Chapter 26: Tortured Soul

Sila started calculating the time. It took him thirty minutes to get there so he needed to buy thirty minutes for Varee to arrive at the city. Although he didn’t want to kill anyone if possible, he wouldn’t be kind enough to let these players hurt him one-sidedly.

Since he had spent a lot of qi in the previous fight, he decided to take a bottle of qi-recovering pills out and swallowed three of them.

After circulating more qi, he could sense the effectiveness of these pills. They were worth the price. His qi points had recovered significantly.

Many players began to march onto the ice field. As the fire had already extinguished, everything fell into darkness. There was only dim light from the moon when it wasn’t covered by a cloud. However, for qi-type players like Sila, the darkness was not much of a problem. Because qi-type players had higher physical abilities than other energy types to begin with. Also, Sila had been focusing his qi into his eyes to increase his eyesight. For Sila in this state, the image that he saw was hardly different from daytime.

The number of players on the ice field was increasing over time. If given the choice to choose between fighting a group of merpeople in the sea and fighting a single player on the solid ground, it was no brainer which choice they would take. They even noticed that Sila walked back slowly. That obviously meant Sila had lost a big portion of his power. Qi-recovering items were hard to obtain in Beginning Island. In conclusion, this was a perfect opportunity for them.

Sila stopped his feet when he was away from the players who spread around and surrounded him with the distance between them and Sila being about ten meters.

“If your guys quietly leave me alone, no one here will get hurt,” Sila said in loud voice.

Some of the players couldn’t help but laugh. It was clear that Sila had no power left. Despite that, had he just tried to threaten them?

“You’re about to die, don’t you know that?” one of them sneered. This statement was supported by the laughter of other people.

“Are you sure you can defeat me?” said Sila coldly while thinking that he really couldn’t talk rationally with these people.

“No matter how strong you are, there’s no way a single qi-type player can get through five hundred people,” One man said.

It was well known that, unlike magic type that possessed the wide-area-of-effect skill, qi type was more suitable for battling one-to-one.

“Five hundred? I see less than two hundred here,” plainly replied Sila.

Hearing that, most people turned their head to look back and shocked that there were really less than two hundred people.

“Now what?” asked Sila.

“No need to say more. These many people is enough to kill you anyway,” shouted another man.

“Are you stronger than the Merman King?” Sila stopped briefly, “Or it’s only your big talk that’s strong?”

That man’s expression became distorted. “Still full of yourself even though your death draws near, huh? Die already!” He shouted while lifting an axe in his hand and charging towards Sila.

“Your actions are no different than a bandit’s. I will start with you then.” Sila raised his left hand to parry the axe with Worlds Crossing Bridge. At the same time, he used his right hand, which now emitted the light from the power of Ray Assemble, to hit violently at the back of the ear of that man. His opponent’s body got pushed to the other players. His axe also bounced off to player on the right.

The battle had begun. Many players started to rush in. The front row was consisting of players wearing armor, indicating that they might be psychic type.

Sila didn’t want to kill them too fast since it would make them too afraid and retreat to think of a plan. If the players’ attacks became more systematic, the situation would be much more difficult for Sila.

With that in mind, Sila began to attack them at non-vital areas with only Intermediate Qi. He also threw people that came at him to the crowd to cause chaos.

It was very chaotic on the ice field. But no one had died yet due to them taking only half the damage. Their partner also helped them recovery health points.

“Let’s step back. We’ll retreat and have magicians and archers attack him from long range,” someone shout.

Many people became aware of the situation and retreated from Sila. It was disadvantageous for them to continue tussling with a qi-type player like this.

Sila frowned indignantly, ‘This is bad, I was only able to buy a little bit of time.”

“Well, let’s get serious,” Sila said to himself softly. But one man near him heard his word clearly and felt shocked. Was this guy still not being serious? That question occurred in his head and he soon died without having a chance to run away.

Sila pulled out his bloodstained hand from his opponent’s chest. He then noticed that a fourth of the persons that were here had retreated to the beach.

‘I need to reduce the number of enemies first,” thought Sila.

Although there was an old saying about “Defeat the leader first if you want to beat the bandit group” or “You need to hit a snake in its head,” this situation was different. Those sayings usually proved to be true, but only if your enemies consisted of a few general and many subordinates.

However, in this fight, if he focused on killing relatively strong players first, he would be punished later by a swarm of remaining weak players once he ran out of stream. Thus, in this case, he needed to decrease the number of people while terrorizing the rest of them. If things went well, then he could get rid of the remaining opponents easier while they were in a panic.

T/N: The above sayings are Thai proverbs describing how to effectively deal with problem: focus on the core of the problem.

Sila circulated Qi of Little Tiger into his feet and activated Flame of Torturing. As a result, the ice field immediately turned into its original form; the sea.

Good grief, his footing disappeared with it so Sila quickly stopped his Qi of Little Tiger and switched to use Freezing Soul instead to build the ice field beneath his feet again.

Unexpectedly, the system sound alerted.

[You have mastered Flame of Torturing and Freezing Soul, and successfully circulating them together. Two of them are now fused together and became Tortured Soul.]

At the end of the system sound, Sila could immediately feel that his previous qi techniques were now united as one. If he wanted the heat, it would become hot. If he wanted the cold, it would become cold. By circulating it throughout his body, he felt both warm and cool sensations at the same time.

It was indeed like what his in-game teacher had told Sila, unlike magic-type players who would have to practice more and more complex spells as the game went on, qi-type players are contrasted in a sense that things get simpler and simpler. For a high-level qi-type player, just hitting an enemy with bare hands was lethal enough.

Sila was delighted that his power had coincidentally evolved one step further. Obtaining a new skill like this tempted him to just test it right away. Sila circulated Qi of Little Tiger to increase the level of the heat from Flame of Torturing while maintaining an ice field below his feet by Freezing Soul.

The scenery of hell was projected in everyone eyes. Many players were screaming in pain in boiling water as if they were in the hell’s cauldron. Mysteriously, Sila, on the other hand, was standing still on the unmelting ice field. It was as if he was a grim reaper. His only duty was to silently watch the punishment from hell.

The players became more and more panicked. The screams kept getting louder and louder because Sila intentionally reduced his power to prevent these players from dying too soon. This scene and sensation burnt into the remaining player’s memory. Nevertheless, in the end, players in the boiling sea began to scatter as lights with a smile of joy that they could finally be free.

Many players were terrified. But there were still some that could keep their composure. They prepared a series of attack for Sila at the beach.

Sila judged that things would get dangerous if their preparation were more complete than this. He needed to strike in now while most people were still panicking.

Sila increased his power to finish off all players in the sea. Then, he immediately circulated Qi of Little Bird and soared towards the coastline.

The players at the shore, while their numbers were already less than half of the beginning, readied their weapons. Some of the magic-type players began to cast their magic, while the archers shot showers of arrows towards Sila (some could fire several arrows at once, using skills.)

Sila intended to kill magic-type players who he was disadvantaged against first so he purposely jumped pass twenty warriors in the frontline. While being in midair, Sila decided to use God's Cathedral together with Worlds Crossing Bridge instantly.

With the experience he had gained from obtaining Tortured Soul, Sila now knew that flexibility played a huge role in playing qi type. Using qi together yields a different result. Thus, Sila was now like a child with new toys. He tried to utilize qi in ways he had never thought of.

When the arrows entered a three-meter radius of God's Cathedral, they changed their trajectory downwards and hit the warriors below instead. Two or three of them were even pierced through and through and turned into cactuses.

However, now Sila was in midair and had nowhere to run. Many magic arrows were fired at him.

If it was magic arrows, his Worlds Crossing Bridge wouldn’t be able to change their course. But he was in midair so he couldn’t evade them properly. Sila frowned as he was figuring out a way to utilize his power again.

‘If they can’t be evaded, then I’ll have no choice but to clash with them,’ thought Sila while activating Cruise Breeze that he had never used before. The wind was created as qi wave. It was another distance attack that Sila could perform in addition to the hidden weapon. Though the reason he hadn’t utilized it in an actual fight before was because its attack power was too weak to kill an opponent.

[Special skill: Cruise Breeze]

[One of qi techniques. Allow you to freely release qi out of your body. The amount of releasable qi is depended on your expertise.]

The qi wave was fired in three layers and fused with Qi of Little Tiger. It clashed with the magic arrows and then exploded.

The magic-type players watched that happened and cast higher tier spell without delay.

Sila didn’t know how to land himself properly, so he pulled himself to the ground with Universe Momentum.

With him just landing on the ground, the warriors rushed at him without giving him a chance to concentrate.

Sila circulated Tortured Soul with full power, and also activated God's Cathedral to cover all the warriors around him. Their body now began to freeze, and the ice started to form. However, that ice was hot like a flame, which suddenly caused them to panic.

Sila’s left hand displayed the power of Flame of Torturing while his right hand was showing the power of Freezing Soul. He struck each warrior near him to send them to death. Some of them were burnt like charred wood, while some scattered like ice.

His next problem was the archers and magic users. They were at a distance and spread out in a fan-like formation. With Sila not yet to finish thinking about which action to take about them, the warriors around Sila had all died, and the next rain of arrows was fired at him again.

Sila waited until the arrows drew close to him. Then, he used his right foot as his center of gravity and twisted his body once. The arrows rotated around his body and flew back in the opposite direction, thanks to the power of God's Cathedral and Worlds Crossing Bridge combined.

He wasn’t waiting for the opponents to prepare, as he soared following those arrows.

The arrows hit some of them and turned them to light. Other people saw Sila was coming and decided to withdraw. However, Sila used Qi of Little Bird to follow them one by one. Meanwhile, if he saw someone chanting a high-class spell, he would activate Golden Needle to stop their chanting and kill them later.

Many of them had died. Now there was hardly anyone who still had a will to fight. Some performed hit and run techniques, while some used low-classed spells wishing that Sila who used up too much energy would soon die.

Sila became upset that no one came to him. Thus, he activated God's Cathedral to cover the area. Its diameter now expanded to eighty meters, causing Sila to be glad, knowing that his power had increased.

Then, Sila fused Universe Momentum into the sphere, pulling the players to him. Many panicked and immediately grabbed hold of the ground. Unfortunately, this was the beach. All they could grab was sand. Their body was pulled towards Sila.

Sila in this state could use only Intermediate Qi, but that wasn’t a big problem, as all these players were originally long-ranged units. With Sila’s bare hand, some turned into light; while some were more unfortunate, they were hit and bounced off ten meters, prior to being pulled back again.

Silas struck his last fist to the remaining magic-type player and turned him to light. Then, he noticed that there were four people left. They were out of his sphere’s eighty-metered range. Those players ran their ass off, escaping from Sila.

Sila followed them at high speed. Meanwhile, he noticed that they were holding a Returning Scroll in their hand.

Sila wondered. Maybe he was the only one who couldn’t use the Returning Scroll here. Anyway, if these guys went and joined the other parties which were waiting for Varee in the city, that would lead to a problem. (Actually, it wouldn’t be that much of a problem for Varee, but Sila was too hurried to think rationally.)

That was a good chance for him that all of them turned their backs to Sila and focused on running away with the scroll in their hand. Sila tossed two knives from both hands, totaling four knives. All of them precisely stabbed the back of the head of those four. They all died without knowing the cause of their own death.

As they turned into lights, Sila turned around to find survivors, which there were none.

Sila walked to pick up the knives that he had just used and kept it in his Item Window. Then, he took a short break to circulate his qi.

The system sound alarmed.

[You and Player Varee have successfully delivered Ocean Heart Aquamarine. You two are therefore declared as the winner in “Seeking for the Beginning Town’s Best Couple” event. There will be an awards ceremony, begins at 10 pm onward.]

[Event “Seeking for the Beginning Town’s Best Couple” has come to an end. You can now use the Returning Scroll.]

Sila frowned at the event name and opened the system clock to see the time.

’Twenty minutes just passed,’ thought Sila.

That meant Varee hadn’t used her top speed to travel with Sila. He now felt that he still had a lot more to work on.

Sila took out the Returning Scroll and used it. His body turned into light and teleported to Beginning Town. The night scenery of a peaceful beach with the sound of the waves was left behind as if the fight back then had never occurred here.