Real Combat Matters
The Nail Head Hammer, forged from a single piece, swung down from above, its ear-piercing sound accompanied by an extremely oppressive force, even dispersing the surrounding mist.
This Blunt Weapon, specifically designed for opening cans, possesses a powerful beauty, but Feng Xue had no time to appreciate it at that moment.
With a flick of her left hand, Unspeakable Rod-shaped Object slid from her sleeve. Feng Xue used a sword technique with her Nail Head Hammer, she applied force at the moment of contact, using the Sword Washing method to deflect the Nail Head Hammer of gravity. Only after exerting this force did Feng Xue realize just how exaggerated the female knight's strength was.
The Disassembly Madonna had pierced the Horse girl's body, also made her move, crossing her crowbar and dagger like pliers to deflect the Nail Head Hammer's attack.
To Feng Xue's surprise, the Nail Head Hammer showed no signs of damage despite the sharpness of the Disassembly Madonna!
"Tsk." With a burst of speed, Feng Xue's body suddenly retreated. The female knight stood up from the Horse girl's corpse, wanting to give chase, but her heavy armor made it clear that she couldn't catch up with the Ghostly Evasion Feng Xue.
As the mist gradually dissipated, the female knight stood on the back of the collapsed Horse girl. The Blade of Suffocation was mostly embedded in her armor, but judging from the force of her previous attack, the opponent was not affected by the suffocating effect.
"Was there padding inside the armor? Or is she actually flat? No, this depth, even if she were dented, she should be injured!"
Feng Xue watched as the female knight assumed a defensive stance, and then saw her pull out the Blade of Suffocation and throw it on the ground beside her.
His enhanced vision, amplified by the assassin's Tag, allowed him to pinpoint the bloodstains on the sword's edge.
"Are the guardians of the Tower of Babylon not even considered living beings? That's going too far!" Feng Xue muttered with a strange expression, then suddenly Spiritual Light struck him—he remembered why the Blade of Suffocation hadn't worked.
Because Feng Xue had always used the Misty Field as a buff skill to unlock elements for the Disassembly Madonna, he almost forgot that the real effect of this skill was not the fog itself, but that it prevented creatures in this fog rich in Fey Energy from being affected by abnormal statuses, while also halving the attack power of dragons.
"What is this? If I don't open the fog, I can't pierce you; if I open the fog, I can't restrain you?"
Feng Xue found the sentence utterly devoid of beauty and couldn't help but feel somewhat ashamed of her over 400 points of literary skill. Indeed, being able to understand and being able to create are two completely different things!
Realizing she lacked poetic talent, Feng Xue didn't let her guard down around the female knight. Fortunately, the knight seemed to know she couldn't catch up with Feng Xue, and while maintaining a defensive stance, she retrieved the broadsword she hadn't used before from the Horse girl's corpse.
With the Nail Head Hammer hanging at her waist, the female knight assumed a standard top stance (holding the sword with both hands, the blade at the side of her head for easy slashing, just like the stance she adopted when fighting the Saber King and the Brush King). The NPC spectators sitting around the arena even made various noises in perfect unison, as if this were a real knightly competition taking place somewhere.
"Who puts assassins and knights together in a duel!" Feng Xue shook her arm, which had finally regained its balance thanks to the flow of Internal Force, and unconsciously tightened her grip on the knife.
The knight's physical abilities were even more extreme than the warrior's. Although he killed her horse in the first exchange, the impact of the Nail Head Hammer swung with one hand made him feel as if he would die if he were grazed by it.
Although Feng Xue could easily run away from such a short-legged enemy, Feng Xue was not about to give up at the slightest setback since she had a chance to fight without fear of death.
"Thinking about it this way, the earlier battles with those guards were a bit hasty. Although protection and equipment are aspects of strength, this wasn't a life-or-death struggle. It should have been treated as sparring and practice to hone one's basic skills, rather than rushing to determine a winner..."
Feng Xue reflected on his competitive nature, but it couldn't be entirely blamed on him. After all, facing an enemy he could easily crush, it was hard for him to think of sparring with such an opponent.
"It's not too late to think about it now." Feng Xue put away the Disassembly Madonna, gripped the crowbar with both hands, and silently took a step forward.
Nine meters, eight meters, seven meters...
As the distance drew closer, Feng Xue could clearly feel the sharp gaze beneath the knight's mask falling upon her. She constantly adjusted her breathing, slowly entering a state of stillness. Within her spiritual platform, the bright mirror engraved with the constellations of the heavens emitted a moonlit glow. Her Internal Force swirled and flowed down the Ren meridian, heading towards the Zhongji point, then turning back to the Foot Taiyin Spleen Meridian, rushing straight from Yinbai to the Chongmen acupoint.
As he performed his cultivation, Feng Xue spread his arms, and a jet-black cloak suddenly appeared, enveloping him and making him disappear from the spot.
Whether it was the intuition inherent in the Guardian's design or the precise calculations granted by the Tower of Babel, the moment Feng Xue disappeared without Ghostly Evasion, she twisted her body and delivered a diagonal slash to her side and rear.
"Sizzle!"
It wasn't the crisp sound of metal clashing together, but rather the noise produced by metal rubbing against each other.
This time, Feng Xue had no intention of engaging in combat. The crowbar struck the side of the broadsword like a sharp sword, and Feng Xue had instantly Teleportation into the air, used the force of gravity to press all her strength onto the spine of the sword.
The slash was an attack that relied on inertia. With the center of gravity completely shifted, it was now impossible for the knight to return the sword. She immediately released her left hand and reached for the Nail Head Hammer at her waist, but Feng Xue, who had already used her movement technique, simply touched the knight's wrist armor with her toes. The curved structure of the crowbar caught on the visor, and with a slight First Turn of her body, she lifted the entire helmet.
Having finished opening the can, Feng Xue had no lingering interest in the chance to smash that head with a single blow. She activated her Heavenly Sphere Star Shifting Technique), instantly retreating several meters away.
Feng Xue's Heavenly Sphere Star Shifting Technique was far from reaching the level of "setting up positions randomly, seemingly real yet illusory, coming and going without a trace, knowing ghosts and communicating with gods," but during this surprise attack, he vaguely sensed a bit of inspiration from "Entering Stillness" and "appearing and disappearing like Ghostly Evasion" and "the moment when light and darkness intersect" from "entering stillness" and "appearing and disappearing like a ghost."
With a flick of the crowbar, Feng Xue flung the helmet hanging at the top away, completely ignoring the handsome face exposed to the air that perfectly matched his liking, and disappeared from the spot once again.
However, this time, he didn't use the Ghostly Evasion!
The changes in numerology flowed through Feng Xue's mind at this moment. The directional changes that she had not understood at all before suddenly became clearer than ever after comparing them with the Ghostly Evasion shadow Teleportation.
This doesn't mean that Shadow Teleportation and the Heavenly Sphere Star Shifting Technique have any similar principles; it's just that the intuitive experience allowed Feng Xue to successfully connect the obscure and difficult-to-understand numerology and orientation with "location" in reality.
He still didn't understand "why 'here' is a 'life position'" and "why 'there' is a 'death position'", but he now at least knew that "here" was the so-called life position and "there" was the so-called death position!
This is certainly not beneficial for cultivation or advancement, but at least Feng Xue can follow some established patterns to unleash some of the profound mysteries of this divine skill!
Some people didn't understand the protagonist's motivation for giving out the coins...
Sigh, never mind, let me explain.
The function of coins is for trading, so to make them useful, they need to be "used." However, their role in the Infinite City is clearly not as significant as in "reality," while the Tower of Babel can connect to other worlds.
In other words, if the cowboy uses it in other worlds, the coin will spread to those other worlds, meaning the protagonist gets a free connection to the cowboy's world. Even if it's only a small amount, it's still a free connection. If it doesn't become a Weird Tale, the protagonist can still earn some [knowledge]. But if they get lucky and it becomes a Weird Tale, the protagonist can even jump to another world directly.
Of course, the cowboy can also use it in the Infinite City, but whoever gets the coin will also use it. Even if it is used in reality, it expands the coin's influence. In the end, unless someone can really hold back from using it, it is a benefit no matter what.
Even if it becomes invalid for some reason during its circulation (acquired through non-trading methods), it is still a magical coin that "everyone thinks is very valuable," and it can still generate a certain amount of discussion. And having a certain amount of discussion means having income from knowledge.
Of course, there are other options, such as using coins to gamble for other Phantom Object at Gambling Shop.
However, this thing is very practical, so using it for gambling is not cost-effective. Secondly, the protagonist doesn't have much cost to make the coins, so it's a win-win situation either way.