"Are you setting a trap for me to walk right into my own death?" Jeremy’s face darkened, murderous intent erupting as he roughly choked the demon’s neck once more.
"Ah ah ah ah ah!" The phantom screamed and struggled hopelessly: "Big Boss, I swear I’m not lying to you! It’s just that the magic beasts have been entering their reproductive cycle lately, which is why I’m so sure! According to my observations over the years, whenever mating season comes, it will drag its body out of the cave for about a week. During that time, the cliff is empty!"
"..."
Jeremy maintained his cold expression, his dagger-sharp gaze staring at it for a long while. The invisible pressure radiating from the red-haired youth made the phantom feel as if it were being choked to the point of breathlessness... even though in reality, a spiritual entity like it didn’t damn well need to breathe.
"I... I swear on this very soul that I am not bullshitting!" The phantom gritted its teeth and added, desperately trying to cling to its last bit of sincerity.
The corner of Jeremy’s lips suddenly curled into a dangerous arc: "Alright, then you lead the way."
The phantom: "... Actually, that magic beast won’t start leaving until tomorrow."
Jeremy sneered: "I knew your mongrel kind wouldn’t have a single trustworthy sentence." He immediately tightened the chain.
"Eek! I was wrong! Spare me! This time I swear I won’t hide half a word! I swear it!"
Jeremy narrowed his eyes slightly to assess. Judging by its current trembling like a wet dog, it really didn’t look like it was playing tricks. But what the truth was, in this world fraught with lies, could absolutely not be trusted a hundred percent.
After a few seconds of fleeting consideration, Jeremy decisively summoned a spatial magic barrier for soul imprisonment, throwing it straight in without hesitation.
"You just obediently rot inside my sea of consciousness. I won’t let you out until I verify that you didn’t deceive me."
"Tch." The phantom let out a small, highly displeased snort. But when it caught Jeremy’s sweeping gaze, it immediately flipped its attitude, putting on an obedient facade to play along: "Got it, got it, rest assured Big Boss, I guarantee every word I spit out is the truth!"
Jeremy lazily couldn’t be bothered to manage it anymore. The goal of tempering his spiritual power threshold by forcing himself to face the darkness had been achieved; lingering in this consciousness space any longer would yield no benefit. He regulated his magic power flow, preparing to force his consciousness to return to his physical body.
The exact moment Jeremy snapped his eyes open, what hit his vision straight on was Lucius’s flawless, zero-bad-angle face.
It was just that... on his pale cheek, a bright red, five-fingered slap mark was clearly imprinted.
And Jeremy’s hand was still maintaining the posture of pressing tightly against the other party’s face.
Jeremy was stunned for half a second: "?" What the hell was this?
Inside the sea of consciousness, the instigating voice of the phantom immediately rang out in defense: "Hey hey, it’s not my fault! Just now in the illusion, your emotions erupted so violently that I completely lost control of your physical body. You were in there frantically wanting to slap that little brat, while on the outside this silver-haired guy actually dared to stick his face close, and so it turned into this farce."
Jeremy: "..."
The one he wanted to chop into a hundred pieces was that brat Amber, the damn butler, and those garbage aristocratic youths, not this freakish teammate!
Jeremy embarrassedly withdrew his hand, the corner of his lips pressing slightly, immediately dropping a dry apology: "My apologies. Just now, with my physical body controlled by the phantom, my consciousness was completely chaotic, and I acted involuntarily."
The implication was incredibly clear: This resounding slap was a side effect of that damn phantom, completely not his personal intention.
Inside the sea of consciousness, the phantom sneered.
It was clearly your own brutal nature erupting that accounted for half the cause, and now you plan to pin all the blame on my head? Haha, you humans truly are the most deceitful, lying creatures in the world!
The stinging, burning pain on his cheek was real; it was clearly apparent yet brought an incredibly unfamiliar sensation to Lucius. The red-haired youth’s apology ringing in his ear right now sounded so noisy and ridiculous.
"... It really is the first time in my life I’ve experienced the feeling of getting slapped."
Lucius lowered his long eyelashes slightly, concealing the freezing, murderous glint that darted through the depths of his phoenix eyes. But when the eyelashes lifted, that dangerous look had completely vanished, replaced by the familiar, gentle, harmless smile: "But as long as you wake up safely, Captain, that’s all that matters."
It was unclear whether Jeremy’s hand unconsciously struck too hard, or if Lucius’s skin was excessively sensitive, but the purple bruise on his cheek stood out frighteningly clearly.
After all, he was the one who hit him, and Jeremy rarely felt a bit of guilt. He quickly took out a box of healing ointment from his spatial ring and handed it over: "Sorry. Consider it my compensation, apply some of this medicine."
Lucius had no intention of reaching out to take the medicine box. The smile on his lips grew even more bewitching, his clear tone carrying a deadly teasing note: "If you apply the medicine for me yourself, Captain, this slap will be considered forgiven. What do you say, Captain?"
"Alright." Applying medicine to a superficial wound was no difficult task; Jeremy casually accepted the deal. After all, he was the instigator, while the other party was collateral damage.
Thinking of collateral damage... Jeremy cast his eyes around searching for the figures of his three remaining teammates.
As soon as his gaze swept over, he discovered that those three guys—Leon, Evelyn, and Phoenix—had simultaneously retreated all the way up to the high tree branches far away ages ago, watching the show with extreme composure.
It seemed the slap earlier was aimed solely at Lucius, and those guys had slipped away faster than lightning.
"Why did you choose the crazy method of voluntarily dismantling your defenses to let the phantom invade your body directly, Captain?" Lucius’s deep, warm voice pulled Jeremy’s attention back. His phoenix eyes narrowed slightly, pinned tightly on the person opposite him: "Do you know that you completely lost consciousness and were controlled by that entity for a full hour?"
Jeremy withdrew his gaze, casually replying while using his finger to scoop a bit of the transparent ointment:
"Isn’t the third training lesson called raising the spiritual power limit? And the innate attribute of these phantoms strikes directly at the consciousness nerve. That’s why I thought borrowing their very mind-corrosion to force the brain to increase its endurance is the most direct method."
Lucius slowly drew out his words: "For you to risk your life to this extent just to enhance your power, Captain, it makes a teammate like me suddenly feel a bit ashamed of my own leisurely pace."
"Is that so? Then from now on, you just focus on my back and learn a lot more about this death-defying spirit." Jeremy replied extremely blandly. As he spoke, he raised his hand, his index finger lightly swiping the cool ointment onto Lucius’s swollen red cheek.
Because the distance was shortened, the faint rose fragrance emanating from Jeremy’s natal Holy Artifact became incredibly distinct. The slight coolness from the ointment spread over the skin, followed by a dry, firm, yet equally supple touch from the youth’s fingertips.
"..."
Lucius’s entire body tensed slightly, instinctively wanting to tilt his head to dodge this overly intimate touch.
Jeremy’s hand paused in mid-air. He frowned, looking at the other party: "Was my hand too heavy and hurt you?"
"... It does hurt a bit." Lucius immediately grabbed Jeremy’s wrist, the grip just strong enough to brush his hand away, curling his lips into a smile: "I was just joking earlier, I’m not petty enough to hold a grudge against an unconscious person. Just let me handle it myself."
Lucius didn’t leave Jeremy a chance to retort, directly snatching the medicine box from his hand, casually swiping a few strokes on his face extremely perfunctorily as if merely going through the motions.
"Can you just give me this medicine box as a gift?" He suddenly asked.
It was just a basic healing potion; Jeremy naturally wouldn’t be petty enough to ask for it back: "Up to you."
Lucius smiled: "Thank you, great Captain~ When we drag ourselves back to the academy, I will prepare a worthy grand gift to repay this favor."
Jeremy waved his hand blandly: "Stop playing around, it’s just a cheap box of ointment."
Lucius did not reply, only silently maintaining the familiar sarcastic smile on his lips.
Right at this moment, Evelyn’s figure leaped heavily from a towering tree branch onto the damp root-covered ground. She strode over in front of Jeremy, her flat voice cutting straight to the point: "Captain, does that method of forcing phantom possession really have the effect of fortifying spiritual power?"
This was nothing worth hiding or keeping as a private secret technique; Jeremy nodded in admission: "It does have an effect. But because the phantom I chose hovered only around level one, a realm too weak compared to my current magic power level, the pressure generated wasn’t enough to force my nerve limits to break through as expected."
When he was first inside the illusion, he hadn’t felt a distinct change. But the moment his consciousness returned and merged with his physical body, Jeremy could accurately perceive that the resilience and reflex capability of his will had been enhanced by a margin. This proved that his crazy tactic was completely feasible.
Leon also jumped down from the tree. Seeing that Jeremy’s condition was completely stable and he no longer looked like a lunatic swinging his blade wildly, he then walked closer, raising an eyebrow to ask: "In other words, if we catch a phantom with a higher realm than ourselves to possess our bodies, the generated nervous pressure will be amplified, and the fortification effect will skyrocket exponentially?"
"Based on current logic, that conclusion can be drawn." Jeremy calmly analyzed, but to prevent these teammates from going crazy and playing suicide, he still had to add:
"But everything comes with a price. Aside from completely losing control of the physical body, the practitioner’s consciousness will be forcibly dragged into the abyss of the darkest illusion, or forced to confront their most horrific past psychological traumas directly.
If one’s willpower is not stubborn enough to tear apart the illusion and awaken, then not only will they fail to fortify their strength, but the risk of their spiritual power shattering and becoming a soulless shell is extremely high. As for other side effects... I’ve only just used my body to test it for the first time, I cannot foresee all the complications yet."
Upon hearing the phrase "test it for the first time," the four people standing around all fell speechless.
They thought this captain must possess some secret nerve-tempering technique, or had prior experience dealing with spiritual entities to dare risk his life doing that trick. It turned out, he simply threw his little life out there to bet on a game of chance?
This guy was truly an insane lunatic!
Lucius tilted his head slightly, the red outer corners of his eyes flashing: "Captain... are you truly not afraid that you will collapse and be trapped forever in that pile of garbage illusions?"
"What’s there to be afraid of." Jeremy’s aura was freezing cold, his tone confident to the point of arrogance: "If I cannot break through the psychological barrier to awaken on my own, I still have a backup plan of using bursting magic power to forcibly break the seal from the inside. Accepting a little backlash damage is fine. In short, this method is only for those who are certain of victory; it is not recommended for those with weak psychologies to treat their lives as a joke."
Evelyn stood in silent thought for a few seconds. Her emerald eyes, like autumn water, locked tightly onto Jeremy’s face, her tone as resolute as driving a nail: "Captain, I want to try."
Jeremy had clearly analyzed the strengths, weaknesses, as well as the fatal risks of this method. The fact that Evelyn proactively requested it proved she was confident enough in her own capabilities. He had no right, nor any reason, to hinder a teammate’s evolution.
"Alright. I will stand guard for you here." Jeremy agreed decisively: "If after two hours you still show no signs of waking up, I will intervene to forcibly wake you."
"Understood. Thank you, Captain."
Evelyn nodded slightly, then decisively took long strides toward a light blue magic positioning thread glowing faintly in the space.
Jeremy’s sharp gaze swept over that positioning thread. Based on the intensity of the magic power color, that phantom was estimated to be hovering at the boundary of level two. Its spiritual realm was significantly superior to Evelyn’s current Novice six-star magic power level.
Clearly, this stoic-faced girl also harbored an extreme ruthlessness and strictness within herself when it came to tempering her own strength.
The moment Evelyn proactively disabled her protective shield, allowing the phantom remnant to pierce into her chest, Jeremy once again witnessed the horrifying sensation of the body’s joints being broken and twisted unnaturally.
Exactly like his trajectory earlier, after just a short three minutes, under the phantom’s invasion, Evelyn’s physical body completely lost control, spasming and forming horrific, distorted postures.
Maintaining that terrifying twisted state for a full five minutes, her body finally stopped struggling.
This meant that Evelyn Vael’s consciousness had been completely dragged into the phantom’s dark world.