by <unknown>
As a Mage, it was only logical to have some close-range combat abilities.
Having been suppressed in close-range combat, Secret Master was secretly shocked. Such powerful blows.
He had sparred with quite a number of Pugilists before, and he realized that Han Xiao’s Lord’s Avatar’s close combat strength was even stronger than some Beyond Grade A Pugilists. The storm-like attacks were very difficult for him to hold on. He was stunned by Han Xiao’s strength.
Black Star feels stronger than rumors say…
This thought only flashed for an instant before disappearing. Secret Master focused on the matter at hand and diverted his attention to do two things at once. He dealt with Han Xiao’s fierce close-range attacks while controlling his magic energy to build up to his best Secret Studies spell that was aimed at one’s luck.
Luck was originally formless and almost superficial, but at this moment, in Secret Master’s vision, blurry fog suddenly appeared around every life form. Some fog clouds were thick, and some were thin.
This was Secret Master’s unique spell. It combined the study of the soul, mind, foresight, fortune telling, and many more magic fields. He was successfully able to quantify the target’s luck. The thickness of the fog represented the luck of a being.
The luckier one was, the thicker the fog would be. Those protagonist-type charters who had Luck Glows usually had the thickest fog.
“Let me see how strong your luck is!”
Secret Master had made up his mind to reduce Han Xiao’s luck.
When he looked closely, he was completely stupefied.
Usually, Beyond Grade As were very lucky people. For them to reach this territory at the top of the universe, there was at least a minimum to how unlucky they could be. Black Star’s luck should have been exceptionally strong; he should have been covered in thick fog.
However, the real situation was the complete opposite. The fog around Black Star was so thin that it was almost non-existent!
Secret Master had observed countless people before, but this was the first time he had ever seen someone this unlucky! He could hardly believe his own eyes!
It doesn’t make sense! How can a Beyond Grade A’s luck be this weak‽
How can someone this unlucky become a Beyond Grade A‽
Secret Master was completely stunned.
Initially, he wanted to damage Black Star’s luck, but now that he looked at it…
Can this guy’s luck even be decreased‽
Secret Master’s many unique spells revolved around indirectly dealing large amounts of spiritual damage through decreasing the target’s luck, but facing Han Xiao… he realized that his trump card seemed useless.
For an instant, he lost concentration and immediately showed flaws mid-combat. Han Xiao did not care about his internal thoughts at all and seized the opportunity.
Bang bang bang!
Lightning-fast punches landed on Secret Master’s body quickly, sending in waves of impact.
Being badly beaten up, many defensive runes on Secret Master’s body shattered. Feeling the pain, Secret Master did not dare let himself get distracted again. He took a defensive stance and held on under Han Xiao’s attacks.
While the two of them fought intensely, Ravenlaude, who was also included in the range of the Void Prison, felt conflicted.
Normally, Ravenlaude would help the dynasty’s ally, but now, Black Star was also a competitor who was fighting for the Primal Chaos Mysterious Energy.
“I can only complete the mission and gain a Universal Treasure if I take the Primal Chaos Mysterious Energy back from Han Xiao’s hands.”
After some thought, Ravenlaude made his decision and started to cast spells to cancel out the effects of the Void Prison.
“Hmm?” Sensing the disturbance, Han Xiao turned around and gave Ravenlaude a death stare.
“Don’t look at me. I’m just executing the dynasty’s mission.”
Ravenlaude noticed Han Xiao’s stare and nervously replied. Then, he silently tried to break away from the Void Prison together with Secret Master.
The next second, the Void Prison was broken. The space around returned to normal. While the two of them fought, Ravenlaude opened a teleportation gate immediately and disappeared, heading toward the mechanical army, which was escorting the Primal Chaos Mysterious Energy away.
Seeing this, Secret Master wanted to do the same. However, the Lord’s Avatar prevented him from doing so.
The rest of Han Xiao’s machinery had now arrived. They activated space stabilizing devices and magic disruption devices that covered this area, stopping the use of teleportation spells once again, causing Secret Master to be unable to chase after the Prime Chaos Mysterious Energy.
“Sh*t!” Secret Master’s face sank even further. This situation basically meant that he was already eliminated from this competition.
Furthermore, Secret Master could see that Black Star actually had a way to stop Ravenlaude too. Only, he purposely let Ravenlaude go but kept him there.
He’s targeting me specifically‽
That’s too much!
Seeing Secret Master’s expression, Han Xiao chuckled. “You noticed I’ve let Ravenlaude on purpose? I’m not targeting you but him.”
He had purposely let Ravenlaude go and given him a chance to chase after his mechanical army because he wanted to make Ravenlaude a target to showcase his fists.
Due to the unhappiness last time, Han Xiao wanted to showcase more of his strength to the dynasty, but he did not want the outside world to know he had grown once again, in case the Mechanic Emperor sought him out again. Therefore, he wanted to shift the battlefield and not have witnesses.
A dynasty ally was the best target for that.
Compared to beating up enemies, beating up teammates seems better when creating a reputation? After all, after getting beaten up, his teammate still had to hide the information of the battle.
Although the Lord’s Avatar stayed to hold Secret Master back, all the Apostle Weapons were in the escort team.
With all that and the mechanical army, it would be strong enough even without him present.
Diverting forces and fighting in multiple battles at the same time was the Beyond Grade A Mechanic fighting method.
Chapter 1034. Duel |
Psyker was scared away by Black Star, Secret Master was held back by the Lord’s Avatar, and Ravenlaude teleported to chase after the mechanical army. The situation of the battle changed multiple times in a short period. The fleets of the other organizations present became mere onlookers.
At this point, these organizations knew full well that the Primal Chaos Mysterious Energy would have nothing more to do with them.
They were somewhat disappointed but not surprised. A few days back, when they realized that the dynasty and church had interfered in this, they knew that their chances were negligible.
However, being able to confirm that the Primal Chaos Mysterious Energy had appeared in the Emerald Star Cluster, as well as having the opportunity to watch a battle between many Beyond Grade As, most of them felt it was worth the trip.
Although the Primal Chaos Mysterious Energy was taken away by Black Star, they did not disperse immediately but took out their snacks to watch the wrestling between Black Star and Secret Master.
Only a few organizations who had yet to give up wanted to chase after the Primal Chaos Mysterious Energy, but they were stopped by the mechanical army. Looking at the dense psionic barrels, these people could only remain there with resignation.
While the Lord’s Avatar led the mechanical army to fight Secret Master, the dynasty’s fleet responded as well and immediately reported Black Star’s interference in this battle. This got to the man in charge of this operation, an upper echelon of the dynasty’s hawk faction, Bekorodi.
“Black Star is there too? And he got it‽”
Far away in the remote command center inside the dynasty’s territory, Bekorodi’s eyes opened so wide that they a
lmost popped out. He was shocked and enraged.
“His Excellency Ravenlaude is already chasing after it. He will probably have a direct conflict with Black Star. What should we do?” the fleet’s commander asked cautiously.
Hearing this, Bekorodi frowned heavily. He was filled with hesitation.
He felt that this matter was very difficult to deal with. Black Star was an important ally to the dynasty. Usually, the two sides should avoid conflict as much as possible.
However, before this, the dynasty did not know that Black Star would interfere with this, which made Bekorodi rather worried.
With the dynasty’s control of the Flickering World, somehow, they did not notice that Black Star had sent a team out to that place. This showed that the Black Star Army had secretly built quite a number of things in the Flickering World by making use of the dynasty’s support.
Bekorodi felt that in situations like this, Black Star should be the one to take a step back first. However, Black Star clearly saw that the dynasty was involved, yet he still took part in the battle. To Bekorodi, this was Black Star not giving the dynasty’s face, which made a hawk faction upper echelon like him rather unhappy.
Undoubtedly, he felt that the situation was all Black Star’s fault, so he was in a dilemma.
Should he continue the operation while taking the risk of offending Black Star or back off and give up the plan?
“Sir, should we contact the Ruler?”
While pondering, his subordinate’s voice pulled Bekorodi out of his train of thought. He paused then said with a deep voice, “Don’t notify the Ruler yet. Contact Black Star first. I’ll talk to him.”
He knew that Urranrell liked Black Star, so he did not want to notify her. He could only control the mission if he dealt with it himself.
The command center called up Black Star’s number. It rang three times before it was picked up. Han Xiao’s face appeared on the screen with a meaningful smile.
“Not bad, not bad, you contacted me earlier than I expected.”
Bekorodi’s eyes twitched. He suppressed his anger, forced out a smile, and said, “Black Star, remember me? I’m Bekorodi.”
“Hello, we meet again. Have you eaten?”
“Just had dinner.”
“You look quite well. Have you been sleeping well recently? You’re not young anymore, so don’t work so hard. Rest more.”
“I’m used to working hard, just can’t seem to be too free. After so many years, I’ve gotten used to working every day long ago, but I have indeed been getting rather good sleep recently. I…”
Halfway through speaking, Bekorodi suddenly stopped.
He only just noticed that without knowing, he had followed Han Xiao’s lead and actually subconsciously started chattering, almost forgetting what he wanted to say in this call.
Plus, we’re not even close! Black Star, are you trying to play for time?
Bekorodi coughed heavily, trying to cover up the awkwardness. He then quickly gained back control and questioned, “You know why I’ve called you, don’t you? It’s a surprise you’ve had your eyes on the Primal Chaos Mysterious Energy too. This information came from EsGod’s heritage. You should have notified the dynasty or at least reported your actions. If you’d done that, the accidents today would have been totally avoided. Why didn’t you?”
Han Xiao’s expression looked strange, as if he was saying, What kind of question is that?
“Doesn’t not notifying you guys mean that I want it for myself? Plus, I don’t seem to recall that I’m obligated to give all the intelligence I have to the dynasty or report my personal activities. We’re allies, not employer and employee.”
Bekorodi made a serious expression and said, “Anyway, there’s no need for discussion on this matter. Listen to me. The dynasty doesn’t want the outside world to see us fight with our allies. This needs a solution.”
“It’s simple then—give up. Give the Primal Chaos Mysterious Energy to me, and it’s done.” Han Xiao smiled.
“Impossible,” Bekorodi said subconsciously, but he then realized that his tone was not very appropriate, so he calmed down. “The dynasty needs the Primal Chaos Mysterious Energy too. We won’t let it go so easily.”
“What do you need the Primal Chaos Mysterious Energy for?” Han Xiao was curious.
Bekorodi shut up immediately.
It was not like he could tell Black Star the truth and say that it was to replicate the Evolution Cube’s abilities.
They wanted the Primal Chaos Mysterious Energy to make Gaud grow quicker and step into the Beyond Grade A territory sooner. The goal of that was to analyze the Evolution Cube. Gaud would only be able to analyze the Evolution Energy with his Esper Ability if he was Beyond Grade A.
After quite some time, Bekorodi finally forced the words “It’s confidential…” out of his mouth.
“Never mind then.” Han Xiao shook his head. “Anyway, I won’t just back off like this. It’s true that we’re allies, but I can’t possibly give everything to you once you just tell me to do so. Even those Ultimate Knowledges required me to make contributions to gain access to them. You can’t just ask me to give selflessly, can you?”
Bekorodi nodded. “Okay, then let’s make a deal. We’re willing to exchange for the Primal Chaos Mysterious Energy. What do you want? Intelligence? Knowledge? Resources? A Universal Treasure? I’m guessing you want the Primal Chaos Mysterious Energy probably because you want to turn it into a Universal Treasure, so you might as well exchange it with us. You can choose from the list we gave you last time. I can approve this deal personally.”
The dynasty had to give Ravenlaude a Universal Treasure to hire him to start with, so since the Primal Chaos Mysterious Energy was now in Black Star’s hands, Bekorodi just made the same deal with Black Star.
The deal with Ravenlaude, of course, would no longer be valid. He would at most receive some resources as compensation…
Ravenlaude, who was still chasing the mechanical army, did not yet know that his employer had already given up hope on him and that the Universal Treasure he had been thinking of was basically out of his reach.
Han Xiao raised his brows. “And what if you go back on your word?”
“If you agree, I’ll make Ravenlaude retreat first, and you can keep the Primal Chaos Mysterious Energy for the time being. Then, you will make a public announcement to eliminate the rumors caused by this conflict. Following that, you can exchange it for a Universal Treasure with us. Therefore, you don’t have to worry that we won’t keep up our side of the deal.”
Bekorodi did not plan to play any tricks at all. He at least had this much pride as a superior in the dynasty.
However, Han Xiao did not plan to agree immediately…
If my teammate runs away, who do I beat up?
“We’ll talk about this next time. I have yet to decide if I want to give you guys or not. I need to think about it. Therefore, for now, let’s just compete fairly… Since you don’t want the outside world to know, we’ll fight in a place where there’s no one else.” Han Xiao’s tone was calm, and he did not completely reject the deal.
Bekorodi’s face stiffened. He was very annoyed.
He did not want to waste any more time and gave a simple “okay”. He then ended the call. He told his subordinate to notify Ravenlaude that he had to obtain the Primal Chaos Mysterious Energy.
In his mind, Han Xiao’s original body was still in Black Star Palace, and only a Lord’s Avatar and a group of mechanical troops were there. Secret Master was restraining the Lord’s Avatar, so Ravenlaude should still have a chance.
…
Inside the bright nebula, Ravenlaude chased after the fleeing mechanical army, getting further away from the battlefield that the Lord’s Avatar was in and out of everyone’s sight.
Without the restrictions of the space stabilization devices, Ravenlaude’s teleportation spells were quicker. No matter how fast the mechanical troops were running, he could catch up in an instan
t. He had only slowly followed behind all this time because he wanted to get further away from the Lord’s Avatar so that it would not be able to interfere with his battle.
After all, whether the Lord’s Avatar was present or not would make a bit of difference. He did not want to face the Lord’s Avatar’s attacks with his body like Secret Master. After all…
I’m a proper Mage! I’m like paper!
Remote artillery style is our forte. Melee combat? How can you call yourself a Mage‽
That Secret Master, who drew all over his body, had quite strong melee combat power, but Ravenlaude was an old fashioned Mage who had mastered pure arcane arts. To make him fight in melee range would be the same as Mechanics rushing into Pugilists’ arms… Hmm, except for Black Star.
This is far enough.
Ravenlaude focused his mind and used another teleportation spell. He appeared right before the mechanical troops. With a wave of his hand, a top-tier magic staff appeared and hovered above his head. The gem at the top of the staff shone with a bright magical light.
The next moment, thick magical books appeared one after another around Ravenlaude, circling him slowly like a ring of stars and giving off powerful magical energy.
As the magical books opened and the pages turned extremely quickly, a thick and enormous purple magic light appeared and expanded instantly, turning into a spherical, dark-purple energy barrier that shrouded all the mechanical troops before him. The sphere was extremely large.
Looking from inside, the inside wall of this sphere was dark purple covered in circulating streams of bright blue and flaming white magical streams of light, like arcane comets. It looked like a purple curtain decorated with blue and white patterns.
“Wall of Tragal—Dark Purple Arena. This is a new forbidden spell created by my spell research team.”
After casting this spell, Ravenlaude smiled with confidence as if the Primal Chaos Mysterious Energy was already in his hands.
The Mechanical Force lightning on the mechanical troops suddenly became much weaker. They fired at the wall, but the psionic cannon attacks disappeared when landing on the inside of this sphere like they were absorbed. Some mechanical soldiers flew to the edges, but the moment they touched the inside wall, a bright arcane explosion repelled the mechanical soldiers away.
