Chapter 1226: Summoning [War] with "War" |
The situation spiraled out of control. A full-blown battle was imminent.
But this time, no one held back. The pair across from him had clearly been swindled past their breaking point and refused to believe Qin Xin could possibly appear in the Real Universe.
Qin Xin even heard Hong Lin turn eagerly to Cheng Shi and say:
"Watch yourself. The instant I charge in, I might not be able to cover you — but only for that one instant. He won't last a single breath against me."
"?"
Qin Xin's eyelid twitched. He knew Hong Lin's imagined opponent was the trickster who had fooled them, but being told that to his face still ignited the pride of a [War] follower.
Meanwhile, Cheng Shi remained as steady as ever. Pressing Hong Lin's shoulder, he whispered:
"Don't underestimate him. He's not the real Qin Xin. Even though his con has kept him looking like he doesn't dare make a move, no one can be sure of his true strength.
If we can win, we fight. If we can't..."
Cheng Shi had tried to keep his voice as low as possible, but as a Hawk Eye Scout, Qin Xin heard every word crystal clear.
That gave him ninety percent certainty these two really were Cheng Shi and Hong Lin. The final ten percent he'd confirm through combat. So he had no intention of pulling his punches, and he also wanted to use this "war" to vent ten days' worth of pent-up frustration.
He needed an outlet!
Qin Xin was human, not a god. When pressure stacked into mountains so heavy he couldn't breathe, he too needed to offload the weight.
In the original world, he had guarded the secret of fire passing, tended to other Torchbearers' emotions, and even at his most bitter, exhausted, and lost, could only swallow it all — licking his wounds alone in some hidden corner.
But here in the vast Real Universe, aside from the two people before him, nobody knew him. No need to worry about appearances. He only needed to throw everything into battle, and through war, rediscover himself — while simultaneously confirming whether these two were verbal fraudsters or genuine friends.
Of course, the prerequisite was: he absolutely could not lose!
So the instant Hong Lin transformed into a giant bear and charged at him with a roar, Qin Xin narrowed his eyes, released the bowstring, and let the Long-Feathered Flying Arrow scream through the air. It detonated mid-flight into countless streaks of fire, raining down as a cage that stopped the bear dead in its tracks.
Flames surged and reversed like a waterfall flowing upward!
The tongues of inferno rolling skyward bloomed in reverse like rewinding fireworks, condensing into buds that locked Hong Lin within, burning through everything.
But even a cage of fire capable of incinerating every living thing on earth couldn't breach Hong Lin's defenses, much less withstand her full-force blow.
In the blink of an eye, the giant bear shattered the cage and burst free.
Yet even at her speed, it still took that one blink!
And in that single instant, Qin Xin reclaimed the initiative. He drew and nocked again — this time aiming at a different target: Cheng Shi, hiding far behind.
The moment Cheng Shi felt the crosshairs lock onto him, his expression went black.
He was fairly certain he couldn't survive this arrow.
Qin Xin showed no mercy, either. He hadn't even considered whether Cheng Shi could withstand it — because he knew: even if the Clown couldn't, the Druid would absolutely shield him.
So his gaze hardened, and his fingers released.
WHOOSH—
The white-feathered arrow erupted into a skyful of flaming missiles the instant it left the string. Closing in, the flames poured down like rain. By the time they reached Cheng Shi, it was a dam-burst — a torrent of blazing fire.
Cheng Shi's pupils contracted. There was nowhere to dodge. Just as the all-consuming inferno was about to reduce him to ash, a spotted-yellow blur streaked past, bringing a howling gale that extinguished the surrounding fire and wrenched Cheng Shi from the kill zone.
Hong Lin was back. Between attacking the enemy and protecting her ally, she didn't hesitate — Cheng Shi's life superseded everything.
Qin Xin was wholly unsurprised. His next arrow was already aimed at Hong Lin.
One arrow to block the enemy. One arrow to harass the backline. He intended to grind Hong Lin down through this endless loop of forced rescues.
As the other side of this battlefield, Hong Lin naturally saw through Qin Xin's pattern. But for now, she had no counter.
Cheng Shi treated the burns on Hong Lin's skin, his own expression equally grave.
This was undeniably a clash between a stats-monster and a mechanics-monster. Hong Lin charged forward with unstoppable force, shattering every formation — raw power incarnate. But she couldn't outlast Qin Xin's steady, composed command, his effortless deployment of "soldiers" and "generals" across the field.
This [War] follower understood the strengths and weaknesses of both sides intimately. Every decision dodged the bear's headlong charges and struck the Clown's vulnerabilities.
After only a short exchange, Cheng Shi realized they couldn't keep this up. At this rate, Hong Lin might genuinely be ground to death here.
His eyes flickered. As the leopard carried him clear of the inferno, he whispered to Hong Lin:
"Take this. Watch for my signal — then forget about me and take him down!"
Hong Lin grasped his meaning instantly. Weaving through the rain of fire, she shook the Clown off her back and, without a word, charged Qin Xin again.
Qin Xin repeated his earlier tactic — blocking her for an instant. But when he turned to aim at Cheng Shi once more, Cheng Shi was gone. Only a cloud of smoke remained where he had been.
If the target were simply hiding in smoke, burning the whole cloud away would suffice. The problem was, Hong Lin's flight path was also lined with smoke.
These clouds were spaced far apart. Hitting every possible position simultaneously would cost enough time for Hong Lin to close the gap.
And once a furious warrior got within arm's reach — honestly, even as [War]'s Chosen, Qin Xin wasn't confident he could stand against Hong Lin's full fury head-on.
He didn't fear close combat. He was simply weighing whether it was necessary to let the situation escalate further.
A Hawk Eye Scout excelled at reading the battlefield. Based on everything this fight had revealed, these two couldn't possibly be fakes. Every move and technique matched his understanding of them. So with their identities confirmed to one hundred percent — did this battle still need to continue?
His counterparts had surely identified him by now. So Qin Xin hesitated, debating whether to call a ceasefire and talk things through.
But his tactics had left Hong Lin deeply frustrated. Battle rage fully ignited, the instant she broke free of the cage, the giant bear howled and leapt skyward, one paw hammering straight down at Qin Xin's skull.
Qin Xin raised his bow to intercept but was a half-beat slower than the bear. Left with no choice, he tried to dodge through brute force. And so—
BOOM—
The impact thundered across the starry sky. The [War] follower paid his respects to another relic of his Benefactor.
Blood!
Blood sprayed everywhere!
The heavy armor caved inward. His body went flying. Qin Xin was swatted clean out of the air.
Feeling the force behind that blow, Qin Xin frowned slightly.
Hong Lin's attack looked devastating, yet it was actually weaker than expected. She was enraged — but she had still pulled her punch.
Qin Xin knew he had been the one to force this fight, so he'd take this hit as an apology. Just as he expected both sides to cool down and start feeling each other out, Hong Lin attacked again.
And the fury in her eyes made it clear — she was going all the way!
Qin Xin's expression hardened. He spoke gravely: "Are we still doing this?"
It wasn't Hong Lin who answered. It was Cheng Shi, hidden somewhere in the smoke.
"You think you get to decide when we stop?
Today I'm going to beat you to death, you hard-shelled old turtle bastard!
Big Cat — bite him!"
"..."
Both Hong Lin and Qin Xin's faces twitched. They collided savagely, but Qin Xin was ultimately a hunter — in a contest of raw strength against a Druid, he was quickly overwhelmed.
He looked at Hong Lin inches away, practically foaming to pound him into paste, and his brow tightened again.
"Hong Lin isn't this weak. Who are you, really?"
The giant bear's fury doubled. She roared:
"I'm your mother!"
With that, the bear's paw came crashing down again, sending Qin Xin flying once more.
Seeing his opponents refuse to relent, Qin Xin had no choice but to take the fight seriously — this baffling, increasingly absurd fight. He kept re-examining the pair, slowly beginning to question his earlier identification.
As things stood, his only option was to seize the window while Hong Lin wasn't at full power and end the fight decisively. Only with absolute control of the battlefield could he interrogate these two about why they had appeared in the Real Universe.
So Qin Xin rode his momentum backward, rolled to absorb the impact, and opened the distance. He drew and nocked once more, preparing to counterattack.
Only this time, flames began licking along the arrow before it even left the string. Sparks scattered in every direction, dancing in the wind, quickly catching his brows and hair alight.
With a roar of fire, the man wreathed in flames returned!
The [War] follower bathed in conflagration once more.
Seeing this, Hong Lin paused mid-attack, her brow furrowing deep. Cheng Shi too stepped out of the smoke, his expression grave.
But what put them on high alert wasn't Qin Xin's transformation — it was the fact that the very instant he transformed, a beam of celestial light, as if answering a summons, plummeted from some unimaginably distant corner of the starry sky and poured directly into Qin Xin's body.
The flames engulfing the Hawk Eye Scout turned white-hot and savage in an instant — terrifyingly so!
The blood on his body seemed drawn by some invisible call. It leapt upward in defiance of gravity and merged with the fire, whirling into a sky-blotting vortex of blood and flame.
In that moment, Qin Xin opened his eyes within the fire — and looked exactly as if [War] Itself had descended.
...