by <unknown>
Boosted by the plasma, all the flying swords were as crimson as fire. Pulled and manipulated by the spiritual threads, they were condensed into a giant of swords almost ten meters tall!
The giant had cold, shining edges and tips all over the body. Even the indifferent facial organs were made of tiny flying swords. The air around the giant could not have been sharper and more aggressive. Just one quick look at it would make anyone feel as if their eyes had been pierced by a needle. It was truly magnificent!
What a remarkable sword array!
The thousands of flying swords were not simple. They should be systematic, intelligent flying swords of some sort. Every flying sword had been embedded with super-tiny crystal processors or crystal chips. They could work as independent combat units or be assembled as the armor of the commander. It was a rather advanced if not insane weapon system.
The so-called 'spiritual puppet' did not necessarily have limbs like human beings or other animals. As long as they were driven by spiritual energy, controlled by crystal processors, and boasted a certain degree of automation, they could all be called 'spiritual puppets' in a general sense.
In other words, the thousands of intelligent flying swords under Xiahou Wuxin's control could also be counted as variations of spiritual puppets, except that the variations were too unbelievable.
As a crazy fan of spiritual puppets, 'Fist King' Lei Zonglie had selected Liberty City as his primary target. Did the choice have anything to do with Xiahou Wuxin's array of flying swords?"
"Lei Zonglie…" From the gloomy giant of swords, Xiahou Wuxin's voice that was as cold as ice came over. "You are asking to be killed!"
The fight between the two experts immediately rendered the entire battlefield soundless. Everybody was caught in half a second's stagnation under the scourge of their daunting auras.
Even the players and tourists who were Immortal Cultivators stopped their slaughter temporarily and focused their attention on the two 'big toys' with great interest, as if it were a special show arranged by the circus.
The two experts took action at almost the same time.
When Lei Zonglie's fists turned into two shooting stars, the array of flying swords around Xiahou Wuxin exploded again.
The thousands of flying swords, like erratic specters, congregated into unstoppable torrents of swords, then split apart into dozens of quickly-revolving iron caltrops, and then darted beneath the ground and attacked the Fist King from there.
The Fist King's attacks were devoid of any fancy tricks. They were in the style of utmost masculinity as he bombarded the enemy with his iron fists.
A force shield of an extremely high intensity had been raised around him. All the flying swords would be affected and blown away if they got within half a meter of him.
The competition between two experts could be finished in the blink of an eye.
Lei Zonglie and Xiahou Wuxin, dominators of the Land of Sins of two generations, collided like two unbelievably fast tyrannosaurs, raising blasts that felt like a tsunami.
Everybody and all the crystal tanks within a hundred meters were riddled with holes by the blades and air currents that splashed out in the fight or even crushed into thin remnants. Those who were fleeing in panic could not clearly see the battlefield that was enshrouded in smoke and fire.
Li Yao could only see the battle clearly by the observation of his soul.
This was the first time that he had observed a life-and-death battle between two experts in the Nascent Soul Stage as one in the Divinity Transformation Stage. It was truly an amazing experience.
Under the observation of his soul, the whole world was disintegrated into a colorful ocean of spiritual energy, and Lei Zonglie and Xiahou Wuxin were two enormous vortices in the ocean trying to swallow each other.
Watching wholeheartedly, Li Yao suddenly had an epiphany.
The specific moves were not important. What mattered was which of the two vortices could affect the rhythm of the other's revolution and change it into their own rhythm.
Shua! Shua! Shua!
Li Yao 'saw' the dozens of flying swords boosted by Xiahou Wuxin finally break through the field of interference around Lei Zonglie and pierce into the enemy's iron shell. They exploded, released dazzling electric arcs, or were frozen into translucent clusters of ice. Lei Zonglie seemed to have been heavily wounded.
But it was useless.
Xiahou Wuxin was too focused on the gains and losses of his every move to notice that the rhythm of his spiritual energy had been dragged into the Fist King's vortex!
"Not good!" Han Te shrieked. "The Fist King is hit!"
"No," Li Yao said casually. "The leader of Liberty City is about to fail."
Hardly had he said the word 'fail' when satisfied laughter burst out from the siege of thousands of flying swords. The array of flying swords was frozen in midair as if it had been corrupted by some uncanny spell!
Like a tiger that had jumped out of a trap, the Fist King jumped out of the siege of flying swords in one step and locked onto Xiahou Wuxin, who was hiding behind the flying swords.
Boom!
The Fist King punched eighteen times in an instant.
The force behind his punches could not have been weirder. His every punch was mixed with a force of two opposite directions. They did not blow the enemy far away but seemed to have stuck the enemy in the air heavily.
The eighteen punches hit Xiahou Wuxin's chest in a row, and it was not until the last punch that Xiahou Wuxin finally managed to break out of the Fist King's control and fly backward like a kite whose string had been severed.
While he was still in midair, devastating arrows of blood had already spurted out of his helmet.
His array of flying swords, on the other hand, had fallen into the Fist King's control and revolved around him slowly.
How is it possible?
Li Yao's soul could not have been more shocked.
Lei Zonglie has deceived everyone! He is not just a simple warrior with more brawn than brains but also an expert of crystal processors and the Spiritual Nexus. He hacked the control network of Xiahou Wuxin's array of flying swords in the soul-stirring battle without alarming anyone and seized the highest permissions of the weapon system!
What—What kind of terrifying hacking ability is this?
Li Yao thought for a moment. With his abilities inherited from Professor Mo Xuan and the extraterrestrial devils, it should be possible to sabotage the control network of Xiahou Wuxin's sword array. But hacking without catching the enemy's attention, planting a virus, and taking control were too appalling a task to be accomplished.
'Fist King' Lei Zonglie, what kind of monster are you?
Li Yao was so curious that his soul was almost breaking apart.
In the eyes of other people, the battle between the two experts ended with the Fist King blowing the leader of Liberty City away in one punch. It was like the tolling of the knell for the defenders of Liberty City.
The battlefield that had just fallen silent brimmed with energy ten times more violent than before. Battles spread inside Liberty City like magma. Countless people followed the Fist King's footsteps and rushed toward Xiahou Wuxin's landing point, trying to cut the leader of Liberty City's head off and hang it on the Fist King's flag.
Right then, an abrupt change took place!
Huh? This isn't over yet.
Li Yao observed every subtle ripple of spiritual energy on the battlefield.
Right when the Fist King broke into Liberty City leading the charge, fire and venomous fog suddenly soared from the point of Xiahou Wuxin's crash. Dozens of daunting auras appeared next to Xiahou Wuxin mysteriously and attacked the Fist King!
Behind the Fist King, among the 'comrades' who were supposed to fight side by side with him, almost ten Immortal Cultivator players aimed their weapons at the Fist King and performed an unexpected assassination.
'Red Viper', 'Black Spear', and 'Flash Point', the three trial-takers, were among them!
&nb
sp; So, this is their real aim!
Li Yao finally understood that the 'main quest' of the three trial-takers was not to conquer Liberty City but to assassinate the Fist King. Since the very beginning, they had been allotted to the side of Liberty City, and they were just assassins who had snuck into the Fist King's army.
There was probably something wrong with Xin Xiaoqi, too, who must have been hired by the leader of Liberty City earlier. That was why she said that Han Te and Liu Li would be killed no matter what they did!
Now that he thought about it, Lei Zonglie should be a 'big boss' of a higher level than Xiahou Wuxin according to the Immortal Cultivators' evaluation. Therefore, the battle between the Fist King and the leader of Liberty City was only an appetizer, and the battle between the players and the Fist King would be the most splendid part of the whole game!
Chapter 2011: The Fist King's Metamorphosis! |
The Fist King was immediately surrounded by hundreds of attacks from almost fifty Immortal Cultivator players in twenty different directions.
Blades, bullets, acids, venomous arrows, magma, and frost close to absolute zero came at him one after another. A bloody mouth seemed to have been opened in the void and was about to swallow him brutally.
In order to heavily wound the leader of Liberty City, the Fist King had taken the slashes of the enemy's swords dozens of times head on. The functionality of his iron body was already seriously affected.
The fatal ambush from behind further caught him unprepared. He could barely move.
At this moment, it was actually the assassins, or the Immortal Cultivator players, who were in conflict. Everybody was lunging at the Fist King and hamstringing each other openly or secretly.
"Get out of my way. This creep is mine!"
"After I reap the monster, I will complete the main quest perfectly and advance to the Black Island Research Tower as first place. Nobody can compete with me!"
"Hehe. I am going to be the next leader of the Yuwen family. Whoever stands before me, don't blame me for not showing you any mercy!"
Li Yao's soul keenly sensed the subtle spiritual waves wandering in the air, which were the ripples of the private talk among the Immortal Cultivator players.
It seemed to be a public frequency that involved a very mysterious skill of spiritual energy vibration and could deliver the 'sound of silence' to several kilometers away. All the Immortal Cultivator players and tourists could communicate with each other in such a way without being noticed by the sinners.
Naturally, they could not deceive Li Yao's soul.
Over the past month, he had been studying the means of communication of the three Immortal Cultivator players in the Red Viper Squad and had long discovered the mysteries of the private talk. After cracking the special frequency of the Immortal Cultivators' public channel, he could hear the 'roars' and 'screams' of the players easily.
It seemed that they were there for different trial quests for different purposes.
Naturally, 'Fist King' Lei Zonglie, as the warrior with the highest combat ability on the battlefield, represented the most 'points'. That was why he became a common target, and everybody wanted to deal the final blow.
However…
Idiots, Li Yao thought coldly. Since you know he is the 'boss' of a 'golden quest', how can he be killed so easily?
As it turned out, all the players who jumped forward hit a nonexistent wall at the same time and were blown back in a clumsy and panicked way. The two players who reacted slower were immediately involved in the colorful smoke, before they were tossed out brutally in a bloody, mangled form together with their broken armor!
The bloody mist and the shattered bones spluttered everywhere, and the two Immortal Cultivators were killed on the spot without even letting out a cry.
This was indeed an extreme trial with a high death rate!
The Immortal Cultivators were as brutal to the ordinary people as they were to their own kind. They did not care about the casualty rate in their training and trials at all!
Sensing the killing intent that was becoming more and more intense in the smoke, and observing the gory outcome of their companions, all the players turned grave and began to make preparations.
The smoke gradually dispersed. 'Fist King' Lei Zonglie stood inside a steaming crater steadily with his hands behind his back, staring at the Immortal Cultivator players coldly.
The Immortal Cultivators had an entirely different vibe from that of the sinners. They could tread lightly and disguise it in peacetime, but now that they were exerting all their strength in such a large group, they immediately gave a feeling that they were not the same as the real sinners around them at all.
"So, my intuition was correct." The Fist King slowly plucked the flying swords that had been stabbed into his body, kneading them into iron balls casually and tossing them away. "Long ago, I discovered that a lot of strange guys had shown up both on my side and Xiahou Wuxin's. You do not look like thugs who have just distinguished themselves in the Land of Sins but reek of disgusting smells. Who are you scumbags exactly?"
Black Spear—the dark, muscular man in the Red Viper Squad—bumped his fists and roared, "Your death!"
His image and way of fighting were similar to the Fist King's. So, he could not be overwhelmed by the Fist King's dominance, otherwise he would not get a chance to fight at all.
"Hehe…" The Fist King chuckled in a low voice. Drawing out the last twisted flying sword on his body, he said as if he were speaking to himself, "According to the intelligence, countless assassins and mercenaries from the Valley of Thorns are lurking inside my camp and Xiahou Wuxin's. You must be them. However, what is the Valley of Thorns exactly, which has apparently been manipulating the history of the Land of Sins from the shadows? Let me blow up your brains and look for answers in person!"
"Stop bragging!" Black Spear shrieked. "You were heavily wounded by Xiahou Wuxin's full-strength blow first, and then you took the bombardment of so many of us head on. Your body must be riddled with holes and on the brink of destruction!"
"Yes." The Fist King did not deny it at all. His metal lips curling into a cruel smile, he said, "So, let me switch bodies and fight you again!"
At that moment, an enormous crystal bomb seemed to have exploded below the Fist King's feet. The ferocious wind and blast swept across the entire battlefield!
In the middle of the raging storm and sand, his broken, mottled iron body fell apart one piece after another like a withered slough!
"Well…"
All the players were dumbfounded, feeling as if their blood was freezing.
"The Fist King is transforming!" Li Yao exclaimed to the mental devil. "Your guess was correct. The guy truly has a second form. He indeed deserves to be the boss of a golden quest!"
After the smoke rose into the sky and the dust settled on the ground, what appeared in front of everyone was a 'Fist King' that was much smaller in size but even more agile and fierce!
He had been using a silver, glittering body almost four meters tall previously, and his body size was equivalent to a super-heavy crystal suit installed with reactive armors.
Nobody expected that a second body was actually hidden underneath the magnificent body.
It was a super-light artificial body only around 1.5 meters tall. Its surface was smooth, without any rune array or joint. The streamlined torso and limbs seemed to have been melted by waterdrops large and small. Emitting bright golden colors, it was natural and flawless.
Although the size had been reduced to one third, the bursting aura from the body was ten times more intimidating than the 'first form'.
Li Yao's soul almost saw a furiously burning torch whose flames hopped hundreds of meters into the sky trying to burn a hole there!
Under the watch of the flabbergasted Immortal Cultivators, the Fist King warmed up the brand-new artificial body unhurriedly before he fell on one knee, making the preparation posture of a sprint. He smiled and said, "Shall we begin?"
Before he finished the last syllable, a lot of players attacked the Fist King in the spirit of 'better attack than be attacked'.
However, the Fist King had already turned into several dazzling streaks of gold brightness before their attacks arrived and appeared in front of almost ten Immortal Cultivators 'simultaneously'.
It was the same heavy punches with the utmost masculinity as before, except that the force was three times greater than in the 'first form' and the speed five times higher!
The three players in the Red Viper Squad were bombarded by the Fist King in the first round. They barely had any time to summon their real crystal suits.
'Black Spear' punched back at the Fist King. His entire right arm exploded from inside to outside, and his arm bone turned into hundreds of fingernail-sized pieces.
'Flash Point' was about to activate his velocity that he had always been proud of when the Fist King opened his hand, grabbed his head, and threw him into another player brutally. The two players were almost 'embedded' into each other.
'Red Viper', who had the highest Cultivation, released dozens of flames, only to be blown into nothingness by the Fist King's one punch. She hurried to fall to the ground and fly backward, dodging the fatal, serial bombardments closely!
Shua! Shua! Shua!
Finally, some players could not withstand the high pressure between life and death anymore, summoning their real crystal suits.
Li Yao heard them cursing aloud in private talk. It seemed that such an action would seriously affect their 'score' and 'rating' in the trial.
If they had only used the magical equipment from the Land of Sins and did not expose any weapons from the Heavenly Rails, they would be able to accomplish a certain 'achievement', which would grant them a bonus.
But once they used the advanced crystal suits from the Imperium, their final score would be reduced to around sixty to seventy percent, depending on the enhancement that their crystal suit provided.
Protected and boosted by the high-level crystal suits, the players were like wolves who had grown their tusks again. Their confidence returned to them.
