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

Chapter 668: Black Light Defense? Soul Self-Destruction, Forcefully Tearing Through!

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.

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.

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!