Master of the Stars

Chapter 37: Close Combat (Part 2/2)

Luo Nan gazed dead-fixed onto the burning wraith in the elevator, and the burning wraith’s attention deviated over accordingly.

In a certain sense, they were looking face to face at each other.

Six demonic eyes lit aflame at the location of the burning wraith’s head. They were lined up into two parallel columns; they really were like the eyes of an arachnid. Each eye had a different color. The six colors were as follows: muddy yellow, crimson red, shallow gray, deep sea green, deathly white, and jet-black. Each eye was extremely small, but the colors swapped amongst the eyes. It was demonically bizarre, and it made one feel dizzy.

Just sweeping his gaze over made Luo Nan have several turbid and chaotic thoughts boil out from the bottom of his mind. A surge of impatience swept his entire mood. He itched to smash something in order to vent out his emotions.

Luckily, the heavily chained crow’s trembling cry swept over him. These inexplicably surging emotions and distracting thoughts were quelled completely.

The burning wraith’s demonic eyes were flickering and fluctuating. Clearly it had noticed Luo Nan’s heavily chained crow, and, of course, the flickering Wraith Sign at the front most part of the chains.

In Luo Nan’s eyes, the first action this burning wraith was performing was to adopt an assault posture. It was the exact same response as the same species of burning wraith from this morning, at the school’s medical department. Luo Nan also adopted a defensive posture, preparing to meet it head on.

But this burning wraith actually didn’t throw itself over. Instead, it even retreated a few paces to draw out some distance between it and Luo Nan. Its blurry face continued to look slightly up and it cried out with a sound that ordinary people would find hard to detect, but the sharp hiss surged on the mental plane.

A sudden thought emerged in Luo Nan’s mind. A thought of the “Terrifying Roar” from yesterday on the warship came to mind in nearly an instant.

He didn’t have time to think further. The heavily chained crow was buzzing with its cry as it pierced the air to directly assault the burning wraith.

But compared to the giant surging wave of yesterday’s mental assault, the momentum of this roar was far quicker. By the time the heavily chained crow touched the burning wraith, Chen Xiaolin had already shrieked behind him, bursting out with feelings of terror. Her body collided with the wall of the elevator as she wished to forcefully escape. But she didn’t have the chance nor the choice at all, so her body went stiff with bulging eyes of terror.

And from her body soared a bloody red beam of light. The beam was cast directly towards the burning wraith. As soon as the bloody beam had split out of her body, she instantly felt drained and she passed out.

Luo Nan seriously wasn’t able to block this sort of incorporeal exchange. He had his hands full relying on the quelling of the heavily chained crow to be able to stabilize his mind and the boiling of his life force. The chains that streaked across the air were affected as well. It lost its unstoppable force from before; it reached a standstill outside the perimeter of the burning wraith, trembling intently.

At this point in time, the effects of the “Terrifying Roar” were far from over. The Black-Suited Male, who was evidently under the control of the burning wraith, let out a fleeting howl. He faced Xue Lei and threw himself into another assault.

Xue Lei was clearly influenced by Chen Xiaolin’s shriek. His body trembled, and he even lost the key moment to exert strength. But he didn’t take it lying down. He did the utmost with his remaining energy and exerted force to collide head on with a low snarl. The two met again in force against force, fiercely clashing with each other. This time Xue Lei only fell back half a step. He had hit with a fist and also even an elbow. It seemed like he hadn’t lost his steam for the time being.

Luo Nan was unable to feel delighted from this. This was because he could already see that the intense fighting and surging of emotions were the best catalyst for the burning wraith. It caused the life force of the two to transform into the bloody beams of light that flowed endlessly into the burning wraith floating in the air.

Yesterday’s method was like a low-heat slow-boiling of spore emission. Compare this to the current method of blood drawing and life-force sucking. Wasn’t this ten times more tyrannical?

The strength that the burning wraith possessed to interfere with reality already exceeded Luo Nan’s imagination. Luo Nan suspected that if the burning wraith, which only existed as an apparition of the void on the mental plane, were to continue to absorb life-force like this, it would be completely capable of turning nothingness into reality and appear on the material plane.

But what made him be on alert the most was the burning wraith’s calm behavior. The burning wraith was actually controlling its instinct to consume. It didn’t throw itself directly at Luo Nan. Instead, it was first increasing its own strength to the greatest degree possible, to increase its odds of success…… This could already be said to be an “intelligent” decision.

This monster was heading uninterrupted into becoming whole again. Indeed, to continue using the name given by Quantum Corporation, Human-Faced Arachnid, would be most suitable; it was a savage and cunning hunter. All methods it used were to strengthen itself or to weaken its prey. This made it hard to imagine just how powerful its completed form would be!

Luo Nan knew that the situation was growing far from good.

Aided by the offerings from Xue Lei and the Black-Suited Male, the total strength that Human-Faced Arachnid wielded was increasing like a boat on a rising tide.

Luo Nan’s heavily chained crow continued to try to penetrate the outer perimeter of the formless demonic body, and the Wraith Sign at the very front continued to do the utmost to consume all the energy it could. But there was a faint layer that they could not surpass. A few attempts of penetrating, of interfering, yet the Human-Faced Arachnid’s “core” remained imposing and unmoving. And moreover, it continued to strengthen endlessly amidst all this.

This Human-Faced Arachnid took most of this energy to strengthen itself. When this strengthening would come to an end, who knows just how terrifying the following attack would be.

As for Luo Nan himself, it seemed as if he had reached his limits?

Similar chaotic thoughts had flashed in his mind. Then they dispersed completely.

In reality, there was one more move he could do.

Luo Nan stopped looking at the Human-Faced Arachnid, closing his eyes. He forced himself to enter his Fixed Space. He had relied on the fortune of the past two days of difficulties, of tempering, to make considerable progress in his mental space. With the effort of a mere sudden flash of thought, the visualized diagram of the tetrahedron with its inscribed sphere and outer scribed sphere emerged in the void.

The heavily chained crow had come out of the central region of the diagram and was extending forth to try to penetrate into the deeper layers of the Human-Faced Arachnid. But no matter what it did, it couldn’t bridge that gap. It was far from reaching the overpowering might it had displayed when it had vanquished the very first burning wraith, the power that smashed everything as if it were rotten wood.

At first, Luo Nan believed that this was due to the power of the Human-Faced Arachnid. But now he had a different thought.

Maybe, the problem laid with himself.

What was his own state when the heavily chained crow had displayed its most powerful strength?

There was only one answer: Out-of-body State!

The sort of penetrating and clear feeling over everything unseen and substantial had never appeared again after his out-of-body experience.

Luo Nan didn't understand the reasoning behind this. But there was a threat placed ahead of him right now. He didn't have time to ponder over this. Drastic times called for drastic measures. He had to do the impossible, come hell or high water!

The out-of-body experience was a strange experience for Luo Nan. The first time he was able to come out of his body was due to Siege Hammer of the burning wraith and then the pulling of the heavily chained crow. He had to do something along those lines in order for him to have an out-of-body experience this time around. He performed the relevant telepathic thoughts to pass commands to the Wraith Sign using the heavily chained crow.

A fantastical vibrational response was fed back, washing over his entire body. Luo Nan's senses were much clearer this time around and he clearly touched upon the incorporeal veil. He didn't have the strength to puncture it, but he pulled in an external force to deliver an attack from both inside and outside. A hole was split open in this veil. He was no longer bound to his body, so he floated up.

Luo Nan still had his eyes closed, but his senses on the mental plane were unleashed completely. And at this moment, he welcomed the six incomparably bizarre gazing eyes of the Human-Faced Arachnid…...via his Soul Body State.

The heavily chained crow crackled with it's trembling cry, which seemed to have increased in detail and clarity. It was none other than this sort of subtle change that made Luo Nan instantly understand that his judgment was correct:

The gap that he could not surpass to touch upon the Human-Faced Arachnid was not related to his opponent at all. The most important cause laid exactly with his own fleshly body.

He needed to carefully study this issue later in the future.

The six eyes of the Human-Faced Arachnid flickered before him, looking eager to eat. Perhaps it felt that it had accumulated enough strength? Or perhaps the out-of-body state of Luo Nan looked to be much tastier and weaker?

Luo Nan abandoned his remaining distracting thoughts and looked straight at the Human-Faced Arachnid with no fear at all…… Was it time to give it another shot?

The battle could break out at any moment, but the safety hatch on the ceiling of the elevator exploded down in this instant. The blur of a human dropped at lightning speeds together with the safety hatch. The Black-Suited Male had just made his way precisely to the halfway point of the elevator and the hatch smashed over the top of his head.