Divine Convenience Store-Chapter 547: Final Duality

"A crown made of water? That’s so weird. But it looks pretty," Liu Xiaoyu commented, trying it on her. The crown adjusted to fit her head perfectly, though the blue light clashed horribly with her golden storm aura. "It doesn’t do anything for me, though. Wrong element... How cheap. Give me something useful!"

"Keep it. You can sell that to someone or the Foundry. It’s a high earth-grade artifact. Not even your gauntlet is that quality. Oh wait. Maybe we can present that to the Arctic Sea Palace Master." Lin Mo put a hand on his chin, imagining how he could goad her into becoming another loyal patron.

"Huh? Why gift this to the Palace Master? Sell it, Boss! I won’t accept anything lower than 10,000 high-grade spirit stones! It’s high earth-grade!" Liu Xiaoyu took off the crown and put a hand on her hips, acting like a miserly merchant guarding her hoard.

"Xiaoyu, think bigger," Lin Mo chided, reaching out to ruffle her hair despite her attempts to dodge. "Ten thousand spirit stones is a one-time profit. But the goodwill of one of the most prominent sects at the Northern Arctic Dominion? It’s an investment. Political capital is the most convenient currency of all."

"Ugh... Political capital doesn’t buy snacks, Boss," Xiaoyu grumbled.

She’s not wrong. But does she really need the spirit stones? Maybe. Lin Mo’s thoughts halted there.

"Alright, my bad. You can price it however you want. It’s your loot. But let’s see. Make it 50,000. You can’t sell it short. It’s not a Divine Convenience Store product."

Upon hearing that, Liu Xiaoyu’s eyes sparkled with greed, "You’re right, Boss! I’ll auction this at the Bulletin Board or the Foundry!" 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

A few minutes later, the grey void above them began to churn.

The final wave of Floor 5’s challenge was finally upon them.

Lin Mo and Liu Xiaoyu immediately stood up in alert as they just finished digesting the snacks they had eaten during the lull time.

Wave 3: The Final Duality]

[Objective: Survive the Convergence.]

[Generating Ultimate Counter-Entities...]

"Wait. What is this, Boss? Why did the objective change? And... Ultimate Counter-Entities?" Liu Xiaoyu frowned as her playful demeanor vanished.

She cracked her knuckles, the golden lightning around her hands flaring up again. "Bring it on! I still have ten minutes on my [Divine Vitality Surge] buff!"

Lin Mo checked his own status. His armor integrity was holding at 85%, and his spiritual energy had already replenished from the store candies and snacks.

But this ominous sensation approaching them felt different.

"Just be ready. I doubt it’ll exceed the strength of a Core Formation Stage cultivator. Otherwise, this tower will be impossible to clear." Lin Mo replied.

Then, instead of another set of summoning circles, the space at the center of the arena split open into a fissure.

From it, two pillars of energy emerged and shot up.

One was a pillar of absolute, lightless void, looking like a hole in reality that was actively eating the space around it.

The other was a pillar of static white noise, crackling with a chaotic frequency that made Lin Mo’s [Stellar Domain] ripple and destabilize just by being near it.

From the Void pillar stepped a figure. It was humanoid, clad in armor that seemed to be made of black holes. It wielded a greatsword that wasn’t solid, but like a tear in space.

[Entity: The Void-Star Nihilist]

[Attribute: Anti-Matter/Entropy]

[Trait: Matter Dissolution, Domain Devourer, Starlight Negation]

From the Static pillar floated a creature that looked like a storm cloud trapped in a glass jar, shaped into a vaguely human form. It constantly shifted, twitched, and blurred.

[Entity: The Static-Storm Arbiter]

[Attribute: Dissonance/Disruption]

[Trait: Frequency Jamming, Lightning Nullification, Kinetic Dampening]

"Anti-Matter? Dissonance?" Lin Mo read the descriptions, a cold sweat forming on his brow inside the helmet. "Okay. This is... significantly more inconvenient than the mirror wyrm and electro-water elemental."

"That one looks like a formless entity, Boss," Xiaoyu pointed at the Arbiter. "And the other one looks like it wants to eat my soul. Which one do I hit?"

"The Arbiter counters lightning and kinetic force. That’s you," Lin Mo analyzed rapidly. "The Nihilist counters matter and starlight. That’s me. They doubled down on the counters. I confirmed it now. This tower is truly adapting to us. We easily defeated the second wave even though we were isolated from fighting our counterparts."

"So we switch again?"

"I don’t think it will be that simple this time. Look at them."

The two entities weren’t separating. They stood back-to-back, a tether of gray energy linking them. They were a single unit. Or rather, they probably needed to be defeated simultaneously.

"They’re linked," Lin Mo gritted his teeth. "If we separate, they might go for only one of us. We have to fight them together. Xiaoyu, test the Static one. Hit it fast and don’t commit fully. I’ll probe the Void one."

"Got it, Boss! This is exciting. Is the higher going to be as crazy as this?"

"Possibly only the floors with a multiple of 5. Anyway, I’m ready when you are."

"Go!"

With a unified shout, the duo launched their assault.

Liu Xiaoyu, wreathed in the still active glow of the [Divine Vitality Surge], didn’t hold back.

Instead of using a technique immediately, she tested the waters with raw speed, activating her Heaven’s Reflex.

She blurred into a golden streak, appearing instantly beside the Static-Storm Arbiter.

"Let’s see you dampen this!" She roared, delivering a horizontal roundhouse kick aimed at the shifting, cloud-like head of the entity.

However, the moment her leg made contact, there was no solid impact. Instead, a jarring, discordant sound reverberated through the arena.

The Arbiter’s form, though faceless, looked at her as if it were mocking her with a smirk.

Then, the force of Xiaoyu’s kick, enough to shatter a Core Formation Stage cultivator, was matched by an opposing frequency emitted by the creature.

Her attack was nullified instantly, dispersing into harmless ripples of white noise.

"Eh?" Xiaoyu blinked with her leg still extended, suspended in the air by the strange resistance. "It... it feels like kicking an invisible thick wall of water that’s vibrating really fast!"

Before she could retract her leg, the Arbiter’s form shifted. An arc of white static lashed out, disrupting the flow of qi in her limb.

Liu Xiaoyu hissed as she poured storm qi to her heels and backflipped away before her leg went momentarily numb.

"Boss! This is another cheat. Physical attacks are a no-go! It scrambles the impact!"

On the other side, Lin Mo was faring no better.

He had engaged the Void-Star Nihilist with his [Starlit Dragon Spear]. He didn’t use his starlight qi yet, relying on the immense physical strength amplified by the [Decanus Set].

He thrust the spear towards the Nihilist’s chest, a strike powered by the Aether Energy augmenting his suit.

The Nihilist raised its void-greatsword, intercepting the path of his spear.

There was no clang of metal.

When the spear tip touched the blade of the void, the space around the impact point warped. Lin Mo felt a terrifying suction force, as if the weapon was being dragged into a black hole.

[Warning: External Matter Dissolution Detected.]

[Weapon Integrity Threatened.]

Lin Mo immediately yanked the spear back, his heart pounding. The tip of his heaven-grade spear was smoking, a tiny fraction of its divine metal eaten away by entropy.

"Anti-matter... It literally eats physical attacks," Lin Mo gritted his teeth. "And if I use Starlight Qi, it has Starlight Negation. How do we pass this absurdity? Who brought this tower here? Primordial Jungle Fractured Plane? As if there are entities like this there!"

He couldn’t help but shout in frustration as he jumped away, rejoining Liu Xiaoyu to prepare another strategy.