Chapter 483 Third Form 2
Huang Quan raised his right arm, unleashing a sudden attack from behind me, his movements accompanied by spiraling, interwoven yellow-black magic. Although I could sense the change behind me, it was too late to dodge. His arm pierced through my third form of light, and the yellow-black magic erupted from within.
This attack caused me considerable damage. My vision went black instantly, as if I had become an ordinary person, stuffed into an iron box that could barely accommodate my body, and then pushed down a hillside. The overwhelming dizziness nearly shattered my consciousness. If I had taken two or three more hits like that, I would definitely have died.
However, this is probably the last effective attack that Huang Quan can launch against me in this battle.
I can tell that Huang Quan isn't particularly skilled in close combat; he only resorted to this tactic as a last resort to break through my third form, the Light Body. Now that Xu Gou has left the scene, in a one-on-one situation, it's virtually impossible for him to find an opportunity to get close and hit me again.
Furthermore, attacking me in close combat was itself an act that came at a high price. Having come into contact with the third-form light body, which was virtually indistinguishable from solar matter, he let out a painful groan; his arm was charred, and even the corresponding part of his soul suffered severe damage. As I quickly created distance, he clutched his now unusable arm.
With its immense power, it could likely emerge unscathed from contact with real solar matter. However, my flames contain a destructive intent. This is already a curse; even without contact with me, the destructive force of the flames attempts to cover the unburned parts.
Huang Quan immediately manipulated his yellow-black magic to sever the charred arm. In return, the intense heat stopped. Only the Great Impermanence could do something like this. If it were anyone else, even if they made such a desperate attempt to survive, my flames could easily burn everything to ashes by following the causal link between the severed part and the original body.
I pressed my advantage, using a fiery teleportation technique to instantly close the distance and launch a surprise attack. However, I had already used this move on Xu Gou, so it wouldn't be able to hit Huang Quan unexpectedly again. I'm similarly not good at close combat. Just as I was confident I couldn't let Huang Quan hit me in melee, I couldn't do the same thing.
Huang Quan, with the intuition of a Great Impermanence, seemed to predict the timing of my attack, and moved at lightning speed, ignoring spatial distance. If I could hit him even once, the scales of victory would tip in my favor.
Unlike me, whose soul can quickly recover even if shattered, his soul, once burned, is truly burned. Even if he has mastered a method to kill my true spirit, my margin for error in this battle is significantly higher than his.
The difficulty lies in the fact that his combat experience is clearly quite extensive, and his evasive maneuvers are as agile as a swimming fish. Any skilled warrior who is not good at close combat must have more than one way to avoid being killed at close range, and with my rudimentary skills, it would be difficult to catch him.
I launched a series of surprise attacks, hoping to catch him off guard and create an opening. But the more I attacked, the more unrealistic I felt about betting my chances on something like that. More importantly, I didn't have that much time.
The third form relies on the flames stored in the slag weapon; once depleted, it must be extinguished. Although it's possible to replenish itself from the flames while fighting, it's ultimately insufficient. The longer the battle lasts, the more disadvantageous it becomes. While this fulfills Liu Shuying's request to buy time, I cannot be satisfied with this level of achievement.
Huang Quan seemed to have also discerned the biggest flaw in the third form, saying, "This form of yours can't last too long, can it? This should be your trump card, a power stored up during battle..."
"Although your attack and defense are exceptionally strong, your speed and accuracy haven't been significantly improved, and your moves haven't become any more innovative. In that case, there's no need for me to immediately settle things with you; I can simply wait for you to exhaust your strength."
"You've already lost, Zhuang Cheng."
Even though he saw through my most important secret, I had no intention of losing to him in terms of momentum.
"Wait for me to exhaust my strength? Are you serious, Huang Quan?" I retorted. "It's not just us who need a quick victory; you all need one too, don't you?"
The methods that Taoyuan Village Lord and Huangquan use to prevent Luoshan Wuchang and his ilk from coming to their aid must be limited. As long as the battle continues and the scale of destruction grows larger, the effectiveness of their methods will decrease.
I tried using fire teleportation to move to a more distant area, but encountered strange resistance, vaguely feeling as if I were buried alive in a grave and unable to move. As a test, I deliberately revealed my intention to move towards the Luoshan headquarters via a physical spatial path, but was intercepted by Huang Quan without hesitation.
It's clear that Huang Quan and Taoyuan Township Lord want to take this opportunity to eliminate me and Liu Shuying, two powerful enemies who have come to invade on their own initiative.
If I go all out, it's not impossible to break through the resistance and activate the flame teleportation, but that would mean I'd have a momentary opening where I'm "facing away" from the enemy. However, as time goes on, that strange resistance seems to be slowly decreasing.
Whether my third form's time runs out first, or whether Huang Quan's self-set battle time runs out first, is a question that even I find difficult to answer, let alone him.
He wasn't the only one who knew how to bluff and demoralize the enemy; I used the same methods.
"At this rate, you'll be the first to run out of time," I said. "You'll be the real loser, Huang Quan."
Seemingly overwhelmed by my words, Huang Quan fell silent, but his movements showed no hesitation. As he dodged, I could sense that he was relentlessly searching for an opportunity to strike me again.
Gradually, a question arose in my mind—ultimately, what was the purpose of the Yellow Springs and the Gospel House?
In this battle, what kind of interests are at play that would make Huang Quan risk his life to fight me?
Just now, Huang Quan was asking me, "Why bother joining the battle personally?" That same question can be applied to him. Right now, he's fighting me as an ally of the Peach Blossom Village Lord. The Peach Blossom Village Lord may hold an important position in the Gospel House's unknown plans, but is it really worth it for him to go to such lengths?
It seems like this question can be left for after the battle, but my intuition is sending out a dangerous signal. Perhaps this is a crucial question for this battle as well, because it could determine what decisions Huang Quan will make next.
Immediately afterwards, the ominous premonition became reality.
Huang Quan seemed to have made a major decision. He exhaled and then looked at me with a heavy gaze.
“Zhuang Cheng…you are very powerful,” he said. “It’s not just that you are strong, your progress is also astonishing. Other Great Impermanence, after fully realizing their potential as strength, will study how to manipulate their power more skillfully, but you are different. You have made a further breakthrough in terms of sheer strength.”
"In terms of pure strength, you are now on par with the Lord of Peach Blossom Village and Xuanming. Once you fill in the gaps in your skills in manipulating power, you may be able to stand on equal footing with those two."
"For most people, the most difficult part of continuing to grow stronger is figuring out the direction for future progress. But for you, there is already a clear path leading to it; all you lack is some time..."
"This timeframe would normally be at least several decades or even centuries, but you are a manifestation of power that can be manipulated literally, like one's own hands and feet. I wonder to what extent this timeframe will be compressed. In our next encounter, I may no longer be your match. And given time, you will surely become a huge obstacle blocking the way for the Gospel House."
"The best opportunity to get rid of you is now."
—That's what you say, but how do you plan to get rid of me?
I was about to ask him that question back, but I saw that he stopped moving in the face of my sudden attack and instead took the full force of my close-range assault in his third form of light.
This attack instantly shattered Huang Quan's entire body.
Although I did it myself, I never thought I could succeed in this attack.
The battle is clearly not over yet.
His scattered body parts transformed into yellow-black grave soil in mid-air, and then instantly reassembled into a massive three-dimensional magic array.
At the center of the magic circle, where he exploded, was a small black sphere of magical energy, seemingly already hidden within his body. Immediately after the magic circle appeared, a large amount of yellowish-black magical energy surged forth from it, frantically pouring into the black sphere. The black sphere rapidly expanded, unleashing a gravitational pull like a black hole, capable of distorting spacetime, attempting to suck me in.
Witnessing this shocking turn of events, I tried to retreat without thinking, but I felt as if my body was bound by countless chains, as if someone was pulling me in a tug-of-war, making it impossible to escape smoothly. Meanwhile, the black sphere continued to expand as it was locked in this stalemate, gradually closing the distance between us.
What's with this black sphere? Is this Huang Quan's trump card? Is he trying to kill me with this unknown attack? I analyzed the situation with all my might, trying to find a way to break free. Right now, at least one thing is quite clear: after taking that attack, over 90% of Huang Quan's soul has been destroyed. This is an irreversible, fatal injury. It's not even a question of whether he'll be the loser; he's doomed.
Although I don't understand his motives for risking his life to fight me, I can still accept it. Sometimes life-or-death battles don't have many important reasons; maybe he was just in the heat of the moment, and I can personally empathize with that motivation.
However, a life-or-death struggle is completely different from a struggle that is based on self-sacrifice.
I simply cannot understand what reason Huang Quan had to be willing to sacrifice his own life to eliminate me.
(End of this chapter)
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