Doomsday Jigsaw Puzzle

Chapter 155: Chapter 155: The Ultimate in the Red Domain

The battle was imminent,

Feeling the power surging within him, Bai Wu had no doubt that he had already far surpassed himself when he had become an Evil Fallen during the flight.

It was not just the Innate Force from the ninth order upward, but also the numerous Talent Sequences within his body.

If previously he had been a bicycle, then now, he was undoubtedly a supercar loaded with all sorts of black technologies—

Talent Sequence 256: Extreme Shadow, a Talent Sequence capable of raising the speed attribute to the ultimate. The Sequence had advanced.

Talent Sequence 614: Preemptive Strike, if one is the first to rush into combat, one can acquire an overall attribute enhancement.

Talent Sequence 572: Restless Bloodline, which reduces rationality towards the Evil Fallen and increases damage inflicted on them.

Talent Sequence 633: Clear Frost into Rain, slightly increasing the life recovery speed and enhancing resistance to diseases and toxins.

Talent Sequence 92: Refraction Shield, which can render the first twelve attacks ineffective, but there is a chance of failure against fatal attacks. Activation interval, seventy-five seconds. Duration forty-five seconds.

Talent Sequence 285: Five Elements Cycle, a ten percent chance to convert twenty percent of damage taken into a random Innate Force property. Lasts ten seconds.

...

Iron Armament, Enhanced Vision, Phantom Gravity... many of the Sequences he had seen before were also among them.

In the dozens of Sequences, it was hard to say that those ranked beyond one hundred could play a decisive role, but Bai Wu now possessed strength that surpassed the comprehension of Vanguard Group members.

Evil Fallen Black Bone, who had entered the Deep Sea Casino with Bai Wu and others, as the strongest level nine Evil Fallen of the first-layer casino, even felt an instinctual fear in its body.

So much so that Black Bone began to doubt whether Bai Wu was truly a "human."

...

...

Deep Sea Casino, the arena.

After many years, the pirate had once again come to this area dedicated to combat and had once again seen the "true form" of the God of Wealth.

When the God of Wealth proposed the second gamble to Bai Wu, his body began to undergo explosive mutations, his muscles swelling enormously, but this transformation was far from over.

In the twenty minutes that Bai Wu had gone to gather power, the God of Wealth also used this time to complete his ultimate transformation.

As an eight-level Evil Fallen, the pirate had once thought he was about to enter the top of the food chain.

It wasn’t until several decades ago when he witnessed the God of Wealth’s confrontation with that mysterious woman that he realized there existed a divine realm in this world, a domain beyond the reach of ordinary Evil Fallen for a lifetime.

The God of Wealth’s body became extremely distorted—

His muscles bulged as if they were about to burst, many worm-like parasites appeared out of nowhere on his body, multiple eyes sprouted on his forehead, a meandering skeleton pierced his body from behind, and his feet grew enormous...

Under the influence of numerous Mutation Entries, the "cat" was completely unrecognizable.

The twenty minutes quickly passed, and Bai Wu finally arrived at the largest site of the casino.

The so-called arena was the largest in terms of land area among the many buildings of the Deep Sea Palace.

At the top of this arena, there was a ceiling designed like a High Tower, with dense spherical lights arranged across it.

But these lights were not lit, making the arena seem dim.

This did not affect Bai Wu, who possessed Enhanced Vision, in observing the heavily mutated God of Wealth.

At this moment, the God of Wealth gave Bai Wu a sense of incongruity that was in no way inferior to the disparity between Hong Yin’s consciousness and her main body.

"You have become much stronger, human,"

Not only his appearance was completely different, but also his voice was completely different from the God of Wealth’s original voice.

In Bai Wu’s view, the God of Wealth was an unlucky human being who, after becoming an Evil Fallen, was nothing more than a tool.

"You’ve also become... well, it’s complicated. By the way, don’t you find yourself pitiful? You look superior in this casino, but everything you own is actually lent to you by your boss. You are no different from the other menial workers here. You own nothing, you can’t leave this place, and you’re accustomed to a life of debt repayment."

"Strange last words. The time has come, I will reclaim the wealth that belongs to the casino."

"Yes, what I just said was merely the instinct of a concerned citizen, further talk is pointless."

Bai Wu also knew that clearly this fight was not going to be swayed by mere words.

The numerous tiny lights on the ceiling suddenly lit up, twinkling like a galaxy. The whole arena became brightly illuminated in an instant.

At the moment when the light erupted, the second life-and-death gamble began!

Bai Wu faced the strongest Evil Fallen he had encountered so far, in his strongest state ever.

Under the effects of Extreme Shadow and Ultimate Balance, Bai Wu’s speed and strength instantly reached their peak!

"Retreat."

Prayle’s Eye uncharacteristically gave a succinct command. Bai Wu had no time to analyze the reason and did not choose to retreat.

He held Evil Fallen Must Die in his hand and, following God of Wealth’s distorted spiral waist, slashed out a red arc.

Red light clashed against sparks.

In the midst of rapid movement, a hint of confusion arose in Bai Wu’s heart.

Evil Fallen Must Die, enhanced twice, was unable to penetrate God of Wealth’s body under the power of ninth-level Innate Force combined with the Extreme Balance mode.

Something even more bizarre happened.

The strange, worm-like things growing on God of Wealth’s body instantly transformed into tentacle-like appendages, wrapping around Bai Wu’s blade as if aliens were bursting forth from within.

They spread along Bai Wu’s blade at an incredible speed, and in a blink, these horrific tentacles were about to touch Bai Wu himself.

Perfect Mutation Entry: Oblivion Parasite.

"Drop the sword and fall back."

In that instant, while Bai Wu didn’t yet know the properties of the Oblivion Parasite, he discerned something from God of Wealth’s powerful body—

The annotations given by Prayle’s Eye were as brief as possible.

This usually verbose eye wouldn’t even tell him what the opponent would do next but went directly into the most efficient mode—telling him how to respond.

It was doing this to save time, so he could process more information simultaneously.

This meant that this was not a battle between equals... the difference in combat power between them was likely vast.

Bai Wu swiftly retreated.

A storm suddenly erupted within the arena. His strength now was not inferior to Nie Chongshan, who had dominated the entire allied forces in the Martial Training Area.

He had no sense of fear to begin with, and this feeling of being filled with power made him even more composed before the battle began.

But seeing the Oblivion Parasites sweeping toward him like a tide, he suddenly realized... even if he became the most powerful human, he still couldn’t contend with God of Wealth.

God of Wealth’s terrifying claws whirled through the void, creating blades in steep arcs that could not be resisted.

Even the energy blades were covered with Oblivion Parasites, which together with the tide of creatures surging from within God of Wealth—forced Bai Wu into a disadvantage in an instant.

"Move fourteen steps to the left."

"Activate Iron Armament."

"Activate Refraction Shield."

"Duck and fall back four steps."

"Use Clear Frost into Rain to stop the bleeding in your abdomen and waist."

...

"Feint, but dodge to the right when advancing to the seventh step."

"Retreat quickly!"

...

Within the huge arena, raw power continuously slammed against the boundaries of the region.

In the moments of battling God of Wealth, Bai Wu was also handling dozens of combat messages from Prayle’s Eye.

His speed was not slower than God of Wealth’s. Purely in terms of basic combat attributes, he was already stronger than the basic value of a ninth-level Evil Fallen. However, God of Wealth’s methods of attack were excessively manifold.

After dodging God of Wealth’s first wave of attacks, Bai Wu didn’t have time to counterattack before he had to face God of Wealth’s second wave of attacks.

The ground suddenly sprouted spikes, whose force was more than sufficient to easily penetrate Bai Wu’s ninth-tier flesh. If not for the Refraction Shield and his sharp crisis perception, the battle would have drastically shortened.

It wasn’t just the spikes; God of Wealth’s seemingly gentle claw swipes produced black crescent blades, each with a power no less than Wu Jiu’s strongest slash.

Eyes glowing red like a cat’s, God of Wealth stared at Bai Wu, always ready to launch a psychic attack. The ceaseless Siren’s Song, even if ineffective against Bai Wu, could still, to some extent, hinder his reactions.

In addition, various elemental turbulences obstructed Bai Wu’s path, and during his evasive maneuvers, God of Wealth also initiated a summoning spell.

Perfect Mutation Entry: Bizarre Invasion.

Indescribable creatures like muck began to madly rush toward Bai Wu.

And regardless of the method of attack, those terrifying Oblivion Parasites would cling to them.

The situation in the battle was vastly different from what Bai Wu had anticipated... Under God of Wealth’s relentless assault, he couldn’t even find an opportunity to counterattack.

This was the strength of the red zone’s ceiling.

In just the first exchange, God of Wealth displayed many means lethal enough to destroy his opponent.

Thanks to Prayle’s Eye, all of God of Wealth’s attacks were narrowly avoided by Bai Wu, but the situation had turned into a one-sided onslaught from God of Wealth.

Bai Wu could only dodge continuously, without even a chance to block.

It was the first time Prayle’s Eye entered such a full-effect state, completely bereft of its usual style, opting instead to guide him in the most succinct manner.

However, despite this, amid the huge disparity in attributes and all sorts of powerful and bizarre tactics, Bai Wu’s waist and abdomen were still touched by the worm-like Oblivion Parasites.

This scene corresponded to the fifth hint given by Prayle’s Eye.

It was like a sea serpent biting into its prey, refusing to let go at any cost.

Bai Wu felt the flesh around his wound disintegrate rapidly like powder, as if a part of his corporeal body suddenly began to turn to gravel.

This disintegration continued to spread. Oblivion Parasites, just like their name implied, had an annihilating effect, one-hit lethal!

Although Bai Wu had previously activated the Refraction Shield, he was unlucky. The power of obliteration was still lethal for him at that moment, and such an attack could cause the Refraction to fail.

He resisted the physical impact of the arc blades but couldn’t prevent the parasite from destroying his body.

He had no choice but to amputate the entire wound area before it spread.

Evil Fallen must die had already been thrown aside by God of Wealth; in Bai Wu’s hand now was a dagger belonging to Lin Wurou.

The vast gap between humans and top-tier Evil Fallen left Bai Wu with no moment to catch his breath.

Three bizarre summoned creatures blocked his retreat.

Even God of Wealth marveled at his speed – while Bai Wu could barely dodge, the space he had to move in grew increasingly small.

Bai Wu began to follow Prayle’s Eye’s instructions, using Yin Shuang’s Sequence, to both dodge and begin healing himself, stopping the blood loss from his waist and abdomen.

As he performed this action, Prayle’s Eye had already provided all the countermeasures for a long time to come.

Under the effect of Ultimate Balance, Bai Wu’s body already possessed a tyrannical healing power, thanks to his ninth-tier Innate Force.

Coupled with the healing sequence Clear Frost into Rain, his injuries healed instantly.

But the situation did not improve; God of Wealth’s offensive became stronger and more lethal.

Perfect Mutation Entry: Chaos Devouring.

The vast arena suddenly manifested numerous vortex-like adhesions, reminiscent of black holes.

Even with Bai Wu’s lightning-fast speed, these adhesions significantly reduced his agility.

The bizarre summoned creatures chasing Bai Wu were directly sucked into the vortexes, their cries of agony absorbed by the vortexes as well.

With no summoned creatures to fend off, nor the assault of various elemental turbulences,

Rare Mutation Entry: Heartfire.

Rare Mutation Entry: Spear of Extreme Cold.

Perfect Mutation Entry: Waves of the Nether Sea.

Flame, frost, and torrential currents filled the arena in an instant with various powerful forces. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com

Those vortex-shaped adsorbing entities began to slowly move towards Bai Wu, the closer they got, the more exaggerated their suction force became.

It wasn’t just his body being pulled by a force, his life recovery and his life force limit were also gradually decreasing.

Following the actions of Prayle’s Eye, Bai Wu continuously chose the best solutions within the increasingly scarce retreat paths.

Time and again, he elegantly or narrowly avoided God of Wealth’s attacks.

But the intensity of God of Wealth’s offensive was still rising, and the future Bai Wu saw through his eyes was—himself becoming more and more passive.

In the hints provided by Prayle’s Eye, abilities like Clear Frost into Rain, Refraction Shield were being used more and more frequently.

This battle had been ongoing for only five minutes until this point.

The sixth minute.

Bai Wu was cornered, the powerful force of Chaos Devouring as if it altered the gravitational direction of this arena.

Facing such exaggerated adsorption force, even maintaining basic body balance was difficult, and Bai Wu’s dodging route was constantly being reduced.

The seventh minute.

The terrifying Spear of Extreme Cold from the opposite end of the arena, like a dragon crossing the river, pierced through Bai Wu, the Refraction Shield happened to have failed ten seconds before, and it would take several tens of seconds to activate again.

The only consolation was that the frost lance was too swift, God of Wealth didn’t have the time to implant any parasites.

By relying on his amazing life recovery, Bai Wu’s abdomen was healing at a visible speed.

The pain he was enduring also increased more and more. So much so that occasionally, painful memories from his past would flash through his brain.

But this time, those memories couldn’t save Bai Wu.

The ninth minute.

Oblivion Parasite once again damaged the Refraction Shield, and Bai Wu seemed to see hallucinations—countless parasites surrounding him, biting his body full of pits and hollows.

He had to remove the entire wound at the moment it was the least damaged by the parasites’ touch.

Once again relying on his amazing life recovery, Bai Wu’s body instantly healed after excising the wounds.

Even without the blood and flesh healing Talent Sequence, once the Innate Force became powerful enough, it would have effects not inferior to the Sequence.

Only the healing speed was about to not keep up with the rate of new wounds appearing.

He had seen a segment of the future where he dragged his body, riddled with holes and gashes, fleeing continuously.

In the end, he was submerged by the collapsing arena.

...

...

So far, only the mysterious figures and merchants from Black Gold Island were watching this duel.

Looking at the human in the arena struggling to hang on, the merchant exclaimed:

"Ohohohoho, what an extraordinary human. I take back what I said before. I had not thought that one day, humans would become so powerful that in ninety years, a genius emerged from the High Tower. If he lives, perhaps before long, humans could really step into the red domain."

The Octopus’s face showed a mocking expression as he continued:

"But how could I let such a thing happen? Ohohohoho."

With the enhancement of countless Mutation Entries, though God of Wealth couldn’t step into the "black" domain, he was one of the most outstanding beings within the "red" domain.

Besides the creatures in the black region, God of Wealth was considered the strongest among the Evil Fallen.

In the merchant’s view, this little guy might be strong, having already crossed a threshold that humanity hadn’t crossed for seven hundred years, but still couldn’t contend with God of Wealth.

"He can hold out for at most two more minutes, no... maybe just one minute. This is truly a sad story. You’re about to lose this bet."

The man hidden in the shadows had a hint of surprise in his eyes; he seemed to have discovered something interesting:

"Perhaps he is about to lose, but don’t you think this little guy’s way of coping is quite unique?"

(Anti-theft word count 4220, actual word count 4665.)