Saber9’s attack could not be considered weak by any means.
Although this was the less powerful version, from Lin Huang and Virtuoso’s point of view, it was at least at the level of a half-step Lord.
Seeing that Nine Gloom’s figure had utterly vanished and even his aura was no longer present, the first reaction from Lin Huang and the others was—could Nine Gloom finally be dead at last?!
However, a moment later, the three of them had a change of expression almost simultaneously. All of them looked at a spot on the ground not too far away.
A new vine tendril suddenly extended from the surface of the earth, then a second and a third… Within the blink of an eye, they consolidated into a humanoid figure.
It was Nine Gloom, clad in the silver armor from earlier!
“I almost died…” The silver-armored Nine Gloom could not help exclaiming as his body regenerated.
“As expected, I most certainly underestimated you.” His gaze finally alighted on Saber9 now. “However, I don’t suppose you have any remaining strength to attempt a second attack like the one you just pulled off.”
Nine Gloom’s speculation was because he could sense Saber9’s aura slowly decreasing. This was a phenomenon that would only happen when one’s Divine Power was drained.
Nine Gloom’s guess was absolutely correct. In fact, Saber9’s actual condition was even worse than Nine Gloom’s initial speculation.
Drawing on the life-saving saber formation left by his Primordial form had resulted in a definite backlash for Saber9.
Currently, not only had he suffered a drain on his Divine Power, his spirit and physical body had been taxed to the limit. He was on the verge of collapsing entirely.
Fortunately, apart from discovering that Saber9 had no more strength left to fight, Nine Gloom did not sense any further anomalies.
As for Lin Huang and Virtuoso, they had no idea that Saber9 was in such a dire condition after his attack. However, before he made his move, Saber9 had already informed both of them that he could only launch a single attack. Whether or not it killed Nine Gloom, he no longer had the strength to fight anymore.
When Virtuoso saw the look that Saber9 sent them, they needed no words to understand what it meant.
Saber9 had completely lost his capacity to fight. The only chance for killing Nine Gloom now depended on their own trump card.
At this point, Virtuoso spoke to Lin Huang through voice transmission, “If I’m not able to kill him after using my trump card, run as far away as you can. Don’t bother about the two of us; we both have means of survival.”
When he heard this, Lin Huang knew that the other two had not considered that he himself might have a trump card or two. However, upon thinking about it, he let it pass. After all, the pair had trump cards left to them by Almighties who far surpassed lord-level. From their point of view, if their trump cards could not kill Nine Gloom, then none of Lin Huang’s trump cards would be very effective.
However, in his heart, Lin Huang could not help grumbling, ‘This is Nine Gloom’s God Territory. Even if I really wanted to flee, where would I go anyway?!’
At that moment, Virtuoso added, “Our means of survival might very well affect you.”
Only then did Lin Huang realize that Virtuoso was not asking him to flee from Nine Gloom’s pursuit but to get away from the effect that would result from the pair using their trump cards.
After this exchange with Lin Huang, Virtuoso then turned their attention back to Nine Gloom.
This enemy that they were facing had certainly far exceeded their expectations in terms of difficulty.
Initially, Virtuoso had thought that even if Saber9 activated his trump card on his own, it might still be sufficient to kill this wretched fellow in front of them, despite the attack being significantly less powerful. Even if it failed to kill Nine Gloom, it might still injure him severely.
However, from the looks of things, Nine Gloom appeared to be completely fine. They wondered what sort of special technique he might be using.
Despite having been on the receiving end of Saber9’s nigh half-step lord-level attack, even Nine Gloom’s aura showed no signs of weakening at all.
Virtuoso was not at all sure if their trump card would be able to kill him.
A great many thoughts passed through their mind within just that brief period.
They lifted their head and looked at Nine Gloom again, then attacked without hesitation.
They performed rapid, complicated hand seals with both hands. At the same time, the mask covering their face swiftly began disintegrating, turning into points of starlight that consolidated speedily above Virtuoso’s head.
In some astonishment, Lin Huang raised his head and looked over at what was forming above Virtuoso’s head. To some degree, he could make out that it was a human face with both eyes tightly closed at present.
Very soon, the massive, seemingly illusory face floating in midair had consolidated completely.
Lin Huang could not help staring at that face. It was utterly flawless; each detail could be considered exquisite. Even if it were magnified over a hundred times, not a single defect would be found. However, Lin Huang still could not be certain if the master of the face was female or male.
As soon as the gigantic face consolidated fully, its eyes finally opened slowly.
Those eyes were dark blue. The moment they opened, Lin Huang felt as if he could see the entire universe revolving within them. However, when he blinked and looked at them again, those eyes displayed no signs of vitality; they looked supremely indifferent. At the same time, they seemed to transcend everything else.
The instant the eyes opened completely, a golden glow suddenly flared up in the darkness of the void right in front of them.
The golden glow was approximately the size of a piece of gravel—perhaps even smaller. The light it gave off was very weak; it could even be considered dim.
It gave one the impression of a firefly’s glow on a summer night; perhaps even fainter than that.
Lin Huang could not even feel any energy waves from that tiny golden gleam. However, he instinctively felt that it was dangerous and that he should stay as far away from it as he could.
Saber9’s reaction was even more straightforward. He seemed to be aware of the potential of this attack; unobtrusively he teleported to hide behind Virtuoso.
Nine Gloom obviously sensed the danger posed by this attack. Countless vines surged wildly toward Virtuoso and the golden glow, attempting to hamper the attack.
However, the strange thing was, his vines went through Virtuoso and Saber9’s bodies easily. They pierced through the golden glow as well, but nothing happened.
It was as if Virtuoso, Saber9, and the golden glow were just projections that did not really exist.
Given the futility of the attempt, Nine Gloom did not try to attack Lin Huang after that. Something seemed to occur to him, and he hurriedly performed a series of hand seals with both hands. Countless black vines transformed into white fog, encasing him in multiple layers. Within the blink of an eye, he had become a giant white cocoon. There was no telling how many layers he was enveloped in.
“A spiritual defense technique?!” Under his mask, Lin Huang’s brows shot up. He finally knew why he had not sensed any Divine Power waves from the golden glow earlier.
Virtuoso’s attack was a purely spiritual attack technique!
Nine Gloom had sensed this, so he had set up a heavy spiritual defense without hesitation.
By the time Nine Gloom’s cocoon had fully formed, Virtuoso’s golden glow had also fully consolidated.
The golden glow “slowly” drifted like a firefly and lightly penetrated the giant white cocoon…
Naturally, the slowness was a visual illusion experienced by Lin Huang and Saber9. In reality, this attack was impossible to dodge.
Everything happened within the blink of an eye—from Virtuoso using voice transmission to tell Lin Huang to run, to them using their trump card to consolidate that massive face; then to the golden glow shooting out and Nine Gloom extending countless vines in an attempt to stop Virtuoso’s attack, to Nine Gloom using his spiritual defense technique to complete his cocoon.
Subsequently, Lin Huang saw a dazzling golden ray of light rising from the giant cocoon.
In the beginning, it looked like sunlight piercing through the cracks of an eggshell, except that these were rays shining through gaps in the cocoon. However, a moment later, the giant cocoon swiftly began to collapse, and countless golden rays began to shine through even more gaps. Finally, the giant cocoon collapsed entirely, and all of earth and heaven were illuminated by that dazzlingly bright golden light!
“This time Nine Gloom has to be dead, right?!” Lin Huang squinted in the direction of where the golden light had burst forth. He could no longer sense any remnants of Nine Gloom’s aura.
