While flying mid-air, Illustrious immediately performed a backflip and landed safely. Just as she wanted to use Rage Spike against Li Haifei, the opponent beat her to it. Helplessly, Illustrious could only perform a leftward air-roll to dodge Li Haifei's strike.
Li Haifei wasn't surprised that Rage Spike didn't hit Illustrious. After all, even his strongest eight-hit sword skill had only knocked her back without defeating her, let alone a basic dash skill like this.
"Alright, my testing is over. Are you ready to die?" Illustrious said with confidence.
"You're saying that was just a test? Don't make me laugh," Li Haifei said with a look of disbelief.
"You don't believe me? Fine. I'll show you what a true sword skill looks like." Illustrious began to radiate a powerful aura.
Seeing Illustrious' aura become so strong, Li Haifei had to re-evaluate her. This Illustrious truly lived up to being the number one ranked person on the Ruler Leaderboard.
Gripping the elucidator and dark repulser with both hands, Illustrious continuously condensed her power. When it reached its peak, she lunged at Li Haifei and Mu Shenghua like lightning.
"Bang..."
Illustrious vanished from her spot instantly, leaving only an afterimage. Li Haifei's mental power began to spread out to sense his surroundings; turning his head, he discovered Illustrious had reached Mu Shenghua's side.
"So fast! I actually couldn't see clearly, only catching a blur of her afterimages moving toward Mu Shenghua." Li Haifei charged at Illustrious. He couldn't let Mu Shenghua face Illustrious alone; otherwise, Mu Shenghua would definitely lose, leaving him to face Illustrious by himself.
With his strength, he could never win against Illustrious alone.
Seeing Li Haifei trying to provide support, Illustrious was full of disdain. "You cannot stop me."
"Dammit!" Seeing Illustrious' disdain, Li Haifei was furious. How could a mere woman put him in such a predicament? If word got out, how could he continue to mingle in the Divine Seal Bearer circles? His teammates would all look down on him.
He raised his sword and charged at Illustrious like a flash, wanting to use the sword in his hand to cleave Illustrious in two to vent his hatred.
Looking at Illustrious, who had suddenly appeared before her, Mu Shenghua was terrified. This Illustrious was too scary. Even though their strength was supposedly the same, why couldn't she resist Illustrious alone? Was it because her experience was richer?
Mu Shenghua began to use Horizontal Square; she wasn't about to just stand there and wait for death.
Looking at this Horizontal Square, Illustrious didn't take it seriously at all. The elucidator and dark repulser in her hands began to burst with golden light.
"Starburst Stream!"
A cold shout rang through the entire space. Illustrious continuously swung the two swords in her hands, unleashing the sixteen-hit Dual Blades high-tier sword skill.
"Nani! It's actually the legendary Starburst Stream? A monster!" Li Haifei couldn't believe it. Even he had only learned an eight-hit sword skill, yet Illustrious could use a sixteen-hit Dual Blades high-tier sword skill. This talent was simply terrifying!
Starburst Stream was indeed powerful. Mu Shenghua couldn't compete with it at all. Illustrious had only used the seventh strike, and Mu Shenghua's sword was already knocked away.
The golden light emitted by the elucidator slashed across Mu Shenghua's neck, and blood instantly sprayed out.
Seeing that the eighth strike had finished Mu Shenghua, Illustrious took advantage of the fact that the sword skill still had eight strikes left. She kicked Mu Shenghua away and then lunged toward Li Haifei.
Seeing Illustrious' ferocity, Li Haifei retreated in a hurry and turned to flee. But by fleeing, he had already lost. If he had resisted, he might have held out for a while, but by running, he left such a huge opening that Illustrious could finish him even faster.
In an instant, Illustrious closed in on Li Haifei and unleashed the final eight strikes of Starburst Stream against his back.
Having taken all eight strikes, Li Haifei was hacked into five pieces of meat by Illustrious. Poor Li Haifei died a miserable death just like that.
Turning her head, Illustrious glanced at Asuna and found that Asuna had already pierced Zhou Tiancha's heart with her sword. As she pulled the sword out, Zhou Tiancha collapsed weakly to the ground.
"To die by this strike... it's not in vain." In his final moments, Zhou Tiancha spoke these words and then died.
After the four were killed, Illustrious and Asuna stayed in that space for an hour before returning to the real world from that Purple Space.
Illustrious made a phone call to Alice, asking her to handle the four corpses, and then took Asuna home... Two days later, Illustrious and Asuna participated in the Laughing Coffin subjugation mission together.
Laughing Coffin had two members who reached the top ten of the Ruler Leaderboard; this subjugation would not be easy.
Monsters didn't have much intelligence and were easy to deal with, but when it came to humans, they weren't so simple.
Illustrious and the others arrived at a Paper Mill. On the surface, it was a Paper Mill, but it was actually the location of the Laughing Coffin base.
In order not to alert the guards at the entrance, Alice looked at Illustrious and signaled her to act according to plan. Illustrious had no choice but to set out.
The two guards saw Illustrious and immediately said sternly, "Stop! Who are you? This is a Paper Mill; unauthorized personnel are not allowed to enter."
"Ah! I see! Sorry, I came to the wrong place." Illustrious put on a trembling appearance, looking exactly like a lost, weak woman.
This put them at ease. A black-haired guard saw Illustrious' beauty and immediately had bad thoughts. He whispered with the other red-haired guard for a while.
The other guard looked at Illustrious' beauty, couldn't help but swallow his saliva, and agreed with the black-haired guard's idea.
"Beautiful, don't leave. We have a room here with lots of good food and fun things; you'll definitely be interested if you go." The black-haired man smiled.
Hmph! Could your thoughts be any more obvious? Do you really take me for an ignorant, weak woman? However, Illustrious didn't expose the black-haired guard's trick and said with a look of joy, "A room with good food and fun things? Is it true? Then please, big brothers, take me there, okay?"
The black-haired guard and the red-haired guard looked at each other: This woman is so stupid!
"Sure, no problem. Little sister, follow me," the black-haired guard said.
"Mhm! Thank you, big brothers," Illustrious thanked them.
Illustrious followed the two guards to a dark room where there was only a table and a bed; the decor looked very simple.
"Big brothers, this doesn't look like a room with good food and fun things..." Illustrious put on a shivering appearance.
Seeing that they had brought Illustrious to this place, the two guards stopped pretending. The black-haired guard said lewdly, "Hehehe! Don't worry, I'll give you plenty of good food and fun."
"What do you think you're doing! If you keep this up, I'll scream!" Illustrious said fearfully.
The two guards kept approaching Illustrious. The red-haired guard said, "Go ahead and scream. Even if you scream your head off, no one is going to answer you."
"Hahaha! Don't be afraid, little sister. We have plenty of firepower, we'll definitely make you feel like you're in heaven." The black-haired guard laughed.
Seeing that the two of them actually dared to lay a hand on her, Illustrious was now certain that no one could hear anything here. Thus, she stopped pretending. Reaching into the void, elucidator manifested in her hand.
With a flash of sword light, the necks of the two guards immediately sprayed blood, and two heads rolled on the ground.
They stared wide-eyed, unable to believe it. Just a moment ago, Illustrious looked like a weak woman; how did she turn into a life-taking death god in the blink of an eye?
After taking care of the two guards, Illustrious walked out the door and headed toward Alice.
On the other side, seeing that Illustrious had lured the two guards away, Alice immediately led fifty Rulers toward the main gate.
Since no guards were left to sound the alarm, Alice split her forces into five teams to raid the factory. Midway, Alice's team encountered Illustrious, and Illustrious joined Alice's group.
These five teams cut through the opposition like butter, slaughtering their way all the way to the factory basement.
In a secret room in the basement, two people were playing Shogi. One was the leader of Laughing Coffin named POH, and the other was a high-ranking executive of Laughing Coffin named Johnny.
The door to the secret room was kicked open. When the two turned their heads and saw Illustrious and the others, they immediately panicked.
"Alice, Illustrious, and Asuna... how did you find this place?" POH pointed at Alice.
Alice said coldly, "I have nothing to say to the dead."
"Hmph! Dead? Who's going to die is yet to be seen!" POH laughed out of extreme anger.
"Villains die because they talk too much. Don't waste words with them, just kill them directly." Johnny threw a poison bomb at Alice.
Looking at the poison bomb, Alice and the others immediately dodged. With a bang, the poison bomb hit the wall and instantly corroded a large hole.
Seeing the corrosive power of the poison bomb, Alice warned, "Everyone be careful, don't let those beads hit you."
To catch the bandits, first catch their leader. Illustrious took the lead and attacked POH. Then Alice also went on the offensive against Johnny. Asuna looked at the two, unsure of whom to help. Worried that Illustrious might not be able to beat POH and an accident might happen, Asuna finally decided to help Illustrious.
POH and Illustrious continuously traded blows. POH was very powerful, his strength definitely ranked in the top three of the Ruler list. This guy POH must have faked his strength during testing; this current strength was his true power. Thus, the two were evenly matched.
However, with Asuna joining in, the situation changed, and POH slowly began to show signs of defeat. POH roared in anger, "Two against one, what kind of heroes are you? If you have the guts, fight me one-on-one!"
Illustrious looked at POH with a gaze reserved for the mentally challenged. "Are you stupid? If I can gang up on you, why would I fight one-on-one?"
POH, withstanding the attacks of Illustrious and Asuna, said, "Wow! Aren't you ranked number one on the Ruler list? How can you be so shameless?"
"Thanks for the compliment! Starburst Stream!" Illustrious unleashed her ultimate move.
POH was dumbfounded. "This is a sixteen-hit Dual Blades high-tier sword skill. You motherfucker, you have this kind of strength and you still gang up on people!"
Illustrious swung Starburst Stream, continuously slashing at POH, while POH also used a ten-hit sword skill, Nova Ascension, to clash with Illustrious.
After POH swung his tenth strike and ran out of moves, he was hit by the eleventh strike of Illustrious's Starburst Stream. After being hit once, the following five strikes all landed on POH's body. POH, having sustained fatal injuries, fell to the ground, unable to rise again.
Finally, Illustrious finished POH off with one sword strike, and the leader of Laughing Coffin died just like that... On the other side, Alice, due to a moment of carelessness, failed to dodge and was ambushed by Johnny. Hit by a poison bomb, Alice's entire hand began to rot.
In a battle between Rulers, if one is accidentally injured, it takes three hours to recover. But Alice was in the middle of a battle; how could she have time to recover? She could only use her left hand to hold her sword and fight Johnny.
Alice's plan was to wait for Illustrious and Asuna to finish off POH, at which point they could come to support her.
Johnny naturally knew Alice's plan, so he certainly wouldn't let her wait for Illustrious and Asuna's support. If she received help from Illustrious and Asuna, it would mean he was finished.
To prevent Alice from getting help, Johnny continuously slashed at her with his large blade. Alice struggled to hold her ground. Johnny threw another poison bomb; Alice, naturally knowing its lethality, immediately dodged.
During her dodge, Johnny seized the opportunity to attack, forcing Alice back repeatedly. With a clang, Johnny knocked Alice's sword away. Without a weapon, Alice was naturally no match for Johnny. Johnny's large blade emitted a golden light as he slashed down fiercely at Alice.
In the moment of peril, Illustrious and Asuna, having finished off POH, came to support her. With a clang, Illustrious blocked Johnny's fatal strike with her sword.
Seeing that it was Illustrious who blocked his strike, Johnny was filled with terror. Illustrious appearing in the battle meant that POH was already dead.
Alice retrieved her weapon and attacked Johnny. Looking at the three people attacking him, Johnny couldn't help but smile bitterly. Three people ranked in the top ten of the Ruler list coming to fight him alone—they really thought highly of him, Johnny!
Seeing things were going south, Johnny planned to flee. But how could Illustrious let Johnny go? The two sides were in a life-and-death struggle. If they let Johnny go and he hid in the shadows to strike at their families, what then?
The worst fear was him using their families to threaten them into suicide; that would be even more troublesome.
To end the trouble forever, Illustrious and the others naturally had to kill Johnny here and now, otherwise they would never be able to eat or sleep in peace.
"Starburst Stream!" Illustrious unleashed her ultimate move again. Upon hearing the name of this move, Johnny fled even faster. No wonder POH died; whoever faced this move from Illustrious would surely die!
Alice and Asuna used Rage Spike, arriving in front of Johnny in an instant. Johnny raised his blade and slashed. "Get out of my way, or die!"
"Don't even think about it! I won't let you escape!" Asuna blocked the strike.
Because of this delay, Illustrious's ultimate move bore down on Johnny. Johnny had no choice but to brace himself. Illustrious swung Starburst Stream, continuously slashing at Johnny, while Johnny also used the ten-hit sword skill Nova Ascension to clash with Illustrious.
The battle between the two sides was intense, and surrounding objects were sent flying.
After Johnny swung his tenth strike and ran out of moves, he was hit by the eleventh strike of Illustrious's Starburst Stream. After being hit once, the following five strikes all landed on Johnny's body. Having taken these five hits, Johnny was sent flying directly.
Johnny, lying on the ground, glared at Illustrious and the others with a face full of resentment. "Damn it! I won't let you have it easy."
Johnny took out a detonator. A massive amount of explosives was buried underground here. As long as it was pressed, a huge explosion would occur. Although the bombs couldn't hurt Rulers, it would at least be nice to spite Illustrious and the others.
Seeing Johnny's detonator, Illustrious raised her sword and killed him. With a flash of sword light, Johnny's head fell, but Johnny pressed the detonator just before his head was severed.
"Oh no!" Fine beads of sweat appeared on Illustrious's face.
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