Chapter 434: 51. False Asura Field
Outside the Phoenix Dwelling on the Tree Continent, as Fisher and Neceria descended together, the ground began to shake uncontrollably again, as if trying to overturn the entire continent. The surrounding trees also swayed violently, and cracks started to ripple out from the ground.
“Another earthquake?!”
On the ground, the Qilin, whose clothing had been blown away by Fisher, looked up dazedly to survey the surroundings. As the earth shook violently, flocks of unidentified birds took off from the distant mountains and forests, screeching as they fled in all directions.
At the same time, the sense of heart palpitations that terrified Fisher surged up again, causing the hair on his back to stand on end.
“Buzzing!”
Suddenly, a sharp and piercing tinnitus filled his ears, completely drowning out all other sounds. At the same time, Fisher’s vision began to turn dark, as if the death that surrounded him was about to materialize.
“Be careful!!”
At that moment, Neceria’s brother, who was carrying Fisher, suddenly flapped his wings. A giant tree nearby was collapsing towards them, and to prove just how bad Fisher’s luck was, as he flew there, the trees around him also started to topple, accompanied by the chaotic rules of death. Fisher knew that staying on this Phoenix’s back would truly bring trouble to him.
“Let me down, you go help the others!”
“Huh?”
He turned back, only to see Fisher’s cold expression. Before he could react, Fisher patted his shoulder, unsheathed his Fluid Sword, and leaped down, rushing towards the other side of the forest.
He wanted to confirm whether the target of the shifting death truly was himself.
“Those slaves!”
The entire front of the Phoenix Dwelling was thrown into chaos due to the violent shaking of the earthquake. Gouwen was also evading the collapsing ground and trees with Mikhail behind him. However, just as Mikhail was preparing to leave with him, he spotted the slaves behind the envoys from the Royal Capital, tied up and unable to move freely.
As the envoys from the Royal Capital fled in terror, of course, no one cared about those slaves that were as disposable as ants.
Watching the linked slaves screaming and trying to avoid the aftermath of the earthquake, Mikhail suddenly turned his head and charged over.
“Mikhail!”
Gouwen called out, and as he saw the group of slaves in crisis, he hesitated for a moment and then decided to follow Mikhail’s lead towards them.
“Rumble!”
As a human, Mikhail looked utterly insignificant in the face of such a calamity. Even his running caused him to swerve involuntarily to the side. His gaze grew cold, and his mechanical right arm was fully charged. As the mental threshold bar increased, the energy accumulating in his right hand became increasingly dangerous.
In his era, the largest arms company in New Russia, New Siberia Wind, was renowned for producing such high-energy particle weapons. Being a former engineer of New Siberia Wind, Mikhail was well-versed in how to use such weapons, but he needed assistance from a micro-computer.
Looking at the screaming slaves, Mikhail finally stopped hesitating, reached into his chest, and pulled out a prosthetic eye, which he promptly inserted into his hollow eye socket.
“Zizz!”
[New Siberia Wind Biometric Microcomputer has connected to the system, not linked to the internet or city LAN, now in offline mode.]
[Warning, your mental threshold has approached a dangerous line, please use a blocker immediately to avoid psychoactive conditions.]
As the micro-computer fully entered his brain, Mikhail’s vision flickered with what seemed like snow-like static due to poor signal. The buzzing in his ears intensified, but with the computer linked, his right arm could finally function fully.
“Hah.”
Mikhail stopped running forward and abruptly raised his right arm, aiming at the group of slaves beneath the collapsing trees. A series of unimaginable calculations exploded in Mikhail’s mind, like a steel cone spinning in his brain.
But in the next second, his right arm became even brighter, and the extremely dangerous light emitted from his hand seemed to possess intelligence, scattering explosively and striking precisely at the dangerous trees and the chains binding the slaves.
“Zizz!”
“We can move! We can move!”
Neceria in the sky looked at Mikhail in surprise and immediately instructed her brother next to her,
“Brother, go help those slaves.”
“Okay.”
She had seen enough unexpected things today.
What could these envoys from the Holy Realm be here for?
“Impressive, Mr. Mikhail! Why didn’t you use something so powerful before?”
Gouwen exclaimed, patting Mikhail’s shoulder in admiration at the spectacular sight. But suddenly, as he touched him, he realized that Mikhail’s entire body seemed to tremble uncontrollably.
“Mikhail?”
Gouwen’s expression changed as he looked at Mikhail, who had raised his right hand and was frozen in place. His expression was rigid, and his eyes appeared to surpass human limits, jumping in their sockets, erupting with incomprehensible characters.
And in Mikhail’s vision, the virtual prompts brought by various prosthetics implanted in his body since adulthood were rapidly disappearing. The turbulent Tree Continent and the event of crossing into another world seemed to be completely ignored by his brain.
He stiffly raised his right hand, only to see the scenes in front of him gradually covered by a grayish-white layer, as snowflakes that smelled of machine oil fell from the sky like goose feathers, seemingly mixed with radioactive elements, though invisible outside New Moscow. For some reason, he remembered it vividly.
It was snowing again in New Saint Petersburg.
He thought to himself.
[Warning! Warning!]
[Mental threshold has risen to dangerous levels, please inject a blocker immediately!]
Shifting his gaze back to Fisher, who was single-handedly running in the other direction towards the forest, as he moved quickly through the thicket, it felt like a corporeal form of death was following him like a shadow, watching him intently, seemingly about to completely swallow him.
Why did death suddenly mutate to target him?
In his frantic run, filled with thoughts, he didn’t notice that purple flowers started to slowly grow on the towering trees around him, as if to pierce through the surrounding trunks, causing that purple radiance to gradually spread within the trees. From that purple glow, an invisible smoke carrying a faint floral scent began to emanate.
The faint floral fragrance was obscured by the terror of the earthquake, silently spreading towards Fisher, enveloping him entirely, yet he remained unaware.
It wasn’t until his steps gradually halted in the forest that he suddenly realized the surroundings had inexplicably fallen silent, even the earthquake had ceased.
“Is it over?”
He frowned, the sense of heart palpitations slowly dissipating, leaving him puzzled as to why this time it had been so easy to get through.
“Fisher?”
Just as he was in doubt, a familiar voice suddenly came from behind him, causing his back to stiffen instantly.
It was a female voice, its tone revealing her surprise and astonishment upon seeing him, yet still unable to conceal her fiery and passionate nature.
Fisher turned around, only to see a Dragon Race woman in red armor staring at him in amazement from not far behind.
“Raphael?”
“Fisher, you’re back!”
Raphael, clad in armor, with the pair of horns on her head representing her fiery soul, instantly brought Fisher back to the time they spent together in the Southern Continent. At that moment, she seemed to have matured quite a bit since she last left him but remained just as proud and adorable.
Seeing her delight, expressed through the swaying dragon tail behind her, she had to pretend to maintain a bit of modesty, not wanting Fisher to see her immature and overly excited side.
But she couldn’t hold back any longer.
She pursed her lips, gazing at the astonished Fisher, her eyes reddening further, eventually unable to resist running towards him. As she ran, the scales on her body gradually flattened, transforming into a docile form before her beloved.
“Why did you come back so late? I’ve already driven all the invaders from the Southern Continent back and signed a peace agreement with the humans. Now that I am finally settled down, I wanted to find you, but it seems you completely disappeared, and no one knows where you went.”
With her reddened eyes, she reached out her dragon claw to caress his cheek. The real, warm sensation made Fisher’s body tremble slightly. Looking down, he noticed steam carrying her fragrance spreading around, as if it intended to completely engulf his consciousness.
“No, I am currently in the past on the Tree Continent. You shouldn’t be here, Raphael.”
He remained silent for a moment, as the ominous sense of heart palpitations surged up once more. He gently grasped Raphael’s outstretched hand and slowly lowered it, avoiding her astonished and disappointed expression.
“What are you talking about? This is the Southern Continent. I thought you came back to find me. Where are you going, Fisher?!”
Fisher turned his head to leave, but Raphael, unwilling to let him go just like that, hesitated for a moment and reached out to grab his arm, trying to keep him in place. But the growing sense of heart palpitations in Fisher’s heart made him increasingly aware that something was amiss.
“Raphael, let go. There’s something wrong here.”
“What’s wrong? Do you know how long you’ve been gone? Do you know how long we’ve been apart? I’ve waited for you so long, and now that you’ve finally returned, why do you want to leave again?! Did you not think of me at all during this time? Have you found other women elsewhere? Are you just toying with me?! You are clearly my Suitable Tail Partner, Fisher. Boohoo, don’t go.”
Listening to Raphael’s crying voice from behind, Fisher knew full well that this scene was likely false, a hallucination caused by some unknown reason. Yet he couldn’t discern whether it was guilt or something else that stopped him in his tracks.
“Raphael…”
“Fisher, I woke up! Did you prepare a wedding ring for me? Even though we are already married, it won’t do without a ring.”
Fisher’s words halted abruptly. He froze, suddenly feeling a layer of biting cold frost rising from the ground, making his back chill.
He looked up and saw Valentina strolling out from the woods, stretching and smiling, still immersed in the lingering drowsiness of waking from sleep. But she quickly spotted him and the Raphael behind him.
“Who is this?”
She was slightly taken aback. The expression on her face shifted from joy to a cold, terrifying composure as she observed Fisher.
Everything was an illusion, yet for some reason, the sense of guilt in Fisher’s heart felt all too real.
“Zizz!”
Behind him, the sound of steam resembling boiling water “zizz” echoed. If Valentina represented the frigid landscape of the Northern Region, then the Raphael behind him was the scorching lava of the Southern Continent.
“So that’s it. You haven’t returned to the Southern Continent for so long because you went to find another woman.”
Raphael stared blankly at Valentina in the distance, the dragon scales on her body began to rise dangerously, releasing extremely hot steam. She glared at Fisher’s back, and after a brief pause, her gaze shifted to the equally alert Valentina.
“In that case, don’t blame me for being forceful, Fisher. I am no longer the little dragon I once was.”
Fisher swallowed hard, just about to explain something to the already furious Raphael, but he quickly reminded himself that everything in front of him was fake. The right move was to escape from this illusion as soon as possible.
Illusion?
Was it caused by the mutated death rules? Did it foresee his possible death and come back to the present?
No, no, no, that sounds too science fiction; Fisher was sure that wasn’t the case.
Then did someone attack him?
But did he offend anyone by coming here? It didn’t seem like it.
After pondering, it seemed that only the mutated death rules could adequately explain the current situation.
Yet before Fisher could sort through the chaotic thoughts in his mind, familiar figures began to emerge vaguely from the edge of the forest beside him.
“Teacher Fisher?”
First was the timid Jasmine, still a bit damp, as if she had just come from the sea.
“Yeah, how did you, a human, end up here? Quite surprising.”
Next was Eil, dozing off in a tree, yawning comfortably with eyes like fire snakes quickly spotting the other women present.
The level of danger rose several notches again but it wasn’t enough, for in the next second, Fisher suddenly felt a strong killing intent.
He turned back, only to see Elizabeth nearby, holding a short knife, tilting her head as she stared at him.
Her hollow golden eyes first reflected Fisher’s figure, then the other women standing beside him.
One, two, three…
As the figures of the ladies in the forest entered her hollow gaze, her killing intent became uncontrollable and she launched herself at Fisher without reservation.
“Heh, that Northern one isn’t enough; it turns out you have so many more. What are you going to do? Are you going to make me divide with them? That’s fine; just give me your head; that’s all I want, okay, Fisher?”
…
Fisher’s expression remained calm, but a bead of cold sweat inappropriately dripped down his forehead.
It seemed that even if this was an illusion, the impact of this scene was still too great for him.
He bit his lip, silently apologized to all the ladies present, then wordlessly turned and ran, ignoring the women appearing in this illusion.
“Fisher!!”
The voices of the ladies behind him gradually faded as he fled through the dense primitive jungle. The violent earthquake slowly began to cease, and Fisher’s solitary figure running away was conspicuous.
Upon closer inspection, there were no terrifying ladies or Asura field behind him.
What lay there was nothing but a layer of mist, revealing deep purple and bizarre floral scents.
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(End of Chapter)
