Chapter 517: The Gradually Slipping Battle

After a brief standoff, the battle erupted again without warning.

The figures of both sides instantly intertwined.

The black-robed wizard's figure "jumped" to appear on Gao Jie Ming's flank, his palm carrying that eerie power that directly defined "results," pressing down silently.

A flash of ruthlessness crossed Gao Jie Ming's eyes; he did not dodge or evade, but instead twisted his body and swung his arm, actively meeting the strike with his newly regenerated right fist!

In this instant, both sides were like a replayed image, clashing once again in the same posture.

Pfft—

The arm shattered upon impact, turning into flying ash.

Gao Jie Ming activated the Grand Void Steps, his body darting backward like a cicada shedding its skin.

The black-robed wizard followed like a shadow; the second step of "results" manifested directly, his other palm nearly brushing against Gao Jie Ming's heart.

Gao Jie Ming's left arm reflexively blocked backward.

Pfft—

The second newly regenerated arm followed the same fate.

Two clashes, in the blink of an eye, and Gao Jie Ming had lost both arms again, but relying on this tragic "tail-cutting" tactic and the cushioning of the Return to Ruins Armor, he had once again opened up a tiny distance.

However, this time, the black-robed wizard did not pause due to the burden of using the Law as he had before!

His figure only paused slightly, then a dark silver light flashed beneath his feet, and he shot forward at pure, astonishing speed!

Although he did not use the 【Fiction】 Law to directly erase the movement process, his explosive linear speed still latched tightly onto Gao Jie Ming, who was executing the Grand Void Steps!

"As expected—" Gao Jie Ming's heart sank.

The situation he feared most was unfolding.

Seeing that palm, which seemed capable of erasing all existence, break through space again and reach for his chest, Gao Jie Ming's expression grew even more severe; his thoughts raced, and he released the preparations he had made in advance!

Behind him, the air suddenly tore open into ten dark whirlpools!

Ten pitch-black giant priests, each holding a staff, instantly appeared between Gao Jie Ming and the black-robed wizard!

The moment they appeared, the dark red gems at the tips of their staves erupted with blinding light simultaneously!

Ten beams of Extinction Divine Light of Departing Fire, condensed like solid spears, shot toward the black-robed wizard from different angles, sealing off all his paths for dodging or pursuing Gao Jie Ming!

This strike was timed with cunning precision and at such close range that it was practically a point-blank explosion!

"Hmph!"

A cold, light grunt came from beneath the black-robed wizard's hood.

His pursuing figure came to an abrupt halt.

Facing this concentrated attack capable of severely wounding a Tier 6, he merely glanced at it indifferently.

The next instant, the moment those ten fierce dark golden rays entered his surrounding range, they were like crashing into an abyss of absolute silence, vanishing together without a sound.

The 【Fiction】 Law directly manifested the result that "the attack was perfectly intercepted."

Gao Jie Ming seized this opening "squeezed" out by the ten giant priests, pushing the Grand Void Steps to the limit, his figure turning into a pale golden stream of light that nearly blended into the background, violently darting thousands of meters backward!

At the same time, Gao Jie Ming focused his attention on the giant priests, attempting to recall them into his cave heaven through the connection of the soul contract.

But his movements were still a fraction of a second too slow.

Or rather, the black-robed wizard's counterattack was faster than the scope of his "reaction."

The black-robed wizard raised a hand and wiped it lightly in the air toward the ten giant priests who had just finished their attack.

The movement was gentle, like brushing dust off a painting.

The ten Tier 6 giant priests, with their tenacious vitality, couldn't even let out a muffled groan.

Their bodies, covered in liquid metal, crumbled and dissipated in the same instant like sand sculptures weathered for billions of years, turning into fine ash that drifted in the air.

Ten powerful Tier 6 combatants were thus annihilated.

Gao Jie Ming's complexion turned exceptionally ugly, and not just because of the loss of precious combat power.

More importantly, from the opponent's two consecutive, fluid transitions between offense and defense, he understood a more cruel fact.

The opponent was gradually "familiarizing" himself with his defense system!

The operation of the 【Fiction】 Law is based on what is "theoretically achievable."

And the difficulty assessment of this "theoretically" is clearly closely related to the caster's depth of understanding of the target.

As the black-robed wizard continuously clashed with Gao Jie Ming, continuously "contacted" the Return to Ruins Armor, and continuously "felt" its defensive principles and energy flow patterns, his cognition of the question "how to break the Return to Ruins Armor" deepened rapidly.

This meant that within the time, computing power, resources, and relevant "omission quota" that the Fiction Law could skip, the proportion of the quota he needed to consume to "achieve the result of breaking the Return to Ruins Armor" was rapidly decreasing!

The "quota" saved naturally allowed him to launch more attacks within a unit of time.

Or, like just now, complete a high-intensity defense.

As one grows, the other wanes.

Gao Jie Ming moved his newly regenerated arm, which was still pale and damp, squirming crazily from the flesh of his shoulder, his heart sinking to the bottom.

He had originally thought that by relying on the "adaptive evolution" brought by the Body Refining Method, he could gradually adapt to or even become immune to the opponent's 【Fiction】.

But now it seemed the situation was far from optimistic.

His body might be able to evolve resistance to the Fiction Law, but the Return to Ruins Armor itself was a fixed rune model and energy structure; it could not "evolve"!

As the battle time extended, the opponent's "familiarity" with the Return to Ruins Armor would become higher and higher, the "quota" required for breaking it would become lower and lower, and the attack frequency and variations would become faster and faster, increasingly difficult to predict.

This was not a battle that could be won by attrition, but a desperate situation destined to slide into the abyss as time passed!

On the other side, the black-robed wizard standing in the void also frowned imperceptibly beneath his hood.

During those two moments when he shattered Gao Jie Ming's arms just now, he clearly felt a trace of "abnormality."

The tactile sensation, or rather, the "resistance feedback" felt when the 【Fiction】 power acted, was significantly different from the previous few times.

He believed that through the previous few contacts, he had already sufficiently "modeled" the little wizard's body strength, energy composition, and soul resilience, and theoretically, the "quota" required for subsequent destruction of the same part should steadily decrease.

But the fact was, those two times just now, the consumed "quota" did not decrease as expected!

What did this mean?

Unless—this kid's body had already undergone substantial strengthening or changes during the intervals of his attacks that were enough to interfere with the 【Fiction】 Law's assessment!

"Could it be—this kid is evolving rapidly?!"

This thought flashed through the black-robed wizard's mind like lightning, causing his dark red pupils beneath the hood to contract sharply.

It wasn't that he hadn't seen wizards or creatures with "adaptive evolution" or "combat growth" abilities.

But those existences were either of a higher level with a solid foundation, or their evolution speed was relatively slow, requiring long battles or specific condition stimuli.

Yet this little guy in front of him, who was clearly only a Tier 5, had an evolution speed so fast that it caused a perceptible deviation in the "difficulty assessment" of his 【Fiction】 Law in just a few short intervals?!

This was simply inconceivable!

Thinking back to the opponent's outrageous regeneration speed, the strange field that could withstand a 【Fiction】 strike, the formidable attacks, and those black elemental creatures with quite decent strength—the black-robed wizard's determination to kill grew colder and firmer.

"Truly—a genius unsettlingly exaggerated." He whispered in his heart, his killing intent solidifying, "Since that's the case, I cannot let you live even more!"

Both sides' gazes collided in the void again, sparks flying.

A new round of offense and defense suddenly began!

The process seemed to be a repetition of the previous one: the black-robed wizard ambushed with 【Fiction】 power, Gao Jie Ming either blocked and sacrificed an arm or used the Return to Ruins Armor to cushion and maneuver, occasionally using suddenly summoned giant priests to interfere and counterattack, exchanging for a moment of breathing room and a chance to open up distance.

But Gao Jie Ming's complexion grew increasingly gloomy with each clash.

Although he had adjusted the positioning and equipment level of the giant priests in his internal cave heaven, minimizing the consumption of each round of giant priests.

But in every round of clashing, he still needed to pay the "price" of three to five giant priests to narrowly escape the opponent's fatal pursuit.

Gao Jie Ming had no other way, only able to do his utmost to frantically adjust the operation mode of the Body Refining Method based on the feedback from each contact, guiding his body to accelerate evolution in the direction of resisting the erosion of the "Fiction" power.

He could clearly feel that the Body Refining Method was operating under overload, every cell in his body roaring to adapt to the power that directly defined "results."

With every regeneration, the newly formed arm bones seemed denser, the arrangement of energy flow seemed better able to disperse the erosion of that "dissipation" effect, and the skin surface seemed to have an extra layer of extremely faint resistance light against conceptual damage—

The body's adaptive evolution was real and accelerating.

But there was still that same problem: the Return to Ruins Armor could not evolve.

And the opponent's "familiarity" with the Return to Ruins Armor seemed to be improving faster than his body's evolution!

The result was that with every attack from the opponent, the "quota" required to break the Return to Ruins Armor became less, and the saved "quota" made his attack transitions increasingly fluid and increasingly varied.

Gao Jie Ming's body evolution barely offset some of the attack gains brought by the opponent's increased "familiarity," but the overall situation was still irreversibly sliding in a direction extremely unfavorable to him.

To make matters worse, as the battle continued, the energy and vitality consumption brought by repeated arm regeneration began to show heavy pressure.

Even with his Soul Transformation Stage cultivation and formidable physical body, he began to feel bursts of weakness and fatigue originating from his life essence.

The recovery speed of the spiritual power in his body gradually couldn't keep up with the consumption of high-intensity regeneration and maintaining the Grand Void Steps.

"Hoo—hoo—" Gao Jie Ming's breathing became somewhat heavy.

Fortunately, he was not completely unprepared for this.

With a thought, deep in his internal cave heaven, the "cross-space energy transmission system" closely connected to the Purgatory Sulfur Plane's incense divine path had its operation mode switched instantly!

The pure elemental energy flow that had been stably transmitted to maintain the operation of the internal factory and elemental pool replenishment was temporarily cut off.

Replacing it was another channel, already prepared and with higher authority, being forcibly opened!

Vast, pure, and vibrant spiritual energy, like a bursting flood, crossed the endless void.

From the Purgatory Sulfur Plane, via the incense divine path network, it poured majestically into Gao Jie Ming's internal cave heaven, and then, through the cave heaven's conversion and guidance, was frantically injected into his nearly dried-up meridians and dantian!

Gao Jie Ming's body trembled slightly; like a long drought meeting sweet rain, every cell was greedily sucking in this pure energy that best suited his cultivation system.

His pale complexion recovered its rosy hue at a speed visible to the naked eye, his consumed spiritual power began to rise rapidly, and even the fatigue of his physical body was washed away by the nourishment of this pure spiritual energy.

However, the replenishment of spiritual energy only solved the problem of "energy endurance."

Even with infinite spiritual energy replenishment, even with his body accelerating its evolution.

But according to Gao Jie Ming's calculations, before the giant priests were exhausted, his body's evolution level was almost impossible to reach the qualitative threshold of "immunizing against the effect of one 【Fiction】 Law attack."

That is to say, when the giant priests, his last "interference chips," were used up, he would have to face the 【Fiction】 wizard whose attack frequency and threat level had reached their peak.

That was almost equivalent to—a death sentence.

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