Chapter 154: Sneak Attack [Bonus Chapter]

Speed, strength, gravity, metal, earth, and space—these six primal forces formed both offense and defense, while the law on the white side was quite bizarre, turning out to be nothingness.

Sangsang rotated the Rubik's cube, twisting it casually. Although it was not activated, the fluctuation of the cube's aura still ebbed and flowed with the changing colors. Little Jin leaned close to Sangsang's ear and transmitted a soundless message.

"So that's how it is." Sangsang's eyes lit up. She twisted the cube back into place with a few quick motions, then took out the chronometer dial and pressed it into the white face.

The final primal force was not nothingness, but compatibility. It could harmonize with any single primal force, but strictly limited to one, much like an optical brain whose memory was only sufficient to install one additional software; if one wished to install a second, the previous one had to be uninstalled first.

The Heavenly Emperor sat at the tail end of the Celestial Canopy, holding his "Universe's Number One Swatter" and waving it randomly outside. At first, the bodyguards were quite worried that since he had not yet condensed his primal force, the chaotic energy surges would damage his internal energy and cause his body to collapse. However, upon noticing that the black mist-wreathed, long-handled swatter in his hand could absorb and purify energy, they merely watched without intervening.

By the time they reached the target location, Sangsang had mastered the basic usage of the six-colored Rubik's cube, while the Heavenly Emperor's Universe's Number One Swatter looked even more insidiously demonic. The black mist transformed into numerous black snakes that coiled, undulated, and devoured energy.

"Is this the place?" Sangsang stood up.

"Almost." The Heavenly Emperor retracted the swatter—which looked exceedingly wicked no matter how one viewed it—and gave it a gentle twist in his hand. The black mist vanished, and the long swatter became crystal clear, outshining the finest diamond.

Muxu reached his hand outside the Celestial Canopy, transforming it into tree branches that he shook inquiringly. "I don't smell the scent of the World Tree."

Sangsang, however, looked up at the sky. "There's still some distance to go. It's not in this spacetime."

"Follow me. I marked that minor spacetime node." The Heavenly Emperor slung the swatter over his shoulder, its radiance forming a web, and pulled Sangsang as he leaped down from the Celestial Canopy.

"Watch out!" Someone shouted loudly from behind.

A chill ran through Sangsang's heart. The power of spacetime erupted, pulling her back to one second prior.

The six-colored Rubik's cube lit up, expanding into a massive, square-shaped box that enveloped both Sangsang and the Heavenly Emperor. The chronometer dial spun rapidly at the top, freezing spacetime.

Everything happened in the blink of an eye.

Sangsang and the Heavenly Emperor had just jumped off the Celestial Canopy and had not yet landed when the six-colored Rubik's cube self-activated and deployed its defense. The power of spacetime stored within the chronometer dial also responded instantly, locking spacetime in place.

Three meters away, in the previously empty air, a human-faced ape standing one and a half meters tall appeared. No, to be precise, it should be called a beast-clan monkey-man.

The monkey-man was immensely powerful. The combination of the chronometer dial and the six-colored Rubik's cube had elevated them to the Cosmic tier, but it was only enough to freeze him for a single instant. In that split second, the clock hand had completed a full circle; the monkey-man merely flashed into view and instantly vanished again, yet this single instant was sufficient for the Heavenly Emperor to strike.

"Destroy Spacetime!"

The Heavenly Emperor held nothing back, unleashing his most powerful technique right from the start.

His Annihilation Spear thrust forward, bringing the frozen spacetime back to life. It began to collapse starting from the point where the monkey-man had been located, and the surrounding energy vortices exploded in tandem, blooming like flowers of blood in the air.

Yet the monkey-man did not die. Covered entirely in blood, he instead lunged forward, propelled by the shockwave of the collapsing spacetime, and suddenly vanished. At the same time, a small grid on the six-colored Rubik's cube went missing.

In a battle between top experts, a fraction of a millisecond makes a thousand miles of difference. This momentary stalemate was enough for the bodyguard captain to make his move.

The very next instant after the six-colored Rubik's cube lost a small grid, the monkey-man reappeared. However, this time, aside from being soaked in blood, his entire coat of fur had vanished, leaving only a bit of flesh clinging to his skeleton while his internal organs were exposed, tumbling out in a messy stream. Clutching his head with both hands, the monkey-man flashed, attempting to flee.

The bodyguard captain's Celestial Canopy instantly materialized above the monkey-man, sucking him right inside.

"You've got some nerve, daring to rely on the concealment primal force to launch a sneak attack."

The other bodyguards were not idle either. Aside from two who came to stand guard behind Sangsang and the Heavenly Emperor, the rest dispersed in all directions, drawing their natal artifacts to begin the battle.

"Wait, wait! We're not with him!"

"Stop! We came to take the examination..."

"I am from the Life Research Institute..."

"Don't attack, I'll come out myself..."

One figure after another emerged from the nothingness.

Sangsang and the Heavenly Emperor exchanged glances, each seeing flames burning in the other's eyes—the fire of reluctance, the fire of striving.

They were far too weak! They had to become stronger, stronger, and stronger still!

Sangsang summoned the chronometer dial, freezing the collapsing spacetime, and shared the spacetime energy with the Heavenly Emperor.

After a long while, the six-colored Rubik's cube shrank and returned to Sangsang's hand. The chronometer dial was embedded in one of its faces like a carved relief, dotted with tiny red, purple, and black spots, yet compared to the people present, a few dots were missing.

Some individuals possessed special primal forces or carried concealment artifacts that even the chronometer dial could not reflect. Moreover, while the defense of the six-colored Rubik's cube was formidable, it was not invincible.

Shan Feng stepped forward to inquire, "Your Highness, how should these people be dealt with?"

Sangsang replied, "Detain those who attacked and interrogate them about the masterminds behind the scenes. Chase the others away."

Muxu stood beside Sangsang, frowning. "Are these goods defective? How could a late Cosmic-tier artifact be breached the moment they clashed? Shan Feng, are you trying to fool Her Highness Sangsang?"

"I would never." Shan Feng gave a bitter smile. He found it difficult to explain that artifacts varied depending on their wielders; an artifact at the Cosmic tier, when placed in the hands of someone at the Void tier and not yet fully mastered, performing to the extent it just did—resisting attacks from low-tier Cosmic masters, even if only for a few seconds—was already quite remarkable.

Although Sangsang told herself she could not lower her guard, she was not so overly cautious that she wouldn't even speak. "It wasn't breached just now; the defense only weakens when more than half of the collapsing grids are gone, and it is only considered breached when more than two-thirds are destroyed."

The Heavy Water people were no benevolent saints; they were ruthless to themselves and even more ruthless to their enemies. Naturally, the interrogation did not employ conventional methods. They immediately resorted to soul-searching, a practice forbidden by interstellar law. Furthermore, to prevent the enemy from self-detonating or self-annihilating, they first used soul-locking nails to breach the defenses of the sea of consciousness.

"Chesarge, Lord of Concealment, early Cosmic tier, hailing from the mid-ring Brown Bear Arena, a regular buyer of Heavy Water artifacts, owing allegiance to the royal family of the Anlida civilization..."

The bodyguard captain transmitted the information obtained from the soul-searching to Sangsang, who in turn passed it to Little Jin.

"The Anlida civilization. Last time, Xiao Lang and the others placed loans on private sites wagering on you to take first place in the preliminaries; they were the major shareholders," Little Jin reminded her. Perhaps the enemies' motives went beyond merely stopping her from searching for the ancient World Tree.

Sangsang pondered for a moment before discussing with Shan Feng, "Where can we temporarily recuperate? The Heavenly Emperor and I need to recover and adjust."

"There are no absolute safety points on this island. If you don't mind, you can cultivate right here." Shan Feng produced a portable meditation chamber. A thin sheet of gauze unfolded, rune arrays flashing to form a triangular dwelling. "I have already deleted my own authorization and set you as the sole owner. Please feel free to use it."

The most powerful functions of a portable meditation chamber were concealment and energy purification. However, here, with bodyguards present, concealment was unnecessary, and the purification function was rendered ineffective by the island's special energy field. Its sole remaining utility was shielding against others' scans and perspective views.

Sangsang and the Heavenly Emperor entered a dual-cultivation mode, converting and storing the power of spacetime. Once the spacetime energy within their bodies was fully transformed, they would head outside. One would use the Annihilation Spear to shatter spacetime, while the other used the chronometer dial to freeze the collapsing tremors, subsequently devouring the destructive power of spacetime. To prevent attacking the exact same point—which would cause the spacetime barrier to thin, its elasticity to weaken, and its recovery to slow down—the two of them would strike a spot and then immediately change locations, a sight that left onlookers in awe.