Meanwhile, the surrounding raindrops seemed to answer a call, swirling together and solidifying around him to form the massive, ten-meter-tall silhouette of a white giant.
The brief exchange was enough for him to realize that his opponent specialized in a dual path, combining physical enhancement with mental manipulation.
As a spellcasting Professional, his greatest fear was an enemy like this closing in for melee combat.
’I must be fully prepared.’
Recalling the close call just moments ago, Duke felt a sharp pain in his face, and his expression turned grim.
He had been a hair’s breadth from death.
He now clearly realized he could not defeat this opponent on his own.
His only hope of victory was to stall for as long as possible until reinforcements from Cold Rain City arrived.
Only then would they have a chance of taking this man down.
So, what he had to do now was stall for time.
On the spot,
Hu Qi faced the overwhelming barrage of Ice Swordsmanship.
With a flick of his wrist, his longsword traced a vicious arc of light.
In an instant, a massive wave of Sword Energy swept out, pulverizing the incoming arrows.
The massive layer of ice covering Duke’s body instantly shattered.
The attack’s unabated momentum swept past him, slicing through the trees and boulders behind, leaving surfaces as smooth as a mirror.
Before Duke could even catch his breath, Hu Qi’s figure flashed before him like a phantom.
A flash of sword light!
SHLICK!
A mist of blood erupted.
Duke’s left arm was severed at the shoulder.
The aftershock of the Sword Energy tore a hundred-meter-long gully in the earth, sending dust flying.
Hu Qi’s figure flickered as his longsword swung.
In a matter of moments, the massive Ice Giant crumbled to pieces.
Duke collapsed into a pool of his own blood, his head pierced through by the sword.
An ordinary person would have died instantly.
But the immense Life Force of a Sequence Five kept him from dying instantly.
At this moment, he finally understood how laughable his earlier hopes had been.
In the face of such an absolute gap in power, his attempt to stall for time was nothing more than a desperate, final struggle.
"You’re good... but if you kill me... you’re coming with me!"
Duke stared at Hu Qi, who stood inches away, his own eyes bloodshot.
He felt the blood and Vitality rapidly draining from his body.
Instead of any fear, a deeply twisted smile spread across his face.
The next moment,
a transparent sphere appeared in the palm of his remaining right hand, and he suddenly crushed it.
VMM!
In that instant,
the space around them seemed to ripple like the surface of water.
A faint ripple spread outward.
And with that, both he and Hu Qi vanished from where they stood.
...
In a vast, empty void, dim light swirled like mist.
Two figures abruptly materialized.
It was Hu Qi and the mangled form of Duke, their bodies gradually solidifying amidst the distorted light.
SCHLUK!
With a twist of his wrist, Hu Qi pulled his longsword free.
The Vitality in Duke’s eyes faded, and his body shriveled into a desiccated corpse.
But the twisted smile remained etched on his lips.
Modification Points +1641 (32%)
’Was his Spirit suffering from the Erosion of a higher being, or was he just a madman to begin with?’
Watching the desiccated corpse fall and vanish into the void below,
Hu Qi couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow.
’There was definitely something wrong with that man’s mental state.’
’To put it plainly, he was neurotic.’
However, such conditions weren’t uncommon in this world.
Due to the nature of a Professional’s path and various forms of unknown Mystical Knowledge, if an ordinary person who had not practiced a Meditation Method were to rashly encounter such secrets, they would likely suffer Erosion from a mysterious power. Unable to process the influx of information, they would go mad.
Furthermore, Professionals themselves could suffer a spiritual collapse during their advancement, either due to complications or from glimpsing things they were not meant to see.
As a result, mental illness was a fairly common affliction in this world.
It could be said that most High-Tier Professionals suffered from some degree of spiritual instability.
Hu Qi pushed those thoughts aside and scanned his surroundings.
He was in a vast, empty space, bathed in dim light.
Being here felt like floating in the cosmos, with no sense of up or down, left or right.
All he could see were a few glowing, jellyfish-like creatures drifting past in the distance.
A look of recognition flickered in his eyes.
This place was none other than the Mind Realm.
An essential plane of existence in every world, the Mind Realm itself was a reflection of the minds of all living beings within that world. In some respects, it could be considered the world’s other side.
The stronger a world’s inhabitants, the stronger its Mind Realm would theoretically be. Of course, the form it took also depended on the world’s internal rules.
But this world’s Mind Realm was somewhat different.
This was due to the presence of gods, Evil Gods, and other unknown higher beings.
Under the interference of their various chaotic wills, these beings projected all sorts of mystical phenomena into the realm.
If an ordinary person were to witness these phenomena or hear their maddening whispers, they would likely go insane on the spot.
And upon entering the Mind Realm, one would have to confront these things even more directly.
This had turned this world’s Mind Realm into an exceptionally dangerous region.
Even powerful Professionals who entered could not guarantee they would emerge alive.
The only exceptions were those who followed special professional paths and possessed Traits compatible with the Spirit Realm. For instance, after a Spirit Medium reached Sequence Seven and became a Spirit Guide, they could briefly enter the outer layer of the Spirit Realm.
After seizing Duke’s memories,
Hu Qi clearly understood that his opponent had used a special, single-use mystical item to teleport him to the Second Layer of the Mind Realm.