Chapter 63: Formal Hostility
Three spiral swords floated beside Dilin. She grabbed one at random, nocked it onto her bowstring, and aimed at Su Xiao using the groove on the spiral sword as a sight.
Bang!
Like a muffled thunderclap, the spiral sword tore through layers of air, shooting toward Su Xiao, leaving a trail of golden light in its wake.
Su Xiao, who was charging forward, sidestepped to dodge. The spiral sword brushed past him and ultimately struck the transparent light barrier behind him, shattering on impact.
Behind the light barrier, some spectators with weaker nerves instinctively leaned back. Dilin’s sword shot was genuinely thrilling.
Dilin transformed from a close-combat mage into a parkour-style archer. Nominally a spellcaster, her physical fitness was formidable, her speed only slightly slower than Su Xiao’s. Coupled with the constant barrage of spiral swords, she managed to create some room to maneuver.
Had Dilin seen through life and death? Was she preparing to die together with Su Xiao? Or had she become disheartened because the thing she held dear was broken?
Not at all. Dilin was stalling for time. When the thing she had once guarded was shattered, she hadn’t collapsed then. There was no way she would give up hope of survival now.
Dilin was simply trying to hold out for five minutes, then forfeit directly. She had already made her mentor understand one thing: Dawn Element could not counter the Law Destroyer. For that reason, she wasn’t willing to pay with her life.
As for her earlier talk of dying together with Su Xiao, that was a strategy Dilin had devised. Only by doing so could she possibly last five minutes.
“The battle is very intense. As a spellcaster, Dilin is fighting the Law Destroyer to a standstill~”
The commentator Hark’s voice grew quieter. He had wanted to be more passionate, but the fight on the field didn’t allow it. Dilin, clad in a red mage robe, was scurrying everywhere. Whenever Su Xiao got within twenty meters of her, she would manifest a large number of Dawn Element weapons and hurl them all at Su Xiao in one go.
Dilin wasn’t just fleeing; she also used Dawn Element to manifest a pair of wings. Once Su Xiao got within fifteen meters of her, she would immediately use these wings for low-altitude flight.
Bang!
After Su Xiao cleaved through a spiral sword, he stopped and looked at Dilin, who was several dozen meters away.
Dilin flapped her Dawn Element wings. Seeing Su Xiao halt, the corners of her mouth curled up.
“Don’t call me shameless. This is tactics.”
“…”
Su Xiao said nothing. Blue light flickered in his eyes. The split-form Banishment materialized behind Dilin, streaking through the air like a blur, aiming for the back of her head.
Dilin tilted her Dawn Element wings and turned her head sharply, barely dodging Banishment. Banishment instantly split into particles the size of dust.
“Dawn·Resonance Burst.”
A shockwave spread outward from Dilin as the epicenter, blasting the split-form Banishment away. Sefeiliya had fought against the Ancestral Law Destroyers before, so of course she had methods to counter Banishment.
Banishment was formed from the Massacre Shadow ability, its basic form. In this state, Banishment wasn’t very strong.
The true strength of Massacre Shadow lay in its developability. Su Xiao had once obtained a branch ability of Massacre Shadow, “Scythe Soul Form,” but because he hadn’t yet acquired the Soul Severing Shadow ability, he couldn’t master this form.
Banishment was the initial form of Massacre Shadow; Scythe Soul was the form obtained after the first stage of development. Whether there were stronger forms later was unknown for now.
Dilin was stalled by Banishment for an instant. For Su Xiao, that instant was enough. Dilin’s other abilities were mediocre, but she excelled at running away.
Su Xiao suddenly appeared behind Dilin, his long blade slashing toward her neck.
Clang!
A rapier was horizontally positioned behind Dilin. Although it blocked Dragon-Slaying Flash, cracks appeared on the rapier’s edge.
Azure Steel Shadow energy spread along the rapier, contacting the longbow in Dilin’s other hand and the Dawn Element wings behind her.
With a crackling sound, all the Dawn Element Dilin had manifested shattered, causing her to begin falling.
Midair, Su Xiao delivered a side kick to Dilin’s ribs. Dilin felt a dull pain spread through half her torso and heard the crisp sound of a rib breaking.
Dilin shot away with a whoosh, finally stopping only when she crashed into the light barrier a hundred meters ahead.
The moment Su Xiao landed, he shot forward like a cannonball. By the time he crossed the hundred-meter distance, Dilin had just hit the ground.
His long blade thrust forward. Dilin almost instinctively raised her hand to form a Dawn Element shield. It was her combat instinct, but this instinct she usually relied on now betrayed her.
Dragon-Slashing Flash pierced through the Dawn Element shield without any resistance and stabbed through Dilin’s shoulder, the tip stopping only when it hit the light barrier behind her.
“Ahh!!”
Dilin roared, exuding a tomboyish aura. Blood dripped from her chin as she clenched her right hand.
Pfft.
Half of Dilin’s right arm flew off. Su Xiao followed up with a straight kick to her abdomen. She crashed into the light barrier behind her with a boom, splattering blood.
“Bastard!”
Pfft.
Another slash. Dilin’s throat was cut open. Her eyes stared at Su Xiao as the earring on her right ear emitted a blue light.
The slashing arc passed by. Su Xiao didn’t cut off Dilin’s right ear; instead, he used the tip of his blade to flick each earring off one by one.
‘Blade Dao Sword: Absolute Nether.’
In Dilin’s vision, the world around her suddenly turned pitch black. All she could see were these three slashing arcs rushing toward her.
The three slashing arcs intersected. Dilin raised her sword to block while manifesting a series of Dawn Element weapons in front of her.
Lines of blood traced through the air. Dilin’s rapier was shattered, and three slashing arcs appeared on her chest.
Combat wasn’t a turn-based game. With Su Xiao’s neural reaction speed and his Strength and Agility attributes, once he suppressed an opponent, they couldn’t use any techniques that required charging—even a 0.1-second charge was a flaw in his eyes.
Why had Su Xiao’s battle with the Iron Feather King been so grueling back then? Because the Iron Feather King never charged. He wielded a three-meter-long hooked spear with such ferocity that any slight opening from Su Xiao would immediately invite a thrust from that spear.
Dilin lay on the ground, clutching the hilt of her rapier. The moment her earrings shattered, Azure Steel Shadow energy surged out from within them. The material of these earrings was special, capable of absorbing Azure Steel Shadow energy before it could invade Dilin’s brain.
This special metal was also one of Sefeiliya’s research achievements. It had to be worn directly on the body. Wearing it as a pendant around the neck wouldn’t work; it had to be embedded somewhere on the body, such as earrings or nose studs, to absorb Azure Steel Shadow energy.
Moreover, this special metal could only absorb a limited amount of Azure Steel Shadow energy. It had to be said that Sefeiliya’s centuries of research had indeed produced some things capable of countering the Law Destroyer’s abilities.
“I can still… keep fighting…”
Just as Dilin spoke, Su Xiao’s long blade had already pierced her chest, directly through her heart.
Su Xiao pulled out his long blade and glanced at Sefeiliya in the audience. The stands were very quiet now. Everyone had thought this would be a evenly matched fight, but once it started, Dilin fled all over the field, and after being closed in on, she was pinned to the ground dead in less than a minute.
Sefeiliya, who had been sitting steadily, was now standing. The brim of her hood hung low, obscuring her expression.
She was locking eyes with Su Xiao, appearing very calm, seemingly unconcerned that her disciple had died. But her hand inside her sleeve was clenched. She seemed to feel as if the Law Destroyer on the field had slapped her across the face, her cheek burning with pain.
A ruin billowing with green smoke, corpses strewn everywhere, a female Law Destroyer holding a war scythe, and those eyes flickering with blue light.
“You… are actually… a Law Destroyer!”
“Female spellcasters are really charming. I almost hate to kill you. But since I’ve been discovered, there’s no helping it.”
Sefeiliya’s train of thought ended there, and the burning “pain” on her face also faded.
“Sefeiliya, is this the ability and equipment you developed to guard against Law Destroyers? Isn’t it… too laughable?”
An aged voice came. Hearing this voice, Sefeiliya’s lips parted.
“In these past few centuries, how many resources have you requested? Being prepared is a good thing, but you need to produce results. Your disciple…”
“How dare you insult Dilin! I will, right now, immediately, eternally annihilate you!”
The golden pupils beneath Sefeiliya’s hood were sharp. Her disciple—she could hit her, scold her, even send Dilin to her death, and use her body to test what she had developed—but others could not insult Dilin. That feeling was like… personal property.
“Putting on airs in front of an old man like me? Sefeiliya, come on, eternally annihilate me. I’ll give you the chance.”
“Hmph.”
Sefeiliya snorted coldly. Just then, the Frost Wind King, sitting further back, spoke.
“Being a whore and still so self-righteous. As expected of you, Sefeiliya. I’ve told you dozens of times about Dilin. I have no right to interfere with your human experiments, but using your own disciple as a test subject… Is your Law Soul… still burning? Or has it already been trampled out by the Law Destroyers a thousand years ago?”
The Frost Wind King’s words ignited the fury in Sefeiliya’s heart.
“All of you, shut up.”
Just three simple words. Sefeiliya and the Frost Wind King, both high-ranking members of Arcane Eternal Star, stopped speaking. They truly shut up and even slightly bowed their heads, because the person they were facing was the Supreme Being of Arcane Eternal Star.
A figure walked toward the back of the audience. The elemental fluctuations around him were so intense that it was impossible to make out his appearance or clothing, or even determine his gender. The only thing visible was a bone ring on his index finger.
This bone ring possessed extremely powerful elemental affinity. The circular band was assembled from three parts, engraved with several small lines of Void script.
‘Mawen Hua’erzi.’
‘Green Gillian.’
‘First Generation Law Destroyer.’
This bone ring was crafted using the arm bone of Mawen Hua’erzi, the leg bone of Green Gillian, and the skull bone of the First Generation Law Destroyer as materials.