Chapter 632: Assassination from the Night
Chapter 632: Assassination from the Night
The rope made of condensed spirit particles turned into specks of light and scattered.
Ponbieta rolled her eyes, her body falling from the stake to the ground, drenched in blood from the countless piercings inflicted by Fengye's spirit particle arrows.
"Cough... gurgle...”
Blood trickled from her mouth as well.
Despite her body being riddled with arrow wounds, she was still alive, her consciousness clinging on, acutely aware of the pain emanating from her numerous injuries.
Fengye slowly lowered the spirit particle bow, shaking his head.
"Your aim is terrible."
"I'm just not used to this type of weapon."
Ponbieta gurgled, unable to speak or hear due to her throat being pierced, and unable to see as well, engulfed in darkness with only pain for company.
She wanted to say that it was enough, that the pain she was enduring far surpassed what those two boys had experienced, but all that came out were unintelligible sounds.
"Go back to your room."
Fengye, looking at Ponbieta, spoke directly into her mind in a gentle tone, "You can heal your wounds and end the pain there."
Leaving those words behind, Fengye casually tossed the spirit particle bow aside and made his way to a quiet and elegant study on the second floor of the house, reaching out with his left hand to grab a book from thin air.
Advanced Spiritology: On the Linear Relationship Between High-Density Spirit Particles and Spiritual Pressure
"..."
With a blank expression, Fengye tossed the book back into the void and pulled out another.
Fundamentals of Spatial Construction and Reorganization
Hmm.
Wrong book again.
Fengye discarded the second book and, with his third attempt, retrieved the desired one.
Adolescence of Utena: Won't Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai
Now, that's the one.
Fengye leaned back in his chair, opening the book and beginning to read.
...
In the courtyard, Ponbieta lay on the ground.
Though blind and deaf, she could still sense her surroundings to some extent, being a pure-blooded Quincy with the ability to perceive through spirit particles.
"Cough... gurgle... must..."
She knew that by normal human standards, she should have been dead by now, her blood all but dried up, yet she clung to life.
And so, if she didn't return to that room to heal, she would continue to endure this agony. She had to get back there.
With her entire body pierced through, she couldn't stand, let alone crawl. But she was a Quincy, and Quincies had the ability to manipulate their bodies using spirit particles.
"Hiss! Hiss!!"
Gritting her teeth, she harnessed the nearby spirit particles, forming them into thin threads that lifted her off the ground. However, the momentary movement brought even more intense pain, causing the delicate threads to shatter.
Manipulating spirit particles into threads and controlling her body like a puppet was the Quincy ability 'Ranjotengai', a highly advanced technique that required exceptional control over spirit particles and was beyond the reach of ordinary Quincy.
Ponbieta had not learned this ability as it entailed high-level spirit particle manipulation.
It wasn't something she was supposed to learn at this point.
But.
In this moment, she had to master this skill.
"Ugh..."
With her senses of sight and sound gone, Ponbieta's consciousness was almost entirely focused on manipulating the spirit particles, and on her second attempt, she managed to create resilient spirit particle threads!
She used these threads to hold her body together, allowing her to stand once more and take a difficult first step forward, followed by a second.
Advanced spirit particle control.
Spirit thread formation.
These were techniques that even seasoned knights struggled to master, yet she had achieved a level of proficiency in just half an hour.
"If I can survive and become a knight... in a year... no, in just a month, I could become the captain of the Silver Cage City knights..."
The thought crossed Ponbieta's mind.
In just thirty minutes, she had acquired power that others took years to attain, her potential unleashed in the face of adversity.
Had she not been pushed to such extremes, she would never have known the extent of her own capabilities, the terrifying talent she possessed!
I truly...
...can become a Sternritter!
This conviction was reaffirmed in her heart.
Not only had her control and manipulation of spirit particles improved, but so had her tolerance for pain. She knew she had truly grown and matured, and this growth was largely due to Fengye. Without him, she might never have developed such resilience.
One step,
Two steps,
Three steps,
she marched with steady strides back into her bedroom.
Just as she reentered her room, Fengye, seated in the spacious study and absorbed in his book, lifted an eyelid and glanced in the direction of the third floor.
A soft chuckle escaped his lips,
and he resumed reading.
Back in her bedroom, Ponbieta took a few more steps forward before letting her body fall onto the bed. Immediately, spirit particles in the room rushed towards her, pouring into her body.
Her wounds healed rapidly, and the bloodstains on her body vanished.
Moments later.
Ponbieta regained her original appearance and slowly opened her eyes.
She took a deep breath, walked to the window, raised her left hand, and clenched it into a fist. Spirit particles in the vicinity responded to her summons, converging towards her palm.
"This is the second stage of spirit particle aggregation."
"I now possess strength equivalent to that of a Silver Cage City knight."
Ponbieta gazed at the spirit particles rapidly gathering in her palm, a hint of joy flashing across her face.
For Shinigami, cultivation involved enhancing their spiritual pressure and refining their soul's essence. In contrast, Quincy focused on improving their control over spirit particles.
The better their control, the more spirit particles they could draw from their surroundings, resulting in higher density and more powerful attacks!
Ponbieta, despite her young age of sixteen and not yet having passed the Silver Cage City knight assessment, had already mastered the second stage of spirit particle aggregation, the highest level achievable by non-knights.
The next level was the third stage, attainable by knight captains, followed by the legendary—
Quincy Vollstandig!
In her current state, if she were to transform into a Hollow, she would be akin to an advanced Hollow like a Gillain, marking a significant leap from her previous capabilities.
"But I still probably can't beat that man..."
Ponbieta's heart sank as she balled her hand into a fist, dispersing the gathered spirit particles.
She had initially thought that Fengye's strength was on par with hers, but now that she had reached this level, she realized she still couldn't see through the barriers set up in this room or comprehend the full extent of her own abilities.
If she couldn't even understand his powers, let alone fight him, then there was no way she could be a match for Fengye, an exceptional figure among heterogenous Quincy.
However.
Even if she couldn't win in a direct confrontation, with her newfound strength, she might be able to try... assassinating Fengye!
While Fengye, as an outstanding figure among heterogenous Quincy, possessed strength comparable to that of a Silver Cage City knight captain, the gap between them had now narrowed.
Unlike Shinigami, whose cultivation focused on enhancing their spiritual pressure and soul essence, Quincy cultivated their control over spirit particles. A vast disparity in spiritual pressure could render a Shinigami invulnerable to attacks from those with weaker pressure. However, the same did not apply to Quincy, who only exhibited extremely high defensive capabilities when donning their Heilig Geist.
Without the Heilig Geist, they were still as vulnerable as ordinary humans.
They could be killed!
The fact that Fengye could grant her body an undead-like trait didn't necessarily mean he possessed such a trait himself. And even if he did, there had to be a weakness! Escaping from here while knowing nothing was difficult, and waiting for her family to find this place was akin to waiting for death. Fengye wasn't foolish enough to stay here indefinitely, and even if her family found this place, he might just take her along.
But if she killed Fengye, everything would be resolved.
After all, she was already in a desperate situation, so she might as well embrace the saying, "Despair is the key to revival!"
Whether she would fail or anger Fengye didn't matter because things couldn't get any worse than they already were.
Fengye wouldn't be on guard twenty-four hours a day. There would be moments of relaxation, lapses in attention, and times when he slept. Those moments would be her opportunity.
Night fell.
Ponbieta did not act immediately, as she was unsure if Fengye had seen through her intentions during the day. She needed to be patient and not act too hastily.
And so, time flew by quickly over the next few days.
During this period, she would go downstairs for meals as usual and had encountered Fengye five times. However, four of those encounters seemed to hold no interest for Fengye, as he did not torment her.
This unexpected reprieve caused her to breathe a sigh of relief, and even a hint of inexplicable gratitude welled up within her, only to be quickly dispelled by her unwavering conviction.
The only time she suffered torture was at noon when she met Fengye. He expressed admiration for how she could still return to her room with her body pierced through, and he wanted to see more. So, with a wave of his hand, he severed her limbs.
While the spiritual wires could manipulate the disconnected limbs to some extent, they could not completely replace their function.
Facing this immense dilemma, Ponbieta ultimately made another small step forward in her manipulation of spiritual particles. She used even more condensed spiritual threads to temporarily replace her lost limbs, allowing her to return to her bedroom once more and recover.
This level of spiritual particle manipulation was akin to that of a Knight Captain, and she had mastered it in just half a day. Although she was still far inferior to a Knight Captain in other aspects, including her Fliege ability, she had reached their level in spiritual particle control.
Second only to the Sternritter!
While she possessed such talent, it was nothing short of miraculous that she could excavate and harness it in such a short time.
Having gained such power in an extremely short period, she even felt a hint of gratitude toward Fengye. However, this gratitude did not diminish her deep-seated hatred for him.
With this newfound strength, she might still lose in a direct confrontation with Fengye, but it bolstered her confidence in attempting an assassination. At least in terms of power, she no longer feared him!
Finally, on the seventh night, she made her move.
Although she couldn't sense Fengye's spirit particles, her activities over the past few days had given her a good idea of which room he usually slept in.
Lowering her footsteps to the extreme, without causing even the slightest spiritual particle fluctuation, Ponbieta quietly arrived outside Fengye's room.
She had tried the doors of this mansion before, and while they weren't made of the most expensive or rare wood, the materials were still quite good. A gentle push usually didn't make any sound.
"No scouting barriers... You're indeed very arrogant."
Ponbieta took a deep breath.
She had checked before, and Fengye's room had no alert-type barriers during the day. Now, it seemed the same was true for the night. In Fengye's eyes, she was probably seen as a completely helpless captive who couldn't resist and could only endure his abuse, so he didn't bother to be cautious around her.
"Pay the price for your arrogance..."
Ponbieta gently pushed the door open and quietly stepped inside.
Before her was a spacious bedroom, shrouded in darkness. In the center of the room, on a bed over two meters wide, Fengye lay quietly, his eyes closed, covered by a thin blanket.
Ponbieta cautiously moved closer to the bed, until she reached its edge, and then slowly raised her hand.
She didn't know if Fengye had an undead body or where his vital points were, but these things didn't need to be considered. With her Knight Captain-level spiritual particle manipulation, the attack she unleashed could instantly blow Fengye's entire body to smithereens!
Moreover,
At such close range, it would be impossible to dodge the attack using any kind of body technique. The only way to defend against it would be to use a 'Blood Armament,' but heterogenous Quincy like Fengye couldn't obtain the cultivation method for that.
Ponbieta adjusted her angle, positioning herself directly above Fengye's head. From this position, her attack would first crush his skull and then obliterate his entire torso!
"It's a bargain for you to die in your sleep. Consider it payment for the power I've gained," Ponbieta muttered to herself.
A flash of light shone in her eyes as a large number of spiritual particles instantly gathered in her palm, forming a white pillar of light.
This was one of the attack methods used by Quincy, harnessing spiritual particles. It wasn't a high-level technique, but with the concentration of spiritual particles at the Knight Captain level, the attack's power was immense!
The pillar of light illuminated the entire bedroom, engulfing Fengye's body in an instant.
(End of Chapter)
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