Mingyue's Solo Battle! Against the Red Mask! (Part 2)

"Un?" Peng Zhen had an urge to turn her head toward Mingyue, seeing the latter's condition. She didn't understand, but she felt that Mingyue just went away.

But similar to the last time she saw, Mingyue were above Xiao Wu, mounting and hugging the latter's soft body and warm white-fur. Even Peng Zhen herself had a tinge of envy when she saw that.

She was hesitant to wake Mingyue up or not, but in the end, she chose the latter.

[Is it my imagination?] Peng Zhen thought there was something happened even though nothing happened. Seeing the sleeping figure of Mingyue, Peng Zhen chuckled, [Sleep again? But indeed, the outside should be dark already – time for little kid to go to sleep. No wonder. . .]

Returning her focus toward the two fight in front of her, Peng Zhen didn't pay any attention toward anything else.

"Safeee. . . ."

Xiao Wu wiped her non-existent sweat on her temple. She never expected that Peng Zhen would turn her attention soon after Mingyue left.

Of course, the sleeping Mingyue that Peng Zhen saw was an illusion created by Xiao Wu. By manipulating Elemental around, and adding with the faint illumination, Xiao Wu could create a carbon copy of Mingyue without any difficulty – as long as no one came close.

The principle of this illusion was simple. Similar to a mirage, Xiao Wu could make an optical illusion – tricking every eye.

Optical Illusions could use colour, light and patterns to create images that could be deceptive or misleading to our brains. The information gathered by the eye was processed by the brain, creating a perception that in reality, did not match the true image. Perception referred to the interpretation of what people took in through their eyes.

Optical illusions occur because our brain is trying to interpret what we see and make sense of the world around us. Optical illusions simply trick our brains into seeing things which may or may not be real.

And that was one of the basic of creating an illusion.

Hence, Peng Zhen didn't feel weird when she saw an illusion of sleeping Mingyue because her brain processed what she saw as the real sleeping Mingyue, not an illusion.

As long as Peng Zhen or anyone who saw the illusion never realized the illusion, they wouldn't stop believing.

And of course, this kind of illusion was much safer than what Mingyue had done back then in Grey Brick Town – toward the two guinea pigs. The Elemental didn't mess with Peng Zhen's brain, only giving a fake image toward one of the five senses.

From five senses, people would depend on the most on was the sense of seeing, their vision. People would often say that eyes were the door of the soul, but eyes also were the door of the world.

One could perceive many and various things only from their vision – people perceived up to 80% all of the impression by means of their sight.

Different from the sense of touch, one could see something far.

Different from the sense of taste, one didn't have to expose one's vulnerability.

Different from the sense of hearing, one could receive all various information in a glance.

Different from the sense of smell, a little disturbance wouldn't disturb one's vision.

Hence, it was not weird for one's eyes could be said as the window to the world.

But also, one's vision was the easiest to trick – because of people's dependency on it.

Moving her gaze toward the last place she saw that small figure, Xiao Wu could only sigh. This darkness reminded her of that experience four years ago. In the underground ruins, where they met a Demonic Beast. The first time she blamed herself because of her uselessness.

No matter what, she would never let the history repeated for another time.

"Protect Yueyue properly, Xiao Jing."

"I know what to do."

Receiving the affirmation from Xiao Jing, Xiao Wu relaxed her body a little as she did her portion of work.

…

A tiny figure blitzed forward – her two long braids were dancing around along with her fluttering skirt and sleeves. Under the darkness without illumination, no one could see her capabilities.

But in Mingyue's vision, everything was as clear as day – without any obstruction from the darkness.

If Liao Yun realized it, she would curse Mingyue – she was fast enough to overthrow Liao Yun in her speed. But in these four years, Mingyue would pretend to be a slowpoke.

But it was not Mingyue's fault at all since her performance was all thanks to the Elemental which was infused into her legs – improving her speed and relieving the muscle ache. Of course, relieving the muscle ache would work temporarily.

"Yin Yang Fish," Mingyue called with a soft voice as a white-coloured fish and black-coloured fish appeared each in her left and right hands. Both of them moved energetically as they went into close contact with Mingyue's hands.

The two fishes were two entities, but also at the same time, both were one entity.

Both were separatable, but also at the same time, inseparable. One was real, while the other one was unreal. Both from a different place, but both were twisted together and interweaved, making a complete existence.

"Dagger."

Along with Mingyue's voice, the Yin Yang Fish's body re-materialized and morphed into a pair of sharp daggers, a black dagger and white dagger, one each in her hand.

Swiiiish. . . .

With a flick of her fingers, a hard-to-discern light was shot from her hand toward its target – ex-Pig Head's neck. It was very fast, not letting its target realized or made any movement.

Akin to an eagle dived down to hunt a rat, the thrown dagger was stabbed toward ex-Pig Head's neck without any retaliation.

Clank. . .

But, the unexpected happened. Even though the thrown dagger should be a deadly blow, there was no any mark, no wound at all.

And soon after that, ex-Pig Head reacted, and at the same time, he dashed toward Mingyue – he was provoked.

"Yueyue!" Xiao Jing couldn't help to scream, but there was no change in Mingyue's face.

"Calm down, Xiao Jing." The tip of her lips was curled upward while circulating the Elemental in her whole body – improving her physical strength and reaction time. "It's not like the dagger is not sharp enough, but rather earlier was only a thrown dagger, without any Elemental of course. And now. . ."

Rotating the black dagger around her finger, she was prepared to clash head-on with the incoming greatsword.

The circulated Elemental in her body rotated even faster and shrouded the black dagger in her hand at the exact time of the clash.

CLANK!

The clash was at the standoff, but Mingyue felt a faint numbness in her grip. But she had no time to think about it as ex-Pig Head prepared for another slash.

Swiish, swish swish. . .

This time, Mingyue avoided every of the slash while she leapt backwards.

"Tsk. Even though I have circulated the Elemental, my strength is around Peak Grade Battle Warrior, eh? A little off from my expectation."

This was Mingyue's main weakness. Her body was weak, making her unable to unleash more power. No, it might be suitable to say that her physique limited her own potential.

Mingyue's Elemental manipulation was very precise – she never found anyone with better Elemental manipulation so far. Even the tribe's leader of the Wind Chasing Tribe, Liao An fared lower than Mingyue.

Indeed, her experience as a cultivator in her previous life was the main reason for it.

Thus, she should have been able to unleash her maximum physical prowess. Unfortunately, circulating more Elemental in her own body would do the opposite.

When Mingyue was in deep contemplation, ex-Pig Head made a wide horizontal swing, making it harder for Mingyue to evade. But unfortunately, it was still not enough.

Arching her body into the shape of 'n' backwards, Mingyue narrowly evaded that one.

(Author's Note: Bridge up from gymnastic's movement, something like that.)

"You can't do it, Yueyue! Don't be hard-head and let me pack this doll!" Xiao Jing's voice was full of impatience as she appeared behind Mingyue.

Xiao Jing's body was akin to the drawn and nocked arrow – only needed one order to unleash the arrow.

Opposite of Xiao Jing's mood, Mingyue was still giggling. "Not yet. I want to try a few more tricks."

Xiao Jing, ". . ."

Understood of Xiao Jing's scepticism, Mingyue explained, "This puppet has the capability to reduce the circulated Elemental when it comes into contact. For example, the earlier clash."

After arching her body, Mingyue somersaulted backwards to create some distance from ex-Pig Head. If it was a direct clash with only using a dagger was indeed hard, not to mention that there was one or two levels difference between their strength.

"If I have to sum it up, this puppet has two basic abilities. The first is reducing the circulated Elemental with each clash, which is a little problematic. If I have to make the comparison, it is similar to punch at cotton – the cotton would absorb and lessen the received impact. But there is no need to worry about me, it is only a minuscule amount for me, but I don't know about other people."

[But at the same time, this fight must not be prolonged too much. Or else, I will be on disadvantage. With each of clash, the condensed Elemental in the Yin Yang Daggers was scrapped little by little.] Mingyue added in her mind.

Considering her delicate body, she would be KO'ed if she couldn't circulate the Elemental at all. But of course, she had a lot of tricks under her sleeve which wouldn't let the worst case of scenario happened.

"The second is their physique's improvement, and a massive one. Both this thing and that big-bodied puppet that wear the same ash-coloured armour have the same big improvement. But at the same time, there is no trace of Elemental from their body, which is the weird part."

[There is a possibility to improve one's physique by circulating Elemental in one's body. But for this puppet, there is a huge improvement in its physique even though there is no circulated Elemental. Why is it? Is it because the puppet cannot manipulate Elemental, or is it because the puppet is controlling a corpse, not a living human?] It was the most interesting part, also the part that she couldn't get the answer any time soon.

And the clash previously had made sure of Mingyue's previous conjecture. This ex-Pig Head and ex-Fatty Pig had a huge jump in their strength. Mingyue didn't know their original level, but their current strength sure was above Peak Grade Battle Warrior.

But the two puppets which were fighting Fu Tao sure were weaker if compared with ex-Pig Head and ex-Fatty Pig. At the very least, Middle Grade Battle Warrior.

Mingyue was sure that both ex-Pig Head and ex-Fatty Pig was at the very least at the first stage of Elemental Warrior.

Elemental Warrior, the stage above Battle Warrior. But the grading of Elemental Warrior was still a mystery, not even Miss Chen, the Mercenary Guild's receptionist knew about it. But, there was one thing Mingyue heard from Miss Chen.

A different grading – there was nothing about Grade 1 – 10 like Battle Fighter and Battle Warrior.

And what kind of grading? It was still a mystery for Mingyue since no one reached this level with the exception the leader of Red Rage Bear Mercenary, the Lin Family, and the City Governor themselves.

Mingyue made a small gesture, and the fallen white dagger made an arch toward Mingyue's hand.

Ex-Pig Head lunged forward to make another swing.

Clank! Clank clank clank!

With the pair of daggers, Mingyue could hold on her ground with ease, but she was still not letting down her vigilance. Without any offence, she could only stall the fight.

"Let's speed up the game," Mingyue smirked up and lunged forward.

…