Forbidden Zone of Deception

Chapter 352 Breakthrough! LV3 Forbidden Zone Hunter!
On the edge of Po Fook Harbor, near a secluded sea cave close to the surging waves, in an abandoned shrine long since deserted and covered with countless vines and mosses, the Nirvana team placed all their hopes on Yu Tianlun.

After all, Yu Tianlun was once a renowned peak LV4 reincarnator. Even though his cultivation level has declined and advancement is difficult, there is still hope. If he can successfully advance, everyone's chances of surviving in this terrifying dungeon will greatly increase!
At this moment, the bloodlust in Yu Tianlun's eyes had not faded, and grief and determination were intertwined. He had already begun to activate the complex witchcraft formation, attempting to forcefully break through the LV4 barrier that had troubled him for so long!

Even if the hope is slim, even if he might suffer a backlash, he is willing to do it.

Xu Yinqiu's death caused him to lose his former caution, leaving only a desperate madness.

Just as Yu Tianlun began to attempt a breakthrough, the Yi Xiaojiao stone statue, which had been dormant for decades, seemed to be stimulated by external energy and began to emit an ancient, obscure, yet somewhat evil-suppressing power of rules. Jiang Jin, who was standing to the side, suddenly trembled.
He clearly felt that the LV3 bottleneck in his body, which was originally incredibly solid and like an insurmountable chasm, was actually loosening violently under the dual stimulation of the resonance of this ancient rule power and the high-pressure environment outside!

It wasn't a natural loosening that happened naturally; rather, it was more like a crack that had been pried open by immense external force! Behind that crack lay the new world he had longed for!
This is... a perfect opportunity!
"Now!" Jiang Jin's eyes flashed with an unprecedented light!
Without any hesitation, he said in a deep voice to Lian Xuan, Lian De, Li Shang beside him, and Yang Jian who was guarding him, "Protect me! I want to break through to LV3 here!"

Upon hearing this, everyone was startled, and then their expressions turned solemn.

Seriously? Has Deputy Commander Jiang lost his mind, just like the Commander?
They all knew that Jiang Jin had only been at LV2 for a very short time, and that he had chosen to do so at this critical moment, surrounded by powerful enemies. The risk was higher than that of a family, and the success rate was even lower!

Lian De asked instinctively, "Deputy Commander, are you serious?"

“Vice Commander,” Lian Xuan also advised, “Think carefully. The first advancement is crucial. If you fail, there will be backlash. Xu… Team Doctor Xu has already… Now our SAN value has dropped, and there’s no way to raise it!”

In Jiang Jin's eyes, however, there was only an unquestionable determination.

"I dare to do that because I'm confident!"

Time waits for no one. Jiang Jin knew that if he didn't advance soon, even with the help of Russian nesting dolls, he would have a hard time surviving in this dungeon!
"Alright... don't worry, Vice Commander! Unless we're all dead, we won't let anything bother you!" Lian De said through gritted teeth, and he and his brother Lian Xuan quickly began to prepare to protect Jiang Jin.

Li Shang nodded silently, the chilling aura of his black magic spreading out as he warily scanned his surroundings. But in his heart, he really didn't think highly of Jiang Jin.

Although Yang Jian did not speak, the five layers of ghostly aura that he concealed around him were the strongest guarantee.

Jiang Jin immediately sat down cross-legged in front of the seal entrance that was radiating ancient rule fluctuations.

He took a deep breath and took out a blue crystal from the Reincarnator's Watch—a Fragment of Resentment!

Without the slightest hesitation, he gripped the shard of resentment tightly and began to absorb it!
"boom!"

Like cold water being poured into a boiling oil pan, the violent and filthy resentment energy instantly surged into Jiang Jin's limbs and bones!
This power produced a violent chemical reaction with the accumulated resentment and ashes within his body, and at the same time triggered the pollution of the curse rules belonging to Sadako that permeated the surrounding environment, as well as the ancient suppressive rules emanating from the small horn statue.

Several different, conflicting, and strangely intertwined forces of law began to collide, erode, and merge wildly, using Jiang Jin's body as the battlefield!
"Ugh!"

Jiang Jin let out a low growl of suppressed pain, veins bulging on his forehead, and his muscles convulsing uncontrollably!
His skin surface sometimes showed black hair-like patterns reminiscent of Sadako's curse, sometimes shimmered with the warm red light of vermilion jade, and sometimes was covered by the blue energy of shattered resentment crystals. His whole being seemed to have become an energy furnace that constantly changed colors.

This process is extremely arduous, like dancing on the edge of a knife or walking on the edge of an abyss!

He must remain absolutely clear-headed and use his powerful will to carefully guide and sort out the points of conflict between these violent forces, gradually bringing them into his predetermined path—that is the cornerstone for building the prototype of the domain!
His mental energy was burning at an unprecedented speed, and his SAN value began to decrease little by little.

Images of Sadako crawling out of the well, the distorted scenes in the videotape, and the gruesome deaths of Kong Huaizheng and Xu Yinqiu kept flashing through his mind... These negative memories were like inner demons, constantly assaulting his rational defenses.

But he couldn't give up! He saw hope!
Then, he took out a new fragment of resentment crystal and continued to absorb it!
Anyway, there's plenty of resentment shards!
Amidst endless pain and chaos, he "saw" the disordered ashes of resentment within his body gathering, rotating, and collapsing in an incredibly mysterious way... A tiny, yet real and tangible, nascent realm of rules, existing between the real and the illusory, was slowly taking shape!
This prototype is full of fierce and incomparable killing intent!
Jiang Jin had already decided on the direction of his domain's evolution!

His belief was unwavering: offense is the best defense! He didn't want a passive, defensive shell; he wanted a killing field capable of annihilating all evil and tearing apart all curses!
A day and a night passed slowly in extreme agony.

As the first rays of dawn pierced through the sea caves and faintly illuminated the area, the violent energy fluctuations around Jiang Jin finally subsided.

His body was already soaked in sweat, and his face was as pale as paper, but his open eyes were frighteningly bright. At this moment, his dark pupils had begun to evolve further, as if countless rules and runes were being created and destroyed within them.

It's done! The prototype of the rule-based domain is complete!

Although it was only in its rudimentary form and extremely small in scope, perhaps only covering his entire body, he could sense that within this miniature semi-domain, he possessed a preliminary "rule-making power"!
With a thought, the Moon Shadow Blade in his hand was instantly covered with a faint, constantly distorting halo of light.

He was able to imbue this knife with the rule of "severing annihilation layer spirits," and it was more stable and powerful than the one he had temporarily modified using the Lawyer's abilities! This was because he could also add a rule: "After being severed, an annihilation layer evil spirit will be in a state of paralysis for at least 10 seconds!"

In that day and night, he absorbed a total of five fragments of resentment crystals, using this extravagantly luxurious method to construct this rule! Even the Deathstroke lying at his feet had its Soul-Splitting Shuttle claws simultaneously covered with a similar power of the rule!

Now, he can create a miniature, independent space outside himself, isolated from the corrosive rules of external pollution! This means that as long as his domain remains intact, it will be difficult for pervasive mental pollution and rule curses like those from Sadako to directly erode his mind! Even more terrifying, he can even attempt to capture and analyze external rule pollution, then reverse-engineer it, transforming it into killing rules within his own domain!
The aura of this newly formed semi-domain spread out, carrying a sharp will to annihilate everything and slaughter all things, making everyone who was protecting the Dharma feel terrified, as if an invisible blade was hanging over their heads.

Even Yu Tianlun, who was immersed in the pain of his own breakthrough, was awakened by this aura. He looked at Jiang Jin, his blood-red eyes filled with disbelief and shock: "This... what kind of foundation is this?! Such terrifying killing intent... Jiang Jin, could you really..."

Li Shang gasped, looking at Jiang Jin as if he were a monster: "The embryonic form of the Rule Domain... He actually touched it at LV2, and his foundation is so terrifying?! Am I really going to witness the birth of a legendary reincarnator who will shake the world in the future?!"

The Lian brothers, Lian Xuan and Lian De, exchanged bewildered glances, their eyes filled with utter shock. They knew all too well how extraordinary it was to condense the rudimentary form of a domain at LV2; this was no longer just genius, but monstrous!

However, this is not enough! This is only the initial integration at the spiritual level. To truly step into the LV3 "Forbidden Zone Hunter," he still needs to complete the final, most crucial, and most dangerous step—

The materialistic transformation of the physical body into a standardized form!
The essential difference between LV3 and LV2 lies in the fact that the physical body begins to break away from the purely "materialistic" category and transforms into a "rule-based body" that can bear and operate the rules!
From now on, as long as his SAN value doesn't drop to zero, theoretically, no amount of pure physical damage will be able to kill him easily! Even attempting to decapitate him will be rejected by the rules of the contamination layer!

Only curses, meme contamination, and mental attacks that also involve the rule-based level can pose a fatal threat to him.

This step of his life can be described as a complete transformation, a near-death experience!
"It's here!" A resolute glint flashed in Jiang Jin's eyes as he actively activated the nascent domain power, turning it against himself!
"Crack...knock..."

A tooth-grinding sound, as if bones were being crushed and then reassembled inch by inch, emanated from his body!

His skin began to crack, oozing not fresh blood, but a dark sheen mixed with resentful ashes and the pollution of rules!

Every muscle, every nerve, and even every cell is being forcibly torn apart, remodeled, and recombined by the violent forces of the rules!
This is not just physical pain, but torture on the level of the soul!
His consciousness felt as if it had been thrown into a meat grinder, where countless chaotic rules, fragmented memories of resentment, and the nascent killing intent of a domain pierced his soul like billions of steel needles.

He felt his body collapsing, melting, yet being forcibly reassembled under some powerful will. The materialistic physical structure was being overturned, replaced by a "shell" that was closer to the essence of energy and rules.

The sweat had long since dried up, replaced by foul-smelling filth expelled from the pores.

His body trembled violently and uncontrollably, as if it were about to completely disintegrate and turn into a chaotic mass of flesh.

The guards were terrified, and even Yang Jian's usually indifferent face showed a hint of seriousness.

They could clearly feel the destructive fluctuations generated by the fierce confrontation between the two forces within Jiang Jin's body—his material physical body and the realm of rules.

Time passed second by second, and Jiang Jin's struggles grew weaker and weaker, his breath becoming intermittent, like a candle flickering in the wind.

Just when everyone thought he was about to fail, and might even suffer a severe backlash with his SAN value plummeting—

The sealed stone statue of Yi Xiaojiao seemed to sense the same "suppression" and "destruction" intent targeting evil spirits in Jiang Jin's domain. The ancient power of rules emanating from it suddenly intensified, transforming into a gentle yet resilient stream of light that slowly flowed into Jiang Jin's nearly collapsing body!
This ancient power did not directly participate in the transformation, but rather acted as the most precise stabilizer and catalyst, instantly smoothing out the most violent conflicts of rules within Jiang Jin's body, guiding the shattered physical body and the nascent domain towards the final and most perfect fusion!
"Buzz!"

An invisible buzzing sound spread out from Jiang Jin as the center!
His cracked skin healed instantly, becoming as smooth and warm as jade, yet subtly revealing a metallic toughness.

The originally outward-radiating, fierce and incomparable aura of killing intent was completely contained within his body, perfectly merging with his flesh and soul.

He suddenly opened his eyes, and his pupils instantly transformed into two slowly rotating vortexes of rules composed of countless tiny runes!
An aura several times stronger than before, carrying a chilling order and absolute killing intent, soared into the sky!

He stood up, feeling the surging power within his body that seemed to control a small part of the rules of heaven and earth, and couldn't help but let out a long and loud roar!

The roar was like a dragon's cry, piercing through the sea cave and even... briefly drowning out the roar of the waves!

With the resonance and assistance of the power of the rules of the small horn stone statue, after going through countless hardships and enduring boundless pain, Jiang Jin finally broke out of his cocoon and stepped into the LV3 realm of "Forbidden Zone Hunter"!

Not only that, in that instant, his strength had already reached the peak of LV3, and he was almost on the verge of LV4!
The aura emanating from his half-domain was far more terrifying than the complete domains of many true LV4 Rule Hunters!
Even the well-informed Yu Tianlun and Li Shang were stunned by this scene.

“Even Zhuge Yu back then…” Li Shang felt like he was in a dream: “When he first advanced to LV3, his domain aura wasn’t that terrifying, was it?”

A terrifying hunter, whose foundation is killing and whose future will be enough to make countless evil spirits and curses tremble in fear, is born here!

(End of this chapter)