Calamity Messenger-Chapter 91 - 72: Bingzi Pepper Forest

"Why hasn’t her spiritual power run out yet?" Chen Linchuan couldn’t help but ask, "I haven’t seen her absorb Spiritual Jade!"

"Even if she’s focused on cultivating her soul, using so many relics should have exhausted her spiritual power..." Jie Zilong was also incredulous, "What’s going on with her?"

Finally discovered, huh?

Yan Qing had long noticed that people in this world (including himself) had to take out Spiritual Jade to replenish spiritual power, but game characters were different. In the game, Spiritual Jade was like a blue potion that could be instantly consumed. As long as Yan Qing pressed a hotkey, his personal inventory would expend Spiritual Jade to quickly replenish the spiritual power of his game character.

The difference between the two was akin to ’drinking a potion with an action’ versus ’instant potion drinking’. And because of this difference, Yan Qing could use a tactic that wouldn’t normally appear in the game, "Messenger" — targeting the opponent’s potion-drinking timing!

As long as Yan Qing kept shattering Zhou Ye’s Spiritual Jade and prevented him from replenishing his spiritual power, he wouldn’t be able to maintain the defense of the Heart-Protecting Mirror!

But his opponent was still human, not an unintelligent monster. After several attempts, Zhou Ye took the Spiritual Jade out and placed it in another pocket to absorb it, making it impossible for Yan Qing’s real damage to penetrate his palm and shatter the Spiritual Jade.

points of true damage were simply too weak.

Boom!

Under the combined blockade of Shang Yue and Jie Zilong, Yan Qing had no choice but to directly block Chen Linchuan’s great sword strike. The White Iron Straight Saber finally couldn’t bear it and shattered loudly. ’Jiang Shi’ also received a terrifying wound from the blade, almost losing half a shoulder.

Seeing ’Jiang Shi’ silently discard the broken saber and replace it with a new straight saber, continuing to fight as if the shoulder wound didn’t affect her at all, the group that had been excited to finally injure ’Jiang Shi’ suddenly looked grim, some even... fearful.

They couldn’t believe themselves; as Third-Turn Messengers and noble scions, they were actually afraid of a young girl with no foundation or backing, and whose relics were extremely poor.

"She’s like a greater demon than any demon," Chen Linchuan muttered.

The group remained silent, their attack becoming even more fierce, spending spiritual power as if it were free, causing waves of spiritual Qi to stir up wild winds in the camp.

Boom!

The second White Iron Straight Saber broke as well, which meant the Moon Ring Slash stacks that Yan Qing had been building up were interrupted. To stack them again would not only take time, but under their relentless barrage, the White Iron Straight Saber might break before the stacks could accumulate.

But Zhou Ye and they didn’t know this.

They could only see ’Jiang Shi’ with spiritual power as deep as a bottomless pit, and endless use of relics. But their spiritual power wasn’t limitless either; each only had a few thousand Spiritual Jade, and no one would carry tens of thousands of Spiritual Jade on them.

Once they drained their Spiritual Jade...

Like a venomous snake licking the backs of their necks, fear and killing intent seeped through every pore of their bodies. They had never encountered such a bizarre enemy, nor seen such terrifying talent, and they knew only that they didn’t want to face this person a second time.

Before, it had been for benefit, vengeance, and family, but now they wanted to kill Jiang Shi for their own sake.

This world cannot accommodate such a terrifying anomaly!

"Youngsters!" Zhou Ye shouted, "How much longer are you going to hide?"

Qunyu Book, who had retreated to the soldiers, sighed, "Elder Zhou, you know my relic, there’s no opportunity to cooperate with you..."

"Then we’ll cooperate with you! If you screw this up, don’t blame us for being rude!" Zhou Ye shouted, "Let’s attack together, don’t give her a chance to dodge!"

Qunyu Book sighed, raising his hand, "Divine Strategy Camp, ready, aim—"

Meanwhile, Zhou Ye, Jie Zilong, and Chen Linchuan blocked all of ’Jiang Shi’s’ escape routes, while Shang Yue’s water arrows sealed all gaps, ensuring ’Jiang Shi’ had nowhere to run!

"Fire the arrows!"

In an instant, thirty-six Divine Machine Crossbows shot, but with a snap of Qunyu Book’s fingers, all the crossbow arrows halted mid-air, as if a deity stopped their time. Yet, the arrows retained their launching momentum, creating a paradox of rapid motion and absolute stillness that would quickly make an ordinary observer dizzy and nauseated.

"Swift!"

With a gesture, Qunyu Book directed the crossbow arrows to reposition, all aiming at a spot able to hit ’Jiang Shi’. No wonder he said he couldn’t synchronize with Zhou Ye and the others; against other enemies, it might be feasible, but against a Messenger like ’Jiang Shi’, agile as a battlefield dancer, his tactics needed one or two seconds of preparation, making it too easy to avoid.

Still, the flipside was that with enough prep time, his burst damage was unparalleled even among Third-Turn Messengers.

Thirty-six Divine Machine Crossbow arrows could instantly shatter even a Three-Turn Defense Relic!

"Hit!"

It’s finally going to be over.

Zhou Ye, Jie Zilong, Chen Linchuan, and Shang Yue all breathed a sigh of relief.

Yet, at this moment, they felt regret; even Zhou Ye and Chen Linchuan were not exceptions. They had never seen, not even in books, anyone like ’Jiang Shi’. Even the legendary Martial Arts Emperor who once established dominance over the Central Plains or the Thorny Taoist who challenged the world, were only prodigies of youth with fortuitous encounters still within their field of understanding.

But relying on evasion to contend with four Messengers, wielding nearly inexhaustible spiritual power, fearless of life and death, acting recklessly... Their world wasn’t vast enough to contain such a ’person’.

They didn’t even want to know Jiang Shi’s secret because any secret could lead a family to great prosperity—or destruction. They were already one of the seven major families of the Liang Kingdom, with no need to take risks.

Just die here, Jiang Shi. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

Bring your enigmatic past, abilities, and dignity, and be forever buried beneath this field.

"There’s no helping it now."

With simultaneous sighs inside and outside the screen, the encirclement by Zhou Ye, Jie Zilong, Chen Linchuan broke instantly, a shockwave pushing them and the thirty-six crossbow arrows back to seven steps away from ’Jiang Shi’.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Along with the previously discarded White Iron Straight Sabers, all four on the ground shattered, their orange light converging into the long saber ’Jiang Shi’ held aloft. Only then did everyone realize that what ’Jiang Shi’ wielded was no longer an ordinary straight saber, but an exquisite, ornately carved dragon-and-phoenix-patterned orange-red long saber.

Inscribed on both sides of the blade, the left read ’All conditioned phenomena are like a dream, an illusion,’ while the right bore ’Like dew or a flash of lightning, thus should one observe them.’

No one present recognized this saber, as even in the Zhou Kingdom, few had ever closely admired the fabled weapon of Zhou Taizu.

Except for Shang Xinlei.

’Jiang Shi’ stood there swinging the long saber, and although Zhou Ye and the others didn’t know what she was doing, they immediately dodged. At that moment, her saber suddenly extended a thirty-meter blade arc, striking from dozens of steps away like a scythe harvesting crops, grievously wounding the entire Divine Strategy Camp’s soldiers!

Screams echoed through the camp as the soldiers, without defensive relics, couldn’t possibly withstand such a magnificent blade arc!

"What... what kind of relic is this?" Jie Yuan Shao murmured, "I’ve never seen such a powerful relic."

It’s my first time too, Shang Xinlei thought, knowing it was formidable long before, but not imagining it would be this powerful.

The Bingzi Pepper Forest!