Chapter 1960: Chapter Fifty-Four: Drawing a Circle

A breeze blew, and fine sand drifted across the yellow sand field.

Su Xiao's opponent was a man with a cross-sword at his waist, wearing a white long robe, from the Garden of Watch.

The Garden of Watch was quite famous; although its reputation was not as fierce as the Garden of Reincarnation or the Garden of Death, the overall strength of its contractors could still rank in the upper-middle tier.

The contractors of this garden had a trait: during world contention battles, they especially liked to act in groups—hundreds of contractors, none left alone, heaven knows how they managed it.

Because of this, the Garden of Watch had a decent win rate in world contention battles, unless facing the Garden of Reincarnation or the Garden of Death; if dealing with the Garden of Genesis, as long as the Garden of Genesis lacked someone like Xi, it was not a big problem.

The very existence of the Garden of Genesis was a miracle—belonging to a team that had never won a team battle, yet absurdly rich, truly miraculous.

"Sha Na, Garden of Watch."

Clang!

A sword flash attacked; Sha Na immediately drew the cross-key at his waist.

Ding~

Sparks flew, and the surrounding yellow sand spread, as if a bomb had exploded.

Crack crack crack...

The blades of the longsword and cross-sword rubbed against each other; Sha Na gripped his sword with both hands, body leaning forward—from the bulging masseter muscles on his face, it was clear his strength was inferior to Su Xiao's.

Suddenly, Sha Na felt the force on his longsword lighten; if it were an ordinary contractor, he would surely stagger forward half a step, but Sha Na directly lunged, planted one hand on the ground, and flipped his body in midair to dissipate the force.

With a snap, a binding force came upon Sha Na's forearm, as if clamped tightly by iron pliers.

A force penetrated Sha Na's forearm, straight toward his torso; he backhanded a sword, preparing to sever the hand gripping his arm.

With a clang, pale blue crystal fragments flew; the force penetrated into Sha Na's body, he felt half his body go numb, then came a wave of dizzying weightlessness.

Thud!

Sha Na fell backward onto the sand, a huge crater exploded open.

Inside the crater, Dragon-Slaying Flash spun in Su Xiao's hand, one stab pierced Sha Na's chest, straight through the heart.

Pfft.

The longsword pierced Sha Na's body; his form twisted for a moment, leaving a pool of blood on the spot, then he appeared in the distance.

Just as he steadied himself, Sha Na shook his head—that fall had nearly broken his spine, and the incoming blade was too fast, arriving in an instant.

"Exhilarating, continue."

Sha Na wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, stared at Su Xiao over ten meters away; in his view, fighting Su Xiao was wonderful—the opponent's technique made every move feel like a perfected skill.

Just as Sha Na stared at Su Xiao with battle-filled eyes, Su Xiao sheathed his longsword, because the battle had already ended.

Blue light flashed in Su Xiao's hand; Sha Na, over ten meters away, immediately clutched his chest, face twisted in pain as he knelt to the ground.

"What... time."

Fresh blood spurted; exile burst from Sha Na's chest, forming a bladeless thrust-sword shape, then traced a afterimage, straight toward his temple; the protection mechanism triggered, and Sha Na was teleported away.

Only then did the previously silent audience stands erupt in noise.

"This old brother, damn fierce."

"The lunatic from the Garden of Reincarnation, you're joking."

"Even if he's from the Garden of Reincarnation, damn, he's strong to an absurd degree—I feel he's at the level of Sea God·Ancient Sage One."

"Don't joke, no one at fifth stage can defeat Ancient Sage One."

Compared to the lively audience stands, the feathered tribe on the commentator's platform was pondering something.

【Hunter has won this match; return to resting room, or continue fighting—if choosing to continue, the Hunter's ranking will rise based on consecutive wins multiplied by combat evaluation.】

Su Xiao chose to continue; this time he at least wanted to break into the top twenty, and of course, if he had a chance to reach the top ten, he wouldn't give up this opportunity.

"Audience, please welcome our next competitor—today, he fortunately gets to challenge the monster of the arena's top ten echelon."

The feathered commentator pushed up the small round glasses on his nose, laughter spreading across the entire arena.

A burly man appeared on the arena—this was a specialist in arena combat, a main tank.

Seeing this opponent, Su Xiao raised his eyebrows; finally, a durable one—previously, the two before hadn't even let him swing much before being teleported away.

Ten minutes later.

Su Xiao stepped with one foot on the burly man's shoulder; Dragon-Slaying Flash in his hand pierced from the enemy's shoulder, nearly penetrating the entire torso.

"Compensate, terrible."

The blood-faced main tank spat out blood-tinged saliva; his shield lay on the yellow sand, covered in dense slash marks.

With a swish, Su Xiao drew his longsword; the main tank collapsed to the ground, teleported out of the arena.

……

Ten hours later, at the center of a ruin.

Crumbling walls and broken walls scattered around; Su Xiao's chest and thighs had several energy spikes embedded.

Located a few meters from Su Xiao, a little girl leaned against a pile of rubble; this girl looked like a cute little loli, but she was clearly of the hedgehog lineage.

The little girl raised her arm, pointing at Su Xiao.

At the moment of being pointed at, Su Xiao swung a blade in empty air before him; after a crisp sound, he shattered an incoming energy spike—this thing could not be seen by the naked eye, Su Xiao could only barely catch it by instinct.

The ground beneath Su Xiao's feet emitted a rumble; he reappeared instantly before the little girl.

"Hello."

The little girl inhaled deeply; a mental shockwave spread, like an invisible great hammer, hammering Su Xiao's head.

Bang!

Su Xiao tilted his head back, hand movement unceasing; one slash cut his opponent in two.

"She Te, what a death pervert immune to all control!"

Leaving those words, the little girl was teleported out of the arena.

This little girl was troublesome; after all, being able to reach 12th place in the fifth-stage garden arena, she was a wild support-system contractor, attack strength upper-middle, but control strength absurdly strong.

Physical control, mental control, and soul shock—she has dabbled in all three, with soul shock being her strongest, followed by mental control, and finally physical control.

With these three categories of fourteen control abilities, this little girl from Death Paradise has killed countless strong foes—until today, when she met Su Xiao.

Soul shock barely affects Su Xiao; after consuming the Soul Fruit and using vast amounts of soul crystals, his soul strength is 60 points.

Not only is his soul strength high, but Su Xiao's swordsmanship-derived Soul Blade ability also grants him immunity to 50% of soul damage.

As for mental control, he ignores it through the spiritual cultivation of his swordsmanship.

Physical control is resisted via his close-combat martial master ability; most attempts fail to control Su Xiao, and even those that succeed are forcibly broken by him—the 30-point judgment modifier from close-combat martial master is no mere formality.

In most cases, unless he is focused fire and instantly killed, attempting to control Su Xiao with any ability has very low feasibility.

As a lone wanderer, what he fears most is being outnumbered, having his abilities controlled by enemies, and then being focus-fired to death—a most frustrating way to die.

【The hunter has returned to the lounge, match result: victory.】

【Your rank has risen to 11th—continue matching opponents?】

Su Xiao did not choose to continue; after over ten hours of battle, he has faced all kinds of opponents: poisonous milk grandma, and the mage who actively drained his mana after five minutes of close combat with him, the反伤 tank, and so on.

The most bizarre was a twitchy girl who could draw a circle to curse Su Xiao—not metaphorically, but literally, as she actually draws circles and possesses curse abilities.

After fighting so many enemies, Su Xiao is now very fatigued; reaching 10th place this time already satisfies him.

【Notice: The hunter has received a new challenge, challenger's arena rank: 12th.】.