Dehua! Come draw the teleportation array!”

But when he shouted, Dehua did not answer. Instead, he stood blankly staring off in one direction.

“What’s wrong with you? Get over here!”

Dehua still ignored him, continuing to stare in that direction in a daze.

“Gandan, go see what’s wrong with Dehua.”

But to his surprise, Gandan was also staring blankly in another direction.

In any case, the two of them had their backs to him, each fixed on a different point, motionless and silent, as though... as though they were those statues.

He realized something was very wrong, and immediately expanded his perception to its limit.

Then he discovered something terrifying.

When his perception reached Gandan and Dehua, it was actually blocked. His senses could not extend past them.

“How can this be?”

His confusion did not last long, because Gandan and Dehua turned back at the same moment.

A real turning back, with no movement of their bodies at all.

Their heads twisted a full three hundred and sixty degrees, and with blood-red eyes they stared at Iron Pillar behind them, their expressions hideous and terrifying.

“You... what’s wrong with you?”

“Heh heh heh.”

Then from both of their mouths came an indecipherable, eerie laugh.

It sounded like two lunatics laughing away there, without rhythm or reason, yet deeply unsettling.

“What the hell is so funny?”

Even Iron Pillar began to panic instinctively. Sweat gathered in his palm, and his gaze locked tightly on his two companions.

But then a bizarre scene unfolded.

Gandan and Dehua, who had still been some distance away just a moment ago, were suddenly beside him the next. Their eyes were blood-red, their faces deathly pale as they looked at him, and finally they asked in a flat voice, “Who is the strange creature?”

The same feeling returned: his perception was blocked, and he could not tell at all whether the two before him were his comrades or some other monster in disguise.

Yet by instinct, he still answered tentatively, “Aren’t those statues all strange creatures?”

“Heh heh heh.”

The laughter turned even more eerie, growing more and more unrestrained, louder and louder, until Iron Pillar’s heart began pounding wildly.

That laughter was simply too strange, like an open mockery of one’s cowardice and fear, enough to make anyone feel an instinctive revulsion.

“What the hell are you laughing at, you bastards?”