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Upon hearing Xu Yuan's words, Yuan Kong smiled faintly, intrigued.
He was now very hopeful that Xu Yuan could solve the Crimson Mother's tactics—meaning he would ensure there was no escape for him.
After all, if even his methods couldn't be solved, it would certainly be even harder to deal with the Crimson Mother.
However, on the other hand, two others from his plane were present and watching, so he didn't want to lose either.
The vigorous elder slowly stepped forward, making a very polite inviting gesture.
"Since you, Xu Yuan, are so confident, let's give it a try."
As he spoke, he waited a moment, allowing Xu Yuan's spiritual energy to touch him.
Three seconds after Xu Yuan's spiritual energy made contact with him, his body began to turn ethereal.
He didn't vanish outright but gradually became translucent, maintaining his original form without dispersing.
Xu Yuan also sensed Yuan Kong's current state through his spiritual energy—hovering between existence and non-existence.
Of course, this wasn't the kind of existence and non-existence that Xu Yuan understood in terms of chaos. Instead, Yuan Kong's shadow hovered between being and not being.
This was already a shadow.
But at the same time, this shadow could become Yuan Kong's true body at any moment.
As for where Yuan Kong himself was hiding now...
Xu Yuan turned his head toward the sky.
Ignoring the Yuan Kong shadow here, Xu Yuan instantly teleported into the high sky and found where Yuan Kong was.
Shengxin and Tianxing quickly followed.
"Now, let's truly begin."
Yuan Kong once again turned ethereal, his true body disappearing from sight.
Shengxin and Tianxing both showed looks of surprise, gazing at the spot where Yuan Kong had just been with great interest.
This time, Xu Yuan failed to pinpoint Yuan Kong's exact location.
However, it wasn't a big issue.
He reached out and gripped the space in front of him, and a spear shaft appeared in his palm.
Then, he drew a long spear from the space.
With the Hunyuan Spear in hand, Xu Yuan stimulated the space in front of him. A vortex appeared in the space ahead, and then in a corner of the Sacred Heart Continent, outside a region of chaotic space that even bent light, another vortex emerged. The tip of the Hunyuan Spear thrust out, and a spear beam penetrated deep into this area.
Unfortunately, this spear did not directly appear in front of Yuan Kong, nor did the spear beam hit its mark.
However, Yuan Kong's face turned grave as he remained in this chaotic space.
In his hand, there was a small, exquisite portal.
The portal radiated dense spatial power, continuously disrupting the surrounding space.
Clearly, this portal played a significant role in concealing his whereabouts during teleportation, preventing Xu Yuan from locking onto him.
Moreover, the chaotic space in this area, which even bent light, was also due to the portal's effects.
The Space-Time Door was one of the Sacred Heart Plane's sacred artifacts, equivalent in rank to the Tree of Life.
The Space-Time Door could traverse space freely and silently affect the surrounding spatial forces over a large area. With this ability, the Space-Time Door could smooth out spatial fluctuations caused by teleportation to achieve concealment or distort space widely, forming a spatial barrier that placed the user in an invincible position from the start.
The small Space-Time Door in Yuan Kong's hand was merely a fragment of the main artifact, an accessory. Even so, it had such a pronounced effect.
If it were the main body of the Space-Time Door, it might even influence the spatial forces across a vast expanse of starry sky, causing spatial collapse and potentially forming a black hole.
The small Space-Time Door in Yuan Kong's possession was something he obtained in his weaker years. It was thanks to this portal that he achieved his current mastery over space and now wielded the main body of the Sacred Heart Plane's three sacred artifacts—the Space-Time Door.
Unfortunately, like the Tree of Life, the Space-Time Door shared the same status—it was immensely vast, inherently connected to the plane's essence, and could not be easily moved.
However, it was imaginable that if the Sacred Heart Plane faced an insurmountable crisis, the Space-Time Door, as the guardian artifact of their stronghold, unleashing its full power, would have a good chance of annihilating all enemies.
Of course, it was also likely to destroy their own people.
Therefore, among the three sacred artifacts, the Space-Time Door was the ultimate trump card.
In comparison, the Tree of Life served as a reserve, providing an endless source of vitality.
There were rumors in the Sacred Heart Continent that any magician who reached god-level would have their life imprint captured by the Tree of Life. Upon death, the Tree of Life had the ability to consume some of its essence to resurrect them.
If the Sacred Heart Plane were ever attacked to the point of their stronghold being breached, the Tree of Life would be the key to the Sacred Heart Continent's final resistance.
Through continuous resurrection means, they could repel the enemy.
During this time, the third super divine artifact, the Nine Primordial Spirit Pillars, would combine to form an elemental array covering the entire Sacred Heart Plane. This array would allow magicians of the Sacred Heart Plane to effortlessly control elements while preventing enemies from using elemental powers.
If even this couldn't resist the enemy, the Space-Time Door would be the final act, fighting to the bitter end to exterminate the enemy.
It could be said that each of the three sacred artifacts possessed immense power.
In fact, each of the three sacred artifacts had its own effects during normal times. However, when working together, they formed the Sacred Heart Continent's final three lines of defense.
The Tree of Life could sprout branches to stabilize magicians' consciousness, replenish vitality, and even aid in cultivation.
The Nine Primordial Spirit Pillars were constantly active, drawing nine types of elemental forces for the entire Sacred Heart Continent and even the starry domain encompassed by the plane.
If carefully perceived, it wasn't hard to notice that the elemental forces within the Sacred Heart Plane's territory were more abundant. At first, Xu Yuan thought this was due to being a magical plane.
In reality, all of this was the work of the Nine Primordial Spirit Pillars.
Though the Nine Primordial Spirit Pillars had no sub-bodies, they had been refined by Tianxing. Within the plane's range, Tianxing could freely manipulate elemental forces.
Even if Tianxing wasn't present, he could, according to his will, unleash elemental disasters anywhere within the plane. His title originated from this.
Occasionally, Tianxing would choose to unleash an elemental disaster in uninhabited areas, first triggering elemental turmoil with his own power and then letting it evolve naturally.
Whether it was himself or subsequent magicians who discovered this disaster, they could gain insights from it.
Of course, every time he did this, he had to inform Shengxin and Yuan Kong beforehand to prevent the elemental disaster from spiraling out of control and causing massive losses.
As for the Space-Time Door, it was currently like this—a small portal had been split off, controlled by Yuan Kong. Although it didn't possess the immense power of the main body, it still greatly empowered space magicians.
Yuan Kong now looked gravely at the front.
Xu Yuan's spear hadn't hit him, but it made him even more alarmed.
Because if he hadn't used the Space-Time Door to disrupt space at the last moment, further distorting the spear beam, he really would have been struck by this spear!
What kind of technique was this?
Across hundreds of kilometers, stabbing out from one end and erupting at the other?
And despite being disrupted by chaotic space, it still somehow locked onto him mysteriously.
A locking skill! (T/N: Homing would be the right term I think)
Moreover, a locking skill of extremely high rank!
Considering that he had concealed himself using a subsidiary portal of the Space-Time Door, Yuan Kong judged that the spear Xu Yuan used to initiate this locking skill must be at least equivalent to a super divine artifact level.
However, before Yuan Kong could make a comparison, an unusual feeling arose in his heart.
Yuan Kong mobilized spatial forces to rapidly teleport, naturally manipulating spatial forces in a way he couldn't understand, and slashed out a spatial rift in front of him, extending towards Xu Yuan.
What happened?
Why did I suddenly attack?
And why did I return here?
Yuan Kong was about to compare whether Xu Yuan's previous locking skill could work against the Crimson Mother when such an inexplicable scene occurred.
He knew he had gotten anxious.
Xu Yuan's true means were only now being revealed.
Shengxin and Tianxing were astonished, not expecting Yuan Kong to return so quickly.
However, the next moment Yuan Kong returned, he directly attacked Xu Yuan, leaving the two of them baffled.
Subsequently, they saw Yuan Kong disappear again and finally realized that Xu Yuan wasn't simple.
The spatial rift continued to extend toward Xu Yuan.
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Xu Yuan, however, remained calm and took out the Heavenly Sacred Splitting Abyss Halberd to begin experimenting.
The moment the sky appeared earlier, he swung the Heavenly Sacred Splitting Abyss Halberd.
Could the rule of true damage be used for tracking?
The answer was affirmative.
The Heavenly Sacred Splitting Abyss Halberd could treat the space between the user and the enemy as the enemy's defensive measure, thereby ignoring space to launch an attack based on the user's intent.
However, this ability had limitations—it worked only within the user's perception range.
Clearly, Yuan Kong had now escaped Xu Yuan's perception.
Thus, this halberd strike landed where Yuan Kong had disappeared.
Putting the Heavenly Sacred Splitting Abyss Halberd back into the Hunyuan World, Xu Yuan once again held the spear and thrust it out.
By this moment, the spatial rift had finally affected the place where Xu Yuan was located.
Runes emerged from the surrounding space, deriving and attaching themselves to the spatial rift.
No, more accurately, runes popped out from the surrounding space and leaped into the spatial rift, as if filling the crack.
As a large number of runes 'sacrificed' themselves in this manner, the spatial rift that was about to land on Xu Yuan was directly filled, and the space restored to normal.
Xu Yuan's expression remained unchanged as he thrust out this spear in his hand.
A vortex appeared, and the spear tip pierced into the vortex.
This time, Yuan Kong, who had teleported to the area where the main body of the Space-Time Door was located, quietly waited.
In his field of vision, he didn't see the appearance of the vortex.
However, through the perception mediated by the Space-Time Door, he felt a sensation as if something was breaking through the soil.
It was as if a breach was about to open in a nearby space, with something attacking that space.
Yuan Kong's expression turned grave.
For the second time, he gained some feeling of Xu Yuan's locking skill.
"Not relying on spiritual energy, nor on space, but a ubiquitous medium that even the Space-Time Door can't shield or suppress!"
The only thing capable of achieving this was—
"Law!"
This was a locking skill implemented through law, with the locking mechanism entirely based on law.
As Yuan Kong pondered, that unusual feeling arose again.
"Here it comes again!"
Yuan Kong was greatly startled.
He did his utmost to suppress his desire to attack.
Earlier, he had deduced that appearing in front of Xu Yuan to unleash a spatial rift was because he wanted to attack, specifically targeting Xu Yuan.
Precisely for this reason, his response to Xu Yuan's "enticement" was to suppress his desire to attack.
There was no need to suppress his teleportation.
Because the root cause lay in the desire to attack!
However, no matter how much he suppressed it, it was ineffective.
Here it comes again!
After launching another spatial blade, Yuan Kong disappeared and returned beside the main body of the Space-Time Door once more.
This time, he wore an excited expression.
He was determined to unravel Xu Yuan's technique!
Regardless of whether this technique could counteract the Crimson Mother's tactics.
Purely out of intrigue.
As a magician, he felt no threat to himself at this moment. Instead, he was extraordinarily curious about Xu Yuan's technique and wanted to investigate it.
On the other side, Xu Yuan, facing the sudden spatial blade, paid no heed and thrust out the Hunyuan Spear.
Naturally, runes derived from the surrounding space, bravely sacrificing themselves like moths to a flame, rushing forward.
The runes fell upon the spatial blade, and the entire blade, as it came into contact with each rune, seemed to rust like an iron sword, gradually decaying.
By the time it reached Xu Yuan, the blade had decayed to the extreme. Upon touching Xu Yuan's body, it collapsed with a roar, transforming into a mass of spatial force.
This third spear from Xu Yuan also missed.
However, his Holy Attraction Furnace activated once again.
Beside the Space-Time Door.
Yuan Kong's expression turned grave as he once again felt that unusual sensation. He immediately mobilized the power of the Space-Time Door to suppress himself.
However, he was still too presumptuous.
The effect of the Holy Attraction Furnace was that all attacks could only target himself.
Aside from consciously suppressing one's actions, everything else could be considered an attack.
As long as external forces were used, even to suppress oneself, it counted as an attack!
Thus, the next instant, Yuan Kong mobilized the Space-Time Door, swiftly returning to where Xu Yuan, Shengxin, and Tianxing were located.
A vast amount of spatial force followed.
Shengxin and Tianxing's expressions changed drastically.
"Yuan Kong, what are you doing!"
At this moment, the two of them noticed something amiss, but they never expected Yuan Kong to mobilize such a scale of spatial suppression.
This was definitely not an ordinary forbidden spell.
This was the power of the Space-Time Door!
Yuan Kong actually used the Space-Time Door to attack Xu Yuan!
Xu Yuan also felt a chill run down his spine as a grand oppressive force instantly descended upon him.
Without warning.
The surrounding space suddenly turned hostile toward him, instantly trying to crush him.
Feeling as if his internal organs were about to explode under the pressure, Xu Yuan responded. A large amount of spiritual energy surged out of his body, transforming into spatial runes that merged into the surrounding space.
Instantly, the space around him ceased to oppress him.
Subsequently, more and more areas came under his control, and the pressure grew smaller.
Yuan Kong's expression became complex.
He didn't attempt a fourth trial.
Just three times—from encountering Xu Yuan's Holy Attraction for the first time, to quickly analyzing the essence of the Holy Attraction and subjectively suppressing his desire to attack, to the third time using external forces to suppress himself.
These three responses were the most scientific and rapid solutions possible.
Yet, none of them worked.
Therefore, if this technique were used on the Crimson Mother, they would have at least three chances to seize.
Three chances—if they still couldn't deal with the Crimson Mother, then the so-called encirclement would never need to be discussed again!
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