Chapter 50: Godlike Speed

Light, boundless and originating from an unknown source, enveloped Mo Wen.

The heat they carried was so intense that neither the war satellites, nor the interceptors wielding Zero's power, nor Zero itself had ever exhibited such a temperature. It seemed as though even space itself was warped by this extreme heat, and the true light of nature was swallowed entirely.

At the same time, they were densely packed. Although they did not blanket everything with an absolute radius of attack like Zero, their crisscrossing paths blocked all of Mo Wen's dodging space while leaving ample room for traps and shifting maneuvers.

Formidable!

The formidable enemies who could suppress Mo Wen's extreme speed mostly relied on heavy, earth-shattering strikes. Yet Qi Shiming made him clearly feel what a true veteran warrior was, and what it meant to wield power as if it were an extension of one's own limbs.

Targeting an enemy's weakness, using the minimum expenditure to achieve the maximum tactical result.

However, Mo Wen, having also entered the realm of Energy Level 6, would no longer be suppressed.

The time belonging to him accelerated to an unimaginable degree—not a thousandfold, not tens or hundreds of millions of times, and not even describable as mere stagnation, but a complete standstill, and even an imperceptible reversal.

To be arrogant, Mo Wen felt he could now proclaim himself the master of the world.

Right now, he was simply strong to a degree that he himself could not comprehend.

No matter how stern the offensive, no matter how flawless the dense web of attacks, if brought to a complete halt, it could not stop any powerhouse; and if reversed so that it was never unleashed from the very beginning, it became entirely meaningless.

As for the duration Mo Wen could maintain this time-stop, it was forever.

Before his obsessive will was exhausted, he would not die; before he died, his psionic energy would not be depleted.

In the time that belonged solely to Mo Wen, he bridged the distance between himself and Qi Shiming, arriving right before him, his psionic energy locking onto the connection between Qi Shiming's consciousness and his vessel.

Slash!

Qi Shiming, who should have been frozen within the accelerated time, constrained light into solid, hard light, blocking this single strike.

An exquisite counterattack.

Mo Wen did not know how Qi Shiming had accomplished this, and this nearly flawless warrior naturally would not arrogantly explain his technique, but Mo Wen felt no surprise.

What was so strange about an unrivaled powerhouse blocking his attack?

Yet it still needed to be understood, the opponent's technique deciphered, and the attack continued.

Slash once more!

This strike did not pursue sharpness, shifting instead to emphasize destructive power.

To launch an attack within a nearly infinitely short period of time meant that the speed of the attack was nearly infinitely fast; in other words, the attack released a nearly infinite amount of energy.

A force sufficient to recreate the universe and destroy all things existed for a fleeting instant at an infinitely small point.

Psionic energy permitted miracles, but the world would not permit inexplicable destruction.

The cold and stern laws of the physical universe placed restrictions on this strike, but Qi Shiming, standing close at hand, still intuitively experienced that destructive force.

This was not a reason for Mo Wen to be rejected by the world, but it was indeed quite dangerous.

Yet, "observation" became the "mirror," and light was refracted within the mirror.

The light lingering in the original spot was easily erased.

Then, within Mo Wen's sensory range, thousands of Qi Shimings appeared simultaneously, summoning a torrential rain of light in what should have been a simulated time-stop belonging solely to him.

A perfect clone? It looked very much like one, but Mo Wen instinctively felt something was different.

His brain worked at high speed, constantly pondering the possibilities.

Had Qi Shiming's superluminal speed also touched the temporal domain, refracting every version of himself along the timeline? Could Qi Shiming's light transcend space, and even cross worlds to interfere with parallel universes? Or was Qi Shiming interfering with his perception, causing him to hallucinate?

Mo Wen discarded his perception and charged toward one of the Qi Shimings.

In the darkness where nothing could be perceived, the death close at hand advanced not a fraction further.

He understood.

Qi Shiming's ability to invade his time was a counter-technique based on perception.

The simplest method, naturally, was to roughly confirm the position of Qi Shiming's true body before abandoning perception to launch a blanket strike. But that would merely destroy the vessel without severing the connection, which clearly did not align with Mo Wen's objective.

So, for now, victory would be put aside; right now, the priority was to break through the encirclement.

Mo Wen attacked in all directions. The very instant he restored his perception, the incoming light collided with his god-speed slashes, and the unconstrained energy swept the surroundings clean.

Qi Shiming realized that Mo Wen had already understood his technique, while he likewise realized one of Mo Wen's advantages and weaknesses.

Shielding perception sounded simple, but it also meant being completely exposed to the enemy's onslaught. Only by fighting desperately for one's life or possessing absolute confidence would one dare to commit such a foolish act, and Mo Wen was clearly the latter.

The physical body was no longer a weakness; in fact, even if turned to ashes, could it regenerate instantly...? Most of his techniques were of little use against this.

However, the power to reject death originated from psionic energy, and the resolve to keep fighting stemmed from obsessive will.

Delaying time until Mo Wen's mind collapsed and he completely lost control of his runaway psionic energy might be effective, but it did not fit his style.

Then, next, he would scour his mind and soul completely away!

Qi Shiming immediately altered his technique. The light he had once received, the reflections of others after being illuminated by him, the future he would forge—he packed countless brilliant rays into a single strike, not to beg for agreement or make someone yield, but as a powerhouse delivering his ultimate killing blow to another powerhouse.

This strike had no trajectory of attack, yet the process of the attack could be felt with such startling clarity.

Mo Wen, who had just broken through the heavy encirclement, could feel the warm radiance infiltrating his rejection, attempting to enter his mind.

Yet in a contest of sheer willpower, he would not lose!

The static and noise in his ears and brain grew louder and louder, but Mo Wen used this instead to lock onto the location of Qi Shiming's true body.

From here, eighteen billion kilometers.

He was not hiding within his clones, but used a distance so vast it would cause ordinary people despair to forge an impenetrable, absolute defense.

Even if one exhausted all the capabilities of everyone else in the universe at this moment, it would be difficult to cross such a distance within one's lifetime. This was the most despair-inducing hurdle for all life born upon the stars that yearned to leap into the cosmos.

Instead of rising, Mo Wen's basic speed dropped. Faced with such a distance, moving normally within the time-stop seemed like it would take an unknown number of years to reach Qi Shiming's true body, let alone the fact that Qi Shiming could move whenever he was perceived.

Yet Mo Wen's current psionic energy, having reached Energy Level 6, also derived various new possibilities. In his mind, new techniques continuously emerged.

The physical body was merely a fleshly shell carrying his consciousness; why must his physical body and consciousness maintain the exact same speed when manipulating time? 1

Mo Wen's consciousness maintained its normal speed, while his physical body transformed into a streak of light, carrying his consciousness as it sped toward the location of Qi Shiming's true body.

The battlefield was expanding and changing, as if sucking the external stars into it, or as if a transcendent power above the mortal world was warping the laws of this place, recreating the birth of stars.

Stardust, asteroids, and even various peculiar planets emerged out of thin air, blocking Mo Wen's path forward.