Zhen Shi couldn't help but grin at the success of his scheme. The entire scheme had been a gamble. In fact, he had been unsure of whether the Bull would be distracted by the color Red and a random challenger, especially since bulls and cattle are generally color blind!

But he had hoped that, even if the Bull was unaffected, Will O'Dale would go ahead and attack. Fortunately, his plan had worked perfectly resulting in both the Bull and Will O'Dale dashing towards each other with great rage.

Zhen Shi could only guess as to why the qi manifestation of a bull was affected by the color red... Perhaps Bullfighting is practiced in this world as well and they use red clothing when fighting the Bulls? Or maybe seeing the color red had influenced a feeling of anger within Lord Turnbull and his army, which unconsciously applied to the bull made out of their qi?

Either way... his gamble had paid off!

And he was now reaping the rewards while calmly watching Will O'Dale and the Bull dashing towards each other.

As the scarlet and black figures gradually neared, the crowd of spectators couldn't help but wince in pity. The difference in strength between the pitch-black bull manifestation and the rage empowered WIll O'Dale was extremely wide. As such, the spectators couldn't help but feel pity for Will O'Dale who was mindlessly dashing towards death.

Forget the spectators, even Will O'Dale was pitying himself.

As the two attackers grew closer, he sub-consciously imagined how his untimely death would be spoken of, 'Genius accidentally impaled to death by his own employer's bull!'.

He thought to himself, 'An O'Dale cannot die in such a pathetic manner! I have a proud lineage going back centuries to protect... As such, his struggle immediately grew more frantic. But his struggle was useless.

Zhen Shi heaved a sigh when they were only a few seconds away from colliding head-first. Even he wasn't heartless enough to let Will O'Dale die in such a pathetic manner. As such, he flicked the golden disc in his hands. Instantly the formation talisman that had retreated behind Will O'Dales neck activated and spread out forming the colorless formation dome that Myne had used before.

Boom! Pu!

A loud explosion rang out as the formation cracked into smithereens under the powerful bull horns. Will O'Dale was thrown back into a pavilion wall while coughing blood. Several of his ribs had cracked under the attack, but fortunately, due to Myne's formation and his strange blood energy he had survived. He continued to remain in a daze for a few moments.

The Bull came to a surprised stop and curiously observed this attacker that had somehow survived it's powerful but 'innocent' horn thrust.

At the same time, Zhen Shi couldn't help but shout out from within the sea-fortress, "Aiya! Turnbull, what on earth are you doing? In what world does the savior attack the victim?" Lord Turnbull couldn't help but wince in shame and displeasure, especially due to the silent agreement of the spectators. Zhen Shi continued to speak with a sudden 'gasp of realization', "If the employer is attacking the employee... is this what they call a toxic workplace?"

The crowd gasped as well, Could this be true? Lord Turnbull already has a horrible track record with his subordinates... Because that would make sense of him attacking his own subordinate for no reason...

Seein the crowd, Lord Turnbull grimaced in embarrassment as he spoke out, "Shut up! I just lost control--"

But he didn't get to speak out much more as Zhen Shi interrupted him, "Wait a moment... if this is how Lord Turnbull treats his ordinary employees, what do you think he'll do to the poor soldiers in his army?"

The crowd gasped in fear once more. Even the soldiers paused in confusion for a moment. These words caused the crowd to stare at the army in pity, while the soldiers froze in thought.

And as such, with a few words, Zhen Shi had planted a seed of doubt within the army behind Lord Turnbull!

Lord Turnbull seethed in rage towards 'this annoying fellow' within the sea-fortress. He was already seething over the fact that his full-powered edict attack had been rendered useless, due to a simply 'bull'-shit reason. And now he was being insulted... with falsehoods spun into truth.

On the other hand, the sudden deadly attack had greatly reduced the effects of the divine curse, granting Will O'Dale control of his body. Nevertheless, he continued to cough in pain while holding on to his wounded chest as he slowly gained control of his body.

He had faced an attack that would've killed cultivators much stronger than him. But the strange red energy had grown stronger in intensity amidst the blood seeping from his wounds and kept him barely alive. But even with this scarlet energy, he wouldn't be able to survive another attack.

Fortunately for him, the Bull continued to watch with curiosity giving him a few precious moments to rest and gather energy.

Ignoring all of this, Myne clapped Zhen Shi's back in acknowledgment and asked with curiosity, "How... did you do this? Even if the Bull was outside Turnbull's control, how could you change the primary objective of a qi manifestation so easily?"

Zhen Shi grinned in pride and spoke with a knowing wink, "You are several millennia too early to understand my true skills!"

Myne was caught speechless at how Zhen Shi had turned around his previous words. While Vivienne struggled to hold her laughter.

However, their conversation was cut off as the scarlet energy enshrouding William suddenly intensified almost reaching the sky. Under the effects of this energy, the blood that had seeped outside of his body was pulled back in an unnatural manner. Within a few moments, his wounds closed up leaving no external signs of his injured state. However, his face grew visibly pale as if he had been greatly weakened.

Immediately, the crowd broke into gasps in fear. They had heard and seen many fearsome practitioners with unnatural abilities. But they had never seen such a bloody and inhuman method of healing from a near-death state.

Despite their reaction, Will O'Dale broke out into a smile of relief as the pain greatly receded. But his happiness was short-lived.

This was because the Bull suddenly decided to attack and jumped forwards horns first.

Why? Perhaps it had been angered over the fact that its hard-work of beating Will O'Dale up was ruined when the blood-red energy healed him. Or maybe it had simply grown bored with staying in one place?

Either way, the bull had attacked, and William wasn't going to stick around in the same place to figure it out. The moment he saw the Bull jumping with its horns pointing at him, he immediately prayed to the heavens and ran away.

But would the Bull admit defeat so easily? Especially when it's 'enemy' was running away? No way! As such, the Bull snorted a cloud of smoke and began chasing after Will O'Dale as well.

"SHIT! Brother Bull, hasn't your mother ever told you that it isn't wise to jump horns-first?" Saying so, Will desperately ran away from the crazy bull while repeatedly shouting, "Help!" Nevertheless, no one volunteered to help him. Realizing that the Bull was slowly catching up he screamed in fear and began to run about in circles.

Fortunately, for him, the Bull was unable to maintain a high speed while constantly turning in a circle. Due to this clever idea, he was able to survive longer. Nevertheless, the final result was was bull happily chasing a screaming 'red' person around a serious battlefield in a comical manner.

Will O'Dale continued to scream loudly while running around desperately. On the contrary, the Bull seemed to be grinning as it happily and innocently chased this loud red fellow.

The crowd, "Is this still a serious battle? Or did the god of comedy pay a sudden visit?" while struggling to hold their laughter, in fear that it might seem insensitive...

Lord Turnbull would've vomited blood for seven days and seven nights seeing his actions leading to this ridiculous situation, had it not been for his seething anger.

In the end, Lord Turnbull finally lost his patience and shouted out in rage, "Edict: Attack!" Instantly, a terrifying amount of different types of qi was dragged out of each soldier forcing about half of them to fall onto their knees in fatigue. But unlike before the multitudes of energy merged into one forming a simple black spear. It was pitch-black as if it would absorb all light and the aura raging out from it was even greater than that of the bull!

Witha flick of Lord Turnbull's hands, it was suddenly launched directly at the sea-fortress formation. Unlike the Bull which was focused on strength and pure power, this was an attack focusing on speed and piercing power. Thus there was only a very short window of time to react...

Myne's eyes glowed in a silver light as he hurriedly flicked his hands. Instantly, silver-grey bricks were dragged out from around the fortress and gathered around a single spot forming a focused defense.

Whoosh!

The wind whistled loudly as the spear struck the walls of the sea-fortress at the very spot that Myne had improved defense. A silent wave of qi spread out as the spear passed half-way through the fortress walls and got stuck within. Instantly, faint cracks spread out from around the point that the spear had struck.

Merlin grimaced as he flicked his hand once more causing the bricks to re-arrange normally and the cracks to fade away. But the damage had already been done. And Lord Turnbull who knew this couldn't help but crack a satisfied grin.

However, Will O'Dale continued to scream while the bull chased him around in circles, rather ruining his satisfactory mood.

Myne hurriedly turned to Zhen Shi and spoke up seriously, "We won't be able to hold out against a couple more of those attacks. Do you think you can get out and take down some of those soldiers?" Despite saying so, there was a flicker of genuine concern in his eyes. But it dissipated immediately as his eyes fell upon the ring on Zhen Shi's hand, as such, he continued to speak, "I'll keep Turnbull busy and since I need Vivienne to maintain the ocean water... only you can do this."

Zhen Shi paused for a moment. He had nothing against going outside the fortress as long as Turnbull was taken care of. And of course, he trusted this brother of his.

So with a confident grin and a slight nod he immediately jumped out of the fortress.

Myne grinned with a serious glint in his eyes. Even he could see that Zhen Shi was acting with blind faith...

The moment Zhen Shi jumped out, Lord Turnbull stared at him and shouted, "So it appears that the one who insulted me is you!" with a murderous grin. His shout would've seemed much more serious and threatening had it not been for the bull that was constantly chasing a screaming red man in circles around them.

Regardless, Zhen Shi hurriedly shook his head and spoke out politely, "Lord Turnbull you are mistaken! The one who insulted you is obviously the one who is maintaining the formation. The formation master and the culprit of this crime is my senior brother who is still inside," while pointing back at the sea-fortress with a straight face.

Myne almost coughed up blood. FUCK! Brother, how can you be so shameless?

Lord Turnbull frowned but nodded lightly since this made sense. Nevertheless, he shouted out once more, "Edict: Attack!" causing more soldiers to collapse on to their knees. Even if Zhen Shi was innocent he still had to get rid of his opponents for the appraisal competition!

However, Zhen Shi wasn't going to stay still either. The instant he heard Lord Turnbull shouting, he had instantly activated to the maximum and dodged to the side, bypassing the attack. Even still, the spear was well on it's way to ripping apart one of his arms.

As the deadly pitch-black spear continued towards Zhen Shi's arm the timeless sea-fortress behind him grew faint... As if it would fade into the rivers of time... But simultaneously, the ocean surrounding the sea-fortress began to shimmer in a mystical manner. In a single instant, an arm of ocean water stretched out of that spot and stopped defensively in front of Zhen Shi.

SPLASH!

The sound of the spear skewering through the water rang out as the spear was forcibly halted just a few millimeters away from Zhen Shi's hand. Zhen Shi's eyes alternated between the spear and his arm as he gulped nervously.

Moments later, the spear and the arm of ocean water dissipated into sparks of qi and aether.

Myne spoke out to Zhen Shi mentally, "We can hold out against 2 or 3 more attacks like that at best! You'll need to start taking down the soldiers soon..."

Zhen Shi nodded wordlessly. As the arm of water dissipated, the sea-fortress instantly returned to normal. But it seemed much fainter than before...

On the other hand, Lord Turnbull grinned and shouted, "Rise!" Instantly, the soldiers that had knelt down in fatigue stood back up again, almost as if they were good as new.

Zhen Shi disregarded the near-death experience he had just faced and manifested his bow silently. He was getting extremely pissed at Lord Turnbull's continuous actions to kill them. With rage dancing in his eyes, he took a deep breath and loaded one of Myne's chaos arrows into his bow.

With his mind calm, he pulled back the arrow with the full force of his bestial physique. In a sudden bout of inspiration, he lit the arrow with both the Undying Flame and Hell's Flare. The two opposite flames combined upon the arrow-head forming a strange fire of life and death. The energy raging out from this flame was rather weak in terms of aura, but simply mystical in terms of nature.

Next, instead of using the spiritual roots and elemental aether, he tried to focus on the formation engraved on the arrowhead and the primordial chaos in his dantian. Nevertheless, this attempt resulted in failure.

His eyes glowed in bestial rage as he let the arrow loose at an unfortunate soldier.