pjbooks Chapter 54 This one sword shattered the stars
Chapter 54 This one sword shattered the stars
"What's going on?! Why are Zhou Tianze's attacks completely ineffective? What is this apostle?"
"We've reached the seventieth floor; monster-level monsters are bound to appear. Don't worry."
"This apostle seems to have an unusually high level of defensive power."
Many people in the live stream expressed their concern about this.
Meanwhile, the attacks of the Immortal Apostles continued.
Its speed was completely disproportionate to its enormous size. One moment it was standing motionless ten meters away, and the next moment it was in front of Zhou Tianze, its fist, bigger than a human head, accompanied by a dull whistling sound, smashing towards Zhou Tianze's face.
Zhou Tianze did not retreat. He raised the short spear in his left hand to parry.
boom!
The deafening clang of metal clashing was painful to the ears. Zhou Tianze was sent flying backward, tumbling twice in the air before sliding for more than ten meters on the smooth ground after landing, barely managing to regain his balance. His left arm was numb—not from injury, but because the force of the punch had temporarily rendered it insensitive.
He glanced down at the short spear in his left hand. A shallow dent remained on the spear where the Undying Apostle's fist had struck it. This spear was custom-made, using the hardest alloy material in the Dragon Kingdom, and had never been damaged in the twenty years it had been with him.
Now, it has its first wound.
Zhou Tianze raised his head and looked at the bronze-colored figure, a look of solemnity flashing in his eyes for the first time.
"This guy's defense is exceptionally strong."
Luo Qinghe made his move.
Her fighting style was completely different from Zhou Tianze's. There were no fancy moves, no dazzling special effects, only the most precise and deadly attacks.
With a flick of her right hand, the ice flower flew from her palm, transforming in the air into dozens of thin, cicada-wing-like ice blades. Each blade aimed precisely at the most vulnerable parts of the Undying Apostle's body—the joints, the neck, and the gaps between the knuckles. These ice blades were not meant to cause harm, but to find weaknesses.
The ice blade struck the target.
Ding ding ding ding—
A series of crisp metallic clanging sounds rang out, like someone striking an anvil with a hammer. The ice blades shattered on the surface of the Undying Apostle, turning into tiny ice crystals that fluttered down. The targeted areas—the joints, the neck—were left without a trace by the impact of the ice blades. The Undying Apostle's body had no gaps, no weaknesses; its defense was comprehensive, all-encompassing, and without any blind spots.
Luo Qinghe frowned slightly. She raised her right hand, palm up, fingers loosely clenched. Moisture in the air condensed above her palm, not into an ice blade, but into a needle—a thin, hair-like ice needle about half a foot long. The tip of this ice needle was concentrated with the essence of her ice-type spiritual power, its hardness far exceeding that of a diamond, and its sharpness used to cut alloys.
She flicked her finger.
The ice needle flew out silently, too fast for the naked eye to see. It aimed precisely at the gap where the Immortal Apostle's head and torso connected—if there was such a gap.
Ding.
The ice needle struck the bronze-colored skin with a soft, almost inaudible crack. Then, the ice needle shattered. Not a single white spot remained on the Immortal Apostle's skin.
Luo Qinghe withdrew his hand and remained silent for a moment.
"Physical attacks are ineffective," she said softly. "Spiritual attacks are also ineffective. Its defense doesn't rely on physical strength, but on a certain rule. It's not resisting attacks, but denying them."
Ye Wuhen remained motionless.
He stood there, thumb against the hilt of his sword, watching the bronze-colored figure with a gaze as calm as if he were looking at a stone. But those who knew him knew that the calmer his gaze, the more intently he was observing.
From Zhou Tianze's first lightning spear to Luo Qinghe's last ice needle, Ye Wuhen's eyes never left the Undying Apostle. He was observing, analyzing, and searching for patterns in it.
When the Undying Apostle is attacked, the forging patterns on its body undergo an extremely subtle change—not brightening, not darkening, but a deeper, almost imperceptible tremor. The frequency of this tremor is extremely stable, exactly the same every time, regardless of the intensity or method of the attack.
What does this mean?
This means that the Immortal Apostle's defense is not passive, but active. It is not "enduring" attacks, but "processing" them. Every time an attack strikes it, its body absorbs, disperses, and dissipates the force in some way. And that "some way" is the trembling of the patterns on its body surface.
Ye Wuhen removed his thumb from the sword guard.
He drew his sword.
There was no sound. There was no light. The moment the blade slid from its sheath, the air in the entire hall seemed to be sliced open by something. The longsword without a sheath trembled slightly in his hand, emitting a very faint hum, like a living thing breathing.
He did not charge at the Undying Apostle. He simply stood there, sword in his right hand, the tip pointing diagonally at the ground.
It was just one sword strike.
The tip of the sword lightly touched the center of the Immortal Apostle's chest, as lightly as a dragonfly skimming the water, as lightly as a feather falling.
The moment the sword fell, the Undying Apostle's body froze.
The forging patterns on its surface began to tremble violently, at a frequency a hundred or even a thousand times faster than before. The patterns flickered wildly, and dark red light seeped out from the gaps, as if it were desperately trying to deal with something.
From the point where the sword tip touched the surface, a crack as thin as a hair spread outwards. The crack was so fine that it was almost invisible without close inspection. But it was there. It spread along the lines on the surface of the Undying Apostle's body, like an invisible net slowly tightening.
The crack in the Immortal Apostle's head suddenly opened. Dark red light erupted from the crack, and it let out a hoarse, broken roar. It wasn't a sound from its throat, but rather from its entire body, like bronze cracking, like rock collapsing.
It raised its right fist and slammed it towards Ye Wuhen. This punch was more than ten times stronger than the one it had thrown at Zhou Tianze. As the fist passed through the air, the air was compressed into a visible shockwave. The dark red light on the ground surged to both sides under the influence of the shockwave, like waves being cleaved open.
Ye Wuhen did not dodge.
He stood still, his left hand behind his back, his right hand gripping his sword, the tip still pointing at the same spot. When the Immortal Apostle's fist was less than a foot from his face, he moved.
The blade retracted from the Undying Apostle's chest, tracing a graceful arc in the air, before thrusting out again.
The second sword struck the Immortal Apostle's right fist.
The moment the blade pierced the Immortal Apostle's fist, it produced a dull, metallic cracking sound. The crack on the Immortal Apostle's fist widened, spreading from the fist to the wrist, from the wrist to the forearm, and from the forearm to the elbow.
The Undying Apostle roared even louder, but its fist still slammed down.
Ye Wuhen sidestepped, avoiding the direct impact of the fist, and as he did so, the blade grazed the arm of the Undying Apostle.
When Ye Wuhen regained his footing, the Immortal Apostle's right arm was severed from the elbow down.
The severed arm fell to the ground with a dull thud. The cut wasn't flesh and blood, but a dark red substance, like solidified lava. This substance flowed slowly at the cut, attempting to regrow a new arm, but the growth was extremely slow, as if suppressed by something.
The Undying Apostle's body began to tremble violently. The forging patterns on its surface flickered faster and faster, the dark red light grew brighter and brighter, and the entire hall began to shake. The stars on the dome spun wildly, and the dark red light on the ground surged like boiling magma.
It opened its arms.
To be precise, it opened its remaining left arm. It raised its head—if the crack could be considered a head—and from the crack shot a dark red beam of light straight up the dome. Where the beam struck, the starry sky above the dome began to collapse, and countless stars fell like shards of glass, turning into nothingness in the process.
The hall was collapsing, while Ye Wuhen's sword pierced through the chest of the Undying Apostle.
This sword strike is enough to shatter stars.
Seventieth floor, cleared.
Time taken: 4 minutes and 12 seconds.