A few days later, only one day remained until the beast wave was set to arrive.
Shen Zuo was drying food over the fire, packing a few bundles, and organizing his tools, and it seemed clear he hadn't abandoned his original plan.
Zhou Ji's earlier talk about his possible death had only made him cling to it harder.
"Why'd you come back to talk out loud again?"
Shen Zuo shouted into the air like an idiot.
"You're the idiot."
Shen Zuo shot back angrily, clearly provoked.
"But you chose well, better to start digging your own grave now... at least we'll know where to put the tombstone."
Zhou Ji said it in a completely casual tone, as if the whole matter didn't concern him at all.
"Well, you don't sound like someone who wants to lose his story's hero this fast... why do you sound so hopeless about it?"
Shen Zuo shot back, shrugging his shoulders, still drying meat over the fire.
"To be honest, there was a bet between me and Bai Ren... it said he'd try to kill you, and I'd have to help you survive."
He sighed, then continued:
"But that bastard got a little too excited, and brought in a Level Five Kar Mutant."
He went quiet for a few seconds, then said in a more mocking tone:
"Now, whatever I give you is going to get labeled as author favoritism... I think your death would honestly be easier for me than getting accused of that~"
"Okay." Shen Zuo replied curtly, completely unbothered by anything said.
"Damn it, why's your reaction so cold?"
This time it wasn't Zhou Ji's voice, but the echo of Bai Ren's.
He continued in a tone full of exasperation:
"Well, doesn't matter... guess I'm the idiot for expecting a reaction out of a dead man."
"Hey, Bai Ren, you didn't take me up on my food offer last time, how about eating something now?"
Shen Zuo said it with pure sarcasm, gesturing toward the dried meat over the fire.
"Look, it's coming right out of the oven now... man, I really want you to taste the sauce I made for it!"
"I see you've been studying a cookbook." Zhou Ji laughed, then added:
"How about a cooking contest? Don't worry, you'll get to be the judge too."
Shen Zuo answered, a little startled: "No, no... there's no way I could ever reach your level. But if grandpa Bai Ren's the judge, I'll give it a shot."
"Shen Zuo, I came today to train you, since you're not used to using Phantoms in combat." Bai Ren said, trying to change the subject.
Shen Zuo scowled and said: "Screw you, you want to injure me the day before the beast wave shows up, huh?"
Bai Ren denied it: "Don't worry, whatever injury I give you, Zhou Ji will patch up... so, you in or not?"
Shen Zuo smiled and opened with a sideways axe swing.
Bai Ren's finger turned to stone, easily blocking the strike.
Shen Zuo was stunned to see Bai Ren carrying the exact same Phantom he had, but he didn't get to finish being surprised, because Bai Ren turned his whole fist to stone and struck Shen Zuo's stomach. He barely managed to activate his own Rock Mutation Phantom in time to protect his gut, paying double the usual energy cost just to get it up in time.
"Wrong activation timing. You should've dodged that instead. Right now, you've fallen into a fatal mistake: first, your speed just dropped in half; second, your energy consumption just doubled compared to mine. So even if we were the same level, you wouldn't be able to so much as scratch me this way, and even if you tried to compensate mid-fight, your opponent can do the exact same thing. This is how I'll keep stacking energy advantages and other edges over you, weaknesses I'll exploit one by one. You're killing yourself from the very first move. Tsk."
Several exchanges passed with Shen Zuo stuck defending passively.
Shen Zuo stopped activating the Phantom, since it had burned through half his energy so fast, and he wanted to save the rest for critical moments.
Shen Zuo found an opening to put some distance between them, leaping back and grabbing his bow, firing an arrow with full force, but Bai Ren caught it between two fingertips and hurled it right back at him, even harder. The arrow was poisoned, and Shen Zuo barely managed to dodge it, so he tossed the bow aside once he realized it wasn't doing him any good.
In an instant, Bai Ren grabbed Shen Zuo by the neck without warning, turned his hand to stone, and tightened his grip, aiming to choke him out.
Shen Zuo smiled and activated his Rock Mutation Phantom right before he could be fully strangled, dark scales hardening around his neck at the last second, absorbing part of the grip's force, though not canceling it out entirely.
He grabbed two arrows from behind his back and tried driving them into Bai Ren's hand and neck, but the old man activated the Phantom over the affected spots and defended easily, as though the arrows had just struck a solid stone wall.
Bai Ren began lifting Shen Zuo off the ground, his feet dangling in the air, but Shen Zuo locked both hands onto the old man's arm and tried to squeeze it, forming sharp stone spikes around Bai Ren's grip, hoping to injure him or force him to let go.
It was useless. Bai Ren shoved him off with force, throwing him several meters across the ground, his body slamming into the dirt hard enough to leave a few bruises, while the faint imprint of Bai Ren's stone fingers remained lightly etched into the skin of his neck.
"Trying to leave a scratch on me in exchange for your own life... is that really how cheap you think it is?" Bai Ren mocked, before turning his hand into a sharpened sword and attacking Shen Zuo with force as he tried to get back up, but no chance, a kick to Shen Zuo's chest sent him rolling across the ground. The old man tried to stomp him down, but Shen Zuo rolled and got back on his feet in the same instant.
Luckily for him, he then reached the axe he'd tossed aside earlier for being useless and slowing him down.
He picked it up without moving, waiting to see how Bai Ren would react.
Bai Ren activated the Phantom from a distance, and the stone sword stretched out dramatically, as if extending endlessly. Shen Zuo didn't try to dodge it, instead raising the axe in front of him to block, and it worked, prompting him to say:
"There's no way someone at my level could pull that off, and if they tried, it'd be a stupid move, since I could easily dodge it or block it outright. But doing that just burned through all your energy, so if we were actually the same level, I'd have won that exchange."
Bai Ren shot back mockingly: "Who said I'm fighting you at my actual level? I'm just training you here, don't go thinking you're some genius for an analysis that dumb."
...
In a single instant, the stone sword extended and morphed into a cage, trapping Shen Zuo inside.
Then the cage vanished, and Shen Zuo's injuries were treated.
Ling Li appeared, having watched from a distance the whole time.
"Bai Ren, I think you're going soft, not actually hurting him means the lessons won't stick as fast in that idiot's head, scars
are what actually make concepts stay." Ling Li said mockingly, calm as ever, his eyes scanning the area.