I gathered what little magic power I had left and began to chant, “Oh Light Elements, my great friends, I request of you, use your power to become an endless radiance and transform into little stars, annihilate the enemies before you.” This was my strongest large scale attack spell, rank 8 light magic, Bright Stars’ Shine.
Although it was daytime, I could still see specks of white light gathering toward me. It surrounded my body, turning into a ball of golden light; I slowly floated from the ground. When I floated about five meters off the ground, the ball of light suddenly burst and released golden starlight amongst the wide expanse. The stone giants within a hundred meters were completely enveloped by the starlight. As it passed through their solid bodies, open cavities were left behind. The stone giants within 100 meters were completely annihilated. This had created a brief moment of safety.
While I was in the air, I spat out a mouthful of blood from my excessive use of magic power and dropped down. A golden light flashed and Xiao Jin caught me on his back.
A hundred meters away, I saw the stone giants slowly approaching. I shouted through clenched teeth, “Xiao Jin, use the last of your power and bring everyone away, quickly!”
Xiao Jin let out a sound of lament, clearly unwilling to leave me.
Everyone had already come over and crowded around. Everyone was injured, we bitterly smiled at one another.
I urgently said, “Quickly leave! Otherwise it’ll be too late.”
Zhan Hu smiled, saying, “Foolish Little Brother, do you think we still have the strength to fly out? I’m afraid your magic beast is also unable to carry anyone. Look at his wing.”
Sure enough, Xiao Jin’s left wing had a large wound. It seems he could not fly.
Distressed, I said, “Don’t tell me everyone wants this place to be their grave? Blame me. Blame me for having you follow me. Blame me for not listening to Grandpa Barrier’s words and having everyone be buried with me. I am unworthy of you. If I had you leave at the beginning perhaps you still would have been able to escape.” Remorseful tears flowed down my cheeks.
Xing Ao scolded, “Enough. Zhang Gong, we are all good brothers. Although we could live together, is dying together so bad? We’ll just organize another Brilliant Battle Squadron in the afterlife and sweep across the world of ghosts.” With this said, he tightly grasped my hand.
Xiu Si said, “Xing Ao is correct. We are forever brothers. Besides, you did nothing wrong.”
Xiao Jin lowered his body and licked me with his tongue. Closing his eyes, he snuggled against me. It is clear that he wanted to die together with me.
Everyone joined hands together. A strong sense of companionship filled our hearts. We saw the stone giants have already reached 50 meters of us, all of them announcing the declaration of certain death. At this time, resistance was already meaningless. Nobody spoke a word more and waited together for death to arrive.
The giants gradually grew closer.
40 meters… 30 meters… 20 meters… 10 meters… 5 meters…
We glanced at each other, then we closed our eyes.
Not a minute had passed. Baffled, I thought, ‘How am I still not dead? I am not afraid of death. The others were trembling as they waited for death.’
Unable to bear the impatience, I opened my eyes. I was stunned by the scene before me.
It was the same as if we had just entered the Forest of Gods. How dense. How beautiful. The environment was filled with ancient trees that reached the sky. However, the bloodthirsty giants disappeared without a sound. If everyone no longer had the same injuries as before, perhaps I could then reason I was no longer alive.
Similarly, they could no longer wait and one by one everyone opened their eyes. They were all stunned by the scene before them.
After quite a while, we finally reacted. We simultaneously roared from the joy of escaping mortal danger.
I loudly yelled, “We aren’t dead! We aren’t dead!”
Xiao Jin turned into a gold light and returned to my body.
“What is going on? How did those giants disappear?”
“Could it be their time ended?”
“Regardless, nobody died. It is as such.”
We all sat on the floor and leaned against the large trees. With my mind cleared, I said, “The most important thing right now is to immediately recover our strength.”
Xiu Si took out the rations and water while I took out some medical supplies from my dimensional pocket. Everyone bound their wounds, ate their respective rations and dizzily lied down. We were extremely tired.
Not knowing how long we slept, we all woke up. Everyone’s strength recovered a bit. I also felt much more comfortable.
It was already late. We had finished eating our rations and sat around the open fire.
I broke the silence first, “It would be better to not advance. Let’s travel back.”
Zhan Hu said, “No way. We all traveled here with much difficulty. We absolutely cannot give up halfway.”
“However, I do not want anyone to continue accompanying me on my adventure. You should all go back. I’ll complete my mission by myself.”
Xiu Si angrily said, “Zhang Gong, who do you take us for? Are we really so fearful of death? Is there anyone here who here wishes to leave?”
Xing Ao loudly said, “Xiu Si words are right. We aren’t shirking cowards.”
I looked to the left and then to the right. To my surprise, no one was willing to leave. I sighed and stood up. Then I deeply bowed towards everyone. “Thank you all. You are my greatest brothers.” Emotional tears flowed down.
Dong Ri also stood and embraced my shoulders, “Zhang Gong, what are you doing? We are all brothers. Besides, we too want to witness the holy sword.”
Zhan Hu broke the heavy mood and changed the subject, saying, “We should plan our next move.”
Xiu Si said, “I feel that everyone should first recover from their injuries and reach their peak condition. Then we will continue onward. This way, it will be a bit safer.”
I nodded, “Right. I think so too. We still don’t know what other dangers lie ahead.”
Zhan Hu said, “I also agree. We should cut down the surrounding trees to make an encirclement. Then we’ll take turns keeping watch. Everyone else will go to sleep.”
After ten days of rest and organization, everyone had finally recovered to their peak condition. After my previous exertion, Xiao Jin seems to mature a bit. He could already absorb a bit of energy from the world. With this, he can accompany me in battles for a longer period of time. The gold sphere in my body felt more stable than before. It flashed a pure gold inside my body. My magic mimicry attacks (Spells in which I directly use magic power to transform it into my intended form without incantations are called magic mimicry attacks) were much easier to use than before. It seems I have improved. Teacher Di was right, only with continuous temperament could I obtain even greater progress.
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Volume 3: Chapter 42-Looking for the Holy Sword
Everyone changed to a different extent. Dong Ri’s progress was especially fast. Many had assumed that his strength was the weakest. Everyone could give him pointers. I felt that during the fight for life or death with the stone giants, Dong Ri fully realized what he was lacking. He humbly asked everyone for their guidance. After only ten days of tireless diligence, he had felt as if he had shed his mortal body and exchanged his bones. His strength had already caught up to Gao De and Xing Ao.
Everyone packed up to continue the treasure hunt.
After three days passed without an incident, the Forest of Gods seemed to be endless.
I froze in my tracks as I felt a slight fluctuation in magic. “Everyone wait, there’s a magic fluctuation nearby.”