“An opening!” Jia Ying thought to herself as she saw a slight change in movement in the lance attack patterns and she immediately used it to her advantage. “Intermediate Spear Art! The Puzzled Spear of the Stag!” Jia Ying finally used an intermediate weapon art as she proceeded to push her spear straight into the Gingerbread Knight’s armour.
The Gingerbread Knight thought it was an opening from her and decided to press forth for the attack. Yet, the moment he took a step forward, the spear that was within his reach suddenly zigzagged and punctured his forearms instead of his body. Like a snake, the spear continued to bounce and pierced into the knight’s arms which subsequently entered the side of his armour.
There was no blood but instead a yellowish liquid oozing out of his neck. However, at that moment, Jia Ying was equally surprised that the lance knight still managed to dish out an attack, which would have stabbed her side of the abdomen, were it not for the quick reflex she gained from the adrenaline rush of fighting.
“Eww, is that butter?” The knight finally fell to the ground only to reveal the living room where Se Lang and Jia Ying saw two Gingerbread Knights oozing the same kind of butterish blood on the floor. The sword Gingerbread Knight had his head decapitated with a candy axe while the axe Gingerbread Knight was stabbed a dozen times with Shi Hui still repeating the action when Jia Ying saw such a brutal scene.
“Shi Hui! I am glad you are fine! I thought you were really injured by the attack just now!” Jia Ying tried to jump over the dead lance Gingerbread Knight and wanted to go closer to Shi Hui. Jia Ying knew that Shi Hui was an illusionist cultivator, so maybe the previous attack caused damage to her decoy rather than to her.
For all that worry, Jia Ying guessed that she should have known that her friend was not easily beaten and happily walked towards her until suddenly, the same sword that Shi Hui was stabbing the Gingerbread Knight with flew towards her. Jia Ying was caught off guard by that attack and was not able to dodge in time! The sword stabbed through her right arm and the impact was enough to knock her backwards. Se Lang was just behind her and he caught her from falling.
“Shi Hui! What is wrong with you?!” Se Lang saw what Shi Hui did and shouted at her. Shi Hui’s emotionless expression turned into a sorrowful and gloomy one. The chi within the area gradually became a personification of hatred and darkness within one’s heart which disheartened Jia Ying and Se Lang.
“Is she another illusion? No she seemed to be the real one just earlier. Could it be, that she got corrupted or something?” Jia Ying raised her spear up the moment Shi Hui released that amount of chi towards them. “I have no idea but I think, this is also a test for both of us and for her.” Se Lang took out his pole stick and it turned it into half, making it become a set of double batons.
Both Se Lang and Deng Long had learnt how to use each other’s weapon because there might be situations which demanded them to use their partner’s weapon if one was incapacitated or if their own weapon broke down. However, both of them only learnt the basics and just a weapon art or two.
“Let me take her down, I think I can incapacitate her, without injuring her.” Se Lang stepped forward and figured this was the best time to use the dual batons since they were mainly non-lethal in nature. Jia Ying agreed and stepped back temporarily for Se Lang to confront his corrupted girlfriend.
Se Lang finally noticed that her eyes began to glow, and even her skin had a tint of rainbow colour, which was getting brighter by the second. He realised it could only be the workings of Pyro Jack as he remembered how his popcorn caused the Deep Ones to turn rainbow in colour while instilling a tank full of rage within them.
“Why are you doing this? Why are you helping Jia Ying rather than me? What did she do to deserve this, but not me?” Shi Hui shrieked out the reason why she was so angry at Se Lang and she swiped her Icesteel War Fan, causing a breeze of ice to be blown towards him.
Se Lang tried to protect himself with the dual baton and shouted the basic weapon art of the Wobbling W.o.m.bat Style that had the power to defend oneself from elemental attacks. Unfortunately, he was a Wacky Wolf cultivator so when he used the style from the Wobbling W.o.m.bat Style, the resistance effects were further cut down to a quarter.
Nevertheless, it was better than nothing and Se Lang pulled through the attack as he walked slowly towards Shi Hui. Se Lang was not dodging the attack nor did he plan to retaliate. This however made Shi Hui rather nervous. Was her attack not enough of a warning? She decided to infuse even more chi into the next attack and swung both of her war fans at Se Lang.
On the other hand, Se Lang did contemplated whether he should fight all out against Shi Hui and knock her out cold but see how she could produce ice and illusions at the same time, it would not end well for him if he had a protracted fight against her. Besides, Se Lang felt that he had reached his chi limit in this dungeon. However, seeing Shi Hui was obviously being manipulated by Pyro Jack, he hoped that she could be pacified by his honest actions.
The Icesteel fans produced a large strong gust and this time around, the attack was strong enough to freeze his hands, causing him to have mild frostbites on his fingers, yet Se Lang pressed on forward. “WHY ARE YOU NOT ATTACKING ME?! ARE YOU NOT DENYING WHAT I HAD SAID!?” Shi Hui shouted with all her might. Meanwhile the enhanced chi releaser allowed her to place even more chi into her War Fans and even without moving her weapons, the entire house turned into ice. It was part ice, part illusion and Se Lang was barely able to move from the sudden cold.
Jia Ying, on the other hand, realised that if she did not do anything, Se Lang and herself would freeze to death. Hence, she decided to use her basic weapon art with the chi of her Sanguine Stag to burst forth and push Se Lang right in front of Shi Hui. On the contrary, Shi Hui did not expect that and her entire body became slightly weak from the eruption of chi, causing her to be unable to react against Jia Ying’s surprise move.
Se Lang took this opportunity and grabbed both girls into his arms and placed the two close to his cold chest. If Shi Hui wanted to retaliate, she would have done so, but in the arms of her lover, she could not help but start to tear up. Jia Ying also grabbed onto Shi Hui as Se Lang wrapped his frozen hands around the both of them.
“I do not matter as much as both of you matter to each other.” Se Lang softly whispered to Shi Hui and Jia Ying. “However, I’ve begun to appreciate the fact that both of you love me in your own ways. But if I am the one who caused the rift between the both of you, I should disappear from both of your lives.” Se Lang said unwillingly. He did not wish to break apart the close friendship the two girls shared.
Upon hearing Se Lang’s voice and reply, the rainbow popcorn’s effect somehow started to lose its effect and Shi Hui began to calm down a lot more.
“So, I plead you Shi Hui, return to normal, be the girl that I began to like. And Jia Ying, I thank you for your love towards me, no matter how you tried to hide it. I appreciate it a lot but I can only love one.” Se Lang said as the two girls looked at each other before glancing at Se Lang simultaneously. Se Lang did not expect two beautifully cute girls could have such starry eyes.
“Well…” Shi Hui hesitated for a while before she turned to look at Jia Ying again. “From the beginning, I would not mind sharing… Just that…” Shi Hui whispered as she winked at Jia Ying and they giggled right in front of Se Lang.
“What?” Se Lang tried to release his grip but the girls in turn held onto each of his arms into their bosoms instead.
“Just that I needed Jia Ying’s approval first.”
“Just that I needed Shi Hui’s approval first.”
The two said at the same time and sniggered at each other’s ridiculous replies.
“Wait! Wait!” Se Lang tried to struggle away from the two of them, but it was useless. Jia Ying’s strength rivalled his own and Shi Hui was not weak either. What did he suddenly get himself into?! Se Lang was very, very confused.
“Well, there is actually a sort of pact behind this…arrangement. I do not kno-” Before Shi Hui could finish her sentence, a large ‘thud’ sound came from behind them.
“Congratulations my lovebirds! It seemed that we have achieved a very favourable outcome in the end!” Pyro Jack clapped loudly as he sat on a large wooden trunk. The trio suddenly went into a battle stance no matter how relaxed they were a second ago.
“Calm down! Calm down! I am here to present you your rewards for conquering your fears!” Pyro Jack raised his hand up as he snapped his fingers, causing the wooden trunk to open. Indeed, the trunk was filled with a mixture of bronze, silver and a few gold panda medals that the cultivators could not help but be awed at.
Subsequently, an announcement was broadcasted stating that the dungeon instance was completed. In the next moment, they were all teleported to the Recovery Instance with Milk and a few Panda nurses on standby. The trunk was also by their side and it was real, not another illusion of Pyro Jack as they feared, so the trio could finally relax.
“I am here to check on your psychological status and your health. Please have a nice long rest while I check on you guys before proceeding back to- oh. Hahaha, guess they were really tired from the instance.” Milk saw that the three cultivators could not help but lean back on a wall of the recovery instance with the two girls holding on to Se Lang, falling asleep by his side.
“Those three.” Milk smiled as she took a picture with her magic powers and decided to give them a proper sleeping spell before the Panda nurses separated them and monitored their vitals.
