Chapter 2367 - The Fifth Finger
"The Grandvoid Compendium and Xiaozhi Sword Art...." Yi Taoyao's face paled when she saw the black sword that was pressed against her. It crackled with purple vapor lightning sword ki, some of which had even spread into her body through the sword. The pain she felt from it and the pressure she felt from spatial compression told her that this wasn't a dream.
If Tianming hadn’t stopped his strike, she wouldn't have been able to block it and would have had her astral organs pierced through, completely incapacitating her. Her Oldgod Ring would've been destroyed as well.
Tianming pulled back the sword and beckoned. "Now, Little Sister, own it."
"Holy shit.... You called her Big Sister when you needed to ask her something, but now you call her Little Sister after you won! How shameless!" Ying Huo said, descending from above onto Tianming's head, its wings burning with full splendor.
Phew.... She sighed, relaxing herself somewhat. Though it had just been an instant, she got a hint of what death tasted like. He's a twelfth-level stellaminor, no different from the last time we met. But.... It was incredibly weird! She still found it hard to believe such a weak opponent had actually managed to defeat her. She kept her colorful eyes locked on to Tianming for some time, mulling over her complex emotions and unable to say a single word.
In other words, Lin Mu's son, someone who should've been a joke, defeated me using some odd method. He's just a normal god, but he defeated a fourth-level astral god.... Ebonia will be shaken. She didn't know this wasn’t the first time something like this had happened, but she wasn’t wrong to believe that Ebonia had never been shocked to this extent.
Back at the Infinitum Swordsea, the council of the Lin Clan announced that Tianming's reward was raised to one and a half million merit points after he obtained second place. Lin Lingxiao had only received half a million merit points for getting ranked fifth during his time! The Swordgod Lin Clan hadn't had a disciple that ranked third for a long time, let alone second. The name of Lin Feng only kept rising without end.
Yi Taoyao still didn't quite seem able to accept the fact that she had been crushed. The look in her eyes had completely changed.
"Alright...." She took a deep breath and demanifested her totems. She didn't want to shame her fellow luxdaemons by being a sore loser, after all. "Congratulations!" She took out a dagger, bit her teeth, raised her hand, and pulled her four fingers back before she pointed her middle finger at Tianming.
"Hey, point it down. I feel violated," Tianming shyly said.
"Hmph." She merely glared at him, and her blade fell.
"Ugh...." Even though it was just a finger, not her heart, it still hurt to suffer a thorough cut like that. She visibly winced, though he didn't pay attention to her expression at all. He hurriedly took the finger in his palm.
"How fragrant," Xian Xian said as its spiritform gave the finger a sniff.
"Go away, you flesh-eating tree! This tiny finger wouldn't fill the gaps in your bark in the slightest!" Tianming glared at Xian Xian, then turned his eyes back to Yi Taoyao. Though she looked like she was in pain, she remained calm. Starlight formed around the stump of her finger. It probably wouldn't be long before a new one would grow in its place. "I didn't think you'd actually follow through with our promise.
"Are you saying that if I had won, you wouldn't have kept your word?" she said with an unfriendly look.
"Perhaps, haha."
She bit her lip and started forming a new finger by rearranging the astrons in her body. "You can eliminate me while I'm still injured."
"There's no rush. Who knows if you'll really live if I break your Oldgod Ring?" Tianming said, worried.
"Are you concerned about me?" A weird feeling tugged at her heart when she recalled how 'intimate' they had been in the small room during the first phase.
"Where’s your mind wandering? I just don't want to offend a relative of the rex mundi. Who knows if someone would be sent to cut me down once I leave?"
"There's no need for you to worry about that."
"Why?"
"If I’m able to return after the Oldgod Ring is broken, nobody will do anything to you. If I die despite the ring, however...." She looked up toward Shenxi Shang's mini star. "You'd also die when your ring is broken." In that case, there was nothing anyone could find fault with.
"Oh. Looks like you don't really think well of my chances. Who knows? Maybe I'll be the lucky one to survive!"
"Even if you really are the only one to survive being eliminated, it won't end well for you." Her words sent a sting down Shenxi Shang and Tianming's hearts. They were each one of the few people that still survived, as far as they knew.
"That's true." Tianming made a pained smile, while Shenxi Shang kept completely quiet. He would have to fight Tianming soon.
"That's why you need to send me out of here." She closed her eyes and raised her Oldgod Ring toward Tianming. As she didn't know if she would survive, her astral heart beat faster and faster. Even someone like her feared this place.
"Don't be in such a hurry. I'll let you stay a bit longer," Tianming said. While she had been defeated, as far as the Oldgod Ring was concerned, she was still in the match. Shenxi Shang had no choice but to stay up there.
"What are you planning?" Yi Taoyao said, opening her eyes.
"Put your Oldgod Ring away." Tianming winked to hint at her.
After talking to him, she no longer held any prejudice against him and had found that he was actually quite an easy person to get along with. Rolling her eyes, she did as she was told. "Stop acting all mysterious."
Putting away her Oldgod Ring was actually quite dangerous. It would mean that Tianming could kill her without anyone seeing it actually happen. Though, she wasn't too worried about that; she wasn't that weak, so if Tianming chose to attack her, she would be able to quickly put the ring back on.
Tianming made a hushing sound and raised Yi Taoyao's middle finger, his back facing Shenxi Shang's direction. It felt really odd to hold a woman’s severed finger like that.
Yi Taoyao found it rather weird as well. She got closer and asked, "The stone pillar has already fused into my finger. What can you do about it?"
"There’s always a way." He gave the finger a few pinches and sniffed it, then held it like a pen and started spinning it in his hand. Fortunately, the finger of an astral god looked like a piece of white jade, making Tianming look less like a psychopath while he toyed with it.
"Please show a modicum of respect for what’s technically a part of my corpse," she said.
"Oh, sorry!" he snickered. He knew that the being inside the ring would definitely have a way to deal with the finger since she had asked him to take it back.
"Let's just try what I originally did. I'll bind it with my blood and destroy it." He did as he said so, crushing the finger into stardust before Yi Taoyao's very eyes. He bunched the dust together and rubbed it around his right hand's middle finger.
"Oh, now your finger is inside her finger," Ying Huo said.
Yi Taoyao bonked Tianming on the head with her nunchucks at the sight of the horrid display, though Tianming completely ignored her, entirely focused on the changes of the finger. Had she really decided to beat him up, he would be in quite some trouble. "Does he really trust me that much?"
"Boss, why aren't you putting your guard up against her?" Meow Meow asked.
"I'm too pretty to kill," Tianming said.
The billion Yin Chens collectively puked. As they did, Tianming's eyes brightened. The finger had been taken care of and his right hand was now entirely green!
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