Chapter 183: 176 Drawing Aggro

Tang Zhao jumped onto the window and saw a scene he had never imagined through the hole left behind after the glass shattered.

A tall woman with a fluffy ponytail was gripping a thin, weak youth by the neck and slapping him repeatedly across the face.

The scene... well, it was too brutal.

The woman looked up and met Tang Zhao's gaze. Unexpectedly, this girl was not old, perhaps seventeen or eighteen, still a young girl, or at least a young woman. Her features were heroic and delicate, with long eyebrows and almond-shaped eyes, possessing a flair reminiscent of Mulan or Guiying. She sized Tang Zhao up briefly and demanded, "Who are you? Are you with him?"

Tang Zhao explained, "No, quite the opposite. I am looking for this murderer to settle a score. His underlings just attacked two of my friends."

The girl nodded and said, "I see. He has truly committed many sins. But I arrived first, so you will have to wait in line. Once I vent this frustration, I will let you have him..."

As she was speaking, a giant skull suddenly dangled down from the roof between the two of them. The skull was covered in clinging flesh and blood, resembling a rotting corpse. One eye was gray, turbid, and clouded, while the other eyeball hung from the socket, connected only by nerves.

The girl met the skull's gaze, her face drained of color. With a shriek of "Ah—", she loosened her grip, and the youth slithered away, dashing out through another window. That window opened automatically before he even broke it, then slammed shut tightly.

The girl wiped away the tears that had been startled out of her and shouted, "And you say you aren't with him? He ran away the moment you arrived!"

The skull had appeared so suddenly that Tang Zhao was taken aback. His hand slipped, and he nearly fell off the building. He suppressed his heart, which was still pounding wildly, and said, "I am not! He activated the mechanism while you were distracted; this is his house, after all. I didn't expect it to be so effective."

Tang Zhao thought to himself: I saw how fierce you were and assumed you were bold, but I didn't expect you to be so easily frightened.

He did not know that this girl had seen corpses with their bones stripped while looking for a place to stay. She had been terrified out of her wits, which was why she hated Yi Zhixin and had spent half a day tracking him down to take brutal revenge. Being skilled in martial arts and having a fierce style did not mean she had the heart of a lion.

The two looked at each other and realized both their faces were pale, clearly shaken. They fell silent for a moment, then said in unison, "Chase!"

The two vaulted out of the Tooth Building like agile leopards. From afar, they saw Yi Zhixin slip into another building.

Tang Zhao's movement technique was not slow, but the girl was even taller with longer legs. Moving in two steps what took others three, she was as swift as the wind and reached the front of Tang Zhao. Tang Zhao took advantage of the night to examine the small building ahead, his heart tightening, and he suddenly shouted, "Wait!"

The girl paused for a split second, and then the small building suddenly split open a seam, as if it had opened a giant mouth. Countless white, sharp teeth were hidden inside, biting toward the girl. She hurriedly drew the sword from her back and blocked in mid-air, parrying the bite. Borrowing the force, she flew backward and landed on the ground.

Then came a few "clacking" sounds. The small building vibrated continuously, its shape changing abruptly as it seemed to grow several feet taller, entering a state of readiness.

The girl turned her head and asked, "What is going on?"

Tang Zhao said, "Look closely. This building is made of bone, and it is under his command. It might just be his lair."

Yi Zhixin was fleeing in a panic; it was impossible for him to have just stumbled into such a suitable house. Tang Zhao guessed that this Gu Wu was likely his base, and the house made of teeth could only be a temporary... workshop?

Since he had fled into the house first, this place was now his home turf. It would certainly be dangerous for the two pursuers to rush in blindly. The girl had just taken advantage of a sneak attack, but trying to break through a window to enter now would likely not be so easy.

Standing beneath the building, the house made of bone resembled a beast crouching on the ground, with its head, body, legs, and tail clearly defined. It just required a bit of imagination to distinguish exactly what kind of beast it was; it looked like anything one might suggest.

If Tang Zhao had to identify it, he felt it looked like a dinosaur.

The girl wiped her face and cursed, "Son of a bitch! He's burrowed into a bone cage and won't come out! I'm going to drag you out and tear your face off!"

As she was cursing, a small opening bloomed on the roof, and countless Bone Spears flew down.

The Bone Spears were incredibly dense, leaving no room to dodge. The two had no choice but to retreat behind another Ceramic House. They heard "Clang, clang, clang" as the Bone Spears pierced into the walls. The Ceramic House was quite resistant to piercing, but it was afraid of a hammer blow; without reinforcement, there was a risk of it shattering.

Tang Zhao poked his head out and saw that lights had turned on atop the bone roof, shining very brightly. It was clear Yi Zhixin had used test papers to reinforce it, seemingly with at least six or seven hundred questions. He mused, "His house has been reinforced at least three times. We can't break in from the front. Should we also enter a house, reinforce it, and face him head-on?"

The girl clearly knew the rules too, saying, "He has quite a few questions; I've only copied three hundred..."

Tang Zhao was curious—three hundred questions were just copied, how many had she done herself? He had already completed a thousand, but he hadn't transcribed them onto the long scroll yet, which would take some time. He said, "You help me pin him down, and I will..."

As he spoke, the Gu Wu emitted an even more teeth-grinding sound, rising several more feet. The skeletal beast went from sitting to standing, its body growing even taller!

The house had stood up!

The white bones behind the house, like a steel whip or a beast's tail, swept across!

Tang Zhao and the girl jumped simultaneously to dodge the sweep, their cheeks stinging from the force of the wind. Immediately after, the Art Tools on the bone tail turned into barbs and flew toward them!

"Yumen Guan!"

A massive gate with a tiger-head design rose from the ground, taking the attack for Tang Zhao and the girl, and was pierced into a honeycomb by the bone barbs.

Tang Zhao abandoned Xing Ji's signature move and fled in a panic along the street with the girl. The bone house swayed as it chased them wildly from behind; clearly, this building had been transformed into a killing weapon by Yi Zhixin, who was one step ahead of everyone else in adapting to the rules of Maze City.

Fortunately, Maze City lived up to its name, with numerous buildings and streets that offered plenty of room to hide. Whenever the two ducked behind other houses, they could avoid a wave of attacks. However, most houses had huge flaws and could only withstand a single hit. The two could only run back and forth, constantly changing cover. Although Yi Zhixin hadn't hit them for the moment, he was relentless, clearly determined to hunt them down to the end.

Seeing the bone house collapse a small shack made of malt sugar with a single blow, the girl suddenly said, "This won't do. We can't let that bastard be this arrogant. You help me pin him down, and I'll build up my strength to break through him head-on."

Tang Zhao was startled and said, "Break through? How will you break through..." He saw the sword on her back.

Oh, a Sword Student, then it's fine.

Sword Students always carried their swords on their backs; the girl before him was one, and so was Wang Fei. As a Sword Student, one certainly couldn't use Sword Art or mobilize Sword Image as freely as a Sword Guest, but if one had already established some communication with the sword, then mobilizing some of the sword's power was no problem. This portion of power was generally the power of "Sword Intent." Whether it was powerful or not depended on the inclination of the Sword Intent.

Come to think of it, not counting Zhang Rong, he had already seen two Sword Students just on the Sword Province Road, and they weren't old either. Were Sword Students no longer rare?

Although the buildings were several yards high and covered in Talisman Art, and the sword was only three feet long, lacking even proper Sword Art, in this world, the power of the sword was still the strongest.

Tang Zhao made a quick judgment and immediately asked, "How do I help you pin him down?"

The girl said, "I... I will build up my strength here. If I build it up for a long time, the power will increase. My sword is like this; its power can be accumulated. The longer the time, the stronger it becomes. It can keep growing stronger, and there is no fortress it cannot break. However, when building up strength, my momentum will also rise, shooting out like thorns, which will alert others and cause them to interrupt me. You just need to attack him so he doesn't notice what I'm doing."

Tang Zhao understood: draw aggro while she charges up her ultimate?

He was actually quite good at this; he had professional techniques. He said, "How long do you need?"

The girl calculated and said, "Counting to one hundred, that will definitely be enough."

Tang Zhao said, "No problem. I'll engage him first and hold his aggro, then you start building up your momentum." He immediately vaulted into an Iron House along the street.

The hub of every house was on the roof. This Iron House had a slightly mischievous shape, with two curved ends like a pair of bull horns. This was clearly designed to ram other houses.

Tang Zhao entered the hub. Instead of inserting his own scroll, he first sketched a Rune Formula he rarely used and which others had likely never seen.

"Rune Formula—Forced Demand!"

The girl stood behind the Iron House with her sword. She saw the Iron House suddenly rise from the ground and stand up as well, blocking the path in front of the Gu Wu like a tiger barring the way.

"Not bad—you managed to manipulate the house so quickly..."

"Bang!"

The bone house swung a crossbeam over, as if punching the Iron House in the face.

The front of the Iron House was flattened by the blow.

"Ouch..."

The girl's teeth ached just watching. She saw the Iron House stagger, neither falling nor standing, like a stationary cannon, blocking the Gu Wu sideways. It was attacked repeatedly by the Gu Wu from both sides; although it occasionally fought back, it was mostly being held down and beaten.

It was fortunate that the Iron House was made of iron; although not solid, it wasn't fragile either. Even though it was severely deformed from being smashed, it still stood tall.

"Big brother, you've sacrificed too much." The young woman finally understood what Tang Zhao meant by "drawing aggro"; this truly looked like a deep, blood-feud level of hatred.

She knew well that the time gained was hard-won, so she hurriedly held her sword in hand, a Momentum flowing from her body into the sword, and from the sword back into her body, gradually causing her Momentum to rise.

Yet, while she was building up her Momentum, she was deeply worried; although this iron-skinned house could take a beating, Yi Zhixin wasn't stupid—wouldn't he turn to attack her once her Momentum rose?

It seemed she needed to be ready to interrupt her buildup at any moment and use a charged attack.

Charge!

Both her Momentum and the power hidden within the Sword Sheath were climbing step by step; her Momentum grew increasingly full, and gradually, the air pressure in the night sky dropped, as if a storm were brewing, and she was the eye at the center of the storm.

At this moment, she was like a Lighthouse on the vast ocean, dazzlingly bright; even others on the street were peeking, and she knew she would inevitably attract attention, so she had already prepared to strike.

However...

Bang, bang, bang!

The whole street was in Silence, with only the sound of the Bone house beating the iron-skinned house. At this time, the iron-skinned house had completely given up, simply not even fighting back, and had crouched back down, looking like a pile of scrap metal.

Yet, the Bone house was hitting this pile of scrap metal with great interest. It used all eighteen types of weapons and one hundred and eighty variations, swearing to hammer this lump of scrap into mud.

And around the Sword Student who was charging up like a tornado, there was only a gentle breeze blowing.

"You've got a knack for this, big brother."

The young woman also guessed that this was certainly unusual; this was his own ability, just as charging up was her own ability.

One hundred counts passed in the blink of an eye, and the sword inside the Sword Sheath hummed without any wind—

With her hand pressed against the Sword Sheath, the young woman's slender eyebrows stood on end, and her almond-shaped eyes opened wide.

Take this, you—

Go to hell!

The sword emerged, and a storm of Sword Qi shot straight into the sky!

One sword, cutting across!

The Bone house froze in mid-air, and then...

Exploded!