Chapter 634: Explosion

In the base of the Turtle Bandits, the atmosphere was still quite good.

The personnel lists and departure orders for the several teams had been decided yesterday; they would be adjusted in time according to the requirements of the Qianxian, but they were mostly set, and the entire base was in perfect order.

The second batch of people preparing to depart waited in front of the preset position of the portal, fully equipped and high in morale, sitting on the ground to rest, with some still sharpening their weapons at the last minute.

The people of the third echelon and the reserve teams behind them were more leisurely, and some were even eating dry rations, but everyone was in high spirits and in a state of combat readiness. The Pillar of State of the Autumn sat high under the banner of the command platform, straight as a pine, while that mysterious powerhouse, the Dazai, had remained in the tent and had not come out. But it was precisely her presence that made the camp atmosphere increasingly relaxed; everyone knew clearly: this was a battle that was bound to be won.

Even Manying, who had been observing secretly, felt a bit relaxed—just as the Turtle Bandits had the Dazai as their backbone, ever since she lent her eyes to that old woman, she herself had also been relieved of the greatest responsibility; at least she didn't have to make decisions, and she felt she had a backbone too. The old woman's mind was clear and no less sharp than her own, her insight and experience were even better, and her emotions were stable and calculating, making it very reassuring to let her make decisions.

Once she outsourced her brain, Manying immediately felt an unprecedented sense of ease, thinking only: So it is this refreshing to wait for others to think. As the saying goes, "You don't understand the joy of the Heart Shadow."

Besides relaxing, she also communicated with the old woman through text, finding more and more that her knowledge was extraordinary and her mind was profound, far beyond her own; moreover, although the old woman was accustomed to using the tone of an elder to instruct others, she was gentle and composed, not making one feel annoyed, but rather giving one the feeling of having "benefited greatly."

The two were just communicating when, suddenly, Manying was startled and looked up at the sky.

That feeling of palpitations upon seeing a powerful existence came again, this time even worse than the last—

Before she could find the source, a golden light filled her vision.

The sky had brightened.

The sky of the small Secret Realm of the Danyue Manor seemed to have lit up with a separate sun, dyeing everything within everyone's sight a golden yellow; the golden light was so dazzling that it made it impossible to open one's eyes.

Because Manying had deliberately looked at the sky, she was blinded by the flash and could see nothing, only hearing a few short screams by her ears, followed by absolute Silence.

Immediately after, a woman's voice shouted: "How bold!"

Then there were no other sounds.

After a while, she opened her eyes again, discovering that the light had extinguished, and apart from that, it seemed there was nothing...

No, it seemed there were quite a few fewer Turtle Bandits on the open ground?

The Turtle Bandits who had been sitting, standing, and chatting leisurely just a moment ago were now clearly missing several, or even dozens. It seemed as if a hand had just plucked them away like leeks.

That golden light just now... was it Sunlight? Was it him who did it?

At this moment, a person stood in the field, and it was none other than the Dazai. She was still wearing that heavy and airtight cloak; although her face could not be seen, one could tell from her slightly trembling index finger that she was furious—that "How bold" just now had been uttered by her.

Manying vaguely remembered that the voice was crisp and pretty, sounding like that of a woman of seventeen or eighteen; could this Dazai actually be a young girl?

She heard the Dazai point at the sky and curse: "Destruction, you are such a great Sword Deity, what kind of skill is it to attack the juniors? Why don't you dare to come and catch me?" As she spoke to the end, her voice became hoarse.

So it was Destruction?

Manying already knew about the entanglement between Destruction and Wangliang, and understood the existence of this Sword Deity.

But why did Destruction want to take action against the Turtle Bandits? Did it have anything to do with Wangliang?

Before the words had faded, the sky was once again a sheet of golden yellow—

Again?

This time Manying learned her lesson and quickly closed her eyes, hearing a loud shout by her ears, as if there were the sound of a sword ringing.

This time the Sunlight dissipated quickly, and Manying opened her eyes quickly too. She saw that the Dazai's sword had already been unsheathed in the field, pointing far away at the sky, her cloak blowing and rustling, but her figure still could not be seen clearly.

Looking at the field again, there were actually several more people missing.

Of course, compared to the dozens missing the first time, this time it was at most ten or so. It seemed the Dazai's deterrence was still effective, but missing people was missing people; the opponent had succeeded in grabbing people a second time, and the Dazai's sword strike had been useless.

The Dazai was so angry she cursed: "Destruction, don't go too far! Again and again, do you dare to come a third time?" Her voice became increasingly hoarse, sounding almost like an old person.

Manying thought: If you shout like that, it probably won't respond; don't you know that one cannot do something a third time after doing it twice...

Before the words had faded, the sky began to light up again.

Almost in an instant, Manying saw the Dazai's body soar into the air, and a Sword Light lit up. That Sword Light was silver-white, almost splitting the horizon, and nearly rivaling the Sunlight.

However, Manying immediately closed her eyes to avoid the strong light, only feeling a powerful wave of Sword Essence above her head; clearly, the Dazai had angrily drawn her sword and was fighting with Destruction.

Manying felt secretly regretful; it was a pity that her view was poor and she could not see this high-level match with her own eyes. Just as she was thinking about how to steal a look after adapting to the strong light, she heard the old woman say calmly in her ear: "Now is the time, detonate everything."

Manying was startled; her mind turned tensely, and her strings moved before her hands, pressing the mechanism Tang Zhao had given her—

Boom!

The lair of the Turtle Bandits was blown into the sky just three breaths after the Dazai had left.

In the sky, the Dazai, who had attacked in anger, pierced the Sunlight in the sky with one sword, revealing a phantom; it was a mass of golden light, and one could faintly see that the golden light had a nose and eyes, just like a golden Mask.

"Destruction, it really is you. The sun of the past is now sneaking around like a petty thief. Ridiculous! Since you've come, then don't leave!"

Her sword became brighter and brighter, its radiance climbing step by step, already reaching the point of vying with the sun and moon.

"Die for me..."

"Boom!"

Just as she was about to strike a heaven-shaking sword blow, a huge roar erupted from behind her. The Dazai was not someone easily swayed by external things, yet that sound was coming from her own lair, and the momentum was no less than Destruction's continuous plundering, making her hand tremble involuntarily.

With this tremble, the gathering Sword Light went off by three inches. A difference of three inches meant the further it flew, the more it missed. In the end, it barely grazed that Mask and flew out, but it struck the sky of Wangliang Mountain, and a muffled sound came from afar, as if a window in the distance had been poked through.

In the sky, there was an extra, genuine hole, revealing a piece of nothingness.

Failing to hit with one strike, the Dazai was shocked and furious. She turned her head back to look and saw rolling black smoke emerging from the Shadow of the Danyue Manor; she could even smell a burnt odor and the scent of blood, and she seemed to hear screams by her ears.

The base, along with the army, had been blown away!

"You—you did this?"

The Dazai pointed her sword at Destruction's Mask: "You were prepared long ago; did you come to lure the tiger away from the mountain? Did you time my departure to launch a sneak attack? Despicable and shameless!"

Destruction was also surprised and said: "Eh? Who is this that coordinated with me so well? You really have quite a lot of enemies. Blown up well, blown up satisfyingly!"

The Dazai did not believe its words at all and shouted: "No matter how you deny it, today you will surely die!"

Destruction said indifferently: "Since you are convinced it is me, then let it be me. Anyway, I am happy to see it... No, it has delayed my important business. Originally, I intended to grab enough people from your place to make up the numbers, but now you've uprooted them for me. Forget it, there will be no results if I stay any longer; I have a proper game to play over there. I'll find you to play again later."

As it spoke, amidst the Dazai's roar of "Don't go!", it flashed lightly and disappeared.

The Dazai lost her target, her anger burning, and she gritted her teeth: "Game? What kind of bullshit game? No matter where you are playing what game, this seat will chase you to the ends of the earth!"

"Swish, swish, swish—"

With a flash, quite a few people fell onto the spider web again.

Last time three fell, and at first only the people around noticed, and it only caused a sensation after discovering they were Sword Heroes, but this time dozens fell all at once, plop-plop like dumping dumplings, and everyone was stunned.

The people who fell down were also stunned. They were not the ones brought by the Ruyi Sword, but were forcibly abducted. They were not even told the rules when they arrived.

Fortunately, there were some of his own people here; An Wang saw that these people all looked familiar one by one, and could not help but exclaim in surprise: "How did you all come here?"

Seeing An Wang, those people naturally felt as if they had seen a savior, and scrambled over to him.

With this back and forth, because An Wang chose the Silver Camp, most of the newcomers also joined the Silver Camp, making the Silver Camp the second one to be full.

The rest were assigned to the Golden Camp, and in the final count, they had the fewest people, at least ten or so fewer.

Huimie saw this from above and said: "Let it be, I am too lazy to look for more. Let's start now."

Even if he looked further, he wouldn't find any more, so he could only wait for that person in the black robe over there to come find him. At that time, this trouble... we will talk about it then.

Wangliang sensed Huimie's lack of confidence and sneered in his heart, issuing the order to start the Chess Game.

In an instant, everyone's positions were adjusted again. The three camps each occupied a part of the chessboard, like the three legs of a tripod. Each piece was adjacent to the others, arranged in a triangular formation, returning to their places like chess pieces.

This kind of chess piece formation did not look like Go or Chinese chess, but more like Chinese checkers.

"The rules are very simple. Each camp moves one piece per turn, and can only move one space at a time. If the pieces of two camps meet, they fight each other, and the winning side can continue to move forward one step. As long as there is someone in front, you can keep moving forward by eating other pieces."

"The final victory is—to see who can kill their way through the opponent's base camp first. Or, whoever has all their pieces wiped out loses."

Weise's heart sank when he heard these rules: thinking in terms of playing chess, the best way is to use ordinary pieces to open the path, and see how far they can get. Finally, let the experts move forward along the path to ultimately seize victory.

If it were a game of chess, a broken piece would be thrown into a box and could be used in the next game. But here, if it is broken, it is truly broken.

As it happens, he is just an ordinary piece. One could even say his strength is at the bottom; he does not even have the qualifications to be a vanguard, and at most, he would be used as a cushion when attacking difficult positions.

"Do you think that those with high realms will win, and those with low realms are doomed to lose? Wrong, wrong. When the pieces fight, the chess player will provide buffs to the pieces. As long as there is enough buffing, a Sword Guest can also defeat a Sword Hero."

"As for how to make the chess player willing to buff you, that depends on your courage. Those who dare to fight and bravely show their blades will be rewarded by us; those who are listless or wailing like ghosts will only break faster. First move, black goes first."