Chapter 589: Chapter 589: Queen

Although sword moves were everchanging, the fact still stood that there were certain rules to be followed in the end. No matter how exquisite the swordsmanship of someone might appear to be, it would always be based on changes in other swordsmanship. Nevertheless, there were always regulations that they would adhere to.

In those moments wherein Cheryl fought against other swordsmen, she found it relatively easy to predict and anticipate their next move just by observing the tension of their wrists. However, she was at a loss right now due to the fact that Zen's swordsmanship seemed to follow no rules as she could not simply foresee his next move.

After they exchanged a few blows, it was not long after that Zen effortlessly broke through Cheryl's defense and aimed his glistening long sword at her chest. Eventually, she sighed as she had no choice but to pass through space to escape being maimed by the sharp edge of his sword.

In the beginning, Cheryl had actually expected to be unsuccessful in breaking through Zen's defensive swordsmanship. Upon grabbing the opportunity to observe the battle between him and Boris, she accepted the realization that she would be unable to penetrate Zen's extremely strange swordsmanship.

On the other hand, just because she was incapable of breaking through did not mean she was not confident enough to defeat him.

This was because a battle between warriors did not solely rely on swordsmanship as the only factor to determine the results. Most of the time, it would depend on the skillful individual who managed to bring a trump card into the fight.

As soon as she finished travelling through space to increase the distance between her and Zen, she smirked as she planned her next move. The woman's bright eyes flashed momentarily before she parted her red lips to shout, “Three-element Shadows!”

Swish, swish, swish!

In the blink of an eye, three daunting shadows rushed out from her body and proceeded to stand in three corners of the arena.

Turning his head to scan his eyes at the length of the three shadows that suddenly appeared, Zen frowned slightly and briefly lowered his arms in hesitation. Different thoughts ran through his mind as he was not certain about what the woman intended to do.

At the exact moment Cheryl projected the three shadows into the field, she immediately leaped high into the air, moving towards Zen's direction with malice. She grasped her sword with both hands while holding it upside down; the wind whooshed as she stabbed her blade right on top of Zen's head.

“Frost-breaking Sword!” she yelled with vigor.

An incomparably sharp sword light pierced right through Zen's skull.

Unexpectedly, it seemed as if it dawned on her that she had made a terrible mistake as Zen merely laughed coldly at her attempt and he flicked the sword in his hand once again. This time, he made sure not to miss as he managed to shatter Cheryl's sword light as well as slash a deep gash on her shoulder. Luckily for her, she was able to dodge in the nick of time—her body would have been cut by his sword otherwise.

As quick as she had attacked, her body also instantly changed direction while she was in the air. It was as if a strange magnetizing force had appeared out of nowhere and forcefully pulled her away from the man. Instantly, Cheryl then fused with the dark shadow located in the corner of the arena.

The moment Cheryl merged her figure with the shadow that lurked in the corner, another shadow emerged from her body and instantaneously spread to another corner. Upon finishing her move with the three silhouettes remaining in the arena, she looked at Zen with confidence as a grin adorned her face.

“Well, these shadows do look like they have some use,”

Zen muttered, glancing at the darkness that spread over the corners of the arena.

If Cheryl combined her attacks with these shadows right then and there, she would have a contingency plan of fusing with a shadow the moment her attacks did not work on him. At this situation, she would be invincible even though she would not be able to strike him effectively.

“I want to see how you will break through my Three-element Shadows!”

With a sneer, Cheryl chuckled as her form flickered again, prepared to move. This time, however, she did not jump to confront him but instead lowered her body before rushing towards Zen.

Clang!

Upon discerning her attack, Zen instantly shifted his sword to sweepingly chop the floor as he intended to charge at his front. Seeing the blade coming at her, Cheryl easily traversed through space once again and avoided the brunt of the attack. The long sword gripped tightly in her hand was already pressed against the skin of his neck, ready to slice and pull him apart. In a flash, his figure morphed into a shadow and he suddenly materialized behind her. ṚãNƟꞖËS

Currently, Zen did not have enough time to swing his sword before Cheryl's body was about to fuse with another one of the shadows.

Having had enough of the illusion, Zen did not intend to give Cheryl any more chances. When she was ready to merge herself with one of the shadows, he had only pretended to attack when in reality, he had already taken a step forward to stand guard beside the shadow.

However, Zen was rendered speechless when Cheryl's figure changed direction midway of fusing and subsequently landed on another shadow instead.

Dumbfounded, Zen blinked his eyes warily and paused. “This…”

The man turned his head to look at Cheryl, who appeared to be full of smiles as she grinned cheekily at the obvious display of disorientation painted across Zen's features.

Truthfully, he had definitely not expected that fighting Cheryl would be this troublesome.

Needless to say, every race had its own specialties when it came to skills. Just as the humans of the Purple Heart Sacred Place excelled in the life vitality system, and the ogres stood out in body refinement, the members of the Demon Night were also considered relatively special. This nearly flawless race seemed to allow the freedom to choose their own cultivation system. Furthermore, the cultivation method passed down in their sacred place was somehow strange.

��From now on, we can only compare our speeds.” Just as another infuriating smile appeared on her face, Zen did not hesitate any longer and stepped forward, once again rushing to attack her.

Unfortunately, the staggering slash he aimed at her had no effect whatsoever. Before Cheryl merged with a shadow and disappeared, her hand managed to thrust the sword towards him.

Employing his quick reflexes, Zen dodged the abrupt movement of her sword and accelerated in the direction of the next shadow straight away. At the same time, a white light gleamed in his hand before the unbreakable broken flying knife became visible. The flying knife was aimed directly at another shadow before he threw it with power.

As he used his flying knife to attack a shadow while simultaneously dealing with the shadow in front of him, there was only one shadow in the arena left unattended. Halfway through his offensive charge, he then abruptly threw the sword in his hand at the last shadow.

Swoosh!

Now, all the three shadows in the arena were under attack. No matter which one Cheryl chose to merge with, she would be injured.

At this situation, Cheryl was slightly flustered to do her next move.

It was true that once she activated the Three-element Shadows, she would be able to freely choose and utilize any of the shadows to merge with. However, it also limited the direction in which she could move to at the same time.

It did not matter now which shadow she descended on because she would be instantly attacked by Zen. 'Now what?' she thought to herself. In the perspective of Cheryl, this was indeed a difficult decision to ponder upon, given the limitations of her attack.

Eventually, her silhouette flickered in a moment of desperation as she finally chose the location where Zen was as her next destination.

Although Cheryl was not definite about her knowledge on the power of Zen's flying knife thus far, she could tell with a glance that even though it was broken, its aura was extremely sharp and something that could not be underestimated.

Contemplating by herself, she understood that if she had chosen another shadow, she would probably be pierced through by Zen's sword. Furthermore, it was a sacred weapon and there was absolutely no way she would have been able to block it.

With the limited options she had, she could have only selected the shadow Zen was dealing with at the moment. Since he had removed the sword in his hand by throwing it at the shadow, she seriously expected that his strength would be greatly reduced.

This was due to the fact that Cheryl believed in the notion that swordsmen relied on their swords the most. If it ever happened that a swordsman willingly threw his sword out in a battle, then it meant that the man was ultimately prepared to gamble everything he had. Zen having no sword in his hand meant that she would then have a huge chance of defeating him.

It was a common conception that a swordsman without a sword was like a tiger with its teeth pulled out.

Unbeknownst to Cheryl, she would be in for a surprise when she eventually found out that Zen was even more terrifying when he did not have his sword.

Upon the very moment Cheryl descended, she poised herself to face Zen's fist directly.

In the meantime, Zen had not bothered to activate the Stellar Body because he did not feel the need to use it to deal with the woman.

“Split the light!”

Even though Zen had already launched his punch, Cheryl did not hesitate to counterattack with a move of her own. Her long sword uncoiled and gleamed like a nimble green snake which released a faint azure light, aiming straight at him.

Although her sword moves did not appear to be powerful enough, every flick of her wrist was definitely exquisite. In addition to this, each of them was able to point at a vital point of Zen's body.

If Zen were to use his fist to attack her, he would not be fast enough to land the first hit and she could then chop half his head off.

Conversely, Zen's fist did not swing towards Cheryl. Instead, he did the unexpected as his hand changed its direction midway and directly grabbed onto her sword.

In reality, Cheryl's sword was also a sacred weapon, which was known as “Gentle Snow”. Besides possessing the strength of a sacred weapon, it was also abnormally light to the point that it felt relatively weightless. It must have been named after its weight, as grabbing it felt like handling snow in Zen's perspective.

After Zen gripped the blade of her sword between his two fingers, Cheryl frowned as she strained to pull it out of his grip. It was similar to being embedded into a crack in a compact stone, as she falteringly discovered that she was unable to wrench it out at all.

Despite the fact that Cheryl was a woman and the members of the Demon Night did not specialize in raw strength, the power of Cheryl, who was a warrior that cultivated both her body and life vitality, was certainly not something ordinary warriors could match. Even if her sword was suppressed by a mountain, she could still be able to pull it out.

However, Cheryl had tried her best to tug at it twice in succession, even erupting with the forceful energy within her body to no avail. No matter how much she gritted her teeth and the amount of effort made sweat pool on her forehead, the sword in her hand did not budge even a single inch.

Noticing her struggle and frustration, Zen merely gave her a lazy grin before squeezing the blade tighter with his fingers.

Clang!

Without much effort from Zen, he broke the sword between his fingers and watched mirthlessly as the mangled pieces resounded upon hitting the floor unceremoniously.

Seething with indignation and anger, she glared at the man coldly before shrieking, “You!”

The woman found herself no longer maintaining her calm disposition as she wanted to lash out instead.

Even though she was a talent of the sacred palace, being able to acquire a powerful sacred weapon was not that easy. Furthermore, the Gentle Snow was the most suitable for her the moment she started practicing her swordsmanship with it. Due to this, she was indeed very fond of the weapon and took good care of it. With shock adorning her features, she had definitely not expected her sword to be broken by Zen.

The strength of a sacred weapon was not something an ordinary weapon could be compared to given its outstanding power. It just so happened that Cheryl's sword was too thin and narrow. If he had done the same move on Boris' saber, it would have been more difficult for Zen to destroy it even if he had activated all of his dragon scales.

Fortunately, with Zen's current prowess, it was not too challenging or difficult for him to break Cheryl's sword apart.

“What?”

Grinning slyly, Zen asked the irate woman with an innocent expression.

“I am going to kill you!”

Glaring at the nonchalant Zen, Cheryl was furious and a green light suddenly appeared right above her head. As soon as the green light had appeared, it directly inserted itself into her skull.

With a start, he wiped the smile off his face and stared at her with seriousness because he immediately sensed extreme danger about to happen.

Considering Zen's current strength, ordinary war generals would not be able to make him feel this way. Even ordinary war lords never gave him a reason to perceive them as threats.

When this intense feeling of danger came over him, Zen abruptly retreated and created a reasonable distance between him and Cheryl. The woman's fingers suddenly emitted a few rays of pitch black light as her nails seemingly extended. In honesty, Zen was concerned at the sight of the black light and it made him breathe unevenly.

No matter how confident Zen was in his fairy weapon-like body, he certainly knew better than to let this woman scratch him with her dangerous looking fingernails.

At any rate, Cheryl obviously did not plan on letting him go that easily. As she fiercely rushed towards him, she vigorously waved her sharp claws. The scene discernibly looked like a howling lynx facing its prey in the wild.

Under the continuous pursuit of the outraged lady, the black claws almost scraped Zen several times but he was still able to dodge them in time. In the middle of scraping through and managing to avoid Cheryl's frontal attack by mere inches, Zen forgot that her shadows were still in the arena.

The instant Zen retreated to another corner of the arena, Cheryl's figure instantly disappeared and materialized in the shadow behind him, about to attack him by surprise.

“Garbage!”

He knew that the minute he was grazed by this woman, it would be a detrimental blow to him. Even if he did not die, he would be seriously injured from the brunt of her attack. Cursing at himself, he realized just then that he had been too careless this time around.

In another moment of despondency, the sword spirit within Zen's body suddenly emerged from him. Together with Lily, the black sword that was previously stored in his space ring appeared.

As soon as Lily's faint figure flickered to life, her hand immediately shot out and held the hilt of the wicked black sword. Pulling the black sword out of Zen's space ring, she pointed it to the other woman's direction before slashing it directly as a shield from the black light.

Crack!

Surprisingly, Cheryl did not dodge the sword at all. Even though she had seen the gigantic sword appear in front of her, she gave it no attention and did not give up on her attack. With a resolute mind, she confidently thought that nothing could have stopped the black light on her fingers.

Before they knew it, five deep gashes suddenly appeared on the surface of the black sword. Looking up to the end of the blade, Cheryl momentarily saw Lily's appearance from behind the sword when she slashed the weapon towards her.

“What?!”

With her mouth agape, Cheryl blinked briefly in surprise at what had just happened.

To everyone's disbelief, the sword in Lily's possession stopped right beside Cheryl's neck and did not finish what it had intended to do.

As the crowd witnessed the astonishing scene right in front of their very eyes, they all sported the same looks of shock and confusion—what exactly was going on in the arena? All of them at that moment had wondered the same thing: why did such a scene appear just as the battle was getting more and more intense?

Zen shook his head and heaved a sigh of relief at the perfect timing of Lily's arrival. In reality, he still had a few tricks up his sleeve, secret skills that he could utilize in order to defeat Cheryl. However, he was not willing to use them if he was not in a life or death situation. Never would he have imagined that the same girl who had looked so gentle before would be someone so ferocious when provoked. It was also unexpected that Cheryl, at that last few seconds, appeared to not care about her own life and was instead demon-bent on just reaching him with her claws.

With his heart hammering beneath his ribcage, Zen realized that there was a problem, a deeply troubling yet strange problem.

'Why did my sword spirit suddenly become unruly?' he thought to himself, puzzled at the behavior Lily manifested just now.

The sword spirit had always been unfalteringly obedient to Zen's orders up until that moment. If he sought her out and commanded her to fight, she would incessantly chase after his opponent. Moreover, if he needed her to defend him, then she would unquestionably be there to protect him with whatever it took.

Assessing the desperate situation that just occurred seconds ago, Zen did ask Lily to block Cheryl's attack, but when she appeared, she actually stopped the momentum of the sword in her hand when she swung it at Cheryl. Biting his lower lip unconsciously, he contemplated by himself once again, 'What is going on?'

This was something that had never happened before.

“Why did they suddenly stop fighting?” one of the spectators asked out loud, confused at the sudden halt of movements from the warriors in the arena.

Upon noticing the arrival of a new being in the arena, someone in the crowd exclaimed, “Look! Another woman is right there with them!”

“Is she also from the Demon Night?”

“I felt the aura of a sword spirit from that woman. That should be Zen's sword spirit!” a man from the audience responded.

“Let's not talk about the sword spirit first. Who can tell me why Cheryl has suddenly stopped moving?”

As the crowd continued to discuss among themselves, Cheryl stared unblinking at Zen's sword spirit before softly uttering a single word in reverence, “Queen!”

Right after she spoke, she immediately knelt down in front of Lily, bowing her head in respect at the other woman.

There were still many members of the Demon Night in the audience. It was as if Cheryl was the source of the domino effect that made the others follow her lead. Within the span of mere seconds, they also stood up and knelt in veneration towards the center of the arena.

Even one of the seat owners, Madeline, also knelt on one knee to give her salutations as she faced the arena with a look of piety.

At the same time, a few other war lords that happened to be part of the Demon Night from the other side of the arena walked over. Looking closer, they all noticed that the one leading the small group was surprisingly also a seat owner—Elder Mei.

Upon glimpsing Zen's sword spirit, Elder Mei also knelt on one knee with the other war lords following her example and bowing as well towards the direction of the arena.

After Phoebe astonishingly discovered the identity of Zen's sword spirit, she instantly sent a message to inform Elder Mei to report her arrival. This was possible due to the fact that she had been tracking her location for a while. Elder Mei had not been in the Tower of Sin or in the sacred place, but had been engaged in another mission.

The minute the mission was completed, Elder Mei did not hesitate to rush towards the Tower of Sin immediately.

The girl, Phoebe, had always been by Zen's side. Although she was a war general herself, she unfortunately did not have the authority to enter the tenth floor. Because of this, she could only wait in anticipation on the ninth floor.

Now that Elder Mei had just arrived and had directly witnessed Zen summon the queen of the Demon Night, she naturally had to bow before her presence at this moment.

“What's going on?” someone asked conspicuously to the others beside him. “What exactly is Zen's sword spirit?”

“Shh, lower your voice a little!” the one in front of the faceless person said, turning around to chastise the inquisitive boy. “Don't get yourself into trouble. Look at the two seat owners of the Demon Night. If you anger any of them, you will die for sure!”

“But how did Zen get involved with the Demon Night in the first place?” he persisted, despite the warnings of the older man, although he merely glared at him and did not bother to answer his questions anymore.

After the two of them saluted, Elder Mei and Madeline strode towards the center of the arena with purpose.

Strictly speaking, even for warriors above the eleventh floor, walking into the arena on the tenth floor was directly against the rules. However, in the perspective of these two seat owners, these so-called rules mattered little compared to the sudden presence of their queen. Simply put, those regulations were not something for them to worry about.

“Queen! Is that you?”

Elder Mei walked in front of the sword spirit and asked in a trembling voice.

Glancing between the excited and awed expressions of Elder Mei and Madeline, Zen pouted his lips and crossed his arms petulantly. Through Phoebe's guidance, Zen was already well-aware that his sword spirit seemed to be related to some queen of the Demon Night. But of course, he ultimately knew that his sword spirit could not speak at all.

He felt kind of bad for the members of the Demon Night if they disappointingly found out that Lily could not speak after all their enthusiasm.

Just as Zen was thinking this, the next scene caused his mouth to fall wide open and his eyes to become the size of saucers. It was unmistakable that he clearly heard his sword spirit say, “It is me.”

The frigid tone that the sword spirit had used distinctly revealed an unparalleled dignity. With just those three words coming out of her mouth, every creature that happened to hear her voice immediately felt insignificant and small in comparison. With their expressions visibly exuding wonderment, some of the other creatures could not help but also want to kneel in front of her.

Once again, Madeline and Elder Mei dropped to one knee in the presence of the sword spirit without further ado.

In the meantime, even Zen, Malcom, and Fabian had to rely on their strong wills to restrain their urge to kneel down.

Understandably, the most shocked individual out of all of them was Zen.

“Th-this…” he started to stammer. His heart seemed to want to jump out of his chest at the moment due to being overwhelmed. How and why did Lily suddenly speak?

Sword spirits were indeed created when swordsmen constantly trained their sword intent, but it was relatively easier for Zen to get his sword spirit. What he had done to achieve this was he climbed up the mountain and kept on absorbing the sword spirits of other swordsmen.

Logically speaking, even if he had absorbed and acquired numerous sword spirits back then, it should not have been so easy for his sword spirit to have a human figure.

However, after having absorbed this woman's sword spirit, a strange thing had happened—his sword spirit had become how she looked as of now.

Shaking his head vehemently at his thoughts, he was sure that no matter what she looked like, she was still his sword spirit. Furthermore, the sword spirit was not a living being, but it was supposed to act according to his own will.

At this moment, however, the sword spirit had spoken and left Zen speechless and startled by the implications that dawned on him right then and there.

It was no wonder why the sword spirit had brandished the black sword and stopped before slicing Cheryl's neck—she had her own rational thought processes, so she was naturally unwilling to kill her own clansman despite the order of Zen.

In a flash, Lily turned around and stared indifferently into Zen's eyes, her frame emitting an endless aura of a queen. It was as if a person like her was simply born to be superior over others, and all life forms were born to pay their respects and kneel at her feet.

“You..” Zen started to speak, his hesitation wanting to clamp his mouth shut but he continued anyway. “Who are you?”

As a matter of fact, no matter how big or intimidating the creatures that Zen encountered, he had never been as flustered as he was now, anxiously waiting for Lily's reply. Even when having faced the Soul Symbol of the owner of the Tower of Sin, Zen did not feel an ounce of nervousness.

Amidst the confusion rampant in his mind, his own sword spirit opened her mouth to speak. Such a strange occurrence had caused Zen to be tongue-tied.