Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 2734: Chapter 2735: Cognitive Impairment

At this moment, the Gray Merchant was like a high-speed spinning top. Upon landing, he directly smashed a large crater on the arena platform, showing how terrifying his current power was.

With the appearance of a pit on the arena platform, without needing to think, it was clear that the Wise Sovereign would issue a compensation reminder.

However, the Gray Merchant no longer cared about these rules. In a true battle, how could one indulge fully or be worthy of an opponent who fights freely by being constrained by these rules?

Ignoring the noise in his ears, the "top" reactivated, carrying an overwhelming dragon might, leaving a long trail on the arena platform, charging straight towards Angel.

It must be said that as long as the Crystal Earth Lizard does not reveal its head, all other parts are beautifully splendid.

Now, although the Gray Merchant has transformed into a spinning top, rolling around, he pulls out a rainbow-like trail of dust. This is formed from crushed gemstone powder, shimmering with radiant brilliance.

Observers saw a dreamy spectrum of colors, but for Angel, this shining wave of colors represented a terrifying crisis.

Angel’s forehead was faintly swelling. Facing this impending crisis, his whole scalp tingled and went numb; this was actually a kind of premonition warning, indicating that the next strike, at his current strength, was absolutely unmanageable.

Even Earl Mi constantly sent warnings to Angel at this moment.

Although the danger hadn’t truly descended upon him yet, Angel now understood why the Bloodline Wizards could dominate the same tier. This kind of terrifying oppression, this overwhelming tremor, and the horror of having nowhere to hide, vividly and clearly exposed the gap.

Bloodline Wizards are true battle machines, or rather... battle monsters!

From the feedback of his crisis premonition, Angel could basically confirm that the Gray Merchant was now seriously engaged, probably due to some notion of a "true battle", hence starting to go all out.

Facing such terrifying incoming, Angel naturally couldn’t just do nothing.

However, his approach puzzled the spectators.

Because he merely stretched out his hand and suddenly clenched. The blue lantern flowers above his head gradually came to a halt from their swaying state.

The entire sequence of actions seemed like the conclusion of a mute play. No energy was perceived within it by the crowd, and no anomaly was detected from an energy perspective.

Everyone was completely clueless about the significance of Angel’s actions until... they looked at the Gray Merchant.

The Gray Merchant remained in the form of a spinning top, rushing towards Angel with an unparalleled momentum. Initially, this might have been an inevitable collision, but strangely, as the Gray Merchant spun forward towards Angel, he suddenly deviated at an angle.

Originally, the Gray Merchant’s trajectory was bound to hit Angel. However, inexplicably, a noticeable deviation occurred in his path. This deviation caused the trajectory line to directly bypass Angel.

At first, the crowd thought the Gray Merchant had predicted Angel’s prediction, heading straight for Angel’s possible evasive route.

But results proved that Angel hadn’t moved at all, while the Gray Merchant bypassed Angel with a slight angle, continuing to roll out of the arena platform.

This slight angle intersected with Angel, even the luminescent aura surrounding the Gray Merchant just grazed past Angel.

Witnessing this scene, the crowd suddenly realized, Angel must have done something.

However, nobody understood exactly what he did. Even the Wise Sovereign in the air didn’t see any action from Angel.

It could even be said, the Gray Merchant himself was unaware of what he was doing.

From the Gray Merchant’s perspective, he was clearly rushing towards his opponent. Given the opponent’s giant gemstone body, how could the Gray Merchant possibly lose sight of a locked target?

The Gray Merchant kept Angel locked on from start to finish, yet somehow didn’t collide with Angel.

When the Gray Merchant saw nothing but the dark void outside the arena platform ahead, he exerted all his efforts to stop the immense inertia.

A long shattered trajectory on the ground extended to the edge of the platform, and at the edge, an even larger pit appeared than the one previously caused by the Gray Merchant’s landing.

It was clear how much effort the Gray Merchant exerted to avoid rushing into the void.

Finally managing to stop, the Gray Merchant immediately heard the voice of the black-robed referee warning about fines, and he slightly raised his head: "I will repair and compensate the venue after the battle is concluded."

Although the Gray Merchant didn’t explicitly say, the meaning was clear, hoping the referee wouldn’t keep nagging during the match.

How could the Wise Sovereign not understand the Gray Merchant’s intention? He lightly chuckled and replied with a cryptic tone: "Okay."

After his words, the Wise Sovereign suddenly pointed at the arena platform.

The Gray Merchant immediately felt an eerie silence at his ears; the external magical creature howls, the low whispers at the sidelines, all disturbing noises were blocked by the Wise Sovereign.

Having done this, the Wise Sovereign said again: "As you wish, there will be no external sounds disturbing you. I hope you’ll follow through after the match."

In the Wise Sovereign’s dialogue, there was still full of deep meaning.

The Gray Merchant merely thought that powerful beings like the black-robed referee preferred to speak with a mysteriously profound tone, so he didn’t mind the referee’s tone.

Instead, he nodded gratefully towards the referee.

Without the noisy sounds of the outside world, he indeed felt able to calm down better and engage in a confrontation of males.

However, the Gray Merchant failed to notice that the spectators on the sidelines were all staring at him in surprise.

The pink-haired girl shouted loudly at the Gray Merchant, but... it just so happened that the Wise Sovereign had blocked the sounds from the outside, leaving the Gray Merchant, who was solely focused on dueling with Angel, not looking towards the outside at all.

The Gray Merchant looked at the gemstone giant opposite, took a deep breath: "Your character is noble, and I respect you. Next, I won’t make mistakes again."

The Gray Merchant stated his opponent’s noble character because when he failed previously, the other could have pursued, but didn’t.

According to normal logic, one might think the opponent was belittling him. However, the Gray Merchant had identified his opponent as a "qualified" one from the start, seeking "true battle," hence according to this logic, the opponent not pursuing wasn’t belittling, but an embodiment of dignity, a noble character.

Whether Gray Merchant’s speculation was correct or not, let’s leave aside for now.

But those outside observing this situation showed increasingly odd expressions.

The Gray Merchant couldn’t hear their voices, but they could hear the sounds inside, from this point of view, the Wise Sovereign was quite considerate.

However, compared to these details, among the Traveling Merchant Organization personnel, their feelings towards the referee deliberately setting up a sound barrier at a critical moment were rather anger and helplessness.

Because... the Gray Merchant had a problem.

Moreover, the Gray Merchant’s problem was understood by the spectators clearly, while those involved had no awareness of it. If not pointed out, the Gray Merchant might remain stuck in the confusion indefinitely.

Exactly what the issue was, outsiders found difficult to express clearly, yet they distinctly saw that everything the Gray Merchant did was bizarre.

For instance, when the Gray Merchant stopped and spoke to the black-robed referee.

Subconsciously, he looked to the upper left air, even consistently believing the black-robed referee was in the upper left, yet the referee clearly was in the upper right.

The Gray Merchant was staring at empty air, speaking to the air!

It’s precisely because of discovering that the Gray Trader might have been hit that Fen Mo screamed, "Wrong, wrong! The direction is wrong!", hoping the Gray Trader would quickly realize his problem.

However, the judge raised a sound barrier at this moment.

How could this not make them feel angry? Although they knew the judge was likely in league with the opponent, such blatant bias really left them cold and helpless.

They hoped the Gray Trader would notice the anomaly quickly, but they were still too naive.

The Gray Trader said a bunch of "high-minded" words to his opponent, but he wasn’t facing the mysterious wizard who claimed to be Earl Mi at all, just a patch of air.

Earl Mi was clearly standing on the other side of the Gray Trader!

"What do we do? The Gray Trader still hasn’t realized something’s wrong." Fen Mo was anxiously jumping up and down, wishing she could rush into the arena.

"Worrying is useless." A slightly bored voice came from behind, it was the Shepherd, who didn’t know when he had woken up: "It’s normal for the master not to notice now. He should realize once his second attack misses again."

"You just like saying discouraging things. The shapeshifter across is so cunning, who knows if he’ll let the master launch a second strike, it’s all a mystery." Fen Mo retorted.

The Shepherd paused: "Shapeshifter?"

"It’s that guy called Earl Mi. One moment he feels like Shadow Series, the next like Earth Series, isn’t that a shapeshifter?" Fen Mo said earnestly.

The Shepherd said: "No matter who the Gray Trader’s opponent is, they must be your senior. Aren’t you afraid of being resented?"

Fen Mo didn’t know how to refute for a moment, pouting: "Anyway, they can’t hear us now."

The Shepherd pointed to the opposite side: "The person inside can’t hear, but the people outside can. Haven’t you noticed there’s an apprentice glaring at you for quite a while now?"

Fen Mo looked over and saw a Wizard Apprentice standing very close to Red Sword Dox, glaring at her hatefully.

Perhaps feeling guilty, Fen Mo glanced over and immediately looked away.

The Shepherd: "Putting aside other matters, aren’t you at all curious about the methods of Master Earl Mi?"

Fen Mo: "What’s there to be curious about?"

The Shepherd didn’t respond this time, but instead, the Magic Elephant spoke: "Previously in the corridor of the Carrion Squirrel, the Gray Trader clearly sensed the presence of an Illusion Node. We’ve always suspected there must be an Illusionist Wizard on the other side. But so far, they’ve yet to show up."

The Magic Elephant paused and said to Fen Mo: "Don’t you think that the methods Master Earl Mi is using now resemble an illusion technique?"

The Magic Elephant was just stating a fact, but after he finished, the Shepherd added to Fen Mo: "Don’t forget, you’re part of the Illusion Series yourself. If the opponent is indeed an Illusionist Wizard, aren’t you sensitive to it?"

Fen Mo opened her mouth, suddenly not knowing how to reply.

She could only look towards the Wicked Lady, hoping to hear from her that the opponent wasn’t an Illusionist Wizard.

However, the Wicked Lady calmly said: "Earlier, I didn’t sense any fluctuations from an Illusion Node, so I don’t know if it’s an Illusion Series. But this method does seem somewhat like it’s from the Illusion Series."

Even the Wicked Lady thought it looked like Illusion Series, making Fen Mo a bit embarrassed. As an Illusion Series apprentice, she didn’t sense anything, yet others from different series pointed it out to her...

The Shepherd: "You’re from the Illusion Series. If Master Earl Mi is an Illusionist Wizard, what type of illusion do you think he’s using?"

Although the Shepherd’s question was normal, Fen Mo felt humiliated... Most importantly, she couldn’t lose her temper.

After a moment of silence, Fen Mo said: "If it really is an illusion, it could be misleading the senses."

After Fen Mo spoke, the Wicked Lady shook her head: "From the outside, it indeed seems like a sensory misdirection, but affecting the senses isn’t exactly high-level illusion. The Gray Trader should be able to notice, yet he hasn’t, so it’s probably not sensory misdirection."

Sensory misdirection refers to the manipulation of the five senses, which is the foundation of the Illusion Series.

For example, when first learning Illusion Series, it’s all about using illusions to deceive the opponent’s eyes, which is visual. Then it could be auditory, olfactory, tactile... all these fall under sensory misdirection.

In the Wicked Lady’s view, if it really were sensory misdirection, it would likely be primarily visual guidance. But visual guidance is the most basic illusion; how could the Gray Trader not see through it?

Although the Gem Dragon Bloodline has strong resistance to physical attacks and weak resistance to spiritual ones, this doesn’t mean the Gray Trader’s spiritual resistance is weak.

It’s important to note that the previous stage of the Jewel Dragon is—Crystal Earth Lizard.

The Crystal Earth Lizard is extremely resistant to physical elements, moderate to physical résistance, but highly resistant to spiritual attacks.

As a Blood Origin Wizard, the Gray Trader certainly inherited the strengths of the Crystal Earth Lizard when optimizing his bloodline, and his spiritual resistance is definitely not weak.

It’s impossible for him to be deceived by low-level illusions.

The Wicked Lady’s view was actually the thought of most people present, including the Wise Sovereign.

However, reality was quite different from their thoughts; rather, Fen Mo’s conjecture was actually closest to the truth.

The illusion used by Angel really was an illusion that impacted the senses.

It’s just that this illusion affects not only the senses but also extends from "senses" to a deeper level: perception.

Simply influencing the senses sometimes might not even fool an apprentice. However, if perception is also deceived, then waking up on one’s own becomes very difficult.

So-called deception of perception is actually about making all "self-rationalizations," which must be self-consistent in one’s cognition.

To give an inappropriate example, someone with red-green color blindness finds it hard to realize that their color perception is skewed. Red-green color blindness is a condition-induced perceptual bias, somewhat different from Angel’s use of illusions to deceive perception, but they share similarities in terms of cognitive impairment.

Turning what’s thought to be, into a coherent loop of logic in the brain, this is what’s called cognitive impairment.

...

During the time Angel let Earl Mi duel with the Gray Trader, he wasn’t just "idle"; aside from searching for abnormal emotions, he was also contemplating the duel and when it would be best for him to intervene.

The final conclusion was that intervening during close contact was ideal, so with Earl Mi acting as a cover on the outside, Angel could make subtle moves behind the scenes.

Therefore, when Earl Mi’s fist materialized and penetrated the Gray Trader’s gemstone shield, hitting him directly in the chest, Angel made his move.

The illusion, long prepared, was directly attached to the Gray Trader through the energy wave from the punch.

Injecting it directly into Gray Trader’s body to influence from within would have been optimal. But Angel never underestimated the physicality of Bloodline Wizards; to avoid detection, an external attachment was safest.

Moreover, Earl Mi’s element mimicry simulated the Gray Trader’s external energy properties, masking the residual illusion from Angel.

At that time, the illusion showed no signs of activation. Plus, with the Power of the Gemstone acting as cover, Gray Trader didn’t detect it immediately.

At that moment, Angel hadn’t figured out how to use this illusion yet. It was merely a preliminary move, waiting for the right moment to activate it.

Angel just didn’t expect the opportunity to come so quickly.