Chapter 211 (I): Finished

Zhao Chenghuang's eyelid twitched. A formation?

The instant he saw the intertwined fire-and-water formation take shape, he didn't stop to think. Seasoned as he was, he bolted straight for the edge of the flames. He couldn't let himself get trapped inside.

Tucking the little clay figurine away, his body blurred into a streak, leaving behind a trail of afterimages. He reached the edge of the great fire-and-water array in less than a breath, where he slammed into an invisible barrier.

He braced his core as he drove his arms back and forth like piston rods, hammering his fist into the barrier, quickly and viciously. Each strike, powerful enough to crack steel, sent out a ripple across the qi barrier, and Zhao Chenghuang's furious barrage made it look as though the barrier were vibrating.

His expression shifted a fraction, and he attacked the barrier with his claws instead, raking down hard against the invisible surface. Again, his strike sent ripples across the surface of the barrier, but it showed no sign of cracking or breaking.

His heart sank. His claws could match several armor-piercing items, yet against this barrier, they were utterly ineffective.

"Heh heh~"

A hoarse laugh drifted over from behind him. He whipped the little clay figurine back out, cradled it in his palm, and turned to guard himself, moving oddly slowly. What he saw was a humanoid shape condensed out of flame, its features blurred, carrying a narrow-mouthed longsword in one hand. Further behind it, another figure was slowly taking shape, forming itself out of the water flooding the other side of the array.

In his Origin Overdrive state, Zhao Chenghuang studied the two elemental figures with cold light in his eyes. What kind of item is this? Water and fire, both at once? Where is Yuanshi Tianzun himself?

The stands went up in a roar. The official Walkers spectating the match had lost their composure. An item that carried the traits of two classes at once was rare, something one would never come across in a solo Spirit Realm dungeon. It only turned up in the multiplayer dungeons, and even there, it was one in ten thousand, rarer than a Fire Sage with an actual brain.

Only the Scholar class could produce anything like it, but they were very difficult to create, with a low yield, and commanded a steep price, and the ones with genuinely strong effects were impossibly rare. Yuanshi Tianzun's item was clearly a top-tier item, and could even produce a formation.

Seeing this formation also triggered the spectator's memories from the day before, when Yuanshi Tianzun had used a Water Ghost's passive when beating Green Pine. That meant the creation of this formation wasn't the item's only trick.

The Water Ghosts and the Fire Sages in the crowd felt their collective breaths catch in their throats. An item that carried both Water Ghost and Fire Sage traits at once was their absolute nemesis.

Fire and water mutually countered each other. Whether Water Ghost or Fire Sage, if they were trapped in a formation like that, both would go down. However, if they were the ones wielding it, they could push the item to its limit.

The five elemental classes, Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth, might be ordinary classes, but they had one gift the other peak-tier classes didn't have. Terrain advantage.

Any Walker from a top-tier class would still struggle to beat a Water Ghost of the same level in a river. If a Water Ghost or a Fire Sage owned the Yin Yang Spell Robe, the corresponding side of the array would be the ideal environment for them. Once the formation activated, their combat power would spike outright.

Zhao Chenghuang searched the area for a moment, but found no trace of Yuanshi Tianzun. He fixed his gaze on the flaming figure, and something about it struck him. It seemed oddly similar to his opponent.

"Are you Yuanshi Tianzun?"

The words came out on their own, and in his Origin Overdrive state, his voice came out shadowed and glacial.

The flaming figure let out a strange, warped little laugh. "You've got good eyes. Save your energy. Once this formation's up, nobody gets out for ten minutes. Zhao Chenghuang, are you ready to be ground under my boot?"

So he really is Yuanshi Tianzun. He's taken on an elemental form. Shock crossed Zhao Chenghuang's face, then something clicked. Ten minutes?!

The watery figure let out a shrill, furious curse. "Idiot! Your body's made of fire now, but your intelligence doesn't have to fall to a Fire Sage's level. How could you just blurt out the one thing that matters? You're going to be the death of me!"

The flaming figure froze, then caught up to itself and swore right back. "Shit, my bad. My IQ's been dragged down."

The noise in the stands dropped a notch. Walkers of every class snuck sideways glances at the Fire Sages next to them.

The Fire Sages merely sat there, some with their cheek twitching, some with a vein bulging out at their temple, all of them looking as though they were one wrong word away from storming the field and attacking Yuanshi Tianzun as a pack.

After it had finished cursing, the flaming figure's body came apart in an instant. There was a loud bang behind Zhao Chenghuang as the figure reformed itself inside the flames behind him.

Fire Walk!

Inside a fire formation, Zhang Yuanqing could appear anywhere, at any time.

The flaming figure swept both arms around, the narrow-mouthed blade whirling about in a slice aimed for the enemy's neck.

Bang!

Zhao Chenghuang didn't move. The little clay figurine in his palm threw up a dim gray screen of light, and the narrow-mouthed blade slammed against it like a blade hitting a sandbag, striking off sand-colored motes of light.

Only after taking the hit did Zhao Chenghuang turn, just a beat behind, and slap a claw at the figure of flame.

He caught nothing but a swelling ball of firelight. The flaming figure had already used Fire Walk to slip away.

Bang, bang, bang!

The figure of flame prowled in a circle around him, its blade hammering against the barrier of light that protected him over and over again, chipping off dense clouds of those sandy motes. Every time Zhao Chenghuang lashed back, the figure used Fire Walk to reposition, ambushing him from behind or from his flank.

On his home field of fire, the flaming figure was in his element. And Zhao Chenghuang, still holding that clay figurine, was moving strangely slowly, his shoulders slumped over like he was carrying a mountain.

That was the price of his item. Earth Wraith-class defensive items almost always came with the same cost—weight.

The protective barrier was growing more unstable by the moment, and the little figurine in his palm had started to shudder. He knew the item's defensive qualities weren't enough to blunt the war blade's edge, so he made the call and put it away.

"Tired of living?" The flaming figure roared with wild laughter as it swung its blade.

Zhao Chenghuang crossed his feet, slid clear of the blade, and swept both black-clawed hands toward the flaming figure's skull. With his raw strength alone, he crushed the flaming figure's head in his bare hands.

Headless, the flaming figure brought its blade around and carved a wound into Zhao Chenghuang's lower body, the blade penetrating deep enough to expose bone.

The two broke apart the second they touched.

The flaming figure cackled in an unhinged manner. "Idiot. Physical attacks pass right through me."

Zhao Chenghuang's face went dark. He drew a long, scorching breath, and the gash along his hips quickly knit itself shut.

After activating Origin Overdrive, his vitality and self-regeneration rate both gained a massive boost. As long as his head stayed attached, he could cling to life for a long, long while even with a wrecked heart, long enough for Life Essence to reach him.

The flaming figure took a heavy step forward and lunged with its narrow-mouthed blade in a savage thrust. Zhao Chenghuang twisted aside deftly as his black-clawed hands darted out and locked themselves around the flat of the blade.

The flaming figure tried to yank the sword free, but Zhao Chenghuang held on for dear life. Crimson blood welled out from his palms at once, while his claws gouged deep, pale scratches down the steel.

Going for the sword? The flaming figure snorted, about to yank harder, when out of nowhere, it felt an extra force on the blade, helping Zhao Chenghuang wrest it loose.

Its gaze slid to the sword's tip. Only then did it see the thing helping him. It was a spirit servant, black-lipped and white-eyed.

Spirit servants could manipulate physical objects after all.

Zhang Yuanqing, with an elemental body, feared no spirit servant's attack, but he'd also lost any means of dealing with one.

Inch by inch, the narrow-mouthed blade slid loose from its grip, as bit by bit, the flaming figure's feet slowly slid toward Zhao Chenghuang.

The water clone, who was busy helping Corpse No. 1 deal with the Level 4 yin corpse, sneered. "You useless thing! I told you that sword should go to me. Look at you. He's not dead, and you've lost the sword too."

The flaming figure erupted in fury. "Shut it! Do I need you to teach me how to do my job?"

When it was done talking, it spat a mouthful of flame across the blade, turning the iron red hot.

Green smoke curled up from Zhao Chenghuang's hands, and the air was filled with the stink of charred flesh. His face convulsed, the pain almost beyond what he could bear.

"You still won't let go?"

The flaming figure opened its mouth, another gout of scorching fire spraying out, this time aimed at Zhao Chenghuang himself. In a flash, his hair, his brows and his outfit all caught on fire. Flames enveloped his body, and his blue-black skin began to burn.

The fire kept eating at him, and his skin carbonized bit by bit, taking on a red sheen. Finally, with a roar of fury, he pulled his hands back and reeled away, out of the range of the tongue of fire.

Seizing the opening, the flaming figure pressed right on after him, the narrow blade hacking from side to side, opening wound after wound, down to the bone. Zhao Chenghuang's blue black skin gave off a metallic gleam, but the sharp edge of the war blade tore through it like paper.

If Zhang Yuanqing had known even the first thing about swordplay, Zhao Chenghuang would already be lying in two pieces.

In the stands, the Taiyi Sect people shot to their feet, shouting toward the elders' seats.

"Foul, that's a foul!"

"That's a Saint-tier item! It has to be!"

"Using an item of that quality is cheating! All you can do is stand there and take it. There’s no way to hit back at all!"

"Say something, Elders!"

The Taiyi Sect's Nocturnal Specters were rattled. Not one of them had envisioned Yuanshi Tianzun had an item this freakish that could pose such repeated threats to Zhao Chenghuang.

This wasn't how they'd pictured this battle to go. In their heads, this was the part where Yuanshi Tianzun was supposed to be scrambling for his life while Zhao Chenghuang threatened to steamroll him.

Over on the Five Elements Alliance side, the Walkers were worked up, holding their cheers as they looked up at the elders' seats. The way they saw it, this item really was a bit much.

"Silence," the armored swordsman called out. "Do not interfere with the match."

This was as good as an endorsement of Yuanshi Tianzun. Using this item wasn't a foul. In truth, the Yin Yang Spell Robe had been obtained inside a Transcendent-tier Spirit Realm. It genuinely wasn't a Saint-tier item.

The flaming figure was having the time of its life, swinging the narrow-mouthed blade as it pursued its prey relentlessly, now and then working the flames around it into explosions to double the pressure on its opponent.

"Haha! Little Zhao Chenghuang, your time's up! Get on your knees and call me grandpa, and grandpa might spare your life!"

Watching Yuanshi Tianzun fighting in such a brazen and uncaring manner, the Fire Sages in the crowd gave small nods of approval, feeling a certain kinship toward him, and forgave him for the wisecrack about their intelligence earlier.

Zhao Chenghuang suffered yet another cut, but by this time, he'd fled all the way to the border where water and fire met, and as the flaming figure swung at him again, he threw himself over the border and into the watery side of the array.

Instantly, the ethereal water surged upward, slamming against his chest. The water was ethereal, yet it had real weight and a real chill to it, soothing the burns on his body and bringing cool, soaking relief.

The flaming figure pulled up at the border. It didn't follow after him. Seeing that, the corner of Zhao Chenghuang's mouth curled upward in a smile.

"I've been wondering this whole time why the elders wouldn't stop the match, and why an item this strong isn't considered illegal," he said. "Now I get it. It really is only a Transcendent-tier item. Your item has one fatal flaw. Water and fire can't mix. Your two clones each run one zone, and the line between them is absolute."

He'd been trading blows with the fire clone for ages, yet even when he'd threatened to wrench the sword away, the water clone never once stepped in. That told him there was a limitation to the elemental forms. The water clone couldn't reach into the fire zone.

"So what?" the flaming figure snarled.

"Your attacks won't cut it. In the form of a Transcendent-tier Water Ghost and Fire Sage, your damage is capped. Neither of you can lay a finger on me. The only real threat is the sword in your hand. Your formation can trap me and nothing more. It can't actually hurt me. That's why the elders never called a foul."

The flaming figure went quiet.

The water clone appeared behind Zhao Chenghuang without a sound and drove a fist at the back of his skull.

"Are you looking down on me?!"

Zhao Chenghuang let his knees buckle, his whole frame sinking a good ten centimeters as he ducked the punch. In one fluid motion, he spun around and swept a claw through the water clone's waist, cutting it in two.

The water clone broke apart, merging into the ethereal current and closing over Zhao Chenghuang from every side.

Water had no shape, but it was still lethal.

On the far side, the Level 4 Yin corpse, in the middle of taking a beating, spoke slowly in its raspy voice, "A Nocturnal Specter's vitality runs deep. I don't need to breathe. I can hold out for a long, long time, right up until your formation times out."

The flaming figure barked, "Swap positions!"

It lifted a foot and stamped, hard.

The great water and fire array rotated around like a millstone, water and fire trading places. Zhao Chenghuang, and the two yin corpses that had been standing in the water array a moment ago found themselves in the zone wreathed in flame.

Blade in hand, the flaming figure pursued Zhao Chenghuang and his yin corpse through the field of fire, but Zhao Chenghuang refused to engage it. He broke into a dead run and hauled his yin corpse back into the watery side of the formation.

"There's no point to any of this," he said flatly. "I'm not fighting you again. There's only one sword. If the fire clone has the sword, all I have to do is stay out of the fire. If the water clone has the sword, then I'll stay out of the water. Only one aspect of you can touch me at one time. That's your weakness."

As he spoke, Zhao Chenghuang dropped out of Origin Overdrive, chest heaving. His stamina would not allow him to maintain the state any longer. It didn't matter. He'd already seen through Yuanshi Tianzun's whole plan.

He took advantage of the item’s limitations to run down the remaining time, bouncing back and forth across the water and fire sides of the array, defending himself without attacking, dodging without fighting. Finally, the ten minutes were up, and the ethereal water and scorching flames were both drawn back into the Yin Yang Spell Robe hanging in midair.

The robe drifted down. Zhang Yuanqing's body took solid form, and he reached out to catch it.

The two yin corpses each pulled back, withdrawing to their respective master's sides.