BOOOM!
An ear-numbing sound wave resonated in all directions as a fist and a technique collided with one another, sending dust and wind everywhere!
The wind and the impact between the two attacks were so heavy that the current condition of Virus could not be perceived inside the scattered dirt!
However, what could be discerned was the gorilla’s sorry figure darting above again as it was literally sent flying high into the sky.
“Hee… haa… hee…!” As the cloud of dust eventually cleared away, Virus’ panting figure could be seen while his two feet were sunk deep into the ground. Apparently, although he was successful in pushing back the gorilla in terms of attack and might, he had also experienced a strong recoil as a sharp force had pushed him right into the ground itself!
DROP!
Feeling unusually weak and devoid of energy, Virus gazed at the creature that had just fallen into the ground several meters away.
GRRRR!
Standing up, the beast looked at Virus in rage. However, as Virus examined its chest area from his standing position, a triumphant grin crept over his face as he muttered, “It’s over.”
Indeed, currently, there was a gaping hole in the gorilla’s chest while instead of blood, smoke was dissipating into thin air right from the penetrated section.
A few seconds passed and just as expected, despite how unwilling it was, the beast fell on the ground and drew its final breath begrudgingly!
‘I barely made it.’ Virus judged after analyzing everything that had occurred previously. The only reason why he had been capable of defeating the gorilla was in fact because the gorilla had been in mid-air at the time and thus had no control over its torso and overall positioning.
Previously, just as the two were about to clash, Virus adjusted his footing and aim in a way so his longsword would only make contact with a single fist of the gorilla before breaking through it straightly into its heart!
Virus was certain that if the gorilla had been on the floor with its balance and movements under its total control, it would’ve immediately readjusted all his four fists to shield against his attack, therefore, avoiding any kind of mortal injury.
In the meantime, Virus sensed the Origin go into motion as all of the gorilla’s energy was completely sucked into him before the corpse became smoke that strengthened the mark!
After going through the previous hordes of monsters, Virus’ percentage of fusion in the fifth level of Liberation had already reached sixty-nine percent. But as the rushing tsunami of energy invaded his pathways, it took a trifling second for him to progress right into the Sixth Level of Liberation as his fifteenth locked single pathway was also disentangled completely.
‘Only one more!’ Indeed, there was only one final disentangled pathway remaining that needed to be unlocked and opened. The second he synthesizes his eleventh and twelfth pathways, his eighteenth pathway would be untangled and Virus would achieve the mythical eighteen single passages of Energy Disentanglement!
And afterward, he would proceed to ultimately accomplish the legendary Ninth Level of Liberation that was long unheard of in Virus’ previous world of the future!
Anyhow, as Virus broke through to the following level, nearly all his vigor and energy were restored as he was once more prepared to battle more enemies. Alas, the only drawback was the discomfort he was still experiencing due to the internal injury he had been dealt with.
‘Hmm?’ Raising his right palm, Virus threw a short glance at the mark attached there. By now, he could easily make out the image of an ancient fortress that flickered in and out as he rotated his wrist. ‘It vanishes and reappears as I rotate my hand, the Invisible Ancient Fortress World mark, huh?’
Fshsh! Fshh!
Just as Virus was studying the strange tattoo of the invisible fortress, two new gorillas materialized as they each cupped their four hands and beat their own chests. They were trying to terrorize Virus before the combat began.
Roar! GRRRR!
Wielding his longsword, Virus quickly entered his battle pose while the dark scales of the ring were already covering his limbs.
He felt a little worried at first since if the trial proceeded like before, after defeating one monstrous beast at the early Third Order, the next monsters to appear should naturally be at the middle Third Order.
However, much to Virus’ satisfaction and relief, he soon realized the two new monsters were still at the early Third Order. That instantly revived a flame of hope and anticipation as Virus was now determined to continue the trial without conceding defeat.
“COME!” Releasing a warrior howl, Virus charged wildly while the battle frenzy affected him.
ROAAAR!
The two beasts too ran at him, desiring nothing but their foe’s death!
‘Twisting Tempest Thrust – Ultimate Form!’
The energy began to fill the very tip of the longsword as it transformed into its combined state while Virus shoved it toward his opponent!
Regrettably, Virus watched as the gorillas both easily evaded the attack before smashing with their hands toward Virus.
Raising both his scale-covered arms, Virus victoriously covered his head and barred the attack’s path. Still, the strength put behind the attacks was so fierce that Virus’ feet could only drill into the earth.
Meanwhile, Virus could clearly see that he was still lacking in terms of speed compared to those at the early Third Order. Therefore, freezing time once again, he referred to the best movement-type techniques that could be used by the current him with five liberated passages. He limited his options to the top three.
「Tiger Beetle Charge」:<Class: High-Human>
[Description: I charge once, I kill once! One of the three strongest Human class movement-type techniques that have been preserved from ancient times. The first form requires ‘five’ pathways as it introduces the basic straight charge of a special type of insect called the Tiger Beetle. The second form requires ‘six’ liberated pathways as the movement is upgraded to an intermediate level. The third form needs ‘seven’ liberated energy paths as the movements are elevated to an advanced level. The fourth form needs ‘eight’ liberated pathways and one becomes a master of Tiger Beetle charge! There’s been no record of anyone ever achieving the fourth form of this technique. Requirements: Healthy legs and arms, minimum of five pathways liberated for the first form.]
…
「Jiggling Drunken Dance」:<Class: Mid-Human>
[Description: Make me drunk I want to dance, baby! This technique is considered the strongest technique for those who have liberated ‘five’ of their passages! It only has one form and that is the ultimate dance! Requirements: Healthy legs and arms, Five pathways liberated.]
…
「The Ancient Cheetah, My Disciple!」:<Class: High-Human>
[Description: I, your father, the master of the ancient cheetah! One of the three strongest Human class movement-type techniques that have been preserved and passed on from ancient times. The first form requires ‘five’ pathways as it introduces the basic anatomy maneuvering of an ancient cheetah which is claimed to be one of the fastest animals on land! The second form requires ‘six’ liberated pathways as the movement is upgraded to an intermediate level. The third form needs ‘seven’ liberated energy paths as the movements are elevated to an advanced level. The fourth form requires ‘eight’ liberated pathways and one becomes a master of the ancient cheetah! There’s been one record of someone ever achieving the fourth form of this technique, that person became unrivaled in speed in the Liberation stage amongst those who trained in other common movement techniques. Requirements: Healthy legs and arms, minimum of five pathways liberated for the first form.]
After checking the techniques one by one, furrowing his brows in the mindscape, Virus searched to see if there was any Peak-Human class movement technique that he had missed.
Unfortunately, apparently, there was no Peak-Human class technique, to begin with.
By Peak-Human class technique, it meant that all ‘nine’ fused and liberated pathways of the body would be utilized in order to achieve the most optimum state of maneuver and speed.
However, due to the lack of cultivators with nine synthesized pathways one and a half million years in the future, no one could or felt the need to develop such a technique.
Moreover, even if that type of technique had existed prior to the era of the invasion of the Multiverse of Technology, by the time they were there, all such techniques were already ruined and lost forever!
Inspecting and scrutinizing deeper, Virus discovered another major issue, ‘Hmm, even when it comes to the absolute strongest High-Human class movement-type techniques that need eight liberated passages, there are only three remaining since even cultivators with eight fused pathways were a once in a blue moon type of treasure at that time.’
‘I’m not content.’ In the mindscape, over Virus’ face, a frustrated squint was exhibiting itself as it just wouldn’t go away. He could not feel satisfied with only training a movement-type technique that was incapable of reaching the apex through utilizing all nine liberated pathways!
Furthermore, it wasn’t just the movement-type techniques! Even the other types of techniques that required ‘nine’ released passages had all gone extinct in the future world of Virus.
“What to do?” As his utterance reverberated within the interior of his mindscape, Virus caressed his chin as he began to contemplate.
Virus’ first option was to cultivate one of the High-Human class techniques available to him for now and just do a little research later on in order to discover any traces or signs that might be pointing at the existence and possible location of a Peak-Human class technique.
Unfortunately, the more he considered that first choice, the more he disliked the idea of being stuck and obsessed over a mere Peak-Human class technique that was eventually going to be useless when he breaks through to Sublimity Emergence.
‘Guess that means I will pick the second one then!’
The second course of action Virus came up with was something only people or beings with a nigh endless level of intelligence could accomplish. And luckily, Virus was a being of such caliber!
What he was going to do next was to decrypt and break down lots of Low-, Mid-, and High-Human class techniques before extracting the most advantageous and beneficial segments of all of them and then according to his own attained understanding, he was going to put together and create the most powerful Peak-Human class technique!
‘Let’s see…’ Immediately, tens of thousands of techniques began to fly around, open, and decrypt themselves while Virus analyzed and investigated them in the most careful manner he could.
‘Hmm, too slow. Even with my terrifying speed of world perception freeze, it would at least take several days before I can decrypt and compile the strongest Peak-Human class movement technique.’
Not pausing at all, Virus continued, ‘But as luck would have it, I don’t need the full version of the technique right now since I’ve liberated only five passages anyway. I just need to compile the first form that requires five released pathways, beyond that is pointless to my current self!’
After a brief recalculation, Virus predicted the time that was required before completing the first form. ‘It’s only going to take one minute in real life while my time perception is frozen still.’
‘But that is going to be a long one minute.’ He pondered in mirth.
Reaching the end of his deliberation, while most of Virus’ focus remained concentrated within his mindscape, the other part began to engage in a battle with the two gorillas.
However, to Virus, that quickly became the most boring fight of his entire life!
That was because when the gorillas threw a punch in his direction, it would take an eternity before the punch actually reached him!
But that also meant that Virus had that much time to think, analyze, and study every movement and muscle of his adversaries and react to them using the most optimum of responses.
Thus, a strange scene of two gorillas could be discerned as they kept trying to hit their opponent only to be met with the strangest forms of maneuvers that actually worked!
As two fists flew near his face, a distant look could be perceived within Virus’ eyes as he calmly analyzed every movement before dodging casually in a robotic way.
ROAAAR~
‘Hmm, that one’s wide-open and unguarded right there.’
‘Twisting Tempest Thrust – Ultimate Form!’
Suddenly spotting an undefended part showing up by chance on one of the gorillas for a split second Virus quickly unleashed his current strongest technique to see how it goes.
While his thrust was successfully launched in the direction of the vulnerable spot of the gorilla, Virus could only wait patiently till his attack eventually reaches the enemy at last.
During the journey of his longsword assault toward its destination, Virus contemplated many matters in life before he even moved his little bit of remaining consciousness that had been left outside into his mindscape as he joined it to the other major part of his mind which was currently busy deciphering and compiling the first form of his new Peak-Human class movement technique!
