The great Dao condensed into an arrow, surrounded by a ball of fire, it shone with dazzling splendor in space.
"Roar!"
The gray bear demon roared in fear, its pupils reflecting the arrow in Xu Mu's hand.
It heard the bow's laughter and sensed the power contained within the arrow.
A power that could easily destroy it.
Relatively speaking, that was the true demon.
Thus, out of fear, the gray bear's charging body suddenly stopped. Its limbs stiffened, trying to stand, but due to inertia, it continued to tumble forward.
"Rumble!"
After a series of flailing, countless trees were destroyed. The gray bear demon finally managed to stabilize itself. It cast one last glance at the arrow in Xu Mu's hand, then turned and began to flee for its life.
It was certain that this arrow could kill it.
And it was at this moment that Xu Mu let go.
"Bang!"
His finger released the bowstring, the resonant hum like an earthquake. With an explosion, the arrow of Dao law, wrapped in fire, shot out, a long trail of fiery shockwaves illuminating the space and striking the gray bear demon.
"Crack!"
Its thick hide, capable of withstanding the attacks of seven or eight superhumans, offered no resistance to this arrow and was instantly pierced.
"Boom!"
The Dao arrow exploded within the gray bear demon's body, its terrifying energy instantly shredding its internal organs. The gray bear demon's body swelled into a massive balloon from the heat.
Xu Mu's face was pale. He hid behind a tree, worried that the gray bear demon's body would explode due to the excess energy.
The power of such an explosion would surely be no less than the explosives he had planted before.
"Hiss..."
Fortunately, the gray bear demon's body did not explode but slowly deflated.
Disgusting green demon blood, along with overflowing Dao energy, spurted from the opening created by the arrow. The gray bear demon's body deflated like a balloon and only calmed down completely after a long while.
Calm meant completely dead.
Xu Mu pinched his nose and stepped forward, carefully examining the gray bear demon's corpse. Once he confirmed it was truly dead, he began to worry.
This gray bear was too large and too conspicuous. If discovered by other contestants, it would easily expose his strength.
Anyone with a discerning eye might even link it to Xu Mu, which would be truly terrible. Therefore, he had to find a place to hide the gray demon's corpse.
But it was so large, where could he hide it?
Xu Mu frowned, his face pale. He opened his map and found a cave inhabited by a third-stage great demon about fifteen miles away. Jiang Sheng and the others had also run from this direction initially.
"It seems that's its den."
Xu Mu put away the demon bow and used the innate Bagua technique to summon frost, freezing the gray bear demon's wounds to prevent its blood from flowing out.
After completing this, Xu Mu grabbed the bear demon's paw and slowly walked towards its den along the path it had forged.
This journey took three hours.
As the sun began to set and Xu Mu's stamina neared its end, he finally arrived at the gray bear demon's cave.
Xu Mu casually threw the corpse inside the cave and then, exhausted, collapsed onto the ground.
His expression was listless, as the shot from the demon bow had almost instantly drained him of his superpowers. The bow seemed truly like a demon, only by "consuming" his superpowers could it condense arrows.
Under such circumstances, he had then dragged a tens-of-tons bear for three hours with his injured body, naturally leading to utter exhaustion.
Xu Mu lay on the ground, drenched in sweat, resembling a fish that had leaped ashore and was dying under the sun, its mouth agape, gasping for air.
"It's been a long time since I've been this tired since the night I awakened my superpowers," Xu Mu said after a long while, having recovered slightly. He sat up with a weary smile.
"If I were you, I wouldn't go to all the trouble of dragging this bear back. What if someone found out?" Charles said dismissively, believing Xu Mu was simply making things difficult for himself.
Because it was highly likely that those outside the Misty Void Realm had already witnessed Xu Mu shooting the gray bear demon. Doing these things now was meaningless.
"You can't say that. I've tried my best to avoid being seen by people outside, and after all, not many of them know me," Xu Mu replied with a smile, then continued to argue, "And even if they did, it wouldn't matter as long as the contestants don't know."
"Especially Ye Gong of the Ye family. If he knew how monstrous this bow and arrow of mine were in advance, he might just crush his jade slip and run away."
As Xu Mu spoke, he lit a torch and began to examine the gray bear demon's cave.
Logically, these demon beasts that had achieved sentience would hoard some treasures. Bears were also inherently greedy, so he believed there must be something valuable here.
Charles remained silent, and Xu Mu searched with focus. Soon, he made a discovery.
"Click!"
Xu Mu opened a dilapidated wooden chest and found the spirit herbs the bear demon had collected over the years, as well as some strange magical artifacts and treasures.
For instance, discarded weapons and magical treasures left behind by cultivators, none of which were of low grade.
"It wasn't a wasted trip," Xu Mu nodded calmly and put all the items into his spatial ring.
However, during this process, he discovered a black, rectangular card-like object that he couldn't put into his spatial ring.
Xu Mu was stunned. He thought it was due to his weakness, so he took a deep breath and tried to put the object into his spatial ring again, but it failed once more.
"Oh?" Xu Mu raised an eyebrow. He had never encountered such a situation before.
From the most ordinary ironware to sacred relics, demon god horns, demon bows, or even dragon eggs and AK-47s, none of them had been an exception. Why couldn't this thing be stored?
Xu Mu narrowed his eyes and, using the torchlight, carefully observed the metal card, which appeared thin but was surprisingly heavy.
"It's very solid, makes a crisp sound when tapped, its surface is made of copper, not smooth, with many bumps and depressions..."
Xu Mu's gaze was serious. He fiddled with it back and forth, but after a long time, he still couldn't figure out what this card was.
"It's very strange. Charles, do you know what kind of magical artifact this is?" Xu Mu asked casually.
"Are you joking? I'm a robot, how could I possibly recognize a magical artifact?" Charles, who was meditating, replied grumpily. At the same time, he casually glanced outward.
And with that glance, he instantly became shocked.
"Whoosh!"
A stream of silvery-white data flowed out with a whoosh. Charles solidified into the shape of an old man, his expression shocked as he looked at the metal card in Xu Mu's hand and blurted out, "Where did you get this thing!"
"What's all the fuss about, you scared me!" Xu Mu was startled by Charles's sudden appearance and rolled his eyes at him. "It's just something from a bear demon, is it worth being so surprised?"
Charles, however, had no intention of bickering with Xu Mu. He just kept staring blankly at the card in Xu Mu's hand.
"It's a chip," Charles said after a moment of silence.
"What?" Xu Mu was confused, and then he quickly realized something.
Although he didn't recognize what the metal card was, Charles did. Therefore, this small card was likely some kind of high-tech weapon from Blue Star.
"Come on, tell me the truth. I'm mentally prepared!" Xu Mu looked at the metal card in his palm and licked his lips excitedly.
Judging by Charles's reaction, this thing was definitely not simple on Blue Star, possibly a powerful high-tech weapon capable of destroying the world. If he could control it, why worry about not being able to gather the eight Sacred Relics and decipher the secrets of the Apocalypse!
"I told you, I am the first and only artificial intelligence robot on Blue Star to awaken self-awareness," Charles said after a long period of silence, his expression complex. "And what you're holding is the chip that humans created to control me before I awakened my consciousness."
"This is my chip, containing all the knowledge I had on Blue Star. It's like another me."
"It's been damaged this badly, and you can still recognize it as you?" Xu Mu asked, holding up the chip, stunned.
"Even if it turned to ash, I would recognize it, because it accompanied me for many centuries," Charles said with emotion. "But since I awakened my self-awareness, the chip became useless, because I could already think independently and possessed a soul, no longer needing technological control."
"Alright, then why can't this thing be put into the spatial ring?" Xu Mu shrugged, somewhat disappointed, as he had originally thought it was some kind of weapon, but it turned out to be another Charles.
Even if it was high technology from Blue Star, it shouldn't be impossible to store it.
After all, the guns, cannons, and gunpowder instruments developed later were all stored without issue.
"This is also why I'm so surprised, or rather, shocked," Charles took a deep breath and then looked at Xu Mu with a solemn expression. "Host, why did you leave Qiongqi outside?"
"Because I couldn't bring it in," Xu Mu replied truthfully, clicking his tongue. He naturally wanted to bring Qiongqi in. Having a fourth-stage divine beast as an assistant would allow him to traverse freely here, with no need to worry about any danger.
But the problem was that Qiongqi couldn't get in. When entering this secret realm, the powerful beings of the four great families would be closely watching every contestant. Under the superposition of countless domains, Qiongqi's demonic aura could not be concealed, so it had to stay away.
"Then why didn't you put it into your spatial ring and bring it in?" Charles asked again.
"Put it into my spatial ring?" Xu Mu repeated the question in astonishment, then replied with a strange expression, "Because spatial rings can't store living things, and Qiongqi is a living demon!"
"So, do you understand now why this chip can't be stored?" Charles looked at Xu Mu, his expression solemn. "Because it's alive!"
"Alive?"
"Yes, alive," Charles sighed and slowly said, "Since I am the first, artificial intelligence robot to awaken autonomous consciousness, then the chip that controls my mechanical body, after my divine soul leaves, can naturally awaken autonomous consciousness."
"It now has both a soul and an independent body. It can be considered a complete individual, which is why it cannot be stored in your spatial ring."
"Independent consciousness, huh?" Xu Mu looked at the chip in his hand with curiosity and tried to communicate with it using his divine soul, but received no response.
"Idiot, it's not like me, living in your head. It's just a soul with autonomous thought, not a divine soul from your world!" Charles said grumpily.
"Then how do I communicate with it?" Xu Mu asked awkwardly.
"As I said before, you need to create a mechanical body for it," Charles pondered for a moment and then said, "With the chip, ninety-nine percent of the process is complete. You only need to do some simple processing next."
"You say it's simple, but I don't believe you," Xu Mu sneered, put the chip in his inner pocket, then extinguished the torch and slowly walked out of the cave.
"We'll talk about the chip after the preliminaries. The most important thing now is Ye Gong of the Ye family," Xu Mu said with a solemn expression after taking a nourishing pill. "We can't let him become the second Ji Chang."
"What are you worried about? Even if he breaks through to the third stage, he won't be able to defeat you. You have two Sacred Relics, and if all else fails, there's still him," Charles said casually. He had witnessed the actions of Gray-White Eyes during this period. After experiencing two near-death experiences and one epiphany, his progress had been rapid, and he was already on the verge of becoming a Domain Lord.
"Gray-White Eyes is, in a way, my enemy," Xu Mu said after a moment of silence. "He hasn't been competing for control of my body during this time because he's been in seclusion. Once his seclusion ends, we might return to our previous mode of interaction."
"Of course, you know, that guy's goals go far beyond that."
As Xu Mu spoke, he looked at the dim forest before him and walked into it silently.
Even someone as powerful as Gray-White Eyes had to go into seclusion in the Heavenly Palace for so long after being defeated twice to recover.
But what if it were him? What if he were in mortal danger, on the brink of death, and forced to summon that guy to save him, how long would he have to recuperate in seclusion?
And while he was recuperating, if Gray-White Eyes, instead of being more severely injured than before, took control of his body in his absence, what would be the consequences?
Would he... be trapped in the Heavenly Palace forever, unable to come out?