Chapter 500: Serious Injury

Between heaven and earth, it was finally dead silent.

He won.

As a Tier 5, he reversed-killed a Tier 6 wizard in perfect condition.

Watching that grey-white mist completely annihilate and dissipate, the heartstring that Jie Ming had been tightening suddenly snapped.

The intense sense of weakness swept his whole body like a tsunami, he could no longer maintain standing, his legs softened, and he fell heavily on the cold and broken ground.

The world spun before his eyes, the scene he could see in his field of vision became blurred, and only his heavy breathing like an old bellows remained in his ears.

The pain coming from the depths of his soul was no longer simple pain, but a more terrible, more essential "sense of lack" and "sense of tearing."

As if a large piece of the foundation of his existence had been dug away, and the remaining part was also covered with cracks, ready to collapse completely at any time.

I don't know how long it took, maybe a quarter of an hour, maybe a longer torment, before Jie Ming finally gathered a trace of scattered consciousness.

He raised his heavy, lead-filled arm tremblingly, used the last bit of control over the cave heaven in his body, and took out a few crystal potion tubes flashing with soft light.

His fingers trembled so much that he could hardly hold the tube, he simply bit the whole test tube into his mouth and bit it, and swallowed the viscous honey-like liquid and crystal fragments that emitted a cool breath into his throat.

This was the highest-level 【Soul Sweet Spring】 and 【Life Original Pulp】 mixed magic potion, specially used to repair serious soul damage and physical trauma, and the value of each was over 1 billion military merits.

One, two, three...

He took out all the high-stage magic potions stored in the cave heaven in his body that could be used to heal the soul, and swallowed them all at once like a cow chewing a peony.

The cool and moist medicinal power flowed down the throat, but did not bring much comfort, but like a fine stream barely injected into the parched and cracked riverbed, it was instantly greedily absorbed and swallowed by that huge "void" and "crack."

Until the empty bottle fragments of the last magic potion slipped from the corner of his powerless mouth, fell on the glazed ground and made a crisp shattering sound, Jie Ming finally felt that the deep pain that almost crushed his consciousness was slightly relieved.

He breathed heavily, sweat had long soaked his tattered grey robe, sticking coldly to his skin.

The joy of surviving a disaster did not emerge immediately, but was replaced by deeper confusion and suspicion.

"Why... am I still alive?"

This question, not only made that Tier 6 wizard let out a desperate question before dissipating, but also deeply pierced Jie Ming's own heart.

He knew very well what kind of attack he had just endured.

That "Hand of Extinction" first destroyed his heart and brain.

Of course, this kind of purely physical injury might not be absolutely fatal for many wizards who had undergone deep physical transformation.

What was more terrifying was that the pure annihilation energy flowed backward along the connection between life and soul, acting directly on his soul essence!

More than 60% of the soul was completely annihilated the moment it touched, turning into nothingness.

And the remaining 40% was also impacted into pieces, turning into countless small soul fragments that almost lost contact.

That kind of experience of the soul being torn apart and the core existence being erased by more than half was something Jie Ming never wanted to experience a second time.

According to any common sense judgment, this kind of injury was enough to make a Tier 6 wizard specializing in life-saving die on the spot, and even some Tier 7 existences with weak soul protection would instantly fall.

To put it bluntly, even Jie Ming himself didn't expect to survive after taking that blow, but was closing his eyes and waiting for death, waiting for the substitute doll to resurrect him.

However, the feeling of the substitute doll activating and resurrecting did not come.

On the contrary, in that desperate situation where the soul was broken and on the verge of complete dissipation, he "terrifiedly" discovered that he was still "alive."

Not resurrection, not rebirth.

It was "not dead."

The soul was indeed broken, more than 60% was indeed gone, but his consciousness was strangely scattered in those broken soul fragments, like a residual image of the world still reflected in a broken mirror.

Between those fragments, although they lost close connection, they did not completely sever the last faint resonance.

He just lived like this, in a state beyond the understanding of Tier 5 wizards, "living" in a pile of soul remains that should have represented death and termination.

This was like a normal person's body being completely dismembered, head and heart cut into pieces, but the vital signs were still tenaciously maintained, and even barely able to think.

Absurd, horrific, completely violating the basic laws of conventional life and soul.

This was also an important reason why Jie Ming was able to sneak attack and hit that Tier 6 wizard with floating cannons later—who would guard against a pile of remains that had already "died"?

As for later relying on the spirituality of the Wu Yun Hua Hong Mirror as a binder and scaffold to re-aggregate the broken soul fragments, forcibly "splicing" a barely complete soul outline, and urging the "Body Refining Method" and magic potions to regenerate the body...

By comparison, this kind of action that looked like resurrection from the dead became a kind of "technical" problem, although difficult, it was not incomprehensible.

The real mystery was always that initial question: why didn't he die directly after more than half of his soul was destroyed?

Why could his consciousness continue in the broken soul?

He had experienced many fierce battles since he lived until now, suffered various serious injuries, but never once was the injury so serious—the soul essence was permanently missing by more than 60%!

Even magic potions that could instantly restore the soul injuries of Tier 6 wizards, facing his broken soul, most of the medicinal power would be wasted in vain.

So even after drinking all the high-stage soul magic potions in his inventory, he could clearly perceive that his soul had only restored less than 20% of the "amount."

There was still about 40%, which was a real "deficit" like being hollowed out.

This deficit brought not only constant, bone-deep pain, but also made his thinking sluggish and blurred, as if covered with a thick layer of frosted glass.

Perception also became dull, and the world seemed to have lost most of its color and detail.

At this moment, the severe pain eased slightly, and Jie Ming had the energy to start thinking about this hair-raising question.

But to be honest, being able to think in this situation was already quite astonishing... or even terrifying.

"Damn... this is more uncomfortable than dying..." Jie Ming lay weakly on the ground, his cheeks pressed against the cold and rough ground, every breath involved the pain of the soul, making him squeeze out a whisper from his teeth, "Might as well let the substitute doll resurrect me directly..."

"Substitute doll"—this term was like lightning flashing in the darkness, suddenly illuminating his chaotic thoughts.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 501 =====