thefictionvixens Chapter 2757 What Year Is It Tonight?
Chapter 2757 What Year Is It Tonight?
Chapter 2757 What Year Is It Tonight?
As the saying goes, perseverance pays off. After countless attempts, Qu Jianlei finally found the feeling he was looking for.
Unfortunately, this moment of enlightenment lasted... less than a second.
However, this experience greatly boosted his confidence, and before long, he had a second and a third...
As for how long "not long" means? At this moment, he had basically lost the concept of time.
The time distortion caused by spatial compression makes it impossible for even a small lake to accurately anchor time.
In fact, Qu Jianlei hadn't contacted Big Head Butterfly for a long time—he was truly too distracted to do so.
Especially in a state of ethereal tranquility, the flow of time becomes even more mysterious!
Back then, when he was inside Senior Heng's body, he sensed time in a completely wrong way, let alone now.
After he gradually became familiar with the ethereal state and was able to maintain it for a period of time, he had new feelings.
That is... he could vaguely sense the presence of something that could quell the aura of annihilation.
This existence, which resembles submatter, seems to be in the infinite depths, yet it also seems to be right at hand.
It has a subtle connection with this space.
Immediately afterwards, Qu Jianlei had a sudden realization: this must involve higher-dimensional elements of life.
This is what he has been searching for—he believes such a thing exists.
Otherwise, given his current physical condition and the severe imbalance between life and death, this plan would have been abandoned long ago.
It's not abandonment, but scrapping, because if we continue, it will become the resources of Tianqing, and will instead harm our teammates and Lianxing!
He had a theory that the reason why the Silent Zone, or the Dead Zone, could exist for so long without any signs of decay was because there was a life force resisting it.
The aura of the Heavenly Inclination is so strong that even a Nascent Soul cultivator could sense it, but this aura is not present in the Silent Zone!
Few cultivators have encountered the Heavenly Collapse, but many more know about the legends of the Silent Zone, and the related evaluations are generally similar.
Previously, in the Silent Zone, he could only absorb a small amount of life force, which was likely only from the life forms that had perished there.
Although this is just speculation, he believes it is highly likely.
As further evidence, even when he was quite out of balance, his intuition did not give him any warning, thanks to the blessing of the Creation Compass.
At this moment, he found a possible clue, and naturally he would not give up.
He didn't know how much time it took, but he was able to roughly detect a trace of the aura—it did seem to come from a very distant place.
However, this sub-substance cannot be absorbed and passes directly through the body.
Such disregard seemed like a mockery from a higher dimension... or perhaps a ridicule?
Then it took him a long time to absorb the first trace of the relevant elements.
The absorption process is not only difficult but also somewhat painful, and it's not easy to digest, but these are minor issues.
He then began to absorb the knowledge diligently, and as time went on, his skills became more and more refined.
However, Qu Jianlei dared not slack off, because if he missed this opportunity, he didn't know when he would be able to find this state again.
This is probably why he was so distracted and had no way out—how could he describe a state he himself wasn't even sure he could find?
With his focused attention, life began to slowly catch up with annihilation.
However, this is a long process.
Because it involves high-dimensional elements of life, he needs to deliberately capture and carefully absorb them.
However, the aura of annihilation arrived uninvited, with immense pressure and an extremely high concentration!
Even for a considerable period afterward, the balance not only failed to recover, but the tilt actually increased.
It's unclear how much time passed before the two sides finally managed to catch up at their absorption rates, and then it became a race to catch up...
When a basic balance was reached, Qu Jianlei did not get distracted, but continued to absorb vitality vigorously.
He only breathed a slight sigh of relief after absorbing about twice the amount of life force he had lost, and then began to examine his body internally.
As for the people outside seeming to be doing nothing... he didn't feel that way at all.
He's practically constantly on the brink of death, so why wouldn't he want to experience boredom? Is that even possible?
After a thorough internal examination, he felt that his body was indeed fine, so he asked Xiaohu to contact the Spider Lord – it was time to speed up appropriately.
He had no idea how much time had passed outside.
However, it's pointless for him to think about these things, because even if he knew, there's nothing he could do.
After an unknown amount of time, the Spider King replied.
It indicates that the increase from outside is limited, and everyone is concerned about Qu Zhenzun, hoping he won't push himself too hard.
"Limited is limited," Qu Jianlei thought, not dwelling on it too much, and began to bury himself in absorbing life force again.
He wasn't unaware that imbalance was bad, but this higher-dimensional life force was too rare.
While the aura of annihilation is rare, it's not that difficult to collect if you put your mind to it.
Of course, hoping to find those ancient and decrepit beings to gather some of their lifeless energy is basically impossible.
First of all, the True Venerable's deathly aura is weak, and the energy level is quite different.
They're far inferior to even the Great Khan, let alone a level capable of creating a silent zone.
Secondly, a dying Grand Venerable is inherently unstable in temperament. If he rashly goes to collect his aura, wouldn't that be like rubbing salt into his wounds?
Collecting life force is much more difficult. Even if he defies the world and becomes an evil cultivator, the life force he gains will be on a completely different level.
Even with the Great Lord's assistance, he can only absorb the nutrients with such difficulty now. He must seize the time to absorb as much as possible.
Next, the rate of increase in pressure accelerated, becoming slow and stable.
However, Qu Jianlei had already gotten somewhat used to it.
Being whipped is definitely not a good feeling, but sometimes, you have to push yourself!
In fact, since he was able to enter a state of ethereal emptiness and find the higher-dimensional life element, he has been relieved of a great deal of pressure.
His anxiety vanished instantly, and his confusion lessened considerably. He could even consider returning to Lianxing at the appropriate time.
There is a kind of pressure called fear of letting someone down: even in poverty, one can still laugh and enjoy the prosperity; with nothing to lose, how could one dare to be frivolous and mislead a beautiful woman!
The pressure increased for a while, then stopped increasing.
Qu Jianlei guessed that this was probably an outside teammate, whose performance was also close to the threshold.
This is not surprising. Although he is working very hard, I believe his teammates outside must also be feeling the same way.
Qu Jianlei occasionally wanted to ask how many years had passed, but the thought would only flash through his mind: Did it make any sense?
He's not idle now, so why not save himself from distractions and absorb more vitality... isn't that appealing?
Ultimately, the feeling of imbalance between birth and death that he had experienced before left him with a very deep memory and a great sense of insecurity!
Although not much time has passed, he seems to have already forgotten how he got through it—it's truly unbearable to recall!
Therefore, there is no need to communicate with the outside world too frequently. Since we are a team, everyone should just do their job and do their own thing.
Then he got busy again—was mastering the ability to absorb life elements enough? Obviously not!
He still needs to figure out how to absorb it faster and more intensely, and even... how to store it appropriately.
Those who haven't secretly explored hidden vaults in hiding might not understand his sense of insecurity.
However, Qu Jianlei believes that this is not a lack of security; he simply wants to take control of his own destiny, nothing more.
After an unknown amount of time, he developed a rudimentary method of storage.
Occasionally, he would think of Duogan and Jing Yuexin—whether they had succeeded in overcoming the challenge.
However, this kind of worry is basically like expressing emotions and has no practical use.
Such thoughts, at most, only occasionally flash through my mind, and then I let them go.
As for whether he has truly let go, only heaven knows.
But to be honest, according to the rules of the mystical side, thinking too much about certain things can have negative consequences...
The method Qu Jianlei devised for storing vitality was very crude and ineffective against higher-dimensional elements.
He can only store the transformed life force, but this is not something that can be accomplished overnight, so there is no need to rush.
All he can do right now is take this opportunity to collect as much information as possible and think about ways to improve the situation.
Although the pressure has been reduced somewhat, it is far from enough for someone like him who lacks a sense of security!
As I said before, he prefers to have his destiny in his own hands.
He didn't know how much time had passed when he felt a sudden jolt in his body.
The pressure, which I couldn't quite pinpoint, suddenly descended upon me without warning, overwhelming my entire being!
The life force he was painstakingly storing suddenly collapsed. He subconsciously circulated his inner energy to lock the life force in, preventing it from escaping.
For a moment, the heavy body felt a little lighter.
Feeling the sudden increase in pressure, he calmly took out his stored life force and crushed it piece by piece.
One, two... five, ten...
He continued crushing the ninety-ninth piece until his body shuddered violently again.
A warm current surged forth from his sea of consciousness, followed by a faint, almost imperceptible sound.
It was as if an invisible and unspeakable constraint had been broken in an instant.
The next moment, a warm current flowed through his body, feeling incredibly light and agile, making his body feel light as well.
The sudden increase in pressure did not lessen, but it seems... it's not a big deal anymore.
Qu Jianlei wasn't sure what had happened; perhaps it was finally a case of quantitative change leading to qualitative change?
He didn't rush to contact the outside world because he had enough trust in his teammates.
The truth is, the life force he currently possesses is really running low; it's almost dropped below a thousand.
We must first continue to gather life force, and at the same time observe what is happening to ourselves.
He doesn't plan to notify his teammates rashly unless there is a significant breakthrough.
First of all, he is not a person who likes to show off. Small breakthroughs are not very interesting. If there are no breakthroughs, he will become a laughing stock.
Furthermore, in this state, announcing a breakthrough might negatively impact the mentality of one's teammates.