Chapter 361 : Abnormal Space
Chapter 361: Abnormal Space
The night was silent, and moonlight spread across the earth like a layer of silver frost.
Yet beneath that mass of dense mist that writhed like a living thing, such a beautiful scene took on an unsettling and eerie quality.
Standing suspended in midair, Zhou Ming silently watched as his clone entered the dense mist. He had intended to use it to gather intelligence from within, but the moment it stepped inside, his connection with it was abruptly severed.
Faced with this situation, Zhou Ming's heart sank. After all, his clone had been created by manifesting his will through his own bloodline.
Unwilling to give up, after realizing that the spiritual connection had been cut off, he immediately attempted to perceive it through the bloodline of the Ironthread Snake Emperor.
As the Ironthread Snake Emperor, he possessed absolute control over all bloodlines under his own. If even this rule-like connection could be severed by the dense mist before him, then he would have no choice but to deal with it through brute force from the outside.
As for the reason the dense mist had appeared, that was not something he needed to investigate.
The next moment, using the Ironthread Snake Emperor bloodline, Zhou Ming successfully sensed that his clone still existed. He immediately breathed a sigh of relief and patiently waited for it to act.
Meanwhile, after entering the dense mist, the clone felt as though it had passed through the membrane of a bubble.
As a soft "pop" sounded beside its ears, the scenery before its eyes changed completely.
Blue skies, white clouds, green mountains, and clear waters.
Night instantly became day.
Before the clone could even react, a whip lashed across its back from behind. Despite possessing High-level Professional Rank strength, it failed to respond in time, and a bloody whip mark was instantly branded across its back.
Faced with the sudden change, Zhou Ming's clone immediately prepared to counterattack, only to discover that it could not mobilize any of the power within its body.
"What are you standing there for? Get over there and chop trees!"
The clone turned around and saw a burly man with a face full of flesh cursing at him while continuing to swing the whip in his hand.
When the whip struck again, the clone instinctively raised an arm to block it. However, accompanied by the crisp sound of air being torn apart, another bloody wound immediately appeared on its arm.
The bizarre situation instantly ignited anger within Zhou Ming's clone.
But in the next moment, an unknown mysterious force influenced its consciousness, driving it like a puppet as it walked to the side, picked up an axe, and began chopping trees.
The moment the clone swung the axe and began chopping, its dazed consciousness instantly became clear again, no longer affected by the unknown force.
Although the clone possessed only High-level Professional Rank strength, its Spiritual Consciousness had already undergone a qualitative transformation. Judging from the situation, it had not yet exceeded what Zhou Ming could handle.
Even though its mind had cleared, the clone did not stop chopping. Instead, it carefully observed its surroundings while continuing the repetitive motion.
Besides itself, there were many others around it chopping trees as well, mechanically swinging their axes.
Looking more closely, their eyes were dull and lifeless, completely devoid of intelligence.
Some of them had even begun to rot. Their clothing had fused together with decaying flesh, yet they still continued to swing their axes.
Faintly, the clone sensed that the souls of those who were already dead seemed trapped inside their rotting bodies, continuing to endure the unknown force that compelled them onward.
Farther away, there were even countless more people endlessly swinging their axes.
Yet no matter how they chopped, every tree before them would immediately recover the moment it was damaged.
It was like an endless cycle.
No matter whether their bodies had decayed, they could only remain trapped here forever, endlessly chopping trees.
"An illusion? Or some bizarre space created by an unknown power?"
As Zhou Ming's clone, it possessed all of Zhou Ming's memories, and countless related pieces of knowledge immediately surfaced in its mind.
However, before it could determine the truth, the burly overseer suddenly appeared behind it once more. The whip covered in thorny barbs lashed across its back again.
"Didn't you eat? Faster! Even faster!"
Each shout of urging left another whip mark branded onto Zhou Ming's back, carrying an unknown force that compelled the clone to chop even faster.
Experiencing something like this for the first time, "Zhou Ming" lowered his gaze toward the ground, his eyes filled with bone-chilling coldness.
Although he was merely Zhou Ming's clone, he was not much different from the original body in many respects. This was also the first time he had experienced such humiliation.
Now that he had confirmed this supernatural incident posed no threat to the original body, Zhou Ming's clone no longer intended to keep pretending. After all, continuing to chop trees would reveal nothing more.
In any case, the purpose this time was merely to resolve the supernatural incident before him. As for the reason behind its birth, that was not Zhou Ming's responsibility.
Just as the burly overseer was about to swing his whip once again, the clone swept the axe in its hand backward.
Since there was no opportunity to outwit the enemy, there was no reason to continue swallowing this resentment.
"You actually dare resist! A lowly creature like you dares resist!"
Rather than being surprised by the clone's actions, the overseer only felt that he had suffered an enormous provocation.
"Chop him! Chop him!"
As the overseer swung his whip, all the people around who had been mechanically chopping trees instantly turned their vacant eyes toward Zhou Ming's clone.
Then, like a horde of zombies released from confinement, they charged toward the clone with axes raised.
At the same time, the once blue skies and white clouds gradually darkened as a strange force descended upon the clone.
It was an invisible pressure, as though commanding the clone to accept being hacked to death by the crowd. Its once clear consciousness began to blur once again.
Murmurs continuously echoed beside its ears.
Its skin began to mutate.
Cracked tree bark emerged across its flesh as its body gradually transformed into a giant tree.
"What an utterly disgusting power."
Faced with the foul force that had suddenly descended, the clone instinctively felt intense revulsion.
However, it did not choose to await death. Instead, with its still relatively clear Spiritual Consciousness, it forcibly pried open the power of the bloodline within its body.
The fulcrum that allowed it to pry open its bloodline power was the invisible resonance between bloodlines, created by the original body outside using the Ironthread Snake Emperor bloodline to perceive the clone.
"Blood Descendant Secret Technique · Snake Tide Poison Miasma."
At that moment, bloodline radiance blossomed from Zhou Ming's body, like a burning candle releasing all of its bloodline power in a single eruption.
As his body gradually became ethereal, countless black serpent shadows surged forth like a tide.
Before the crowd could even approach, the serpent shadows began to explode.
Moreover, they detonated in a chain reaction.
The dual corrosive effects of venom and shadow power reached their absolute peak in an instant.
The overwhelming power caused the surrounding scenery to twist.
One moment it was a desolate wilderness.
The next, it became the scenery of a base.
It was as though two parallel spaces had overlapped, giving birth to an absurd and chaotic landscape capable of eroding the sanity of ordinary people.
The clone's actions also clearly stimulated the unknown existence.
An indescribable, horrifying presence descended upon this world.
Unfortunately, after burning away all of its power, the clone itself had already become nothingness.
Only a single strand of nearly imperceptible green silk remained.
As violent spatial fluctuations erupted throughout the surrounding space, concealed beneath the cover of the black serpent shadows, it quietly slipped out of that unknown space.