Chapter 685: Inner weakness
Translator: Radiant Translations Editor: Radiant Translations
Present before him was a dim and withered world, vast and empty. Close by, an ugly and dead-looking flower stalk stood on a solitary rock, with a lifeless flower that appeared as though it would fall off at any moment.
“d.a.m.n! So ugly! How’s this better than staying in the illusion!” Simba’s voice immediately rang out in his Soul Sea. “What cursed lands! It looks like a waste to me!”
w.a.n.g Zhong laughed and replied, “Not everyone is like you.”
“That true. I’m the almighty Simba, the one and only Simba.”
“The Simba that will die if he doesn’t boast about himself.” w.a.n.g Zhong silently thought within his heart.
w.a.n.g Zhong didn’t make any random movements as he continued to act as if he was still in a stupor. At the same time, he opened up his mind, allowing Simba to observe the outside world, while focusing his attention onto the unique little flower before him. Despite it appearing weak and helpless, he could clearly sense the powerful energy within it. That should be some kind of strange plant. Within the dimensional world, strange plants were actually more dangerous than other beasts.
Strange expressions appeared on the others’ face, some radiating with malevolence, some with faint smiles. Clearly, they were already unable to extricate themselves from the stupor induced by the illusions they had been placed under. Not everyone had the same experience as w.a.n.g Zhong. In the dimensional worlds, the most frightening things to encounter weren’t the dimensional beasts. Instead, it was actually the mind or spiritual soul attacks that could not be properly defended against.
“Illusion Rose!” Simba exclaimed in the next instant. This fellow had a vast knowledge about the obscure dimensional worlds. However, the problem was that he would always need to personally see the object to recognise it, as though visual information was required to trigger some kind of memory recall. Nevertheless, this kind of “memory recall” wasn’t very accurate.
“What’s that?” w.a.n.g Zhong asked.
“That’s the weapon of the succubi from the legends!” replied Simba in a slightly more cautious tone, clearly more serious than before. “They’re often labelled as succubus by humans during the dark era. This Illusion Rose has always accompanied them whenever they appeared. Hmph! G.o.d d.a.m.n that thing, why do I have to mention its name!”
w.a.n.g Zhong stood silently for a moment. It would be troublesome if he had to go against that succubus. Gong Yi and the rest already had their souls led astray by it. At this moment, if he were to forcefully relocate them, their souls might be trapped in the illusion forever. This succubus was evidently a cunning beast.
Simba gawked for a while, as he was unable to think of a way out. “This monster is very vigilant. The Illusion Rose is just a bait. The real illusion master is hiding in the shadows, waiting for the moment when everyone is at their deepest point within its illusion. Only then will it appear and steal its preys’ souls. We’ve got to wait for it to appear.”
Understanding what Simba was saying, w.a.n.g Zhong kept his act up, while opening his senses and Heart’s Eye to carefully observe his surroundings.
The “succubi” had been projected onto Earth during the dark era. That had resulted in the most peculiar fights in the history of mankind. A top-ranking succubus had caused the Federation to suddenly lose contact with an entire city of 50 thousand people. Upon entering the city, they discovered all of the citizens had fallen into an illusion. Skinny and withered, their souls had ended up being food for the succubus, providing it with the energy required to stay on Earth. As a result, it was able to stay on Earth for 4 – 5 years.
It held the record for being the projected dimensional life form that had managed to stay the longest on Earth. Although it clearly didn’t possess a tyrannical combat power, it had resulted in tremendous losses for the entire Federation. Countless Heroic Soul Stage experts had fallen by its hands, and it remained an unsolvable problem for the next few years. This would later turn into a lesson that strengthened mankind in the aspect of the mind.
This was also one of the reasons why the Federation had treated illusion and mental-type life forms as their greatest enemies upon expanding into the Hyperdimension.
w.a.n.g Zhong’s Heart’s Eye wasn’t able to detect the existence of the succubus. Not only was it an expert in illusionary techniques, it was also an expert in concealment. It was able to evade detection by the Heart’s Eye, as if it didn’t even exist.
At the same time, various kinds of sounds rang out around w.a.n.g Zhong.
“Don’t kill her! Don’t kill her!” Not far away, Reynolds had already lost his cold and callous demeanour, having sunk deep into the illusionary realm created by the succubus.
Kneeling on the floor, terror and pain had taken over his entire face. He appeared to be begging someone: “Please! I’ll do anything you say! Anything… ah!!!”
Reynolds’ eyes shot open, instantly revealing a malevolent gaze. As this happened Soul Power exploded from his entire body, as though he was betting his life to move. Despite that, he was unable to move even a single inch.
Not far away from him was Gong Yi, who had a faint smile on his face. “The quality’s good, which means that his morals are decent. Although I’ll lose some bargaining chips, I’ll still bet my life!” In the next moment, Gong Yi looked as if he had been dunked into a dangerous situation, large beads of sweat flowing from his head.
On the other side, despite having an extremely strong will, Sister Hong was now kneeling on the ground, tears streaking down her face. There wasn’t the slightest presence of the infamous a.s.sa.s.sins, the “Queen of Hearts”. At this moment, she was looking mournfully into empty s.p.a.ce, as if she was pleading to a tall figure: “I won’t go to that place! I’ll find a proper job! We can work together, alright! I said I love you! I’ll take care of you for life… you, how could you let other men touch me?”
PA!
As if she had been slapped, she covered her cheeks as she sobbed painfully, her eyes filled with desolation, while an expression of complete loss surfaced on her face. Nevertheless, her eyes quickly turned hollow, before the pained expression gradually turned into numbness. Lying blankly on the ground, she seemed to have lost her soul. This continued for some time, until a glow of hatred and revenge started to radiate from her eyes, cold and callous. She had experienced and persevered through pain, and shed blood and sweat. Finally, slicing off something from the person before her, she proceeded it to rub it over that person’s face, and Sister Hong finally burst into laughter. In the next moment, it seemed like many other sisters had gathered by her side, and her att.i.tude slowly morphed into the style w.a.n.g Zhong was familiar with. Furthermore, she seemed to be extremely good at slicing off specific body parts, as her hands continued to repeat the same action over and over again.
“Why is she alway doing that! Even the almighty Simba can feel my b.a.l.l.s hurting!” Being simple-minded, Simba didn’t care as long as the illusionary world had no threat to w.a.n.g Zhong. With a casual wave of his hand, he slapped Big White away. “Scram off! Don’t block my show!”
The pitiful Little Xin was standing 4 – 5 meters away from w.a.n.g Zhong, and was also trapped in the illusionary world. However, at this moment, there was no fear or tense expression on her face that the others had shown when being forced to dive deep into their memories. Instead, her entire body was curled up into a bunch as she s.h.i.+vered continuously. Whimpering sounds rang out from her mouth, a clear sign of the extreme terror she had sunk into.
Plop!
As w.a.n.g Zhong continued to scout, Reynolds became the first person to collapse on the floor. His actions while being trapped in the illusion was the craziest of the bunch. With the continuous activation of his Heart Blade, his entire body had already withered, causing him to appear incomparably pale. Collapsing on the ground, he continued to twitch about. He seemed to attempt to climb up, but with a slip of his foot, he fell down once again.
w.a.n.g Zhong continued to watch quietly. If this was all the work of a succubus, it would come out to eat the life of its fresh prey during the moment of worst terror. Although he wasn’t too sure about other matters, he knew that it would make its appearance soon.
Da…
An exceedingly soft sound rang out before him, as a humanoid figure appeared behind the small withered flower.