Chapter 210: The Gap

Chapter 210: The Gap

Power did not turn solid just because Zheng Yichen squeezed it hard in his hand. It only rebounded more fiercely. That intense rebound manifested as those streams of aura. The highly concentrated Pseudo Divine Power was forcibly compressed in Zheng Yichen’s hand. As for the Undying Witch’s abilities and effects, Zheng Yichen could ignore them. Regarding the power she could unleash, he had seen her fight the Saintess before. It seemed very straightforward back then, and the Undying Witch had not used any Magic.

So he thought he probably had a chance to just charge in recklessly.

The highly compressed power made Zheng Yichen’s right hand tremble slightly. The escaping wisps of power trailed a long Stream of Light behind him as he dashed forward at super speed.

But then, Zheng Yichen’s punch felt like it hit a layer of toughened glass. It came to a hard stop less than half a meter from the Undying Witch. The spreading gray ripples spontaneously formed a barrier. Under Zheng Yichen’s powerful fist, the barrier scattered large amounts of gray aura but held on, thin and strained, barely blocking this attack of his.

This… this… this wasn’t right in the Script! When she was fighting the Saintess, why didn’t she use something like this!?

Zheng Yichen winced slightly with one eye. It hurt!

The highly compressed power in his palm erupted, unleashing force far beyond normal usage. Naturally, the fist that served as the compression outlet bore the brunt of the recoil from that explosion.

“Not bad power. Too bad the strength is too weak.” The Undying Witch looked with slight surprise at the Shield before her that almost shattered. Even without the boost from that Pseudo Divine Power, under normal circumstances, Zheng Yichen’s attack shouldn’t have pushed this Shield to the brink of collapse. Yet it almost burst. If Zheng Yichen’s punch had been just one-fifth stronger…

Maybe it really could have hurt her.

But it stopped there.

“…Huh?” Just as she was about to redirect the gray ripples to suppress Zheng Yichen, the Undying Witch saw Zheng Yichen’s trembling right hand suddenly open toward her. A golden speck, the size of a grain of rice, flashed in her pupils. The impact from the golden speck became the final straw that broke the Shield. A dull cracking sound rang out. The gray power was pushed aside by the erupting Pseudo Divine Power, and most of the force landed directly on the Undying Witch.

A dazzling radiance blocked Zheng Yichen’s view, but he didn’t think for a second that this alone could finish off the Undying Witch. So without stopping, he flung out a red-and-blue crystal and a small vial containing black liquid together. He immediately retreated at top speed without hesitation.

He pushed the modified Propulsion Devices to their maximum intensity. Overloaded, their shells became covered in dense cracks. Trailing over a dozen wind streaks, he grabbed the basket holding Lily and turned to flee the area. In less than a second, a powerful elemental explosion erupted behind him. The blue of the Ice Element and the red of the Fire Element intertwined, constantly clashing violently. A high-density explosion continuously spread outward from where the crystal had been!

Zheng Yichen had no time to see what happened behind him. All he could do was keep accelerating his flight to avoid being caught in that elemental explosion. If he got caught, he would surely be reduced to nothing.

“…” Deya silently watched the two clashing elemental colors interweaving in the distant sky. Not just her, anyone with a bit of power could feel that terrifyingly intense ripple from a sufficient distance. The ripple also carried a faint, peculiar aura. That belonged to the Undying Witch!

This aura was very unstable within the elemental explosion, clearly greatly affected. It even gave Deya the illusion that the Undying Witch might die in that explosion… The terrifying elemental explosion came fast and vanished quickly. The mountain where Zheng Yichen had been was completely gone, leaving only a deep pit resembling a Meteor Crater.

The crater was filled with remnants of violent, chaotic Elemental Power. Sporadic small-scale explosions could be seen popping up in the air.

“Pah! Pah! That must be a Nuclear Bomb!” Zheng Yichen jumped out from being buried underground and spat out the dirt in his mouth. He glanced back at the completely vanished mountain behind him, grateful he ran fast, otherwise he would really be dead. At the same time, he felt a pang of heartache. That crystal came from the Snow Mountain and the Volcano. He originally planned to study it later, to see if he could make something out of it. Now it was all used up. Of course it hurt.

Hesitating for a moment, Zheng Yichen looked at Lily, unconscious from the explosion’s shock, in his arms. He gave up the idea of going back to check the situation and sped away. After all, his own condition wasn’t great either. Over half of the sturdy Scales on his back were shattered, and there were several holes in his wings. It didn’t affect flying, but it made Zheng Yichen’s heart ache.

He wondered if it would scar. He had looked at his own body shape often and compared it with other Dragon Clans members. It really had quite a sharp, aesthetic beauty.

As for the Undying Witch, if Zheng Yichen had taken that explosion head-on, he would definitely be dead. He couldn’t be sure if she would die. She probably wouldn’t die. If she died that easily, she wouldn’t be called the Undying Witch.

“Ah, life. So many things are just spent going from regret to regret.” Zheng Yichen regretted not taking more of the Ice Crystals and Fire Crystals from that place back then. If only he knew the mixed conflict explosion would be that crazy powerful. How great it would have been if he had taken dozens more back then!

He used up the Ice Crystal, Fire Crystal, and a vial of backfiring Fate’s Water. How much the former affected the Undying Witch, he didn’t know. As for the latter, if it was really as crazy as Dan Marina described, the Undying Witch probably wasn’t feeling too good right now?

At least it seemed pretty effective for now. She didn’t chase after him. From this fight, Zheng Yichen fully understood the huge gap between himself and a Witch… In short, if he encounters someone with a clearly unfriendly attitude like this in the future, he should stay as far away as possible. Getting into a fight would mean being suppressed to death.

“If you go out now, what do you plan to do? Fight the Undying Witch and then let the Sanctuary Church or some other force pick up the pieces?” In the Secluded Refuge, Dan Marina stopped Loris, who was about to head out, and dissuaded her. “Don’t think about solving the trouble with the Prophecy Art only to create more follow-up problems. Right now, we need to be patient. Just one more day for me…”

Dan Marina also felt a headache. When they encountered the Undying Witch, the best thing for Zheng Yichen to do was to just throw a vial at her right away. But he thought he was tough enough and charged in recklessly. Although the end result was similar, it made the two of them watching worry.

“I don’t want to see any more accidents.”

“I can’t guarantee that.” Dan Marina said very honestly. Up to this point, Loris’s patience was almost worn out. If she kept stopping her, Loris would really turn hostile.