Golden Eyes

"The medium for Teacher's Innate Spirit Art... is his eyes?"

The youth looked up, gazing at the massive Golden Giant Eye in the dome. He saw it continuously blasting scorching beams of light from its pupil while rotating its body to incinerate and sear the pitch-black ocean surrounding the snow mountain in every direction.

Under the silent yet incredibly intimidating bombardment of the Golden Giant Eye, the boundless Abyss Matter was instantly melted, creating countless openings and fissures that revealed endless chaos and void.

The youth lowered his head to look at Lyle beside him. He saw that Lyle was standing perfectly still, not saying a word, merely staring with his golden eyes wide open, facing the Abyss that shrouded the world without a hint of fear.

Under Lyle's focused gaze, the Golden Giant Eye erupted with even fiercer firepower, like a sun rising before dawn, surging to dispel the surrounding darkness and reclaim the world's dominion with its own radiance.

However, although the bombardment range of the Golden Giant Eye had reached a terrifying scale, there was still an unbridgeable chasm between it and the Abyss that was vast enough to blot out the sky.

Whenever the gaze focused its bombardment on one area of the pitch-black ocean, the Abyss in other areas would surge forth simultaneously, rushing toward the Old Church at the waist of the snow mountain in an attempt to swallow it whole.

Yet, as soon as this viscous seawater reached the sky above the church, it was blocked by a golden barrier. Any Abyss Matter that came into direct contact with the barrier evaporated into nothingness in an instant.

Under Ye Chen's careful observation, he soon discovered that this barrier was a solid wall built by his teacher, Lyle, using incredibly dense and pure Auling Power.

The purity of the energy flowing within it was worlds apart from the Auling Power currently flowing through Ye Chen's own body; it was a realm he was currently completely unqualified to compare with.

"Teacher is truly amazing."

Ye Chen widened his eyes, watching the spectacular scene of Lyle single-handedly shaking off the erosion of the Abyss with excitement. He couldn't help but sigh repeatedly, and the hands he had been clenching tightly finally relaxed, filled with a sense of relief.

Although he had always believed his teacher's strength to be unfathomable, after seeing it with his own eyes, Ye Chen's heart was still deeply shaken.

Judging by the power Lyle was currently displaying, even if the prey from Ye Chen's previous three trials were to attack all at once—no, even if their numbers were multiplied by tens of thousands—they would not pose the slightest threat to Lyle.

For this man, a simple glance at the prey would be enough to make all enemies vanish into dust, silently dissolving like ice shards under a scorching sun.

The strength Lyle displayed was just that terrifying and exaggerated.

However, was the Abyss this man was currently facing not the same?

Every time Lyle's golden eyes swept a massive rift into the pitch-black deep sea, thousands upon thousands of dark figures would fill it in succession. The scorching golden light continuously blasted away the Abyss surrounding the Old Church, and the Abyss in every direction of the Old Church, in turn, tirelessly and relentlessly lunged toward the scorching golden light.

Corresponding to Lyle's terrifying and exaggerated firepower, the Abyss also possessed an extremely tenacious regenerative ability, and this regenerative power was vaguely beginning to gain the upper hand, making the scenery around the Old Church increasingly dim and oppressive.

Seeing this, the excitement on Ye Chen's face quickly turned gloomy.

Based on his previous experience, if the core of the Abyss was not destroyed, these disgusting things would regenerate forever. But in an Abyss domain of such massive scale, trying to find the core to destroy it was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Lyle's power was indeed strong, but there would eventually come a time when he would be exhausted.

When that time came, what would the two of them do?

"Teacher..."

The anxious and worried youth murmured, not knowing what advice to give, and could only look lost and helpless.

However, even in such a dangerous situation, the man turned his head with a leisurely expression and gave Ye Chen a gentle smile.

"Don't worry, as long as I am here, I won't let the Abyss touch you."

As he spoke, the areas where Lyle's gaze had reached, where the golden light had swept, and where the Abyss had filled in, suddenly erupted with infinite flames once more, incinerating and destroying the pitch-black sea in those regions again.

At the same time, these flames connected to one another, mysteriously forming a profound light array. Not only did it instantly scatter the Abyss surrounding the Old Church, but the light filaments radiating from the center of the array pointed directly toward a specific point in the pitch-black deep sea.

"Found the core."

Lyle whispered, his gaze shifting sharply toward that point in the ocean.

Then, the Golden Giant Eye at the top of the firmament turned to follow Lyle's lead, and the golden light erupting from its pupil pierced directly into the spot indicated by the light array.

Whoosh------!

Accompanied by a deafening roar, Ye Chen was stunned to notice that the Abyss seawater where Lyle had struck suddenly began to twist and twitch, fading from its pitch-black color as if struggling in pain.

From the retreating black mist, Ye Chen then caught sight of the outline of a giant object.

Although its appearance was somewhat similar to the Abyss stone core Ye Chen had destroyed in the past, its volume had expanded ten thousand times over, and its surface was covered in plump, thick flesh and clearly visible veins. From a distance, it looked like a mountain-sized heart.

However, a large crater had been burned into the center of this heart, and it had clearly stopped beating, for Lyle, having discerned its location, had let the Golden Giant Eye pierce through it without mercy.

With the destruction of the heart, the pitch-black ocean around the Old Church also shattered and dissolved.

As the Abyss dissipated, the youth's expression initially brightened, but he was soon shaken by the bizarre scene presented before him.

Because, after they retreated, the snow mountain, forests, and plains that Ye Chen knew from his memories did not return; all that remained was a dim, chaotic void.

Apart from the chaos, there was nothing else.

"Teacher, where did everything else go? Could it be that they were all swallowed by the Abyss?"

The youth asked his teacher with trepidation.

If Ye Chen's conjecture were true, it would mean that all areas outside the Old Church, and all living beings existing in those areas, had failed to escape the clutches of the Abyss.

The mountains, forests, and plains he had once hunted in, the people of Cold Wind Village he had once saved, the cute and pitiful Frost White Person girl, and the Frost White City he had visited several times—the symbol of the Frost White Person civilization.

Everything, every single thing, had vanished, annihilated and scattered in the erosion of the Abyss, leaving not a trace behind.

This was clearly something Ye Chen did not want to see, a result his nature could not accept.

However, upon seeing Ye Chen's frantic face, Lyle couldn't help but shake his head and smile bitterly, then used simple and clear words to instantly soothe Ye Chen's frantically trembling heart.

"Rest assured, the other regions of the Eternal Winter Hidden Domain were sent away by me in advance while you were unconscious. After all, the Abyss is only interested in the two of us, so there was no need to drag those innocent lives into this."

Upon hearing this, Ye Chen's expression changed twice in an instant.

At first, upon hearing that the masses had not been wiped out, he felt a sense of relief.

But upon hearing that the Abyss had targeted him and Lyle directly, he was struck with astonishment.

Then, Lyle's calm yet firm voice reached Ye Chen's ears once again.

"Next, it is your turn, Ye Chen."