Chapter 1421: Coldblade Escapes

"Coldblade… you…"

Thunder’s eyes widened to the max. He had thought that dying in a human’s hands was the greatest shame of his life until his own brother killed him for power. He began to stiffen as life flowed out of his body. For an expert of the dark planes, losing one’s heart was akin to losing his Divinity. In this case, it was completely stolen by Coldblade.

……

"Slurp…"

Coldblade licked the blood in his palm and allowed a satisfied smile to peek through his features as he licked the blood on his palm. He said, "Thank you so much for your soul spark, Thunder. Now rest in peace and leave the rest to me!"

The Purgatory Sovereign raised his sword and slashed Thunder’s neck!

Crack!

Coldblade caught Thunder’s flying head in one hand before tossing it to Sophie and Karinshan’s feet. Then, he shot us a sinister smile before saying, "The Silver Moon Alliance had a bounty on Thunder’s head, right? Sophie, you swore you would kill Thunder with your own hands, right? Well, this is my gift to you two. And… it is time I took my leave, lest Lord Purgatory Ruler be angry with me!"

Sophie sneered after side-eyeing Thunder’s head, "You think you can leave? Not without leaving behind your Divinity, no. A despicable, treacherous bastard like you never deserved it in the first place. Coming to Crossroads Valley will be the biggest mistake of your life, Coldblade!"

"I don’t deserve my Divinity?"

Still sneering, Coldblade turned around and said, "The pot calls the kettle black, I see. Who was the one who killed countless innocent humans, Sophie? During year 8579 of the Age of Spirit of Grief, who was the one who allowed the devil riders to rape those girls, and the Corpse Eaters to unearth the dead? You! You are the one who committed all those sins! You are the one whose hands will forever be stained with their blood!"

Sophie fell silent for a couple of seconds before surprising everyone with a somewhat innocent smile on her face. "Is that so? Shame I don’t remember any of the crimes you accuse me of committing. I am just a traitor who is willing to protect humans and live the best she can be under the sunlight. To that end, I will kill you!"

Coldblade gritted his teeth. "You think you can kill me? Then come! You will find that you are gravely mistaken if you think I am still the old Coldblade you may order around as you please!"

……

"Sigh…"

Meanwhile, I let out a sorrowful sigh at the sky.

"What’s wrong?" He Yi asked softly, "Are you worried about Sophie’s safety?"

I shook my head. "Nah, I’m just lamenting the fact that Thunder was killed by Coldblade. If I was the one who killed him, I would almost be Level 250, and the Ancient Divine Dragon would be at the Divine Awakening stage already…"

Lin Yixin giggled behind her palm. "Man, you’re always thinking about this stuff…"

Gui Guzi asked worriedly, "Sophie… can beat Coldblade, right?"

Li Chengfeng clenched his fists together. "Don’t worry, Sophie is the second strongest Purgatory Sovereign. Her chances of beating Coldblade, the seventh-placed Purgatory Sovereign, should be pretty good."

Beiming Xue couldn’t quite agree with that. "But Coldblade just devoured Thunder’s power…"

I replied, "Don’t worry, I just felt Xinran’s presence somewhere nearby. There is no chance Coldblade can beat anyone with her around. I’m also fairly sure Coldblade sensed her presence, so he wouldn’t dare to act recklessly."

He Yi nodded. "Lu Chen’s analysis is sound. Anyway, let’s wait and see what happens next. So far, it looks like this battle has transformed into a final showdown between light and darkness."

"It’s a showdown, yes, but I don’t know about final. Lin Na hasn’t shown up yet, and he’s the one that worries me the most out of all the bosses."

"Yeah…"

……

Bang!

Bloody divine energy surrounded Sophie as she stomped the ground and shot into the air. With purple lightning circulating around her body and her blade in hand, she towered imperiously over Coldblade and said, "Do you think you’re the only one who knows how to devour, Coldblade? For the past few years, I’ve devoured all the undead creatures in the Purgatory tribe to the southeast of Purple Grape City. My ability to devour is far stronger than yours!"

Coldblade trembled visibly but declared, "Come then, Sophie! Show me your ultimate power!"

Chiang!

When Sophie finally unsheathed her weapon, purple lightning could be seen dancing across its surface. The wild cyclone spinning around her person was so powerful that it impacted the ground and drove away many nearby players. They didn’t have a Domain of their own, so they were incapable of withstanding the pressure of two Divine Rank Domains. On the other hand, Lin Yixin, He Yi, Li Chengfeng, I and everyone else who ascended to the Heavenly River Transformation managed to hold our ground because we had some rudimentary grasp of the power of Domain.

Buzz!

A cross appeared on Sophie’s blade as she gathered her strength.

Coldblade burst out in laughter when he saw this. "Purgatory Cross Slash? Haha! Quit the jokes already, Sister Sophie. This is a skill that even a lowly skeletal knight can use! You don’t seriously think it’s enough to kill me, do you?"

Sophie laughed as well. "That’s exactly the point. I’m killing a dog here, so it’s only right that I use a skill that fits the beast. Coldblade, it is your lie that turned me into a devil. Today, we will settle the score once and for all!"

Whoosh!

Suddenly, Sophie crashed toward the ground like a fiery red meteor. While bearing down on Coldblade with the Purgatory Cross Slash, she also turned her Domain into a multilayered energy web to prevent him from escaping.

Chiang!

Sparks flew everywhere as Coldblade summoned his Ice Shield and blocked the first strike imperiously!

However, Sophie’s Purgatory Cross Slash wasn’t so simple. Her power surged as she leaped into the air and brought her sword down again for a second strike!

Chiang!

Her power finally shattered the Ice Shield and slammed both Coldblade and his sword into the ground. The resulting shock wave was so powerful that the ground sank into a hundred-meter wide pit, and all the buildings within the area were destroyed. Sophie wasn’t done yet, however. There was a third strike to her Purgatory Cross Slash!

Bang!

The ground shook, and Coldblade was forced to block the attack with his sword. However, blood vessels erupted from his arms due to the sheer power behind Sophie’s attack!

Despite the blood dripping down the corner of his lips, Coldblade taunted Sophie boldly, "Is this all you've got, you little bitch? Or are you giving me a foot massage? Don’t hold back! Feel free to open your legs and show me all your techniques!"

Sophie’s expression was so cold it probably could’ve frozen Coldblade if he wasn’t a Purgatory Sovereign. She continued to attack four times more before the seventh and final strike of Purgatory Cross Slash finally overwhelmed Coldblade’s strength and caused him to drop his sword.

Puchi!

When the sword hit flesh, Sophie pressed harder and cut deep into Coldblade’s shoulder. The wound must have been 5 cm long at least. Sophie then aimed her palm at Coldblade’s neck and growled out, "Ice Soul Strike!"

Bang!

A profound crystal at least 10 cm in radius manifested into existence and pierced Coldblade’s body completely. Seemingly not satisfied yet, she abruptly launched a kick at the man’s groin and turned it into a bloody mess.

"Ahhh…"

Coldblade finally screamed out in pain and attempted to slash Sophie.

Bang!

Sophie simply jumped over the attack, stepped on Coldblade’s face, and propelled herself all the way to the sky. She then looked down at Coldblade and the 400-meter-wide pit she had created with her 7-hit Purgatory Cross Slash. At least a small half of Crossroads Valley Fortress had been destroyed by the attack.

……

"Ugh… grr…"

Coldblade slowly rose to his feet and walked out of the pit. His chest wound was healing quickly, and said with a disdainful smirk on his face, "I see. So this is the extent of your ultimate strength. How disappointing…"

Sophie frowned deeply. "Is that so?"

She raised her arm and clenched her hand into a fist.

Bang!

The ice crystal that was still stuck in Coldblade’s chest abruptly exploded. He was going to have a hard time healing from this one.

"How about now?" Sophie giggled.

Coldblade glared at her hatefully. "Just you wait!"

Coldblade stomped the ground and summoned an impossible amount of thunder clouds above us. At the same time, the wind around us turned into a painful tempest. It was his AoE skill, and it had a diameter of at least a thousand yards!

"Motherfucker! It’s that skill again!"

Gui Guzi shouted, "This AoE skill deals a fixed amount of damage to everyone and everything within its range! It’ll deal a total of 4 million damage in 10 seconds! Watch out!"

I replied grimly, "Understood. We’ll take turns using our AoE heals. Don’t forget to use the free-for-all mode!"

"Okay!"

The tempest blew, and icicles were everywhere. All players began losing 400k damage per second, and according to Little Gui it was going to last for 10 whole seconds.

I looked back at everyone and ordered, "Sis, Moon Dew, I trust you two to heal the mages. The rest of you, drink your health potions and keep yourselves above 400k HP. I’ll go first, Little Gui…"

I hardly wanted the Dragonlight Archers who just joined us to be killed by Coldblade, so I raised the Chill of the Nine Provinces and cast the Life skill of Xuanyuan Art on the third second. Everyone was healed by 50% of their HP instantly!

Swhoosh swhoosh swhoosh…

Countless healing numbers rose into the air. The players who would’ve been killed a second later immediately breathed out a sigh of relief.

In the fifth second, Gui Guzi raised his Ghostblade Halberd and cast his S Rank Ancient Divine Skill, Shennong Tastes Grass. This time, everyone within 1000 yards of him regained 75% of their HP and was pulled away from the brink of death once more!

Unfortunately, our countermeasures weren’t perfect. Many archers, mages and priests were still killed by Coldblade’s AoE skill.

I was almost at full health, however. Gui Guzi, He Yi, Li Chengfeng, the top-tier metal armor class players and even super priests like Murong Mingyue and Moon Dew were also unafraid of the skill. We top rung fighters had insane amounts of HP, and the super priests were more than capable of keeping themselves alive after my Xuanyuan Art and Gui Guzi’s Shennong Tastes Grass. These days, it was popular for a priest or a bard to drop 3 points into Stamina and 2 points into Intelligence per level. As a result, they usually had higher HP than a mage, and the toughest ones could have as much as 1.5 million HP[1].

……

Swhoosh!

After the storm finally came to a stop, Coldblade was… nowhere to be seen? What the heck?

"Where is he?" I asked while searching around.

In the sky, Sophie looked to the west and sneered. "Trying to run away with your wind again? Don’t even think about it, Coldblade! Today is the day you die!"

1. T/N: this is to counter Ultimate Strength Break, obviously ☜