Chapter 2260

Fresh blood flowed down from between Su Xiao's brows. Just one exchange, and he had nearly been pierced through the skull.

Qing Gang Ying energy spread outward with Su Xiao as the center point, and the darkness within a dozen meters around him dissipated. The Ancient God, Nijadi, was standing a few meters away, holding the Spear of Light, slightly lowering its head to look down at Su Xiao.

With a boom, the stone slab beneath Nijadi's feet shattered. With its entire body covered in exoskeleton and in a combat state, it was simply unstoppable.

The next moment, Nijadi appeared in front of Su Xiao. This was not due to high speed, nor was it a spatial ability, but rather a new "Nijadi" that had replaced the one a few meters away. Although the principle was unclear, the fact remained.

The Spear of Light was swung, emitting a terrifying whimpering sound. Su Xiao stepped forward, his long blade slashing diagonally.

Zing~

The blade slashed across Nijadi's neck, its head flew up, and the headless corpse slowly toppled to the side, but the Spear of Light in its hand had vanished.

While executing this slash, Su Xiao immediately moved to the side. The Spear of Light attacked from behind him, grazing his side and smashing into the ground with a boom.

Gravel splashed everywhere. Su Xiao leaped sideways into mid-air. Just as he landed, the Nijadi located a dozen meters away slowly vanished, and a sense of crisis came from all directions.

Nijadi, of course, was not dead. The one whose head Su Xiao had just slashed off was one of its clones—no, it should be called an avatar: an avatar of flesh and blood that should have existed only in a dream.

Nijadi's strongest ability was not melee combat, nor was it the Light-Extinguishing Domain, but its control over dreams.

Because of Nijadi's ability, this palace had an "inner" and an "outer" side. The "inner" was the real world, and the "outer" was the dream world.

Nijadi manifested an avatar in the dream world, then, through its own ability, allowed that avatar to detach from the dream world and appear in the real world.

In this way, Nijadi's avatar appeared and disappeared unpredictably, while its true self always sat on the throne, looking down at everything below, which could be described as full of prestige.

The Ancient God, Nijadi, chose to live on this isolated island because here, it could control everything through the dream world without exposing itself to danger.

Inside the hall, Qing Gang Ying energy surged on the ground around Su Xiao, continuously dispelling the surrounding darkness. The mana consumption from releasing Qing Gang Ying energy at this frequency was imaginable; in just a few seconds, it consumed over 800 points of Su Xiao's mana.

If the Light-Extinguishing Domain was not lifted, his mana would be completely depleted in less than 3 minutes.

Although Su Xiao did not understand the principle of Nijadi's ability, he had roughly grasped the pattern. Nijadi's true location was temporarily unknown—most likely still sitting on the throne—and those avatars that appeared out of thin air were not using spatial abilities, but were suddenly "walking out" from somewhere.

This process of "walking out" was very interesting; it felt like coming from nothing into existence.

While Su Xiao remained vigilant of his surroundings, his thoughts raced. After 0.53 seconds of deliberation, he considered a possibility: this palace had a "dual structure," with one layer being the real world and the other being the "Nightmare Realm."

Su Xiao could deduce this because Nijadi had an ability called "Despair·Dream." Nijadi most likely could control dreams or create dreams of some kind.

Thinking of this possibility, Su Xiao stepped on the ground, and a piece of gravel flew up, which he caught in his hand. He carefully perceived the situation around him; as long as he was not in the darkness, his perception would not be affected.

It was Baha who had been checked; this was good news. Baha had spatial abilities and could escape the Light-Extinguishing Domain at the fastest speed, at which point the surrounding darkness would be unable to be maintained.

Just as this thought appeared in Su Xiao's mind, Baha suddenly appeared a few meters away from him, and their eyes met.

"Damn it!"

Baha cursed under its breath and disappeared using its spatial ability. Clearly, within the Light-Extinguishing Domain, it would lose its sense of direction.

Su Xiao held the stone in his hand, carefully perceiving the surroundings. Two seconds later, that feeling of "coming from nothing into existence" appeared behind him. Nijadi had manifested another avatar in the dream world and dragged it into the real world.

The stone in Su Xiao's hand was flicked, flying toward his rear. Almost at the same time, the Spear of Light thrust toward the back of Su Xiao's head.

Pop~

It was as if something had shattered. Su Xiao tilted his head to dodge, and the Spear of Light flew past his ear, pinning itself into the wall a hundred meters away.

Nijadi's avatar was shattered by a piece of gravel? Comparing the strength of the two, this was impossible.

The avatar was not shattered by the stone; the avatar was something from a dream. When it just walked out of the dream, a real stone hit it, which evolved into a conflict between reality and the dream.

Nijadi was very strong, but it was not stronger than the rules of reality and illusion. When the two came into contact under specific circumstances (the moment the avatar just detached from the dream, touching a real stone), the illusion would return to nothingness. The dream palace created by Nijadi shattered directly, and everything returned to normal.

In battle, it was not only extraordinary items that could be used as weapons. If the timing was right, a stone could also break a god's ability. Fighting required using one's brain, not just knowing how to charge forward and compete with the enemy to see whose strength was greater or whose speed was faster.

The darkness in the hall suddenly dissipated; it was Baha who had escaped the range of the Light-Extinguishing Domain.

The hall returned to normal. The Ancient God, Nijadi, sat on the throne at the innermost side, and the Spear of Light flew to its side.

Faint gray mist surged from the air vents of Nijadi's faceplate. It was somewhat angry; after all, its noble ability had actually been broken by an ordinary, unremarkable stone.

Nijadi stood up from the throne. Its pale, bony right arm gripped the Spear of Light, and its pitch-black left arm lifted, aiming at Su Xiao. Then, nothing happened; the Extinction Domain did not appear.

What Su Xiao feared least was checks; he had a pile of abilities that granted immunity to checks.

Nijadi was puzzled for a moment, then its pitch-black left hand clenched into a fist. Everything around seemed to start becoming illusory; it wanted to drag Su Xiao into the dream world to let the opponent know the terror of nightmares.

An awkward scene occurred. Su Xiao, with his eyelids lowered, looked at Nijadi. Just now, he had been subjected to a pile of checks, but his heart remained completely calm; he even felt he could withstand a dozen more types of checks.

Nijadi looked at Su Xiao in confusion, then looked at its own left hand. As the God of Nightmares, it had actually failed to drag the enemy into the dream.

Bang!!

Like a muffled thunderclap, the sound echoed in the hall. After Su Xiao disappeared from his original spot, the ground beneath his feet quickly caved downward.

Su Xiao suddenly appeared in front of Nijadi, his long blade slashing downward.

With a clang, the long blade was blocked by the Spear of Light. If it came to a contest of strength, Nijadi was stronger than Su Xiao.

The Spear of Light in Nijadi's hand flicked, and a massive force traveled from Su Xiao's hand. He leaned his body low with all his might and kicked upward.

Boom.

A shockwave spread. Nijadi was kicked backward by Su Xiao. This was not a contest of strength; the previous block + flick with the Spear of Light had already exhausted Nijadi's old force, and its new force had not yet been generated. At this moment, being kicked by Su Xiao, it naturally could not withstand it.

With a boom, Nijadi crashed into the stone throne behind it. If a certain dead goddess saw this scene, she would definitely say: "Well fought."

The moment it crashed into the throne, most of Nijadi's body went numb, which made its eyes fill with disbelief.

Squish!

The long blade pierced into Nijadi's chest, but it didn't care at all. Its large hand grabbed forward, heading straight for Su Xiao's skull, but Su Xiao seemed to have anticipated this scene long ago and had already tilted his head in advance.

Su Xiao pressed his left hand against the spine of Zhan Long Shan, and the long blade pressed down. The blade began to cut into Nijadi's torso. Nijadi's body was quite hard, especially the exoskeleton on its surface.

Thud~

An energy pulse surged, and Su Xiao felt the impact coming toward him. He held his left arm horizontally in front of him and flew backward. The moment before he landed, he saw through the gaps in his fingers a long spear wrapped in gold and black energy thrusting toward him—it was the Ancient God, Nijadi, throwing the Spear of Light.

The timing of Nijadi throwing the long spear was quite vicious; it was exactly the moment Su Xiao was about to land.

A slash mark passed by, and the Spear of Light was struck by the blade, its flight trajectory immediately shifting. Su Xiao lifted his left arm, and the long spear passed under his armpit, burying itself into the ground behind him.

Nijadi stood up from the throne again. If it could win today, it would definitely tear down this broken throne.

The God of Nightmares, Nijadi, was not good at melee combat, but this did not mean it was weak. Its abilities were of the kind that were fine if you didn't get hit, but once you were hit and couldn't break them in a short time, you would surely die—for example, the Light-Extinguishing Domain, dream avatars, nightmare descent, the Void Realm, etc.

Regrettably, to this day, these abilities had never successfully passed a check.

The technique abilities that Nijadi looked down upon were now restraining it to the point of confusion. Sword art cultivates the heart; so-called dreams are actually just illusions evolving into reality.

It was not that Nijadi could not form a dream world; once it dragged Su Xiao into the dream world, Su Xiao would surely die. Nijadi, while in the dream world, was powerful to the point of being almost invincible.

Unfortunately, Nijadi could not drag Su Xiao into the dream world because Su Xiao's heart was strong enough—strong enough that even Nijadi, as an Ancient God, felt somewhat astonished.

Sword art uses a powerful body to nurture the heart. When the heart is strong enough, so-called dreams are merely illusions.

Nijadi was stuck here. It had already formed an illusory dream world, but when it was about to drag Su Xiao in, the process of "illusion" evolving into "reality" got stuck, which was very uncomfortable.

It was like how, usually, an enemy's heart is a stone the size of an apple; with Nijadi's physique, one glare and one push, and it would be "swallowed" hard. But Su Xiao's heart was a steel ball the size of the Ancient God Nijadi's head. This was not something that could be "swallowed" with just a glare and a push.

To "swallow" Su Xiao into the dream, Nijadi would have to pry open its own "chest" and stuff him in hard. But by then, in the dream world, would it still be as powerful as before?