Chapter 273: The Invaded Sea of Consciousness

The attacks from everyone were like arrows, striking Tie Man’s body one after another, producing the sound of metal clashing. With a gloomy expression, Tie Man raised his head. His right hand was covered in bulging veins, drenched in sweat as if soaked by someone, and his entire hand trembled slightly, yet he showed no intention of releasing his grip.
With a flip of his left hand, a fiery red long sword appeared in it. The sword looked as though it had just been scorched by fire, its entire surface a blazing red, its scorching aura making it impossible to underestimate.
“Die all!” Tie Man was clearly furious this time. He was angry that someone would launch a sneak attack at such a moment—he had almost lost Zi Qing. He was even angrier that these people, who he regarded as mere ants, dared to attack him.
His left hand, holding the flaming sword, swung down forcefully, sending out a wave of heat. The person at the forefront was cut in half the moment the heat wave hit them, their burned corpses falling to the ground. Those behind them immediately retreated upon seeing the situation turn unfavorable.
Tie Man’s single strike killed over a dozen people. Although this act intimidated them to some extent, it also filled them with resentment.
“Hmph! Overestimating yourselves!” Tie Man snarled. “One comes, I kill one; two come, I kill both!”
At a moment of distraction, Zi Qing in his right hand suddenly slipped away.
Of course, the others weren’t willing to give up. Seeing the sword escape, they rushed forward in droves, turning the scene into complete chaos.
By now, Bernard had a ring of small jade bottles of various colors hanging around his waist. He paid no attention to the intense explosions and screams not far away.
Xiao Yu, on the other hand, was quite selective. After spending some time, she only picked out one or two items. Fat and the others, indifferent to what was happening, patiently searched the shelves for items they liked.
As time passed, the competition grew more intense.
Over twenty hours flew by quickly. By now, Xiao Yu had reached the shelf where Bernard had originally stood. She scanned the shelf before finally fixing her gaze on that tattered set of armor.
The armor was indeed very noticeable on the shelf—it was so worn out that it stood out like trash piled there.
Xiao Yu slowly walked over to the armor, picked it up with her wings, and examined it from all sides.

“Strange, why did I have that weird feeling just now? It only lasted for a moment, as if it were an illusion, but with my current level of cultivation, it’s unlikely I’d experience illusions. What’s so special about this armor?” Xiao Yu said as if to herself.
After examining it carefully for a while, Xiao Yu still found nothing. “Never mind, I’ll keep it for now. I haven’t taken many things anyway! If it’s useless, I can throw it away later. If it’s useful and I don’t take it with me, it’ll be too late to regret it.”
With that thought, Xiao Yu ultimately chose the principle of preferring to err on the side of caution rather than letting anything slip by. She slightly enlarged her figure and placed the armor on her back.
……
This was an endless expanse of vast emptiness. Ye Feng stood in the void, staring coldly at the black cloud in front of him. He knew that it was because of this cloud that he had ended up in such a place.
“Well, it seems your goal has been achieved! Since you can’t kill me, you hope to trap me here to death,” Ye Feng said irritably. “Or are you unwilling to return to this place alone and looking for someone to keep you company?”
The black cloud emitted a harsh screeching sound.
Ye Feng, of course, couldn’t understand this sound that came directly from a soul. It was one of the oldest languages in the universe. To Ye Feng, it sounded like noisy screams. But long before humans developed language, souls already had their own language—a natural ability to communicate. Still, at that moment, Ye Feng was furious at the black fog that had trapped him here. He had no interest in understanding what the fog was saying.
“I’m sorry, I don’t understand, and I don’t want to understand!” Ye Feng said, raising the seal in his hand. “I’m going to find an exit now. Don’t bother me, or I’ll have to use this. Although this seal might not be able to kill you, it’s enough to give you a hard time. And you certainly can’t kill me!”
With that, Ye Feng turned to leave.
The black fog clearly wasn’t willing to give up easily. It climbed up Ye Feng’s body along his ankles and enveloped him.
Ye Feng was shocked and then realized there was a thin, transparent membrane between him and the black fog. Only then did he understand that it was this membrane that had been blocking the fog’s attacks. A warm sensation coming from his palm made him lower his head.

It was only at this moment that Ye Feng realized that the transparent shield was generated by this seal. Because it was transparent, he hadn’t been able to see it clearly when he was outside in his panic earlier. He also had no idea why the attacks from the black mist didn’t cause him any pain. It was only now that the mystery was solved.

The black mist seemed unwilling to give up. It wrapped around him in circles, increasing the strength of its grip time and again, trying to kill Ye Feng.

Although Ye Feng couldn’t feel pain and most of the external pressure was absorbed by the seal, he was still completely immobilized by the black mist.

It was unclear how much time passed before Ye Feng felt that the bindings around his limbs had slightly loosened. He thought to himself, “Could it be that this thing has run out of strength?”

Just as he had this thought, he suddenly noticed that the black mist had changed its attack strategy. It controlled its body slightly and then condensed into a spiral-shaped projectile in front of him.

“Damn it!” Ye Feng realized something was wrong. He hadn’t expected this vicious creature to realize that a targeted attack would be much more effective than the previous ones. He also didn’t think the shield emitted by the seal could block such an attack.

The spiral-shaped projectile began spinning violently in front of him, like a drill, heading straight for his forehead.

Ye Feng was utterly speechless. If the protective layer was destroyed, an attack of such intensity could instantly blow open his skull, resulting in his brain splattering out.

He stared fixedly at the “drill” on his forehead. The black mist spun rapidly, and its waves of impact were blocked by the thin layer. Yet his sense of safety didn’t increase at all.

After some time, a tiny crack began to form. Ye Feng frowned deeply. He knew that once a small crack appeared, it meant breaking through the shield was just around the corner.

Although Ye Feng had a death substitute, he was still somewhat worried. He didn’t know if this purely soul-based entity could launch a soul-targeted attack. If it could, he might perish right there.

As time passed, the cracks on the transparent shield gradually grew larger. Ye Feng could even faintly hear the sound of it breaking. Cold sweat streamed down his forehead, but his body remained completely immobile.

In this void-like space, Ye Feng had completely lost any sense of time. He didn’t know how long had passed before he finally heard the crisp sound of the protective shield breaking. He slowly closed his eyes. A long time passed, yet no pain came. Instead, he felt a chill on his forehead. He immediately opened his eyes and saw something that left him stunned: the black mist had seeped into his body through the center of his brows. Ye Feng quickly drew back his mental energy to examine his inner self, trying to figure out what the black mist intended to do. Once inside his body, the black mist moved like a black thread, heading straight for his sea of consciousness. “Is it trying to take over my sea of consciousness and control my body?” Ye Feng frowned. He certainly knew there was something called the Spiritual Platform deep within the sea of consciousness. If they erased the mark marking his presence there and carved a new one, his body would belong to them from then on. “Damn it!” Ye Feng cursed. “I definitely can’t let you control my body to do evil!” Suddenly, the seal in Ye Feng’s palm emitted intense golden light, and the golden dragon within it shone with golden eyes, locking eyes with Ye Feng’s. By the time Ye Feng regained his senses, the seal had disappeared. “What happened? What just happened?” Ye Feng stared at his empty hands for a moment before drawing his mental energy back into his sea of consciousness to see the situation. When his mental energy entered the sea of consciousness again, he was shocked by what he saw: a golden dragon was coiled beneath the Spiritual Platform, confronting the black mist that had previously located it. Ye Feng thought to himself how lucky he was—had it been any later, his Spiritual Platform would have been completely corrupted. The black mist hesitated upon seeing the dragon but clearly didn’t want to give up such an easy target. After hesitating for a while, it rushed toward the Spiritual Platform. The golden dragon fought back without hesitation, and their battle created ripples throughout Ye Feng’s sea of consciousness. Ye Feng immediately focused his mental energy on his Spiritual Platform, firmly guarding that small area within it.