[Null Command] was a hard crowd-control skill. Its effect was to forcefully interrupt any skill the target was currently casting or preparing to cast within the next second, placing them on a 24-hour cooldown.
Gluttonous Feast was interrupted.
Three maggots swarmed forward! The Stone Pillar of Profanity and Transgression followed close behind!
’Not good!’
The male figure’s skill was interrupted. While incapacitated by the hard-CC, two of the maggots drilled into his body.
Excruciating pain followed. He once again cut his losses, abandoning the physical body and dissipating into a light blue mist, vanishing without a trace.
’Lust, wealth, and gluttony are nothing but vanity!’
’Righteousness will always prevail!’
Shi Ming now stood with three heads and six arms, the ferocity of the Great Black Heaven Dragon and the divinity of the Bright Eyes of the Void seamlessly combined within him.
He was like the Demon-Vanquishing Celestial Venerable himself.
After the brief exchange, he understood. The two Nirvana Powerhouses his Spiritual Power had previously detected were, in fact, just two different avatars of a single being who possessed the skill [Desire]. The avatars could exist simultaneously when not in combat, but they couldn’t fight together. Only one could be deployed at a time.
Furthermore, this enemy had mastered another Nirvana skill.
It allowed them to abandon their current body and transform into an ephemeral, mist-like existence, becoming untargetable for a short time.
’Every Nirvana Powerhouse can master a maximum of two Nirvana skills. This must be this Desire Demon’s second one!’ Right now, it was not yet midnight. After midnight, Shi Ming could use his Eye of Destiny again. However, since he had already surmised the enemy’s abilities, keeping an ace up his sleeve was also a sound strategy.
In the Hell where pain and pleasure intertwined.
The corrupting aura still lingered. Not long after the light blue and pink mists had vanished, they began to coalesce once more.
This time, they seemed to want to negotiate.
"I am Bai Yimo, leader of the Desire Saint Race. And who might you be, young man?"
"We of the Desire Saint Race have always enjoyed helping others, often providing free assistance to the Star Sea Creatures of the Twelfth Cosmic Country. We just recently suffered a great catastrophe, so for you to come and take advantage of our crisis... isn’t that a bit shameless?"
’Desire Saint?’
’Free help?’
If Shi Ming didn’t possess the Eye of Destiny, and if he hadn’t immediately investigated the deeds of the lower-level Desire Demons upon arriving in this world, he might have actually been swayed by the powerful Nirvana Powerhouse’s inducement.
’Her strength is at least at the Sealed King level.’
"Star Sea Creatures should be cleansed of their evil thoughts."
"Not a speck of filth will be tolerated."
The maggots formed again, seven or eight of them shooting out at once. The light blue and pink figures glanced at each other, then dissolved into mist and began to intertwine and merge. Shi Ming wasn’t surprised. He had already confirmed that the two were merely avatars of a single being.
The intertwining mists of crimson and azure were like a couture gown from the Yanyun Sixteen Stars, carried by a warm breeze, its layers of fine gauze settling upon the ground.
Shi Ming smelled the faint fragrance of sea salt.
With a hint of brine,
and a hint of sweetness.
A slick, pure-white, palm-sized hoof, seemingly rich with collagen, stepped out from the warm mist. Moisture seemed to seep from its skin into the air. Then, from the hazy depths of the mist, more of that pure whiteness emerged.
Every molecule of air around him seemed to transform into a tiny, spiritual hand, making intimate contact with Shi Ming’s skin and kneading it gently.
Hmph!
’Filth!’
The maggots became a conceptual existence, gnawing at the increasingly abstract skill of the being calling itself Bai Yimo. But since her ability was also a numbered Nirvana skill being used at full power, finding a loophole would take some time.
’At least three minutes.’
"Young man, my race does not enjoy killing. Our meeting here is fated. How about we make a deal?"
A perfect figure strode out from the mist.
Long, black hair cascaded onto the blood-soaked soil, and even the ground, originally corrupted by the Extremely Evil Sanctuary, seemed to soften at her presence. The surrounding air, as if jealous, grew restless. It clung to the skin beneath Shi Ming’s clothes, caressing and stroking him, trying to entice him into accepting its embrace.
"A deal?"
"I will wash away the filth you so dislike, and you will take me away from this place. In return, I will tell you a great secret of the Endless Star Sea—a secret that even those old fossils are unaware of. How about it?"
"A devil’s bargain!"
Shi Ming flatly refused.
He unleashed the [Borer] skill at full power, searching for a gap in her numbered skill.
"Young man, you must see that I have had my share of fortuitous encounters. Prodigies like you and I shouldn’t be trapped in a cage, or confined to a single Cosmic Country. What if I told you the method for mastering three, or even four, Nirvana skills? Your body is still young and possesses limitless potential. Surely you understand the value of such a secret."
???
Bai Yimo’s voice itself seemed alive—sweet and gentle, it whispered intimately in Shi Ming’s ear.
Persuasive and coaxing.
"If you really mastered such a method, how did you end up in this state?"
Shi Ming’s eyes were filled with cold indifference.
But in the next instant, he saw the snow-white Bai Yimo spread her flawless arms. The power within her erupted as she unleashed a third Nirvana-rank skill.
"Watch closely, young man! This isn’t some boost from a supreme treasure! And it’s no minor trick!"
"Nirvana Skill! Three Lives!"
A smile bloomed on Bai Yimo’s face.
Her body seemed to split into three.
"Nirvana Skill! Temper: Chaotic Hell!"
Shi Ming felt a strange sense of oppression about to wash over him. His eyes flashed. Among his six arms, the one marked with crimson patterns began to glow. The Arm of Judgment’s innate skill, ’Conquest,’ activated. He immediately threw the stone pillar in his hand, unleashing it!
BOOM!
Chaotic Hell descended. At the bottom of the Chasm of Insatiable Desire, an emotional bomb erupted, powerful enough to easily shatter a creature’s mind.
Anger, competitiveness, ruthlessness, pomposity,
Arrogance, conceit, posturing...
The desires representing ’Temper’ swelled to an unprecedented degree, stirring an emotional storm in the hearts of all the remaining Desire Demons. Their leader, Bai Yimo, had specifically exempted her kin as she cast the skill. Even so, the lower-level creatures were briefly drained of all emotion, left standing dumbstruck.
"Young man, with Temper stacked three times,"
"can you withstand it?"
Bai Yimo’s steps were light as she strolled forward through the emotional storm.
’Three Lives’ was indeed a Nirvana skill. It could triple the power of the next skill used. The ability was simple, but its effect was brutally effective. If Bai Yimo hadn’t been tricked by some old codger not long ago, her Desire Demon Race would never have been exiled along with their ancestral land.
The emotional storm howled,
and then slowly dissipated.
As her vision cleared, Bai Yimo found Shi Ming standing firm in the eye of the storm. The tempest had only shredded his clothes; it hadn’t even scraped his skin, let alone touched his mind!
This...
’How is this possible?’
Not only that, but Bai Yimo saw an even more powerful, yet incredibly familiar, skill brewing in the palm of his second hand on the right.
’Isn’t that my skill???’
Shi Ming raised his right hand.
"Triple power? Is that supposed to be impressive?"
BOOM!
The "Triple Chaotic Hell," now conquered by the Arm of Judgment, was stacked with a double-damage bonus against the opposite sex, then amplified tenfold, then stacked *again* with another double-damage bonus against the opposite sex, and unleashed with 120 times its original power!
A true storm of desire erupted at the bottom of the Chasm of Insatiable Desire, turning it into a Chaotic Hell in the most literal sense of the term.
At the same time,
the maggot lurking atop a peak of pearl and jade finally found the loophole in her numbered Nirvana skill.