Nine Gloom, now utterly swamped by golden saber gleams, was calm and composed.
In reality, Saber9’s saber formations were by no means considered weak—they were powerful enough to harm a ninth-rank Heavenly God. However, as far as Nine Gloom was concerned, an attack of this level was still far from sufficient to worry him.
A mere thought formulated in his mind, and countless vines writhed out from under the earth, surging toward the golden saber gleams.
Almost at the same time that he responded to his enemy, he sensed a powerful threat coming from another direction.
He lifted his eyes immediately and looked toward the source of this new danger. He saw that the mirror in front of the black-masked sword cultivator—the same mirror that had absorbed his attack—was sending out a shockwave with intersecting red and black gleams.
More peculiar still, he could sense clearly that this shockwave generated by his opponent contained a trace of his own Divine Power’s aura.
“That mirror can not only absorb my attack but deflect it as well?!” Nine Gloom was rather shocked. He was even a little envious of Lin Huang’s Mirror divine ability now.
He could clearly sense that the power of Lin Huang’s current attack was no weaker than his own from earlier on. Such intensity was more than sufficient to cause him considerable harm.
Seeing that the intersecting red and black shockwave had cut through the torrent of golden saber gleams in an instant and was now heading for him, Nine Gloom used the black battle spear once again without hesitation.
A black gleam coalesced at the point of the spear and rapidly began expanding. In the mere time it took for a breath, it had expanded as far as it could go, transforming into a black shockwave that shot through the air.
The next instant, both shockwaves collided.
The moment the two shockwaves slammed against each other, Nine Gloom’s heart suddenly started racing. He sensed immense danger coming from multiple directions.
His Divine Telekinesis immediately spread out, scanning his surroundings. He saw over a dozen figures hovering in the void, surrounding him. Each of the figures had on a black robe and a black mask; all of them were identical to the sword cultivator who had deflected his attack earlier.
What was even more extraordinary was that black mirrors had consolidated in front of them all, and identical red and black intersecting shockwaves were now surging out from the surface of the mirrors.
Each of the attacks spawned a dire sense of danger within Nine Gloom.
However, he sneered and glanced at Virtuoso, who was not far away, “Do you think I’m going to fall into your trap again?
“Your simulation is pretty good; it was even able to confuse my senses. However, an illusion is just an illusion. It will never turn into reality!”
As soon as Nine Gloom finished speaking, the dozen-over shockwaves had almost reached him.
However, he chose to ignore them completely.
An instant later, the shockwaves swallowed him up entirely.
Almost at the same time, a devastating shriek was heard.
Even Lin Huang raised his brows upon hearing that shriek. He looked over at Virtuoso in some confusion.
“How did you do that?”
“I can duplicate imaginary images.” Virtuoso’s explanation was very simple.
However, this explanation did not answer Lin Huang’s doubts. He continued to stare at Virtuoso, waiting patiently for them to expound further.
“The imaginary images can be transformed into actual images,” Virtuoso paused for a moment, then resumed speaking.
“Is it similar to skill duplication?” Lin Huang immediately thought of a popular comic that he had seen on Earth, which had in it an ability called the Sharingan. (TN: A reference to an ability in the Japanese manga Naruto. This ability allows the user to copy a variety of attacks.)
“It’s not simply skill duplication,” Saber9 could not help interrupting from where he was standing to one side. He then shot a glance at Virtuoso.
Virtuoso nodded slightly at him, and Saber9 resumed, “More precisely, what’s known as an image is something that occurs within a specific timeframe.
“This ability of Virtuoso’s is like taking a picture with a camera or recording a video; it replicates the event that happened within that timeframe.”
“Initially, it was just a useless divine ability that could only be used to record information. However, by chance, I realized I could convert imaginary images into actual images,” Virtuoso continued the topic and proceeded to explain.
“In an attack like the one earlier, how many actual images are you able to replicate?” Lin Huang asked this, not because he wished to pry into Virtuoso’s divine ability, but so he could work better alongside them.
Virtuoso hesitated but answered regardless, “One is my limit.”
They did not explain much more than that. At their current level of ability, they could, at most, replicate images below half-step lord-level. Moreover, Lin Huang’s attack earlier was already at peak heavenly god-level, which could be considered close to the level of a half-step Lord. Replicating one actual image was indeed their limit.
“How many times can you use this divine ability, at most?” Lin Huang resumed his questions.
“If I’m not converting things into actual images, theoretically, I can use it countless times,” Virtuoso answered very readily this time, “However, if I were to convert them into actual images and use them in an attack with the same level of intensity as earlier, I can only do that three times in a day at most.”
“Alright.” Lin Huang did not enquire any further.
He was indeed a little envious of Virtuoso’s ability, but he did not plan on asking for more details. After all, everyone’s divine abilities and skills were private. The questions he asked were about things that he needed to know in order to fight effectively alongside them.
If not for the fact that he had been teamed up with Virtuoso and they were now very familiar with each other, he might have been a little embarrassed to ask such questions.
Lin Huang raised his head and looked over in the direction now completely swamped by countless shockwaves.
“If this round of attack doesn’t finish him off, we’d better prepare ourselves to battle it out later.”
Naturally, Nine Gloom could not hear the voice transmissions between Lin Huang and the other two.
He had certainly paid a heavy enough price by erroneously thinking that Virtuoso’s attack was just an illusion.
He only realized that one out of the dozen-over illusory shockwaves was real at the very moment he was struck. However, by then, it was far too late for him to dodge.
Lin Huang’s attack this time was almost equal to the attack Nine Gloom had launched at full force, and Virtuoso had replicated it in its entirety.
With no other alternative in sight, Nine Gloom had no choice but to tough it out. The attack drained close to one-fifth of the Divine Power within his body.
Very soon, the shockwaves dispersed completely, and Nine Gloom’s figure slowly emerged from within the smoke.
He was not as arrogant as before. Instead, he cut a rather sorry figure, which secretly thrilled Lin Huang and the other two.
After such a devastating loss, Nine Gloom was burning with rage. He glared fixedly at Virtuoso, the culprit.
“What an excellent technique!” From Nine Gloom’s tone, it was very evident that he was clenching his teeth.
“You’re too kind.” Virtuoso accepted this “compliment” with no qualms whatsoever.
Nine Gloom scoffed, then quietly glanced at Lin Huang. A faint trace of fear flickered through his eyes.
Compared to Virtuoso, he actually feared Lin Huang more.
Although it was Virtuoso who had wounded him earlier, the attack Virtuoso had duplicated was Lin Huang’s technique.
Based on the earlier skirmish, he had a certain understanding of the trio’s abilities and where they stood. Currently, in his mind, the threat level ranking he had given them was Lin Huang>Virtuoso>Saber9.
More precisely, Lin Huang and Virtuoso were the only ones who were a threat to him. Saber9 could almost be ignored.
Naturally, he did not completely overlook Saber9.
After all, a saber cultivator was theoretically the cultivator with the most powerful attack abilities.
Perhaps Saber9 was intentionally hiding his ability, waiting for the perfect opportunity to surprise Nine Gloom…
