Chapter 469: Fourth-Tier Fleeing Shadow, Part I Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales Translated by XephiZ Edited by Aelryinth As Lingling predicted, even though Zhao Manyan was panicking slightly at the start after receiving the waves of attacks from the White Sand Giants, his defensive Spells were able to stabilize the situation. The enormous size and large number of the White Sand Giants were blocking one another, and they had no ranged attacks. Besides, a defensive Magician like Zhao Manyan could not possibly eliminate the White Sand Giants surrounding him, thus it would not matter how many circles of them there were. The ones that were attacking were only from the first and second circles. As long as the White Sand Giants could not break his defense with a single wave of attacks, he could still hold them off for a certain amount of time! Meanwhile, Zhang Xiaohou was in a much more favorable situation. The fact that so many White Sand Giants were at Zhao Manyan’s area also meant that there were fewer White Sand Giants in his!. Similar to Zhao Manyan, Zhang Xiaohou did not have any destructive Spells he would use. Therefore, instead of wasting his energy trying to kill the White Sand Giants, he was simply kiting them around in circles. The white sandy ground allowed Zhang Xiaohou to cast Earth Wave at his will. In addition to that, his Earth Element Spells also had special effects because of his Soul Seed. The White Sand Giants were not very quick. Even raising their heavy sand sabers alone would take a whole two seconds, which gave the agile Zhang Xiaohou lots of time to react. Clank! Clank! The bulky sand sabers were slashing in Zhang Xiaohou’s direction, yet they could only hit the gusts left in his wake. There were only three movement Spells among all Basic Spells, and Zhang Xiaohou had two of them! On top of that, Zhang Xiaohou was wearing a pretty good pair of Magical Boots. With so many ways of moving around, he was one of the few Magicians that could weave his way through the demon beasts. Zhang Xiaohou maintained his speed as he ran. When he turned around and saw the clumsy White Sand Giants had been left a hundred meters behind, and was just about to feel pleased with his speed, clouds of white sand jetted into the air ahead of him suddenly! Ten White Sand Giants rose from the ground, using their bodies to build a twenty-meters-long wall! Zhang Xiaohou suddenly realized that the White Sand Giants would not stupidly chase after him with their feet. They could easily move through the sand under the surface and quickly arrive at their destination. Otherwise, how was it possible for the White Sand Giants to quickly gather at an enemy’s position? The long sabers waved wildly, slashing in Zhang Xiaohou’s direction. With enemies on his trail, he could not afford to alter his path, so he swiftly drew a Star Pattern under his feet. “Rock Barrier!” 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮 Zhang Xiaohou halted his running, skidding toward the White Sand Giants, and pushed his hands forward. A Rock Barrier wall formed with the Soul Seed Flowing Mud emerged from the ground! As the Rock Barrier rose to protect Zhang Xiaohou, the ten sand sabers that were hacking at him collided with the spell! Under the White Sand Giants’ shocking strength and the blunt blows from the sand sabers, the Spirit-grade Earth Element Defensive Spell was soon shattered into pieces. Zhang Xiaohou’s heart raced when his defense crumbled. A blue swirl suddenly wrapped around his feet in the shape of a pair of boots. The wind boots boosted Zhang Xiaohou to his limit, raising an aftertrail of sand behind him. The White Sand Giants pursuing after him were planning to crush him into minced meat, but ended up slamming into the wall of White Sand Giants ahead of him. As a loud crash similar to a traffic accident came from behind him, Zhang Xiaohou broke into a frightened sweat. Fortunately, he was able to put the magic Boots that he had recently acquired to use. If he was cornered by the White Sand Giants, he would die to their sand sabers despite the variety of movement Spells he had. While catching his breath, Zhang Xiaohou glanced in Mo Fan’s direction to check how he was doing. — Unlike Zhao Manyan and Zhang Xiaohou’s approach, Mo Fan was focusing on killing! Mo Fan had plenty of offensive Spells. There was no need for him to delay fighting against the White Sand Giants. Even their thick sand armor plates stood no chance against the destructive power of the Lightning and Fire Elements. The full power of Fiery Fist: Nine Halls was displayed against demon beasts that lined up in rows. Every time Mo Fan cast the Spell, the White Sand Giants would fall to the ground in chunks! However, Mo Fan needed some time to cast the Fiery Fist: Nine Halls, so he had to switch between different Spells before he had enough time to illustrate the Star Pattern. Luckily, the battle broke out as the sun was setting, allowing him to utilize his Shadow Element. Otherwise, with so many White Sand Giants flanking him at the same time, he would never have the chance to complete the complicated Star Pattern. It was not like Mo Fan had never experienced being surrounded by demon beasts before. When he was in the middle of the Giant Lizards back in Jinlin City, he had used his fourth-tier Lightning Strike to create a paralyzing Electric Field around him. Unhappily, the paralyzing effect of Lightning Strike was not effective against these White Sand Demons. The Elemental Beasts did not have flesh or blood, so the damage inflicted by the Lightning Element was reduced to a certain degree. As such, Mo Fan was only using the Lightning Spells to penetrate their armor plates for a killing blow. The most effective Element was Fire. Even though a single fourth-tier Fire Burst alone was not enough to inflict serious damage to the White Sand Giants, it was able to disrupt their formation briefly, and a few more would blast them into pieces. Every time he killed a White Sand Giant, the Little Loach Pendant would retrieve their Soul Remnant. Mo Fan quickly killed at least ten White Sand Giants. It appeared that the Soul Remnants from the White Sand Giants were relatively high-quality. Initially, Mo Fan needed thirty Servant-class Soul Remnants to refine a Soul Essence, but after collecting ten Soul Remnants of the White Sand Giants, the Little Loach Pendant produced a Servant-class Soul Essence! As a matter of fact, Mo Fan had already strengthened five of the Stars in the Shadow Element Nebula. He could strengthen another with the freshly acquired Soul Essence, which meant he was only one Soul Essence away from improving the Shadow Element Basic Spell, Fleeing Shadow, to the fourth tier! That being said, he would need to kill around forty more White Sand Giants to refine another Servant-class Soul Essence and rank up his Fleeing Shadow. If he could level up the Spell, it would be a glimpse of hope that could change the tide of this difficult battle!