Chapter 35: Cain's Intervention

Inside the magnificent hall, Mo Xuanyu was the first to launch an attack against the Sun King, Amos.

Possessing explosive power, he shattered the marble floor beneath his feet and arrived before the Sun King in an instant. Yet, the Sun King merely stared at him expressionlessly as he swung his blade. Raising one hand, the King caught the edge of Mo Xuanyu’s blade with his bare palm, stopping it dead in its tracks.

Golden blood dripped from the blade. The Sun King looked at Mo Xuanyu, who stood behind the Nightmare Moon Blade.

"Mora, I will give you one last chance. Do you truly intend to set yourself against me?"

His voice was utterly cold, and the only response he received was a roundhouse kick from Mo Xuanyu.

*Bang!*

The Sun King was kicked back two paces. He then raised his hand in disappointment, using the solar core to forge a sharp longsword for himself.

*Swish!*

Mo Xiao attempted a sneak attack from behind, but the Sun King seemed to have eyes in the back of his head; he reacted with blinding speed, raising his sword to strike at Mo Xiao’s head. Seeing his attack fail, Mo Xiao was forced to forcibly retract his blade mid-swing to block.

The battle that followed saw the Sun King get serious.

Mo Xuanyu engaged him head-on, falling into a disadvantage in an instant. He had no opportunity to attack, forced only into continuous defense. Fortunately, his specialization-level combat techniques served as a buffer, barely compensating for the gap in their base attributes; otherwise, his defense would have been shattered in an instant.

Seeing that his current strength was of little help, Mo Xiao did not hesitate to raise his May Rain blade and activate its weapon trait, "Thorn."

Black thorns grew from the hilt, wrapping around Mo Xiao’s hand. The spikes pierced his skin, staining the thorns deep crimson with his own blood. Having sacrificed 5 points each from his Constitution and Intelligence attributes, Mo Xiao’s Strength and Agility were temporarily boosted to 20. This gave him the capital to join the fray and ease the pressure on Mo Xuanyu.

As Mo Xiao slashed from behind, the Sun King felt the pressure increase. However, with 25 points in all attributes, he still did not regard Mo Xuanyu and Mo Xiao as significant threats. Yet, he seemed to find dragging the fight out tedious.

As solar particles surged into his sword, a single strike unleashed a blinding, crescent-shaped golden sword wave.

*Squelch!!*

The wave moved so fast that Mo Xuanyu could not dodge.

*Sssss—*

A bloody gash opened across his shoulder, and the burning effect inherent in the sword wave seared his flesh, evaporating blood into a mist. The intense pain forced Mo Xuanyu to grit his teeth.

"Teacher!"

Mo Xiao was frantic. He stepped in front of Mo Xuanyu, blocking the Sun King from further attacks. But the disparity in their strength was too great; Mo Xiao was instantly forced into a losing position.

*Hiss, hiss, hiss~*

Wisps of smoke rose from Mo Xuanyu’s shoulder. He touched the wound, and upon confirming that his healing ability could nullify the burning effect, he breathed a sigh of relief.

The Sun King was surprised by this. He glanced at his sword in confusion before suddenly breaking through Mo Xiao’s guard and thrusting toward his chest. At the critical moment, Mo Xuanyu reached out to pull Mo Xiao back, pushing him behind himself and using the Nightmare Moon Blade to parry the lethal blow.

*Clang!!*

The Nightmare Moon Blade let out a distorted sonic hum, and the sword in the Sun King’s hand shattered, dispersing into countless sparks in the air.

Nightmare Moon Trait "Erosion": Causes decay to weapons of blue grade or lower.

Clearly, while the weapon the Sun King forged from his core had high lethality and burning effects, its durability was significantly lacking. Mo Xuanyu seized the opening created by the broken weapon, stepped forward in an instant, and drove his blade into the Sun King’s shoulder with both hands.

He then tilted the blade and slashed downward, carving a massive wound that spanned half the Sun King’s torso.

The Sun King’s expression remained calm and ripple-free. He said faintly, "Do you wish to destroy my core? How naive. The solar core has long since merged with my soul. I am invincible."

He reached out to grasp the air, forging another longsword. Without giving Mo Xuanyu a chance to retreat, he unleashed his 25-point attributes in full.

Mo Xuanyu could barely even track the movement of this strike. He felt a sharp pain in his shoulder, and only when he had put some distance between them did he realize his left hand had fallen to the ground.

Mo Xuanyu’s face turned deathly pale.

To buy Mo Xuanyu time to recover, Mo Xiao engaged the Sun King once more. Taking advantage of this brief respite, Mo Xuanyu picked up his severed hand. His healing ability fired at full power—first neutralizing the burning effect, then regenerating neural pathways and blood vessels to reconnect the severed limb, effectively reattaching his arm.

The cost was a massive drain on his mental energy. He took a Heart-Heart Candy from his pocket and, too rushed to unwrap it, swallowed it whole.

[Congratulations! You have triggered the double effect of the Heart-Heart Candy: Mental Recovery Rate +100%, Stamina Recovery Rate +100%!]

Maker’s Note: *Hehe... Don't stop! Let's fight until dawn!*

Although the candy’s description was strange, its effects were undeniably potent. Mo Xuanyu’s mental energy began to recover rapidly, and his depleted stamina was quickly replenished.

Meanwhile, Mo Xiao was still losing against the Sun King, hanging by a thread. Yet, he was truly unafraid of death—or rather, he had long been prepared for it—so he did not step back a single inch.

At that moment, Mo Xuanyu aimed the Nightmare Moon at the Sun King and threw it like a spear. The pitch-black blade streaked through the air and pierced the Sun King’s head, causing him to stumble back two steps.

Before arriving at the Royal City, Mo Xuanyu had pre-charged his Blade of Slaughter, accumulating 100 Blood Soul points. As the Nightmare Moon struck home, he decisively activated all the stored souls.

*Boom!*

The Blood Souls detonated inside the Sun King’s head, leaving him with ringing ears and darkened vision. Even for him, 100 points of true damage was troublesome.

Mo Xuanyu followed up immediately, pulling out the Nightmare Moon and slashing at the Sun King’s neck before he could recover. Unfortunately, while 100 points of true damage was enough to cause the Sun King agonizing pain, it was not enough to incapacitate him.

The Sun King held up one hand, stopping the blade mid-swing. His emerald eyes locked with Mo Xuanyu’s.

"How many more times can you use such a trick?" His gaze held a hint of excitement; he had developed a keen interest in this move. After Mo Xuanyu had rejected his marriage proposal, he had intended to kill him, but now the Sun King had changed his mind. He would kill Mo Xuanyu, force a blessing upon him, and keep him by his side forever.

But before the Sun King could receive an answer, Mo Xiao arrived. He brought his own blade down heavily on the back of the Nightmare Moon, providing the downward force needed to completely sever the Sun King’s arm and head.

Yet, that cold voice continued to echo through the hall: "Meaningless attacks."

He backhanded his sword, piercing through Mo Xiao’s chest, before lunging at Mo Xuanyu, restraining his sword-wielding wrist and gripping his throat with his other hand.

*Boom!*

He slammed Mo Xuanyu against the wall. His grip tightened, while his head began to slowly regenerate. Although Mo Xuanyu and Mo Xiao had failed to kill the Sun King, they had dealt him a significant blow. This annoyed him.

The Sun King said faintly to Mo Xiao, "Such tacit coordination. If I recall correctly, he is your teacher, is he not? You two seem very close."

He sneered with a mixture of disdain and jealousy. "I will not kill you. I will make you watch as your teacher submits to my blessing after his defeat..."

"Shut up! I will kill you... I swear it!"

Mo Xiao endured the excruciating pain and pulled the Sun of Sword from his chest. His eyes were bloodshot, and his fury only made the Sun King more pleased.

The Sun King tightened his grip, preparing to crush Mo Xuanyu’s throat and then perform a forced blessing, turning him into something like a Sun Guard. By then, Mo Xuanyu would have no thoughts of resistance and would obediently become his consort.

However, despite being suppressed, Mo Xuanyu’s specialized combat skills were not for show. He grabbed the Sun King’s arm with his left hand for leverage and struck the King’s chin with a swift, brutal knee-elbow combo. He added 5 points of his own Blood Souls to the strike, intended to disrupt the energy circuits within the Sun King’s body.

The Sun King’s grip loosened from the impact, and Mo Xuanyu managed to break free. He moved to Mo Xiao’s side, helped suppress the burning effect on his body, and commanded, "You are too severely injured. Stay here and rest for the remainder of the battle."

"But..."

Just as Mo Xiao was about to speak, the sound of rapid footsteps came from the gate, followed by a rough voice.

"Your teacher is right. Leave the rest of the fighting to us."

The Sun King wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, sword in hand, and turned his head. His eyes widened in surprise at the figure who had arrived in the hall.

"So you weren't dead after all, Cain."

"Heh! I’ll be alive and kicking long after you’re dead."

The person who had arrived was none other than Cain, the blacksmith who had previously crossed paths with Mo Xuanyu. He wore a brownish-gray leather coat, possessed a tall, sturdy frame, and carried a heavy forging hammer in his hand. The hammer and coat were stained with the golden blood of the Sun Guards.

As one of the earliest veterans of the Free Commune, Cain had once been a formidable rival that even the Sun King found troublesome. They had clashed many times, with neither gaining the upper hand.

The Sun King had once written: *If Peter is the calculating brain of the Free Commune on the chessboard, then Cain is the unstoppable spear on the battlefield.*

This evaluation alone was enough to show just how fearsome the combat prowess of the Cain of yesteryear had been. It was only due to internal disagreements within the Commune and the lingering injuries from his early campaigns that he had chosen to retire.