After being defeated once.

  Xia Li quickly rallied and launched another attack.

  It had to be said that this creature was extremely bizarre—it constantly changed form.

  Sometimes it was a canine demon covered in barbs, sometimes it transformed into a spider lunging at his face, and it would also take the shape of other demons whose names he couldn't identify.

  It seemed to have absorbed this research facility's knowledge and obtained those demons' characteristics.

  Of course, Xia Li wasn't stupid either.

  After being defeated several more times, Xia Li began using binding-type attacks. After restraining the opponent's movements, he directly cheated by using the phase ring to collect the opponent's body.

  That liquid metal could be directly collected.

  Just as the opponent's form grew smaller and smaller, and Xia Li thought victory was in sight...

  Part of the steel wall suddenly collapsed, then transformed into new liquid metal that covered the opponent's surface.

  This made Xia Li feel troubled.

  The opponent could absorb external matter to form its shell, and this research facility was quite large—at least his phase ring plus storage ring couldn't hold it all!

  Couldn't he wear down the opponent?

  No!

  That wasn't right either.

  As if struck by a thought, Xia Li directly took out the liquid metal he'd previously collected. That liquid metal had already solidified in his phase ring, returning to solid form.

  Xia Li hugged the large metal mass and threw it with force. It flew through the gap in the steel wall, shattered a window, and flew into the grayed-out zone, exiled to the void.

  "What will you do if I exile all the matter here to the void?"

  Xia Li didn't care whether the opponent could understand human speech—he just tried saying this. To his surprise, that thing actually gave up adhering to the liquid metal.

  It revealed its true form—a cloud-like gaseous substance as beautiful and bright as a nebula.

  That posture seemed to declare...

  Even without adhering to other matter, Xia Li was no match for it. It was trying to persuade Xia Li to retreat.

  Seeing this, Xia Li tried swinging out a blade of qi. The qi blade flew over and passed right through as if touching nothing at all.

  Sure enough...

  That thing had no solid form.

  Its resistance to mental attacks was maxed out too. As long as he dared use divine thought to attack the opponent, the only one who'd end up stupid would be him.

  "Rather similar to Antares's characteristics..."

  Xia Li was now using the Heaven Chip to retrieve information on Antares. Yan Qing was Antares, and this thing was Yan Qing's creation, so there must be similarities between them.

  The creature was quite well-behaved, not actively attacking. Perhaps its true form state lacked effective attack methods.

  Perhaps while it was immune to physical attacks...

  That also meant it couldn't interfere with physical phenomena, which was why it needed to don a material shell.

  Should he try other elements?

  Xia Li thought about it and quickly gave up—that would just be wasting spiritual energy.

  The scene thus fell into eerie silence. Xia Li began carefully examining that thing, even boldly approaching to touch it with his hand.

  But sure enough, he couldn't touch it!

  Couldn't touch it at all!

  It appeared gaseous, yet wasn't even gas. It seemed not to be in the same world as him—merely an illusion.

  Wasn't fighting such a thing a waste of time?

  "No..."

  "Not right..."

  "This battle isn't that kind of battle..."

  Not on the physical level, not a fight with the purpose of destroying the opponent's life signs.

  Yan Qing was a scholar, so fighting her creation required focusing more on knowledge, on cognition—cognizing what exactly the being before him was!

  Even special existences had unexpected weaknesses. Even the Heavenly Dao, which calculated everything in its machinations, had that one chance that slipped away.

  "Heaven Chip, search the term Alaya."

  Xia Li thought of this word that Yan Qing had mentioned twice. Xia Li had heard this term before, but back then he'd dismissed it as mere mysticism terminology.

  【Alaya refers to Alaya-consciousness, True Self consciousness, the seed of all dharmas. There are corresponding concepts but existence has yet to be proven.】

  【Related entry is aether. Alaya-consciousness and aether are considered two related concepts.】

  The Heaven Chip only answered with objectively existing phenomena—no hypotheses, no speculation.

  Humanity's current exploration of soul and consciousness had only reached the stage of the Six Roots. Fictional concepts from mythology like Alaya-consciousness remained completely untouched.

  "Beast of Alaya—an aetheric life form?"

  Hearing this, Xia Li couldn't help but sigh. What had Yan Qing created here!

  This was a true higher-dimensional creature, wasn't it? Was this something that should exist in a three-dimensional universe?

  Perhaps because Xia Li was touching the opponent at this moment, it sensed Xia Li's thoughts.

  Suddenly...

  Xia Li felt a sharp pain in his chest. The prosthetic shell covering his heart changed structure, transforming into spikes that pierced through his heart.

  The implanted prosthetics in various organs all began changing form...

  Tearing apart his flesh!

  Even the Heaven Chip...

  【Warning, warning... subject to strong force influence...】

  【Warning...】

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Then...

  Exploded!

  In the instant Xia Li lost consciousness, he saw the world before him distort in a strange way.

  Spacetime began to self-replicate...

  Then folded into a ring!

  Like standing between two mirrors, the world overlapped infinitely in the mirror surfaces.

  And his figure was overlaid to a moment slightly in the past.

  "This..."

  Xia Li, drenched in cold sweat, suddenly retreated two steps. The agony of his entire body being torn apart still lingered in his consciousness, yet when he examined himself internally, he found he was completely unharmed.

  Was what just happened an illusion?

  No...

  It might be a phenomenon even more terrifying than illusion.

  He had been time-reversed.

  The opponent had killed him, then reversed him, telling him of its invincibility.

  This was the leisure of higher-dimensional life—subduing the enemy without fighting.

  【Unknown special phenomenon detected. Record?】

  What the Heaven Chip could do now was only make records. Things beyond human cognition were the Heaven Chip's weakness—it would be unable to provide any useful suggestions.

  Wasn't this thing invincible then?

  Let it out, and couldn't it easily dominate everything, if it wanted to?

  But...

  Just as a feeling of powerlessness arose in Xia Li's heart, another emotion quietly emerged.

  Unwillingness, defiance, indignation!

  The key to initiating his life-level evolution was right here, yet he could only watch.

  Was the opponent truly perfect and flawless?

  No!!

  Impossible!

  There must be a way to defeat it. Theoretically, even a true fourth-dimensional life form had weaknesses!

  "You are indeed extraordinary, a unique being. But since you exist, you must be bound by some objective law."

  "Just as a bottle can never hold more water than its own volume."

  "If you truly transcended everything, then you shouldn't exist!"

  "I know of a place where even spacetime loses meaning... Black holes!"

  Xia Li transmitted a thought—his memory of using the antimatter bullet.

  That momentary small black spot was the phenomenon of a black hole forming then instantly evaporating.

  As long as gravity was strong enough, time would be distorted, space would be crushed, and everything would lose meaning!

  Shortly after...

  The nebula before him slowly took human form, bowed to Xia Li, then stepped aside.

  Xia Li had spoken correctly.

  It was very special—special enough that most physical means and mental attacks were useless against it. But a single antimatter bullet could end it.

  It might evade one, ten, a hundred—but as long as humans wanted to make them, there were plenty!

  Could it escape antimatter bullet coverage fire?

  Of course not.

  So by its rules...

  It had lost.

  This was a battle of knowledge, a war of cognition.

  Simply present a method capable of killing the opponent and make them convinced—that was victory.

  Suddenly...

  The holographic projector activated again.

  "That you can see this message means you won. You realized that battle with it wasn't physical combat."

  "But what theory did you use to defeat it? General relativity? Don't be too proud though—it simply had no intention of killing."

  "Since you've won, let it leave the storage vault. It will return to where it should."

  "Also... I didn't create it. It descended after I created the key. I don't know what it is or where it came from."

  "But I'm certain it's a higher-dimensional creature, or a projected thought of a higher-dimensional creature. It was attracted by my creation and came to visit. It had no malice."

  "It was curious about us, yet I exploited its goodwill. The malicious one was me... I trapped it here."

  "Apologize to it for me."

  As Yan Qing said this, seeming to have calculated that the opponent should also be present when this message played, she also bowed slightly in apology.

  Then...

  With a click.

  Some equipment inside the storage vault seemed to stop operating. The nebula-like human figure also began to glow.

  It had no face.

  Yet it simulated a human face, smiled at Xia Li, then waved...

  Following that...

  Space overlapped as if being copied. It walked into the overlapping space without looking back, disappearing on the other shore of spacetime.

  "Did I just have contact with a higher-dimensional existence?"

  After coming to his senses, Xia Li felt the previous experience was incredibly wondrous. He also learned that higher-dimensional life wasn't absolutely dominant over lower-dimensional life.

  At least Yan Qing had been able to trap it.

  And he had found a method to kill it.

  Perhaps there was no hierarchy between them—just different universal laws they existed under. The opponent might even be weakened upon arriving in the three-dimensional universe, partially assimilated by three-dimensional physical laws.

  But that Yan Qing could attract its descent meant the key she'd left was absolutely marvelous and extraordinary.

  Perhaps... this time would be true ascension.

  Others ascended in life level.

  His ascension...

  Was dimensional!

  If he could obtain even a ten-millionth—even a billionth—of its characteristics!

  Xia Li dared not imagine how powerful he would become.