Chapter 135: Interesting Boy
Yves stood stock-still in the smog when suddenly a peal of sharp laughter rang out of him. He sounded like a doxy. “Ah-hahah! Nobody has dared to speak to me in this manner since long ago. A youngling just half-step into the nature level, saying this to me! Hilarious! If you don't tell me your name this instant, I will cut you a thousand times. I will carve out a thousand pieces of flesh from your body. Would you tell me then?”
The black fog rolled over Zen once again, and suddenly, he sensed a fierce killing aim at his back that would rush straight to his heart.
Zen's soul was exceptional. Some powerful men of the Illuminating Soul Realm could not be left standing as his opponent. Yves was just a nature creature. Zen discerned his opponent's position easily, perceiving from the killing aim that Yves was coming up with behind him.
Zen made a show of facing the front, as though confronting a formidable enemy there. He intentionally tried to trick Yves into thinking he had made a mistake as he prepared to strike his opponent once attacked from behind.
“Die!”
Zen felt the killing aim at his back grow even stronger. He figured that Yves was close at hand, so he waved the broken flying blade, showing Yves the back of his hand.
Poof!
Zen felt the blade hit someone and assumed its razor-sharp edge had stabbed Yves.
In an instant, another person materialized in front of Zen. It was Yves!
“Ah-haha!” Appearing out of nowhere, Yves lifted his snake-shaped dagger to cut at Zen's chest before retreating into the black fog. He roared with laughter. “You are only half a step into the nature level, but your reflexes have impressed me. You are competent, but... your strength is not enough! Just half a step into the nature level! Your understanding of the life vitality is not yet profound.”
Zen stood shrouded in the black fog, his brows raised with worry.
It was strange. He had definitely sensed someone behind him, and his intuition told him that it had undoubtedly been Yves. Zen cut him with the broken flying blade, so how could he appear before him the very next moment?
What was going on?
But Yves didn't leave Zen much time to ponder over this question.
With Zen lost in thought, the black fog rolled again. "Ah-hah, you can't figure it out? Rest assured!
There have been many like you who couldn't unravel the mystery. They have already met the grim reaper!"
the sharp voice barked out. Zen felt the killing aim on his left.
'This time it's on my left?' As soon as the thought came to him, he diverted his attention. He waved the broken flying blade on his right in a fierce blow. 'It is on the right!'
Poof!
Zen's blade hit Yves once again. However, when Zen pulled it back, he didn't see any fresh blood on the edge. He furrowed his brows, a sense of foreboding looming over him.
'I was wrong. It was at the back!'
Stab!
Zen's back was cut sharply and he cried out. The snake-shaped dagger tore at his skin as hot blood welled up. Yves had struck him hard, and Zen's flesh was lacerated.
What just happened?
Was this an illusion?
Zen had sensed the presence of a figure on his left, and then immediately thought that someone was on his right, and it should be just Yves!
How did the two of them disappear in the blink of an eye, while in the end, Yves attacked him from behind?
Bemused, Zen wondered if Yves was not one person but two or even three of them together!
But Yves had been alone when he walked over to Zen just now. From where did two more appear? What was strange was that the two of them were cut by Zen's blade, but seemingly nothing had happened to them. He heard no cries of agony or sounds of them falling to the ground.
“Ah-hhaha! Tell me your name, youngling. If you tell me, I will make your death come a little faster. What's the point in suffering the pain of being cut a thousand times? You can imagine how you'll feel when my snake-shaped dagger slits into your flesh with every lash...” Yves' voice rang in the air.
'There is something wrong, ' Zen thought to himself. It must be Yves alone. The seven noble clans had found out in their own ways that Zen was only half a step into the nature level. He was not even worth mentioning in their eyes, so why would they send several others to take him on?
There was only one person here, Yves. So the two people who appeared on his left and right just now...
Comprehension dawned on him in a flash, as if he was struck by lightning.
“Don't brag,” Zen sneered. “You really think you'll get the chance to cut me a thousand times?”
“Why won't I get the chance? You've already been cut by me twice... Only 998 slashes are left. I have plenty of time to play with you...” As Yves finished talking, the black fog rolled forward again. It appeared he would launch a third attack at Zen.
This time, Zen stood there blankly and waited for Yves to approach him.
Yves had a special plan of attack, and it always swung in his favor. This time, however, he had encountered Zen.
Zen's intuition sensed everything. He felt the same killing aim come from his left, front, as well as from the back.
“As I expected, you plan to attack me from the front this time!” Zen suddenly dashed forward, and the broken flying blade hit the person on his front for the third time. When it hit Yves, Zen made a circular motion with his finger, and a dark purple demonic life energy surged in the air.
The dark purple demonic life energy was obscure and had a similar color to the black fog conjured by Yves. Unless one really looked at it, one would miss it.
The demonic life energy unfurled in the winds, unleashing itself from its constraints like sweeping riffles in a river.
When the energy touched the black fog, Zen smacked his head lightly as if rebuking himself. He shouted, “Alas, I guessed wrong. It isn't in the front. It must be... at the back!”
Poof!
Energy escaped from the Phoenix Crystal on Zen's right arm and his speed increased to a realm of horror. In the blink of an eye, he had cut the figure behind him more than thirty times.
Zen slashed the blade too quickly, so he didn't hear Yves's screeches until he pulled back.
“Ah...”
Zen wielded the blade again but didn't kill Yves. He slashed thirty times within moments and chopped off Yves's arms and legs.
He could have cut Yves into pieces by hacking him with his broken flying blade, but he didn't go that far.
Zen swept the black fog aside and trotted to Yves. Looking at the effeminate man, he asked coldly, “Do you still want to know my name?”
“How did you find me?” Yves screamed.
“Are you very curious?” Zen asked with a wry smile.
Yves's face was contorted in severe pain. “Tell me!”
“Go to if you wish to find the answer!” After Zen spoke, the broken flying blade in his hand hurled into the air to stab Yves in the neck before shooting to the ground. Zen snapped his thumb and the blade flew back to him.
In the beginning, Zen had been misled.
Man's life vitality was wonderful and varied.
Yves's fighting ways had truly astonished him.
In truth, from the beginning to the end, Yves had been fighting against Zen alone. It was not the black fog that was a creation of his life vitality.
The black fog before Zen's eyes was nothing but a deceptive trick meaning to fool him. It must have been made to morph out of something else. Yves's own life vitality turned... into himself.
A human's life vitality could turn into lotuses, as was the case with Vale. Somebody else could morph it into an enchanted barrier, as Yolande did.
But Yves' life vitality had transformed into himself!
The person Zen had stabbed in the beginning was an illusion made out of Yves's life vitality.
When Yves attacked the first time, he turned his own life vitality into two false dummies.
He followed this plan of attack with Zen at the second time, and when he hurled it for the third time, Zen saw right through it and realized a solution.
While Yves fabricated an illusion of three fake opponents to attack him, Zen unfurled the demonic life energy in his body. It could devour another's life vitality. Zen figured that the counterfeit Yves in his front, on his left and on his right would be swallowed by his own demonic life energy.
The three of them were illusions created with Yves's life vitality, while the real Yves attacked him from behind.
After perceiving thus, Zen had decisively launched the attack at his back.
The black fog disappeared slowly after he killed Yves.
Dozens of people from the seven noble clans had watched Yves attack Zen before the fog enveloped the two of them, assuming that it would be an easy kill.
According to them, Yves was more than capable to take on the young man who had suddenly broken in
like a moth flying into a spider web mistakenly. Yves only had to reach out and pick him from the web before squeezing him to death.
As the black fog ebbed away to reveal Zen, one of the members of the noble clans glanced at the scene casually before gasping in surprise. “Well? Yves is dead?”
The long-haired woman also turned to stare at Zen, her brows wrinkled and lips twisted. “Quite interesting. He managed to kill Yves. It appears I've underestimated him.”
“He's only half a step into the nature level. With that level of strength, he could take Yves's life? Interesting boy!” someone else said.
Zen didn't approach them after making the kill, instead, he turned to make a detour from the side.
However, at the same moment, the long-haired woman spoke out loud in a firm voice. “Who on earth are you?”
Zen stared at her, beady-eyed. “Who am I? That's got nothing to do with you. Don't bother frightening me with your names and titles. It's of no use. I want nothing to do with the noble clans. We go our own way without interfering with each other.”
The long-haired woman hollered with laughter at his words. “How naive of you to say that!”
Zen swept the flying blade horizontally across his chest. “I don't know if I am naive, but anyone who dares to cross me will die, just like this one lying on the ground!” He motioned at Yves with his foot.
Zen seemed to have no scruple about the seven noble clans. They looked on in shock. Several of them emanated dangerous energies about them. If they really wanted to fight Zen, he would have no choice but to flee for his life.
However, Zen had seen what was in the Weapon Refining Principle, and he was not a fool. There was a great chance for the impossible to occur in this world, as well as in this fairy palace. He had no reason to shrink back.
“Ha-haha!”
“Ha ha...”
The members of the top seven noble clans stared at him and burst into raucous laughter, as if Zen had just made a joke.