Chapter 182: Dangerous as Piled Eggs

As soon as Xiao Fen finished speaking, he did not look back and walked out with big strides. He pushed open the main hall doors, and a cool breeze blew in. Only then did Xiao Fen realize that his back was covered in cold sweat.

He could not help but be frightened. Just now, in front of the pearl curtain, he suddenly discovered that none of his skills could be used. Besides skills, he could not open his backpack, nor could he summon the World Tree’s Light Screen. The connection between the entire World Tree and him seemed to be completely cut off by something.

He had never encountered this situation since he became a Trialist. Even Jack and Farrah, the two Legendary Awakened, did not put such special pressure on Xiao Fen. Although he sat on the brocade stool, looking at the motionless pearl curtain, it seemed there was no danger, but Xiao Fen always felt that behind the curtain was not an Emperor, but a colossal beast staring dead at him, ready to rush out and kill him completely the next second.

Wei Zhongxian walked over and asked: “How did it go?”

Xiao Fen looked up and gestured towards the wide area in front of the palace, saying: “His Majesty wants me to fight a palace maid of Ke Shi to the death. If I win, I can rest easy in the future. If I lose, I leave my life here.”

Wei Zhongxian sighed and said: “So be it, so be it. This is also a method. Do you need anything?”

Just then, the small eunuch from the side hall walked out again and said to Wei Zhongxian: “His Majesty has a decree. Eunuch Wei must not help either side.”

Wei Zhongxian was slightly stunned. He turned to look at Xiao Fen, then glanced at Lycaon standing among the guards, and said in a low voice: “His Majesty has given the order; I dare not disobey. Immortal Lin, please proceed as you wish.”

Although this Immortal had done quite a few things, they had not reached the point of turning the tide, so it was not necessary to risk saving his life.

With these guests, things might not necessarily get better; without these guests, things might not necessarily get worse.

This was Wei Zhongxian’s thought at this moment.

Xiao Fen did not care what Wei Zhongxian was thinking. He strode down the steps, turned his head to glance at Lycaon not far away. This burly man looked visibly dispirited. The suppression of skills was also effective on Lycaon. Seeing Xiao Fen look at him, Lycaon shook his head slightly, spread his hands, looking helpless.

Xiao Fen shook his head indifferently and walked to the open ground in front of the palace. He called out to the World Tree once, but there was still no result. It seemed the blocking range was very large.

Xiao Fen walked a few more steps. Only when he approached the courtyard wall could he barely open his backpack. As for summoning the World Tree, it was still unsuccessful.

He frowned slightly. At this stage, he could not use any skills. All skills could only come from the 5 skills stored in Berela’s Lingering Staff. He could not manufacture weapons, could not make poison agents, nor Gene Potions. He had to rely entirely on his existing Attributes to fight.

Besides that, he did not know the extent of damage his opponent could deal to him, nor what damage he could deal to his opponent. In short, everything had to be estimated.

He thought for a moment. Before the imperial guards came up to signal him not to leave the palace wall area, Xiao Fen squatted on the ground, grabbed a handful of loose soil, then walked back with big strides. He stood in the center of the field, took a few deep breaths, and then cautiously observed the changes around him.

A sound of fine footsteps came from the distant palace. Since there was not much crowd movement here and the guards were relatively solemn, the changes in the surrounding environment did not affect Xiao Fen’s perception much. He could clearly feel that among those footsteps, one seemed different from the rest. It walked halfway and then suddenly lost its sound. If he relied only on this feeling, it could be assumed that someone was standing still.

Xiao Fen shook his head slightly, suddenly turned his head to look in the direction the sounds came from. These footsteps seemed to be from palace maids. As the sounds faded in another direction, the position where the sound had stopped earlier remained silent.

In an instant, Xiao Fen felt his hair stand on end. The memory of the killer’s sneak attack during the day suddenly surfaced in his mind. He glanced left and right, suddenly hearing a shrill voice ring out in the courtyard: “The time has come.”

In this voice, he faintly heard some sound of breaking wind behind him. Xiao Fen was terrified in his heart. His body suddenly rushed forward. Halfway through running, he suddenly performed an Iron Bridge move and threw the handful of loose soil he had grabbed from under the courtyard wall behind him.

A fine crashing sound revealed a tall woman in front of Xiao Fen. This woman was masked, with ear-length short hair that was out of place for this era. Her body was wrapped tightly, showing her curves clearly. At first glance, her figure could rival Sylvia’s. She held a short knife in one hand, and the other hand was covering her eyes. The sudden loose soil blocked the woman’s further attack, giving Xiao Fen a chance to stand up from the ground and face the opponent directly.

Xiao Fen looked at this woman, and the doubts in his heart suddenly cleared. He said in a low voice in English: “I didn’t expect to meet you here. Should I call you Trialist Sophie, or should I call you Traitor Sophie?”

“It doesn’t matter. Outsider, your appearance messed everything up. Only by killing you can things return to normal.”

Hearing the other party answer in English as well, Xiao Fen smiled slightly. While quickly calculating in his heart, he said with his mouth: “Using the area in the Imperial Palace that blocks the World Tree to evade further punishment from the World Tree? Tell me, what was your mood when Pal turned into a Hell Watchdog?”

“Shut up, outsider, shut up. It is all because of you. Without you, Pal would absolutely not have become a Hell Watchdog.”

“Is it not because of your own greed?”

“Shut up!”

“In the last Trial World, who did you meet in that big house? Was it Ke Shi?”

“Shut up!”

“Who made the choice? You or Pal? Never mind, to me, it doesn’t matter who it was, because the result is the same. You betrayed the World Tree, lost the World Tree’s protection, have no equipment, and even had your Skills stripped away. You must complete the betrayal mission in the shortest time possible. So, what was the result?”

“Shut up!”

“Don’t keep telling me to shut up. If you really had a way, you could rush up right now and kill me to shut me up, instead of shouting empty slogans over there. Was the assassination attempt on me during the day your idea or Ke Shi’s idea?”

Seeing Sophie suddenly shut her mouth, Xiao Fen smiled and said, “However, there is no need to pursue that. With such high Spirit, you should have originally been a ranged fighter among the Trialists, just like Callisto, able to launch attacks on me from a very long distance. But clearly, having been punished by the World Tree, you have lost your energy attack Skills, so you could only secretly attack me at close range during the day.”

Sophie suddenly let out a sneer and responded, “I lost my Skills, and so did you.”

Xiao Fen nodded and said, “Of course. That is why Ke Shi chose this place for you to Duel me. Neither of us has Skills; it sounds fair. But for a Trialist like me who hadn’t reacted at all, this is already extremely unfair. Moreover, you have a knife in your hand, while I have nothing in mine.”

Sophie responded, “No, you will soon have a knife, inside your body.”

Xiao Fen smiled slightly and said, “I look forward to it.”

Saying this, Xiao Fen’s body suddenly shrank. The next moment, he had already charged at high speed, rushing towards Sophie.

During the time he had just been speaking, Xiao Fen had clearly calculated the gap between both sides. Compared to the Level 3 Sophie, he had a gap of 20 Attribute Points. To make up for this gap, he had to fully utilize the Staff in his hand.

Besides that, although the opponent had a knife, considering she had long been a ranged attacker in the team, she was definitely not as familiar with close combat as Xiao Fen was, so here they were basically on equal footing.

The only thing Xiao Fen was worried about was this woman’s Skills. Although those active Skills could not be used, those passive Skills were likely retained. Moreover, it could not be guaranteed that the World Tree had stripped the woman of her passive Skills.

According to what Callisto said before, most members of this squad had already upgraded various Skills to the intermediate level, and Sophie was among them. The vast majority of Skills on Xiao Fen’s body were at the beginner level, so in this regard, there was an absolute gap between him and Sophie.

On the other hand, although Sophie had been punished by the World Tree, Xiao Fen did not believe that she could not obtain sufficient help from Ke Shi. In fact, without sufficient gains, no Trialist would be stupid enough to betray the World Tree.

After multiple comparisons, Xiao Fen was at a certain disadvantage. Roughly speaking, the disadvantage was not particularly huge, but a moment of carelessness would lead to death amidst successive passive attacks.

To avoid all this, he had to force Sophie to reveal her trump cards before his own trump cards were fully revealed. To achieve this goal, he had to charge forward and force Sophie to reveal her cards by fighting her.

Facing Xiao Fen’s charge, Sophie did not make any dodging movements. She looked at Xiao Fen, a sinister smile seemingly revealing itself in her uncovered eye. Seeing this smile, Xiao Fen felt a chill in his heart. His body suddenly froze, and he flashed desperately to the side.

With a “boom,” Sophie’s empty hand had somehow already produced a Matchlock. She fired suddenly at Xiao Fen. The huge sound of the gunshot echoed endlessly within these palace walls.

Xiao Fen did not know where the opponent found the time to silently light the match and let it burn for so long, firing exactly when he rushed up. But seeing Sophie’s skillful ammunition changing movements, he knew that the ranged attack talent and Firearms Mastery had not disappeared from Sophie.