There’s an old saying that’s quite insightful.
When you have a hamr, everything looks like a nail.
Right now, Zheng Qing’s charm gun is like a ’hamr’, and this sandbox mini world is his construction site. Everything he sees—street fences, gargoyles on the walls, bats under the eaves, and those flamboyant crows descending from the sky—appear like nails protruding from wooden boards, waiting for him to hamr them down one by one.
But he cannot act recklessly.
Before discovering the ’support point’ of this sandbox mini world, any rash attack would simply land on nothing, like punching at the air, without any beneficial impact on the situation. On the contrary, blind attacks might be manipulated by the opponent’s distorted rules, resulting in self-harm.
Thus, the three-mber team confird their basic strategy of ’defensive counterattack’ from the start.
No matter how those colorful crows on the scaffolding provocatively flew around them, clattering and mocking, bombarding from all angles, they remained unresponsive, saving every bit of magic power, barely maintaining the protective effect of ’Maintaining Rock-like Firmness’.
The pale yellow boulder phantom hovered in mid-air above the three young people, and each ti it shattered, a new boulder erged again, resembling a coastal reef standing unwaveringly amidst the fierce wind and waves.
Of course, simply being passive is not the right strategy either.
Zheng Qing contributed all his ordinary fu bullets, then handed the long-unused Beretta Double-Barrel buried at the bottom of the box to the Fat Wizard. The two of them guarded the Doctor from both sides, and whenever they detected the crows converging in a particular direction, they’d fire a shot to ensure they couldn’t collaborate.
anwhile, Xiao Xiao’s task was also heavy. On one hand, he needed to keep trying to reconnect with the school’s Protect Legal Formation, and on the other hand, his Guardian Turtle Shell was the last layer of shield for the trio.
Regarding the seven Haha Beads sent out earlier by Zheng Qing to scout, they were already reduced to seven clusters of debris, scattered in the alley corners. Being alchemical creatures not adept at fighting, they couldn’t escape doom when surrounded by crows. These beads were gifts from Jiang Yu, and their loss in such a place made Zheng Qing feel sowhat regretful.
As for Furry Bean, thanks to its unique Escape Technique, it’s still playing hide-and-seek with the crows outside, occasionally sneaking a few to bite through their throats.
Zheng Qing didn’t call it back. Aside from not worrying about Gouzi’s survival ability, two or three parts wish was to use the lively dog to lure out the real Blackhand hidden in the shadows. However, the opponent seed to be competing with him in patience. As long as Zheng Qing didn’t deploy those few powerful fu bullets, they could hide in the dark indefinitely.
"Oh, I rembered!"
After dispersing a swarming ’crow cloud’, the Fat Wizard suddenly stomped his foot and nudged Zheng Qing behind him with his rear: "Didn’t you get a Gold rlin dal during winter break? Doesn’t that contain a bunch of Minotaurs?"
Zheng Qing almost fell over from the hefty shove behind.
Steadying himself, he irritably fired at another group of crows before speaking sarcastically: "I can summon them, but in this Small World, the magic power consumption is too high... Let’s wait a bit... You don’t need to remind ; when those Haha Beads were wrecked, I already had the dal out!"
"What I an is, you don’t need to use mass Summoning Technique; you can first summon ’Nose Ring and Ear Ring’," the Fat Wizard suggested sheepishly: "I recall its totem aura has excellent auxiliary effects..."
This ti, Xiao Xiao vetoed Xin’s suggestion.
"Let’s wait a bit."
The Doctor sat cross-legged on the ground, stroking the Crystal Ball before him—on his head a gray guardian turtle shell, looking like a little oval cap, sowhat humorously—his voice was calm as ever: "We drank so much apple nectar at the Sakura Pub earlier, we can use this opportunity as a digestive pause... It’s not ti to use auxiliary aura yet."
Apple nectar is a very good magic power supplent, also a uniquely flavored potion drink, very friendly to wizards with low alcohol tolerance, thus widely popular.
"Do you reckon Sister Korma knew we’d get caught in this Small World, which is why she gave us so much apple juice?" the Fat Wizard muttered, having realized belatedly.
Apple juice is a beverage made of diluted apple nectar.
Zheng Qing raised his Remington gun, aiming at a newly gathered flock of crows above, fired a shot, then pulled the bolt, reloaded the magazine with a new fu bullet while criticizing:
"I warned you earlier, Sister is acting odd today... But how did you respond to ? ’You’re under too much psychological pressure, overthinking things’ ’You’ve got persecution paranoia’ ’Stick your head in a snowdrift and think, is there really that much wrong in the world?’"
He mimicked his companions’ previous remarks sarcastically, feeling quite vindicated.
Xiao Xiao focused intently on the Crystal Ball before him, feigning not hearing Zheng Qing’s sarcastic comnts, while the Fat Wizard loudly coughed several tis, looking up at the thin layer of gray mist in the sky.
"Not sure when the school will notice we’re missing... Hopefully, not until tomorrow morning."
He pulled the bolt, aid at a flock of crows, let out a threatening sound, watching the flock scatter, couldn’t help but shake his head: "Given these crows’ wit, we might not hold out until then..."
Before the words finished.
The earth suddenly trembled slightly.
The three simultaneously perked up, Xiao Xiao stroked the Crystal Ball again, the Fat Wizard’s face showed a hint of blue, and Zheng Qing, after a long interval, again grasped the handle of the Colt.
"Did they bring giants?" This was Xin Fat Man’s first reaction.
"No discovery of magic power fluctuations from giants or giant beasts," Xiao Xiao focused on the Crystal Ball, speaking rapidly: "However, starlight connected by the ’Three-Light Array’ shows slight fluctuations... More like this Small World is being shaken externally. During the recent tremor, the Crystal Ball seems to have ford a vague connection with the Protect Legal Formation..."
"Bang!"
Zheng Qing responded with a gunshot—as the tremor occurred, he keenly noticed a large crow close to him showed a mont of rigidity, like a stone, dropping more than ten ters before quickly flapping its wings, flying back up. Intuition hinted that crow had issues.
This ti, he didn’t hesitate to use his precious Blood Symbol Bullet, pulling out the Silver Python, decisively giving that big crow a tough shot.
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