CHAPTER 57: CHAPTER 56: THE PATH OF THE WITCH

As a caster, the first thing to do when facing a physical dagger is to distance yourself.

The Celestial Blue Ring from the mysterious young girl seemed to convey this will, growing hotter the closer it got to the Black Armored Knight.

The black lightning he released was evidently identical to the special ship cannons on the Imperial Warship, with one striking term standing out on the panel—"Annihilator."

It pointed directly to the origin of the purple flesh-like substance, serving as both equipment and energy core for this Black Warrior. Li Ang’s perception told him that the knight’s armor and sword shared a strange spirituality with this flesh-like substance, not proper equipment.

As the panel mentioned, this warrior was "manufactured," rather than reaching its combat power through legitimate means—otherwise, with the Empire’s existence for so long, it would be impossible for no one to have heard of such warriors.

His eerie power should be well-suited to his profession and race, as a Berserker is a profession that forsakes defense for relentless slaughter; the stronger the physique, the higher the recovery power, and the stronger the combat ability of this profession.

The race also seemed deliberately chosen, because among the many races of the Nebis, aside from individuals with extraordinary talent, the Horned Race was the most suitable for warrior professions.

They were also called the Doraf tribe, and besides the pair of horns on their heads, there was a huge disparity between their males and females.

The males were tall and muscular with superhuman strength, while the females were smaller but bore fruit just like thin branches, possessing gender characteristics other races couldn’t compete with. Though their strength didn’t match the males, they surpassed other races, with even greater explosiveness.

Because of this, the combat power amplification of this black-armored Horned Race Berserker was very high. He had no name—he was born for slaughter. On paper, this power matched the main combat abilities of the Celestial Group.

However, their numbers would not be many. If the Empire could mass-produce such warriors, the order of the sky would need rewriting.

Merely his appearance proved that what the Empire was advancing in secret after sealing the fairways was not a simple matter.

The Holy Speriel Empire, as the antagonist in the mid-stages of "Nebis Fantasy," couldn’t entirely consist of small fry. More elite must surely emerge later, but appearing so early probably meant that Li Ang’s breaking through the fairway blockade significantly impacted their plans, even directly disrupting the early dark line plot trajectory.

Thus it seemed, Lanslow being unable to contact headquarters was originally the Empire’s handiwork, and in the game’s original plot, he was intended to be kept outside, while colleagues within were held off by various Imperial methods.

But did they dare make a move without knowing that the primary force guarding Ignis Sky Realm was the Order Flame Corps led by their commander, the "Holy Knight" lady ranked in the top ten?

Doubts couldn’t be analyzed in time as Li Ang accelerated with the wind; the Black Armored Warrior charged in pursuit, black lightning exploding one by one around him, and extremely strange distorted magic power enveloped his entire body, forming hovering black-purple blades.

These blades were his summoned creatures, directly projected over to embed into Li Ang’s magic energy shield. The thunderous crack of magic from the black lightning-clad blades slicing through the shield resounded as over half of the shield was reduced.

Upon reaching about Tier 8 strength, powerhouses typically could specially control magic-created matter, using it as additional combat units. Eden could summon similar things before.

If not for keeping a distance, such melee daggers posed a deadly threat to those without excellent armor.

Li Ang replenished the air shield, but the Black Armored Warrior slightly sank his body, crushing the ground beneath his black steel boots, and his massive body collided like a cannonball, gripping a giant sword in his bulky arm, obviously poised to slash a fatal blow upon approach.

If slashed with certainty, Li Ang would be reduced to a pile of flesh on the spot.

Li Ang directly activated the Secret Technique.

Magic began to stir the surrounding spirits into turbulence, primarily manipulating the spirituality on the Annihilation Knight.

Everything on him, even his being, contained bizarre spirituality. Once influenced by Li Ang, chaos ensued; he twisted in the air, his momentum halted, plummeting to the ground, unable to move.

"Ugh, ugh ah!"

The Tumult of Ten Thousand Spirits typically only stalled an Excellence Realm-level enemy’s movement, yet it seemed surprisingly effective on this warrior. He appeared to suffer immense pain; with spirituality out of control, his body convulsed and writhed, even letting out cries.

From his helmet and the aura of silence, Li Ang even got the illusion that he was an Undead Creature. But now it seemed, after all, he could perceive pain.

The Black Armored Knight’s body twisted, and in the gaps of his giant sword and armor, those purple substances seemed to transform into separate living entities. They twisted, stretched, and bounced everywhere like mollusks trying to escape the knight’s body.

What? Such a strong reaction?

Could it be that this power didn’t truly belong to him, so the Tumult of Ten Thousand Spirits could exert such impact?

Seizing this opportunity, Li Ang summoned the Earth Serpent, and it fired the Jadestone Beam, selecting the water attribute in its Ice State this time.

After the Energy Gem flickered rapidly, an overwhelming ice torrent engulfed the entire street; the struggling Black Armored Knight was doused head-on, shards of ice and chill filled the gaps in his armor, almost encasing him and those writhing purple fleshy parts under a layer of frost.

The cold air flowed like a flood, coating the street’s corners, causing walls to frost and floors to freeze.

The Wind Elemental Summoning turned its power into a magic hurricane, enveloping the knight, countless wind blades continually slicing.

"Ugh, ugh ah ah oh oh—!"

The icebound Black Warrior tilted his head and roared, releasing an enormous amount of black lightning from his entire body. Strange magic focused in front of his helmet’s eye pattern, morphing in the next moment into a torrent of energy shockwave.

Li Ang fully activated the Wind Chaser’s Holy Bell, the Earth Serpent transformed its form and stayed close to him, while the Wind Elemental Summoning transformed, carrying him into the air.

"Roar——!!"

The shockwave carried the roar, shattering the floors and walls all the way, causing a large area of small houses in front to collapse.

Under the influence of the Tumult of Ten Thousand Spirits and the attack of the Jadestone Beam, the Black Knight launched a Secret Technique counterattack.

If it hadn’t been weakened, perhaps the destructive power of his Secret Technique would have been stronger and perhaps wouldn’t be able to be dodged. In any case, Li Ang didn’t want to confront it head-on.

After releasing the shockwave, the Black Knight knelt on the ground in temporary silence. Li Ang descended from the air, just reaching the entrance of a hidden location. He didn’t intend to continue fighting that thing, as although the witch’s power could suppress it, he currently had no means to completely eliminate it.

Li Ang pushed a brick close to the ground, pulled the mechanism inside, and the wall turned into a revolving door, which he entered.

In the darkness of the passage, the Celestial Blue Ring maintained the same heat, and after a while, the heat weakened, indicating the Black Knight had left.

Li Ang took a moment, then took out the Adventure Lantern.

The space he was currently in was part of the hidden location, which the system called the "city’s underlayers."

Both sides were built with bricks and stones. Li Ang walked forward for a distance, reaching a downward staircase.

He walked down the stairs, pondering the matter of his Profession.

As it stands, the Empire’s core power is that purple, flesh-like organization, which can generate black lightning against the Star Soul and cultivate the kind of High Tier combat power just seen.

But that substance fears Li Ang’s Spiritual Control.

Previously, he hadn’t used the Tumult of Ten Thousand Spirits to attack those ship cannons, but he just noticed some clues.

Witch countering the Empire’s power?

Li Ang initially paid attention to the witch, thinking he had found a loophole in the rules as a Transmigrator.

Such an unchosen vocation, using magic power not to interfere with matter but to interfere with Spirituality, wasn’t it a natural loophole?

But after starting to learn, he realized the difference between his thoughts and reality.

Nebis indeed has such a Profession with its uniqueness, but its weakness is also because it has lost a lot of heritage.

No one knows which power or race promoted this Profession, nor why it lost most of its heritage. Nebis’ history is so ancient that many people have long since stopped worrying about the lost past.

Yet, in the end, Li Ang chose it. Because even though his body was a few years younger when he transmigrated, it was still a bit late to cultivate other Professions.

The witch emphasizes perception. As long as his perception passes, he can gradually get on the right track. With a little cultivation, he discovered he could make progress in this Profession.

He also gradually discovered and utilized some of this Profession’s irreplaceable characteristics.

However, other Professions can find ways to learn skills or Magic, but the witch’s heritage is broken. Besides basic Spiritual Manipulation, even Spell Writing has to be experimented with personally.

In the lagging areas of the Transcendent Tier, it’s okay to compensate, but upon reaching the Excellence Stage, other professions can use magic power to create things and build their specific Summoned Creatures, aligning with the principle of the Spirit, matter, and magic power triangle. But it’s different for the witch.

The witch seems to have jumped out of this basic principle. After controlling more powerful magic power, how should Spirituality be interfered with? Even though magic control has reached the Level 9 profession standard, without corresponding moves and skills, it’s mostly a case of consuming Casting Materials to emulate other professions, thus seen as having many abilities but lacking precision.

To explore the potential of the Profession itself, during his cultivation process, Li Ang had visited ancient tribes, conversing with various Mages and Witch Doctors, collecting Curse Runes which the Sky Knights were not too concerned about, communicating with the Elemental Spirits, Ancestor Souls, and Wilderness Wandering Souls of these tribes, and underwent their tests and rituals.

In the end, he seemed to grasp a little light in the darkness.

Those are his two major moves, Secret Technique—Tumult of Ten Thousand Spirits and Tier Seven Curse—Spiritual Activation.

Although simple, most of the time, he could rely solely on these two to play a stronger role compared to ordinary support.

After the recent events, he increasingly had a feeling that being a witch might indeed be an unusual Profession.

It can activate the tricky switches of ancient ruins and suppress the power behind the Empire.

He decided to find some time to return to those tribes and see if the system could display more information about the Profession.

After completing the stairs, Li Ang arrived at the depths of the city’s underlayers.