Chapter 43: Awakening and Shadow-Moon-Level Enemy – 1

The training results he had accumulated in the You Hui World over the years were not reflected in his physical body; it seemed he would have to retrain this body.
Fortunately, at least the experience in his mind remained. If it required more time and effort, so be it.
Wait…
Yang Zicang stayed still for a dozen or so seconds, then opened his eyes and looked around.
……
Luo Bin had opened the window of this theater box room, placed a straw mat in the corner similar to the one he was lying on, and set down some water and food, apparently meaning to sleep here too.
“The space is this big now, where’s Liang Xi?”
“That brat, I told him to come get something to eat, but he insisted on squatting in the crisscross field outside to keep those guys from making trouble.”
It seemed some of the robbers from that squad had already come out.
He stood up and walked to the window, where he saw Yu Chen, missing an arm, hanging from a vine dropping down from the second floor.
“This guy was lucky to come out first, but he was also the first to be strung up.”
“Then he’s really unlucky.”
The stable space had expanded significantly; the theater was larger, and the flickering, shifting interlaced shadows were almost completely gone.
The other few who had robbed him had aged considerably and were bound and thrown around the stage. A small bonfire in the center cast light on the dark space, illuminating their grim, furrowed faces in flickering shadows.
But the exit still hadn’t appeared!
“Why isn’t there an exit when this place is bigger than your average C-level anomaly space?”
Yang Zicang stared straight at Luo Bin.
“The kid who took the frequency crystal is playing tricks. He’s deliberately holding the passageway shut.”
“Is that possible?”
“Normally, no. But can this still be called normal? The more people enter the intersection, the more likely it is to attract even stronger monsters from the shifting space. And that’s exactly what’s happening.”
Yang Zicang suddenly understood what Luo Bin meant.
Whoever created this scene clearly didn’t want people to easily obtain the timelines by sheer numbers. So the more people entered the intersection, the higher the likelihood they’d face greater challenges.
“I see.”
So many formidable entities had squeezed irregularly into what was originally a C-Class fold-line model; for this situation not to be triggered would be quite unreasonable.
Luo Bin sighed and spread his hands, saying, “I’m worried, to be honest. I’m not sure if the three of us can handle the challenges that come up later. Based on the intel I’ve gathered over the years, it basically manifests according to the strength of the strongest person who enters here.”
Yang Zicang thought of that guy who instantly killed eight or nine people with one move, yet still chose to stage a treacherous sneak attack.
“That terrifying?”
“Will it be even stronger than that person?”
“Then what do we do? Do you have a solution?”
“Your time sequence still has several thousand, right?” Luo Bin looked at him. “Solution? Well, we’ll have to rely on the two of you from now on.”
Yang Zicang furrowed his brows. “This… isn’t much.”
“What?”
Yang Zicang sneered at him. “What if I told you we only have a thousand left?”
Luo Bin was utterly shocked.
“Who told you to lose the Century Weapon, you damn fool!”
……
“Hey, bro, you’re awake.”
Liang Xi, seeing Yang Zicang’s figure appear at the second-floor window, beamed with delight and thumped up the stairs.
“Bro Yang, Uncle said you went into some dream world to find skills. Is that true?”
Liang Xi pushed the door open and asked eagerly.
“Yes.”
“Whoa, it’s true! You guys are all amazing. What skill did you find, bro? How many times can I use it?”
He didn’t notice the tense atmosphere in the room.
Yang Zicang’s brows twitched before he shrugged and said, “I haven’t found it yet.”
“Huh?” Liang Xi blinked in confusion.
“What?” Luo Bin couldn’t believe it. “No way, you spent all that time and still didn’t deal with the monsters inside? Wait, did you just say ‘this time’?”
The model on his chest flickered briefly.
Although this drunkard’s mental reaction speed can’t keep up with a real detective, with the help of the model, he’s never too slow.
“Weren’t you just worried about how to handle the situation ahead?”
The circular ring on Yang Zicang’s chest emerged, and the quadrilateral model shimmered as it flowed along his arm into his open palm, where a ghostly image of a sweet potato suddenly appeared.
“I didn’t get a skill, but I did gain something else.”
Liang Xi and Luo Bin were startled.
“What’s that?”
Yang Zicang looked at the sweet potato in his hand—it was just a phantom, yet it genuinely contained a considerable amount of pure energy.
[An offering from the First Generation Great Shaman, imbued with intense faith and will.]
“It’s a sweet potato.”
“Pfft, no kidding. Don’t tell me you’ve picked up a skill for all-you-can-eat roasted sweet potatoes.”
[The First Great Shaman believed I was omnipotent; consuming it allows me to synchronize with certain physical abilities of the dreamscape body.]
[It can also enhance the willpower and mental resistance of other consumers.]
First Great Shaman?
That guy who could only clumsily strike flint… Somehow, he managed to become a shaman.
Still, A Wu really did send me a nice gift. Yang Zicang moved on a thought, and it split into one large piece and two small ones.
“Here, have a bite, you two.”
He made a pinching gesture and handed out two small sweet potatoes, which looked like holographic projections, to the two.
As Luo Bin took one, the model on his chest manifested.
[I have acquired the power of faith from the ‘shaman.’ If I eat it, my spirit will be enhanced.]
Luo Bin was stunned.
“You bastard! Where have you been? Wait, you, you didn’t use a complete one…”
Luo Bin looked at Yang Zicang’s smile and knew he had guessed right!
Oh my god! This damned fool who got hit by a stroke of dog-shit luck!
Liang Xi held the virtual sweet potato with a look of ecstasy.
“I just knew it, big brother, you wouldn’t come back empty-handed.”
He swallowed the small piece of virtual sweet potato in one gulp.
Luo Bin looked at his own hand, then at Yang Zicang.
“This is taken from sheer risk.” He had truly experienced death twice.
Yang Zicang put the virtual sweet potato into his mouth, and it transformed into light, merging into his body.
[I have become more perceptive of fire and gained a certain degree of heat resistance.]
[I have become more perceptive of food and gained a certain constitution for withstanding hunger.]
[My authority over those with low mental capacity has increased.]
[I can apply the results of my training within my mental realm, with a synchronization rate of 50%.]
Yang Zicang felt a surge of power erupt inside him, traveling through his limbs and bones, as his muscles condensed and grew sturdier.
He swung his arms twice, and the shadow of his fist actually produced a sharp ringing through the air. Even with only fifty percent synchronization from the dream training, that was still hundreds of years’ worth.
Though most of that time was accelerated, it was still incomparable to what boxing coaches like Li Wang could offer.
“Boom!”
Yang Zicang pivoted at his waist and struck with a fist toward the window. Although there was still a distance of several meters, the force of the gust detached itself and spun, expanding as it detonated right next to the window.
The two beside him stood dumbfounded.
But Yang Zicang frowned as he looked at his own fist. After eating that sweet potato, his perception had greatly increased, and he now sensed what seemed to be a strange mass of energy within his head.
Could it be the mist that Liang Xi saw?
Just then, the Staggered Space trembled violently. Another area outside had become stabilized.
A battered, bruised figure of an old man, wailing loudly, walked out of the final Staggered scene, carrying a deer corpse several times larger and stronger than himself.
“I finally, finally survived.”
The people in the room changed expressions.
[I’ve detected that the coherence frequency of the Staggered Space has exceeded one hundred thirty percent.]
With the emergence of this thought, an indescribable, special aura permeated the surroundings. Yang Zicang and others looked out the window.
This aura was both desolate and imbued with a deep, nurturing energy.
[The Staggered Space is about to be bathed in moonlight. I should prepare myself accordingly.]
Several suspended candelabras lit up, and the light within the entire Staggered Ground quickly brightened. Signs of air currents swirling appeared in the theater.
Outside, some of the robbers grew restless and said, “Hey, what’s my model saying? What does this mean?”
[The bright moon appears.]
Several bound robbers looked up, and at the top of the theater, a patch of drifting clouds emerged, behind which a crescent moon faintly appeared.
Crackle.
Thunder rumbled from the wall directly above the “Y-shaped” staircase, as cobweb-like cracks appeared, and the wall burst apart with a loud bang from a tremendous force!
Red thunder and lightning shot out from within.
One person, caught off guard, was enveloped in fine red lightning strips, instantly turning charred black with crackling sounds, collapsing to the ground like a dried mud figure.
“Help!”
The few bound individuals were terrified, their souls nearly leaving their bodies.
Yang Zicang and the other two deployed their models and retreated to the side. Luo Bin urgently said, “I remember seeing a thunderbolt like this in the paid monthly report at headquarters. There’s good news and bad news—which do you want to hear first?”
“The good.”
“The bad.”
Yang Zicang and Liang Xi both blurted out simultaneously.
“Damn it, can’t you stop training your lousy model ability at a time like this!”
Boom! Several thunderbolts flashed instantly in the theater, and another person was blown away in an instant.
An electric arc flashed into the second-floor room. Yang Zicang raised his fist to strike, golden light flashing as it collided with the arc.
[I canceled out 300N.]
The electric arc surged through his body, passing from the inside out and top to bottom all over.
Yang Zicang’s face immediately drained of color—if such a small arc was this powerful, how could anyone here survive if they got hit by a blast outside?
Crimson thunderbolts continued to materialize in the air, spreading everywhere. The air seemed twisted and torn, with ear-splitting sounds exploding in every direction.
When the thunder died down, the already dilapidated chairs and decorations in the entire grand theater were completely shattered by the lightning, leaving the ground scorched black.
“Damn, now there are two pieces of bad news,” Luo Bin panted, his eyes wide.
“What?”
“First, among C-level area thunder-type monsters, this one’s ability ranks among the strongest because it carries the ‘elemental’ attribute; second, the thunder we’ve encountered covers a much larger area than what the data recorded. That means we’re probably facing one of the top-tier monsters in the C-level intersection.”
“And the good news?” Yang Zicang winced, leaning against the wall.
Even though he had zeroed out the temporal sequence, the numbing and tingling sensation from the electric arcs made him realize what it feels like to touch a high-voltage wire.
“The good news is that if we survive, we’ll probably get a companion figurine.”