CHAPTER 28: CHAPTER 28: BRILLIANT, TRULY BRILLIANT

EDITOR: ENDLESSFANTASY TRANSLATION

Perhaps Jiang Xinyu’s gesture was an insult to the Leopard King’s dignity, and in an instant, the Leopard King roared, charging toward Wang Lan and his team.

On either side were towering cliffs that reached into the clouds. The path was at most ten meters wide, a true narrow passage. The Leopard King’s charge was like a high-speed train barreling down, and the confined space left Wang Lan and the others with no room to dodge.

Gong Feiyu quickly activated an Earth Attribute Star Martial Skill, erecting an earthen wall in front of the Flaming Leopard.

BOOM—

The Leopard King’s momentum remained unaltered. It rammed into the earthen wall, which shattered instantly. The Flaming Leopard, enveloped in flames, broke through the wall and opened its huge mouth to spray out a giant fireball.

The fireball instantly engulfed the entire canyon, filling the space between the cliffs, and surged toward Wang Lan and his party with terrifying speed. Wang Youle, standing at the very back, turned pale with fear.

To make a comparison, the Leopard King’s fireball was like a bonfire, while Wang Youle’s was, at best, a matchstick. If any other Star Shine Stage team faced this situation, they would undoubtedly be wiped out.

In an instant, Jiang Xinyu’s figure flashed to the front of the group, her Star Power surging as she brought her palms together before her.

"Extreme Wall of Water—"

A column of water sprayed from Jiang Xinyu’s mouth. As it funneled through the Star Martial Array in front of her, it gushed out like a river, colliding violently with the incoming fireball.

BOOM— A thick cloud of smoke arose, and the silent gorge transformed into a sauna. Dense steam obscured their vision; suddenly, it was impossible to see a thing within the gorge.

Seizing this opportunity, Wang Lan rushed toward the Flaming Leopard. Neither Wang Lan nor the Flaming Leopard could see, but in this long, narrow gorge, only about ten meters wide, one merely needed to know the approximate distance, not see clearly.

For a beast, locking onto prey and then killing it is a sequence. If it couldn’t lock onto its prey, a beast would rather let the prey escape than attack.

Thirty meters, for Wang Lan, was a distance covered in only two or three seconds.

By the time Wang Lan lunged at the Flaming Leopard and it registered his presence, his punch was already hurtling toward the Flaming Leopard’s jaw.

"Inch Strength—"

Had its vision been clear, the Flaming Leopard might have nimbly dodged Wang Lan’s attack. However, it spotted him too late; before it could react after locking onto him, Wang Lan’s punch had already landed.

BOOM—

A ripple, visible to the naked eye, spread from Wang Lan’s fist, and a terrifying force exploded on the Leopard King’s jaw. At that moment, the Leopard King’s eyes bulged, almost popping from their sockets, bloodshot veins spreading throughout.

Its body flew high into the air, shooting up towards the sky almost vertically.

SWISH, a blade’s gleam appeared in Wang Lan’s hand. Taking advantage of the moment the Leopard King arched its body, he thrust his battle blade fiercely toward its abdomen.

THUD—

With a muffled sound, the Leopard King’s body bent sharply like a shrimp. The blade had failed to pierce the Flaming Leopard’s soft belly. Wang Lan’s strength was already more than double that of an ordinary person. Coupled with the sharpness of his battle blade, he was confident he could pierce a three-millimeter-thick steel plate. Yet, this strike couldn’t even penetrate the Flaming Leopard’s skin.

Its soft fur is even tougher than a Snow Spider’s stacked armor? All the Snow Spiders that had died by Wang Lan’s hand would likely be turning in their graves.

In that instant, the Leopard King also reacted, snapping its jaws toward Wang Lan’s shoulder. Wang Lan hurriedly raised his battle blade to block the Leopard King’s sharp teeth.

CRACK— The Leopard King bit Wang Lan’s battle blade in half as if it were a biscuit, snapping it crisply.

Wang Lan, having narrowly escaped, quickly retreated. Suddenly, the ground beneath his feet cracked open, and two figures, wielding two-handed great swords, struck down at the Flaming Leopard from either side.

THUD! THUD!—

Two muffled, heavy sounds, yet the two-handed great swords also failed to inflict significant damage on the Leopard King. After the impacts, the Leopard King rolled backward, retreating more than ten meters before shaking its head and staggering to its feet again.

"Logically, our coordinated strike should have killed it," Xu Xiangwen said. "But who could have anticipated its defense would be so terrifying? It’s on a completely different level than an ordinary Flaming Leopard."

"Besides their fire attribute, Flaming Leopards also possess a hardening ability. The Leopard King can harden its entire body... I underestimated its strength. We’re helpless against its hardening ability. The most we can likely do is retreat unharmed; killing it is unlikely," Jiang Xinyu added calmly, stepping up.

While the disparity in levels isn’t absolute, in ninety-nine percent of cases, such a gap renders one powerless. To kill an opponent of a higher level, too many conditions must be met. Just like the coordinated strike moments ago, the Leopard King nullified Wang Lan’s and Xu Xiangwen’s attacks merely by using its full-body hardening.

"But clearly, the Leopard King doesn’t think so," Wang Lan said coldly, staring at the beast before him.

The Leopard King stood up again, its expression even more twisted and ferocious. Droplets of saliva dripped from its bared fangs, and flames surged violently around its body.

The flames on a Flaming Leopard indicated its state; the more furiously they burned, the more enraged and aggressive it was.

ROAR— Suddenly, flames erupted beneath the Leopard King’s feet, and in an instant, its body transformed into a streak of light. Flame Acceleration—this was another of the Leopard King’s Talented Skills.

Although Flame Acceleration only lasted for about thirty seconds, under its effect, the Flaming Leopard’s speed could exceed five hundred yards per second. At such a velocity, no prey could escape its pursuit.

The moment flames shot out from beneath the Flaming Leopard’s feet, Wang Lan and the others leaped high into the air. Confronting the Flaming Leopard head-on during its full-speed charge was suicidal. While using Flame Acceleration, the Leopard King would also employ its full-body hardening. Being struck by an object moving at five hundred yards per second would send even a tank flying.

Almost the instant Wang Lan jumped, a burst of flame shot past from beneath their feet, heading behind them. The five of them clung tightly to the cliff face. They had just managed to look back when Xu Xiangwen saw the Leopard King completing another charge.

This time, the Leopard King was actually scaling the vertical cliff face, heading straight for Xu Xiangwen.

"Damn it, it’s cheating!"

It was indeed cheating. A leopard, running up a sheer cliff as if on flat ground, completely defying gravity. It was enough to rewrite Xu Xiangwen’s understanding of middle school physics.

With no time to hesitate, Xu Xiangwen leaped down from the cliff. The Flaming Leopard, a fiery blur, brushed past where Xu Xiangwen had been a moment before, nearly touching him.

"Xinyu, do you have a plan?" Wang Lan shouted, panicked. The Leopard King had unleashed its ultimate move, one that could instantly kill anyone in its path. Wang Lan’s Phoenix Form was still on cooldown; Jiang Xinyu was their only hope.

But Jiang Xinyu’s brow was furrowed. "I don’t have any lockdown skills. Even with powerful Star Martial Skills, I wouldn’t be able to hit it. But..."

Suddenly, Jiang Xinyu stopped mid-sentence and leaped down from the cliff.

Everyone was momentarily stunned, not understanding her intentions. After landing back in the canyon, Jiang Xinyu’s body shimmered with Star Power. A rapidly spinning cone of Speedy Wind appeared on her arm, solidifying into an extremely dense green spear.

"Xinyu, are you insane? Fire overpowers wind! Your Spear of Wind will melt when it gets near the Leopard King’s flames!"

Jiang Xinyu heard Wang Lan’s outcry, but her expression remained resolute. As the team’s only Star Cloud Stage warrior and its captain, she was acutely aware that the fire attribute countered the wind attribute. But what else could she do?

Her strongest offensive Star Martial Skill was wind-attributed, and it possessed the greatest single-target killing potential. Ice-attribute Star Martial Skills were indeed powerful, but she hadn’t had the chance to learn them before breaking through to the Star Cloud Stage.

So, despite knowing that wind was suppressed by fire, she had no choice but to grit her teeth and face it head-on.

At least, if she took action, there was a slim chance of survival. For anyone else, it would be certain death.

Meanwhile, the Leopard King had turned, its blood-red eyes locked onto Jiang Xinyu. Flames erupted beneath its feet once more, and in an instant, it shot toward Jiang Xinyu like a streak of light.

"Feiyu, make a runway for the Leopard King!" Wang Lan suddenly had a stroke of inspiration and shouted urgently.

"Got it—"

Speed, beyond a certain point, becomes uncontrollable, whether by others or by oneself.

Under Flame Acceleration, the Leopard King could only charge forward, following its inertia. The only way to stop was to deactivate Flame Acceleration and then slow down to a controllable speed.

So, if a track was provided, the Leopard King would follow it. It was like playing with slot cars; even if the car had no steering, as long as there was a track, it could race along complex routes at high speed.

As the Leopard King began its charge, a raised layer of earth instantly appeared on the straight path before it. The layer didn’t need to be very thick; at such high speed, the Flaming Leopard’s feet exerted minimal force on the ground, its body almost floating.

WHOOSH— The Flaming Leopard shot up the suddenly formed ramp and sped along it, straight into the sky. By the time the Leopard King realized its intended target had vanished, it was already airborne.

Jiang Xinyu, who had braced herself for a desperate fight, stared in bewilderment at the collapsing earthen ramp before her, then looked up at the Flaming Leopard now soaring freely through the air.

"Whose idea was that?"

"Only Wang Lan could come up with such a devious plan," Gong Feiyu said, jumping down from the cliff and clapping his hands. "What seemed like an unbeatable killing move was just a matter of not finding the right approach. If you find it, it’s actually quite easy to handle."

Providing a runway for the Flame Acceleration skill was a stroke of genius.

Once the method was revealed, anyone could understand its principle, yet no one had thought of it before. People died at the hands of the Leopard King every year, and its Flame Acceleration skill was spoken of by Star Martial Warriors at the trial grounds as a nightmare, yet no one had found a way to counter it.

Wang Lan felt a surge of gratitude. QQ Speed really is a great game.

ROAR—

Having crashed down from the sky in a disoriented heap, the Flaming Leopard let out an enraged roar. It couldn’t understand how it had suddenly been launched into the air. Perhaps it would conclude it had awakened a flying ability, but it would never guess its Flame Acceleration had been so effortlessly thwarted.

The flames beneath its feet burned with scorching intensity. Once again, the Flaming Leopard transformed into a beam of light, charging towards Wang Lan and his comrades, who were now grouped together.

This time, I will shatter you all— the Leopard King thought, its eyes burning red with fury.

Gong Feiyu took a step forward but was stopped by Jiang Xinyu’s outstretched hand. "My turn!"

As her words fell, an ice bridge suddenly materialized in front of the Leopard King. It morphed into a spiraling, roller-coaster-like track, one end connecting to the side of a greenish cliff face.

Witnessing this, Wang Lan gave Jiang Xinyu an impressed thumbs-up. "Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!"