Chapter 876: Will He Defy the Heavens?

The entire process took no more than ten seconds.

Yasuo calmly pulled a piece of white silk from his embrace and expressionlessly wiped away a trace of residual blood on the blade.

Afterwards, with a slight twist of his wrist, his long sword slid precisely back into its sheath with a "clang".

This long-haired swordsman, dressed in a black windbreaker bearing a crescent moon emblem, walked with steady strides in front of Zhou Huai and knelt on one knee.

"My Lord, the mission is complete."

Yasuo's voice was deep and weathered, carrying a sense of unruliness and aloofness, maximizing his aura of pretentiousness.

Zhou Huai sat on the back of the griffin, looking down at him from above, and nodded in satisfaction: "Don't idle around; hurry up and comprehend your Domain. Right now, you are the slowest."

Hearing this, the pretentious swordsman's body stiffened slightly.

He lowered his head to acknowledge the order: "Yes, My Lord."

Afterward, Yasuo neatly and decisively sat cross-legged directly on the blood-stained lawn.

He placed his long sword horizontally across his knees, closed his eyes, and began to comprehend the Sword Dao Domain with all his might.

However, the expression on his face quickly began to distort, his brows furrowed tightly, his facial features slightly twisted, and he looked as if he were constipated.

Watching Yasuo's appearance, the corners of Zhou Huai's mouth couldn't help but twitch slightly.

He suddenly felt that, for System Clones equipped with smart core ai 2.0,

was there also a difference in intelligence between Clones?

Yasuo was clearly the earliest Clone he had ever created, growing all the way from an initial S-rank Thunder Sword Master to the current SS-rank Thunder Sword Sovereign, accompanying him to kill countless enemies, and his combat instinct was definitely top-tier.

Why was it that at the critical step of comprehending the Domain, he was actually at the bottom?

Even that reckless brute Xiang Yu, who only knew how to charge into battle all day long, comprehended the Domain faster than him!

"Could it be that acting cool all day long broke his brain?" Zhou Huai muttered inwardly.

At this moment, a gentle breeze swept across the mid-mountain villa.

The entire villa was in complete chaos, and a strong stench of blood soared into the sky.

The ground was littered with the corpses of Blood Wolf Gang elites, severed limbs and remains scattered everywhere, and the withered yellow lawn had long been dyed crimson by blood.

That level 70 Berserker Donte was currently lying in a pool of blood, the wound on his severed arm charred black, and he had long stopped breathing.

However, viewed from outside the villa, this place was completely peaceful.

The sunlight was still bright, the breeze brushed past the intact iron fence, and not even a trace of the blood stench or the sounds of fighting leaked out, as if nothing had happened at all.

This was the "shielding" effect cast by Zhou Huai.

Under the absolute rules of Word of Law, the underlying Law of Space here had been completely modified.

To avoid being detected by Mr. Duan's perceptual methods.

After all, this was the Free Federation, Mr. Duan's base camp. Before finding clues about his mother, Zhou Huai didn't want to expose his location too early.

Leaping down from the griffin, Zhou Huai stepped onto the blood-stained lawn, his combat boots unstained by a single speck of dirt.

He looked at the bearded man who was still wailing intermittently. The vitality of a level 70 Berserker was exceptionally tenacious; although Donte had suffered fatal and severe injuries, he wasn't completely dead yet, still lingering on his last breath in the pool of blood, emitting beast-like gasps.

"Stop howling and get up to answer the question."

Word of Law was activated.

Invisible ripples of the Law spread out, and Donte instantly fell silent.

The original fear and pain in his eyes turned hollow and dull, as if he were being manipulated by an invisible puppeteer's strings, and he stood up straight from the pool of blood, then dropped to his knees in front of Zhou Huai with a "thud".

Fresh blood gushed out again from his severed arm due to the movement, yet he felt no pain at all, letting the blood dye the ground even redder.

Eliza watching from the side felt a violent shock in her heart.

"Th-This… What kind of method is this?!"

A level 70 Berserker, heavily injured with a severed arm, actually knelt on the ground like a puppet to obey orders just because of a single word from the other party.

There was no mind control magic, no light of a contract formation array.

It was just a single sentence!

"Word of Law… This is the power of rules that only true gods can master!" Eliza exclaimed inwardly, looking at Zhou Huai's eyes as if looking up at a deity.

Zhou Huai ignored the dazed bird-person girl and coldly looked down at Donte.

"How did you guys know that painting was here?"

Donte's face was numb, and as his vitality rapidly faded, he managed to squeeze out a few words with difficulty:

"It was… the old Shaman… who told me…"

"Old Shaman?"

Zhou Huai's tone was calm as he turned to look at Eliza.

"What kind of profession is a Shaman?"

Eliza shuddered all over, hurriedly lowered her head, and replied at a very fast pace: "Replying to the Sir, a Shaman is a very ancient and rare special auxiliary profession native to the Free Federation!"

"It is said that they can communicate with gods, and by consuming their own lifespan or flesh and blood as a medium, they can cast extremely mysterious divination arts!"

"As long as they pay a sufficient price, their prophecies almost never go wrong!"

Communicate with gods?

Zhou Huai raised an eyebrow and looked at the fake clear sky above the villa.

He knew very well that the only true deity in this world might be the Heavenly Dao.

The indigenous Professionals' "communicating with gods" was most likely using secret techniques to touch the underlying logic of the Heavenly Dao System and steal the future calculation results.

If that were true, was his coming here also the guidance of the Heavenly Dao?

This feeling was like being pushed step by step by the Heavenly Dao.

From being forced to leave Daxia, to the illusion of the Sea Gods Stomach, to sneaking into the Free Federation to rescue Eliza, pulling out the map of sacred traces that could communicate with the origin sacred tree.

Everything was too coincidental.

When his strength was low, he didn't feel much about the rules of heaven and earth.

Now, having undergone Fusion with Clones and possessing the power of a Half-step Transcendent, he seemed to understand Mr. Duan a bit.

The Heavenly Dao sent Opportunities, Karma values, and powerful Clones, guiding him to become stronger.

But had it ever considered that one day he, too, would walk the path of defying the heavens like Mr. Duan?

A Heavenly Dao with self-awareness that treated the strong as nutrients would never allow an uncontrolled Transcendent to exist. Today it used him to deal with Mr. Duan; tomorrow when Mr. Duan fell, he would definitely be the next target to be purged.

Zhou Huai suppressed his thoughts. It was too early to think about these things now.

Whether it was the guidance of the Heavenly Dao or Mr. Duan's conspiracy, strength was the foundation to break the game.

As long as he found the map of sacred traces and communicated with his mother, who was the Incarnation of the origin sacred tree, he could grasp the core trump card to counter both.

"No matter what schemes are hidden inside, I am determined to get this painting!"

Zhou Huai's eyes condensed, and his perception spread out without reservation.

An invisible high-dimensional mental storm centered on him instantly swept across the mid-mountain villa.

To prevent any omissions, he directly used the power of his Clones. Void Lawkeeper Victor's Law of Space and World Tree Rahil's life probing were activated simultaneously.

Silver ripples stirred in the Void Realm, and Victor's Void Omniscience vision disassembled the entire ancient castle into a transparent three-dimensional model.

At the same time, driven by the Law of Life, the lawn and trees extended countless tiny green roots, spreading deep underground along the ground cracks and wall fissures.

The Law of Space searched for secret rooms and hidden compartments, while the Law of Life perceived abnormal energy and the material of the scroll.

The two high-dimensional forces intertwined, thoroughly sweeping the villa from the surface down to hundreds of meters of rock layer underground.

The air was filled with a terrifying rule-based oppressive feeling. Eliza's breathing stagnated; facing this power, she felt as insignificant as dust in a storm.

Ten seconds later.

Zhou Huai withdrew his perception, and the silver ripples and green roots dissipated simultaneously.

He came away empty-handed.

Under the dual sweep, let alone the map of sacred traces, not even a scrap of an ordinary oil painting was found. There was no special high-dimensional energy fluctuation here at all.

Zhou Huai furrowed his brows. Could it be that the painting wasn't here?