Dimensional Codex System: I'm really not a cultist!

Chapter 361: Chapter 360: Swordsmanship That Traverses Through Time

Chapter 361: Chapter 360: Swordsmanship That Traverses Through Time

Heavenly Dao Palace.

A gentle breeze swept across the endless grasslands as Fang Zheng, with the Vampire in his hand, quietly observed the area ahead of him. Opposite him, Black Katie held her Silver Staff, calmly staring at her Alliance Hierarch.

“So here I come, Black Katie!”

“Yes.”

The moment his voice fell, a dark shadow suddenly flashed in front of Fang Zheng. In the blink of an eye, the shadow vanished and reappeared before Black Katie. The Vampire in his hand forcefully slashed at the Shrine Maiden before him.

“Clang!”

Facing Fang Zheng’s strike, Black Katie simply turned her Silver Staff, sweeping it sideways with a whooshing sound, and the triangular tip accurately pierced Fang Zheng’s chest. Accompanied by a quiet “pop”, the penetrated Fang Zheng burst instantly, and simultaneously, three dark shadows scattered from the burst core, spreading outwards. One of them raised both hands, and a Fireball swiftly materialized before him, while the other two, one in front and one behind, tried to block Black Katie’s counterattack.

“Starlight…”

Just as these two shadows were about to strike, Black Katie gently swayed her Silver Staff in the air, and soon, an invisible surge erupted from her, sending the two shadows flying away. Then, pointing her Silver Staff forward, several beams of starlight instantaneously pierced through the third shadow in the back.

But before Black Katie’s Silver Staff could be lowered, a fourth shadow suddenly appeared at her side without any prior indication, as if it had always been there, its Greatsword swooping down towards Black Katie’s neck.

However, Black Katie was also fast. Almost at the moment the shadow swung its sword, her body drifted backward, simultaneously raising her Silver Staff in defense.

“Clang!!”

The Greatsword struck Black Katie’s Silver Staff, emitting a clear clashing sound, and without any change in her facial expression, she gripped her Silver Staff tightly and swung it forcefully, splitting the shadow in front of her into two. Then Black Katie turned around and gently waved her Silver Staff towards the distance.

“Tingle.”

Along with the crisp collision sound, countless meteors fell from the sky, enveloping the shadow in the distance within them.

“That’s enough!!”

Seeing this, Tilia quickly stepped forward and hearing Tilia’s voice, Black Katie immediately withdrew her Silver Staff. Soon, the burning blue flames swiftly disappeared, and Fang Zheng’s figure too reemerged from those blue flames. Yet unlike before, this time Fang Zheng appeared somewhat disheveled. Although Black Katie had not dealt a mortal blow, the Power of Existence had still left traces on Fang Zheng’s body.

“I mean, can’t you go easy?”

Looking at Fang Zheng before her, Tilia frowned displeasedly.

“Look at Elder Brother’s condition, and you call yourself his Shrine Maiden.”

“It’s nothing, Tilia, this was my own request.”

At this moment, Fang Zheng had also walked over. He reached out and gently touched Tilia’s head, then looked toward Black Katie.

“What was the issue this time?”

“The same as before, Master, the magical fluctuations you release cannot be concealed.”

“Didn’t I already synchronize the frequency?”

“But the magic you used requires completing the final stroke to activate, and if I can grasp that point, I can figure it out.”

“So, do I really need to combine it with delay casting and try again?”

Upon hearing Black Katie’s response, Fang Zheng furrowed his brows, starting to think carefully. After returning to the Heavenly Dao Palace, he began to create his own swordsmanship and combat style based on the suggestions of that shadow figure. In this respect, Fang Zheng had some initial ideas.

He only thought about it after obtaining the Essence of Shadow Dragon.

After obtaining the Essence of Shadow Dragon, Fang Zheng also acquired the Shadow Dragon’s power to manipulate shadows and, like the Shadow Dragon, he could now use his shadows to create clones of himself and teleport between them. That was why Fang Zheng was considering a fighting style highly suited to him.

That was to combine the Power of Time with the Power of Shadows.

Time is invisible; the time Fang Zheng could manipulate was a vague concept, and because of varying choices, the characteristics exhibited by each time axis were different as well.

The same second, depending on Fang Zheng’s choices, could be used to launch a frontal assault, sneak attack from behind, or release a magic attack from a distance. By utilizing the Power of Shadows, Fang Zheng could materialize these different scenarios from the time axis as his clones.

This was actually a reapplication of the “Time Axis Scenario” skill from the staff in Soul Bay, only his power had not yet reached the level of the staff’s Time Dragon, hence Fang Zheng had to manipulate the Power of Shadows to give these scenarios from different time axes form, unlike in Soul Bay where a scene from an anomalous time axis could be directly drawn to overlay.

This meant that the opponent would face three different kinds of attacks from Fang Zheng in an instant, and each clone possessed an attack power comparable to his own body. One could say that if caught unawares, this move might not instantly kill the opponent, but with the characteristics of the Vampire Greatsword, it could still severely wound them.

Not to mention, since this move was built upon the actualization of the time axis, and not just an ordinary Illusion Technique, even if the opponent used a Prophecy Spell, they wouldn’t be able completely to dodge this strike.

However, this skill also had significant flaws.

First, just like the Shadow Dragon’s clones, Fang Zheng’s clones had no defense, essentially being as fragile as paper, and would shatter at a touch. Secondly, building these clones on a time axis was even more mentally taxing than regular clones because it required Fang Zheng to multitask in order to materialize different clones in different positions within a second.

This was quite mentally draining, and if casting spells were added to that, it would be even more astonishing. This meant that Fang Zheng’s will must control two clones to sandwich Black Katie, and concurrently, a third clone must chant a spell at that time, ensuring absolute precision. This basically meant making a person write three different programs using three different codes every second and type at least one line per second.

Although Fang Zheng’s brain potential was significantly enhanced by the Zerg, this method was still somewhat exhausting for him; he could now control a maximum of three clones — taking into account that Fang Zheng himself needed to overview the battlefield and manage the energy needed to teleport to his clones.

And the second flaw was more critical, which was the problem Fang Zheng was currently pondering.

The essence of clone tactics is that they prevent the opponent from locating the real body, but Fang Zheng’s problem was that whenever he cast a spell, Black Katie would immediately pinpoint his real body and relentlessly bombard it. According to Black Katie, the magical fluctuations during Fang Zheng’s casting were unhideable, which was another troublesome issue for Fang Zheng.

“Even if I use Time Stop, building spells on the clones is still a very complex task… it seems practice is the only way. Or perhaps… hmm, maybe I should consider an algorithm improvement… or maybe I could try using a multi-threading method to concurrently call subroutines?”

Mumbling to himself, Fang Zheng opened his eyes and looked forward, in his eyes the River of Time appeared like a river composed of twinkling stars, and from that river, three transparent threads stretched out, tightly held in his hands.

Time is not absolute; it relies on the observer’s actions in space; space is not absolute, it depends on the observer’s actions in time. Likewise, numbers are not absolute; they depend on the observer’s actions in the pub.

For everyone, it didn’t matter how many customers, chairs, or bookings were in the pub. The only thing that mattered was that it could leave you slumped over the table after a few drinks, proudly boasting to something next to you, whose gender, age, and race remain uncertain.

“Maybe I should try the Pub Math Driver.”

Finally, Fang Zheng made up his mind.