Chapter 598: Third Stage

Chapter 598 Third Stage

The eagerness to do battle grew within the monsters in the colosseum. Chen Xiaolian quietly counted the time.

He turned back to look at Lin Leyan and Jenny. The two of them were holding each other’s hands. To be exact, Lin Leyan was holding Jenny’s hands.

She was slightly shorter than Jenny. However, she was someone who constantly travelled to foreign lands for peacekeeping activities, especially places such as Africa. Thus, she was slightly stronger than Jenny.

Lin Leyan was feeling very fearful. All she could do was to exert her all to stop her legs from trembling. Each of her heartbeat sounded like the thunder. However, when she saw Chen Xiaolian turning to give her a gaze, her heart suddenly moved. It was as though the calm face had brought with it a sense of security, one that could be conveyed without words.

It feels like… … where have I seen it before?

As though falling under a spell, Lin Leyan instantly felt her rate of breathing normalizing at a quick rate. The dread, fear, anxiousness, the weakness in her legs, all of them gradually left her.

She was even able to smile faintly at Chen Xiaolian.

Don't be afraid, I'm here.

I know.

After the silent exchange of glances, Chen Xiaolian turned away. He looked around and sighed.

He had wanted to conserve some strength – Skyblade’s [S] class power was not unlimited after all. At that moment, however, the lone replica Electronic Guardian was gradually becoming insufficient to hold the monsters back. Chen Xiaolian himself had already prepared himself to unleash an attack. 

Suddenly…

A change came over the stands. Chen Xiaolian, who had been paying close attention to his surroundings, was able to notice the minor change. 

All the spawning points in the stands… … it would appear that no new monsters were coming out from them.

This discovery caused Chen Xiaolian’s heart to thump.

He raised his sword.

“Hossein, don’t you disappoint me!”

The sword descended.

Golden light spread out in every direction.

…

Hossein was kneeling upon the ground.

The coat he wore on his person had been utterly torn apart and countless, small wounds could be seen upon both his arms. Every one of the wounds was bleeding.

At a glance, it would appear as though he had become someone covered in blood.

The knight’s rate of breathing was like that of a broken fan. Every time he gasped for breath, he would be assailed by an intense feeling of pain.

Despite all that, Hossein’s eyes were filled with light.

The lofty and inviolable air of holiness seemingly formed an invisible force field around him.

Hossein’s hand held onto his sword, which had been thrust into the ground. As he gasped for breath, the blade of his sword gradually cracked, shattering, and transforming into motes of golden light before disappearing. In the end, even the hilt of the sword began to slowly shatter.

The palms of his hands were bloody. His blood and sweat dripped down onto the floor, mixing together into a pool.

However…

He was the winner.

Somewhere roughly 100 steps away before Hossein, the body of the God of War, Ares, could be seen nailed to the mountain cliff.

Half a sword had pierced through Ares’ chest, nailing him to the surface of the cliff. His head tilted, dead.

“A false god is a false god in the end.” Hossein laboured to lift his head and look at his opponent.

Behind him, at his back… a piece of white feather that had seemingly grown out from his shoulder blade position, slowly disappeared into his body.

Hossein’s consciousness began to blur.

That final attack earlier had exhausted every last drop of energy he possessed – it was an extreme case of over exhaustion. Additionally, the exact price he had to pay for it was something that only Hossein could know.

Yet…

“Finally won. Chen Xiaolian, don’t make my efforts go to waste.”

A gust of wind blew upon the top of the mountain and the weakened knight fell to the ground as a result.

In his weakened state, Hossein’s fist loosened. He lay of the ground and his eyelids gradually grew heavier.

Finally, as the darkness was just about to engulf his vision, he seemingly caught sight of a pair of legs rushing toward him.

A powerful hand quickly seized his shoulder.

Before he could turn to see that familiar face, he fell unconscious.

…

“Don’t worry, he is not dead.” Chen Xiaolian breathed a sigh of relief and shouted to Jenny, who was rushing over. “Don’t touch him. He is bleeding too much and I cannot be certain if he is suffering from any internal bleeding. I want to give him some medication first. Let him lie down for a bit.”

He used one hand to stop Jenny, who appeared somewhat emotionally broken. At the same time, he also threw a look at Lin Leyan. Seeing that, Lin Leyan quickly stepped forward to grab hold of the emotionally awry Jenny. “Don’t worry, Jenny. If Chen Xiaolian said he is all right, then he must certainly be all right.”

“But he has lost so much blood!”

“You know as well, they are no longer ordinary humans.”

Chen Xiaolian ignored the two women’s conversation and carefully examined Hossein’s body. After he was certain that there were no fatal wounds on Hossein’s body, he breathed a sigh of relief. Then, he retrieved two high-grade healing substances and fed them to Hossein.

Next, however, Chen Xiaolian frowned. Contrary to his expectations, after feeding Hossein the miraculous high-grade healing substances, he saw that the wounds on Hossein’s body were not rapidly healing.

Chen Xiaolian quickly tore open a first-aid kit. He used the most basic methods, spraying Hossein’s wounds with medical agents for wounds such as anti-infection and antiseptics before using gauze to bandage Hossein’s wounds.

After considering the situation for a moment, he then fed Hossein a small bottle of stamina replenishing drink.

Half a minute later, the comatose Hossein was able to force his eyes open. Even so, it was clear that he was not in a good state. He was barely able to speak up, “I had overused my holy powers. The medicines from the system would temporarily have no effect on me. I will be unconscious for a while. I am entrusting you… …”

Before he could finish his words, Hossein, who was in a rather terrible state, fainted once more.

Chen Xiaolian did not understand what he meant by the over usage of holy powers. However, he guessed that Hossein must have utilized a certain final trump card. Still, Hossein himself had stated that he would just faint, not die. Thus, it was highly likely that this was not something serious.

He called the two women to help check and fix the bandages wrapping Hossein’s body. Then, he raised his head to examine their surroundings.

“The second stage… … looks like this.”

The corpse pinned to the surface of the cliff aroused Chen Xiaolian’s curiosity. However, after examining the corpse, Chen Xiaolian was unable to find much. He could only determine that the cause of death for the corpse was that Hossein had utilized a powerful technique to blast the corpse’s heart.

To be exact, there was only a hole in Ares’ chest area.

Additionally, not a single drop of blood was left on Ares’ body… it would appear that all his blood had been drained out, or perhaps, evaporated.

Chen Xiaolian checked the time. Out of the one-hour duration limit, half an hour had passed.

However, everything was going fairly well. Utilizing half the time, they had managed to complete two of the three stages. 

It would seem they have some surplus time at hand.

Unfortunately, having lost Hossein’s combat power, Chen Xiaolian can only rely on himself for the last stage.

Additionally, even after completing the third stage, there was still the ultimate BOSS.

Chen Xiaolian was not someone who liked hesitating. Although he usually had a calm temperament, he was never cowardly.

In times of crisis, he was the type to grit his teeth and power his way through.

At present, however, he was not in a good shape… … he had used up too much stamina and strength. Additionally, he had lost the Sword in the Stone. One of the Sword in the Stone’s complementary skill, which could restore all his attributes, became lost with it. Thus, Chen Xiaolian had seemingly lost half of his combat powers.

Naturally, his final card, the Goddess of Dawn, was still available… … however, until the final moment of desperation, Chen Xiaolian would never use it.

Perhaps, the final thing he could depend on was Bai Qi.

Chen Xiaolian propped Hossein up and turned to look at Lin Leyan.

“Sorry, but I need you two to help me with something.”

Lin Leyan nodded without hesitation. “All right.”

“You two help me keep an eye on him. It is somewhat awkward to have you two do this, but given our present circumstance, I have no other choice… … because I will need to go fight.”

“It is fine. This is all I can do to help anyway,” said Lin Leyan with a rueful smile. “I feel like a burden. Additionally… … I keep getting this feeling. This doesn’t seem like the first time I am being a burden. Last time, did we go through something like this before?” 

Chen Xiaolian stretched out his hand to touch Lin Leyan’s cheek. He smiled warmly and said, “You are definitely not a burden.”

He then walked to the mountain top. There was a door there.

“Beyond this door is the third stage?”

Chen Xiaolian grasped the doorknob with one hand and slowly twisted it. Opening the door, he took the lead and stepped in.

Lin Leyan and Jenny, each holding Hossein from the left and right respectively, followed Chen Xiaolian closely. 

When the door disappeared, the cliff grew silent.

Soon, however, a flash of light burst out and a lean figure appeared atop the cliff.

The figure wore a white coloured, masked cloak, which hid his or her face from view. The figure silently moved to stand beside the pinned corpse of Ares.

The figure looked at Ares’ body for a few seconds.

“What a pure holy power… … interesting. This is getting even more interesting. The quality of this batch of toys is very satisfactory.”

…

After moving through the door into the third stage, Chen Xiaolian checked his surroundings. With just a glance, Chen Xiaolian grew furious.

He sneered. Raising his head to face the empty sky, he shouted, “So, an old freak like you just love playing around with these cheap tricks? Do all villains love this type of ordinary, cheap trick? Toying with the human heart and character to gain amusement? I have to say, this one is truly low. It is too bloody low, all right?”

No response.

Standing opposite Chen Xiaolian was his opponent for this stage.

The exquisite and charming face appeared somewhat stiff. That was especially true of the pair of eyes, which appeared emotionless.

Wearing skin-tight leather attire, the figure held onto a wand. A stack of talismans could be seen sticking out from the pocket on the figure’s waist.

Most importantly was the thing on the figure’s forehead, a headband. A gold coloured, triangular seal could be seen on the figure’s forehead position.

This opponent for the third stage standing before Chen Xiaolian… …

Shockingly, it was…

Phoenix!

…