Night’s Nomenclature

Water, fire, and earth elemental Awakened Ones have always been the most sought-after targets of the various Inner World Conglomerates, with earth elementals being the most prized.

This is because these three elemental Awakened Ones can assimilate with their own abilities. Once they reach A-Class, after assimilating with the element, they are almost immune to Firearms; bullets hitting them are like hitting nothing at all.

Unless someone specifically targets and counters them, they are the Awakened Ones who walk sideways; at least they are stronger than many who can only be wild monsters.

Earth elementals are favored by the Conglomerates because they are natural bodyguards.

In the event of an attack, they can help the person they are protecting withstand bullets without dying, and they are also adept at stealth and assassination.

At this time, the fire elemental Awakened One had transformed into flames all over his body, looking at Zard's injury and saying, "Do you really think an earth elemental can just run around like that?"

"Are you badly injured?" Qing Chen didn't pay him any attention, but turned to Zard.

For ordinary people, an arm burn would be a case of skin being burnt and torn, but Zard is different. After being burned, his palm was like a glaze on porcelain, his palm seemed to have become a piece of porcelain, unable to move anymore.

Zard looked at his palm painfully: "Now, I can't use my whole-body sand ability."

Not transforming into sand, there's still a chance of slow recovery. Zard just needs to slowly shed the glaze like molting.

At this time, Zard's Face[-]muscles twitched in pain. He looked at the fire elemental Awakened One, then at his own palm, gritting his teeth and saying: "It's quite pretty!"

The fire elemental Awakened One was stunned, then laughed: "That's quite tough, but it's useless."

At this time, Zard looked at Qing Chen with some grievance: "Boss, I'm sorry, a Purple Orchid Star burned in my body."

Qing Chen's nose suddenly twitched: "What's one Purple Orchid Star? It's fine as long as you recover."

He never expected that Zard, who was already injured, would still be thinking about protecting those plants.

For some reason, he always felt that the other person's mind was as pure as a child's.

On the other side, Chen Bing of the Chen Family had already taken off the bamboo basket from his back and placed it on the ground. He silently sized up Qing Chen and the others, then rummaged through the bamboo basket.

The look on his Face[-]was like a butcher looking to see which knife was suitable before slaughtering a pig.

Qing Chen laughed. How did he end up being the lamb to be slaughtered?

He raised his hand and materialized his black sniper rifle, aiming at Chen Bing and pulling the trigger. But the moment he raised his hand, Chen Bing had already manually crushed a scroll.

When Qing Chen pulled the trigger, a tall Imperial Guard stood in front of Chen Bing.

The Imperial Guard was two meters tall, wearing bright armor, a breastplate on his chest, and holding a giant axe in his hand.

The black sniper bullet hit the breastplate, barely penetrating it, but not causing fatal damage.

Chen Bing stood behind the Imperial Guard, continuing to casually pick scrolls from the bamboo basket: "I spent a whole year painting this Imperial Guard. The paints used are ground from minerals from the Forbidden Zone, the armor is edged with gold powder, and the red scarf on the armor was dyed with my blood. You can't do anything to him, that's impressive."

Qing Chen's mind sharpened. He knew that the power of the person in the scroll was linked to the painter.

This Chen Bing was probably a top talent among the younger generation of the Chen Family, and may also be a key cultivation target who was quickly raised by Chen Yu using Purple Orchid Star.

Extraordinarily young, extraordinarily ferocious.

It must be said that the Chen Family Metahumans always have an advantage in combat. For them, the preparation for battle is completed before the battle even begins.

They use a painting they spent a year painting to fight one person; this in itself is a huge advantage.

Three hundred years ago, during a Chen Family crisis, an elder who had never participated in combat took out 11 scrolls in one breath and, burning his life, crushed them all.

On that day, the southern wilderness was like falling into a bizarre world, with countless Buddhas and ancient beasts appearing one after another.

It was truly a case of one person holding a pass, no one could pass.

This elder was obsessed with painting and calligraphy in his life. For him, the meaning of painting was just painting, not for fighting.

He was unwilling to crush the finished works.

After all, once crushed, they're gone.

Therefore, this elder was inconspicuous in the Chen Family his whole life.

Everyone knew that there was an eccentric old man in the mansion who painted but was unwilling to use his paintings, but they didn't know that the paintings he had accumulated his whole life had once helped the Chen Family survive a great disaster.

After that battle, the old man was withered, because he felt sorry for his paintings, and passed away with them.

A lifetime of only one battle, and that one battle made him famous in history; that's the Chen Family's Chen Black Tortoise.

Chen Yu's previous mention of painting countless Buddhas in the Demi-God battle was because of this anecdote.

From that time on, this Chen Family Demi-God had already shown his ambition.

Now, Chen Bing came with eight scrolls, already putting immense pressure on everyone present.

Qing Chen looked at Zhang Mengqian, Sun Chuci, Tuanzi: "Take Shadow and retreat. This is not something you can interfere in."

Among the experts present, only Qing Chen and Zard remained; Yang Yang was nowhere to be seen.

One A-Class and one B-Class facing two A-Class, and Zard was also naturally countered by the fire elemental Awakened One; this was a battle with a huge disparity in strength.

What to do?

It's not that Qing Chen had lost his fighting spirit, but at this moment, he really didn't know how to deal with it.

He can't let Zard deal with the fire elemental Awakened One, because Zard will die.

But Qing Chen's fighting style is also countered. Black sniper rifles are useless against fire elemental Metahumans who have assimilated with fire, the Autumn Leaf Blade is useless as a physical attack method, and he himself is more adept at close-quarters combat.

Once he gets close, he will probably have large burns all over his body immediately.

Use cloud energy? If it's an A-Class, he can try, but he's only a B-Class. Even if the cloud energy can injure the fire elemental Awakened One, it can at most only seriously injure him, not kill him.

Unsolvable.

This made Qing Chen realize a problem: he is far from invincible. Even though he has the dual identities of Knight and Awakened One, and has many transformations, he is useless in the Face[-]of absolute strength.

Having sent Shadow away, his most important thing is to continue to advance! To continue challenging the Trials of Life and Death!

Qing Chen glanced at the sky, then at Shadow, and he sneered: "When the fight starts, find a way to take Shadow Master away."

Qing Chen: "Zard, you go deal with that Chen Family guy, I'll hold off this fire-playing guy!"

Saying this, the two rushed towards the two sides of the valley.

Qing Chen used the black sniper rifle to fire.

But the fire elemental Awakened One just chuckled, not even dodging: "Guns are useless against me!"

There was a hint of a cat playing with a mouse in his tone.

As he spoke, Qing Chen suddenly spat out a mouthful of cloud energy. The white cloud energy, like surging waves of auspicious clouds, instantly filled the entire valley.

The fire elemental Awakened One suddenly felt something was wrong: "What is this!"

In an instant, the flames on his body were like they encountered a fire extinguisher, rapidly receding, almost forcing him back to his original form!

Qing Chen was overjoyed. Effective!

His cloud energy can actually have an effect on elemental types!

But before he could be happy for long, he saw the Awakened One's light shining brightly. The flames that had been suppressed, in an instant, exploded again, throwing Qing Chen away.

The Awakened One sneered in the firelight: "It seems you haven't encountered an A-Class fire elemental Awakened One. You wouldn't think that this little thing can kill me, would you? However, I underestimated you."

Before they came, Qing Chen's information had been thoroughly investigated.

Sniping ability, peak physical strength of a Knight, Autumn Leaf Blade, Thunder Awakened One, adept at disguise.

None of these abilities could threaten the fire elemental Awakened One, so he was so fearless.

Not everyone is as cautious as Shendai Yunhe.

Therefore, Qing Chen had just genuinely hurt him; although not fatal, it was still very painful.

But he couldn't say it.

Qing Chen got up from the ground, only to feel that the recent explosion of flames had shaken his heart and lungs, and half of his right eyebrow was burned.

What to do? Even cloud energy is useless against him?

Qing Chen clearly felt that if he were an A-Class, he could blow out the Awakened One with a mouthful of cloud energy, but the other party was now as if nothing had happened, making him somewhat puzzled.

He looked to the other side, where Zard, having lost an arm, was fighting Chen Bing, and stone thorns grew everywhere in the valley.

Chen Bing had already crushed the second scroll, from which a Vermillion Bird with a fiery tail flew out, spitting fire down.

Seeing the flames, Zard subconsciously retreated rapidly, but it was too late.

His entire right arm was glazed by the violently erupting flames.

Zard howled and backed away, and when he came to Qing Chen's side, he was still excitedly saying: "Boss, he didn't burn the Purple Orchid Star this time!"

Qing Chen fell silent.

"I'm sorry," Qing Chen said, "I dragged you down."

Saying this, Qing Chen closed his eyes.

He had heard people say that Awakened Ones could use overdrafting their lives as a price, burning themselves to fuel their awakened abilities.

Today, he was going to try.

However, at this moment, someone suddenly laughed from the stone wall above the valley: "Wow, this looks interesting. I finally made it in time. Hey, friend, do you need help?"

Friend?

Sun Chuci and the others looked up in surprise and saw Yang Yang, with a young man in white hunting attire, smiling at the bottom of the valley.

Shendai Yunluo.

The chosen one of the Shendai Consortium, the true controller of the Outer World's secret operations department, inexplicably appeared here.

The moment Chen Bing saw Shendai Yunluo, his expression changed instantly.

Because he knew this person, and he knew that he was now considered the number one person under the Demi-God in the Shendai Consortium.

That iconic white hunting attire was now Shendai Yunluo's calling card. He was more like a character from a painting than Chen Bing, ethereal and elegant.

The Chen Family's abilities were similar to those of Yin-Yang Masters, but the Yin-Yang Master's Shikigami were even stronger than the people in the scrolls.

But he couldn't figure out why Qing Family people knew Shendai Yin-Yang Masters, and even became friends?

Why!?

Qing Chen looked up at Shendai Yunluo and smiled. This was why Yang Yang disappeared.

Shendai Yunluo also smiled at him: "Hey, friend, you owe me a drink after this fight, you can't dodge it again."

Qing Chen smiled: "Why do you insist on wanting to drink with me, when it's clearly a case of everyone getting what they need."

"Sigh, why can someone from the 7th Degree say such cold words. If you say that, I, your friend, will be sad," Shendai Yunluo laughed: "I'm clearly here for our friendship!"

A few days ago, when Qing Chen left City 10, seeing that Shadow was unwilling to open the Shadow Gate and directly arrive at Forbidden Zone 00, he already guessed that this trip would be risky.

So, Qing Chen called Shendai Yunluo and only asked one question: "Many experts will soon want to kill me, do you want a show?"

Shendai Yunluo came.

In fact, this matter itself had already exceeded Qing Chen's bottom line. He had once imagined being like Shadow, not making any deals with anyone from the Shendai Consortium.

However, he clearly felt that Shendai Yunluo was different.

Even if one day they will eventually become enemies, before that day comes, they can first become friends.

Shendai Yunluo said: "Don't try to escape the drink, you can't escape. Come on, let's end this fight first."

In an instant, Shendai Yunluo's Shikigami appeared one after another.

ATS010, Hyakumegami, in just a few days, the eyes on this terrifying Shikigami's arms had reached 6.

The Hyakumegami, dressed in white, floated in the air, its figure larger than Chen Bing's Imperial Guard.

ATS011, Chikufuri, it hid in the smoke and drifted downwards, flying along the edge of the battlefield.

ATS01, Mameno Rasetsu, it carried a huge nine-ringed knife, jumped down from the mountain, and chopped towards the Imperial Guard.

ATS018, Hone Onna held a bone sword in her hand, her long hair combed into a ponytail, wearing tattered armor, and despite being just bones, she inexplicably had a graceful figure.

ATS091, Tenjouka was a humanoid red monster that was crawling along the mountain wall like a gecko.

ATS9, Byakuyōei was a white dragon.

Shendai Yunluo jumped onto the dragon's head, grabbing its two horns, and laughed loudly: "I'll take care of that fire elemental thing. Shikigami only need to rest on the Spiritual Bridge after being burned, but if you're disfigured by fire, you won't be able to be a top city gigolo."

Yang Yang curiously asked: "Gigolo?"

Qing Chen's Face[-]changed: "Don't talk nonsense."

Shendai Yunluo stood on the dragon's head, and the Byakuyōei sprayed a breath of ice towards the fire elemental Awakened One. The ice and fire merged instantly, disrupting the airflow in the valley, causing a strong wind!

Outside the valley, reconnaissance aircraft circled above the valley.

Countless soldiers, spanning tens of miles, were gathering towards Qing Chen and the others. They wore exoskeleton armor and moved across the wilderness like space soldiers, jumping around.

In the forward base on the wilderness, someone whispered a few words next to a chessboard.

Chen Yu stood up, sat sideways on the back of the green ox, and smiled: "How did even someone like Shendai Yunluo appear? Why would the Shendai people help Qing Chen? It looks like they really don't have any more cards. Old man, let's go, if we don't go, they'll break out of the blockade."

Li Bingxi looked at him: "I haven't waited for what I want yet."

At this time, the Qing Family's staff member returned: "We agree to exchange the resources you mentioned, and we can arrange for your departure now. Koshima can take over after you leave."

Only at this moment did Li Bingxi finally stand up.