Hearing those words nearly made Lin Luo spit blood and collapse. Indeed, Zhang Wuji was practically a saint, uttering a timeless maxim... Beauties are all liars, and the fairer they are, the more deceptive they become.

This damned female swindler!

It was the right call to have Mugino conceal herself earlier; otherwise, that arrow just now would have ended my life.

“What’s wrong, innocent little virgin? Wasn't Sister’s acting superb just now?” Ling Yi tossed her jet-black hair, giving Lin Luo a seductive smile. She looked barely in her early twenties, while Lin Luo appeared only fifteen or sixteen, so claiming to be the older sister was normal... Of course, their respective standings were anything but normal.

Lin Luo gritted his teeth, shooting a venomous glare toward her. “Fine, then I’ll see if your tricks and traps can keep you safe and sound.”

Saying that, he took a step forward. In a single stride, he vanished from his original spot. His next footfall placed him directly behind Ling Yi, his fist—a convergence of sorcery and scientific power—shot out like lightning toward her neck... Now, there was absolutely no need to hold back.

“Sister isn’t that easy to deal with, you know.” Ling Yi laughed sweetly. Her demeanor was now completely transformed from moments before. As she spoke, her shoulder twitched, and she lifted her elbow, blocking Lin Luo’s incoming punch.

Bang!

A violent collision echoed, instantly generating an invisible shockwave in the air, kicking up sand and dust.

“Though my profession is an Archer, don’t assume my close combat skills are lacking.” Ling Yi smirked triumphantly, balling her free hand into a tight fist and striking rapidly toward Lin Luo... The close-range punch nearly produced a sonic crackle.

A fierce gust of wind hit his face, but Lin Luo’s expression remained unchanged. With a thought, a ball of white mist materialized before him, effortlessly deflecting Ling Yi’s fist. Simultaneously, one of his hands chopped down like a blade toward her back.

At this moment, the black longbow in Ling Yi’s hand vanished abruptly. She subtly shifted her body, employing both punches and kicks in a joint assault against Lin Luo.

The two exchanged blows at close quarters, neither yielding an inch in their flurry of punches and kicks. Lin Luo was protected by Rule Force, rendering most standard attacks useless. However, Ling Yi’s close-quarters tactics were remarkably adept. Whatever mystery surrounded her, even a punch imbued with electricity and magic seemed ineffective against her.

Both attacks were lightning-fast. Lin Luo’s Rule Force allowed him near-instantaneous movement; one moment he was to Ling Yi’s right, the next behind her, utterly eluding her grasp. As for Ling Yi, her reaction speed bordered on the infinitesimal. No matter how swift the attack, she could effortlessly parry it, all while maintaining a placid smile.

The dizzying exchange forced Mugino to frown deeply. Although she wanted to intervene, the current situation made it precarious; any careless move might harm Lin Luo, and even his Rule Force protection was no shield against her inherent affinity for it.

“Is this Spirit Rank?” This intense exchange of offense and defense finally made Mugino realize the gulf in power between herself and the two combatants. While her destructive capability might rival theirs, her mastery and control over power were clearly inferior. At her current strength, she simply could not insert herself into the fight.

“Your martial arts are quite respectable. It’s hard to imagine you being an Archer,” Lin Luo remarked while throwing a punch.

“You’re not bad either,” Ling Yi replied with a slight smile, blocking his fist with her elbow while driving her knee toward his abdomen, a seductive glint in her eyes. “Are those strange white mists your Heart's Eye Power?”

“Heart’s Eye Power?” A flicker of confusion crossed Lin Luo’s eyes. As the mist blocked her attack, he had already slipped behind her, his hand chopping down like a blade toward the back of her skull.

“Hey, don’t tell me that white mist isn’t Heart’s Eye Power. Besides skill restriction, LV2 Walkers don't usually manifest other abilities,” Ling Yi spun around with lightning speed, dodging his hand-chop, her smile unwavering.

Their attacks were merciless, yet their conversation flowed like old friends chatting. This wasn't idleness; they were probing each other's capabilities. After all, neither Lin Luo nor Ling Yi fully understood the other’s powers.

As the saying goes, know your enemy and know yourself to win a hundred battles. When two powerhouses of the same tier fight without knowledge of the opponent's abilities, defeating them becomes exceedingly difficult, easily devolving into a stalemate. Since physical sensation offered no clues, extracting information through linguistic gaps was the only viable method.

Both were aware of the other’s motives, so they guarded their secrets closely. However, Ling Yi’s last remark had imparted information Lin Luo hadn't known he was missing.

What was that? He didn't possess such a thing. Was it Perception?

But that couldn't be right. Although he possessed Perception at LV2, that ability couldn't be used offensively.

“Indeed. Perhaps my Perception is just a bit peculiar,” Lin Luo tried again, attempting to fish for more details.

Unexpectedly, Ling Yi’s expression faltered upon hearing his words. “Perception... What is that?”

Damn it! She didn’t know Perception? Lin Luo was inwardly alarmed but kept his face impassive, thinking furiously.

Ling Yi said no more, focusing on processing the information gleaned from Lin Luo that she lacked.

Unbeknownst to them, they had both subconsciously revealed abilities the other did not possess. In their respective minds, the other party should have that ability, but... reality proved otherwise.

Though both Lin Luo and Ling Yi were LV2 Walkers, their fundamental natures were vastly different.

If leveling proceeded normally, LV1 meant an increase in inherent strength, transcending the baseline human to superhuman status. LV2 represented a metamorphosis, moving from the understanding of self and body into a new, mysterious domain. LV3, then, was the mastery of Rule Force derived from that mystery.

Ling Yi had advanced normally, thus acquiring the mystery of LV2. Lin Luo, however, was an anomaly; despite being only LV2, he wielded Rule Force, an ability usually reserved for LV3—this was the core difference between them.

By skipping directly from LV1 to LV3, Lin Luo lost the inherent mystery of LV2. It was like skipping a step on a staircase; the missing step ceases to exist for the person who jumped over it, becoming irrelevant.

Thus, Lin Luo had only gained the abilities of LV3: Rule Force and... the Domain of Perception.

The Domain of Perception was not an ability attainable at LV2 because Perception's function was to delve into the world, seek truth, and subsequently analyze the world's rules. Its existence was solely tied to Rule Force. How could an LV2 lacking Rule Force possess a Domain of Perception?

Because she lacked it, Ling Yi did not understand it. She instinctively mistook Lin Luo’s Rule Force for the Heart’s Eye Power. But now...

Both paused their active sparring to contemplate the information just exchanged, their movements immediately slowing.

Swish! A beam of white light shot in from a distance.

Mugino Shizuri finally had a clear sightline of their movements. Seizing the moment, she quickly fired an Atomic Collapse at Ling Yi, but—

Ling Yi stood with her back to Mugino, yet she seemed to see the atomic beam with perfect clarity. With a slight flick of her right hand, she batted the electron stream into nothingness, then instantly leaped out of the fray.

“Hah?” Mugino was instantly shocked. Her Atomic Collapse had been nullified barehanded—how was this possible?

Even Lin Luo was moved by the sight. Many things in this world could cancel Atomic Collapse, but doing so with bare flesh... could an LV2 Walker truly accomplish that?

Lin Luo didn't know, but he knew he certainly couldn't.

She truly possessed a mystery I am unaware of... Lin Luo thought, watching Ling Yi retreat several meters in an instant.

“Not bad at all,” Ling Yi’s lips curled up into a delicate smile. The next second, a surge of formidable aura erupted from her body. Her smile vanished, replaced by an icy seriousness. “But the probing is over. Continuing to talk won't yield useful things. Now, let’s get serious. Witness my Heart’s Eye Power!”

With that, she glared intensely.

Whoom-woooh...

In an instant, Lin Luo felt a profound chill wash over him—not actual cold, but a sensation of being spied upon, as if countless eyes were fixed on him, exposing everything in stark reality.

What was happening? Why this feeling? Heart’s Eye Power... what exactly was it?

Lin Luo was internally shaken, an intense sense of unease welling up instinctively.

Though Ling Yi stood still, Mugino dared not attack. Her instinct screamed that launching an assault on the woman now would place her in extreme danger.

“Found it. Your weakness.”

Just then, Ling Yi suddenly laughed, then lightly shifted her foot on the ground... Swish! Dust flew as she burst forward with terrifying speed, launching a punch toward Lin Luo’s chest—her velocity was several times faster than before.

My Rule Force can block her attack. As long as I can perceive it, speed is meaningless.

That had been Lin Luo’s previous logic, so he hadn't taken her attack seriously. But now, seeing this strike, he suddenly felt that even Rule Force might not suffice to block it.

I cannot rely entirely on Rule Force.

Lin Luo trusted his intuition implicitly. As the white mist began to form, he simultaneously retreated backward. Then, he watched as the white mist, which had seemed impenetrable, was utterly shattered by her punch!

Boom!

“Dodged, did you,” Ling Yi stabilized herself, lifting her head to glance at Lin Luo as she spoke.

“Why could you shatter it?” Intuition was one thing, but witnessing it was another. Watching his absolute defense be broken, even Lin Luo found it hard to believe.

One percent of Rule Force could block half the Noble Phantasms fired by Gilgamesh, yet five percent couldn't withstand the punch of an LV2 Walker—how could this be believable?

“Didn’t I already say it? I saw your weakness with these eyes,” Ling Yi said, pointing toward her eyes with confidence. “You seem very certain of your ability, but I saw the flaw in it. Those white mists... they must be incomplete, right?”

“Ah!” Lin Luo’s expression changed drastically. She could even see that?

After all, it was only five percent; his mist was inherently incomplete, flawed in both power and existence. Just as Sigurd had described, Rule Force was like a river: flowing from a spring, becoming a stream, and finally an ocean. Step by step. Lin Luo could only access the springhead currently, so incompleteness was inevitable.

“You look surprised, but...” Swish. Ling Yi shot forward again like an arrow, kicking out. The newly formed white mist was immediately pulverized once more. “But the Heart’s Eye allows me to see all your weaknesses.”

To comprehend the Rules, one must first understand the self. To analyze the world’s rules, one must first learn to see through everything. These are the prerequisites for utilizing Rule Force. Excluding anomalies like Lin Luo, all Walkers push their self-awareness to its absolute limit before mastering Rule Force—this is the true ability possessed by LV2 Walkers, and what Lin Luo lacked: the Heart’s Eye.

And the capability derived from the Heart’s Eye is... seeing through all methods under heaven.

There is no invincible ability in this world, nor an invincible person. Where there is a defect, there is a weakness. Where there is a weakness, the Heart’s Eye can see through it, allowing one to strike the weak point and achieve instant collapse.

This is the complete manifestation of the Heart’s Eye Power.

This is the LV2 Walker.

“Your ability is quite interesting. Ordinary attacks seem ineffective now. In that case...” As she spoke, the black longbow reappeared in Ling Yi’s hand, instantly drawn taut to a full moon. Ten arrows manifested on the bowstring.

Swish-swish-swish-swish...

A series of tearing sounds echoed. The instant the ten arrows were released, five vanished in mid-air, while the remaining five shot toward Lin Luo from different trajectories.

Bad!

If Rule Force could defend reliably, Lin Luo wouldn't worry. But now, he dared not be careless. Since her punch could shatter his mist, her arrows, as an Archer, were even less to be trifled with.

White mist instantly enveloped his body, and the Domain of Perception shrank to a three-meter radius around him. Lin Luo focused entirely on the five incoming arrows... one aimed at his chest, one at his throat, one at his right shoulder, one at his vital organs, and the fifth... the fifth one's trajectory was shifting, hard to track. He could intercept the other four.

His thoughts raced, making quick decisions. Lin Luo swiftly reached out. The moment the arrows breached the white mist, his right hand pinched one, quickly flicking it away, then he leaned slightly forward, deflecting the second. Simultaneously, his left hand shot out an Atomic Collapse, shattering the third. Then, activating a Wind elemental spell, he shifted the trajectory of the fourth, letting it scrape past his side.

Next, he locked his gaze onto the fifth, erratically moving arrow...