"Pervert?"
This was the most absurd comment Spirit of Pride had ever heard since its birth.
Of course, its featureless mask of a face couldn't form any expression, but the black fog swirling around its body froze abruptly for a moment.
Clearly, its perfect logic, immersed in a sense of self-superiority, had failed to process this vulgar verbal attack from a mortal's perspective.
After a brief pause, it exploded in an even more violent posture.
Being called a pervert by a few ants was, for the self-proclaimed perfect, more painful than being killed.
"Presumptuous!"
The overlapping roars were no longer condescendingly playful, but were a direct storm in the spiritual realm, a fit of rage after having a sore spot struck.
The air pressure in the entire courtyard plummeted suddenly, as several black-fogged tentacles, like giant pythons, sliced through the air with ear-piercing screeches, smashing down on the four from all angles!
"Am I just air to you?"
Lin Xiyue growled softly, already poised and ready.
She didn't resist it directly.
Facing those shadow whip strikes that could carve mountains and split rocks, she subtly shifted her footsteps, turning her body to side-step at a precise angle.
The Blackstone's Protection in her hand was not for simple blocking.
She treated it like a giant door panel, slamming it right into the most violent area of the black fog!
Thump!
The dull impact made everyone's hearts tighten.
The Shadow Whips lashed out solidly against the shield's surface, sending up huge showers of sparks.
Lin Xiyue felt as if an out-of-control train engine had crashed head-on into her, the torrent of immense force surging through her arm and into her body.
But at the moment of impact, her wrist executed a precise flick, and golden light flowed across the shield's surface as ancient runes suddenly lit up!
The violent force was actually guided along the shield's curvature, then deflected and thrown to the side by her Ancient Martial Arts' force-deflection techniques!
Boom!
The deflected force smashed into the jade floor nearby, blasting out a deep crater and sending rubble flying everywhere.
As for Lin Xiyue herself, her body barely swayed before she stood firm as a rock, without a single crack appearing on the jade floor beneath her feet.
She was no longer that reckless Paladin who only knew how to resist with brute strength.
"That's all?"
Lin Xiyue's lips curled, and she mockingly hooked her finger at the churning black fog.
"Did you skip a meal? Hit me harder!"
The Spirit of Pride was completely enraged.
Dozens of Shadow Whips shot out like mad pythons from their dens, sealing off all of Lin Xiyue's evasion space and weaving an impenetrable network of strikes!
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
For a moment, the courtyard echoed only with the dense, explosive sounds of the shield and shadow energy violently colliding.
Lin Xiyue was like a reef amidst raging waves, remaining utterly immovable as the storm lashed against her.
She even seized a fleeting opportunity amidst the dense barrage of attacks.
Her shield thrust forward, and Holy Light flashed blindingly!
"Golden Parry!"
Hum—!
An enlarged golden rune magic circle flashed on the shield's surface, and a condensed golden arc of light struck three crisscrossing whip shadows with pinpoint accuracy.
The three whip shadows were actually repelled by an unparalleled, subtle force, striking the Spirit of Pride's own body and causing the black smoke in that area to churn violently.
The Spirit of Pride's massive body swayed ever so slightly.
"Even a god has to obey the laws of physics!"
Lin Xiyue's arms were numb from the impact, but she refused to lose the verbal exchange.
"Unless you pry open Newton's coffin lid first!"
The opportunity!
This fleeting moment of stiffness was the best signal.
A cold glint streaked through the shadows.
Xia Lian had already slipped to the monster's side and rear without anyone noticing.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Three arrows imbued with the "Star-Concealment" effect silently pierced the air, shot with pinpoint accuracy at the nodes of the enemy's energy flow.
On the other side, Su Wan had finished her incantation.
"Winter, Freeze!"
A vast array of sharp ice spears materialized from thin air, carrying a bone-chilling cold as they descended from the sky like a hail storm, blanketing the area where the Spirit of Pride stood.
The most lethal strike, however, came from the front.
Lin Qingyue raised her staff, Beloved, high with her left hand, the gem at its head blazing with the radiance of the sun.
Her right hand formed a loose fist, and golden lightning condensed into shape within her palm.
"Eat my Sunlight Spear!"
A Holy Light javelin, condensed to its absolute limit, roared forth with the power to purify all evil, thrown with pinpoint accuracy at the monster's core!
Yet, the next second brought a suffocating silence.
The moment Xia Lian's arrows touched the black smoke, they weren't deflected, but "decomposed," silently vanishing into nothingness without even a ripple.
Su Wan's ice spear storm was grand in scale.
But the cold air, enough to shatter steel, only slowed the flow of the black smoke for a mere instant before being assimilated and melted by that foul energy.
The most absurd part was Lin Qingyue's Sunlight Spear.
The strike, powerful enough to pierce through mountains, was like a stone thrown into a mud pit after it pierced the black smoke. Its light rapidly dimmed, eventually being extinguished into oblivion.
Every attack had failed!
"How is this possible..."
Su Wan's brow furrowed, a troubled expression appearing on her usually calm face.
"Physical immunity? Magic immunity? Or is it maxed-out double resistance?"
"No, that's not it."
Lin Qingyue narrowed her eyes, instantly dismissing the thought.
"There is no such thing as absolute immunity in this world; the conservation of energy is a fundamental law. This is... an erasure at the level of rules."
The Spirit of Pride was in no hurry to counterattack.
It seemed to savor the process of driving its prey to despair.
It hovered in midair, looking down upon the struggling ants from above.
That overlapping voice boomed in their minds once more, carrying a cold, matter-of-fact tone.
"Why can't you understand?"
"Impurities. Flaws. Chaos. Disorder."
"Your ice spears: their crystals are not symmetrical enough, and their energy is unevenly distributed."
"Your martial arts: they are filled with superfluous movements and emotional fluctuations."
"Your light... it is even more defiled by the seven emotions and six desires of mortals, filled with worldly filth."
Its frigid will swept over the four of them.
"Your very existence is an error."
"What makes you think that flawed attacks are worthy of touching 'perfection'?"
As the words fell, an invisible repulsive force erupted from it, spreading outward!
Xia Lian, who was just about to enter Stealth again, was knocked out of her shadow state.
Su Wan had to deploy her Ice Shield to withstand the force.
Lin Xiyue, at the very front, faced the greatest pressure. She felt as if she were walking through a level seventeen hurricane, every step accompanied by violent tremors in her muscles.
"Perfection my ass!"
Lin Qingyue cursed.
Since conventional attacks were being nullified by the opponent's "conceptual" judgment as "flawed"...
Then it was time for something completely unreasonable!
With a thought, she abandoned her ranged skills and gripped her weapon, Beloved, as if it were a long spear.
Pushing off with her feet, she shot forward like an arrow from a bow!
The talent Frost Soul, which she had obtained from Jingliu, ignored 25% of the target's defense.
The weapon Beloved could even ignore 50% of defense and resistance!
Stacked together, that made a total of 75% penetration!
In the game, this was basically the "Lite" version of True Damage, specifically designed to punish those with all sorts of fancy damage reduction and shields!
Even if a BOSS wore three layers of Resurrection Armor, it would still get its ass kicked.
She refused to believe that this cloud of black smoke could remain unscathed against such an effect!
"As long as you have a health bar, I'll kill you myself, God!"