Chapter 493: Restriction as the Main Focus

Chapter 493: Restriction as the Main Focus

He thought about that kind of movement that could cover a thousand miles in a single step, and then about the sudden departure methods he’d seen before from witches like Dan Marina, or Loris, or even Irene—that very sudden way of disappearing. After Zheng Yichen truly decided to start learning the skill of Spatial Expansion, he had already asked about it. It wasn’t some unique secret method; it was just one aspect of Spatial Manipulation.

Compared to combat, if used solely for movement, it was much simpler. For actual combat use, it involved too many variables, so those who weren’t particularly proficient would only screw themselves over without achieving any real auxiliary effect.

Irene had stated very confidently back then that among all the witches Zheng Yichen knew, only she could bring Spatial Manipulation techniques to their peak in combat. As for the likes of Dan Marina, at best they could be wary of avoiding being ‘instantly hit.’

Whatever. Zheng Yichen figured it out. Mastering Spatial Manipulation was a uniquely flashy, god-like skill. But wanting to learn it seemed a distant prospect. Better to start with the basics. Forget other things; just being able to double the volume of a small pouch would be enough. Hmm… Being able to enter an ordinary person’s doorway would roughly count as getting started.

“Captain, guess what book he’s reading?” With Zheng Yichen, this ‘max-level account,’ paving the way, their journey to the Stone Forest was almost too easy. So, Green and the others relaxed their mindset. Before encountering truly troublesome Human Forms, these faceless Human Forms were just cannon fodder. They could handle ordinary people, but against our team, they weren’t even worth a glance.

Not to mention Zheng Yichen’s utterly unreasonable behavior of opening with a huge Fireball upon meeting them.

“I don’t know,” Oss shook his head. That book was just a bunch of papers stitched together, with two pieces of cardboard as covers. How could he know what book it was? Besides, whether Zheng Yichen was actually reading it remained to be seen. They had been walking this whole time, and Zheng Yichen hadn’t turned a single page. No matter how small the print, he could have finished several pages by now?

“Captain, why don’t you go ask?”

Oss didn’t speak, just glanced at this Green Hair guy. Was this how you treated your own captain!?

“It’s not anything important, just learning Spatial Expansion,” Zheng Yichen overheard their whispering and gently shook the book he had been looking at the whole way, which still hadn’t moved past the first page.

Ahem. Green coughed twice upon hearing this, as if choking. He was from an Alien Race, with traces of Elf Lineage in his ancestry. Hmm… So his lifespan far exceeded that of ordinary people, and even his physical changes were very slow. Despite his youthful appearance, unreasonably speaking, his age could rival the combined ages of Oss, Fred, and Garcia. Therefore, he knew many things.

Learning Spatial Expansion—was this something ordinary people could learn? Those Expansion Pouches were all made by people who had mastered Spatial Expansion techniques. He had once had a chance to come into contact with related knowledge. Just the knowledge of Spatial Expansion alone could be accessed if your family background was sufficient.

But not many were willing to seek it out. After all, people, though sometimes arrogant and overconfident, often also knew their limits. Coming into contact with knowledge that was almost 100% difficult to learn, and having to pay a price for it—why bother seeking out such things for no reason?

The time Green came into contact with it was just a coincidence. He learned about it without paying any price. However, after learning a bit, he gave up. For those without the Talent, coming into contact with such knowledge was truly despair-inducing. Even those with Talent had to waste a lot of time to achieve any substantive results, let alone those without.

Now Zheng Yichen was learning such knowledge… So did he have the Talent or not? Regardless, after finding out what book Zheng Yichen was reading, he just wanted to say… This dragon is really damn hardworking!!

“Did you learn it?”

Lena asked. She was wearing a lightweight protective suit, somewhat different from the Special Combat Suit, but with better protective capabilities. It was custom-made. Because she had sought out Zheng Yichen before, no one would suspect anything now that she had produced this lightweight protective suit.

“…” Zheng Yichen looked at this woman. Asking such a question was definitely on purpose, right? Without a second word, he directly displayed the first page of the book, pointing to a pattern that resembled an upside-down bowl, covered in densely packed small dots and lines. It looked even more complex than a Magic Rune Array. “Looking at this thing, what do you think?!”

This damn thing was the foundational knowledge!!

Start with one diagram, comprehend the content entirely on your own. Although there were supplemental explanations… Zheng Yichen still found it somewhat confusing. The Spatial Expansion technique wasn’t Magic; it was an external influence on Spiritual Power and Mana. At first glance, not using Magic Rune Arrays seemed convenient once learned. But in reality, it was precisely the absence of the Magic Rune Array step that made the learning process more difficult and complex.

“Dizzy.”

“Dizzy!” Fred grumbled. He had just given the upside-down bowl diagram on the page a careful look, and the slight dizziness told him this knowledge wasn’t something he could handle. He also had no interest in Magic or such things, so after looking away, he quickly recovered.

As for using such a pattern to mess with people in combat, it generally wouldn’t work. After all, the dizziness it caused wasn’t actual vertigo but a mental discomfort. It was like people with acrophobia looking at scenery from behind tempered glass—heart-wrenching and uncomfortable, yet knowing… it was safe.

In combat, qualified Warriors could basically overcome such discomfort. Moreover, revealing a complex, dizzying Magic Rune Array during a fight was less effective than directly forming it into a Magic attack and blasting it out.

“Impressive…” Green had been exposed to such knowledge before and had some understanding, so he wasn’t dizzy. If he felt dizzy, it would be from staring at the complex pattern and getting tangled up. However, Zheng Yichen’s diagram was somewhat different from what he had seen before. It was clearly marked as the introductory part, yet the starting point seemed much higher than what he had encountered. Back then, he had seen many similar patterns, around twenty-plus, and they were simpler and clearer. Zheng Yichen had only one, meaning the difficulty should be higher… Who was messing with him?

It didn’t seem like someone was messing with him, though. It looked more difficult, but the annotations were very rich, greatly reducing the learning difficulty. Moreover, this single pattern was more explicit and distinct. After Green studied it carefully for a while, he even felt a faint sense of clarity, better than staring at twenty-plus irregular patterns before.

The person who created this… was definitely an expert!

“We’re here.” Garcia looked at some guards ahead. Those guards wore Special Combat Suits similar to theirs and masks, though their masks were simpler but made of clearly better materials. They also had The Church’s emblem on them—they were from The Church.

Zheng Yichen looked at those patrolling Church members and suddenly felt that if their swords, blades, and even spears were replaced with Firearms… coupled with the faintly visible, zombie-like figures in the Stone Forest, this was a veritable Forbidden Zone straight out of a biohazard crisis!

This area had a Barrier set up by the Sanctuary Church. Those active ‘Human Forms’ in this region couldn’t crawl out. After arriving here, Zheng Yichen, as the only one not even wearing a Special Combat Suit, was of course very conspicuous. But after seeing him, those patrolling Church members were no longer surprised. Zheng Yichen was practically the only non-human in the entire Lockdown Zone…

The Alchemical Puppets he made might look human-like, but they weren’t real people. Whether they had protection or not didn’t matter. If there was a problem, he could handle it himself. Even inspections weren’t necessary. The reason? The Church knew some things but hadn’t explained it to them. However, orders had been given, and it wasn’t their place to worry. The simple reason Zheng Yichen could avoid inspection was that some parts of the Alchemical Puppets were maintained with solidifying potions for long periods. Flesh Seeds simply couldn’t infect them.

“Be careful once you go in. Avoid these areas; they’re very dangerous.” A Church member handed a map to Oss. After recording their information, he said the first map was free, applicable to the whole team. After that, anyone wanting a new one would have to pay. These maps didn’t come for free; they were painstakingly explored bit by bit by the Church members. Of course, they wouldn’t be given away forever.

Oss glanced at the markings on the map and nodded slightly. Originally, something like a map wouldn’t be very useful in the Stone Forest, as the stone pillars would change from time to time. But after the Church became fully involved here, they had established many ‘markers.’ These markers were products of a light and shadow Magic, having no substantial effect. They simply created visible but intangible, even hard-to-remove ‘light paths’ in certain locations.

These light paths served as reference points for using the map. Areas marked red on the map were high-danger zones, yellow were medium-danger, and blank areas were unexplored. Adventurers interested could receive corresponding items from them to conduct exploration… The Stone Forest was vast. Relying solely on the Church to explore was inefficient. By involving Adventurers or even Mercenaries, they could free up some personnel for other tasks.

Such as completely resolving the Stone Forest trouble. Previously, this place was indestructible, but now it showed signs of collapse, presenting a good opportunity to eliminate the hidden dangers here once and for all. Even though the Undying Witch was reportedly killed, everything she left behind needed to be cleared.

“And, would you like to accept a commission?” A Church member checked the records in his Magic Weapon Summoning Book… Hmm, this record was possible due to some cooperation between the Church and the Mercenary Guild, allowing a certain degree of access to partial information of Adventurers or Mercenaries registered with the guild. It didn’t involve their privacy, just some Quest completion records.

In Oss’s record, although there had been recent changes and his former Adventurer Team had disbanded, that team had a rich history of adventures. Oss hadn’t been active for long, but he had experienced many major events. As for Green and the others, they also had corresponding records. Overall, this team was quite capable. That’s why he specifically brought up such a commission Quest.

As for ordinary Mercenary Squads, after checking their related records, for some he wouldn’t recommend it but would even advise them not to run around here, to quickly return to the vicinity of their Temporary Camp and accept some cleanup Quests for Flesh Seeds or Human Forms. Don’t court death here at such a young age…

“Hmm, accepted.” Oss nodded, accepting the exploration Quest issued by the Church. Why not accept it? Zheng Yichen was in the team. Just think about having such a max-level expert leading the team—why not take Quests? Although Zheng Yichen seemed to have additional purposes of his own.

But if he didn’t have a purpose, why would he join their team? He would have acted alone long ago.

Knowing that Oss and the others were experienced Adventurers, the speaking Church member didn’t say more. He wasn’t their father. Some things just needed a simple briefing. If he had to explain everything in detail, Oss and the others wouldn’t have achieved such results.

After entering the Stone Forest, Zheng Yichen unceremoniously raised his Flame Judgment. Then he thought of something, put that weapon down, and pulled out another icy sword with a sinister aura. The moment this sword was drawn, Oss and the others couldn’t help but feel a creeping sensation!

Green gave a slight wry smile. He had encountered enemy Magic Weapon Summoners who used the Frostmourne magic weapon. The frost attacks attached to it, generated by Negative Energy from Wraiths, were troublesome. But they didn’t evoke such a creepy feeling just by being drawn like Zheng Yichen’s weapon. So, just how high had this dragon pushed his Magic Arms proficiency?

Flame Judgment alone was enough, and now there was this wicked Magic Arm, Ice and Fire dual extremes… Having witnessed the chain explosion attack of ice and fire fusion that Zheng Yichen had released before, Oss was much calmer compared to Gray and the others. He thought Zheng Yichen mastered two different attribute Magic Arms precisely to release that kind of attack. That attack… could easily one-shot even Abyssal Creatures that he had to fight desperately to defeat.

Too bad he didn’t use his Magic Eye to observe the Elemental Power changes during Zheng Yichen’s attack back then.

“For Ice Attribute, isn’t Azure Wrath also suitable?” Garcia couldn’t help but say. Oss glanced at him but didn’t speak. Garcia used the Azure Wrath as his Magic Arm, and his proficiency with it was very high, even giving him a strong feeling of being ‘unwilling to part with it’!

Unfortunately, that Magic Arm was often overshadowed by the ‘glory’ of Frostmourne. As frost attribute weapons, Frostmourne’s performance far exceeded it… Unless necessary, when a frost attribute weapon was needed, more people would choose Frostmourne.

Frostmourne’s Frost effect could freeze people and then inflict a Negative Energy impact, while Azure Wrath only had a special attack effect against single enemies. If pursuing destructive power, weren’t Flame Judgment and Meteor Shower Blade better choices?

Frost was more about restriction.

“True.” The Frostmourne in Zheng Yichen’s hand dissipated, replaced by Azure Wrath… Seeing this, Garcia’s eye twitched slightly. He lowered his head to look at the Magic Arm he had summoned. In terms of Magic Arm intensity… he had lost!

This wasn’t Magic. He had worked very hard, hadn’t he? He had even suppressed the goal of quickly advancing to an Advanced Magic Weapon User, focusing on increasing his Azure Wrath proficiency. But now, in comparison, the Magic Arm in Zheng Yichen’s hand was definitely at the Advanced Summoning stage!

“These Human Forms, after being destroyed, will also regenerate via Flesh Seeds scattered who knows where. So when encountering them, focus mainly on restriction.” Zheng Yichen said, lightly waving Azure Wrath. A staggering Human Form approaching was frozen in place. “As long as they don’t die, new ones won’t respawn… probably…”