Chapter: Chapter 244
“Hold the trident in front of you, yes, hold it steadily.”
In the cafe with no customers, An Xin slowly extended her hand according to Xi’s instructions and grasped the blue trident in front of her.
It was cool and felt very nice. The moment she gripped the long handle, she felt her body become light. A powerful force surged from the trident and flowed into her body.
“Now, try to lift me up. It might be a bit heavy, so put some effort into it.”
With a slight exertion of strength from both hands, An Xin pulled the trident stuck in the floor out. Judging by her expression, the trident was indeed a bit heavy.
“Very good, then release your mind and don’t resist.”
“Mhm, okay.” An Xin obediently closed her eyes, waiting for Xi’s consciousness to take over her body.
A few steps away, An Xi watched her sister with a worried expression. She had stopped herself from rushing out to stop the ritual several times, but Ge Ji, who was standing beside her, tightly gripped her shoulder, preventing her from making any rash moves.
“Don’t get agitated. This is An Xin’s decision, and since this deity has made a promise, we should trust her,” Ge Ji whispered to An Xi.
“But I’m still a little worried.”
“It’s natural to worry. However, at this moment, you should learn to trust the judgment of someone with more experience than you. The promises made by deities are quite effective, and moreover, this deity named Xi doesn’t seem like a malevolent god.”
“You can know a person’s face but not their heart. Who knows if she’s a bad guy?” An Xi snorted. In her opinion, anyone who snatched her sister was never a good person.
Ge Ji shrugged helplessly at the young girl’s petulant behavior. There was no reasoning with her, so she decided to let An Xi continue to fret over it herself.
On the other side, ‘An Xin’ had reopened her eyes. Her eyes had turned a sea blue filled with divinity, and her expression had changed from nervousness to curiosity.
Looking down at her body, she muttered softly, “It’s even worse than the previous girl’s body.”
At least the previous girl was quite healthy. Although she didn’t have any special abilities, a healthy body was the most important thing for Xi. Yet, An Xin possessed such immense power within her but couldn’t control it. Her body could be described as riddled with holes, and fighting her old rival with such a body made Xi feel that her future was bleak.
She wouldn’t be able to engage in close combat at all, at best she could provide support from a distance. If she were to engage in close combat, Xi feared that An Xin’s body would be destroyed after just a few blows. She had promised to bring An Xin back completely intact; she couldn’t bring back a corpse, could she?
“Miss Xi, how do you feel?” Ge Ji had walked over to Xi. “Is there anything you’re not accustomed to?”
Xi shook her head. “Everything is fine, but this little girl’s physical condition cannot be delayed any further. Mental recovery is easy, but physical recovery is difficult.”
“You can rest assured about that. For us, the physical aspect is the easiest thing,” Ge Ji said with a smile.
No matter how severe the injuries, as long as they were placed under the Tree of Life, they would recover within a few days. This was the power of a deity.
“Alright, then I’ll prepare to set off. Time waits for no one now,” Xi said, flexing her wrists and speaking in a low voice. “It’s time to settle these old debts accumulated over many years.”
However, Ge Ji asked Xi to wait a moment longer. “Miss Xi, please wait a bit longer. My two colleagues are on their way. They should arrive soon and can take you to the battlefield faster.”
“I can fly, and I fly quite fast.”
“But you are using An Xin’s body now, so your speed definitely won’t be able to keep up, right?” Ge Ji pointed out the biggest limiting factor for Xi. An Xin’s body could not sustain any damage.
Xi was silent for a while, then nodded. That was indeed the case.
Ge Ji’s two colleagues did not keep Xi waiting for long. Just a few minutes later, an aircraft flew over from the horizon.
The aircraft flew above the cafe and did not land. Yi Yujun jumped directly from the aircraft.
Pushing open the door with an anxious expression, the divine envoy asked loudly as soon as she entered, “Where’s the divine artifact? Where’s the divine artifact?”
When she saw the information provided by Ge Ji, Yi Yujun was completely bewildered. Who knew what had happened during the day she spent in the storm that allowed them to find the divine artifact so quickly?
Ge Ji coughed lightly and then pointed to ‘An Xin’ beside her.
Yi Yujun’s gaze shifted to the young girl sitting beside Ge Ji. The moment she saw her, she frowned. This girl gave her a very peculiar feeling, especially her eyes. They didn’t look like those of a little girl, but rather… like a deity?
Wait, could it be…
“Possessed?”
“You can ask Miss Xi about the specific details on the way. She’s going to the front lines now. Can you take her there?” Ge Ji briefly explained the situation to Yi Yujun.
After listening to Ge Ji’s explanation, although Yi Yujun was still a bit confused, she at least knew what she needed to do now. Leticia had sent her out to seek reinforcements, and wasn’t this reinforcement perfectly qualified? A deity who had once sealed that monster was undoubtedly the most helpful reinforcement for the current situation. Yi Yujun immediately grabbed Xi’s hand. “There’s no time to delay, let’s go quickly!”
This decisiveness surprised Xi a little. She thought Yi Yujun would say something else, but she was taking her to help without saying anything. Xi really liked this straightforward personality.
Picking up her trident and jumping up from the chair, before leaving the cafe, Xi turned back and shouted to the two girls in the house, “Wait for my good news!”
Then, she jumped onto the aircraft with Yi Yujun.
“Whoa, boss, you’re so fast.” The girl who was about to snack to pass the time watched Yi Yujun and Xi open-mouthed. “And who is this person? Boss, have you become a kidnapper?”
“Reinforcements, that’s the deity we came to find at the beginning. I’m going to send her to the front lines, hurry up,” Yi Yujun explained concisely.
The girl’s eyes widened. While quickly operating the aircraft, she mumbled, “Wow, are we going to get a great merit this time?”
“If we can successfully eliminate that monster, it’s more than just great merit; our Lord might personally award us medals,” Yi Yujun said seriously. “So, hurry up.”
…
Black tentacles crashed against the blue barrier like waves but couldn’t cause any damage to it, much like waves crashing against a cliff. The cliff seemed unharmed, while the waves were shattered.
However, the expressions of the three girls huddled within the barrier were not good, especially the black-haired girl. She leaned her head against the shoulder of the white-haired girl, constantly muttering words that even those beside her couldn’t hear.
“What are you muttering about?” Bai Ling gently stroked the long sword lying across her lap, but her eyes never left Leticia’s face.
“Estimating my magic reserves. That monster’s endurance is truly outrageous. I’ve tried my best to conserve my magic, but I’m still struggling to keep it up,” Leticia sighed. Not long from now, they would have to temporarily leave this place to replenish their supplies. The monster’s attack speed and intensity were increasing, and if they waited here any longer, they might not be able to leave.
Sasha nodded in agreement. If she were to maintain this barrier, she could hold on for at most two hours. But Leticia had been holding on for almost a full day, and only now was she saying she was struggling. In reality, the barrier released by Leticia was as solid as ever, perfectly withstanding the monster’s attacks.
“The monster isn’t focusing its main efforts on attacking us. If it were to attack with all its might, I couldn’t hold on for that long,” Leticia said with a heavy expression. Her brief encounters earlier had allowed her to understand the monster’s approximate strength; it was stronger than either her or Bai Ling alone. If it attacked with full force, even with multiple shields, the current simple single-layer shield wouldn’t be enough to resist it. This would strain Leticia’s endurance considerably. Her magic recovery speed was already halved under this strange dark sky. If she continued to consume it so intensely, it wouldn’t be strange for her to run out of magic within a day.
“At most half a day. If it’s still like this after half a day, we’ll have to leave,” Leticia gave a specific timeframe. Holding on for another half a day was the longest she could manage while ensuring her combat effectiveness. She couldn’t afford to deplete her combat strength just to be a stubborn occupant. The best defense is offense, but they currently had no way to attack the monster’s main body, which was why they had to resort to this passive defensive measure. To drag it out, waiting for reinforcements to arrive, was the best course of action.
Rumble, rumble.
The ground seemed to tremble. Leticia turned her head in surprise towards the coastline. A gigantic dark shadow, like a mountain, had emerged from the sea and was slowly but unstoppably approaching the continent. The monster couldn’t wait any longer.
“I think I know what this monster was doing before,” Leticia cursed softly. “Is this a lack of intelligence? How does this thing seem quite smart to me!” The monster’s main body was definitely not this large. Its current immense size had only one reason: it had wrapped itself in black tentacles. It was now like a warrior clad in heavy armor, stepping onto the battlefield one step at a time. Could this thing stop it? Leticia pondered for a second in her mind, then decisively made a choice: “We should flee. Staying put is seeking death.” Even if that thing didn’t do anything but just press forward, her shield wouldn’t be able to withstand it. So, it was time to move.
“Phew, I’ve recovered quite a bit. Sasha, how about you?” Bai Ling finally moved her gaze away from Leticia.
“Me? You don’t have to worry about me for a short while,” Sasha said, holding her large book, indicating she could fight for a while too.
“Then you run far away, so we don’t have to save you later,” Leticia said, standing up while leaning on her magic sword. “I’ll detonate the shield later. You seize this opportunity to rush out.”
“Okay.” Bai Ling’s long hair fluttered as if in a wind, and starlight once again entwined around the Star Sword.
“Three, two, one, go!”
The blue shield suddenly burst into a golden light. The black tentacles surrounding the shield were instantly vaporized into black mist. The surrounding tentacles quickly rushed to fill the gap, but they didn’t expect the real attack to come after the explosion. A stream of starlight that spanned the heavens shot out from the smoke after the shield’s explosion, completely clearing away the nearby black tentacles.
“Beautiful!” Leticia couldn’t help but exclaim. As expected of Bai Ling, this sword strike was truly beautiful. While praising Bai Ling, she didn’t hesitate with her actions. Leticia quickly flew into the sky, flying backward while casting magic at the mountain-like gigantic monster. When dealing with a monster of such immense size, she didn’t even need to aim. A casual toss in the general direction was bound to hit.
Unfortunately, Leticia’s magic didn’t inflict any decisive damage on the monster. Those black shells were merely servants that the monster could regenerate at any time. Its main body was still safely hidden beneath them. It was completely impervious. A sense of powerlessness welled up in Leticia’s heart. Dealing with this kind of thing was truly agonizing. The endlessly regenerating black tentacles, its mountain-like massive size, all made this monster seem invincible. Even if it stood still, Leticia didn’t think she could inflict much damage. The tentacles wrapped around it were too thick, providing it with ridiculously high defense.
“This is its home field. Fighting it in its home field will naturally make you feel strained and helpless,” Yin Feinuo reminded Leticia in a low voice. Home field. Leticia naturally knew that this was the monster’s home field. In this storm, their energy recovery speed would be slowed, while the monster could continuously summon tentacles to wear them down. Fighting the monster head-on here was undoubtedly a terrible choice, but there was no other way. The storm’s area was so vast, and to eliminate this monster, they had to enter and fight. Yet, Leticia had no way to break through this storm domain.
“Little Bai already has the雏形 (chū xíng – prototype) of her own domain, but unfortunately, its range is too small to affect the monster’s main body,” Yin Feinuo muttered with some regret. “If only there was a way to release my domain.” If she could project her divine domain down, it might not instantly kill this monster, but it could temporarily dispel the storm.
“Sigh, Old Ancestor, hurry up and have an epiphany and think of a solution! I’m about to give out here!”
