Chapter 176: Backlash
Wang Hao was feeling euphoric after all the teams that he encountered. On the face of his Imprerial Lightning, all of them folded, with no desire to fight back.
“If I could just jump over the wall....” Of course with the power restriction in the trial, Wang Hao cannot successfully vault over the border wall. He shook his head sadly, clearly lamenting the lost chance to loot more items.
After he encountered 22 teams, he noticed a nearby energy fluctuation. Wang Hao grinned, clearly aware who this person was.
It was Siwang Wangzi!
No more words were needed to describe what happened next.
They met up, and they were about to fight when the Dream Mist appeared.
Upon seeing this, everyone in the mountain except Wang Hao paled in fear. Wang Hao just stood there, clearly not aware on what this mist was.
“What are you doing? Let’s hide!” Roxy hissed as she grabbed Wang Hao’s hand. Siwang Wangzi’s group thought of the same thing as they attempted to use their treasures to protect themselves.
But it was already too late. Before anyone of them could make any actions, the mist swallowed them whole, robbing them of their consciousness.
.......
“Nggh...” Wang Hao opened his eyes as he felt his body regaining the ability to move. He looked at his teammates, and he realized that they were all asleep. Roxy lay curled on the ground, hugging a log as her body pillow.
Old Billy just lay flat, not moving at all. Wang Hao sighed in relief when he felt that Old Billy was still alive. As for the armored man, he was sleeping while standing.
“Dang, is this guy a horse?” Wang Hao then turned his attention on the surroundings.
When he saw the mist appearing in the mountain earlier, Wang Hao instinctively knew with his bloodline that the mist will bring them to an unknown area. Wang Hao can resist its effect, but he realized that if he did this, he will be the only one left in the mountain.
If others disappeared due to that mist and Wang Hao was the only one remaining, he will be under some scrutiny.
Thus, Wang Hao had no choice but to go with the flow.
What Wang Hao saw around him was confusing. The environment constantly shifted, as if it could not stay mobile at all. Some of the objects transformed at random moments. The only thing constant here were souls like Wang Hao and his teammates.
“Ah, this must be the Dreamworld.” With his factual memory still intact, Wang Hao was able to correlate the sights that he saw to the description of the Dreamworld.
“From what I can remember from the books I read, going to the Dreamworld requires a powerful soul.” Wang Hao cocked his head as he remembered about the characteristics of the Underworld Residents.
“Hmm... everyone in the Underworld were soul bodies, strengthened by the Underworld Tactics. As for me, my soul is inherently powerful due to my energy manipulation. That means any of us can live in the Dreamworld. But why are we brought here?” Wang Hao was about to start exploring when he heard a voice that made him sigh in resignation.
“Hahaha! Wang Hao! Today is the day you will meet your death!” Siwang Wangzi’s boisterous laughter echoed behind Wang Hao. Siwang Wangzi was clearly overjoyed for some reason. He tightened his grip on his lamp as he declared,
“With us being here on the Dreamworld, you cannot have any way to escape! No rules can save you now. Feel free to experience my full power!” Siwang Wangzi was about to start his offensive when Wang Hao dully replied,
“You know, I know nothing about what happened with us being brought here, care to tell me what’s happening?”
“Why should I? You will disappear anyway!” Siwang Wangzi ignored Wang Hao’s query as his body started to change.
Black runes covered his skin as his body increased in size. Two horns sprouted on his head, curling outward with some runes on it. His hair turned black as it increased in length, reaching his foot. A black cape appeared on his back as black boots covered his feet and a black mask covered his face.
The black runes on his skin were emanating a powerful death qi. This death qi revolved around his body as his left hand clutched a scythe, making him appear like the harbinger of death.
Siwang Wangzi brandished his scythe as he said,
“Now have you regretted ever coming here?”
“Well I do not, but what I can say is that your costume is so freaking cool!” Wang Hao did not lie as he said what he was thinking now. In fact, he was actually quite envious upon seeing Siwang Wangzi’s current appearance. “Your transformation sequence even beats those magical girl transformations that I watched before!”
Siwang Wangzi widened his eyes when he heard what Wang Hao said. He roared in anger as he said,
“You dare insult the Yama Bloodline? You dare compare this noble form of mine to a petty costume? With you insulting the Yama Bloodline, I, Siwang Wangzi, will personally administer the punishment!”
He swung his scythe downwards, trying to split Wang Hao into two.
Death qi revolved around his scythe, further increasing its might. Siwang Wangzi knew that with his Yama Bloodline, the death qi that he produces can damage a soul, as long as the enemy’s power level were at most a Stage higher than him.
Siwang Wangzi was currently at the Fifth Stage of the Underwrold Tactics. At his stage, the daos of death were imprinted directly on his soul body, ensuring a drastic rise in power. Aside from that, he also had his own domain, that will be a great help on his combat power.
Wang Hao was just a newbie in the Underworld. He had no time to even get a glimpse of the Underworld Tactics. In that case, Wang Hao disintegrating from his attack was a certainty already.
“Hmm... the material used for this scythe was quite good. Care to give this scythe to me?” Wang Hao nonchalantly held the blade of the scythe as he inspected it. “Hey, I have lots of money here, maybe you can sell this scythe to me.”
“This can’t be happening!” Siwang Wangzi roared as he raised the sythe and hacked it down to Wang Hao once more. But Wang Hao just used his right hand again to catch the scythe. Siwang Wangzi’s eyes widened when he realized that the force of his attack dissipated upon contacting with Wang Hao’s palm.
Siwang Wangzi then let out monstrous amounts of death qi and he then covered Wang Hao with it. To his horror, all the death qi that contacted Wang Hao’s body disappeared, as if they went somewhere else.
“Death Zone!” Siwang Wangzi had no choice but to use his domain on Wang Hao. To ensure that its power was at its peak, he made the width of the domain to be around a meter only. With this area, the might of his domain will be concentrated.
But Siwang Wangzi’s expectations was once again crushed when he saw Wang Hao not damaged at all.
“You forced me to do this!” Siwang Wangzi waved his scythe as his death domain rushed towards the scythe. He then uttered with some difficulty,
“Slash of Death!”
Once a practitioner reaches the Fifth Stage, their main way of combat depends on their domain. Aside from the domain, there were also numerous abilities granted by their domain. What Siwang Wangzi used was his strongest killing move.
He decided to use this because he knew something was fishy with Wang Hao’s physique. Thus, he decided to use his sure-kill move to beat him once and for all.
His ‘Slash of Death’ amalgamated all of his insights on the dao of death. As such, he was sure that Wang Hao will not be able to survive the attack of the daos itself.
Wang Hao tilted his head upon seeing the incoming scythe. He brought both his hands together as he muttered,
“Seal!”
Siwang Wangzi movements slowed down, as if his body was moving through a viscous liquid. He roared, managing to shake off this strange seal in just half a second. His scythe then continued moving downward towards Wang Hao.
But within that half a second interval, Wang Hao suddenly disappeared, appearing behind Siwang Wangzi.
Everything that happened in this clash happened so quickly that Siwang Wangzi was not able to change the trajectory of his scythe.
“Boom!” The scythe hit the ground, producing powerful shockwaves that hit Wang Hao. But Wang Hao just shrugged it off. As for the death daos on that attack, it was mostly focused on the ground. Its remnants were dodged by Wang Hao by him continuously teleporting.
“How can you use space-time magic!” Siwang Wangzi roared unwillingly. He raised his scythe once more, clearly trying to attack Wang Hao one more time.
But Wang Hao then waved his hand as he said,
“You know, I can mostly survive attacks against any practitioners. As for the dao attacks, I can just dodge it. The only problem I have was that my attack power was limited right now.” Wang Hao clenched his hands as he continued talking.
“The current me right now can only have the combat prowess of a Second Stage Practitioner. As such, any attacks that I use right now cannot even hurt you. But there is one thing that I can do.” Siwang Wangzi then heard rumbling sounds as Wang Hao crossed his arms in front of him.
“I can just move the energy in the Dreamworld to hit you.” Siwang Wangzi paled when he saw large amounts of Dream Mist rushing towards him.
Wang Hao’s face turned pale as he urged the mist to move further. “What I do right now only slightly violates the restrictions placed on me. You can compare what I do right now to a river. I am not allowed to hit you with a punch as powerful as the river flow. So I just diverted the path of the river to hit you. In this case, I redirected the movements of the mist towards you. Have fun surviving this.”
Siwang Wangzi then screamed in horror as the Dream Mist covered him. He flailed in panic as he saw his body disappearing.
Wang Hao let out a sigh or relief when he saw that his gamble was right. Well, almost all parts of this fight were a gamble.
Wang Hao was sure that he can survive the death qi and brute attacks of Siwang Wangzi. The only thing that he was worried about was the killing move of Siwang Wangzi.
When Siwang Wangzi used his ‘Slash of Death’. Wang Hao then used one of the available abilities of the Space-Time Gyroscope, ‘Slow’. He acquired this ability along with the teleportation ability.
Just like what the name says, ‘Slow’ uses the power of space-time to slow down the opponents movements. How long the slow would last depends on the power difference between Wang Hao and his opponent.
In this case, Wang Hao was at the Second Stage while Siwang Wangzi was at the Fifth Stage. This large power difference made Wang Hao’s ‘Slow’ to only last for half a second.
As for why he muttered ‘Seal’ instead of ‘Slow’, Wang Hao thought it was way cooler to say ‘Seal’ rather than ‘Slow’.
After he slowed down Siwang Wangzi, he used his teleportation to dodge at that time instant.
Wang Hao then redirected the flow of the Dream Mist to hit Siwang Wangzi.
This was almost allowable, since the Ten Stage Flower Seal primarily focuses on restricting his actual combat power. As for the external sources of power, Wang Hao can skirt around the restrictions of the seal. He can manipulate outside sources of energy, but he can only do so in exchange for a backlash. After all, the seal placed on him came from a Universe Artifact. It does not allow any loopholes to happen.
But the backlash he will get was enough for him to beat Siwang Wangzi.
With his bloodline, Wang Hao sensed that a soul exposed to large amounts of the Dream Mist will disintegrate, becoming particles that will be part of the Dreamworld. Small amounts of it can only knock out and drag the souls.
Wang Hao took advantage of this fact as he covered Siwang Wangzi with massive amounts of the Dream Mist.
Wang Hao was not able to hear Siwang Wangzi’s death throes as he clutched his head in pain. His manipulation of the mist earlier brought back a massive backlash to him. He gave a rueful smile as he felt that he could not manipulate and absorb any kinds of energy right now.
Aside from that, he also felt his access on his Space-Time Gryroscope disappearing. That means he also cannot use its abilities right now.
This was the backlash brought by him using external energy to kill a Fifth Stage Practitioner. Wang Hao had a placid expression on his face as he cannot just use stunts like this everytime. Siwang Wangzi was a special case, since his death is a must for Wang Hao.
The loss of these abilities brought Wang Hao to his most vulnerable state yet. Even a First Stage Practitioner can easily kill him now.
As for when he can regain his abilities, Wang Hao had not idea yet.
Once Wang Hao felt the throbbing pain on his head had cleared up, he looked towards Siwang Wangzi’s spot. He saw no signs of SIwang Wangzi. The only things left at his spot were his equipment, clothes and a storage ring.
Wang Hao sighed in relief after seeing that Siwang Wangzi was gone for good.
“Good thing it was only me and that pervert that were awake. Because of that, nobody else saw me using my abilities.” Wang Hao thought as he collected his loot. He only dared to use his abilities in front of Siwang Wangzi since he was sure that that pervert will die.
Wang Hao then froze in place, as his eyes stared on a certain direction. There, he can see a woman’s head peeking out of the boulder. Her face held an expression of shock as she stared at Wang Hao with her eyes wide open.
Wang Hao sighed, realizing that this woman saw everything that happened earlier. Wang Hao then gave a sly smile to the woman as he said,
“Miss Gabrielle, care to have a chat with me?”
“Eeeekk!”
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