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Another battlefield.
Xubing, wearing the ochre ox-demon mask, froze for a split second. He had just turned his head toward the direction the thunderous noise came from when Vieya seized the opening and, with a single sword strike, destroyed the formation core of the screening array they had set up here.
Crack!
The formation flag planted at the core was cut clean in half at the waist. The aura-isolation barrier shrouding this patch of surrounding shattered on the spot.
“How dare you!” Xubing roared, glaring furiously, still trying to say more—
Whoosh—!
The sword edge detonated with a sharp cry, flashing past in an instant!
Vieya could not be bothered to respond. She lifted her hand and struck again. Xubing did not dare to take it head-on with his flesh; he hurriedly circulated his technique and constructed an invisible avatar in front of him.
Every Dice Lord cultivated different divine arts, with different emphases. What Xubing mastered was a method called “Life Substitution.” From that, he extended the technique, refining an avatar identical to himself using all kinds of heavenly treasures and rare materials.
The hardness of this avatar was terrifying, surpassing the vast majority of weapons. One could even say that this avatar itself was his invisible weapon.
From Vieya’s perspective, the sword she had meant to bring down on Xubing’s head suddenly cut into empty air—and then rebounded with a buzzing tremor, as if she had struck metal.
“With attacks of this level, you won’t hurt me. What, are you still not planning to use the Holy Sword’s power?” Xubing stared at Vieya. Since the battle began, this slime had only been entangling them with ordinary swordsmanship... Yet according to the intelligence network, she possessed far stronger moves. So why hadn’t she used them?
“Against you, this level is enough.”
Vieya was in no hurry. Judging by the commotion in the forest earlier, the elves of the Elven Royal Court had probably made their move.
Among the elves of the forest, those who commanded fire-related ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) abilities were rare. High-tier fire elves capable of causing such earthshaking havoc were rarer still... so she guessed that firebird had arrived.
How rare.
In the past, it was always Vieya herself who plunged deep into enemy territory, one against a hundred. This time, the roles were reversed—her enemies were the ones mired in hostile ground.
The enemy was few; we were many. The advantage was ours.
“Ah—!”
A scream rang out. Xubing turned his head—and of the twelve students he had brought with him, only four remained!
This couldn’t continue!
Xubing calculated rapidly. There was no movement from the First Prince’s side anymore, and the forest hadn’t ignited again... which meant, nine times out of ten, the First Prince was unreliable—either dead or fled. There was no third possibility. Damn it!
“O Guardian of Jacob, be a lamp to my feet and a light upon my path. When the wilderness veils the promised land, may Your pillar of cloud and torch of fire never be extinguished.”
This was the “Great Trueheart Curse,” one of the twenty-one great curses recorded in the Spirit-Calling Codex, and also the prerequisite secret incantation to activate the Makko Upper River Scroll.
As Xubing’s voice echoed through the forest, the corpses of the masked students slowly floated into the air. From the void, nine pitch-black chains extended, shooting toward those bodies.
“No, only eight corpses. One more short!” Xubing muttered, his voice icy to the bone.
At the same time, the four masked men still fighting Vieya’s side suddenly shuddered. Without any coordination, they all chose to abandon the fight and turned to flee!
“They ran?” Aislin was taken aback.
But in the next instant, Xubing let out a low chuckle. Four more chains shot out, locking onto the masked men fleeing in four directions, dragging them before the Makko Upper River Scroll and refining them in the blink of an eye!
“Sacrificing your companions... you really make me sick!” Aislin’s pupils contracted. The next second, she condensed a green magic arrow in her left hand and fired it at Xubing.
But against an attack of this level, Xubing neither dodged nor evaded. He simply had the avatar step in front of him, blocking it with ease.
Because he had sacrificed three additional students, the excess blood energy began to feed back into Xubing, making the aura around him increasingly terrifying.
Aislin gathered magic and attacked again, but the invisible avatar descended from above and punched her flying.
At that moment, however, a gap appeared in Xubing’s defenses. Vieya closed in, leapt into the air, and raised the Holy Sword high. fɾēewebnσveℓ.com
Xubing did not take it seriously.
With the enhancement and feedback from the blood energy, his physical attributes had skyrocketed—defense, flesh, and regeneration all had risen to a frightening degree. Coupled with the buffing aura from activating the Makko Upper River Scroll, his defense had more than doubled. If her previous attacks couldn’t even break his avatar, how could they possibly break his now-enhanced body?
The next second, the sound of flesh being cut rang out.
Pshhk!
That crisp sound made Xubing freeze. He had just stacked his defense to an unprecedented, terrifying height—yet it hadn’t even held for three seconds before being easily cleaved open by a single sword.
Whoosh—!
A flash of sword light, and Xubing’s entire right arm was severed at the root.
At the same time, the steel avatar on the ground that had been beating Tiya and Aislin suddenly stiffened—its entire right arm vanished as well! freewebnσvel.cøm
“That’s impossible... how could you break my defense across tiers!?”
Xubing’s pupils tightened. Even among Ninth-Tier humans, his physical attributes were outstanding. With the blood energy gained from sacrificing students, and the stacked enhancement from a divine artifact like the Makko Upper River Scroll, it stood to reason that even if the former Chief Hero came to slash him, it shouldn’t have been this easy to break through.
Back then, the Chief Hero merely standing there, unmoving, could make people feel, “This guy is terrifyingly strong.” Like an asteroid straying too close to a star, captured and devoured by its gravitational field.
Yet the slime before him gave no numerical pressure, no sense of invincibility...
“I told you. I don’t need to get serious to deal with you.”
Sword light scattered. Vieya had also discerned the weakness of that invisible thing—once the main body suffered irreversible damage, that thing’s attributes would be weakened as well.
The now-clearly-relieved Aislin and Tiya below were the best proof.
“You’re far worse than the previous one. No wonder you’re a lower substitute.”
In the next instant, the space at Vieya’s position twisted.
Vieya tilted slightly to the side and avoided it. Even if an attack like that tore away half her body, she could recover in a short time—but she still didn’t want to be hit.
She charged Xubing again with sword in hand. Having lost one arm, Xubing instantly fell into a disadvantage, scrambling to parry.
Amid the flashing sword light, his other arm was severed as well.
Blood sprayed into the sky, staining a wide swath of ground red. Having lost both arms, he became utterly wretched, more than half his body drenched in blood.
Yet at that moment, Xubing’s eyes lit up.
The blood dripping from his body vaporized into a thick red mist. The mist spread rapidly, enveloping everyone present at once.
Vieya held her breath in time, yet she still captured a trace of the blood mist with her bodily traits to analyze it. To her surprise, the mist only obscured vision—it wasn’t poisonous or anything of the sort.
Xubing, of course, never expected this bit of misdirection to defeat them. Once the opponent adapted, the visual obstruction would quickly become useless, and he would surely lose.
But don’t forget—his true killing move had never been himself or the avatar, but the Makko Upper River Scroll hidden in the void!
Scroll—unfold!
With a unique item like this, anyone encountering it for the first time would inevitably suffer a great loss! Heh heh, Sword Master, just behave and let us take you back!
The blood mist thickened further. Xubing roared, deliberately exposing his position. “Vieya! If I call you, do you dare answer?”
Just as expected!
The next second, several sharp sword energies slashed toward the direction of his voice.
At the same time, Xubing manipulated the scroll to expand violently, sweeping the incoming sword energies—and Vieya along with them—into the painting!
At the same time, the mist in the forest vanished.
On the ground, Aislin and Tiya opened their eyes warily, scanning their surroundings, only to realize that Vieya had disappeared. All that remained was a scroll floating in midair.
“The Sword Master was still too careless... heh heh.” Watching the Makko Upper River Scroll gradually settle, and the slime appear within the image, Xubing’s taut nerves finally relaxed. He let out a long, turbid breath.
“What a pity—I didn’t get to see the so-called Holy Sword... wait, no!”
The next second, he froze. The slime in the painting had turned into a white pearl, and above that white pearl floated a ghostly loli, cursing at the top of her lungs.
At the same time, something sharp pressed against the back of his neck.
Xubing stiffly turned his head and met a pair of emerald-green eyes.
“Bad—!”
Before the words could finish, blood sprayed wildly. Xubing’s head flew high into the air.
“Tsk. I thought you’d have some impressive trump card... I even ended up playing mind games with thin air, and went to the trouble of having the mirage demon turn into my likeness to bait you.”
Vieya clicked her tongue. Then, as she looked at the Makko Upper River Scroll still floating in midair, she suddenly paused.
So... how was she supposed to get the mirage demon back out of the painting?
