Chapter 365: An Uncommon Battle
Though it was a fight to the death, the two maintained a considerable distance. Every time He Pu swung his baton, it released the sound of a musical instrument. The varying pitches and timbres of these sounds transformed into different shockwaves, inducing hallucinations while also dealing direct damage.
Those not directly caught in the illusion, like You Qiwen and the others, could only hear the sounds and see irregular rainbow lights floating in the air, emitting a faint, dizzying glow.
"Don't listen to that sound!" Wei Landeng pulled out a spare pair of headphones and tossed them to You Qiwen. Once they blocked their hearing, the scene before them changed again. The dazzling, radiant lights vanished, and with each movement of the baton, shockwaves surged in rapid succession toward Xu Huo!
Xu Huo blocked with his sword, occasionally splitting off a slash in the gaps, but the sound waves neutralized it before it could reach He Pu.
The moment Liu Zhengping broke free from the illusion, he used a Return Ticket to leave the game. The Chen brothers and Yu Shuai remained. Seeing that Yu Shuai wasn't leaving, the brothers gave him an earplug. "This won't completely block the sound, but it's better than nothing."
The three of them, along with You Qiwen and Wei Landeng, had no intention of leaving. As Xu Huo had said, since they'd come this far, why not reap some benefits?
You Qiwen exchanged a glance with Wei Landeng. The former circled behind He Pu, while Wei Landeng conjured several protective gear to cover her vital points and then plunged headfirst into the range of He Pu's music. She smashed through several shockwaves in a row, lunging at He Pu as if she were intent on a mutual destruction.
Whether He Pu was unskilled in close combat or simply cautious, he quickly retreated, swung his baton to send Wei Landeng flying, and struck a tuning fork to blast away the ambushing Xu Huo before turning to head upstairs.
But at the stairway entrance, he suddenly paused. His foot had already stepped onto the first step, but he withdrew it. He cast a cold glance at Mr. Dong in the corner. "Don't you want He Pu's corpse anymore?"
Mr. Dong remained expressionless, neither happy nor sad. He said calmly, "Someone's coming."
He Pu's expression shifted, and he glared fiercely at Xu Huo. "You actually led people here!"
Xu Huo raised an eyebrow. He couldn't sense anything yet, but if Mr. Dong wasn't lying, then someone really was coming. It might be the Game Government, or it might be a local force from District 011. But either way, He Pu's disguise game was about to end.
"Aren't you going to run?" he deliberately mocked the fake He Pu. "Someone like you, who's hidden in this castle for years without daring to go out, only dares to kill D-rank players. Do you think you can handle those people coming from outside? Why not cut your losses and flee?"
At this moment, He Pu was no longer driven by the anger of being exposed, nor by the desire to kill out of spite for being toyed with by a low-level player he looked down on. He genuinely wanted to destroy Xu Huo.
"I'm going to tear your head off!" With that, he drifted like a shadow right in front of Xu Huo and stabbed the tuning fork straight through his sternum!
Xu Huo had no room to dodge, but instinct made him twist his body. The fork missed his heart by a hair. However, the moment the tuning fork shattered his bones, He Pu withdrew it—because the Substitute Mirror had activated. As the fork retreated, Xu Huo's wound instantly healed, while blood seeped through He Pu's formal attire on his chest.
Seizing the opportunity, Xu Huo grabbed the strings and flew upward. Once he cleared the space, Wei Landeng lunged in with a bear hug!
"Chu River and Han Border!" Chen Tu was the first to erect a barrier behind He Pu. At the same time, Yu Shuai clenched his hand and made a throwing motion. It was unclear what he threw, but when He Pu tried to strike the tuning fork, his right hand was pulled back by an invisible force—his retreat was cut off, Wei Landeng was in front, one arm was restrained by Yu Shuai, and a sword was slashing down from above. He Pu was successfully trapped!
But that was only on the surface. Although He Pu's right hand was temporarily immobilized, his left hand still held the tuning fork. He raised it above his head, and the fork emitted an unprecedented screech under the slash. A phantom-like orb of light burst from his body, blasting away the Chen brothers and Yu Shuai. Wei Landeng, who had her arms wrapped around He Pu's waist, was sent flying horizontally like a kite. All their abilities disintegrated, and even the Substitute Mirror placed at a distance was shattered!
Xu Huo, positioned directly above the tuning fork and bearing the brunt of the frontal impact, took the most recoil. He was embedded into the second-floor ceiling, spitting blood as he stabilized himself. He whipped out the "String That Won't Tie a Knot" and wrapped it around the still-vibrating tuning fork. As He Pu looked up, Xu Huo locked eyes with him.
His Super Evolution only allowed him to externalize his Spiritual Power and affect others under special circumstances. In combat, aside from putting psychological pressure on an opponent, it had no obvious effect. But He Pu himself was skilled in illusions—what others couldn't see, he might be able to!
"Come in!" Xu Huo's eyes focused, and he successfully dragged He Pu into his Spiritual Realm!
The mental connection lasted only an instant. He Pu only saw a white, spiraling staircase that kept growing downward before he snapped awake. His eyes wide with fury, he took a step forward but met resistance. Looking down, he saw Wei Landeng still clinging to him, blood streaming from her ears and nose. She raised a black metal handle in her hand: "Courage for mutual destruction!"
"Zzt!" A faint current flowed through the metal handle, instantly arcing toward the area behind He Pu, far from the tea room. You Qiwen stood by a lamp, one hand holding a severed wire, the other gripping an identical metal handle!
"Boom!" The faint current twisted into a pillar of electricity, surging from You Qiwen's direction back toward Wei Landeng!
The electric light flared up, and those nearby could barely make out He Pu kicking Wei Landeng away before their vision was drowned in the blinding glare of the current!
The electric pillar looked massive, but its actual range was only two or three meters, linking You Qiwen, He Pu, and Wei Landeng together.
The intense light lasted about half a minute before dying out. On a patch of scorched ground, two stood and one lay. Wei Landeng lay motionless on the ground, devoid of life. He Pu, standing before her with his skin cracked from the electricity, trembled. The fake skin on his face crumbled into ash, revealing patches of uneven, clean skin.
The next second, he appeared before You Qiwen, stabbing the tuning fork at his throat!
You Qiwen was horrified and instinctively stepped back. At that moment, the wall turned to mud, forming a human-shaped depression. Mud tendrils shot out, grabbing his head and limbs, pulling him into the wall!
The tuning fork struck the hard brick, but You Qiwen, who was already being moved sideways along the wall under the mud's cover, was shaken free by the tuning fork's vibrations!
The one who had saved him was Yu Shuai, but the tuning fork was too powerful. It only bought a moment. Now, You Qiwen was kneeling two meters from He Pu, gasping for air.
Xu Huo controlled a short arrow to fly at He Pu, but He Pu flicked his baton and sent the arrow into the wall. He didn't bother killing You Qiwen immediately. Instead, he pulled out a disc the size of a human head, covered in concentric circular strings. He casually tossed it to the ground, and the thing instantly merged with the floor. As the ripples spread, everything on the ground began to slide toward the center, and He Pu himself walked toward the black hole in the middle, which seemed to lead somewhere unknown!
Xu Huo knew he was trying to escape, but it looked like he intended to take them all with him. Manipulating the strings to resist the pulling force, he pulled out the Fifty-Fifty Air Window.
Just as he was about to make his own escape, the castle suddenly turned gray.
(Chapter End)