Shen Fei hid behind a thick corridor pillar, holding his breath as he peered into the open courtyard. A ring of blue-green formation stones stood in its center, forming a circular formation array, their patterns shimmering with faint lightning in the night.
Nie Li stood at the very center of the array, holding an ordinary iron sword. His lean frame looked especially frail opposite the enormous demon beast.
Facing him stood an Abyssal Troll over twenty feet tall. Thick, dark-red scales covered his entire body, his limbs were as thick as stone pillars, and his fists were larger than millstones.
His oppressive aura bore down like a blanket over heaven and earth. Even from dozens of paces away, it left Shen Fei struggling to breathe.
Black gold. Shen Fei's heart clenched. Even a black gold rank expert would have to expend considerable soul force to kill an Abyssal Troll.
Ye Zong stood on the steps, wind and snow spiritual power swirling around him. His brows were tightly knitted, and he was ready to strike at any moment. Yet he had not moved. He was guarding against someone. Shen Fei tightened his grip on his sword.
Had Nie Li gone mad? With gold rank cultivation, he wanted to rely on an array to kill a black gold rank Abyssal Troll?
In the instant his attention wandered, the Abyssal Troll roared, swung his right fist, and smashed it viciously into the array's barrier.
The force of the punch carried black-red demon aura as it struck the barrier. The entire array shook, and the formation stones grew warm. The gust swept across the courtyard's paving stones, splitting them with several cracks.
Nie Li shifted his feet, stepping precisely onto the corresponding formation eye nodes. His hands rapidly formed seals as he murmured an incantation. A moment later, more than a dozen arm-thick bolts of lightning rose within the array and struck the troll's arm with a crackling barrage.
After a series of sizzling sounds, the scales on the troll's arm were charred black and trailing smoke.
He roared even louder in pain and brought his other fist crashing down as well. His fists struck in alternation, battering the barrier until it teetered on the brink of collapse.
Nie Li showed no panic at all. He moved nimbly through the array, every step landing on a node, without the slightest trace of disorder.
While directing the array to unleash a constant barrage of lightning, he occasionally turned sideways and thrust his sword at the troll's eyes and the gaps in his joints. The troll's enormous bulk slowed his turns and punches, allowing Nie Li to dodge easily every time.
Man and beast remained locked in a stalemate. Watching from behind the pillar, Shen Fei's heart pounded with fear. He knew Nie Li was capable, but he had never imagined he was this bold. He had taken a black gold rank demon beast head-on without hesitation.
After roughly a quarter of an hour, the troll grew increasingly frenzied. He had thrown dozens of punches without so much as touching the hem of Nie Li's clothes. Instead, he had taken dozens of lightning strikes, leaving his scales cracked in several places. He suddenly opened his mouth and spewed a great cloud of black mist.
The highly corrosive mist fell onto the array's barrier with a sizzling hiss. The barrier thinned at a visible rate, its light dimming as well.
Nie Li bit the tip of his tongue and spat a mouthful of essence blood onto the formation base stone beneath his feet.
The dark-red essence blood seeped into the blue-green formation stone. The entire array instantly erupted with blinding lightning, more than three times brighter than before. A bucket-thick pillar of lightning descended from the sky with the force to destroy heaven and earth, striking the troll squarely on the crown of his head.
Boom! The troll let out a piercing scream that left everyone's ears ringing. The scales atop his head split apart under the strike, charred fragments flying in all directions amid billowing black smoke.
His enormous body swayed. His knees buckled, and he dropped heavily to the ground, making the earth shudder.
At that very moment, Nie Li leaped into the air. Thick lightning wrapped around the iron sword in his hand as he drove it viciously into the wound on top of the troll's head, burying it to the hilt.
The troll's body convulsed violently several times. His enormous fist rose into the air, then fell heavily again. His massive body crashed to the ground, throwing up clouds of dust.
The lightning gradually dispersed, and the array's radiance dimmed, returning to its earlier faint blue-green glow.
Nie Li landed beside the troll's corpse. His face was somewhat pale, his breathing had grown considerably faster, and fine sweat covered his forehead. He had clearly exhausted much of his strength. At last, he could hold on no longer and collapsed.
Shen Fei hid behind the corridor pillar, cold all over. He really killed him. With a small Grand Unity Array, Nie Li had slain a black gold initial rank Abyssal Troll through sheer force.
He knew there was a gap between himself and Nie Li, but he had never thought it was particularly large. After all, they had both been reborn. Nie Li had probably died when Glory City fell as well, living only a few months longer at most.
But now, it seemed the difference was not as simple as a few months.
And what about me? Even fighting with all his strength and relying on an ambush and favorable terrain, he had barely managed to kill a gold rank 2-star deacon. Against a black gold rank demon beast, he could not withstand even a single blow. The gap was too vast-vast enough to drive him to despair.
He had always felt that he was progressing fast enough. After being reborn, he had brought his previous life's battlefield experience with him and gained Old Man Black Prison's inheritance. It had taken him only half a year to climb from silver 3-star to gold rank 2-star. Among Glory City's younger generation, he could already be considered a heaven-sent genius.
But Nie Li? Half a year ago, everyone at the Holy Orchid Institute had considered him a good-for-nothing. His soul force test results had placed him third from the bottom in his entire year. Everyone had believed he would never become a demon spirit master.
In just half a year, he had risen from nothing to the point where he could slay a black gold rank demon beast.
This was not merely fast cultivation-he was riding a rocket. Leaning against the cold corridor pillar, Shen Fei truly felt for the first time that a heavenly chasm separated him from Nie Li. The two of them were not even in the same dimension.
Nie Li's memories of his past life, his elder inheritance, and his knowledge of opportunities and hidden secrets stood at heights Shen Fei could never reach. Nie Li's starting point was a finish line Shen Fei could not catch even on a galloping horse.
In the courtyard, Ye Zong hurried down the steps and carried Nie Li back to his room on his back. He saw that Nie Li's complexion looked terrible.
Shen Fei watched no longer. He quietly backed away and retraced his route, climbing out of the City Lord's Mansion. The night was still deep, and the wind brushed his face with a chill.
Shen Fei walked slowly through the deserted alley. The scene he had just witnessed replayed endlessly in his mind: the lightning, the troll, and Nie Li's figure leaping up to thrust his sword. So what if the gap was enormous?
He had not been reborn to become the strongest in the world. He had come back to protect this city and those he had failed to protect in his previous life.
He gave a quiet laugh. At least one thing was certain now. Glory City would not fall as it had in his previous life.
The stone that had weighed on his heart for so long suddenly became much lighter. Shen Fei quickened his pace toward the Sacred Family. There was still plenty to do when he returned.
He had to find a way to anonymously deliver the defense map he had found on the Dark Guild deacon to the City Lord's Mansion. His cultivation plan needed to change as well. He could no longer proceed one prescribed step at a time.
And he had to hurry and learn basic inscriptions. He could not keep pace with Nie Li, but at the very least, he could not hold him back or leave him to shoulder everything alone. If he did, he would truly be unworthy of having been reborn.
Before you continue