Chapter 176 – Splitting Metal

“That Tigerkin’s strength shouldn’t be underestimated, Guild Leader Black Flame. In terms of combat standards, he’s most likely a fourth-floor expert already,” Maria said worriedly to Shi Feng when she saw Hidden Soul taking the initiative to meet Night Revenant in battle. “It’ll probably be difficult for her to deal with him all by herself...”

Maria could tell that Hidden Soul possessed extraordinary combat standards. The other party was undoubtedly at the World Tower’s third-floor standard already. Even Maria wasn’t confident that she could win against Hidden Soul.

However, it was also apparent that Night Revenant was superior to Hidden Soul when it came to combat standards. Moreover, Night Revenant was a native of the Stratified Abyssal Realm, so he should have long since adapted to the environment here. These two factors would put Hidden Soul at a considerable disadvantage.

Crimson Heart also nodded in agreement with Maria’s words.

This was their first day in the Stratified Abyssal Realm, so it’d be wiser if they moved carefully. Regaining the levels they lost from death might not be a problem, but it’d be extremely challenging to recover any weapons or equipment they lost.

Since Night Revenant was charging at them all by himself, the wiser decision to make would be to focus their firepower and dispose of him first.

“She’ll be enough,” Shi Feng calmly said. “Rather than interfere with her fight, we should first focus on helping the Purple Light Trading Firm. It’s obvious that Purple Light’s members can’t hold out for much longer. If we wait until Death Curse’s side takes care of Purple Light’s members, Death Curse will have a much easier time dealing with us.”

Even Shi Feng lacked the strength to go up against hundreds of experts all by himself in the Stratified Abyssal Realm.

If Hidden Soul could keep Death Curse’s strongest expert busy all by herself, it would save them a lot of energy. However, if they were to commit their entire team to deal with one person, the situation would quickly turn disadvantageous for them.

Maria, Crimson Heart, and the others quickly came to a realization when they heard Shi Feng’s words. Immediately, they followed Shi Feng to reinforce Purple Light’s members.

Their team of 20 might be able to kill Night Revenant if they worked together. However, by the time they killed Night Revenant, Purple Light’s members would have most likely been annihilated already. At that time, they’d have to face Death Curse’s several hundred members all by themselves, and they’d become the ones to die next.

They didn’t fall for it?

While exchanging blows with Hidden Soul, Night Revenant couldn’t help but be surprised when he saw Shi Feng and the others bypassing them and advancing toward the distant battlefield. “Your leader is smart to send you, his team’s strongest member, to keep me busy while he and the rest of his team deal with the others.”

Night Revenant was not only in possession of two Fragmented Legendary items, but he also possessed the hidden class Soulwalker. He could last a long time even if he had to go against over a dozen Temple Knights simultaneously. Moreover, there was also zero chance of these Temple Knights killing him. Hence, the best decision for Shi Feng’s team would be to prioritize the other experts of Death Curse.

It was also a wise decision for Shi Feng’s team to send their High Demonkin to keep him busy. Honestly, even Night Revenant found it tricky to deal with Hidden Soul.

High Demonkins were famed for being sticky and slippery opponents. This was especially true when a skilled expert like Hidden Soul played this race. Even after trading several dozen blows with Hidden Soul, Night Revenant had not landed even a single attack on the other party. Whenever his attacks were about to land on Hidden Soul, his weapons would simply pass through her body as if it were an illusion. Yet, he was also certain that he wasn’t fighting an illusion since Hidden Soul’s retaliation was very much real.

Under such a situation, Night Revenant couldn’t chase after Shi Feng and the others even if he wanted to.

However, when Night Revenant saw Shi Feng and the others reaching the other battlefield, he suddenly smiled and said, “It’s a pity all of your actions are futile!”

As soon as Night Revenant finished speaking, another metal giant measuring over a dozen meters in height suddenly appeared among Death Curse’s team. This metal giant was Death Curse’s second Advanced Combat Puppet, and it had promptly swung its massive saber at Shi Feng’s team as soon as it appeared.

Meanwhile, in addition to carrying power at the Tier 4 standard, the Advanced Combat Puppet’s attack was also enhanced by Mountain Splitter, a Bronze Combat Technique. Setting range aside, the raw power of this attack was superior to even the Advanced Combat Puppet’s Magic Destruction Cannon. Even a Mythic monster would fall into a weakened state if it got hit by this attack. There was no way players could defend against it at all.

“Impossible! A second Advanced Combat Puppet?!”

The expressions of Purple Light’s members turned incredibly ugly when they saw a second Advanced Combat Puppet appearing among Death Curse’s team. It was especially true for Wordless Ember, Sleeping Quicksand, and the middle-aged man leading the team.

Advanced Combat Puppets were an extremely rare commodity in Slumber City. Normally, they would only be used to defend strategic locations such as mines. They were also incredibly useful against monster armies.

Even the Purple Light Trading Firm, as powerful as it was, only had five Advanced Combat Puppets in its possession. If it weren’t for the importance of the cargo they were transporting this time, they would have never been willing to assign an Advanced Combat Puppet to defend their caravan. After all, using it for caravan protection meant that one of their strategic resource nodes would have to go without the support of an Advanced Combat Puppet. This would put the resource node at huge risk of being destroyed by monster tides.

However, Death Curse only had four Advanced Combat Puppets. Yet, the adventurer team had sent two to target their caravan. This was simply absurd!

At this moment, though, Hidden Soul, who was fighting against Night Revenant, suddenly laughed.

“Futile?”

“What did I get wrong?” Night Revenant asked, feeling a little confused when he saw Hidden Soul stop attacking him.

“Firstly, I’m not the strongest member of my team,” Hidden Soul said. “Secondly, I’m afraid a mere Advanced Combat Puppet is far from enough to stop Guild Leader Black Flame’s sword!”

“Not enough to stop his sword?” Night Revenant nearly laughed when he heard Hidden Soul’s words.

An Advanced Combat Puppet could easily block a Temple Knight’s attack even without relying on any combat techniques. Meanwhile, an attack from an Advanced Combat Puppet using a Bronze Combat Technique was something even Death Curse’s commander would have to avoid. Otherwise, Advanced Combat Puppets wouldn’t have become the various powers’ most important trump card.

However, just when Night Revenant was about to say something, he was interrupted by the abrupt exclamations of his team members on the other battlefield.

“He blocked it?!”

“He blocked the Mountain Splitter!”

“Did he use an Invulnerability Skill?”

The eyes of Death Curse’s members bulged when they saw Shi Feng single-handedly stopping the Advanced Combat Puppet’s saber. Moreover, in addition to stopping the weapon that was much bigger than he was, Shi Feng had also blocked the Advanced Combat Puppet’s attack without moving an inch from his spot or taking a single point of damage...

As expected of the nation once inhabited by Ancient Gods. It’s astonishing that the residents here have managed to develop their Combat Puppet manipulation to such a degree,

Shi Feng thought, feeling a little surprised when he saw that the saber before him was creating a void in the surrounding space.

It was much more challenging for players to manipulate a Combat Puppet than manipulate their in-game bodies. Even Shi Feng would have difficulty executing a Bronze Combat Technique with a Combat Puppet.

Moreover, the Advanced Combat Puppet’s attack had already reached the Tier 4 Peak standard. If it were before he had converted into an Ancient Human and obtained the Abyssal Eye, Shi Feng wouldn’t have been able to divert the attack’s power with Sword’s Transmigration. He would have most likely needed to use one of his trump cards to block the attack.

“So what if you blocked my attack? I can simply wear you out with the Advanced Combat Puppet’s limitless Stamina!” the middle-aged man manipulating the Advanced Combat Puppet said as he executed Mountain Splitter against Shi Feng one more time.

Unlike players, Combat Puppets didn’t rely on Stamina to operate. So long as they had enough Mana, Combat Puppets could keep on fighting forever. At most, the player manipulating the Combat Puppet would exhaust some Concentration when executing a combat technique with the Combat Puppet. However, since players didn’t have to move inside Combat Puppets, they recovered Concentration much more quickly than if they were fighting themselves.

Moreover, Advanced Combat Puppets possessed incredible defensive capabilities, and even an all-out attack from a top-30 Temple Knight would, at most, shave off one durability point. With the Advanced Combat Puppet’s 3,000 points of durability, it’d take several thousand attacks from a top-30 Temple Knight to destroy it.

A player would probably die from exhaustion if they had to execute several thousand all-out attacks consecutively.

This was also why even the various cities’ top 100 Temple Knights would choose to flee whenever they came across an Advanced Combat Puppet.

However, Shi Feng did not try to defend against the Advanced Combat Puppet’s attack this time. Instead, he deflected the attack slightly using the Winter of Eternal Night, causing the massive saber to slide to the side. Then, he raised the Winter of Eternal Night with both hands and executed a vertical slash against the metal giant before him.

First Sword, Lightshadow!

Immediately, an illusory greatsword appeared in the air and descended on the Advanced Combat Puppet at lightning speed. Then, after the illusory greatsword disappeared, the Advanced Combat Puppet suddenly stopped moving and split in half. As for the Domain Realm expert manipulating the Advanced Combat Puppet, he had converted into particles of light and vanished without a trace...