Chapter 286: Hypnotizing Ten Thousand People!

Deep within the dense forest, two Temple Knights were combing the area with a large group of twisted ones when the ground suddenly turned into a sheet of smooth ice. Countless twisted ones instantly lost their balance and crashed to the ground.

Massive ice spikes shot up from the frozen surface, piercing straight through their bodies. Even though the twisting force deflected many of the spikes, their sheer numbers still inflicted heavy casualties.

At the same time, a thick purple fog spread outward, accompanied by the loud hiss of corrosion.

Su Qing and the others charged out of the dense forest and slammed straight into the ranks of the twisted ones.

The two Temple Knights hastily counterattacked, unleashing an invisible twisting force. The rest of the group was blocked by the distortion, but Su Qing alone, resembling a golden god of war, instantly shattered the force with her flame-wreathed fists and pressed the attack against the knights.

In a flash, the Temple Knights attempted to distort space and escape, but Su Mu already knew their methods and naturally wouldn't let them succeed.

Thousand Illusions of Fleeting Life!

The eyes of the two Temple Knights instantly glazed over, and instead of distorting space to escape, they both swung their weapons in a wild slash.

Although the Illusion Technique was far less effective on twisted ones, no matter how a mental command was distorted, it would likely never result in the action they had intended to perform a second ago.

Boom! Boom!

In an instant, the golden flames burned the two Temple Knights to ashes.

Su Qing's strength was an absolute suppression at the Silver tier. The Nirvana Holy Flame originating from King Chi, a Gold King, could even scorch Gold-grade powerhouses, let alone these Silver-grade Temple Knights.

Having lost their two Temple Knights, the battle immediately devolved into a one-sided rout.

But right at that moment, Lin Nanxing's expression abruptly shifted. "The bishop is com—"

Hum!

The air distorted like ripples in water. The bishop, who had just stepped through the doorway of the Holy Temple, walked straight out of thin air and onto the battlefield.

Even in his normal state, the bishop was utterly terrifying—a completely deformed monster. His body was covered in dark green cysts, and his face was crowded with eyes of varying sizes arranged in a spiral. He wore a twisted crown of branches and held a scepter spliced together from several thigh bones.

When he appeared, his terrifying aura was practically suffocating, and countless visible little whirlpools manifested in the air.

Those densely packed eyes briefly swept over the scene before finally locking onto Su Mu.

"Heretic!" the bishop said in a cold tone. Miraculously, his words could actually be understood by normal people.

An amused smile curled the corners of Su Mu's mouth. Leaning on his Cane, he stepped forward gracefully to face the Gold-grade bishop head-on.

"The Blasphemer severed the right hand of the divine statue. Coming down the mountain like this, didn't you ever consider that history might repeat itself?"

The bishop was instantly alarmed. The densely packed eyes on his face bolted to the back of his head in a flash, staring up at the divine statue at the mountain peak.

But the divine statue at the peak was completely intact. By the time he shifted his attention back, Su Mu and the others had already vanished, leaving only a blur of shadow flashing before his eyes.

The bishop flew into a rage, constantly shuttling through space in an attempt to catch the shadow. However, the shadow completely merged into the shade of the trees and vanished in the blink of an eye.

Trying to find a single shadow among countless others was no different from distinguishing a hundred different shades of black within the darkness.

Even though space was distorted and shadow leaping could not be used, Bubai could still move through the shadows step by step rather than just jumping.

This was also why Su Mu had chosen to make his move at night.

Most crucially, because the members of the Twisted Divine Cult were trapped in a distorted perspective, they exposed their greatest weakness. Although that distortion weakened the Illusion Technique, it also meant their perception of the external world was incredibly poor.

Within the Shadow Dimension.

"Captain, what should we do next? I didn't expect the bishop to seal off space while still being able to teleport himself. We got lucky this time, but we probably won't be so fortunate the next," Wen Xuan said gravely.

Su Mu naturally knew the same trick wouldn't work twice. He had only managed to fool the bishop this time by exploiting a fanatic's devotion to their deity.

After all, when someone cared about something too deeply, they would lose their usual calm judgment.

If they had told the bishop the Holy Temple was on fire, he certainly wouldn't have looked back. But if they told him a bird had taken a shit on the divine statue, no matter how absurd it sounded, he wouldn't be able to resist confirming it.

This was what happened when deep concern muddled the mind.

"Killing two Temple Knights isn't a bad result. However, you can't make any more moves from here on out."

Su Mu already intended to act alone.

"But Captain, relying solely on you to weaken the Twisted Divine Cult is just too slow. I'm afraid we'll run out of time and be sent back before we can finish."

Su Mu smiled slightly. "Who said my true goal was to weaken the Twisted Divine Cult? Don't worry. In three days at most, all will be revealed."

He could sense that the time was almost right. It was finally time to carry out the finishing touches.

After a long while, Su Mu left the Shadow Dimension, walking like a ghost among the various towns. Like a demon straight out of a fairy tale, he slipped into household after household in the dead of night to bewitch the people inside.

His boundless spiritual power silently invaded those low-tier twisted ones, hypnotizing them one by one.

Whenever his mental energy depleted, he would enter dreamland, spending just a minute asleep to fully replenish his spiritual power before continuing his hypnosis.

Supplied with practically infinite mental energy, his efficiency was astonishing. In the span of just a single night, he hypnotized over a thousand twisted ones.

If a transcendent of the illusion path saw this, they would undoubtedly cry out in disbelief, because such efficiency was something even Gold-grade illusion transcendents could not achieve.

Even a Gold-grade powerhouse of the illusion path would exhaust their mental energy hypnotizing a thousand twisted ones. Furthermore, mental power recovered far differently from the physical body; once overdrawn, it usually took at least ten days to half a month to recover.

And even after recovering, the previous hypnotic effect would have long since worn off, requiring them to start all over again.

In the blink of an eye, three days passed. Su Mu had hypnotized a full ten thousand twisted ones!

His mental power had experienced a massive surge in a short period precisely because of his constant cycles of falling asleep and waking up. He even vaguely felt he was about to touch upon his second Silver-grade Dream Law.

However, he chose not to break through just yet, as he hadn't completely digested the Thousand Illusions of Fleeting Life. Moreover, if his spiritual power progressed too rapidly, it would create an imbalance between his soul and body even if his current physical constitution could withstand it, leaving him feeling dangerously top-heavy.

There was also another piece of good news. Under his continuous daily feeding, Yan Wu defeated over a hundred twisted ones, successfully breaking through to Silver 2 and acquiring a new Silver Law: Dark Annihilation Soul Devourer.

If the Life and Death Arena was an ability that permanently increased one's physical body after winning a duel, then Dark Annihilation Soul Devourer was an ability that permanently increased one's mental power after winning a duel.

It was yet another growth-type ability. Su Mu was very curious to see just how far Yan Wu could ultimately go if given sufficient time and opponents to develop.

"The three days are up. Prepare to move," Su Mu said slowly to the others.

Having stayed hidden for three days, the others all stood up. Their expressions were grave, but their eyes flashed with resolute battle intent.

On one side was their mysterious, powerful captain, and on the other was an invincible Gold-grade powerhouse. Between the two, they chose to trust their captain.