The wind shivered as the arrow dashed towards the army behind Lord Turnbull. The strange red and black flame flickered weakly upon the arrowhead. Zhen Shi had aimed at one of those eery metallic helmets on the head of one soldier. But just when the arrow was a few meters away from reaching its target...

Lord Turnbull flicked his hand calmly whispering, "Dodge." Instantly the soldier who was wearing that helmet lightly bent his head to the side. 

And just like that, the arrow missed its target. 

The soldier had only made a slight motion, but that had been more than sufficient to dodge Zhen Shi's arrow. It was almost as if the soldier had witnessed the movement of the arrow from multiple perspectives and then made the simplest motion to achieve his objective. 

Zhen Shi's eyes widened as he witnessed this minor soldier dodge his arrow with such ease. The arrowhead flickered with the weak black and red flame as the arrow streaked through the air like a silent assassin. His eyes widened even further as he watched this arrow continue past its actual target... and instead strike a different target. 

The arrow that had missed its target dashed through the air and struck a new target, the qi manifestation of the Bull! 

Even during this battle, the Bull had continued to 'innocently' chase the screaming Will O'Dale around the battlefield. But unfortunately for the Bull and fortunately for Will O'Dale, the Bull had just happened to be behind the soldier that had dodged the arrow. 

As such, the arrow struck the body of the Bull manifestation with the full force of Zhen Shi's bestial physique. 

A mournful roar rang out through the battlefield as the arrow struck the Bull cleanly on its exposed torso. Even with the full power of Zhen Shi's bestial physique the arrow only penetrated a few centimeters into the bull's hide, after all, it was powerful enough to threaten Myne's sea-fortress formation. As such, it should have only been a flesh wound...

Nevertheless, the Bull continued to roar painfully as the arrow continued to slowly submerge into its torso; almost like a stone falling into quicksand. It stood in place while roaring and shivering amidst this 'great pain' as the arrow and the strange flame disappeared into the body of the Bull.

Zhen Shi stared in disbelief as the Bull suddenly turned its head and stared at him with wronged eyes. 

Zhen Shi scratched his head in embarrassment while mumbling, "Why are you staring at me like I've murdered a puppy? It's only a flesh wound so can you please not scream so embarrassingly?" 

The Bull's painful roars increased in intensity almost as if it had heard Zhen Shi. With one last glance at Zhen Shi, it suddenly began to run away. It continued to whimper in pain as it dashed into the island forest and finally disappeared among the trees. 

Silence reigned within the battlefield as the spectators stared wordlessly at this strange turn of events. 

Myne immediately sent mentally, "Ugh... Why did you do that?" 

Zhen Shi grimaced and sent back, "Bull Shit! That Bull manifestation was just playing victim just for receiving a minor flesh wound." 

"Huh? What are you talking about? I meant the Grade 4 arrow that you just lost forever!" 

Zhen Shi's grimace grew worse as he realized that he had just lost a valuable weapon for the sake of a ridiculous bull. 

Nevertheless, Myne continued with a sigh, "Either way, put the arrows aside for a moment. Since Turnbull has manifested his Würd as helmets upon his army he can see through their eyes and easily dodge any obvious attacks. I suggest you jump in and fight in an unpredictable manner. He won't have time to focus on you after I attack..." 

Zhen Shi nodded wordlessly still mourning the loss of his arrow. He could only hope that the Bull would dissipate in a nearby place making it easier to find the arrow. After all, it was only a manifestation of qi and aether and not a real bull...

Despite, Zhen Shi's misfortune, Will O'Dale was celebrating his fortune. He had just been freed from the terrifying chase of a crazy Bull and it was all thanks to that Zhen Shi! 

As such, William stared at Zhen Shi with grateful eyes while thinking, 'Aiya! I misunderstood this fellow. I regret nothing as much as deciding to attack this divine musician.' 

Tears rose in his eyes as he contemplated his unfortunate life, 'In my entire life, besides my little brother and my family, everyone else came to me for their own purposes. This is the first time... that someone truly helped me!' 

The tears streaked down his face, 'When everyone else had forgotten about me and left my life to fate, he was the only one who helped! He even decided to leave the protection of his formation and attack that devilish bull at the risk of losing his own life. How heroic! How valiant! This is a dragon amongst men! A true comrade!' 

With these thoughts, William dashed forwards and jumped upon the unsuspecting Zhen Shi. He hugged Zhen Shi's body tightly while sobbing and shouting "Comrade I owe you my life! From now on, we are brothers!" 

Zhen Shi who was still wallowing in his loss couldn't help but think, 'Is this compensation for the lost arrow? I suppose it's fine now,' and consoled himself as such. 

Nevertheless, he grimaced and hurriedly pushed William off saying, "Get off! You're rubbing your snot all over me. It's one thing for pretty girls to hug me and cry, but grown men definitely can't!" 

William smiled while rubbing off his tears and snot and spoke reassuringly, "I agree. I'll fight off any grown man that dares hug and cry on my brother!" 

Zhen Shi was about to comment on how shameless he was being, but suddenly, an angry shout rang out. 

It was Lord Turnbull. Witnessing how his powerful 'attack' of a bull had played around ridiculously and finally run away into the forest while howling like a dying cat and then how these two fellows played around in a relaxed manner despite his presence, had enraged him beyond measure.

But most of all he was getting impatient. 

Now that Will O'Dale had freed himself from the divine curse, it was only a matter of time before he stated that Zhen Shi and his fellow disciples were innocent. As a result, he needed to finish this quickly. He had performed the previous attacks while keeping the well-being of the soldiers in mind. But now he threw that thought away.

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As such, he roared out, "Edict: Rain of spears!" Torrents of qi were pulled out from the soldiers causing them to visibly pale and weaken. Few even fainted on the spot; instantly causing the eery metallic helmets upon their heads to fade away. 

Nevertheless, the multi-colored qi combined into hundreds of pitch-black spears that were instantly grabbed by the standing soldiers and hurled with terrifying strength right at the grey fortress. These spears were weaker and slower than the previous spears. However, the quantity made up for the lack of quality. 

At the same time, Myne and Vivienne retaliated causing the sea-fortress to rearrange its grey bricks defensively into certain points and the ocean water formed into dozens of giant arms. 

However, Myne realized that this would not be sufficient to survive the attack and manifested a silver globe. He hurriedly threw it into the air causing it to explode in a burst of colorless qi which manifested as hundreds of formation talismans. They merged into the sea-fortress in an intricate pattern causing it to glow brightly and radiate a powerful aura. 

Seeing the spears dashing towards the sea-fortress, Zhen Shi and William hurriedly dodged to the side to make sure that they wouldn't be caught in the cross-fire. 

While Zhen Shi stared wordlessly at the confrontation, William strangely dashed back into the pavilion...

Whoosh! Whoosh!

The wind whistled as the countless spears struck the walls of the sea-fortress causing it to shake lightly. Nevertheless, the sea-fortress stood strong as the spears got stuck on the walls resulting in only some light cracks. 

Meanwhile, the giant arms of ocean water formed fists that retaliated with furious punches causing Lord Turnbull to hurriedly shout out, "Shield!" Instantly different types of qi were dragged out from the soldiers and formed into multiples shields. Just before the punching water fists reached the army, the multiple colored shields combined into that single giant shield of patchwork. 

Boom! Boom!

A wave of explosions and qi bursts rang out across the battlefield as Lord Turnbull's giant patchwork shield easily defended against this flurry of punches. 

Myne's voice rang out in Zhen Shi's mind, "Go now! Even corpses can hold qi, so killing them will be useless! Focus on the Würd helmets."

Zhen Shi nodded wordlessly as he silently dashed into the unsuspecting army.  With a slight grin, he bashed the helmet of a nearby soldier with his bow and the skill . 

Crack!

Under the power of the divine bow, the helmet cracked into two pieces. But the complete strength of the attack was used up in destroying the Würd helmet causing the soldier to collapse unconsciously. 

Zhen Shi was rather unhappy about not being able to gain experience points but was in too much of a hurry to complain. 

But at the same time, Will O'Dale dashed out of the pavilion brandishing his dual swords. With a scream, "You dare trouble my brother's friends? I don't care if you're my employer, I'll fuck you to death!" and launched a flurry of slashes on to the helmet of a nearby soldier. Under the onslaught of sword attacks, the helmet broke into pieces causing another soldier to collapse. 

Zhen Shi shook his head in disbelief but nevertheless jumped right back into bashing helmets off of soldiers with a grin. But this time with Will O'Dale followed him to do the same.

The spectators were completely speechless at this point, "Since when does the victim turn on the savior? Even going so far as to call the 'criminal' his brother?" 

Even Hao Lei was beginning to grow skeptical about Lord Turnbull's claims and was considering interfering. But forcefully held back when he saw the terrifying attacks being dished out by both sides. Laura continued to watch with worried eyes, too engrossed to notice her uncle's actions. 

Lord Turnbull could immediately sense the loss of the soldiers in his army but before he could react, Myne flicked his hands. He instantly attacked with much greater power than before since it was important to keep Lord Turnbull distracted.

Instantly the spears in the walls of the sea-fortress were dragged out and crushed into pitch-black cannonballs. With another flick, the cannonballs were loaded into dozens of shadows of cannons. 

Kaboom! 

Each cannon exploded at the same time in a single terrifying explosion. At the same time, the giant water hands formed into fists and launched out a flurry of punches. 

Lord Turnbull hurriedly shouted out, "Edict: Defend" causing terrifying torrents of qi to be dragged out of the soldiers causing all of them to weaken and a few more to faint and collapse. Nevertheless, the qi combined together to form a hemispherical dome of pitch-black qi. This was a defense much stronger than the shield used before.

Unfortunately for him, however, this defensive dome trapped Zhen Shi and Will O'Dale with the soldiers. The soldiers began to shout helplessly as Zhen Shi and Will O'Dale dashed like the wind amidst them. Each time Zhen Shi's crazy hard bow smashed down, a helmet cracked. And each time William launched a flurry of sword slashes, another helmet cracked. But Will was much slower than Zhen Shi... Either way, within a few moments, they had taken down a good chunk of the soldiers. 

Zhen Shi couldn't help but grin despite his displeasure in being unable to earn Exp points, while thinking, "This is fun... Like playing Whack-a-mole!" 

Lord Turnbull was itching to attack them, but the incoming attack left him too distracted. The wind whistled as the rain of spears fell upon the metallic shield being maintained by Lord Turnbull.

Clang! Clang!

The sound of metal striking metal rang out as the spears struck against the metal dome causing very light cracks to appear. However, the intensity of the cracks gradually increased as Zhen Shi and Will O'Dale continued to knock out more and more soldiers. William even activated his stealth ability and dashed about much easier than before.

Lord Turnbull stared in disbelief as Zhen Shi continued to dash about the battlefield while bashing helmets with his bow. And since Will O'Dale was invisible all he could see of him were helmets being 'magically' destroyed and soldiers 'magically' collapsing down. 

The soldiers were struggling and shouting while fighting back. But they were only ordinary cultivators with weak abilities. In addition to that, they had been greatly weakened by the continuous usage of their qi. As such, they posed little to no challenge to Zhen Shi and the invisible Will O'Dale. 

However, as a result, Lord Turnbull continued to struggle to maintain the metallic dome amidst the rain of spears especially with the ever-increasing cracks on its surface.  In the end, he resigned himself to extracting more qi from the remaining soldiers and strengthened the metallic dome. 

But as a result, the remaining soldiers grew even weaker making it much easier for Zhen Shi and Will O'Dale to knock them out. 

Several minutes passed as this stalemate between the metallic dome and the rain of spears continued.

On the other hand, as a result of launching such a powerful attack, the sea-fortress shimmered faintly as if it would fade away. In the end, Myne flicked his hand with a grimace causing half of the talisman formations in the ocean water to return and combine with the sea-fortress. Only then did the fortress stabilize; nevertheless it seemed much fainter than usual. 

Despite the onslaught of spears and loss of soldiers, Lord Turnbull's metallic dome had continued to hold on despite being covered in cracks. But just then the last spear struck the surface of the metallic dome causing it to finally shatter apart.  

As the metallic black qi dissipated it revealed a Lord Turnbull that was gasping in tiredness with only a few dozen soldiers remaining. And even they were gasping in fatigue and over-use of qi. 

Even though Lord Turnbull had survived the attack, he had already lost. This was because the remaining soldiers were not sufficient to even barely perform on the level that they had before. But making matters worse for him, Zhen Shi and William knocked even them out in a few moments. 

Now having knocked out the army of hundreds, Zhen Shi and the now visible Will O'Dale proceeded to stare at the gasping Lord Turnbull with confidence and satisfaction. 

Even Myne and Vivienne jumped onto the wall of the sea-fortress. However, their faces were riddled in worry and suspicion. 

Lord Turnbull turned his head at Will O'Dale, "It appears that you've fallen under their mesmerism. Do not fret for I will deal out justice." Honestly, he wasn't sure about this but he stating this publicly helped him keep the troublesome fellows like Hao Lei in control. 

Finally, he stared at Zhen Shi, Myne, and Vivienne and growled out, "I guess I underestimated you. But that's all the more reason to go all out!" and manifested a shimmering a golden medallion with the symbol of Bull horns on it.  

And a giant formation covering the entire island shimmered faintly under the mid-day sunlight...