468 The world without the Minotaur (2/2)
”Scram!” Earthbound Yaksha sneered. A repressive Soul Suppression emanated from its body.
It did not have the luxury of time to waste with the trio. Even the azure-dressed girl was not someone who made it as apprehensive as that youth who was proficient at strategic deployment.
Towards opponents who were a few psionic realms lower than it was, releasing Soul Suppression was enough to leave them stifled.
And indeed, the moment Earthbound Yaksha's Soul Suppression was released, other than Sunless, who did not appear affected, Feng Yuanlin and Liu Yu's pupils constricted and their bodies came to a sudden halt. Their actions appeared extremely slow.
At that moment, a melodious voice sounded. It was moving and pleasant to the ears. The voice wasn't loud, but it seemed to penetrate the barriers of space itself. Instantly, it filled the entire arena!
”The sky is high and the wind sings,”
”The dream I once relished in joy,”
”That people will one day find,”
”Your firm belief with the eyes of a child!”
”I'm willing to be by your side,”
”Crossing through the frozen forest,”
”So that your eyes won't forever hesitate,”
”in the grief of the world!”
It was unknown when Mu Lengxi had taken off her thick black-rimmed glasses, revealing her adolescent beauty. She spread out her arms and with her eyes closed, she sang with gusto. The wind that blew into the sky suddenly flared the crystalline-like silver-hair that resembled snowflakes into the sky.
At that moment, the bookworm who always buried herself in a sea of books and remained silent was dignified and pure like a goddess. She was as charming and gorgeous as a pixie.
Her voice reached towards the horizons and clear droplets of resplendent light fell to the ground like a drizzle, while illuminating the other six. The courage and hope infused in the voice transformed into surging energy that flowed through their bodies.
The effects of Soul Suppression was immediately reduced drastically, enough for Feng Yuanlin and Liu Yu to conquer it based on their own willpower.
”Wow, wow, wow! Muse Silvermoon's ”The Sky is High and the Wind Sings”! And she immediately began with the chorus which is the most exhilarating! Oh! Oh! Oh! Energy is surging, it's all coming!” Feng Yuanlin shouted out in an exaggerated manner. He raised his mithril shield and charged at Earthbound Yaksha. His excited appearance did not look like he was rushing headlong into battle, but like he was rushing to attend a concert.
”This is how a Muse alone can influence the outcome of a battle!” Liu Yu sighed in praise once again.
Although Mu Lengxi's powers were still nascent as a peerless Muse, she was able to shape the outcome of the battle. In the future, she would definitely be a Battle Muse viewed as a treasure by the country. And in addition to her proficiency of magic that far exceeded Liu Yu's understanding, it was unimaginable how impressive a hero she would grow into.
Mu Lengxi's future had endless possibilities!
Liu Yu and Feng Yuanlin were not the only ones that were affected by Mu Lengxi's voice. Earthbound Yaksha was also affected by it and was crying in bitterness.
It felt that there was an irritating sacred aura surrounding it. Grating sounds hummed in its ears as it suddenly felt its body turn extremely heavy. It was as if dozens of invisible chains were wrapped around its body while it constantly tightened. Its actions were severely restrained.
”Darn it!” Earthbound Yaksha regretted sorely that it did not kill Speechless and Mu Lengxi ten minutes ago. Now, it was tasting the bitter fruit of its inaction.
A struggle flashed in Earthbound Yaksha's eyes. It had made the same choice as it did previously. With an angry roar, it forcefully repressed the ill effects the voice had on it before turning around and slashing straight at the singing Mu Lengxi.
At that moment, Mu Lengxi looked like she was completely defenseless. It was also posing the greatest threat, so it was only right to be the first target to be finished.
”Pui! Shameless wretch, don't you dare think of harming her!” It was unknown when Feng Yuanlin had run in between Earthbound Yaksha and Mu Lengxi. He had used his mithril shield to withstand the sharp blade beam that surged over.
”Damn it!” Earthbound Yaksha cursed angrily.
The punk had only pretended to attack from the beginning, but he was actually protecting the singing girl?
Earthbound Yaksha immediately turned to charge at Feng Yuanlin. Even though the weak worm wanted to be a protector of women without knowing his own strength, it did not mind slaughtering him first before stepping over his corpse!
”Oh!?” However, just as Earthbound Yaksha turned around again, it felt an extremely dangerous aura emerge behind it.
”Courting death!”
Earthbound Yaksha roared angrily as it stamped on the ground with its right foot. With a twist of its torso, it had slashed towards it back with its astounding ability to twist!
But at the same time, the azure figure that it noticed had suddenly vanished into thin air when it turned back.
”Blind spot attack!?”
Earthbound Yaksha exclaimed in surprise. The azure figure had moved to a spot in its blind spot instantly with an intricate side step.
What keen judgment!
What a stunning reaction!
Earthbound Yaksha felt slightly alarmed, but its reaction was extremely fast as well. It immediately gave up on its counterattack. Suddenly, it charged forward in an attempt to dodge the sword that came slashing right towards it.
However, it failed to completely escape the peripheral blast of the sword beam. The sharp sword beams instantly lacerated its skin.
”Si!”
Earthbound Yaksha cried out in pain. The strike's sword beam contained a rich element of light. As an evil spirit, the light was able to hurt its physical embodiment. A visible laceration appeared on its back!
”Vaiśravaṇa Heavenly Slash!”
Earthbound Yaksha naturally would not stop its actions because of an injury. It immediately slashed out its powerful and famous blade technique at its assailant while there was a gap in between the assailant's attacks.
However, its assailant was not any amateur. Immediately, with a perfect leap backward, the assailant had completely dodged the attack.
Earthbound Yaksha finally managed to turn its head to discern the true identity of its assailant. Just as it guessed, it was indeed the sword-wielding azure-dressed girl.
”It looks like it twas not luck for thee to beest able to repress that foolish ox alone.” Earthbound Yaksha squinted its eyes. It had no choice but to admit that it had underestimated the azure-dressed girl's strength. Her calmness, sharpness and machine-like precision combat style did not resemble that of a young girl in her teens. She clearly had the mental prowess of an old witch that had lived for countless years.
”Doth thee bethink the three of thee can repress me?”Earthbound Yaksha scanned Sunless, Liu Yu, and Feng Yuanlin, who stood in a triangular position around it. It was secretly furious. If not for the restraint the voice was giving it, it would not be in such a tragic state. But the current situation did give it a sense of defeat.
Repress? No, the three of us will slaughter you!” said Liu Yu coldly. He held a stack of talismans in his hand and could throw it into the sky at any time and produce any one of the eight incantations of Daoism.
Sunless' eyes were ice-cold as they stared intently at Earthbound Yaksha, as though she was waiting for the opportunity to kill it.
Other than that, the combat situation came to a temporary standstill that could have the flames of battle ignite again at any time.
At that moment, a sinister voice suddenly resounded.
”That's as far as it will go!”
Shadow Wraith, which had been silent for a prolonged period of time, finally took action. It had once again made a bold declaration as though it could press a pause button. Heaven Shrouding Eclipse's sword beam had already dissipated. There was no obstruction to the sunlight, and the shadow tentacles that it stretched out had successfully reached the feet of the trio!
”Ha, what a bunch of fools that do not learn their lesson.” Earthbound Yaksha sniggered. It was relieved and did not expect that Shadow Wraith's repeat of his technique would actually be successful.
”Go fuck yourself as far as you can go!”
Suddenly, a boorish invective emanated from the other side of the battlefield!
Earthbound Yaksha turned its head and saw Speechless appearing less than a hundred meters away from Shadow Wraith without any warning. The shadow arms at his feet surprisingly extended in a strange way. The shadow arms that extended out a hundred meters suddenly clenched Shadow Wraith's neck at the moment Speechless's voice resounded!
Shadow Wraith cried in agony. The shadow tentacles that it had extended out retracted. Its jagged shadow outline began to convulse crazily.
”Well done!” Liu Yu guffawed in joy as he gave a big thumbs up to Speechless.
This attack that let it have a taste of its own medicine could be called perfect. Just as Shadow Wraith had reduced its presence to secretly extend its shadow tentacles towards the trio that was facing Earthbound Yaksha, Speechless had lowered his presence as much as possible as well. He had then used Mirror Replication to replicate 'Shadow Shackles' and sent his own shadow tentacles towards Shadow Wraith!
This was an intense exchange of placing each other in 'check' on a figurative game of chess. Speechless had used his excellent ability and intelligence to counterattack Shadow Wraith alone!
”The ones that will only go this far is the two of you!”
Speechless laughed crazily as he suddenly turned his head in a completely opposite direction in the battlefield. He took a deep breath and shouted forcefully at a name most people would consider odd.
”Pulp! Farmer! ”
The name Speechless yelled with some hoarseness in his throat was Pulp Farmer, who did not participate in the triangular encirclement against Earthbound Yaksha despite being a melee warrior.
Yes, forcefully getting Liu Yu, a Daoist meant to gross out their opponent from a distance to the front lines to take on one corner of the triangular encirclement was not because the commanding brain behind the strategy was retarded, but because Pulp Farmer had to do something even more important!
Earthbound Yaksha and Shadow Wraith looked towards the direction in which Speechless had turned towards. Immediately, they saw the spear-wielding youth who unknowingly had retreated to a blind spot outside the battle zone. Then they saw a scene that could be considered odd.
Pulp Farmer had extended both his arms and with his head lifted high, his spear was erected beside him. Under the illumination of the sunlight, he looked as mighty as a silent sculpture of a god of war!
However...
White paper cranes were flying out of the mighty youth's palms that were extended upwards! One after another, the paper cranes were flying unendingly out of Pulp Farmer's palm!
The one thousand paper cranes were flapping their paper wings and flying towards the sky like sparrows.
Looking up at the sky, it was appalling to realize that in the endless firmament, there were countless pure white paper cranes flapping their wings. None of them were acting together. Instead, they were flying in a different direction toward the sky, as though they wanted to see every corner of the world.
When Speechless roared out his name, Pulp Farmer slowly opened his eyes.
That forbidding face that looked extremely firm and mature suddenly beamed radiantly in a way appropriate for his age.
”I found it!” Pulp Farmer yelled. The way he beamed was like a lost child that had managed to finally find his way home after overcoming challenge after challenge.
”I found the core of the formation!!!”
When this deafening yell resounded through the sky,
Speechless smiled.
Liu Yu moved the big thumbs up he had towards a different direction.
Feng Yuanlin raised his shield as he leaped in joy.
Tears stream down Mu Lengxi's eyes.
Sunless gaped slightly and emitted an 'ah' that she found hard to suppress...
Found it!
Found it!
Found it!
Shi Xiaobai...
The possibility of saving you has been found!
”No! Impossible!” Shadow Wraith yelled sharply.
In order to create the so-called 'despair', in order to fulfill their perverse idea of fun, it had informed the seven humans of the scheme and revealed secrets. One of the things revealed included that ”killing Field Marshal Awesomo would not disable the God Slaughtering Formation” unless the formation core was destroyed.
And now, the formation core had been found!
”Impossible! Impossible! Impossible!”
Shadow Wraith was certain that if the mission failed in such a manner, as a pig-like teammate, it would definitely be tortured tragically by the heartless assessment program. That devil possessed the absolute rights to not only kill them but to deal with them in any way it liked!
Shadow Wraith fell into hysteria, but Earthbound Yaksha calmed down instead. It looked coldly at Speechless and said in a solemn voice, ”Thy actions wast highly coordinated, with very clear goals. Wast all of this discussed by thee before hand?”
Earthbound Yaksha recalled the unease it felt previously. Yes, from the beginning, it had noticed that the humans' actions seemed to be coordinated ahead of time. The triangular encirclement, the shield youth protecting the singing girl in time, restraining Shadow Wraith...All of that appeared to have been played out according to a particular person's script. It was done with such verve like it had been planned!
But!
How was this possible?
The seven of them had clearly been restrained by Shadow Wraith. Not only could they not move, they could not even speak. How were they able to draw up such a highly coordinative plan?
”How didst thee doth it!?”IChooseDogLeading (我选择狗带) when read in Chinese sounds like I Choose Go Die. It was a meme that resulted from a former member of famous Korean boygroup, EXO, TAO (Huang Zitao). At a concert, there was a part in a rap that where he said ””, but due to a mispronunciation, it sounded like he will not easily choose to be led by dogs. This phrase now means 'I'd rather die/I choose death'.