The Villain Saint is my secondary account

Smoke filled the air, and dust from the explosion covered the entire hall.

Li Cheng nervously observed the center of the smoke, and then a huge granite arm emerged from the smoke and dust and slammed towards him.

He quickly rolled on the ground, an unseemly but effective move, to avoid the massive punch. As the floor trembled, a giant earth elemental figure with a hole in its chest emerged from the smoke.

This was naturally a monster summoned by the Archmage Bazel at a crucial moment, which used its sturdy earthen armor to shield Sauron from the combined fire of the crowd.

Li Cheng glanced at the prince on the throne across the hall. This must be the prince's order; otherwise, Bazel would only be focused on attacking them.

With such a versatile and extraordinary elemental mage around, even if Sauron is caught off guard, his numerous and varied spells can easily cover his retreat.

There's no way to fight if these two are together.

Li Cheng immediately realized this problem, but the issue was that the space in the main hall was insufficient to implement the strategy of dividing the battlefield.

The group was forced to retreat to avoid the earth elemental giant's fierce attack, while Sauron had broken free from the paralysis trap and charged towards the players with his greatsword gleaming coldly.

"Defensive formation!"

Upon seeing this, Li Cheng roared, and a dozen heavily armored warriors, carrying large shields, decisively rushed out from behind him, their shields, now activated with the Fortitude skill, stood in front of Sauron.

The warriors of the Seven Stars Guild were more elite than those of the larger guilds, but their two-handed greatswords, swirling with a fierce wind, swept away the formation of more than a dozen heavily armored warriors in an instant, causing them to fall to their knees.

Behind the scattered and disorganized warrior players, the musketeer and ranger's unprotected figures were immediately exposed.

Once Sauron breaks into the back row, probably no one will be able to withstand his unstoppable sword.

Skadi knew this well, and as the strongest swordswoman on her side, she charged forward from the flank without hesitation to take the initiative to fight Sauron.

Although her chances of surviving a close-quarters battle against a swordsman of the extraordinary rank were extremely slim, she had no choice but to gamble on this strike to buy time for Li Cheng's next tactical move.

This was Skadi's subconscious action. Perhaps she herself did not realize that the once arrogant and conceited little princess had now transformed into a warrior who would risk her life for her companions in critical moments.

Courage often brings miracles.

"clang"

Skadi's frost-covered rapier clashed with Sauron's greatsword, which was whipped into a whirlwind.

The crisp sound of metal clashing echoed through the swirling dust. The blonde girl tumbled backward several times in a very disheveled manner, but quickly used her sword to push herself up from the ground.

The profusely bleeding arm testified to the perilous nature of that brief clash. Sauron's swordsmanship was hampered by his willpower, and it was unbelievable that the sheer power of his swordsmanship hadn't directly killed Skadi.

The Seven Stars players who witnessed this scene from a short distance had their palms sweating; if any one of them had been in that situation, they would probably have been killed instantly.

However, Sauron's sword strike was halted, and the Seven Stars' rangers and musketeers immediately distanced themselves.

The heavily armored warriors gritted their teeth and tried to rush to Skadi's front to regroup and form a defensive formation, but the archmage watching from afar would not give them the chance. With a slight lift of his staff, a howling storm suddenly spread through the crowd.

The heavy-armored warriors' formation was once again shattered, and Skadi's slender figure was also violently overturned by the gale.

Soren's resolute stride ignored the storm's interference, leaping several meters in a single step to cleave Skadi, who was being dragged across the ground by the gale, in two with a single sword strike.

It’s over.

Skadi's eyes widened as she watched the sword hurtling towards her chest, with no way to avoid it.

But at this critical moment, a roar that seemed to come from the depths of the main hall suddenly resounded throughout the battlefield.

The enormous withered tree behind the throne suddenly swayed, as if it were suffering unbearable pain.

Ken's manipulation of Soren and Bazel seemed to be related to that withered tree. As this wail rang out, Soren's empty eyes regained some clarity for a moment. He stomped his front foot and stopped his forward momentum, causing the blade to pass in front of Skadi and strike the solid floor tiles.

Even so, the aftershocks from the sword touching the floor blew poor Skadi over. Fortunately, it wasn't intentionally condensed into sword energy, so it was just a simple, harmless wind pressure.

what happened?

Skadi clutched her arm and staggered to her feet, only to see Prince Ken in the distance also suddenly rise from his throne and look behind him in disbelief.

……

"why?"

Meanwhile, atop the giant tree, countless giant spiders watched Ella, who was bound tightly by withered branches, and cried out in astonishment.

This Tree of Life originated from the power of the God of Life, and it is just right to suppress the daughter of the God of Life before us.

In a little while, she will be able to completely seal this damned guy out of the mortal world.

But just as everything was about to settle down, the power of life itself, derived from the Tree of Life, began to rapidly dissipate.

how so??

Dong Muge, or rather Pandya, couldn't understand why. She clearly felt that the power she gained from the connection with the Tree of Life was also rapidly disappearing.

"...Heh, the things I borrowed aren't working anymore?"

Ella, whose body was riddled with holes by countless branches, was completely unaware of the danger she was in. She simply looked at the group of Pandia with a mocking smile on her lips.

"Shut up!!!"

Pandia was furious. She tried to command the withered branches to continue strangling Ella, but found that the Tree of Life was gradually weakening as it swayed.

"Why?? I clearly... No, it's not our problem, damn it, it's Gray Gold Town, what is Zhu Jun doing?!"

Ella raised an eyebrow; Pandia's reaction was quite quick.

Unfortunately, it's too late for her to realize it now.

……

Thirty minutes ago.

The Sharp-screaming Mountains, the Lyra Basin.

Inside the enormous Tree of Life that rises straight from the basin into the sky, Ye Xiao, who was half-asleep leaning against the wall in one of the treehouse lounges, was finally woken up by Dong Muge's pat, "Let's go."

Ye Xiao immediately opened his eyes, drew the long sword from his waist, and without the slightest hesitation, cleaved the wall beside him in two.

This sudden action startled the other players in the lounge. "Hey, what are you doing?!"

Ye Xiao ignored them and looked at Dong Muge instead, "Where are we going?"

"The very bottom." Dong Muge didn't waste any words and immediately led Ye Xiao out through the split wall.

Chapter 198 Facing Death with Unwavering Spirit

A piercing alarm sounded at the research institute built into the tree trunk.

But at this moment, no one was in the mood to pay attention to Ye Xiao and Dong Muge. In fact, it wasn't their actions that triggered the alarm.

In the research area at the base of that towering tree, Zhu Jun and a group of followers of the Life Cult were nervously surrounding a man with a crow perched on his shoulder, the atmosphere tense and fraught with danger.

The man was Chen Yao, the leader of the player squad that had been wiped out in Greygold Town, and the raven on his shoulder was Eunice.

“Fool! Fool!” Eunice yelled, while Chen Yao stood calmly beside the enormous tentacle container that contained the remains of the so-called God of Life.

He was wearing a white lab coat similar to that of the researchers at the tree, but what truly drew everyone's attention was his arm, which was covered in cracks and sprouted bizarre tentacles.

Zhu Jun didn't know exactly what that arm meant; he only vaguely sensed that it was some kind of huge threat.

Not to him, but to the tentacle of the god of life.

He drew upon the blessing from the "remains of life," so he could sense that Chen Yao's arm and the power he possessed came from the same source.

When the other party entered the inaccessible fog of Graygold Town, he thought the guy was doomed, since all the researchers who went to explore that fog never returned.

They had previously awakened the remnants of the God of Life from the ancient tomb that Ye Xiao had inadvertently opened, and manipulated it to use the entire Gray Gold Town as a medium to allow the portion of the divine power of life contained within it to descend as a divine kingdom, in order to analyze and steal the power within.

However, they detected that a small portion was still hidden in that fog, and for some reason, they just couldn't get it.

Unexpectedly, this guy had some incredible luck and obtained the last bit of divine power from the remnant of the body that their entire research department had been unable to acquire.

However, this wasn't entirely a bad thing, Zhu Jun thought.

Anyway, as long as we kill this guy, the remaining power in his mangled body will be his.

“This… Mr. Chen, right? I suggest you don’t act rashly.” Zhu Jun slowly approached. “We may have had some misunderstandings before, but we can talk things over.”

"You came here alone, right? No matter who forced you to come here, I can guarantee your safety..."

However, Chen Yao had no intention of wasting words with Zhu Jun and suddenly punched the glass next to him, shattering it.

"Go to hell."

His voice was hoarse but resolute; the thought of his fallen teammates tormented Chen Yao.

And Zhu Jun was the culprit who caused all of this, so how could Chen Yao possibly listen to a single word of nonsense from him?

But as the container shattered, a sophisticated barrier made of magical runes suddenly appeared inside the container, releasing a violent impact that sent Chen Yao flying from the side of the container.

"Damn it! Damn it!"

Eunice flapped her wings and flew up the instant Chen Yao was blasted away, thus avoiding the impact, and then squawked.

"You don't really think we'd just use a glass jar for protection of something this important, do you?" Zhu Jun's lips curled up immediately upon seeing this.

Chen Yao certainly didn't think the other party would be so foolish, but he had no other choice.

Even the god of life couldn't help him in this final step; he could only rely on himself.

He gambled on whether, before his own life ended, he could let that arm, blessed by the god of life, touch his remaining body.

So Chen Yao, who had been blasted away, flipped himself up and rushed towards the mangled body in the center of the platform without hesitation.

Even with the protection of the barrier, Zhu Jun absolutely dared not let this guy touch the mangled body again, and with a wave of his hand, a group of his subordinates swarmed forward.

He himself decisively summoned the black-covered magic book, and with the sound of chanting, rows of spears formed from shadows on the floor thrust out.

Unexpectedly, Chen Yao went mad, stubbornly enduring the spear piercing his body, and then, with extraordinary brute force, pushed aside the guards blocking his way, before punching the barrier inside the container jar once more.

The barrier triggered a resistance field again, blasting Chen Yao away, but the light on it had noticeably dimmed.

It's an enhancement that's directly added to physical attributes!

Zhu Jun, realizing this, broke out in a cold sweat. If this guy smashed the barrier again, it might really collapse.

Although the remnant of life has been sealed away for so many years, and in theory this thing shouldn't pose any threat, his strong intuition told him that he absolutely could not let the other party touch the remnant of life.

However, his professional shadow mage skills were no match for this brute force enhanced by divine power, so Zhu Jun immediately looked up and gave the order:

"Summon Subject Two!"

Chen Yao didn't know what the experimental subject Zhu Jun was talking about was. After being blasted away and covered in blood, he staggered to his feet and then pounced on the other side again like a mad beast.

His eyes were fixed on the container holding the enormous tentacles that resembled mountains.

But before he could even touch the container, an even more imposing figure suddenly descended from the sky.

The enormous figure stood like an insurmountable wall in front of him, its thick fist slamming into Chen Yao's forehead, sending him flying several meters backward.

However, the force of the punch, strong enough to pierce a steel plate, did not crack Chen Yao's skull. He staggered to his feet, his eyes fixed on the figure that had just sent him flying.

It was a burly man, as big as a bear, wearing a tattered cloak. His broad chin peeked out from under the hood, which resembled a low-hanging dark cloud, and black smoke slowly flowed from his slightly open mouth.

"What the hell……"

Chen Yao wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, feeling excruciating pain as if his whole body was about to fall apart.

"Damn it, you bunch of beasts!!!"

However, the most agitated was Eunice, who cried out, "Besolini!!! How dare you insult him like this!!!"

However, apart from Chen Yao, no one could understand Eunice's words, so Zhu Jun simply frowned in disgust:

"That damn crow is so noisy! What's that thing doing here anyway?!"

Chen Yao was panting heavily, realizing something was wrong.

His body was being strengthened by the power of the God of Life, yet he was still able to be punched back by this bear-like guy in front of him.

He was now surrounded by the Life Cult's guards on all sides, with Zhu Jun using magic to interfere with and launch sneak attacks from the side, and a burly man with abnormal strength like a bear blocking his path like a mountain. He was probably in grave danger.

As Chen Yao was catching his breath, the burly man in front of him suddenly took large strides and charged forward like a speeding truck.

Chen Yao sensed something was wrong; his legs, which hadn't recovered yet, felt like they were made of lead when he took a step.

Just as he was about to be caught off guard, a blindingly cold glint suddenly descended from the sky and struck the strong man's sturdy arm.

The fierce blade failed to cleave the strong man's body, but the force it exerted caused his momentum to veer sharply, resulting in him slamming into the ground and carving a deep trench.

"Who are you...?" Chen Yao looked at the swordsman in a black trench coat who suddenly stood in front of him, somewhat taken aback.

"Don't worry about all that, just keep pushing forward."

Ye Xiao gripped the knife and stretched his shoulders. "I'll take care of the rest for you."