Chapter 977: Racing Against Time
This statement was not seeking the opinions of Lou Jia and Gao Xiaoyan. As the words fell, the distance between Xu Huo and the two of them rapidly widened. He and the launch cannon were lifted by a spiral staircase, while Gao Xiaoyan and Lou Jia descended with another spiral staircase.
Lou Jia, worthy of being an A-rank player, almost as soon as the distance between them increased, an iron chain appeared beneath his feet. This item seemed capable of breaking through the spatial barrier formed within the spiritual realm, directly connecting him to the ascending staircase. He then stepped across the seemingly vast distance between them, his left hand spinning a blade as thin as a cicada's wing, slashing toward Xu Huo's throat!
"Chi!" The blade cut open Xu Huo's neck, spraying blood all over Lou Jia's face!
Caught off guard by the blood splatter, Lou Jia instinctively stepped back, but his hand, raised to wipe his face, stopped halfway. With a twist of his wrist, a double-edged long blade flew out from thin air, spinning automatically around him. At the same time, his shoes moved: "Footprint Fusion!"
The "Xu Huo" who was not far from him was pulled by an irresistible force into the spinning range of the long blade. However, the blade did not cut off his neck as intended; instead, it sliced through a phantom. After the phantom disappeared, six more "Xu Huos" with blood spurting from their necks appeared around him.
Before Lou Jia could distinguish which one was real, the staircase beneath him suddenly trembled, accompanied by a muffled buzzing sound!
Lou Jia's gaze darkened. A black conical object requiring both hands to hold appeared in his hands, its one-meter-long metal tip striking the ground heavily: "Earth-Shattering Quake!"
The entire Bird Tower shook. Xu Huo, hiding within his own spiritual realm, watched the launch tower that had just been activated and was about to try to bring people out when Zhu Feiyun and Kuang Wenjun suddenly came up. The former made a closing gesture, and Lou Jia was moved outside the tower. At the same time, Kuang Wenjun signaled them to keep their distance, then reactivated the spatial item, pulling distant city buildings near the Bird Tower through spatial gaps, and pushing the returning Lou Jia away!
"Hurry! I can't hold on much—" Before she could finish her sentence, the barrier formed by the spatial item was shattered. Kuang Wenjun was hit by the oncoming shockwave and flew out along with the item, vomiting a mouthful of blood!
But Lou Jia's target was not them. After brushing the two aside, he took out another item. This time, he didn't care if he was still in an illusion and simply destroyed the entire Bird Tower!
Xu Huo activated "The Power of Writing" and "Please Sit" in succession. The former only made Lou Jia tilt his head slightly before the effect was neutralized, but the subsequent "Please Sit" succeeded, pulling Lou Jia onto a "chair facing upward" and forcibly locking him in place for thirty seconds.
Forcibly locking him in place for thirty seconds could only slightly restrict his movements; it didn't mean he couldn't use items. So, the moment he sat down, due to some effect—whether from an item or a trait—Kuang Wenjun, Zhu Feiyun, and even Gao Xiaoyan were frozen in place!
Xu Huo used "Truth Transcends All" to avoid this attack. Although "Truth Transcends All" could protect him from trait and item attacks, it only lasted three seconds. Three seconds were not enough to send an A-rank player away, so he moved Kuang Wenjun and the other two out of his spiritual realm and, with a wave of his right hand, locked himself and Lou Jia inside the Library Tower.
Doors continuously pulled closer from afar and then closed again. Each closing moved the two deeper into the Library Tower, while the surrounding background also changed. Surging bookshelves that parted to both sides were like fully drawn bows. The extremely fast movement speed not only caused visual distortion but also a pressing sense of falling without end, which to some extent numbed a person's nerves.
Xu Huo's items certainly couldn't go head-to-head with an A-rank player, and pulling the opponent into his spiritual realm was extremely dangerous. An A-rank player, even if they didn't understand mental evolution, would have other means to break mental interference. Therefore, he could only use visual interference to fill the information and distract him as much as possible.
Of course, he also knew that even if he risked mental attack, the time he could buy might only be a few seconds, but a few seconds were enough!
Before going upstairs, he had deliberately shrunk the scope of his spiritual realm to within the Bird Tower. The position where he had stopped earlier was actually not the top floor but a fake top floor he had created. This was done first to trick Gao Xiaoyan into revealing the password, and second to test if he could fool Lou Jia.
Of course, he had also considered allowing Lou Jia to follow Gao Xiaoyan from the start. Unexpectedly, things went more smoothly than anticipated. While Lou Jia was trying to kill and snatch the potion, Shangguan Xi had already taken the potion he had given her to the top floor to meet up with Pan Qiao.
Seeing the slot holding the potion close, Xu Huo decisively shut down his spiritual realm and shouted downstairs, "Take Gao Zhen's body!"
Lou Jia, freed from the mental interference, changed expression upon hearing the sound of the Bird Tower's cannon firing. He reached out through the air and grabbed Xu Huo's throat!
Even though he had used "Compressed Air" and "Three Hundred Sixty Defenses" in advance, Xu Huo was still slammed into the Bird Tower's wall by this blow. The immense pressure crushed the item's defense layer, embedding him entirely into the wall!
Whether it was bones or the wall, a "cracking" sound could be heard. But before he could react, Lou Jia had already teleported to the wall, his blade thrusting toward his abdomen!
The white blade pierced through the white rhomboid scales of "Three Hundred Sixty Defenses" three times in succession. This inch-long distance was not enough for the item to mount a fourth defense. Just as the blade was about to pierce the thin layer of protective suit, the wall behind Xu Huo suddenly burst open under the heavy pressure—As Xu Huo fell backward, the entire Bird Tower, as if its backbone had been removed, collapsed from the top floor downward!
"You tampered with this!" Lou Jia's gaze darkened, his expression more shocked than angry.
Xu Huo pointed downward with his finger, indicating that Gao Zhen's body was still below, and then vanished from midair!
Lou Jia couldn't ignore Gao Zhen's remains. As Xu Huo left, he rushed straight downstairs, using an item to create a barrier in the middle to prevent the building's weight from crushing the body.
Similarly, when Xu Huo completely withdrew his spiritual power, the Enforcement Team players who had been surrounding the tower began their assault on the Bird Tower. In an instant, the tower collapsed, and their first thought was also to snatch Gao Zhen's body. However, they didn't expect the buildings suspended in the sky to descend at the same time!
Unless one had an item that could quickly and effectively isolate all the buildings, such a large area and weight falling from a height meant that simple defense items were insufficient to completely block the damage. Therefore, most people's first choice was to dodge.
"Boom!"
I'm a bit stuck on the writing, struggled for a long time.
(Chapter End)