Free Web NovelChapter 87: Chapter 83: Eradicating the Roots
"Target one discovered. Commencing combat."
"Mission difficulty: simple. Priority: prevent Liu Chang from attempting a rescue."
As the electronic voice sounded, Wen’s body—indistinguishable from the Space High Priest’s—stepped out of a spatial rift.
Wen was no longer a small toy doll. Her body seemed to have been magnified out of thin air, and she now stood about five-foot-nine.
Su Xing’s eyes narrowed, his right hand gripping the Black Sword tightly. At first, he thought the Space High Priest had come in person, but he soon realized something was off.
The figure before him didn’t look like a living person. It was more like an executing program—it appeared somewhat vacant, and its entire body was composed of sequence energy, without a trace of bone or flesh.
’This must be some special way the Space High Priest uses their sequence,’ Su Xing thought.
After all, he had already seen the Corpse High Priest’s zombies, so something like this wasn’t all that surprising.
After landing, Wen stared intently at Su Xing. She held out her right hand, palm flat. A slit suddenly appeared in her smooth palm, and a white orb rose from the small opening.
Then, Wen crushed it in her hand!
Su Xing clearly felt the space around him lock down as the small orb burst.
Next, Wen pushed off with her right foot. Her slender body instantly became a blur, launching herself toward Su Xing like a missile fired from a cannon!
The absurd speed created a massive blast of wind that sent Su Xing’s hair whipping wildly. Su Xing was inwardly amazed. This was, after all, his first clash with the Space High Priest, and wanting to play it safe, he chose not to meet the attack head-on.
Su Xing activated "Sword-Roaming Steps" and, coupled with his monstrous physical conditioning, easily dodged the lunge.
BOOM!
The moment Su Xing dodged, Wen slammed heavily into the spot where he had been standing, blasting a large crater into the hard mountain rock and sending up a cloud of dust with the deafening crash.
"Target One. Strength does not match estimate. Re-evaluating Target One’s strength."
"Mission is achievable. Will require more time."
Seeing her attack miss, Wen delivered the analysis in her robotic, electronic voice.
Then, she turned her head, a blue light flashing in her eyes. She vanished abruptly as a spatial rift appeared beside her.
When she reappeared, she was just in front of Su Xing, brandishing a huge pink hairpin and slashing down at him!
From her first move, Su Xing had already gotten a rough sense of his opponent’s power.
She was roughly on par with the Corpse High Priest. However, space-type sequences were inherently more troublesome, so Su Xing figured this thing was probably a bit stronger than the Corpse High Priest.
’A powerful enemy,’ was Su Xing’s first thought.
’But still killable,’ was his second.
If his opponent had been a fifth-rank Sequencer or even stronger, Su Xing would have turned tail and run without a second thought. But this was just a robot that was slightly stronger than the Corpse High Priest.
’After all... I’m a lot stronger now than when I fought the Corpse High Priest.’
Just as Wen teleported in front of him, Su Xing swung the Black Sword, infused with the power of "White Blade Form," at her pink hairpin. Su Xing’s strength was by no means inferior to Wen’s—in fact, it was far greater.
Wen felt her sequence energy instantly destroyed, as if her internal power couldn’t be brought to bear at all.
The pink hairpin was instantly shattered by Su Xing’s sword, and she was sent flying, nearly tumbling right off the cliff.
She struggled to her feet, a flicker of human-like shock in her eyes as she stared at Su Xing. At the same time, another electronic announcement slowly rose, stating solemnly:
"Target One... strength far exceeds estimate. Suspected to be a hidden master. Master’s judgment was in error."
"Mission completion: extremely difficult. Preparing to attempt completion."
Seeing the expression on her face, Su Xing suddenly realized she might possess some level of consciousness and wasn’t a completely mindless tool.
This made him marvel at what incredible things sequences were. Whether it was the Corpse High Priest’s zombies or this... whatever it was... sent by the Space High Priest, they all had their flaws but also possessed a degree of consciousness and a fearless loyalty.
A creation like this would indeed be extremely troublesome for an ordinary Sequencer. Fortunately, Su Xing was no ordinary Sequencer.
Su Xing gripped the Black Sword, its tip pointed at the figure before him. This was his first time fighting a space-type sequence, and he had no intention of taking the offensive.
Su Xing was well aware of the agility of space-type sequences; attacking first would likely put him at a disadvantage. A counter-attacking strategy was better.
As long as he was stronger than his opponent,
a counter-attack strategy could never lose.
Wen slowly climbed up from the ground and resumed her ferocious assault on Su Xing, but this time her attacks were far more frequent. She would strike and then immediately teleport to a new position.
This also caused Wen to consume a massive amount of energy. Within a few minutes, she could feel that more than half of her internal sequence energy was already gone.
But this fighting style was also incredibly effective, rendering many of Su Xing’s techniques useless.
He couldn’t get a proper lock with "Myriad Swords Return" or the Sparrow Sword, forcing him to rely on "Sword-Roaming Steps" for movement and counter-attacking with the Black Sword, "White Blade Form," and "Mountain Breaker."
However, the power of "Mountain Breaker" was simply absurd. In almost every exchange, Wen was completely overwhelmed. Several times, she was nearly impaled and blown apart by Su Xing’s blade.
No matter how fast she was or how nimbly she manipulated space, the gap in raw power was undeniable.
But this only made the fury and shock in her eyes grow more apparent. Her attacks became faster and more frantic, and at one point, several spatial rifts even appeared on the battlefield simultaneously.
As Wen lunged at Su Xing once more, he decided not to passively counter this time. He had more or less figured out her attack patterns.
Su Xing’s Black Sword, glowing with the white light of a blade, executed "Mountain Breaker" toward an empty spot. At the same time, the Sparrow Sword flashed out like a blur.
Su Xing’s move was too fast and too decisive.
Wen had no time to react.
Following her established attack pattern, she teleported through space to appear at what she perceived to be Su Xing’s weakest point.
She never anticipated that this was a fatal trap Su Xing had laid for her!
VMMMM!
The ring of a sword suddenly echoed!
Su Xing’s sword instantly pierced Wen’s body, blowing a huge hole through her. Simultaneously, the rock wall behind her exploded outward in a shower of debris from the shockwave.
Wen looked down at her body in disbelief.
Besides the large hole, her torso was covered in a dense web of cracks from the Sparrow Sword, revealing the light blue, flesh-like structure of the sequence energy that composed her.
With a CRACK,
her upper and lower body suddenly split in two.
Wen, who had been moving at extreme speeds through space, was run through by Su Xing’s sword and cleaved in half. Her upper torso, covered in cracks but not yet disintegrated, was sent flying like an out-of-control car careening off the mountainside.
She plummeted toward the base of the cliff. Blue blood splattered, hanging in the air before her eyes. Her own gaze was vacant as she watched the sky recede, as if she couldn’t process what had just happened.
After a long moment, just as she was about to hit the ground, her electronic voice sounded once more:
"Mission failure. Cannot be completed."
"Target One’s strength is too great. Unable to assess. Confirmed as a hidden master. Recommend retreat tactics."
"..."
"After escaping, primary objective is to report the identity of the hidden master!"
Wen’s voice drifted up. As she fell, she opened her right hand. The energy that had sealed the space instantly returned to her palm, reforming into a small orb.
Then, her figure vanished.
The howling wind from Wen’s fall made it hard for Su Xing to hear her clearly. After seeing her fall and not reappear for a long time, he muttered to himself:
"Don’t tell me she just fell to her death?"
Su Xing walked a few steps to the cliff’s edge. He suddenly felt the energy that had been sealing the space begin to dissipate. He then looked down the mountain and saw that the creature was gone.
At least, her upper body was gone. Her lower half had already been diced into chunks by the Sparrow Sword and "Myriad Swords Return."
"Did she run away?" Su Xing’s voice was grave. If that thing escaped and reported back to the Spiritual Sect, his identity as a hidden master would likely be exposed.
Things would get very troublesome then...
The Spiritual Sect would likely come after him with everything they had, just like when the Priests attacked the organization’s building.
At this thought, Su Xing’s mind turned to eliminating the problem at its root. He had to find a way to kill the Space High Priest. He absolutely could not let her report this information to the Spiritual Sect’s upper echelons!
’But...’
’How am I supposed to find the Space High Priest’s exact location?’
Su Xing’s brow furrowed tightly, then suddenly relaxed as if he’d remembered something. His gaze turned inward, toward the Hypnosis Mark in his abdominal space.
It had been left by that Assistant Priest back when Su Xing was still a second-rank Sequencer. He had never destroyed it, and now, unexpectedly, it had a use. Su Xing could use this mark to determine the other party’s location.
The Spiritual Sect now had only two High Priests left.
’This Assistant Priest is probably with either the Catastrophe High Priest or the Space High Priest. If he’s with the Space High Priest, that’s perfect. I can just kill them all at once.’
’If he’s with the Catastrophe High Priest, it’s just a bit more trouble. I’ll just have to kill the Catastrophe High Priest first, then use him to find the Space High Priest.’
Thinking this, Su Xing broke into a cold smirk, revealing a row of sharp, white teeth. The chilly moonlight cast down upon him, creating a shadow brimming with killing intent.
Sword in hand,
Su Xing walked off into the distance, one step at a time.
