Naked Sword Art Chapter 190 - Stalemate

Chapter 190 - Stalemate

It only took the colossal beast a few minutes to know it couldn't win against Xiao Fang, luckily the other 25 9th tiered beasts arrived just in time to give it some assistance. However, unlike Xiao Fang and the colossal beast, the 9th tiered beasts were unable to walk on water, so their overall usefulness was little to none.
This was what Xiao Fang expected. Not only were the 9th tiered beasts not helpful, but the colossal beast also had nothing to throw at him.
He was going to just ignore the 9th tiered beasts and try to defeat the colossal beast as fast as possible, but the colossal beast eventually got desperate then started throwing the 9th tiered beasts at Xiao Fang.
Xiao Fang clicked his tongue out of annoyance.
"It seems I'll have to deal with those 9th tiered beasts first."
Xiao Fang killed the 9th tiered beasts one by one. Since their bodies were mostly submerged underwater their movements were slowed. They were as good as sitting ducks.
The colossal beast tried to stop him, but Xiao Fang was able to make 2 clones of himself while the colossal beast could only make 1.
The 9th tiered beasts knew they couldn't fight Xiao Fang like this so they tried to swim back to shore. However, Xiao Fang didn't let any of them escape.
With their backs turned to him, he was able to kill them off much faster. So in a matter of seconds, the force of 25 9th tiered beasts were reduced down to just 3. The reason he couldn't get the last 3 were because they were swimming under water.
Xiao Fang's [ Divine Sword Cutting Air ] was ineffective if they were under water, so he just let them go. Unfortunately, the colossal beast was smart enough to realize this, so a grin finally crept up on its face.
The next thing it did made Xiao Fang frown.
The colossal beast was no longer above water. It had completely submerged itself and swam down almost 70 meters to the bottom of the lake. Normally at such a depth, it would be near impossible to see anything on the surface of the lake, but Xiao Fang could almost feel it's eyes on him, even though he couldn't see it.
'I was too careless,' Xiao Fang thought.
Xiao Fang tried to rely on his hearing, but the beast was too deep for him to get a clear image with his ears. His great idea suddenly became his biggest weakness.
Suddenly, he saw bubbles surfacing under him, but he couldn't see anything deeper than a few dozen meters. In the next moment, Xiao Fang's eyes widened just before he was hit by something. Almost like a geyser, Xiao Fang was blasted into the air.
"Agh!"
Even though he tried his best to defend against it, Xiao Fang still coughed up a mouthful of blood. Once he landed, he got a good look at what hit him.
"What the hell!?"
Although it was shaped like a cannon, it was a meter in diameter and as white as a cloud. It was a beast core. The colossal beast was using the beast cores from the bodies of the 9th tiered beasts Xiao Fang killed earlier. The material was extremely sturdy, so it became the perfect weapon against him.
Eventually, Xiao Fang looked down at his sword then saw the condition it was in. It was cracked. The reason this upset him was because it was a gift his childhood friend, Lei Xinyi, gave him on his 18th birthday. She designed it considering his blindness and made it so that people would think it was an ordinary blindman's walking stick when it really wasn't.
"Dammit, come out of there you coward!" He shouted at the colossal beast.
The way the sword was now it could still be repaired, but he could risk letting it get damaged anymore, so he put it in his spatial ring. With no other option left, he finally took out the sword Wu Yue gave him. The feeling of the hilt was unfamiliar, but it made him feel powerful.
'This sword...'
With just a light swing he could feel his Divine Sword qi being emitted from it with ease. His other sword felt like a child's toy compared to this.
Wu Yue told him that she got it as a gift from the royal court. It was supposed to help increase his strength and agility, all while reducing the backlash he would receive from practicing a new technique.
'Reduction in backlash received...' Xiao Fang thought.
Although he was able to use his [ Divine Sword Cutting Air ] technique for several minutes at a time, he still wasn't comfortable to say that he had completely mastered it. However, Xiao Fang didn't need to master it to start practicing the next level of the Divine Sword technique: [ Divine Sword Cutting Sea ], all he needed was to meet the prerequisites of the techniques, which he did.
'Practicing the technique is one thing, but using it in battle is another. I already made that mistake once. I can't make the same mistake in a dangerous place like this,' he thought.
Although it was true that it was a dangerous thing to do, unlike before, Xiao Fang actually met the prerequisite to start practicing the technique. So whether he was successful or not, the backlash wouldn't be nearly as bad as before.
Xiao Fang saw bubbles rising again, but this time he dodged.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
The colossal beast kept throwing beast cores at him from the bottom of the lake, so he couldn't stand still for longer than a second.
However, Xiao Fang didn't panic. Since he had only killed 22 of them, he knew there were only 22 9th tiered beast cores down there. He even made sure to catch and absorb all of the beast cores before they could sink back down to the bottom.
Eventually, there was finally silence. However, the colossal beast didn't throw all of the beast cores, so those few moments of silence was when Xiao Fang was the most anxious.
'It's a stalemate. I can't go down there and it can't come up here. If only I could use the [ Divine Sword Cutting Sea ] technique,' he thought.
Xiao Fang was reluctant to leave things the way they were, but there was no way he could win a fight against the colossal beast underwater. He considered waiting for the beast to run out of breath, but it could take days, maybe even weeks before it would do that.
Xiao Fang sighed then put his sword away.
"This battle is over," Xiao Fang said.
He didn't know if the beast could understand him, but it didn't matter.
.
.
.
Xiao Fang went back to collect all of the beast cores from the 9th and 8th tiered beasts he killed that day. After he filled his high-grade spirit pendant he had to store the rest of the beast cores in his spatial ring.
Looking at his spirit pendant glowing red made him forget about not defeating the colossal beast. He was tempted to start cultivating the illusory qi in the spirit pendant, but he knew Xiao Hei would be worried about him, so he got up and started heading back.
Eventually, Xiao Fang stopped when he heard someone coming his way, then quickly went under [ Stealth ] when he recognized who it was.
'Did she follow me?'