Chapter 1446: Karinshan’s Gift

A complex series of runes appeared beneath Xinran’s feet, and her aura suddenly became much brighter than before. She watched Binglan with stubborn eyes before chanting, "Sovereign Arrival!"

The runes floated around Xinran before imprinting themselves onto her skin, filling her with incredible strength.

"Hehe. Interesting!"

Binglan continued watching Xinran peacefully and smilingly. "If you have any more trump cards, feel free to use them now. I have no wish to bully such a young girl…"

Xinran remained calm despite Binglan’s taunt. She raised her Dragonbone Spear, and the entire ice cavern shook under her power. The next moment, a lightning bolt dropped down from the sky and transformed into a lightning energy shield that encompassed her entire body. Its name was Thunder God Protection!

Finally, Xinran glanced at me from afar and broke into a smile. "Keep doing your best, big brother…"

Bang!

However, I didn’t catch her words because I was busy getting smashed into a block of ice by Mingyu.

The smile on Xinran’s face grew even gentler when she saw this. "Heh, big brother…"

……

Binglan furrowed her brows slightly before asking, "Is that ignorant young man the source of your courage?"

Xinran didn’t deny it. "When I was at my weakest, he was the one who protected me despite his own lack of strength. That is why protecting him gives me courage. I love him so much I can give up everything for him…"

Binglan smiled like a lake in spring. "Come at me then!"

……

For the first time, Binglan turned serious as if she acknowledged the threat Xinran represented. She gathered a ball of silver light in her palm until it took the shape of a snow dragon. "Dragonrise!"

"Roar!"

The draconic power dashed past Xinran’s arm and slammed directly into her Thunder God Protection, shaking her violently. However, she immediately retaliated by thrusting her spear at Binglan again and again at an impossible speed. The shock waves they caused nearly enveloped the entire ice cavern.

A deep frown appeared on Binglan’s face as she endured the attack with her Ice Shield. She could feel that her Ice Shield wasn’t strong enough to nullify the ferocious attack. Clearly, Xinran was way stronger than Sophie!

Still holding the Ice Shield in front of her, Binglan gathered a fistful of raging energy around her right fist, pushed forward and canceled Xinran’s attack in a single hit. Then, she kicked upward with her smooth, long leg.

Xinran showed no sign of retreating even though her attack was canceled. Instead, she gritted her teeth, gathered her strength and matched Binglan’s kick!

BANG!

Space itself seemed to shake from the resulting impact. The shock wave was so great that some of the players grinding on the upper floors actually fell off the edge while screaming all the way like slaughtered pigs.

That was just the first impact though. Xinran and Binglan proceeded to clash a dozen more times in the enclosed space and shake up the place even more. The fight was so intense that not even Divine Rank experts like Sophie or Karinshan were able to interfere.

……

Bang!

After a clash that separated the two fighters, Binglan suddenly raised her hand and gathered a great amount of holy energy. While hovering in the air, she declared with a smile, "The test is over. Time for the real fight!"

A dragon-shaped energy surged toward Xinran as Binglan chanted, "War Dragon Strike!"

Xinran knew just how powerful the attack was, so she immediately gave up on attacking and put a good distance between herself and Binglan. After she landed on the ground, she raised the Dragonbone Spear in front of her. "Spirit Piercing Umbrella![1]"

Buzz!

A huge, bloody umbrella appeared from the speartip. It rotated slowly and shone with enough divine energy to illuminate nearly the entire cavern.

Here it comes!

Binglan’s War Dragon Strike was eleven dragon-shaped energy blasts being thrown at her opponent in just 1.5 seconds. To say that it was devastating would be an understatement. Every time they crashed into Xinran’s Spirit Piercing Umbrella, a huge chunk of the skill and the surroundings would be shredded to pieces!

Boom boom boom…

It was like being in the middle of an earthquake, except that there were also deafening explosions that damn near exploded our eardrums. I could only watch the clash from afar and pray that Xinran would survive the attack!

The Spirit Piercing Umbrella managed to defend against the first ten energy blasts, but not the last one. It engulfed Xinran completely!

Boom!

Ice and snow flew everywhere, and there was a giant pit where the final blast of the War Dragon Strike had struck. When the dust settled, we saw Xinran kneeling on one knee and clinging to the Dragonbone Spear with bloodied arms. She looked up at Binglan stubbornly before uttering, "Is that all? It’s your turn to taste my battle techniques then!"

Thud!

She leaped into the air and gathered her power. The Dragonbone Spear rang melodiously as a column of holy light descended from above, and flames swirled around the weapon. After a bunch of oracle script runes appeared around Xinran’s person as well, she declared, "Eat this—Fire God Art!"

Buzz! Buzz!

The flames assumed the shape of some ancient giant god. Then, Xinran threw them all at Binglan. It was only a triple-hit skill, but each blast contained a tremendous amount of energy. In that sense, it was quite similar to the War Dragon Strike.

Binglan smiled and made a knife motion with her palm again. She said smilingly while her power gushed around her, "Not bad. I shall use my beloved’s favorite skill to resolve this then!"

She raised her palm flatly above her head before swinging it three times in rapid succession. The skill was—Total Annihilation![2]

……

Bang bang bang!

Binglan was able to cancel the Fire God Art with Total Annihilation, but she didn’t know that the skill had a fourth and final attack. It was Xinran herself speeding toward Binglan and stabbing her with a spear that was overflowing with fire divine power!

"Hmm…"

Caught off-guard, Binglan could only catch the Dragonbone Spear’s pole with one hand.

Thud!

However, Xinran easily wrenched her weapon out of Binglan’s grip before nailing the latter’s arm to the ice wall behind her. Gritting her teeth, she gathered a ball of lightning and punched Binglan in the chest, yelling, "How can you be doing this! You were the protector of the human realms!"[3]Binglan groaned as a part of her chest armor shattered and revealed her wholesome cleavage. Suddenly, the redness in her eyes fading away slowly, she shot Xinran a tiny smile and whispered, "You know nothing, Xinran. You don’t know the tribulations of the Frost Purgatory, the Great Saint’s power, and how many times I’ve clashed against him in the past 10,000 years. You don’t even know that the Great Saint is about to break out of his seal, and that Mingyu is waiting for that very moment!"

Xinran was caught off-guard by her statement. Before she could process them though, Binglan abruptly grabbed the Dragonbone Spear, turned it around, stabbed Xinran in the shoulder, and launched her far, far away with a powerful kick to the chest. As Xinran crashed into a distant wall, Binglan whispered, "There are some things in life that I can only endure alone!"

𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

……

"Xinran!"

I hurriedly raced up to Xinran and pulled the Dragonbone Spear out of her shoulder[4]. Thankfully, she still had 45% HP left and was pretty far from dying. Binglan’s HP had also fallen to just 70% as well.

"Big brother…"

Xinran grabbed my hand tightly and said urgently, "Mingyu is the key to all this! You must defeat him as soon as possible. Binglan, she… the Soul Stealing Fruit did take control of her, but it was only for a very short time. The fruit is incapable of invading her divinity at all. If she really wanted to kill me, I would be dead just now! She must be waiting for something!"

"Ah?" Everything she said only confused me.

"Just kill Mingyu! Kill Mingyu as fast as you can!"

"Got it!"

……

I hurriedly rose to my feet and returned to my formation. I shouted, "Brothers and sisters, no more holding back! Kill Mingyu with everything you've got!"

As if on cue, a tumbling Gui Guzi crashed against the ground and yelled, "Grah! Boss Broken Halberd, you’re joking right? We’re the ones who’re being killed with everything Mingyu’s got right now…"

I said awkwardly, "Er, in that case, do your best not to be killed with everything you've got?"

……

However, while covering her arm wound with one hand, Binglan suddenly shouted, "No! It’s too late. The Great Saint is about to break through the seal! Everyone, leave this place now before he kills you! The Gate of Death has been opened!"

"What?!" Karinshan, Sophia, Sophie and the rest of the NPCs exclaimed in shock.

The Great Saint was a great evil whose name was once synonymous with death. However, many cultivators sought him out anyway because his power was something every cultivator dreamed to have. It was probably why Mingyu had chosen to serve him.

Boom!

A scorching sword aura erupted from Starlight and drove everyone away from Mingyu. Then, he turned to face toward the throne, dropped to his knees and declared piously, "Awaken, Lord Great Saint! I have completed your instructions and protected the Gate of Death until you awakened, so please grant me a bit of your strength! I will be satisfied with even a tiny bit of power!"

……

Buzz…

An energy vortex appeared where the throne was and crushed it completely. It then expanded into a gigantic abyss.

"Oh no, it’s too late…" Binglan said while biting her lip.

Karinshan looked at Binglan while gripping the Guardian Blade tightly. "Lady Dragon Speaker, what is going on here? Why… why did you attack us earlier? And why are you not…"

A trace of regret peeked out of Binglan’s features. "I’m sorry, the Soul Stealing Fruit did steal my soul for a short moment just now. I’ve already tried my best to resist it, but I still wasn’t able to control myself. I can only apologize for what I’ve done… I…"

Karinshan nodded. "It’s fine, Lady Binglan. You don’t have to explain anything else. What should we do now?"

Binglan clenched her fists and declared, "When the Great Saint breaks through the seal, help me seal him again, or better, destroy him once and for all!"

Karinshan shot Ziyan a glance, and the commander immediately produced a mysterious object that was covered in black cloth.

Karinshan grabbed the mysterious object and tossed it toward Binglan with a smile. "Lady Binglan, this is my meeting gift to you!"

Pa!

Binglan caught the gift in puzzlement, but when she unwrapped it and saw a silver sword, she immediately broke into a grin. "Oh, the Dragonslaying Sword! It’s been 10,000 years since we saw each other, haven’t we?"

……

Some distance away, Shadow Dancer Xue Wei was supporting Sophia when she exclaimed in astonishment, "Lady Xinran had given the Dragonslaying Sword to us before it was stolen away by the Dragon Domain Scavenger, so how did it fall into Karinshan’s hands? Could it be… was the Dragon Domain Scavenger really Karinshan’s subordinate?"

Sophie said quietly, "Quiet, Xue Wei. Now that Karinshan has gifted the Dragonslaying Sword to Binglan, Dragon Domain is sure to favor Sky City. We are alone, and Binglan has regained her weapon. Lady Xinran may not be able to defeat her as she is now…"

"Yes, Your Majesty is wise!"

"..."

1. T/N: it was Phantom Umbrella when she fought Strella, but who knows, maybe it upgraded? ☜

2. T/N: For those who don’t know, this is Frivolous Scholar’s signature skill ☜

3. T/N: what part of being slowly corrupted and mind-controlled for 10,000 years do you not understand? ☜

4. T/N: do not try this at home, you’re not a Divine Rank expert capable of resealing your wounds instantly ☜