“I do not want to fight, but I will if I have to!” From her sash, Zhi Nu took out a box of needles and swiftly took two needles out. What could not be seen by the naked eye was that two strings were attached to the needles Zhi Nu took out and she held it in her own fighting pose, unique and something that could only be created by a distinguished Weaver.
“I will assist.” Jia Le took out her kunai from her bag that contained her stock of kunais. Jia Le even had a thick nylon sheath bag attached to her legs for a quick draw of kunais if needed. She showed off her Breathtaking Bellflower cultivation and displayed three flower silhouettes slowly waving in the air above her.
Niu Lang suddenly felt like a burden for he was just a mortal with a specially made leather hide cape and an extra ox horn. Somehow, Niu Lang felt that he should not use that horn at this particular moment but he would use it if he had to. “Go hide!” Jia Le shouted and Niu Lang quickly obliged since he knew he would just be a burden if he remained.
“I will strike first!” Duke Zhuang, the Left Divine Guardian, spoke as he smashed his two handed mace down towards the ground and caused a large crack to appear in the celestial ground. Jia Le smiled at this as cracks in the ground meant that a growing flower could struggle through and blossom under hardship, ultimately coming out stronger.
“Kunai Art! Entrapping fields of Bellflowers!” Jia Le sacrificed the kunai she had been holding and threw it into the crack that was created by Duke Zhuang previously. Within moments, a large series of vines appeared from the crack and wrapped themselves around Duke Zhuang, entrapping him in a tangle of vines. Zhi Nu wanted to attack Duke Zhuang too but was a step too late because Duke Zhong Wu, the Right Divine Guardian, swooped in and broke the vines.
However, the experienced Jia Le took this opportunity to throw another Kunai at them. “Kunai Art! Rising Thorn of the Earthly Bellflower!” When the Kunai touched the side armour of Duke Zhong Wu, a large spike of chi burst out from the kunai, which simulated a spike growing out from the ground, wounding Zhong Wu’s right shoulder.
Seeing Jia Le’s actions, Zhi Nu did not hesitate and moved her arms around with a needle in each hand. The invisible strings of death tied around the kunai’s handle and with a pull, the kunai plunged deeper into Duke Zhong Wu’s shoulder. This also caused the large spike of chi to pierce all the way through and render his right shoulder useless.
At this point, Duke Zhuang broke out of the vines and threw his mace at Zhi Nu. To his surprise, the two handed mace was left hanging in midair right before it hit Zhi Nu’s enchanting face. Cold beads of sweat flowed down the side of her face as she let out a sigh of relief. Zhi Nu had been dexterous enough to weave the strings to create a shield that was strong enough to stop the impact of the flying mace.
This time, Zhi Nu smiled, because with a weapon at the mercy of her strings, she was extremely deadly. She moved her hands as if she was dancing and the two handed mace flew back at Duke Zhong Wu, who had an injured right shoulder.
Unfortunately, the door guards were not going to be taken down with just that. Duke Zhong Wu managed to catch the two handed mace barehanded even with his injured right shoulder. It was then that Zhi Nu grinned and Duke Zhong Wu noticed something was amiss. There were still strings attached to the two handed mace and the strings were released immediately when Duke Zhong Wu realised it.
A barrage of needles burst out from the layer of strings that was wrapped around the handle and Duke Zhong Wu was immobilised. “A weaver does not just know about needles and strings. Acupuncture is something I learned while I was in the mortal world with Niu Lang!” Zhi Nu shouted and Duke Zhong Wu could barely move.
Duke Zhuang, on the other hand, grabbed Duke Zhong Wu’s halberd and cut the strings attached to the needles, but the Zhi Nu’s acupuncture needles had already paralysed him. It was also at that point that Duke Zhuang noticed a bright light coming towards him.
“Intermediate Kunai Arts! Booming Blooming Bellflowers!” Several kunais were thrown in succession in his direction and when the Kunai came into contact with something, an explosion was ignited in the shape of a Bellflower. With that, Duke Zhong Wu had fallen but Duke Zhuang was still standing, albeit precariously. He took Duke Zhong Wu’s Halberd and swung it around him continuously, which caused a mini hurricane to appear right in front of him. Debris was moving around the hurricane, which was a boundary to stop for both kunais and needles from reaching him.
Within the eye of the hurricane, Duke Zhuang finally thought that he was safe for a moment before he heard an incantation shouted out from above. “Sword Art! Flying Bombardment Dive of the Bombardier Beetle!” Bin Yong was seen flying into the eye of the hurricane with the help of the Umbral Minotaur that threw him into it. It appeared that Bin Yong and the Umbral Minotaur had finished their fight and rushed to aid Zhi Nu and Jia Le.
Duke Zhuang was not giving up a single bit as he pointed the halberd towards Bin Yong’s direction and did a high jump. “Rising Lion Strike!” Duke Zhuang’s halberd displayed the silhouette of a Lion. Through the fuzzy hurricane, all the bystanders could see was the silhouette of a beetle flying down into the mouth of a lion.
“Blah! Another Lion! Enough with the Lions!” Bin Yong shouted as he remembered duelling the white stone lion. The ice shards were surprisingly fast and all Bin Yong could do was block them with his shield. There were no openings since the White Stone Lion always kept its distance since it had seen the fate of its counterpart.
It was at that moment that Bin Yong remembered the gift he had earned in the mini game he had played in the Emerald Mountain Hot Springs Service Instance. He actually received a mixed set of smoke grenades and flash bombs. From his storage ring, he quickly pulled one out and there was a white label, which indicated that it was a Flashbang.
“Perfect!” Bin Yong thought to himself as he quickly threw it at the White Stone Lion, which the Lion instinctively targeted, causing a large flash that blinded the lion. Bin Yong, who covered himself with the mantle before the flashbang exploded, used that opportunity to dash in and stab the White Stone Lion through its mouth causing it to die when the ice shard it had been generating exploded within its mouth.
———-
The hurricane dissipated when Bing Yong and Duke Zhang clashed, but the bystanders could only see a large explosion of chi happening right in front of them. Only right after the explosion could the rest of the group see Bin Yong lifelessly drop from the sky along with Duke Zhuang.
“Bin Yong!!” Jia Le reacted quickly as she saw him crashing down. Bin Yong had succeeded in his attack but it nearly cost him his life. With her kunai arts, vines grew in time to catch Bin Yong and Jia Le quickly rushed towards him. “Hahaha…looks like I underestimated the enemy this time round.” Bin Yong whispered.
“Shhhh, do not talk. Drink up.” Jia Le took out a high grade chi regeneration potion which she had bought from Jin’s underground store and let him sip it bit by bit. Bin Yong coughed and he tried to drink the potion’s content slowly.
When Jia Le was attending to Bin Yong, the Temporal Gates of Heavens opened, indicating that the group had passed the test. Zhi Nu called out for Niu Lang to come out from his hiding spot but there was no answer…and she assumed the worst.
“Yes…assume the worst, Zhi Nu.” The Heavenly Empress walked towards the group as she had her palace guards hold onto a heavily bruised Niu Lang.
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