Game’s Dogma

Ghost Flame was an item obtained from the great skeleton priest in the Demon City. Its ability to suppress other forces amazed Greenstone. In simple terms, Greenstone could temporarily seal off another player’s cultivation style by piercing him with a Ghost Flame needle.  

However, he only received Ghost Flames back in the Demon City’s encounter quest, Where Rivals Meet. Ghost Flame needles were scarcer than Brute Needles in a sense. The latter required lots of time, effort and materials, but it was still craftable nonetheless. Ghost Flame needles, on the other hand, cannot be replenished when its raw material, the Ghost Flame, couldn’t be obtained.

Greenstone only had eight of those precious needles left—and he treasured each of them greatly.

Now, Greenstone held three Ghost Flame needles in his hand.

History seemed to have repeated itself; the situation at hand was also a cultivation disorder. He had used three needles back then, and so would he right now, but his objective was different.

His previous goal was to isolate the fire and ice elemental forces in Drako Yau. It required precise control over forces rather than quantity in Ghost Flames. This time, he had to destroy the walnut-sized rogue force in Drako Yau’s body, with three Ghost Flame needles no less. After all, destruction consumed more forces, not to mention Drako Yau’s cultivation state was no longer the same as before.

Greenstone placed his meaty hand on Drako Yau’s body, seemingly in search of something. His hand stopped at Drako Yau’s left chest as he thought, It’s here! The next moment, the Ghost Flame needles in his hand flickered and embedded themselves into the same spot on Drako Yau, albeit at different angles.

Pzzt… The Ghost Flame needles’ forces immediately sprung into action. The army of green charged towards the lump of rogue force and pulverised it. Drako Yau spat out a load of blood onto Greenstone’s white robe, but instead of getting mad, Greenstone let out a sigh of relief.

Drako Yau’s body gradually cooled down from its boiling hot state. His Cryoflame style was a newly created style that no one had ever cultivated. As it contained extraordinary powers, he created the yin-yang symbol in his body to tame and blend the opposing forces in his body. However, he forcefully halted the yin-yang symbol when activating Boiling Form, resulting in an uncontrollable rogue force that broke free.

A comparable situation would be if a critical component broke down in a machine. Without the yin-yang symbol’s mediation, the untamed forces attempted to fight again. Greenstone’s approach of eradicating the uncontrollable rogue force was the best solution; once the rogue force was gone, Drako Yau’s body could tame its own forces again and return to its previous equilibrium.

Without the players’ intervention, Oda Nobunaga’s charge went smoother than ever. No one could slow down his black steed as it raced through the enemy soldiers. Windstrider, Dumbgirl, Idyllic Poet, and Danting also surrounded him and made short work of any Akechi soldier who came too close. Ordinary soldiers simply had no chance to break through their defences.

Suddenly, Oda Nobunaga roared, “Akechi Mitsuhide! Your death is nigh!”

The four turned to look at him, only to find him off his horse and levitating in the air while clad in brilliant purple flames. Not far away across the battlefield was another human-sized fireball that was golden red. The two fireballs slammed into one another without any pre-battle dialogue.

Boom!!!

“Urgh!”

Drako Yau felt all his muscles tense up as he snapped his eyes open. Regaining consciousness as soon as possible was an instinct he gained from being hunted down by the old geezer back in the days.

Just a glance at the architectural style was enough for him to realise he was in Dragon Alliance’s base. He slowly sat up, the intense pain throughout his body making him shiver involuntarily. The origins of the pain weren’t simply physical injuries. He had over-exerted himself when Boiling Form was active, thus his meridians and internals sustained varying degrees of injuries.

In fact, Drako Yau had realised Boiling Form strained his body heavily in his training sessions. Even the best healing potions had little effect at times. Only the cleric at the resurrection altar could heal him completely. As such, he was very cautious about using Boiling Form, but he was left with no choice when the enemy players on the Western server were stronger than anticipated.

To think that I’ll be in this sorry state before fighting Zeus… A wry smile found its way onto his face before he closed his eyes. Though I got injured badly, I benefited greatly from this encounter too.

The main reason his forces rampaged wasn’t Boiling Form. After practising so many times with it, he could sustain it for roughly five minutes without hurting himself too much, but it only lasted one minute this time.

It had to be Frozen Strike. This was his first time infusing his internal forces into a skill. Left without a choice, he inserted almost half of his ice elemental force into the Frozen Strike, turning it so powerful that it could freeze Mana Shot. Him taking the initial blast of Mana Shot also played a major role.

Burning through his reserves of ice elemental forces and halting his yin-yang symbol to activate Boiling Form toppled the perfect balance in his body. Once the equilibrium was broken, things could only spiral into chaos. Even Drako Yau was overwhelmed at the thought of it—he was totally tempting fate.

The battle also exposed his weakness: his lack of knowledge of the application of his cultivation style. Although the discussion with Hagrid was certainly helpful, Hagrid intentionally held back on topics related to applications of a style to avoid affecting Drako Yau’s adventure down the path of cultivation.

Drako Yau was completely in the blind when it came to cultivating. When he thought about it, he only created the yin-yang symbol and the Eight Diagrams mostly due to luck.

Recalling the battle was somewhat harrowing for Drako Yau. The sniper was far too terrifying. If he hadn’t unlocked Advanced Grasp of Ice and Fire, which inspired him to infuse his internal forces into Frozen Strike, he would’ve sustained heavy injuries, or worse, died.

Speaking of the quest, he wasn’t too bothered by its outcome. He had faith in his companions that they’d get the job done.

Drako Yau picked up his mask on his bed and put it on. While he couldn’t fight for at least the next few days, walking on his own was well within his capability. He went for the door, opened it, and almost slammed it into someone; at a closer look, the person was Greenstone, who leaned against the wall and fell asleep without a care in the world.

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