"Everyone, today we stand here! We stand before the gateway to Difficulty Four!"
"Ever since the Main God Space's Third Great Purge, it took our East Asia Region a full three years to recover. We've also been bullied by the Europe-America Region for three whole years!"
"Those foreign devils have been pissing and shitting all over us, committing every manner of evil, while we could only swallow our anger. Why?"
"Because their Difficulty Four and Five Reincarnators hadn't all been wiped out! While the space was weak, they found an opening and kept funneling high-difficulty supplies through it. That's why we kept losing more and more, and dying in greater and greater numbers!!!"
"But soon, everything will be different!!!"
"What we're about to face is the Difficulty Three gatekeeper boss—the deadly roadblock that has claimed countless heroes: the Evil Sword Immortal!"
"This time, we have the strongest lineup, the most thorough preparations... and an unshakable determination to win!"
"Today, we will reign supreme atop Shushan and reclaim the glory of the East Asia Region!"
The booming voice and stirring cadence drew a unified shout from the crowd. Their morale shook the heavens!
Fight!
Fight!
Fight!
******
Chinese Paladin 3.
Atop Shushan, the winds and clouds shifted. Evil ran rampant, and blood stained heaven and earth.
How many wielded their swords to drive back evil? How many raised their blades to cleanse the heavens? How many brandished their swords to challenge the clouds—and how many flew off on their swords to roam free...
Shushan, the foremost sacred mountain of cultivation under heaven, now faced an unprecedented calamity.
The five most revered elders of the Shushan Sect had secretly practiced the forbidden immortality arts of their sect. They expelled their evil thoughts, but could not destroy them, and so had no choice but to seal them inside the Demon Locking Tower. Unexpectedly, those thoughts cultivated themselves into a new form of life within the tower, becoming an entity beyond the Six Realms, and seized their chance to escape.
The Evil Sword Immortal, without a physical body, became a great scourge. Taking on the appearance of Shushan elders, he wreaked havoc everywhere, his ambition growing as he plotted to rule the world.
Now, the battle that would decide Shushan's fate had finally arrived.
But the ones facing the Evil Sword Immortal were not Jingtian and his companions, the protagonists of the game. Instead, they were a group of nearly a hundred people, men and women, young and old, all dressed in strange clothes.
They were Reincarnators from the Main God Space.
The Main God Space was a mysterious place, said to be a realm created by a god. Reincarnators were the "lucky ones" chosen to enter it. In worlds based on games, they hovered on the brink between life and death, waging battles without end.
It seemed like a hellish place, but many Reincarnators regarded the Main God Space, which could grant any wish, as paradise. There were no moral restraints; the law of the jungle reigned supreme. The strong won and could do as they pleased. What could be more alluring than opening one's heart without restraint and giving free rein to one's dreams?
The more they enjoyed the benefits, the less willing Reincarnators were to live beneath others. This was especially true of those who had climbed to heights others could only dream of, only to discover that their region as a whole was weak and bullied by foreign devils from other lands. What powerful person could stand for that?
That was why the four strongest teams in the East Asia Region and its five strongest Reincarnators had joined forces to hunt down the Difficulty Three gatekeeper boss, the Evil Sword Immortal.
This was destined to be an epic battle. Win or lose, its events would be passed down throughout the Main God Space, and every Reincarnator would talk about it with relish.
Shushan hung in the sky, living up to its reputation as a celestial paradise. White clouds drifted lazily, green mountains stretched into the distance like layers of ink wash, and a gentle breeze brushed past, carrying the faint, elusive fragrance of the forest.
But now, this scene of poetic beauty was shrouded in an endless aura of slaughter. To keep the characters from disrupting the battle and causing unnecessary complications, the Reincarnators had guided most of Shushan's disciples into the rear mountain. Jingtian and his companions had also been held up by another crisis, leaving the Reincarnators free to unleash their full strength without worry!
"Righteous energy endures between heaven and earth!"
At the sound of a confident, dignified voice carried from afar, a dazzling barrier rose above Shushan, seeking to keep some evil presence out. But before long, a vast, mighty, and strangely wicked force came crashing down upon it. In less than a few minutes, the seemingly impregnable barrier protecting the mountain broke apart and fell!
By then, however, the Reincarnators were all prepared.
The four teams stood scattered across the field, each member capable and skilled in their own way. They were the East Asia Region's four strongest teams: Ghost Savage, Blood Slaughter, Dead Soul, and Flying Snow!
As the Evil Sword Immortal descended, waves of malice, resentment, deathly force, and corruptive poison swept toward the crowd, blotting out the sky with nowhere to hide.
Though the Reincarnators had been mentally prepared, facing this power still left them sweating and trembling, a tremendous shadow falling over their hearts.
This would put them at a severe disadvantage in the coming battle. The Reincarnators immediately slapped their waists, and talismans rose into the air, shining with a gentle white light that swept away the negative energy pouring down from above.
For this battle alone, they had prepared a full ten dozen talismans to ward off evil, not to mention all the other strange skills and items they had brought!
The Evil Sword Immortal's show of force was fearsome, but those gathered here were the elite of the Reincarnators. They naturally refused to sit back and defend themselves. The Dead Soul Team was the first to act!
Lin Feng, captain of the Dead Soul Team and the strongest in the fantasy-magic system. Born in China to parents of mixed heritage, he had initially made a name for himself in the Europe-America Region. He had even obtained part of a necromancer's legacy in the Diablo world, then combined it with corpse-soul arts from the World of Heavenly Calamity. With those powers, he had dominated his corner of the world.
Lin Feng was deeply fascinated by Chinese culture. He had discarded his original English name and renamed himself Lin Feng, clearly resolved to become part of the East Asia Region. Given the current antagonism between the two regions, the Reincarnators of East Asia welcomed him.
The Dead Soul Team lived up to its name. All ten members had studied the subject, but now they did not summon corpses or spirits. Instead, they joined forces to bring forth a black cloak. The English word "Rathma" was etched along its edge, marking its former owner: Rathma, the progenitor of necromancers in the Diablo world, and the person Lin Feng admired most.
The cloak looked utterly ordinary, with nothing unusual about it. Yet every member of the Dead Soul Team wore a grave expression, fine beads of sweat even forming on their foreheads. Behind Lin Feng, a pale-skinned, black-haired man appeared, wearing a cloak as well.
The man raised his head and smiled faintly, but strangely, his face showed no expression. The cloak, however, began to flutter. To the onlookers, it seemed as though the garment itself was expressing its owner's emotions. The sight was chillingly uncanny.
But the cloak's purpose was clearly more than simply conveying expressions. The Dead Soul Team had summoned it at great effort to strip the Evil Sword Immortal of one of his greatest advantages: his domain's ability to absorb evil thoughts.
The Evil Sword Immortal was the embodiment of evil thoughts. Every wicked desire served as a source of power, constantly replenishing his energy and greatly increasing his endurance in battle.
Rathma's cloak was of an exceedingly high grade. Once activated, it began to compete with the Evil Sword Immortal for the negative energy drifting through the world. It could not completely erase the Evil Sword Immortal's innate ability, but it greatly diminished it.
The Evil Sword Immortal, hovering in midair, seemed to sense something. He gave a startled exclamation and finally appeared before them.
In truth, what appeared was only a half-real, half-illusory figure, vaguely resembling Qing Wei, the head of the Shushan Sect.
This was the Evil Sword Immortal's usual form: a phantom made to look human, not his combat form. Apparently, despite the Reincarnators' numbers, he did not consider them a threat. One casual sword strike would reduce them to dust.
But those who underestimated Reincarnators with all their extraordinary arts and skills rarely came to a good end. The Evil Sword Immortal was certainly powerful, but he was far from invincible. His weaknesses were quite pronounced.
Now, seeing the Dead Soul Team display its strength, another elite team refused to be outdone and launched a bold attack.
The team captain was a woman of peerless beauty, known as the East Asia Region's number one beauty and the strongest cultivator in the cultivation system: Yao Xue!
True to her name, Yao Xue had skin as fair as snow. She was exquisitely beautiful, her appearance so dazzling it was hard to look at directly. She also possessed an exceptionally strong talent for magic. She had studied the five-element spells of Chinese Paladin, the five-element arts of The Scar of the Sky, and the divine rituals of Fantasy Chronicle of the Ghost City, drawing on the strengths of each school. She already had the air of a master of the arcane arts.
Facing the Evil Sword Immortal, she glowed with golden light. Her curvaceous figure floated halfway into the air as incantations and spells poured from her lips, each syllable stirring the countless currents of spiritual energy around her:
"Welcome the light of the seven hues, bright and glorious... The golden wheel shines, breaking the darkness and driving out the gloom..."
With top-grade equipment that shortened spellcasting time, Yao Xue's casting time had been cut to the bare minimum. Almost instantly, blinding light blazed across the sky above Shushan, as though an immensely sacred and powerful force were gathering.
The Evil Sword Immortal narrowed his eyes and looked up. Streaks of golden light shot toward him as if from the dawn of creation. The sight stirred waves of irritation and revulsion in his heart, along with a faint, almost imperceptible trace of fear.
The Evil Sword Immortal gave a cold snort. Without making a visible move, he disappeared, then reappeared right in front of Yao Xue, two fingers pointed like a sword as he thrust straight toward her prominent chest. His nearly instantaneous speed made most of the Reincarnators' pupils contract and their breathing quicken.
But if Yao Xue dared to unleash such a targeted attack, how could she have left herself unguarded?
No matter how fast the Evil Sword Immortal attacked, the other members of the Flying Snow Team had already placed several layers of defenses on their captain: Power Word: Shield, Magic Shield, Shield of No Light, Earth Defense Array, True Essence Body Protection, and several more defensive skills. They had built a veritable wall of steel, confident they could withstand even the fiercest attack.
The Evil Sword Immortal smashed through four defenses, including Power Word: Shield, like a force of nature, but then came to a halt. Having absorbed the evil thoughts of the five elders and countless negative energies from the world, he had an immense wealth of battle experience. The instant he saw Yao Xue was prepared, he changed targets and unleashed Evil Spirit Ejection at the other members of the Flying Snow Team.
The Evil Sword Immortal's body was made up of countless evil spirits. If an ejected spirit entered the body of an ordinary cultivator, it would corrode their spirit, ruin their cultivation, and stir the evil thoughts in their heart, allowing their mind to be controlled.
The countless evil spirits came surging toward them like stars filling the sky, like a river of stars. They looked beautiful, but every member of the Flying Snow Team desperately dodged them, grimacing as they took out the talismans they usually relied on to save their lives and used them to ward off the spirits' corruption.
By now, the Evil Sword Immortal no longer looked like the dignified Qing Wei from before. In his place was a wicked monster with wild, spiky hair and no lower body: his first combat form!
The Evil Sword Immortal's ancient, dark, corrupt aura spread from his body. Rathma's cloak immediately fell into an overwhelming disadvantage. Seeing this, Lin Feng simply widened the cloak's area of influence. Rather than contesting the Evil Sword Immortal head-on, he spread it over all the Reincarnators, reducing the effects of the evil domain on their side.
The other members of the Flying Snow Team used their precious Substitute Dolls and Object Substitution Talismans to withstand the Evil Sword Immortal's fierce assault, buying Yao Xue valuable time.
"...Gathering of Thousand Saintly Heavens!!!" As the final incantation faded, countless golden lights in the sky merged into one, carrying the supreme authority of Radiant Sun Holy Brilliance from beyond the ninth heaven as it crashed toward the Evil Sword Immortal with overwhelming force.
Radiant Sun Holy Brilliance was renowned throughout the Fantasy Chronicle of the Ghost City worlds. It was one of the most powerful spells in the Heavenly Brilliance Divine Ritual Arts. It gathered the light of the heavens and condensed it in the form of the two principles, breaking the darkness and annihilating the demonic path. It was precisely the kind of spell that evil spirits and malevolent beings like the Evil Sword Immortal feared most.
Yao Xue's control over this spell was also masterful. Its earlier magical ripples had only made the Evil Sword Immortal feel a slight threat. But now that she had unleashed the spell in full, it became the mighty force of heaven. The Evil Sword Immortal, caught in its path, suddenly felt the world around him go dark. It was as if everything had vanished, leaving only that beam of holy sunlight, blotting out the sky as it descended upon him. For the first time, he felt there might be no way to resist.
The Evil Sword Immortal's gaze turned solemn, but he showed not the slightest sign of panic. Water and fire could not coexist, just as light and darkness opposed each other. But water could extinguish fire, and fire could boil water; light could dispel darkness, and darkness could devour light. As long as one side's energy far exceeded the other's, there was no need to worry about their opposing natures. Overwhelming force was the true path.
The Evil Sword Immortal was the gathering of all evil in the world. No matter how high Yao Xue's spell ranked, it could at most gather the light-type energy in this part of Shushan. It was nowhere near enough to match his power. So what was there to worry about?
Under ordinary circumstances, that was true. But the East Asia Region's four strongest teams had gathered here, each with a role to play. The Flying Snow Team's main task was to handle the Evil Sword Immortal in his first combat form. How could they greet this Difficulty Three gatekeeper boss with nothing but one cast of Radiant Sun Holy Brilliance?
In his first combat form, the Evil Sword Immortal was essentially a mass of energy composed of countless tiny evil thoughts. That was why he could freely use Evil Spirit Ejection.
In this state, continuously consuming his evil spirits would steadily weaken his energy. It was a simple and straightforward method, but it would take a great deal of time and effort, leaving them unable to cope with the next few stages.
Drawing on the experiences of Reincarnators who had survived previous battles against the Evil Sword Immortal, the four strongest teams and their five strongest fighters had prepared to take a different route and strike straight at his evil spirit core. Though this approach would be much more difficult, success would save them a great deal of time and supplies, improving their odds of killing the boss.
Yao Xue's Radiant Sun Holy Brilliance was merely the vanguard. As expected, the Evil Sword Immortal was dragged into a prolonged battle of attrition. The holy light pillar seared his body full of holes, revealing countless tiny black specks that were continually burned away and dispelled. But more quickly appeared, impossible to eradicate.
"Now!" Seeing this, Yao Xue was delighted rather than alarmed and gave a sharp cry. One of her teammates immediately took out a deep-blue orb and raised it high above her head. Space rippled, and a blue monster with strange, bar-like marks on his face tore through space and appeared before them.
The Scourge hero from the Dota world—Faceless Void!
As soon as Faceless Void appeared, he used Time Walk to blink beside the Evil Sword Immortal. A deep blue glow burst from his body, and streams of silvery-blue temporal energy formed a huge dome of light. In an instant, everything around the Evil Sword Immortal seemed to freeze. Even the sunlight submitted to the mysterious might of the Chronosphere.
Neither friend nor foe inside the Chronosphere could move. Only Faceless Void could act freely. But strangely, the Reincarnator who had summoned him controlled him as he moved to one side, making no attempt to attack.
It seemed like a waste of a perfect opportunity, but it was not. The Chronosphere had not been cast to attack. It was meant to create a brief window for another member of the Flying Snow Team to identify the location of the Evil Sword Immortal's core.
But the Chronosphere could last for no more than six seconds. That was far too short. Even someone with the sharpest eyes could not pick out the unusual core among thousands of black specks. So the Flying Snow Team member had to use another aid: a Materia from the Final Fantasy world!
The silver-green Time Materia rose slowly above her head. An unusual clock face appeared beneath her feet, its flow out of sync with the time around it.
The Materia spun violently. Using it so excessively would turn it into a one-use item, but no one would scrimp on supplies when facing the Evil Sword Immortal.
With the help of the miraculous time magic, the Flying Snow Team's female member finally came through. In the final instant before the Chronosphere vanished, she marked the core's location in the team channel for another teammate.
Without a moment's pause, the Evil Sword Immortal had barely escaped the Chronosphere and had not yet figured out what had happened when he saw another burst of sacred, powerful energy rise from among those seemingly weak enemies.
"Pathetic, stubborn humans. You still refuse to give up?" The Evil Sword Immortal sighed inwardly, murderous intent glinting in his eyes. Just as he was about to counterattack, circles of rune-inscribed formations sprang up around him in the void.
"O Aidios, god who holds the Septium Crystals, source of all things... With your wondrous radiance, drive away the threats rushing toward us... Light that wraps around my body, quickly form an exorcism array!!!"
Holy Star Vortex, the S-rank technique of Kloe, a powerful character from the Trails in the Sky world. With a merciful and devout heart, she prayed to Aidios, the god who held the Septium Crystals, source of all things. Wondrous radiance blazed forth, and light from her body formed an exorcism array around the enemy, striking them with devastating force.
This technique not only dealt double damage to evil-aligned enemies, but its high priority as an S-rank skill also allowed it to be cast instantly, regardless of whether the enemy or the caster was taking action.
A deadly sense of danger surged through the Evil Sword Immortal, but he could only watch helplessly as the light that pierced heaven and earth shot toward an inconspicuous black speck inside him. His original evil spirit, the very first one, was lodged there. It was the core—the most vital point of all.
"No!!!"
"It worked!"
The starkly different reactions of friend and foe revealed the attack's effect. A massive critical damage number appeared above the Evil Sword Immortal's head, and the health bar of his first combat form was drained in one fell swoop.
Four skills from different worlds, linked together in perfect coordination, had produced an astonishing result. In just half a minute, they had destroyed the Evil Sword Immortal's first form!
Of the nearly one hundred Reincarnators present, only the Flying Snow Team had suffered considerable losses. The other three strongest teams had conserved their strength and were still in peak condition. The boss battle had gotten off to an excellent start!
"You... have enraged me!!!" The Evil Sword Immortal's core had been destroyed, dealing him a grievous wound. Evil thoughts filled the sky, but he could no longer draw them together. Yet this state lasted only a short while. Five enormous masses of evil thoughts suddenly appeared and immediately coalesced into the forms of five old men, floating in midair.
The Evil Sword Immortal's second combat form: he split off the evil thoughts of the Five Elders of Shushan, bringing five bosses onto the field at once. This was the stage that tested the Reincarnators' teamwork most.
But just as the five sinister-looking elders of Shushan appeared, the Ghost Savage Team and the Blood Slaughter Team moved at the same time.
The Ghost Savage Team sent out a white-haired woman with her eyes closed. She drifted into the middle of the battlefield. Without attacking her enemy, she raised a sharp dagger and plunged it into her own heart. Blood sprayed everywhere, and her eyes suddenly snapped open. Everywhere she looked turned into a ghostly Blood Sea, while an unnatural blush spread across her pale, icy face. She softly uttered four words:
"Extinguishing Sword! Blood Haze!"
The ultimate killing move of Bing Li, the sword envoy from Fantasy Chronicle of the Ghost City. Using the Ice Soul Desolate Spirit within her, she formed countless illusory yet real shadows to destroy her enemies. Blood surged from her body as she unleashed the move, and the more injured she was, the greater its power!
Thousands upon thousands of phantom women transformed themselves into swords, while the thick scent of blood surged across the sky. The fierce aura of a baleful star descended from the heavens and mingled with the boundless, wondrous dance of their forms, leaving onlookers unsure whether to be entranced or terrified.
The Five Elders of Shushan had barely taken their positions before they were submerged in the desolate, murderous aura of Extinguishing Sword: Blood Haze, their health bars dropping sharply. The Blood Slaughter Team's fighter was none other than its captain, Tu Qianli, the strongest in the technology system!
He had built his name in the Fatal Force world. After inheriting the abilities of the character War Slave, he joined forces with his companions to kill him. They dug out the modified flesh planted inside War Slave's body by his organization and merged it with their own, giving Tu Qianli his innate talent for mastering any kind of machinery!
Later, in the StarCraft world, Tu Qianli acquired human technology from the future and truly set foot on the path to becoming a powerhouse.
He was ruthless and utterly heartless. His original name was no longer known, but it was said that in one story world, while searching for a quest item, he used high-tech weapons of war to bombard the land for a thousand li, laying waste to countless lives. From then on, he became known as Blood Slaughter Across a Thousand Li, and the Blood Slaughter Team became one of the groups no one dared provoke.
Tu Qianli sauntered forward, a bloodthirsty smile spreading across his fleshy face. He swung his arms, and more than a dozen guns and cannons of various shapes and sizes appeared. The sight was like a scene from The Mask, but Tu Qianli was not trying to be funny. A sudden torrent of fire unleashed a raging storm of metal, sweeping toward the Five Elders of Shushan like a downpour.
Compared with the white-haired woman's Extinguishing Sword: Blood Haze, Tu Qianli's attacks seemed far more plain and unremarkable. But judging by how rapidly the Five Elders' health bars were falling, his damage output was absolutely no less than hers.
And with Tu Qianli's arm strength allowing him to withstand his weapons' tremendous recoil for a full five minutes, his total damage would far exceed that of Extinguishing Sword: Blood Haze.
Of course, the Five Elders of Shushan were not about to let them attack unchallenged. Formed from evil thoughts, they could feel no pain and had no emotional weaknesses. Black clouds of energy burst from their bodies, but they remained unmoved as they used flying swords to attack.
The Shushan Sect was also known as the Shushan Sword Sect. Its sword-flying arts were clearly unparalleled. Once the Five Elders of Shushan launched their attack in earnest, the members of the four strongest teams shouted and charged toward their targets according to plan.
The battle quickly reached a fever pitch. The Difficulty Three gatekeeper boss, the Evil Sword Immortal, finally showed why he was such a deadly roadblock. Blood sprayed, screams rang out, and the Reincarnators who had previously fought with ease began to fall!
By then, the two strongest Reincarnators in the East Asia Region had officially joined the fight.
Lan Tianhong, captain of the Ghost Savage Team and the strongest in the ancient martial arts system. Muscular and brimming with heroic spirit, he wielded a rusty iron sword and used the peerless swordsmanship passed down from Yan Nantian, the world's greatest swordsman in the Handsome Siblings world. Alone with his sword, he held off one of the Shushan elders.
Among the five strongest fighters, another man stood apart from the four team captains. He was a lone wolf named Su Moyan.
He was the only one among the current experts who cultivated in two systems, combining ancient martial arts with cultivation. His strength was unfathomable!
Su Moyan was a smooth operator with exceptional people skills, and he had good relations with all four strongest teams. Given his fighting style, he did not hold off one of the Shushan elders alone like Lan Tianhong. Instead, he moved between the others, often dispelling a Reincarnator's mortal danger with an apparently casual sword strike and earning their tearful gratitude.
Even with Su Moyan's support, the flashes of return scrolls, Hearthstones, and the Spirit Vein Abyss frequently lit up. Every Reincarnator knew how dangerous the battle against the Evil Sword Immortal was. Everyone had items that could instantly remove them from the fight and return them to the Main God Space. As long as they were not killed in a single blow, they could at least avoid dying on the spot!
"I am evil thoughts made immortal! I cannot be defeated!" Only after more than a dozen Reincarnators had been forced to withdraw did the Five Elders of Shushan finally fall, one by one.
The succession of injuries sent the Evil Sword Immortal into a hysterical rage. Without hesitation, he released his strongest Evil Spirit True Form and entered his third combat form, the final and most difficult one!
In his final form, the Evil Sword Immortal had only two skills: Evil Sword Slash and Evil Spirit Covering Heaven!
But those two skills were an everlasting nightmare for the Reincarnators. Evil Sword Slash was unleashed by the evil sword formed from the Demon Suppressing Sword and the Demon Sword. Its power was so great that, apart from Lan Tianhong, no one could survive more than three exchanges with him.
Evil Spirit Covering Heaven was even more impossible to counter. Whenever the Evil Sword Immortal's health dropped by twenty percent, he would use it on the ten Reincarnators closest to him, stirring up the evil thoughts in their hearts and bringing them under his control.
The moment the skill landed, comrades who had just been fighting side by side would turn on one another. The resulting shift in strength was bad enough, but the blow to morale was even worse.
The Reincarnators had thought of every bizarre method they could imagine to counter Evil Spirit Covering Heaven, but none had worked. Only the finest of the elite could participate in the battle against the Evil Sword Immortal; they could not bring anyone along just to make up the numbers. And evil thoughts were precisely what Reincarnators had in abundance. Even in peaceful urban life, people schemed and fought among themselves at every turn, let alone among Reincarnators, who followed the law of the jungle and believed that the strong prevailed.
In the end, someone no one would have expected proposed a remarkably reliable, yet exceptionally vicious, plan. After a heated argument, everyone agreed to it. Now came the moment to put it into action.
"Puppeteer, get ready. First batch of laborers, charge! Victory or defeat hinges on this!"
Before you continue