Volume Two, Devil's Game: Chapter 53: Lu Yi's Helper

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“Lu Yi, I knew about this sort of thing long ago!” Tan Weiwei shouted, sweeping her rapier across her front to draw a cross.

“Glory Sword Art—Star Slash!”

With another cry, Tan Weiwei’s energy grew increasingly chaotic. She drove the tip of her rapier hard into the center of the cross.

The instant the blade touched the intersection, the cross began to spin, splitting into several smaller crosses. Those crosses continued to rotate and divide until a dense storm of cross-shaped points of light shot toward Lu Yi.

Tan Weiwei’s complexion changed several times after unleashing the attack.

Faced with the vast star-shaped barrage, Lu Yi felt a trace of trouble. Each point of light was not particularly powerful on its own, but there were simply too many of them. His physical strength had not yet been formally enhanced, and he was severely lacking in defensive options.

“Damn it. Looks like I’ll have to meet attack with attack again.”

His thoughts turned, and a great mass of dark energy wrapped around him. In the next instant, Lu Yi’s speed surged.

Seeing this, Tan Weiwei forcibly steadied herself. She raised her rapier and shouted, “Combine!”

Countless points of starlight suddenly converged in one place, reforming into three cross-shaped slashes that flew toward Lu Yi. Tan Weiwei said viciously, “Let’s see how you get through this.”

“I learned this move from you.”

Lu Yi’s voice suddenly emerged from within the black mist. A figure leaped out, flinging a massive blade of water backward while spinning through the three cross-shaped slashes.

After landing, Lu Yi charged toward Tan Weiwei, who was clearly running out of strength, and laughed several times.

“Watcher, coming through!”

“You think you can break out?”

Tan Weiwei gave Lu Yi a cold smile. “Shift!”

A magic array appeared beneath her feet. With a flash of light, the person standing before Lu Yi had become Liang Feisong.

With a roar, Liang Feisong plunged his crystal sword into the ground. The earth around him exploded and shattered, sending Lu Yi and the chunks of soil beneath his feet flying into the air.

“Get back!”

Liang Feisong yanked out the crystal sword and brought it crashing down.

An earth-colored wave surged from the blade. Lu Yi immediately leaped and punched toward the front, but his fist struck nothing. Then he felt as though something heavy had suddenly pressed down upon his body. Before he could react, he was hurled backward through the air.

Lu Yi was not seriously injured. The moment he landed, he rolled over and sprang to his feet.

“Gravity manipulation?”

He then looked toward the other two. It seemed that because of his charge, Tan Weiwei and Deng Yuqi had been forced to retreat, widening the encirclement slightly.

Tan Weiwei’s complexion had improved somewhat. “You really are a troublesome prey. Even under such unfavorable circumstances, you managed to discover the flaw in my arrangement.

“If you could still unleash the skill you used to kill me the first two times, you might truly escape. But judging by the looks of things, you can’t use it anymore.”

Lu Yi frowned slightly, then smiled. “And what of it? Just as you said, the people you’ve captured are either weak or in poor condition. How long can you maintain this combined attack?”

“How long?”

Tan Weiwei and the other two laughed at the same time. Then their expressions turned cold in unison.

“Long enough to kill you.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, Deng Yuqi and Tan Weiwei raised their weapons together. Lu Yi immediately sensed that the flow of energy had changed. It was no longer being directed toward a single person.

Instead, it had become far more complicated. Now that Lu Yi had moved away from Liang Feisong, Liang Feisong’s energy naturally flowed toward the other two, but Tan Weiwei and Deng Yuqi were exchanging energy as well.

Deng Yuqi was the first to prepare her spell. She held her staff horizontally before her and slapped its shaft with her left palm. A crystal of ice appeared in front of her.

The moment it appeared, the ice crystal rapidly spread toward Lu Yi. As it extended, it transformed from an inconspicuous little crystal into one sharp icicle after another.

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Lu Yi closed his left eye, then abruptly opened it. The two points of light within his eye began spinning noticeably faster.

Feeling his energy rise rapidly, Lu Yi’s confidence grew. He raised his right palm and struck toward the incoming icicles. Dozens of black bolts of light shot out at once.

When the black bolts collided with the icicles, waves of energy rippled out without end. It was plain to see that every icicle touched by a black bolt had been shattered down to its base, halting the spread of the ice.

Just then, Lu Yi suddenly felt a cool breeze brush across his cheek. His pupils contracted.

Tan Weiwei had appeared beside him from nowhere, thrusting her rapier toward his body.

Lu Yi hurriedly slapped the rapier aside and kicked at Tan Weiwei. The instant his foot struck, the Tan Weiwei before him dispersed.

“A phantom? No—the sword just now was real.”

Before Lu Yi could think any further, he felt someone strike him heavily in the back.

He immediately spat out blood and was sent flying.

“Die!”

While Lu Yi was still in the air, he heard Liang Feisong’s roar. Without turning around, Lu Yi could sense the immense energy continuously spilling out behind him.

Though Lu Yi took every measure he could, he was ultimately unable to prevent a long wound from being torn open across his back.

Seeing Liang Feisong’s attack knock Lu Yi from the sky, Tan Weiwei said mockingly, “My, that was close. You almost died. In a situation like this, aren’t you going to use that defensive measure?”

After rising to his feet, Lu Yi warily surveyed the three people surrounding him. Naturally, he could not use that defensive item lightly.

When Lu Yi remained silent, Tan Weiwei’s expression turned cold.

“Heh. Do you still think you can break through my encirclement? I’d like to see how long you can keep enduring.”

The two sides clashed once more.

The Watcher had evidently adjusted his formation with great speed. He divided the three of them into two groups. Tan Weiwei and Deng Yuqi, whose conditions were clearly worse, formed one group and jointly endured the energy of all three people before launching their attack together. Liang Feisong, in much better condition, formed the other group alone and directly bore the energy of all three.

Faced with the Watcher’s arrangement, Lu Yi continued to parry, yet was repeatedly beaten back.

As the minor wounds on Lu Yi’s body continued to multiply, Tan Weiwei began taunting him again.

“Lu Yi, weren’t you refusing to use that method? I’d like to see how long you can hold out against attacks like mine.”

Hearing her words, Lu Yi frowned slightly. The Watcher was clearly wearing him down through constant attacks. If the wounds on his body continued to increase, they would inevitably affect his performance later. By then, even with the defensive item, his chances of breaking out would be greatly reduced.

He swept his gaze across the surroundings. Everything that needed to be prepared was already in place. If the others failed to arrive in time, Lu Yi would not continue forcing himself to hold out.

At that moment, a voice entered his mind directly. A trace of joy flickered in Lu Yi’s eyes, but he immediately concealed it.

However, that brief distraction cost him another wound. His body swayed several times before he fixed Tan Weiwei with a ferocious stare.

“You were careless, Watcher.”

“Hm?”

Tan Weiwei and the other two looked at him in confusion.

Under their watchful eyes, Lu Yi raised his right hand and clenched it. Then he revealed a look of complete confidence.

“Lu Yi, what are you doing?” Tan Weiwei demanded as she swung her rapier again.

This time, the blade’s radiance vanished before it had traveled even two meters.

“What kind of technique is this?”

Tan Weiwei stared at Lu Yi warily, while the other two also assumed defensive stances.

“Guess.”

Lu Yi grinned. Black energy, resembling countless grains of sand, continuously rose from the earth, forming a layer of black mist near the ground. The mist churned endlessly, occasionally sending up a tiny wave.

“This is—”

Tan Weiwei’s expression shifted slightly. “So that’s why you were knocked back every time. You were setting this up. Because you had to make sure you could still control the energy after dispersing it, the amount of energy you used while defending was insufficient.”

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However, after exchanging glances, Tan Weiwei and the other two burst into laughter.

“Lu Yi, I’ve already figured it out. You learned this move from me. Do you really think using my own technique against me will work?”

Lu Yi smiled faintly. “That depends on who’s using it.”

As he spoke, he lifted a gigantic black sphere of light in both hands.

The moment Tan Weiwei saw the sphere, she immediately began gathering her energy.

Seeing her aura steadily rise, Lu Yi’s smile only grew brighter.

He pushed the sphere upward. After rising a short distance, it exploded. A mass of black mist instantly enveloped Lu Yi and spread outward, while the black mist on the ground also rose into the air. In an instant, the entire encirclement was shrouded in darkness.

“A smokescreen?”

Tan Weiwei’s face was full of disdain.

“Hm?”

Liang Feisong, who had been watching the black mist intently, suddenly heard a faint sound slicing through the air. He immediately swung his crystal sword toward the direction he sensed. The sword’s radiance shot into the mist, and moments later, a deflected throwing knife stabbed into a tree beside him.

“Going head-on? No. It must be a feint.”

Thinking this, Liang Feisong relaxed slightly and began gathering energy to support Tan Weiwei and Deng Yuqi.

But in the next instant, a succession of sounds tore through the air. Dozens of black bolts of light attacked Liang Feisong at once. Even through the black mist, the outline of a human figure could be seen rapidly approaching.

“What? You really dare to come?”

Liang Feisong’s expression changed drastically. He hurriedly withdrew his energy, then drew a portion of energy from Tan Weiwei and Deng Yuqi.

The human-shaped silhouette soon reached the edge of the black mist. A figure formed from black fog swung its fist toward Liang Feisong.

“Get back!”

Brilliant light erupted from the crystal sword as Liang Feisong brought it down with tremendous force. The figure offered no resistance and was cleaved in two.

“It’s fake!”

The expressions of all three changed drastically. But by then, it was already too late. The black mist before Tan Weiwei suddenly parted, and Lu Yi leaped straight out of it.

“Still haven’t learned your lesson, Lu Yi?”

Tan Weiwei’s face was full of mockery. She raised her rapier and shouted, “Shift!”

Two magic arrays appeared simultaneously beneath Tan Weiwei and Liang Feisong.

Seeing this, Lu Yi showed no trace of panic. While still in midair, he kicked repeatedly. Each kick produced a black ripple that spread through the air.

The first ripple struck Tan Weiwei, and her expression immediately changed. Before she could react, the second and third ripples struck her as well, sending her flying backward.

“Watcher, we’ll fight again next time!”

Lu Yi laughed several times and charged out.

“Leave him here!”

Tan Weiwei let out an angry roar from midair, and all three launched their attacks at Lu Yi.

Liang Feisong’s gravity manipulation and Deng Yuqi’s freezing magic took effect simultaneously. Lu Yi’s speed immediately fell by half. Then all three attacks struck him at once.

With a deafening explosion, Lu Yi fell straight down from the sky, while a flower was also flung from his hand.

“Hahaha!”

Tan Weiwei leaped up from the ground and laughed together with Deng Yuqi and Liang Feisong. But their laughter did not last long. In the next instant, all three of their expressions changed.

“Something’s wrong.”

By then, however, it was already too late. Several sword flashes sliced through the leaves and branches, shooting toward the three of them. The radiance vanished in the blink of an eye, and the three collapsed to the ground in disbelief. With a single move, they had lost the ability to fight.

At that moment, Jade Toad came bounding out of the woods, hugging her sword.

“Hey, wait for me. Ow.”

Shen Yixue sucked in a sharp breath and followed behind Jade Toad, one hand rubbing her temples.

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