Chapter 334: Pushed Back? Time to Counterstrike! (First)

𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

The Terra Armor had already been fully reformed on Ta Shan’s body by the time he was in front of Bai Yunfei. Taking on the form of a giant sword, the soul armament of Ta Shan took advantage of the breaking of the barrier to deliver yet another strike! With the downward momentum, the sword was already dangerously close to smashing into Bai Yunfei’s head!

“Bang!!”

A snarl erupted from Ta Shan’s lips as his sword swung into Bai Yunfei’s head. The sword paused momentarily on Bai Yunfei’s before continuing to smash through Bai Yunfei’s body, creating a crater in the ground below.

But, Bai Yunfei’s body had... faded away!?

“But how!?”

The satisfied feeling of a kill was replaced with shock as the sight in front of him registered in his eyes. He was in disbelief. His sword had clearly smashed through Bai Yunfei. It had torn him apart with elemental earth, yet no flesh nor blood could be seen.

Bai Yunfei had disappeared without a trace!!

The sensation of ‘hitting’ flesh was real, but at the same time, the ‘flesh’ wasn’t real!

In the middle of Ta Shan’s confusion, two identical spears came flying out of the dust cloud from the left and the right, attemtping to stab at his throat and heart!

These... these were the doppelgangers!!

Seconds ago, when Ta Shan’s sword was nearly upon him, Bai Yunfei had activated the +12 effect of the Fire-tipped Spear to summon a doppelganger in his place. From there, he launched his counterattack!

Rather than being surprised by this odd ‘trickery’, Ta Shan was more than aware of what was happening in front of him. Two spears were coming at him, that much was for certain, but he wouldn’t be caught off guard just yet. Snorting at the attempt, Ta Shan’s left leg pushed off the ground as he leaped back. He was moving his giant sword up for a horizontal swing.

His retreat served more than just one purpose. Not only did he want to create some distance between him and the spears, the elemental earth he transmitted into the ground manifested into the form of a spike. Launching out of the ground, this roughly arm-thick spike flew with blinding speed toward Bai Yunfei’s stomach!

“Pft!!” One grunt of pain later, Bai Yunfei’s body was lifted into the air with the spike stabbing out from his back!

Then, his figure quickly dissolved into air just like the first—a doppelganger!

Two seconds hadn’t even transpired since the activation of the doppelgangers, but the two of them had already been dispelled by the tyrannical power of Ta Shan!

With the last of the doppelgangers dispelled, that left the Bai Yunfei on the right. He was the real one! Bai Yunfei was in trouble now since he hadn’t expected Ta Shan to defeat his doppelgangers so quickly; his chance of a surprise attack was completely ruined. Ta Shan’s sword was rapidly coming at him again!

“Damn it all!”

Bai Yunfei couldn’t help but scream in his mind. He had no other choice but to abandon his attack, but there wasn’t enough time for the Cataclysmic Seal to erect another barrier. Bai Yunfei could only maneuver his spear in front of him to stop Ta Shan’s sword from swinging into him.

“Bang!” Bending almost circular at the shaft, the Fire-tipped Spear was ripped from Bai Yunfei’s hands. It was sent flying away!

“Hahaha! I’d like to see you fight without that red spear now!!” Ta Shan howled in laughter. Without giving Bai Yunfei the chance to even process what had happened, he moved forward to strike again!

“Tsk!” Forcing himself upright, Bai Yunfei glared at Ta Shan in annoyance for a moment before barking out loud, “Cataclysmic Seal, go!!”

Spinning in response, the Cataclysmic Seal next to Bai Yunfei lit up with a fiery red light before flying at Ta Shan. On the way, the brick expanded ten times its normal size to stop Ta Shan’s advance!

“It can change shape!”

Eyes widening in surprise, Ta Shan’s flickered with light before his entire body disappeared!

No.

He didn’t disappear.

What had happened was that he had leaped several meters into the sky. The Cataclysmic Seal was left below. Right as it was flying right underneath him, Ta Shan made use of the brick to propel himself toward Bai Yunfei!

This time, Bai Yunfei finally found himself at a loss for what to do. By using the Wave Treading Steps, he was able to dodge the first strike. Before he could relax, a second sword strike was already coming toward his midriff!

Unable to do anything, Bai Yunfei tried his best to move out of the way as much as he could with his arms up, but to no avail. The flat edge of the sword clipped into his side and sent him flying with a bang.

Ta Shan continued to chase after him!

Bloodlust was filling Ta Shan’s eyes once again. He was getting back into the rhythm of things. He enjoyed the sensation of the fight. Each slash, punch, or kick had been delivered swiftly to Bai Yunfei with elemental earth to further enhance the destructive force of his blows. If not for the quick-moving Wave Treading Steps and the occasional use of the Cataclysmic Seal as a shield, Bai Yunfei would’ve lost his life many times.

Most of the time, Bai Yunfei had no choice but to use his arms to defend himself. If not for the bracers, Bai Yunfei would’ve lost all use of his arms.

No matter how much anyone looked at this situation right now... it felt like Bai Yunfei would eventually lose to Ta Shan. He would be reduced to paste sooner or later.

Would Bai Yunfei really let himself succumb to such an ending without a fight?

......

“Bang!”

Ta Shan’s sword was parried once again by Bai Yunfei’s arms. The force of the blow sent shivers through Bai Yunfei’s body, but instead of looking worried, his eyes suddenly lit up in excitement!

On the other side, Ta Shan had felt a stronger-than-normal amount of rebound when his sword was parried by Bai Yunfei’s left arm. A slight crackling sound came from Ta Shan’s right hand along with a slight grunt.

The +10 additional effect of the Returner Bracer, activated!!

Returner Bracer stats:

Equipment Grade: Middle Earth

Elemental Affinity: Earth

Upgrade Level: +10

Defense: 890

Additional Defense: 478

Soul Compatibility: 10%

+10 Additional Effect: There is a 15% chance to reflect 30% of the damage dealt when defending. The amount of damage reflected cannot exceed the total amount of defense of the equipment and cannot reflect long-ranged attacks.

Upgrade Requirement: 100 Soulpoints

Reflecting thirty percent of the damage meant reflecting it back at the damage dealer. By extension, this meant reflecting damage to where Ta Shan had no defenses!

It caused a strain on Bai Yunfei’s body to reflect the damage. Gritting his teeth as the pain traveled around his arms, Bai Yunfei’s feet pressed several centimeters into the ground as he pushed off to widen the distance between him and Ta Shan. The muscles in Bai Yunfei’s right hand bulged slightly as he clenched it. In response to his gathering of strength, the Ardent Sun Glove in his hand began to flicker with wisps of fire. With all preparations done, Bai Yunfei lashed out with a vicious right punch at Ta Shan!

Eighty-one Fold Fist Force!

“Bang!!”

There was a muffled thud as fist met man. Even as a three meter tall behemoth, Ta Shan was lifted nearly half a meter off the ground from Bai Yunfei’s punch! A series of cracking sounds could be heard as the elemental fire from Bai Yunfei’s punch made its way into Ta Shan’s armor. Spiralling the way a spiderweb would, the cracks soon became so widespread over Ta Shan’s right arm that the armor in that area disintegrated! Even the stone sword he was holding had been dropped from his hand because of the force!

“Boom!!”

The heavy frame of Ta Shan smashed back into the ground. Dropping to his knees, there was a deep crack running through Ta Shan’s armor.

Bai Yunfei didn’t move after that one punch. Instead, his left hand clutched at his right wrist. His palm faced Ta Shan. Gathering at the center of his open palm was a large amount of eye-piercingly red light...

“Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh...”

Under the bewildered eyes of Ta Shan, a series of fist-sized fireballs launched from Bai Yunfei’s palm to surround him in a wide-spread attack!