This Spiritual Energy is Lethal!
Chapter 485: The True Assassin

Chapter 485: Chapter 485: The True Assassin

Chen Ke opened his eyes to see dark, greenish clouds tumbling across the sky, the monotonous landscape still surrounding him.

He sat up abruptly, patted the dust off his back, and looked toward the round clearing a kilometer away, brewing a new plan.

After the old man from the Divine Descent Sect jumped down, he left a conundrum at the circular plaza of the Illusion Dream Center.

Clad in An Helei’s elegy and wielding the Moonlight Sword, the phantom stood there waiting for Chen Ke to continue the challenge.

The Illusion Dream Center was the core of the Divine Dream, and even Chen Ke had lost all his abilities in this place; he was now just an immortal ordinary person.

No matter how many times he was killed, Chen Ke would wake up at the end of the Illusion Dream Center. Currently, he had only two choices: either figure out a way to eliminate that phantom or heed the old man from the Divine Descent Sect’s words and obediently remain in an eternal slumber.

All his abilities were locked away, and not even the life countdown was in sight, leaving only a "Hibernation" ability.

He got up and walked back toward the round clearing.

In fact, in the forty-two battles that had passed, Chen Ke knew from the start how to get rid of the phantom—it was only because of his own mistakes that he died.

Though he was a mere mortal and the phantom possessed all abilities, even so, it had its shortcomings.

All of Chen Ke’s abilities depended on a life countdown for amplification and consumption—without a lifespan, there was no Spiritual Energy combat strength.

The phantom possessed all the secret skills and Holy Relics he once had, yet only the ash from An Helei and the Divine Blood Bullet were missing.

Chen Ke didn’t know what the principle behind it was; maybe these two things just weren’t meant to be part of him.

The simplest way to deal with this phantom was to adopt a defensive strategy and maintain peace; as long as he didn’t try to kill it and just observed, he could gradually deplete its lifespan.

Without the intent to kill, the phantom had no motivation, and eventually, the Moonlight Sword and Black Knight armor would revert to the Holy Diamond, and the phantom would have no choice but to engage in close combat with him. That’s when the fight would be equal.

But waiting for the phantom’s lifespan to run out was a dangerous process that required great patience and extreme caution; he constantly had to be wary of being instantly killed by the phantom’s Spiritual Energy.

Chen Ke had tried tricking the opponent into launching continuous attacks, rapidly consuming its lifespan, but the combination of the Spiritual Power Crystal Gun and time bombs was nearly unbeatable, and any slip-up meant death.

With every death, the phantom’s lifespan would reset to full, and he and the phantom were engaged in a zero-sum game; one party had to give up.

In the previous forty-two attempts, Chen Ke had managed to survive until the Phantom’s lifespan was nearly depleted six times. But as he continued to wait, he found that the phantom wouldn’t die from running out of lifespan—it just lost its Spiritual Energy.

He still had to take action himself.

Chen Ke stood up and began his forty-third attempt. It felt to him just like playing a game; he had saved his progress at the end of this hillside, and as long as he didn’t give up, with every death and resurrection, he would come to understand the opponent’s moves and rhythm better.

At the circular plaza, the phantom knelt on one knee, the Moonlight Sword resting against its right shoulder. Sensing Chen Ke’s approach, it raised its head from the ground, grabbed the hilt of the sword, and with a couple of spins, pointed it toward Chen Ke.

"Trying to be a goddamn show-off, I’ve never played like that," Chen Ke spat on the ground and rubbed his hands together, fixing his gaze on the phantom, not missing a single movement.

Just as anticipated, the Phantom’s first move was to set off a time bomb 90% of the time, restraining the opponent before bombarding them with a barrage of Spiritual Power Crystal Guns, a shot through the heart. This was one of the main strategies in the Phantom’s combat approach.

Chen Ke even knew exactly where the bomb would land, and with a leap, he narrowly dodged the bomb’s blast radius.

But the real danger followed.

Time bombs would be thrown carelessly nonstop; now that Chen Ke had reverted to his mortal state, he couldn’t run or roll indefinitely like before. So he had to calculate his movements in advance, conserve his stamina, and be cautious in choosing when to roll and dodge.

After throwing ten time bombs, according to Chen Ke, the Phantom would enter its second phase, switching the thrown explosives for Spiritual Power Crystal Guns.

Losing patience, the Phantom progressed towards Chen Ke while throwing crystal guns and brandishing the Moonlight Sword, attempting to slay him.

Chen Ke relied on dodging around the twelve stone pillars surrounding the circular plaza, not only to avoid the crystal guns but also to slow down his own pace.

However, it was crucial not to engage the Phantom in close combat at this point and to maintain a distance of about twenty steps, a lesson Chen Ke had learned the hard way. The Phantom would attempt to use the Flame Burst skill of An Helei’s armor to kill the target.

As a mortal, a blast of thousand-degree heat would basically be a death sentence. Severe burns would leave one’s muscular system incapacitated, lying on the ground waiting for the Phantom to finish them off with the Moonlight Sword.

Chen Ke held his breath, eyeing the Phantom with a thieving glint; this personal battle didn’t bring any sense of tension due to the fight, since he couldn’t enter the fray with even a hint of murderous intent and had to bait the opponent into attacking, making him feel more like a pathetic wretch.

He circled around the stone pillars, occasionally throwing out emotionless taunts, just to keep the opponent focused on him.

This time it seemed promising!

With the experience of forty-six previous attempts, Chen Ke remained calm and knew exactly what he needed to do. He just had to wait for the opponent’s Spiritual Power Relics to go offline before rushing out for a fair and square confrontation.

Swoosh!

A Crystal Gun flew past, embedding itself in a pillar, while Chen Ke stood behind it, a victorious smile on his face.

The Phantom likely squandered over 100 hours of its lifespan, and perhaps the old man from the Divine Descent Sect thought he had planned everything perfectly, but his greatest mistake was believing he understood Chen Ke better than Chen Ke himself.

The life countdown wasn’t for Chen Ke’s lifespan; rather, it marked the remaining time he had left in this dream world. When the countdown reached zero, he would wake up at the edge of the dream, what is known as a half-dream, half-awake state.

Chen Ke emerged from behind the pillar, the opponent lunging with the Moonlight Sword in both hands.

Chen Ke saw through the attack, sidestepping and stomping the blade into the ground.

The Phantom shook its arms, retracting the sword, which emitted a purple flash and disappeared instantly. Simultaneously, An Helei’s elegy also flashed orange, detaching from the Phantom’s form.

The Phantom transformed into a shadowy figure in a suit with Chen Ke’s outline, but its face was shrouded in black mist.

Chen Ke clenched his fists—this was his seventh encounter with this entity. Everything hinged on this moment; he didn’t want to go back again.

"Let’s begin then... Let’s see who the real assassin is," Chen Ke said.