Chương 140: The Unexpected "Prisoner" and the Knight's True Face

The declaration of battle has been issued, and the air is thick with tension, as if swords are about to be drawn.

Xingxian hovered in mid-air, her pale purple hair swaying slightly in the night breeze. Her clear, silver-gray eyes were as cold as frost, staring at the dark figure on the ground without any emotion.

She was not swayed in the slightest by Ji Ying's somewhat strange question. In her view, any words spoken by the Void Realm Apostle were nothing more than a despicable trick to confuse the opponent.

The next moment, Xingxian gently raised her slender right hand, and the surging magic power around her instantly condensed.

This time, it was no longer a single beam of magic, but several more condensed and faster pale purple energy arrows, blocking all possible evasion routes for Silent Shadow from different angles.

Faced with this continuous probing attack, Ji Ying did not choose to confront it head-on, nor did she take to the air to engage Xing Xian in aerial combat.

Its massive, heavy, jet-black armored body moved across the ground with an agility that was completely out of proportion to its appearance, constantly dodging and weaving in small areas.

Every time the magic beam was about to hit him, he could perfectly sidestep, lower himself, or take a simple step to narrowly avoid it.

Occasionally, when there is an attack that he cannot completely dodge, he will raise his arm covered with heavy armor plates and accurately block the attack's path.

With a muffled clang, the magic beam struck an impenetrable barrier, exploding into a dazzling halo. It could only create ripples of energy on the surface of the armor, but could not leave any trace.

"This kind of magical beam of power—" Jiying silently assessed in his mind, "Although it still can't shake my current form's defense, if it were my previous lightly armed form, I definitely wouldn't have been able to block it so easily."

"Choosing to switch back to heavy armor form immediately was definitely the right choice."

He tilted his head slightly, his dark red eyes peering through the gaps in his mask as he calmly observed the elegant magical girl in mid-air.

"Moreover, such an attack must consume a lot of magic power, yet she can use it continuously—is this the strength of a Rainbow Light-level Inspector?"

"Not to mention, she hasn't shown any intention of using her magical armor or unique spells yet. Does she think the threat I'm putting on isn't enough to make her use them? Or—is she waiting for an opportunity?"

On the other side, Xingxian saw that all her probing attacks had been neutralized by Jiying, and a trace of solemnity flashed in her silver-gray eyes. In her eyes, the dark knight below was like a slippery and extremely hard rock.

No matter how dense and tricky her attacks were, her opponent could always neutralize them in a seemingly clumsy but actually effective manner, and always maintained a distance that was neither too close nor too far, neither taking the initiative to get closer nor being truly forced back by her attacks.

"This guy has ridiculously high defense, but he doesn't seem to be good at ranged attacks and aerial combat. His movements are also a bit slow because of that heavy armor."

"He's been dodging and defending on the ground. Is he waiting for my magic to run out, or—is he looking for an opening in my attack to try and get closer?"

Although Xingxian had a certain understanding of Jiying's fighting style, he did not let his guard down.

As an experienced inspector, she knew that no Void Realm Apostle should be underestimated, as they were often more cunning and dangerous than they appeared.

She continued to hover in mid-air, constantly changing the angle and intensity of her attacks, trying to find a weakness in Ji Ying's defense, while deliberately maintaining a safe distance from the ground, not giving her opponent any easy opportunity to get close.

Time passed second by second, but Ji Ying remained like an unshakable black mountain, and no matter how much Xing Xian's magic raged, it could not truly harm him in the slightest.

He simply kept parrying and dodging, occasionally swinging the sharp blades on his arm armor to disperse some of the overly dense attacks, but he never took the initiative to launch a decent counterattack.

After this passive, defensive situation continued for some time, Ji Ying finally seemed to make a mistake while dodging a magic beam from Xing Xian at a tricky angle.

His massive, heavily armored body swayed suddenly, as if he had stepped on a loose stone, causing him to lose his balance and stagger backward several steps. He looked extremely disheveled and clumsy, as if he would fall to the ground at any moment due to his unstable center of gravity.

"Now!"

A glint of light flashed in Xingxian's eyes as he keenly caught this fleeting but enormous flaw.

Without further hesitation, pale purple magic surged around her, and she swooped down from mid-air like an arrow, instantly closing the distance between herself and Ji Ying.

Upon reaching Jiying's vicinity, her fair fingertips danced lightly, and countless magical threads shimmering with pale purple light shot out, swiftly and precisely wrapping around Jiying's limbs and torso, which appeared somewhat sluggish due to their imbalance.

Several magical threads successfully wrapped around Silent Shadow's heavy arm and leg armor, and quickly tightened, digging deep into the gaps in the dark armor, making a teeth-grinding "crunch" sound.

Faced with this sudden binding attack, Ji Ying had no chance to dodge and was firmly bound to the spot, unable to move.

"Hmph, caught you!" Xingxian smiled coldly, feeling confident of victory.

Without giving Jiying any chance to catch her breath, the dazzling pale purple magic around her gathered wildly as if guided, forming a highly compressed energy ball at the tip of her staff, exuding a destructive aura.

The light from this energy sphere grew brighter and brighter, and the terrifying energy it contained even caused the surrounding air to begin to distort slightly.

"it's over!"

A cold, resolute glint flashed in Xingxian's eyes. She believed that at such close range, and completely bound by her magic threads, this apostle from the illusory realm had absolutely no chance of escaping or surviving.

However, just as the magical beam of energy in her palm, powerful enough to destroy everything, was about to be fully condensed and ready to strike Ji Ying's head, a sudden change occurred!

The heavily armored knight, who was tightly bound by magic threads and should have been unable to move, suddenly began to writhe violently, as if he were alive, in the thick shadow cast by the intense light of the energy ball beneath him.

The next moment, the threads, having lost their binding target, drooped helplessly to the ground, and Ji Ying's enormous figure vanished into thin air without a sound.

"What?!" Xingxian's pupils contracted sharply, and alarm bells rang wildly in her mind.

At the same time, the highly compressed energy ball she had created had fully charged up and, with a piercing whistling sound, slammed into the spot where Ji Ying had disappeared.

"boom!!!!!"

The deafening explosion resounded throughout the entire illusory bubble, and the terrifying energy shockwave, mixed with dust and smoke, spread wildly in all directions, completely shattering the already tottering illusory bubble.

Just as Xingxian was stunned and on guard because of the sudden disappearance of the target, and tried to search for the other party's trace in the swirling smoke and dust.

Using the chaotic light and shadow created by the explosion of the magic beam and the new shadows created by the billowing smoke, a dark figure emerged silently from the shadow behind her, like a ghost.

The black blade in his hand gleamed with a colder and more deadly light than ever before, silently slashing towards Xingxian's unsuspecting, snow-white nape.

Although Jiying's appearance and attack were extremely fast and extremely well concealed, Xingxian, as an inspector of the magic kingdom, possessed combat instincts and a sense of danger far beyond those of ordinary magical girls.

In the final moments before the blade touched her neck, she still managed to sense the deadly threat from behind, thanks to her keen perception of the faint, ethereal energy fluctuations and the intuition honed through numerous life-or-death battles.

There was no time to be surprised, no time to even think about how the other person had done all this; her body had already reacted entirely on its fighting instincts— He took a sudden step forward, attempting to turn around at the last second to face the attack, while simultaneously reaching for the antique-style gear pocket watch on his chest with the fastest speed he had ever used.

However, just as her fingertips were about to touch the cold metal watch cover, a clear and desperate thought surged into her mind: —It's too late!

Not only because her hand didn't have time to touch the pocket watch before the black blade touched her neck, thus failing to use the magical power that could turn the tide of the battle.

Furthermore, she had just used up a massive amount of magic power to launch that powerful attack, and her magic power was in a brief period of depletion. In a short time, she simply could not mobilize enough energy to cast her unique spell, which also consumed a great deal of energy.

A deep sense of resentment flashed in Xingxian's silver-gray eyes. She still had an important mission to complete; she had not yet found her missing companions, nor had she found the whereabouts of her predecessors— —Is this how it's going to end?

Even at this critical moment between life and death, she did not close her eyes. Instead, with a stubbornness and a resolute determination as if facing death, she stared intently at the dark blade that was growing larger and larger in her field of vision.

It was as if they wanted to forever etch this enemy who had dealt them the fatal blow into the deepest part of their soul.

The expected coldness and excruciating pain of the blade cutting through her skin did not come as expected. The pitch-black blade, gleaming with a deadly cold light, stopped just before it touched her slender neck.

It hovered less than an inch in front of Xingxian's neck, and the chilling sharpness of its blade tip even gave her goosebumps.

"Eh?"

Xingxian was extremely surprised and confused by the sudden stop, and her mind went blank for a moment because of the huge contrast between hell and heaven.

Then, something even more astonishing happened, making her almost doubt whether she was hallucinating from excessive fear. Under Xingxian's wide, shocked silver-gray eyes, she saw the armor that had just covered the tall, imposing, and terrifyingly powerful black knight— Like ice and snow melting in the sunlight, it quickly transformed into specks of pure dark light, merging into his—no, her—body.

Instead, there was a black-haired, red-eyed beauty with a playful black side ponytail, wearing a scantily clad black cropped turtleneck jacket and denim shorts, and black knee-high boots that reached below her knees!

If it weren't for the lingering sharpness and oppressive aura of "Silent Shadow" in her dark red eyes, Xingxian would almost think she was having a bizarre dream.

"call--" Having transformed back into her lightly dressed girl form, Ji Ying let out a long, heavy sigh, her delicate face revealing an expression filled with helplessness and exhaustion.

She looked at Xingxian, who was completely stunned by this dramatic turn of events, and gently asked, "Now, you should believe me—I'm really not your enemy, right?"

As soon as she finished speaking, an irresistible feeling of weakness surged up like a tide, instantly engulfing all her consciousness.

Maintaining her heavy armor knight form to contend with Xingxian, forcibly suppressing Xingxian's fierce attacks, and precisely controlling her power at the last moment without harming her opponent in the slightest—all of this had caused a huge drain on the ethereal energy she had just replenished.

At this moment, after the sudden relaxation from a state of high tension, a strong feeling of exhaustion surged over her like a tidal wave, causing her body to go limp and fall forward uncontrollably.

In the instant that Jiying lost consciousness, the black jacket she was wearing, which was already too short, also disappeared completely after flashing a few times like a phantom due to a lack of enough ethereal energy to maintain its shape, revealing the same color strapless tight-fitting top underneath, as well as a large area of smooth and delicate skin on her shoulders and back.

After experiencing the immense mental shock of going from the brink of death to a stunning reversal, Xingxian's mind remained in a state of chaos and blankness.

From the despair of being on the brink of life and death, to the unbelievable sudden change in form, and then to the enemy who had just posed a deadly threat suddenly transforming into a scantily clad, petite, and frail young girl who was falling straight toward him— All of this happened in just a few seconds, but it brought her an unprecedented and revolutionary shock.

However, even when thoughts are in disarray, the body's instincts still outpace rational judgment.

The moment Jiying fell, Xingxian almost instinctively reached out and gently pulled her into his arms, preventing her from making direct contact with the cold ground. Then he took out a white cardigan from his Star Tears and covered her with it.

Then, she stiffly embraced the black-haired, red-eyed girl in her arms, who exuded a faint aura of ethereal energy, yet whose body was unusually supple and carried a delicate, girlish fragrance.

Looking at the other person's delicate face, which was slightly pale from exhaustion, Xingxian's expression became extremely complicated. She remained in the embrace, standing in the cold moonlight, silent for a long time.

Shock, confusion, disbelief, and—after confirming that the deadly threat had indeed disappeared, the relief of surviving a close call, and an indescribable, inexplicable emotion towards the suddenly weak and harmless girl before him.

She simply couldn't reconcile the seemingly adorable girl before her with the dark-armored knight who had exuded terrifying pressure and driven her to the brink of despair.

—What exactly is going on?

—Can a Void Realm Apostle really transform into something like this?

—And—what did she mean by what she just said?

"Now you should believe me—I'm really not your enemy, right?"

—Could it be—everything she did before, those seemingly passive defenses, those somewhat clumsy dodges, even that final loss of balance that she thought was a weakness— All of this was just to create an opportunity to launch a deadly attack and then stop, so that he could believe she meant no harm?

Countless questions flooded Xingxian's mind like a tidal wave, causing even her usually calm and composed heart to completely lose its composure.

—Can a Void Realm Apostle really turn into this?

And—what did she mean by what she just said?

"Now you should believe me—I'm really not your enemy, right?"

—Could it be—everything she did before, those seemingly passive defenses, those somewhat clumsy dodges, even that final loss of balance that she thought was a weakness— All of this was just to create an opportunity to launch a deadly attack and then stop, so that he could believe she meant no harm?

Countless questions flooded Xingxian's mind like a tide, causing her usually calm and composed heart to completely lose its composure at this moment.

She looked down at the girl in her arms, whose face, though pale in the moonlight, was still exquisite and beautiful as she slept, and whose docile and harmless appearance was due to her unconsciousness. Unconsciously, much of the wariness and hostility in her heart dissipated.

Instead, she felt a more intense confusion, and—a secret curiosity about this enigmatic existence that she herself was unaware of.

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