Darkness swallowed the entire shopping mall like a tidal wave.
The next second.
The previously hesitant Scythe Mist Mantises collectively vibrated their wings, emitting buzzing sounds.
They completely abandoned their previous fear of Wang Mingyuan, frantically charging toward the protective barrier!
Su Zhan's heart jolted, immediately understanding the situation before him.
This was exactly what Wang Mingyuan had described earlier.
A moth-to-flame style attack controlled by some kind of will.
The shopping mall was now pitch black, unable to see even an outstretched hand.
Originally, Wang Mingyuan's white spiritual energy had served as a lighthouse in the darkness, covering not only his entire body.
This radiance had clearly become the monsters' attack coordinates.
Wang Mingyuan's gaze sharpened, his right hand quickly rising and sweeping through the air.
All externally released spiritual energy glow instantly converged.
All externally released spiritual energy instantly converged.
The entire space immediately plunged into pure darkness.
"Whoosh—"
The sound of cutting air attacked from all directions.
The Scythe Mist Mantises' attack trajectories seemed completely unaffected by the darkness.
"Su Zhan."
Wang Mingyuan spoke without turning his head: "You handle these small fry, I'll watch for the real threat."
"Understood!"
Su Zhan pushed off with both feet, his figure moving toward the sound sources.
Though he couldn't see, three months of special training had made his hearing and touch extremely acute.
Not to mention as a control-type awakener, his mental power far surpassed that of ordinary awakeners.
First blade horizontal slash.
The edge struck home, followed immediately by the tactile sensation of mucus splattering.
Three monsters attacked simultaneously from the left.
Su Zhan dropped low to avoid the first strike, his left blade rising upward to slice open the second creature's abdomen, while his right blade followed through to split the third monster's skull.
Another whooshing sound came from behind.
He executed a sideways roll, twin blades spinning like a whirlwind in a returning slash, four insect carcasses falling to the ground with corresponding thuds.
Inside the protective barrier.
The survivors could hear the sounds of scythes hacking against the protective shield, could smell the foul odor of monster bodily fluids, but couldn't see anything.
This unknown fear tormented them more than facing the monsters directly.
"We're finished! Finished!"
"Shut up! Do you want to get us all killed!?"
"Let me out! I don't want to stay here anymore!"
Suddenly someone started pounding madly against the protective barrier: "Let me out!"
"You're insane! It's full of monsters outside!"
"Where are the awakener lords? Why is it so quiet? Did they abandon us and run?"
"Help! Help! I don't want to die yet!"
"It's all your fault! If you hadn't insisted on coming shopping..."
"Ahhhhh!!!!!"
...
Wang Mingyuan stood motionless in place, his perception fully expanded, covering the entire space.
The real enemy hadn't appeared yet.
These Scythe Mist Mantises were merely cannon fodder to exhaust them.
The battle continued for approximately ten minutes.
Su Zhan's breathing grew ragged, but his movements didn't slow.
The ground was already carpeted with a thick layer of insect corpses.
Mucus soaked through his shoe soles, each step producing a sticky, squelching sound.
With Wang Mingyuan's support, he could handle these low-level mist creatures alone without any problems.
"Ding—"
A metallic tremor resonated through the darkness.
The spiritual energy sword condensed in Wang Mingyuan's hand blocked a black scythe that had appeared out of thin air.
The shockwave from the collision.
Shattered all glass curtain walls within a hundred-meter radius.
Su Zhan whipped his head around at the sound.
With his current strength, he couldn't clearly see who the enemy was.
But he could already guess that anyone who could make Wang Mingyuan take action and survive the first strike must possess considerable strength.
Simultaneously.
Wang Mingyuan clearly saw the newcomer.
After all, for someone of his power level, darkness simply couldn't affect his vision.
Before him stood.
A bizarre humanoid figure.
Wide black robes.
A pale white mask with only two eye holes and a crack stretching to the ears.
The skin revealed by the masked figure crawled with blue-black blood vessels.
Pale gray mist flowed around his body.
This was the hallmark of high-level aberrations, indicating more proficient use of mist power.
At least mid-threat level or higher.
At this moment.
The bone scythe formed from his right hand pressed against Wang Mingyuan's blade.
"Finally decided to show yourself?"
Wang Mingyuan narrowed his eyes.
His wrist flicked, the white light on his blade surging violently, forcing the opponent back three steps.
"Hahahahaha……"
The masked man's manic laughter continued: "I just wanted to see why an awakener carrying old injuries still has the courage to speak to me like this now?"
The black robes suddenly billowed.
Dozens of bone spikes shot through the fabric, each tip glowing with poisonous light.
Wang Mingyuan neither dodged nor avoided, his left hand forming seals, a hexagonal spiritual energy matrix instantly unfolding before him.
The bone spikes collided with the light screen.
His right sword blade traced an arc.
"Boom!"
One of the mall's support columns shattered accordingly.
The remaining sword energy wave cleanly severed all circular corridors above the third floor.
Concrete and steel reinforcement lost their support and fell.
The masked man's black robes fluttered as he weaved through falling debris, leaving asphalt-like black trails wherever he passed.
"Quite nimble."
Wang Mingyuan pushed off with both legs, leaping up violently.
His sword tip suddenly changed direction, thrusting toward what appeared to be empty space on the right.
"Clang!"
The masked man was actually forced out of the void.
The impact force from the collision between scythe and long sword directly shattered the fifth-floor glass dome into fragments.
Transforming into countless pieces raining down.
The crackling sound of glass, the tremendous noise of heavy objects hitting the ground, even the sound of water falling...
And so on, all intertwining together.
"Tsk tsk tsk……"
The masked man emitted laughter like a venomous snake hissing, casually waving his bone scythe to slice falling concrete blocks into smooth sheets:
"The prestigious Teacher Wang of Vermilion Bird Academy actually can't even handle a small fry like me now, how lamentable!"
Wang Mingyuan didn't respond, his right hand forming a void grip.
Countless spiritual energy threads suddenly manifested from the void.
Slicing the space around the masked man into countless cubic segments.
"Petty tricks!"
The masked man laughed wildly while spreading his arms, viscous gray mist pouring from beneath his black robes.
The spiritual energy threads corroded and snapped upon contact with the black mist.
The next second.
Wang Mingyuan appeared three inches before him.
Their noses almost touched, the masked man could even see the flowing spiritual energy in the other's pupils.
"Too talkative."
Wang Mingyuan delivered a knife-hand strike downward, the motion deceptively simple.
But this straightforward action triggered a terrifying chain reaction.
Starting from the hand chop, the entire space developed clear cracks like glass!
"Boom!!"
The masked man shot backward like a cannonball, consecutively piercing through several load-bearing walls.
Before he could stabilize himself.
Wang Mingyuan had already shadowed him to his landing point, lifting his foot for a downward axe kick.
"Bang—"
The ground collapsed in a radial pattern, the shockwave pulverizing all debris within a hundred-meter radius into powder.
The masked man lay embedded in the center of the deep crater like a broken ragdoll, his mask cracked with a fissure.
"Ha, haha!"
He spat black blood but laughed even more maniacally: "Now this is more like it! But..."
He grabbed Wang Mingyuan's ankle: "Do you really think you're still who you were before!?"