Chapter 1287 Not satisfied

The scorching sandstorm lashed against the invisible barrier, emitting a muffled wail. Qian Jie, in a fit of rage, slammed his fist into the transparent barrier before him, its golden patterns flowing across its surface. The force, powerful enough to shatter mountains, only caused a few shallow ripples on the barrier's surface before it returned to its original state. The raging flames surrounding him couldn't even raise the temperature of the surrounding air by an inch.

"This damned shell!" Qian Jie growled, suppressing his rage. His pupils, hidden beneath the mask, seemed to see the figure far away at the center of the barrier. "Open the door!"

Kosmo stood a short distance away. He tried to extend his senses towards the barrier, but the instant he touched its surface, he was repelled by an absolute "rejection" and "invalidation." This was not only a physical barrier, but also a conceptual isolation. "She's refusing to let us in."

Sakura stood motionless like a statue, clutching her sword, her gaze piercing through the barrier with a hint of worry. "Li..." she whispered softly. She felt an instinctive apprehension towards the bizarre way the Herrschers of Restraint in this era wielded their power of "restraint."

Alicia arrived as well, her signature bright smile unusually absent, her pink eyes filled with worry and contemplation. "Oh dear, this is truly... completely excluded." She reached out a finger, gently touching the barrier, feeling the absolute power of "negation." "She's uninterested in everyone except Amethyst. Is it because she doesn't want to be involved, or... does she think we're 'not worthy' of being enemies?"

The "binding barrier" shouldn't normally prevent entities from entering; it primarily targets energy and authority. But at this moment, Chu Xia meticulously manipulated the barrier's rules, adding the instruction to "reject specific life signals." This was a manifestation of her expanded application of authority, and it clearly conveyed a signal: this was a matter between her and Zi Jing.

She wasn't protecting those outside the barrier out of kindness, but simply out of cold logic—Amethyst wouldn't stand idly by while her friends were in danger. If the external situation spurred him on, it might force him to break through the "silence" at any cost, which would interfere with her test and could even trigger unplanned conflicts. Strictly limiting the battlefield to just the two of them was the most "economical" and "controllable" solution.

Inside the barrier, Zijing had just used the slope of a sand dune to lure two Temple-level Honkai Beasts into a collision, taking the opportunity to escape the encirclement. His breathing was somewhat rapid, and sweat beaded on his forehead. Relying solely on physical strength and skill to maneuver for so long had taken a considerable toll on his body.

Just then, a strange sense of stagnation suddenly descended.

It wasn't external pressure, but rather the very concept of "movement" itself that bound him, as if he were bound by invisible shackles. His brain continued to issue the command to "move," and nerve signals transmitted normally, but his muscles were like insects frozen in amber, completely unable to execute the command. He remained frozen in place, frozen in the posture he had been in moments before, with his knees slightly bent and ready to move to the side.

"Mobility... is 'restricted'." Zijing thought with a chill. This was by no means the usual "energy nullification" or "weakening of all abilities within the domain" of the Herrscher of Binding as recorded in the records, but a more precise and targeted concept of deprivation—directly denying the "possibility" of "Zijing" as an individual to "move".

(Has her control and expansion of power reached this point?)

As the Honkai Beasts roared and charged forward again, their claws and fangs about to strike her unavoidable body, Amethyst's eyes calmed. Being unable to move didn't mean she was helpless.

He closed his eyes, not to give up, but to immerse himself completely in the "silent" depths of his body. At the core of power, frozen by absolute rules, a faint yet incredibly tenacious will to "understand" and "imitate" was ignited.

The essence of the new binding power is to "define rules and deny exceptions." Therefore, the most direct way to resist this "denial" against oneself is not to use stronger force to brute force it, but rather... to become part of the "rules," or to create a "denial" rule that is equivalent to it.

Zijing's mental power began to operate with unprecedented precision. He did not attempt to directly awaken his sealed powers, but instead used them as "raw materials" and "templates" to "imitate" and "reconstruct" the rule fluctuations of "constrained movement" currently acting on him at the microscopic level.

Like the most sophisticated reverse engineering, it analyzes, disassembles, and understands the conceptual framework and energy weaving method that constitute "negation of movement." Then, using its own "dormant" yet still existing source of power as thread, it attempts to weave a similar framework, but with the opposite object of action—"negation of 'negation of movement'."

This process is as fast as lightning at the mental level, and only a moment passes in reality.

Just as the Honkai Beast's claws were about to touch his clothes—

hum!

A faint, almost invisible purple halo flickered around Zijing, which quickly transformed into a layer of pale golden ripples that shared the same origin as the Early Summer Barrier but flowed in the opposite direction.

"Click..."

It was as if an invisible chain had been unlocked by another identical key. Amethyst's body felt lighter, and his frozen muscles regained control! In the blink of an eye, he leaned backward, several sharp claws whistling past his nose, while simultaneously pushing off the ground with both legs, sliding back several meters and widening the distance once again.

He successfully mimicked and partially countered Chu Xia's "movement constraint"! Although it was only a temporary and small-scale countermeasure, and it consumed a lot of his mental energy and a portion of the stability of his "dormant" power, it did prove that this method was feasible.

More importantly, this process caused his "dormant" powers to loosen slightly due to the intense "imitation and reconstruction" activity. A faint power seeped out from the ice, which, although far from enough to fight against the entire barrier, slightly reduced his physical fatigue and sharpened his senses.

Suspended in mid-air, early summer also witnessed the entire process of amethyst resolving the "movement constraint".

(Imitation? No, it's a deeper level of "understanding" and "reconstruction." Even when one's own power is completely suppressed, one can still analyze the mode of operation of restrictive powers and carry out targeted conceptual-level cancellation... Indeed, the potential of another "me" should not be underestimated.)

But that's not enough. What she wants to test is the theoretical upper limit of this "constraint" power, especially its in-depth application to the "existence of a specific individual".

So she adjusted the output again.

This time, without any warning, the world before Zijing's eyes suddenly faded, lost its sound, and vanished from all smell and touch. Sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch... all external sensory signals were instantly stripped away. Not only that, but even her sense of time, sense of space, and even her awareness of "self" began to blur and fade. Thinking became stagnant, fragments of memory drifted erratically, and even the concept of "existence" represented by the name "Zijing" seemed to be shrouded in a thick veil, becoming thin and distant.

He stood frozen in place, motionless, like a sculpture that had lost its soul. Even his breathing and heartbeat were so weak as to be almost stopped; his life activities had been reduced to the bare minimum to maintain existence.

This is not an attack, but a deeper "constraint"—constraining its ability to perceive the world, constraining its ability to think and judge, and ultimately, constraining its distinctiveness as an independent and active "existence." It diminishes it from a "participant" to a "background," and reduces it from a "target" to an "object."

The surrounding Honkai Beasts stopped moving. They lost their target and wandered around aimlessly, their growls gradually subsiding.

Early Summer descended slowly from the sky, silently approaching Amethyst. She tilted her head slightly, her golden eyes scanning the seemingly lifeless body before her.

A few seconds later, she shook her head almost imperceptibly.

"Not satisfied."

She could sense that deep within that almost completely "diluted" core of existence, a faint yet incredibly tenacious "light" remained unconstrained. That "light" was not some specific power or authority, but rather an anchor of absolute "self-awareness" and "waiting for the right moment." It did not resist the current constraints, but simply existed quietly, like the molten core deep within a dormant volcano.

If she were to order the Honkai Beasts to attack at this moment, or personally attempt to completely annihilate the body, then that spark of "light" would instantly awaken and erupt, breaking through the current constraints in a way she couldn't fully predict. At that point, the test would devolve into a true life-or-death struggle, and the result would likely be mutually destructive, or even trigger a chain reaction beyond her control.

"Even 'myself' can't completely solve this problem in this state... So, how much of a chance do I have against those 'gods' who truly reside above the rules?"

Her test revealed the limits of her current power and also demonstrated the difficulty of dealing with her target. This meticulously designed "trial by fire" did not yield the clear and overwhelming answer she had hoped for. Amethyst is like a bottomless abyss; you never know how many hidden currents lie beneath its calm surface.

She slowly raised her hand, and the surrounding Honkai Beasts, as if receiving a command, transformed into Honkai energy particles and dissipated in the sandstorm. The golden barrier remained stable, but she temporarily ceased applying deeper layers of restraint.

An eerie silence reigned both inside and outside the barrier. Inside, a sculpture stood frozen in time, accompanied by a silent girl; outside, a crowd of anxious but helpless individuals gathered. This trial, concerning the limits of the power of "restraint" and individual potential, had temporarily reached a stalemate, and the initiative seemed to still lie in the hands of the golden-eyed girl.