Chapter 97 Battle in the Sky <TOC> Chapter 99 Indulgence
Translator: SumTLMan
The burned bristles on Pilate’s body grew back like bamboo shoots after the rain.
The thick bristles served as the second layer of defense for the Beast of Darkness, besides the dark membrane. For a third-level Beast of Darkness, the black hairs on its body were already harder than steel. Even if it stood still and allowed an anti-material rifle to shoot at it, the dense black hairs wouldn’t be penetrated.
A smirk of triumph appeared on Pilate’s face as he closed the distance with the heretics to about 1,400 meters. If he could get a little closer, he could attack them with his moon-level holy relic, the Desolate Wind.
Pilate blocked his face with his thick arm, as the precise bullets continuously bombarded it, the heat from the bullets instantly igniting the bristles on it.
The melted bullets solidified on his arm, creating a copper-like armor.
Such weak attacks couldn’t even break his skin.
Pilate sensed a small amount of psychic energy flying towards him at an astonishing speed. The intensity of the psychic energy was somewhat stronger than that of the previous bullets with attached energy.
He didn’t pay much attention to it, as the psychic energy in the bullets was usually variable in strength, which was normal.
However, the next moment, a surge of extremely penetrative psychic energy suddenly erupted, directly piercing his palm and even accurately avoiding the bones within.
In the blink of an eye, the psychic energy bullet that pierced his palm was heading straight for Pilate’s eyes.
Pilate, horrified, quickly turned his head to dodge.
The flying bullet hit his forehead, leaving a long gash on it and was deflected by his hard skull.
He wiped the blood from his forehead, finding it hard to believe. That heretic’s psychic response was clearly only at the fifth energy level, so how could it harm him?
“Such terrifying penetration power… it’s the Ruin Calamity.”
Pilate immediately guessed Li Mei’s holy relic and felt a tingling sensation on his scalp.
“And it’s the rare manifestation-type awakened.”
Only manifestation-type awakened could carry out full-power attacks at such a long distance.
Ordinary awakened individuals’ psychic energy would dissipate shortly after leaving their bodies. However, those with a manifestation-focused awakening could create physical entities with their psychic energy, experiencing fewer limitations in terms of attack range.
Shen Luoyan also figured out what had just happened and was somewhat shocked:
“You actually inherited the Seven Demon Calamities?! That was Ruin Calamity just now, wasn’t it?”
Pilate came from the Sun King Barol of the loyalist clan, who had a giant single eye and was known as the Evil Eye Demon King. This eye could emit devastating beams of light. In the face of these beams, nothing was indestructible. Even the Olden Day Rulers dared not look directly into Barol’s eyes.
“Hmm.”
Li Mei responded indifferently, not expecting Pilate to dodge the bullet at the last moment.
For a third-level awakened, the brain was no longer a critical weakness, and being hit by a bullet would at most cause a minor injury.
What she wanted was to blind Pilate.
Pilate was both shocked and furious. He hadn’t anticipated that the ones causing trouble for the Soul Cult were from the Eastern Xia. However, the scorching light just now was the famous Sun God’s Divine Light from the Western Xia. He wondered what was going on.
Facing two renowned sun-level holy relics alone, he felt a strange sense of being flattered.
Greed flickered in Pilate’s eyes. As long as he could capture these two heretics and secretly raise them, he could find a way to seize the holy relics within their souls. He could become a powerful figure surpassing the Holy Priest.
The illustrious name of the Seven Demon Calamities was well-known within the Soul Cult. After all, hundreds of years ago, that person defeated the Son of the Lord of Souls, Dalopitcha, using the Seven Demon Calamities with ease.
Even the world-destroying dragon under Dalopitcha’s command suffered a fatal injury, falling into an endless slumber.
Thinking of this, Pilate found it difficult to suppress the passion in his heart. He roared angrily, activating the Hidden Bone Technique, revealing his energy externally. The devastating psychic energy transformed into billowing pale flames, enveloping his body.
This was an advanced application of energy techniques. It greatly enhanced one’s explosive power and defense, albeit with a terrifying consumption of psychic energy.
Pilate didn’t want to drag it out any longer. These two heretics possessing such powerful holy relics must have complicated backgrounds; he had to capture them as soon as possible.
Another volley of bullets whistled through the air. Sensing the psychic energy attached to the bullets, Pilate didn’t dare to be careless, evading midair.
However, due to the delay, the distance between the two sides was widened again.
Pilate nearly clenched his teeth to the point of Ruin, never imagining that capturing two lower-level awakened would be so difficult.
The next moment, another psychic energy bullet hit him. This time, the bullet suddenly erupted with intense energy, exploding instantly.
The devastating psychic energy was blocked by the external energy, but the force generated by the explosion still acted on his body.
With no leverage in the air, Pilate was pushed by the explosion’s force, tumbling several times in the air and ending up disheveled.
His high blood pressure nearly burst the blood vessels in his forehead.
Before he could regain his posture, Pilate was hit by two consecutive psychic energy bullets. The intense explosions nearly destroyed all the stiff hair on his body.
Flapping his wings and struggling to maintain his balance, he looked up and found that both black cranes had disappeared from the sky.
“How is that possible?!”
He looked around but couldn’t find any trace of the two black cranes. After Clement’s death, he had lost his tracking ability.
“Did they escape into the cloud layer?”
Pilate looked up at the thick radiation cloud in the sky, fuming with anger. He couldn’t believe that he had been outsmarted by the two heretics.
Unable to contain his rage, he charged into the higher cloud layer, attempting to find the two heretics.
Li Mei carefully maintained her Hidden Breath while flying at a low speed. Both she and the black cranes, along with the flying Fei Lian, had vanished into the air.
For a third-level expert, it was impossible to deceive their keen perception by hiding in plain sight.
Even non-psychic-oriented awakened individuals could possess a considerable perceptive ability due to their strong souls. However, this kind of perception was not as omnipotent as that of psychic-oriented awakened individuals and was quite limited.
So, after Li Mei determined there was no chance of blinding Pilate, she chose to temporarily destroy his vision and perceptive abilities with a devastating psychic energy attack and then used the Hidden Breath to leave.
However, the success rate of this method was not high. After all, the Hidden Breath was only a star-level holy relic, and Li Mei was only at the fifth energy level, making the odds of success fifty-fifty.
As Li Mei watched Pilate charge into the cloud layer, she breathed a sigh of relief.
“Fortunately, the opponent we encountered this time is rather foolish.”