Chronicles of Heaven's Chosen - Chapter 77

Yuan Yao immediately sat cross-legged, closed her eyes, and swiftly calmed the energy inside her.

Time passed slowly. Her ragged breathing gradually evened out.

Her sea of consciousness had expanded once again.

Roughly four hours later, Yuan Yao opened her eyes and exhaled a breath of turbid air. She looked down at her palm, then slowly closed it into a fist.

She could finally sense the presence of mental power.

Yuan Yao raised her eyes to the door.

Mental power was no longer invisible to her. Under its influence, the door before her appeared twisted and distorted.

She surveyed the rest of the room. The monster’s mental power enclosed it so tightly that not even wind could pass.

“You actually survived?” Qiu Xingwen asked in astonishment.

Gu Zhaozhao came to Yuan Yao’s side. “Sister Yuan, are you feeling better?”

Yuan Yao nodded with a smile.

Apart from the orange-robed youth still sitting in meditation, there was also the old man, who had lost all desire to survive.

He lay on the floor with a numb expression, waiting for death.

“I need more time,” Yuan Yao told them.

Gu Zhaozhao did not understand what she was doing, but she trusted Sister Yuan.

Qiu Xingwen had never wanted to involve himself too deeply, so he asked no questions.

When Yuan Yao looked toward the orange-robed youth, she noticed mental power leaking faintly from his body.

Her heart stirred. Was he trying the same thing she was—using mental power to break through this room built from mental power?

She withdrew her gaze and returned her attention to the door.

Once more, she attacked it with mental power.

Hum—

The viscous, icy force counterattacked and plunged into Yuan Yao’s sea of consciousness.

This time, she offered no resistance while it entered.

Once the enemy force was fully inside, Yuan Yao struck with everything she had. She gathered her mental power into a raging torrent and swept it toward the mass of black mental power.

Winds rose and clouds surged within her sea of consciousness. Black and white forces collided and tore at one another until heaven went dark and earth turned upside down throughout the entire space.

Yuan Yao gradually grew accustomed to the agony of her sea of consciousness being ripped open.

What had begun as a tiny wisp of mental power expanded little by little. Against the enemy’s clinging black force, it no longer seemed quite so insignificant.

She wound her mental power around it and continued fighting.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Explosions sounded without pause. The torn places opened like enormous caverns, and violent winds surged through the gaps, leaving Yuan Yao in such pain that she no longer wished to live.

In the room, Gu Zhaozhao saw blood pour once more from Yuan Yao’s seven orifices. Her lips grew paler and paler, and the child’s heart tightened.

Yuan Yao refused to stop. Enduring the pain, she concentrated her mental power and counterattacked again and again.

Each time, the viscous force suppressed her.

When it tried to leave a mental brand inside her sea of consciousness, Yuan Yao instinctively sensed the danger and drove it out with frantic force.

Hum!

An explosive vibration shook her, and blood seeped from both ears.

But she successfully expelled the invading mental power.

“Sister Yuan…”

Every sound around her became muddled, like an echo traveling from far away.

Yuan Yao abruptly opened her eyes. She took a fourth-grade Mind-Clearing Pill and a healing pill from her storage space, swallowed them both, and quickly regulated her breathing.

From then on, she repeated the same five steps:

Lure in the enemy’s mental power. Entangle it in battle. Allow her sea of consciousness to tear and expand. Repair the damage. Strengthen her own mental power.

She repeated the process six times in a single day.

Her mental power grew steadily stronger.

Now she could clearly sense every movement made by every person in the room.

Barely contained excitement shone in Yuan Yao’s eyes as she looked at the door.

She attacked it again. The enemy’s mental power sensed the intrusion and immediately retaliated.

Once more, Yuan Yao drew it into her sea of consciousness.

While the two forces battled, a cloud of black fog suddenly swept the old man away.

Gu Zhaozhao’s little face went white.

“We survived another day.” Qiu Xingwen exhaled sharply in relief.

Gu Zhaozhao lowered her head in sorrow.

…

The sixteenth attempt.

Yuan Yao’s mass of mental power had grown until it was as large as the enemy force.

The two sides fought evenly. The opposing mental power could no longer tear apart her sea of consciousness or harm her spiritual sense.

Disappointed, Yuan Yao drove it out.

As though sensing her displeasure, it angrily tried to force its way back in.

Yuan Yao shaped her mental power into a gigantic palm and slapped it viciously out of her sea of consciousness.

With a hum, the door trembled.

Qiu Xingwen and Gu Zhaozhao instantly tensed.

The next moment, the walls shook.

They quickly returned to normal, leaving the pair wondering if they had imagined it.

Yuan Yao’s mental power began attacking the other strands woven through the room.

To her surprise, she encountered a second, unfamiliar force.

She immediately thought of the orange-robed youth.

That unfamiliar force broke through a point in the wall and slipped outside.

Yuan Yao tried to follow it, but another stream of the same viscous, icy mental power blocked her and then lunged madly into her sea of consciousness.

The force embedded in the wall was even stronger.

Yuan Yao had no choice but to focus on fighting it.

Her sea of consciousness was torn apart and healed again.

Each time, it repaired itself faster.

Roughly two hours later, Yuan Yao successfully expelled the force.

Time continued to pass, and soon the second day arrived.

By then, Yuan Yao’s mental power had attacked nearly every strand sustaining the room.

She also discovered that the orange-robed youth was using mental power—no, spiritual sense—to observe everything happening outside.

Yuan Yao opened her eyes and looked toward him.

*He must have learned something.*

Yet he had taken no action. Either he lacked the ability to break the deadlock, or he was waiting for the right opportunity.

At that moment, Yuan Yao sensed a fluctuation in his spiritual sense.

She looked over and met his newly opened eyes.

Yuan Yao rose at once and walked over. Stopping before him, she cupped her hands.

“Fellow cultivator, do you know a way to break this deadlock?”

The youth lifted his eyes slightly. His refined face showed no emotion, and his voice was cold.

“If you want to leave, you must first be prepared to die.”

Qiu Xingwen’s expression changed drastically.

“W-what?! We-we’ll die if we go out?!”