Origin Paradise!

The resounding clang of a giant hammer striking a bell echoed.

But the strange feel of the sword caused the emperor's expression to change slightly.

The silver spear pierced through the sword light and precisely struck the enemy's heart.

As the light faded, a brand-new energy armor emerged on Jiang He's body. Scales resembling swords and shields interlocked, their jagged shapes exuding a powerful yet refined feel. This Sword Scale Snail Dragon Armor was of the excellent grade, possessing exceptional defensive capabilities.

Chapter 95 Side Quest Completed

Looking at the near-unharmed result of the sword strike, one could see that the opponent had suffered almost no damage.

The emperor's expression was subtle. He could sense that the enemy's true level was only around that of an elite knight, still quite a distance from that of a peak knight, but their skills, weapons, and abilities all demonstrated extraordinary power.

The moment his heart was pierced, the emperor's body disintegrated, a cloud of aphid smoke retreated rapidly, and after reforming, his wound disappeared.

At the same time, next to the previously dim stone pillar, an adjacent stone pillar collapsed with a crash.

Jiang He took a step forward and disappeared from the spot. The Sword Scale Snail Dragon Armor granted him a 40% boost to his basic attributes. When the Excellent-grade Active Skill - Hunting Engine was activated, his speed and reaction increased by another 30%.

The Heartless Death Curse was activated sixteen times in the blink of an eye, resulting in a total 16% reduction in the enemy's defense.

Conversely, with the three skills activated almost simultaneously, the energy level drops significantly.

Gunfire flashed, and the dragon offered its claws.

Beside the Emperor, the Grey Knight had somehow approached to within arm's reach. His body crackled with lightning, shattering his color-changing robes. In the blurry figure's hand, a silver-plated longsword glowed white. With a single strike, the sharp slash caused a shriek in the air.

Swords and spears came flying, but what caught the emperor's attention even more was a crow. It kept spitting out black gems under the stone pillars around the two previous ones. Every time the enemy recovered, it was accompanied by the destruction of the stone pillars, so he chose to destroy them in advance.

Amidst the deafening explosion, the emperor smiled faintly.

The Bone Throne suddenly emitted a hazy gray light, enveloping a radius of twenty meters around it.

As Jiang He and the Gray Knight closed in, their speed suddenly dropped to an appalling level, their attacks appearing as if in slow motion.

The emperor disassembled the broad greatsword with both hands. This sword was actually composed of two single-edged swords. When the interlocking state was completed, the edge suddenly became so sharp that it shone with a cold light, like the scythe of a mantis, capable of cutting through anything.

A side thrust of the sword pierced through the gray knight's head.

With a single, forward slash, he struck someone on the side of the neck.

The sharp blade left a crack about an inch deep on the sword-scaled snail dragon's armor.

The emperor was stunned for a moment. Although it was an overestimation, it turned out that the defensive power of this energy armor was even more outrageous.

Fortunately, the essence of the Bone Throne is the Sloth's treasure. In nature, this animal is ridiculously slow, only climbing a few dozen meters a day. The Sloth Knight was once a powerful and renowned figure. The treasure he left behind after his death could greatly slow down the movement of enemies within its range. The Falcon Sword, known as the fastest in the world, died from this very move.

The second sword strike hit the same spot, deepening the crack on the Sword Scale Snail Dragon Armor.

Suddenly, the blurry figure filled with lightning exploded, and the body woven from lightning lines turned into a dazzling white light that spread upwards along the single-edged sword.

Behind a stone pillar, the real Grey Knight appeared, reaching forward and unleashing a lightning arrow as thick as a forearm, with unprecedented power.

As lightning struck from the blade, in a moment of crisis, the emperor narrowed his eyes and decided to kill someone first. This guy's attack and defense were both very troublesome, and he had to deal with him as soon as possible. Moreover, with another sword strike, he was confident that he could completely break through the armor and sever the opponent's neck.

The third sword fell without hesitation.

The armor, which should have broken, suddenly rang out with a clanging sound.

In the equipment inventory, a fragment of an Ant Knight's carapace appeared from the item pouch, and as energy was injected, a notification sound rang in Jiang He's ears.

[Hint: Your Dual-Purpose Swordscale Snail Dragon Energy Armor has gained Advanced Sharpness]

The sudden change in armor startled the emperor, and the sword that was supposed to behead him froze.

The white light of lightning extended to his arms and spread to every corner of his body, causing an uncontrollable stiffness.

Jiang He slowly drew his gun.

The process was only halfway through when a lightning arrow as thick as a forearm struck the Bone Throne, unleashing a burst of white light and an explosion.

The deceleration effect that enveloped the surrounding area disappeared.

The Everlasting Regret Spear shattered the emperor's skull.

Jiang He followed up with a punch with his left hand, simultaneously activating Ming Jin Strike and Qinghong Blood Energy, piercing the enemy's heart with a single blow.

This time, the emperor did not recover instantly.

Jiang He gave a gesture for Wuhe to retreat. Emperor Otto was one of the founders of the Holy Empire, a loose collection of hundreds of smaller duchys, marquises, autonomous cities, bishoprics, and church territories. He was the emperor, and had been sleeping in his tomb for a thousand years. Each stone pillar in the alchemical field corresponds to a former constituent government and takes the damage in turn for the emperor. The key link among them is the Aphid Bloodstone.

Although the emperor's promotion failed, he still retained some of the higher-level traits. However, with the order being broken, his almost rogue domain recovery ability became ineffective.

In an instant, the entire library began to tremble violently.

The tiny buzzing of the aphids gradually gathered, creating a booming sound that pierced the eardrums.

The emperor's broken body emitted a dim light, while the still intact stone pillars lit up together.

Strictly speaking, the real Emperor Otto has long since died. The living are merely his treasured corpse and memories, and not only has his true combat power been compromised, but even the abilities of the Aphid Knights have not been fully revealed.

Jiang He drew his spear, and aphids swarmed in, tightly protecting the emperor in the center.

It was preparing to carry out a second grand ritual, which was destined to fail. But besides success or failure, there was a third option: the knight's fall from grace, transforming him into a monster dominated by soul-armed beings, devoid of any reason.

A lightning python, over ten meters long, struck the aphid storm, releasing a white light. The explosive power was comparable to that of a black gem, but it was insignificant compared to the almost endless number of aphids.

"Do you have any other ideas?" Grey Knight Rayman shouted.

"I've been carrying the burden all along, shouldn't you be the one to come up with a solution?" Jiang He said irritably.

Grey Knight Rayman sounded a little anxious. "Quickly use those explosive consumables. A few dozen will be enough to take him down."

"Do you think I can do wholesale?"

Jiang He looked at him as if he were a fool.

"Then this operation has to end here," the Grey Knight sighed.

Jiang He was even more direct, turning around and running away.

The Grey Knight hesitated for a few seconds, gritted his teeth, and unleashed an unprecedentedly dazzling lightning bolt from his silver-plated longsword. The energy value was rapidly consumed, and a lightning blade, as if it were a tangible thing, extended from the longsword.

The lightning blade covered a distance of tens of meters in an instant, like a slender bridge. If the Gray Knight swung it in a wide arc, the area within tens of meters would become a dead zone.

The lightning blade broke at its tip, and all the lightning flowed into the aphid storm. Strands of white light pierced through the center of the storm, suddenly erupting with a thunderous roar.

The aphids suffered countless deaths.

The emperor's charred body continued to mutate, growing a hideous insect head.

Seeing this, Jiang He clenched his fist from afar. When he pierced the enemy's heart with his fist earlier, he had been holding a handful of black gems. When he pulled his arm out, the black gems remained in his heart cavity, waiting to be detonated at this moment.

A second thunderclap rose in the main hall of the mausoleum.

The aphid emperor, halfway through his degeneration, was shattered by a black gem originating from his heart.

A notification sounded in someone's ear indicating that a side quest was completed, and he quickly invested the two skill points he had gained into his passive gun skill.

[Spear Mastery LV1→LV3 (Deals 29% extra damage when using spear-type weapons)]

As the emperor fell, the silkworm treasure that had been sleeping on the spine of his cervical vertebrae fell to the ground with a slight sound.

The Grey Knight turned to look at his comrades who had fought alongside him.

The opponent was raising his spear high and smashing it towards him.

Chapter 96 The Hidden Internal Strife

Without exchanging a single word, the unspoken internal conflict erupted between the two sides.

The Long-lasting Regret Spear cleaved through the air, causing a mournful howl in the air; its momentum was clearly superior to the previous one.

The gray knight, his body crackling with lightning, retreated like a beam of light. The lightning lines hidden beneath the floor rose up, stretching for kilometers and enveloping the surroundings completely.

He reached out and pulled, and the trap closed.

The spear smashed a large crater in the ground. Jiang He quickly picked up the spear and twirled it, creating a shield of spears around him that was impenetrable to water.

The lightning bolts, like the gaping maw of a monster, snapped shut. The lightning bolts were torn apart by the spear, its sharpness, capable of easily cutting through stone pillars, proved ineffective. However, the shattered lightning extended along the spear shaft, causing Jiang He's movements to abruptly cease, leaving him frozen in place.

The Grey Knight drew his blade and closed in, unleashing a blinding white slash aimed directly at the enemy's neck, which had been struck three times by the Emperor.

Suddenly, Jiang He regained his mobility. A thunder talisman in his left palm turned to ashes. As the lightning in his body was guided out, the power of this thunder talisman, which he had obtained from Cangshan Fuxue, increased dramatically. Of the twelve talismans, the two tower talismans had already been used up in the battle at the train station.

The azure lightning bolt flew past in front of him, forcing the Gray Knight to slow down.

Jiang He suddenly charged forward, unleashing a powerful sweeping attack. The combined power of Ming Jin Strike, Hunting Engine, and the corrosive force of Qinghong Blood Energy created a white shockwave. As he charged forward, the stone pillars blocking his path shattered one after another, sending fragments flying everywhere.

The Gray Knight was astonished by the power of the shot. If he were to take it head-on, even the Ant Knight might not be able to escape unscathed. He decisively chose to dodge, but the opponent seized the gap between slowing down and accelerating, making the spear shadow unavoidable.

A lightning python, several meters long, appeared, its lightning flashing and illuminating every corner of the mausoleum's main hall.

Jiang He extinguished the lightning with a single shot, and the floor beneath his feet was ripped open by the strong wind, leaving a large fan-shaped crack. A muffled thud echoed around him.

The gray knight rolled a few times on the ground before standing up. From his left chest to his right shoulder, a deep, terrifying wound that revealed the bone was visible, but no blood oozed out.

“A dead man.” Jiang He frowned.

“Fighting is one thing, but there’s no need to curse,” the Grey Knight laughed. “I used the Lungfish Treasure, the Cactus Treasure, and the Tardigrade Treasure. My current state is that of a living dead, which is how I barely escaped the forced return from the Origin and stayed in this world.”

Jiang He pulled out the Crimson Baptism and fired a shot. He didn't know the specific abilities of the three treasures, but he could understand them from their literal meanings. Lungfish are fish that can avoid drought by feigning death, cacti can store water to survive in the desert, and tardigrades are known as the most resilient creatures. The combination of the three could potentially put oneself into a state of feigned death, thus escaping the judgment.

The Grey Knight ducked to avoid the bullets, with Falcon's corpse at his feet. As if he had expected this, he tore a numbered bronze badge from Falcon's neck.

As a former close friend, Grey Knight knew the guy's pride in his Prussian soldier identity. Even without specifically knowing the later development history of the Reverse Tree Sword, he knew that Falcon Sword was indispensable in guiding him from the gathering of exploration enthusiasts to the Berlin Palace intelligence organization.

After receiving the bronze badge, the Grey Knight vanished from the spot.

Jiang He fired three shots in quick succession, all of which missed their mark; the alchemical bullets seemed to only hit the afterimages of the opponent.

After activating the Sword Scale Snail Dragon Armor and the Heartbeat Engine, his speed was on par with, or even slightly better than, that of his lightning-forged enemies. However, the situation immediately reversed after they obtained the Falcon Sword's secret treasure.

The lightning bolt struck, the blade piercing through amidst the surging white light.

Jiang He swung his spear at the butt, but the attack missed. The lightning blade struck the crack in his armor, and a spurt of blood immediately shot from his neck. The spear tip then cleaved down, successfully hitting the figure. But a moment later, the figure disintegrated into lightning lines, and rolling lightning penetrated into the body.

The second time, my whole body stiffened.

Jiang He calmly sensed the electric current flowing through his body, and another lightning blade struck, this time nearly beheading him.

The Bloodbat Knight's advanced self-healing ability immediately took effect.

The wound healed instantly, and the next second, the lightning talisman on his shoulder was activated, and azure lightning exploded, drawing away the lightning that filled his body and forcing the gray knight, whose speed was too fast to be caught by the naked eye, back.

As the Grey Knight retreated rapidly, he adjusted his posture, and the lightning on his body, which seemed to be burning fiercely, became even more intense, gradually taking on the shape of clothing. Then he charged forward.

A chilling, menacing blade of light constantly appeared around Jiang He, rapidly increasing the energy consumption of the Sword Scale Snail Dragon Armor.

The Grey Knight no longer focused on the crack in the armor. After the lightning rune exploded, it was clearly a trap deliberately left by the opponent. In fact, the so-called flaw was indeed repaired as before.

Jiang He flipped his spear with both hands, covering the small area around him. Occasionally, lightning blades would strike from tricky angles, and the two forces would collide, bursting out dazzling sparks.

In a split second, the spear struck the silver-plated longsword, which emitted a hum of resentment at the unbearable weight. The gray knight remained unmoved and unleashed the lightning blade skill that had previously shattered the aphid storm.

Dozens, even hundreds, of powerful slashes left cracks all over the face of the Sword Scale Snail Dragon Armor, and the unparalleled sharpness of the blade and lightning successfully shattered the face armor.

The blade was already at the enemy's eyelids, but the Grey Knight's expression changed drastically.

Jiang He, who should have been too slow to react, seemed to have foreseen the future and thrust out a spear, striking the enemy in the chest.

[Warning: You have been cursed; your physical defense has decreased by 16%]

[Notification: You have suffered damage from internal force]

[Hint: You have been struck by the Everlasting Hatred Spear]

[Hint: You have been attacked by a rare corrosive energy attack, which has dealt 55% additional damage.]

[Hint: You have been hit by the spear technique "Dragon's Claw"]

[Hint: You have been attacked by a Master-level Gunner, dealing 29% additional damage]

[Hint: You have taken 20 additional flesh damage]

[Note: Your five stacks of Hunting Mark have detonated, causing you to take 100% extra damage and triggering the special effect "Unending Bleeding"]

[Hint: You have been targeted by a Fishing Master, dealing 23% extra damage]

With a single thrust, nothing can withstand its power.

The Gray Knight flew backward, creating ripples of air as it landed. The Origin notification sounded incessantly, and damage alerts flooded the screen. The lightning armor covering its body was completely destroyed.

Amidst intense pain and dizziness, the Grey Knight felt like a piece of porcelain about to shatter. The enemy's shot came unexpectedly, even beyond the detection range of lightning. In addition, a dark force seeped into his internal organs, causing him to groan in agony. Even more inexplicably, he was "proficient in fishing," and he even had the illusion of being a lamb to the slaughter.