"What the hell happened…" Lin Yixin’s dumbfounded voice came from the party channel.

I replied in a quiet voice, "We’ll keep the boss busy, but I don’t know how long we’ll last, so revive as soon as you can, Yiyi. This Sword Saint is no joke…"

"Yeah!"

……

A small but sinister smile appeared on the Sword Saint’s face as swirls of true qi spun around him. "Oh, you are definitely stronger than your usual travellers. A Master Swordsman of Death, an elite knight, a strong archer, a powerful priest, and the light wanderer I just killed. It’s unfortunate that you’re still not strong enough to fight against me!"

I gritted my teeth and said in a quiet voice again, "I’ll try to pin him down with the apparition and the Phantom Wolf King. Beiming, prepare your Shock Arrow and try to stun him. We’ll have to fight this the smart way, or this won’t end well for us."

"Mn!"

My dragon-riding apparition and my little wolf charged toward the Sword Saint at the same time. I tried scanning the Sword Saint’s stats with Dark Pupils, but, unsurprisingly, most of them were hidden—

Dylan the Sword Saint (Ancient Immortal Rank Boss)

Level: 265

Attack: ???

Defense: ???

HP: ???

Skills: ???

Introduction: The strongest expert in the history of War God Academy, Dylan was an orphan until he was taken in by the strongest swordmaster of the empire when he was four years old. As it turned out, his talent for martial arts was borderline supernatural. He became a Great Earth Swordsman at the age of 7, a Sky Swordsman at the age of 12, entered the Star Realm at the age of 17, and became the Sword Saint of Stars before he was 20. To this day, Dylan’s achievements remain unsurpassed by anyone. After Lin Na the Purgatory Sovereign personally traveled to the War God Academy and destroyed it with his own hands, Dylan’s refusal to succumb to death caused him to transform into an undead. Today, his mind only has room for carnage and vengeance.

……

I took control of all three characters at once and made my apparition fire a sword aura at the Sword Saint!

Pu!

Unfortunately, the attack was dispelled by some sort of invisible astral wind right as it was about to touch Dylan’s skin. It failed to do even the tiniest amount of damage.

"Die!"

Dylan let out a furious roar before rushing toward the apparition like lightning. He retaliated with a fiery triple-hit flurry combo and dealt an insane amount of damage—

398821!

492282!

612677!

……

One more basic attack later, the apparition with almost 1.5 million HP died just like that. I almost couldn’t believe that Dylan the Sword Saint had almost one-shot my apparition with my signature move, Burning Blade Slash. I thought I was the only one in the world to possess this powerful skill!

The apparition’s sacrifice wasn’t for nothing, however. I was able to dash behind the boss during this time and execute my strongest combo, Burning Blade Slash + Universe Break. From the beginning, Dylan the Sword Saint made fully clear that we either go all-out against him, or die.

Unfortunately, not only did all four skills result in a miss, I finally noticed this line in the combat log: Your "Burning Blade Slash" has been nullified by Dylan the Sword Saint’s Battle Astral Wind. Battle Astral Wind has dropped to 97% durability!

Cold sweat spilled out of every pore of my body. 97% durability after a goddamn Burning Blade Slash? What the hell was this energy shield made of? Are you sure that you didn’t overtune this to hell and back, devs?

Thud!

Naturally, Beiming Xue’s Shock Arrow also resulted in a miss. While this was going on, Dylan the Sword Saint laughed maliciously. "Have you realized how powerful my martial arts are, children of the future generation? Surrender and let me wet this drying land with your blood, hahaha! Now that I think about it, it’s been several hundred years since it rained, hasn’t it? I supposed that makes you the rainmaker of our academy…"

"Your sister’s a rainmaker!" I uttered while backing away from the boss and throwing my weapon at him again. Just like before, his Battle Astral Wind stopped my Coiling Dragon Revolution from advancing and blocked it completely. Until we destroyed it, we couldn’t harm even a hair on the boss's body!

Thud!

As the Ancient Divine Dragon clung firmly to the ground, I placed my fingers in front of my forehead and cast Myriad Swords Obliteration, riddling the boss with a seemingly infinite amount of swords. Not done yet, I pressed my palm to the ground and cast Rise of the Guardian Dragon, battering his Battle Astral Wind even further. Destroying his shield as soon as possible was our only chance at winning this!

Dylan simply laughed as Myriad Swords Obliteration smashed harmlessly against his skin. He jumped into the air and brought his sword down on my head, "Still not giving up yet, boy?"

I remained cool-headed despite the massive pressure I was facing right now. I knew that panicking would only make things even worse than they already were. I brought my sword upward from a 30-degree angle, and the moment contact was made, excruciating pain immediately erupted from my arm. I managed to push Dylan the Sword Saint’s fatal strike away, but I still took almost 200k HP damage.

While the boss was open, I fired Dragon Slaying Slash straight at his head.

"Hahaha…"

Laughing like a madman and crushing a pebble beneath his feet as he landed, Dylan the Sword Saint abruptly tossed his sword at me while shouting, "Manipulating the sword with qi! Eat this!"

The Guardian Blade started spinning madly and turning into a storm of blades very much like my Coiling Dragon Revolution. If I didn’t parry this properly, I wouldn’t be surprised if it dealt at least 400k damage to me! That would be unacceptable!

I lowered my center of gravity slightly and raised the Dragon God Shield. I also placed my sword in front of it for maximum effect!

Bang!

The resulting impact sent me and my dragon staggering toward the back. Blood was literally dripping down my arm too. Heavens, just how much Attack did this Dylan possess? It was a successful parry, but the skill still shattered my defense and dealt 270k+ damage to me!

Behind me, Murong Mingyue cried while healing me, "Be careful, Lu Chen!"

He Yi said while looking for a good angle of attack angle, "See if you can find a way to pierce his Battle Astral Wind and attack his true body directly, Lu Chen! It may be faster than just whittling it down bit by bit! At this rate, we’re all going to die before we even breach his Battle Astral Wind!"

"Understood. Keep me healed, sis!"

I swallowed Saint Spirit Potion and rushed straight toward the boss. My turn!

"Are you this desperate for death, child?!" The Sword Saint’s eyes widened as if he couldn’t believe my foolishness. Laughing like a madman again, he abruptly brought his left index finger and middle finger to his forehead and surrounded himself in a cyclone of power qi. I recognized this, of course. It was none other than Myriad Swords Obliteration. Dylan the Sword Saint’s path of cultivation was identical to mine in the sense that we both cultivated the path of the master swordsman. It was why even our skills were so similar to one another’s.

My eyes lit up. Seeing as our path of cultivation was similar, was there a chance that I could learn this Battle Astral Wind? If I could, then it was like having a shroud of invincibility, but one that lasted for longer than the usual invincibility skill. No one would be able to rival me anymore...

I dashed even faster toward the Sword Saint and surrounded my left fist with a cyclone of blood-red energy. I punched him squarely in the chest using Magic Piercing Punch, but the skill had failed to cancel his Myriad Swords Obliteration. This meant that I would have to eat his skill head-on.

Thud thud thud!

The swords pierced through my body an inflicted a massive amount of pain and damage—

771982!

This is bad! The motherfucker actually scored a critical hit on me! I swore inside my head as I followed up with Purple Frost Concentration.

Pu!

A miracle happened. The skill actually pierced through the Battle Astral Wind, pierced into his body and reduced his Defense! This meant that Purple Frost Concentration, and similar armor break skills, were the counter to his Battle Astral Wind!

The boss's Defense dropped by 26.4%, and the Battle Astral Wind lost a ton of durability all of a sudden. Not only that, Beiming Xue’s Spiraling Arrow Blade, Skypiercer, Evil Spirit Volley and more suddenly did a lot more durability damage to the Battle Astral Wind than before!

"Well done!"

He Yi praised while rushing in from the right and executing Barrier Break + Purgatory of Ice and Magma combo. All six hits pierced through the Battle Astral Wind somewhat and dealt a negligible amount of damage to the boss. Still, that the attacks went through at all meant that we had finally found a realistic way to beat Dylan. Purple Frost Concentration had turned what had seemed like a near invulnerability into a moderate annoyance.

……

"Die!"

Dylan shouted and abruptly thrust his sword sideways, stabbing through He Yi’s shield and dealing over 900k damage to her. It was again a critical hit! He Yi had four pieces of the S3 set right now, and she still lost almost all her HP!

"Back up, Eve!"

I hurriedly blocked in front of the boss while using War Crush, drawing the boss to myself to cover her retreat. My high HP and high Defense showed their true value in this moment. I was the only one here who could tank the boss head-on.

……

The beating I suffered for the next couple of minutes could only be described as inhuman and brutal. My shield and armor were all blemished and crumpled in some places, and Dylan the Sword Saint showed no signs of stopping his attack anytime soon. It wasn’t just my HP that I needed to worry about, the sword auras he fired dealt an unbelievable amount of durability damage as well. In less than three minutes, all my equipment had lost at least 5% of their durability. If this continued, I would be naked in less than an hour.

Speaking of HP, I kept lingering around the 40% mark. It was entirely possible that I could die to a random critical hit. If not for Beiming Xue’s Ice Soul triggering its freezing effects from time to time and buying me time to heal, I certainly would’ve died already.

"Die, boy!"

Again he used Burning Blade Slash, but unlike the previous times it critted twice in a row and dropped me to my knees. I knew I shouldn’t have jinxed it! After I revived myself with Resurrection Art, I immediately engaged the boss again.

It took a while, but finally Dylan the Sword Saint’s Battle Astral Wind made some rustling noises and dissipated completely. We could finally damage him directly!

Pa!

Beiming Xue landed a Shock Arrow at the perfect moment and stunned Dylan. Not far away, a gorgeous woman abruptly dashed in like lightning and stunned the Sword Saint for a second time as well. Lin Yixin said with a smile, "I’m back!"

……

"And thank heavens for that! We were this close to being party-wiped! Don’t let him one-shot you again!"

"Mn!"

Lin Yixin pulled out her Mow Fireblade, shredded the boss's Defense to pieces, and pulled away like a silver fox. She gave the boss very little chance to attack her.