They were being chased by a large group of Black Star Army players. Phillip had sent their coordinates to all the army members on the battlefield.
Quite a number of players taking part had seen it and thought, Nice, bonuses!
Thus, Summer Night Flower and the others’ nightmare began. No matter how they changed their location, it was always shown on the radar of the army players.
Originally, fighting with opposing faction players was very common. However, in this skirmish, the number of players on the Black Star Army’s side was more than a hundred times the number of players on Summer Night Flower’s side. Hence, it became one-sided, and Summer Night Flower’s group was chased by the other players.
Summer Night Flower’s mood was extremely bad. He regretted going to Stronghold W-58. He should have requested to be deployed to other strongholds that did not have to face the Black Star Army!
The Black Star Army was full of bad people that were just merciless. He was afraid.
As a player of the opposing faction, he decided to avoid the Black Star Army in the future. Even if that meant that he had to play alone in a remote stronghold, the game experience would be better than being chased by enemies all the time.
As Summer Night Flower was in a meltdown while being chased by the army players, the battle between Hila and three enemy Calamity Grades reached its climax.
The few of them kept shifting the battlefield, moving across the various areas where the fleets were fighting. With continuous explosions, people died nonstop, and gray souls entered Hila and recovered her energy.
So, this is my current limit.
While fighting, thoughts flashed through Hila’s mind.
This was the first time that she had fought in a true battle with a Calamity Grade. She quickly gained combat experience and a clearer understanding of her own combat capability.
Ames and Han Xiao who had trained her all along were much stronger than her, so she could not really measure her strength. Now that she was fighting with normal Calamity Grades, although she had the lower hand, she felt amazing. She could now finally fully utilize her strength in a battle where she was not completely thrashed.
Hila thought that she seemed quite strong, but she was not satisfied with that.
I can barely deal with three enemies… but Han Xiao can fight ten at once. There’s still a huge difference… Hila clenched her teeth.
She saw Han Xiao as the goal to chase after. Now that she felt the pressure of fighting three enemies at the same time, she had a deeper understanding of Han Xiao’s combat capability.
If he was in my place, the battle would have already ended.
Feeling the difference between the two of them, Hila clenched her teeth and increased the output of her energy.
On the other side, Manudo was communicating with his comrades.
“This woman’s ability is very strange. It gives me a Necromancer feeling, but it’s not really the same.”
“Her energy can cause both physical and psychic damage. After getting hit, even the vitality of my cells was suppressed, and the efficiency of cells creating energy decreased. It’s as if… as if my life force is suppressed.”
“What do you think, Staff Sergeant Jorde?” Manudo asked.
Jorde, who was watching remotely, nodded slowly and said with a serious tone, “I have already saved the video of her battle into the database. Although her ability is strong, it’s not the focus this time. Black Star is the target that you’re supposed to test.”
“But he’s not joining the battle. Does that mean we can retreat?” Manudo asked hastily. He did not want to stay even one second longer near Black Star.
“Maybe it’s because he’s training his subordinates or because of something else,” Jorde said with a deep voice. “Attack harder. As long as this woman’s life is in danger, Black Star will definitely do something.”
Aren’t you just hurrying us to die?
Manudo felt miserable.
The few of them fought intensely for a while. Eventually, Hila showed a flaw under the aggressive attacks from three enemies. Manudo’s Cannon Master teammate caught the opportunity. He shot a particle cannon beam that was enhanced with many burst damage abilities right at Hila’s hasty defense attempt. It shattered her armor and blasted her away.
“Er…”
Hila stopped herself from rolling in the universe. Her body was covered with black wounds and dead cells. The area around her left shoulder and half of her neck was gone, an injury a normal person would have immediately died from and was considered heavy even for Calamity Grades.
Manudo and his two teammates were just about to chase when Manudo suddenly felt alarmed and slowed down behind the other two.
Hila took a deep breath. Suddenly, thick light shot out from her eyes. Her wounds started to heal as her cells multiplied at an extremely high speed.
The flesh on her neck and her left shoulder grew back in an instant, showing her white skin under the broken armor. Energy was flowing through her entire body, and she was almost back at peak performance.
In the flagship, Aurora’s eyes were shining as well. After Hila recovered, only then did the light in Aurora’s eyes slowly disappear. She quickly gasped for air as if she had just spent quite a lot of energy.
Hila and Aurora’s Esper abilities had a special connection. Through their blood relation, Aurora created a life force link between the two of them. If Hila was too heavily injured, Aurora would send her life force and heal her remotely.
As long as Aurora still had stamina, Hila would be able to recover at a terrifying speed. Its effect was similar to Han Xiao’s Aurora Character Summon Card.
Hila fought the battles, and Aurora healed her. The number of times that she could heal depended on her stamina. It was only slightly less powerful than Han Xiao’s health-stamina cycle. When the two sisters fought together, they were almost undefeatable.
Jorde was stunned, and his expression changed slightly—this reminded him of Black Star.
Black Star had this kind of horrifying recovery ability as well!
Could it be that this redhead woman had a special relationship with Black Star?
Could she be his… daughter?
Initially, Jorde did not take Hila too seriously, but he suddenly felt that he needed to do thorough research on her.
Manudo and the others stood in place and were stunned as well.
Hila felt the overflowing energy in her body, but instead of being happy, she was filled with discontent.
She had been keeping Aurora away from harm, but because of her mistake, Aurora had to use her life force to heal her. She felt that this was her fault… Although Aurora could gain that life force back very quickly, because of what had happened back in the Germinal Organization, this was still a taboo for Hila.
Just as Hila was about to attack in rage, a large hand suddenly pressed on her shoulder. She turned around. It was Han Xiao.
“That’s enough. There’s no training value if you carry on. It will just be a battle to see who’s stamina depletes first.”
Han Xiao softly pressed on Hila’s smooth, soft cheeks. Nanoparticles extended from the tip of his finger and formed a helmet, replacing Hila’s broken helmet and allowing her to speak in the communication channel.
Hila clenched her teeth and said, “Understood.”
“Leave this to me.”
Han Xiao turned around and looked at the three nervous Calamity Grades.
Manudo was panicking. Black Star finally was going to attack.
This time, Han Xiao suddenly thought of something
The enemies clearly knew of his capabilities, yet they made such a bad attempt at provoking him, so their goal should be to lure him into battle. Of course, this was definitely not because they were kind and sending him free kills.
After thinking for a short moment and recalling Manudo’s nervous expression when provoking him, it then occurred to Han Xiao. Jorde was definitely behind this. That little
weasel had used Psyker’s psychic weapon on him two months ago, but he had gone to the Palace of Hidden Spells, so he did not take part in any battles for one and a half months. This had made Jorde anxious, so he was using this to test his current state.
Having realized that, Han Xiao had an idea and did not immediately attack. Instead, he connected to Manudo’s communication channel and slowly said, “Are you sure you want to fight me? I don’t know if this is your own decision or someone ordered you to do so, but think about it carefully. People are going to die from this.”
Manudo gulped. The other two did not speak. Jorde did not want to be discovered by Han Xiao, so he did not speak either.
“I’m now giving you guys a chance. As long as you surrender and announce to leave the Bloodshed Land, I won’t do anything to you. What do you say?” Han Xiao said.
“You want me to betray the Bloodshed Land? No way!” the Grade A Cannon Master yelled and immediately fired.
Without even moving, more than 300 Watcher Instruments appeared beside Han Xiao, formed a formation, and created a psionic shield, easily blocking the attack.
Han Xiao shook his head and deliberately said, “What’s so good about Heber? Does he deserve such loyalty from you?”
“He’s the only one I’m willing to follow. How dare you speak of His Excellency Heber like that?” this Cannon Master sneered. He was a direct member of the Bloodshed Land, so he was extremely loyal.
Han Xiao narrowed his eyes and did not speak anymore. He summoned the mechanical army and attacked. It swept over the entire battlefield like a tsunami, scattering all the fleets.
Facing the mechanical army that filled his vision, Manudo felt suffocated. He had no choice but to fight it.
Han Xiao activated Apostilization and joined the battle. He secretly changed the tempo of the battle, increased the attack frequency of all the mechanical soldiers, and sacrificed accuracy to do so, deliberately showing impatience.
Of course, normal people would not notice such details, but he believed that the Bloodshed Land would definitely discover these tiny changes with their artificial intelligence’s analytical abilities.
Sometimes, tricking smart people was even easier than using stupid ones. All he had to do was mislead the opponents into the conclusion that he wanted them to have through details, and the opponents would fall for it easily. If they were not cautious enough, Han Xiao’s efforts would all go to waste.
High-level lies are always ninety percent real and only ten percent fake. What Han Xiao wanted was to make Jorde speculate that he had become weaker.
As for the reason, it was so that he could use this opportunity to take some time off from the secret war and focus on cultivating leeks. This was the most important matter at the moment. Be it advancing to Beyond Grade A or suppressing the Soul Embryo, they all required a large amount of Experience.
He was completely uninterested in letting his sub-personality be born. It would be best to make sure it never formed.
As soon as Han Xiao struck, the battle became one-sided. Under the True Damage of [Legendary Battle Technique), the Cannon Master was very quickly shattered by the mechanical soldiers. The head of the other teammate was also blown away. Manudo was the only one left barely holding on.
Panicking, Manudo hastily sent a message and said, “Wait, wait, I surrender!”
Han Xiao received the message and stopped the mechanical army. He then waved his hand and pulled Manudo over from afar through the mechanical suit’s force field.
Manudo did not dare resist and let the mechanical soldiers restrain him.
“You’ve made the right choice.” Han Xiao smiled.
Manudo nodded continuously. He had thought it through it was clear that Jorde did not care about his life, which meant that he would die sooner or later in the Bloodshed Land, so he might as well surrender. Furthermore, he did not have another choice if he wanted to live.
Escape from Black Star?
I’m not Hadavy, I can’t do it!
As the high-level combatants of the enemy were all eliminated, the battle that followed had a clear result. Rexson destroyed Stronghold W-58 and seized the loot.
After Hila absorbed all the remaining gray souls on the battlefield, she locked herself in her room and digested her first experience of fighting with Calamity Grades.
Jorde was analyzing the recording of Han Xiao’s battle in the headquarters.
Losing a stronghold meant nothing to him; what he cared about at the moment was Han Xiao’s state.
Very soon, he noticed something strange.
“Two months ago, Black Star never asked anyone to surrender and killed every one of our people. Even when he faced just one Calamity Grade, he never showed any mercy. Why did he ask them to surrender?”
Jorde frowned and looked at the recording a few more times.
Before, Black Star’s mechanical army’s attacks were all carefully and precisely calculated.
Today, however, the attack rate of his mechanical army increased visibility, as if he was willing to waste energy to increase the attack speed and gave up some of the precise calculations. As a result, many attacks completely missed.
This change made him feel a sense of… impatience?
“First, he asked our people to surrender, then he was in a hurry to end the battle…” Jorde pondered for a while and suddenly figured it out.
Black Star was trying to reduce the time of the battle, or he did not want to take part in the battle.
These two details made Jorde feel that he could guess Han Xiao’s current state.
Psyker’s psychic weapon might have dealt some kind of continuous damage to Black Star, and if he fought others, the damage would be enlarged. This was why Black Star acted differently from before.
“My speculation should be right!”
The threat of Black Star had decreased!
Having proved that Black Star had become weaker, Jorde was overjoyed. Although he did not know what damage Han Xiao had received, with this discovery, he could daringly adjust his strategies.
Chapter 735 - Evolve! Advancing on the Path of a Tank!
The battlefield of the secret war was too broad, and the small skirmish did not attract too much attention. Jorde was the only one who paid attention to it.
Not caring about the Bloodshed Land’s reaction, Han Xiao rejected Rexson’s celebration invitation after they won the battle. He brought Hila along and headed to other perimeters to give her more battlefields for her Soul Absorption.
While Han Xiao was going around the various battlefields, a new popular topic appeared on the forums. Quite a number of players that attacked Stronghold W-58 uploaded the video with Hila in it, which made the players recall memories from long ago.
Initially, this was just a usual video, but when people realized that Han Xiao and Hila had known each other for three versions now, especially after their ‘old love’ was dug out from the Galaxy Chronicles, the focus of the topic became entirely something else. Articles with all sorts of titles started to appear.
“Shock! Black Star Did This to Hila!”
“Reigniting Old Flames? Or Has He Found New Love?”
“A Love Story That Crossed Twenty Years!”
“Who Really Is the Woman Black Star Loves the Most? Counting Those Beauties He Once Loved…”
The players’ spirits were highest when talking about these kinds of topics. After all, they could imagine as much as they wanted, and there would not be any consequences. The topic gradually turned from Hila to Black Star’s love history.
Han Xiao was now the most famous NPC in the Shattered Star Ring. His position was high. He was rich, strong, and rather handsome. Ever since Version 1.0, the players had never really gotten to know any storylines regarding his love life, and the players were extremely curious about it.
Not just Hila, all the known living female characters related to the Black Star Army became hot topics of the players’ intense discussions. On the forums, the
supporters of different female characters were split into factions and argued with each other.
“Hila’s known him for the longest. It’s clearly old flames being reignited.”
“Boo, us Dragon Emperor supporters will never give in!”
“You people know nothing. Sylvia is the one and only!”
“Us Herlous supporters are smiling.”
“Us Harmon supporters are unhappy. We’re going to chop your heads off.”
“Come on, you guys are weak. Greetings from the Phillip supporters.”
“Us Feidin supporters announce our exit. Feidin is our husband. Black Star, you’re not good enough for him!”
“Right now, Aroshia is still on the way.”
“The Germinal Organization Leader is watching you from above.”
The popular topics on the forums caused the fame of the various Black Star Army officers to grow. As the focus of the topics, Black Star also gained more attention.
Han Xiao did not pay much attention to these topics on the forums; they were all for the players’ entertainment and would not cause any influence. The only possible result of it would just be more parodies…
After going to quite a few perimeters, Hila’s combat capability quickly increased through Soul Absorption. In just half a month, her Ona grew by more than 400.
In this period, Han Xiao fought a few times. His Spirit Barrier and the Enchantments on his body decreased the growth rate of the Soul Embryo, but the size of the Soul Embryo still grew from four percent to nine percent.
However, many army players had already reached Grade B, and these people started to use Experience to learn Knowledges. In this half a month, Han Xiao finally gained enough Experience to level up to above level 220.
Han Xiao stopped the traveling, touched Feidin, and hastily locked himself inside the training room.
As Han Xiao opened the interface and looked at his total Experience, he smiled with satisfaction.
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