Chapter 687: Zhi Realm Force Field

"Awakening successful!"

"Feng Li (Awakening: Zhi Jie Li Chang)!"

A force field?

Xu Xiaoshou was slightly stunned when he saw the awakening name.

Achieving success on the eighth awakening was within his expectations, neither particularly lucky nor unlucky.

But this awakening direction seemed a bit vague.

Something like "XX Sword Body" hadn't appeared; instead, it was "Zhi Jie Li Chang"...

Xu Xiaoshou didn't bother guessing wildly. He sat cross-legged on the large bed, clasped his hands together, and pointed angrily at the ceiling, his expression turning dramatic and full of passion.

"Then bring it on!"

"Summon! Zhi Jie Li Chang!"

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle...

Instead of the imagined burst of golden light and a spectacular entrance like a raging giant, the soft mattress under his buttocks made a "sizzle" sound and turned into tiny cotton fragments, spraying out in all directions.

"What?"

Xu Xiaoshou felt dizzy. "What's going on?"

He lifted his hand and examined it closely, noticing a thin, translucent membrane-like thing surrounding his arm.

"Is this the force field?"

Upon closer inspection, this thin membrane force field was filled with endless "sword light" darting back and forth inside it.

The membrane enveloped his entire body.

The mattress beneath his buttocks had clearly been shredded into cotton fragments due to the high-frequency cutting from the "sword light" within the force field.

As he "sensed" it, Xu Xiaoshou couldn't help but recall Ba Zun'an's body.

He had once seen Ba Zun'an's body shattered, filled with that endless, darting sword light, but that seemed to be residual damage from Hua Chang Deng, not voluntary.

The "sword light" in his own "Zhi Jie Li Chang," however, felt like...

Xu Xiaoshou's mind suddenly locked onto an idea, and he realized something.

"Feng Li Zhi Guang!"

He remembered the special additional attribute of Feng Li—the "Feng Li Zhi Guang" that he had ignored for so long.

Precisely because of this, his hair, tongue tip, fingernails, and everything else had become like sharp swords.

Now, after awakening, the "Zhi Jie Li Chang" seemed to have enhanced the "Feng Li Zhi Guang."

"So, the 'Feng Li Zhi Guang' has left the body and formed something like a small domain around it. Though it's just a thin layer covering the whole body, it can still provide protection?"

Xu Xiaoshou felt a bit disappointed.

This was quite different from the spectacular scene he had imagined.

But then he thought again—an awakening skill couldn't be that useless—so his mind started racing, considering how to use this "Zhi Jie Li Chang."

"Defense function..."

Floating in the air, Xu Xiaoshou probed around his body.

With this force field protecting him, he probably didn't have to worry about sneak attacks anymore.

"Let me test it!"

He shot out a textile spirit thread, drew in the seventh-grade spirit sword with its notch, and unhesitatingly thrust it toward himself.

To his astonishment, a shocking scene unfolded.

"Clang, clang, clang..."

Intense, sharp sounds of weapons colliding rang out. The moment the seventh-grade spirit sword touched the "Zhi Jie Li Chang," its tip turned into iron scraps and flew off.

The sword's momentum didn't stop; it kept charging forward.

But it couldn't advance even a fraction of an inch before being completely swallowed by the thin membrane force field. The entire sword, including the guard and hilt, was shredded into iron scraps floating in the air.

The surroundings fell silent.

Xu Xiaoshou was stunned.

"This damn thing..."

He was genuinely startled!

With the "Zhi Jie Li Chang" active, even if it was just a thin membrane, his skin felt no pain from being stabbed at all.

That meant the seventh-grade spirit sword had been completely pulverized before it could pierce the force field?

"A human-shaped scrap metal machine?"

Xu Xiaoshou jumped up in excitement.

But as soon as he did, without any resistance, his feet went straight through the mattress and bed board. He didn't even feel the touch of the stone floor beneath, as if he were about to fall into hell.

A strong sense of weightlessness hit him, and Xu Xiaoshou quickly steadied himself.

He looked at the heart-shaped butt imprint on the bed where the mattress had a huge hole, and the smaller holes where his feet had pierced the bed board, completely frozen in place.

"It went through?"

"No!"

"It's because the 'Feng Li Zhi Guang' in the force field is cutting, turning the mattress and bed board into powder, creating the penetration effect."

"And since even a seventh-grade spirit sword couldn't withstand the cutting power of the 'Zhi Jie Li Chang,' how could the floor?"

"So..."

Xu Xiaoshou thought numbly, "So I've become a human-shaped tunnel boring machine?"

This discovery completely overturned his understanding of "Zhi Jie Li Chang."

This wasn't just a defense skill—it was also an offensive god-tier move!

"The membrane..."

Yes, the force field was only a thin layer.

The "Feng Li Zhi Guang" was also semi-transparent, almost invisible if not looked at carefully.

More importantly, even when "Zhi Jie Li Chang" caused damage, its control over power was incredibly precise.

It wasn't like a large destructive machine that would shatter everything around while hitting a point.

Instead...

Xu Xiaoshou looked at the bed board pierced by his feet; the cut edges were exceptionally smooth, perfectly aligned with the force field.

The surrounding mattress, aside from the scattered fragments, didn't even have a wrinkle.

"This is terrifying!"

Xu Xiaoshou thought deeply and shuddered. If he used a finger on an enemy's neck, wouldn't it pierce right through their throat?

As he thought this, he lifted his foot.

Whoosh—the mattress tore open a thigh-sized gash outward, while everything around remained undisturbed.

Xu Xiaoshou then pressed his hand into the mattress.

His fingers went straight through the bed board without any resistance.

Clearly, all obstacles had been cleared in advance by the "Zhi Jie Li Chang."

"High-frequency cutting, complete pulverization..."

Xu Xiaoshou's heart started pounding wildly.

He began walking, carefully using spiritual energy to hover just a fraction above the ground, letting the edge of the "Zhi Jie Li Chang" brush against the floor.

Walking like this, the ground remained completely unaffected, not even stirring any dust.

But when he sank back to his normal walking posture...

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle...

The ground quickly left shallow footprints.

"Absolute cutting!"

Xu Xiaoshou was thrilled.

He instinctively looked toward the wall and started walking that way, but halfway, he suddenly realized a very practical problem.

"What about clothes?"

"Can clothes ignore the 'Zhi Jie Li Chang'?"

Xu Xiaoshou was glad he thought of this first.

Since he was used to sleeping naked, he didn't have to worry about clothes right now, but this was uncertain!

The "Zhi Jie Li Chang" extended from his skin—if it treated clothing as an external object and cut it directly...

He decided to act on it immediately!

Xu Xiaoshou turned off the "Zhi Jie Li Chang," put on a set of clothes, and then activated the awakening skill again.

Sizzle.

In an instant, his skin felt the air's temperature.

The clothes were all shredded!

"Damn, indiscriminate attack?"

Xu Xiaoshou was frustrated.

He tried again, using spiritual energy to slightly expand the clothes this time, and it succeeded—the clothes weren't cut.

But...

Sizzle!

When he stepped toward the wall, as expected, the wall and its barrier were sliced through like tofu, but the hem of his clothes was also compressed and instantly turned to scraps.

Now Xu Xiaoshou froze in place.

"This isn't right—if I activate this force field in a fight, won't the enemy get an eyeful first?"

He didn't rush to go through the wall but stood there thinking.

"Can the 'Zhi Jie Li Chang' detach from the body?"

With a thought...

The force field expanded, and the ground under his feet turned to dust in an instant, creating a hemispherical pit with an incredibly smooth edge.

"One zhang!"

Xu Xiaoshou instantly understood.

The force field could extend up to one zhang at most—which meant...

"An absolute domain within a one-zhang radius?"

Xu Xiaoshou's pupils shrank. He was only at the innate stage!

As an innate cultivator, he already had something like a Wang Zuo domain within one zhang?

Another thought...

Soon, the force field covering his body began to change, all gathering onto his right hand, then transforming in his palm into a sword as thin as a cicada's wing, almost invisible.

Force field shaping!

This force field domain could even change forms!

It could attach outside clothing, turn into an invisible sword, or...

Sizzle!

With a spread of his hand, the force field contracted, forming a transparent sphere in his palm.

"A world in the palm..." Xu Xiaoshou murmured absentmindedly.

This wasn't quite like the legendary "Palm Buddha Kingdom" with its ability to contain a mustard seed world, but in a certain way, it had become another world.

A world that could devour an enemy's soul and destroy everything in its path!

"Awesome..."

Xu Xiaoshou was completely impressed by this awakening skill.

He no longer had to worry about the force field shredding his clothes.

Because it wouldn't harm anything outside the force field—as long as he controlled it skillfully, the force field could even cling to his clothes and shift with their movements.

That way, when he wanted to show off, Xu Xiaoshou's clothes could move too!

"Too strong, too strong."

"Absolute defense, absolute domain..."

"I just wonder what the limit of attacks it can withstand is?"

Xu Xiaoshou pondered this, but he still realized that even if an attack got through the "Zhi Jie Li Chang," the damage would likely be reduced to nothing.

And if his passive skills couldn't handle the rest...

Then it would only mean his opponent was at the Zhan Dao or Tai Xu level.

In that case, with such an absolute strength gap, there was no hope anyway.

"Overpowered, ridiculously overpowered..."

"This awakening skill is just too unreasonable!"

Since he was constantly monitoring his spiritual energy consumption, Xu Xiaoshou could clearly tell that activating and maintaining the force field didn't use any spiritual energy at all.

And when it took damage...

Well, that was equivalent to when it damaged the ground—there was only a negligible consumption of spiritual energy.

Xu Xiaoshou guessed that the "Zhi Jie Li Chang" consumed spiritual energy based on the intensity of the attacks it received.

In other words, as long as he wasn't being attacked, he could keep the force field on all the time to prevent sneak attacks.

"No way."

"This is a bit dangerous..."

Xu Xiaoshou suddenly thought—if he kept the force field on and a good friend wanted to shake his hand...

What if their hand got cut off?

How would that work?

"For enemies!"

"Yes, just activate it for enemies. People in this world are polite—they'd give a courteous hug before fighting, and that would be fine."

Xu Xiaoshou stroked his chin and nodded repeatedly. "Yes, activate the force field during the hug, expand it out and retract it, and the fight's over before it starts—the person would be gone."

His emotions surged, hard to contain.

Thinking about it this way, Xu Xiaoshou felt this awakening skill was too insane.

Completely unavoidable!

If he activated the force field while in his raging giant form...

"Hiss!"

Xu Xiaoshou shivered with a chill. "Inhuman, absolutely inhuman!"

He didn't even dare think further.

This awakening skill was utterly merciless.

Just then, outside the wall that Xu Xiaoshou had pierced with his foot, two dark eyes suddenly appeared.

"Who?"

Xu Xiaoshou alertly looked over.

"What's going on?"

Xin Gugu, who had been squatting outside the wall, lifted his head, looking at the smooth, elliptical hole where the wall met the ground, a bit puzzled.

As far as he remembered, Xu Xiaoshou's house didn't have this hole...

Not dwelling on it, he went to the door and knocked.

Xu Xiaoshou opened the door, and Xin Gugu stepped inside. "You're out!"

"What came out?" Xu Xiaoshou asked.

"The interrogation!" Xin Gugu widened his eyes. "Didn't you tell me to question those two guys?"

Xu Xiaoshou suddenly remembered—it was about those two night attackers.

"What did you find out?"

"Nothing."

Xin Gugu shook his head. Seeing Xu Xiaoshou's expression change, he quickly added, "Those two are tough, but I did beat their true forms out of them. One is from the Jiang family—the arrogant guy from that day who mocked our 'Tian Shang Di Yi Lou'... Jiang Tai?"

He paused, clearly spotting the hemispherical pit behind Xu Xiaoshou.

What was that...

He remembered not seeing it when he moved the bed earlier!

"This is?"

Xin Gugu pointed at the pit in the ground, then glanced back at the small hole in the wall—they had the same nature, with exceptionally smooth edges.

Xu Xiaoshou stepped aside—such a big hole, his small frame couldn't hide it anyway.

"Training," he replied.

"Training?" Xin Gugu's eyelid twitched.

From where Xu Xiaoshou had moved, he could also see a smooth gash on the bed board.

"This is from training?" he asked in shock. "You alone managed to train the bed like this? The bed's destroyed and you still wouldn't stop, even training with the floor..."

Xu Xiaoshou smacked Xin Gugu hard on the head.

Of course, he had turned off the force field for that.

Xin Gugu was speechless.

He clutched his head, staring dumbfounded at Xu Xiaoshou, who had somehow trained the bed board and floor into this state, and couldn't voice the wicked thoughts in his mind.

"Get me a new bed board tomorrow!"

With his secret discovered, Xu Xiaoshou had no mood left for more awakenings. "Let's go, check on those two guys first."

Xin Gugu looked miserable.

This was a new bed board! He had just moved it in, and it hadn't even lasted a day...

"Oh, right."

As Xu Xiaoshou reached the door, he turned back and asked, "You can regenerate from a drop of blood, right?"

"What?" Xin Gugu was stunned.

"Your hand."

Xu Xiaoshou extended his hand toward him. "We've known each other so long, but we never shook hands?"

Xin Gugu felt something off deep down, but looking at Xu Xiaoshou's outstretched hand, he couldn't think of anything inappropriate. He just thought this guy was getting sentimental like him in the middle of the night.

So Xin Gugu hesitated and extended his hand, and Xu Xiaoshou grasped it.

The next second...

"Ah—"

A piercing scream echoed through the entire Tian Shang Di Yi Lou, even making Mei Si Ren in his room startled.

"Enemy attack?"