Chapter 2689 - Simplified Holy Devour
As Shi Feng swung down the Abyssal Blade, a bundle of blazing red flames enveloped the Magic Weapon, causing even the surrounding space to tremble.
In the next moment, the blazing red flames devoured the cliff wall before him.
Boom!
Along with the sound of an explosion, countless stone fragments went flying. Originally, the cave Shi Feng had dug for himself was only the size of a small room. Now, however, the cave had grown to the size of a small house. Moreover, its walls were extremely smooth as if they had been polished.
So strong!
Surprise flashed in Shi Feng's eyes as he took in the cave before him.
He had only been trying to execute Holy Devour. He never thought that he would actually succeed on the first attempt. Although the Second Sword he executed was many times weaker than the Heavenly Blue Saint's version and could even be considered incomplete, the power of his attack was already close to the Upper-rank Tier 4 standard.
With such destructive power, his efficiency in carving out a path to the Legacy Fragments should improve by several dozen times.
However, just as Shi Feng thought of using Holy Devour once more, his consciousness suddenly wavered, and a stinging pain assaulted his brain.
Sure enough, it is still too much for my current self to execute Holy Devour. Shi Feng could not help a bitter smile at this situation.
He had indeed succeeded in executing Holy Devour. However, the amount of Concentration he had consumed by using it once was equivalent to executing over a dozen Bronze Combat Techniques simultaneously. With such a high consumption rate, he would run out of Concentration after using Holy Devour three or four more times. Moreover, he was able to achieve such a result only because his Concentration had reached the Tier 4 standard already. Had his Concentration remained at the Tier 3 standard, he would've most likely passed out as soon as he executed the first Holy Devour.
However, just as Shi Feng was thinking of how he could further perfect his Holy Devour to reduce the burden on his Concentration, a tremor suddenly rocked the cave.
Before he could react to this unexpected development, the rubble scattered around the cave suddenly gathered and formed a humanoid golem that was as tall as he was. The moment the golem took shape, it released a frightening pulse of Mana that froze the ambient Mana, making it impossible for him to manipulate the ambient Mana at all.
…
[Outer Path Guardian] (Non-elemental Creature, Grand Lord)
Level 121
HP 53,500,000/53,500,000
…
A Non-elemental Creature? Shi Feng was a little surprised when he saw the Outer Path Guardian.
He'd never heard of the Non-elemental Creature label before. Normally, if a monster wasn't an Elemental Creature, they would be labeled with their race, such as Giant, Elf, Wild Creature, Orc, and so on.
Before Shi Feng could properly digest this situation, the Outer Path Guardian suddenly appeared before him. Its two arms then transformed into razor-sharp rock blades that cut at him, the Attack Speed it displayed surpassing that of ordinary Grand Lords and nearly rivaling Mythic monsters'.
However, Shi Feng was no pushover, either. With his extraordinary combat standard and Basic Attributes, even Mythic monsters of the same level would have difficulty landing attacks on him, let alone a Grand Lord whose speed was merely close to rivaling Mythic monsters'.
In the next moment, Shi Feng brandished the Abyssal Blade.
Sword's Transmigration!
Peng… Peng… Peng…
In the blink of an eye, Shi Feng deflected over a dozen attacks. Immediately afterward, he sent a counterattack cutting at the Path Guardian.
In the next moment, a pitch-black sword light cut at the Path Guardian's body. A metallic clang echoed in the cave as the sword light came into contact with the Path Guardian. However, to Shi Feng's surprise, not only did his attack fail to injure the Path Guardian, but the impact even made himself stumble half a step back. The Abyssal Blade he wielded also vibrated violently as if it had just struck on an impenetrable wall.
What kind of monster is this? Shi Feng stared at the Outer Path Guardian in astonishment.
The Abyssal Blade was capable of cutting through even the skin of Superior Mythics, yet not only did the Magic Weapon fail to scratch the Outer Path Guardian's body, but the Grand Lord didn't even lose a single HP from the attack. The Guardian's Defense was simply heaven-defying.
Regardless of Shi Feng's surprise, the Path Guardian did not stop its actions, launching attacks at him one after another.
Even after fighting for several minutes consecutively, the Path Guardian showed no signs of weakening or slowing down at all. It was like a tireless machine. Although Shi Feng had landed over a hundred attacks on the Path Guardian, he had failed to cause any damage whatsoever to the Grand Lord. Even Lightshadow was useless against it.
Is it invulnerable?
Shi Feng's head ached as he continuously deflected the Path Guardian's attacks.
Previously, he had seen hope of obtaining the Legacy Fragments. He never imagined that a monster like the Outer Path Guardian would appear after he destroyed the cliff wall. Despite the Path Guardian having only a little over 50 million HP, which was very low for a Level 121 Grand Lord, he actually failed to make a dent.
At this rate, he would collapse from exhaustion before he could even secure the Legacy Fragments.
Time passed quickly. Before Shi Feng realized it, over a dozen minutes had elapsed already. However, despite having attacked every possible weak point he could find on the Outer Path Guardian, he still hadn't damaged the Grand Lord.
To make matters worse, the frozen ambient Mana meant that he experienced none of the recovery effects he would normally experience when surrounded by Mana. He would collapse from exhaustion after another hour of fighting at this rate.
Screw it! Shi Feng gritted his teeth and gripped the Abyssal Blade with both hands before executing Holy Devour against the Outer Path Guardian. If even this is no good, I'll have no choice but to use Berserk Skills.
Holy Devour was currently the strongest move he could execute without transforming into a Black Dragon King. If even Holy Devour was incapable of harming the Path Guardian, he would have to use a Berserk Skill to boost his Strength further, something he wished to avoid doing if possible.
Immediately, a scorching inferno engulfed the Outer Path Guardian.
Boom!
In the next moment, the Path Guardian's body shot out of the blazing inferno like a cannonball and smashed into the back of the cave. Cracks formed on the Path Guardian's originally invulnerable body, and the Grand Lord's HP also fell by over 3.7 million.
It was effective? Shi Feng was surprised as he looked at the Path Guardian lying on the ground.
Previously, even Lightshadow failed to damage the Outer Path Guardian. However, not only did Holy Devour succeed in damaging the Path Guardian, but its effects even far exceeded his initial expectations.
Did I break through its defensive limit? Shi Feng wondered. However, he quickly shook his head and denied the thought. No, that's not right. Even if my attack exceeded the Guardian's defensive limit, it shouldn't have produced such overwhelming results.
He had plenty of experience in surpassing a monster's defensive limit. Hence, he knew that exceeding a monster's defensive limit wouldn't allow him to suddenly go from dealing zero damage to dealing over 3.7 million damage. Moreover, normally, even if one failed to exceed a monster's defensive limit, the monster should still receive some form of damage after receiving an attack.
A Non-elemental Creature, a Mana Screen, and Holy Devour? Shi Feng continuously racked his mind as he watched the Outer Path Guardian slowly standing back up.
Although he had successfully damaged the Path Guardian already, in his current state, he could execute Holy Devour only one or two more times. Hence, his situation remained dire. It was necessary for him to identify the reason why he had succeeded in damaging the Path Guardian. Otherwise, even if he activated his Berserk Skill, he would only end up wasting it.
Following which, Shi Feng arrived before the Path Guardian and executed Lightshadow against it. However, just like the last time he had used the Mana Technique, he failed to inflict any damage on the Grand Lord.
Since Lightshadow is ineffective against it, I'll have to use another method.
Seeing the Path Guardian slashing its two blade hands at him once more, Shi Feng sidestepped, then slipped behind the Guardian. He concentrated his Mana within the Abyssal Blade as if he were executing Holy Devour, but did not let any of the Mana escape the Magic Weapon. Consequently, instead of a blazing inferno, only a small layer of flames appeared around the Abyssal Blade as he sent the Magic Weapon slashing down at the Path Guardian's back.
In the next moment, the Abyssal Blade actually cut into the Path Guardian's sturdy body, inflicting over 1.6 million damage on the Grand Lord.
Sure enough! Shi Feng's eyes glowed with excitement at the success of his attack.
After seeing that Holy Devour was highly effective against the Path Guardian while Lightshadow was completely ineffective, it was clear to Shi Feng that the Path Guardian's defensive limit had nothing to do with why one could deal damage to it while the other couldn't. Instead, the reason for this situation lay in the difference between the two techniques—the method of utilizing Mana.
Lightshadow was a technique that gave shape to Mana, whereas Holy Devour was a technique that caused Mana to go berserk before materializing it to exhibit a frighteningly destructive power that could destroy even the very essence of matter.
Currently, although he did not fully execute Holy Devour, he had materialized his Mana and concentrated it on the Abyssal Blade. By doing so, he was able to drastically reduce his consumption of Mana and Concentration while still utilizing the effects of materialized Mana. Only, the raw power and scale of his attack were considerably smaller compared to those of the real Holy Devour. Basically, he had executed a simplified version of Holy Devour.
Meanwhile, after achieving success once, Shi Feng promptly started bombarding the Path Guardian with attacks.
In terms of combat power, the Outer Path Guardian was significantly inferior to ordinary Mythic monsters. The only thing that made it a challenging foe was the fact that it could be damaged only after certain conditions were met. However, now that Shi Feng had met these conditions, the Path Guardian's 53.5 million HP was nothing.
In less than two minutes, Shi Feng had depleted all of the Outer Path Guardian's HP. The Guardian's rocky body then crumbled and scattered on the ground.
Meanwhile, along with the Outer Path Guardian's death, not only did Shi Feng's experience bar fill up by a significant margin, but a stream of black mist also flowed into his heart. In the next moment, fragmented images appeared before him one after another. At the same time, a system notification also entered his ears.
…
System: You have obtained 5 Legacy Power Points. Tier 4 Legacy Completion Rate at 0.5%. When Legacy Completion Rate reaches 85%, you may attempt to activate your Tier 4 Legacy.
…
Legacy Power? Shi Feng was surprised to see the system notification. He never thought that killing the Outer Path Guardian would actually grant him Legacy Power. Collecting Legacy Power using this method would be much easier than trying to descend into the abyss and reach the Legacy Fragments.
Meanwhile, shortly after the Outer Path Guardian died, its body exploded into bundles of light that hovered quietly in midair, expelling all the Mana in the surrounding space.