Forge a path to success

"This..." Chu Hengkong was speechless for a moment, "You should wipe your tears first..."

"Ughhhhhh, you bastard! How dare you exploit people's weaknesses!!" Qingye rubbed her eyes violently. "Baldy! You monster! Tentacle man! I'll kill you! I'll absolutely kill you!!"

The flying blades were like a whirlwind, and the girl with the broken heart, whose killing intent instantly increased more than threefold, charged forward with twice the previous momentum! She carried genuine regret and killing intent!

"Why don't you rest first and come back this afternoon..." Chu Hengkong said helplessly as he dodged the attack, "In your current state... there's no point in fighting..."

Miss Qingye let out a sharp, explosive cry: "I will wash away this shame with your blood!!"

Before you do that, please wipe away your tears, okay?

Chu Hengkong suddenly lost all will to fight. He casually parried a few shots with his gun and activated the communication device in his collar: (Captain, stop watching the show and come clean up the mess.)

(So ​​you finally remembered the captain after making the girl cry?) Ji Huaisu teased. (Too bad the captain has things to do too. Use your mature manly aura to soothe the female student.)

(In front of you? I'm afraid I'll be attacked by dogs when I get home.)

(I'm not a nagging mother, I'm very lenient with my partner, lalala~) The sound of a sword being drawn came from the other side of the communication relic. (There's a little noise, I'll check the situation and watch my step.)

Chu Hengkong glanced sideways at the ground. In the intervals between the clashes of guns and knives, wisps of grayish-white light seeped out from the cracks in the floor tiles. The color was ethereal and elusive, like gray mist.

A street away, Vande sat atop Giovanni's head, watching more mist emerge, gather, and form blurry gray outlines. It sketched in its small notebook, its eyes filled with doubt.

"This thing... an afterimage? Or a ghost?" it muttered as it drew. "I can't figure it out. Interesting."

Chapter 109 It is reading my instructions

If it were an elemental life form, it would be too solid; if it were a ghostly spirit, it would be undeniably real; if it were a humanoid life form, it would lack facial features; if it were a beast, it would exist in human form. The thing was entirely composed of gray mist, slightly taller than an adult male, with only an outline and no details, making it impossible to determine whether it carried a weapon.

Vande had never seen anything like it before, and there was no similar record in all the knowledge it possessed, which made it immediately think of illusion.

"Let me confirm beforehand, can you see this?"

"Yes! Very clear!" Ji Huaisu's response was tinged with excitement.

It wasn't boasting, but the Eye Demon clan has always prided itself on its strong, ghostly bodies. Even after withstanding a single blow from the Annihilation Force Field, it still had a breath left, so naturally it wouldn't be fooled by any random illusion. And the one beside it was a freak, a specialty of Huilong City. According to Chu Hengkong, its willpower was so strong that it could withstand the mental control of the Shuoyue illegitimate son.

Both checks confirmed that this was not an illusion. This race, not even recorded in the library, was something entirely new…

"Interesting, must record this quickly." Vande observed intently. "Ji Huaisu, use the light shield attack!"

"Go to hell!" "Aba!"

Ji Huaisu flicked the eye demon off with a flick of the forehead, then waved forward and said, "Hey! What's up?"

The afterimage moved slowly forward, showing no reaction whatsoever. Van der was deeply surprised: "You think you can communicate with something like this?"

Ji Huaisu was also puzzled: "What are you talking about? They haven't even drawn their weapons, so why would they need to start a fight?"

"No, huh?" Van der was even more confused. "Where did you see the weapon?"

"...Vander, are you blind?"

Van der stared at the huge blob of gray mosaic, utterly exasperated: "You're the one with vision problems, aren't you?!"

Their exchange was, to put it mildly, completely irrelevant, but it really wasn't their fault. Because in Ji Huaisu's eyes, the unidentified life form slowly approaching...

He was undoubtedly a gray-armored knight.

He or she, clad in tattered armor, their face concealed by a rusty helmet, moved with a sluggish, almost sleepwalking gait. The knight's hands were currently empty, but given their attire, they must possess weapons. Ji Huaisu attempted to approach and communicate: "Excuse me—"

As she stepped forward, the distance between them shortened to 3 meters. The gray-armored knight suddenly clenched his fists, assuming a fighting stance. His demeanor instantly changed; a moment ago he seemed like a walking corpse, but now he was a battle-hardened warrior. The shadow behind the knight surged up as if it were solid, condensing into a simple yet sharp longsword in his hand. A shadow longsword.

Shadow Blade!

"Wow! Holy crap!! Wow!!!" Ji Huaisu screamed repeatedly.

Van Der was shocked: "A mental attack?!"

The gray-armored knight strode forward, his shadowy longsword rising from below, aimed straight for her throat. Ji Huaisu screamed and jumped back, frantically creating a dagger-sized shadow blade, which she displayed to the knight: "Look! We're family! I'm from the same hometown!"

But the gray-armored knight clearly didn't think so. When it saw Ji Huaisu take out his weapon, it immediately stopped and created a gleaming knight's shield with fluid movements.

Light Shield.

"Aaaaaah!" Ji Huaisu screamed a second time. Fan De stared wide-eyed at the large blob of mosaic, unable to make sense of it at all.

"What's wrong with you? How much water is in your mental resilience?"

Ji Huaisu grew increasingly anxious, completely ignoring the Eye Demon. She enlarged her Shadow Blade and frantically brandished it at the enemy. This time, her actions finally elicited a response. The gray-armored knight was on high alert; with each movement of her sword, his light shield rose in unison. Ji Huaisu's Shadow Blade trembled violently, and the enemy's light shield moved up and down at the same frequency, almost leaving afterimages.

"...?"

This unusual behavior greatly surprised Ji Huaisu. She tried to retract her Shadow Blade, but the gray-armored knight immediately dispelled his light shield and gripped his sword with both hands. She then recreated her own light shield, and this time the gray-armored knight reacted even more violently, slamming his sword hilt heavily against the edge of the light shield. This heavy blow seemed particularly effective against the shield, knocking off a corner of it in a single strike. The knight then followed up with a backhand slash, the Shadow Blade aimed straight for Ji Huaisu's head!

Ji Huaisu rolled on the spot, narrowly dodging the knight's slash. At this angle, the shadow blade could have pierced the shadow with just a slight deviation. She was preparing to create a light source to change the shadow's position when she found her opponent frozen in place, back to the dazed state she had been in at the beginning.

When Van der jumped over, he was completely bewildered: "What kind of weird fight are you having...?"

From its perspective, the series of events that just unfolded was nothing short of comical: the mosaic seemed to move slightly, then Ji Huaisu started screaming, then the mosaic shifted back and forth, and Ji Huaisu began to pretend to be hit, pretend to dodge attacks, pretend to be on high alert... To enhance the realism, it even deliberately made a hole in its shield...

Is this girl such a drama queen? She has to direct and act out her own mission?

Ji Huaisu realized something was wrong with the other party; this gray-armored knight seemed delirious, only regaining his fighting spirit when he was close to someone. She mimicked his previous movements, attempting to clench her hands loosely, focusing her consciousness on her own shadow. Without thinking, fluent words flowed from her lips.

"Reverse Shadow Transforms into Blade".

Her shadow surged outwards like water, transforming into a sharp blade in her hand, heavier and more powerful than usual. Ji Huaisu smiled with delight, mimicking the gray-armored knight's previous movement, striking with the hilt of her sword. The gray-armored knight immediately dispelled his light shield, dodging to the side to avoid the impact.

The opponent's actions were somewhat strange, so she shortened her shadow blade and gently poked it into empty space. This time she saw clearly that the gray-armored knight formed a light shield even faster than she could react!

"...First of all?"

She had heard her father explain the principle behind this move: a combat style that reads the opponent's thoughts before attacking, allowing one to act first—a technique hailed as a divine skill by a select few martial artists. But this seemed to fall into the category of her father and Ah Kong… We elemental knights don't use this kind of approach, do we?

Ji Huaisu grew increasingly uneasy as she pondered the situation. Just then, new gray mist surged from the ground, and another gray-armored knight appeared. She casually tossed a glimmering fragment, intending to test the enemy's reaction.

The two knights simultaneously displayed an enigmatic ability to anticipate each other's movements: before the glittering fragments even left their hands, they both leaped to the side to dodge.

???

Ji Huaisu threw light fragments one after another, and the two gray-armored knights jumped left and right in unison, as if they had decided to just dodge and not attack, leaving Vande dumbfounded: "Circus training?"

“Something’s not right.” Ji Huaisu stopped what he was doing. “Their thinking seems very simplistic. Even though there’s a precedence, they’re using it like a program.”

“Is it possible that it’s not the first one?” Vande said. “A martial artist who has properly cultivated precognition wouldn’t be this stupid. I’m more inclined to think it’s a talent, something like emotional perception. Try swinging your sword while trying to escape.”

Ji Huaisu did as he was told. This time, the two knights changed their actions again. They raised their longswords high, and the boiling shadows on the swords grew rapidly, instantly transforming into super-giant weapons ten meters long!

Two massive weapons slashed down, and Ji Huaisu stared in awe, exclaiming, "Wow! Wow!"

Van Der saw two indistinct, columnar gray objects rapidly increasing in size, and the exclamations from the person beside him filled him with even greater horror: "Why are you so happy to see such a large mosaic?!"

Suddenly, Ji Huaisu grabbed his Vande shield and used it to shield himself to the side. A biting chill swept over him like a blizzard that had suddenly appeared, freezing the two gray-armored knights into blocks of ice, and even coating Ji Huaisu's light shield with a layer of ice. Then, a strong wind howled past, and the disheveled blue-skinned man flew backward like a cannonball, smashing the two frozen knights to pieces.

“Cruel killing! Life is lost! Why! Why!!” The man clutched his head, crying out, “Cruel thugs, why won’t you leave me alone!!”

"Its vitality is as tenacious as a maggot, it's disgusting."

An unpleasant male voice cut through the cold wind, and a man with a body as hard as steel strode forward. His navy coat was already cracked from the cold, and his strong upper body was clad only in a black vest. He was none other than the talisman master Wu He, the unfortunate fellow attacked by the ice man. The two men's high-speed battle had traversed half the city, and coincidentally, they had arrived at the location of Ji Huaisu's battle.

Wu He's gaze swept over the Ice Man and Ji Huaisu, then he nodded slightly to the latter: "We'll explain the situation later. Let's deal with the disaster first. This Zhuo Lei has gone mad. You, as a fellow practitioner on the path of supreme beings, understand that, right?"

Ji Huaisu adjusted his state and quickly observed the situation. The man who had been beaten was middle-aged, with thinning hair, and apart from his bluish skin, there was nothing particularly unusual about his appearance. However, his expression was gloomy, his power was leaking out severely, and streams of water were constantly forming around him, freezing into solid ice before they could even flow.

The situation was blatantly out of control. The water element was being unleashed without restraint, and negative emotions were completely unchecked. To put it bluntly, this man was practically a natural disaster, just one trigger away from completely turning into a heretic. Ji Huaisu, being an expert in elemental manipulation, immediately recognized the dire nature of the situation. She glanced at Wu He: "What's your elemental point?"

"3."

“Then get ready.” She tapped her sword and shield, using elemental power to draw the long-haired man’s attention. “Hey, you! Do you even remember your name?”

“Name…” the disheveled man pondered, “My name is… Sethlen…”

"Oh, sounds pretty good!" Ji Huaisu continued to shout, using the blinding light to draw the man's attention and cover Wu He's covert actions. "Sethron, are you a local? What did you do for a living before?"

Whether it's tears or a shadow in the sky, the first step to calming emotions is always to awaken their humanity. Memory and longing are the anchors of being human; being able to recall the past allows one to awaken oneself from the chaos of emotions.

“I…yes…I grew up here…I’ve always been a coward…afraid of blood…” Sethlen dug hard at his cheek, “So I became…a mercenary…because I was afraid of blood…to keep killing…killing…”

"This is terrible. The logic is completely broken, and this guy's memory is all messed up," Vande whispered. "The next step is elementalization, and the next step after that, you know?"

He didn't take any further steps.

Six talismans flew out and stuck to Sethlen's back, front, back, and limbs. Wu He bit his finger and pressed it hard on the ground. In the short time Sethlen had been speaking, he had secretly scattered many talismans, which were now activated along with the bloodstains, forming a two-colored magic circle of bright yellow and vermilion. The light climbed up Sethlen's body like lightning, causing him to scream in agony.

"Blood essence locks the soul, talismanic intent seals the qi, activate!"

The power of the rune array pressed down on both the ghostly body and the physical body, causing Sethlen to immediately kneel on the ground. Wu He was clearly a skilled fighter; his array was powerful enough to restrain this peer, Zhuo Lei. However—

"I'm going to kill you today!!!"

"Don't say 'kill' lightly. When we say that word, the enemy should already be dead."

Just then, two jet-black blades of energy crossed and slashed out, tearing the almost-completed rune array to shreds!

Wu He only saw a green shadow flash past the edge of his vision, followed by a crazed twin-sword girl chasing after it. The carefully formed rune array shattered just like that, and the ice man was completely out of control.

Sethlen wept uncontrollably, his body transforming completely into a transparent block of ice amidst his cries. He had become entirely elemental! He no longer possessed a human form!

"Ah, uh." Ji Huaisu scratched his head, "Can your talisman array be used again?"

Wu He clenched his fists tightly, his face, already discolored from the hardening, now even blacker than coal.

"What the hell is going on?!"

Chapter 110 Misfortunes never come singly

"You...deceived me, tormented me! In this cruel world, no one wants me to have an easy time!!"

With the rune array broken, no one could control the rampaging Turbid Tears, and the Ice Man, Sethlen, descended into madness. Melancholy and sorrowful emotions seeped into the ice along with his cries, turning the normally colorless ice into jet-black crystals. The black ice crystals surged like a tide, sealing off all the surrounding buildings almost instantly. But the rampaging power did not cease; it trembled, groaned, and tumbled, forming clusters of thin ice crystals resembling nerve endings.

Countless ice branches stretched upwards, exploding in all directions like ice flowers blooming in the air. Below the flower-filled sky lay the groaning ice man—no, at this moment he could no longer be called "human." His body had almost completely transformed into frozen water element, his frenzied, ghostly form wandering within the ice, causing this moving mass of ice to crumble and shatter, becoming yet another cluster of budding flowers.

When this ice flower blooms, the entire city of Jinye will be engulfed in ice!

"Wow...ah..."

Three hundred meters away, atop a delicate cluster of ice flowers, Miss Qingye from Shura Island concealed her dagger behind her back, making a slightly guilty sound. A true-blue, unaffiliated Heartbreaker, she feared no elemental power; the chill beneath her feet was less dangerous than a toothpick. But most people in Golden Leaf City weren't Heartbreakers; they couldn't withstand the freezing tide, and even a strong gust of cold wind would give them a cold. Under these circumstances, if that Twilight Continued her rampage…

The Ice Age.

Corpses lay strewn across the fields.

Mass killing incident.

Elemental derivatives proliferated everywhere, and soon the Fireflies appeared, and the Demon Slayers roamed freely. The largest, the Tearful One, would most likely transform into the Greedy Demon. Many years later, a chivalrous hero passing through this horrific place, having cleared away the calamities, began investigating the source of the disaster. They discovered that everything could have been salvaged, but at the critical moment, a foolish, heartless individual accidentally shattered the sealing array with a single blow…

So, who exactly was that idiot who harmed the entire city? It was Miss Guang Shi Qingye, who happened to be in Jinye City during those few days...

"No! Nooooooo!!"

Miss Qingye let out a short, deep wail, her demeanor slightly deviating from that of an elite. She frantically pointed at Chu Hengkong: "Those tentacles over there! We can settle our scores later. Let me clean up this mess first!! If this continues, Jinye City will be destroyed!"

Chu Heng lowered the gun barrel and glanced at her indifferently: "What do you want to do?"

"Let me finish dealing with the turbid tears in half a minute—"

“Wrong answer,” the assassin said coldly. “You’ve died again.”

The tip of the white spear pierced the ground, and almost simultaneously, Qingye felt a chill behind her. She only realized that two indistinct shapes had arrived behind her, and in a "real" field of vision that neither of them could see, the two Shadow Knights raised their shadow blades and viciously slashed at the head and center of her shadow!

The knights' sneak attack was precise and ruthless, but Chu Hengkong's spear flashed even faster. A streak of white light pierced the ground, obliterating the two shadow knights into a blurry gray mist. Qingye broke out in a cold sweat. She still didn't know the enemy's attack method, but her intuition told her she had escaped this time. She panicked slightly: "You could see that?"

"I can't see clearly." Chu Hengkong put away his gun. "But never let the enemy stand behind you."

At this moment, a new gray fog rose from the ground, thicker and more smoky than the previous thin fog. One by one, knights emerged from the smoke and lined up to meet the enemy at the command of their knight commander.

In Chu Hengkong and Qingye's eyes, the entire street was shrouded in gray mist, and strange creatures with indistinct shapes surged within it, making Jinye City appear like a ghost town. They all raised their arms high, and an unknown power coalesced into a giant weapon pointing straight to the sky.

The next instant, the Shadow Greatsword slashed towards the two of them!

Two figures dodged to the left and right. Chu Hengkong used his tentacles to pull out the unfortunate man hiding in the house, while Qingye used Shadow Threads to complete the rescue of the remaining civilians. The rescued civilians, like two bunches of flying grape heads, each let out a scream of varying degrees. Immediately afterwards, the giant sword cleaved through the bungalows, shattered the frozen earth, and the shadow formed a crescent-shaped sword aura that cut through thorns and brambles, shattering many frozen bouquets and piercing the surface of the Ice Man Sethlen.

The sword energy did not dissipate; instead, it was "absorbed" by the frozen flower buds formed by Sethlen, making the black ice crystals even thicker. As the ice crystals dimmed to the point of shadow, thousands of pitch-black ice blades resembling scythes were generated amidst cries, unleashing a deluge of pitch-black freezing energy.

Seeing this, Wu He hurriedly waved his hands, using a set of ordinary palm techniques to protect his body. The strengthening effect of the Steel Body Talisman had not yet dissipated, and he was confident enough to remain unharmed, but the more he defended, the more stiff his limbs became, and his mood darkened, as if he had been invaded and sealed in ice by the enemy's emotions.

This freezing energy, like the turbid tears, was insidious, lacking in lethality but extremely adept at penetrating. Realizing this, Wu He grew increasingly agitated. He kept telling himself not to be controlled by emotions and not to fall for the underhanded tricks of the Supreme Path, but when he saw Ji Huaisu draw his Shadow Blade, he couldn't hold back: "Stop! Using Reverse Shadow against Turbid Tears, as if they haven't had enough to eat? Like cures like?!"

"Unfortunately, my cooking skills are not good enough. No matter how good the ingredients are, it's all for naught."

Ji Huaisu answered with ease and pleasure; she truly felt little pressure. The giant shield of light protected her with its warm power, and the ice man's freezing aura evaporated as soon as it got close. She circled the ice man with the shield on, then suddenly lowered the shadow blade in her hand and slammed it forcefully into a spot on the ground.

"--what!"