Chapter 334: This Can't Be Right, Can It?!

The rapidly depleting golden liquid within the bracer's crystal instantly brought Black back to his senses.

Swiftly, he pulled another spare Grade Six mental protection wizard tool from his robes—a bone pendant engraved with thorn patterns.

As spiritual power surged into it, the pendant emitted a pale white halo, instantly constructing a second "Thorn Heart Barrier" across his body surface.

Only after adding this extra layer of insurance did Black dare to observe his surroundings more carefully.

He noticed that not all the wizards had fallen.

About twenty or thirty others remained conscious like him, clearly having deployed high-level protective measures.

However, lacking Black's ability to reduce their presence and hide themselves, they were currently suffering a frenzied assault from numerous tentacles.

These conscious wizards had spontaneously gathered together; the brilliance of wizard spells flashed continuously, beating back the attacking tentacles while attempting to strike the flesh walls to find a way out.

"Fortunately, the situation hasn't reached its worst. As long as these main forces can stabilize their formation, combine their strength to break this 'cage,' and then rescue those trapped in illusions..."

Just as a sliver of hope rose in Black's heart, a sudden change occurred!

Perhaps the wizards' counterattack had enraged the colossal beast, or perhaps it caused sufficient pain, for the entire massive cavity shook violently, emitting a low yet deeply penetrating hum.

This hum was not merely sound; it was more like a roar acting directly upon the soul!

Crack!

Another unmistakable sound of shattering originated from his spiritual perception!

Black's pupils constricted sharply as he felt the "Thorn Heart Barrier" he had just raised shatter inch by inch like fragile glass, dissipating into nothingness.

The light on the bone pendant instantly dimmed, and the runes on its surface fell silent.

"... Such power?!"

Turbulent waves surged in Black's heart.

Had another Grade Six protective wizard tool been crushed so easily?

The mental impact contained within that casual roar from the colossal beast absolutely reached the level of Grade Seven!

He suddenly lowered his head again, staring at his left wrist.

The "Heart Wall Bracer" still emitted a stable, gentle halo, faithfully fulfilling its duty.

Although the fluid adamantium within the crystal was being consumed at an alarming rate, it had not instantly run dry and continued to resist the omnipresent illusion erosion.

This stark contrast even made Black momentarily doubt himself: "Am I... trapped in some deeper illusion? Is the sight of this bracer still functioning the actual illusion?"

However, reality gave him little time to think.

Although faint, the energy ripples produced when the second protective wizard spell shattered had attracted the attention of several nearby tentacles.

Like sharks smelling blood, they wriggled toward the approximate location where Black had been.

Fortunately, the effect of the "Presence Fading" wizard spell remained active.

Those tentacles merely scratched blankly in the air a few times; unable to pinpoint Black precisely, they shrunk back resentfully and resumed joining the effort to "capture" other conspicuous targets.

But the other conscious wizards were not so lucky.

The colossal beast's "Soul Roar" was clearly an indiscriminate area attack; the previously orderly wizard formation instantly descended into chaos!

Protective light shields on many people shattered at the sound, their eyes immediately becoming confused and blissful as they smiled and allowed the tentacles to wrap around and drag them away.

Even more terrifying was that those wizards who barely withstood this wave of impact, whose defenses were not completely broken, found their attacks becoming completely disordered.

At times they bombarded empty space wildly; at other times they struck their own companions with ruthless force!

Black clearly saw one wizard suddenly let out a terrified scream, as if witnessing something extremely horrifying.

The protective wizard spell on his body burst forth with blinding light, and immediately after, a tear deep enough to expose bone appeared out of thin air on his arm, blood gushing forth.

It looked as though some invisible monster had attacked him.

Meanwhile, another wizard laughed maniacally as he charged toward an open space, slamming his body violently against an invisible wall.

Yet that empty region seemed to truly contain a solid wall; with every impact, his bones snapped and he spat blood, yet he seemed unaware, his face instead filled with excitement!

"Blurring of reality and illusion... The intelligence mentioned 'the boundary between reality and illusion becomes blurred'; so this is what it means!" Black realized in an instant, a chill shooting from his spine straight to the crown of his head.

The illusions here were not merely deceptions on the mental level!

If the victim "believed" the illusion, then their body would manifest corresponding damage in reality based on what they "believed"!

That wave of soul roar had not only destroyed many people's defenses but had also dragged the remaining wizards, who were barely holding on, into an even deeper illusory realm!

Black forced himself to calm down quickly.

First, he cast several common soul-system minor techniques to cross-verify the reliability of his own perceptions, confirming that he was most likely still in a state of true cognition.

Then, his gaze fell back upon the bracer, and he began performing mental calculations based on the consumption rate of the adamantium.

The result made his heart sink.

"At this rate... the adamantium in the bracer can last at most five days!"

Combining the data provided by Gao Jie Ming with the performance of the two Grade Six protective wizard tools being instantly destroyed just now, Black could basically conclude: inside this colossal beast, a persistent illusion and thought-interference field equivalent to high-tier Grade Six intensity permeated every moment!

Furthermore, when stimulated, it could instantly erupt with a terrifying Grade Seven impact!

The good news was that this colossal beast seemed to have no intention of immediately killing all its prey; it appeared more to be "farming" them as a food reserve or energy source.

But the bad news was that being trapped here was absolutely a dead end; they must find a solution as soon as possible.

Fortunately, locating the core was precisely the specialty of soul-system wizards!

Black retracted all his aura, pushing the "Presence Fading" effect to its utmost limit.

Like an invisible ghost, he began tracing backward along the vast and complex energy meridians within the colossal beast.

Things went unexpectedly smoothly; along the way, hardly any combat occurred, and Black easily followed the energy meridians to find the location of the core.

Finally, he pried open a hidden barrier resembling two closed black carapaces and broke into a relatively small cavity.

In the center of the cavity floated a strange creature.

It was not large, about the height of a person; its main body resembled a translucent purple jellyfish, yet it extended dozens of octopus-like tentacles covered in suckers.

It emitted intense mental fluctuations that distorted reality; it was precisely the source of the entire colossal beast's illusion field!

This purple creature had clearly not expected anyone to breach its core lair without warning; the dozens of eyes encircling its body seemed frozen, unable to comprehend why the layered illusion defenses and mental misdirections surrounding it had failed completely.

Yet instinct drove the creature to react immediately: dozens of tentacles thrashed wildly, and the rich mental energy within its hollow cavity was instantly mobilized and gathered!

Seeing this, Blake felt a chill run through his heart and instinctively moved to activate his backup protective measures once more.

However, the earth-shattering mental assault he anticipated never came.

In his vision, the purple creature merely waved its tentacles in vain; though the surrounding energy fluctuated violently, no substantive attack ever struck him.

His two eyes met its dozens, and for a moment both sides stood locked in a bewildered standoff.

Blake immediately realized something was amiss; hesitating no longer, he extended his soul power like an invisible giant hand and effortlessly seized the soul core of the purple creature, which was merely at the fourth tier.

For a fourth-tier soul wizard, dominating the soul of a creature at this level was as easy as taking something from one's own pocket.

He skillfully sifted through and searched the creature's soul memories.

Moments later, he released his grip, his face filled with belated terror and extreme shock.

From the creature's memories, he learned just how perilous his journey here had truly been!

Unlike his own experience, in the creature's memories these veins were concealed by layers of illusions, their paths twisted, while invisible mental guides caused intruders to subconsciously overlook the correct direction.

Every energy vein node he had "ignored" was rigged with vivid illusions potent enough to sink even a sixth-tier wizard.

The entrances to the cavity passages he had traversed were all guarded by illusions nearly indistinguishable from reality.

Countless subtle mental guides, acting like subconscious suggestions, had compelled the intruder to unconsciously avert his gaze from the correct path...

Moreover, the creature's final act of waving its tentacles just now was no mere bluff.

It had mobilized all the energy gained from its symbiotic behemoth to instantly construct and unleash a powerful illusion attack nearing high seventh-tier strength—sufficient to utterly shred or permanently trap the mind of any sixth-tier wizard who breached this place!

Yet in Blake's eyes, the creature's final resistance resembled nothing more than a mime performance.

Blake suddenly lowered his head again, looking at his left wrist.

Sure enough, within those few seconds that had seemed like "nothing happened," the liquid orichalcum inside the bracer's crystal had silently diminished by more than half!

The terrifying illusion capable of instantly killing a sixth-tier wizard, emitted by the purple creature, was forcibly "consumed" by the bracer the instant it touched Blake!

As a result, apart from the depletion of orichalcum, Blake himself had felt almost nothing unusual!

Was this... even right?

This couldn't be right, could it?!

Blake screamed frantically in his heart.

He was no fool; he now understood completely.

The reason such a massive cognitive discrepancy existed between him and the purple creature, the reason he could treat those deadly traps as nonexistent, was entirely because this seemingly unremarkable bracer on his wrist had shouldered every illusion-based attack for him!

But... could this truly be something crafted by a second-tier wizard?!

This effect, this performance, this bottomless defensive potential... it utterly overturned his understanding of alchemical wizard artifacts!

(Extra chapter today; one more to come!)

(End of chapter)