Chapter 22: Three against one and still counter-killed

……

After the Pope's coronation ceremony, the war between the Spirit Hall and the Clear Sky Sect officially began.

Unlike what everyone had worried about before, the Spirit Hall did not rely on its large number of Spirit Masters to directly launch an attack on the Clear Sky Sect's headquarters, but chose to start with the Clear Sky Sect's affiliated sects first.

The first to bear the brunt were naturally the four single-attribute clans: Force, Destruction, Agility, and Defense.

After all, the Clear Sky Sect's strength was not weak. Although it was no longer as prosperous as the world's number one sect in its prime, the power of the Clear Sky Hammer remained. Even if they could win head-on, it wouldn't be cost-effective.

Bibi Dong had just taken office and wanted to win people's hearts, so naturally, she wanted to maximize the gains of this war while controlling losses as much as possible.

Therefore, the war against the Clear Sky Sect was divided into two parts. The main force led by the two Titled Douluo, Chrysanthemum and Ghost, was responsible for launching a frontal attack on the Clear Sky Sect's headquarters to attract their attention. Then, several Spirit Douluo bishops led Spirit Hall Spirit Masters to launch surprise attacks on the Clear Sky Sect's affiliated sects, dragging these sects down so they couldn't support the Clear Sky Sect.

Of course, the most important thing was to rob all of the Clear Sky Sect's industries outside!

Spirit Masters also had to eat, and clothing, food, housing, and transportation all required money. Moreover, Spirit Masters' consumption far exceeded that of ordinary people. The Spirit Master class was both a high-income group and a high-consumption group.

Sects were even more so; to develop and grow, they needed money everywhere.

As for robbery, that was funny. Spirit Masters on the Douluo Continent might not necessarily have money, but rich people were definitely Spirit Masters. Profitable industries were all controlled by large Spirit Master forces like the Spirit Hall, the Eight Great Families, and the Seven Great Sects.

Spirit Masters who had the ability to rob these people's money didn't need to worry about money at all.

……

Within the Star Luo Empire, a small city that belonged to the Clear Sky Sect's territory—now it should be called ruins.

Not long ago, this was a moderately wealthy and developed city, but less than half a month after the war started, it had almost been reduced to ruins, and the people living here were either dead or had fled.

After all, when war broke out, no one cared if you were a Spirit Master or an ordinary person. On the designated battlefield, everyone except one's own personnel was assumed to be an enemy.

The opening move was to let Spirit Masters with long-range attack capabilities launch a spirit skill bombardment, just like the volley of arrows fired when the two great empires went to war. This stage basically didn't kill people; it was mainly to injure them and increase the opponent's logistical burden. It belonged to the consumption stage. Of course, it didn't exclude some unlucky people who ran into the line of fire and killed themselves.

After the consumption, it was a hearty melee.

"How is the fighting going at the front?" Nan Feng, as Bibi Dong had said, followed Chrysanthemum and Ghost to the front line to earn some credit.

With Bibi Dong, the Pope, as his backing, and the kindness of healing their serious injuries, Nan Feng's relationship with Yue Guan and his companion was quite good.

"It's alright. Our casualties are roughly one-to-one with the Clear Sky Sect," Yue Guan said.

This was actually a very good record, after all, the Spirit Hall's Spirit Masters' strength was uneven, and those sent to charge at the beginning were basically cannon fodder.

Of course, the Clear Sky Sect was about the same, but for the Spirit Hall, this consumption was insignificant, while for the Clear Sky Sect, this number of deaths and injuries was a bit painful.

"Because none of the affiliated sects that should have come to support them did, the Clear Sky Sect's momentum has clearly declined. In today's battle, the Clear Sky Sect already has a clear tendency to avoid fighting," Gui Mei said.

"Their elders haven't made a move?" Nan Feng asked, puzzled.

This place was only a few kilometers away from the front line. If a Spirit Douluo made a move, he would definitely be able to hear the commotion here. But he had been here for several days, and there hadn't been any particularly big commotion.

"No," Gui Mei said. "The Clear Sky Sect's main force has been retreating from the beginning, with no intention of going head-to-head with us. They probably want to hide back in their sect headquarters. After all, that hellhole is easy to defend and hard to attack; below Spirit Saint, breaking in is just asking for death."

"So cowardly?" Nan Feng was a bit puzzled.

"Didn't they say the Clear Sky Sect people have very explosive tempers? Shouldn't they have a big fight first before retreating when they really have no other choice?"

Yue Guan's eyelid twitched. "You have to consider who their opponent is."

The Clear Sky Sect currently only had one Titled Douluo, Sect Master Tang Xiao, and according to time estimates, Tang Xiao's current cultivation was at most level 93. The other Clear Sky Sect elders, although they were all high-level Spirit Douluo above level 85, still had no chance of winning against a Titled Douluo.

Although the Spirit Hall nominally said only two Titled Douluo came, in reality, who knew how many were in the dark?

Before they took the initiative to make a move, the Clear Sky Sect absolutely wouldn't dare to release high-level combat power.

"That's true," Nan Feng nodded.

"But after fighting for so long, why hasn't Tang Hao made a move?"

"Tang Hao?" Yue Guan couldn't help but laugh.

"That guy is barely holding on himself now."

Nan Feng looked strange. "It seems it was you guys who were three-against-one and still got counter-killed."

Yue Guan looked embarrassed. "Tang Hao cheated. The special magnetic field from the hundred-thousand-year spirit beast's sacrifice had a powerful suppression on us. We couldn't exert our full strength at all at that time."

"You don't know how big the bonus of a hundred-thousand-year spirit ring is to a Spirit Master. And once his hundred-thousand-year spirit skill, Killing Barrier, was opened, combined with the magnetic field from the hundred-thousand-year spirit beast's sacrifice, plus the Killing God Domain, Old Ghost and I couldn't even exert 70% of our strength. We couldn't even use our Spirit Fusion Skill."

They hadn't expected that transformed spirit beast to be willing to sacrifice itself, and they hadn't expected the special magnetic field after a hundred-thousand-year spirit beast's sacrifice to have such a large interference. Tang Hao had been chased by them for so long and was already at the end of his rope, but that Blue Silver Emperor's sacrifice directly restored Tang Hao to full state, and that special magnetic field even provided energy to Tang Hao continuously!

It was really hellish at the time! They got more tired the more they fought, and Tang Hao got crazier the more he fought! "And the Clear Sky Sect's Ring Explosion secret technique—that thing is really too unreasonable," Yue Guan said with lingering fear.

"After Tang Hao accepted the sacrifice, his spirit power fluctuation was level 91, approaching level 92. After he risked his life to use Ring Explosion and exploded his first four spirit rings, he directly pushed himself to level 93-plus. Once the fifth spirit ring exploded, he soared to level 95 on the spot!"

Nan Feng looked strange. "So awesome?"

"We had that same expression at the time!" Yue Guan said excitedly.

The Spirit Master world said that the Clear Sky Sect's unpassed secret technique, the ultimate mystery of the Great Sumeru Hammer, Ring Explosion, was a quite unreasonable move. But very few people had actually seen it, because only the person with the strongest talent in each generation of the Clear Sky Sect, who could be scheduled as the Sect Master, was qualified to learn Ring Explosion, and even then, they might not be able to learn it!

They didn't know how much of an improvement Ring Explosion had, but that day, they really saw it! It was really fucking unreasonable! "But the backlash of such an overbearing move is also extremely terrifying," Gui Mei said.

"After beating us all down, Tang Hao's state was also very poor. If there had been one more Titled Douluo at that time—no, even if just one Spirit Douluo had appeared—Tang Hao would definitely have died! And he would have died by his own hands!"

After Ring Explosion, Tang Hao's spirit power was very unstable. It was clear he wasn't proficient in controlling such a terrifying move. It fluctuated high and low, especially after the battle ended. He could clearly feel that Tang Hao was about to be unable to suppress the spirit power riot in his body! If it hadn't been for that damn magnetic field assisting, Tang Hao would definitely have blown himself up when he used Ring Explosion!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 23 =====