Chapter 854
“Move aside!”
Chen Xiaolian bellowed, the edge blade of the Flash Bow of Ketu-Rahu already slashing across the neck of the golden-armoured warrior standing before him.
Before the guardian could do anything, not even a single defensive or evasive action, his head had flown high up into the sky, followed by a spray of blood shooting out from the severed neck.
The Temple of Pisces had been dealt with as well.
The difficulty level of this instance dungeon was not particularly high. Apart from the set of armour that the guardians were wearing, which was slightly more durable than others, there was nothing else of note. Not only were they incapable of posing a threat to the current Chen Xiaolian, they could not even bog him for a moment.
He had also received a prompt from the instance dungeon through his personal system.
[The twelve temple guardians have been defeated. The second phase of this instance dungeon has been completed, now entering the third phase.
[Enter the Pope’s Chamber and defeat the Pope to complete this instance dungeon.]
Very good. Only one last step remains!
Chen Xiaolian felt reinvigorated once more.
The guardians of the zodiac temples had been very easy to defeat. Logically speaking, even if the Pope was somewhat stronger, the difficulty level of this final fight with the Pope should not differ much from the previous fights.
Chen Xiaolian was certain. He could defeat the final BOSS within half a minute’s time and complete this instance dungeon.
As for Shen, it would take him at least three minutes to catch up to him and reach the Pope’s Chamber.
That was enough.
Thanks to this period of recovery, the Moonless Fivefold Light Armour had already repaired itself to the point of having its general shape back. Without skipping a beat, Chen Xiaolian charged out of the Temple of Pisces. The pair of wings on his back flapped and his figure shot towards the highest mountaintop, where the Pope’s Chamber was situated.
His flying speed far exceeded that of his previous running speed. In but moments, Chen Xiaolian had arrived before the gate of the Pope’s Chamber.
His gaze flew past two rows of tall columns to give him a clear view of a figure in black robes sitting on the final throne within the hall. The figure’s right hand was holding a thin sceptre while his left hand was equipped with a shield.
Kill him!
Originally, Chen Xiaolian had planned to wait for Shen at the final area of this instance dungeon.
He had resorted to some trickery earlier, allowing him to successfully inject the piece of virus code into Shen’s body.
Chen Xiaolian doubted his ability to do it a second time.
Thus, if possible, it would be for the best for him to try and defeat Shen here and, at the very least, force him to compromise and accept his proposal.
Even if he could not do so, if it came down to it, he could just kill the final BOSS and leave this instance dungeon.
At present, however, he had changed his mind.
He had to leave immediately.
The previous situation with those few Players was highly abnormal.
Normally speaking, there should not be that many [S] class Players in the same team nor would they appear in this low-difficulty instance dungeon at the same time.
Chen Xiaolian felt very suspicious. The Development Team may have already set their sights upon this instance dungeon as well as… himself.
If that was the case, this was no longer the time to be paying attention to Shen.
He had to quickly end this instance dungeon and return to the safety of the new Zero City.
With a single leap, Chen Xiaolian flew towards the gate of the Pope’s Chamber. But just as he was charging through the gate, the instance dungeon’s prompt that had appeared on his personal system suddenly disappeared.
It was neither due to completion or a cancellation. It had simply disappeared, without so much as a warning.
At the same time, the Pope, who had been sitting upright within the Pope’s Chamber, also disappeared.
This is bad!
Chen Xiaolian’s heart instantly lurched.
His earlier concern… had become reality.
This instance dungeon… as expected, the Development Team had decided to personally interfere.
Once again, Chen Xiaolian attempted to utilize his authority to escape from this instance dungeon only to no avail. He did not know if this was due to Shen sealing up this instance dungeon with his power or if it was the Development Team that had closed off the exit for this instance dungeon.
With this… there was no longer a way to escape from this instance dungeon.
Chen Xiaolian landed, a wry smile appearing on his face as he sighed.
He could only hope that… Shen had been weakened by the virus code to the point where defeating him was possible.
Chen Xiaolian took a deep breath and began organizing his strength.
Next, he pulled the bowstring and aimed at the Temple of Pisces.
It did not take long before Shen’s figure appeared before his sights.
After going through the initial discomfort, Shen now appear to have adapted to the pain caused by the virus code. With a face devoid of expression, he flew up into the air once more.
However, it was obvious that he had become even weaker than before.
At that very moment, Chen Xiaolian’s strength had been raised to its limit and his eyes were affixed upon Shen’s figure.
Although he had failed to kill the Pope and complete the quest to leave this instance dungeon, the few minutes gained from arriving earlier were not for naught.
At the very least, he had gained the opportunity to charge up his power.
Shen also noticed Chen Xiaolian from afar. Gripping the hilt of his bronze sword with both hands, Shen swung a slash in Chen Xiaolian’s direction.
Release the bowstring!
Star Drop!
By relying on the few minutes that he had obtained with great difficulty to charge up his move, for the first time, Chen Xiaolian was finally able to successfully unleash the full version of the Star Drop move.
In an instant, the world around him lost its colour, turning into an expanse of greyness. Only a single mote of starlight was left, leaving the bow to shoot straight towards Shen.
Facing the incoming mote of starlight, Shen’s face turned incomparably solemn. Firmly gripping the bronze sword with both hands, he raised it high above his head.
Next, he slowly slashed down with it.
For Chen Xiaolian, this was his first time seeing Shen display such a strained expression while in battle.
Shen’s movements were very slow, as if frozen. And yet, despite the slow movements, in Chen Xiaolian’s eyes, it did not give him the impression that the movements were too slow to parry the Star Drop.
When the extremely long moment came to its end, Shen’s sword collided squarely against the Star Drop move.
An ear-piercing crackling sound rang out as two terrifying forces collided furiously against each other. A massive shockwave erupted as a result.
This time, the one to be blown away was Shen.
“Finally…”
Chen Xiaolian gripped the bow with both hands, the feelings of joy in his heart so great that he felt a desire to whoop out happily.
Shen had finally grown weak enough that he could no longer endure a fully-powered attack from the Flash Bow of Ketu-Rahu.
At any rate, they had already shown hostility towards each other. Additionally, the Development Team had also cancelled this instance dungeon’s quest. There was no longer any need to feel reluctant about anything. Just quickly finish him off, undo the seal and escape from this instance dungeon with his authority just as he had done with the Egypt instance dungeon. Then, hurry up and run back to Zero City.
Like a cannonball, Shen was blasted backwards. Coincidentally, he ended up crashing into the Temple of Pisces. The massive temple shook as it collapsed from the violent impact from the crash.
But Shen immediately flew up into the air once more, his chest heaving slightly as he stared at Chen Xiaolian.
Although he did not understand exactly what methods Chen Xiaolian used, he was certain that his power and authority were being rapidly weakened.
Furthermore, in order to prevent Chen Xiaolian from escaping this instance dungeon, he also had to allocate a portion of his power into sealing off the special entrances and exits of this instance dungeon.
Shen gave Chen Xiaolian a deep look. He had only just opened his mouth when seven to eight wounds burst open from his body, causing blood to spray out from them.
Even though that earlier fully-charged Star Drop move was far inferior to that of Du Wei’s, it was – surprisingly – enough to damage him.
“You truly… always giving me surprises, Chen Xiaolian!”
Shen panted softly and his hands tightened their grip on the bronze sword once more.
“However, do you think you’ll have another chance to charge up again?”
Light flashed and Shen rushed towards Chen Xiaolian.
Although Du Wei had also come up with a unique skill known as the Bowmoon Dance, the Flash Bow of Ketu-Rahu still needed to use long-ranged attacks in order to unleash it full power.
By closing the distance between them, Shen was confident that he could kill Chen Xiaolian.
Chen Xiaolian kept a close eye on Shen, who was rushing him. Holding the Flash Bow of Ketu-Rahu tightly, he began the bow dance.
The blades of the sword and bow rapidly collided against one another within that small space, again and again. Every clash would result in an eruption of power that would shatter the surrounding space into chaotic nothingness.
And while the ones colliding against one another were the bow and the sword, the resulting force from the clashes had still spread their way to the bodies of the two users, causing a continuous accumulation of injuries. The Moonless Fivefold Light Armour, which had repaired most of the damage it sustained earlier, gradually became damaged and broke off once more from the shockwaves.
The blade of the bow and the tip of the sword collided furiously one final time. Then, with a flash of light, Chen Xiaolian finally ended up losing out in the clash of strength and was thrown far backwards.
“And here I thought… the power loss would be unlimited.” Shen was standing firmly at the same spot. His face revealed that he was not feeling good, but it was still far better compared to Chen Xiaolian. “Regardless of what it is you did to me earlier, it has stopped.”
“But the power that you lost will never return.” Chen Xiaolian crawled back up, panting heavily. His whole body was on the verge of collapsing. Even so, he held tightly onto the Flash Bow of Ketu-Rahu and snickered.
“Your heart must aching a lot right now, no?”
Shen was likely in the dark about the effects of the code that Osgiliath had taught him. Naturally, it meant that he could trick him for now.
The muscles on Shen’s face twitched slightly.
Everything that happened just now was beyond his comprehension.
After obtaining the angel wings and reading the source code within them, his power had increased greatly.
But now, that power and authority had – within just a short period of time – vanished.
Moreover, he still had to put aside a portion of his power to seal this instance dungeon so as to prevent Chen Xiaolian from leaving.
Considering the rise and fall of each of their strength level, Shen suddenly realized that he was no longer able to utterly trample Chen Xiaolian.
“It’s true. Even after you’re weakened, you are still stronger than me. But, at the very least, killing me is no longer that easy.” Chen Xiaolian wiped the blood off the corner of his mouth.
“In the past, if you are a lion, I can only be considered a hyena. Now, you have become a leopard. I couldn’t beat you back then, I still can’t beat you now. But if I have to put it all on the line, it’s not like I do not have what it takes to take you down with me. Do you think I can’t do it?”
Shen shot a sideway glance at Chen Xiaolian before gripping the bronze sword in his hand once more. Next, he pointed it at Chen Xiaolian.
“You still want to fight? You’re about as mad as Bai Qi!” Chen Xiaolian sighed, a bitter smile on his face. He too raised the Flash Bow of Ketu-Rahu once more. “Why are you so obsessed with snatching back the Oddity? I’ll say I again. Can’t you reconsider my proposal?”
Shen responded coldly, “Because that item originally belongs to m-”
Cha!
Shen abruptly stopped speaking.
A hand was protruding out from his chest, dripping with blood.
In an instant, the cold expression on Shen’s face transformed into that of shock.
He lowered his head, looking down at the hand coming out from his chest in disbelief.
Likewise, the expression on Chen Xiaolian’s face also changed.
A figure had, unbeknownst to them, appeared behind Shen. However, his view of the figure was mostly blocked by Shen. There was no way to get a clear look at the figure’s face.
The only thing that he could see was the pair of wings growing out from the figure’s back!
The source of this c𝐨ntent is fre𝒆w(e)bn(o)vel