Dream or nightmare?

Guo Luo calmly inspected the opponent in front of her ignoring the sounds coming from the two other battles that were unfolding around her. A soft light flashed in her right palm, a sword that was just as normal and undecorated as Yao Jun's appearing in her grasp. But where Yao Jun's sword was pitch black, Guo Luo's sword teemed with colors, the various colors of the rainbow fighting for supremacy as they swam across the surface of the blade.

The scenery around Guo Luo and her opponent, the brown-haired and golden-eyed man who had introduced himself as Peridus, changed the moment she grasped her sword. The barren earth suddenly turned lively as verdant grass and blooming flowers sprouted all around them, even the small and bent trees that dotted the area straightened and grew more robust, it was as if they had been completely born anew. Before Peridus had the chance to even blink, the area around them had turned into a refreshing plain and Guo Luo's aura had increased by a few magnitudes.

Peridus's eyes narrowed slightly, his right foot sliding to the side to test the grass that had just sprouted. But to his surprise, the grass felt completely real, it even released the faint scent of fresh grass that had just grown after a bit of rain. He knew that this wasn't impossible to accomplish if Guo Luo cultivated the law of plants or life, but he hadn't heard anything about her cultivating either of those laws so he couldn't help but be somewhat suspicious, it seemed like she had cultivated more laws than they were told about.

But after giving his new surroundings a swift glance, he returned his gaze to Guo Luo and let out a deep breath. He clenched both his fists and caused a layer of metal to surround both of them, forming somewhat spiky gauntlets that extended to cover both his arms. The gauntlets stopped extending once they reached his shoulder, but the skin on the rest of his body seemed to wriggle slightly so Guo Luo guessed that he caused another layer of metal to appear beneath his skin to serve as armor.

Once he finished his preparations, Peridus let out a loud roar and charged forward without fear. His death was set in stone the moment he came here so there was no point in having any fear now, he might as well just go all out one last time. But just as he kicked off the ground and shattered the earth, Guo Luo appeared in front of him with her sword raised high, slashing down at his head.

Peridus's armored right arm shot upward like a silver blur, his clenched fist meeting the edge of the blade. But to his surprise, his fist went directly through the blade and dispersed it into tiny motes of light. Another Guo Luo then appeared directly at his right side, sending a sideways slash towards his waist. Peridus reacted swiftly, his body twisting far more flexibly than his metallic show would lead you to expect possible. He spun as if he was trying to emulate a ballerina, raising his right arm even higher and holding his left fist close to his abdomen before punching out with it.

But just as his fist made contact with the blade, the weapon once again dispersed into motes of light, Peridus sensing that another Guo Luo had appeared behind him. As the Guo Luo behind him stabbed towards his back, the weapon of first Guo Luo that had appeared in front of him had reformed and was once again slashing down at him.

His brows furrowed slightly but he once again reacted swiftly and caused thousands of tiny metal spikes to appear in the air around him. The spikes created a nearly airtight dome around him and the three Guo Luo's, perfectly obscuring them from the outside world. The dome of spikes shrank in size and stabbed into the three Guo Luo's and caused them all to disperse into motes of light that floated around inside the dome.

Peridus took this chance while he was obscured to quickly return to a neutral position. He then bent his knees slightly and placed the base of his palms together while bending his fingers, almost as if he was trying to use both his hands to form an open maw. He placed both hands at his side and bent his torso slightly, gathering all his power within his two palms, his gaze focused on the spot where Guo Luo should be.

The energy gathered in his palm gathered together to form a viscous blob of metallic silver energy. He sensed that the Guo Luo illusion behind him had reformed and was slashing down at him with her sword, but he ignored her and unleashed his strongest attack with a soft whisper.

"God Piercing Spear!"

The dome surrounding him exploded as the attack was unleashed, the silvery energy dispersing into the surroundings and causing a violent chain reaction to spread out. A massive metallic spear covered in ornate carvings of people and Demonic beasts appeared in front of Peridus, stretching out for several tens of kilometers. The spear had simply appeared in an instant, the energy of his attack forcing all the Qi within a set path to turn into metal merged with the law of piercing.

The result was the massive spear that had formed and pierced everything within the path that Peridus had set, black tendrils of pierced space appearing around the spear. And standing directly in the path of the spear was Guo Luo, who was now pierced straight through by the spear. Peridus had even obscured himself so that she couldn't see or sense his attack, it was the perfect ambush he had prepared to not give Guo Luo even a second to dodge.

But as he was looking at the result of his attack, the sword of the illusion Guo Luo behind him landed on the spot where his right shoulder connected with his neck. He expected the weapon to disperse like previously, but to his shock, he actually felt a burning pain coming from his shoulder as the sword cut right through his armor and dug deep into his body, only stopping a short few centimeters from his heart. And as he was experiencing the pain, he saw that the Guo Luo that he had pierced with his strongest attack was actually dispersing, a soft mutter coming from behind him.

"Sorry, but I can see and hear everything that they can."

Peridus grit his teeth and stomped the ground, using the force of the stomp to twist his body around and swipe at the Guo Luo behind him with his armored right arm. The move caused the sword buried nearly halfway into his chest to twist his flesh, but he didn't have to care since he knew that he was dead anyway. But to his dismay, the Guo Luo behind him simply dispersed when his arm touched her, even the sword buried into his body turning into motes of light.

And then he sensed it, one of the blades of grass that had grown up from the earth vanished as Guo Luo appeared in its position, stabbing out with her sword and piercing through his back. She just barely missed his heart since he once again managed to twist his body, but the attack brought him right to the verge of death. He flexed all his muscles to lock the sword in place, but just as he was about to move his body to launch a final attack, the sword once again dispersed into motes of light.

Guo Luo didn't move, but one of the motes of light around him twisted and turned into her sword, stabbing towards him. He raised his left arm to block, but the sword simply dispersed into more motes of light when he blocked it. Another mote of light immediately twisted and turned into her sword, this time successfully stabbing directly through Peridus's chest.

Peridus collapsed to his knees once the sword pierced his chest, the massive spear he had created vanishing as all energy left his body. Guo Luo let out a soft breath, the scenery around them returning to normal as the grass and flowers exploded into motes of light that drifted through the air like fireflies.

In the end, Peridus understood the true horror of Guo Luo's power, she could freely change position with any one of her illusions, and her sword seemed to be able to merge with all of her illusions, just like he had heard that Yao Jun's sword could merge with all his elements. The moment he allowed her to surround the entire area with her illusions, his odds of actually winning dropped to nearly zero. Peridus's eyes slowly grew dim, the countless motes of light reflected in his pupils as a final soft mutter escaped his lips.

"It looks like a beautiful dream but is actually a nightmare, heh..."

The sword stabbed into Peridus's chest vanished as he collapsed forward, once again appearing in Guo Luo's grasp before vanishing into her body. This sword was different from her previous one, Yao Jun had made it for her using the same method that Sword Empyrean Heng Jiang had used to make Yao Jun's blade. As such, it possessed the exact same capabilities, it could perfectly merge with her laws, appearing out of every single one of her illusions, much like she herself could.

Guo Luo let out a soft breath after finishing off Peridus, looking at her own hands. Two years ago she and Yun Yantian needed to work together to hold off a single Earthly Deity, but now they were capable of finishing off an Earthly Deity on their own, their training had borne fruit. But when she raised her head to look at Yao Jun, a soft sigh couldn't help but escape her lips.

She knew that it still wasn't enough, her current strength was still not enough to properly assist Yao Jun, he would still be forced to face any truly strong enemies alone. She shook her head to dismiss the thoughts and then walked over to Yao Jun and sat down next to him, wrapping his hand in hers while observing Tang Long's battle. If it wasn't enough right now then she only had to put in even more effort, after all, she was just like him, she too wished to be strong enough to protect that which was dear to her.