The shuttle in the second dimension

　When he heard Mort's call, the somewhat exhausted Kribi did not react immediately, but by the time he reacted, a piece of pitch-black blade had already pierced his body.

Chapter 66 Mission Accomplished

　Looking at the black blade protruding from his chest, Kribi coughed, and then a mouthful of scarlet blood spurted out of his mouth.

　Feeling the pain in his chest, Kribi felt that his life was slipping away.

　"It's just as I expected~~~I didn't survive today. Cough cough——" Sighing, Kribi coughed a few more times, and more blood flowed out of his mouth.

　Listening to Kribi's sigh, Lin Xuan said.

　"It seems your premonition is quite accurate~~~~ But, to be honest, that move you just made was really good. Whether it was from the perspective of power or the speed of activation, it can reflect the strength of an A (HX)-class knight. But what a pity~~~~"

　At this moment, Lin Xuan emerged from behind Kribi. He looked much more disheveled than before. Through the numerous tears in his clothing, one could see scarlet wounds streaking across his body, as if cut by a sharp object. The blood oozing from the wounds had even stained his clothing red. However, despite his appearance, Lin Xuan's injuries were merely superficial and not serious.

　The reason why Lin Xuan became like this was because of Kribi's [Crystal Forest]. The crystals appeared too quickly and covered a large area, so he failed to escape from the range of the [Crystal Forest] in the first place, thus making him so embarrassed.

　"If you had used your full strength to perform that move [Crystal Forest] and expand its range, I wouldn't be in such a miserable state now." Lin Xuan said with a hint of regret, squinting his eyes.

　"Ahem—" After coughing twice, Kribi growled with dim eyes, "There are no ifs in this world—since I've made this decision, I have no regrets. Besides, do you think I don't care about other people's lives like you terrorists?! [Butcher]!"

　"Hmph!" Lin Xuan curled his lips and laughed disdainfully.

　Lin Xuan's disdainful words did not cause any drastic emotional fluctuations in Kribi. He just smiled calmly and said, "Sure enough, in the end I couldn't get over the shadow I had. But it doesn't matter. Now, all I can do for the [Alliance] is--" Having said that, Kribi didn't continue speaking. Instead, he raised the corners of his mouth and outlined a weird smile.

　Dozens of meters away, when Mort saw Kribi's strange smile, his eyes darkened and he remembered what Kribi had said to him.

　"Morte, remember, if you see me about to die, stay away from me, at least more than 30 meters away. At that time, I..."

　"Has it finally come to this?" With a sigh, Mort suddenly began to retreat.

　Cribi's weird smile and Mort's actions made Lin Xuan feel something was wrong, and at this moment, Cribi laughed strangely.

　"Die with me, [Butcher]"

　At this moment, Lin Xuan suddenly felt the magic power in Kribi's body suddenly become extremely violent. At this time, he also knew what Kribi wanted to do.

　"Damn it!! You lunatic!!!" With a low growl, Lin Xuan quickly unsheathed [Destruction] and moved away from Kribi. However, as if anticipating Lin Xuan's move, Kribi had secured [Destruction] to his body with a crystal. Of course, this wouldn't prevent Lin Xuan from unsheathing it, but it would buy him a little time, and that little bit of time was exactly what Kribi wanted.

　"[Blood Crystal Flower]!!!"

　“Puff, puff, puff—

　"The next moment, countless blood-red crystals in Kribi's body broke through his skin and drilled out.

　In one second, just one second, a strange and stunning blood-red crystal flower appeared where Kribi was originally. It was a huge crystal flower, with a radius of forty meters alone. This was enough to imagine how big this flower was.

　Lin Xuan and his men made such a big fuss in the official residence of the ruler of this country. Logically speaking, the country's army should have come to suppress it, but in fact they did not. The reason was that Kribi and his men ordered them to do so. After all, they knew that facing a swordsman like the "Butcher", those armies would be of no use at all. Instead of letting them come to die, it would be better to just order them not to come to avoid heavy casualties.

　"Kribi~~~" Mort sighed as he looked at the pair of blood-red crystal flowers that shone beautifully in the sunlight. Just as he was about to say something, a sudden cough reached his ears, causing his face to change drastically.

　"Cough cough cough-"

　At this time, Mort saw the pair of blood-red crystal flowers and walked out in an embarrassed figure.

　The figure was Lin Xuan. He looked even more miserable than before. The forehead part of the pure white mask was missing a part, and there was a faint bloodstain on his forehead. There was a crystal as thick as a finger stuck in each of his left arm and right thigh, and there were more wounds on his body.

　"Pooh——" After spitting out a mouthful of blood foam, Lin Xuan gritted his teeth and pulled out the blood-colored crystals that were inserted into his arms and thighs.

　"Hiss——" Lin Xuan sucked in a breath of cold air, pulled the corner of his mouth, and glanced at the blood-red crystal flower beside him.

　"I never thought someone would actually develop that kind of self-destructive sword-cutting skill. Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk. If I had been a second slower, Kribi would have actually succeeded."

　"However, I didn't expect that Jiang Ran 290 made such a mess of what I thought was a simple task." While saying this, Lin Xuan swung the [Destroy] in his hand backhand and directly cut off the arrow that was about to hit him from behind.

　"People like this who hide in the dark and shoot sneak attacks are really annoying~~~" As if complaining, Lin Xuan walked towards Mort.

　"Okay, now that Kribi is no longer there to disturb us, let's continue our previous battle—" However, just as Lin Xuan finished speaking, an angry roar suddenly came from the official residence.

　"Go to hell!!!" The voice was followed by a deafening roar.

　Lin Xuan didn't feel anything about the roar, but Mort felt a lot because he knew the person who roared.

　"Could it be..." At this moment, Mort felt an ominous premonition.

　Seeing Mort's sudden change in expression, Lin Xuan raised an eyebrow and smiled playfully. "It looks like something must have happened to that dictator." At this moment, as if sensing something, Lin Xuan glanced at his own shadow.

　I saw Alice's somewhat embarrassed figure emerging from his shadow.

　Looking at Alice's somewhat embarrassed figure, Lin Xuan curled his lips and asked, "Success?"

　"Of course, mission accomplished."

Chapter 67 Leaving

　I caught a cold yesterday and was in a bad state. I didn't update. Sorry.

　-

　"Of course, mission accomplished."

　Alice raised the corner of her mouth and showed a hint of joy on her face. Obviously, the success of this mission made the gloom caused by the failed assassination disappear.

　"However, this is the first time I see you in such a mess. I thought you could easily attract fire from outside~~~" Alice raised her eyebrows and looked at the now embarrassed Lin Xuan with some surprise.

　Hearing Alice's surprised words, Lin Xuan twitched his lips and said, "Nothing, my confidence was a little inflated, and I underestimated the strength of the [Alliance] A (HX)-level knight."

　"Is that so~~" Lin Xuan did not elaborate, and Alice certainly would not ask in detail. Alice was very clear about this principle of life.

　Seeing that Alice didn't ask any more questions, Lin Xuan nodded with satisfaction and said, "Since the mission is completed, let's go. There's no point in staying any longer."

　"Eh!? I thought you would kill all those people from the Alliance before retreating~~~~" Alice blinked and said, looking at Lin Xuan in surprise.

　"..." Looking at Alice speechlessly, Lin Xuan didn't know what to say. What did she mean by "I thought you would kill all those people before leaving? Are you really that bloodthirsty?"

　In fact, Lin Xuan had wrongly blamed Alice, because it was not only Alice who thought so. In addition to Chiyuki Asada and the old nun, everyone who knew about the deeds of the "Butcher" thought that he was a bloodthirsty person. After all, in the past four years, he alone had killed tens of thousands of people. To say that such a person is not bloodthirsty is a joke.

　Although Alice knew Lin Xuan earlier than Chiyuki Asada, he was not like Chiyuki Asada, who had been a partner with Lin Xuan for four years. In fact, because of their separation, Lin Xuan and Alice had no contact at all, let alone any understanding of each other. So it was not difficult for him to understand why Lin Xuan was bloodthirsty.

　"I'm not as bloodthirsty as you think. Besides, the mission has been completed. It's none of my business whether the remaining people are dealt with or not." Lin Xuan glanced at Alice and said, "Don't you want to leave? Do you want to assassinate a few more people?"

　"No, no, no, I'll just forget it." Alice said with a dry laugh and waved her hand.

　"Let's go then."

　However, although Lin Xuan wanted to leave, the people from the Alliance might not want him to leave. As soon as Lin Xuan turned around, an angry shout was heard behind him.

　"[Liberation Corps] Do you think I, the [Alliance], am a pushover? You just want to leave after killing people!"

　When he heard the roar, Lin Xuan frowned.

　"What? Do you still want to keep me here?!" Lin Xuan sneered as he turned his head slightly and glanced at the burly figure walking out of the official residence behind him.

　"It's not that I look down on you, you really don't have the strength to keep me here." As he spoke, Lin Xuan suddenly released a murderous intent as if he wanted to slaughter the whole world, making him like a god of death who had descended to the world.

　"Hmph!! It's not up to you to decide whether we have the strength or not." Hearing Lin Xuan's conceited words, the burly man snorted coldly.

　"You can try, but this is the capital of this country, although you asked the army to evacuate the crowd in advance. But unlike before, Kribi did not dare to exert his strength without limit. If we fight here, I will not limit my strength. It will be none of my business if some innocent citizens are affected. Now, are you sure you want to keep me here? I don't care~~~ But what do you think~~~ Upright Magic~~~~Mage~~~Knight~~~~~Man~~~" Lin Xuan opened his mouth, revealing a mouthful of white teeth, looked at the burly man with a playful look, and said with a smile.

　"..." Lin Xuan's words silenced the man. Clearly, Lin Xuan's words had hit him right in the gut. The man knew that unlike the "Butchers" of the Liberation Corps, who had no regard for the lives of the civilians, he couldn't ignore them.

　Seeing that the other party was silent, Lin Xuan didn't say much. He turned his head back and walked into the shadow passage he opened with Alice and left.

　"!!!" Staring at Lin Xuan's departing back, Mort tightly grasped the long (hx) spear in his hand, not even feeling the nails digging into his palm. He just kept repeating one sentence:

　"Kill you, kill you, kill you..."

　……

　"Cough cough - puff -"

　After coming out of the shadow channel opened by Alice, Lin Xuan's face turned pale, and a mouthful of dark red blood suddenly came out of his mouth with a violent cough.

　"Hey, hey, hey!!! What happened to Lin Xuan?!" Seeing Lin Xuan, who was fine at first, suddenly startled and vomiting blood, Alice was shocked. "He was fine just now, how did his injury suddenly worsen?!"

　Lin Xuan waved his hand at Alice and said weakly, "It's okay. I just vomited some poisonous blood. I didn't expect that A (HX)-level from the Alliance to be so cruel to me. Before dying, he actually implanted a highly toxic substance into my blood, and then used a method similar to self-destruction to send the blood containing the highly toxic substance into my body. I almost got killed by him."

　Listening to Lin Xuan's words, Alice widened her eyes in shock. She didn't expect that the people from the [Alliance] would be so cruel. Who is the terrorist?

　"Have you cleared all the poison from your body now?"

　In response to Alice's question, Lin Xuan shook his head. "No, it's not that simple. I just cleared out most of the toxins. There is still a small amount of toxins remaining in my body. Although it will still cause damage to my body, it is no longer a life-threatening situation."

　"Okay, now is not the time to talk about this. Let's go back as soon as possible. I still want to get rid of the toxins as soon as possible. Besides, I'm covered in this, so I want to go back and clean it up and change into better clothes." Looking at the tattered clothes and pants on his body, Lin Xuan curled his lips and said.

　As if Lin Xuan's words resonated with her, Alice sighed and said, "Yes, my clothes were also damaged by that magic knight of the Alliance~~~"

　"In that case, let's hurry up."

　"Um"

　……

Chapter 68: One Year

　one year later

　"Hahaha~~~~~" Lin Xuan wiped the sweat from his face, half-closed his eyes, looked at the indifferent Edwards in front of him, and said with a wry smile, "It's been a year, and the gap between you and me is still so big~~~"

　Lin Xuan looked rather miserable at this moment, with over twenty wounds on his body caused by sharp blades, some deep and some shallow, the shallow ones only cutting through the skin, while the deep ones allowed one to see the pale bones beneath the flesh and blood.

　On the other side, Edwards, who was standing opposite Lin Xuan, was much better. He had only three wounds on his body, one of which only cut through the skin. Although the other two were deeper than that one, they were not much deeper.

　"I can feel that your swordsmanship has reached a bottleneck. As long as you break through that bottleneck, your swordsmanship will enter the same realm as my swordsmanship. Only then will you be able to truly compete with me." Looking at Lin Xuan who looked tired, Edwards said calmly.

　However, while Edelweiss appeared calm, her heart wasn't as calm as it appeared. It was precisely because of her swordsmanship that made her the "World's Strongest Swordsman" that she understood how difficult it was to reach that level of skill. But the young man before her was only one step away from that realm. While taking that step was even more difficult than reaching his current level, he was only fifteen years old.

　Edelweiss still remembered the first time she met this young man a year ago. Back then, he still had a touch of childishness on his face when he challenged her to a duel. In that battle, he displayed skills far beyond his peers, and in the end, he broke through himself, furthering his swordsmanship. In the end, he forced her to unleash her full strength.

　In the year that followed, the young man often found him and kept trying to challenge him. At the beginning, he always ended up seriously injured and on the verge of death. But as the number of challenges increased, Edwards could clearly feel Lin Xuan's progress, and each progress was huge. Later, he could even hurt himself in the battle.

　As he continued to get along with Lin Xuan, Edwards felt more and more that the young man would enter the same field as himself, or even surpass himself.

　Regardless of what Edwards was thinking, Lin Xuan let out a wry smile after hearing what he said. "It's certainly not easy to take that step. Having already entered that realm, you should know better how impossible it is. It's not something you can achieve simply through training and fighting."

　"You are not the Lin Xuan I know now. That confident person would never say anything depressing." Looking at the wry smile on Lin Xuan's face, Edwards said.