Chapter 416: The Trapped Soul
Before his voice could fade away, the folds started squirming madly.
Rows of tentacles covered in spikes shot out of the folds and went straight for their vitals.
It was as if the “walls” of the “intestines” were shrinking rapidly and wanted to envelope both of them inside.
A large amount of sticky liquid that seemed like digestive juices gushed out from up ahead and behind them. It was as if they wanted to dissolve them until there was nothing left.
The nightmarish scene was enough to destroy most people’s mental defenses. Their mental strength index would drop to zero, and they might even die of fear.
But Meng Chao was an oddball, so it was clear that he would not be among those people.
He had a soul that had been refined by the apocalypse, and he had harvested more than ten thousand monsters of all shapes and sizes. He could eat brains dipped in chili sauce and stir-fried bull testicles without batting an eyelid in a dissection room, so this sort of minor thing would not be able to scare him.
Of course, illusion attacks would usually be accompanied by physical attacks.
When real attacks blended together with fake attacks, the target would be unable to tell what was real and would be caught by surprise.
But this was Lu Siya’s forte.
With Meng Chao’s reminder, she immediately realized that she was in an illusion, and as a Spirit Sensor, she could tell just which attack was an illusion formed by an interference of the nervous system and which attack was real.
“It’s here!”
Lu Siya pointed at a spot in the darkness. It seemed like there was nothing there, but she opened fire anyway.
Meng Chao did not hesitate. He joined her and fired at full force. He even threw all eight napalm bombs.
As flames rose, the illusions shattered with a distorted scream.
The acid, fine hairs, tentacles, and meat walls all disappeared.
Sturdy ground appeared under their feet again.
Gao Ye and the Demonic Abyss Eye were tumbling around not far away to extinguish the flames on their bodies.
‘What should we do?’ Lu Siya asked Meng Chao with her eyes.
They were in a hurry to run, so they might not be in a mood to waste time on killing them.
But it would be quite difficult for Meng Chao and her to kill the two Supernatural Entities with just their own strength.
“We’ll hold them back! We must hold them here like superglue!” Meng Chao thought of something and added, “Since the illusion it created was of such low quality, it means that it’s already so drained that it’s at the verge of breaking down. It’s definitely not as powerful as it seems. We’ll definitely be able to hold it back!”
When it came to creating illusions, they had to be done subtly and slowly in favorable conditions.
Yet they had clearly been underground, but in the blink of an eye, they entered a squirming tunnel. This made no sense at all, and those with the slightest bit of intelligence would be able to tell that it was fake.
Once a person was able to tell that an illusion was fake, the illusion had already failed.
Meng Chao did not believe that the Demonic Abyss Eye would not be able to understand such a basic thing. After all, it was a boss-level psychological attack-type monster.
However, it was no longer able to create the seemingly real illusions that could naturally blend with reality.
‘It had to perform micro-controls on at least ten thousand monsters for an entire night, and it was heavily injured by my tutoress and Master Luo. It was also badly burned. This is just a future Supernatural Entity that has not reached full maturity yet. It’s already on its dying bed and is just holding onto its last breath, right?’ Meng Chao thought.
‘From the start until now, it has only eaten Zhou Tianshui to replenish its spirit energy. If I consider the great plan it cooked up tonight, Zhou Tianshui alone is definitely not enough for its use.
‘So, winning or losing isn’t important. What is important is to make it use more spirit energy and drain the last drop of its blood!’
Both parties realized this.
Hence, the Demonic Abyss Eye stopped using useless illusions. It also stopped trying to invade Meng Chao’s bizarre soul.
Instead, it placed all of its attention on sending orders to Gao Ye.
The Ultimate Sandworm was badly burned and covered in wounds, but it swelled up again. Like a king cobra who saw its prey, it raised its neck up high at Meng Chao and Lu Siya.
Both of them could sense a pressure that was ten times greater than the one they felt from the clone in the underwater tunnel.
They watched as its oral cavity started spinning at such a high speed that it could crush an armored vehicle. Both Meng Chao and Lu Siya gulped with great difficulty.
Next, Meng Chao did something that left Lu Siya dumbfounded.
He tossed the shoulder-mounted M61 Vulcan and the sharp mandibles behind him.
He then spread his arms and stepped in front of Gao Ye’s gaping mouth.
Meng Chao widened his eyes and released a thunderous shout. “Gao Ye, wake up. Do you really know what you’re doing?! Are you really willing to become a monster’s puppet?!”
“…”
Lu Siya knew that this was a crucial moment, and she should really not be making sarcastic quips about Meng Chao’s actions, but she could not help it.
She gritted her teeth and hissed through her teeth, “Meng Chao, what in the world are you doing?!”
“Hush. I’m trying to use my silver tongue to persuade this Ultimate Sandworm. It hasn’t lost all its humanity yet,” Meng Chao whispered back without turning his head around. “Before the Deity Realm superhumans arrive, this might be our only way to make it stay with us alive.”
“No way.” Lu Siya hissed in disbelief. “Are you going to use the same argument you used on the Ultimate Sandworm’s clone in the underwater tunnel. At that time, your trash talk was completely useless. No matter what glib tongue you have, it still pummeled you so much that your parents couldn’t have recognized you!”
“… It’s not the same,” Meng Chao said. “I told you. That was a clone. It only had thick nerve bundles and strong myelin sheaths, but no real soul.
“The Ultimate Sandworm in front of us is Gao Ye’s real body. He’s the one who has the prideful, unyielding, and sacred soul unique to humans.
“My sincere words can make even zombies cry. As long as this huge and ugly creature has a shred of humanity left, he will be touched by my words.
“Isn’t that right, Gao Ye?! I believe in you, so please! Believe in me who believes in you!”
Meng Chao’s eyes shone with a sincere and intense light as he extended his arms to the Ultimate Sandworm.
In response, Gao Ye opened his mouth and released a foul-smelling gale.
The gale lit up while halfway to Meng Chao. It was mixed with an impact wave, and when it reached Meng Chao’s face, it turned into a roaring foehn. It blew him eight meters away and slammed him against the wall.
“Ah!” Meng Chao cried out and fell to the ground while vomiting blood.
“I’ve realized that I just can’t assess your IQ and your actions.” Lu Siya quickly helped him up, knelt on the ground on one knee, and targeted the shoulder-mounted M61 Vulcan at the Ultimate Sandworm. Wariness and puzzlement colored her face. “Has your brain… entered some sort of cooldown mode after it worked nonstop for an entire night over max capacity?”
“I-I’m fine.” Meng Chao spat out a mouthful of sticky blood. He did not have the time to use his spirit energy to check his injuries. He just whispered, “Big Sis Ya, scan the Demonic—the mastermind’s temperature, quick!”
“What?” Lu Siya was taken aback a little. She did not understand how the situation in front of them had anything to do with the mastermind’s temperature.
But since Meng Chao had been frighteningly accurate with his predictions of the battle, she still used her abilities of a Spirit Sensor and seriously stared at the Demonic Abyss Eye.
“Strange. Why is this creature’s temperature increasing nonstop?” Lu Siya mumbled. “It seems to be really weak and in great discomfort. I can sense its pain and rage. I can even sense… some sort of delicate mental connection between it and the Ultimate Sandworm.”
“That means I made the right guess. It has been controlling Gao Ye nonstop all this while!” A confident smile appeared on Meng Chao’s face.
In the original course of history, Gao Ye would need to be modified for another year or two to turn into Earthquake.
Since he defeated Lin Chuan and the White Spirit, he changed the results of the northern offense, which meant he forced the monster civilization to bring out their secret weapon, even though it had not been fully developed yet.
The things that happened that night were completely against Gao Ye’s nature and will.
To make him listen to the commands of the abnormal beasts, the Demonic Abyss Eye had to constantly hypnotize and control him.
And for that, it naturally had to spend a lot of spirit energy and mental power.
But the Demonic Abyss Eye’s spirit energy and mental power had been drained.
Earlier, when it violently withdrew its mind from Meng Chao’s head, the mental connection between it and Gao Ye also showed a brief moment of instability, and Meng Chao had noticed it.
“Attacking me isn’t your own intention, right, Gao Ye?” Meng Chao wiped off the blood at the corners of his mouth and put on a brilliant smile. He staggered up and went to the Ultimate Sandworm again.
“Perhaps the human portion of you feels like it has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Your soul is bound to an ugly body, and that monster is slowly robbing you of your senses and control of your body. That’s why you attacked me.
“What I want to tell you is that no matter how strong the monster’s brainwashing and control is, right now, it’s at its weakest. This is your only chance to break free of its control and find your sense of self and pride again!
“Didn’t you once tell me that a human’s appearance isn’t important, that the appearance of the physical body carrying the soul isn’t important, that the only thing important is how the human soul uses all its strength to contribute to civilization? Isn’t that what you believe future humans should do?
“Then prove it to me!
“Prove it to me now that there is a noble soul existing in that ugly body. No matter how your nerves, cells, and genes have changed, and no matter how much poison and how many lies that monster has injected into your soul, you are still you. You’re Gao Ye! A human from Earth, born in Dragon City, and a person willing to fight for humans!”
All that was left for Meng Chao was to start crying.
Even he himself was touched by his words.
Gao Ye looked very touched as well.
And so, he opened his mouth again and spat out shattered stones from the depths of his throat cavity. They shot out like howling bullets and blasted the walls so much that sparks flew all over the place.
Meng Chao also fled with his arms wrapped around his head.
“No way.” Lu Siya activated her battle armor and blocked a few shattered stones for him. She said in disbelief, “You looked really confident and tricked me into chasing after them, but it was all just so you could say the stupidest things and be beaten up in the worst way possible?”