A ball of grey light fell from above and settled on the Immovable Soul’s head, and the health he had lost under Ye Tianxie’s continuous slashes was restored almost instantly to full. Meanwhile the Holy Word Soul, drifting endlessly around the edges of the fight, blinked again to a position beside the nearest corpse and poured an Undead Resurrection over the Summoning Soul on the ground.

In the flickering grey-white light the silent corpse rose slowly to its feet, its lifeless grey eyes locking onto Ye Tianxie’s body at once, and its hand lifted slowly… A mass of black light flared in the air overhead, and with it came a muffled cry.

The Summoning Soul’s strongest summoning skill — Demon Hawk Summon — and what it called up was a Level 20 2-star Elite, the Demon Hawk.

Under Ye Tianxie’s ceaseless Dragon Rend Slashes the Immovable Soul’s health fell slowly. The damage Ye Tianxie took was several times lower than what he dealt, but his own health bar was emptying far faster… and on top of that, the Immovable Soul had a Holy Word Soul with formidable healing standing beside him.

Every blow from the Immovable Soul carried away nearly a tenth of Ye Tianxie’s health. His HP dropped gradually to 60%… 50%… 40%… yet he seemed not to notice in the slightest that he was walking step by step toward death, still hammering at the Immovable Soul in a frenzy with that berserk rage.

“Oh la la… it’s clearly night, so why can’t I get to sleep…”

Into a world quiet but for the sounds of combat came Guoguo’s lazy, honeyed voice. A small ball of pure white light shone in the darkness, and Guoguo appeared on Ye Tianxie’s shoulder, stretching out her small body in a hard, luxurious stretch — and then, at once, she shrieked as though she had touched a live wire…

“Ah!! Master, wh-wh-what are you doing…”

No voice answered her. Ye Tianxie raised the Hour of Fate and brought another heavy blow down on the Immovable Soul — and took another sword-thrust in return, his health dropping to 20%.

“Ah!! Master, Master, you’re going to die, you’re going to die… Master!”

Guoguo flailed about, shouting in alarm — then seemed to sense something was wrong. She spun around, braced one hand against Ye Tianxie’s neck, lifted her small head, and bit down hard on his ear.

When he was attacked, he bore only 5% of the pain… but Guoguo’s bite was 100%, pain at no discount whatsoever.

The pain froze Ye Tianxie’s movement, and a moment of clarity flashed through eyes filled with rage. In that instant he understood everything: ahead of him the silver short blade was closing on his body again, and overhead… his powerful perception told him a creature carrying a strong air of danger was dropping in a straight line toward the spot where he stood.

There was no time to think, because with the health he had left, an instant’s hesitation would kill him where he stood. His feet stayed planted as his body snapped backward, and he crashed onto his back like a toppled puppet.

The Immovable Soul’s silver longsword struck empty air, and at the same moment a black shape falling at a slant from above passed through the space his body had occupied, skimmed almost to the ground, and swept back up into the air along an inverted parabola.

In the instant he hit the ground, Ye Tianxie kicked off with one foot, sliding flat backward two meters on the recoil, and rose swiftly. At the tip of the Hour of Fate in his hand, a thread of crimson light like a demon’s opening eye gave off a terrible glow that seemed to be choosing whom to devour.

Ye Tianxie’s health at that moment — 31!

Health between 1% and 2% would trigger the Blood Sacrifice of Fate at a +300% attack bonus!

Ye Tianxie’s expression was calm, but inwardly he had genuinely not recovered from the fright. A moment ago he had plainly been hanging by a thread, right at the edge of snapping. If Guoguo hadn’t bitten him hard, he would already have died at the Immovable Soul’s hands.

In the moment he came to himself, he knew he had been caught by that terrible provocation skill — Spirit Taunt. Its effect appalled him. Back in the novice village the Level 20 Lord BOSS Amethyst War Tiger’s War Tiger Roar hadn’t been able to affect him, and the Level 25 Lord BOSS Golden Sword Lion Beast’s Lion King Howl hadn’t either… but this Spirit Taunt had landed on him outright, without meeting the slightest resistance.

“Aaah! Master, above you!”

Ye Tianxie didn’t restore his health. As Guoguo’s shout rang out he had already felt the cold wind from the Demon Hawk overhead, while ahead of him the Immovable Soul was closing with heavy strides. Ye Tianxie’s expression darkened; he shifted one step left, judged the distance, and Dragon Shadow Slash went off in an instant.

Ye Tianxie’s attack power had now reached — over 2,800!

And the target that Dragon Shadow Slash had locked was — the Holy Word Soul.

A five-meter charge slipped past both the demon-shadow above and the Immovable Soul’s attack, and brought him crashing to a halt right in front of the Holy Word Soul. The terrifying speed packed into that extremely brief charge left the Holy Word Soul no time at all to react and Blink away.

-3020.

The bright red figure raised by Dragon Shadow Slash carried away more than a fifth of the Holy Word Soul’s health. Ye Tianxie turned his head and spun, and a blood-colored hurricane laced with the gloom of the place whipped up abruptly.

“Dragon Tornado Hurricane Sevenfold Rend!!”

-2790, -2750, -2781, -2760, -2810, -2713, -2762!

As the sweeping gale fell away, the Holy Word Soul’s health bar was emptied, and he toppled stiffly with his expression entirely unchanged.

The Holy Word Soul’s support abilities were simply too powerful — powerful enough that Ye Tianxie couldn’t afford to ignore them, and had even spent Dragon Tornado Hurricane Sevenfold Rend to deliver the killing blow. He had no attack capability at all, but between the Immovable Soul and the Holy Word Soul, the one that had to die first was the Holy Word Soul. Setting aside support skills each more astonishing than the last, given enough time he would have resurrected every undead mercenary Ye Tianxie had killed here.

With the Holy Word Soul dead, Ye Tianxie shot forward to the Summoning Soul and emptied his remaining 30% health in an instant with a single Dragon Rend Slash.

With his death the Demon Hawk he had summoned gave a brief wail in the air and dispersed as though melting into the darkness.

Turning to face the Immovable Soul who had nearly driven him into a corner, Ye Tianxie… still did not restore his health.

Carrying 31 points of health, his body wreathed in the crimson light spreading out from the Blood Feather, Ye Tianxie watched coldly as the Immovable Soul walked slowly closer. A Guardian’s movement speed, because of the heavy armor, is the lowest of any class, and their mobility likewise the weakest of any class; the clumsiness of the profession was exactly why it was the class Ye Tianxie took least seriously.

And today he had come within a hair of being driven to his death by precisely such a Guardian. For him, that could only be called an intolerable — humiliation.

So he was going to give the man the fastest death he could, and take no damage doing it.

With his health bar all but blank, Ye Tianxie walked straight up to meet the Immovable Soul. In his current state, never mind the Immovable Soul — some small monster in its teens could have killed him with one careless touch. Behavior this utterly beyond reason would have anyone taking him for a madman with neither heart nor sense… but had he ever done few things this insane?

-5200, -5198, -5173…

This state — one foot through death’s door, boats burned behind him, seeking life by placing himself in a dead end — bought him terrifying attack power, and every fall of the Hour of Fate cut a great swathe out of the Immovable Soul’s health. And every time he entered this state was also the moment he put away all casualness and drew his mind taut. In this state he noticed every tiny movement of his enemy and judged the direction of an attack the instant it began… noticing everything around him, down to the movement of the air itself, against any accident whatsoever.

And when he gathered all his spirit and will together, the sheer terror of the reflexes he displayed would have left any normal person in the world staring open-mouthed.

Longsword strikes, shield slams — Ye Tianxie evaded them all with easy grace.

Dragon Rend Slash once, twice, three times… all the way to the fifth…

-5215!

Even an Immovable Soul with high defense and vitality could hardly withstand more than a few attacks from Ye Tianxie in this state. Five Dragon Rend Slashes, on top of the damage already dealt him, and this powerful Immovable Soul had barely held out for that brief span; before he could deploy his terrible technique Sacred Fire his health was emptied, and he went down with his heavy silver sword and shield and made no further sound.

With a cold glance at the Immovable Soul’s corpse, Ye Tianxie raised his head, let out a light breath, then touched a hand to the right ear Guoguo had bitten… The pain was still there. He could even faintly feel the small tooth marks.

“Guoguo, you bit far too hard,” Ye Tianxie muttered under his breath.

“Hmph! That’s what you get, you wicked Master, for lying to your cutest, most obedient, cleverest little Guoguo. This is obviously just a dark place, it isn’t night at all.” Guoguo sat on his shoulder, her small legs swinging one after the other, her lips pushed out in a high pout. Then at once she stole a glance at him and asked in a small voice, “Master… does it really hurt a lot?”

“…It hurts a lot.”

“Mm! I only did it to save you — you nearly, nearly died just now…” Guoguo blinked, then rose from his shoulder and leaned in against his neck. “Hee, then I’ll lick it better for Master. When somewhere hurts a lot, licking it makes it stop hurting.”

She had barely finished speaking before she went ahead and did it, with all the grave concentration of a child applying a remedy she was entirely certain of. Ye Tianxie went rigid where he stood.

(End of Chapter 173)