Chapter 368: One sword, just one sword

"Hum... hum... hum..."

Pink energy, flickering with an eerie luster, radiated from the priest's body as the center, sending out wave-like shockwaves into the surroundings.

The familiar mechanical voice echoed incessantly in Xia Nan's mind; the 【Dream Weaving Corridor】 was rapidly charging at a rate of 0.0003% per second.

Yet, there was no joy in his heart; instead, he felt increasingly troubled.

For someone like him, who possessed the 【Dream Weaving Corridor】 terminal and could automatically absorb the energy of gems he came into contact with, these dissipating pink rays were precious energy sources.

However, if it were any other adventurer who did not possess such equipment, this would be a mental check imposed on their willpower at one-second intervals.

If they failed to endure even a single round, they would fall into a charmed state.

And then, the continuously impacting energy waves would take advantage of the situation to destroy the affected person's willpower, dragging their spirit completely into the abyss of corruption.

Xia Nan did not know what the other party intended to do, but reality was not a game; he could not stand foolishly in place and watch the "cutscene."

No matter what Moxi wanted to do, he would not let the other party have their way easily.

It was just that, clearly, this elderly priest had anticipated his current state.

Almost the moment he forcibly shoved the gem into his chest, a translucent pink light shield appeared around his body once again, protecting the broken, glowing torso within.

Blocking Xia Nan, who intended to interrupt this process, on the outside.

"Clack..."

Accompanied by the sharp ringing of high-frequency energy vibrations, a strange sound, as if ice crystals were congealing, suddenly echoed in the air.

Standing there within the light shield, Moxi's burning white holy fire had already extinguished at some unknown point.

Replacing it were crystalline particles, centered on the gem in the middle of his chest, spreading rapidly toward the rest of his body.

The old man did not make a sound throughout the entire process.

He simply stood in place, staring at Xia Nan outside the shield with those pink, glowing eyes where the contours of the pupils were almost invisible.

Five seconds? Or ten seconds?

Enduring the rolling pink energy waves within the church that felt like air currents, his highly concentrated attention made the concept of time seem to blur and distort at this moment.

His meticulous perception, along with the hearing and vision that had improved alongside his physical fitness, allowed Xia Nan to even capture the crisp sounds of growing crystals colliding and rubbing against each other deep within the sharp, high-frequency whistling of the energy, as well as the clusters of pink crystalline particles spreading and covering Moxi's skin surface like fungal colonies.

The degree of erosion was significantly deeper than that of the previous innkeeper, the blacksmith, and the believers he had just slain.

Silver-white hair fell off silently, and the crystalline particles, which possessed exaggerated physical resistance, spread all the way to the top of his skull, completely enveloping Moxi's entire body.

Even his left arm, which had been blown off, regrew into a limb composed entirely of crystals as the particles congealed.

When the pink light shield protecting the outside was retracted by the other party due to massive energy consumption,

the figure standing within could no longer be recognized as the kind priest from the small town.

All that remained was a pink crystal man composed of countless gem particles, enough to make a trypophobia sufferer die on the spot.

"Adventurer... your strength is far higher than I imagined..."

The voice emitted from his throat was no longer hoarse and low; it sounded as if it were simulated by pure energy distorting the tone, making one unable to help but get goosebumps.

You have a second phase too?

Looking at the ferocious figure wrapped in crystals ahead, Xia Nan raised his eyebrows, but he was too lazy to waste words with the other party.

The Winter Wolf phantom condensed behind him, and he had already charged up in an instant.

His speed remained the same, but necessary caution was always kept in his heart.

The 【Ring of Dead Line】, the 【Tears of Spring Breath】 necklace, and even the Snake Scale Arm Shield on his left hand were all prepared for use and defense.

At this moment, Moxi had been seriously injured by Xia Nan's interruption of his spellcasting using 【Gravity Control】, directly entering the crystallized "second phase."

Xia Nan did not know if this current state of the other party had a time limit, nor had he figured out their specific abilities.

He could only reasonably speculate, based on his previous combat experience with those crystal people, that the other party's physical fitness had been greatly enhanced, particularly in terms of strength and explosive power, and the crystalline particles covering their entire body made their skin surface seem like it was covered in a layer of iron, possessing extremely strong physical defense.

But to what extent the other party's physical fitness had been enhanced, and whether their physical resistance had changed compared to the previous crystal people, still required him to further test it in battle.

Awoo—

The high-pitched, long wolf howl suddenly drew closer, and the twilight-like grey-black wolf teeth swept a perfect arc through the air.

【Wolf Tooth Hunt】 + 【Spinning Slash】!

As expected, the priest under the blade showed no signs of dodging at all, directly raising his right arm to meet the sword light.

"Ding!"

The ear-piercing sound of hard objects colliding erupted amidst the pink sparks that flashed in the air for an instant.

Stepping backward repeatedly, he left cracks on the church floor.

The powerful impact brought about by Xia Nan's exaggerated speed, which could only be seen as a phantom in his field of vision, forced the priest to retreat involuntarily to dissipate the force.

But at the same time, his right arm, which had taken the blade head-on, remained intact.

The attack, combined with the bonuses of two "Mastered" level combat techniques, was actually taken head-on by him, leaving only a not-too-deep sword mark on his arm.

The counter-shock effect produced by the collision of hard objects made Xia Nan's hands gripping the sword hilt tremble slightly; fortunately, he had prepared in advance, so he did not suffer the sword being knocked out of his hand.

But even so, when he witnessed with his own eyes his full-strength strike being taken head-on by the other party, his gaze still couldn't help but pause.

The purpose of Xia Nan's strike... ending the battle directly would be best, of course, but the main point was to test the physical strength of Moxi after crystallization.

Since he couldn't even solve those believer crystal people with one sword just now, he certainly didn't think the defense performance of Moxi before him would be lower than the former.

What he hoped to see was that his blade could break through the defense of the crystals on the other party's skin surface to a certain extent.

If he slashed down with one sword, not to mention breaking the defense directly, being able to shave off one-third, or even one-fourth of the crystals, would be completely acceptable.

In that way, he would only need to slash at the same spot three or four more times to completely break the defense, exposing the fragile flesh and blood under the crystal protection to the blade.

However, judging by the damage he could cause with this strike just now, to get a breakthrough point, he was afraid he would have to slash at the same spot on the priest's body more than a dozen times.

And the other party naturally wouldn't stand there like a sandbag, letting him attack.

In such high-intensity combat, could Xia Nan really have so many opportunities to attack?

He was not sure.

Clearly... the temporarily formulated battle plan needed to be significantly modified.

Awoo—

The wolf howl had just fallen and then suddenly rose again.

With 【Wolf Tooth Hunt】 as the core, Xia Nan had long since formed a combat style that focused on speed and mobility, and he had no intention of entangling with the other party in place.

The moment the blade fell, his right leg kicked hard against the ground, and he turned into a black wolf phantom, retreating rapidly toward the rear.

And it was also at this moment that the crystal man, who had forcibly withstood Xia Nan's sword, suddenly moved.

Boom—

The stone tiles under his feet were crushed into pieces, and the pink gem in the center of his chest pulsed and flickered like a heart, pumping energy. ===== CHAPTER 369 =====