Chapter 645: The Power of Folly

How could anyone survive in this state?!

Neither the Black Box nor the Old Man could figure it out.

It was hard to find any words to describe the Yan Jing before them.

A soul entity? A weird energy entity? A living corpse?

None of them seemed accurate.

If he were a soul entity, his weird energy wouldn't be this dense.

If he were a weird energy entity, he would need an object to anchor himself to.

And if he were a living corpse, he shouldn't possess any sanity!

With all three possibilities ruled out, neither of them could imagine what kind of existence to classify him as.

But they were certain of one thing: he was definitely still alive.

"Don't get distracted."

A gust of wind seemed to blow past the Black Box. Yan Jing's voice carried the biting chill of early spring, and in the next second, the Black Box was sent flying sideways.

The moment that terrifying, massive force struck its body, it finally understood what the dead man had felt.

That kind of power absolutely could not belong to an existence below the Demigod Realm.

Yet, here it was.

Caught completely off guard by this massive disparity, it had no time to react.

Its body tumbled through the air, completely out of control.

Before it could even process what had happened, the next punch arrived.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!!!"

It was as if a Deity of immense strength had descended, wielding a giant hammer and bringing it down over and over again, smashing the Black Box until cracks spiderwebbed across its exterior.

After four punches, the Black Box could no longer endure it.

Its black outer shell was riddled with fractures. The two holes on its left and right sides, originally used for attacking, had completely collapsed, leaving only scattered fragments.

It wasn't as if it hadn't tried to fight back during those four strikes.

It had unleashed its strongest methods and fired off its most powerful attacks. It had even resorted to mutually assured destruction, attempting to self-destruct and take Yan Jing down with it.

But the Yan Jing before it was like a... phantom that couldn't die.

A phantom in the truest sense. No movement could catch his figure, and no attack landing on his body could halt his actions.

Beams of light capable of destroying a nation or even a Domain struck him without slowing him down for a single second.

In truth, the Black Box had already reached its limit by the second punch.

But it had relied on sheer willpower to hold on, right up until it finally broke.

Its consciousness began to scatter, its vision blurring.

Its unwillingness to accept defeat had long since been shattered by those punches.

All that remained was a single, fading thread of thought.

In the end, a breeze swept past.

It completely dissipated, transforming into countless specks of divinity that returned to the world.

The Demigod Realm Box of Destruction, the most arrogant demigod the Mechanical Heavenly Kingdom had seen in centuries, was utterly annihilated.

"..."

Yan Jing turned his head to look at the last remaining one, the Old Man.

However, the Old Man was already long gone.

Far in the distance, a faint ripple of weird energy could be felt across the ground that had turned into an ocean.

He had fled.

The Deep Sea Continent Envoy—a legendary demigod who could flood the earth with a flip of his hand and create a landmass out of thin air with another—was now scurrying away across the seafloor like a stray dog.

He didn't know exactly what had happened; he only knew that if he stayed any longer, he would meet a terrible end.

He had even tapped into a power he absolutely shouldn't use, casting the inevitable backlash to the back of his mind in the desperate hope of preserving his own life.

Yan Jing watched the Old Man flee, but he didn't give chase.

His one minute was almost up.

Once his immortal and indestructible state ended, he would face his most vulnerable moment.

At that time, even the slightest ripple of weird energy could cause him to dissipate.

Now, it was time to go back.

Yan Jing turned around and walked toward Old Sin City.

But he hadn't even gotten close to the entrance.

A figure emerged, blocking his path.

It was a completely red fish.

Or rather, it should have been a fish.

Its overall shape was streamlined, with a triangular head, crimson scales like roaring fire, and a stunningly beautiful dark red tail.

However, a pair of arms and legs grew from its sides; otherwise, it would have been indistinguishable from a normal fish.

Its limbs were no different from a human's, except that both its palms and the soles of its feet faced downward, pointing at the rough ground.

It looked a bit ugly.

Yan Jing's expression remained calm; he knew the other party was here to kill him.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have shown up at this exact moment.

"Are you in a hurry to get back?"

The fish spoke. His voice sounded as if his throat were clogged with thick phlegm—wet and sickening.

Yan Jing didn't reply. He didn't have much time left, so he could only make his move.

Faster Time activated.

This time, it was the March of the Moonlight.

Invisible musical notes seemed to leap from his fingertips, permeating the air and turning everything they passed over into a dull gray.

Time stopped for two seconds.

It was effective against anyone up to three Tiers higher than him.

With the enhancement of Peerless.

Time stopped for three seconds.

Three seconds...

Yan Jing immediately unleashed five punches in a single breath.

The dark red fish's body was instantly torn to pieces, dissipating like a popped bubble.

But as Yan Jing watched this, he frowned.

That hadn't been his true body.

"Heh heh."

A voice rang out from the sky:

"Allow me to introduce myself. I am Xue Qiyu of the Xue Family."

"You may also call me by my title, the Demigod Realm Treacherous Fish."

The dark red fish's figure appeared in the air once more. This time, Yan Jing didn't attack.

He could already sense that this was also not his true body.

Concealment plus cloning.

What Pathway did this demigod belong to?

Was this the kind of thing that awaited at the end of the Bloodline Pathway?

His time was running out; he had to find the true body as quickly as possible.

Countless threads materialized around him, weaving continuously through the air.

He could feel the vibrations of weird energy traveling along each thread. Like a dense spiderweb, the weird energy quivered like raindrops clinging to the silk, constantly transmitting the enemy's location back to him.

Caught you.

Yan Jing's gaze focused. Immediately, he used Blink to appear beside the true body.

But the enemy also began to move.

Realizing he had been exposed by See Through, he clearly panicked, swimming continuously through the threads in an attempt to evade.

It was still Faster Time.

Activated.

A few breaths later, Yan Jing finally caught up to his opponent.

His raised fist, cloaked in a dark golden radiance, slammed down heavily.

"Boom!!!"

It was as if all the weird energy detonated at a single point. The dark red fish's body shuddered as blood sprayed from his scales.

He was clearly extremely skilled at defense. In the split second before the punch landed, he had flared his scales, creating a buffer layer that dispersed the force from Yan Jing's fist.

Even so, he still suffered severe injuries.

Wounds tore open across his body, blood flowing freely.

"..."

Yan Jing raised his fist once again.

But this time, before he could bring it down, he looked with a hint of resignation at his gradually fading arm.

His time was up.

His body lost its color at a visible rate, the formless weird energy withering away.

In the end, his entire body shifted into an almost ethereal state.

Wild joy erupted in the dark red fish's eyes. First, he cautiously sent out a clone to approach Yan Jing.

Only when he confirmed that Yan Jing was truly weakened to the extreme did he begin to laugh.

A boisterous "Hahaha."

The laughter carried that same sticky, bubbling sound, incredibly wet and damp.

"I knew it. You couldn't maintain that state for long."

"Otherwise, what would be the point of us demigods?"

"Don't you agree?"

As if he hadn't spoken to anyone in a very long time, he didn't rush to attack, but instead started rambling:

"Actually, my mission this time wasn't to kill you."

"I was here to pick someone up, a genius from our Family."

"But you're just unlucky. You're really unlucky."

"How could you be this strong?"

"A human appearing in the Inner World, strong enough to fight a demigod head-on—how could I possibly leave you be?"

"What do you say? Hmm?"

"You must be the strongest trump card the Surface World has for this Advent Day. I'd even say you're their only one. And now I get to kill you. Haha, just thinking about it makes me happy."

"You're strong. Really, I'm not just comforting you. In all my memories, I've never seen anyone as strong as you. Even the strongest demigods couldn't possibly have this kind of combat power at your stage."

"It's a pity, a real pity. If only you belonged to our Xue Family."

As he spoke, the dark red fish seemed to feel an overwhelming sense of satisfaction, and he burst into loud laughter once again.

A transparent liquid oozed from the fins on his sides, looking like a clump of snot.

"Alright, time to end this. Don't worry, I'll use weird energy to record this moment. You can consider it leaving your mark on history."

With that, a red bubble emerged from the fish's mouth and landed on Yan Jing, whose life was like a candle in the wind.

The bubble seemed highly corrosive. The moment it touched Yan Jing's already transparent body, he was instantly reduced to countless specks of gray dust.

The dust gradually scattered in the wind.

Yan Jing felt no pain whatsoever.

Was this death?

Why couldn't he feel anything?

He should be feeling something.

He was unwilling to die; he believed that with absolute certainty.

He had so many people behind him. If he died, things would take a terrible turn.

But why didn't it hurt?

This didn't make sense.

It made absolutely no sense.

It felt as though something had been wrong from the very beginning.

Yan Jing's gaze grew increasingly bewildered, as if he had fallen into some kind of trance.

Until...

The gray dust spread up to his face.

Finally, he seemed to figure something out, a flash of clarity returning to his eyes.

Then, the corners of his mouth curled up slightly.

In the next second, his entire body completely disintegrated.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. I suppose that counts as a gorgeous curtain call."

Looking at Yan Jing vanishing into the world, the dark red fish roared with laughter once again.

On this outing, not only had he watched the Train and the Mechanical Heavenly Kingdom each lose a demigod, and witnessed the veteran demigod of the Life Heavenly Kingdom flee with injuries, but he had also personally eliminated a peerless human genius and still got to bring back his Family's genius.

It was practically killing many, many birds with one stone.

"Hahaha."

The fish laughed.

He found the whole situation so hilarious that he would be happy for days.

He didn't even care about the torn flesh across his body, unable to stop laughing even as blood splattered everywhere.

Just as he was laughing uproariously, a soft chuckle rang out beside him.

The fish's expression instantly froze.

He stood rooted to the spot, looking as if he had seen a ghost.

"I can laugh too."

Yan Jing's figure materialized beside him, his hand placed squarely on top of the fish's forehead.

The Fear Thorn stabbed out.

Followed by a Freeze Frame Moment.

Fear Stance Third Layer State, Fear Bird Stance, Power of the White Stone.

Peerless: One Punch.

"Bang!!!"

The bone at the top of the dark red fish's forehead simply exploded.

Flesh and blood blew everywhere like red mud.

With just one strike, he went belly up, his eyes instantly turning murky.

He stared blankly at Yan Jing, unable to understand where things had gone wrong.

"It's normal not to be able to figure it out."

Yan Jing smiled and said,

"I haven't fully figured it out either."

Immediately, a grayish-green orb of light rose from his palm.

The moment he saw that orb of light, Xue Qiyu finally understood.

It was the Power of Folly.

Their entire group had already fallen victim to it the moment they approached the city.

Yan Jing wore a smile.

Folly: Thought Quagmire

Those affected by folly will often make incorrect judgments, act with more hesitation, and suffer from sluggish thinking.

Folly: Fooling All Living Beings

Those affected by folly will be subjected to the stronger effects of your abilities and will be unable to see through your "tricks."

If you are the one affected by folly, you will forget things you ought to forget—such as your flaws, your fears, your greed, and certain weaknesses—thus making you a brand-new version of yourself.

Folly: Erroneous Prediction

Those affected by folly will be unable to make any accurate "predictions."

These were the three demigod abilities he had used this time.

Among them, the target he had used the second ability on was...

The clone created by his Paintbrush.

He made that clone forget the fact that it was a clone.

Making the clone become the true body.

Of course, the drawback of this ability was that nothing could occur that would make the clone realize it was a clone.

For example...

Having multiple clones.

This was also the reason why the clone had never used the Paintbrush ability during the battle.

Because Yan Jing had deliberately made it forget about it.

And the reason the clone was able to repeatedly use Faster Time, which normally had a cap of three uses, was because the true body had been continuously unleashing abilities from afar.

{When you activate the Divine Power known as February, you gain a [Faster Time]. This time can be used at any moment, and when it is used, the time of others will become relatively slower.}

{Using seconds as a common example: when others experience one second, then two seconds, activating [Faster Time] allows your synchronized timeline to become one second, [Faster Time], then two seconds.}

{You can store up to three charges of [Faster Time]. Using twelve abilities of any kind is considered as passing one year, granting you an additional [Faster Time].}

Twelve abilities could be exchanged for one Faster Time.

By making the clone also forget the cap on Faster Time, Yan Jing had manufactured—

A perfect fighter.

In the end, however, there might have been a slight flaw. From the clone's gaze, he sensed that it had likely figured out it was only a clone.

"It's over."

Looking at the red fish, Yan Jing smiled slightly. He didn't opt for another punch, preparing instead to use a different method to finish it off.

The cost of One Punch was shattering his life force. The punch just now had already consumed the Frost effect of his true body's Heart of God. To be safe, he wasn't going to use the Chongming State.

But this also gave the red fish an opportunity.

The instant Yan Jing's Universal: Soul Binding descended, the red fish forcefully tanked the hit and directly blinked to the front of Old Sin City.

"Don't move!!!"

At this moment, half of the red fish's head was gone. Covered in blood and looking completely wretched, he still put up a final struggle:

"If you dare to move, I'll bury this entire city alongside me!!!"

"..."

The red fish watched Yan Jing nervously, terrified that he would attack without caring about Old Sin City's survival.

After all, Yan Jing was only human.

And this was the Inner World.

But... thankfully.

Yan Jing stood exactly where he was, not moving an inch.

"Don't panic."

He chuckled, wanting to say something, but the red fish immediately cut him off:

"I said it!!! Don't move!!! Now! Step back!!!!"

Seeing that Yan Jing did care about the city, the red fish felt wild joy inside. He even began pushing his luck, demanding that he retreat several dozen li away.

But Yan Jing just gave a helpless smile.

"I told you, don't panic."

"And I told you!!! Don't move!!! Otherwise—"

The red fish roared, the sheer force of his screaming sending his blood spraying everywhere. But suddenly, the words caught in his throat.

He stared at the adjacent Old Sin City as if he had seen a ghost.

Those tall buildings, those highways, those bright lights, and the boiling clamor of human voices.

Right before his eyes, all of it turned into ink stains, silently vanishing from the face of the earth.

Such a massive city had instantly been reduced to nothing.

"I told you, don't panic."

Yan Jing laughed helplessly.

His tone carried a hint of resignation and indulgence.