189: Chapter 189 The Flaw of the Instant Shadow

At this moment, the remaining six knights finally snapped out of their shock.

They finally realized that the young man before them was not someone they could handle alone!

With that elusive teleportation ability combined with physical strength comparable to the seventh rank, he was a complete monster...

"Form a formation! Everyone, gather around me! Quick!"

Edmond roared like a beast, his eyes nearly splitting.

He no longer cared about knightly pride or dignity; his four wings of light vibrated wildly as dark-gold divine art flames surged out recklessly, condensing into a massive Holy Light barrier around him.

The other five knights woke as if from a dream, abandoning their respective opponents to converge toward Edmond as streaks of light.

The knight carrying a tower shield was closest to Edmond; just as he was about to step forward, he felt a chill at his back.

A blue-gold dragon claw had silently pressed against his back armor.

"Thinking of running?" Lin Mo's voice was like ice from the Nine Netherworlds. "Did I agree to that?"

Boom!

The dragon claw exerted force, and five strands of violent dragon energy drilled into the armor gaps like drill bits. The shield-bearing knight screamed as he was propelled forward by the force, crashing like a cannonball into the Holy Light barrier Edmond had just deployed.

Bang—!

The Holy Light barrier trembled violently. The shield knight slammed into it and bounced to the ground; the armor on his back was completely shattered, revealing a mangled, bloody back underneath. He coughed up blood, clearly severely wounded.

Lin Mo slowly retracted his dragon claw, his gaze sweeping over Edmond and the others who had finally gathered. A cruel arc curved at the corner of his mouth.

"Only thinking of joining forces now? Isn't it a bit late?"

Edmond looked at his four companions groaning in pain on the ground, then at the figure floating in the rain, radiating a terrifying dragon pressure. The dragon spear in his hand trembled violently from extreme rage.

"Damned mongrel..."

"You have successfully enraged me!"

Edmond roared hoarsely.

"Enraged?" Lin Mo tilted his head, his Wind-Thunder Dragon Wings flapping slowly, each beat generating fine arcs of electricity. "No, this is just the beginning."

He raised his hand, and the longyuan blade let out a clear dragon roar. Wrapped around the blade was no longer gold-red lightning, but a deeper Azure Thunder-Qi—the Thunder of Destruction fused with the True Intent of the Azure Dragon.

"Now, all six of you come at me together." Lin Mo pointed his blade directly at Edmond, Battle Intent burning in his Azure Dragon pupils.

"Let me see if the Holy Temple Knights' Holy Cross Formation can block this strike of mine."

Edmond took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the fear and anger in his heart, and shouted, "Formation! Cross Holy Radiance! Divine Blood Resonance!"

The remaining five knights responded in unison, biting their tongues simultaneously to spit out gold-red essence blood.

Six pillars of dark-gold light soared into the sky, intertwining into a massive cross pattern in the rainy night. A terrifying holy pressure spread out like a physical force, actually evaporating the falling rain into white mist.

Six sixth-rank Peak knights, burning their essence blood to form a formation together!

This was their final trump card and their last dignity as Temple Knights!

"Interesting."

Lin Mo rolled his neck, the friction of his dragon scales producing the sound of clashing metal. He slowly raised the longyuan blade, its tip pointing at the brilliant Cross Holy Radiance, his voice calm yet overbearing:

"Come at me together."

In the next second, Lin Mo's figure flickered as Instant Shadow was activated.

His gaze locked onto the space behind the knight holding a chain blade on the eastern side of the light shield; that was an energy flow node of the Holy Radiance Domain, a relatively weak point.

Space distorted silently.

Lin Mo instantly appeared behind that knight, the longyuan blade carrying Azure Thunder-Qi as it slashed down!

"On the east! Casro! Watch out!"

Edmond's roar sounded almost simultaneously with Lin Mo's appearance.

The chain-blade knight turned in horror but had no time to react. With a loud "clang," the longyuan blade struck the light shield, erupting in blinding sparks.

The light shield trembled violently, and the knight was shaken back three steps, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth, but the shield ultimately did not break.

"Their reactions have gotten faster." Lin Mo frowned slightly, and his figure disappeared again.

In the next instant, he appeared on the west side, thrusting his blade toward the throat of the knight holding a halberd.

But this time, Edmond's dragon spear was already waiting there. The dark-gold spear light was like a venomous dragon emerging from its cave, accurately blocking Lin Mo's blade path.

Blade and spear clashed, and a wave of air exploded.

The air wave burst apart.

Lin Mo's figure swayed slightly, while Edmond only retreated half a step, stabilizing himself with a flap of his four light wings.

"Your teleportation is indeed strange, but it leaves traces after all!"

Edmond's eyes burned with a frenzied Battle Intent. He was, after all, a powerhouse with one foot in the seventh rank, and his combat instincts were terrifyingly sharp.

"Before every teleport, your gaze focuses for a fraction of a second! As long as I watch your eyes, I can predict your landing point!"

Lin Mo's pupils constricted slightly.

Was he seen through?

A necessary condition for activating Instant Shadow was to lock onto the space in advance, completing the coordinate anchoring in his mind.

This focus interval was extremely short, so short that it practically didn't exist in the eyes of most opponents.

But Edmond was no ordinary Awakener; he was effectively the strongest combatant of the Holy Temple Knights, standing on the threshold of the seventh rank. With high talent and rich combat experience, he had captured the flaw in Lin Mo's Instant Shadow after only a few exchanges!

"I see you!" Edmond's long spear had already boomed in front of him, dark-gold runes exploding at the spearhead. He had calculated the distance and the speed of his strike; as long as Lin Mo teleported to the original coordinates, he would land right within his kill zone.

However, Lin Mo did not teleport to the original coordinates.

At the last moment, he forcibly shifted his landing point, his entire body pulling a residual shadow horizontally through the air, narrowly brushing past the side of the spear's force.

"As expected."

A cold smile curled on Edmond's lips. He didn't rush to pursue but instead paced half a step unhurriedly, like a hunter confirming his prey was wounded.

"Your teleportation requires locking onto the target space. As long as I watch your eyes, your landing point is no longer untraceable."

He raised his hand, the runes on the long spear lighting up in sequence, the dark-gold luster spreading from his knuckles to his shoulder armor.

He raised his hand as the dark-gold runes spread like living vines from his knuckles to his shoulder armor. "Your rhythm is off. From now on, every time you teleport, your landing point will be closer to my fist than the last—until you crash into it and are shattered to pieces."

Before he could finish his sentence, Lin Mo's figure disappeared again.

Edmond's pupils instantly shrank to pinpoints, staring fixedly at Lin Mo's eyes.

"Left! I've got you!"

Edmond roared, his dragon spear already poised and ready like a long-waiting venomous snake, suddenly thrusting into the seemingly empty curtain of rain!

Clang—!!!

This time, it wasn't a prediction but a precise interception!

Just as Lin Mo's figure stepped out of the void and before the longyuan blade could slash down, Edmond's spear tip had accurately struck the spine of his blade.

A strange spiral force exploded along the blade—it was the Void-Shaking Force, specifically developed to counter space-type abilities!

"Pfft—!"

Lin Mo felt as if he had been struck by lightning, and a mouthful of blood sprayed out.

He felt his Meridians were like they had been thrown into a blender; the backlash from his teleportation being interrupted caused the spiritual energy in his body to instantly run wild.

Even worse, Edmond pressed his advantage, the spear body vibrating to transform into a sky full of spear shadows, each thrust sealing off Lin Mo's possible paths of retreat and teleportation angles!

"This is bad!"

Below the city walls, Han Xiao's single eye widened, and he slammed his metal staff onto the ground. "This is bad, the kid's teleportation ability has been seen through!!"

Shen Yi covered her mouth tightly with both hands, tears welling in her eyes. She saw the dragon scales on Lin Mo's body shattering piece by piece under the spear shadows; every bloody gash felt like it was carved into her own heart.

Ji Wuchen's eyes nearly split with rage: "Lin Mo! Don't force it!"

But it was too late.

Edmond's spear was too fast. Every time Lin Mo tried to use Instant Shadow to escape, Edmond's spear tip would be waiting there 0.1 seconds in advance.

That wasn't speed; it was anticipation—the absolute control a hunter has over his prey's habits!

Bang!

A heavy sweep of the spear shaft slammed violently into Lin Mo's waist and abdomen.

Even with the protection of dragon scales, that shocking force directly ruptured his kidneys.

Lin Mo fell from the sky like a cannonball, crashing hard into the Iron Flagpole on the city wall, bending the steel pole ninety degrees before slamming onto the city bricks.

"Cough... cough cough..."

Lin Mo struggled to crawl up but coughed up a large mouthful of black blood mixed with fragments of internal organs.

His left arm was twisted at a bizarre angle; to block Edmond's thrust just now, his arm bone had been shattered into three pieces.

Edmond descended slowly, his four light wings burning with dark-gold flames in the rainy night, like an angel of judgment.

He looked down at Lin Mo, his voice filled with the playfulness of a cat catching a mouse: "What's wrong? Where is your Azure Dragon? Where is your arrogance? Keep teleporting; let me see where else you can flee."

In the distance, Augustus stood with his hands behind his back, that arc of compassion returning to his lips as he shook his head slightly. "What a pity. Possessing such a high-level ability like teleportation but lacking the combat wisdom to match it. Edmond, leave him with one breath."

Despair surged from all directions like a cold tide.

Lin Mo knelt half-submerged in a pool of blood, his vision beginning to blur.

He heard Shen Yi's heart-wrenching cries, Han Xiao's furious roars, and the sounds of Ji Wuchen and Gu Yunting trying to charge forward only to be blocked by other knights.

Those sounds were like needles, piercing deep into his mind.

Deep within his Sea of Consciousness, that blue-gold light membrane spun frantically, letting out a mournful cry on the verge of shattering due to the over-exhaustion of Mental Energy.

Edmond was right; the essence of Instant Shadow was willpower anchoring, and the gaze was merely a habit.

But the habit he had always relied on had now become a fatal shackle.

'What if... I don't use my eyes?'

A crazy thought flashed through his mind.

Lin Mo suddenly raised his head, looking at the sky, at the pouring rain, at the endless heights, and at every grain of dust within the thousands of raindrops.

His Mental Energy, like a bursting flood, surged outward recklessly!

"Ahhh—!!!"

Lin Mo let out a roar that didn't sound human, blood flowing from all seven orifices simultaneously!

The scene was horrifying, as if his skull were being torn apart from the inside.

The light membrane in his Sea of Consciousness shattered with a bang, only to reorganize in an instant, transforming into countless fine blue-gold threads extending in all directions—

He didn't need eyes!

Every drop of rain was his eye!

Every wisp of wind was his perception!

Edmond looked at Lin Mo's miserable state of bleeding from his orifices and sneered, "Playing tricks! Let it end!"

He raised his dragon spear high, dark-gold Holy Light condensing into a blinding sun at the tip, thrusting it toward Lin Mo's head!

This strike was unavoidable!

But at the very instant the spear tip was only three inches from Lin Mo's brow—

Lin Mo suddenly grinned.

That smile appeared exceptionally hideous amidst the blood and filth, yet also... exceptionally gratified.

"You were right... sight... is indeed a burden."

Lin Mo's voice was unusually hoarse now.

"So..."

"I have to break this bad habit!"

Boom—!!!

Edmond's spear tip pierced Lin Mo's forehead... no, that was just an afterimage! A phantom image left on the retina because the speed was too fast!

The real Lin Mo had already disappeared!

He hadn't disappeared in one direction, but in all directions simultaneously!

"What?!" Edmond's pupils truly constricted into pinholes for the first time.

In the next instant, Lin Mo's cold voice rang out simultaneously from behind, to the left, to the right, above, and below Edmond:

"Now..."

"Can you still... capture my landing point?"

Six! A total of six blue-gold figures appeared simultaneously in Edmond's six blind spots!

These weren't Clones, but afterimages left by Lin Mo performing six consecutive teleports within 0.1 seconds!

The perfected Instant Shadow no longer relied on sight but on pure spiritual perception! Its speed had surpassed the limits of vision!

This time, Edmond finally panicked. He let out a distorted roar, his four light wings burning frantically as he tried to expand his defense.

But this time, Lin Mo gave them no chance.

Those six figures moved simultaneously.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Six massive explosions erupted almost at the same instant!

Lin Mo's longyuan blade, dragon claws, elbow strikes, knee strikes, whip kicks, and headbutts were like six meat grinders, frantically hammering against the Holy Radiance Domain the six knights had just propped up!

The previously indestructible golden light shield now trembled violently under Lin Mo's beyond-limit attack speed, letting out an overwhelmed groan!

"Impossible! How did his speed suddenly become so much faster?!" the chain-blade knight screamed in terror; a crack had already appeared on his faceplate, a mark left by the graze of Lin Mo's Saber Qi.

"Hold steady! This is just his final radiance before death! Using high-level spatial abilities like teleportation consecutively, his Mental Energy definitely won't last long!"

Edmond roared frantically, but his voice now carried a hint of fear that even he hadn't noticed.

On the city wall, everyone was stunned.

Han Xiao's single eye bulged, and the metal staff in his hand fell to the ground with a "clatter." "This... what the hell kind of fighting style is this?! Teleportation can be used like that?!"

The compassion on Augustus's face vanished completely, replaced by a ghastly pallor.

His hand gripping the scepter bulged with veins, and the golden crystal let out an overwhelmed crack. "Madman... to actually break through the Mental Barrier at a time like this... isn't he afraid his Sea of Consciousness will collapse and turn him into an idiot?!"

In the center of the battlefield, Lin Mo had completely gone on a killing spree.

He no longer held anything back. Every teleport was accompanied by a spray of blood—the price of over-burning his Mental Energy—but his attacks grew more violent each time!

The knight holding a halberd was struck by an attack following a teleport, sent spinning away along with his armor!

The knight spun through the air.

Boom!

Edmond barely parried a blade strike, only to be kicked in the chest by Lin Mo, causing one of his four light wings to instantly dim!

Lin Mo's figure pulled countless blue-gold lines across the battlefield; the entire sky seemed filled with his afterimages.

He was like a slaughter machine stepping out from ancient times, wanting to tear these six Temple Knights apart alive!

"Damn it! I completely can't judge his teleportation landing points anymore. At this rate, he'll pick us off one by one!!"

"Everyone, hear my command! Activate the Holy Radiance Aegis and fight a war of attrition with him!!" Edmond roared his orders.

...