Chapter 820: Act 1 – The Spear Beyond the Mundane
“Xi, I remember that’s your name, right?”
In the darkness, a voice cut through Xi’s mind like a flash of lightning. Those in desperate circumstances are often the most perceptive, so she instantly recognized it was Avina—the long-silent voice of the Sacred Spear of the Firmament; moreover, she had opened her heart to Avina in a certain hall underground in Ampere Seale and established a sacred contract, so she could never be mistaken.
Xi became excited like a drowning person grasping a life-saving straw. The Crusian nobles were arguing not far away, but at this moment, her heart no longer wavered, as if she had found something to hold onto. She revealed a look of weakness and pleading, which Avina observed but only asked, “Do you want me to save you?”
The young girl nodded repeatedly, tears brimming in her eyes.
“You are too weak, Xi,” Avina sighed, “The Celestial Spear is a blade that guards the mundane world—I once asked you, ‘When the firmament shatters and the stars fall, is the history of mortals conquering destiny not filled with courage? Can you feel the courage contained in all this meaning?’ I heard your answer last time, your intentions remain in my heart, but bravery is not about stubbornness and not yielding; it is wisdom. You lack such wisdom, do you understand?”
Xi stared blankly and shook her head.
“Then, can you still fight?”
Xi paused for a moment, then nodded vigorously. The nobles led by Babarn were embroiled in a fierce argument, with Babarn just punching down a leading noble officer and grappling together, while everyone else was trying to mediate, so no one noticed the subtle movements of the mountain girl.
“Very well.” Avina seemed to disregard the commotion among the nobles entirely and nodded in satisfaction; to her, those people were as insignificant as dust, so although Xi was still very weak, she could not allow her contractee to lose to a few ants. It was simply a matter of pride.
“The person who shot you just now is slightly stronger than you. The crossbow in his hand is likely a weapon similar to the Silver Rose or a mere imitation. Its function is akin to a spatial element’s absolute hit effect, and it also possesses a power absorption effect. Since the power absorption effect is not classified as damage, it can bypass your invulnerable fate and injure you.”
Avina shifted her tone: “But these are not the issue; ultimately, you are simply too weak. If your Lord were here, he would definitely not be hit by those ants. You must first understand this: an ant is just an ant, no matter how powerful the magical weapon it wields, its knowledge determines that it can never pose a threat to someone truly formidable.”
“Now, stand up, and let me show you what true combat is.”
Xi half-kneeled on the ground, feeling utterly weak, with the spots on her face where she had been struck burning in pain. She felt dizzy, but upon hearing Avina’s words, she could not help but react immediately. Stand up now? Could she fight those Crusian noble soldiers in her current state? She asked incredulously, “Now?”
“Of course. I asked you if you can still fight; you nodded, didn’t you?” Avina replied matter-of-factly.
Being able to fight was one thing, but whether she could win was another. If Brendel were here, he would probably question whether Avina was being too presumptuous, but Xi was much simpler; she instinctively felt that Avina would not harm her, so she chose to trust completely. Gritting her teeth, she unsteadily stood up.
The arguing Crusian nobles suddenly fell silent as someone directly opposite Xi noticed her unusual action, and then others followed his gaze over. They turned to look at her, confusion etched on their faces, their expressions almost identical.
What does she want to do?
After a moment, someone whistled: “Babarn, this woman you fancy is quite stubborn!”
“You’re in for it!”
Babarn shoved away the nobleman he was grappling with, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and stood up, approaching Xi with a grim look. “My lady, you are seriously injured; there’s no need to fight any longer. I swear upon my noble honor that I will not allow them to harm you any longer. Surrender, and we will grant you the treatment befitting a knight.”
Xi pressed her lips together, remaining silent.
Avina observed the girl’s pale face marred by pain but still fiercely stubborn and could not help but nod in satisfaction. Her contractee did not need to be too strong but must possess a soul as pure and noble as crystal. This girl was to her liking. Initially, she had some doubts about Brendel letting Xi wield the Spear of the Firmament, but now she had to admit that the human’s choice was quite insightful.
Indeed, compared to him, Xi had more right to wield the Celestial Spear. The spear’s significance lay in protecting the mundane world, “And that guy probably has his own path to tread…” Avina thought, shaking her head. “The Celestial Spear does not belong to him; rather, that item seems tailor-made for him.”
Xi did not respond. Babarn was suddenly pushed aside by the leading noble officer behind him, a sly smile on his face as he withdrew his sword and walked towards Xi, saying, “It seems this little beauty isn’t as obedient as you claimed, Babarn.”
“What do you want, Ferrok!” Babarn bellowed in anger.
“Babarn, please understand the situation,” the noble officer’s face turned cold. He spat out a bloody phlegm that was a memorial from the punch Babarn had dealt him. He ground his teeth and answered, “How much time do you think we can afford to waste here? If that country bumpkin Count discovers our plans, you, I, and everyone here will not survive. That country bumpkin noble is flanked by two dragons aiding him; who here can stand against those two dragons, you or I?”
He waved his sword and scoffed, “So, if you can’t convince your little beauty, leave it to me to take her down. Don’t worry; I won’t kill her. She’s a treasure to us now. But it’s a pity, since I’m stepping in, a bit of flesh pain is unavoidable.”
“Stop!” Babarn interrupted, “She was struck by my arrow. That’s the Arrow of the Silver Dragon’s Throat; she cannot hold out for long. There’s no need for you to act.”
“Has she fallen? Facing the girl who could still stand after being hit by the Arrow of the Silver Dragon’s Throat, I should question whether your ancestral weapon is a counterfeit or if your lackluster shooting skills need re-evaluation?” Ferrok mocked.
Babarn was left speechless, unable to rebuke, and involuntarily glanced at the silver crossbow in his hand, feeling some doubt surfacing. The Arrow of the Silver Dragon’s Throat was their family’s heirloom weapon, said to have been found by a Count ancestor who cut open a white oak. This crossbow itself surpassed most magical crossbows and magic heavy crossbows in power, and its arrows possessed power-absorbing and spirit-draining effects. In battle, it had always been unstoppable; this time, he brought it secretly from home as the first-born heir for self-defense, not expecting to expose its flaws on his first use.
As Babarn was momentarily at a loss for words, it gave Ferrok the signal to make a move. The latter smiled cruelly and turned back, determined to take out his frustration on Babarn’s little beauty. Although he wouldn’t necessarily kill Xi, he planned on leaving her injured, ideally in the lungs or some other vital organ, so that she would suffer a serious injury but not die immediately—best to wait until she met Her Majesty, then pass away.
With such intentions in mind, he turned back, expecting to see a weak little lamb ready for slaughter. However, to his surprise, before he could clearly see her face, he heard someone behind him warn, “Ferrok, watch out!” Ferrok had never considered that Xi still had the capability to counterattack; in fact, when he had pulled her hair and slammed her against the wall, he had seen that Babarn’s Arrow of the Silver Dragon’s Throat was still effective. Though unsure how the girl had stood up, she had certainly been powerless to fight back just moments ago.
Therefore, when he heard the warning, his first reaction was to think Babarn had attacked him from behind. In shock and fury, he turned around, not understanding why this guy dared to attack one of his own. But he did not anticipate that when he looked back, Babarn was standing still, equally astonished—no, to be more precise, he was looking behind Ferrok.
Ferrok’s heart suddenly sank.
That was also his last thought. With a soft sound, everyone saw a silver blade protruding from Ferrok’s back. The Crusian noble officer struggled for a moment, eyes wide as if trying to grasp something. He flailed uselessly, but as his hand rose halfway, it suddenly drooped down helplessly, his head tilting to one side, exhausted of life.
In an instant, there was a dead silence beneath the glacier.
Everyone stared in shock at the mountain girl behind Ferrok’s corpse, the previous strike was too bizarre. Unlike Ferrok, they saw Xi staggering to her feet, then adopting an infinitely strange attack posture—everyone present would swear that until that moment, they had never seen any spear art with a similar stance.
It felt as if Xi had suddenly disappeared from in front of them; though she was clearly there, all they sensed was the cold, hard laws.
It was the laws—
When Xi executed her strike with the spear, she exerted no power whatsoever, but the laws of the entire space shifted with her blow—fate dictated that she hit her opponent, and so she did.
At this moment, an odd thought arose in everyone’s mind. Babarn’s expression changed too. Although he had indeed taken a liking to Xi, it did not mean he was a fool. He immediately turned and shouted to the others, “Yuon, Meysius, you two flank her, buy me some time—be careful, don’t let her get close!”
Avina seemed to stand side by side with Xi, coldly watching the two approaching Crusians on the left and right. In her era, the Crusians were still the barbaric tribes of the wasteland, and the Minren were the slaves of Fanzan’s Ini people. She never thought that one day these once humble, inferior people of the black iron would have such overwhelming momentum.
“The attack from the person on the left will arrive before the right; you need not catch their movements; those are mere appearances. What you need to see are the various forces.”
“Like strands of silver distributed through space, their sizes, directions, and points of action are predetermined. Thus, no matter how they change, it can be predicted; from the moment they attack, the outcome is determined.”
“This is the realm of ants—let me teach you what true attacks look like.”
“True attacks?” Xi gripped the spear, awkwardly dodging the attacks from the Crusian nobles. Her stamina was nearly depleted, but thanks to Avina’s guidance, she hardly needed to move to easily evade their strikes. Just as the latter mentioned, as soon as those Crusians made a move, she was naturally already outside their attack range.
The sensation was unbelievably wondrous, akin to both sides following a script as they played rock-paper-scissors, having previously agreed that in this round, they would show scissors while she showed rock.
Xi vaguely felt that this wasn’t the first time she had witnessed such a combat style; there had been several instances where she had indeed seen something similar in Brendel’s battles, where the enemy’s swordsmanship seemed foreseen by Brendel, as if they purposefully struck at empty space, appearing utterly ridiculous.
But now, the ridiculous side had become her opponent.
The two Crusian noble officers, red-faced and ears hot, had been dueling with a seriously injured little girl for quite some time, unable to touch her at all, looking as foolish as can be—as if they had agreed to act on stage together. The sheer awkwardness of it was beyond description. Outsiders, including Babarn, found it puzzling; of course, they wouldn’t think their comrades were just acting in coordination with Xi, but the scene before them was genuinely too peculiar.
Avina observed coldly until a certain moment when she suddenly reminded, “Shut your eyes!”
Two long swords were aiming toward Xi, but seemingly through instinct, the mountain girl instantly closed her eyes. However, in that fleeting moment, a peculiar sight unfolded. She suddenly “saw” silver lines spreading through the pitch-black space, those lines appearing and disappearing in the darkness, and among them, two were extending towards her.
She quickly understood what they were.
The two long swords in the noble officers’ hands moved with a fluidity akin to dancing snake, but to Xi, they were two clearly defined lines with unchanging trajectories. She merely needed to elevate her spear along their predetermined path. Clang, clang—two crisp sounds echoed as Yuon and Meysius staggered back with blank stares, gazing at their tingling right hands, momentarily unable to comprehend how their attack route had been anticipated.
“What’s your next move?” Avina asked.
Xi saw a jagged silver line heading towards the starting points of the two lines in the darkness.
“Are you planning to attack along this path, trusting your judgment?”
Xi paused momentarily because she observed that the two silver lines began to change direction, obstructing her attack path. She could almost be certain that if she attacked following this route, her opponents would definitely defend against it. She halted, altering her attack direction once or twice, but no matter how she pushed her silver lines forward, the opponents always managed to seal off her attack route at the last moment.
This caused her to frown uncontrollably.
However, the mountain girl did not know that while she felt a sense of helplessness, her two opponents were already cold with sweat. Yuon and Meysius could not understand how this little girl before them had suddenly turned formidable. Initially, she could only defend, but now she was slowly beginning to counterattack, making her assault paths increasingly tricky. If Xi tried a few more attack methods, they would likely be on the verge of defeat.
Fortunately, Babarn recognized their predicament and immediately commanded the other two to join the fray.
Even so, four golden peak fighters against a seriously injured elemental manifestation was still merely a stalemate, a feat that would be astonishing if it got out.
Yet Avina remained unsatisfied.
“You still haven’t broken free from your inherent attack mindset,” she shook her head, “The Celestial Spear is the defender of the mundane world, but its true power lies in breaking rules.”
“Breaking rules?”
“Which means not confining yourself to your limited thinking—try to free your attacking methods from those mundane lines. The lines of laws cannot bind the firmament to a flat plane,” Avina replied. “Just like when I taught you to thrust out that shot.”
Xi paused slightly.
Then she withdrew her spear.
In the next moment, the firmament thrust forward like an enraged dragon, targeting Yuon, who was standing directly in her path. Yuon was initially startled, believing he was doomed, but suddenly he noticed that the spear hadn’t changed at all; it was straightforwardly thrusting towards him. He froze for a moment before being elated—this thrust was actually worse than that of a beginner. She must have been low on stamina, causing her to make such a novice error.
In his excitement, he raised his sword to block it, thinking that as long as he could hold back Xi’s offensive, the others would quickly be able to subdue her.
But as he did so, he also saw his longsword clash against her spear with a clink. Yet at that instant, he simultaneously felt the spear pierce through his chest just as it had through Ferrok. He widened his eyes; the completely contradictory scene seemed harmonious in his eyes, as if he had blocked her attack while simultaneously failing to do so. This contradictory conclusion seemed to align completely.
Then a sharp pain broke through all his thoughts.
It felt as if he plunged into endless darkness.
…
(PS: A new volume has begun~)
