Chapter 597: We Are Probably Watching Fake Natives

"Oh? A mere low-ranking swordsman who hasn't even reached the eighth rank dares to lecture me?" Hakes said with a hint of laziness. "How about taking a strike from my sword to see if you actually have the ability to back up your words?"

His expression chilled, and his feet, suspended in the sky, shifted slightly.

In the very next instant, his entire being materialized directly in front of Nalan Hongwu!

The fiery giant blade in his hand stirred a violent gale, cleaving downward with brutal force!

"The Flash Strike?! That is Lord Hakes's Flash Strike!" In the White Dove Square, numerous knights cried out in alarm.

"The Flash Strike that can sever the body of an eighth-rank magical beast in a single instant! Heavens above!"

Yet in the moment immediately following their gasps of horror, they witnessed Nalan Hongwu shift his steps lightly, his body tilting just a fraction.

That massive blade passed by him, missing his flesh by a mere hair's breadth!

The white-robed, white-haired Old Prince Nalan stood with his hands clasped behind his back, looking as though he had not moved at all.

"Good heavens!"

"What just happened?!"

Across the White Dove Square, an uproar erupted from nearly the entire crowd.

And this was the mirror image of everyone else who was watching this battle from other places!

Xi, Ron, and several other youths covered their mouths, utterly unable to believe their own eyes.

How could this be possible?!

Just how on earth did he manage it?!

"Oh! This is truly miraculous!"

Even in a shadowy corner of the square, a few figures hidden in the darkness grew slightly dazed upon seeing this scene: "He actually... evaded it?"

But this single strike was far from finished.

Hakes twisted his waist violently, driving the greatsword in his hands so that the blade whirled back once more, carrying a terrifying force!

Yet this strike seemed to be entirely within Nalan Hongwu's expectations; almost at the exact moment Hakes swung his sword, Nalan Hongwu had already begun to turn sideways, and just as the opponent's blade slashed down, Nalan Hongwu evaded it perfectly, without the slightest error!

At the White Dove Square, the mouths of all the spectators had gaped into perfect circles of astonishment.

"Sera! How many times have I told you not to... while on a mission..." Lancer walked up from behind with a look of displeasure.

"No... Captain, look!" Sera pointed at the magical projection before them, so dumbfounded she scarcely knew what to say.

"Look at what? What is there to look at? War, yet another war..." Lancer turned his head to look at the magical projection in the square, and suddenly froze.

What was he seeing? He was actually witnessing the Blazing Flame Knight, Hakes, unleash several consecutive strikes without so much as grazing the hem of the white-robed elder's garment?!

What kind of person was this?!

"Which country's master is this?!" Lancer asked in a hurry.

"This is..." Sera could hardly believe it herself, her eyes wide as she stared at the unfolding battle. "This is a person from the other continent..."

"Is it that weak and helpless nation against which the Judgment Shrine initiated the war?" Lancer looked at the projection before him...

"!!??" What had he just said? Weak and helpless?

Could anyone this strong be considered weak?!

"Who is this man?!" Lancer pressed urgently. "Is he their strongest?!"

Within that grand hall of Saint Heinz.

A priest murmured a question, "This native... is only of the seventh rank?!"

A voice practically screamed inside his mind: as the Judgment Shrine, blessed with various divine revelations and miracles handed down by the gods, shouldn't it be natural for our sixth-rank fighters to completely crush their seventh-rank ones?

Now!!??

"Good! Very good!" Hakes finally halted his assault. "I originally thought this would be nothing more than a tedious journey, but I never expected to encounter someone who could force me to deploy my true power."

At that moment, the wondrous golden imprint upon Hakes's forehead flared with a dazzling brilliance.

And amidst this radiant glow, his entire body became exceedingly magnificent to behold.

A deeply terrifying power flowed from the space between his brows, spreading into the surroundings, a dreadful force that seemed capable of making anyone present submit to him!

That was simply not a power a mortal could possess; it felt as though it originated from the gods themselves!

So much so that in the presence of such power, anyone would birth an illusion of their own insignificance.

Sustained by that horrific strength, Hakes hovered suspended in midair, his golden hair flying, his armor fluttering though no wind blew.

The surrounding air itself seemed to distort because of that excessively terrifying power!

"Do you realize now just how vast the chasm between you and me truly is?" Hakes scoffed openly.

"Let me show you what true speed means!" The man clad in fiery red armor shifted his form, suddenly vanishing from before Nalan Hongwu.

In the next breath, he became like a gust of wind, or perhaps more like an intangible afterimage, transforming into a gale around Nalan Hongwu that was too swift for the eye to discern!

At this juncture, even Nalan Hongwu finally revealed a grave expression.

Nalan Hongwu could clearly sense that with the infusion of that power, the opponent's strength had already surpassed his own by far, reaching a realm that felt somewhat unattainable!

Against such a disparity in might, technique alone would likely find it difficult to compensate.

Suddenly, Nalan Hongwu's expression shifted, and his body tilted slightly in response!

A blade flashed across his chest, slicing open an exceptionally clean and smooth wound!

Promptly, bright red blood began to flow from it.

"So fast!" The crowd watching from the White Dove Square gasped in amazement once more at the sight.

This no longer seemed like a speed attainable by humans!

Before them lay what resembled a terrifying downpour of fiery red swords, falling as densely as a shower of meteors!

At such speed, could anyone possibly withstand an assault like this?

In the space around Nalan Hongwu, let alone the vision of ordinary folk, even the eyes of top-tier masters could not see clearly.

Much less keeping pace with such speed; that was simply a fantasy!

Yet under these very conditions, Nalan Hongwu drew his sword.

His blade transformed into a streak of dark light, akin to a bolt of pitch-black lightning.

Though swift, it was absolutely no match for the opponent's unimaginably horrific speed.

As for power, there was no need to speak of it; the gap between the two sides was far too immense.

Beneath the opponent's tempestuous sword momentum, under those flashes of light that resembled divine judgment, that black sword possessed only a single streak of pure, unblemished flawlessness.

Like a flawlessness of white jade, a strike almost entirely devoid of impurities, it resembled a ribbon of flying rainbow—devoid of variation, or perhaps... requiring none.

Beneath this very strike, however, a spray of blood erupted.

At this moment, even among the existences within the grand hall of Saint Heinz, quite a few stood up involuntarily.

The swordsman named Cleos likewise stared intently at this single strike.

If what Hakes utilized was no longer a power belonging to mortals, then this single strike was simply one that should not belong to the mortal realm, appearing as though it were a thrust delivered by an immortal from the heavens!

"Though your power has grown, it is not your own; you cannot control such might, and it will only lay bare greater flaws."

A sword sweeping from the west, a flying immortal from beyond the heavens—to grasp even a fraction of it is to truly understand, even if it falls short of perfection.

He might not have reached that realm just yet, but he had already glimpsed it, reached out and touched it.

His blade was verging on absolute perfection.

"Ah—!"

"These people...?!"

This mysterious and ancient realm, these people elegant and formidable, their mastery of the sword steeped in philosophy and poetry.

Such was their impression of these "natives."

Are we truly looking at natives?!

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