Chapter 282: Numerical Overwhelming

"Strike first!"

Sharon, poised and ready, launched forward with a triple spell combo.

【Dracul's Glass Transformation】【Petrification】【Disintegration】.

The Grand Cultivator stiffened—petrification and glassification crawled up his skin, but halted at a patch no larger than half a palm.

The Disintegration spell took effect, turning the petrified and glassified muscle into powder.

With a splash, a hollow opened in his abdomen, oozing green blood.

But to the Grand Cultivator, this was merely a minor wound—he could regenerate it easily with plague power.

It didn't regenerate.

He frowned at the wound on his abdomen.

He saw his spiritual energy shrinking back, as if terrified, refusing to approach the wound.

"Look at me!"

In a flash, Luo De appeared before him.

His right hand raised the golden sword; his left hand, the Tremor Blade 【Fear Domain】, opened all thirty-six demonic eyes.

Then—【Ten Flash】!

Ten blades of light slashed out in an instant!

Yet they left only faint scratches on the Grand Cultivator's pale green skin.

"Damn!"

Luo De felt a sudden wave of frustration.

The lingering resentment fire began to take effect, melting and corroding some of his muscle and bone.

He'd grown stronger over this time, yet now, striking this bastard felt like 【Wave Power】【Dragon's Heart】【Dragon Strength】 were all fake.

After all, the Grand Cultivator specialized in the physical path of the spiritual warrior.

If physical specialists stacked stats, then mages played mechanics.

Countless precise spells emerged—high stats meant debuffs to suppress you; strong defense meant glassification to blur it; even higher attack power couldn't help if you were turned into a sheep.

Though resistance could brute-force through these, unless innate, resistance was extremely, extremely hard to raise.

Clearly, this Grand Cultivator didn't have high resistance—otherwise Sharon's spells wouldn't have landed.

But his body was undeniably ninth-rank.

Luo De was indeed a stat monster between sixth-rank peak and seventh-rank.

But against ninth-rank? No contest—stats weren't even on the same level.

Fwoosh!

A massive pruning shear swung through the air.

Its force and speed far exceeded his limits.

Had he not had the skill 【Precise Prediction】, he wouldn't have seen it at all.

Luo De vanished in a shadow-step to avoid close combat.

But he was still a fraction too slow.

【Sacrificial Body Blade】 made contact, triggering sharpness evaluation.

【【Sacrificial Body Blade】 Sharpness: 69】

【【Grand Cultivator's Pruning Shear】 Sharpness: 130】

【Result: Failure!】

The gap was too wide.

The blade snapped instantly into two pieces.

"Goal is to hinder, not injure."

Luo De sheathed the broken blade and changed tactics.

He'd only wanted to test the gap between sixth and ninth rank—turns out the blow was heavier than expected.

Ice crystals spread beneath his feet, then rapidly expanded outward, unleashing gales of ice blades wherever they passed.

【Yudian's Ice Blade Domain】.

Slowed movement and freezing.

Sharon, hovering above, completed another spell—nearly ten 【Frozen Orb】s floated beside her.

Then, like artillery shells, they slammed into the ground, exploding into bursts of ice crystals.

Crack!

Ice shattered!

The massive pruning shear whirled through the air, spinning rapidly.

"Slower now—the freezing worked."

He noticed the shear was veering toward the Operation Staff.

Luo De frowned, calculated the distance, and stomped hard.

【Steel Vine Charge】.

Dozens of massive steel vines erupted upward, striking the weapon's underside just in time.

Slightly altered its flight arc—barely missing the Operation Staff.

"Close call."

Sharon exhaled in relief; she'd noticed the freezing effect and immediately resumed ice spells.

The weapon spun midair, unaffected, then returned to the motionless Grand Cultivator's grasp.

The Grand Cultivator cursed foully, then spat a mouthful of blood.

Clearly, he'd suffered severe injuries in battle with the Spider Legs.

Luo De grew anxious and intensified the Ice Blade Domain's spiritual energy.

"Come on, is this minute really taking this long?!"

He turned to look.

A pale greenish-yellow toxic mist had crept up the base of the Operation Staff, slowing its rotation considerably.

He cast a well-controlled Repulsion Spell.

The force had no effect on the mist—not even a tremor.

Sharon, watching nearby, cursed: "Shit!"

She landed beside the Operation Staff and used her own Plague Domain to repair it.

Then she looked at Luo De with a bitter smile.

"The Operation Staff is corrupted—efficiency dropped drastically. You'll need at least ten more minutes. Leave now—follow the method I taught you to return to the real dimension."

Luo De frowned.

He summoned a gravity field over the ground where the Grand Cultivator stood.

Boom—the purple spiritual energy crushed him heavily.

He further poured energy into the Ice Blade Domain, rapidly generating more ice crystals and blades.

But he clearly sensed the Dark Elves and Plague Beasts had resumed fighting.

And with the Spider Legs' aid, they were steadily advancing.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going all in. Otherwise, Dimea's magic rank will never ascend—she'll eventually die from magic backlash."

"Don't be foolish—there'll be other chances, no need to—"

Mid-sentence, Luo De remembered the slave spell's evaluation of the Dogmen: 【Dogmen typically show extreme loyalty and protectiveness toward friends and family】.

Sigh…

Another stubborn one.

Crack—

Sensing the Grand Cultivator was about to resist the freezing, Luo De spun and stomped hard—【War Trample】.

Boom!

The ground cracked violently, erupting with force.

The Grand Cultivator stiffened, spat another mouthful of blood, and his left hand—the one gripping the massive shear—went limp.

Highly effective.

"Shared skill effects would've been better…"

But this clearly enraged him.

【Rage +106】

"AHHHHH!!!"

The Grand Cultivator roared, eyes bulging with fury.

His eyeballs rapidly filled with blood and swelled.

With a pop, like bursting water balloons, they ruptured—a blood arrow pierced the sound barrier and shot straight through Luo De's abdomen.

【Dragon Scale Technique】 breached for the first time.

"Ugh…"

Luo De groaned in pain.

He could feel the poison in the blood arrow fiercely battling his own toxin resistance.

He immediately activated the 【Plague Domain】 and 【Grass Domain】 to suppress it.

When he looked up again, his face was set with grim determination.

Good, good, good.

Before drawing blood, I held back—but now you've broken through my defenses, so there's nothing left to say.

Luo De threw away the 【Tremor Blade】 in his hand.

"Sharon! Stay hidden! Don't let me find you!"

"What?"

The dog-people girl thought she had misheard.

"Obey!"

At those two words, Sharon's mind went numb; before her consciousness could even react, her magic spontaneously activated 【Stealth Shu 】 on herself.

The next instant.

An overwhelming surge of spiritual energy erupted into the sky!

The spiritual wave swept away the ice crystals on the ground layer by layer, obliterating everything in its path.

Luo De's entire body swelled by a full circle.

His skin turned pale red, his eyes flooded with crimson, and sharp canine fangs bared from his mouth!

【Rage】!

(End of Chapter)