Awakening：The Infinite Evolution of My Talent as a Low-Level Awakener - Chapter 668

Chapter 668: Chapter 668: Black Light Defense? Soul Self-Destruction, Forcefully Tearing Through!
Although the transmission speed wasn’t particularly fast, at this rate, it would take at least two more days to transfer all the accumulated souls and energy.

However, from Layer 79 to the current Layer 36 of Hell, there were at least 43 Matriarchs, and there was a possibility that many of these layers contained more than one Matriarch.

With that in mind, the resources being gathered every minute and every second were an enormous number. For Sterl, this was a significant loss.

After all, he had long considered the souls accumulated by these Matriarchs as his own property. Watching them being transmitted right under his nose was no different from open theft in front of him.

“If this is tolerable, what is not?” This was simply going too far.

Without any hesitation, his eyes gradually deepened as he activated Soul Prison’s Eerie Eyes, locking his target onto the Matriarch.

However, just as he was about to activate Phantom Purgatory to end it all, a faint black light suddenly enveloped the Matriarch entirely.

This black barrier was extremely strange. It immediately isolated Sterl’s vision and perception, completely blocking any attempt to penetrate it.

Without the ability to see his target, Phantom Purgatory had no way of activating—it had no conditions or object to act upon.

“Oh, so this is how we’re playing it.”

Sterl’s expression immediately darkened. He could feel that this black barrier was not the same type of energy as the previous gray energy barrier.

In comparison, the black barrier was simply defensive and isolating—there was no immediate threat, and he didn’t have to worry about being eroded or devoured by it.

But what caught Sterl’s attention was that he could feel a familiar aura from this barrier.

After a brief moment of thought, his pupils suddenly widened. No wonder the black barrier felt so familiar—its energy was eerily similar to the Stellar Barrier of his Starry Battle Armor.

In other words, this strange black light had some properties of absolute defense!

Moreover, after carefully feeling it out, he realized that if he wanted to wait for the black light barrier to naturally dissipate, it would likely take one or two more days.

“So, they were waiting for me here.”

Sterl was momentarily stunned, feeling somewhat taken aback. He had thought that by speeding up and proceeding with his harvesting, he would be able to break through the invaders’ plan.

What he didn’t expect was that these invaders had already made their preparations. The duration of this black light barrier matched almost perfectly with the Matriarch’s transmission time.

By the time this layer of black light dissipated, the Matriarch would have already turned into an empty shell, and the core eight layers of Hell at the very bottom would likely have been breached and occupied.

At that point, all of Sterl’s plans would be rendered meaningless—everything would turn to foam. Worse, he might even find himself surrounded and hunted by these monsters.

Taking a deep breath, Sterl’s eyes flashed with a ferocious glint as he gazed at the black light.

“Do they really think this little trick will stop me?”

He smiled oddly. His Stellar Barrier, which was also recognized as an absolute defense barrier by Transcendence, had still been gradually eroded by that strange gray energy.

This meant there was no such thing as absolute defense. Similarly, this black light barrier, although it had the characteristics of absolute defense, was not impenetrable!

With that, he focused his mind and opened the Portal of Purgatory. In an instant, millions of soul puppets that had been accumulating inside rushed out from the Gate of Purgatory, as if fleeing from some horrific deadlock.

Among these millions, most were the souls of the insect-like pawns, but after some enhancement of the two Matriarchs, there were still thirty million Hell-born souls remaining.

With these thirty million soul puppets at its core, a tremendous flood of souls surged toward the black light, crashing into it with everything they had!

Boom!

The black light barrier trembled slightly, ripples spreading as the vast number of soul puppets collided with it. But that was all. Despite the massive number of soul puppets, their quality was simply too low.

It was like trying to smash a steel plate with a mountain made of tofu—it was impossible.

Unless these tofu-like puppets could somehow burst forth with a momentary surge of power, reaching a critical point, they might slowly begin to wear the barrier down.

Sterl made a snap decision and ordered these soul puppets to self-destruct against the black light!

The moment the command was issued, more than a million soul puppets exploded simultaneously.

The power from their soul self-destruction was at least ten times stronger than their initial impact. Moreover, this power originated from the true damage of the soul, which material defenses couldn’t possibly withstand.

In an instant, the black light barrier was stirred by increasingly powerful waves. Sterl focused intently, feeling the power of the barrier.

The absolute defense properties hadn’t vanished, but the sustainability of the barrier was rapidly decreasing.

“No, it’s still not fast enough.”

Sterl shook his head slightly. While the self-destruction of the soul puppets was powerful, and even the absolute defense barrier could gradually be worn down, at this rate, it would still take at least an hour.

One Matriarch would take an hour, and with 24 Matriarchs, that would be an entire day. At this pace, it would still end in failure, completely unable to truly shatter the plans of these hidden forces.

Gritting his teeth, he decided to directly bring out the soul puppets he had crafted, those of high-tier divine authority quality.

“Go! Explode everything! Shatter everything!”

At his command, more than ten high-tier divine authority soul puppets immediately charged toward the black light barrier.

As they neared the barrier, without any hesitation, they chose to self-destruct. Though these puppets were far smaller than a true high-tier divine authority deity’s soul, their quality was still far superior to that of ordinary gods, and they existed on an entirely different level compared to regular souls.

When they exploded, the black light barrier was torn open with a massive gap!

Immediately, the black light tried to reform and close the rift. However, Sterl was prepared. The moment the barrier was torn, he activated Phantom Purgatory, using the opening to successfully capture the Matriarch’s soul, forcibly ripping it out.

“Damn you! You think you can stop me? Die!”

Soulforge Fire erupted violently, burning away the Matriarch and the surrounding gathered souls in a frenzy.

In just one second, the mass of souls around the Matriarch was completely incinerated, and even the Matriarch’s own soul took significant damage.

After throwing the soul aside, the Matriarch’s body, wrapped in the black light, began to rapidly collapse and shrivel, transforming into numerous secretions that covered the entire ground.

Sterl, with a mindset of resource utilization, directly began to collect these secretions. With that, all the souls and material accumulated by the Matriarch had become his resources.

“Hmph, you can’t stop me.”

He snorted coldly, his eyes filled with an expression of contempt. Since the irreconcilable hatred had been established, Sterl’s methods with enemies were never merciful.

He then took a moment to check the recovery status of the high-tier divine authority quality soul puppets that had self-destructed within Purgatory Space.

Sterl noticed that no matter how much his power increased, the speed at which true spirits were condensed into souls within Purgatory Space didn’t change.

Souls of running spirits could condense in just a few seconds, while the souls of ordinary beings took around a minute. As for the soul puppets with the quality of high-tier divine authority, it took nearly an entire hour.

So far, he had accumulated around three to four hundred of these high-tier divine authority soul puppets. With proper usage, it seemed entirely feasible that he could defeat all the Matriarchs before exhausting them.

What’s more, these puppets were crafted from the souls of elite monsters he had refined, meaning he could both slaughter and replenish his forces at the same time. It was possible that after a good clean-up, the number of high-quality soul puppets would only increase!

With that thought in mind, he immediately returned to the battlefield where he had just arrived. As expected, after the Matriarch’s demise, all the insects had completely lost their composure. Some of them were recklessly charging around, others stood frozen in place, and some were even attacking their own.

“I knew it. How could so little soul power sustain the proper functioning of their bodies? Turns out the souls inside them are just a medium for the Matriarch to control these insects.”

Sterl said with a trace of interest. This realization revealed a critical weakness in these invaders: no matter how powerful their legions were, as long as their leader was swiftly killed, the entire force would crumble and collapse on its own!

“So, does this mean that behind these Matriarchs, there is a similar figure controlling them?”

He speculated quietly to himself, though the mysterious controller had never shown themselves. Nine times out of ten, they were probably hiding on the other side of that gray void.

However, Sterl wasn’t confident enough to just charge in. If he could get to that controller, he could destroy it, and then all the Matriarchs would become nothing more than useless statues.

Once the Matriarchs lost consciousness, their legions would immediately collapse, rendering the invasion impossible.

With a flick of his mind, Sterl grew tired of searching for the elite hidden among the insect army. Instead, he activated Phantom Purgatory, enveloping them all in one go.

Given his current soul power, nearly all the insect souls could be instantly annihilated with 100% soul damage in a single second, wiping them all out in one wave.

Sure enough, among this torrent of souls, there were over thirty insects with souls of high-tier divine authority quality!