The battle began. There were no flashy skills, no dazzling combat techniques, only head-on clashes.
Fist met fist, foot met foot. Their movements were slow, but carried tremendous weight.
The entire space shuddered with their collisions. Every attack seemed to strike the spectators' souls, leaving them dazed for an instant.
An hour passed. Rather than weakening with time, their attacks grew stronger and stronger.
The destructive power of Whitebeard's Tremor-Tremor Fruit, in particular, was simply outrageous.
Black, spiderweb-like cracks appeared around the two of them from time to time.
It seemed as though every blow could shatter space, leaving the spectators trembling with fear.
Law analysis progress jumped to 62%.
Three hours passed. Whitebeard's strength began to decline, and his attacks began to weaken.
Ling Yi, however, seemed entirely unaffected. He continued pounding Whitebeard without mercy, holding nothing back.
Law analysis progress jumped to 73%.
At this point, however, the law analysis progress seemed to stop.
This made Ling Yi frown slightly. His goal was the laws. If he gained nothing, there was no point in continuing the fight.
Ling Yi could not quite understand why, but he was certain of one thing: it was definitely not because the unknown consciousness had discovered his ability to analyze laws.
Strictly speaking, Ling Yi had yet to discover the true reason the law analysis progress increased. Everything was merely his conjecture.
Perhaps combat triggered some special state, increasing the activity of the laws and providing more favorable conditions for analyzing them.
Like now, with Whitebeard's defeat already inevitable, would the laws return to an inert state?
On the arena, Whitebeard no longer had the strength to keep fighting. He sat half-upright at the edge, breathing heavily.
In those last few attacks, Whitebeard had unleashed nearly all the Tremor-Tremor Fruit's ultimate power. It hurt his enemy, but hurt himself even more, much like the Seven Injuries Fist.
The injuries inside Whitebeard's body had now accumulated to their limit. He could collapse at any moment.
Just as everyone, Ling Yi included, thought it was all about to end, Whitebeard's presence suddenly surged.
Dark purple flames began burning around Whitebeard, and he slowly stood up again.
"Something's wrong!" Ling Yi's pupils contracted slightly.
He was not the only one who thought so. Every spectator could tell that something was wrong with Whitebeard's condition.
Ling Yi sensed it more clearly than the others. The power of laws throughout his body surged forth in an instant, thoroughly analyzing Whitebeard inside and out.
"Who are you?" Ling Yi asked coldly.
"Heh, unbelievable. To think an innate Dao body would exist in a little world like this. Once I devour you, my innate foundation will return to its prime."
My current state is an innate Dao body? Isn't it called a body of laws?
"Though I don't know how you improved your innate foundation, your fortuitous opportunity belongs to me from now on. Haha! Of Heaven's fifty, forty-nine unfold, and one escapes. I've found that one."
"Whitebeard's" voice carried an ancient quality, along with an inexplicable hatred.
Ling Yi said nothing, merely watching him quietly. "Villains" like this usually revealed their own backgrounds unprompted. It was a common affliction among villains.
"Spirit Mountain, Heavenly Court, Hongjun-are you ready?"
The corner of Ling Yi's mouth twitched. Sure enough, this fellow had started introducing himself. Clearly, he was a mighty figure from the Primordial World.
That sentence alone revealed a great deal.
He had mentioned only Spirit Mountain, the Heavenly Court, and Hongjun. This indicated that he had probably lived during the late Primordial World, before the Age of Dharma's End.
In other words, the period after the Investiture of the Gods Calamity and before the end of the Journey to the West Calamity.
According to the history of the Primordial World, the Sages disappeared after the Investiture of the Gods.
After the Journey to the West Calamity, Spirit Mountain and the Heavenly Court disappeared.
Some people had analyzed that another Samsara Calamity followed the Journey to the West Calamity. After that, the Underworld also disappeared, and reincarnation vanished. With that, the Age of Dharma's End officially began.
The Journey to the West Calamity was divided into two parts.
The first was the eastward spread of Buddhist teachings and the great flourishing of Buddhism. The second was the demonic Buddha throwing the world into chaos, leaving no Buddha beneath heaven.
And this so-called demonic Buddha... was Buddha Wutian.
Below the arena, Lin Feng had thought of the same things as Ling Yi. Like Ling Yi, he came from a similar Earth spacetime and was quite familiar with the Primordial World.
Ling Yi said nothing, but Lin Feng was the first to ask, "Are you Wutian?"
"Whitebeard" chuckled, brilliant red light bursting from his eyes. "You're clever enough. But I am Wutian, and I am not Wutian. I came from the Primordial World, yet not the Primordial World. You ants, knowing a thousand things, knowing ten thousand things, are still ignorant. Hahaha!"
Ling Yi and Lin Feng both frowned. What did that mean?
This powerful consciousness was undoubtedly Wutian, but what was this nonsense about being him and not being him? Why speak in riddles?
But Ling Yi believed this man would not shoot without a target. Some tremendous secret had to be hidden in those words.
Ling Yi suddenly thought of a possibility.
Among the many versions of Primordial World stories, one theory held that the Primordial World people knew was not the true Primordial World, but merely one world among the Great Thousand World.
Among the many Primordial Worlds, there was also a High-End Primordial World. That was the true Primordial World.
Supposedly, even an ordinary Golden Immortal in the High-End Primordial World possessed the cultivation of a Quasi-Sage in a Great Thousand World Primordial World. A Daluo Golden Immortal in the High-End Primordial World was equivalent to a Sage in a Great Thousand World Primordial World.
Could this Wutian have come from the High-End Primordial World?
No. There was no such thing as a calamity in the High-End Primordial World. There wasn't even any conflict there. All the powerful beings were family.
Even if there was conflict, it was all an act, like children playing house. Today you played the villain, tomorrow I played the good guy. Once a round ended, they reversed things in the next primordial cycle.
Could Wutian have visited the High-End Primordial World and become the one they were putting on an act for?
"Hehe, you're nothing but a pitiful Joker." Ling Yi's voice was cold as he looked at him as though he were an idiot.
"What did you say?"
"Whitebeard" seemed to have been struck where it hurt. He roared, the purple flames around him swelling in an instant as tremendous pressure swept across the entire venue.
Ling Yi laughed. Judging by this fellow's reaction, he had guessed correctly.
Snap!
Ling Yi snapped his fingers. "Whitebeard's" terrifying presence instantly dissipated, and his power was forcibly suppressed.
This was not the power of laws. Ling Yi had activated the Hostile Target Behavior Editor within the Passive Hostility Aura.
The edits made with 1,000,000 points:
1. Lock the unknown consciousness inside Whitebeard's body, preventing escape; 2. seal cultivation, seal power;
Ling Yi now had over twenty million points. This expenditure was nothing to him.
Ling Yi had not directly erased the unknown consciousness. He could do it, but must not. What he needed was the power of laws the unknown consciousness carried.
Ever since the unknown consciousness had occupied Whitebeard's body, the law analysis progress had been increasing rapidly. Ling Yi could not bear to erase such an existence now.
"Damn it! What did you do to me?"
Ling Yi slowly floated upward, looking down at him from above.
"Am I wrong? If you're being played like a monkey, what are you if not a clown? When you learned that any random Golden Immortal could instantly kill a so-called Quasi-Sage like you, did you feel afraid? When you learned that the Primordial World you lived in was merely a projection within the Great Thousand World, did you despair?"
"Who are you? Did you come from there too? You must have come from there! I'll kill you!"
"Whitebeard" charged forward madly, trying to leap up and strike Ling Yi. But having lost his power, he could only jump a few meters before falling in a ludicrous heap, then jump again and fall again.
He looked just like a Joker.
"How pathetic!" Tony had already eaten a Senzu Bean and recovered. Watching the ridiculous scene on the arena, he could not help commenting.
The others all looked rather grim. Clearly, everything Ling Yi had said was true. This evil, unknown consciousness must have been plotting something when it pulled them into the group.
"You should understand perfectly well what I'm saying. All right, you've outlived your usefulness. Everything you have belongs to me now."
"What do you mean? What do you mean, outlived my usefulness? What are you talking about?"
Ling Yi glanced at the law analysis progress, which had already reached 100%, and could not help smiling faintly.
He had never expected that transmigrating to this world would bring him such tremendous gains.
Snap!
A crisp finger snap rang out. "Whitebeard" let out a miserable cry and crumpled onto the arena.