244: Chapter 244 Psionic Shield, Chen Wuwang's Wisdom

Blood Vines burst from the ground, their tips dripping with black blood and thorns glinting sinisterly. They traced a foul-smelling arc through the air, lunging straight for Chen Wuwang's face.

Three feet.

Two feet.

One foot.

He remained standing where he was, his right hand resting on his dagger, fingertips slightly warm. Within him, spiritual power surged like a hidden river but did not erupt.

A red light flashed in his left Mechanical Prosthetic Eye as data streams scrolled rapidly—the energy troughs of the Blood Array were locked; the timing had arrived.

"Now."

He whispered, suddenly raising his left hand with palm forward and fingers splayed.

Buzz—!

A nearly transparent barrier instantly unfolded, expanding outward with him as the center. Within a ten-zhang radius, the air vibrated violently, as if space itself were being twisted and folded by an invisible hand.

A honeycomb-like energy grid rippled across the shield's surface, fine and regular. Every cell vibrated slightly, emitting a low-frequency hum like the first breath of a newborn star.

The Blood Vines slammed into the shield.

There was no explosion, no shattering, and no corrosion.

Only ripples spread out from the point of impact in circular waves, like a stone cast into a still lake.

The poisonous thorns that had once strangled Nascent Soul Cultivators slid along the side walls the moment they touched the barrier, plunging violently into the rock face. They twitched twice before withering into ash.

The entire Blood Vine seemed crushed by an invisible force, twisting and deforming until it finally snapped. Its severed remains fell to the ground, turning into a puddle of foul-smelling slime.

A second one followed closely.

It hit, slid off, and snapped.

A third, a fourth... one after another, they all missed their mark.

The shield remained motionless, its vibration frequency never even changing.

A dead silence filled the cave.

Only the low hum of the shield's operation and the "splat" of the Blood Vines hitting the ground sounded in alternation.

Chen Wuwang remained standing. His long silver hair drifted gently at the edge of the energy field. The three claw marks on his right cheek burned faintly, but his gaze was as cold as ice.

He didn't look at the severed vines on the ground, nor did he look up at Blood Butcher. He simply withdrew his left hand slowly, closing his fingers into a fist.

The shield remained.

Stable, continuous, with no sign of decay.

Blood Butcher stood at the center of the array, his arms still held in a spellcasting posture. The jagged, tearing smile on his face froze.

His pupils constricted violently.

Impossible.

His Blood Vines, imbued with the purest Evil Qi and poison of the Blood River Demonic Art, had once strangled three Cultivators of the same rank in a single strike, even corroding through protective spiritual light.

But that strike just now felt as if it had hit the void, without even a hint of recoil.

More bizarrely—this shield had no spiritual power fluctuations.

No flowing runes.

No resonance with heaven and earth.

It didn't even stir a breeze.

It was as if it simply belonged there, natural and unquestionable.

"What... kind of Spell is this?" he finally spoke, his voice dry like sandpaper rubbing against an iron plate.

Chen Wuwang finally looked up, his gaze piercing through the blood mist to land on Blood Butcher's face.

He didn't answer.

He only curled his lips into a mocking smile.

"A Spell?" he whispered. "You call this a 'Spell'?"

Blood Butcher's expression changed drastically.

He sensed something.

Not an attack, not a counterattack, but something far more terrifying—a sense of control.

From beginning to end, Chen Wuwang hadn't taken a single step back.

He hadn't drawn his blade.

He hadn't uttered a single incantation.

Even his breathing rhythm hadn't faltered.

He just stood there, waiting for you to attack, waiting for you to exhaust yourself, waiting for you to realize—your full-strength strike was nothing more than a set of test data in his defense System.

"You calculated this long ago." Blood Butcher gritted his teeth, his voice low. "You weren't afraid of me coming at all."

Chen Wuwang laughed.

It wasn't loud, but it carried a bone-chilling sense of madness.

"Hahahahaha..."

He laughed until his shoulders trembled and his silver hair flew. Blood-red spiritual runes surfaced briefly in his right eye before quickly vanishing.

"It's not that I wasn't afraid of you coming," he said slowly. "I was waiting for you to come."

Blood Butcher's heart jolted.

Waiting?

Waiting for a Devil Head ranked in the top three of the most wanted list to infiltrate a Forbidden Ground, activate a Blood Array, and launch a killing move?

This wasn't a battle.

This was a setup.

And he had walked right into it.

"You thought you were the hunter?" Chen Wuwang took half a step forward, the shield advancing with him as the humming sound intensified. "No, from the moment you stepped into this cave, you were the prey."

Blood Butcher suddenly formed a hand seal. The remaining Blood Vines writhed frantically, attempting to flank him.

But the shield's range expanded simultaneously, covering all angles without any blind spots.

The Blood Vines hit it, still only stirring ripples.

"The Blood River Demonic Art you practice relies on killing people to refine artifacts and absorbing essence blood to break through realms." Chen Wuwang's tone was calm, like he was critiquing a dish. "Three hundred years ago, your wife died and your Dao collapsed; since then, you've killed every Righteous Path member you see and slaughtered every Genius you meet. Sounds quite tragic, doesn't it?"

He paused, his gaze suddenly sharpening.

"But have you ever wondered—why were you able to pass through my Chen family's thirty-six early-warning perimeters silently? Why were you able to pinpoint the Yao Beast communication nodes? Why hasn't my System given me a single 'heavenly secret instruction' today?"

Blood Butcher's breath hitched.

He had asked himself these questions too.

But he thought it was a coincidence.

Luck.

The Chen family's lax defenses.

"Because you didn't come here on your own," Chen Wuwang sneered. "You were 'sent' in. Someone shielded the warnings for you, someone rerouted your path, someone... pre-selected your time of death."

Blood Butcher's pupils shrank.

"Who?"

"Take a guess." Chen Wuwang grinned, his eyes manic. "Is it Mo Yuan? The Zerg Broodmother? Or... that 'old friend' behind you who's always making you kill people to refine artifacts?"

Blood Butcher fell silent.

He suddenly realized something.

This battle hadn't belonged to him from the start.

He wasn't the assassin.

He was a pawn.

And Chen Wuwang had seen through everything long ago.

The shield was still running, its hum like a heartbeat, stable and cold.

Chen Wuwang stood in the center like an unshakeable deity, looking down upon a struggling Mortal.

Blood Butcher looked down at his hands. Blood vessels pulsed under his skin, his demonic power surging, yet he felt no strength at all.

His attacks were ineffective.

His intimidation had failed.

His confidence was being crushed bit by bit by an invisible barrier.

"This shield... what exactly is it?" he asked again, his voice no longer as firm as before.

Chen Wuwang finally gave an answer.

"It's not a Spell," he said flatly. "It's a rule."

Blood Butcher was stunned.

"What did you say?"

"I said—" Chen Wuwang raised his hand, tapping the shield's surface with a fingertip. A ripple spread, reflecting his stern face. "This is a Psionic Shield. Defined by me, controlled by me, a new rule... established by me."

He stared at Blood Butcher, word by word:

"Welcome to the era of Cyber Cultivation."

Blood Butcher's throat bobbed. He wanted to roar, to attack again, but his body instinctively took half a step back.

He knew he couldn't go on.

This failed strike had broken his momentum.

And his opponent hadn't even drawn his blade.

The shield was unbroken, Chen Wuwang hadn't moved, and Blood Butcher was already cowed.

Inside the cave, blood mist lingered, the walls seeped blood, and the ground was littered with severed vines and charred pits.

But the most terrifying thing was the man standing motionless behind that transparent barrier.

He wasn't in a hurry.

He wasn't agitated.

He wasn't afraid.

He even had the mind to smile.

This kind of composure was more terrifying than any killing intent.

Blood Butcher slowly withdrew his hands, the Blood Array's light dimming slightly.

He didn't flee.

He didn't attack again.

He just stared intently at Chen Wuwang, as if trying to carve this face into his soul.

"Chen Wuwang..." he gritted his teeth. "I'll admit defeat in this round."

"But remember—" his voice was low and carried the scent of blood, "The blood river never dries, and killing intent never ceases. I will repay today's humiliation a hundredfold."

Chen Wuwang scoffed.

"You can try," he said, spreading his hands. "But I suggest you first figure out—did you come here to kill me, or to deliver data to me?"

Blood Butcher's face turned ashen.

He turned abruptly, the blood lines beneath his feet retracting quickly. The array markings extinguished, and the blood mist solidified into chunks, falling away.

He walked step by step into the depths of the passage, his back slightly hunched. It didn't look like a retreat; it looked like a rout.

Chen Wuwang didn't pursue.

Nor did he deactivate the shield.

He simply stood there silently, watching Blood Butcher disappear into the darkness.

It wasn't until the last trace of blood qi vanished that he slowly exhaled.

The shield remained.

The hum continued as before.

He looked down at his left hand; his palm was slightly numb, a sign of continuous spiritual power output.

"I can hold on," he muttered to himself. "At least for another three hours."

He looked up at the cave ceiling.

There, a very fine crack was slowly healing.

It was a crack caused by the shockwaves when he had used the shield to deflect the Blood blades earlier.

Now, it was self-repairing.

Just like the entire defense System.

Silent.

Resilient.

Indestructible.

His lips curled up again.

"Just wait," he whispered. "The real show has only just begun."

The shield was as transparent as ever, covering the center of the cave and keeping him firmly protected.

He stood there, unmoving and silent, like a solitary peak standing amidst bloodstains and ruins.

Blood Butcher was gone.

The attacks had stopped.

But the battle was far from over.