Chapter 424: Vector Shift

Chapter 424: Vector Shift

Six unique individuals, paired up in battle, each with their own strategies in mind.

Guxingli and Taitanko were known to be the strongest among them, or at least that was what most people believed, and they too acknowledged each other as their greatest rivals. At this point, the final ranking didn't matter as much as proving their strength by defeating the other.

Cangya and Caixia, the two beautiful women, seemed to have a conflict between them.

They were evenly matched, both favoring energy-based, large-scale attacks, making this the perfect opportunity to settle their score.

Lastly, there was Jixinghuo and Wukuchalanger.

Jixinghuo didn't really mind whom he faced; he was ready for a free-for-all or even a one-against-five battle.

However, others had different plans.

Prior to this, Wukuchalanger had not known about Jixinghuo, and his understanding of him was limited to what he had witnessed in the safe zone—Jixinghuo taking out numerous experts with his incredibly powerful archery skills. Naturally, Wukuchalanger assumed that Jixinghuo excelled in long-range attacks.

He didn't take it for granted that Jixinghuo's close-quarters combat was a weakness, but he reasoned that compared to his fearsome archery, melee combat might be more manageable and give him a higher chance of victory.

And Wukuchalanger's specialty was indeed close-quarters brawling.

Using one's strength to attack the other's weakness.

The distance between the two was ten kilometers, a distance that was not far for either of them.

Wukuchalanger stomped his feet forcefully on the ground, and with a loud boom, his tall figure shot out like a cannonball, breaking the sound barrier in an instant.

As he flew, the shell on his back opened up.

A pair of hard elytra that had never been unfolded before revealed two pairs of transparent, thin wings that were incredibly resilient. Each wing was over three meters long, and they vibrated at a frequency imperceptible to the naked eye, propelling his body to tear through the air.

The sound barrier shattered with a deafening blast.

Wukuchalanger's speed increased once more, surpassing 3 Mach.

The sonic boom of Dragon Guard No. 7 was relatively low, approximately 240 meters per second. Even so, a speed of 3 Mach was astonishing.

It would take Wukuchalanger only 14 seconds to reach Jixinghuo.

However, just three seconds into his flight, when he was about eight kilometers away from Jixinghuo, a chain arrow shot toward him. Five arrow shafts connected in a line, dragging a thousand-meter-long trail of electrical current, aiming straight for his eyes.

Wukuchalanger's heart skipped a beat.

"Such a long-range shot, and with such accuracy!"

"He predicted my attack."

Not only Wukuchalanger but also the billions of viewers in Ti Huan City who were watching the battle were stunned by this arrow.

Especially the archers among them—they couldn't fathom how Jixinghuo had achieved such a feat.

Everyone couldn't help but wonder: If they were facing Jixinghuo, how would they deal with such terrifying archery?

As these thoughts flashed through their minds, before they could even come up with an answer, they saw Wukuchalanger throw a punch in mid-flight, choosing to confront Jixinghuo's chain arrow head-on. His hands were unlike those of humans; they lacked fingers and instead resembled black, scissor-like pincers that could stab, cut, and also retract into a spiked fist.

At the same time, Wukuchalanger's eyes turned pitch-black, emitting a terrifying burst of stellar power.

Boom!

An invisible layer of protection, akin to a force field, appeared on Wukuchalanger's fist, thin as a cicada's wing. Incredibly, the chain arrow struck this force field but couldn't penetrate it.

The impact and electrical current from the arrows exploded outward, causing a sudden shift in their trajectory.

Most of the arrow's power was deflected.

The remaining energy hit Wukuchalanger's fist, but he easily withstood it, his tough cuticle receiving only a slight scratch, and he even absorbed some of the electrical current.

However, Wukuchalanger's flight speed faltered, dropping abruptly to almost a standstill.

He immediately vibrated his membranous wings, accelerating once more.

Another chain arrow shot toward him, arriving just over a second after the previous one, but Wukuchalanger showed no fear, meeting it with a punch.

Boom! Boom! Boom...

Three consecutive chain arrows were all deflected by Wukuchalanger's punches, failing to inflict any damage.

Yet, Wukuchalanger's speed remained sluggish.

Over seven thousand meters away.

Jixinghuo slowed his rhythm after firing three arrows in succession, as the chain arrows consumed a significant amount of stellar power.

Since he couldn't penetrate Wukuchalanger's defense, there was no point in wasting more stellar power. Instead, he switched to burst arrows, which consumed less power and could be fired at a higher frequency. Lingxian's Song became like a machine gun, spewing out streaks of electrical light in the form of arrows that relentlessly pursued Wukuchalanger.

Amidst the booming thunder, Wukuchalanger rapidly closed in.

The burst arrows kept exploding on his body, only slightly slowing him down, and the distance between them quickly shortened.

Jixinghuo remained calm.

Instead of unleashing his shadow clones to deal massive damage, he focused his attacks on Wukuchalanger while keeping a close eye on the invisible layer of protection surrounding him.

With the power of the Myriad Images Star Pupil, he could see beyond the surface and understand the truth.

"So it's Vector Shift!"

Soon enough, Jixinghuo recognized Wukuchalanger's ability. Vector Shift was a Starfall ability, and true to its name, it could shift the direction of quantities that had both magnitude and direction, including forces and energy.

This ability could greatly weaken an opponent's attacks, making it the best defensive ability, perhaps without equal!

"No wonder..."

Jixinghuo realized, "Even the Heavenly King wouldn't dare to take my chain arrows head-on, but he did so without suffering any injuries.

Even if Jixinghuo and his eight shadow clones ganged up on him, the clones' attack power was inferior to the original, and no matter their numbers, they couldn't penetrate Wukuchalanger's vector protection.

There was only one way to break through: overload damage, far exceeding the upper limit of Wukuchalanger's vector shift.

Blow him up!

If he could shoot multiple chain arrows at the same time, he might be able to do it, but the chain arrows of the shadow clones would need to match the damage of the original, and they could only be shot once before dissipating. With only one chance, it would cost more than 20,000 stellar power.

Even if he successfully took out Wukuchalanger, he would still have to face the other opponents, and his stellar power wouldn't recover in time, making it a poor trade-off.

Jixinghuo's electromagnetic induction covered the entire safe zone.

He had also been paying attention to the battles of the other four.

Taitanko was single-handedly taking on Guxingli's legion, and although he had based his power on that of the titanium-cobalt dragon, cultivating as a Magnetic Maniac, Martial Artist, and Iron Guard, combining four occupational templates into one, he was still in a bitter struggle.

On the other side of the safe zone, there was a towering giant wave.

Cangya had transformed into a flood, manipulating half of the sea area to sweep across the sky, fighting Caixia, a Vacuum Stringer, who was elusive, endlessly energetic, and always making grandiose moves. Their battle was a difficult one to call.

No matter who won between these two pairs of opponents, the victor would be extremely difficult to deal with.

"I have to end this quickly and save my strength."

"I need to save my strength for the others."

Jixinghuo's thoughts turned, and he immediately settled on a tactic.

At this moment, Wukuchalanger charged through the electric arc arrows and burst arrows, closing in to within 300 meters. This distance was extremely close to him. Up until now, no one in the Dragon Sacrifice had been able to get so close to Jixinghuo.

There was not a ripple of emotion in Wukuchalanger's pitch-black eyes, only cold cruelty and bloodthirsty killing intent.

Swipe!

He instantly shifted a hundred meters, causing the dozen or so electric arc arrows to miss.

Then he shifted once more.

The distance between the two of them was now less than 100 meters, which, for cultivators of this level, was practically face-to-face.

At this moment, countless residents of Ti Huan City who were watching the battle couldn't help but break into a cold sweat for Jixinghuo. When a shooter is rushed by an enemy, especially one like Wukuchalanger who is invincible in close combat and can explode his opponent with a single punch, it's almost a desperate situation.

No one believed that Jixinghuo's close-quarters combat ability could match Wukuchalanger's.

Even those who had previously seen Jixinghuo slash and kill the Heavy-Armored Vanguard didn't think he could withstand Wukuchalanger's attack; Wukuchalanger was far too powerful!

In front of the Yuan Magnet Palace.

Taitanko intently watched the battlefield, the corners of her mouth turning up. If Jin were to be killed, then her ranking would be sixth, and she would win the bet.

Meanwhile, Taitanko unconsciously clenched his fists, more nervous than Jixinghuo himself.

In the spotlight, Jixinghuo put away Lingxian's Song. As a genius-level legendary powerhouse, it wouldn't be strange for him to have a spatial equipment, and there was no need to hide it in the Mental Fantasy Realm.

Lingxian's Song disappeared from his hand, replaced by the Electric War Blade.

Blade in hand!

Jixinghuo's body instantly swelled to over ten times its size, reaching a height of more than five meters, entering the Giant Transformation form.

The Magnetic Star Core output at maximum power, and the electromagnetic stellar power, under the control of electromagnetic oscillation, constructed an electromagnetic field, triggering "Dragon Madness" and "Overload," with his eyes bursting with electric light and his body surrounded by coils of current.

Countless visible electromagnetic field lines spread out for kilometers.

Dense and intertwined, they enveloped the space.

Upon seeing this scene, the group of True Dragon Humans from the Titanium-Cobalt Family in front of the Yuan Magnet Palace were stunned.

They were at least Sixth-Stage Dragon Masters, and even if they didn't have a Titanium-Cobalt Dragon partner, they were Dragon Warriors who had fused with Titanium-Cobalt Dragon variants and mastered electromagnetic fields. However, most of them couldn't control electromagnetic fields to this extent.

In fact, they were far inferior, the gap was huge!

Just as Jixinghuo completed his giant transformation, Wukuchalanger used his third shift to appear in front of him, also entering a giantized state, only about half a meter shorter than Jixinghuo.

Wukuchalanger threw a punch.

This seemingly ordinary punch contained terrifying power.

Wukuchalanger was a Power King.

This advanced profession could control gravity, but instead of projecting gravity changes outward, it was concentrated on the self, solely used to amplify one's own strength. In battle, one could instantly increase gravity to enhance lethality or reduce gravity to speed up, doing as one pleased and using gravity as an auxiliary tool.

Within Jixinghuo's electromagnetic field, Wukuchalanger immediately triggered a chain reaction, causing a burst of spiritual energy, with countless currents converging to strike.

However, it was all ineffective against Wukuchalanger and was deflected.

Bang!

Jixinghuo slashed out with his blade.

The synchronized giantized Electric War Blade, nearly four meters long, collided head-on with Wukuchalanger's fist.

Electric light spiraled on the blade, splashing countless sparks.

"Such incredible strength!"

The two exclaimed almost simultaneously, their eyes widening in surprise.

Ji Xinghuo nearly lost his grip on the Electric War Blade as the recoil from the blade caused his palms to split open and his arms to go numb.

Even though he had held back and hadn't activated Thunder Cut with this strike, merely testing the waters, the fact that his attack, augmented by the Electric Spiral Strike, failed to injure Wukuchalanger and only left a shallow white mark on his hand was astonishing.

"Most of my strength was deflected by his vector shift." Ji Xinghuo frowned, "And it seems he possesses the power of the stars, no wonder he's so strong!"

But unbeknownst to him, Wukuchalanger was even more shocked. It had been a long time since someone of the same stage as him could take a direct punch head-on.

Moreover, this opponent was a shooter.

Hoo!

Wukuchalanger vigorously flapped his membranous wings, canceling out the backward momentum and propelling himself forward by several meters. He threw a punch as he lunged, then suddenly vanished, only to reappear behind Ji Xinghuo an instant later, aiming a punch at the back of his head.

However, it was as if Ji Xinghuo had eyes at the back of his head, as he anticipated this move.

Ignoring inertia, he forcibly stopped his body, causing Wukuchalanger's punch to miss, and the air, compressed to an extreme degree, exploded, creating a shockwave that swept across a hundred meters.

Pa-la!

Ji Xinghuo transformed into electricity, flickering within his electromagnetic field, akin to a teleportation, leaving four afterimages in his wake, each identical and wielding a war blade, slashing at Wukuchalanger in unison.

At the same time, his electromagnetic field unleashed a barrage of electrical currents to strike and entangle Wukuchalanger.

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

The four blades struck Wukuchalanger's body in quick succession, but he completely disregarded them, turning to face Ji Xinghuo's true body and raising his arms to block the war blade that cleaved downward from above.

Boom!

A dazzling display of electric light erupted.

Wukuchalanger's upper body was driven into the ground, and the Electric War Blade left deep wounds on his arms, drawing greenish blood.

He was finally injured.

For a Bloodthirsty Flier known for their robust vitality, this injury was insignificant and would heal in the blink of an eye.

However, the Spiral Strike that penetrated his body caused Wukuchalanger's entire body to stiffen, disrupting his movements.

Without hesitation, Wukuchalanger used Instant Movement.

Pa-la!

Ji Xinghuo transformed into electricity once more, flickering within his electromagnetic field, and the four afterimages merged back into his body, restoring his star power to its peak. In an instant, he predicted Wukuchalanger's location and swung his blade, executing a Thunder Cut.

Even before the Thunder Cut could reach its target, a massive bolt of lightning struck down.

Boom!

Just as Wukuchalanger emerged from his Instant Movement, a colossal lightning bolt struck his head, the blinding electric light nearly engulfing him, and the sound, light, and electricity assaulted his senses indiscriminately.

This only affected him momentarily, and he soon recovered.

Alarm bells rang in his mind.

Immediately, a hundred-meter-long lightning blade loomed in Wukuchalanger's vision, slicing toward his neck.

The Vector Shift ability activated.

However, this strike's power exceeded the deflection limit, and the invisible layer of protection around his body collapsed. The war blade sliced through his chitinous exoskeleton with ease, and as the blade cut into his neck, it became lodged, and a burst of electricity erupted.

Wukuchalanger felt excruciating pain but remained unfazed, throwing a punch at the nearby Ji Xinghuo, intending to trade injuries.

Suddenly, Ji Xinghuo retreated.

At this moment, it was as if inertia didn't exist for him, and neither forward nor backward movement nor his electrical teleportation affected his speed in the slightest.

Every one of Wukuchalanger's actions was anticipated by Ji Xinghuo.

A single misstep leads to fatal consequences.

Wukuchalanger's fighting spirit wavered, and he wanted to create some distance first, not too far, and then regroup and resume the battle.

He vigorously flapped his membranous wings and used Instant Movement, and in the moment his vision shifted, he suddenly felt an unprecedented sense of danger. Without hesitation, he used Instant Movement again, expending a significant amount of star power and physical energy, but the danger seemed to be ever-present.

Swipe! Swipe! Swipe...

Wukuchalanger consecutively used Instant Movement over a dozen times, shifting left and right, up and down, and each time, his destination was unexpected.

Yet, he remained within Ji Xinghuo's electromagnetic field.

No matter where he teleported to, Ji Xinghuo would synchronously appear behind him, the Electric War Blade brimming with electrical currents, its radiance so intense that it was difficult to look directly at the massive war blade, as if it were forged from pure electricity.

Finally, after multiple Instant Movements, Wukuchalanger's star power and physical energy began to lag, and he hesitated for the briefest moment.

This pause, shorter than the blink of an eye, decided his fate.

The blade light descended!

In the eyes of billions, electric light flashed, and the massive Electric War Blade sliced through Wukuchalanger's neck, his head rolling to the ground, his eyes still reflecting disbelief.

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end