Chapter 1943 - 1942: Counterattack

"Hmm?" The Tuning Master slightly raised his gaze, turned his head, and looked at the youth behind him, covered in wounds.

He Ao’s state was not good, but he was not dead.

At this moment, He Ao floated beside him, smiling as he gazed at him.

But the Tuning Master’s expression soon calmed, and he raised his hand, "It’s just killing you once more."

However, the scene of piano strings falling from the sky did not occur; the radiance shone, and the world pierced by strings was restoring at a speed visible to the naked eye.

At this instant, the Tuning Master’s body flickered violently, creating distance between himself and He Ao.

Then he raised his hand, trying once again to grasp the void.

Ding—

From the depths of the world, a faint sound of a piano string being plucked echoed.

In the surrounding void, a certain kind of string vaguely spread out.

But soon, these strings rapidly faded to nothingness at a speed visible to the naked eye, ultimately disappearing into the void.

When he tried to raise his hand for the third time, there was no sound from the depths of the world.

"What did you do?" At this moment, his face completely sank as he looked at He Ao.

"Just hid us all," He Ao smiled as he looked at him, "Your power comes from the Divine Being, but now, your Divine Being temporarily can’t find you."

The Tuning Master’s main power came from the God of Machinery’s supply, used to simulate the Talent Sequences he lost, maintaining his Usurper God’s position. Now that the God of Machinery’s power was blocked, his position and power naturally fell back to the Angel level.

"What is this?" The Tuning Master raised his head and looked at He Ao, "When did you do it? How did I not notice?"

"Have you not realized yet," He Ao smiled, gazing at him, "We are now in a certain ’fusion’ state."

The Tuning Master’s expression sank as if sensing something, soon raising his gaze to look at He Ao, "It’s the world?"

He Ao’s actions were quite simple; he used ’Barrier Wood’ to conceal the Tuning Master’s existence, preventing the God of Machinery from finding him temporarily.

The only problem was how to use Barrier Wood to ’hide’ the Tuning Master without having either him or the God of Machinery notice.

Under normal circumstances, given a Tuning Master’s experience as an Old Geezer, he would probably notice something was amiss the moment He Ao used Barrier Wood.

So He Ao did not directly use Barrier Wood on him, not even making any move.

And the crux of the solution lay in the ’world’; now, He Ao was already an ’Angel’ of this world.

He Ao actually sensed the Tuning Master’s actions of infiltrating the world’s depths to set traps from the beginning, but he didn’t express it.

Instead, he utilized the Tuning Master’s infiltration to the world in reverse to perceive the Tuning Master’s state.

At that time, he noticed the instability in the Tuning Master’s power and speculated that the Tuning Master’s power was supplied by the God of Machinery.

If not for this speculation, he would never have risked confronting the Tuning Master.

He clearly understood the gap between an Angel and a Usurper God; in a complete state, he could never win against the Tuning Master.

Many of his subsequent actions and words were tests surrounding this speculation.

While the Tuning Master was stalling time building traps in the world’s depths, He Ao was also waiting for him to increase his fusion degree with the world.

As the Angel of the world, He Ao himself could also be one of the world’s ’incarnations.’

The Tuning Master’s fusion with this world meant he was also fusing with He Ao.

Therefore, in the end, what He Ao hid with Barrier Wood was not the Tuning Master, but himself.

It was just that, ’incidentally,’ this also covered the Tuning Master, who had a high degree of mystical connection with him.

And with the interruption of the God of Machinery’s power, the Tuning Master’s power also fell back to the Angel level.

"You’re quite bold, little one." At this moment, the Tuning Master slightly raised his hand to grasp the void, and a few strings spread out from his fingertips.

Clearly, although he still didn’t know how He Ao blocked the Divine Being’s gaze, he had already figured out He Ao’s general method.

He raised his head and gazed at He Ao, smiling, "Do you know that instead, I can utilize this ’fusion’ mystical connection to turn and control you, then ’escape’ from this false world."

"If you can defeat me," He Ao replied, storing away the green gemstone, smiling.

"You’re very confident," the Tuning Master smiled, gazing at He Ao, "The method you just used to recover from your injuries was forcibly extracting the world’s power, allowing the world’s power to sustain your ’healing,’ correct? Although I don’t know what prop you used to forcibly dominate this already broken world, this kind of ’healing,’ you probably can’t use it a second time."

He Ao gazed at him, slightly narrowing his eyes.

The Tuning Master’s speculation was correct; he had just managed to ’survive’ from a dying state by forcibly dominating the world using Sound of the Star Sea and then utilizing the Angel’s connectivity to provide him with recovery power.

This method indeed couldn’t be used a second time; the reason was simple, as the world lacked much power, even this forced ’extraction’ hadn’t fully restored He Ao’s injuries, only recovering a vast majority, many wounds remained.

Though this world looked exactly like the Main World, He Ao always felt it lacked something, being weaker than the actual Main World.

Even in its peak state, it probably couldn’t supply He Ao with as much power as the Main World.

Of course, more extraction could still yield some.

But at this moment, the Tuning Master’s power was also deeply embedded in the world; he would not give He Ao another chance.

So, this was He Ao’s last life.

"Actually," gathering his thoughts, He Ao smiled, gazing at the Tuning Master, slightly raising his hand, "just this once will suffice,"

Gray light converged in his hand, forming a gray Longsword, the intangible Void Consciousness permeating the sword.

"I’ve learned a saying in this world," the Tuning Master smiled at He Ao, "A dead camel is still bigger than a horse."

At the moment his words fell, countless slender lines shot out from the surrounding void, and He Ao suddenly felt his body stiffen for a moment.

He felt his body turning inside out.

At this moment, the surrounding space became bizarre.

And in this bizarre space, invisible threads extended from within, landing on He Ao’s body, penetrating his flesh and skin.

"Even without the ’Tuning Master’ Talent Sequence," the distant Tuning Master clapped his hands slowly, "I won’t be bullied by an ordinary angel."

But at the moment his words fell, a silhouette abruptly appeared at his side.

Following it was the gray stream of light.

The Tuning Master raised his head, looking to his side; his body didn’t hesitate, flashing sideways.

That gray stream of light slashed through the space before him, cutting open time and space at that moment, revealing a dark, strongly attractive crack.

As the Tuning Master looked over at the place where He Ao had just stood, amidst the densely packed threads, there remained only a human-shaped gap.

That stream of light at that moment changed tactics, transforming into radiance sweeping horizontally at his body.

Radiant formations flickering with brilliant light appeared between the heavens and earth.

The gray stream of light from the sword edge sliced through the void, as if it cleaved the entire world horizontally, exposing the countless threads of the world’s underlayer to the void.

In this moment, countless lines surged from all directions, piercing through the void, aiming at He Ao’s soul.

Boom——

Just at the moment the threads were about to pierce through He Ao’s body, the Tuning Master suddenly felt his mind stunned, as if something enormous directly collided with his soul, momentarily depriving him of the ability to think.

The gray sword edge cut through his clothes, sliced into his body, and faint starlight welled out from the opening.

Boom——

An overwhelming force erupted between the two of them, sweeping over the earth.

The mountains were flattened in an instant, and the clouds scattered in the breeze.

The hard rock turned to powder, the rolling hills crumbled into dust.

At a glance, the undulating mountains had transformed into a vast plain, stretching to where the sky met the earth.

A distant, long-abandoned city also turned to ashes in the tremor.

The world was like clay, easily shaped and distorted by this invisible force.

At this time, the Tuning Master came to his senses, suddenly retreating, putting distance between himself and He Ao.

He lifted his gaze, scanning the empty, endless plains, then lightly raised his hand, allowing the fine lines to return to his palm.

A gray scar now ran from his left shoulder to his right hip, revealing the starlight inside.

The gray sword light lifted upward, He Ao’s body suspended in the void, the howling wind brushing past him, caressing his bloodstained face.

The Tuning Master looked down, gazing at He Ao, "Your Martial Arts power has reached the Usurper God level? Have you fused with this world to attain Martial Arts enlightenment?"

Then he shook his head, "No, this world has no Usurper God, and in this world, an Usurper God wouldn’t be so strange."

He slightly raised his hand, looking at He Ao, "Interesting, so you must have attained that legendary method of enlightenment. But you’ve always been in this world without even a Transcendent, how did you master that method? And isn’t that method supposed to be much harder than fusing with a world? Interesting, you clearly have quite a secret,"

His figure instantly vanished, a voice carrying a slight pause echoing around, "No wonder my master places such importance on you."

He Ao held the gray longsword, raising his gaze to look around.

Only the yet-to-disperse sounds remained, as if the Tuning Master had completely vanished from this world, leaving no trace.

The time the Barrier Wood could cover was limited, and the God of Machinery would soon find the Tuning Master again, he could not afford to waste time.

Boom——

In this instant, a booming crash resounded from behind He Ao.

He turned back, just in time to see a solid stone wall suddenly rising up from behind him.

In the moment he turned his head, stone walls also rose up on his left, right, and in front of him.

The four stone walls quickly formed a stone cage, trapping He Ao within.

Densely packed brilliance shimmered on the surfaces of the four stone walls, instantly connecting to form a dense array.

He Ao lifted his head, looking at the opening above.

Gray light converged above him, outlining a blurred starlight silhouette, a massive wound covering this silhouette.

Flickering light spread from the silhouette’s body, linking the arrays on the four stone walls, forming a massive array cage.

He Ao gazed at the starlight silhouette’s body, recognizing the familiar appearance.

It was the appearance of the Tuning Master whom he had seen before.

He raised his hand, gripping the gray longsword tightly, charging directly towards the starlight silhouette in the sky.

At this moment, densely packed brilliance gathered, forming a dazzling gray thunder, weaving a brilliant web in the sky, descending upon He Ao.

The gray longsword in He Ao’s hand met the web first, and with the sharp blade of void consciousness, sliced open the web.

Then in the next instant, the web, dispersed by the gray longsword, reformed, again descending upon He Ao’s body.

The dazzling electric light had no heat of thunder but was rather like ordinary slender brilliance.

But merely approaching this brilliance, He Ao could feel the sharpness emanating from the world’s underlayer.

Fizz——

An electric light swept across He Ao’s forearm, directly slicing it open with small cuts.

Immediately, the electric light swiftly descended, blood and wounds flying, slicing towards He Ao’s head.

Meanwhile, dense electric light gathered above the electric web, forming a new electric web.

Soon, more webs densely formed above, layer upon layer pressing down, cutting towards He Ao’s body.

He Ao lifted his gaze, quickly scanning the surrounding stone walls.

These stone walls and electric lights were not entirely manifestations of the Tuning Master’s power; they appeared more like a mysterious academic style constructed by the Tuning Master based on his own strength.

For being able to construct such a strong mysterious academic style in such a short time, the elderly is still the elderly.

Moreover, the Tuning Master is not from a combat-oriented Talent Sequence.

Now He Ao had two choices; first, withdraw his body, avoiding the electric web, to attack the surrounding walls.

This was the safest method, the most reliable, but the Tuning Master likely prepared numerous defensive measures.

If He Ao chose this path, even if he eventually broke through the walls, he would have wasted a tremendous amount of time.

And by then, the God of Machinery would probably have found the Tuning Master.

Faced with a restored Tuning Master, the path forward for He Ao truly seemed to lead only to death.

Of course, he still had a second option.

He raised his head, looking at the starlight silhouette flickering with brilliance above.

Bang——

The gray longsword in his hand shattered instantly, dispersing into a stream of gray brilliance.

The brilliance fell onto He Ao, completely enveloping his body, forming a suit of radiant armor.

Almost all the void consciousness within He Ao surged forth at that moment, permeating into the armor.

Without hesitation, he charged towards the starlight silhouette in the sky.

The dazzling electric light fell upon the armor, crackling with a snapping sound.