Let Me Explain, Fairy
Chapter 784 - Four Hundred and Ninety-Two: Phase Two

Chapter 784: Chapter Four Hundred and Ninety-Two: Phase Two

As the words fell, under the endless moonlight, the battle officially began.

Xu Yuan turned into a lingering shadow dashing through the rice paddies, his Willow Ghost Blade in his hand dragging a ten-meter-long blood-red streamer into the soil, and as he flicked the blade upwards, not a single gleam of sword light followed, instead, willow sprouts broke through the soil.

In just a few breaths, the sprouts grew into a vast and eerie forest of Thousand-Thorn Ghost Willows stretching across the boundless rice fields.

The grotesque withered willow trees interlinked their branches, forming a massive curtain that concealed Xu Yuan’s figure, blocking O’Reilly’s line of sight.

O’Reilly was a woman so clever she was almost demon-like.

And combat, such as this, was not merely about fighting and killing; it was a competition between the intelligence and talents of both parties.

To see a move and dismantle it, setting traps, leading by words, misleading by actions; any minor stratagem could become the final weight tipping the scale.

With the talent and strategy displayed by O’Reilly, Xu Yuan was certain that this woman had started plotting how to escape from Xu Changge’s hands the moment they set eyes on each other.

Keep in mind, this is a woman who, despite being at an absolute intelligence disadvantage in enemy territory, achieved her objective and then turned Li Junqing’s schemes to her own advantage, carving out a path for herself.

Every weakness about her that Xu Yuan now sees, every opportunity he finds to win, might just be deliberately exposed by her.

O’Reilly was like a predatory beast pretending to be wounded, waiting for the hunter hunting her to draw closer step by step, then in an instant tearing them apart with her fierce jaws.

However, these did not affect Xu Yuan as he pieced together a plan to deal with this Xi’en princess using the limited information he had.

First of all, he, Xu Yuan, had to create terrain advantageous to himself using the Willow Ghost Blade.

Looking at the strange forest below, emitting an ominous presence and still growing, O’Reilly’s red lips parted with a smile:

"Young Master Changtian, do you wish to lure me in?"

"What, are you afraid?"

Xu Yuan’s leisurely voice emanated from the ever-spreading willow forest, "If you’re afraid, that’s fine too. After all, your knight probably won’t last long against Xu Changge, and then your plans will come to nothing."

O’Reilly sighed softly, a hint of regret in her beautiful eyes:

"Your observational skills are quite good. As a Netherworld Demonic Master, I indeed cannot see beings outside my field of vision, but, sadly, your response is really naive."

As she spoke, the slender woman standing in the void, by her side the crimson, intricate magic circle shone brightly once again.

Specks of starfire appeared behind her, rapidly expanding and taking shape.

Dozens of sun-like explosive fireballs floated in mid-air, their radiance almost lighting up half of the sky.

Then, with a teasing smile, O’Reilly lifted her slender index finger and flicked it down gently:

"Wouldn’t it be better to just destroy the advantageous terrain you’ve created?"

In an instant, as her finger fell like a conductor’s baton, a symphony of blazing flames erupted, dozens of explosive fireballs plummeting towards the ground like meteors!

"..."

The hot air seemed to solidify as Xu Yuan, hidden within the Ghost Willow forest, subconsciously tugged at the corner of his mouth at the apocalyptic scene unfolding above.

For a moment, he felt like cursing at Xu Changge’s relatives on the household register, but he held back.

Was O’Reilly really someone he, a mere Integration Body, could defeat?

He didn’t know the limit of O’Reilly as a mage, but just the fireballs she had conjured far surpassed any ordinary Great Grandmaster.

Facing such a wide-range magic circle attack, any Cultivator of Integration Body would be obliterated in droves.

As thoughts flashed by, those falling explosive fireballs had already crashed onto the eerie willow forest summoned by Xu Yuan’s Willow Ghost Blade.

A series of explosions echoed through the silent night, the arising flames flaring up incessantly, the resulting shockwaves spreading hundreds of yards around.

When all the dust and smoke had cleared, O’Reilly, looking down at the scene, unwittingly revealed a hint of astonishment in her beautiful eyes.

Despite her bombardment, the entwined forest of Thousand-Thorn Ghost Willows below remained intact, with only the outer layer of interconnected branches and twigs burned to cinders, and as she watched in amazement, these charred branches were already rapidly regenerating.

O’Reilly immediately realized something was amiss.

With Xu Changtian’s power, it was impossible to have conjured such a being.

But in an instant, O’Reilly sighed in her heart.

Thinking about this now was pointless; what mattered was how to break this shell.

Yet, after pondering, O’Reilly ultimately gave up.

She could level this strange willow forest to the ground, but she could not yet perfectly control that kind of power at this stage. In the process of destroying the forest, she might very well end up killing Xu Changtian inside it as well.

Thinking this, O’Reilly glanced in the direction where Xu Changge and Xiulun were leaving.

If Xu Changtian died, she would also have to accompany him in death.

Her eyes flickering, O’Reilly exhaled softly and, controlling her descent to the edge of the willow forest, murmured:

"Did you grow this forest with that wooden blade in your hands?"

"......"

The words fell into silence, the only response was the morbid air drifting through the woods.

After several breaths of silence, O’Reilly’s delicate face showed a hint of helplessness as she stepped onto the ground and, while stepping into the water towards the eerie willow forest, whispered softly:

"The aura of this forest is just like that of the Haunted Castle of Spirits back then; if possible, I really don’t want to go in..."

...

...

...

Five minutes later, the battle ended.

In a life-and-death struggle, everyone resorts to their own means.

Xu Yuan’s plan to deal with O’Reilly was actually quite simple, he just needed to grasp three most important points.

First, O’Reilly dared not kill him.

Second, O’Reilly had a very weak physique.

Third, exploit weaknesses and use everything at one’s disposal.

Everything proceeded exactly as Xu Yuan had anticipated, and the outcome was equally predictable.

He survived.

The willow forest was silent and dark without a glimmer of light, the muddy water of the paddy fields settling at the base of the willows.

A wooden sword emitting an ominous aura lay quietly on the ground, half its blade submerged in water, the other half embedded in the earth.

"Drip...."

"Drip...."

"Drip...."

In the eerie silence of the withered surroundings, footsteps treading through water sounded soft and slow.

O’Reilly strolled leisurely through the dense forest, the thirteen rounds of magic rings wafting through the air, forming a chasm that isolated all the ominous darkness.

Ultimately, she came to a stop in front of him.

Seated at the base of a willow, Xu Yuan’s once exquisite robes were now soaked with muddy water, his gaze trailing over the two ice spikes that had pierced through his collarbone, eventually settling on the golden-haired woman before him.

All his speculations were correct, O’Reilly’s physique was indeed weak, and she indeed dared not kill him.

But he, and even Xu Changge, had misjudged her strength.

Just as Mr. Zhou Shuren said in a previous life, the prettier the woman, the more deceitful she is.

This woman had been acting all along.

Her performance began the moment she met Xu Changge.

In some ways, she was even stronger than that canned iron, Xiulun.

The other’s inexplicable method of probing had directly nullified his Step Void Slash, and her thirteen magic rings meant she could cast thirteen different spellcrafts simultaneously, which made it very difficult for him to fend off even though he had the home advantage.

Beyond that, the most fatal aspect was the ability of O’Reilly’s controlled magic rings to integrate with each other, thereby casting strange combination spellcrafts of extraordinary power.

O’Reilly, dressed in a formal gown, was poised and graceful. Looking at the foreign nobleman sitting in the mud, she smiled gently:

"Shall we continue?"

Upon hearing this, Xu Yuan sighed softly, struggling to stand up from the ground. He looked squarely at the golden-haired woman standing on the surface of the water and said with a light chuckle,

"You are strong, and you also are a good actress."

"Thank you for the compliment."

O’Reilly gave a sweet smile, "Although your strength is far from your elder brother’s, you are still one in a million."

As she spoke, O’Reilly glanced up at the eerily haunted willow forest around her:

"Changtian, I am very grateful for this forest you created that blocks outside probing. It’s saved me a lot of trouble with my cultivation techniques, but now it’s time to end this.

"Xides might be useless, but his life is still very important to me. If he dies at your brother’s hands, once I return to Xi’en, I can no longer use his name to hide my true power. Should that monster take notice, my situation would become very awkward."

Xu Yuan responded with a wry smile:

"Celebrating with champagne halfway through doesn’t seem like a good habit, does it?"

"Champagne?"

Confusion flickered in O’Reilly’s eyes, but she soon gently shook her head and said, "Due to your elder brother, I do not wish to harm you too greatly, so please stop your futile resistance..."

"O’Reilly."

Xu Yuan interrupted her fluent speech, reaching for the ice spike that had pierced his body, pulling it out forcefully while softly saying,

"I have said, I am the strongest of my generation."

"...."

The sudden interruption left O’Reilly at a loss for words, but she soon sighed lightly.

Behind her, a magnificent azure magic ring suddenly radiated light.

She stared at him:

"If that’s the case, then I have no choice but to be rude and destroy your Dantian..."

"Crack..."

Before she finished speaking,

the luminous intricate magic ring suddenly shattered without warning.

"....."

"....."

They locked eyes in silence, astonishment flashing through O’Reilly’s eyes.

Xu Yuan casually discarded the ice spike, and a sinister black mist instantly enveloped a hundred yards:

"Now, we can start the second phase, O’Reilly."