Chapter 566 - 559: Awakening
"A Primordial Ancestor... He just broke through. Is he really that incredible?"
Hui Ming said in a low voice. He hadn’t expected Doctor Nightmare’s assessment of him to be so high. He knew full well what a Primordial Ancestor represented.
Strictly speaking, even those at the Ancestral Level hadn’t truly broken past that final barrier. Still, the gap between them and an ordinary King Level—or even an Ancient True King—was immense.
In his eyes, it was an insurmountable power.
"Of course. He’s no ordinary man. I knew he would eventually break through, but I never expected it to be so effortless and smooth."
"Moreover, if my guess is correct, spurred on by the hidden influence I left behind last time, he hasn’t embarked on the Path of True Spirit that we follow. It’s most likely that he has started down another path."
"Although that path is a dead end, setting foot on it is countless times more difficult than the Path of True Spirit. And once the breakthrough is complete, his strength will skyrocket to an unimaginable level in a short time. The perfect fusion of his Spirit and body will save him a vast amount of time exploring the genetic Atlas. Furthermore, at the same level, his practical combat ability will be significantly greater than ours."
"I’m afraid even two Ancient True Kings might not be enough to stop him."
Doctor Nightmare’s voice echoed in Hui Ming’s mind.
"That strong?"
Hearing this, Hui Ming couldn’t help but draw a sharp breath.
"However, the wrong path is, in the end, still wrong."
"This path grants extreme combat prowess, but in return, once his power has surged to a certain point, the difficulty of the next breakthrough will increase exponentially. For beings like us, exploring a single realm can take hundreds, even thousands of years. Yet even though he has reached King Level and can alter his own genes, his lifespan can’t possibly exceed three hundred years. Furthermore, by taking this path, he can never again separate his consciousness from his body. He has completely lost the ability to reincarnate, and many of the more esoteric and powerful abilities will be beyond his reach."
"The material and the flesh always have their limits. So, even if he’s strong enough to overpower an Ancient True King, it will be difficult for him to truly reach our level in the long run. It will be nearly impossible before the disaster arrives, at least—even though he’s not yet thirty years old. That’s because the King Level is already the apex of a world, of a planet. There are no established paths to follow beyond that point, unless... well, unless something highly improbable were to occur."
"As for us... if the plan goes smoothly, we will likely withdraw from this planet soon. Perhaps, when that time comes, he might even be of some unexpected use."
Doctor Nightmare said indifferently.
"My Lord, this disaster... what exactly is it?"
Hui Ming asked. As a member of the Celestial Demon Race’s younger generation, born on Earth, he knew little of their past history. It was like a taboo, a topic all the supreme beings forbade any mention of.
"It cannot be spoken of."
Once again, Doctor Nightmare refused to elaborate, as if the very mention of it would invite some unknown terror.
"GACK GACK GACK!!"
Just then, as Hui Ming neared the Prime Seed Pool at the heart of the Prime Seed Forest, Andrew—who dangled from his grip with a vacant expression—suddenly let out a bizarre cackle. His eyes quivered and his whole body began to convulse, as if he were having an epileptic fit.
"It seems we’re here. Don’t touch the true core area; the residual power and aura of the Ancient Heroes still linger there. Even with my Nightmare to block it, it’s highly likely the Forest Race would sense us. This spot will do."
Doctor Nightmare said to Hui Ming.
Hui Ming nodded. He stopped his charge, still holding Andrew, and came to a halt on the outskirts of the Prime Seed Pool.
"Now, it’s my turn to act."
Doctor Nightmare said indifferently.
"My Lord, are you going to break the Seal directly?"
Hui Ming asked.
"Of course not. An Ancestral Level Seal is impossible to break with the amount of power your body can handle. Besides, the moment we disturbed the Seal, the Forest Race would surely sense it."
"All I need is the Awakening of a ’consciousness’."
"Back then, when Sen sealed La, he didn’t use any special methods to imprison his soul—not like Ji, whose consciousness is trapped so tightly within the Glowing Moon Dream Realm that she can’t break free..."
HUMMMMM!!
As a whisper echoed in his ear, endless gray mist poured from Hui Ming’s body. A demonic cloud of smoke slammed into his brain, seizing control of his body.
"Now then..."
Doctor Nightmare, controlling Hui Ming’s body, formed a hand sign.
FWOOSH!!
The gray mist swirled, condensing in the air to form a withered arm, so lifelike it was impossible to tell if it was real or an illusion. It slowly unfurled its palm.
In the center of the palm lay a still, palm-sized doll.
It had the body of a man, the head of an eagle, the tail of a scorpion, and the horns of a goat. Dreadlock-like tissues grew from its head.
Its eyes were a deathly, pale yellow, and its entire body was covered in peculiar markings, radiating an intensely eerie aura.
"Back then, you all thought you had succeeded, but in reality, you understood far too little of our capabilities."
A smile touched the corners of Doctor Nightmare’s lips.
The abilities of the True Spirit System beyond the King Level were already bizarre and unpredictable; this was even more true for the Ancestral Level.
When it came to esoteric power and sheer survivability, nothing could compare to a practitioner of the True Spirit System.
Unfortunately, the Ancient Heroes, who borrowed strength from the world’s will and the Power of Nature, could never truly grasp this.
After sensing the impending crisis, the Twelve Celestial Demon Ancestors had already begun preparing countermeasures, conducting an exchange among themselves.
Each of them split off a portion of their conscious field’s structure and a single drop of Celestial Demon Blood, entrusting them to the others to deal with any potential emergencies.
At their level, a fundamental fragment of one’s conscious field was enough to accomplish a great many things.
Doctor Nightmare took the mysterious doll from the palm of the withered hand and jabbed it forcefully against the spot between the still-convulsing Andrew’s eyebrows.
The seemingly solid doll instantly melted like snow, dissolving completely into Andrew’s body.
"Nightmare Space!!"
In the next moment, Doctor Nightmare’s expression turned grave. A large amount of blood began to stream from the seven orifices of Hui Ming’s body.
A seemingly endless gray mist poured from his body, and the surroundings grew still and eerie, as if dragged to the border between illusion and reality.
The boundless gray mist plunged deep into the earth, piercing into some kind of ’network’.
Existing between reality and illusion, the gray mist’s small-scale incursion successfully deceived the Seal’s power, silently creating a tiny ’opening’ in the barrier itself.
This opening connected the Seal to the doll that had merged with Andrew’s body.
Stimulated by some powerful connection, Andrew’s body began to tremble even more violently. His eyes rolled back in his head, and his breathing grew ragged.
Then, in the next moment, the trembling suddenly stopped.
Andrew opened his eyes again.
Now, his eyes were a deathly, pale yellow. The vacant look from before was completely gone.