To Lin Huang and the other two, Nine Gloom standing in front of them now was the most powerful enemy they had ever faced.
Although he appeared to be somewhat clumsy, Lin Huang and the rest sensed no signs of his energy waning. This meant that he had not suffered any substantial physical harm.
Lin Huang was sure that the deflected attack from Mirror had surpassed his own strongest attack at least three times over. Despite the intensity and power of the attack, it had merely given Nine Gloom a few superficial injuries.
What was even more frightening was that Nine Gloom had taken Virtuoso’s attack head-on. He had had no time to evade, nor had he been able to utilize any methods of defense. He had directly taken the hit armed only with his Divine Power and his physical body.
Under their mask, Virtuoso’s expression became rather weighty.
For their attack earlier, they had copied Lin Huang’s Mirror completely. As the replicator, they knew very well how powerful and terrifying Lin Huang’s attack was. They had reached their limits in terms of psychic-level capacity, just from replicating that attack.
One could say that the attack was practically at half-step lord-level already.
Initially, Virtuoso had anticipated that Nine Gloom would definitely be hurt even if he were not severely injured since he had taken the attack without being prepared for it. However, what surprised them was that Nine Gloom was stronger than they had expected and had not sustained any substantial physical damage at all.
This also meant that it would be impossible to kill Nine Gloom even if he were hit two, even three times when his guard was down.
Furthermore, at Virtuoso’s current ability, they could only replicate images of such intensity three times, at most.
Just as Lin Huang and Virtuoso were trying to figure out how to turn the tables on Nine Gloom, Saber9 attacked again unhesitatingly.
As a saber cultivator, his fighting style was usually to fight first and think later. Whether he won or not was another matter—but he had to take action first. Only after taking action would he decide whether or not to exercise his brain based on the battle situation.
One just had to fight, regardless!
Watching the nine saber formations consolidating again in midair and the golden saber gleams condensing into being at lightning speed, Lin Huang and Virtuoso knew that it was time for them to attack.
Countless saber gleams filled the sky, but Nine Gloom did not look at Saber9. He did not even bother to lift his head to look at the sky full of saber gleams. His gaze was fixed on the direction where Lin Huang and Virtuoso were.
He was not intentionally looking down on Saber9; this was because he could sense Saber9’s attack was similar to the one from earlier. Nine Gloom could easily tell from the intensity of the wave of Divine Power.
An attack like this would not be able to breach his defenses at all.
However, to Saber9, this was undoubtedly a form of disdain, as well as a provocation.
The million-over saber gleams consolidated in the air almost immediately. The next second, they came hurtling down on Nine Gloom like a rainstorm.
Countless saber gleams surged at Nine Gloom from all directions.
Nine Gloom had no interest in this current wave of attack. When he saw the incoming saber gleams, he already knew that Saber9’s attack was no different from the last round.
He did not even bother to waste effort evading it; he merely enveloped his body with a layer of Divine Power as a defense.
At present, he already possessed Silver Armor’s defense abilities. Given the vast amount of Divine Power within him, Saber9’s attack fell far short of being able to penetrate his defenses.
Observing that Nine Gloom had now set up his defenses, the corners of Saber9’s mouth abruptly twitched up in a smirk.
A second later, the golden saber gleams collided with Nine Gloom’s defense layer and exploded, taking away a portion of his Divine Power.
Yes—Saber9 had no intention of breaching Nine Gloom’s defenses at all with this attack.
Once he became aware that his attacks were not powerful enough to cause any physical harm to Nine Gloom, he swiftly changed his battle strategy and designated himself as combat support.
The nine saber formations seemed no different from the last round. In reality, though, Saber9 had secretly made tiny tweaks to the formations, increasing the explosion, absorption, and interference traits.
Every time the saber gleams exploded, they would absorb around threefold’s worth of Divine Power as well. They would also release this portion of Divine Power to create interference waves that would obstruct Nine Gloom’s senses and his Divine Telekinesis probing.
This time, Saber9’s purpose in attacking was not only to drain Nine Gloom’s Divine Power but also to create an opportunity for Lin Huang and Virtuoso to deal some severe damage to their opponent.
In reality, most saber cultivators did indeed prefer to fight blindly and think less—the reason being, their ability was sufficient to crush their opponents. They did not have to think most of the time.
However, as a saber cultivator with extensive battle experience whose Primordial form was also an Almighty, Saber9 did not really have to think much after his first round of attack had failed. The strategy came to him automatically.
This was why he had attacked without hesitation while Lin Huang and Virtuoso were still considering how to turn the tables.
Not only did he give Nine Gloom the impression that he was a reckless hothead, even Lin Huang and Virtuoso thought the same.
However, Lin Huang and Virtuoso realized what was going on the instant they saw Saber9’s saber gleams explode. Without hesitation, they attacked once more.
Lin Huang charged at Nine Gloom again, slashing at him with twelve levels of compounded god sequence chains combined with Sword Dao heavenly rule.
Unlike his previous assault, the compounded twelve levels of god sequence chains he added this time were not for attacking but for absorbing and draining Divine Power.
After he saw Saber9’s attack, he had the same inspiration—to fight Nine Gloom by draining him!
This was because he was clearly aware that even his most powerful blow was not even one-third as powerful as the deflected wave from before, so it was difficult for him to cause any substantial physical harm to Nine Gloom.
Standing off to one side, Virtuoso took on the responsibility for this round of attack.
As they performed complicated hand seals, over a dozen figures that looked exactly like Lin Huang appeared in the air once again, a mirror swiftly consolidating in front of each of them. After that, terrifying, intersecting red and black shockwaves shot forth!
It was one of Virtuoso’s biggest secrets—they could replicate an imaginary image over and over again.
After replicating Lin Huang’s deflected shockwave the first time, Virtuoso could utilize it for themselves in the future. As long as they had sufficient Divine Power within their body and a strong enough psychic capacity, they would be able to use it.
Even Lin Huang could not help raising his brows when he noticed that his attack was being replicated again. He was a little envious of Virtuoso’s ability now.
Nine Gloom, currently swamped by countless exploding saber gleams, was not feeling very good at the moment.
True, the assaults had not breached his defenses. However, the glaringly bright explosions were interfering with his vision. Furthermore, the Divine Power waves being released were also disturbing his sensing ability and Divine Telekinesis.
He could sense two powerful attacks coming from not too far away. However, given the interference, he could not determine the direction or the angle of the attacks with any accuracy.
After a moment of consideration, he soon came to a decision.
Countless vines surged forth from both his hands, turning into two giant half-spherical shields in the blink of an eye. As he gave both arms a slight shake, the two half-spheres integrated, creating a complete sphere that completely enveloped his body within it.
Just when Nine Gloom had practically completed forming the shield, two attacks landed at almost the same time, striking the giant spherical shield.
Lin Huang’s blood-red sword attack landed on the giant shield. It did not penetrate through; instead, it began to absorb the Divine Power that covered the shield.
Virtuoso’s shockwave struck the massive shield violently from another angle. After a few seconds of being eroded, traces of cracks finally began to appear on the shield’s surface.
However, Lin Huang and the other two noticed that more vines were extending to fill in the cracks.
This contest lasted for some two to three minutes before the shockwaves finally dissipated.
The surface of the giant shield was now covered with cracks and pitted with holes. However, in the end, it still did not collapse…