Chapter 206 – One Person Becomes a Thousand
While traveling forward, Zhao Hai paid attention to their surroundings through the projection of the monitor. Green and Meg were also attentive. Even if those stealth techniques could deceive an excellent eye, it couldn’t hide from the monitor.
What made Zhao Hai feel strange about was that after traveling for more than two hours, they still hadn’t found the existence of an enemy. If they continue for another half hour more, they would soon arrive at Stony Mountain. By that point, there would obviously be no good places for an ambush.
Green was also a bit unsure and had shared Zhao Hai’s thoughts that they would be ambushed past the halfway point to Stony Mountain. Now, however, they still hadn’t found anyone. This was truly beyond their expectations. He looked puzzledly at the screen and said, “Aren’t they going to ambush us halfway to Stony Mountain?”
Suddenly, a green dot appeared on the screen. Afterward, there was a rapid increase in the number of green dots, the change visible to the naked eye. This made Zhao Hai and the others dumbfounded as they didn’t understand what was going on.
Before long, those green dots had them surrounded. Green seemed to have thought of something and his complexion suddenly changed. “One person becomes a thousand, Shue of Ten-thousand Shadows[1].”
Zhao Hai and Meg[2] were surprised for a moment. They turned their heads towards Green with a bit of confusion in their expression as they didn’t understand what he’d meant. Green looked at them and said, “Young Master, you needn’t be confused. There’s actually only one person outside, yet we can also say there are a thousand individuals as well. This person is very famous on the continent as he is a renowned assassin for hire. What’s more important is that this person is a Rank Seven warrior and, simultaneously, a Divergent Warlock.”
“Divergent Warlock?” Zhao Hai and Meg both cried out in alarm at the same time. A couple of days ago, they had just said that Zhao Hai was a Divergent Warlock. They didn’t expect that they would encounter a Divergent Warlock today.
Zhao Hai couldn’t help but stop Alien. They were surrounded by a thousand individuals. What was strange about these thousand individuals was that they all wore the same clothing and carried the same weapons. Only their posture as they wielded their weapons were different.
Green, however, was calm this time around. He looked coldly at those silhouettes before turning his head towards Zhao Hai, saying, “Yes, a Divergent Warlock. Shue of Ten-thousand Shadows is very strange. He has a very enviable Divergent technique, a doppelganger technique. His doppelganger technique creates sub-bodies that aren’t dummies or illusions but real people. The attacks of these avatars of his are the same as his own attacks, and they also have the same strength as him. What’s more important is that his doppelganger technique can allow his avatars to also use his weapon. I hear he can produce a thousand avatars. As such, he can perfectly be described as ‘one person becomes a thousand’.”
Zhao Hai was surprised. “I really didn’t expect that there could be such a Divergent technique. It’s really too great. No wonder the other side is assured. With a thousand people used to deal with us, if this happened in the past we would have been thrown into confusion. But now? Haha.”
Green also laughed after hearing what Zhao Hai said. Truly, if this had happened before and they met with this Divergent Warlock, Shue of Ten-thousand Shadows, then it would have been a headache. This wasn’t the case now. Don’t even mention Zhao Hai with his two Rank Nine experts, even if he just used the eagles flying overhead, the quantity wouldn’t be limited to just a thousand.
Smiling, Green said, “Young Master, you must go out and see Shue of Ten-thousand Shadows. Although this person is an assassin, he works quite frankly. Furthermore, he doesn’t hurt the innocent, so he can be considered a good individual, a decent person to meet.”
Zhao Hai showed a faint smile and nodded. He knew that here on the Ark Continent, common assassins were like mercenaries and weren’t truly disliked. Only those that were notorious and evil would be shamed. As such, no one really cared that much about common assassins.
The three of them walked out of Alien’s mouth. They saw the battle formation outside that was composed of a thousand people. The small army all wore leather armor and held a weapon in their hands, looking coldly at Zhao Hai.
These thousand individuals looked exactly the same. Their height was about 1.8 meters or so, and they looked very strong. With messy hair that was uncared for, they had silver-gray eyes that gave one a cold feeling.
The weapons they held were actually two-handed axes that looked quite heavy. They gazed at Zhao Hai and the other two. When the three came out, the sharp eyes of the army flashed.
Green stood beside Zhao Hai, looked at Shue of Ten-thousand Shadows, and with a cold voice said, “Shue of Ten-thousand Shadows. I never would have thought we would run into you here. Why? How much of a bounty did they place on us?”
Shue of Ten-thousand Shadows had already thought he’d been recognized, so he wasn’t startled. Instead, he looked coldly at Zhao Hai and said, “10,000 gold coins.”
Zhao Hai couldn’t help but laugh. “I didn’t think we were that valuable, how come? Are you confident enough to keep us here?”
Shue of Ten-thousand Shadows stared at Zhao Hai. He smiled coldly and said, “A thousand against three. I cannot see the possibility of my loss.”
Zhao Hai smiled faintly. “Who said it was a thousand against three? Go ahead and look up.”
Shue of Ten-thousand Shadows was surprised for a moment, then looked up at the sky and found that there were many small black spots circling the sky. These black spots were densely packed together. Based on his estimation, they were more than a thousand in number. Shue of Ten-thousand Shadows couldn’t keep his complexion from changing.
Zhao Hai looked at Shue of Ten-thousand Shadows’ appearance and couldn’t help but chuckle. “What’s wrong? Now, which side has more people? You won’t think I can’t control them, right?”
Shue of Ten-thousand Shadows lowered his head, then shook it. “I believe you can command them. However, I have taken other people’s money, so I will naturally need to handle this matter. Kill!” Having shouted that, he flew towards Zhao Hai.
Meg didn’t wait for Zhao Hai and quickly took out the Sealed Magic Iron Tome. An angel instantly appeared over Zhao Hai’s body, protecting him. Zhao Hai also wasn’t idle as he cast an earth elemental magic spell, ‘Ground Thorn Technique[3]‘.
This Ground Thorn Technique was an area-of-effect earth element magic spell. The range was around a hundred meters, but the lethality wasn’t very high. For a common warrior, so long as they could jump, they could avoid it.
Even if it wasn’t an effective attack, at this moment it was effective at blocking his enemies. With Shue of Ten-thousand Shadows momentarily blocked, Zhao Hai held the Ghost Cane and waved it. Stone Giants appeared around Zhao Hai, blocking attacks.
Green didn’t help Zhao Hai get rid of their enemies. To him, this was a rare combat opportunity for Zhao Hai, and Green wanted him to experience it. Anyway, there was still Cai-er and Zhao Wen on Zhao Hai’s side, so Green wasn’t worried about his safety.
At this time, the eagles flying in the sky began their attack on Shue of Ten-thousand Shadows. These eagles screamed as they flew down swiftly. Their present battle efficiency wasn’t weak as they flew awe-inspiringly with killing intent around them.
Shue of Ten-thousand Shadows hadn’t thought that Zhao Hai would be so unexpectedly hard to deal with. What’s more was that the information he was given said that Zhao Hai was a black magician. The information hadn’t listed that Zhao Hai could use earth element magic. Moreover, he could command flying magic beasts with blood-red bodies. At a glance, this wasn’t easy to deal with.
After the eagles flew down and attacked Shue of Ten-thousand Shadows, he became filled with regret. He hadn’t thought that the battle efficiency of the eagles would be so strong. Moreover, their talons were strange since they could block his axe attacks. He began to feel his battle qi draining fast, faster than its usual consumption. This made Shue of Ten-thousand Shadows secretly complain.
At this moment, Alien looked up into the sky and suddenly roared. It fiercely charged towards Zhao Hai. It was unknown when exactly it had transformed into a large zombie predator. It struck rapidly, not giving Zhao Hai the chance to hide.
Green and Meg were both startled. They had been standing beside Zhao Hai and had absolutely no guard up against Alien. The two would never have thought that Alien would change form at this time.
Just then, Green angrily shouted. Alien threw itself onto Zhao Hai, but instead of crashing into him, it opened its mouth and swallowed Zhao Hai. Furthermore, they didn’t know when but it had suddenly changed into skeleton form. After swallowing Zhao Hai, a sword appeared, piercing straight down onto its head.
Right! A sword appeared above Alien’s head and this sword was very hard. Alien’s head couldn’t help but be pulled downward, sinking together with the sword and into the ground.
Green and Meg now clearly understood what had happened. Originally, Alien didn’t really want to attack Zhao Hai. Instead, it tried to save him. They hadn’t expected that there would be another hidden assassin in the vicinity. That assassin had suddenly attacked Zhao Hai with a quick burst. If not for the timely rescue from Alien, the consequences would truly be inconceivable.
Actually, Green didn’t know that just as Alien took action, Cai-er had already appeared on Zhao Hai’s shoulder and Zhao Wen on his head. Thus, even if Alien didn’t make a move, Zhao Hai wouldn’t have been in any accidents. Since Cai-er and Zhao Wen weren’t large, nobody had felt their presence[4].
With the sudden appearance of the assassin, Alien didn’t have to just save Zhao Hai but also had to take the brunt of the assassin’s attack. One must know, however, that Alien was an undead variation. Spiritual attacks were his forte, so to suddenly move made the other shocked[5].
That person, however, was strictly trained. Thus, when the person found out their attack had failed, he immediately wanted to retreat. Green didn’t give the person a chance. With his Spirit Wind Sword, he charged straight at the person.
Zhao Hai was drenched in cold sweat. He hadn’t thought that the assassin’s stealth techniques would be this fierce. Not even Green[6] had found him.
Thinking about this, Zhao Hai couldn’t help but feel his heart tighten. He turned towards Cai-er and said, “Cai-er, help Grandpa Green. Don’t let that assassin run.”
Cai-er complied immediately. With a swift movement, she suddenly appeared beside Green with the use of a Spatial Crack. Several vines extended from the inside of the Spatial Crack and headed straight for the assassin.
This sudden attack greatly startled the assassin. His appearance was that of a person making continuous dodges with great difficulty. Yet, he hadn’t actually thought that those vines would vanish. Just as he was startled, behind him appeared another Spatial Crack and vines stretched forth from it. The person was then bound tightly. These vines had small fibrous roots that were like steel needles stabbing into his body. The person’s endurance was really astonishing. Even with this much pain, he didn’t make a sound.
Notes:
-This chapter was MTL’ed. Please leave a comment for constructive criticisms and advice. Thanks.
-Please support the author if you love this novel.
-Please check out the Editor’s footnotes, thanks.
Footnotes:
[1] 许万影 – Xǔwànyǐng. One of the worst names to come across. It’s more of a title or something rather than a name. Xu (许) is either standalone, or it can mean promise/praise/allow/betroth. It’s a mess of ideas. Wan (万) is ten thousand, which isn’t a problem since the entire quote uses numbers. Ying (影) is shadows. Now, to transliterate the entire thing wouldn’t work since the Ten-thousand shadows part rather fits him. That means, however, that we can only work with Xu… So in the end, he becomes Shue of Ten-thousand Shadows. ↩
[2] It says Laura here in the raw, but she shouldn’t be here. It should be Green, Zhao Hai, and Meg. ↩
[3] 地刺术 – De cì shù. Ground/Earth (地) Thorn/Pierce (刺), Technique/Art/Skill/Method (术). ↩
[4] I don’t know. A palm sized mosquito sounds pretty big… and a damned mini girl too… you’d think at least Rank Eight Green would have noticed… ↩
[5] Yea, sorry, this was a confusing section. I did my best considering the context. Raws were dumb. ↩
[6] Again, it said Laura, but I’m gonna go with the person with the highest cultivation among the three humans. Cai-er and Zhao Wen actually appeared in response, so they don’t count here.