Chapter 522: Transformation

Chen Ling had been targeted by the Celestial Wolf once before, so he naturally understood the terror of this domain.

Once observed by that void wolf's eye, not only would his physical functions drastically decline, but he would also be unable to escape unless he fled the domain's range, ultimately being hunted to death.

During this process, Nie Yu would have a complete grasp of his every move, as if possessing a 'heavenly eye', granting him a 'god's-eye view' of the hunting ground.

Chen Ling knew clearly that with his current rank and condition, he was absolutely no match for Nie Yu in the Eye Field Hunting Ground. Therefore, he absolutely could not allow himself to be locked down by this domain now!

"Trying to run?!" Nie Yu also came to his senses and sneered. "No one can escape being locked down in the Eye Field Hunting Ground... No matter how fast you are, can you be faster than my gaze?"

Meanwhile, the massive wolf eye, suspended high beneath the thunderclouds, quickly rotated its pupil, looking towards the red-clad figure sprinting through the rain. In an instant, it closed a gap of several hundred meters.

Seeing the gaze about to lock onto him, he unhesitatingly tore at his chin with his hand. The next moment, he transformed into a sparrow and flew into a shop at the edge of the street.

He could still transform into a bird? A flicker of astonishment crossed Nie Yu's eyes. He hadn't even clearly seen what happened inside the shop; he just blinked, and Chen Ling, who had been in the shop, had turned into a flying bird.

Even so, Chen Ling could not escape the wolf eye's gaze. As a transformed bird, he clearly felt a gaze still approaching him from beyond the shop's ceiling. Neither his transformation nor his use of complex terrain and buildings allowed him to evade the wolf eye's attention.

A resolute glint flashed in Chen Ling's eyes. His form shifted again, and the next moment, he became a small red python, slithering through the gaps between shops. Immediately after, he turned into a bat, then a gecko, a cheetah, a monkey...

Chen Ling's form flickered wildly among dozens of shops along the street, appearing as a new species each time. From a distance, it looked like a grand and dazzling transformation show. It was so fast that neither Nie Yu nor the audience behind the screens could track his movements or trajectory with their naked eyes.

"My god! What kind of ability is this?!""A lion, a snow wolf, an eagle... Damn it, my eyes can't keep up! How is he doing this?!""Is he an angel or a demon? Why can he turn into so many animals??""Oh my God, is this really not a computer-generated video?!""Haven't you noticed? Both the hunter and this red-clad man are not ordinary people; they must possess some kind of supernatural power!"

As messages frantically scrolled beside the screen, by a roadside in San Francisco, a young man in a Tang suit wore a shocked expression. "Thousand Faces... is it Thousand Faces? No, that's not right... I've never heard of anyone with Thousand Faces being able to turn into animals... What exactly is this 'Theatre God Path'?"

The service area.

Chen Ling's form shifted and weaved through the dense abandoned shops. This method indeed proved effective in somewhat delaying the gaze of the sky wolf's eye. He could feel that the gaze's tracking speed consistently lagged a few meters behind his own form, seemingly unable to react immediately to the prey's high-frequency transformations.

Just as Chen Ling continuously tried to cross the domain's edge to escape the Eye Field Hunting Ground, he discovered that the wolf eye's observation range was constantly extending forward. Whichever direction he ran, the hunting ground would expand to cover that area.

Chen Ling abruptly turned around and saw Nie Yu, covered in blood and clutching a hunting knife, pursuing him relentlessly. The domain moved with Nie Yu, meaning that unless Nie Yu was dealt with, the domain would constantly remain with Chen Ling until he was completely locked down and killed.

"A hunting ground you can't escape, a wolf eye you can't shake off... Are all domains this perverse??"

Chen Ling finally understood why Han Meng said that the transition from third to fourth stage in the Divine Path was a qualitative leap. A Divine Path practitioner with a domain was completely different from one without. To kill someone of a higher rank was incredibly difficult.

Although Chen Ling possessed the Court of Judgment, he himself was still only a third-stage practitioner. The Court of Judgment could only manifest third-stage power, not a full domain. Nevertheless, it was currently Chen Ling's strongest killer move and the only ability with a chance to break open the Eye Field Hunting Ground and kill Nie Yu.

This trump card was Chen Ling's only hope for a comeback. He had to choose the most opportune moment to reveal it.

"Fortunately, I prepared in advance." Chen Ling glanced at the enormous wolf eye in the sky. His form, which had been darting through the shops, suddenly changed direction and sped towards a nearby auto repair factory!

The factory stood at the edge of the service area, its exterior weathered and old, with several missing sections in its metal roof, looking abandoned for a long time. However, a careful observation of Chen Ling's escape route would reveal that he seemed to have been deliberately moving towards it all along.

Seeing Chen Ling stop his dazzling transformations, the wolf eye's gaze instantly caught up. The distance between them rapidly closed, finally completely locking onto Chen Ling's figure!

The moment Chen Ling's left foot stepped into the factory, a sense of crisis that made his hair stand on end surged through him. His body felt as heavy as if filled with lead, and his speed visibly slowed...

Scarlet blood flowed from Chen Ling's wounds, trickling onto the factory floor. Supporting himself on his feet, he stumbled step by step towards the center of the factory, feeling as if all his strength had been drained, his face utterly pale.

It was the familiar sensation of being locked down again... and the desperate feeling of powerlessness. He was like prey caught in a trap, gradually losing the ability to resist, then being aimed at from afar by the barrel of a hunting rifle.

Chen Ling could feel that if he fought Nie Yu in his current physical state, he probably wouldn't even last three moves before his head was severed by a single strike. The power gap between them after the domain was activated was simply too vast.

The dilapidated metal roof could not stop the downpour. Several gaps now acted like miniature waterfalls, constantly pouring rain into the factory, and a humming sound echoed through the empty space.

His blood-stained, large red opera robe passed through these curtains of rain, coming to a halt on a tarp on the factory floor.

Chen Ling looked back. In the pouring rain, a figure, also covered in wounds and clutching a hunting knife, walked step by step into the factory, illuminated by the pale, flickering lightning.

"It seems the outcome is decided," Nie Yu said hoarsely.

"Heh heh..." Amidst the rushing curtains of rain, Chen Ling smiled weakly. "Not necessarily."

Nie Yu's gaze swept around. After a brief pause, he slowly spoke.

"Before I even locked onto you, you deliberately gave up fleeing and approached this place... And if I think about it carefully, you had plenty of time to prepare before you even appeared in the service area..."

Nie Yu's eyes narrowed slightly, his hunter's alertness and rationality displayed to their fullest extent at that moment.

"You... set a trap here in advance, didn't you?"