Chapter 298: Nowhere to Run?

Chapter 298: Nowhere to Run?

A bone-deep chill surged from Luo En’s spine as a sense of crisis pierced his consciousness. He deliberately froze all movement within his consciousness space, maintaining absolute stillness.

“The observation of the Hermit’s ancient Memory earlier seems to have drawn something’s attention.”

With his Hermit’s Insight heightened, he detected the energy fluctuation seeping through the displaced fissure:

Cold as glacial ice, sharp as a blade—the sensation of a spider lurking in its web, drawing closer to its struggling prey.

“Time Hound…”

The name surfaced from his Memory, heavy with dread.

It was a warning Eve had once given during their exchanges.

Her expression had been uncharacteristically grave, her eyes filled with genuine fear:

“Mentor, historical research is dangerous, especially when peering into fragments of the Time River. Those places… have guardians. No—less like guardians, more like hyenas drawn to the scent. Time Hound—they’re not dutiful dimensional enforcers, but territorial beasts. Any intruder becomes prey…”

At the time, he’d nodded politely, dismissing it lightly.

Now, every word felt worth its weight in gold.

He’d never imagined he’d plunge so swiftly into these ancient Memory fragments, drawing the attention of… a hunter.

“It’s too late. The link has already formed.”

His vigilance had come just in time. This narrow channel was a temporal hunting device.

The crack silently expanded, growing from an invisible sliver to a hair’s width, then a needle’s thickness, then the breadth of a quill feather…

Through extended Perception, he realized this wasn’t merely a simple crack—it was more like a specialized “anchor point,” connected to an entirely foreign dimension.

What chilled him further was the realization that in this unique angle where his consciousness intersected with the Time River, he was already ensnared by an invisible net.

Trapped in an isolation pocket, every outward fluctuation of his consciousness vanished like ripples swallowed by the sea. His physical body in the real world would never sense it, nor could he call for help.

“The trap is fully sprung.”

Luo En had figured it out: “This is their hunting strategy—trapping prey in a dimensional crevice, severing all escape routes.”

“Stay calm… analyze the situation…”

He forced himself to suppress his instinctive fear, thinking rationally:

“At least I detected the anomaly in time. If I’d been ambushed at the critical moment of returning to reality, stuck between states, I’d be utterly powerless.”

Luo En decided to fight back within his consciousness space—after all, this was his domain, where he still held some agency.

He carefully adjustmented his spirit structure, reinforcing his consciousness Barrier, and attempted to Perception the entity beyond the crack more clearly.

As his focus sharpened, the crack underwent a subtle transformation…

It stretched from a two-dimensional line into a swirling, three-dimensional vortex—a miniature vortex on the Time River.

Deep within, something writhed.

Without warning, a needle-like proboscis shot from the crack like an arrow!

So fast, it left no trace of movement.

It aimed directly at the Core Area of his consciousness body—the spot equivalent to the heart in the physical world.

——Flowing Barrier

Almost instinctively, Luo En activated this barrier skill honed to an instinctive level.

Silver-gray liquid surged from his spiritual energy, rapidly forming a Flowing Barrier around him.

His first line of defense against the unknown, this barrier had saved his life countless times in battle.

Yet what happened next made his blood run cold.

The proboscis pierced through the barrier effortlessly, without the slightest resistance, burying itself in his consciousness body!

“Crack!”

An indescribable, searing pain engulfed Luo En’s entire Perception.

This was a tear to his very soul essence.

It felt as if someone had split his entire being open, peeling it away piece by piece.

A gaping hole tore through his consciousness body, darkness spreading like ink, devouring his surrounding consciousness structure.

The agony was so intense it nearly shattered his ability to think.

The space around him began to twist and collapse, everything blurring into the distance.

Luo En roared soundlessly, yet found he couldn’t even produce the most foundational sound.

His soul trembled, his spirit fracturing.

This pain eclipsed all he’d endured before—even the “Bloodline baptism” at the Bloodline Altar seemed a hundredfold less terrifying.

[Warning! Detecting abnormal time fluctuation!]

[Warning! Interdimensional invasion detected!]

[Warning! Consciousness structure suffering critical damage!]

The Semi-transparent interface’s warnings flickered in his fractured consciousness, but Luo En could barely focus on them.

All he felt was an unprecedented sense of helplessness.

The proboscis retracted swiftly, siphoning spirit mana through its straw-like structure into the unknown depths.

As the hunt completed, a vague outline began to condensation around the crack.

This was a being that defied all known physical laws.

Its form constantly transformationed, lacking any fixed shape or structure.

At times it resembled a colossal snake with countless segments, sometimes a multi-legged arthropod, even twisting into geometric shapes beyond Luo En’s comprehension.

The only constants were the needle-like proboscis dripping with spirit mana, and two “Eyes” glowing with a sinister red.

If those could even be called eyes…

Luo En sensed the creature appraising his worth in its own way—like a gourmand savoring an expensive delicacy.

This suffocating oppression surpassed even the terror of facing the “Holy Disk.”

Back then, at least, he’d found a weakness. Now… he’d nearly been killed before even reacting.

“…I can’t… die… here…”

Gritting his teeth against unbearable pain, Luo En began reassembling his remaining spiritual energy, driven by sheer survival instinct.

His mind gradually cleared as he analyzed the situation rapidly.

The enemy’s speed exceeded his reactions—mere barriers were useless.

But if he could predict the next attack, perhaps he could strike back.

First, he needed to understand this creature’s attack pattern.

His newly acquired Hermit’s Insight began to activate.

He sensed the mana within the hound regathering—it was preparing another strike.

And this time, the mana condensation was faster, stronger.

It had confirmed Luo En’s “deliciousness” and decided to intensify its hunt.

No time left. He had to act.

“Combine Overmagic Technique with Flowing Barrier…

Add the barrier compensation from the Eternal Imprint trait after the first strike, and reinforce the spell structure using Microstructural Modification…”

Luo En mobilized his remaining spiritual energy, constructing a new barrier system.

Unlike his earlier reliance on mana density, this barrier design was intricate and complex.

Layered like a barrier foundation, he added dozens of miniature mana reflection layers, each absorbing and redirecting part of the impact to another direction.

Mana flowed and intertwined in his consciousness, forming an exquisitely refined barrier network.

Hardly had he finished the final layer when the Time Hound’s second strike arrived!

The dreadful proboscis lunged faster than before, yet this time, it collided with layer after layer of mana reflection.

Each penetration slowed it slightly, dispersing its mana.

Not enough to block entirely—but Luo En had bought precious reaction time.

As the proboscis neared his consciousness body, Luo En unleashed the long-accumulated Spirit Burst!

A surge of pure spirit shockwave erupted from his consciousness core, like solidified lightning, striking the hound’s central nervous system directly.

The assault bypassed physical form entirely, striking directly at the essence level of existence.

Any being possessing a consciousness structure would find it nearly impossible to completely evade.

"Zziiii!"

A strange, piercing shriek erupted from the Time Hound’s body.

It wasn’t sound in the conventional sense—more like an energy fluctuation vibrating at a specific frequency.

Its movements visibly faltered. The monstrous maw that had been about to devour Luo En’s consciousness halted mere millimeters from his location.

Yet the terrifying suction force still attempted to drain his spiritmana.

"Now! Pocket watch!"

Luo En seized this fleeting opportunity, decisively activating his ultimate life-saving artifact.

Space around him seemed to freeze for an instant, the flow of time thickening into sluggishness.

Accompanied by a subtle energy fluctuation, the gaping wound in his consciousness body began visibly healing at an astonishing rate.

The shattered consciousness structure recondensed. The forcibly extracted spiritmana started flowing back. Damaged spiritual energy circuits gradually rekindled their vitality.

Luo En felt his condition rapidly improving—his consciousness sharpening, his thoughts quickening.

Though not fully restored to peak strength, it was enough to continue fighting.

Almost as recovery completed, he immediately channeled all spiritual energy into his most devastating spell.

——Sound Wave Oscillation Erosion State!

Inaudible sound waves sliced through space like solid blades, striking the Time Hound’s core.

The moment contact occurred, the effect was immediate.

The ever-shifting entity abruptly froze. Its form twisted violently, fracturing like a mirror struck by a hammer.

Numerous profound cracks spread outward from the impact point. The entire creature seemed on the verge of collapse.

"It worked!"

Luo En’s eyes blazed with sudden hope:

"Keep attacking! Don’t give it time to recover!"

He prepared a second offensive—when the next moment, a chilling sight froze his blood...

The Time Hound’s body began reassembling like reversed footage, every broken fragment recombining at visible speed.

Those profound cracks vanished as if they’d never existed. The creature nearly returned to its original state in an instant!

"Damn it!" Luo En’s pupils constricted. Despair clawed up his spine:

"It can reset itself too? And it’s an instinctive ability—no medium required..."

This was the worst-case scenario.

With the pocket watch’s time manipulation, he might barely defend himself.

But if his opponent also controlled time, his greatest advantage would be nullified.

The Time Hound seemed enraged by the attack.

Its form grew more chaotic. The surrounding consciousness space twisted and fractured from its rampant energy fluctuations.

Those "eyes" burned brighter than before, the terrifying maw swelling into a death scythe-like blade poised to reap.

Luo En felt pressure unlike anything he’d faced since fusion-soul.

Except for Davord’s uncontrolled rampage, he’d never been this close to death.

Facing such an overwhelming objective force, all his skills and knowledge seemed powerless.

Pure power confrontation was meaningless here—he needed a wiser approach.

"Stay calm… think…"

Luo En forced himself to steady down, reassessing the situation:

"No matter how powerful, all beings have behavioral patterns and limitations. Discovering its weakness is the only way to victory."

He began observing the Time Hound’s movement patterns more carefully—especially its trajectory within the consciousness space and mana flow rhythms.

As observation deepened, a subtle pattern gradually emerged—

"Fascinating…"

Luo En noticed—whenever the Time Hound launched an attack, it always prioritized shadowed corners.

It seemed only by leveraging these special "spatial junctions" could the creature execute attacks impossible to evade.

"It relies on this space’s shadows… or perhaps, certain spatial convergence points…"

Quickly theorizing, a bold plan formed in Luo En’s mind.

If this hypothesis held, diminishing those shadow regions would limit the Time Hound’s mobility.

Among all his spells, one stood out as perfectly suited for this objective—

——Radiant Halo

A golden halo formed around Luo En, like a miniature sun.

As he continuously channeled spiritual energy, the halo expanded, illuminating every corner of the consciousness space.

The once-hidden shadowed regions visibly receded. The Time Hound’s activity range compressed accordingly.

"Just as I suspected!"

Luo En confirmed his deduction, immediately amplifying the Radiant Halo’s output.

Light surged like a tide, transforming the entire consciousness space into blinding gold.

Every inch of darkness was expelled, every shadow eradicated.

The Time Hound’s reaction confirmed Luo En’s judgment.

That fluid, effortless agility vanished. It began wandering between the few remaining shadow pockets—its form growing unstable, like a dancer losing balance.

But restricting movement wasn’t enough. Luo En needed power capable of targeting the Time Hound’s essence—a mana that could truly wound it.

Currently, his two strongest trump cards were "Temporal Stasis" and "Record."

"Temporal Stasis…" The opponent could also manipulate time to some degree, its power innate rather than relying on artifacts like himself.

Carelessly using stasis might backfire, worsening the situation.

In this life-or-death moment, Luo En could only choose "Whispering" recorded from the Thousand Shifting Shadows.

Not the Whispering from that Urchin Monster he’d defeated during his High Apprentice days.

But the more primordial Whispering he’d recorded while advancing to Full Mage—risking everything during his connection with the Devourer.

This Whispering carried terrifying high-dimensional contamination—the ultimate technique he’d sealed away.

Using it was undoubtedly a gamble, risking severe spiritual contamination or even total uncontrolled transformation.

But facing a Time Hound that could devour him whole at any moment, Luo En had no other choice.

"I must take this risk…"

Gritting his teeth, his gaze hardened to icy resolve: "Before survival, everything else is secondary."

Luo En inhaled deeply, channeling his final reserves of spiritual energy to play the long-sealed Whispering.

This wasn’t sound describable in any conventional language—more like a multidimensional vibration. Each syllable carried reality-warping power.

"Iai’leth N’gha Fhtagn…"

The first syllable barely emerged before Luo En felt a terrifying mana backlash.

Like touching an forbidden switch, chaotic, rampaging mana surged from the dimensional depths into his consciousness, nearly shattering him instantly.

Yet he gritted through, continuing playback—one syllable after another, each more twisted, more dangerous than the last.

"Shugal V’doru Nyth’drn…"

As the Whispering continued, the entire consciousness space twisted into unimaginable deformations.

Like ripples on water suddenly shattered, all rules and boundaries blurred into obscurity.

Luo En even saw his own consciousness edges dissolving into wisps of void-like mist.

But the Time Hound’s reaction to this transformation exceeded expectations.

The ever-shifting entity abruptly froze all movement. Those "eyes" displayed an emotion Luo En had never seen before—fear.

Pure, instinctive fear.

"It… fears this too?"

Luo En seized the critical insight instantly: "Afraid of high-dimensional power?"

Ignoring his own consciousness structure’s constant disintegration, he gritted his teeth, amplifying playback while directing the high-dimensional contamination toward the Time Hound.

Those twisted, polluted utterances coiled around the creature like living things, eroding its very existence.

The Time Hound thrashed violently, struggling to escape this incomprehensible, unstoppable force.

It darted frenetically through remaining shadows, even attempting to flee back into that dimensional crack.

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end