The sense of crisis surged up his spine like a bone-piercing cold current, and Ron began to deliberately maintain complete stillness in the Consciousness Space.
"The observation of ’Hermit’s’ ancient memory just now seems to have attracted the attention of some creature."
With the enhanced perception from the "Hermit’s Knowledge," he captured the energy fluctuation seeping through the temporal rift:
Cold as ice, sharp as a knife, like a spider lying in wait for the prey struggling in its web.
"Time Hound..."
The term surfaced from the depths of his memory, carrying a strong foreboding.
It was something Eve had warned about in a prior conversation.
At that time, her expression was unusually serious, with genuine fear in her eyes:
"Master Ron, historical research is dangerous, especially when venturing into fragments involving the river of time.
In those places... there are Guardians.
No, rather than Guardians, they’re more like hyenas drawn by the scent.
Time Hounds, they are not dutiful dimension overseers, but truly territorial animals, viewing any intruder as prey..."
At the time, he nodded politely, not paying much attention.
Looking back now, that warning was indeed invaluable.
After all, he never expected to delve so quickly into these exceedingly ancient memory fragments, thus drawing in... the hunters...
"It’s too late, the link has already been established."
His alertness was timely, and this miniature channel was precisely a kind of temporal hunting device.
The rift silently expanded, from initially being invisible to the thickness of a hair, then a needle, and finally a quill pen...
The expansion of his perception made him realize that it was not merely a simple rift, but more like a special "anchor point," connecting to a completely unknown dimension.
What made his heart sink further was the unmistakable sense that in this special intersection of consciousness and the river of time, he was already completely locked by some invisible net.
It was like being trapped in a small isolated world, where any fluctuations towards the outside were like sinking stones, unable to reach his physical body in the real world, nor could he call for help from anyone.
"The trap is complete."
Ron realized: "This is a hunting strategy—trapping the prey in the corner space, cutting off all possible escape routes."
"Calm down... analyze the situation..."
He forced himself to stifle the instinctual fear and began to think rationally:
"At least I detected the anomaly in advance; if attacked at the critical moment of returning to reality, caught between two states, I would have no power to resist."
Ron decided to look for a countermeasure within the Consciousness Space; after all, this was his domain, where he had at least some degree of control.
He carefully adjusted his mental structure while reinforcing his consciousness barrier, trying to perceive the presence behind the rift more clearly.
As his focus increased, the rift underwent a subtle change in his vision...
The rift expanded from a two-dimensional line into a vortex-like three-dimensional entrance, resembling a tiny whirlpool on the river of time.
In its depths, something was writhing.
Without any warning, a straw-like appendage shot out from the rift like an arrow!
The speed was so fast that it was impossible to capture its trajectory.
The appendage was aimed precisely at the core area of his consciousness body.
If it were a physical body, it would be equivalent to the heart.
—Flowing Shield Wall
Almost instinctively, Ron activated this defense skill, which had been honed to the level of a reflex.
Silver-gray liquid surged from the depths of his Spiritual Power, quickly forming a flowing barrier around him.
This was his first line of defense against unknown threats and had saved his life in numerous battles.
However, a shocking scene unfolded before him.
The needle-like appendage pierced through as if nothing was there, easily penetrating the Flowing Shield Wall without any reduction in speed, directly stabbing into his consciousness body!
"Crack!"
An indescribable pain instantly engulfed all of Ron’s senses.
This was a tearing sensation directly acting on the essence of the soul.
It was as if someone had split his entire being open, then peeled it away piece by piece.
A terrifying hole appeared on his consciousness body, with inky black void spreading from it, devouring the surrounding consciousness structure.
The intensity of the pain was such that he could hardly maintain basic thinking abilities.
The space around him began to warp and collapse, with everything becoming vague and distant.
Ron screamed silently, only to find he couldn’t produce even the most basic sound.
His soul was trembling, his spirit shattering.
This experience far exceeded any pain he had ever endured, even a hundred times more terrifying than the "Blood Baptism" he had undergone on the Bloodline Altar.
[Warning! Anomalous time fluctuation detected!]
[Warning! Interdimensional intrusion detected!]
[Warning! Consciousness structure severely damaged!]
The warnings from the translucent panel flashed in the remnants of his consciousness, but Ron could barely focus enough to comprehend the information.
The only thing he could feel was an unprecedented sense of powerlessness.
The appendage withdrew swiftly, with vibrant red Spiritual Energy flowing along that straw-like structure into the unknown depths.
As the predation action completed, a blurry silhouette began to coalesce around the rift.
It was an entity that completely defied all known physical laws.
Its form constantly shifted, with no fixed shape or structure.
Sometimes it seemed like a giant snake with countless segments, other times like some sort of multi-legged arthropod, occasionally twisting into geometric shapes completely beyond Ron’s comprehension.