Free Web NovelChapter 129: Chapter 129: Sword and Shield
The largest tree in the Martial Training Area became the battlefield for Wu Jiu and Evil Fallen.
The clash between human and demon, fueled by terrifying powers colliding, erupted in the air with drum-like shockwaves.
This tree, which had taken seven hundred years to grow to such a size outside of the tower’s rules, began to fracture and peel from the forceful impact of their overwhelming prowess.
The level of this battle had far surpassed what members of the Garrison Corps and the Investigation Corps could handle.
Some among them possessed great innate talents, but everyone watching the battle, too fast to catch with the naked eye, only hearing the sound of drums, felt that even if they used their hidden Sequence, they were far from matching the combatants.
They had thought Wu Jiu was simply the frontrunner among the era’s powerhouses, but now they realized that Wu Jiu’s height might have already surpassed the finish line they could ever hope to reach in their lifetimes.
This wasn’t just about being an era ahead in terms of Innate Force, but in true combat power, it was even more exaggerated!
"Captain... how did you become so powerful?" Lin Wurou’s eyes were filled with incredulity.
Wang Shi and Shang Xiaoyi were boiling with excitement.
Even though they struggled immensely to merely watch such a high-level battle.
Everyone was so captivated by Wu Jiu and Evil Fallen’s fight that they even forgot the greatest danger might not be the demonic Evil Fallen.
Nobody noticed... the entire scene’s colors began to dim.
All the colorful things in sight, their hues deepening bit by bit.
Wu Jiu hadn’t noticed, in facing a level nine Evil Fallen, even he had to concentrate fully and give it his all.
And the level nine Evil Fallen, though still having spare strength against Wu Jiu and too excited, didn’t care about the rubbish below.
"Can it get any faster?"
Rapid Transformation is the perfect passive attribute term.
The possibility of a human facing a level nine Evil Fallen head-on thrilled the demonic Evil Fallen.
Especially with the amplification from Rapid Transformation, it found itself far more terrifyingly agile than an ordinary level nine demon.
To have a human battling on equal footing without falling behind, indeed, it was a delightful surprise for the demon.
But it still wasn’t satisfied!
"Back then, you were as weak as those pieces of trash, but now, you have no evident weaknesses in your body, yet you must understand something!"
The two in the air finally came to a halt.
Wu Jiu’s blade was caught barehanded by Evil Fallen, unable to push forward even slightly.
"In the face of an absolute power gap, all your advantages are disadvantages!"
The demon roared violently.
Wu Jiu’s body was suddenly sent flying as the demon’s power surged massively in an instant.
"Come on, let me enjoy this a bit more!"
As he fell, Wu Jiu drove his dagger into the trunk of the tree, sparks flying from the friction, while the terrifying residual force from the punch was gradually neutralized.
"As you wish!"
Wu Jiu, fearless, swung his blade.
The power of the demon had completely changed from before; although its speed remained unchanged, Wu Jiu felt a terrifying energy fluctuation every time the dagger touched Evil Fallen!
In the single-handed demolition of the High Tower Allied Forces elite, Evil Fallen showed far from its full strength.
Wu Jiu felt that its momentum had completely changed.
Rampant, brute strength unmatched.
All of a sudden, two powerful transformations were activated, rendering the demon’s strength even more terrifying than before.
Originally, under the effect of ultimate balance, Wu Jiu’s speed suppressed the opponent, whereas his strength and stamina were on par with the adversary.
However, after the opponent activated both rampage and brute strength unmatched, each collision during their offensive and defensive exchanges made Wu Jiu feel a surge of blood and energy!
Even with a robust body under ultimate balance, facing the demon who had activated rampage and brute strength unmatched seemed quite forced.
But Wu Jiu was smart, his speed still suppressed the other, and he was making the most of the slight advantage in speed to dodge the demon’s attacks.
"Not bad combat strength, top-notch combat talent, kid, state your name!"
"Gu Qingyu."
Now displaying his power with a demon’s body, Evil Fallen was proving to be a tough opponent for Wu Jiu. ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm
The comprehensive enhancement brought by ultimate balance set Wu Jiu far ahead of the second place within the High Tower. But faced with this person who had once defeated him, he was still no match.
It had been a very, very long time since the demon had heard a human’s name.
In these years, he had seen some people, but in his view, they were all worthless trash not even meriting a question about their names.
Today was the first time.
This human was stronger than he had been when he was human himself, giving him a sense of nostalgia, as if from another lifetime.
He had once been the strongest in the High Tower, far surpassing the second-ranked, former ace of the Investigation Corps, Nie Chongshan.
But Nie Chongshan did not have Wu Jiu’s fortune.
Back in the day, the Investigation Corps didn’t have Qin Zong or Wu Jiu; the entire corps carried an intense aura of the jianghu (martial arts world).
Despised by the Garrison Corps, yet colluding with them for supplies, almost all crimes in the lower three levels involved participation from both armies.
Being too upright, he always felt out of place.
Even with top-tier strength, he was often ostracized. Until later, he met a few who shared his desire to change the status quo of the lower levels.
Wu Jiu’s strength left no room for Nie Chongshan to reminisce about the past.
He had become Evil Fallen, and although he still retained faint memories of his life in the High Tower, those memories were twisted.
The existence of Wu Jiu, the hopeful looks from both legions, caused Nie Chongshan to feel a tinge of envy toward his junior.
His punches grew increasingly fierce!
The already overwhelming strength that pressured Wu Jiu could intensify even several times more.
The world turned dim, and everyone who looked at the place where Wu Jiu and Nie Chongshan were clashing seemed as if separated by a layer of mist.
Hazy, distorted.
Nobody knew the terrifying force Wu Jiu was enduring at the heart of the battlefield.
All attention was on the faceoff between the human and Evil Fallen, with no one noticing... their environment had completely turned to black and white.
As if everyone and everything around them was merely a memory of someone else.
Every person was looking up at the sky, a whisper echoing in their ears.
It was only when Liu Mu heard a certain whisper that he suddenly snapped to awareness.
This scene bore an uncanny resemblance to a previous one inside the High Tower.
While everyone was captivated by the battle between Wu Jiu and Nie Chongshan, the masked strange person silently enveloped the area where the elites of both legions were being treated with some sinister force...
Liu Mu suddenly realized that everyone’s expressions had become somewhat dull...
Unlike the previous battle in the third floor gymnasium of the Noble Academy, this time the Masked Strange Person was facing some of the top-tier fighters of the fifth and sixth sequences.
His erosion needed more time, needed to be more "silent".
But Liu Mu still discovered it, only everything was deliberate by the Masked Strange Person.
This Masked Strange Person was Cain.
When Liu Mu looked around, Cain said:
"Their five senses have become very dull, but rest assured, even I can’t make so many experts fall into painful memories. I just want to hold them back."
Although Cain was still wearing the mask, he gave Liu Mu a feeling completely different from the insane image of the past.
"Wu Jiu, that’s really an interesting nickname. I heard it was you who called him that at first; then everyone found it amusing and started to call him by it, to the point where even Wu Jiu’s real name was forgotten."
Liu Mu had the urge to shout, to alert everyone to something.
Yet Cain came to Liu Mu’s side, patted him on the shoulder:
"While I can’t bewitch so many people... at least I can make them lose their perception for a little while, so give up. Now it’s just us two, one on one."
Liu Mu’s body was already immovable, and even though he received priority care from the teams’ healers after Wu Jiu’s arrival, his fractured bones couldn’t recover in such a short time.
Cain had no intention of tormenting Liu Mu:
"To be honest, are you jealous of Wu Jiu? He shines like a superstar, everyone looks up to him, and you? About to die by my hand, and unnoticed by anyone, how pitiful."
Liu Mu was unmoved, just watching Cain with vigilance.
Cain was slightly surprised, then came to a realization:
"Forget what I just said. It was out of habit, to tempt you to take on Wu Jiu, something even I can’t manage. Ah, I really envy such good friends as yourselves. Once I had a friend too, a great master whom I always respected... Unfortunately, he died too early from illness."
"You should know that in seven hundred years, there have been few whom I have taken a liking to, let alone those whom I have wanted to learn from and respect. There was only him, it’s just a pity humans can’t avoid birth, aging, sickness, and death."
Cain actually seemed a bit sentimental, but soon he continued:
"After our last encounter, I did my homework. You and Wu Jiu are good friends; you joined the Investigation Corps together. Only later one became the captain of the Thirteenth Squad, and the other of the Seventh Squad. But even so, your friendship hasn’t faded. Through many life-and-death experiences and numerous perilous rescues, you’ve earned the Investigation Corps the fame of being the Sword and Shield."
Liu Mu’s eyes widened, unsure what Cain meant by saying all this.
"Captain Liu, I firmly believe that you have the same potential as Wu Jiu, you just lack some luck. After all, I believe Wu Jiu himself isn’t sure if he could survive another twenty-four-day survival journey, what do you think?"
"What are you trying to say?"
"Ah, I really should get to the point, as my power is about to give out. I had prepared many plans, thinking to inject you with some interesting stuff before the Traveler killed you, but the Traveler... seems different from what I thought, you’ve felt it too, right? He seems not to want to kill you all."
Cain’s tone was quite helpless:
"He enjoyed the battle too much, and I couldn’t interfere with this fight. If I were to kill all of you, it would probably... make things awkward between me and the Traveler. This power is not simple, these Evil Fallen with code names, are much stronger than my disciples. I can’t afford to offend them for now."
"But look, I prepared so much ’good stuff,’ there should someplace to make use of it, right? Although I did not make elaborate preparations, it still wasted resources for more than a decade, and it won’t be so easy to go to the fifth floor thereafter. I can’t kill everyone, but maybe I could pick one for an interesting attempt? As I said, Captain Liu, you have the same potential as Wu Jiu, and I really want to know... what would it be like if a being of your caliber became an Evil Fallen?"
As Cain spoke, he pulled out a syringe from one of his pockets.
Liu Mu’s eyes widened, the numbers on his wristwatch instantly shot past seventy-five, but soon... they dropped to single digits.
Because Cain had injected a sedative into Liu Mu’s neck.
"I believe that someone who has shared life and death with Wu Jiu has a different temperament from ordinary people, so one dose may not be enough."
At this moment, Liu Mu was very calm, anticipating his destiny under the injection of the sedative.
Cain didn’t stop his movements.
Another sedative was injected, followed by a second, third, fourth...
These agents, capable of suppressing emotions, one alone was potent enough to restore calmness to someone in extreme fear instantly.
No one had ever tried what the rebound of emotions would be like once the effect of consecutive injections wore off.
Cain didn’t know either, he was just very curious. freeweɓnøvel.com
Taking advantage of his telekinesis, not yet exhausted, he kept injecting Liu Mu with sedatives.
The fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth... until the twenty-ninth, Cain stopped, because he felt the people around him beginning to move slowly.
This meant his domain was losing effect.
Liu Mu’s eyes appeared infinitely hollow, and the surroundings seemed to fall into absolute silence.
The sedative did not induce sleep, it only calmed a person, a one-time overdose causing Liu Mu to seem as if he were deep in the ocean.
Cain’s voice echoed in his mind once again:
"I’m very curious to see what he will do after losing his close friends outside the tower, and his beloved ones inside. Thank you for your cooperation, Captain Liu, I will remember your contribution."
After these words... the masked strange person vanished like dust, just as on that day on the third floor of High Tower.
To bind so many elites with his domain in such a short time had pushed Cain to his limits.
His body was already overdrawn, and he somewhat regretted that he wouldn’t be able to see the scene five minutes later.
All around him, things began to stir again. The color of the space was no longer just black and white.
Nobody noticed what had just happened; they were still watching the battle between the people and Evil Fallen in the sky, waged upon a giant tree.
Nie Chongshan’s terrifying strength put Wu Jiu at an absolute disadvantage; the injuries on his body were severe, as if he might be defeated by the demon at any moment.
But faced with Nie Chongshan’s space-twisting powerful punches, Wu Jiu still did not retreat an inch!
Liu Mu looked up to see his old friend fighting desperately for everyone, and he smiled.
"I really am a lot like you... or maybe it’s your influence on me... that every time I raise my shield, even if it shatters, I do not back down."
"It’s just that you’re not yet a match for these top-tier monsters now, but one day in the future, you will surely defeat them."
Liu Mu slowly stood up, his body, bones shattered, experiencing intense agony from such a movement, but he didn’t feel any pain.
He quietly stepped back, creating some distance from the others.
Deep inside, he already felt that he was about to be engulfed by some kind of emotion.
Before long, his peaceful smile became somewhat torn due to the backlash of emotions, and his consciousness, under the impact of immense negative feelings, was on the verge of shattering.
Liu Mu still gazed at Wu Jiu’s figure:
"My greatest achievement in this life... is having met you. I really wish... I could continue to fight alongside you..."
This burly man shed tears, the tidal wave of negative emotions smashing his consciousness to pieces.
The needle on his wristwatch had already struck the three hundred mark, and his body had begun to undergo a transformation.
In his final moments as a human, he looked at the figure struggling in the sky and whispered:
"Wu Jiu, you must become... sharper in the future... because the shield can no... longer accompany you..."
Amid the roar, a terrifying monster was born.
(Just to say, this book isn’t a tragedy, and Liu Mu still has very important parts to play.)
