A Thousand Experiences of Being Crushed into Meat Paste

"Master, thank you for spending such precious resources to restore my body."

Feeling the Slave Chip inside his brain, Bai Muye could only suppress the frustration in his heart and offer his thanks in a respectful tone, despite his helplessness.

After browsing the memories, he knew he was now a slave. He had previously communicated with the Soul-Devouring Tree seed, asking if it could protect his soul if the chip were to detonate.

The Soul-Devouring Tree seed replied: "Don't even think about it. Even if I could protect your soul, I currently lack the ability to let you possess another creature. In the end, we would both perish!"

"So it's not possible now, but it will be in the future?" Bai Muye asked.

"If I can keep devouring soul energy, then of course it will be possible later," the Soul-Devouring Tree seed answered as if it were a matter of course.

Knowing his current predicament, he had no choice but to bow his head while under another's roof.

"I spent quite a lot to restore your body this time," Bastian said, scrutinizing him. "Since you've recovered, hurry up and continue your cultivation. I will contact the Giant Axe Arena to arrange your next deathmatch as soon as possible... Do not disappoint me!"

"Yes."

As Bastian turned to leave, Bai Muye quickly spoke up: "Master, I gained some insights from my previous battle and would like to apply for access to the Virtual Universe..."

Although Bai Muye had taken control of this body, he had only browsed its memories; he lacked any real combat experience.

The memories contained scenes of the original owner training in the Virtual Universe. Bai Muye knew the Virtual Universe was an incredibly miraculous virtual world, so he wanted to go there to adapt to killing as quickly as possible.

During the process of restoring his body, the vast amount of memories had not yet dissipated. He could choose to fully integrate them, but he worried that after merging thousands of years of memories, his own meager twenty-plus years of life experience would be unable to resist them. Once assimilated, he would no longer be himself, so he had been hesitating.

If he could fully master the powerful combat strength of this body through training in the Virtual Universe, he would let those memories fade away.

Bastian hesitated for a moment. After calculating the massive gap between the cost of entering the Virtual Universe and the payout of the next match, he finally reached out, took out a Consciousness Sensor, and tossed it to Bai Muye: "Five days in the Giant Axe Arena's Killing Space. Make the most of it yourself."

He left behind those words and turned to walk away.

Bai Muye reached out and caught the Consciousness Sensor, a sliver of his consciousness quickly entering the Virtual Universe.

If it had been right after he transmigrated, he wouldn't have had the ability to split off a sliver of consciousness. But as he gained control over the entire body, the powerful physical form fed back into his soul, causing his soul strength to leap to the Universe Rank.

This was an anonymous account with specific permissions set; once logged in, one could only enter the Killing Space and was unable to send any information to the outside world.

In the Virtual Universe, Bai Muye appeared directly inside the Giant Axe Arena. He glanced at the shocking blood drop in the hall, remained silent for a long moment, then stepped forward and walked along the path in the hall toward the depths.

As he went deeper, the surrounding environment changed, and he appeared on an endless desert.

"So stingy, they didn't even provide a Little Sprite..."

Complaining in his heart, he had no choice but to manually configure his opponent—himself, with incredibly rich combat experience.

Without any wind-up, the moment the opponent was outlined, it immediately expanded its domain and attacked with a staff!

Feeling as if he were stuck in a quagmire and struggling to move, Bai Muye belatedly expanded his own domain. Facing the heavy, powerful strike of the staff, he raised his own staff to parry—

Clang!

His hands, from fingertips to wrists to arms, were all shattered. The long staff flew out of his grip, and then his vision went black as his entire body was smashed into meat paste by the opponent's staff!

The meat paste on the yellow sand gathered eerily, regenerating his physical body.

"Is this what it feels like to be smashed to death? This pain doesn't seem as persistent as the torture of illness..."

He propped one end of his long staff on the ground and touched his chest with his other hand—he had been struck in this exact spot by the opponent's staff, and the explosive power had caused him to be torn apart starting from that location.

The long-term torture of illness in his past life hadn't made him despondent; instead, it had cultivated an extremely optimistic spirit.

"One, I didn't expand my domain at the first moment, which caused me to fall into a disadvantage right from the start..."

"Two, I didn't utilize my force-exertion techniques well and parried clumsily, resulting in my hands being shattered by the opponent's superior explosive power..."

"Three... there is no three... I died after just the first two points..."

After deep reflection, he configured the opponent again—

The same opponent appeared.

He expanded his domain immediately, but was still knocked back by the first strike, and then—smashed into meat paste once more!

"I was too ambitious..."

He reflected again.

"Although I expanded my domain immediately, I'm still not familiar enough with the force-exertion techniques..."

"Hmm, better to keep my feet on the ground..."

For the third configuration, he chose himself with "average combat experience."

The same opponent appeared.

He expanded his domain immediately, while the opponent's domain expansion was a beat slower.

Bai Muye felt a surge of joy; this time it should...

Suddenly, his consciousness sank, and he became somewhat dizzy. He couldn't even react in time to the opponent's staff attack, and he was turned into a puddle of meat paste even faster than before!

"What's going on?"

He fell into deep self-doubt.

"Is this a consciousness attack? Can martial artists perform consciousness attacks too?"

"No, it's not a consciousness attack, it's that he released his killing intent under stress. I... couldn't withstand this murderous aura, which caused my mind to become dizzy, and I lost even more miserably..."

"It seems there's no way to avoid this; I just have to tough it out." Bai Muye gritted his teeth. "Then let's go again!"

The fourth time, the fifth time...

Every time he was killed, he would reflect, learn his lesson, and make improvements, but the results were mediocre. It wasn't until a day later that he could finally trade blows with his "average combat experience" self, with the fight duration finally breaking the one-minute mark, though the end result was always being beaten to death.

It was fine at the beginning; dying quickly meant less pain.

Later, as his combat awareness gradually improved, he didn't die as fast, but he would often take a strike to his left arm one second, a strike to his right leg the next, and a strike to his back the second after that. The pain was actually more intense than before.

After dying over a thousand times, he had finally absorbed quite a few lessons, and his practical combat experience had enriched significantly during the process of being turned into pulp a thousand times over. At the very least, he was no longer a combat novice.

However, he still lacked the strength to defeat his "average combat experience" self.

"Setting aside the original body's cultivation talent, this combat talent is truly high..." After dying once more, Bai Muye touched the head that had just been smashed. "I wonder if I can handle other Universe Rank level 5 opponents now..."

With a thought, he simulated a Universe Rank level 5 Psychic with a Fourth-Order Domain and "average" combat experience.

After the opponent appeared, he expanded his domain and charged forward to initiate the attack.

But before he could even reach his opponent, the Telepathic Weapon in the opponent's hand, which resembled a nine-section whip, struck first. He swung his staff to defend, but the head of the opponent's whip veered off, piercing directly into his skull in a bizarre maneuver!

"It seems it's still not enough..."

No matter how optimistic he tried to be, he couldn't help but feel a bit discouraged at this moment.

"At this rate, even if I were given another five days, it wouldn't be enough to hone my combat experience to a high enough level... I don't know how much time is left before the next life-or-death battle..."

The timing for Universe Rank life-or-death battles wasn't fixed; sometimes they were a year or two apart, and sometimes they were scheduled just a few months apart, depending mainly on the participants' willingness and the arrangements of the Giant Axe Arena.

But judging by the attitude of Bastian, he would likely have the Giant Axe Arena arrange the next match as soon as possible, meaning he wouldn't have much time left.

In his current state, Bai Muye had zero confidence in facing the next life-or-death battle, because he was already on a 921-match winning streak, and the opponents he would face were not the same as those he faced when he first started.

The Giant Axe Arena would never arrange a rookie to fight him; that would be equivalent to handing him free records and appearance fees.

"Am I going to die in the next life-or-death battle?"

Having fought against illness for years in his past life, he had long since looked past life and death, but his current situation had instead ignited his desire to survive.

He was now facing a choice: should he fuse with that massive amount of memory or not?