Neural Illusion

Luo Zhiyuan pulled Iceberg aside to practice a few soul techniques he had mastered. Once Iceberg had fully recovered, he happily sent him back to the Extreme Martial Arts Hall and then called Hong to inform him that he had returned his subordinate safe and sound.

Hong was left speechless by Luo Zhiyuan's phrasing, but upon hearing that neither Iceberg nor Luo Zhiyuan had suffered any mishaps, he stopped worrying about it.

However, not long after, when Hong finished his seclusion and asked Iceberg for the details, Iceberg recounted the experience with a face full of lingering fear. This left Hong extremely shocked, and he made a mental note that if he were ever to face an illusionist in the future, he must be extremely careful, or he might die without even knowing why!

One must realize that while the soul techniques Luo Zhiyuan tested were not direct lethal attacks, once one's mind was controlled or the manipulation of their body or spiritual energy was compromised, it would be easy for an opponent to finish them off if they also utilized a spiritual weapon. Most illusionists, as a rule, carried a spiritual weapon for support.

After sending Iceberg away, Luo Zhiyuan returned to his monotonous training. His physical fitness and spiritual energy growth had slowed slightly, and his spiritual energy amplitude had reached 25. He spent most of his days practicing Godly Evasion and refining the properties of his spiritual energy.

On this day, his Godly Evasion finally reached the third level. He could now manifest nine illusions while moving, creating a total of ten figures including his true self. He could weave freely between these ten figures, and they could even form offensive or defensive formations, achieving a complementary effect that made his combat style unpredictable and significantly increased his agility.

Luo Feng returned to Earth at the end of October 2062. He first requested a plot of land one kilometer square from the Chinese government to house the modular castle he had brought back from space civilization and the slave guards he had purchased.

The materials used for this castle were comparable to a B-grade warship, making it difficult even for star-level powerhouses to destroy. The core areas, such as the master bedroom, were reinforced with C-grade alloys, ensuring that it was absolutely impregnable to anyone below the universe level, and even universe-level powerhouses would find it difficult to breach quickly. It was a top-tier custom design for distinguished guests.

In the evening, Luo Feng brought his family to the castle. It was a beautiful, towering structure nearly sixty meters high, covering a square kilometer. The castle looked as if it had been plucked from the legends of elves.

Vines and other plants hung from the castle walls, covering most of the exterior as if they had been growing for many years. The site had previously been a high-end residential complex containing twelve villas.

Xu Xin had been on the phone with a business partner that very afternoon, and the partner lived in that exact complex. Now, the entire complex, buildings and all, had vanished, replaced by this tall and majestic castle.

Luo Feng opened the castle gates, which were controlled by an intelligent AI. From within, 900 planetary-level slaves and 15 star-level slaves emerged. These nearly one thousand slaves were purchased by Luo Feng from the Black Dragon Mountain Empire, a mid-level civilization in the universe. Now, they served as the private servants and guards of the Luo Family!

Luo Feng led his family on a tour of the castle as if showing off a treasure, allowing the "country bumpkins" of Earth, including Luo Zhiyuan, to witness the advancement of space civilization. After staying just one night, the entire family was captivated by the high-tech, convenient, and beautiful castle.

The next day, Hong and Thunder God also arrived at Luo Feng's castle. Luo Feng gave them a brief introduction to the classification of space civilizations: civilizations in the universe are divided into high-level, mid-level, and low-level. Low-level civilizations are vassal states to mid-level ones, and mid-level civilizations are vassal states to high-level ones.

The Milky Way, where Earth is located, was ruled by a low-level civilization empire that governed a total of eight star systems. If a single low-level civilization could control an area as vast as eight Milky Ways, one could imagine just how immense the universe truly was.

Above the high-level civilizations, there were five super-powers that spanned the entire human territory: the Virtual Universe Company, the Giant Axe Coliseum, the Universe Mercenary Alliance, the Universe First Bank, and the Universe Galaxy Bank. The authority of these five powers in the universe surpassed that of all space civilizations.

Furthermore, Luo Feng solemnly told the two of them the cruel truth about the strict hierarchy of space civilization: those who do not reach the planetary level do not even have the right to be citizens of a space civilization. They receive no protection whatsoever and can be disposed of at will by powerful space-faring beings.

Some weak planets and races were even enslaved for generations, bought and sold as slaves—like the guards he had brought back. Earth was even worse off than the home planets of those guards; it was currently the weakest type of planet. If discovered by space-faring beings, Earthlings would only be sold as slaves, with no hope of ever rising again!

Hong and Thunder God had initially thought that reaching the star level would be enough to protect Earth, only to discover that the planetary level could barely scrape by in the universe, and the star level was merely considered an elite expert.

Luo Feng had been able to purchase one thousand planetary-level spiritual masters, five star-level stage one warriors, five star-level stage one spiritual masters, three star-level stage five spiritual masters, and three star-level stage seven spiritual masters all at once!

Luo Feng's own guard force alone was enough to sweep across Earth countless times, not to mention other space adventurers. Only by striving to no longer be weak could Earth and its people protect themselves, and this was something that Luo Feng and his few companions could not achieve alone.

Thus, the three strongest men on Earth—Luo Feng, Hong, and Thunder God—determined a path for human evolution.

First, they would initiate large-scale evolution for the humans on Earth. Luo Feng had spent a great deal of money to buy 100,000 tons of "Purple Light Dew" from space civilization. Just 15 milliliters of this "Purple Light Dew" could elevate an Earthling near the student level to the student level, and once they reached the student level, they could cultivate cosmic energy to evolve their bodies.

100,000 tons of "Purple Light Dew" was enough for 10 billion Earthlings, and currently, there were fewer than 7 billion. After a few decades, Earthlings would evolve to be born at the student level. This would be the first step in the evolution of the human race on Earth!

Secondly, Luo Feng brought back several consciousness-sensing helmets and accounts for the Virtual Universe, which allowed for anonymous access to communicate within space civilization. Luo Feng distributed these to various countries and base cities on Earth, allowing Earthlings to have initial contact with space civilization and learn about the various knowledge and information of the universe.

Luo Feng also kept a set of consciousness-sensing helmets and a Virtual Universe account for his own home to help his family integrate with the universe more quickly. However, Luo Zhiyuan used his "acting cute" tactic to ask Luo Feng for his own account, rather than sharing one with the family.

He didn't need a helmet because he had the auxiliary AI given to him by Babata, but having a personal account would make it easier for him to explore the Virtual Universe. Luo Zhiyuan was extremely eager to come into contact with the space civilization of this world; he was too curious about the Virtual Universe, which had provided such immense help to the human race in the novel.

Of course, having his own account had another benefit: he could hide some of his small actions, such as searching for information that only he knew but shouldn't know yet. This could be considered one of the perks of being a transmigrator.

However, Luo Zhiyuan didn't stay happy for long, because many services in the Virtual Universe cost money, and he didn't have his own bank account, nor did he have any money. Although Luo Feng still had some funds, Luo Zhiyuan knew that Luo Feng was about to face a very important challenge: he needed to reach the star level in the shortest possible time to save Earth.

Therefore, he couldn't waste money unnecessarily. He had to prioritize purchasing cultivation resources for Luo Feng, so he couldn't explore much further. He would have to wait until Luo Feng finished buying his cultivation resources, then have him take him into the universe to open an account and transfer some money.

Fortunately, there were many planetary-level guards in the castle for Luo Zhiyuan to practice on, so he turned his attention to cultivating soul techniques.

Recently, Babata didn't have any suitable soul techniques for Luo Zhiyuan to practice, so he began to ponder whether he could create some simple techniques suitable for himself. He already had a few ideas.

The first was a visual illusion targeting the body's visual system. The principle was to use spiritual energy to affect the opponent's visual nervous system, causing them to experience hallucinations. He expected this to cause confusion, such as "ghost wall" effects, "inability to distinguish friend from foe," "loss of vision," or "blindness to reality."

Since most soul techniques targeted the sea of consciousness and the soul, and soul defense techniques only provided protection for the sea of consciousness and the soul, Babata had never mentioned defenses against specific bodily organs. He would check the Virtual Universe later; if there were no corresponding techniques, this could be considered Luo Zhiyuan's trump card.

He summoned a planetary-level stage nine spiritual master of the Heimeng Race and asked him to lower his mental defenses, as he needed to use his spiritual energy to scan the opponent's organs and nerves to see if there were significant differences between races.

Luo Zhiyuan first examined his own body in detail; after all, the human body was what he knew best. He scanned his body over and over with his spiritual energy, meticulously probing the major nerve centers, vision, hearing, smell, taste, and brain nerves until he had completely memorized the main nodes of the human nervous system. Only then did he begin to examine the body of the Heimeng guard.

The Heimeng Race looked similar to humans on the outside, but after Luo Zhiyuan's investigation, he discovered that their nervous systems were quite different from humans. However, the main control nerves were still in the brain, which was similar to humans. After finishing his investigation of the Heimeng guard, he used his spiritual energy to interfere with the visual nerve center in the guard's brain.

The Heimeng spiritual master only felt a flash of dull light before his eyes, after which he couldn't see anything. He could only use his spiritual energy to perceive surrounding objects, and he quickly reported this phenomenon to his young master, Luo Zhiyuan.

"Young Master, I cannot see anything now, but I can still use my spiritual energy to perceive. However, after losing my vision, there is a period of time where I cannot react. If I don't think to use spiritual energy to probe, or if the opponent is a warrior, the impact would be significant."

Luo Zhiyuan nodded after hearing this. This experiment was a partial success, but the expected confusion effects did not appear, so he needed to improve it further. Besides, there were other races of guards he hadn't tested yet; Luo Feng had brought back slaves from thirteen different races, so he would test them one by one. But he was in no rush, as he had another idea he wanted to try.

The second idea was an auditory illusion targeting the auditory nervous system. The principle was to use spiritual energy to form vibration waves to shake the opponent's auditory system. He expected this to cause auditory confusion, and in severe cases, it should cause damage to the opponent's brain.

This time, because it might cause physical damage, Luo Zhiyuan was very careful during the test. He first used a strand of spiritual energy to form a vibration wave near the guard's ear. The guard frowned and told Luo Zhiyuan, "Young Master, this power is very small. Although there is some discomfort, it basically won't cause any physical impact."

So, Luo Zhiyuan combined three strands of spiritual energy to form a vibration wave near the guard's ear again. The guard shook his head and told Luo Zhiyuan that the power was still insufficient.

He continued to increase the power, and when Luo Zhiyuan used a combination of fifteen strands of spiritual energy, the resulting vibration wave actually caused the guard to collapse to the ground.

It took the guard a full half-minute to recover, and then he said in a muffled voice, "Young Master, this time it was very serious. After sensing the vibration, I instantly felt dizzy, my spiritual energy scattered, and I lost control of my body. Even now, I haven't fully recovered. Please allow me to rest for a while before continuing."

"Oh, oh, okay, take a rest." Luo Zhiyuan didn't expect the effect to be so significant. When he used thirteen strands of spiritual energy, the guard only felt some minor dizziness. He didn't expect to be completely knocked down this time; it seemed that a quantitative change had led to a qualitative change.

Once the spiritual energy amplitude reached fifteen, the controlled vibration had a severe impact on the body. Most importantly, this impact was not at the soul level; it was a direct physical manifestation. As long as the opponent had an auditory system, this should work. It seemed his idea was correct!

After the guard recovered, Luo Zhiyuan asked him to defend himself with all his might, and then he used fifteen strands of spiritual energy to vibrate the guard's auditory system again. To his surprise, the result was the same as before; the guard fell to the ground again, unable to control his body or spiritual energy.

Once the guard could speak, he told Luo Zhiyuan, "Young Master, this time it was the same as before. I didn't feel any difference; I just lost control of my body. This is very powerful! Congratulations, Young Master, on successfully researching this technique!"

Luo Zhiyuan was very satisfied upon hearing this, knowing he had gained another means of attack. If the principle of this technique was unknown to others, that would be even better. Right, he should try it on a star-level guard to see if it had any effect on higher-level warriors or spiritual masters.

Star-level guards usually served as captains, so Luo Zhiyuan had his Heimeng Race guard summon his own captain so he could test the power of this secret technique.

Soon, a first-tier Star-level Heimeng Race warrior arrived at Luo Zhiyuan's training grounds. He said to the guard captain, "I want to test a new secret technique on you. Lower your defenses and let's see what happens."

The guard captain stood obediently to the side. Luo Zhiyuan still used fifteen strands of spiritual force to create the Vibration Wave. He had expected it wouldn't have much of an effect on the captain, but to his surprise, the captain's body went limp, and he nearly collapsed to the ground.

The guard captain swayed as if he were drunk before finally regaining his footing in utter astonishment. He described what he felt to Luo Zhiyuan, and it turned out to be almost identical to the experience of the earlier guard, though the Star-level captain's physical resilience was slightly higher than that of the Planetary-level guard.

This led Luo Zhiyuan to a bold hypothesis: could it be that this influence, which directly targeted the body's nervous system, only varied in its effect based on the difference in physical strength?

After all, these were the fundamental components of a body. Regardless of the race, they all possessed the necessary sensory organs. While the specific locations and structures might differ slightly, if one were to thoroughly understand the bodily structures of most races, this could become a completely new type of secret technique—a soul secret technique that didn't target the soul, but directly targeted the body's nerves!

Luo Zhiyuan did not increase his spiritual force to boost the power. He could condense up to twenty-five strands of spiritual force at most; if he unleashed his full power, it would certainly cause severe damage to the first-tier Star-level guard's body. These guards were still very useful, so he would leave further testing for another time.

For the remainder of the time, Luo Zhiyuan began to refine his visual illusions. Since the auditory nerve illusion was so effective, there was no reason the visual nerve illusion shouldn't be; he must have been using the wrong approach, so he continued to improve and test it time and again.

As the days passed, half a month later, Luo Zhiyuan finally perfected the visual illusion. However, simple interference with the visual nerves had limited effectiveness; after all, even without sight, one could still use other methods to perceive their surroundings.

Therefore, he added a method targeting the soul to provide auxiliary interference. He first used spiritual force to disrupt the opponent's visual system, then used a method similar to the Charm secret technique to assist, perfectly achieving a chaotic effect that left the opponent unable to control themselves.

After more than half a month of research and experimentation, having verified the techniques on the guards from the 13 races brought back by Luo Feng, the two new combat secret techniques were basically mature. Luo Zhiyuan classified both secret techniques under the category of Nerve Illusions: one was called Chaos, and the other was called Vibration Wave.

At the same time, due to his research into visual nerve illusions, his insight into the Light Domain had increased significantly. Luo Zhiyuan's Light Domain unexpectedly broke through to the second level, catching up to Hong in terms of cultivation realm.

During this period, Babata had not disturbed Luo Zhiyuan's research. In fact, he had originally intended to stop him; in Babata's view, these so-called nerve illusions targeting the flesh had no future and were a waste of time.

The head, or rather the brain, was only a vital area during the early stages of cultivation for the human race because the soul resided there. Once one reached the Domain Lord level, a singularity would form within the body to house the soul and begin gestating a world, forming a life core. At that point, even if a Domain Lord-level powerhouse's head were destroyed, they would not be in mortal danger as long as their life core remained intact.

However, for Luo Zhiyuan, who was only a two-year-old child, Luo Feng had lamented many times that his son was not as carefree and happy as other children. Babata knew all of this, but to cultivate such a combat genius, he could not allow Little Zhiyuan to waste his time playing around.

Babata also wanted to find an opportunity to make it up to him, so he decided to let him indulge in his whims for this period. Furthermore, by a stroke of luck, he had even improved his domain realm, so the time spent on this research was not a loss at all.