Chapter 603 - The Benefits of Being Weak
Chapter 603: The Benefits of Being Weak
Demon tree whips.
A river of blood.
“Isn’t this a little too terrifying…”
Xu Xiaoshou, who had disappeared, tried to touch the Blood Tree beside him. However, the Blood Tree seemed to have sensed something and suddenly shook. The branches split and passed through his body on the spot.
“F*ck!”
Xu Xiaoshou jumped in fright and flew away in a flash. Only then did he realize that he had actually evaded the attack.
In the next second, a wail sounded behind him.
“Ah–”
He turned his head and saw that it was a White-clothed person.
This was probably a White-clothed person who was not part of a combat unit. He could not withstand the attacks for long in the Blood Tree grove. Being attacked from both the front and rear, he was not strong enough. He was immediately sucked dry by the Blood Tree branches and turned into a dried corpse.
Xu Xiaoshou felt a chill run down his spine. At the same time, he felt extremely powerless.
He had expected a great battle after the Saint Servant came out of the White Cave.
Previously, there had been no waves, and it seemed that they could almost escape just with his mouth. At that time, he couldn’t help but feel a bit regretful that he hadn’t been able to see such a spectacular scene.
Now, seeing such a tragic scene…
“Sure enough, either he doesn’t explode, or if he does explode, it can scare a person to death!”
Xu Xiaoshou shivered and didn’t dare to think too much.
Number 33 suddenly rushed down from the sky.
He didn’t take the initiative to look for the crazy Cen Qiaofu. Instead, he cooperated with the White-clothed’s combat team and began to clean up the terrifying Blood Tree grove.
The White-clothed team led by the several major Cutting Paths had already reacted after suffering the first round of damage. They all set up formations to prevent their backs from being exposed to the Blood Tree branches.
Cen Qiaofu lost control.
The Blood Tree that he summoned could inflict high damage, but it had lost its main target, Gou Wuyue. At this moment, it was aimlessly wounding people in the Blood Tree grove.
Xu Xiaoshou felt a little sad as he watched.
However, he did not let his blood rush to his head. He chose to charge forward.
The greatest sorrow of being weak was that in this top-tier battle, he could not even provide any help.
However, the greatest benefit was that if a great battle really broke out, almost no one would remember his existence!
“It’s time to leave…”
Xu Xiaoshou was glad that he had awakened the ‘Vanishing Technique’.
Otherwise, it would be impossible for him to survive in such a chaotic situation.
However, it was precisely because of this chaotic situation that White-clothed’s formation was broken, and the Nation-Toppling Heavenly Shield was split open and had yet to be repaired.
It was a great opportunity.
If he didn’t leave now, he would be letting down the chaos that Cen Qiaofu had caused here.
“Ascending to the Heavens in A Single Step!”
Without any lingering feelings, Xu Xiaoshou, who had disappeared, took a step forward and left the chaotic battlefield behind him.
..
“Clatter.”
In the mountain forest, in a place that was rarely visited by humans.
Withered branches and leaves covered the mountain top, and ancient trees seemed to have become demons.
The forest ground was covered with broken branches, and suddenly, the broken branches split open, revealing a broken soleplate.
Following that, Xu Xiaoshou did away with his disappearing state, and his body returned to reality in this new world.
“Hiss.”
As soon as he landed, he took a deep breath.
The fresh mountain forest air, mixed with the smell of rotten leaves, caused Xu Xiaoshou’s pounding heart to slow down slightly.
“I escaped…”
“But I haven’t completely escaped.”
Xu Xiaoshou was very nervous.
The Battle of the Higher Void was truly terrifying. In just a few moves, not only was the world shattered, even the barren battlefield could be directly transformed into a dense forest of Blood Trees.
This wasn’t a child’s game. There was a real possibility that someone could die at any time.
And now, according to ‘Stealth’, the passive skill that could gradually eliminate the sense of presence without speaking, along with the ‘Vanishing Technique’ and ‘Ascending to the Heavens in A Single Step’…
He had escaped.
Xu Xiaoshou was grateful.
The battle-type passive skill had made him invincible among his peers.
And the support-type passive skill was a divine skill that could truly allow him to stay alive in a dead-end!
“I can’t be careless.”
Looking around, Xu Xiaoshou immediately used ‘Perception’ to check the situation in the surrounding forest.
At that time, the nightmare of being caught by the Night Guardian in the White Cave couldn’t be dispelled. At this critical moment, he didn’t dare to drop the ball again.
Now, there was no help from outsiders.
If he really dropped the ball, it would not be the ball, but his life.
“No humans, no beasts, no birds…”
Xu Xiaoshou frowned.
The deathly stillness of the mountain forest was too terrifying.
Or rather, it should be said that the Battle of the Higher Void had shocked the creatures that were supposed to be living in this place to the point that they have fled to other places.
This was the key.
Once the White-clothed searched the mountain and if there was even the slightest movement of the grass or the wind, then they would know that other than being one of their people, it can only be an enemy!
Xu Xiaoshou lowered his head and pondered, trying to think of a countermeasure.
First, without saying anything, he removed the sideburns on his square face.
Then, he raised his eyes again, and the image of a weather-beaten old grandfather appeared.
“Old Grandfather…”
Frowning, Xu Xiaoshou hesitated for a moment, then shook his head.
“No, what kind of Grandpa can appear in this dilapidated forest? I guess it can only be an old grandpa like Cen Qiaofu!”
“It’s too unrealistic. I would be easily exposed!”
“But what image can I have if I want to go out?”
It was impossible for there to be other people and beasts in the forest. Xu Xiaoshou thought hard and took out a white robe from his ring.
It was very similar to the White-clothed white robe, but it could be seen at a glance that it was not.
But it did not matter.
Xu Xiaoshou’s fingernails rustled a few times. Not only did he tear the white robe, but he also made a few cuts on himself.
After the blood was stained, he put on the white robe.
With this tattered white robe that was stained with blood, his original appearance could not be seen clearly. He used ‘Transformation’ to create a few more cuts on his face and body.
All of a sudden, the image of a White-clothed person who had narrowly escaped the battle came to life.
“This kind of image is alright.”
Xu Xiaoshou nodded in satisfaction and continued to work on the situation in front of him.
“Under Cen Qiaofu’s Blood Tree, I reckon that there aren’t many White-clothed people who can protect themselves. Rather than waiting for death, there must be some people who received the order to leave first.”
“As for the Divine Puppet and the White-clothed’s Cutting Path masters, they would probably stay behind to clear the area.”
“To put it another way, Cen Qiaofu is holding back the White-clothed masters and the Divine Puppet in the battle.”
“Perhaps others will run into me, but those who are able to escape from the battle are probably only the Sovereigns…”
“Cutting Path, they probably won’t escape!”
Xu Xiaoshou reached into his arms and touched Aje, his heart slightly settling.
“A mere Sovereign, I’ll rely on you.”
“Ma Ma…”
“Being comforted, passive points +1.”
Shaking his head and taking a few steps forward, Xu Xiaoshou stopped at the top of the mountain and looked down.
From the west, sounds of battle could be heard from afar.
Cen Qiaofu, who had lost control, would probably be on par with the Divine Puppet for a while.
As for the others…
Haitang’er escaped with Bazhun’an and Gou Wuyue was chasing after them. They wouldn’t be able to care about him for a while.
Yu Lingdi would appear briefly and would be directly crushed by the Saint Servant and the other two. There was no need to worry.
Then, who was left?
“Storyteller!”
Xu Xiaoshou was keenly aware that he had overlooked this person’s existence.
Ever since Haitang’er carried Bazhun’an and disappeared, and Cen Qiaofu went into battle, the presence of the Storyteller was greatly reduced.
Where did he go?
Was he guarding Cen Qiaofu on the battlefield, or did he escape with Bazhun’an?
Xu Xiaoshou wasn’t sure anymore.
But he was sure that if he bumped into White-clothed people, he might die. But if he bumped into the Storyteller, he would at most be brought back. It wouldn’t be a big deal.
“So, from the surface, as long as Gou Wuyue didn’t catch Haitang’er and Bazhun’an, and their combat strength was spread out, no one would have the time to care about me?”
Xu Xiaoshou looked down from the top of the mountain, and for a moment, he felt a surge of emotions.
Being weak was great!
This was the benefit of not having a strong sense of existence.
For some baffling reason, he had escaped, and even he couldn’t understand why.
“No, that’s not right. What else have I overlooked…”
Before he had the time to be happy for a bit, Xu Xiaoshou suddenly thought of the seven or eight hundred ‘Being watched’ messages that he had received when he was leaving the White Cave.
At that time, he was certain that there were not only dozens of people in the battle.
White-clothed people must have other people hiding somewhere else, surrounding the entire mountain.
There were quite a number of them!
“What should I do?”
Xu Xiaoshou was a little hesitant.
When he came, he had publicly entered the Eighth Palace. But he could not use that way to walk out now.
And it did not seem very realistic to sneak out of the sparsely populated farmhouses.
What if White-clothed’s spies were among the two?
“Force my way out?”
Xu Xiaoshou’s scalp tingled at the thought.
There were more than 700 White-clothed people!
It was impossible to force his way out.
At this moment, he could only reap benefits from the confusion and survive!
Weak…
Sigh, the sadness of a weak person was also obvious!
“Let’s go.”
“One step at a time.”
“If I really bump into White-clothed people, worse comes to worst I’ll hand over the Fourth Sword and Lu Ke. Oh, right, there’s also Little Yu…”
Xu Xiaoshou felt a headache. He rubbed his temples and took a step forward.
“Clatter.”
Before his feet landed on the ground, his ‘Perception’ discovered a clear sound that came from far away. Xu Xiaoshou’s pupils constricted.
He was now a frightened bird.
Wasn’t this sound similar to the sound he made when he stepped on a dead branch?
So it was…
What was he afraid of?
..
On the other side of the mountain forest.
“Searching the mountain…”
“What was Jiang Bianyan thinking, splitting the manpower and sending people out to search the mountain?”
“Brother Lin, do you think this is reasonable?”
A White-clothed person slapped his palm with the back of his hand, his expression somewhat resentful. “That could be the eighth Sword Deity! If we really manage to find him, I’m afraid the first ones to die would be us!”
“Brother Tong Feng, if you think like this… If you can die under the eighth Sword Deity’s sword, then it can be considered an honor.”
Beside him, the White-clothed Lin Ruohuan smiled and tightened the sword in his hand.
His expression could be seen that he was actually a little nervous.
However, he still pretended to be relieved as the corners of his mouth curled up into a dry smile. He said, “Moreover, it’s not like we’re really going to fight. Once we find someone, we just need to sound the alarm. Over a hundred people will come over. Are you still afraid?”
“Afraid! Of course I’m afraid!”
Tong Feng raised his voice and said angrily, “You’re from the Cutting Path, so you can hold on for a little longer.”
“I’m just a Sovereign. Even if I’m just a step away from the Cutting Path, I’m still not strong enough for the eighth Sword Deity to even pinch me with one finger.”
“Didn’t you see…”
He pointed at the somewhat shaken battle situation on the west side.
“Just what I saw in the picture earlier… Sword Cognition! That’s Sword Cognition!”
“Even Elder Wuyue was injured, how could we have the time to sound the alarm? In just one encounter, we might not even be able to react and die on the spot!”
“You are fine…”
Tong Feng looked dejected and said sorrowfully, “You are a swordsman and can regard dying under the eighth Sword Deity’s sword as an honor. I haven’t been in White-clothed for long. If it weren’t for you, I might not have been able to participate in the war in the Eighth Palace. I don’t want to die yet.”
“Oh?”
Lin Ruohuan was amused, “From what you’re saying, you’re blaming me?”
“Hey, hey, no, no, you can’t put it that way…”
“Shh!”
Before Tong Feng could finish, Lin Ruohuan was suddenly shocked. He raised a finger to signal for them to keep quiet.
The two people’s expressions changed at the same time, as if they were facing a great enemy.
“Is there an enemy activity?” Tong Feng lowered his voice.
Lin Ruohuan did not reply. He squinted his eyes as he sensed the surrounding space.
“Spatial fluctuation…”
“A very obscure spatial fluctuation!”
“If nothing unexpected happened, someone has been here before!”
Tong Feng’s heart trembled when he heard this. He immediately took out a red alarm pearl from his ring and was about to crush it.
“Wait.”
Lin Ruohuan was not so impulsive. He stopped his teammate and said, “The mountain forest is so big. There’s no reason for us to meet him so coincidentally. He might be a teammate who escaped from the Blood Tree grove.”
Tong Feng’s fingers were trembling, but he still suppressed the urge to crush the warning bead.
This thing could not be messed with.
Everyone was currently on high alert. If someone crushed this thing, they could probably summon hundreds of people in an instant.
If they came and found that the ‘opponent’ they expected was actually ‘one of their own’…
It would be a great show indeed!
Moreover, once the people gathered here, the defense of the other places would definitely decrease.
Perhaps, in such a delay, the Saint Servant would be able to escape from this encirclement!
“Shh.”
Lin Ruohuan bent down and even the ‘shh’ was communicated telepathically.
As the voices of the two disappeared, the forest also became deathly silent.
..
“Thump!”
“Thump!”
“Startled, passive points +1.”
“Attention received, passive points +2.”
“Being sought, passive points +2.”
Xu Xiaoshou felt that his current state of mind was like encountering a disheveled ghost in a secret horror chamber and being mercilessly blocked by his teammates, leaving him all alone.
It was so complicated!
“D*mn it, they really came?”
He didn’t even have time to make any preparations and the pursuers had already arrived!
So, White-clothed people were the rats, right?
There wasn’t even the smell of blood, and just based on their intuition, they stumbled here?
The mountain forest was obviously so big..
Was it going to end like this?
“One Sovereign, one Cutting Path.”
Xu Xiaoshou’s heart was filled with helplessness as he disappeared.
The Sovereign was fine.
He steeled his heart and made up his mind. He could still force himself to lose his mind and go up for the first wave.
With Aje’s terrifying damage output, he might be able to knock the Sovereign into a coma before he crushed the warning bead.
But the Cutting Path…
Xu Xiaoshou thought of Aje versus the Storyteller.
He didn’t know how strong this White-clothed Lin Ruohuan’s Cutting Path was.
It might not be as abnormal and crazy as the Storyteller’s Nine Death Thunder Calamity, but looking at the spiritual sword in his hand…
Yes.
It was a spiritual sword, not a famed sword.
But at this moment, when Xu Xiaoshou saw a sword, he felt his legs go soft.
Even if he wasn’t an ancient swordsman, not a Bazhun’an or Gou Wuyue, but any Cutting Path that held a sword in the eastern region, how could they be trifled with?
He didn’t seem like someone who could be taken down in a short amount of time!
Xu Xiaoshou was hiding in the forest canopy.
Even though the Vanishing Technique couldn’t be perceived, he couldn’t directly face the White-clothed people in the forest without any place to conceal himself.
“Being looked for. Passive points +2.”
From time to time, two shocking messages popped up in the information bar. Xu Xiaoshou’s face turned green.
“Spiritual source…”
Suddenly, Xu Xiaoshou became alert. He realized that he had been maintaining the ‘Vanishing Technique’ for a long time and had used ‘Ascending to the Heavens in A Single Step’ many times.
He immediately used his spiritual senses to look into his energy reserve.
In the next second, his face turned from green to white.
He saw that his energy reserve had dried up, leaving only a few wisps of mist floating around.
‘High Spirits’ was circulating as if it had gone crazy, but it could not replenish the energy quickly enough.
He estimated that in less than a few breaths’ time, he would be forced to engage with the Vanishing Technique.
Xu Xiaoshou closed his eyes in pain.
“Oh God, is there even a single time that I, Xu Xiaoshou, don’t let fate go against my expectations? I cannot bear such a ruthless blow!”