Yu Xian's Triple Defense

In truth, possessing a Super Brain meant Yu Xian was capable of being remarkably mature and rational. Yet he refused to be overly mature or overly rational. After all, he was only seventeen years old; he didn't want to grow old so quickly. Right now, he did whatever struck his fancy. Even when his Super Brain calculated that an action would be entirely in vain, he was more than willing to experience the feeling of that futility firsthand. If a person went too long without knowing disappointment, the howl of sudden disillusionment could utterly drown their reason whenever it finally hit. Suffering was not inherently worth praising. Yet for a Transcendent, necessary suffering served as the finest whetstone for tempering the mind. It was a potent medicine for purging blind arrogance, and an indispensable yardstick for restraining an increasingly indulgent heart. The greater one's strength grew, the more critical the cultivation of the mind became. When a person reached a point where no one could prevent them from doing whatever they pleased, the only thing left to restrain them was their own conscience. When power scaled beyond a certain threshold, ordinary reason ceased to apply—the strongest fist dictated the greatest truth. At that stage, evaluating the people around oneself and the situations one encountered demanded immense inner fortitude to discern right from wrong. It was much like an emperor holding absolute military command: he had to tell loyal subjects from traitors, weigh advantages against drawbacks, and wield the power of life and death, all hinged upon a single stray thought. If he erred, the consequences would be unthinkable—at best leading to the indiscriminate slaughter of the innocent, at worst turning rivers red with blood or destroying both others and himself, leaving him dead without even a burial plot. Yu Lie's support for Yu Xian attending university had actually been aimed at giving him more experiences, more opportunities to learn, and more room to reflect. Ideally, it would help him see himself and the world clearly, perhaps even enabling him to ascend to a higher plane and grasp diverse states of mind. After showing off the mutated ding-eating ore serpent from Mars, Yu Xian opened Qilin's internal live-recording software at Zhang Shou's insistent urging, setting the feed to be viewable by everyone. The reason he used Qilin's internal software was that ordinary civilian communication apps had no signal on Mars; only Qilin's proprietary platform could communicate across such vast cosmic distances without issue. Cradling his phone with a palm bubble, he waved at the screen and asked, "Old Zhang, can you see me?" Moments later, he saw Zhang Shou reply under his internal codename. Codename Dead Doctor: *I see you! You're really on Mars?! Show us the surroundings.* At that moment, several other night owls chimed in. Codename Big Beauty: *What's going on here? Are you on a mission?* Codename Seventeen: *You again, kid? Where did you run off to fool around tonight?* Codename Stock God: *Holy crap +1* Codename Pixie: *Stock God, how crazy is your time zone difference?* Codename Science Popularizer: *The snake skin shown on screen belongs to a Martian ding-eating ore serpent, with strength at the Worm-low rank. But don't underestimate it—its teeth are razor-sharp and can easily pierce steel, so you must avoid being bitten in any vital spots.* Codename Number One: *Salty Fish, are you livestreaming? Did you run into some kind of trouble?* …… …… Yu Xian hadn't expected so many people to be awake in the middle of the night, so he briefly explained the situation. He then controlled the palm bubble to discard the ore serpent's skin and continued descending. Without realizing it, what was supposed to be a work app had turned into a livestreaming platform, with more and more people tuning in late at night to watch his Martian expedition. Codename Pixie: *Little brother Salty Fish, how are you breathing on Mars? Isn't the Martian atmosphere extremely thin?* Seeing Pixie's question, Yu Xian peered down the shaft while replying, "I placed two spatial bubbles inside my nostrils. The bubble space is linked to bubbles back on Earth, channeling terrestrial air right over." As he spoke, he tilted his head back slightly and used his phone to show the bubbles nestled inside his nostrils. Codename Seventeen: *Spatial ability users have it so good. That's true freedom.* Codename Science Popularizer: *Spatial ability users have it so good. That's true freedom +1.* Codename Piggy: *Spatial ability users have it so good. That's true freedom +1.* Codename Drunkard: *Spatial ability users have it so good. That's true freedom +1.* Codename Fat Cat: *Aggressively breaking the combo!* …… …… Watching everyone chat, Yu Xian didn't find the descent dull in the least, and before he knew it, he had reached a depth of two thousand meters. He glanced toward the side passage his eyeball bubble had previously entered. In the pitch-black darkness, a blob of sludge-like matter lurked along the ceiling. After a moment of thought, he turned on his phone's flashlight, switched it to ultra-high-beam mode, and shone the beam directly over. The instant the light struck the sludge-like mass, a puff of black smoke hissed from its body, and it recoiled at extreme speed, appearing terrified of the intense illumination. Codename Science Popularizer: *That's a Gu master's Shadow Gu, typically refined from the Gu master's own shadow. Even if the Gu master perishes, it will faithfully carry out their final command. In dark environments, a Shadow Gu possesses terrifying attack power that can even surpass the Dragon-rank category, and physical defenses are entirely useless against it. However, its weakness is glaringly obvious: it dreads intense light.* Codename Number One: *Salty Fish, be careful. A Shadow Gu is truly dangerous—my arm was scratched by one in the past.* Glancing at his phone, Yu Xian was inwardly astonished. Gong Qian's defenses were absurdly high, to the point that even Deimos couldn't pierce them and had to resort to poison against her. He hadn't expected this tiny Shadow Gu to be capable of wounding her. Fortunately, its weakness was distinct enough—simply blasting it with light did the trick. He pulled more than a dozen spare phones straight out of his storage ring, turned on all their flashlights, and beamed them in unison at the Shadow Gu in the tunnel. Under the threat of the blazing light, the creature could only retreat frantically. Its form shifted continuously, seeking an angle from which to strike, yet no matter which direction it extended, light caught it, forcing it to snap backward in haste. Suddenly, an enormous tentacle lashed out from the passage behind the Shadow Gu. Because of its blinding speed, Yu Xian had no time to react at all. In a flash, the tentacle slammed violently against a dragon scale. *Boom!* The entire shaft shook. Immediately afterward, the Shadow Gu streaked along the shadow cast by the tentacle, darting toward Yu Xian at blistering speed. It shifted from its sludge form into a bladed shape, a long black blade curving into an S-curve that stabbed toward a dragon scale in an instant. The Mantle of Falsehood coating the dragon scale's surface rippled violently, coming within a hair's breadth of breaking. The Dragon Shield core had absorbed the giant serpent's Falsehood Divine Power, which naturally adhered to the dragon scales as well. As a result, Yu Xian's current defense was actually composed of Falsehood-coated dragon scales, the dragon scales themselves, and the Mantle of Falsehood draped around his own body—a total of three defensive layers. Only by piercing the Mantle of Falsehood on the dragon scale's surface, then shattering the scale itself, and finally penetrating the Mantle of Falsehood enveloping Yu Xian could an attack reach Yu Xian in person. This sense of security was simply off the charts. In truth, if he had only possessed the dragon scales, their physical durability truly wouldn't have stood up to the Shadow Gu's trait of bypassing physical defenses. Yet a special defense like the Mantle of Falsehood happened to be the perfect counter to such an esoteric attack. "Holy crap, there's another monster?!" Yu Xian only reacted after the flurry of attacks had concluded, thoroughly startled. The phone faithfully captured the entire sequence. Seeing it, the spectators in the chat fell silent. That assault had been terrifyingly potent; asking themselves honestly, none of them believed they could have blocked it. Even Gong Qian felt a chill run through her heart as she watched that lethal strike from the Shadow Gu. If she had been in his place, that blade likely would have pierced straight through her heart, finishing her on the spot. Once everyone collected their senses, they stared at Yu Xian on screen in disbelief. Did this guy really rank thirty-third? His defenses were absurdly overpowered! Just then, Codename Science Popularizer typed furiously: *Salty Fish, run! That tentacle is part of a Barren Stone Gu insect! And wherever Barren Stone Gu insects exist, Spirit-Melting Gu insects are guaranteed to be present! That tentacle is nearly half a meter thick—a conservative estimate puts the number of Spirit-Melting Gu insects here at no fewer than a hundred thousand!* No sooner had the text appeared on Yu Xian's phone screen than the tentacle trembled violently, and at the far end of the tunnel, a dense swarm of tiny red dots lit up. *Screeech!* A cacophony of chittering rose up, and in the blink of an eye, the cluster of red dots coalesced into a crimson torrent, surging from the far side of the passage like molten lava. Seeing this, Yu Xian spun around and fled without hesitation. He was indeed confident in his defenses, but the Spirit-Melting Gu insects were advancing with terrifying momentum, and he saw no reason to use these vermin to prove his self-assurance. He shot out of the horizontal passage. Just as he attempted to fly upward, massive swarms of Spirit-Melting Gu insects erupted from the other tunnels above, cascading downward like endless torrents of lava. Left with no choice, he could only continue plunging downward. He could actually teleport away at any second, but Chinese tradition dictated that since he had already come all this way, scurrying off in disgrace simply wouldn't do. Besides, things were still far from reaching a point that demanded total evacuation, so he decided to struggle a bit longer.