Chapter 766: Brittle as Paper

"One short." Shutendoji stepped forward. "But never mind."

He extended his hand, revealing an arm and palm white as jade, upon which black patterns surfaced, writhing like living things, seeping out from his fingertips.

Forming three things resembling invitation cards.

Shutendoji waved a hand, and the three invitations flew out, heading respectively toward the camps of Tang Luo, Sun Hongyun, and Qin Wushuang.

As for the heavily injured Gardner, he was naturally ignored.

The black invitation cards suddenly transformed in midair, turning into three small black snakes, their speed abruptly increasing as they struck at Sun Hongyun, Qin Wushuang, and Tang Luo from extremely tricky angles.

Guan Yu stepped forward, instantly crossing a distance of five meters to block before Sun Hongyun.

The Green Dragon Crescent Blade in his hand swept out, the seemingly not-at-all-sharp "jade blade" chopping toward that small black snake.

Just as the two were about to collide, at the moment the small black snake would be cleaved in two by the Green Dragon Crescent Blade, the snake abruptly veered.

Narrowly avoiding the Green Dragon Crescent Blade.

It was about to fly past Guan Yu and strike at Sun Hongyun.

Guan Yu's eyes narrowed; his hands gripping the hilt tightened, and the faintly visible "Ethereal Green Dragon" coiling around the blade was about to lunge out.

A short mace got there a step earlier, stabbing at the black snake and "pinning" it in midair.

Qin Qiong made his move!

Long mace for offense, short mace for defense, balancing attack and defense — on this point, it was still far more nimble than the Green Dragon Crescent Blade.

His left hand gripping the short mace shook, and Qin Qiong shattered the struggling black snake.

However, the black snake was shattered, yet the fragmented black qi did not dissipate; instead it transformed into a large number of small snakes, flying toward Sun Hongyun.

This sudden change, no one had anticipated.

Sun Hongyun retreated in a somewhat sorry state, unable to dodge, and was entered by many small snakes; a strange purple-black color surfaced on his face, then condensed into a black snake emblem, right on his left cheek.

"My Lord!" Guan Yu and Qin Qiong were furious.

They hadn't expected that even under their protection, Sun Hongyun would still fall for the trick, and they were about to charge at Shutendoji.

"It's fine, don't go." Sun Hongyun spoke up in time, stopping the charge of the two battlefield mighty generals.

He looked toward Qin Wushuang.

As if deliberately leaving time for everyone to watch, the three small snakes had speed differences.

Sun Hongyun's was the fastest.

Qin Wushuang's was next; at this moment the black snake had just arrived before him.

Same as when facing the flute sound and the rat tide, Qin Wushuang did not dodge; merely a phantom large shield flashed on his body, and the snake closing in on him shattered into pieces, splitting into many small snakes, which then shattered again, forming even more small snakes.

In a few blinks, there were probably over a thousand small snakes.

However, none of these small snakes managed to break through the shield's defense, and they soon completely vanished.

Sun Hongyun frowned; what exactly was this shield?

As Qin Wushuang's longtime rival, he had never heard of Qin Wushuang possessing such a large shield.

Was this large shield the trump card Qin Wushuang was so confident about?

"Crash!"

"Whoosh!"

Sounds of snapping and whistling rang out incessantly, drawing the gazes of Qin Wushuang and Sun Hongyun.

The last small snake was struck by the arrow rain shot from Zhuge Liang's Zhuge Repeating Crossbow — it was very fast and could dodge.

But it was useless; the Zhuge Repeating Crossbow is an area attack.

It completely locked down the space around the snake where it could dodge.

The shattered snake likewise split, then was pierced by even more crossbow bolts.

The multi-shot, continuous crossbow bolts left no gaps at all, dense and packed, nearly every bolt pressed against the next.

Even the gap between the tail of one bolt and the tips of the next batch was no more than a palm's thickness.

Full-direction coverage, carpet bombing!

This is the Zhuge Repeating Crossbow!

When the black snake completely dissipated, everyone even heard an unwilling wail.

Not playing like this.

"Fengxian, didn't expect your buff to be this effective!" Zhuge Liang turned to Tang Luo with pleasant surprise.

"As the number one mighty general of the Three Kingdoms, one naturally knows a few support methods." Tang Luo smiled.

The reason the Zhuge Repeating Crossbow could unleash such power was because it had been consecrated by Tang Luo.

Its current rate of fire, power, and coverage range were two to three times the original.

One only had to look at the briefly formed, now dissipating "crossbow bolt ground" before Tang Luo and the others to know.

The crossbow bolts shot by the Zhuge Repeating Crossbow now — describing them as an arrow rain wasn't really appropriate.

Calling it "arrow ground" was more fitting; this wasn't raindrop-like bolts, but a whole chunk of "ground" smashing over directly.

Or, calling it an arrow wall works too.

Of the three, it seemed only Sun Hongyun was rather weak, left with a mark of shame on his face.

However, before the three could react further.

From the ground behind Tang Luo and Qin Wushuang, a black snake instantly burst out, striking at the two like lightning.

This time, Qin Wushuang's large shield did not appear.

The black snake burrowed into his spine, and a black snake emblem swiftly surfaced on his face.

As for Tang Luo's side —

He casually reached back with his right hand, grabbing, and brought it back before him.

Tang Luo spread his palm open; the little black snake struggled ceaselessly, twisting its body, yet could not escape from Tang Luo's palm.

Shutendoji looked at Tang Luo, his handsome eyebrows arching — clearly surprised that the other party could control this little black snake.

This was power coming from the Lord.

"Good." Shutendoji quickly adjusted his mindset and spoke in praise, "You all are qualified to enter the Lord's banquet."

"Banquet." Sun Hongyun asked, "Inviting us to a Hongmen Banquet?"

"No, you are not worthy." Shutendoji's tone was arrogant, "The banquet is held only for the Lord; you merely have the qualification to enter, to witness the Lord's greatness."

"And some people don't even have the qualification to witness."

Shutendoji glanced toward the two Jacks on the other side, and the half-dead Gardner.

Gardner was propped up by the two Jacks, not fallen, prepared to flee at any moment.

He barely lifted his head, looked at Shutendoji, his right hand twitched twice, and he laboriously flipped the middle finger: "Just a battle spirit, a combat tool we summoned! What's there to be arrogant about!"

"You stupid cunt woman, you actually let a battle spirit climb on top of your head! Is your spirit talisman used for fucking?"

"Still 'Lord', pretending to be something you're not!"

Although in a heavily injured state, Gardner sprayed all kinds of abusive language with "full vigor".

He cursed Shutendoji, Hirata Mi, and that "Lord" behind them until their heads were dripping with dog blood.

That was a thoroughly satisfying cursing.

"Courting death!"

Shutendoji flew into a rage, reaching out to grab Gardner.

The moment he reached out, that slender fair arm twisted and swelled, turning into a blood-colored, ferocious ghost-god arm!

Fingernails sharp, curved like blades, stretching across a distance of over ten meters, intending to catch Gardner and the two Jacks all in one sweep.

Just as Shutendoji was about to crush the three to death.

Jack the Ripper turned into black mist, enveloping the two.

Shutendoji dispersed the black mist with one hand.

But on the other side, the black mist re-condensed and manifested; Spring-Heeled Jack and Gardner hid within the black mist, figures flickering in and out of sight.

The red ferocious long arm swept horizontally; Shutendoji's second attack did not pause for a moment.

Speed extremely fast, whistling as it arrived, even forming a dark red "curtain".

"Crack."

A barely audible sound, as if something had shattered.

Shutendoji's movement stopped, his arm only one step away from Jack the Ripper's black mist.

He turned his head, looking toward Tang Luo's side.

"Thought there was something to you, didn't expect you'd be brittle as paper." Tang Luo clapped his hands, as if dusting off dust from his palm.

The little black snake that had been struggling in his palm had already vanished, completely dissipated into smoke.

"You dare!"

Shutendoji's red hair floated up.

The little black snake was its Lord's "invitation card", or something similar to an imperial edict.

Gardner had no qualification to receive the edict, yet cursed violently over there — deserves to die!

And this "Lu Bu", actually destroyed the little black snake — even more deserves to die!

The enraged Shutendoji's body began to swell.

The red clothes on him were directly torn apart, leaving only a portion wrapped around his waist.

From the originally frail beautiful youth, he turned into a crimson monster six meters or so in height, a pair of red horns growing from his forehead.

His hair did not increase; as his head and body enlarged, it became sparse and messy.

Beneath the two horns, was a row of five eyes.

Four arms spread open, two thick, two freakishly long, turning into a thoroughgoing monster.

Powerful pressure emanated from him.

A true great yaoguai.

Hirata Mi had long been prostrate at Shutendoji's feet, trembling.

Transformation completed in the blink of an eye; Shutendoji's massive body immediately charged toward Tang Luo, Zhuge Liang.

Zhuge Liang was just about to step forward, to take command of the battle as strategist.

"I'll handle it." Tang Luo spoke, walking past Zhuge Liang, right hand casually gripping — Xuan Bian in hand, turning into the Xuan Bian Spear.

No Fangtian Huaji, a spear will do for a token effort.

After this ends, can have Zhu Bajie modify the spear into a ji.

Shutendoji approached, massive body creating a Mount Tai pressing down on the head momentum; the two freakishly long arms whistled as they lashed toward Tang Luo.

The two thick arms were like heavy hammers, smashing down from above.

Tang Luo raised the Xuan Bian Spear, casually thrusting once.

One second before the spear tip reached him, Shutendoji's furious ferocious face suddenly changed, turning into an expression of pain.

He opened his blood-filled huge mouth, directly vomiting a large mouthful of fresh blood, pouring down like a small waterfall.

Tang Luo frowned, withdrew the spear and retreated, not letting this foul-smelling fresh blood touch him.

Even so, the power that flashed by without being truly released still left a bowl-sized transparent wound on Shutendoji's massive body.

The scene behind could be seen.

Compared to the massive body, aside from the penetration looking slightly serious, the size could only count as a minor injury.

But Shutendoji's massive body toppled forward, half-kneeling on the ground.

The figure rapidly changed, shrinking back to the appearance of that handsome youth, clothes included, and the wound shrank along with it.

"Hahahaha!" Wild laughter came from Gardiner's side, "Doesn't it feel awful? Your whole body is burning, right? Hahahaha."

"You even dare to swallow the mouse of the Flower-Clothed Flute Player? You're truly not afraid of death!"

"Cough cough cough!"

Shuten-douji began coughing violently, covering his mouth, with blood continuously flowing from between his fingers.

As if a chain reaction, Guan Yu, Qin Qiong, and Qin Wushuang on the other side also couldn't help but start coughing.

Ping Tianmei was even worse off, just like the heavily attended Shuten-douji, coughing up mouthfuls of blood, in excruciating pain.

"This is... cough cough." Zhuge Liang also coughed once.

On the field, only Tang Luo and Sun Hongyun appeared unaffected.

"How does the taste of the Black Death feel to you?" Gardiner exclaimed delightedly.

A stunning reversal!

Thanks to these people's arrogance, conceit, and stupidity, the true killing move of the Flower-Clothed Flute Player, "Plague·Black Death," was able to take effect.