Four Split Personalities

Indeed, only good news will come, and all the warriors who sacrifice themselves here believe in this.

"Of course, I believe it too, so please everyone, stay calm and composed, there’s no need for unease, nor is there a need to leave this world with regrets."

Tai Shang smiled at the air in front of him and after a pause, shook his head gently, "No, your help isn’t needed, esteemed ones. Your mission is already complete, you may rest now. Leave the rest to me."

A soft, cool breeze brushed by, and in an instant, a water-blue longsword appeared in front of him, with pale white mist flowing over it, creating an exceptionally eerie sight, yet surprisingly, it did not evoke any repulsion.

"You, who are you?"

Only at this moment did the two shield warriors, who were late to realize, become aware that they hadn’t been under attack for a good ten seconds or so. They cautiously peeked their heads out from behind their shields only to see Tai Shang slowly grasping the longsword and the dozens of mutants that were frozen in their tracks before him.

"Tai Shang, one of the shikigami of the Great Yin-Yang Master Guxiaole."

Tai Shang glanced back at the two of them and smiled, "I’m here to assist on orders."

He held the longsword and traced several twisted characters in mid-air, then flipped the hilt and drove it forcefully into the ground in front of him.

The next second, an unending spread of white fog unfurled, countless huge trigrams unfolded in mid-air, and began to slowly revolve, numerous semi-transparent ’threads’ connected them into a ’net’ nearly one kilometer in diameter. Then, on this net, countless talismans as bright as stars appeared, materializing out of thin air. As soon as they appeared, they continuously released unending mists, which didn’t spread out but instead circulated among the vast array of trigrams or filled the gaps between those threads, quickly turning the ’net’ into a ’wall’.

A wall nearly a kilometer long, composed entirely of white mist, featured those trigrams, resembling works of art, massive yet intricate, and with each rotation, the mist grew more condensed, making the wall increasingly solid.

Tai Shang’s slender figure, standing with his hands behind him at the forefront of the formation, began to fade as time passed.

"In order to maintain the stability of the [Great Spirit Barrier], Tai Shang’s spiritual power is rapidly depleting."

Guxiaole stood beside Motan, pointing at the silhouette of Tai Shang’s back and laughing, "Notice how his body is becoming transparent? That’s a unique phenomenon that occurs when excessive spiritual power is consumed. It can cause a shikigami’s physical form in the mortal world to lose its anchorage. We typically refer to this phenomenon as ’Soul Fade.’

Motan was taken aback, "Referred to as what?"

"Soul Fade."

Guxiaole repeated it, explaining in detail, "Think about it; shikigami are not creatures that can normally exist in the mortal world, and they’re fundamentally different from ’ghosts.’ Thus, those summoned through a medium are more akin to spirits. When they consume too much, they can’t stabilize their bodies, and the specific manifestation is a gradual transparency. Hence, Soul Fade."

Indeed, what a Soul Fade!

Motan nodded in sincere agreement, while notifying Feather Song to have the frontline warriors regroup, all the while observing Tai Shang, whose legs below the knees had almost completely become transparent: "He won’t be in trouble, will he?"

"It’s not a big problem. Although Tai Shang is likely to drain all his spiritual power to maintain such a large [Great Spirit Barrier], it really just means he can’t be summoned for the next two or three days, it’s not a big issue."

Guxiaole shook her head, looking at the now thick fog wall which had become nearly opaque and said solemnly, "By the way, I should mention that if needed, I have one more move I can use if Tai Shang can’t hold up. I can probably keep it going for about three more minutes, after which I’ll be out of options. Popping pills and such won’t help. I’ll need at least a week’s rest to recover. You’ll have to decide what to do."

Motan was taken aback, he really hadn’t expected that Guxiaole, who had almost created a miracle, had a backup plan.

Just the formidable shikigami alone, capable of cutting off the entire battlefield with his sole power, was already incredibly astounding. Moreover, The Realm of Innocence has only been online for a little over two months now, and additionally...

"Are you a little curious why I’m so powerful, and why I haven’t appeared on the leaderboard yet?"

Guxiaole looked at Motan with a giggle, waving her finger, "The reason is very simple, I’m actually not that strong. Tai Shang looks impressive, but its nature leans more towards defense and support. Its frontal combat ability is not even on par with a middle-rank professional, and the other Shikigami are even weaker. The reason I achieved such great results in the Ghost Realm before was solely because Snow II has high lethality against evil spirits. In a different environment, it wouldn’t even be able to peck down a healthy eagle, so it’s just that this battlefield suits me well. If it were anywhere else, my Shikigami might even be worse at fighting than I am."

Motan smacked his lips and shrugged his shoulders, "That’s still pretty amazing."

"Not at all."

Guxiaole made a silly face, her expression particularly tangled, "You know, the last time I went to play in the arena in the public space, by some bad luck, I got matched with a guy on the leaderboard. Back then, Sister Xiao Le didn’t believe in superstition, after all, I am... uh, after all, I am a beautiful girl, right? So I fought with that guy with all my might."

While dispatching the clergy who had recovered a bit of magic power to hurry and save people, Motan nodded somewhat absently, "And then?"

"He one-shotted me, that freak threw at least twenty large-area magics at me within half a minute. Tai Shang and the Canine Ghost hadn’t even had a chance to materialize before they were thoroughly dispersed, and then I was also thoroughly dispersed."

Guxiaole sighed, speaking with particular resentment, "And that guy named Double Leaf wasn’t even in the top ten of the combat power leaderboard."

"That’s really... huh? Double Leaf?!"

Motan was shocked again, realizing that he was particularly startled today.

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Uh, nothing much, I just know her. We hung out for a while when I first started playing this game, but it’s been a long time since we split up." Motan spread his hands because the fact that ’Hei Fan’ knew Double Leaf wasn’t a secret, so he didn’t plan to hide it, he just candidly said, "But I never thought she would be that strong."

Guxiaole was also a bit surprised, but only a little, and she didn’t delve further into the subject. She just exclaimed how monstrous the guys in front of the leaderboard were and then turned to look at Tai Shang, which had already reached 70% transparency. She suddenly grinned, "Hehe, looks like Husband No. 19 doesn’t need to be put on hold for now."

"Hm?"

Just as Motan was about to ask about the reason, he noticed an eye-catching message banner appear in his field of view.

’The Knight Order has arrived at the second defensive zone, they’ve noticed something amiss with our position and want to know if there’s a change in the plan.’

The message came from Feather Song.

"Sister Xiao Le, could you please ask your severely soulless husband to take down the barrier?"

Motan immediately turned to Guxiaole and then strode into the range of the sound-amplifying magic, saying in a deep voice, "Attention everyone, the Holy Knight Order will soon return to the position. The temporary first and second echelons must clear a path for their return immediately. All healers step forward, you’ll have three minutes to squander your magic power. Don’t worry about consumption or stamina, heal everyone’s wounds with all your might before the annihilation starts. We’re about to commence our first and last full force charge. Support sequence, get ready to fire. I repeat, everybody prepare, we’re charging in full force in eight minutes."

Every member of the allied force who could hear Motan’s voice responded loudly, taking the time to check their weapons and equipment one last time, and realigned into new combat groups based on their profession ratios under the coordination of several leaders, including Feather Song.

Now that Guxiaole had just had Tai Shang take down the [Great Spirit Barrier], she asked with interest after hearing Motan’s orders, "Is the big decisive battle about to begin?"

"It’s not."

Motan shook his head and slowly stepped down from the command platform...

"It’s just that the third phase has been going on for too long, it’s time to end it."

Chapter 446: End