Chapter 429 Beyond Human Limits
Flame burns the soul.
Severe pain penetrates the consciousness.
This kind of damage that directly affects the mental level can be said to be a great torture for the victim.
But the most painful thing is undoubtedly the final time of "waiting for death".
It is the process of the soul being burned to ashes by fire.
The Ant King can withstand the pain that reaches the depths of his soul with his strong willpower, but in the end he cannot accept the outcome of death calmly.
He has no hatred or anger towards Moreau.
The world is a huge hunting ground, and the only underlying logic is the law of the jungle.
If you fall into the prey of others, what you should hate most is not the hunter who attacked you, but your own lack of ability.
This clear understanding of the laws of ecological niche has long been engraved deep in the ant king's genes.
Hence, the ant king can accept defeat calmly.
The reason why he is unwilling to accept death is because the "game of chess|" between him and Xiaomai has not finished yet.
—"
There is deathly silence around him.
The spirit body below the ant king's chest has been burned clean.
He did not look at Moreau again, but looked up at the ceiling with a hole punched through it, and the chess game from the middle game flashed before his eyes.
The ant king felt unwilling for the first time.
This unwillingness became more intense as the flames spread to the neck, chin, and nose.
Even until the flames burned out half of his eyes, the ant king still stared at the hole leading to the ground.
He was thinking.
Is that girl with amazing chess skills sitting alone in front of the chessboard, waiting for him to fulfill his agreement?
The faint blue flame burned away the last trace of the ant king's eyes, and then burned up the crown.
Until the ashes dispersed into nothingness, the life energy on the Ant King's body also dissipated, and his eyes became dim.
The ant king is dead, but his body is still standing, silent.
Morrow stared at the ant king who kept his head raised.
Even though the battle was over, he did not relax his vigilance at all. He did not even check the upgrade of the annual rings. He just stared at the still body in front of him.
Before the third death flashback, the Ant King had survived Rose's explosion.
This is the exact fact.
Although Moreau doesn't know what happened specifically, since the ant king can survive in such a desperate situation, it means that there are some unknown variables.
Hence, even after using "Catching Fire" to end the life of the ant king, he could still clearly feel the increase in energy after the upgrade. Morrow still did not relax his guard, nor did he choose to leave immediately.
Him He wanted to confirm this with his own eyes.
"Star Convergence"
The bright stars wrapped around the body of the ant king like flowing water.
Morrow is waiting for the results.
"Hmm?"
Suddenly, Moreau's eyes moved slightly.
The starlight surrounding the body of the ant king suddenly brought feedback of the pulsation of life.
This means that the ant king, who was supposed to be extinct, has a new vitality ignited in his body.
Morrow didn't know the reason, but he calmly gathered a large amount of mental energy in his right hand to prepare for attack.
This time.
The mass of flesh wrapped in the dura mater that existed in the ant king's body was beating like a heart, as if some foreign object was about to come out of the dura mater.
And this lump is exactly the second ant king that was supposed to be conceived.
It's just that during the embryonic development process, it was forcibly absorbed by the more domineering first ant king.
But because of the will to survive that comes from the primitive instinct of living things...
The second ant king, who was destined to be a person with natural telekinesis ability, wrapped himself with a layer of dura mater when he was absorbed.
This is a result of "thinking".
It can be said that this is also a manifestation of the will to survive.
In fact, even humans, if they are forcibly enlightened as infants, will quickly master the skills of "entangling" and "extremely" due to their survival instinct.
Biyande used this instinctive power from the bottom of life to allow his children to achieve the result of "enlightenment" from infancy.
This is the most primitive and purest biological power.
So when the life of the ant king was cut off, the lump of flesh of the second ant king, which should have become independent and maintained a symbiotic relationship with a chimera, actively broke through the dura mater that had been used to save its own life under the strong will to survive.
Subsequently, the life energy belonging to the second ant king is trying to awaken the vitality of the current corpse.
At the same time.
Another incident happened.
A black thought energy suddenly seeped out from the body of the ant king, which was reviving its vitality.
It is the afterlife thought of the Ant King.
Two yin and yang-like energies appeared at the same time in a slightly strange way.
But the ant king's thoughts after death are not for revenge or to continue fighting.
He just wanted to fulfill the agreement with Mai and finish the chess game...
The desire to die that was born for this reason is inherently tough, but not strong enough.
And usually leave the corpse directly and go to where they should go with pure thoughts of death.
However, the second ant king's instinctive behavior of trying to reawaken the corpse with life energy caused the first ant king's death wish, which should have left the body to find wheat, to be forcibly retained on the corpse.
This also leads to the strange phenomenon of the coexistence of thoughts of death and thoughts of life.
Normally speaking, if Death Wish wants to gain control over the corpse, usually only the Death Wish of the operating system can do it.
But now the ant king's death wish also meets this condition.
He regained control of his body with the mental form of death thoughts. The double pupils dimmed by death had merged into one, and wisps of black thoughts emerged from the edges of the pupils, floating upward like smoke.
The Ant King seemed surprised by this change, but quickly accepted the status quo.
He slowly lowered his head, glanced at his powerful right hand, and then turned his gaze to the calm-looking Moreau in front of him.
"You have no chance of winning."
After saying this in a determined tone, the Ant King once again looked up at the passage on the ceiling and said: "But I have no intention of continuing to fight. I will give you ten minutes to let Xiaomai return here, and you all leave. I will not take your sex." Life."
—."
Morrow silently removed the thoughts from his right hand, his eyes fell on the black threads of thoughts that were constantly escaping from the edge of the Ant King's pupils, and a trace of surprise flashed in his eyes.
With the unknown power in the body that can inexplicably restart life, coupled with the thoughts of death left by wheat...
Is this why the ant king can survive the rose explosion?
Morrow had no way of knowing how the dead body regained its heartbeat.
But when he saw that the ant king's thoughts of death had completely dominated this body that had regained life, he knew that even if the ant king had become stronger after death, it still could not pose a real threat to him.
"It seems you haven't figured out the situation yet."
Morrow slowly raised his right hand.
When he made this move, he looked towards the ant king and saw the grade character in the middle of the annual ring.
Lv.100.
The experience gained from killing the ant king just now has brought his level directly to the upper limit of human beings.
This shows how huge the experience gain this time is, and the final talent limit was broken in one go.
But what we should be concerned about now is not the level, but how to deal with the ant king who has regained his life in a strange way.
Seeing that Moreau was ignorant, the Ant King's expression did not change at all, and he just said coldly: "I won't say the same thing a second time."
As soon as he finished speaking, the black and white thoughts in him soared at a speed visible to the naked eye.
After experiencing death, the Ant King completely saw what he wanted most.
This made him have no intention of continuing the battle, nor did he want to pursue the offense committed by this group of humans.
He just wants to continue playing chess with Mai.
But if Moreau turns a deaf ear to his words, then he doesn’t mind going on a killing spree.
The Ant King's thoughts were directly integrated into his aura.
Be obedient and do as you are told, and you won’t have to die here.
Morrow clearly understood this meaning from the aura of the Ant King.
He stared at the ant king who had regained a new life, but had become a little different, and his heart was full of surprises.
I thought that after hearing what he said, the ant king would attack him without hesitation.
Unexpectedly, the Ant King's "tolerance" has become so high, as if there is some kindness in his cruel and cold heart.
But——
This battle must be a matter of life and death.
The next moment, Moreau teleported in front of the Ant King, and the right hand he raised just now was suddenly printed on the Ant King's chest.
This sudden move made the Ant King's eyes turn cold.
He instantly withdrew the kindness he thought was a gift, and instead had the idea of killing Moreau.
"Huh?"
Just when he was about to take action, he was shocked to find that his body was completely unresponsive.
He suddenly looked at Morrow's right hand that was pressing against his chest, and saw that the black life energy emerging from his body was being absorbed like a torrent by the opponent's right hand.
"You - what did you do?!"
The situation was out of control again, and the Ant King's pupils trembled.
Facing another question from the Ant King, Moreau remained silent, his eyes falling on the growth rings on the back of his hands.
As the energy of the thought of death is absorbed into the annual ring, the energy ring of the fourth circle begins to fill up, from the original 96% to 97%, then to 98%,
99%*—
Finally it breaks through 100%. After the energy of the fourth annual ring is filled, the energy ring of the fifth annual ring emerges with a new color.
The annual ring is still frantically absorbing thoughts of death, and it has also absorbed the mental consciousness of the Ant King.
When the ant king's energy of death thoughts was completely absorbed by Moro, the energy ring of the fifth annual ring was fixed at 21%.
At the same time.
The negative impact brought by the energy of death thoughts instantly dragged Moreau's spirit into the conscious space.
What spreads out in front of you is still the boundless pure white space.
But the foothold turned into black water again, and with a light touch of the toes, the ripples spread silently and spread into the distance.
This black water surface is the negative mental energy remaining from the source of death thoughts, mostly deposited here in the form of memory fragments or ability materials.
Theoretically, as long as Moreau is willing to bear the corresponding costs, new capabilities can be built on this basis.
But unlike the ability that is directly engraved by the annual rings, the ability that comes from the thought of death often comes with a harsh price, and may even erode Moro's consciousness.
So Moreau usually chooses to suppress these spiritual energies deep in his consciousness.
Previously, it seemed that the accumulated negative mental energy had unexpectedly dissipated due to Biyande's attack.
Just during this period, the death thoughts of Neferbit and Xiaoyapufu were successively absorbed, and the water surface of the consciousness space was once again dyed black.
ˆ "The reaction this time was mild——"
ˆ Although he entered the conscious space passively, the expected mental shock did not occur.
The ant king's thought of death is obviously not very offensive.
The most important thing is that it is completely free of the resentment and resentment that are most common in human beings' thoughts of death.
Normally speaking, only when this type of emotion reaches an extreme state can it be easier to form thoughts about the afterlife.
But the fundamental reason why the ant king can leave behind thoughts after death seems to be just his pure obsession to find Xiaomai and continue playing chess.
While Moreau was guessing this, the black water in front of him suddenly rippled out of thin air.
In the center of the ripples, the unique crown of the Ant King slowly emerged from the water, and then, his complete body gradually emerged.
This is not the first time that Morrow has encountered this situation. Under the ideology, he looked at the ant king who suddenly appeared with a calm expression.
Usually this happens when the source consciousness of the thoughts after death wants to gain some initiative.
Orion's thoughts of death in Sky Arena were like this, and Chrollo's thoughts of death were also like this.
The same is true for the current ant king.
The black ripples spread out and disappeared.
The Ant King stood on the water and seemed to have understood the current situation, so he did not take a second look at the surrounding environment, but looked at Moreau immediately.
"Let me finish the game of chess with Xiaomai."
His tone no longer contained the condescending command he had when he was a king, but instead revealed a bit of sincerity.
Morrow was silent for a moment.
In order to realize the request of the Ant King, the only way is to accept the source of this thought of death and to materialize the Ant King on this basis.
But the question is whether it can be done is one thing, and more importantly, can doing so bring substantial benefits?
Morrow is not enthusiastic enough to fulfill this last wish for the ant king.
The Ant King looked at Moreau, as if he could see through the considerations behind the other's silence.
"It doesn't need to be so complicated, in exchange——"
Underground emergency shelter.
Morrow's consciousness returned to reality.
A few minutes of communication in the conscious space is only a moment in reality.
He had completely absorbed the thoughts of death left by the Ant King, and then withdrew his right hand.
However, the body of the ant king, which has lost the support of the power of death thoughts, is still continuously emerging with life energy.
As the energy surged, the face of the body gradually changed.
His eyes slowly widened at first, the corners of his mouth grinned, and then his teeth were exposed, and saliva continued to drip from between the teeth.
This is obviously a manifestation of hunger originating from instinct, and it is clearly displayed on the face that is gradually losing control.
"Pfft!"
Morrow suddenly struck out, his right palm piercing the ant king's chest like a blade, directly crushing the heart that was still beating inside.
Blood sprayed, a large amount of blood spurted out from the penetrating wound, and tears flowed along the edge.
Morrow withdrew his hand calmly and looked at the ant king's suddenly frozen face.
As the blood overflowed, the life energy in the ant king also began to dissipate visibly to the naked eye.
This time, the ant king's body finally fell to the ground, making a dull crashing sound.
Morrow shook his arm casually, throwing the blood attached to it to the ground. At the same time, he could feel that the amount of manifested Qi increased by a small amount.
He looked at the back of his right hand, which was still stained with some blood. The original Lv.100 had now become Lv.101.
That is to say——
He killed the body of the ant king that restarted its heartbeat in front of him, and he was suddenly promoted to a level, and it was still from Lv.100 to Lv.101.
If we look at the upgrade mechanism of Love Etude, even if the subconscious mind improves and adjusts it, the general framework will not change.
Morrow’s improvement of the love etude through the power of annual rings essentially links the difficulty of upgrading to the level cap income.
Because of this, while greatly increasing the difficulty of upgrading, the highest level of this ability, Lv. 100, will also correspond to the limit that humans can achieve.
Morrow's own talent is limited, and mastering this ability means that every level he improves later is a breakthrough in his talent.
From the moment he killed the Ant King, he reached Level 100, which also meant that he had reached the ceiling of humanity.
But he did not expect that the ant king's thoughts after death could actually affect the love etude ability engraved by the annual rings, causing the level framework to exceed the original Lv.100.
「I really didn’t expect——」
Morrow looked at the Lv.101 character on the back of his hand in surprise.
In the space of consciousness just now, he finally agreed to the Ant King's request.
According to the Ant King's explanation, in order to realize his obsession to finish the game of chess with Xiaomai, Ren didn't need to bear the cost and embodied him.
It is only necessary to separate his spiritual consciousness, integrate it into a small part of his mind and energy, and release it out of the body.
The Ant King will take care of the rest.
In exchange, the Ant King opened up a possibility to Moreau.
If Moreau is willing to take the risk and accept his thoughts of death, he will have the opportunity to gain the ability to "strengthen himself".
In other words, this is an exchange with high returns and low risks.
At that time, Moreau finally accepted the proposal after considering that the Ant King's thoughts of death were indeed more stable and gentle than any thoughts of death he had encountered before.
The result far exceeded his expectations.
The so-called strengthening of oneself is achieved in this way.
Perhaps it was the ant king's thoughts of death that imprinted the racial innate characteristics that have been constantly evolving through work and food into Morrow's body.
Simply put, it is a reshaping of his racial talents as a human being.
This state of breaking through the limits of life is intuitively reflected in the interesting love etude engraved with annual rings, making its level break through the original ceiling.
With regard to this result, Moreau had a hard time telling whether it was due to the ant king's spirit that transcended life and death, or whether the system of thoughts after death itself contained such a heaven-defying possibility.
Morrow silently glanced at the body of the ant king, and then used Heizi Wuxiang's ability to hang his body and fly to the hole above.
Before helping the Ant King fulfill his last wish, he must first get rid of Nephibit.
It is also a good time to look at the impact of the breakthrough of the hierarchical framework.