Beaten into a Ball

"The larger the body, the more pronounced the pressure. It seems the only way is to focus on speed."

To avoid being surrounded, Chen Qing maintained a size comparable to the puppets; being too large would only hinder his movements.

What is wind? Wind is air pressure, motion. Chen Qing, grasping its essence, understood all this.

But when the puppet attacked, Chen Qing couldn't see it—or rather, he saw the wind, yet the black shadow's fist was already upon him.

"Turning? Misalignment? It's formlessness! So that's it!"

Just as the black pillar of shadow touched Chen Qing, his body slid sideways like a paper scrap, following the force.

It wasn't that Chen Qing had become faster; he was moving with the wind, initially merging into it.

"Boom"

A vortex quickly formed above his head, and a single drop of cyan water fell. No matter how ghostly Chen Qing's movements, it landed steadily on his forehead.

Only a few days had passed, yet Chen Qing had gained the acknowledgment of the Wind Law. A wave of relief washed over him.

"Hahaha, exhilarating!"

Now, one step closer to the fifth layer, Chen Qing's spirit soared with ambition.

But before he could celebrate for long, the mist outside churned, and eight more puppets instantly appeared on the plaza.

"So fast!"

Chen Qing's mouth twitched twice. A moment's carelessness, and a puppet behind him kicked his back.

Taking advantage of his forward lean, he quickly braced one hand on the ground, using his foot to block a fist from the side, dodging the encirclement.

"No good. Speed, speed! I have to increase my speed."

With eight puppets now, his options were either to tough it out and win through attacks—but attacking was largely pointless.

Killing them was useless; they'd revive soon enough. A group would take turns on him, growing stronger with each imitation.

Moreover, he was easily surrounded. Four puppets were manageable, barely. Twelve, and a single delay meant certain encirclement.

The remaining option was to stall with speed—the longer, the better. Ideally, a kiting strategy!

But reality quickly taught Chen Qing a lesson. Twelve puppets, all faster than him.

No matter the direction, even if he dodged one punch, countless fists appeared from all sides.

Chen Qing was either kicked away or slapped aside. It felt like a mix of basketball and soccer, with Chen Qing as the ball!

"Faster! I need to be faster!"

Time kept slipping away. Though his World Energy was abundant and injuries healed quickly, Chen Qing's will began to tire.

Little Cloud shattered and reformed, shattered and reformed again. Thankfully, Green Lotus was there, preventing damage to his core.

"Lightning is about penetration, wind about acceleration, and light about refraction..."

Every idea for speed and evasion flashed through Chen Qing's mind, tested and applied.

He didn't know how long passed. Even after comprehending light, he was still getting beaten—just less often than before.

Suddenly, his eyes lit up. The puppets before him seemed to slow down. Chen Qing instinctively adjusted his stance and easily slipped past the figure opposite.

"Slower? No, it's my time that's faster!"

With the Law's acknowledgment, Chen Qing realized he had grasped a minor branch of time acceleration.

"Damn, so they all had time acceleration. No wonder I could never dodge no matter how fast I went!"

Now facing the King-Rank puppets, Chen Qing noticed that several of them carried temporal fluctuations. In his own acceleration, he had unconsciously learned from them.

"Truly a blind spot. All this time, I was dazzled by the wind, wasting so much time!"

Outside the treasure, at the hill that had once been there, Jiang Fang and Yao Rao finally found Chen Qing after nearly a decade of travel.

The two hadn't changed much, their auras even more restrained.

"It really is a palace. Just the presence alone marks it as a Peak Supreme Treasure!"

In the Virtual Universe's private cell, Original Ancestor and Biluo watched the screen before them.

Behind them, Jiang Fang and Yao Rao exchanged a glance. Was this senior sounding a bit sour?

Palace Master Biluo glanced at Original Ancestor. "Not in the center?"

"Who knows? Have there been few strange things involving this kid?"

Original Ancestor chuckled dryly, a hint of schadenfreude in his tone.

"Looks like he got beaten for ten years. Not a small gain."

"Teacher, do we really not need to help?"

Yao Rao watched the two chatting away, as if they'd forgotten their purpose.

"No need."

Biluo's voice was as cold as ever, but after a pause, she added another sentence, "The puppet attacks also count as a test of recognition! A World Lord's recognition of a supreme treasure is not that simple."

Original Ancestor glanced curiously at Biluo. She was talking a bit more now; it seemed Biluo herself had changed quite a bit.

"Don't worry, these puppets are nothing like the King-Rank ones outside. No amplification, no secret arts, just decent defense. They're far from being able to kill this kid!"

Chen Qing finally felt a sense of relief. Now that all the laws had preliminarily acknowledged him and the fifth layer's gate had opened, his mind calmed down.

From here on, whether he continued comprehending the laws or started perfecting his secret arts, either was fine.

Unfortunately, attack secret arts were hard to refine without adding difficulty for himself.

As for movement techniques, he needed to think carefully, ideally linking teleportation with time acceleration.

"Too bad I haven't grasped teleportation yet. I'll put movement techniques aside for now and focus on the laws first."

With the templates of these King-Rank puppets and the support of the Origin Land, Chen Qing felt that time acceleration was not only completely unobstructed but also occasionally evolving before his eyes.

"So it turns out that whether it's the extreme speed of wind, or lightning and light, when breaking the speed of light, the ripples they create involve changes in time and space..."

As time passed, Chen Qing's insights grew deeper and deeper.

Not just time acceleration, but the teleportation he had been yearning for also began to take shape.

"These ripples keep intersecting... these are spatial nodes, overlapping through resonance between nodes..."

With his growing understanding, Chen Qing felt like he was dancing on the edge, sometimes even suddenly appearing in front of a Marquis-Rank puppet to toy with it.

At some point, the twelve puppets could hardly touch Chen Qing anymore.

"Roar!"

All the puppets raised their heads and roared, startling Chen Qing, who had been immersed in the laws. Not just Chen Qing, but Jiang Fang and the other woman also opened their eyes.

Just as Chen Qing was puzzled, all the puppets gathered together, their secret patterns beginning to merge, and the mist around them growing thicker and thicker!

"They can combine?"

Chen Qing didn't dare to be careless. Judging by the resistance of the domain, it wouldn't be long before it surpassed the King-Rank level.

"Spirit Burning, Mystic Water!"

Standing at a distance, Chen Qing's world power began to boil, his aura continuously rising, though still slightly lower than the combined puppet's.

"Amplification!"

Countless blades formed a sea of blades, with waves stacking upon each other, finally converging into one.

Chen Qing used every means at his disposal, roughly matching an ordinary Venerable's casual strike.

But when it landed on the puppet, it only made its aura falter for a moment before quickly calming down again.

"Damn it, why doesn't it have a soul!"

Watching the Black Mountain pressing directly toward him, Chen Qing cursed in frustration.

He was less than a third of the way through the recognition process. If it were interrupted, repeating it would be meaningless.

"There's no other way."

Chen Qing sighed inwardly as he watched the "Black Mountain" bear down on him, and the familiar voice of his woman reached his ears.

"No!"