Chapter 32: Conspiracy
Under the moonlight, the steam whistle of the massive cruise ship gradually faded. Quite a few passengers were on the deck, some enjoying the sea breeze and fine wine, others savoring seafood and grilled meat, while a few young couples were locked in passionate embraces.
In this lively and comfortable atmosphere, two old friends met here. There were no usual pleasantries, because the pitch-black eyes of one of them indicated that she had already accepted the power of the Abyss.
Among those who accept the power of the Abyss, many do so for revenge, and some for personal gain. But this old friend opposite was not driven by various desires. Her purpose for becoming stronger was simply to break through limits. She didn't believe in fate, didn't believe in limits—she just wanted to get stronger, to keep getting stronger, to fight stronger enemies, until she either reached the peak or her life ran out.
But in this battle, Su Xiao was sure to win. There was no suspense. Even though Sha's Melee Grandmaster skill was as high as Lv.93, Su Xiao was still ten times certain he could defeat her. His Blade Grandmaster was now Lv.87, Melee Grandmaster Lv.85, and Blood Spear Grandmaster Lv.85.
When advancing to Absolute Strength, one could use five [Primordial Fragments] to gain 5 Primordial Skill Points. Sha had used all 5 of her Primordial Skill Points to enhance her Melee Grandmaster.
The problem was, Su Xiao had used eleven [Primordial Fragments] to advance to Absolute Strength, gaining 11 Primordial Skill Points. He allocated 1 point to Overlord Power, and the remaining 10 points: 6 to Blade Grandmaster, 2 to Melee Grandmaster, and 2 to Blood Spear Grandmaster.
Even though Sha had absorbed the purest Abyssal Force, she still wasn't Su Xiao's opponent. This was very strange. Sha was a female powerhouse with perception as sharp as a wild beast. After throwing herself into the Abyss, her beast-like instincts should have become even sharper, her perception of danger stronger. Under such circumstances, how could she actively seek a deathmatch with Su Xiao?
No matter how you looked at it, a deathmatch with Sha was far too early.
So in Su Xiao's view, a large amount of resources was already beckoning him. As a three-technique veteran poor wretch... ahem~, a three-technique grandmaster, his predictions in this area had always been accurate.
This time it wasn't a deathmatch, but a grand acting competition. If Sha had come to settle life and death, as an old friend, Su Xiao wouldn't have shown mercy. But since she had come to show off her acting skills, this kind of opportunity where both sides could make a killing—Su Xiao certainly wouldn't let this old friend perform a solo show.
First, there was the content of the Main Mission·Third Ring: [Defeat or kill Sha, and seize the portion of Dark Blood she possesses.]
This was completely different from dealing with the Dark Twins and Black Hole·Azler. For the first two, the mission clearly marked [Kill], but for the mission targeting Sha, there was the additional option of [Defeat]. To a large extent, this represented Sha's state of consciousness.
Besides that, last night Serin had tracked Sha's trail, but Sha noticed and caught her red-handed. If Sha's heart had been swallowed by darkness, Serin would have died without a doubt.
As for whether it was the arrival of the Guild Leader·Po. Ye'en that allowed Serin to keep her life, that was impossible. The situation must have been that Sha had already left before the Guild Leader arrived. Otherwise, Sha would have died without a doubt. The Guild Leader was a Supreme Strong. Not to mention Sha, even Su Xiao would die under one or two attacks from the Guild Leader.
Of course, if that situation occurred, the Guild Leader would definitely kneel down and desperately try to save Su Xiao, frantically begging him not to die. Five Original Sin Objects were indeed too terrifying.
Serin didn't die, which meant Sha had shown mercy. As for the severity of her injuries, Sha was never a kind-hearted person. Killing someone on the spot over a disagreement was something she had done plenty of times.
This being the case, Sha not only still had her rationality, but she had also noticed through the Reincarnation Mark that Serin was a temporary member of the Dawn Team, and thus tried to show mercy. The result was that she showed mercy, but not completely.
More importantly, Sha had now come to find them on her own initiative. This was too intriguing.
Sha was addicted to deathmatches, but she didn't have a hobby of seeking death. If all the above inferences were true, then the reason Sha came here was most likely the price of gaining power. Moreover, there were eyes secretly watching her. She had to pretend that after accepting the Abyss's power, her judgment had greatly decreased, and she was being controlled by the power.
The passengers on the deck didn't sense the approaching danger. Sha, draped in a black robe, stood up. The black robe slid off her body. She still had her hair tied in a ponytail, wore a black vest, and her arms were wrapped in bandages. But at this moment, the bandages on her arms slowly fell off, revealing her blazing red crystal arms.
These two arms were somewhere between crystal and flesh. The internal bones and nervous system were faintly visible. The blazing red color gave off a faint sense of heat, but before officially activating, these arms wouldn't unleash terrifying heat.
This related to Sha's combat system. The temperature of the blood in her body would continuously rise as the battle continued. The higher the blood temperature, the stronger her strength, speed, and defense. Conversely, there was also the risk of the temperature getting too high. As for how to raise the blood temperature, the secret lay in these blazing red crystal arms.
A nearby man holding a wine glass in one hand was chatting and laughing with his female companion. Suddenly, the sound of gears turning in his wristwatch abruptly stopped. With this as the center, everything around gradually came to a halt.
Click-clack~
The sound of a second hand turning came from the surrounding air. Sha disappeared from the spot.
Clang!!
A blazing red crystal fist struck the half-drawn Dragon-Slaying Flash. Su Xiao instantly turned into a blur and flew backward. Mid-air, his brow furrowed slightly. Sha's ability was troublesome; it should be a time-based ability.
After flying backward over a hundred meters, Su Xiao landed in a crouch on the water's surface, sliding back several dozen meters, splashing water along the way before stabilizing himself.
Pah~
A faint sound of stepping on water came from ahead. It was Sha, who had leaped to a spot over ten meters away.
Clang! Clang!
Su Xiao's longsword blocked in front of him twice in succession. After two metallic clangs, Sha was still over ten meters away, as if she had just thrown two punches from a distance, yet each punch could threaten Su Xiao.
This ability seemed very much like a space-based ability, using spatial teleportation effects to move the attack from her punches to Su Xiao's position, thus forming an attack. But Su Xiao was certain this wasn't a space-based ability.
Clang! Clang!
Two more sounds of crystal fists being blocked by the longsword. After blocking these two punches, Su Xiao swung his longsword forward in a slash.
Zheng!
A fan-shaped slash swept across several kilometers ahead. Sha crouched as low as possible, one hand pressed against the water's surface. A few strands of cut black hair slowly fell. The next second, the impact caused by the slash stirred up a furious wave on the calm water, surging into the distance.
Clang!
Another blocking sound. Su Xiao felt the vibration of the longsword in his hand. His perception field gradually expanded.
'Blade Path Sword: Time.'
Thump~
The impact of Time spread, slowing everything it touched. Within the domain of Time, Su Xiao sensed Sha charging at extremely high speed. During the charge, she gathered power and threw a punch.
Clang!
Su Xiao blocked the attack horizontally with his sword. Taking advantage of the Time domain not yet dissipating, he slashed at Sha's neck. Strangely, Sha didn't dodge. Just as the blade was about to touch the skin of her neck, she was pulled back by some force, at a speed that would make even space-based users envious.
Zheng~
The blade passed through. A very faint trace of blood was sketched in the air. A bloodstain gradually appeared on Sha's neck over ten meters away. The wound was very shallow, but no one knew better than Sha what it meant that he could cut her with that strike. The smile on her face gradually became pleased, then she thought of something and withdrew that pleased smile.
Su Xiao stood on the water's surface, his longsword pointing diagonally at the water. As he controlled it, the Demon Spirit appeared beside him. The graceful Demon Spirit casually draped one arm over Su Xiao's shoulder, while her other hand formed a crystal armguard from her forearm, with fingertips forming long, sharp blade-like claws. This arm hung naturally. Her hair, half smoke and half strands, slowly drifted. Her dark blue pupils stared at Sha. During battle, the Demon Spirit would absolutely obey Su Xiao.
This made the activation speed of [Position Swap] and [Demon Blade] nearly twice as fast as before. Especially [Position Swap], with its activation speed doubled, increased Su Xiao's survivability by at least twenty percent.
Rain-like droplets fell from above. In the curtain of water, Su Xiao looked at Sha across from him. He had already figured out how Sha's high-speed movement ability worked.
This ability could be divided into two parts: [Acceleration] and [Rewind]. Each time Sha activated this unknown ability, she could perform a brief [Time Acceleration] on herself.
This acceleration lasted about 1.5 seconds, only targeting Sha herself, unable to affect the surrounding time field. Her charge speed could reach the millisecond level, compressing 1.5 seconds into a few milliseconds.
If not for Su Xiao's predictive blade-style blocking, it would have been impossible to block such fast attacks. Moreover, this was only the first half of Sha's attack. After successfully hitting the enemy, counting from when she started activating this unknown ability, as long as the time didn't exceed 3 seconds, she could perform a [Rewind], reversing her own time to 3 seconds ago. This not only achieved displacement but also eliminated any injuries, negative status effects, etc., suffered during those 3 seconds.
A more down-to-earth explanation would be: Sha could [Save] and [Load]. Each time she used this ability, it was equivalent to performing a save of up to 3 seconds. Within these 3 seconds, Sha had two choices: move at super high speed twice, consuming 1.5 seconds each time, or move at super high speed once + one block, rewinding her own state to the moment of the save just now. Of course, this ability had a 3-minute cooldown.
This ability was very strong, but this level wasn't enough to fight Su Xiao.
On the endless river surface, blade auras crisscrossed. Occasionally, a golden world thunderbolt struck down. A Blood Beast roared to the sky, looking up at the sky above. In the cloudy night sky, the clouds had been cut into channels, revealing the starry sky they had been hiding.
Half an hour later, the water where Su Xiao and Sha were fighting was boiling. On the water's surface, Su Xiao flicked his longsword, tracing an elegant arc of blood in the air.
The battle was very intense. Of course, it looked very intense. Su Xiao had only 'slightly' held back, such as not releasing the Sealing Ring, not using Slay, not using Flow, not using Extreme, not using Soul Electrocution, not activating Time·Dominator, not using Extreme Blade·World, not using Ascension Kick, not using Dead Silence Annihilation, not using Azure Shadow King, not using Heaven's Wrath·Torrent Slash.
Mm, that's right, just holding back a little.
...
On a desolate riverbank, a figure drenched all over suddenly appeared. There were several deep, bone-reaching slash wounds on her body. Her originally ponytailed black hair was now loose. Her blazing red crystal arms carried high temperatures, evaporating the water droplets clinging to them.
With a plop, Sha fell onto the riverbank. Blood spread beneath her. Her life force gradually weakened; she was on the verge of death. In reality, she had a resin-coated medicinal capsule in her mouth. If she truly weakened to the point of dying, she would immediately bite down on this potent alchemical potion. There was no need to doubt its efficacy; it was produced by the Holy Flame Alchemist.
A soul aura emerged. A pair of ghost sisters appeared a few meters away. They looked only about ten years old, but their eyes were very mature.
"Sister, she's about to die."
The younger ghost sister floated forward, using her slender finger to poke Sha's shoulder.
"Let her die then."
The older ghost sister snorted coldly. The reason was that Sha had once squeezed her, a soul body, into a ball and eaten it like cotton candy, giving her nightmares for half a month.
"But ah, she used up so much Abyssal Force. Although the three Supreme Beings are using her, letting her die like this would be too much of a loss, wouldn't it?"
"Tch~"
The older ghost sister looked down at Sha for a few seconds, then chose to possess Sha, controlling her heavily injured body to move toward the nearest secret stronghold.
That's right, this was Sha's plan. The three [Council Elders] of Sky City only knew that Sha came from Reincarnation Paradise and was single-mindedly pursuing power. They didn't know what Sha had experienced. Her willpower was very strong, for three reasons.