Vol 21 Chapter 9-3
Cheng Xiao had overestimated himself, or perhaps underestimated the Shade’s power too much. At the very least, with his normal Nanto Suicho Ken, he wasn’t able to kill this Shade that could fire off fireballs with the power of a grenade. In fact, not only was he unable to kill him, but he was also in danger as of now.
(In truth, it’s easy for me if I want to escape. I can definitely throw this giant bat off in seconds if I use the Sky Stick’s electrical jet engine. But if I do that, they’ll definitely die.) Cheng Xiao directed his gaze at the ground. Eragon and the rest were running about nonstop in the flames. They wanted to escape from this flame encirclement, but the Shade Durza kept paying attention to them. As long they escaped to a certain extent, he would toss out a fireball to continue their encirclement. If he fled, the three would surely die.
(What do I do? It’s impossible to get near him, but the attack range of Nanto Suicho Ken is five metres. I need to attack within five metres of him. For an ultimate move like Hishō Hakurei that controls wind flow to attack, the limit is forty metres. However, it requires me to pause in the air for a few seconds, where I won’t be able to steer the Sky Stick. Still, a deadlock like this isn’t going to work out either.) Cheng Xiao was considering various solutions nonstop. However, neither was he Xuan, nor did he have Zheng’s overwhelming power. When facing an enemy stronger than him, he wasn’t able to resort to tricks to battle or use force to break through technique. He was truly helpless in his current situation.
“Dammit, I’ll go all out! What kind of word is helpless supposed to be? I’m still a God’s Realm team member! Since Zheng has the determination to fight to the death, then so do I!” Cheng Xiao shouted and all the muscles on his body begun to swell up. This was the sign of unlocking the second stage of the genetic constraint! He abruptly sent the Sky Stick shooting upwards. It was so sudden that when Durza recovered his senses, the Sky Stick had already commandeered an extremely high point, and was even above his head at that.
“I’ll go all out!”
Cheng Xiao placed the young dragon on the Sky Stick. Then, disregarding everything else, he jumped off, his entire person twisting about continuously in the air.
“Nanto Suicho Ken! Hishō Hakurei!”
Nanto Suicho Ken was the martial art Cheng Xiao had exchanged. It relied on the body to generate wind flow, and was a fist art that created wind blades to injure the enemy. Its specific power displayed would depend on the user’s individualities. With Cheng Xiao’s body and his martial accomplishments, the power he could display was definitely not weaker than the original user in the manga. He had even discovered and self-created another usage of the Nanto Suicho Ken… Wind Flow!
Letting the body generate wind blades, sensing the wind and soaring like a bird… (Although I put it like that, it’s not easy imagining myself as a bird.) Cheng Xiao thought self-deprecatingly. However, in that instant, he had passed Durza and his giant bat. Although the distance between them was twenty metres, they were still within his attack range. When Cheng Xiao fell another twenty metres, Durza frenziedly howled as he split open by the waist. At the same time, the giant bat beneath him disintegrated into pieces. Suddenly, a man and bat had transformed into a rain of flesh and blood.
(Good! It’s resolved! Now… save me!) Cheng Xiao lifted his head to look at that ‘flower’ of flesh and blood scatter, and relaxed. But that wasn’t right. He was still falling from over a hundred metres in the air, so what kind of nonsense was this about relaxing? He didn't even have enough time to be nervous, so what was he thinking, relaxing? He immediately began ‘randomly’ flailing about in mid-air once again.
(Based on the calculations before, using the Wind Flow skill of the Nanto Suicho Ken, I’ll try my best to control wind speed and glide to the ground, then… Saaaaaavvvvvveeee meeee!) Cheng Xiao had miscalculated once again. He had thought he would be able to use the Wind Flow skill again, but in truth, he had already completely depleted all his energy during the move before. Not even mentioning using Wind Flow, just moving caused aches all over. Just like that, he fell towards the ground.
Seconds before, as Cheng Xiao jumped out, the black dragon left behind by him on the Sky Stick flapped its tiny wings and swooped out. Surprisingly, it didn’t drop to the ground, but slowly floated in the air. Then, it rapidly flew into the sky.
Going back several tens of seconds in time again, Eragon’s group of three were doing their utmost to escape from the flames. This was a forest, and Durza’s fireball was burning large areas, so they couldn’t stop running. It was only a pity that apart from Brom’s slightly better constitution, the other two were ordinary farmers, and were completely exhausted after running about in these high temperatures for a few minutes. While jumping out of a section of a flaming ditch, Eragon’s uncle leg went weak, and he slid towards that ditch.
Eragon was the closest. He grabbed his uncle’s right arm, but he didn’t have much strength in his tired state. He was almost dragged down into the ditch too. Fortunately, Brom’s reaction speed was fast, and hurriedly ran over to use both hands to grab Eragon. Just at this moment, the young dragon in Eragon’s embrace fell out, falling straight into the flaming ditch. Under everyone’s startled cries, the young dragon unexpectedly flapped its wings, flying straight into the skies.
The two young dragons disappeared in the skies. Apart from Cheng Xiao, who was screaming for help as he fell, the other three involuntarily raised their heads. Sure enough, at a speed visible to the eyes, a black and a blue dragon transformed in the skies, screaming as they charged back down. It was only that the giant blue dragon was much smaller, with a mere length of seven to nine metres. The giant black dragon was much more enormous, reaching a ridiculous length of over forty metres, and possessed a speed that was larger than the blue dragon’s by not just a small amount.
The giant black dragon flew straight at Cheng Xiao. It had flown to his side by the time the man was still about a hundred metres away from the ground. Its claw swayed, and Cheng Xiao was already caught in the palm of its claw. It was just that their respective sizes were just too different. The giant dragon holding Cheng Xiao was like it holding an exceptionally small mouse. Before Cheng Xiao had the chance to jabber, the dragon extended its wings and flew in the certain direction, which seemed to be the direction where the capital lay…
At this moment in the Abyss, Zheng was facing off against an enemy with a strength hitherto unseen by him before. It could be said that this enemy's strength far exceeded his imagination, even surpassing his clone from Resident Evil Apocalypse. If the clone’s improvement wasn’t too great, it was possible even his clone wasn’t this monster’s match. It was just too strong.
When the seven heads roared, runes appeared around its body. They all appeared in mid air through energy, its radiance flourishing. A visible shockwave spread in all directions with the monster as the centre. The small reptiles were the first to be struck, and immediately turned into dust. Even a layer of several metres of soil was lifted up. It was like the mushroom cloud formed from a nuclear explosion and when the shockwaves reached in front of Zheng, he didn’t dare to have the slightest bit of carelessness. He pushed the power of Explosion to its utmost, filling Tiger’s Soul with it and slashed out, producing a bang as if he had shattered something. Zheng was sent flying tens of metres backwards, before slowly coming to a stop. He had indeed counteracted these shockwaves, but the web between his thumb and forefinger had split open.
(What horrifying power. Just the mere shockwaves are so terrifying. Is this the class of power the fifth stage can reach after obtaining energy manipulation? Even if it’s a failed product, this power is still…) Zheng exhaled, but didn’t have the confidence to launch a direct attack on the monster. He paused in the air for several seconds, before finally retrieving something from the Na Ring.
It was made of gold. It was something he had obtained long ago in The Mummy world, during a battle that had been extremely fierce, just like now. The monster then had been a failed product of the Saints too, but was completely incomparable to the monster before him. It was only that the golden mask had a very enticing ability… which was to let one experience the power of the fifth stage for a while.
(I was planning to wear it in the final battle, but it seems like there’s no chance to do so at the moment. Why not I just wear it now?)
“It’s best not to wear it.” Xuan’s voice suddenly echoed. “There are just so many examples out there. Don’t you understand yet that the golden mask is just a pretty trap? There was the monster with evolution ad infinitum and this failed product of the fifth stage that suffered a backlash. You will likely become the same… Fly. Fly high, drag out the time, until I say you can come back!”
Zheng had misgivings hearing this. Multiple runes appeared once more on the monster’s body, and he hurriedly kept away the golden mask. “Alright. I’ll try my best to drag out the time. Quickly resolve everything up there. As soon as you give the go ahead, I’ll immediately rush out of here! That’s it for now!” As his voice fell, Zheng was had already extended his wings, speedily charging towards the sky.
(You can’t fly anyways! If you want to climb that meat pillar, how big would the pillar have to be to accommodate your size? By then, the time would have long since passed… What the heck! Isn’t this just making it difficult for me?) Zheng thought while flying.
Before he collected his thoughts, the monster below suddenly starting floating, along with the dust and stones in its surroundings. The monster had actually entered an anti-gravity state. Although its body was enormous, it didn’t have that feeling of enormity and obesity under the effect of gravity. Instead, it soared towards the top of the sky at a speed close to Zheng’s own flight speed, while the runes around it began to shine at the same time. Twenty metres behind Zheng, a section of space ten metres in size abruptly collapsed. It then violently exploded and enormous shockwaves slammed into Zheng. His vision blacked out and he almost fainted.
Everyone… the real world… Lori… Xuan, I need to use Chaos, Genesis Splitter… If I die, tell my clone being unable to fight him was my greatest regret…
“CHAOS! GENESIS SPLITTER!”