I Take Life Seriously 96. The Spellcasting Demigod (3)

Mu Xiu mounted a three-headed, dragon-like monster and soared into the sky in magnificent style.

Zhang Mingjing and the others were only about six miles away from him by then, close enough to read the enemy situation at once. Even so, they could not help feeling a faint trace of envy and jealousy at how outrageously cool Mu Xiu’s ride was, and how spectacular his entrance looked.

Zhang Yidao had already begun arranging the Eight Trigrams Formation according to the battlefield hologram Zhang Mingjing had provided.

He was aligning the Qian position toward Mu Xiu when, without warning, Mu Xiu rose to his feet on the monster’s back. His figure flickered incessantly, and in the space of a second he split into a duplicate; by the end, he had created fourteen copies of himself.

Those copies spread out rapidly. Though still within the formation, it was clear they could no longer be gathered neatly into the Qian trigram.

“Zhang Yidao can’t carry out his plan to weaken the enemy with the Qian trigram today,” Zhang Mingjing said regretfully.

“Are those illusions?” Jemmy and Katherine asked in alarm.

Zhang Mingjing and the Five-Dimensional Space Thought Model both studied the copies carefully, and in mutual astonishment said, “Every single one of them is real. They are not illusions.”

“How is that possible? How did he do it?” Zhang Mingjing asked the Five-Dimensional Space Thought Model.

It explained, “Just now he instantly quantumized his body, then split it in half. He then quantumized the divided body again, and each part split in half once more. Repeating that cycle over and over, he ended up with fourteen copies.”

“Then wouldn’t that mean the energy of his original body was divided into fourteen portions too, making each body very weak now?”

“Exactly. But because of that, he won’t fight you hand to hand. He’ll only use spells against you. And with fourteen bodies chanting together, the spell power will not only remain undiminished from before the split, it may even double. That is how he counters the Eight Trigrams Formation.”

“That is way too damn freaky! So he really is a hard one to deal with.”

At that moment, Zhang Yidao and Xiao Nuxia were also complaining, and Xiao Nuxia said, “Zhang Yidao, there really are such terrifying demons in this world.”

“Don’t be afraid, Xiao Nuxia!”

“I’m not afraid. I just suddenly feel as though I came into this world bearing a special mission.”

“Ha, we’re thinking the same thing again! I think we were born to subdue demons, uphold justice, and save humanity.”

“Mm!”

The battle was about to begin, and one of the Mu Xius stepped forward to shout, “Hey! My name is Mu Xiu. Very soon I will become a great divine master, and very soon I will also become the king of Earth. If you swear loyalty to me now, not only will you live, you can also share in wealth and glory with me in the future.”

The Five-Dimensional Space Thought Model was bewildered by this sudden turn in the story. Apparently, like the Space-Time Monster Thought Model codec, it was exactly the same and did not fully understand certain behaviors of three-dimensional humans.

Zhang Mingjing and the others, however, found Mu Xiu’s behavior very familiar. Wasn’t this just one of the classic routines used by bandits and invaders?

Then they heard Zhang Mingjing laugh and say, “Mr. Mu Xiu, our Earth does not need a king. You may go back now.”

The Mu Xius burst into laughter at once. At the same time, they stared at Zhang Mingjing with contempt, though their expressions did not show anger.

The members of the Daoist team knew battle was imminent, and even the two pets could feel the fuse had already been lit.

Sure enough, the fourteen Mu Xius, all wearing pleasant smiles, were the first to fire high-frequency beams at the Daoist team.

The team members had already raised their energy shields long before, and because they had also shifted positions in advance according to the trigrams, none of the beams hit them.

At that point, although the fourteen Mu Xius and the monster were inside the Eight Trigrams Formation, everyone was taking advantage of the formation’s predictive edge to launch the first strike. Yet attacking the fourteen Mu Xius was also proving difficult, not only because they were all moving at supersonic speed and spread out in different positions, but also because they had been quantum-separated from the same body and therefore remained quantum-entangled with one another, constantly sharing enemy intelligence from every direction. That only further boosted their reaction speed, and the Daoist team could never land a hit.

As for the monster, it was in a worse state. Its speed had never matched the Daoist team’s members to begin with, and now that it was trapped at the center of the Eight Trigrams Formation, it was taking plenty of heavy blows.

The Space-Time Monster code within it raged furiously, hating not only the Daoist team’s members but also Mu Xiu for putting it in such a passive position.

After about six minutes, the Mu Xius still could not hit the Daoist team, and the Daoist team could not hit them either. The fight seemed to have reached a deadlock.

Then, all at once, Zhang Yidao’s Eight Trigrams Formation began to tremble violently, as though the energy field had become highly unstable.

Zhang Mingjing and the Five-Dimensional Space Thought Model immediately read that the fourteen Mu Xius had begun chanting together.

Their spell disrupted the information and magnetic field of the Eight Trigrams Formation, while also interfering with Zhang Yidao’s consciousness through the formation itself.

Zhang Yidao’s mind began to grow hazy. Ten seconds later, Xiao Nuxia also found it hard to focus, and the Dui and Qian positions of the formation started to weaken rapidly in energy.

The Eight Trigrams Formation was losing balance at speed. If this continued, in less than two minutes it would collapse, and Zhang Yidao and Xiao Nuxia might suffer severe damage from the spell.

At this critical moment, the Five-Dimensional Space Thought Model began releasing positive-spiral energy to counter the negative-spiral energy generated by the fourteen Mu Xius’ spell.

“Wow, so you already had a way to deal with spells?” Zhang Mingjing said with a smile.

“I’m using my own positive-spiral energy to counter their spell. It’s only a temporary measure. And I’ve calculated that I can only hold out for five minutes at most. Wake Zhang Yidao up quickly and have him chant the spell!”

“So that’s it!”

Zhang Mingjing immediately began rousing Zhang Yidao, while still attacking the Mu Xius and dodging their assaults at the same time.

“Zhang Yidao, Zhang Yidao, Zhang Yidao...”

Zhang Yidao, whose consciousness was already dim, heard Zhang Mingjing’s call, but he seemed unable to break free from the haze.

His awareness clung tightly to Zhang Mingjing’s voice, like a man who has fallen off a cliff gripping a lifeline with all his strength, yet he seemed too exhausted to climb back up.

Zhang Mingjing increased the frequency of his calls, as though pouring power into the lifeline itself. As long as Zhang Yidao held on tightly, the rope would carry him automatically to safety.

Even so, this was no easy task for Zhang Mingjing, because the chanting frequency of the fourteen Mu Xius was rising fast, and the negative-spiral energy released by their evil spell was building at alarming speed. At this rate, the Mu Xius not only meant to shatter the Eight Trigrams Formation, but also to tear the Daoist team to pieces. Zhang Mingjing was the strongest in the team, yet even he now felt a searing pain, as if his body were being ripped apart; the others were naturally suffering even more.

The Mu Xius chanted faster and faster. Although the Five-Dimensional Space Thought Model was still releasing positive-spiral energy to counter them, the Mu Xius also had the aid of two segments of the Space-Time Monster code, so the negative-spiral energy within the formation kept surging like an endless flood, while the Eight Trigrams Formation was like a damaged dam, with no one knowing how long it could hold.

Soon, aside from Zhang Mingjing, who could still barely manage supersonic movement, Katherine, Jemmy, and the two pets were all as if struck by lightning, their whole bodies seized by intense numb pain and unable to move.

At last, even the Five-Dimensional Space Thought Model cried out in shock, “Damn it! This guy’s spell actually contains malicious information from at least the fifth dimension. The pressure is killing me!”

Hearing that complaint, Zhang Mingjing could not help asking curiously, “How did he train to the point where he can sense information from the fifth dimension?”

“No idea! You can ask him yourself later!” the Five-Dimensional Space Thought Model retorted cheekily.

Zhang Mingjing gave a bitter smile. “What a wonderful suggestion.”

In that instant, his speed suddenly dropped to about three hundred and seventy miles per hour, then to three hundred, then to one hundred and eighty... Every few seconds it fell sharply, as if an aircraft were landing. It was clearly slowing to a stop.

By then, the Five-Dimensional Space Thought Model also seemed to be nearing its limit in suppressing the negative-spiral energy inside the formation.

Another ten-odd seconds passed, and Zhang Mingjing finally came to a stop. But it was not because he had been forced to halt; he had stopped of his own accord so he could steady his mind and channel mental energy into Zhang Yidao.

It turned out that Zhang Yidao had finally clawed his way out of his dazed state. But after the fierce struggle just now, he felt utterly exhausted and would gladly have gone to sleep at once. How could he possibly concentrate on chanting spells? So Zhang Mingjing was sending him mental energy.

In only an instant, Zhang Yidao received enough mental strength, and then he began chanting with renewed vigor.

Silently in his heart, he recited a Daoist spell said to possess the power to subdue demons. As he chanted, he also infused the spell into the Eight Trigrams Formation.

In a smooth, flowing voice he recited, “A roll of divine radiance spell, forms appear within emptiness. Speak the golden light spell, and all spirits bow. The heavens and earth, the dark ancestral source; all qi is rooted there. Cultivating through countless kalpas, I attest to my divine power... The light of heaven, the light of earth, the light of the sun, moon, and stars, the great universal light, shining in all directions. I invoke the Supreme Elder Lord, speedily obey my command...”

Though Zhang Mingjing did not know exactly what those incantations meant, and though at first he could not fully believe they would truly work, he could clearly feel that when Zhang Yidao chanted them, his righteous energy overflowed, his fighting spirit blazed, and his confidence was absolute.

A moment later, he indeed felt streams of positive-spiral energy flowing out from every trigram of the Eight Trigrams Formation, rapidly countering the negative-spiral energy produced by the fourteen Mu Xius’ spell. Only then did he fully come to believe in Zhang Yidao’s incantation.

Xiao Nuxia was also awakened by the righteous force carried in Zhang Yidao’s spell, and the pain afflicting the rest of the Daoist team quickly receded. Their bodies could move again.

“His spell has drawn high-dimensional positive-spiral energy through the Eight Trigrams Formation to reinforce us. Truly remarkable,” the Five-Dimensional Space Thought Model said with a laugh.

The situation was rapidly improving.

But after the initial shock, Mu Xiu was not about to give up. He suddenly switched to an even more vicious spell, and he chanted it even faster than before. This time, not only could the spell’s information kill, even the sound waves produced by his chanting could kill.

Zhang Yidao’s spell immediately fell back into weakness once more.

Just as Zhang Mingjing and the others were growing anxious, Zhang Yidao became even more confident, because he had finally come to realize that his spell was not only truly effective, but also ridiculously powerful. With that, a firm and righteous conviction arose in his heart.