Chapter 231 — Section 233: Each Fighting Their Own Battle [Third Update]

Sensing the tiger's will to fight, Bing felt his own blood beginning to boil.

Yet he did not give himself over to frenzy; coolly, he kept the Sky Tiger under control.

The White Fox was startled by the Sky Tiger's speed—a speed that surely surpassed any mechanism he had ever seen from Ren Yanjia's workshop.

A new mechanism?

A flicker of curiosity stirred in the White Fox's heart. Behind every mechanism there must stand a mechanism master, and the caliber of the mechanism gave a direct reading of the master's caliber.

The Five Slayers had roamed far and wide, cutting down mechanism warriors beyond counting. Yet mechanism warriors who could earn the White Fox's regard were few indeed. Mechanism masters and mechanism warriors were like two brothers in misery; both professions had been reduced to playthings for the amusement of the rich.

This mechanism warrior before him looked rather capable.

The White Fox's interest kindled. He deliberately opened up the distance—he wanted to see just how good this mechanism warrior and this mechanism really were.

The Sky Tiger's plumed wings spread wide, flashing across the sky like a bolt of blue lightning.

Bing saw through the other's probing intent, and it suited him perfectly. He had never seen the tiger in a state of rage; from the moment he received the Sky Tiger until now, this mechanism had overturned every fixed notion he once held about mechanisms. There were many aspects he still had to feel out—even Sailei did not know how the mechanism she had built ought to be used.

Bing had to work it out little by little himself, and through their time of running-in he had already gained some insight. The Sky Tiger's performance had a direct bearing on the tiger itself; the tiger was a mass of martial soul, not a machine, and so naturally it fluctuated. Those fluctuations greatly affected the Sky Tiger's capabilities.

For a mechanism warrior, understanding his own mechanism and drawing out its greatest power was the most basic of skills.

Bing's interest in the tiger far exceeded his interest in the White Fox.

Just how great was the effect of an enraged tiger upon the Sky Tiger?

He felt it out carefully, savoring it. This living mechanism was something he could not get used to, yet it filled him with anticipation and curiosity. It was simply too clever—cleverer than any mechanism he had used before.

In its enraged state, the Sky Tiger's speed increased somewhat, its reactions quickened, and its instinct to attack grew stronger. The moment he issued an attack order, it grew excited; but when he ordered it to defend, it resisted to a degree...

Many details, easy for others to overlook, slid through Bing's mind like running water.

***************************************************************

Iron Horse was thoroughly vexed. He was the tallest of them, a black horse painted across his chest, and his name was Iron Horse.

He had the most opponents.

A blind old man, a mute servant, and a soul general who fought with a flute.

Any one of the three, taken alone, was no match for him—but with all three joined together, it was his turn to groan without end. The two sound warriors in particular worked together with astonishing coordination, pinning down his attention so thoroughly that the mute servant had driven him back by sheer force.

Iron Horse recognized the Sorrowful Blind Strings.

By ranking, the gap between them was considerable: the Blind Strings elder ranked 9,900th, while Iron Horse stood as high as 9,870th. It might look as though he were only thirty places ahead of the old man, but on the Sky-Road Ranking, even a single place's difference sometimes told clearly—and a gap of more than ten places was no small thing at all.

A gap of thirty places meant that, almost certainly, if the two fought, Iron Horse's victory was a foregone conclusion.

Even adding the mute servant could not raise the Blind Strings elder's odds of winning. Fighting many against few only worked when both sides were roughly equal; when the strength of the two sides differed plainly, numbers could not make up for the deficit in power.

Those mighty ones, in the mere lift of a hand or turn of a foot, commanded the awe of heaven and earth, moving mountains and overturning seas with ease. They could destroy a whole constellation by themselves. Such things had happened time and again throughout history, and many a mighty one had climbed to the summit upon feats like these.

Iron Horse found the key: the soul general with the bronze flute!

That soul general's strength was not high, his true-force even weaker—but his flute notes were uncanny, endlessly disrupting and even breaking the rhythm of Iron Horse's attacks. And the mute servant, though seemingly injured, became unstoppable under the flute's influence, bringing Iron Horse no end of trouble.

His rhythm broken again and again, his attacks snatched away time after time by the mute servant, Iron Horse was seething.

Still, he knew quality when he saw it. With sound martial arts this flawless, this soul general must have a formidable background.

For a moment he actually felt at a loss as to where to begin.

************************************************************

Ding Dang's face was a mask of disbelief as she stared blankly at the battle raging with such ferocity.

Tang Tang and the others had not fallen into a disadvantage...

And that was the Five Slayers...

Tang Tang and his companions did not understand the Five Slayers, but Ding Dang, who dealt constantly with intelligence from every quarter and knew every name on the Sky-Road Ranking as intimately as a Black Soul Horse, understood all too well just how strong the Five Slayers were.

The Five Slayers had been formed seven years ago, five Sky-Road Ranking warriors banding together into one group—a thing that caused a sensation at the time. People generally assumed that this newly formed Five Slayers must be extraordinarily powerful.

And indeed, from the very day of their founding, the Five Slayers had swept all before them; of the Forty-Two Mansions of the Southern Sky, at least fifteen constellations bore their traces. Their cruelty and bloodlust were as renowned as their strength.

Moreover, the Five Slayers were cunning and suspicious; with the five joined together, they had rarely met a match—unless they encountered a powerhouse ranked within the top 9,500.

The Five Slayers soon made a considerable name for themselves, but their movements grew ever more secretive. Gradually they faded from people's view, hiding themselves in the darkness, and people could connect them only to the occasional murders that surfaced on some planet or other.

And yet... Tang Tang and the others were holding off the Five Slayers!

Ding Dang could scarcely believe her eyes. In these paired duels, not one of them had yet conceded or fallen.

Who on earth were these people?

**********************************************************

Tang Tang and the Qilin King fought in full fury. Having passed the opening stage of mutual probing, both sides poured on more and more power, and the battle grew ever more intense.

The Sickle-Blood Cat Blade in Tang Tang's hand gave forth a constant weeping whine; the dark red blood-sickle flickered in and out of sight amid dazzling sparks.

The Qilin King was under tremendous pressure.

The martial art he cultivated was the Bloodfire Pagoda, a seventh-tier golden soul-general card that had cost him a full twenty-seven million star coins. That card had consumed every coin he had at the time, but you got what you paid for, and the power of the Bloodfire Pagoda left the Qilin King thoroughly satisfied.

This martial art could freely shift its mode of attack, but more importantly, it could form a peculiar pagoda fire.