Chapter 349: A Crushing Match

The black-robed cultivator reacted with extreme speed; though he could not immediately comprehend the suddenly altered surroundings or the blond knight maiden appearing before him, he swiftly regained his composure and instantly activated a secret technique, striving to summon his personal treasure to defend against the enemy.

Yet the next second, he was stunned to find he felt no response from his treasure at all.

All the treasures on his person had vanished; even the flying sword he had held in his hand just moments before had, at some unknown time, turned into a bare wooden staff.

The black-robed cultivator stared blankly at the staff in his hand; in a daze, he seemed to recall this was the wooden sword his master had tossed to him when he first entered the path of immortality, one he had grown accustomed to using for practice.

But the knight maiden before him clearly offered no chance for him to continue reminiscing.

The sound of footsteps approached from a short distance; the blond knight maiden, her hair cascading over her shoulders, raised the holy sword in her hand and, in silence, charged at the black-robed cultivator.

Blazing flames surged upon the holy sword, emitting an aura capable of burning the very soul; the black-robed cultivator had no time to ponder, forcing spiritual energy into the staff in his hand before meeting the enemy who had already arrived before his eyes.

But the next second, he felt a sudden daze and sharp pain in his mind, as if his perspective had instantly been torn in two; simultaneously, he witnessed another scene—himself standing deep within a foreign land covered in yellow sand, where the steel automaton, trapped by the "Stasis Mirror," trembled strangely in the air; she slowly broke free from the treasure's restraint, then leaped lightly like a dancer, her blade-sharp claws reaching straight for him!

The black-robed cultivator's spirit was shaken violently, yet he found his body sluggish beyond measure, managing only to barely push his legs aside to narrowly dodge those finger-blades; but the next second, in another layer of vision and perception, he saw the armored blond woman strike down with her sword; dazed and bewildered, he blocked with the staff, only to watch as the staff, upon contact with the blazing holy sword, instantly began to rapidly rot, weather, and turn into dust in the wind!

In the gray wilderness where the River of Styx hung upside down, the black-robed cultivator was instantly severed at one arm; in terror, he felt the agony of his soul being torn apart and instinctively turned to flee!

On the battlefield of the foreign land covered in yellow sand, one of his arms suddenly hung limp; though he had suffered no external wound, that arm began to emit wisps of black smoke, shrinking rapidly into a piece of charcoal as if burned by an invisible force.

He retreated in terror, and at the same time, his companions around him finally noticed something was wrong on this side.

Another black-robed cultivator wearing a deep red mask rushed in from the side, attempting to ambush Luna who had just leaped halfway into the air; however, before he could reach the halfway point, Luna suddenly turned her head as if she had eyes in the back of her head.

In that instant, the black-robed cultivator wearing the deep red mask felt everything around him lose its color; that smiling, pale face, as if the only existence in the world, occupied his entire field of vision; the next second, he felt a chill run through his arm.

A finger-blade sliced across his arm, nearly severing it completely at the root.

He let out a muffled groan and landed in terror, only to see the sky filled with yellow sand vanish in the blink of an eye, replaced by an endless gray wilderness rushing toward him; twelve hollow bronze armors then materialized among the barren grass; a bone-chilling wind blew, and the bronze knights raised their sharp blades in unison, advancing silently to slaughter...

The lifeless bodies of the two black-robed cultivators fell one after another into the sky-filled yellow sand; they died so abruptly that almost everyone on both sides of the conflict failed to react in time.

One of them had merely had an arm severed, while the other had not even truly been struck by the "Artificial Saintess" before his death.

An invisible flame burned through their bodies in a few breaths; black smoke rose, and two extremely powerful cultivators had already turned into two curled-up lumps of charcoal.

One of them, in his final moments, seemed to suddenly understand something; he desperately lifted his head toward the nearest companion, opening his mouth in the blink of an eye as if to say something, yet only a few hoarse noises emerged from his throat—this body thought it was still alive, but that was merely a brief illusion generated within seconds after his death.

The remaining black-robed cultivators besieging Hu Li and Yu Sheng were instantly stunned by the bizarre scene before them; they instinctively halted their steps, and everyone's attention fixed firmly on Luna, who had suddenly appeared to kill; immediately, various protective treasures were summoned, and all fierce killing moves landed upon the steel puppet.

Luna merely bent slightly at the waist, crossed her legs, and raised her hands like a dancer taking a bow; ten blades flashed a cold light through the air.

When she raised her head, the perception of every black-robed cultivator was torn into two parts—in the world of the soul, they all saw that suddenly descended gray wilderness, and beneath the upside-down River of Styx, the blond maiden raising her holy sword toward them.

And the bronze knight corps gathered behind the maiden.

Yu Sheng stood atop Hu Li's head, staring blankly at the bizarre battlefield scene not far away.

He saw Luna moving lightly and elegantly among the enemies, her finger-blades dancing like butterflies, her agility and liveliness completely unlike her usual dull and clumsy appearance.

He saw those besieging black-robed cultivators acting strangely, as if their bodies and minds were severely disturbed; occasionally, someone would stand blankly in place, as if their souls had been pulled elsewhere, showing no reaction whatsoever even when blades attacked their bodies.

Some black-robed cultivators fell, struck down by Luna's finger-blades.

Some black-robed cultivators were not injured by the blades at all, nor had they even been touched by Luna—yet they too fell; standing rigidly for a moment, they then crashed into the yellow sand, their bodies burned into charcoal by an invisible flame, as if killed in another world.

The two Erens sitting on Yu Sheng's shoulders were also stunned; the small puppet could not understand for a long time: "... What's going on? Didn't Type-C have this move before?"

Yu Sheng merely frowned in silence, and just then, he seemed to suddenly "see" something.

It was the connection established by blood, transmitting the world as seen through Luna's eyes to him.

The real world and the world of the soul overlapped; the wilderness covered the yellow sand; in the Artificial Saintess's deadly "dance," the blond maiden wielding the holy sword led the bronze knight corps in hunting down a group of bewildered souls.

"... Two-front war?" Yu Sheng muttered softly.

The Eren did not understand: "What?"

Yu Sheng waved his hand: "Forget it for now, let's deal with these people first—Luna! Xuan Che! Let's try to keep one alive!"

As his words fell, the Hu Li beneath his feet lunged fiercely at the nearest black-robed cultivator.

There were few enemies left alive.

The remaining two or three black-robed cultivators also saw that the tide had turned; this vast foreign land offered no place to hide or flee, so they could only one by one go berserk, displaying an aura of mutual destruction.

Not far away, Xuan Che leaped into the air and brought his palm down upon the enemy before him: "Medical Dispute Mediation Palm!"

Before Yu Sheng, a black-robed cultivator moved like lightning, piercing straight past the surrounding fox-fire protecting Hu Li; several small cauldrons then materialized from behind him, flying into the air to block a round of scorching rays from the Eren; although these treasures were instantly shattered by those powerful beams, he successfully advanced to Yu Sheng's front and struck down with a sword.

Yu Sheng neither dodged nor avoided; he raised the Tetanus Staff in his hand, already soaked in his blood and reinforced countless times by Hu Li's fox-fire and black iron, and met the blow; the immortal treasure sword and the ferocious spiked club collided, producing a tremendous roar—

Then, dense black threads erupted directly from beside Yu Sheng; taking advantage of the instant the black-robed cultivator's body stiffened after his strike was blocked, the Eren wrapped the enemy tightly from head to toe.

The enemy, wrapped into a black cocoon, fell straight down to the ground; Hu Li saw this, quickly stepped forward, and pinned him down with her front paw.

But the next second, she let out a startled "Awooo!" and quickly lifted her front paw again, rubbing it vigorously against the nearby sand, making grunting noises as she rubbed.

The small puppet immediately laughed loudly: "Stupid fox! I told you you're stupid, and you really are! Why touch my threads!"

The fox was still rubbing her paws vigorously in the sand; in this short time, she had already dug a pit half a meter deep: "I was just afraid he'd escape..."

The Eren pouted: "You underestimate me too much."

As she spoke, the battle had already ended.

The last black-robed cultivator stood blankly before Luna and turned into a corpse, collapsing into the desert.

Silence finally returned to the surroundings.

Yu Sheng leaped down from Hu Li and saw Xuan Che walking over with a look of regret on his face.

"I wanted to keep a prisoner, but this last one, fighting to the end, used a mutual destruction technique; I didn't expect him to carry a treasure that burns the essence of the soul... By the time I discovered it, it was too late to stop him."

Luna also walked over; as soon as the battle ended, she returned to her slow, even somewhat dull manner; she lowered her head before Yu Sheng, struggled for a long time, and finally spoke: "Dead. Wanted to spare, but too weak."

The Eren immediately looked at Luna with a strange expression, then started nagging: "How can you fight even better than before... Did you hide moves last time... You were clearly a defeated opponent..."

Luna shook her head: "New move. Useless on you. You have no brain."

The Eren thought for a moment, then exploded in rage: "... T-Y-P-E-C!!!"

"Alright, alright, you two can fight slowly later," Yu Sheng quickly stopped the small puppet who was about to jump up in rage on his shoulder, then glanced at the black-robed cultivator on the ground, still wrapped in the Eren's black threads and curled up in pain from the bone-piercing cold, "It's fine, there's still one alive—the Eren's ability is still useful for capturing prisoners."

The Eren, who had been raging, immediately brightened upon hearing Yu Sheng's words, a smug smile appearing on her face: "Of course, who do you think I am~"

Yu Sheng smiled, raised his hand to pat the small puppet's head, letting her show off for now, then his gaze fell upon the black-robed cultivator bound like a zongzi.

Next, it was time to slowly investigate where these people had emerged from.

(End of Chapter)