Orange-gray nested rings flickered in He Ao's eyes. Using his spiritual sense to control the Shadowless Sword in his hand, he swiftly shifted his body aside, leaving his original position.
At that moment, the mechanical convex lens's blood-red light blade ground away the final layer of darkness shielding Locke En.
Bang--
Locke En's "body" exploded into a cloud of blood mist with a soft pop.
At the same time, He Ao, who had left his original position, jerked to a halt. Flesh and skin burst open simultaneously, turning him into a blood-soaked figure.
This time, Locke En had used a great many "lives" to "exchange" with He Ao.
Fortunately, He Ao had deliberately observed the traces left when the spell took effect and determined that it had positional requirements. His rescue of Li Cheng had confirmed that judgment.
At the final moment, he had shifted his position, mitigating a large portion of the damage.
Even so, he was now severely wounded and on the verge of death.
However, he had been monitoring the entire process of the spell's activation with the Eye of Truth.
Through the fluctuations of energy, he had roughly figured out the spell's "flaw." The power of the damage decayed with distance; in other words, the farther away the target, the lower the damage.
Combined with the rule he had previously discovered—that fixed-position damage was greater—he could now consciously evade the main damage.
Through those repeated "observations," he had also grasped the energy fluctuations that preceded the spell's use, allowing him to predict Locke En's spells in advance.
Taken together, this kind of Life Exchange Spell would find it difficult to inflict such explosive damage on him again.
Of course, Locke En most likely would not use this spell again either. A spell that forcibly dealt true