400: Chapter 400 Taking an Unconventional Approach, Reversing the Technique?

Sikong Lie possessed an incredibly abundant vitality; simply cutting off his external supply would not cause much of an impact in the short term.

Therefore, it was necessary to find a way to fundamentally dismantle him.

With his wounds completely healed, Sikong Lie was already pursuing in this direction.

Lin Xiao immediately entered Stealth mode and began to maneuver through the vast, ruined buildings.

He had already familiarized himself with the layout of the Imperial Palace while scavenging for supplies yesterday.

For instance, which corridors led to dead ends, which collapsed palace walls one could squeeze through, and which ruins offered high enough cover to hide temporarily...

He moved rapidly among the broken walls and ruins, changing direction immediately whenever he sensed movement nearby.

Just as Lin Xiao was fighting while retreating and contemplating a countermeasure, Tian Xiwei sent a private message.

He quickly scanned the text, his pace involuntarily slowing for a beat.

The strange egg sac on the ground had been cleared.

Although it had regenerated many times during the process, Jing Hua and Yimu joined forces to lay down some rune-inscribed stone slabs around the egg sac. After activating a unique energy circuit, the egg sac not only lost its ability to self-heal but also began to shrivel rapidly.

[ 07-01 Lin Xiao: "Is that so?" ]

[ 07-01 Tian Xiwei: "Sister Jing Hua says this is a Reverse Technique. Originally, the patterns on the slabs were meant to absorb the vitality of surrounding living creatures, but she modified some of the runes and changed the arrangement of the stone slabs, turning the absorption of vitality into the release of vitality." ]

After reading this message, Lin Xiao suddenly understood.

So that was it!

Rune circuits were essentially energy channels; their direction could be reversed, and their functions could even be rewritten.

With the rune-inscribed stone slabs serving as the foundation of the circuit, as long as one changed their arrangement and the direction of the rune carvings, this entire Rune Array designed to absorb vitality could be completely transformed to release it.

As a merfolk priestess proficient in rune technology, it was not surprising that Jing Hua could perform such a Reverse Technique.

And Yimu, having been a Magic User of the Heze Royal Court, was far more familiar with native Heze runes than Jing Hua. She might not be adept at rune techniques, but she certainly knew the specific meaning and direction of every original rune carving.

Their collaboration was perfectly complementary.

That said, since the egg sac could be drained by the Reverse Technique, could the Sikong Lie before him be killed in the same way?

If that body could be drained of its accumulated energy by a reversed Rune Array... perhaps he could be completely slain.

Lin Xiao moved rapidly among the ruins, twisting and dodging.

He kept Sikong Lie at the edge of his field of vision, neither far enough for the opponent to switch targets nor close enough to get within melee range.

At the same time, he opened the private message interface to continue discussing the Rune Array plan with Tian Xiwei.

[ 07-01 Tian Xiwei: "Sister Jing Hua just told me that the Reverse Technique used around the egg sac could theoretically be applied to Sikong Lie using the same principle." ]

[ 07-01 Tian Xiwei: "However, the vitality accumulated within Sikong Lie is perhaps far greater than that of the egg sac. To drain all his energy, he must be trapped within a much larger Reverse Technique." ]

[ 07-01 Tian Xiwei: "The arrangement of the stone slabs needs to be redesigned, and the direction of the rune carvings needs to be readjusted. Although with Sister Yimu's help the speed will be faster, the entire process will still take over ten minutes." ]

While dodging Sikong Lie's pursuit, Lin Xiao quickly sent a voice message:

[ 07-01 Lin Xiao: "I will lure Sikong Lie to the other side of the Imperial Palace. After you enter the Imperial Palace via the teleportation anchor, find a hidden spot and start building the Rune Array. Do not expose yourselves after finishing; wait until I lure him into the center of the array." ]

Lin Xiao stopped and crouched behind a corner, flipping his hand to take out a spare teleportation anchor from his backpack.

Not far away, a half-broken stone pillar was sliced in two at the waist, emitting a harsh roar amidst the flying rubble.

Taking advantage of Sikong Lie still searching for his location, he entered Stealth mode and flashed into a half-collapsed palace building.

He placed the anchor in a corner, surrounded by fallen dome rubble, which provided perfect concealment.

Unless one walked right up to it to inspect it closely, it would be impossible to discover.

Lin Xiao sent a message to the personnel stationed on the roof of the Astral Express to activate the teleportation anchor.

After the channel was activated, a purple light curtain flickered gently on the ground.

After doing this, he brushed the stone dust off his body and rushed out of the palace gate again.

Sikong Lie discovered him.

Or more accurately, it sensed him.

Those compound eyes had an extremely keen ability to capture fluctuations in aura while in Stealth mode.

Almost the instant Lin Xiao burst through the door, its gaze locked onto him.

At the same time, it also flashed over in pursuit.

Sikong Lie was no longer seeking precision; it was more as if it were driven by some pure desire for slaughter.

Its movement speed became faster, and the arc of its arm-blade sweeps was more unrestrained than before.

Lin Xiao could not dodge in time and had to use the skill [ Thorn Body ] to forcefully withstand its attack.

The phantom of Thorns covering his body was mostly sliced away by the arm-blade, and the reflected damage also tore open one of Sikong Lie's shoulders, with chitinous fragments and black bodily fluids splashing into the air.

But Sikong Lie did not stop.

It had become even more frenzied and bellicose.

Earlier, when they first fought at the entrance of the main hall of the temple, it would still evaluate its opponent's strength, tentatively maintain distance, and occasionally show a kind smile to play mind games.

Now, the humanity that belonged to "Sikong Lie" within its body was being stripped away layer by layer by the Insect Swarm's will.

It no longer spoke, no longer smiled.

It just pursued silently, using its fists and arm-blades to smash everything in its path to pieces.

Even though Lin Xiao activated both [ Thorn Body ] and [ Mirror Barrier ] simultaneously, Sikong Lie did not stop.

The reflected damage battered its neither-human-nor-insect body until it was in tatters.

After its arm bone broke, the ghastly white jagged ends protruding from the skin were clearly visible.

The chitinous shell on its chest was shaken by the reflected damage, creating spiderweb-like cracks from which dark brown blood oozed.

But its healing and regenerative abilities were simply too strong; the broken bone would knit itself together before the next punch was thrown, and the cracks would fill in during the interval before the arm-blade fell.

Conversely, Lin Xiao was not having an easy time right now.

The chest armor, which had just been repaired, was mostly ruined after enduring two rounds of frontal impacts.

The armor plating on his right shoulder had completely fallen off, revealing the wound underneath sliced open by the arm-blade.

The edges of those wounds shimmered with an unnatural blackness; it was a type of corrosive energy accompanying Sikong Lie's attacks that was continuously eroding his flesh and tissue.

Just now, Lin Xiao had cast a Resonant Shield on himself, hoping to use the healing effect from the moment the shield shattered to buy a few seconds for recovery.

But Sikong Lie's combo was too fast; the shield was shattered by a punch almost as soon as it was activated. The recovered health was a drop in the bucket, completely unable to keep up with the subsequent crazed attacks raining down.

While dodging a horizontal slash from Sikong Lie and pulling back his foot to retreat, Lin Xiao's boot stepped on the edge of a loose floor tile, causing his body to falter slightly.

It was just a momentary lapse.

Sikong Lie seized this opening.

The bone claw, carrying the sound of tearing wind, lunged straight for Lin Xiao's chest, faster than any previous attack.

The bone claw was about to pierce through Lin Xiao's chest cavity; watching the claw tip puncture the chest armor, just as it was about to penetrate his skin, it stopped abruptly.

A wave of seawater, surging from nowhere, appeared out of thin air, enveloping Lin Xiao in a deep blue body of water.

The water flow gently lifted his body, neutralizing the kinetic energy on the sharp claw layer by layer.

The bone claw landed on the surface of the water film, only causing a few ripples, unable to penetrate any further.

[ Accessory · heart of the ocean, Damaged ]