917 Loyal Tatamu
w.a.n.g Zhong’s body was like a swaying shadow. The sword missed its target.
Pievrov was aware that he himself was very fast and had powerful vision. After all, he was a mid-leveled Heavenly Soul Stage soldier who had experienced many trials. However, humans were extremely backward when it came to combat techniques. They focused heavily on form, while Mizobudapi heroes had mastered the significance behind these attacks.
Pievrov’s wrist shook slightly. The blinding light from the divine sword instantly dispersed and turned into Sword Qi that was released in all directions. It was as if spikes of light had been released in front of w.a.n.g Zhong’s eyes.
They were too close to each other, but the trajectories of the Sword Qi could not be predicted. They defied the laws of physics.
Whoosh whoosh~
w.a.n.g Zhong instinctively activated Shadow Dance. Although his strength had increased significantly, he had just advanced in level and thus, lost the upper hand against the Sword Saint. Even with Shadow Dance, he could not completely dodge the attack. His left shoulder and right leg were hit by the Sword Qi.
Even the powerful protection abilities that his divine cells provided could not match up against the small Sword Qi. Two wounds appeared on the areas where the Sword Qi had pierced through his defenses. At the same time, w.a.n.g Zhong fought back with his 3rd Drive. The instant they pa.s.sed by each other, he aggressively slammed into Pievrov’s back.
Boom!
Zeng!
The Sword Saint and w.a.n.g Zhong flashed past each other. They had rushed 10 meters forward and then landed steadily on the ground.
Two b.l.o.o.d.y grooves appeared on w.a.n.g Zhong’s body. His injuries were rather severe. His muscles were completely exposed, and the cuts were at least three to four centimeters deep. Blood continued to flow from the wounds. It looked very shocking, but even the terrifying Sword Qi attacks from the Sword Saint were quickly healed by his divine cells. The Octopus people Sword Saints were more terrifying than human Sword Saints as they could manipulate the power of heaven and earth. More importantly, their Sword Qi could directly kill. Just like how Heinrich had attacked Grai, ordinary soldiers would be engulfed by the Sword Qi and die even from small injuries. This had been called the ‘black-hole effect’ in the Holy Land.
In front of him, Pievrov was slowly turning around.
Pievrov did not immediately launch another wave of attacks. Instead, he slowly lowered the gold divine sword in his hands. He looked at the two wounds on w.a.n.g Zhong’s body. A barely discernible emotion flashed in his eyes.
w.a.n.g Zhong’s sword attacks were very low-leveled. He could awaken the Nebula Sword and even produce a nebula, but he did not seem to know how to make use of them. He simply treated the Nebula Sword as an ordinary sword and waved it around. However, Pievrov was surprised. The Sword Qi that was unique to the Mizobudapi people did not seem to have any effect on him.
The attack had also left Pievrov feeling very uncomfortable. It was definitely not an attack that an ordinary mid-leveled Heavenly Soul could use. He was injured and did not manage to win the upper hand in the fight. However, he could not use his wide-scale killing technique in the sacred place. He had to get rid of his enemy as quickly as possible. He could not cause any damage to the restricted area as this was his responsibility. If he caused any damage, he would not be able to make up for his neglect even if he shredded this human into thousands of pieces.
He had to kill his enemy in one strike!
w.a.n.g Zhong had also turned around. They looked straight at each other as if they had suddenly forgotten how to attack. They stood facing each other.
Tatamu, who was at the side, did not even dare to pant. It was trapped in the indiscernible confrontation between the two of them. Even though it was far away from them, it could feel itself breaking out in cold sweat. It was so afraid that it wanted to die but was too stunned to even move.
There was no wind here, at least for now. It was as if the entire world had fallen completely silent at this moment. The two of them stood facing each other in silence. Everything in their surroundings had stagnated as a result of their stifling auras.
w.a.n.g Zhong did not radiate anything except for a dignified aura. On the other hand, a terrifying Sword Intent was rapidly surging from Pievrov’s body. It was as if there was no limit to his Sword Intent as it continued to rise into the air. Even the surroundings were filled with a sharp aura. If you took a deep breath, it felt as if air would not fill your nostrils. Instead, a sharp sword would!
Pievrov displayed his true power. Even though various factors caused them to have the same strength and speed, their levels were completely different. The difference between the two of them was as great as the distance between the ground and the clouds. w.a.n.g Zhong’s aura was suppressed by Pievrov’s rising aura. There was no chance for w.a.n.g Zhong to fight back. His aura was like a small boat that could capsize at any time against the Sword Saint’s terrifying aura, which was as powerful as a stormy sea.
The standstill between them was instantly broken. Tatamu, who had been extremely tense, was instantly suppressed by this overwhelming atmosphere. Both its spirit and body were suppressed, causing its slightly unstable state of mind to return to normal. Its body was rooted to the ground out of shock as it faced the Sword Saint’s terrifying aura.
This Sword Saint was more mature than Heinrich, but to be honest, he lost to Heinrich in terms of capability. Although Heinrich was weaker, he had a stronger life force. Now, he knew that the Sword Saint wanted to kill him in one shot, but w.a.n.g Zhong did not have any time to lose either. He was facing a Sword Saint, but there would be many others after him. He had to get rid of his opponent quickly.
Both of them knew what the other party was thinking but had absolute confidence in themselves.
From the previous attack, w.a.n.g Zhong knew that combat techniques that focused on form, like Shadow Dance, were not effective against experts like Pievrov. He was still lacking in substance. He could not help but remember the attack that he had used during the battle against Heinrich, ‘Man and Sword Become One’. If that had just been the tip of the iceberg, w.a.n.g Zhong could now feel the essence of the attack.
As the Mizobudapi developed, they started to persistently pursue the ultimate sword techniques. This increased their individual strength, but as a result, there was no free development of different styles, unlike in the human world.
w.a.n.g Zhong pointed the Nebula Sacred Sword at the Sword Saint. This was the beginning stance in Man and Sword Become One. He quickly got used to the feeling of this attack. The divine sword in his hand seemed to have been drawn in and produced a low whistle. This irritated Pievrov once again.
This despicable human was using a unique skill of the Sword Faction!
Plop!
Tatamu collapsed.
The sudden noise disrupted the silence in this world. Pievrov, whose aura had reached its peak, could sense a slight s.h.i.+ft in the human’s highly concentrated divine sense.
The dazzling gold Sword Qi suddenly turned extremely radiant. The divine sword turned into a shooting star and slashed through the sky, followed by an ear-piercing sound.
In a flash, countless Sword Qi immediately exploded as if they had been storing up and were rehearsing for this moment. Countless Sword Qi streaked across the sky, forming a boundless hurricane of sword images that spanned a radius of several meters. The tips of all the sword images were pointed at w.a.n.g Zhong, who was sprinting at top speed. The sword images started to attack him from all directions.
h.e.l.l Sword Punishment!
At the same time, all the energy in w.a.n.g Zhong’s body burst forth. In this life-or-death situation, the energy in his divine cells was completely released. His Soul Power entered the Nebula Sword. He stuck the sword into the ground, and a gold barrier appeared in front of him.
Divine Sword Barrier!
The violent Sword Qi attacked the barrier in all directions but showed no sign of breaking through. w.a.n.g Zhong wanted to test whether his strength would be enough to defend against this mid-leveled Sword Saint. In reality, w.a.n.g Zhong had a powerful realm of control, but only under the circ.u.mstance that they were evenly matched in strength.
He was powerful!
Before Pievrov could finish attacking, the tip of the Nebula Sword rose into the air, and w.a.n.g Zhong naturally followed after the sword. The wave attacks seemed to bounce off the sword as a ray of golden light flashed past.
Pievrov looked at the sword in his chest with complete disbelief. If the G.o.ds could give him another chance, he would not fight this monster as a mid-leveled Sword Saint. A mid-leveled human Heavenly Soul should not possess such strength and combat techniques.
The sword dazzled. Pievrov’s head flew off smoothly.
w.a.n.g Zhong fell to the ground and felt his body overflowing with energy. His injuries had already healed. The divine cells possessed terrifying recovery abilities. Furthermore, his opponent made him realize something. No one at the same level as him would stand a chance against him. No matter how high their level was, it was useless if they were not evenly matched in strength. In addition, he had divine cells, the Great 5 Elements Const.i.tution, and an extremely powerful Soul Sea. He was invincible!
He had to progress further, to face even more terrifying enemies. If the enemies ahead were all mid-leveled Saints, he did not mind killing them in one shot. But this would not be possible. The Octopus people would definitely have other methods, and w.a.n.g Zhong did not want to take the risk.
On the other hand, Tatamu was still in shock from the prowess of the Sword Saint. It was so afraid that it was crawling on the floor, begging the Sword Saint to spare it. Suddenly, it saw Pievrov’s face just within reach and was almost scared to death. “Spare me, Sword Saint! Spare me, Sword Saint! I am simply being held captive by that despicable human. Tatamu’s loyalty towards the G.o.ds can be seen very clearly…”
Before it could finish speaking, it did not hear the Sword Saint’s reply but, instead, heard a familiar yet terrifying voice.
“You’re asking the wrong person to spare you.” It heard w.a.n.g Zhong speak.
The head had flown away and landed on Tatamu’s outstretched claws.
“Spare…”
It suddenly felt something in its hands. It gazed at the object and realized that it was Pievrov’s head. Tatamu, who had been shouting for Pievrov to spare it, was dumbfounded and instantly kept quiet.
This! Had the Sword Saint been killed by this human?
Excitement instantly appeared in Tatamu’s eyes as it regained its normal expression. Its hands instantly hurled Pievrov’s head far away as if its hands had been shocked by electricity. It trembled in fear as it carefully said, “I—I just wanted to find an opportunity to distract the Sword Saint… That’s right. That’s what happened! Tatamu can discard its dignity to help Great Master!”
“You have no dignity.” w.a.n.g Zhong smiled. “You have legs.”
“Mas—Master is invincible!” Tatamu’s face turned white at the mention of its legs. Its entire body trembled as if it was spasming and quickly tried to fawn on w.a.n.g Zhong. However, this seemed to be useless. Thus, it added on, “You are unparalleled in this world! You are brilliant and confident!”
“Tatamu— Ah!” Tatamu was about to continue praising w.a.n.g Zhong, but w.a.n.g Zhong slapped its head.
He had expected Tatamu to betray him. w.a.n.g Zhong was not angry or surprised. Instead, he acted as if nothing had happened. This was natural as he still needed this fellow in the future. Finding the escape route as soon as possible was of utmost importance. “Shut up. Activate the transmission array!”
“Yes, yes, yes!” Tatamu was overjoyed. It looked like w.a.n.g Zhong would not continue to investigate its actions!
There were two steps in activating the transmission array. They had to use the blood of the royal family to stimulate the transmission array, but they also had to know the correct steps to travel freely between the three locations on the map. w.a.n.g Zhong’s blood was already splattered all over the ground from the battle.
The transmission array instantly glowed brightly. Tatamu seemed to have been prepared to receive orders and immediately started to read the Mizobudapi words beside the engraving. It followed the method it had learned and activated the transmission array, connecting the array to the place where they wanted to travel.
At that moment, w.a.n.g Zhong finally had the time to pick up Sword Saint Pievrov’s corpse and other winnings from the ground.
For a Sword Saint, this fellow was undoubtedly poor. w.a.n.g Zhong could tell that the divine sword he used was a treasure. However, he did not have anything else on him, leaving w.a.n.g Zhong and the rest disappointed. But they did not know that Sword Saints and Warlock Saints in charge of protecting the Sacred Mountain were not allowed to carry any surplus items. They had to give up all their extravagant luxuries to show that they were free of desires and sincere in heart.
Luckily, this was a Sword Saint who had a divine sword. If he had been a Warlock Saint, he would not even have anything on hand.
“How poor!” Simba had earned a fortune from several battles, and he did not know the details behind Pievrov’s poverty. He was simply very unhappy about this. “We need to eat too! Even an ordinary soldier is better than this!”
“Pui!” Tatamu immediately spat to show its loyalty. “Garbage Sword Saint, even an ordinary soldier is better than you!”
Tatamu showed considerable respect for the mask which could transform into a strange creature. It had to seize every opportunity that allowed it to continue surviving. Other than dissection, its specialty was in bootlicking.
w.a.n.g Zhong kept the divine sword. Although he had killed Pievrov, he was far from escaping danger. He had no mood to be happy, complain, or ponder about the battle. The royal family of the Octopus people had the ability to activate this s.p.a.ce. The large wave of troops behind them might be able to catch up very quickly. Among them, there would definitely be someone stronger than Pievrov. Thus, they urgently had to find a way to leave his place.
Tatamu had followed the instructions and configured their destination. A flame-red energy line connected the glowing spots on the heart and on the back of the phoenix engraving on the ground.
“Master! Tatamu has finished the mission!”
“Let’s go.”
The rather peculiar transmission array was different from the stable spatial pathways that humans had developed. The process of traveling through the transmission array created by the Octopus people was very uncomfortable. It was an unstable s.p.a.ce and a rather agitated wormhole. The moment w.a.n.g Zhong stepped into the transmission array, he even wondered whether he had fallen for Tatamu’s trick. He felt as if his body was being disintegrated into tiny pieces. The wormhole was too small, and only tiny pieces could pa.s.s through. After traveling for a long time and reorganizing his body at the destination, he felt as if he had gone through a life-and-death experience.