The wind shivered and rippled as the arrow dashed towards the army behind Lord Turnbull with the strange red and black flame flickering upon the arrowhead.

Zhen Shi had aimed at one of those eerie metallic helmets on the head of one soldier. But, just when the arrow was a few meters away from striking a target...

Lord Turnbull calmly flicked his hand and whispered, "Dodge." Instantly, the soldier who was wearing that helmet bent his head to the side.

And just like that, the arrow missed its target!

The soldier had only made a slight motion, but that had been more than sufficient to dodge Zhen Shi's arrow. It was almost as if the soldier had witnessed the movement of the arrow from multiple perspectives and then made the simplest motion necessary to dodge the arrow.

Zhen Shi's eyes widened at the sight of a minor soldier dodging his arrow with such ease. Unwilling to swallow failure, he made a quick attempt to use his bow to control the arrow, as he had done in the fight with the heavy metal singing Batsy, unfortunately, his attempt was unsuccessful.

The arrow blazed with the black and red flame as it continued through the air like a silent assassin.

Zhen Shi's eyes widened even further as this arrow streaked past the soldier, and instead dashed towards a different target. The arrow was now shooting towards a new target, the qi manifestation of the Bull!

Even at this time, the Bull had continued to 'innocently' chase the screaming Will O'Dale around the battlefield. But, unfortunately for the Bull, and fortunately for Will O'Dale, the Bull had just happened to be right behind the soldier that had dodged the arrow.

And so, the arrow struck the body of the Bull manifestation with the full force of Zhen Shi's bestial physique!

MWOAR!

A mournful roar rang throughout the battlefield as the arrow struck the poor Bull on its exposed torso. Even with the full power of Zhen Shi's bestial physique behind it, the arrow had only penetrated a few centimeters into the Bull's hide. After all, the Bull was a qi manifestation powerful enough to threaten Myne's sea fortress. Thus, Zhen Shi's arrow should've only been a minor flesh wound...

MWOOAR!

Nevertheless, the Bull continued to roar painfully as the arrow slowly submerged into its torso; almost like a stick falling into quicksand. The Bull stood in place while roaring and shivering amidst this 'great pain', as the arrow and the strange flame slowly disappeared into its body.

Zhen Shi stared in disbelief as the Bull proceeded to painfully turn its head and stare at him with wronged, mournful eyes.

Zhen Shi scratched his head in embarrassment while mumbling, "Why the heck are you staring at me like I've murdered a puppy? It's only a flesh wound so can you please not scream so embarrassingly? Even I'm feeling embarrassed, just hearing you scream!"

MWOOAR! MWOOAR!

The Bull's painful roars increased almost as if it had heard Zhen Shi. And, with one last glance at Zhen Shi, it began to run away. It continued to whimper in pain as it dashed into the forest and finally disappeared among the trees.

Silence reigned over the battlefield as the spectator stared wordlessly at this strange turn of events.

Myne suddenly sent mentally, "Ugh... why did you do that?"

Zhen Shi immediately grimaced and sent back, "Bull Shit! That bull manifestation was just playing the victim for receiving a minor flesh wound!"

"Huh? What the hell are you talking about? I don't care about that bull, I meant the Law Tier arrow with my original chaos formation, that you just lost forever!"

Zhen Shi's grimace grew worse as he realized that he had just lost a valuable weapon for the sake of a ridiculous bull.

In the end, Myne continued with a sigh, "Put the arrow aside for a moment. Since Turnbull has manifested his Würd as helms upon his army, he can obviously see through their eyes and easily dodge any straight forward attacks. I suggest you jump in and fight in an unpredictable manner. Don't worry, I'll make sure that he won't have time to focus on you."

Zhen Shi nodded wordlessly, still mourning the loss of his arrow. He could only hope that the Bull would dissipate in a nearby place making it easier to find the arrow. After all, it was only a manifestation of qi and aether, not a real bull...

Despite Zhen Shi's misfortune, Will O'Dale was currently celebrating his great fortune! After all, he had just been freed from the terrifying chase of that crazy Bull, and it was all thanks to that Zhen Shi!

William began to stare at Zhen Shi with grateful eyes while thinking, 'Aiya! I truly misunderstood this kind-hearted fellow. I regret nothing as much as my idiotic decision to attack this divine musician!'

Tears welled up in his eyes as he began to contemplate his unfortunate life, 'In my entire life, besides my little brother and my family, everyone else has come to me for their own purposes. This is the first time, that someon genuinely truly helped me!'

The tears streamed down his face, 'When everyone else had forgotten about me and my life was left to fate and the whims of a crazy bull, HE was the only one who cared enough to help! HE left the protection of his formation to save me from that devilish bull, even at the risk of losing his own life. How heroic! How valiant! HE is a dragon amongst men! A true comrade!'

With these misguided thoughts in his mind, William dashed forwards and jumped upon the unsuspecting Zhen Shi. He tightly hugged Zhen Shi's body while sobbing and shouting, "Comrade, I owe you my life! From today onwards, we will be brothers!"

Ding!

The user has gained 60 OP!

Zhen Shi, who was still wallowing in his loss couldn't help but think, 'Hmm...? Could this be divine compensation for the arrow I lost? In that case, I suppose it's fine now,' and consoled himself as such.

Nevertheless, he grimaced and hurriedly pushed William off saying, "Get off! You're rubbing your snot all over me! It's one thing for pretty girls to hug me and cry, but grown men definitely cannot!"

William smiled while rubbing off his tears and snot, and spoke reassuringly, "I agree! I'll fight off any grown man that dares to hug and cry on my brother!"

Zhen Shi was about to comment on how shameless he was being, but suddenly, an angry shout rang out.

It was Lord Turnbull.

Witnessing how his powerful 'attack' of a bull had played around ridiculously and finally run away into the forest while howling like a dying cat, along with the sight of these two fellows playing around in a relaxed manner despite his presence, had enraged him beyond measure.

Most of all, he was getting impatient. Now that Will O'Dale had freed himself from the Divine Curse, it was only a matter of time before he explained that Zhen Shi and his fellow disciples were innocent. As a result, he needed to finish this quickly.

He had performed all the previous attacks while keeping the well-being of the soldiers in mind, but now he threw that thought away.

Lord Turnbull gazed at his army and roared out, "Edict: Rain of Spears!" Instantly, torrents of qi were pulled out from the soldiers causing them to visibly pale and weaken. Few even fainted on the spot; causing the eerie metallic helmets on their heads to fade away.

Whoosh!

The torrents of multi-colored qi gathered to form hundreds of pitch-black spears that were instantly grabbed by the standing soldiers and hurled with terrifying strength right at the grey fortress. These spears were weaker and slower than the previous spears, however, the quantity more than made up for the lesser quality.

Myne and Vivienne hurriedly retaliated by rearranging the grey bricks of the sea fortress into certain specific points and quickly forming the seawater into dozens of giant arms.

However, Myne, who realized that this would not be sufficient to survive the incoming attack manifested a silver globe.

He threw it up into the air, causing it to explode in a burst of colorless qi which manifested into hundreds of formation talismans. They merged into the sea-fortress in an intricate pattern causing it to glow brightly and radiate a powerful aura.

Seeing the spears dashing towards the sea fortress, Zhen Shi and William hurriedly dodged to the side to make sure that they wouldn't get caught in the crossfire.

As Zhen Shi began to observe the confrontation with rapt attention, William turned around and quietly retreated into the golden pavilion...

Whoosh! Whoosh!

The wind whistled as the countless spears struck the walls of the sea-fortress causing it to shake lightly. Nevertheless, the sea-fortress stood strong as the spears got stuck on the walls, resulting only in a few light cracks.

Meanwhile, the giant arms of seawater formed fists and retaliated with furious punches causing Lord Turnbull to hurriedly shout out, "SHIELD!"

Instantly, different types of qi were dragged out from the soldiers and formed into multiple shields. Just before the seawater fists reached the army, the multiple colored shields combined to form that familiar giant quilt shield of patchwork.

Boom! Boom!

A wave of explosions and qi bursts rang out across the battlefield as Lord Turnbull's giant quilt shield easily defended against this flurry of punches.

Myne's voice rang out in Zhen Shi's mind, "Go now! But remember, even corpses can hold qi so killing them will be useless! Focus on the Würd helmets instead!"

Zhen Shi was both disappointed and relieved at not having to engage in a massacre. On one side, he wanted the exp points to level up, but on the other, he really didn't want to slaughter idiotic soldiers being controlled forcibly.

Either way, he was prepared to do what was necessary. So he nodded wordlessly and dashed into the unsuspecting army with a single [Draconic Wind Step]. With a slight grin, he bashed the helmet of a nearby soldier with his bow and the full use of the skill [Descending Bow]!

Crack!

Under the power of the divine bow, the helmet cracked into two separate pieces. But as the complete strength of the attack was used up in destroying the Würd helmet, the soldier simply collapsed unconsciously.

Zhen Shi hadn't dared to use the 'sword form' of his bow as this was a serious situation and he needed a 'bow' to use the [Descending Bow] skill. While he still wished to wield a sword someday like a true hero, he had to admit that bashing people in the head with a bow had its own charm...

Suddenly, William who had disappeared into the pavilion, dashed out while brandishing his dual swords. It appeared that he had only gone to retrieve his swords.

With a resounding scream, "You dare cause trouble to my brother and his friends?! I don't care if you're my employer or a fellow employee, I'll fuck you to death!" he launched a furry of slashed on to the helmet of a nearby soldier.

Under the onslaught of sword attacks, the helmet broke into pieces causing another soldier to collapse.

Zhen Shi shook his head in disbelief, but even so, he jumped right back into bashing helmets off of soldiers' heads with an excited grin. But this time, Will O'Dale was following his lead and backing him up!

The spectators were completely confused at this point, 'Since when does the 'victim' turn on his 'savior'? Even going so far as to call the 'criminal' his comrade and brother? What the heck is going on!?'

Even Hao Lei was beginning to grow skeptical about Lord Turnbull's claims and was considering interfering. But, he forcefully held back when he saw the terrifying attacks that were being dished out by both sides. Laura continued to watch with worried eyes, too focused on the battle to notice her uncle's actions.

Lord Turnbull could immediately sense the rapid loss of soldiers in his army. But before he could react, Myne flicked his hands. He instantly attacked with much greater power than before since it was important to keep Lord Turnbull distracted.

The spears in the walls of the sea-fortress were dragged out and crushed into pitch-black cannonballs. With another flick of his hands, the cannonballs were loaded into dozens of cannon shadows.

Kaboom!

Each cannon exploded at the same time in a single terrifying explosion. At the same time, the giant water hands formed into fists and launched out a flurry of punches.

Lord Turnbull grimaced and roared out, "Edict: Defend" causing terrifying torrents of qi to be dragged out of the soldiers causing all of them to weaken and a few more to faint and collapse. Nevertheless, the qi combined together to form a hemispherical dome of pitch-black qi. This was a defense much stronger than the quilt shield used before!

However, rather unfortunately for him, this defensive dome trapped Zhen Shi and Will O'Dale along with the soldiers!

The soldiers began to shout helplessly as Zhen Shi and Will O'Dale dashed amongst them, knocking out all of them, one by one.

Each time Zhen Shi's crazy hard bow smashed down, a helmet cracked. And each time William launched a flurry of sword slashes, another helmet cracked. But Will was quite a bit slower than Zhen Shi when it came to knocking out helmets...

Either way, within just a few moments, they had taken down a good chunk of the soldiers.

Zhen Shi couldn't help but grin as he increased the attacking intensity of his bow, 'This is really fun! It's like playing whack-a-mole in real life!'

Lord Turnbull who was also inside the dome was itching to attack the two annoying fellows decimating his army, but the incoming attacks from Myne and Vivienne left him distracted. The wind whistled as the rain of cannonballs struck against the metallic shield being maintained by himself.

Clang! Clang!

The sound of metal striking against metal rang out as the spears struck against the metal dome causing very light cracks to appear. However, the cracks gradually widened and spread out as Zhen Shi and Will O'Dale continued to knock out more and more soldiers.

William even activated the stealth ability that had pushed Zhen Shi to his limits back then and began to wreak havoc among the soldiers.

Lord Turnbull stared in disbelief as Zhen Shi continued to dash about the battlefield bashing helmets with his bow. And since Will O'Dale was now invisible, all he could see of him were helmets being 'magically' destroyed causing soldiers to 'magically' collapse down.

By now, the soldiers were struggling and shouting frantically. After all, if it weren't for the eerie pitch blacks helmets upon their heads, they were only ordinary cultivators with weak abilities. In addition, they had been greatly weakened by the continuous usage of their qi.

As such, they posed little to no challenge to the bow smashing Zhen Shi and the invisible Will O'Dale.

Even Lord Turnbull was struggling to maintain the metallic dome amidst the rain of cannonballs, especially with the ever-increasing cracks on its surface. In the end, he resigned himself to extracting more qi from the remaining soldiers and strengthened the metallic dome.

But this only caused the remaining soldiers to grow even weaker, making it much easier for Zhen Shi and Will O'Dale to knock them out.

Several minutes passed as this stalemate between the metallic dome and the rain of cannonballs continued.

At the same time, as a result of launching such a powerful attack, the sea fortress shimmered faintly as if it would fade away...

In the end, Myne flicked his hand with a grimace causing half of the formation talisman's in the seawater to return and combine with the sea fortress. Only then did the fortress stabilize. Even so, it seemed much fainter than before.

Finally, the stalemate ended without either side making any progress; Lord Turnbull's pitch black dome shattered only after the rain of cannonballs was finished.

As the metallic black qi dissipated it revealed a Lord Turnbull that was gasping in tiredness with only a few dozen soldiers remaining around him. And even they were gasping in fatigue and over-exertion of qi.

Even though Lord Turnbull had survived the attack, he had already lost. This was because the remaining soldiers were no longer sufficient to even barely perform on the level that they had before.

Making matters much worse for him, Zhen Shi and William knocked even those few soldiers out.

Now that the entire hundredfold army was knocked down, Zhen Shi and the now visible Will O'Dale proceeded to stare at the gasping Lord Turnbull with confidence and satisfaction.

Even Myne and Vivienne jumped onto the wall of the sea-fortress. However, their faces were riddled in worry and suspicion.

Lord Turnbull turned his head at Will O'Dale and spoke with a 'kind' and 'sorrowful' face, "It appears that you've fallen victim to a powerful spell of mesmerism. Do not fret little one for I will deal justice."

Honestly, he had no ideas if this was true, but stating this publicly should help keep troublesome fellows like Hao Lei in control.

Finally, he turned to Zhen Shi, Myne, and Vivienne and growled out, "I guess I underestimated you. But that's all the more reason to go all out!" and manifested a shimmering medallion with the engraving of a rampaging bull on it.

As if in answer, the giant formation covering the entire island shimmered faintly under the midday sunlight.