Zheng hurried his pace and finally arrived at his destination before team Pacific did. As long as Xuan stayed in approximately the same place he was at, the Magic Cannon would hit this area. The realization eased his worries while he waited for team Pacific to come.
(I have to be careful. Team Pacific"s leader definitely can"t accept his loss. If he brings the rest of team Pacific with him, I won"t be able to finish them off quickly. Furthermore, what if they seeks to kill the rest of team China first? Even though no one has died yet...)
Zheng was standing on a platform. He selected a spot and sat down then began to ponder the gains and losses acquired in this movie. Xuan"s issue caused the world to deviate from the movie beyond recognition. However, if team China could manage to survive the movie, and if Xuan could overcome his heart"s devil, the team"s strength would take a leap to the next level. The difference between a person who crossed the gap into mid-fourth stage was day and night, as was the difference between Zheng and Lionheart. At the moment, Zheng didn"t know the internal issues that arose within team Pacific nor that team China was moving under his plans.
(More twists and turns might come in this movie. However, the momentum has been set. Team Pacific"s fate was decided the moment they stepped into the mothers.h.i.+p. My only worry is whether Xuan and HongLu"s deduction comes out true. If not, team China will cease to exist with them.)
Zheng chuckled bitterly. The team"s fate had been interwoven with Xuan. If Xuan were to fail and die here, the remaining strategist alone couldn"t save team China. They would fall in the final battle against a team Devil with Xuan"s clone. Zheng"s strength would be rivaled by clone Zheng"s strength.
(This is a trial that would have eventually come. It might as well come sooner than later. Thank G.o.d Xuan managed to suppress his condition until this opportunity arose. If it happened in the last movie, we wouldn"t even have this slim chance to make it out. Let"s take this gamble with him!)
Spider machines once again appeared on the platform. The aliens walked out of the machines. Their figures were more human like than before.
Zheng had encountered three waves of aliens on his way. They possessed abilities similar to the players but much less potent. Their volley of arrows copied from Heng didn"t even pierce Zheng"s skin. The aliens" abilities were nothing more than just looks.
Yet, Zheng felt as though the aliens were growing. He killed hundreds of them with ease so he couldn"t be certain of this feeling. However, it was strange the aliens just kept on coming to suicide. Suspicion was stacking in his mind.
(d.a.m.n it. I am going to kill every one of them this time and allow no escape! Let"s see if they dare to come at me again!) Zheng thought as he picked up Tiger"s Soul and walked toward the aliens.
At this time, Julian was merely two pa.s.sageways away from Zheng. However, he had his worries, so he stopped in place. Psyche scan closely observed every action Zheng was taking.
(Too strong. His body and strength are way more powerful than Lionheart’s. Can a human really achieve such power? He doesn"t look any bigger than a normal human. In fact, he"s average. His body enhancements probably come from the energy inside his body.)
Julian was calculating every detail that could be present in the battle to avoid the possibility of getting one shot by Zheng. He could imagine Zheng"s true power by looking at the fight happening between Zheng and the aliens.
(Avalon... and that power I have been holding. There"s a seventy percent chance of defeating him if all goes accordingly. Once I kill him, I can absorb his psyche force. My absorption isn"t as complete as Lionheart"s but that should be enough for me to breakthrough into mid-fourth stage. Let"s do it!)
Julian and the Caucasian man started moving toward Zheng. By the time they arrived at the platform, Zheng had already killed all the aliens. He confirmed the aliens were growing each time and at an increasing pace.
"If the aliens continue to grow like this, the movie will show its true danger once the aliens reach our power level." Zheng muttered to himself.
Suddenly, he heard a voice from afar. "Correct. This is a near twenty persons difficulty movie after all. It can"t be as simple as it has been shown. The danger just hasn"t arrived yet. Once I finish this fight, I will have to leave the mothers.h.i.+p as soon as possible before I get killed. Nice to meet you. My name is Julian from team Pacific." A Caucasian young man with closed eyes and a middle age Caucasian man walked toward Zheng. The middle age man did not speak as he silently stood behind the young man. The young man smiled gently. Zheng didn"t feel insulted from him keeping his eyes closed. He had an aura that gave off a good impression.
(No. It"s more like my mind is forcing this impression on me. Hypnosis? He"s probably the psyche force user of team Pacific.)
"Are you team Pacific"s psyche force user?" Zheng said.
Julian showed no surprise. "You"re right. Are you surprised that a psyche force user came out of the back stage to challenge you? Hoho. This does seem like a stupid action."
"No." Zheng shook his head. "I have seen a powerful psyche force user that could defeat me. So I am not surprised you would challenge me. If Lionheart is the only source of power your team possesses, team Celestial would have wiped you even when they are not cooperating as a whole. I suppose you are stronger than your leader."
Julian laughed lightly. He didn"t answer the question. "Three r.e.t.a.r.ded leaders in a row. I am tired of being the babysitter. Of course, the situation would be different if it"s you. What do you think? Interested in battling along side me? I am confident the two of us can conquer the whole realm. Your strength and my wit adds up to more than one plus one..."
Zheng interrupted him with a laugh. "I don"t know where you got your confidence from. Let me ask this, how many team battles has your team fought?"
Julian"s expression didn"t look as good as before but he maintain a smile. "We have a special way to lower our team"s rating. Our strength is steadily increasing, while team battles..."
Zheng interrupted him again. "That means not a lot. Two or three times? Hoho. You are lucky you survived after being in a movie with team Celestial. Is that why you underestimate the other teams? What a joke. You think the two of us can conquer the whole realm? I finally get what Xuan means with his opinion on teams that enslave their members. You will only become weaker and weaker and when the final battle comes, you will get wiped!"
Julian"s face turned blue. Yet, he still asked in a smile. "Why would you say that? Are we really so weak? If I decided to kill your teammates before this point, they would have been dead by now."
Zheng shook his head. "The issue isn"t your strength. The benefactors in a team like yours won"t be weak. The first issue is you have too few members. You can be strong in one aspect but lacking in other aspects without more members."
Julian couldn"t retort Zheng"s point. He remained silent as he knew that was the biggest weakness of team Pacific. Even though the team battles they faced up to this movie were against weak teams and a team having internal issues, the weakness of team Pacific was exposed through those battles. That was why Julian wanted to get HongLu onto the team.
"What"s the other issue?" His smile faded and his expression grew serious.
"Experience." Zheng stood up from the floor and put away Tiger"s Soul. "You are lacking in experience in vision, handling losses, fighting a battle of wits, and accurately determining the strength of your opponents. You are too weak that you can"t even see the gap in our strength." Zheng leaped. He moved with Soru under Instant Destruction. The moment he left Julian"s vision, he was already behind Julian. Hes lapped his hand at the back of Julian"s head.
Zheng didn"t want to kill the psyche force user as there was still use for him, such as locating and contacting the other members. A psyche force user had a variety of utilities. If Xuan ceased to continue with his scheme, Zheng could use this psyche force user to wake the other members, so he was planning to capture Julian.
He didn"t expect a psyche force user to dodge his attack even if psyche scan could follow his movements. His speed was too fast for a psyche force user to physically react. The moment he put out his hand, his attention had turned to the Caucasian man. However, Zheng suddenly noticed he missed. Julian simply stood half a meter in front of him. The man turned around with a smile. Zheng could feel Julian looking at him despite his closed eyes.
"Oh, is that your ability? Blink? You wouldn"t be able to react fast enough even if you can blink. The problem doesn"t come from you, so it must be on my end. Is it my senses?" Zheng looked at his hand and asked.
Julian smiled. "Uh. Basically, though I am still researching into the ability. That attack was weak. Are you not planning to kill me? Or did my proposal piqued your greed?"
"Your proposal?" Zheng asked without a moment of thought.
Julian sounded lost for a second. "Didn"t I propose to conquer the realm with you?" "Ah! So you have a way to invite another player into your team?" Zheng wasn"t stupid enough to miss the implication. He sounded excited.
Julian immediately noticed he spilled information that Zheng wouldn"t have noticed. This would give Zheng another reason to kill him for the valuable item he had. He rubbed his eyes and said with a bitter chuckle. "I am a psyche force user. More precisely, I am a psyche force user in the third unlocked stage. Perhaps higher. I can"t tell where I am at. My enhancement is Shaka, a top tier psyche force enhancements that"s one level above the Third Eye. What I want to say is we are both strong. I am not the same as your pretty team members who are worthless. I will be the strongest psyche force user in the realm and you are someone who can rival the powerhouses of team Celestial and team Devil. We are naturally the perfect partners. Let"s make a deal. If I defeat you, then join us. That isn"t to say you are weaker than me. You just don"t know the way I fight."
Zheng contemplated. He had to capture Julian and get him to agree to waking the rest of team China from the dreams. Threatening Julian to do so contained a risk depending on his personality. Zheng was confident with his strength and nodded. "Okay. However, if I win, you will help me with a few things. I won"t kill you in this movie so you will only have to deal with the negative score. It"s a fair bet."
Julian nodded in agreement without hesitation. He pointed to his eyes and said. "My enhancement isn"t purely a psyche force ability. It"s an evolution enhancement that allows you to find the true meaning of psyche force."
He opened his eyes ever so slightly. Zheng"s vision blacked out instantly. He didn"t fall unconscious nor did the lights went out. He lost the sense of sight.
"Ring of Heaven"s Treasure! Sight!" As he finished his words, Zheng had already reached him. A fist struck toward his face at a speed untrackable to his eyes. However, looking at the path of this strike, it would stop a few centimeters before Julian"s face.
With a thump, Julian felt as though a hammer struck his face. His nose instantly broke and blood rushed out. He was knocked several meters away.
"Impossible!" He wiped the blood and cried. By this time, Zheng had approached him again and kicked toward his abdomen. This kick missed in the same manner but Julian was sent flying again. He spilled a mouthful of blood.
"Wind pressure from your attacks? Your speed compressed the air and sent out attacks beyond your reach. That strength is terrifying. It felt as though I was. .h.i.t by a truck."
He climbed up from the floor and murmured to himself. He was no longer surprised after the second hit. "Your strength is strong enough to let you ignore most schemes. I would lose if I psyche force is the only source of power I have."
Zheng shrugged and pointed to his eyes. "I am curious. What psyche force ability is powerful enough to affect me? It shouldn"t be possible since I have reached mid-fourth stage. You don"t know what it means to overcome the heart"s devil yet. As far as I know, people like me shouldn"t be affected by illusions or disorienting psyche force abilities."
"I don"t know what the heart"s devil is. However, there exists no absolute defense in this universe. The Shaka enhancement comes from the fourth stage or beyond. It allows me to reach into the deepest layer of human consciousness. There is a giant residing inside every person"s consciousness. It"s like a devil, a dragon, a G.o.d! Ring of Heaven"s Treasure! Sound!"
With his words, the world came to a silence for Zheng. He couldn"t even hear his own voice. However, the loss of hearing didn"t seem to affect him. He approached Julian at the next instant and kicked, but an invisible barrier blocked his kick.
"I have said psyche force abilities along aren"t powerful enough to defeat you. Your strength exceeds mine by too much. I have something else waiting for you. This is a glorious defense, the Everdistant Utopia, one of the most powerful defensive magical items."
The middle age man behind Julian drew out a plain sheath. It looked like an inexpensive craft sold on the streets.
Julian"s words entered Zheng"s mind directly. The response Zheng gave was a flurry of punches. Each punch hit the invisible barrier in front of him with a loud thump, yet it seemed like Zheng was throwing empty punches at the air.
After a while, Zheng finally stopped. He gave a cold laugh then unlocked his genetic constraint further. He moved from Instant Destruction to Explosion, which disabled use of Soru but gave him increased strength and speed. Every punch he threw carried enormous force. This force was so powerful that it shattered the wind pressure generated by his punches. Julian"s face blanched when he detected the power of Zheng"s attacks through psyche force. The pressure coming from them alone could knock him unconscious and a direct hit could break him into two pieces. He sweated despite being protected by the sheath.
(Good grief! Thank G.o.d I held him off with words. Who the heck would want a teammate like this. You can’t even get rid of him when you want to, and he can kill you whenever he wants. Good that he didn"t use his full strength in the beginning. I would have been killed on the first attack. d.a.m.n it. I still have a reserve of energy for the Shaka ability but every use has a cool down. Need to find a time to practice more. If I can disable all five senses at once...)
Julian sighed and opened his eyes again.
"Ring of Heaven"s Treasure! Touch!"
Zheng finally stopped after losing three of his senses. He could no longer find his directions in this dark and silent world. It felt as though he was floating in empty s.p.a.ce. There was nothing but emptiness all around him. If it weren"t for his remaining senses, he wouldn"t even be able to stand. The true power of Ring of Heaven"s Treasure showed itself. This was an ability that not even someone in mid-fourth stage could avoid!
At a place far from Zheng and Julian"s battlefield, a man was standing inside a pa.s.sageway. Spider machines were walking through the pa.s.sageway but none appeared to notice him nor the cannon standing ontop of four skeleton legs. It seemed like he and the strange cannon were invisible.
A little bronze bell floated on top of the man. It was the shape of bells from ancient China, giving off a sense of age like it had just been unearthed. A faint golden light flowed on its surface. Every time a machine came near, the light brightened and the machine would move to the side, creating a big empty s.p.a.ce in the middle of the pa.s.sageway.
The man suddenly took out an apple. He smelled it, frowned, then took a bite.
"Still can"t smell, can"t taste... but soon, soon..."
As he ate the apple, a craze overtook his eyes. He rubbed them vigorously until his eyes returned to normal. Yet, that hint of craze remained and didn"t go away through his self control. He finished the apple then looked toward where the cannon was facing... where Zheng and the rest of the team was at!