Free Web NovelChapter 36: Chapter 36—Domain’s Power
Chapter 36—Domain’s Power
Lei Cheng flicked his finger and dissolved the enormous golden fox claw that had materialized directly in front of his face—wiping it apart with a counter-pulse of his own Illusion Intent, plainly and without ceremony.
"Your illusions are too weak." He mocked.
He continued with contempt, "And you are too weak to begin with."
He quickly checked his life force. ’Good.’ He mentally traced the entire expenditure from the start of the battle. ’Three to four years, it seems.’ He did not dare open his status screen to confirm. Even a heartbeat of distraction could be fatal here.
"How?" Xiao Ming’s voice rose. "How can you be so strong inside my domain?" She focused the entirety of her domain’s strength on Lei Cheng.
Lei Cheng felt the difference as his knees bent, despite the green Life Intent wrapped around him due to increased pressure. He increased his Life Intent and straightened his legs.
Noticing his calm, Xiao Ming broke. "No... no... my strength has gained a massive boost—how can I still lose?"
Panic entered her voice.
"Now," Lei Cheng said, not sparing a moment for her tears. He scanned in every direction. "Where are you?"
"I won’t give up." A desperate roar echoed from the cave walls, bouncing from surface to surface without giving away its source.
Whoosh!
A claw materialized at the nape of his neck. He wiped it out instantly with Illusion Intent—and then they came in numbers.
One. Two. Five. Ten. A hundred.
Fox claws filled the sky above him, glowing cold and metallic, their golden light intense. They converged on him from every angle simultaneously.
Lei Cheng swept his arm in a wide arc and dissolved them all in a single motion. He turned to Hua Mingyue, who was standing serenely to the side.
"Why is she targeting only me? You’re here too."
He had already noticed it happening since they had entered the Xiao household—Xiao Ming and everyone else would entirely ignore Hua Mingyue, as though she simply did not exist, until she deliberately stepped forward or spoke. Only then would their eyes find her. The moment she stepped back, she vanished from their perception entirely.
Hua Mingyue smiled faintly. "They will keep forgetting I’m here. That is my power."
"She doesn’t even know you’re standing in her own domain," Lei Cheng said, with undisguised amazement.
"She is weak," Hua Mingyue said plainly. "Her domain and cultivation are just Level One. She can barely match a Level Two cultivator. I am far too powerful for her to sense."
Lei Cheng grinned. ’No wonder she’s weak... Even that Ninth Elder was stronger than her.’
Another wave of fox claws formed and rushed at him. He dissolved them without looking.
"What kind of intent are you using?" he asked, wiping another of the set aside.
"Stealth Intent," Hua Mingyue answered. "Combined with a touch of Illusion Intent."
Lei Cheng’s lips twitched. "Even with my forty percent Illusion Intent, I cannot detect you using illusion at all. It’s on a different level entirely."
Hua Mingyue smiled lightly. "After all—I am a goddess."
Lei Cheng turned his attention back to the cave and the ongoing battle of attrition. He dissolved the fox claws for the tenth time and then stopped, rubbing his forehead.
"How long are you planning to hide? And where are you?"
He shook his head. ’She’s actually hidden somewhere. But where?’ He looked to Hua Mingyue.
She pointed downward. "She is hiding inside the ground. Approximately ten meters below where we stand."
Xiao Ming’s hiding place suddenly seemed far less impressive.
Lei Cheng looked at the cave floor with mild skepticism. Then his hand glowed with green energy. He clenched his fist and made a sharp pulling motion upward.
Boom! Boom! Rumble!
The ground cracked open beneath him. Enormous green vines erupted upward—splitting the cave floor, shattering the walls, and tearing through the stone in every direction. Lei Cheng and Hua Mingyue each grabbed onto a rising vine and rode it skyward.
When the eruption settled, the cave was gone—the entire domain now filled with interlocked green vines reaching every surface and corner. And within one of those vines, bound tight, was Xiao Ming.
Lei Cheng looked out over the transformed space with quiet satisfaction. "It has become my domain," he said, glancing sideways at Hua Mingyue.
Green vines left no visible surface.
"Life Explosion."
The words left his mouth with cold precision. Life Intent flooded through the vine directly into Xiao Ming’s body.
Xiao Ming screamed—then exploded. Her body disintegrated in a flash of golden dust.
Lei Cheng clapped his hands once. "Game over."
A few moments passed.
He tilted his head. "Why isn’t the domain disappearing?"
He turned to Hua Mingyue. She watched him for a moment.
"The Bizarre Rule," she added gently. "You forgot. It applies even after the domain has formed." freewebnoveℓ.com
"So she keeps the domain and the immortality?" His voice rose. A chill ran down his spine. "That makes them essentially unstoppable. No wonder humans are terrified of them."
Hua Mingyue simply waved her fan.
"Where is she hiding now?" he asked.
Hua Mingyue pointed upward. "She is hiding in that sun."
Lei Cheng looked up. High above the canopy of vines, the domain’s sky was still in place—and hanging in it was a round, glowing sun.
"What?"
"It’s a false sun," Hua Mingyue said, with a note of patient amusement. "Inside this domain, the sun, the sky, the ground—all of it is constructed from illusory matter generated by the Bizarre Domain itself. The energy is too dense for you to pierce with your senses. She can hide within it, use it as cover. In simple terms—her own illusion power is weak, but the domain’s illusion is not."
"She used the domain’s own illusion to conceal herself," Lei Cheng said. The entire domain was more artificial than he had imagined.
"Correct." Hua Mingyue nodded.
Lei Cheng directed a thick vine upward, extending it toward the domain’s ceiling. "Is it too large? Too high?" he muttered as the vine stretched.
The vine rose—forty meters, forty-two, forty-five—and wrapped itself around the glowing sun in the sky.
The vine did not burn.
Lei Cheng blinked. He had fully expected it to catch fire.
"I told you—it’s fake," Hua Mingyue said, fanning herself lightly, a trace of playfulness in the line of her mouth. She had already settled herself on a nearby vine, sitting comfortably as though this were all perfectly ordinary.
Under his control, the vine tightened and pulled downward—dragging Xiao Ming out of the false sun and drawing her directly in front of him. Her teeth were clenched, her eyes murderous, her whole frame straining against the coils as she was brought to a halt a few meters away.
Lei Cheng settled himself onto a vine across from her and looked at her with an expression of genuine tiredness.
"I’ll ask a few questions. Then I’ll leave," he said.
Xiao Ming’s expression shifted through about five things in quick succession before settling on bitter disbelief. "Really?"
"Yes." He spread his arms. "There’s no point in anything else. I cannot kill you."
"That’s correct—you cannot." Her voice recovered some of its edge.
"But I can torture you for a very long time," he continued, his tone dropping into something quieter and colder.
Xiao Ming trembled. The memory of repeated deaths had clearly not faded. Her voice wobbled. "I’ll speak. I’ll say anything you want. Just... Just stop... Leave."
"Let’s begin from the beginning," he said. "You said domain formation is based on luck. Explain."
Xiao Ming ground her teeth. "That foolish Mo Ming’s luck is terrible. If I had married you—had I been able to form a domain with you as the anchor—my domain would have covered a quarter of all of Azure Cloud City."
Lei Cheng nearly rose off his vine. "A quarter?"
He genuinely struggled to comprehend the level of disruption a domain of that scale would have caused.
"Indeed," Hua Mingyue confirmed from the side, her fan working in slow arcs. "She is telling the truth. Do you understand now why your luck matters so much?"
Xiao Ming added, "This is the effect of marrying someone with low luck. And high luck—"
Lei Cheng cut her off. "And the backlash."
He paused, glaring at her before continuing. "Next question. How can someone kill you permanently?"
Xiao Ming went utterly still. Then she slowly shook her head. "Why would I tell you that?"
Lei Cheng injected Life Intent into her through the vine.
She screamed before it even built to anything. "Kill me as many times as you like! I won’t speak!"
He exhaled. "How about a deal? You answer—I don’t kill you. We have an agreement."
"No!"
He killed her. The vine exploded with Life Intent, and she dissolved into dust. He waited. She reformed. He killed her again. Time passed. He kept killing her.
"I won’t speak!" she roared after an uncounted number of deaths, her voice hoarse and shaking throughout the domain.
Lei Cheng raised his palm to continue—
Hua Mingyue held up her hand. "It’s pointless."
He looked at her.
"Did you notice?" she said gently. "Unlike before, the deaths here, within the domain, restore her to her peak state each time. Every soul injury, every accumulated damage—all of it heals upon revival inside this space." She tapped her lips with the closed fan. "That is what the domain does."
Lei Cheng’s expression darkened.
"So torture is useless here," he grunted.
"Correct."
He paused. Then he shifted direction entirely, his voice becoming almost conversational. "All right, Xiao Ming. Tell me other things instead. Does your Bizarre Rule have a time limit? Can one person break your Bizarre Rule, or does it require multiple?"
Xiao Ming let out a slow, visible breath of relief. "Yes, there is a time limit. The same as the time allotted to form the domain—six months. And yes—one person can break my Bizarre Rule. It is related to marriage." She sighed, and sweat fell from her forehead.
Lei Cheng raised his palm.
"I’m speaking the truth!" she said quickly, hands flying up as much as the vines allowed. "I swear it—take a Heavenly Vow if you need confirmation."
"A Heavenly Vow?" He lowered his palm. "Continue. Give me more details."
She paused, organizing her words. "I can increase my strength by devouring those who enter my domain. If the people I devour carry enough luck, I can expand the domain’s size with each one consumed."
Lei Cheng scowled. "Your path forward isn’t sealed."
’No wonder Bizarre Domains became disasters if left unchecked.’
Xiao Ming lowered her head without answering.
"And what abilities did you actually gain from forming this domain?" he asked.
"One," she said quickly. "Suppression."
"Suppression..." He frowned. "Except for physical pressure—which feels like heavy gravity—I don’t sense much else." He wanted clarification.
Hua Mingyue answered before Xiao Ming could. "You are a mortal, so you only feel it as heavy gravity. All your power comes from your Dao Intent, which is higher than the domain itself. Suppression within a Bizarre Domain acts on the cultivation and intent of the same level cultivators and lower. It can even reduce a cultivator’s combat power by an entire level."
"What?" Lei Cheng cut in. "An entire level?" frёewebηovel.cѳm
Suddenly, the Domain felt much more dangerous.
"Now you know why it’s so special." Xiao Ming smiled bitterly. "But to think you are mortal—and have higher-level intent than mine."
"That’s why I don’t feel much," Lei Cheng nodded, exhaling.
He glared at her, indicating she should continue—but she fell silent.
’She’s unwilling to go further.’ He could read it clearly in her posture. He decided not to push. There was no use.
He rose from his vine and waved his palm. The enormous tangle of vines binding the domain began to withdraw and dissolve, retracting into the ground. He lowered himself gently to the cave floor on the last remaining vine, which also disappeared once his feet touched the stone. Hua Mingyue was set down beside him with equal care by the final departing vine. Xiao Ming, however, landed hard on her feet as her binding vine simply vanished—only for a second vine to immediately coil back around her, securing her in place before she could take a single step.
"What are you doing now?" she snapped.
"Testing something," Lei Cheng said.
He turned and walked out of the domain—stepping through the invisible boundary into the cleared stone courtyard outside. Hua Mingyue followed. ’Checking something else... Huh?’
Lei Cheng turned back and looked at the domain—invisible from out here, just empty air to the eye. He raised his palm.
"Come out," he said.
Inside the domain, the vine holding Xiao Ming began to extend—pushing toward the boundary, rushing toward the edge at Lei Cheng’s direction.
"No—you can’t do that!" Xiao Ming’s voice tore out from inside, furious and alarmed.
Genuine fear appeared on her face.
The vine surged forward and reached the domain’s boundary—just an inch from the edge.
’Can I pull her out of the domain entirely?’ He was itching to find out.
At the broken gates of the courtyard, a twelve-year-old boy peered in curiously.
His eyes landed on Lei Cheng.
He did not notice Hua Mingyue, who had appeared directly beside him. Her smile widened slightly.
