Chapter Seventy-Five: A Child Hundreds of Years Old

The essence of a psionic cultivator’s combat style lies in playing their hand. Plotting, setting up, calculating, deducing, and then staking their life on the outcome. With auxiliary brains, expanded cerebral capacities, and various ascension enhancements becoming standard, battles have largely become exercises in computation to seek the optimal solution. Once every calculable variable is accounted for, what remains is the cultivator’s own potential.

Thus, when Lan Yi learned he would have to face the Hundred-Eyed Giant in a disadvantageous environment, he didn’t protest the unfairness or hesitate. Instead, he pondered the solution.

Clearly, with his current strengthened spirit-forged body, even bolstered by Fate Cluster enhancements, it was unrealistic for Lan Yi to fight for long at a depth of a thousand meters underwater. Even if he could withstand the pressure, there would still be problems with oxygen deprivation, self-injury, expansion, and locking onto the enemy.

As for the Hundred-Eyed Giant, the target of the hunt, once the steel nail pinning it was removed, its extraordinary adaptability and combat instincts would surely compel it to make the deep sea its battleground. Even if it couldn’t deal with Lan Yi, the freed giant could simply escape and hide, resurfacing to cause chaos once Lan Yi left. At that point, the entire artificial divine realm would be in peril.

In other words, even with the first node of his Fate Diagram strengthened, Lan Yi’s only option for hunting the Hundred-Eyed Giant was to set a trap, lure it onto land, and confine it within a Thunder Pool Array to slowly refine it.

Truly troublesome. This was just like Jin’s style.

If handled poorly, not only would his temporary passage rights be lost, but even the resource base Lan Yi had so painstakingly established could be utterly ruined. Yet, it seemed Lan Yi had already found his solution—it would come down to his mastery of Daoist arts.

While Lan Yi mused, Jin Buhuan, who was busy gathering followers, was also observing his old friend.

Jin Buhuan understood perfectly. His old friend wasn’t treating this as a perilous battle at all, but with the cold, ruthless mindset of a hunter facing a stationary prey—he even had the leisure to consider how to slaughter it most efficiently!

Was a juvenile Hundred-Eyed Giant not even worthy of being considered a real fight to him?

Jin Buhuan wore the strained grin of the Mighty King. The main world is in for a blessing!

“I’ve got it. I’ll just bring it up,” Lan Yi suddenly exclaimed, as if struck by inspiration.

Bring it up?

An eighty-meter-tall Hundred-Eyed Giant, weighing thousands of tons—how did Lan Yi intend to lift it from the seabed? When had he acquired such divine strength? Or perhaps some method to leverage such power?

Lan Yi closed his eyes. In the next moment, under the sunlight, a twisted, deep blue aura visibly shimmered around him. Then, a figure tore itself free from the shining nodes of his Fate Cluster.

Daoist Art—Magnetic Fiend Walker.

The electromagnetic avatar emerged and, in an instant, plunged into the sea.

The Bose-Einstein condensate form of the electromagnetic avatar moved through the water unimpeded; unless it encountered a large mass of metal or a strong magnetic field, it was as elusive and swift as a spirit in a novel.

Sharing its vision, Lan Yi soon discovered a massive rift on the ocean floor. From deep within, a faint yellowish glow seeped out.

The electromagnetic avatar rippled slightly but pressed on, slipping through the uneven fissure. In just a few dozen seconds, Lan Yi was staring at the juvenile Hundred-Eyed Giant, nailed to a cliff and nearly fused with its surroundings.

It appeared lifeless, yet the violent energy contained within it rivaled even the subterranean river of magma below!

The electromagnetic avatar drifted and scouted the area before Lan Yi abruptly severed the connection.

Opening his eyes at the surface, Lan Yi first looked up. In his colorless gaze, the geomagnetic lines of force stood out, while other distractions faded away.

A hum resonated! The energy crystal behind Lan Yi’s head instantly swelled severalfold! Energy was drawn from the geomagnetic field and the fierce winds, channeled through the reinforced psionic furnace into the energy crystal’s cavity, transforming into lightning psionics ready at hand!

Daoist Art of Divine Sky Peak—Thunder Pool Array!

Daoist Art—Domain of Thunder Soldiers!

Daoist Art of Divine Sky Peak—Demon-Suppressing Cords!

With a bold flourish, Lan Yi unleashed three high-consumption Daoist arts simultaneously—instantly, the weather shifted!

The once clear sky rapidly darkened as thunderclouds gathered, rolling and roaring with thunder, lightning flashing so wildly that the leaden clouds looked like a churning pool of thunder. From the slicing geomagnetic lines below, wave after wave of furious lightning gathered, bound and commanded by the cultivator’s will.

Thunder Pool Array—this was Lan Yi’s most powerful technique to date. The longer the thunder was stockpiled, the greater its destructive force, until it could obliterate all on the surface.

The Domain of Thunder Soldiers provided an ideal strike anchor and energy field above the sea.

One after another, blue-white “Azure Glory” rods pierced deep into the ocean, reaching the thousand-meter abyss. The Demon-Suppressing Cords began to crazily electrolyze the seawater.

This was the real show.

A hydrogen atom is the smallest atom by radius.

Hydrogen gas is notoriously difficult to gather and store under normal conditions, as it tends to leak and escape; usually, it must be produced on-site for immediate use.

The electromagnetic avatar, being a Bose-Einstein condensate, possessed a subtle trait: superfluidity.

Summoned once more by Lan Yi, the electromagnetic avatar dove deeper into the earth. This time, it didn’t linger near the Hundred-Eyed Giant, but descended further—about four thousand meters down—before stopping. Here, the “Azure Glory” rods, extending down with brute force and powered by a constant flow of electricity, were executing the Demon-Suppressing Cords’ electrolysis.

Hydrogen, oxygen, and chlorine gases were being produced in abundance.

The electromagnetic avatar began a five-hundred-meter reciprocating motion along the extended Domain of Thunder Soldiers.

In a flash, the blue-white electromagnetic avatar formed a superfluid cord, gathering and compressing the rapidly rising hydrogen and oxygen, bundling them together in a two-to-one ratio, forming ring after ring of strange, descending chambers, piling ever deeper under the force of superfluidity!

Lan Yi’s intention was clear.

With the electromagnetic avatar in play, such dangerous, potentially fatal preparations could be accomplished with ease. Then, beneath the Hundred-Eyed Giant’s very backside, he would detonate a supercharged bomb with the energy of a magma river.

The bomb’s force would be magnified by the incompressibility of the liquid medium, amplifying both power and thrust—guaranteed to give the Hundred-Eyed Giant an unprecedented lift!

If the environment was unfavorable, he would simply change it. If the target was highly adaptable, then he would just overwhelm it with excessive force in a single blow.

Lan Yi refused to believe that, with so many Daoist arts poised to strike and pummel, the juvenile Hundred-Eyed Giant could withstand being torn to charred pieces in midair. Granting a psionic cultivator the initiative was the nightmare of nearly all life in the artificial divine realm—for once the cultivator made their move, it was likely their prey would be slain outright without even being able to resist!

Jin Buhuan hesitated, wanting to speak. He was tempted to say, “Why not just call it your win and spare that centuries-old child?”