Witches, please stop thinking about me!

The moment Lin Jiu made contact with the markings, she felt a faint pulling sensation.

"This thing is pulling on the energy in our bodies."

As Lin Jiu finished speaking, these dark red marks began to expand, as if they were being pushed up by something underneath, just like skin.

"Hurry up and get through. This is a Devouring Demon, a kind of alien demon that can tear apart the surrounding elemental energy. It's very troublesome."

Lin Jiu nodded and activated the dark element within his body, accelerating the process considerably.

Thanks to Liu Mei's body's affinity for dark elements, which are the most abundant element in the artificial mountain world, Lin Jiu doesn't need to worry about insufficient elemental energy to support his use.

Liu Mei simultaneously sensed her body's condition and was somewhat surprised.

While one's own body certainly has a high affinity for dark elements, it's not to the point that one can control dark elements as easily as a person drinks water, like Lin Jiu does.

The large amount of dark element entering her body was also a considerable burden for her.

So, is this a benefit of Lin Jiu's complete energy transformation of his body?

"You really are special."

"Um?"

He told Lin Jiu about the situation, and Lin Jiu's smug hum echoed in his mind.

With a soft laugh, Liu Mei spoke in a low voice.

"Don't be smug. The inner world is dangerous. Although you are very powerful, there are always terrifying things you can't imagine that exist."

"for example?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Lin Jiu suddenly stopped.

In a cave in the mine, a skeleton nearly two meters tall appeared before one's eyes, even when sitting cross-legged on the ground.

Behind its shoulders, arms of six colors—red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, and blue—reached out from behind to protect its chest on the inside.

A faint, almost imperceptible energy was emanating from around its bones, and the Devouring Demons that had been chasing the two behind them stopped at the exit of the passage, not daring to approach.

Under Lin Jiu's gaze, the skeleton's arms unfolded like flower petals.

His entire body then stood up, revealing the huge, bloodshot eyeball in his chest cavity.

laugh!

A sudden, deafening sound of air being torn apart erupted as a high-energy ray shot from the giant eyeball pierced Lin Jiu's chest.

Ignoring the emptiness in her chest, Lin Jiu immediately began to move around the strange skeleton in front of her.

"You want to fight it? I'm not very good at fighting!"

"What if I get hit by its high-energy rays and get blown to bits in the head?"

"..."

As Liu Mei finished speaking in an annoyed tone, she looked at the eye on the skull's chest that had been following the two of them.

"Give up your right hand."

"what?"

Before Lin Jiu could figure out how to relinquish control of his right hand, he suddenly had the sensation of Liu Mei's right hand gripping his own.

Looking down, he saw that his entire right hand was covered by white armor resembling finger bones.

Then Liu Mei controlled her right hand and made a move, tearing out a large number of black swords in the air and stabbing them at the skeleton in front of her.

A bright light emanated from the yellow arm on the left, and the black sword was completely blocked by a layer of golden barrier.

"Don't just stand there, attack him!"

As soon as Liu Mei finished speaking, Lin Jiu quickly retreated, dodging the red arm on the right side of the skeleton's hand that was reaching for her head.

Recalling the time when she tested her energy with Liu Mei, Lin Jiu controlled the dark element to condense in the skull's lower abdomen.

With the influx of a large amount of dark element, the black sphere instantly grew to the size of a fist.

With a cracking sound, a gash was immediately torn open below the skull's eyeball on its chest, and a large amount of dark golden blood flowed out.

His eyes glanced down, and his right blue arm immediately grabbed the black ball, forcefully crushing it into dissipating energy.

Ding!

Amidst the ear-piercing clang, numerous black swords and moon blades relentlessly bombarded the skull's yellow barrier.

"Continue, your attack can ignore its shield!"

"good!"

One black ball after another appeared, greatly delaying the skeleton's pursuit of the two.

"Don't always use this one method, use some others!"

"I don't know how to do anything else..."

"Just think of it as playing a game. Dark elements won't resist you, so just use it!"

"Alright!"

Recalling the games he had played in his mind, Lin Jiu immediately raised his left hand and let out a deep roar, raising the green-armed skeleton behind him.

A blinding green light flashed, and the sensation of their bodies being torn apart simultaneously entered their minds.

As Lin Jiu groaned in pain, surging black flames suddenly spread across the skeleton's body.

"roar!!"

Looking at the skeleton howling as it was burned by black flames, Liu Mei spoke with some surprise.

"Where did you come up with that move?"

"The inspiration came from the Uchiha clan!"

"?"

Lin Jiu didn't explain, but instead frantically urged the dark elemental energy to move at high speed on the skeleton as he wanted.

Amidst the skeleton's agonizing screams, its grayish-white bones began to melt rapidly, dripping onto the ground like mud.

Seeing that he was about to burn the thing to death on the spot with his black flames, Lin Jiu increased his intensity once again.

However, with a flash of blue light, both Lin Jiu's black flames and the skeleton's melted body disappeared.

After the blue light dissipated, a completely transformed skeleton stood before the two.

"Time reversal? How do you even play that?!"

As Lin Jiu spoke in shock, Liu Mei forcibly took control of her body and dodged the red claws that the skeleton was reaching for the two of them.

"What are you daydreaming about? You almost got caught! Do you think this is a video game? You think you'd die instantly if you got attacked?!"

Liu Mei's angry voice rang out, and Lin Jiu immediately apologized.

As she surrendered her body to him again, Liu Mei looked at the skull's cracked, blue arm.

"If this happens a few more times, his arm won't be able to hold up for much longer."

"good!"

Black flames burned the skeleton again, and screams echoed once more.

Just when Lin Jiu thought they could burn the thing alive, the blue light flashed again, and the skeleton's body suddenly broke through the black flames and grabbed at the two of them.

"Damn, it's immune!"

Amidst Lin Jiu's exclamation, her body was thrown backward into ruins.

This time, however, the skeleton did not let him escape, but instead raised its last orange arm.

As the hand pointed at Lin Jiu, he and Liu Mei were horrified to find that they were frozen in place by a golden light.

"It's over!"

Just when Lin Jiu thought he was about to be confronted, Liu Mei's calm voice came through.

"It's alright, this skill has had a significant impact on it; its speed has also decreased."

With Liu Mei's guidance, Lin Jiu noticed the skeleton slowly moving towards him.

This time, without Liu Mei's guidance, Lin Jiu began to frantically channel dark elements into his body, intending to forcibly break free from the current predicament.

However, no matter how much he tried to condense dark elements, he could never break free from the shackles of the golden light.

As the skeleton drew closer, Lin Jiu grew increasingly nervous.

As Liu Mei watched the approaching skeleton, she began to think of a way to break the deadlock.

Just then, Liu Mei noticed that the skull's normally dark eye sockets suddenly reflected the image of the two people combined, like a mirror.

Not only the two of them, but even the black sword was frozen solid and unable to move. However, in its eyes, the dark elements that Liu Mei had summoned, which had not yet condensed into a concrete shape, were not under its control.

It can only control one thing, and it is very likely that it can only control it in a certain state!

Thinking of this, Liu Mei immediately prepared to switch body control and change forms with Lin Jiu.

However, just as the thought crossed her mind, the skeleton suddenly let out a terrified roar.

As the Crown of Sin was placed on the heads of the two merged beings, a large number of black threads began to burst forth from their bodies, surging towards the skull in front of them and the surrounding area.