"Shuifu, are you okay?" Zhen Shan, who had been knocked to the ground, shook the severely injured sword maiden Shuifu in his arms. Due to her personal shield being directly shattered, Shuifu's flesh suffered direct and severe damage. Her clothes were torn to shreds, and her body was covered with wounds from the shrapnel of the shells, with tender flesh exposed, making the sight particularly terrifying.
Just to mention, although the flesh was exposed, Shuifu did not bleed... because the sword maidens do not have blood.
"I'm fine!" Shuifu shook her head and struggled to stand up and continue fighting, but at that moment, Mingyue's forceful command had already reached her ears.
"I understand, Little Mingyue!" Shuifu felt ashamed in her heart. If she had listened to Mingyue's command earlier, she would not have suffered that sudden shell, which cost her most of her combat ability. So this time, Shuifu did not have the face to disobey Mingyue's command again, but obediently transformed back into her sword form and flew back to where Mingyue was.
"Thank you, Shuifu!" Shuifu's sword automatically flew back to Mingyue's side. The originally sharp blade now had many dents and cracks, indicating that its durability had been reduced by more than 80%. Once the durability reached zero, the sword maiden would completely break, and although death was unlikely, she would basically drop two or three levels.
"Go and rest in the scabbard!" Mingyue inserted Shuifu's sword back into the scabbard. The scabbard was equivalent to the sword maiden's personal space. As long as the sword maiden still had a little durability left, placing Shuifu's sword in the scabbard would allow it to slowly recover its durability.
"Frog, Anning, you should also let Zhen Shan and Chixue Mo return to their sword forms! They have also lost a lot of shield energy, and we will need their strength in the next battle," Gu Han said.
"How can this be? If we do that, won't you be the only one left to deal with the dragon-level threat..." Song Hamma loudly opposed, but when she looked around, Gu Han had already disappeared from her side.
---
"System: Chixue Mo has taken 856 points of damage."
"Oh no, my personal shield energy is running low!" In the battle, Chixue Mo was very unlucky to be hit by a hand cannon shell from Jingang. Even worse, this shell dealt a critical hit, directly reducing Chixue Mo's shield energy by 856 points. Chixue Mo was not like Zhen Shan, a Confucian sword maiden with extremely high defensive capabilities. On the contrary, among all the sword maidens, the Demon Path sword maidens were the most fragile, second only to the Killing Path. This 856-point loss directly reduced Chixue Mo's shield to less than 500 points, and she could only withstand two more hand cannon shells at most.
"Chixue Mo, hide behind me, quickly!" Zhen Shan also noticed Chixue Mo's predicament and immediately called for her to hide behind her.
"No, Zhen Shan, your shield energy is also low, and you won't be able to hold it..." Although Zhen Shan was tough and had a lot of shield energy, she could also activate a shield wall to block damage. However, she had taken the most damage from Jingang, who had fired several volleys that Zhen Shan had to endure. At this moment, Zhen Shan's shield energy was also below 500 points.
"It's fine, Zhen Shan's shield only needs 25 seconds to refresh, it's fine! Holding for 25 seconds is enough!" After the shield is broken, it can be refreshed, but the time required varies. As a Confucian sword maiden, Zhen Shan needed 25 seconds.
During these 25 seconds, without the protection of the shield, Zhen Shan would have to use her body's durability to withstand Jingang's attacks. With a shield, Zhen Shan was a strong protector, but without a shield, she was not much more durable than Shuifu. A single hand cannon shell from Jingang could reduce Zhen Shan's durability by about 20%.
Unless in a crisis, sword wielders would rather accept defeat than deliberately have their sword maidens use their flesh to block enemy attacks, which is common sense.
"You two, get out of the way!" Just as Zhen Shan was planning to endure the 25 seconds to refresh her shield and continue the battle, a somewhat arrogant command sounded in their ears.
"It's you?"
"It's you?"
Zhen Shan and Chixue Mo said in unison. They discovered that Gu Han, who had been directing from the back, had somehow appeared in the center of the battlefield, standing between them and Jingang.
"Are you kidding? How can I let a fragile human fight for me!" Zhen Shan felt insulted. She was a sword maiden, and her pride would never allow a human to stand in front of her. "Human, get down, let your sword maiden come up!"
"My sword maiden is right here!" Gu Han raised the Qingpin Sword in his hand. "I will fight with my sword maiden."
"What are you talking about... you..." Zhen Shan was about to say more, but Chixue Mo held her wrist.
"He's not joking, I can sense a powerful force from him!" The blood mist around Chixue Mo quickly swirled, indicating that her mind was extremely agitated. "I fear this man is a Sword Master."
"Sword Master!!!!" Zhen Shan was stunned, muttering to herself, "A Sword Master, rarer than a Spirit Sword-level sword maiden? ... I've never met one before."
Sword Master! A rarer type of sword wielder than a Spirit Sword-level sword maiden, refers to those who, unlike most sword wielders who rely on the sword maidens' own sword techniques and abilities, hold the sword maidens in their hands and fight using their own sword skills. They have a deeper control over the sword maidens.
The relationship between sword wielders and sword maidens is more of an equal friendship, but only Sword Masters command the sword maidens, fighting with them, truly controlling and dominating them. They are respected by all sword wielders as Sword Masters.
However, Sword Masters have never been the mainstream among sword wielders. They only make up a small fraction of the sword wielders, and the number of famous Sword Masters at the level of a famous sword is no more than two hands. This is because becoming a Sword Master is extremely difficult and requires great talent!
"Zhen Shan, return to your sword form immediately!"
"Chixue Mo, return to your sword form!"
At this moment, the commands from Frog and Anning also reached Zhen Shan and Chixue Mo through the sword marks.
"Let's retreat, Zhen Shan!" Chixue Mo said calmly.
"But this Sword Master is just an ancient sword, and his opponent is a dragon-level threat that even we can't handle..."
"If he has the courage to stand in front of us, he must have his own means. We don't need to worry about him!" After saying this, Chixue Mo's blood mist dissipated, and she transformed back into the Chixue Mo sword, flying toward Anning.
"Sword Master..." Zhen Shan sighed, no longer insisting on fighting, and followed Chixue Mo's sword back to the scabbard. Thus, the entire battlefield was left with only Gu Han, standing opposite Jingang, facing her eight black cannon barrels.
---
"Changed opponents?" Jingang suddenly noticed that the three women who could turn into swords had disappeared, and her opponent had changed to a somewhat strange-looking guy.
"Hey, are you with those three sword women who spilled Jingang's black tea?" Before the battle began, Jingang needed to confirm that the person in front of her was her enemy to avoid accidentally hurting an innocent.
"To be precise, I am their leader," Gu Han, who had been scowling at Nian Mingyue earlier, now smiled at Jingang. "We can be considered a team."
"Then we're still going to fight!" The main guns on Jingang's back rotated and aimed at Gu Han's head. "Die, and give Jingang's black tea back to Jingang!"
"Boom!" While talking, Jingang's main guns had finished cooling down, and the barrels spewed flames, launching eight powerful shells rapidly toward Gu Han.
At this moment, Gu Han had already taken 100 Sword Essence Pills from the initial dungeon, raising his Sword Essence value to 109 quarks. However, the protection ratio of the Qingpin Sword was a pitiful 0.118, so when multiplied by Gu Han's 109 Sword Essence points, his personal shield only had 11 points of energy. Such a small amount of shield energy would immediately collapse if even grazed by Jingang's shells, exposing Gu Han's mortal flesh.
"Xuantian Nine Swords — Sword Array Curtain"
Facing the barrage of shells, Gu Han remained calm, a sharp light flashing in his eyes. He quickly stepped forward with his left foot, narrowly avoiding a shell aimed at his left leg. Then he bent down, dodging another shell aimed at his chest.
These were the only two shells that could pose a threat to Gu Han. The rest, he didn't even need to dodge, as they wouldn't touch him.
"He actually dodged it!" Jingang stared in disbelief at the man in front of her. Her dense volley of shells had been dodged, which was simply unbelievable.
What Jingang didn't know was that "Xuantian Nine Swords — Sword Array Curtain" was a technique from the "Xuantian Nine Swords" passed down in Gu Han's family. After using Sword Array Curtain, Gu Han's eyes and body seemed to be enhanced, allowing him to dodge extremely fast attacks.
"79 quarks left!" Gu Han silently calculated the remaining Sword Essence in his body. The Xuantian Nine Swords could only be used by sword wielders, and each use would consume a certain amount of Sword Essence. Gu Han's body only had 109 points of Sword Essence, so each use required careful calculation to minimize the consumption.
"Now it's my turn!" Gu Han's figure darted forward, and he engaged in a fierce battle with Jingang.