Ning Rongrong didn't come back to her senses until the gloomy-faced man with a scythe rushed up to her. He swung the scythe, which was taller than she was, and raised it over his head. Firelight glinted purple across the blade. After a brief pause, he brought it crashing down, the sound of it tearing through the air crystal clear.
Images flashed through Ning Rongrong's mind: the innate ninth-rank Soul Power she'd awakened on the day her Martial Soul manifested; how quickly she'd cultivated compared to ordinary people; her father considering sending her to the Royal Academy not long ago; and then discovering she couldn't control her body, being separated from Sword Grandpa, and getting trapped in the cave.
It felt as if she'd done nothing with her life. She closed off her senses and prepared to quietly accept her death...
One second, two seconds...
I'm still alive? Ning Rongrong cracked open one eye and peeked outside.
Everything around her had frozen. The blade hanging not far from her, the struggling girl in the distance, the burning flames—all of it was motionless!
"Don't rush. Let's save first."
The moment Lu Ma saw the other man raise his scythe, he immediately pressed ESC, found the save function, and saved his game.
Then he quickly reviewed the controls for the battle, afraid he'd fail the beginner stage and have to start all over again.
In a game called NieR, he really had died in the beginner stage before.
"Okay, good. Watch me pull off a Perfect Dodge."
What is he saying now? Ning Rongrong was baffled, though she vaguely guessed that the time freeze was also the doing of the powerful figure controlling her.
His strength... might be on the same level as Sword Grandpa's.
Before she could think it over, her body had already started moving, and the world began to flow again.
She crouched and leaned her head back. The Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda in her hand radiated light, and a few familiar words seemed to come from her mouth:
"The Seven Treasures turn and reveal the Glazed Pagoda. Seven Treasures Have Names: First, Strength; Second: Speed."
The scythe grazed the tip of her nose and slammed into a nearby crate.
The man before her froze. His Martial Soul had the trait of "not killing people," so he'd used all his strength just now. Now he'd need to use all his strength again to wrench the scythe free. But during that time, Ning Rongrong had already moved. She swung her iron rod at his hand. The man couldn't dodge in time and let go after three heavy blows.
While the man was off balance, she brought the iron rod crashing down on his head, knocking him unconscious.
The man fell heavily to the ground. Ning Rongrong stepped on him and looked at the eleven Soul Masters still standing before her.
The Soul Elder was still presiding over the ritual and couldn't spare a moment to act.
The air grew tense. Clearly, they hadn't expected a little noble princess to get this far.
Ning Rongrong hadn't expected that, with her support-type Martial Soul's boost, she could turn the tables, either.
"Attack, for the Holy God!"
Someone shouted, and the eleven Soul Masters charged at Ning Rongrong again.
A pebble shot from a slingshot, but she simply tilted her head and dodged it. A venomous snake flew at her, and she knocked it away with her iron rod. On the backswing, she blocked an axe, then leaped up and stepped on her opponent's back, knocking down another.
The same scene played out over and over with the others. Every attack skimmed past her body, yet she managed to dodge every single one perfectly.
As the other side's numbers dwindled, the pressure on her eased. She knocked them down faster and faster until, at last, all twelve were on the ground.
Although black qi wafted from the twelve Soul Masters to varying degrees, that didn't mean their Martial Souls were all Evil Martial Souls.
In fact, their Martial Souls were mostly common things like scythes and axes. Only a very few were obviously sinister, and Ning Rongrong hadn't given those ones a chance to use their Soul Skills.
"One left."
After making sure they were down, Ning Rongrong looked up at Donald.
Donald was watching her with astonishment, but he kept chanting prayers she couldn't quite understand.
Things like "The Holy God is beyond doubt," "The Holy God is great," and "The path taken by the Holy God is the Great Way."
Donald had two reasons for not panicking.
First, he thought that even if this person's fighting ability was somewhat different from what he'd expected, her spiritual power definitely wasn't strong enough to interrupt the Saintess Ritual. In other words, if she wanted to stop the ritual, she could only defeat him.
Second, though he was one of the Holy Spirit Cult's "Nine Elders," he didn't actually want a Saintess to be born. If one appeared, it meant his standing in the Holy Spirit Cult would drop another rank.
He couldn't stop praying. If he did, all the preparations the Holy Spirit Cult had made for the Saintess Ritual would go to waste. If he stopped it himself, he'd be branded the culprit and have his tendons torn out and bones ripped apart to feed the Soul Beasts.
As he sped up his prayers, Ning Rongrong had already walked right up to him with her iron rod. She raised it and smashed it down on his head!
"Clang!"
A needle took shape beside Donald and knocked the iron rod aside.
"I can even parry a scythe, but one little needle parries me?"
Lu Ma saw the character stagger back a few steps from the force of the iron rod and slammed his mouse on the desk, protesting.
At the sound of the angry shout, Ning Rongrong shrank back.
Why did everything have to be so full of twists? She'd just been celebrating the fact that she was still alive.
And what was that clanging sound?
Then she heard a voice exclaim in realization.
"So this is the opening cutscene for the mini-boss fight."
Lu Ma looked at the darkening screen, where the words [Leader, Donald, Level 31 Soul Elder] appeared, and nodded in understanding.
The other Soul Masters had had their levels displayed above their heads too, but he hadn't looked closely. The text was small, and the screen had been full of execution QTEs, so he'd been rushing to press the buttons.
"Bring it on, then."
The animation ended. Ning Rongrong steadied her iron rod and charged at Donald again.
"Clang!"
The iron rod came swinging at him again.
Donald smiled. He thought the person before him was an idiot. She knew it would get knocked aside, yet she kept making a futile attack.
The next second, his smile froze. Before the iron rod even fell, the needle shot out and attacked—then missed. Just then, the iron rod came at him from another angle and slammed into his face.
"Ugh!"
Donald staggered back half a step and wiped the blood from his nose with the corner of his clothes.
His Martial Soul was powder. It could transform into anything, and could even become several things at once. But it had one drawback—
Only one of them had real force.
For example, if he created two axes to chop down a tree, only one could actually damage it. The other was merely an illusion.
Donald couldn't figure out how the girl before him had worked that out so quickly.
Then he realized he'd stopped praying for some time.
He glanced toward the girl and saw the purple flames weakening. The Dark Blue Silver Grass withdrew, and the girl's expression relaxed a little.
The Saintess Ritual had failed.
The Saintess Ritual had failed...
It had failed...
His eyes turned bloodshot, and his expression grew increasingly ferocious.
"You ignorant brat! I'll tear you to pieces! First Soul Skill, Smoke!"
Donald roared as powder appeared endlessly in his hands, spreading throughout the cave.
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