Sanctuary Paradise

Chapter 802 Reencounter with Sanshui
The training ground of the Lai Lai Cult.

[Notification: Transmission complete. You have arrived at your destination.]

A faint feeling of weightlessness accompanied by a notification sound rang out. At the entrance to the training ground, Xin Lailai watched the scene gradually return to normal. Just as she was about to walk towards the control panel as usual, a flash of clear blue light suddenly caught her eye:

Wow——! !

A sharp whooshing sound came as a bright blue halberd swept through the air, leaving a blue arc in the air. It collided heavily with the blood-red behemoth slashing down from the upper side, shattering it with a loud bang. Immediately afterwards, two identical dark blue figures rushed out from both sides, attacking the blood-red figure in mid-air from the left and right.

Clang! Clang! Clang clang clang clang—!

The next instant, the sound of fierce clashing of swords and halberds rang out from the training ground. Looking around, San Shui Ren Yun, holding a bright blue halberd, was in an independent training space at the end of the training ground. Together with two dark blue clones that looked exactly like him, he was fighting against Bai Ye projection, which was wrapped in blue lightning arcs and blood aura, on a battlefield that simulated a rainstorm.

clang--! !

A heavy slash resounded. Bai Ye's projection, which had avoided the effects of the battlefield tide thanks to the Aoge Crystal, stepped into the air. The blood smoke rising from its pupils and the blade in its hand swept through the air in a scarlet afterimage. It rushed in front of San Shui Ren Yun and pressed down with a powerful slash, colliding with the halberd in San Shui Ren Yun's hand. San Shui Ren Yun groaned and took a small step back.

Faced with the opening that he had created in Sanshui Renyun, Bai Ye's projection did not hesitate at all. With a flicker of his figure, he instantly entered a space-traveling state amidst the fleeting spatial fluctuations, decisively closing in on Sanshui Renyun and slashing at his neck with his blade.

But just as the slash was about to hit Sanshui Renyun, it seemed to sense something. The blood-red smoke in its pupils flickered, and without any hesitation, it suddenly exerted all its strength, stopping the slash just a hair's breadth from Sanshui Renyun's neck. At the same time, its figure flashed, immediately entering a state of spatial penetration. However…

Om-! !

The next instant, a burst of deep blue brilliance erupted. The three water-man cloud in front of the white night projection suddenly transformed into a deep blue water-man clone. The moment the position exchange was completed, it exploded, turning into a circle of dark blue water ripples that enveloped the surrounding area of ​​dozens of meters. The white night projection, which was in a spatial traversal state, seemed to be drowning, and its movements suddenly became extremely slow.

Almost simultaneously with the White Night projection being controlled, the Three Water Clouds, also located within the water wave area, decisively stepped into the air. A cold light flashed in its sky-blue pupils, and its figure overlapped with another water-person clone that had been pulled back behind it in an instant. It left a trail of afterimages from the abnormally sluggish water-blue area, and finally thrust its halberd into the area dozens of meters away from the White Night projection.

boom--! !

The deep blue energy, combined with the power of the water elemental clone, erupted and transformed into a massive deep blue halberd tens of meters long. Amidst the mournful sounds and dark spatial rifts, it heavily struck the White Night projection, instantly shattering the layers of Arrogant Song Shield surrounding its body and completely engulfing it.

[Hint: Challenge successful, time taken 3'07"13, current difficulty level: 47]

A mechanical electronic voice sounded, and as the announcement faded, San Shui Ren Yun, who was in mid-air, finally breathed a sigh of relief, dispelling the light blue slow barrier and water elemental clones that had been hovering over the battlefield. He collapsed to the ground with a thud, as if all his strength had been drained, and a round of applause came from the training ground.

*Smack! Smack! Smack!*

"Brother Sanshui, brilliant!"

Xin Lailai, who had observed the final dozen or so seconds of the exchange from outside the training space, smiled and praised the handsome, sky-blue-haired youth who was now sprawled on the ground, exhausted. San Shuiren, however, paused slightly, turned around, and noticed Xin Lailai outside the training space. She chuckled and spoke in a gentle, soothing voice:

"I'm sorry to have embarrassed you, Brother Black Sword. I almost lost again. As a half-baked technique user, I can only win against this level of White Night Projection by using tricks."

"Brother Sanshui is too modest. As a combat-based class, it is already quite remarkable that you can hold your own against a master of technique at the same level in close combat without intuitive abilities. Unlike me, I am basically only being suppressed by other skill-based classes at the same level in close combat."

Faced with San Shuirenyun's modesty, Xin Lailai simply shook her head slightly, glanced at the remaining traces on the spatial battlefield, and a strange light appeared in her eyes as she praised him with unusual certainty.

Although he only witnessed a dozen seconds of the process, those few seconds were enough for him to see how formidable Sanshui Renyun was in combat.

Keep in mind that his opponent was a mage-type player with the same skill set as him, both relying on domain-based perception. Yet, his opponent managed to hold his own against the pure skill-based White Night Projection in close combat using his unique Water Elemental clone ability. He even managed to defeat his opponent despite the significant class advantage. This alone is enough to demonstrate just how strong his opponent was.

It can be said that the opponent's situation was just as 04296 had described to him. He had already mastered his initial talent to an unparalleled level. The timing and speed of his final move, 'Casting,' were so fast that even he couldn't react in time. Even the White Night Projection, which had intuitive abilities, only had time to react a split second in advance and was unable to escape the control range in time.

"It's just relying on his talent advantage, nothing special. When Brother Black Sword first entered the third tier, he was able to defeat White Night Contract, who was at level 40. When he reaches the fourth tier, he will probably only do better than me."

San Shuirenyun, who had stood up from the ground, chuckled twice, shook his head, and glanced at Xin Lailai. His eyes flickered slightly, and he asked with some curiosity:

"Speaking of which, this is the first time I've met Brother Black Sword in the training ground since I reached the fourth tier? Brother Black Sword, are you also here to challenge the White Night Contract?"

"No, I came here to... cough, to wait for someone."

"Waiting for someone?"

“The Death Bearer, Brother Sanshui, you should have met her twice before. I’m currently teaming up with her.”

"Team up... I see. Black Sword, you're planning to prepare for the upcoming expedition, right? Indeed, as a pioneer, it's very important to work on teamwork before the expedition. I learned this the hard way back then, and I was going to remind you about it, Black Sword. I didn't expect you to have already considered this step."

"Getting used to each other... well, let's just call it that for now."

Knowing full well why she came here, Xin Lailai responded somewhat awkwardly to the praise from the people of Sanshui.

Although they do have a training plan for the expedition team, it's definitely not like they're blocking people at the training ground like this. Not to mention, given that the Guixu team is already in a tense situation, if they were to directly call the Deathbringer and Yamu over for training, it would most likely turn into the two of them teaming up to beat him up first.

"Speaking of which, the move that Brother Sanshui used to turn the tide of battle just now seemed to resemble some kind of instantaneous elemental magic?"

Worried that continuing the conversation would lead to an extremely awkward situation, Xin Lailai glanced around out of the corner of her eye. Finally, she had a flash of inspiration and, looking at the remaining pale blue ripples on the spatial battlefield, asked Sanshui with some curiosity.

"As expected, I couldn't hide it from Brother Black Sword's discerning eyes. Indeed, that move 'Drowning in Three Thousand Waters' was a little trick I developed after consulting with Senior Hundred Flowers, based on my own insights, and combined with my second talent and the concept of 'slowness' in the water element."

Upon hearing this, San Shuiren nodded slightly and explained in a gentle tone that was as soothing as a spring breeze, while smiling somewhat helplessly and saying self-deprecatingly:
"I thought I could easily settle the White Night Contract with this trick, but I didn't expect that he would almost react to it on the first official use, making Brother Black Sword laugh at me."

“Brother Sanshui, you flatter me. As an instant spell, it is already quite remarkable that it can make even a master of the same level only have time to react but not escape in time. Moreover, Brother Sanshui is the first person I have ever seen who can use the water element to this extent.”

Upon hearing this, Xin Lailai gently shook her head, a look of sincere admiration appearing in her eyes.

The concept of 'stagnation' in the element of water sounds simple, but only those who are masters of magic know just how difficult it is to apply the element to this level.

It should be noted that even now, their use of elements is limited to using relatively fixed spells and magic frameworks to make elements spontaneously trigger certain phenomena. They are far from being able to use a certain element to the extent that an unorthodox mage like Sanshui Renyun, who specializes in a particular system, can deeply understand its corresponding concepts.

Of course, this is also closely related to the paths they chose. They took a comprehensive approach, seeking the essence and the whole picture, making them pure academic mages. On the other hand, Sanshui Renyun took a specialized approach, focusing on using the passive characteristics of magic to enhance 'water elemental spells'. Although this approach of abandoning the infinite possibilities of magic would only be criticized as a pointless and frivolous act by 83203, in reality, focusing one's energy on a particular extreme area can often yield the greatest results with the least cost in Paradise.

As San Shui Renyun said, although the opponent is only a LV.40 level magic master, his use of water element has reached a level comparable to a LV.50 all-around magic master. This is the benefit of specializing in one thing.

Of course, this is on the premise that you have enough talent to support it, since extreme routes always require more talent than conventional routes.

Like Daoji, you could say that the pursuit of ultimate offense and sharpness is too extreme and will have shortcomings in defense. But the opponent managed to achieve everything with his EX-level swordsmanship talent, using ultimate offense to achieve ultimate defense.

Including the Sanshui Renyun in front of them, normally speaking, if one's talent is insufficient, such an approach is actually suicidal for a mage, because most of the time, the price of a mage being extreme in a certain field is that once they encounter an enemy who counters their area of ​​expertise, they will die a particularly miserable death due to their weaknesses in other areas.

For example, a fire-specialized mage will only be able to barely withstand the opponent's water spells due to the elemental advantage when facing a well-rounded mage who is proficient in all four elements. Then, the mage will die miserably from the other spells that the mage has no energy left to deal with.

However, if that fire mage can break through his fire magic to a certain level, or even suppress the opponent's water magic, the situation will be completely different. This means that the opponent's weakest point has reached a level that is on par with the normal points of others.

Perhaps when encountering a mage who specializes in water magic, they will still lose due to the element of advantage. However, when encountering a well-rounded mage like them, the situation will evolve into a point where they cannot suppress their opponent with spells that counter them, and they will die even more miserably with spells that do not counter them.

Simply put, if they rely solely on magic, they would most likely be no match for San Shui Ren Yun, who is at the same level.

Of course, there are always exceptions, including generalists and specialists.

Since specialized mages can use their extreme talents to suppress well-rounded mages like them who have relatively average talents, let's look at it from another angle... what if there was a well-rounded mage whose magical talents in all directions reached the top level?

Even though the probability of such a monster existing is so low that it's practically zero, unfortunately, there's one such monster on their contact list. As for who that person is, there's no need to say more.

All I can say is that, as the person in charge of the actual management of the Academic Sect, 83203 may seem quiet and rarely leave the sect, and there are no stories about him circulating outside the sect. But that's simply because the era in which he was born was an extremely rare period of peace in the Star Realm... and because no one dared to compete for the top spot among all the chosen ones of that era.

As for why no one dared to compete for the title of strongest in the era when the other side was rising, and why few dared to cause trouble and disrupt the environment, instead everyone quietly engaged in fighting or doing academic research?

Well… just look at what happened to them in the Grandmaster Trials to understand that.

Faced with a monster that can instantly cast a large-scale third-tier spell, and who had already created seven fifth-tier spells, a double-digit number of fourth-tier spells, and hundreds of third-tier spells at the third tier, even a spell destroyer of the same tier would have no interest in going after it.

The "Destroy Spell" is a hard counter to mages of the same rank, and can suppress mages one rank higher, but it does not mean that the opponent can take a bath while being hit by various large-scale destructive spells two ranks higher than themselves.

Not to mention, in the current spell system, there is something called the Blue Steel Shadow spell. Perhaps other spells may be suppressed by the Spell Destroyer system, but the spells of this system are clearly not among them.

Although the threshold for that thing was so high that even they couldn't even glance at it, the saying still holds true: some thresholds simply don't exist for monsters that have reached a certain level.

[Notification: You have a new message from: The Death Seeker]

Suddenly, a message notification sounded, and Xin Lailai looked at the source of the message, her eyes lighting up with a hint of joy.

……

The Death Stalker: "You said you're at the training ground right now?"

Black Sword: "Hmm."

The one carrying the body: "Very well, I'll be right there."

……

"?"

The next second, light blue text appeared, and Xin Lailai, who had been smiling, was startled when she saw the response from the Death Keeper. Her eyelids twitched, and a bad premonition suddenly appeared in her mind.

Wait a minute, what's up with that guy who's been holding the dead? With his keen senses, there's no way he wouldn't have noticed they were 'staking out' the area, which means…

Boom——! !

Before Xin Lailai could ask any more questions, the training ground gate was suddenly pushed open with a bang, and an extremely dense aura of death rushed out. A death monster, shrouded in an extremely dense aura of death and resentment, appeared to Xin Lailai as if it were a collection of billions of vengeful spirits, charging straight towards her from the entrance. This caused both Xin Lailai and Sanshui Renyun beside her to twitch involuntarily.

Only then did the belated message pop up on the communication channel, appearing on Xin Lailai's wildly twitching eyelids:

……

The Death Bearer: "Perfect timing, I've killed quite a few abyssal creatures in this world."

……

Wait, what do you mean by "killed a lot of abyssal creatures"? Could it be...?

"Wait a minute! Death collector! Explain what just happened..."

On the training field, Xin Lailai stared at the message that popped up before her, and at the Deathbringer rushing straight towards her, completely shrouded in deathly aura, with only a pair of eerie blue eyes burning like flames visible. A sense of foreboding surged through her mind in an instant, and she was about to shout for them to stop—

boom! ! !
In an instant, an extremely dense Netherworld Blade Light shot into the sky, carrying overwhelming power, and without warning, it engulfed Xin Lailai, colliding with the sword she instinctively raised in her hand, and bursting out with a deafening roar.

Meanwhile, Lingyuzi, who was in the soul space, watched this scene and, as before, blinked again, looked at the divine souls floating in the soul space, recalled how they had sensed his fortune before, and nodded his little head thoughtfully again.

Sure enough, Lai Lai is easy to beat up whenever she gets cocky.

……

(End of this chapter)