The Ascension of Contracted Spirits

Chapter 55 - 54: Huazhu VS Shield Armor Turtle_1

"Roar!"

The Shield Armor Turtle, transformed from a gray shadow, with the exception of a pair of gray hollow eyes, is no different from a living creature.

It halts, bellowing loudly.

Due to the inertia, in addition to using its front limbs for leverage, its entire body flips ninety degrees, presenting an odd posture with its head down and shell sticking straight up.

A Shield Armor Turtle... performs a handstand!

By adopting this bizarre stance, the turtle’s head is kept well protected, and its limbs are drawn in as well.

When its short tail snaps in too, it seems like a vertical shield.

Both the back and belly shields exhibit a metallic coldness, giving one the impression of an tough invulnerability regardless of the angle of attack.

"This transformation... is evidently stronger than the original form."

Ye Hanjun, as if he was the god overseeing this white island, presented a thoughtful look.

The Shield Armor Turtle used a skill again.

From lying on the ground to standing vertically, mirroring a shield to resist the enemy’s attack— this is "Shielding," one of the most classic defense skills of the turtle form.

However, even the ordinary turtles, who have mastered this skill, have difficulty in achieving a position with their heads facing downward and tails pointing outwards.

The common flaw of having the head pointing upwards and the tail pointing downwards exposes a weak spot, which becomes a significant potential vulnerability.

This becomes the key to measuring the proficiency of the "Shielding" skill.

Only by rearing up with the head facing downward, a turtle makes its shell even more impenetrable, so as not to allow sharp claws or certain ranged elemental skills to easily attack the neck gap.

"Buzz, buzz, buzz—"

The swirling sand is the first to return without success.

Huazhu, seemingly anticipating this scenario, remains calm and does not retreat further.

She stays not far in front of the Shield Armor Turtle, continuing to accumulate sand.

Indeed, Shield Armor Turtle’s shell is substantial and almost invincible.

The weakened version of the "Tail Sting" or "Clamp" could never break its shell, let alone easily leaving scratches.

If we are talking about a different kind of ferocious animal like a tiger or a leopard, even if it is at the same level of dominance.

They would not find a way to deal with the Shield Armor Turtle, they would only grind their teeth without getting a taste of flesh, and toiling in vain would only make a laughing matter out of themselves.

Turtles— are notoriously "tough cases"!

Aside from the few predators that find them intriguing and choose to prey on them.

Others would not even give a glance, scorning them by nature.

But Huazhu is different.

She has slain turtles— more than once.

These creatures, generally speaking, are slow-moving due to their bulky bodies, and have outstanding defenses... their strengths and weaknesses are clearly defined.

Just because a wild beast cannot deal with it, does not mean that the Desert Witch cannot find a way.

The diameter of the sand is generally smaller than that of rice grains.

The piled-up sand, when used appropriately, can occasionally achieve unexpected results.

Now is just the right time. As the Shield Armor Turtle shields itself, it flaunts its strongest defensive status.

However, it loses all mobility. Unless it discontinues the shield, its neck cannot extend, and therefore it cannot bite anyone.

Not to mention its claws, which can just blindly scratch and catch nothing but air, as long as she maintains her distance, Huazhu wouldn’t get hurt.

"Buzz, buzz, buzz—"

She continues to summon the sand.

As the sands gradually engulf the lower half of the upright turtle.

The static Shield Armor Turtle suddenly panics, as its limbs fiercely stretch out, trying to change its posture and regenerate its ability to crawl.

It has noticed that, while its shielding can fend off all sorts of skill attacks, it can’t resist the penetration of the delicate sand through the tiny gap between its neck and the ground!

Under these circumstances, it closes its eyes and mouth tightly. It was as if it was digging its own grave.

Once the sand obstructs the air flow, the breathing-reliant Shield Armor Turtle could suffocate to death!

"Roar!"

After struggling for a while, the Shield Armor Turtle stumbles and falls, eventually regaining its footing on all four.

It starts to cough, trying to bring up the sand it accidentally swallowed, looking visibly ferocious for a moment.

In the blink of an eye, a shadow flits past.

The Desert Witch, who has taken advantage of the situation to get close, lifts her tail needle and mercilessly pierces it into its eye socket.

"Splat!"

The Shield Armor Turtle wails and, soon afterwards, dives into a frenzy, biting and clawing wildly.

Huazhu back away, but doesn’t retreat too far, just kept baiting the Shield Armor Turtle, continuing to agitate it.

"Splat!"

After going wild for a while, the Shield Armor Turtle slows down to catch its breath.

In that split second of rest, the Witch gets close and stings it the second time.

This needle strike, once again, hits with astonishing accuracy, immediately piercing the Shield Armor Turtle’s other eye, making it completely blind.

"Roar!!!"

The huge turtle becomes completely berserk.

But, unable to see its enemy and weak in other sensory abilities, it could do nothing but madly turn in circles.

Meanwhile, Huazhu just stands about a dozen meters away, watching it quietly, patiently waiting.

Her tail stinger... is poisonous!

Although the toxicity is weak and it is extremely difficult, almost impossible, for this poison to affect even a small creature, let alone, a larger one.

However, the stinger had thrust twice into the soft vital spots of the Shield Armor Turtle.

The poison, known as the "slight nerve paralyzer," directly spreads to the edges of the brain, surely causing certain effects.

"Roar..."

Ten minutes later, the Shield Armor Turtle’s roars have noticeably slowed.

The more it struggles, the faster the poison invades.

Added to its substantial expenditure of physical strength, it now looks like a dying beast with a flickering candle flame of life left.

Even... it couldn’t withdraw its head anymore.

The pain was too excruciating; it couldn’t even properly retreat.

Regardless of how sturdy the tortoise shell was, it couldn’t withstand its exposed vulnerable spots.

"Puff!"

Huazhu charged forward, lightly leaped and her tail sting, with even faster speed, pierced straight down from above, completely penetrating the Shield Armor Turtle’s head.

At this point, the large turtle let out its final whimper, collapsed onto the ground, and lost all signs of life.

"Not bad."

As the sole spectator, Ye Hanjun clapped three times, a gesture of praise.

The date of the contract signing was still far off, and its cultivation had just started.

This fight, from start to finish, was solely performed by the witch.

Even though the Shield Armor Turtle was of the Clay Body·Small Achievement rank, lower than Huazhu’s Clay Body·Great Completion.

However, the latter’s abilities were severely weakened, while the former’s fighting skills were greatly enhanced.

Through back and forth struggles, one could gradually wear down the opponent without any harm.

Such results, by Ye Hanjun’s standards, unquestionably deserved a high score evaluation.

"Battling this turtle was a real struggle."

"What I’ve fought before weren’t this troublesome..."

Huazhu’s breath was slightly irregular.

Controlling the sand to advance and retreat also consumed physical strength.

Moreover, constantly keeping distance while seizing the ideal opportunity to attack required complete concentration.

If bitten by the Shield Armor Turtle, it wouldn’t be a laughing matter; her Companion Witch Skirt or Protective Snake Scales, while aesthetically pleasing, barely offered any defensive effect.

This was the downside of not having any magic-based attack abilities; the stakes involved in physical combat were entirely different. For Huazhu, one-on-one combat was like dancing on the blade’s edge.

"From today, you might bear a grudge towards turtle Familiar Spirits."

As the frivolous voice of Ye Hanjun fell, Huazhu was left puzzled.

Suddenly, she saw the dead Shield Armor Turtle sinking as if into a swamp, disappearing quickly.

Just as it vanished and before she’d had a chance to catch her breath, two grey shadows burrowed out and moved slowly in separate directions.

"Huh?"

Huazhu, fully prepared for combat, was soon staring wide-eyed as her expression gradually froze.

The re-emerging creature was still the black large turtle?

"Roar Roar!!"

"Roar Roar!!"

The two new Shield Armor Turtles had the same explosive temper.

Seeing the Desert Witch was like seeing their sworn enemy; they were hissing and rushing towards her.

Huazhu immediately retreated. She seldom attacked first and preferred to ensure a safe distance before choosing how to adapt based on the specific crisis.

But this time, Huazhu was dumbfounded.

There were no differences... truly, no differences!

These two Shield Armor Turtles, and the one she had killed already, whether in color or shape, seemed to have been carved out of the same mold.

They couldn’t possibly be triplets, right? This was too absurd!

"Battle Incarnation comes from my other passive ability ’Death Brand’."

"This ability is always active, but because I haven’t signed a contract and haven’t entered the Gate of Life and Death, I haven’t noticed it yet."

Ye Hanjun’s voice sounded in due time.

Within the echo-like resonating voice, there was a hint of unquestionable emotional fluctuations.

Initially, Huazhu had no idle thoughts to discern the meaning as she was busy avoiding the turtles’ bites.

She didn’t understand how the seemingly slow baby turtles could coordinate their attacks from both sides, using simple tactics to limit her movement.

Only after she managed to injure one with great effort, turning the tables on the situation, did she finally have time to think.

At least half an hour later in a standoff, Huazhu seized every opportunity she could to trick them into shielding, filling them with sand, and piercing them with her tail sting- only then was she able to kill one of them.

"Huff-Huff."

Injured, lacking an offensive strategy, and engaging in continuous battles,

Finding it hard to catch her breath, Huazhu looked visibly fatigued post the difficult slaughter of another Shield Armor Turtle.

But before she could heave a sigh of relief, just as she released the thought of "almost reaching her limit" from her mind, the grey shadows emerged once again.

And this time, there was an additional one, the number two turned into three.

Just as Huazhu was unable to fathom the situation, three Shield Armor Turtles appeared.

They roared and formed a triangle, attacking her from three directions.

"Sir, can’t they be killed?"

"Otherwise, why would it be called a ’Death Challenge’?"

Ye Hanjun showed a faint hint of a smile:

"Just a reminder, the active ability initiated by me - each round increases in difficulty."

"Not only will it put you under immense pressure, but in the end... you will die."

"So what exactly do I need to achieve to pass the challenge?"

In the midst of panic, Huazhu tried to find a way to solve the situation.

She had been thinking hard, but it seemed like she still hadn’t grasped the meaning behind Ye Hanjun’s words.

"Solving it? No."

"Just fight with all you’ve got, and do battle with the Battle Incarnation to your heart’s content."

"When you’re powerless, just calmly embrace death, that’s all."

Ye Hanjun’s response was calm, but chills ran down Huazhu’s spine.

"Don’t worry, the you in this realm, actually isn’t the real you."

"Even though you’re not aware of it, know that you will ’resurrect’ even after you die."