Chapter 912: Swift Kill
However, regardless of whether it originated from the Primordial Stone, the residual changes on these ores were worth observing.
Xu Huo controlled his spiritual realm within his immediate vicinity and began selecting ores.
"Are those stones useful?" Ding Wei and Zhao Jiahuai also came down to take a look. They had experience with ore trading and had a basic understanding of ore quality. Zhao Jiahuai even pulled out a detection tool, but after testing a few pieces, he quickly lost interest.
Seeing that Xu Huo showed no intention of leaving for now, Shangguan Xi and the others decided to rest on the spot and grab something to eat.
"Brother, did you know Brother Xu from before?" Zhao Jiahuai asked Shangguan Xi.
Shangguan Xi cast him a lazy glance. "What 'Brother Xu'? Brother Xu is forty."
"Can't tell," Zhao Jiahuai said, his suspicious gaze shifting between him and Xu Huo. "Brother Xu doesn't seem like a player who just reached C-level."
"Geniuses are naturally different from ordinary people." Shangguan Xi patted his shoulder, a hint of self-satisfaction in his voice. "Don't lose heart. Maybe when you're forty, you'll reach this level too."
Zhao Jiahuai couldn't find a way to continue the conversation, so he pushed his hand away and sat a bit farther off.
"He's an idiot. Why bother talking to him?" Because of their earlier conflict, Ding Wei had been on the receiving end of Shangguan Xi's verbal attacks throughout the journey. "A grown man with such a loose tongue—I have to respect the persistence."
Shangguan Xi stuffed the bread into his mouth in a few bites and retorted without a second's delay: "What's with the gender discrimination!"
Ding Wei forced a smile. "I'm complimenting you. Whether man or woman, a loose tongue isn't likable."
"Only out of respect for my Brother Xu." Shangguan Xi spotted a vehicle approaching in the distance, immediately ended the conversation, and stood up. Ding Wei and the other two also moved to the side of the car.
Xu Huo emerged from the depths of the Gobi, watching the vehicle drive over from afar.
From the front, the driver was a man with a full beard, the passenger seat held a bald man, and there were two more in the back.
As the vehicle neared, it deliberately veered away from Shangguan Xi and the others. The back door was open, and the sounds of a man and woman laughing came from inside. They waved their hands. "You're heading to W19 too? We're going the same way!"
The group seemed to be in good spirits. They circled around Shangguan Xi's group once before continuing forward. As they passed Xu Huo, the female player took a panda-shaped lollipop out of her mouth and whistled at him. "Hey, little brother, want to come along—"
Before she could finish, the man standing by the roadside had already flashed forward and slammed into the front of the car, forcing the entire vehicle to lurch forward. As the "Eye of the Dead" swept out from the driver's seat, the bald man in the passenger seat and the couple in the back leaped out of the car simultaneously!
The long sword, reflecting sunlight, trailed a string of blood. Before it could hit the ground, the man on the car had teleported in front of the bald man. The lightning-fast blade clashed with a metal shield, producing a deafening crash. Both sides retreated, then clashed and exchanged blows twice more in less than a second. But when the bald man charged forward for the third time, Xu Huo passed through space, sidestepped him, and forced his way in front of the couple behind!
"I've been waiting for you!" the female player shouted. The bracelet on her wrist sprayed out a large amount of metallic liquid. The liquid wasn't very hot, but it hung in the air like a living thing, rapidly wrapping around Xu Huo. When the liquid touched his body, it quickly solidified, and in the blink of an eye, it had immobilized one of his arms!
Unfortunately, the metallic liquid immediately turned to dust. After "Moving Metal" blocked three of the female player's item attacks, "Same-Sex Repulsion" sent the male player, who was closing in, flying back several meters. Just as the female player used another item against Xu Huo, he vanished from his spot again and reappeared behind the retreating male player. He used his sword to forcefully break through the opponent's defense shield, then tore open the spatial barrier the man had erected with his bare hands, and grabbed him by the throat!
The fifty-square-meter laser barrier of "Dead End" instantly blocked the female player and the bald man who were rushing over. After the light flashed, the two climbed over from above, but Xu Huo was already gone, leaving only the male player's corpse on the ground.
"He has an invisibility item!" the bald man shouted as he retreated, simultaneously throwing a black sphere to the ground. "Where there's light, there's shadow!"
As the black sphere appeared, the sky became abnormally bright, while the ground correspondingly dimmed. Under the stark contrast of light and shadow, some subtle, hard-to-notice shadows were rapidly amplified. The bald man's eyes darted around, searching for Xu Huo hidden in the environment, but a long shadow that didn't correspond to anyone appeared behind him!
"He's behind you!"
Almost as the female player yelled, the bald man realized someone was behind him. The two were back-to-back. The former threw a transparent glass ball, from which a layer of light surged out, covering a five-meter radius and forming a sizable sphere. Xu Huo, wearing a transparent protective suit, had his outline revealed in the light, appearing somewhat sluggish. The bald man then pulled out a lottery ticket: "Here's a ticket for you!"
However, neither item worked. Xu Huo didn't make direct contact with the bald man, nor did he linger inside the light sphere. With a single wave of his hand, he easily exited from above.
"Spatial restriction items are useless against him!" The female player stomped her feet on the ground and launched herself into the air. But she wasn't going to intercept Xu Huo; instead, she shouted in his direction: "Day doesn't understand the night's darkness!"
The moment the words fell, the surrounding space turned pitch black. The bald man yelled at the female player: "What's wrong with you!"
"It's not me! My trait can only target one person!"
But now both of them were trapped in the boundless darkness.
"It's an illusion!" The bald man took out a square box. When he opened the lid, a white bird formed from light flew out. As soon as it emerged, it shot straight in one direction. The bald man and the female player quickly followed, but two seconds later, the white bird slammed into an invisible wall and was sliced in half!
The two hurriedly retreated. The bald man hastily threw out an archway. When the location item activated, the darkness seemed to recede slightly. This spiritual interference range couldn't cover the entire item's area, so they easily spotted the left corner of the item bathed in light.
The bald man first threw out a storm item to clear the area, then started walking toward it. But halfway there, he suddenly paused, and his body appeared to have a double image. In less than a second, that double image was torn apart by invisible blades!
Realizing it was a trap, the bald man immediately recalled his item. Raising his hand, a wheel-like item appeared beside him. He ducked into it, and the spiked wheel began to spin rapidly, shooting off in an instant!
Seeing this, the female player ran in the opposite direction and made a door-opening gesture: "Light guides my way forward!"
Two people—one using a combined defense and attack item to charge straight ahead, trying to break out of the spiritual interference zone, and the other using her trait to open a path of light in the dark area—both were methods to break the spiritual interference. But clearly, the bald man's luck wasn't good enough.
Xu Huo chose him.
"101 Emergency Shelter" blocked the path. The wheel rebounded and was pinned by balloon strings. But before it could float up, the bald man retracted his item and pulled out a kaleidoscope. With a twist, the surrounding space was instantly filled with colorful patterns. These patterns had no substance, but their rotation created a visual sense of dislocation.
Xu Huo closed his eyes, caught up to the man, and swiftly finished him off. Then, in one step, he crossed through space and caught up with the female player who had already escaped the spiritual realm.