Chapter 657: Chapter 570: Cooperation, Agreed

And in the next instant, Four-leaf Phoenix Tree’s eyes went wide.

From his perspective, Su Sui suddenly vanished from where she was. The Ivory Gates that had unfolded nearby shattered one after another, and every attack aimed at her missed completely!

When he came back to his senses again, Su Sui had already blinked to the other side. Before Zhou Zhao could adjust his attack direction, she disappeared once more. In the span of a few breaths, Su Sui blinked five times in a row, moving so fast she was like a golden streak of light weaving through the battlefield.

"What is she trying to..." Zhou Zhao muttered in confusion.

He stopped aiming. With the opponent moving at such high speed, there was no way his attacks could land.

Four-leaf Phoenix Tree understood.

Since the enemy couldn’t locate her, she simply gave up on trying to find their position.

Su Sui was using Yanxing indiscriminately. As long as any wheat ear inside the Tu Domain was triggered, she would use Wheat Ear Blink to flash to that spot.

This way, their attacks still couldn’t hit Su Sui, and if the timing lined up, she could even Yanxing straight to them at the exact moment they touched a wheat ear.

"Her tactical intuition is really sharp." Four-leaf Phoenix Tree lowered his eyes.

As long as he could find a pattern in her Yanxing, there was still a chance to hit her.

But after watching for a while, Four-leaf Phoenix Tree gave up. The reality was that Su Sui’s movements had absolutely no pattern. Right now she was moving purely on instinct: whenever any wheat ear was triggered, she would Yanxing.

Four-leaf Phoenix Tree had no ability to control the blood drops’ trajectories, and he could barely even give them a precise initial velocity, so Su Sui’s movement was completely unpredictable to him.

What was she trying to do?

Four-leaf Phoenix Tree glanced at the steadily dropping HP bar in the upper right corner of his vision and felt a vague sense of dread.

He absolutely could not slow his HP drain at this moment. Once the number of blood drops zipping around the field decreased, Su Sui would have a much higher chance of blinking right next to him. Was the opponent planning to pit Spiritual Power attrition against him?

No, he must not fall into her rhythm!

"Zhou Zhao." Four-leaf Phoenix Tree barked.

"Weren’t you bragging you can open a hundred Ivory Gates? Time for you to blanket the field with firepower. I don’t need you to heavily injure that woman, just grazing her is enough!"

"A mere hundred." Zhou Zhao’s expression twisted with strain, but his mouth still said, "You’re underestimating me. I’ll give you a thousand!"

Zhou Zhao’s Champion Gloves suddenly flared with light.

With a low shout, the darkness was pierced by dazzling radiance. Ivory Gates unfolded out of thin air, encircling the sky and revolving at high speed around Su Sui. At a certain instant they halted, and star-like points of light shot out from within.

"Watch closely. This is the Roar of Stardust."

Stardust poured down in a bombardment!

...

Pixelated light bullets fired at her from all directions. Su Sui drew both Great Tachi and Small Tachi, batting every light bullet aside and smashing them apart.

Fifteen minutes had passed since the battle began, and the situation had fallen into a stalemate. For the moment, Su Sui had no way to deal with the two of them with their high-speed mobility, and their attacks likewise struggled to hit Su Sui with her extreme speed.

She exhaled a long, turbid breath. In the darkness, the girl’s slightly ragged breathing echoed. Su Sui’s current appearance could only be described as brutal: her Sword Dao uniform was soaked through with blood, and fresh blood was slowly trickling down from her forehead.

But if one looked closely, they’d find her injuries actually weren’t that serious. Her HP bar had dropped to forty percent and then stabilized at that value, and the wounds all over her body were healing at a steady pace.

"What the hell is this girl’s life regeneration rate?" Zhou Zhao gasped for air, his Spiritual Power almost completely drained.

"Where did Dark Gold Rose even dig up a monster like this—tanky, hard-hitting, and insanely mobile."

"Who knows."

Four-leaf Phoenix Tree’s expression wasn’t great either.

He had thought this method would allow them to counter the enemy, but who could’ve predicted she’d just tank their first few waves of offense head-on, dragging them into a war of attrition instead.

Leaving aside the Commander and support roles, Light Chasing Garden’s frontline was absolutely not weak. Bai Youyou was a monster with completely over-the-top base stats, Angelina’s Ash Burning Domain burned HP and blocked healing, and now there was this Su Sui with absurd self-healing and mobility.

To keep the enemy’s senses fooled long-term, he had to maintain it with his HP, which meant his Life Value had also dropped to around forty.

If this dragged on, there was no guarantee whether Su Sui or he would be the first to fall.

"Time’s about up." Four-leaf Phoenix Tree’s gaze sharpened.

An alarm bell suddenly blared in his heart.

The previously patternless trajectory of Su Sui’s movement suddenly hitched; she halted mid-step. The moment her boots touched the ground, a small "Sui Domain" with a forty-meter radius expanded outward. Golden rice stalks rustled into existence, and in the blink of an eye, in the illusory shadows of rice within the Tu Domain, a path of fully solid wheat ears opened up, the road’s end pointing straight at the two of them.

Four-leaf Phoenix Tree sensed the danger and tried to react, but it was already too late. After maintaining Divine Speed Power for so long, his mind was foggy as well.

A steely glint flashed in Su Sui’s eyes.

The blood drops at both sides shot in at the same time, striking the wheat ears on the path in front of her one after another.

A golden streak of light tore through the darkness, piercing straight toward them.

"Zhou Zhao!" Four-leaf Phoenix Tree shouted.

The light faded.

The sound of three people panting echoed in the dark.

Four-leaf Phoenix Tree’s chest was heaving. A sharp, icy Great Tachi hung suspended at his neck. Su Sui gripped the hilt with both hands, the blade angled upward, her stance a perfect swallow-cut stopping just at the young man’s fatal throat.

Right beside her, Zhou Zhao, breathing heavily, had his hand raised, Champion Gloves pointed straight at her head.

Zhou Zhao forced a smile.

"Looks like we won."

"Not necessarily." Blood rolled down Su Sui’s forehead, her expression blank as she spoke.

Four-leaf Phoenix Tree slowly lowered the Willow Leaf Blade in his hand. "No, definitely."

"The winners are us."

"Get this straight, the one at a disadvantage right now is you."

"If one of us has to be eliminated, then no matter what, you’ll be one of them."

"We can choose to knock you out of the match, while you can only passively accept that and take me down in exchange."

"So the winners are us."

"Two versus one, you know."

"You’re wrong."

Under Zhou Zhao’s stunned gaze, Su Sui stepped forward, forcing Four-leaf Phoenix Tree back until he hit the wall. The blade at his neck pressed in half a fraction deeper, a faint line of blood appearing.

"I can choose to take you out, and then he’d be forced to kill me."

"Light Chasing Garden really is a factory for lunatics." Four-leaf Phoenix Tree’s expression twisted.

"Since none of us can convince the others..."

"How about we cooperate?"

"Sure." Su Sui lowered her blade.

Zhou Zhao didn’t dare lower the Champion Gloves, terrified this killing maniac would just turn around and cleave Four-leaf Phoenix Tree in half.

"So how are we cooperating?" Su Sui couldn’t be bothered to acknowledge the taut-nerved Zhou Zhao at her side. She sheathed the Great Tachi, and the Dual Domain around them unraveled.

Four-leaf Phoenix Tree finally let out a small breath of relief.

This was going better than he’d expected.

Su Sui was decisive, but she wasn’t like Angelina, that mad dog who only Dark Gold Rose could keep on a leash.

They’d fought, confirmed that killing them outright wasn’t an option, and Su Sui had decisively taken the second-best choice—considering a temporary alliance.

"We help each other out, and once we reach the objective, it’s every man for himself." Four-leaf Phoenix Tree said.

"Fine." Su Sui was very satisfied with this succinct phrasing.

Only after confirming the crisis was completely over did Zhou Zhao finally lower the Champion Gloves. His whole Spirit felt fuzzy; he swayed a bit and nearly collapsed.

The pressure the girl put on him was too much. If he had a choice, he’d much rather deal with Rice Wine and his endless schemes than a killing maniac who’d chop you first and talk later.