Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo

The Fire Sea rampaged across the land, treating everything within its range as fuel to burn fiercely. Surrounded by the Fire Sea, I gained what felt like endless energy, supported by external forces just like Meng Zhang. Although the enhancement wasn't as significant as "Paradise," only reducing the continued consumption of the Crown Form, it was much stronger than having none at all.

Due to the space-time expansion within the City Barrier to a much greater extent than the original area, the coverage of the Fire Sea could also be expanded vastly. In this way, as it extended and spread, the scale of the Mana would rise endlessly.

This could also be seen as my spiritual volume expanding limitlessly, but as if scaling an ant up to human size, it would lose the ability for life activities due to being unable to bear its own weight, my spiritual structure also wouldn't allow itself to expand endlessly. Although the Fire Sea itself could expand infinitely, the scale of Mana I could truly mobilize at one time was limited.

Objectively speaking, I indeed obtained some extra "computing power" now. This allowed me to divert some attention to perceive other directions while engaging with Meng Zhang, such as the Dream Network set up in this city.

Since Xuanming could obstruct the operation of the Dream Network with the Fire Sea in the sky, then with power and perception equivalent to Xuanming, and even possessing the inherited experience of Xuanming, there was no reason I couldn't achieve this.

I vaguely perceived the ubiquitous dots and lines hidden deep within the chaotic space-time. A large number of nodes and lines formed a shape as intricately complex as a neuron network. Invisible to the naked eye, seeming like a mere illusion, yet it was a real existence. Following my sensation, I commanded the Fire Sea to spread toward that direction.

The Fire Sea burned and unfolded within the Dream Network. Estimating that this perception had occurred, Meng Zhang's expression immediately became extremely somber. Simultaneously, the transcendent gaze lurking in his eyes seemed to focus on me for the first time—"Paradise" reacted to me.

I understood very well, this level of destruction wasn't enough to obliterate "Paradise," at most, it only caused a halt in its creation process.

But this was enough to deeply provoke Meng Zhang's reverse scale.

A distinct change appeared in Meng Zhang's movements; lightning swirled around his body like armor, as if he had transformed into a super electromagnetic cannon fired by a cosmic warship, charging at me ferociously.

This fighting style of bodily collisions is what I excel at most. I, too, acted as if turning myself into a cannonball, colliding with him. In the first round of impact, I felt most of my body shatter, and my True Spirit suffered some damage; while Meng Zhang also suffered severe injuries, his Thunder Armor shattered entirely, and part of his torso exploded. The thunder power based on Wood Element Mana didn't seem adept at defense either.

In the blink of an eye, a mysterious and unfathomable force descended from the azure sun above, and all his severe injuries disappeared as if it were a joke.

This is the power of restart—I immediately recognized this.

"Zhuang Cheng, aren't you good at regeneration?" Meng Zhang said coldly, "Then let me see how long you can hold on."

He once again transformed into an unstoppable "electromagnetic cannon" and launched a surprise attack.

Following this momentum, assuming he could reboot infinitely, while I could only continue accumulating True Spirit injuries, in the end, it would only be me who'd be worn down to death. Contrary to the situation when confronting Xuanming, this time it seemed the enemy would rely on a more enduring advantage to defeat me.

Only when truly encountering it does one know how shameless this tactic is. And not to mention whether I have the right to comment on others this way, fighting backed by one's own cultivated domain and with endless support perhaps is what the Green Dragon Inheritor's fighting style should be.

However, I didn't hesitate at all and continued colliding with him.

I don't believe Meng Zhang can reboot indefinitely. The injuries caused by me, Impermanence, aren't so easily repaired time and again. Indeed, what repaired Meng Zhang's severe injuries was the position transcending Impermanence's—"Paradise," but "Paradise" still wasn't in its completion stage of creation. That which was consumed during repair must have been the Mana resource that should be used for its creation.

This can also be seen from the incarnation of the azure dragon claw just now.

If it were possible to synthesize such an incarnation with five azure luminous giant hands from the start, it should have been done initially. The synthesis now is evidently not something that can be achieved casually. From my observation, all those Meng Zhang incarnations were composed of "Paradise's" Mana, and the dragon claw shape after synthesis also possessed some properties of the Dream Network.

The five Meng Zhang incarnations didn't truly fuse but became the five fingers of the dragon claw, piecing together extremely tightly. This intertwined unified form is also the essence of "Paradise." I have reason to believe this also was an exception that mobilized the power of "Paradise."

The reason for doing this only in critical moments is that it would interfere with the creation of the "Paradise". It's like forcing a fetus to perform tasks before it has emerged from the womb.

The Fire Sea has already spread to where Water Navy Xuanwu and the Azure Dragon claw incarnation are battling. I can see the status of their fight. Although Water Navy Xuanwu has an advantage with some attribute restraint, allowing him to take the upper hand in direct confrontations, the spatial advantage of the Azure Dragon claw incarnation in this chaotic dreamscape allows him to evade Water Navy Xuanwu's attacks, while always accurately hitting his opponent.

Water Navy Xuanwu seems to want to escape from the Azure Dragon claw incarnation and return to my battlefield. However, firstly, the Azure Dragon claw incarnation isn't easily shaken off, and secondly, without my assistance, he cannot move normally in the chaotic dreamscape.

I can't support Water Navy Xuanwu from a distance. If Meng Zhang attacks while my power is dispersed, the True Spirit would immediately face severe damage, and the scales of victory would tilt quickly towards Meng Zhang. Fortunately, from another perspective, Water Navy Xuanwu is keeping the Azure Dragon claw incarnation occupied for me. I might need to find a solution myself.

Moreover, I have discerned the core of Meng Zhang's ramming strategy.

His real intent is not to exchange wounds with mine.

"——You want to send me flying?" I asked.

Even though I and Meng Zhang have been moving at high speed, Meng Zhang seems to have manipulated this chaotic dreamscape, keeping the battlefield at the very center of the downtown area. It sounds like we're just wandering in a narrow space, but in actuality, the space has already expanded far beyond the entire city.

This reminds me of the past battle at the Human Bureau headquarters. A similar space stretching phenomenon occurred there. This special spacetime effect has the aura of "Paradise" as another universe. It's not so much Ying Lingyun's technique as it is derived from Meng Zhang's technology.

Currently, it's evident Meng Zhang is trying to keep me from interfering with the creation of "Paradise", possibly because he himself can't leave this area, possibly still presiding over the creation process. This aligns with Xuanming's statement. Meanwhile, it's clear he's trying to use the chaotic dreamscape to do a second task—trying to force me out of the central core area.

Just like with a slight push, he could use space techniques to send people thousands of miles away, with each collision, I can sense Meng Zhang attempting to knock me far away.

Why's he doing this? I immediately realized the answer—because now I am just like Xuanming in the past.

Xuanming's flames could harm the creation process of "Paradise", so Meng Zhang had to drive him far away to prevent interference. Xuanming likely was knocked outside the downtown area during a similar battle by spatial means, after which the "Outer World Wall" rose, making it impossible to reach Meng Zhang.

But I am not easily knocked away. It's not because I'm stronger than Xuanming, but because I have the arena advantage from Xu Gou as Meng Zhang's collaborator and Little Bowl's blessing, combining to ensure that I won't be easily swallowed by the chaotic dreamscape. Meng Zhang's spatial techniques are ineffective on me.

As long as I stubbornly stay in the center area where "Paradise" is due to be born, the "Outer World Wall" is useless against me, even if it is erected, it merely locks me, the "home intruder," inside together with himself.

Frankly, Meng Zhang's current approach isn't wrong. My normal level is just at the rank of a seasoned Evil level, only able to keep pace with Xuanming and Meng Zhang due to the Ash Weapon. Therefore, I can't hinder the operation of the Dream Network for long like Xuanming. Once outside, "Paradise" could finish its creation quickly, leading to Meng Zhang's victory.

But relying solely on Xu Gou's expertise, the chance of me successfully blocking Meng Zhang's ramming methods initially was very low, at best only one or two chances out of ten. Meng Zhang would surely succeed in several tries. However, with Little Bowl's blessing, each time I can perform exceptionally. Even if he rams me dozens of times, I have the confidence to make him taste failure every time.

After trying ten-ish times, Meng Zhang seems to have realized something was amiss.

"Zhuang Cheng, you——"

He uttered while launching another high-speed collision. But this time, before he could finish speaking, I smoothly evaded his collision path. He seemed utterly unprepared for a character supposedly only versed in brute strategic skills to execute such an unexpected, intricate move. Seizing the opening, I hit the side of his body with a palm strike.

Flames erupted fiercely from my palm, blasting Meng Zhang far away, heavily wounding both his body and soul. Yet soon enough, he recovered instantly under the reboot power of "Paradise".

"That attack was——Xuanming!?" he exclaimed, the shock evident on his face.