Tower Defense: Public Enemy

Chapter 572 Editing Life

With a clang.

The imagined scene of the humanoid black crow being beheaded with a single sword strike did not occur.

The longsword of the Buddha Sentient Beings struck the neck of the humanoid black crow, but the sword was deflected. The humanoid black crow not only had its neck severed, but not even a single feather was damaged.

Its dark eyes were like abysses, and its body stood like an iron pillar.

The beings in the pagoda were terrified and jumped aside, asking in a deep voice, "What is this thing?"

Lei Chi was also curious at this moment. The AI ​​did not detect any intense energy fluctuations from the humanoid black crow, nor could it assess its combat power.

However, Lei Chi observed a strange life dimension in this humanoid black crow, and a strong sense of enlightenment sprouted in his heart.

Suddenly, the black crow twisted its neck, tilted its head as if glancing at the Thunder Pool, and then turned its head 180 degrees to look at all living beings.

"The Emperor forged a black coffin inscribed with the Dao, entrusting it to the void to guard against calamity. We uphold this supreme practice, without beginning, without end, and without darkness!"

The humanoid black crow spoke in human language. Its wings spread out, and its body slowly flew out of the black coffin. Suddenly, it opened its mouth and spat out a black energy ball the size of a dragon's eye towards the Thunder Pool.

Lei Chi remained motionless. The energy ball struck his body, shattered with a pop, and then vanished without harming Lei Chi in the slightest.

Although the small energy ball seemed to have limited power, it actually contained an extremely large amount of energy. It hit Lei Chi solidly, no less than the full-force attack of Holk and the others.

However, Lei Chi's vitality was too strong, and this attack was insignificant to him, so he didn't bother to dodge.

Upon seeing this, the beings of the Buddha quickly swung their swords, and a spherical light shield immediately enveloped the humanoid black crow.

This is a method of spatial isolation.

The Void Sword God is most skilled in void transformations, and can unleash void-breaking, void-escaping, and spatial isolation with a single sword strike.

The humanoid black crow seemed to lack consciousness, isolated within the sphere of light, spitting out more small black energy balls. These energy balls exploded upon touching the spatial barrier, releasing all the explosive power inside the sphere of light, blasting onto the humanoid black crow itself. However, it seemed oblivious, continuing to spit out energy balls.

The Buddha frowned and asked, "Junior brother, is this thing alive or dead?"

Lei Chi's eyes flashed, and he said, "It's neither alive nor dead. If I had to be sure, it's dead."

"What do you mean?"

The beings in the pagoda were clearly puzzled.

Lei Chi asked, "Senior Brother, did you ever see the Beast Tower in the Divine Realm back then?"

"Beast Tower?" The Floating Beings looked thoughtful. "I've actually seen it before. In my era, although the system wasn't designed as a tower defense game, I saw defensive towers in a secret realm. I remember there were several types of defensive towers there, including beast towers. I've seen elephant towers and crocodile towers!"

"It's good that you've met me, Senior Brother!" Lei Chi said with a smile. "So, Senior Brother, do you think the Beast Tower is alive or dead?"

"Of course..."

Just as the Buddha was about to answer, he suddenly realized that the question was a bit too profound.

Is the Beast Tower alive?

They can run and jump, and look just like real creatures. Some can even interact with each other, as if they were alive.

But they are essentially defensive towers.

All defensive towers are created out of thin air by the system; to put it bluntly, they are data or programs generated by the system.

From this perspective, the Beast Tower is dead; they have no life and cannot be considered living entities.

Thinking this, Fu Tu rubbed his chin and said, "It should be dead, right? Junior brother, why are you mentioning the Beast Tower?"

Lei Chi pointed to the humanoid black crow isolated by the Floating Pagoda and said, "This thing is very similar to the Beast Tower."

"Hmm?" The beings of the Floating Pagoda looked thoughtful and looked at the humanoid black crow again.

Lei Chi continued, "If my observation is correct, this black crow should be a special weapon created by some will. It has been endowed with intelligence, and under the premise that the will is operating stably, it can perform certain functions. Therefore, its life comes from the will that created it, and it can be modified by that will at any time, just like a system character in a virtual game."

"Or perhaps you could say!" Lei Chi paused, then continued, "It's a specially edited life form, a carrier of a certain program, a kind of intelligent life. Senior brother, believe it or not, you can't kill it!"

"I can't kill it?" Futu Zhong Sheng said. "Junior brother underestimates me too much. I don't quite understand what you're saying, but even if this thing is a beast tower, we can just dismantle it!"

Lei Chi, wanting to observe more, chuckled and said, "Senior brother, why don't you give it a try!"

"Let's give it a try!"

The mortals of the Buddha's realm tightened their grip, raised their longswords, and shouted, "Void Divine Technique, Divine Sword Manual! I possess a sword that can sever the void!"

After speaking, the Buddha raised his sword and slashed at the sphere of light that had isolated the humanoid black crow, cleaving it in two. The sphere of light split in two, and the humanoid black crow inside was also split in two.

Then, silently, the slit sphere of light exploded, as if the void had been annihilated, and a violent spatial fluctuation was generated, which also submerged the humanoid black raven that had been split in two.

Two or three breaths later, everything vanished into nothingness. The humanoid black crow was annihilated by space, leaving nothing behind.

"Senior Brother, what impressive skills!" Lei Chi exclaimed sincerely. "Severing the void and annihilating space—with such abilities, Senior Brother truly deserves the title of Void Sword God!"

The Buddha said, "It's just a trivial skill. What do you say? Shall I destroy that thing?"

Lei Chi shook his head and looked at the black coffin beside him.

Following his gaze, the mortals of the Buddha saw black mist rising from the black coffin. Suddenly, another black crow's head appeared, followed by its body, which then spread its wings and took flight.

"this……"

The Buddha immediately took action, using a sphere of light to isolate the newly appeared humanoid black crow with another sword strike. He cast an inquiring glance at Lei Chi, who nodded and said, "That's right, it's still the same black crow from before."

"I get it!" Fu Tu Zhong Sheng slapped his forehead. "In other words, this thing is similar to an NPC or monster in a system game. As long as the game runs stably, it can regenerate indefinitely! Then this black coffin... I sensed it. It has been drawing power from the void. Can it be understood as the Black Crow's resurrection point?"

"It's probably more than just a resurrection point." Lei Chi's expression also became serious. He had observed much more, and at this moment, he was shocked, no less than when he was observing a cosmic wonder.

"The Emperor forged a black coffin inscribed with the Dao, entrusting it to the void to guard against calamity. We follow the supreme path, without beginning or end, without darkness..."

Lei Chi slowly repeated the words spoken by the humanoid black crow earlier, and said, "Perhaps, in some time and space, there exists an 'Emperor' who created the black coffin and numerous intelligent life forms. He is like a host, controlling all the data, and the black coffin is like a client, which he deployed to various places to download data. Various intelligent life forms can then emerge from it! The black crow can emerge from it, and perhaps other intelligent life forms can also emerge from it."

The Buddha beings nodded solemnly and said, "Isn't this just like a teleportation point in the void? And what's being teleported here is just a projection! This kind of evil thing should be destroyed!"

Having said that, the Floating Beings were about to draw their swords to slash at the black coffin when Lei Chi said again, "Wait, this black coffin still has research value. Senior Brother, you can just kill that black crow. I'll keep this black coffin for my research!"

As he spoke, Lei Chi pointed, and a magic gourd appeared at his fingertip, its mouth opening towards the black coffin.

The black coffin quickly transformed into a stream of light, flew into the treasure gourd, and then entered the Thunder Pool Universe.

"My inner universe is isolated from the outside world, and the connection between the black coffin and that 'Emperor' should be severed. This black coffin is different from the one in my imagination. Observing it allows me to expand the dimensions of life, thereby creating life and editing life..."

Lei Chi felt a surge of joy, a joy no less than when he had acquired the cards [True Greatsword God General] and [Nuclear Powered Sword Immortal]. He had observed the mysteries within the black coffin, broadened his own life dimension, and was now able to emulate the black coffin's methods to create and deploy his own intelligent life, or even real life.

At this moment, the beings of the Buddha also used the technique of "severing the boundary and empty space" to kill the humanoid black crow once again.

Seeing that there was nothing more worth collecting here, Lei Chi said to the beings of the Floating Pagoda, "Senior brother, come with me to the third level!"

"Okay! I'll do as you say!"

The sentient beings of Futu had already acknowledged Lei Chi's strength and sheathed their swords, following behind him.

Lei Chi led the way, easily breaking through the eight-dimensional space, and soon led all living beings into the black pyramid. As expected, they then arrived in a completely different space.

"This can be considered the third level of the Heavenly Secrets Tomb..."

Lei Chi's eyes flashed with light. In his vision, the eight-dimensional space before him was still composed of time, space, and energy. This space was much larger than the previous two eight-dimensional spaces, and it also contained black pyramids, but not one, but three.

Within this eight-dimensional space, there exists a vast amount of miscellaneous items, such as broken armor, decaying corpses, and spears surrounded by seven colors, among others.

Lei Chi even saw fragments of the black coffin here. Judging from the number of fragments, it seemed that more than one black coffin had been broken here.

Goodbye to those decaying corpses, some humanoid, some monsters.

In Lei Chi's view, this place was like a battlefield, and a great battle must have taken place here to leave it in such a mess.

However, Lei Chi is still unsure about the various factions involved in the conflict, but it seems that "Black Coffin" might be one of them.

At this moment, the beings of the Floating Pagoda spoke up: "There are three pyramids here. I wonder where the cowardly emperor's body is hidden. Junior brother, what do you think we should do next?"

Lei Chi pointed to the nearest black pyramid and said, "Let's go there first; it's a bit different there."

He did not make this decision arbitrarily, but rather because he sensed that the black pyramid had more intense spatial fluctuations, which would make it easier for him to observe the movement of Tianji Star.

There was nothing worth collecting in the third level of the great tomb, so Lei Chi wasted no time and led the way, quickly bringing the people of Futu into the black pyramid. They then arrived at an independent space that was very similar to the first level of the great tomb.

Here, Lei Chi saw a severed arm.

The arm hovered in mid-air, severed at the elbow, the flesh and blood churning at the cut, as if it had been bitten off by some ferocious beast.

Upon seeing this arm, Lei Chi was startled.

"The arm of the Ascended Supreme Being!"

There was a strange chill emanating from the severed arm, and Lei Chi immediately recognized it as the arm of the Ascended Great Venerable.

"The Ascended Grand Venerable has lost an arm! What happened to her here? What kind of being could sever her arm? It seems the battle was fierce; the Ascended Grand Venerable didn't even have time to tend to her severed arm..."

Lei Chi couldn't help but feel a chill run down his spine.

The sentient beings of the Buddha also saw the arm of the Ascended Great Venerable and recognized it. He immediately stepped forward, sealed the severed arm with a ball of light, and then put it away.

"Hehe, found an arm, I'll keep it as a collectible!"

With a smile on his face, the Buddha beckoned to the Thunder Pool and said, "Junior brother, how about I share half with you? This is the arm of an Ascended Great Venerable, a rare sight indeed. How about keeping it as a collectible?"

"I don't have that kind of collecting hobby."

Lei Chi shook his head, then looked around again and discovered another spacetime rift.

There is also a black pyramid in this space, but it is clearly not a teleportation pyramid. It seems to be a mausoleum, but it has been severely damaged and its interior has been hollowed out.

The spacetime rift was behind the broken pyramid, slowly closing, and it appeared to have just been torn open.

The beings of the Floating Pagoda also saw the rift in spacetime and asked, "Was that caused by the battle between the Ascended Great Venerable and others? Did they all enter the rift? Junior Brother, should we continue forward and pass through the rift, or return?"

Lei Chi asked, "What do you think, Senior Brother?"

"I think... that space-time rift leads somewhere unknown. Perhaps the Ascended Great Venerable is fighting someone behind it, and the Cowardly Emperor's body is definitely not inside. Let's not get involved. Why don't we go back the way we came and take a look at the other two pyramids?"

"Listen to your senior brother!"

Lei Chi nodded, inspected the small space again, and after confirming that nothing was missed, he led the Floating Beings back the way they came, returning to the third level of the Heavenly Mystery Tomb.

Next, Lei Chi led the Floating Pagoda beings into the second black pyramid.

This pyramid also connects to this independent space, where Lei Chi discovered a broken black coffin and a jade coffin quietly placed in the center of the space.

The jade coffin was crystal clear and had a moonlit white color. The lid had already been opened, and the inside was empty.

"This coffin..."

Lei Chi observed the time dimension from the jade coffin. To ordinary people, the coffin lid had been opened, but it was not the time coordinate of the "present" but the time coordinate of the "future".

"This coffin will be opened in the future, but for now, it's actually still in perfect condition!"

Lei Chi adjusted the time dimension coordinates, and with a blink of an eye, he saw that the jade coffin was now tightly closed and completely intact.

Among them, Lei Chi saw a female corpse.

He was startled, for he discovered that the female corpse looked almost exactly like the great evil god Bibius.

(End of this chapter)