“Slash!”
A glow began converging on the blade of the sword. Xiao Lin’s Slashing was at MAX level, but time was required for him to gather that strength. The skeleton’s agility was not that high though, and with his instant turn, Xiao Lin had powered up his sword before the skeleton could turn around.
He slashed the big sword with fury and the flame on the blade doubled in power. Although the skeletons’ strength was heightened due to being fused with unique metal powder, the heavy blow was still incredibly powerful, cutting the skeleton in half from its skull all the way down to its breastbone.
The green flame in the pupils of the skeleton soldier extinguished instantly, and the bones that made up the body collapsed like a house that fell apart. A single slash sufficed to kill that skeleton soldier.
Even Xiao Lin himself was surprised by its lethality, but it was not the time to be complacent. Six skeleton soldiers remained and Xiao Lin did not back off. His arm was slightly sore after using his Slashing, but it was still within a range he could tolerate. The use of skills consumed physical strength, and after continuous use, his physical strength consumption increased exponentially.
However, Xiao Lin’s physical strength seemed to have increased a lot more than usual. He decided to make things quick and prevent other skeleton soldiers from getting a chance to surround him.
His Basic Swordsmanship played yet another role. Those skeleton soldiers might possess high physical strength, but they wielded their bone knives in a disorderly manner and hacked haphazardly. Meanwhile, Xiao Lin wielded the big sword with ease. The inexplicable increase in his upper body strength and agility allowed him to dart between the skeleton soldiers with zero effort. He seized the skeleton’s lack of flexibility when turning and did not hesitate to use his Slashing.
That was the only skill he mastered at that point. It was not very practical, but it was able to exert an unexpected effect when facing those skeletons. After killing three skeleton soldiers, Xiao Lin had a rough idea of his skill’s effect on those skeletons. He did not need a thorough power-up; roughly three seconds worth of powering-up sufficed, in addition to the bonus given by his own strength.
Xiao Lin needed less time to kill the last few skeleton soldiers, but it was time for him to let his guard down. He quickly left the street and ran to a more remote place outside until he felt a burst of exhaustion overwhelm his body. He weakened immediately and understood that the dragon power had disappeared.
There was still a long time to go before night. Xiao Lin sat down and panted slightly as he recalled everything and began analyzing quickly. He had confirmed that the dragon power stored in the Lightstream jade had unexpectedly attached to himself, even though the golden dragon failed to be summoned. His agility, strength, and physique all received a full range of bonuses. It was as yet uncertain whether his intelligence also received a boon, but everything that was mentioned prior was enough a surprise.
The reasons for it were not that easy to guess though. Xiao Lin thought about it and ended up feeling that it was related to that so-called The Final Land. The high priest Asabanor had also mentioned that it was the birthplace of the world. The laws there were still in a state of chaos, and it was different from the New World be it in space-time or space itself. That might be the reason why the Lightstream Jade was difficult to use there.
“I have to survive!”
Xiao Lin clenched his fists and his confidence increased a bit. The only thing that bothered him then was that he did not know how much dragon power remained in the Lightstream Jade. It would be great if he could reduce the strength released by the dragon power every single time.
The amount of dragon power that was required to manifest into the golden dragon was undoubtedly massive, but it did not take a lot of dragon power to defeat the skeleton army. Therefore, anything extra was nothing but a waste.
“I’ll try and see if I can control the dragon’s power next time.”
Xiao Lin’s opportunity came soon enough. He had nothing to do while hiding in the building and was muttering to himself to analyze what the old high priest was doing as of then. As soon as he mentioned the name Asabanor, a white shadow suddenly appeared in front of him, frightening him.
“You can’t escape! As long as you’re still in this city, I’ll catch you sooner or later! I’m the only one who will win this cat-and-mouse game!”
As soon as the high priest finished, the figure disappeared once again. A few minutes later, the skeleton army’s unique tapping and crackling footsteps sounded from the street. Xiao Lin’s face turned pale and he smiled wryly. He then suddenly realized that the high priest was able to detect him immediately because he had uttered the name aloud.
After carefully reminiscing the previous day’s situation, the blanket search by the skeleton army signified that the high priest could not directly locate Xiao Lin’s position. In fact, it was only because he mentioned the high priest’s name that the old man could detect it, just like sonar.
Other than lamenting his own big mouth, Xiao Lin’s only recourse was to flee again. He encountered two teams of skeleton soldiers in the midst of his journey and once again touched the Lightstream Jade. On that occasion, he made sure to keep an eye on things. Despite being unprepared to control the Lightstream Jade’s power at will, he still tried to find a way to control the rate of dragon power he released.
The Lightstream Jade bloomed with a glittering halo and the dragon power slowly rose up. After several uses, Xiao Lin gradually became familiar with it and began murmuring silently in his heart, ‘Not so much, not so much…’
Indeed, that was the only thing Xiao Lin could think of as of that moment, since there was no switch on the jade pendant. Strangely enough, the dragon power lessened considerably than before after a couple of repeated chants.
“Seriously!” Xiao Lin was dumbfounded, and he was soon left helpless. “This is a bit too little though. Please don’t tell me that I chanted it too much?”
The dragon power grew very scarce, causing his bonus strength to be far less than before. Even using his Slashing to kill the skeleton soldier was insufficient to destroy the skeleton soldier immediately. Instead, a deep cut was inflicted on his left arm by the bone knife. After seeing the disparity in strength, Xiao Lin did not hesitate to use the Lightstream Jade again, silently chanting ‘a little bit more, a little bit more’. The dragon power did increase, but instead of fighting back, he turned around, ran away, and shook off the skeleton soldiers’ pursuit.
After the dragon power dissipated, he looked at the wound on his arm and knit his brows in a very tight frown. He tore off his shirt and dressed the wound in a simple manner after cleaning up the blood using the spring water in the square.
When he unwrapped the bandage, he found that the area around the wound was dark and his muscles became a little stiff. It was not at all painful when touched, and his entire arm seemed to be much weaker, which was not a good sign.
Fortunately, Xiao Lin did not encounter any more canvassing skeleton soldiers after hiding. Although there were a large number of skeletons in the palace, it was not easy to search for one or two people in each of those intricate lanes. More importantly, those skeleton soldiers seemed to have been ordered not to damage the workshops in the city, which undoubtedly afforded Xiao Lin greater convenience to avoid them.