Chapter 495

Wang Yu glanced at the massive yellow eye in the air and took a deep breath.

His upper-body clothing exploded apart, revealing a golden tiger head pattern on his back, lifelike and vivid, while a pale golden mist surged over his skin, interwoven with countless silver spiritual rune shadows.

These silver rune shadows spun once within the mist, faintly coalescing into the silhouette of a silver armor, which shrank onto Wang Yu’s body, turning his skin a pale silver.

Wang Yu slapped his waist once more, and a jet-black dagger appeared in his hand; he flicked his wrist.

The dagger vanished in a flash.

The next instant, a jet-black dagger pierced through the blood-colored spiritual markings on the yellow eye, its front half fully embedded within the eyeball, leaving only the hilt exposed.

The yellow eye showed no sign of damage; instead, the heartbeat sound emanating from within grew louder.

Wang Yu’s face darkened, and he pressed his hand against the storage bag at his waist, preparing to retrieve other artifacts like the Mi Mountain Seal.

But at that moment, “thump, thump,” another heartbeat echoed clearly in his ears.

Wang Yu’s pupils contracted—he realized the extra heartbeat was his own.

His heart had begun pounding violently without warning, and stranger still, its rhythm matched exactly that of the yellow eye’s heartbeat, as if some mysterious force had linked the two hearts together; the surge of blood qi and spiritual power from his Breath Method and Xuan Armor Scripture rapidly dissipated amid the synchronized thumping.

His two-zhang-tall body instantly shrank back to its original size; the strange phenomena on his skin and the tiger head pattern on his back vanished in an instant, and a profound weakness spread through every part of his body.

The nearby blood mist rolled and condensed, transforming into countless fine blood threads that hissed as they pierced straight through his body.

Thud.

Wang Yu’s face turned ashen; his legs buckled, and he collapsed to one knee on the uneven ground, his body riddled with wounds, blood spurting from needle-sized punctures, yet not an ounce of his strength or spiritual power could be summoned.

Under these circumstances, his only remaining recourse was his limited spiritual awareness.

He mustered the strength to lift his arm, and with great effort, slowly pressed one finger toward his brow, intending to release all his spiritual thoughts.

The blood-red spiritual markings on the yellow eye in the air blurred, then transformed into an entirely different pattern.

Boom!

The sky suddenly turned blood-red, as if endless blood had dyed the entire heavens.

Golden specks coalesced within the crimson, forming hundreds of yellow eyes—over a thousand in total—all now fixed upon Wang Yu below.

A vast, unstoppable torrent of spiritual force descended from above.

Wang Yu felt his body go numb; his limbs froze completely, his spiritual awareness could no longer leave his flesh, and even his thoughts grew heavy and sluggish.

Not only could he not move his body or spiritual power—he could not even access his own mental energy.

At this point, not even his storage bag could be opened, let alone the most mysterious silver talisman hidden within his spiritual sea.

Though Wang Yu had faced death countless times before, he now felt a deep, crushing despair.

The surrounding blood threads surged en masse, instantly wrapping him in a cocoon.

Worse still, blood began gushing from the ground, spewing more blood threads that rose upward in the same fashion.

Moments later, a massive blood cocoon, over a zhang tall, formed in the blood pool, its only sign of life the rapid heartbeat within—no further struggle could be seen.

Silver rune shadows rapidly surfaced along the cocoon’s surface, faintly coalescing into a blood-red pattern identical to the markings on the yellow eye.

At the same time, the yellow eye itself erupted with countless blood threads, wrapping itself into another cocoon.

For a time, the entire blood-soaked ground held only two synchronized heartbeats—no other sound existed—plunging the space into an eerie stillness, as if it would remain frozen forever.

Inside one of the blood cocoons.

Wang Yu was extremely weak, barely able to move a finger, yet he clearly sensed an icy energy so chilling it made his spiritual awareness tremble, as if thousands of frost threads were infiltrating every part of his body, slowly altering something within.

His heart sank to its deepest depths.

Though he did not know the nature of this strange energy, he knew full well that being invaded by it could not be good—but all his abilities were suppressed and sealed, leaving him like a lamb awaiting slaughter; his head grew heavier with each passing moment as the icy energy spread, his consciousness slowly fading.

This was only possible because his spiritual power far exceeded that of ordinary cultivators; any other cultivator would have lost all thought the instant the icy energy entered.

At that moment, a mechanical, lifeless voice echoed in his mind:

“...beep...beep... Alien biological energy detected invading host... Scanning alien biological energy... Threat level assessed: 3.7... Scanning host body...

Host has lost control of bodily functions... Probability of assimilation: 72.4%... Assimilation failure, probability of death: 27.6%...

System activating automatic protection protocol... Taking over host body...

...beep...beep... Unknown biological energy has locked onto host’s primary consciousness; primary consciousness cannot be withdrawn... Scanning all possible countermeasures against unknown biological energy...

...beep...beep... Detected latent ability within host capable of countering alien energy... Initiating simulation to calculate probability of activation...

Probability of blocking unknown energy: 13.4%... Probability of reverse infiltration: 1.3%... Probability of annihilating unknown energy: 3.7%... Probability of absorbing unknown energy: 11.2%... Probability of controlling unknown energy: 60.2%... Probability of countermeasure failure: 10.1%...

...Simulation indicates high probability of success... Temporarily stimulating dopamine secretion to restore partial bodily function... Temporarily increasing spiritual power upper limit by 157%... Enhancing probability of ability activation... Initiating formal ability activation... Ten, nine, eight...”

The system had indeed activated passively!

But what was this latent ability? What kind of thing was hidden inside him?

Under the surge of adrenaline, Wang Yu’s spirit lifted slightly; his mind cleared a little. He felt both relief and deep confusion.

According to the standards of his home world, he possessed only the Golden Touch ability, and Star Awareness was a form of psychic power—where could a third ability come from?

Wait—if he considered abilities broadly, he did seem to have another one.

A flash of insight struck Wang Yu—he suddenly remembered something.

But before he could think further, the spiritual power his mind had just regained through the system’s stimulation was suddenly drained entirely.

A profound fatigue surged from the depths of his soul; before his final consciousness faded, he faintly heard the system’s final mechanical utterance:

“...Bio-simulation ability activated successfully... Beginning absorption of unknown biological energy... Initiating alien species synchronization and mimicry...”

After hearing these words, Wang Yu could hold on no longer; his eyes rolled back, and he slipped into darkness.