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Shield

Once the status of new Legion recruits was settled, Pef and Alchemist Rejin flew to a distant moon to begin the new training montage.

"All right, hit me!" Pef demanded while summoning the new Voidshield around.

The Alchemist gently pushed his Wood Sacred Vine Flame towards Pef, slowly increasing pressure and heat until the Voidshield began to constrict inward, gradually reducing the defensive skill's size from a 100 meter wide sphere to 80, then 50.

'Are you sure this will work? I'm getting cooked and refined in here!' Pef complained with a strained voice. Whatever mysterious ability the alchemist flame had, it was incredibly potent and of course, painful. Not that Pef was a stranger to pain anymore. It had been a constant companion during his adventures as a cultivator.

'All life is suffering, my retarded user. However, it is better to anticipate problems and choose the place and time of the suffering, instead of giving this advantage to your enemies.' the glove replied a bit sarcastically.

Pef grit his teeth in acceptance, and pushed his qi back into the Voidshield, trying to compensate the increased pressure with his own. It didn't quite work, as Rejin was not only a Grandmaster Alchemist, but also a Tier 7 God, about a thousand times stronger.

Slowly the shield continued to contract and only stopped when it became a small 3 meter wide sphere. Or perhaps the Alchemist stopped pushing as hard.

The stand-off continued for a few months, until the glove was marginally satisfied with Pef's progress. 'We can stop for now. We need to test the skill in combat anyway.'

Pef glanced at his inner status screen, to see the Voidshield had reached 5 percent mastery. It didn't seem that much, until he also noticed that the green flames didn't pose any more pressure. Perhaps the glove was right, and he should try it against something.

"Would you mind trying to punch me?" Pef asked with a level voice.

Rejin lazily opened his eyes and waved his hands to make the green flames vanish. "It would be a pleasure, Pef Xi. I hope you can regrow limbs..." he added as a fist crashed into the Voidshield with immense power. Crack lines appeared onto the shield, but it still held.

"Try harder, fellow Daoist." Pef muttered while taking a deep breath and circulating his qi at maximum speed to replenish the shield to full strength.

The Alchemist rose a curious eyebrow then shrugged. "Okay then. I'll use 2 percent power..." he spoke as a much stronger punch landed onto Pef's shield making it wobble and deform inward by a meter.

Pef smirked and rose his own eyebrow. "I can hit harder than that." he claimed with a superior tone as he took a guard stance.

Then next punch immediately made him regret the words, as blinding bright fist crashed through the shield then through his right hand, then elbow, then shoulder, blowing the body parts away and shattering bone and flesh into mincemeat.

"You were saying?" Rejin asked with a smirk, holding a healing pill out for Pef.

Grudgingly, Pef took and ingested the healing pill and focused for a minute to regenerate his body back to health. "That was 5 percent power?" he asked in a more somber tone.

"Perhaps 6 percent. I wanted to make sure I shut you up. And surprise, it worked!" Rejin proclaimed with a hint a faint humour.

Pef nodded back, and had an Avatar use the Voidsplitter on an innocent inner world asteroid. In a second, a Tribulation Lightning fell onto Pef, but it splashed over the Voidshield, also making it crack and buckle inward. "Is this normal though? The retaliation for using a skill is twenty times stronger than my own strength?" he asked with a sorrowful voice.

"Mhm. Indeed it is the strongest tribulation I ever heard of, but your skill is also overpowered as hell. You can already kill Elder Gods with a single skill. And with your new shield, you basically don't even suffer anymore." the Alchemist answered with a wise voice.

Pef sighed and took out a Godwine bottle, then gulped half of contents in a long swig. "To obtain that Godbeast eye, I fought and killed a Tier 5 Godbeast in the mausoleum, and almost died. Not to mention I was also hit by tribulation while wounded and defenseless. Burned me a spicy crisp."

Rejin just shrugged, unconcerned. "It was your choice, and it seems the risk paid off. Once you truly master that skill, you will be extremely resilient, almost like your wife Yue."

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Pef smiled then shook his head. "I doubt my skill will ever become that strong. That badger...he is impossibly strong. My glove thinks it cannot be killed, at all."

Rejin blinked a bit confused, while measuring the orange glove with a dubious gaze. "I lost count of how many unkillable things have ultimately died, including Xian tier deities. It is not widely known, but there used to be three Supreme Arch Devils, when I was young, many Chaos Cycles ago. There is a good reason while the Dragon and Devil Realms have not been overrun by goliths, despite thousands of assaults on their domains."

Pef glanced at his glove, then just nodded noncommittally. He understood the glove very well by now, mostly because he had to as his life depended on it. If the glove itself told him not to fight someone, ever...he could safely determine it was because that someone could not be even scratched.

'If you do wonder, it would take us a century to have a chance to kill the alchemist. Maybe less if we encounter some opportunity.' the glove added with a less friendly advice, towards the alchemist.

'We do need him to make pills and weapons for the Legion, I say.' Pef answered with an inner sob. A murderous weapon of war wasn't exactly user friendly, or anything friendly.

As if by coincidence, the alchemist threw a wary glance at the glove then took out his own Godwine bottle and sipped some wine.

"Then again, I'm not exactly a fighter. I certainly cannot break that time forcefield of the Taotie. Perhaps only a Xian God can do it. I do not know." Rejin allowed with softer tone.

"Nevermind the badger. As long it is teaching my wife, and protecting her, the beast is an asset and I don't want it dead. Plus, it is sealed in that ring, so it's not very dangerous, I think." Pef commented with a dismissive gesture.

Rejin just sighed at the naive man and took out a few adamantite weapons as a method to derail the subject. Of course it worked perfectly, as Pef's attention shifted to the prototype weapons for his Legion regiments. Spear, bow and sword, plus a larger spiked hammer for things that needed extra beating.

With practiced movements, Pef began testing the new armaments while measuring their stats with his glove.

As he slashed and stabbed in the void, slowly increasing the sword qi around the edge of the adamantite sword, a flash of white qi left afterimages behind, until a tornado of destructive sword beams fired outward and minced a nearby moon into tiny bits.

"Hmmm. I can also control ten thousand swords now. I wonder if it is because I am actually holding a weapon..." Pef mused out loud, then stored the sword and repeated the process, only this time using the Voidsword that he created by adapting the Godbeast void claws.

Another moon exploded into small shards, while Pef counted the controlled weapons and the ones following as an amorphous wave of sword qi.

"Just over nine thousands, without a weapon. And the strength is not bad either...are you already at the One with the Void stage?" Rejin remarked with a surprised voice.

"Yeah. I don't know if this is good though, against real swordsmen." Pef wondered with a curious look.

Rejin hesitated for a moment. "I'm not a real expert either, but it normally takes an Elder God to reach this stage, after a billion years of constant training. Can you feel the swords with your heart yet?"

Pef blinked and scratched his cheek in deep thought. "Maybe? If I fight someone very strong, like that Godbeast. Not that my sword qi could damage it, at all. Damn thing was immune to everything, except my special skill."

The Alchemist sighed and gulped the rest of his wine bottle in a single take. "You're almost as skilled as me then. And I did spend a whole life on the sword...once. I reached Heart of the Sword stage that time...and died by the sword too. There is always a better swordsman, somewhere. Never expected it to be a pretty Fay female though." he reminisced with a far away look.

Pef chuckled a little, also surprised. Less at the alchemist having tried other professions in past lives, but that Fay were actually capable of lethal combat. He kinda expected them to always hide under veils and illusions.

"We could visit the Fay. I am rather curious about them." he said on a whim.

Rejin shuddered a little, not very convinced at his new ally survival instincts. "You did hear me before, right? The Fay are extremely dangerous."

Pef nodded gently. "We'll be fine. It's not like I'm going there to kill people. Just visit."

The Alchemist sighed, hoping this life wouldn't end abruptly, again.