San Tian Liang Jiao
Chapter 1332 Return to Jumo Island (22)
Even as his left hand was extended in an inviting gesture, his right hand launched an attack.
The next second, the rock, moving faster than a cannonball, pierced through Honghu's body…
"Hmm?" However, upon seeing this, Blackbeard revealed a hint of surprise.
"Hmph… he's got more than a few tricks up his sleeve," Mad-Eye, his abilities restricted by shackles, commented with a cold laugh.
Clearly, Blackbeard and Mad-Eye were the only two "captains" who immediately understood what Honghu had done. As for the officers on Blackbeard's ship, at least three or four seconds after the rock was launched… they were all fooled by Honghu.
Whoosh—bang!
Soon, the rock that had passed through Honghu's "body" collided with a tree in the forest, breaking it in half.
As the tree fell, Blackbeard's officers belatedly realized… the "Honghu" pierced by the rock just now was merely an afterimage.
Shua shua shua—
At the same moment, the sound of light arrows piercing the air rang out.
These light arrows were very strange, as if a dozen or so people were attacking from all directions simultaneously, but looking around… apart from small points of light exploding in the night sky, there was no sign of Honghu or anyone else.
"Heh… can't underestimate them after all… these interdimensional travelers…" Faced with this storm of attacks, Blackbeard stood his ground, seemingly unaffected, muttering to himself.
When the light arrows reached about a meter away from Blackbeard, they collided with his "protective aura," and were dispelled.
Although the captain seemed relaxed, his crew did not possess such god-like passive defense. The officers had to rely on their own physical skills or abilities to deal with Honghu's attacks.
For a time, the four of them were in a flurry of activity…
The worst off was Nesru, because he had to protect Mad-Eye in addition to himself, so he was unfortunately struck by an arrow during this rapid, continuous barrage.
"Ten seconds already, that's about right, isn't it?" When the light arrow barrage reached exactly the tenth second, Blackbeard spoke again.
Before he finished speaking, Honghu reappeared.
Honghu, who reappeared, stood lightly on the water like a floating leaf, still holding his bow of light. At this moment, his complexion looked very bad… not the "bad" of "being pierced by a rock," but the kind that comes with a sharp decrease in physical and spiritual energy.
"Hah…" After slightly adjusting his breathing, Honghu looked at Blackbeard and said with a wry smile, "Putting aside your despair-inducing defensive abilities… your dynamic vision can keep up with and see through my moves… I'm really feeling a little frustrated."
"Hmph…" Blackbeard sneered, "You don't need to belittle yourself… your Flying Sickle Kick was the fastest I've ever seen… not to mention, you can perform accurate ranged attacks while using that kind of explosive movement technique." He paused, "Unfortunately… there's a qualitative difference in power level between you and me, and in the face of such a difference, technique loses its meaning."
"Hehe…" Hearing this, Honghu's wry smile turned into a bitter one, "Then… I can only try to bridge this gap with willpower."
"Oh?" Blackbeard seemed to sense something from the other's expression and words.
However, this time… Honghu didn't give him the time or space to think.
In the blink of an eye!
A flash of white light appeared, and Honghu, who had been standing on the water just a moment ago, was now at Blackbeard's side.
"With just you…" And Blackbeard, at this moment, fully understood the other's intentions.
In the second it took him to utter the first three words, Honghu had straightened his arms and placed them in front of him, his palms facing him.
"...you think you can die with…" And as Blackbeard uttered the latter half of this sentence, an astonishing white light erupted from Honghu's palms.
Boom—
In an instant, a burst of pure white spiritual energy exploded right next to Blackbeard's side. At this distance, his "protective aura" naturally couldn't activate.
Even Blackbeard suffered some damage.
[Name: Sacred Contract - Burning Lotus]
[Skill Card Attribute: Active Skill, disappears after five uses (35)]
[Skill Category: Combat Spiritual Art]
[Effect: Overlapping palms, releases a powerful spiritual particle explosion]
[Consumption: Spiritual Energy Value 1]
[Learning Conditions: Combat Specialization D, Spiritual Arts Specialization A]
[Note: One of the Thirty-Six Sacred Contracts of the Spirit Chasing Temple. Requires mastery of the temple's other skill, Diamond Soul, to fully unleash its power, otherwise the caster will suffer a degree of backlash at the moment the skill is activated.]
One look at the description and you can tell that the skill Honghu used was not the complete version.
Of course, if he really got the complete version, he wouldn't even be able to use it, because the complete version of [Sacred Contract - Burning Lotus] added the "Requires mastery of Diamond Soul Heart Sutra" condition directly to the "Learning Conditions" section.
So, where do you get this "Diamond Soul"? Two ways… first, look for it in the Surprise Box; second, of course, is to follow the hint in the skill description, find the "Spirit Chasing Temple" in a script world in Thriller Paradise, and then try to get the monks there to teach you.
In short, it's a matter of luck. At least Honghu hasn't learned it yet. Therefore, after using this move on Blackbeard, Honghu himself inevitably suffered severe damage.
Seconds later, when the intense white light dissipated, Blackbeard took a closer look and found that Honghu had disappeared again, and this time… Blackbeard couldn't even sense the other's aura.
"Tch… 'Dying together is fake, using the opportunity to escape is the real thing…'?" Blackbeard glanced at the wound on the outside of his left arm and spat in annoyance.
Just now, knowing that his aura shield couldn't be triggered, Blackbeard instinctively raised his arm to block the attack, and as a result… his left arm was blasted with blood, the wound so deep that you could almost see the bone.
On the other hand, at the same time that Blackbeard was speaking, the four officers under his command had just recovered from the temporary "blinding" effect caused by the white light.
"Heh…" Only Mad-Eye saw everything clearly, because when the white light blinded the eye he had exposed, he quickly uncovered his eyepatch, revealing the other eye under the eyepatch (many pirates would wear eyepatches over their normal eyes, so that when the surrounding light changed drastically, they could simply remove the eyepatch and regain their vision with their "backup eye"; in addition, wearing an eyepatch could also, to some extent, make the opponent careless or intimidate them). "You should be glad that the kid doesn't seem to be very good at close combat, and that his ranged attacks trigger your protective aura… otherwise, your injuries would probably be even worse…"
"You call this an injury?" After hearing Mad-Eye's words, Blackbeard also refused to be outdone in attitude, and immediately put on an indifferent look, asking in return.
Mad-Eye was choked by him, so he turned his head away and stopped mocking him.
"Hmph… you clever little brat, don't think I don't know what you did…" After a moment, Blackbeard's wound had almost healed. At this time, he suddenly muttered to himself a few times, and walked to Nesru's side.
Just as Nesru was about to ask the captain what he was going to do, Blackbeard raised his hand and flipped his palm, aiming it at Nesru's calf, which had just been shot by the light arrow.
Then, a "hiss" was heard, and a small piece of light gravel, the size of a broken diamond, flew out of Nesru's wound and was quickly absorbed into Blackbeard's palm.
"Captain… what is this?" Nesru asked, looking at the light gravel in doubt.
"It's some kind of 'tracking beacon' he left behind." Blackbeard replied. "Hmph…" He snorted with a forced smile, and then said, "That kid is very clever… the moment I threw a stone at him, he analyzed the situation very clearly."
"From his point of view—he definitely has no chance of winning in a fight; if he wants to escape, he must escape far enough, far enough that I can't detect him, that's the only way he's safe."
"But… if he retreats to that distance, he would be 'losing' us, which is something he can't accept. So, he put on that good show for us just now…"
"Hmm… I see." Mr. Woge, who was beside him, understood almost everything when he heard this, and immediately responded, "Judging from the extreme speed he used when he used the Flying Sickle Kick… if he really wanted to run, he could have run away the moment you threw the stone, Captain, and showed your intention to attack. He chose to stay… either he was confident in winning, or he had another purpose."
"That's right." Blackbeard took over the conversation and looked at Nesru beside him. "And when you were shot by the light arrow, his purpose was achieved. In theory, he should have retreated immediately at that time, but he still didn't rush to leave… because he's smart enough. He knows that he has to make at least one more effective and powerful attack attempt to divert our attention and cover up the secret move he left behind."
"Uh…" Nesru's brain wasn't fast, but it was better than the Marx Brothers. He could still keep up with the captain's train of thought. "Heh… hehe…" After figuring it out, he laughed, "Then now, isn't he just wasting his efforts?"
"More than just wasting his efforts…" As Blackbeard spoke, he crushed the light gravel in his hand into powder and scattered it into the wind. "That last move that kid launched against me… obviously exceeded the scope of what his abilities could handle. In the moment when the white light was about to block my vision, I clearly saw… his hand was blown open just like mine." He shrugged and smiled sinisterly, "Hmph… that's what you call trying to steal a chicken only to lose the rice used to lure it."