Chapter 276 – Death of the Phoenix (1/2)
Chapter 276 - Death of the Phoenix
The spatial barrier of the Garden of Zhou began showing signs of collapse.
This was an inevitable effect of their battle. The sources of Xu Yourong and Nanke’s bloodlines were just too powerful, and at that moment, they had pushed the rate of burning their lives to the extreme. The Qi they gave off already surpassed the peak of Ethereal Opening, reaching the maximum that the rules of the Garden of Zhou allowed.
Of course, the Garden of Zhou would not collapse, as the rules responsible for maintaining the functioning of the world would just directly destroy the threat, which was the existence of Xu Yourong and Nanke.
The weapon that the Garden of Zhou used was the shattered fragments of the spatial barrier.
The barrier fragments left the night sky, transformed into meteors and fell towards the peak of Sunset Valley.
If Xu Yourong and Nanke did not stop their battle and instead continued to allow their Qi to increase, then they would definitely die. They would become the dust created by the countless meteors along with Sunset Valley.
They would die.
Nanke was very clear on this point. Before, when she used the Southern Cross Sword on Xu Yourong, it had already caused the warping of space within the Garden of Zhou. This allowed her to confirm the maximum capacity that the Garden of Zhou could hold. Her plan was to increase her level of strength beyond this maximum, forcing Xu Yourong to also increase hers, before also exceeding the maximum capacity of the Garden of Zhou.
This was her method of battle.
This represented her absolute mindset for battle.
Why would her teacher, the extremely cautious Military Advisor of the Demon race, Black Robe, give her such an important mission to kill Xu Yourong? This was because Black Robe understood extremely well that she was willing to die with Xu Yourong.
Her fate was determined because of Xu Yourong. As a result, she invited her opponent to walk towards the end of fate together with great happiness. This was because it meant that she could also determine the fate of Xu Yourong.
Thus, Xu Yourong would definitely die this night in the Garden of Zhou. Although the human girl definitely did not want to accept it, she could not do anything. If she continued to burn her true blood of the Heavenly Phoenix, countless meteors would fall on the world of the Garden of Zhou, bringing death. If she stopped, then she would be killed even faster by Nanke.
This was a fated battle, an unavoidable battle. The end of the battle had already been predetermined, just like that, sad and frustrating.
It seemed as though nobody could change everything.
However, on the peak of Sunset Valley, there was always a bystander.
The zither-playing old man was silent. Watching the battle up until now, he finally could not bear it anymore.
He was extremely certain that Nanke’s method of battle definitely gained the recognition of Black Robe, however, he was even more certain at the same time that the Demon Lord did not know about this at all.
He was unable to watch Nanke die in front of him, because he did not want to suffer the wrath of the Demon Lord afterwards. Even more than that, he did not want to see his clan, that had survived through hardships, pushed into the deep abyss by the wrath of the Demon Lord and unable to ever rise up again.
As a result, his hand landed on the zither strings, and played a note very seriously and solemnly.
Hearing this note, a sliver of anger flashed across Nanke’s indifferent gaze. Only a while later did it slowly return back to her indifference—she did not allow anyone to interrupt her battle with Xu Yourong. However, at this moment, all of her willpower and energy was spent on Xu Yourong, unable to prevent the zither-playing old man from helping her.
A matter that cannot be changed can only be accepted.
What calmed her was the matter that could not be changed tonight. That was dying with Xu Yourong.
The sound of the zither hummed. It was very warm, but afterwards, it instead carried killing intent.
The sound of the zither entered her ear, and Xu Yourong’s complexion became even paler. Countless frightful billows and terrible waves arose in her sea of consciousness, causing her to almost drop the Wutong Longbow, and allowing Nanke to chop at her body.
The mental attack of the elder who originated from the Shadow Candle Clan was extremely powerful and scary. But she needed to put her efforts into defending against the even scarier Nanke. She actually suffered a heavy blow from her.
A stream of blood dripped slowly from the corner of her lips.
It was different from the blood that originated from her finger holding the longbow. The blood did not originate from her consciousness, and was not due to her purposely burning her life. Instead, it was caused by injury.
Her gaze remained calm, and it remained focused. She looked silently at Nanke, without even glancing to the zither-playing old man at all. Her left hand pierced through the night wind, falling towards the night.
It was not a shapeless, mystery technique that could hurt her opponent without contact. She only swung her hand at the night.
There was nothing in the night, so what was she swinging at?
In the next moment, a black square plate suddenly appeared in the night sky. The black square plate floated silently beside her shoulder, as if it was always there, but nobody had noticed it.
This was Xu Yourong’s Fated Star Plate.
Her left hand landed in the centre of the Fated Star Plate.
She did not gently move her finger. At this moment, there was no time to calculate exactly what her fate was.
What she wanted to do, what she could do, was only to attempt to control her own fate.
She had accumulated for a long time, ready to give Nanke a mortal strike of forceful true essence. She poured everything into the Fated Star Plate with this swing.
A muffled bang.
This bang sounded like a gong, specifically like a broken one. The sound was not nice, and it was slightly muffled.
However, it was very loud.
This was the sound produced by the Fated Star Plate.
This was the strong sound produced by fate.
The powerful wind of the peak blew wildly. Other than the rapid circulation of the trajectory of stars and lines of fate that nobody could understand, the flash of light produced by the Fated Star Plate transformed into countless dazzling rays of light.
The sound of the zither that was like gurgling, flowing water was forcibly smashed by this sound of a broken gong.
Several strings on the zither snapped.
The complexion of the zither-playing old man became pale, as if he had been hit by a heavy blow. He vomited blood.
To slap fate into chaos and to heavily injure the opponent. Xu Yourong’s blow seemed to be understated, but in reality, it had reached an unbelievable level of strength. However, she also paid a great price for this.
Nanke’s childish voice arose again, and the Southern Cross Sword once more divided into three.
Xu Yourong’s hand which held onto the Wutong Longbow began to shake violently. Her gaze was still calm, but it was not as bright as before, and seemed somewhat gloomy.
The change most striking to the eye was that more and more fresh blood flowed from the corner of her mouth.
The zither-playing old man circulated his extremely powerful spiritual sense, forcefully suppressing the injuries he received in his sea of consciousness. He immediately suppressed the wild true essence within his meridians, and with a long roar, he acted again.
He drifted away from the zither, and his two hands directly landed on Xu Yourong’s head. In the night, he could only see the faint white light radiating from between his fingertips, as if there was no flesh at all, with only white bone remaining.
After creating the powerful sound from slapping the Fated Star Plate with her left hand, she took the opportunity to grab hold of a corner of the plate.
She did not know what abnormality the hands of the elder of the shaman clan carried, and thought that it was definitely extreme poison. Without even thinking, she flipped her hand and smashed towards the front of the opponent with the Fated Star Plate in her hand.
This smash seemed to be very simple, just like kids fighting. However, it was actually not simple in the slightest.
This was the final move of the Sword of Hithering Light from the Heavenly Dao Academy.
The Sword of Hithering Light was known for its speed and sharpness. The speed of the final move had already reached an unbelievable level. Because of its speed, it seemed extremely simple.
Xu Yourong’s Sword of Hithering Light was better than the Sword of Hithering Light learnt by any student of the Heavenly Dao Academy.
Her swing was faster than the final move of the Sword of Hithering Light performed by any student of the Heavenly Dao Academy.
It was so fast that the zither-playing old man was not even able to avoid it.
The muffled sound of collision resounded. The zither-playing old man attempted to use his hands to block against the Fated Star Plate in her hands. His finger bones were immediately shattered. He was knocked backwards for over ten zhang, unable to stop vomiting blood.
Xu Yourong also felt that effect of the collision, and her gaze became even more gloomy.
Nanke’s gaze remained as prudent and indifferent as it was, however, it had brightened up like never before.
The zither-playing old man suffered heavy defeat from a single blow, but it had helped her gain the best opportunity in the entirety of that night.
A childlike outcry once again reverberated through the entire cliff.
Nanke’s body suddenly turned into nothing, her sword barrier dispersed. She did not pay any attention to the dozen or so Wu Arrows, and brought her hands together. She fused with the Southern Cross Sword, piercing at Xu Yourong.
Whoosh Whoosh Whoosh Whoosh, the Wu Arrows pierced through the night sky.
Thunk Thunk Thunk Thunk, the dozen or so arrows penetrated her body.
Nanke’s expression did not change, as if she could not feel pain at all.
Two extremely bright sword rays chopped towards the front of Xu Yourong like two galaxies.