Rumble...
The earth began to shake.
A deep rumbling sounded as the ground trembled faintly.
Everyone outside Taixu Hospital felt the vibration beneath their feet. Some stumbled several steps, while others cried out in alarm.
"What's happening?"
"Is it an earthquake?"
"There's so much fog! Where did all this fog come from?!"
A dense bank of white mist quickly rose from the ground, casting a gloomy veil over the previously clear sky.
At the same time, the roar of surging water came from every direction.
...
Asura Demon Dragon tore apart the three layers of soap bubbles in just a few movements.
Dense fog surrounded him from all sides, turning everything gray and severely restricting his vision.
His surroundings were utterly silent. Only the ragged sound of his own breathing echoed beside his ears.
He lightly stamped his foot, but it felt as though he were stepping on soft clouds, without the slightest sense of solid ground.
Those clouds were the ice desiccant Magician had prepared. After coming into contact with water, it reacted violently and produced dense white fog.
The fog restricted Asura Demon Dragon's vision.
Then Magician's noisy voice rang beside his ears. "Unless a person has undergone professional training, they will usually walk in circles when their vision is restricted. Come, ladies and gentlemen. Let us wait and see what kind of surprise the president of the Ghostfire Syndicate will bring us!"
Asura Demon Dragon punched toward the sound, only to strike a drone carrying a loudspeaker.
The loudspeaker was destroyed, and the drone's screen displayed an exploding icon.
"Sorry, wrong guess. And when you guess wrong, there must be a punishment!"
Bang!
The drone exploded, scattering chili powder into the dense fog and enveloping Asura Demon Dragon.
This was dragon's-breath chili that Magician had collected, one of the hottest peppers in the world.
Even the tiniest amount of chili powder mist at this concentration would be enough to reduce an ordinary person to tears and make them feel deeply grateful for Magician's surprise.
Yet to Asura Demon Dragon, this level of irritation was no different from nothing.
He allowed the chili powder to cling to his corneas without even bothering to blink.
In the past, someone had poured concentrated sulfuric acid directly onto his face!
Beneath his feet, the dense fog mingled with rushing water.
Anyone who thought they could determine their direction by following the current would be mistaken.
Those streams could easily be redirected by obstacles.
Following the water would only lead him wherever Vill-V had arranged.
However, although Asura Demon Dragon constantly emitted malice, that did not mean he was a lunatic.
In a martial arts novel, that malice would have been called baleful aura.
And warriors who cultivated baleful aura had always overcome cleverness with brute force. He had no intention of walking out of the fog at all.
"Hmph. Petty tricks!"
Asura Demon Dragon tensed his muscles, straightened one arm, and thrust his palm forward.
Bang!
Absolute strength could overcome ten thousand techniques.
His power was astonishingly great.
A violent gale erupted from Asura Demon Dragon's palm, blowing away both the desiccant beneath his feet and all the dense fog before him.
...
"In summary, the president of the Ghostfire Syndicate will become lost inside the Forest of Mist, wander directly into the Mobile Response Force's headquarters, and then..."
Inside Vill-V's mind, Conductor was still explaining the rest of the plan to the other Vill-Vs when the sky suddenly cleared.
Magician clutched her head. "What a powerful gust! Something that only happens in comics to demonstrate superhuman strength actually happened in reality!"
Expert: According to my calculations, even after determining the correct direction, producing this result would require at least fifteen tons of force. The requirement could be reduced by using tools, but Magician should already have removed every available tool from the surrounding area...
Conductor sounded somewhat embarrassed. 'Ahem. All right. Plans can never keep up with changing circumstances.'
Pure Evil said disdainfully, 'Hmph, stop pretending. He fell into your trap, didn't he? Also, what's the point of prattling on to us about that superficial plan? My ears are sick of hearing it.'
Conductor fell silent for several seconds, then said, 'What if... I mean, what if he can hear us?'
Pure Evil replied impatiently, 'That's easy. Kill him, and he won't be able to hear anything!'
...
The dry-ice fog created by Magician had indeed dispersed, but...
Everyone had completely disappeared—
Both the members of the Taixu Gang and those of the Ghostfire Syndicate.
As for Asura Demon Dragon, he now stood within a primeval forest.
He had clearly never moved, so how could he be inside a forest?
Besides, Dusk City did not have any forests at all!
"Hm?"
At that moment, Asura Demon Dragon noticed another young woman nearby, slowly approaching with her hands clasped behind her back.
She spoke with an ethereal elegance.
"Who stands at the summit where the immortal path ends?"
"I possess an immortal heart, long sealed beneath the dust of mortal toil. On what day shall the dust disperse and its radiance emerge, illuminating ten thousand mountains and rivers?"
The young woman was as gentle and lustrous as fine jade, resembling an immortal banished from the heavens. An engraved silver bottle hung at her waist, while her skirt fluttered in the breeze.
It was Vill-V, now dressed in Hua's clothes.
Asura Demon Dragon's pupils contracted. "Azure Empyrea!"
Although Azure Empyrea's figure had changed drastically, Asura Demon Dragon still recognized the girl who had taken down two of his trusted subordinates.
An excited expression appeared on Asura Demon Dragon's face. He had no intention of avenging his men. He simply loved the sensation of fighting powerful opponents!
"Fight me!"
Asura Demon Dragon stomped down violently, and the dense fog was swept upward by the resulting air current, revealing corpses scattered across the ground.
Yet all of it was merely an illusion created by his baleful aura.
At this moment, Asura Demon Dragon still possessed the supreme martial force capable of influencing another person's mind. Once someone was locked onto by his baleful aura, an endless stream of malice would pour into their consciousness.
Even Hua, after many years of arduous training, found it difficult to resist, much less Vill-V, who was not a martial artist.
The fact that Vill-V could neither control the Second Divine Key, Cosmic Juggernaut, for extended periods nor use the Bodhi Mantra proved that she was merely an ordinary person when it came to mental strength.
Vill-V had once imagined that, as a transmigrator, she might possess some extraordinary mental advantage, such as having lived through three lifetimes and therefore gaining three times the mental power and resilience of an ordinary person.
Reality, however, told her that when it came to mental strength, she was as ordinary as ordinary could possibly be.
What was even the point of having multiple personalities when she still possessed only one person's mental strength?
The sole benefit was probably that exhausting one Vill-V's mental strength would not affect the others, just as Scholar's mental power had previously been completely drained by Cosmic Juggernaut...
Mental strength truly did require talent. Even though Scholar possessed vast quantities of occult knowledge, she could only broaden her mental capacity little by little through training.
Su, on the other hand, possessed an entire ocean from the start. Comparing oneself to others really could drive a person mad.
As for Herrscherization, Vill-V was even less willing to attempt it. What if, after becoming a Herrscher, both her body and mind were corrupted by malice, causing her to directly seize the authority Planck was using to maintain the Time Fragment world...
Would she then transform into a true Herrscher of Reason?
The Honkai would laugh itself awake. It would be like receiving a pillow the moment it became drowsy.
And so, Vill-V chose—
To do absolutely nothing and allow the malice to erode her.
—
—
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