72: Chapter 72 Finding Weaknesses

The ancient tree collapsed with a boom, like a bone gnawed through by a Savage Beast. Wood chips and bark splattered like a rainstorm. Wang Sheng's Power of Holy Light shield shattered upon impact, its golden fragments drifting away like pulverized stars.

A searing pain, as if he had been hammered repeatedly by iron mallets, radiated from his back, and a trace of blood spilled from the corner of his mouth. Yet, he did not fall. The physique of a Holy Light Warrior, bolstered by the spiritual energy of a Warrior Rank 4, far exceeded that of an ordinary person. He knelt on one knee, supporting himself with his Holy Light sword, his golden pupils locked onto the Ink-scaled Python.

"Chieftain!" Murong Xue charged forward. Her silver armor as a Holy Light Knight flashed through the dark, dense forest like a bolt of silver lightning. The Spirit Rune on the tip of her holy spear suddenly lit up, its silver radiance resembling an exploding star.

"Holy Light, Pierce!"

The silver spear struck precisely into the tail of the Ink-scaled Python, the tip imbued with the spiritual energy of the Power of Holy Light.

"Clang!"

It was as if a silver hammer had struck a wall of iron forged from black jade. The tip of the holy spear left only a shallow white mark on the Ink-scaled Python's scales; it did not pierce through, nor did it even break the first layer of scales.

The hardness of the Ink-scaled Python's scales was beyond imagination. As a Savage Beast of the Rank 5 Barbarian Warrior level, its scales were like natural armor, and the erosion of Shadow Power had increased their hardness by at least fifty percent.

A flash of shock crossed Murong Xue's brown eyes. Against a Savage Beast of the Rank 3 Barbarian Warrior level, her holy spear was unstoppable, slicing through them like tofu. But before the scales of the Ink-scaled Python, it was like a silver needle attempting to pierce an iron wall.

Xiao Yuqing unleashed a barrage of arrows. Together with five Elf Archers, their emerald arrows streaked through the air like six green meteors, accurately striking the head of the Ink-scaled Python. The arrows, carrying the emerald radiance of the Power of Nature, were like six green stars crashing toward its dark golden vertical pupils.

"Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang, clang!"

All six arrows were deflected by the scales on the Ink-scaled Python's head, like marbles hitting an iron plate. The arrows of the Elf Archers could penetrate the shells of Savage Beasts of the Rank 3 Barbarian Warrior level, but the hardness of the Ink-scaled Python—a Rank 5 Barbarian Warrior level beast—was simply on a different magnitude.

The Ink-scaled Python did not even pay heed to those arrows, which felt like nothing more than mosquito bites. Its dark golden vertical pupils were fixed on only one person: Wang Sheng. A Savage Beast eroded by Shadow Power held an enmity beyond anything else toward the Power of Holy Light. It was the reverse of a moth to a flame: the Shadow throwing itself toward the Light.

It opened its giant maw once more, and another surge of dark purple toxic mist roiled deep within its throat.

"Scatter! Do not group together!" Wang Sheng roared.

Murong Xue rolled to dodge. Xiao Yuqing and the Elf Archers retreated to the higher canopy. The white deer nimbly flashed behind an ancient tree, and Liu Ruyan had already vanished into the shadows.

Zhao Linger, though injured, did not retreat.

She supported herself with one hand; her right arm had completely lost all sensation. Dark purple poison marks spread from her wrist to her shoulder, like ugly vines crawling all over her jade-white arm.

The right sleeve of her Spirit Vine combat suit had been corroded by the toxic mist, leaving several dark holes. The dark purple veins on the exposed skin were shocking to behold.

But she still had spiritual energy in her left arm.

A Spirit Sound Master did not need both arms; what she needed was sound.

She closed her eyes. All the sensory power of a Spirit Sound Master surged within her like a pink river, converging in her throat. Her lips parted slightly.

It was not an attack, but a probe.

A high-frequency sound wave flowed out from her mouth. This sound wave was different from the previous pink ripples; it was like a thin pink thread—precise, condensed, like a sonic blade tempered by the Spirit Sound Master herself.

But it was not meant for cutting; it was meant for "seeing."

The sound wave penetrated the Ink-scaled Python's scales, passed through its muscles and bones, and pierced through its spiritual meridians and internal organs. Then, it reflected back, acting like an "acoustic probe" sent out by the Spirit Sound Master, feeding back a complete "acoustic image" of its internal structure.

The instincts of Zhao Linger as a Spirit Sound Master allowed her to "see" the interior of the Ink-scaled Python.

Scales as thick as city walls, muscles interwoven like steel cables, a network of spiritual meridians spanning its entire body, dark purple spiritual energy surging like a river of shadow under the infusion of spiritual power, and spiritual energy nodes mutated after being eroded by fragments of the Shadow Crystal Core.

Then, she "heard" a different sound.

At the chin of the Ink-scaled Python, beneath the third scale, the reflection frequency of the sound wave suddenly changed. It was not the reflection frequency that hard scales should have, but a different sound—soft, like leather.

A Spirit Sound Master could "hear" the material from the reflection of sound waves, much like a craftsman tapping metal to discern its quality. In the instant the sound wave reflected back, Zhao Linger understood.

There, it was not covered by scales; it was soft.

"Wang Sheng,"

Her voice was weak but clear, like the most precise musical note of a Spirit Sound Master, piercing through the clamor of the battlefield and the hisses of the Ink-scaled Python, falling precisely into the ears of Wang Sheng.

"The chin, under the third scale, the sound is different. It is soft there."

Wang Sheng's golden pupils suddenly contracted. A weakness. The weakness of the Ink-scaled Python was at the chin, beneath the third scale.

Wang Sheng erupted into action. The Power of Holy Light burned over his entire body like golden flames—not the golden glimmer of a Rank 4 Barbarian Warrior, but as if the most ancient sun of the Savage Continent had awakened within him. Golden light surged uncontrollably from every pore of his body, illuminating the dark, dense forest as if it were broad daylight.

He no longer engaged the Ink-scaled Python head-on. He dodged; the speed of a Holy Light Warrior with spiritual power fully unleashed was like a bolt of golden lightning. He bypassed the giant tail of the Ink-scaled Python, bypassed the toxic mist in front of it, and flashed to its front.

The Ink-scaled Python's dark golden vertical pupils reflected the figure of Wang Sheng. The Savage Beast, eroded by Shadow Power, was like the enraged Shadow itself. It opened its giant maw, its fangs like inverted blades. Each fang was as thick as an arm, resembling instruments of torture forged from black iron by the gods of the Savage Continent. A sweet, fishy stench surged toward him like a tide.

Wang Sheng did not retreat. He charged forward, like a golden sun rushing into the abyss of shadow.

Holy Light Slash.

A golden blade of light condensed from his right hand, like a golden dragon forged by the hands of the gods of the Savage Continent. It struck precisely, without a single deviation, into the area beneath the third scale on the Ink-scaled Python's chin—the only weakness Zhao Linger had found for him using her sound waves.

"Awoo!!!"

The Ink-scaled Python let out a heaven-shaking shriek, a cry like a mountain pushed over by the gods of the Savage Continent, wailing in its collapse. The golden Power of Holy Light poured into its body from the wound, like a sun exploding within it. The Power of Holy Light surged along its spiritual meridians like a river of gold. Wherever it passed, the Shadow Power melted like snow meeting the scorching sun, and the dark purple spiritual energy vanished into nothingness within the Holy Light. But it was not enough.