Zheng initially planned to quickly finish off Lionheart through instant Destruction. He didn't expect Lionheart to take his first attack head on. The flame barrier that blocked the second attack struck his interest.
"Not a bad skill." Zheng followed up with three more punches, each one carried monumental force. However, the thin layer of flame blocked his attacks despite him shattering the flame every time.
Lionheart massaged his neck and sneered. "I heard that your clone, the strongest man in the realm, also uses this ability. Only that he's stronger than me and his flame has evolved to a pure black color. "Once I absorb your power, he will be my next target. Haha..."
Zheng showed no response. This scene was on the level of a school age kid robbing a martial artist, absurd and comedic. Lionheart didn't know Zheng's true power was way beyond him. Zheng couldn't even feel worried.
(This ability is practical in both offense and defense. It's effectiveness increases with the user's strength. My clone has the flame in pure black color. Maybe I can improve my combat power if I learn this ability. I will keep this fight going for a while and see if I can learn it while the rest of team Pacific arrive.)
Zheng breathed out. He didn't bother taking out Tiger's Soul and waved his hand. "Come. Let me see how much of a genius you are. Don't disappointment me, Or you would be dead."
Lionheart's face turned blue. "Are you mocking me? Go to hell..." The flame in front of him exploded before he finished talking. Zheng flashed next to him.
"Spend your time to think how you can survive instead of insulting. Keep in mind you are fighting someone way beyond your level. Or do you think that I won't kill you?" Zheng laughed coldly. He spinned his hands in front of his chest as if there was an invisible ball. Under the appearance of the seemingly slow motion was speed approaching the speed under Soru.
When Zheng made the breakthrough into mid-fourth stage after resurrection, he pondered the issue regarding his lack of variation in offense. Explosion and Destruction were extremely powerful, Tiger's Soul could cut through everything, but his attacks lacked variation. Overwhelming power could trump any technique, but what if the other party possessed similar power? He would no longer have an advantage in the battle. Wielding Tiger's Soul with Magic, the new technique he theorized, and the one he just used were experimentations. An enemy that could take his attacks was the best practice target.
Lionheart wouldn't stand there and wait for Zheng's attack to come. He was confident but he could gauge the opponent's strength after the exchanges. His wings flapped and brought him up into the air. The flame enveloping him struck toward Zheng.
Zheng's hands slowed down and different colors emerged in the center of his palms. On the left was a dim black light and on the right a soft white light. The two lights gradually moved to the center, but they did not fuse together. It felt like the lights were separated by a thin line. The line suddenly radiated with blinding brilliance as if Zheng a sun was emerging from Zheng's palm.
Zheng's expression grew increasingly serious and drops of sweat rolled down his cheek. As the flame reached one meter before him, he pushed the black and white light out and cried. "Damn it! I can't control it anymore! Go!"
On the other side, Lionheart was flying toward Zheng in the form of a crimson light. After he moved for only half a meter, a light as bright as the sun radiated from Zheng's hands. Lionheart didn't get to see what exactly happened. The flame that he threw out disintegrated. An intertwining black and white light shot pass him from underneath. The black and white fused into gray at the next instant then the gray transformed into a rainbow of colors and finally it became so bright that his eyes could no longer look at them. The beam shot so far away that he couldn't follow. A deafening explosion followed as if a bomb exploded right beside his ears. The shock knocked Lionheart back into human form.
Lionheart stared at the resulting hole with his jaws dropped. Zheng on the other side showed the same expression. Neither of them uttered a word for a while. A swarm of spider machines eventually came out from a passageway. Lionheart swallowed and said. "This, this is a draw then. It's still early in the movie. We will have a chance to determine who's stronger. I'll take my leave for now." He turned into a crimson light and flew off at a speed faster than he came.
Zheng was surprised. When he realized what happened, the blond man had already gone far. He didn't have the energy to be concern about Lionheart. He had lost sensations on his arms like they didn't belong to him. Qi circulated through his arms and slowly brought his sensations back. However, the pain was beyond any adjective in existence.
(That power is terrifying being generated from the fusion of refined Qi and Magic, the same method used by the Magic Cannon. If I were even half a second too late, my arms would have been destroyed. Perhaps I need to be in Dragon form to use this technique. There's still room for improvement. Shooting it in a beam doesn't feel as powerful as condensing the energy and use it in close combat. I will ask Doraemon after the movie.)
Zheng looked at the direction that Lionheart had gone. He learned more about this man after the fight. Lionheart was not weak and he was not someone who completely relied on enslaving team members. He had his own fighting style. His stats and abilities mainly came from enhancements but he was also able to create his own ability and convert the enhancements into his own. He had great potential and it wasn't luck that God selected him into team Devil.
(Whatever. Let him go find the rest of team Pacific, then I can kill them all at once. Saves the hassle from looking for them one by one. As for the aliens... why are they coming out from the machines?)
Zheng was about to continue down the path to his destination. He noticed the spider machines all stopped and the aliens walked out. The aliens were more slender than he expected, with a resemblance to human figure.
"Uh... why are they holding a bow made of silver light? Zheng muttered. The scene that followed totally shocked him. Twenty of the aliens drew their silver bows. Suddenly, hundreds of light arrows were fired from the bows. In the time that his mind blanked out, it was too late to dodge. Several arrows hit his arms and legs.
The pain that he expected didn't come. The arrows only managed to pierce his skin when he had the protection from Qi, so they were rather weak. The strangest thing was the aliens charged at Zheng after only one round of arrows.
Zheng picked up Tiger's Soul. At the same time, he was worried the aliens had special attacks up their sleeves. He carefully slashed his sword. The light blade shredded the aliens into pieces. They were completely defenseless and all died in one hit. Zheng was shocked again.
(It's too strange. Did something hit their heads so that they are looking to kill themselves? The attacks that look powerful were weak. They had no defense to support their close combat. It doesn't make sense.)
The spider machines further away were backing off while Zheng contemplated. He didn't bother chasing after them and continued toward his destination. He was still trying to come up with a way to contact the other members so everyone would meet up at his destination, not knowing the other two groups of team China were already going there under the guidance of team Pacific's psyche force user.
"So that's it. I get the danger that this movie possesses. The movie does not specifically counter any sort of team. The stronger a team is, the more dangerous this movie becomes." HongLu explained to the others with a chuckle.
This group also encountered the weird aliens with weak attacks and defenses. The aliens appeared as if they were looking to suicide, which confused everyone. HongLu laughed then explained. "The aliens are still experimenting. They haven't been able to utilize the genes of the players yet. Though I wonder when did they steal our genes. However, it verifies my conjecture that the aliens let us into the mothership in order to steal our genes."
Seeing that the group still didn't get it, HongLu continued. "You should understand if you think over it carefully. I have seen a sci-fi movie that also depicted a plot of alien invasion on the Earth. At the end of the movie, the microorganisms on the Earth wiped out the aliens. That is similar to how the Europeans carried their bacteria and virus to the Americas. When the difference in environments is on the scale of planets, the aliens have to have their way of overcoming this obstacle in order to survive the different planets they traveled through. The red plants and feeding the plants with human flesh are this method." HongLu paused for a second then pinched the hair in front of his forehead. "If this method absorbs genes to enhance themselves, we players are the most attractive targets for them. They can reach the next stage of evolution once they absorbed all of our genes. This is where the difficulty of this movie comes from. Anything else that happened up to this point wouldn't be able to explain the difficulty. I suspect the aliens would only grow stronger with time, at an increasingly fast pace, until they reach the same power as the players. Before that time comes..."
(Our fate depends on whether Xuan can achieve his plan.)
"This boy is impressive."
Far, far away from this group, Julian frowned. He had made up his mind to bring this boy into his team. It would take up a spot but completely worth it. The retarded leader... could just die in this movie. The spot itself was more valuable than Lionheart. Lionheart was also no match to Zheng. He managed to escape but without his help, there was no way for Lionheart to even injure Zheng. The second decision Julian made was to abandon his leader.
(He's looking for me. It still takes some effort to kill him. It's unfavorable to me if team China are to actually meet up. I also can't avoid Lionheart. If he can't find me, he will become suspicious. Given how he already has an intent to kill me, it will lead him to break off from the team and give away the chance to wiping team China. Let's' give him a treat and kill those three members from team China. He shouldn't be strong enough to beat me even after he absorbs their powers.)
Julian made up his mind and responded to Lionheart, who had been calling him.
"I can't go with you to fight Zheng Zha. His strength is too great. Furthermore, it's useless as you don't have the strength to injure him. Why don't you kill those few stronger members from team China and absorb their genes first. We underestimated the team that won against team Celestial. Among that group of three, only the girl is a normal person. The other two are strong, a ranged fighter that can pierce alien barriers and one with an undying body able to transform into sand. Their abilities are perfect for you. How about we head out to fight Zheng Zha after you absorbed their abilities?"
Lionheart looked through the psyche scan sent by Julian. Heng was firing with a bow and Imhotep was dodging in sand form. Both abilities were impressive. He pondered for a moment then said. "Okay. Send their location to me. Hide yourself. Once I absorbed their abilities, come to me and we will go fight Zheng Zha. I underestimated him. The original of the strongest man in the realm couldn't be underestimated. I will kill him and absorb his power. And then I will become the strongest man. Haha." He turned into a crimson light and flew toward Heng, Imhotep, and XueLin.
Julian sneered. He walked in the direction of Zheng and contemplated.
(Have to take care of this issue in the movie. If he grows too strong, his power would overpower any of my abilities. I've abandoned some of my interest to calm him down, but I can't let things go too smoothly for him. Delay him until I finish off Zheng Zha. Let's do this.)
HongLu's group also received location guidance from Julian and looked for Zheng on the way. Suddenly, the map being sent to their minds suddenly expanded. It also showed the location of Heng, Imhotep and Xuelin on the map and Lionheart who was speeding toward the group. It would take him only a few minutes to reach team China's other group.
What was team Pacific's psyche force user trying to do? Why did he show the location of their leader? And why did it also show the other group's location on the map? Was this a trap?
(Possible but the chance is slim. The most reasonable explanation is wants to use Heng's safety to delay us from meeting up with Zheng too soon. However, it's like holding a candle to the sun. Unless... there's an internal conflict within team Pacific. The psyche force user wanted to interfere their leader and not us. While we delay their leader, he can finish off Zheng then arrive at the aftermath of our fight with their leader.)
HongLu gripped the silver plate. He sent the message to the group. Despite figuring out the cause for action taken by team Pacific's psyche force user, he frowned.
(There's no good solution. It's a scheme under the sun. Everything is exposed to us but we can't do anything about it. We don't know how powerful their leader is and if the other group can handle him... It's a tricky situation.)
HongLu pinched the hair in front of his forehead. There was not much he could do at this point when the scheme had been set up and he had become a chess piece inside. Wit no longer had much of an effect in the grand scheme of things. They could only walk along the path already set up for them. The strength of the two parties would determine the winner. Only the strong could break himself free from the scheme.
Anck-Su-Namun said in a panicking voice. "That man's flame looks similar to Zheng's flame. Would he be able to injure Imhotep?" After Imhotep joined the team, he practiced with all the members. His body was undying but magical items and abilities could damage him. The flame that Zheng possessed was a counter to Imhotep due to its soul burning property. An undying body was of no use when its soul was gone.
"Uh. Yes. This is the same flame that Zheng has, looks more powerful than the original. There's no choice. Go help them, YinKong. You should be able to defeat team Pacific's leader." HongLu frowned as he contemplated before saying to YinKong.
YinKong shook his head. "No. That man's strength isn't too impressive. Heng and WangXia will be able to take on him. You can add in Zero at the most. I need to fight the psyche force user."
"Uh?" Everyone was shocked as they all stared at YinKong.
She blushed, giving her a lovely charm despite her metrosexual appearance. She was attractive. YinKong lowered her head a little and said. "The psyche force user's ability can cause the target to see illusions or misconceptions. The other me seem to be familiar with this ability. So I..."
She suddenly giggled, taking away her cute and shy expression. "Right. I want to fight that person. There are some psyche force related questions I want to ask him. Hehe. I hope that doesn't disrupt your plan, HongLu." She lowered her head next to HongLu's face.
HongLu backed away with a blushed face. His heart beat rapidly at the sweet scent of a girl. He was only just over ten after all. He frowned and said. "We have to defeat their leader in order to save the other group. There's no way to escape from him given his speed. Okay. WangXia and ChengXiao go help them."
ChengXiao cried. "What are you kidding me? My legs are broken. I am not the monster Zheng is. He can probably live with his head cut off." HongLu looked at YinKong and said. "It's your suggestion so we will leave his wound to you. Also show us the marvel of mid-fourth stage."
Zheng only reached the mid-fourth stage a while ago so he was less aware of the capacities this stage brought forth. YinKong on the other hand had reached early fourth stage many years ago and was near mid-fourth stage.
She walked over to ChengXiao and looked at him with a sweet face. ChengXiao's face became boiling red. "Wah. Baby face big breasts..." YinKong grabbed his legs and clenched them. The bones were mushed together by force. The intense pain knocked ChengXiao out and he foamed at the mouth.
YinKong's smile grew increasingly bright and her eyes were becoming cold. She cut open ChengXiao's leg with her finger and also cut open her palm. She placed her hand on the broken bones.
A few seconds later, ChengXiao cried himself away. His hands reached for the broken leg immediately. "Hot! My legs are burning!" He tried to pat his legs.
YinKong pushed ChengXiao's hands away and said. "The fourth stage does have some interest abilities, like controlling the genes to increase recovery rate a thousand folds. However, it squeezes the person's life and can only be used once or twice. Don't blame me if your legs grow back abnormally."
ChengXiao stopped trying to hit his legs. They were almost painted red. Sweat was raining down his head from the pain. He immediately took out a box of needles and stuck them on his legs, bringing relief onto his face.
Ten more seconds later, the redness subsided. ChengXiao removed the needles. His legs were finally reconnected.
He wiped the sweat off his head and was met with the cute smile of YinKong. Before he had a chance to take any verbal advantage of her, YinKong's expression dropped to zero degrees as she returned to her other persona. She smacked ChengXiao's face with her leg and sent him flying several meters.
ChengXiao flipped up with a laughter and wiped the blood bleeding from his nose. "Good! Let me see that man's strength again. He broke my legs last time... It's time for me to break his legs!"
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