1RomanceEB Chapter 65 Echoing Sandbag
Chapter 65 Echoing Sandbag
Chapter 65 Echoing Sandbag
All 13 chief elders, whether present or not, were closely watching Nan'an's every move through the magic array in the observer's courtyard.
"I don't understand why you would arrange such a simple test. Do you really think that heroic spirits are powerless against low-level creations whose talents have been revived by forest spirits? This is unnecessary. What we care about is the special power of divine and demonic suppression."
"Years of fighting will form an instinct. Seeing is believing, and this is probably what some people want to see."
As they spoke, Nan'an was striking the enormous stamen of a giant snake-bodied flower.
His right fist, wreathed in a sudden burst of intense flames, plunged straight into the depths of the flower's heart, gripping it tightly.
The fist-sized core, along with its slender, vine-like stem, was pulled out as well.
After dealing with the giant snake flower, Nan'an used the heavy "Elemental Drive - Earth" technique to dullly strike a 2-meter-tall tree spirit.
Taking advantage of the tree spirit's dazed state, they followed the same method, cutting off its head and tail, tearing off its bark, taking out the core temporarily granted by Ivila's talent, and then using its enhanced body as a weapon, they hurled it forward, hitting the swarming monsters squarely in the middle.
Wood chips, severed limbs, and broken leaves flew everywhere, and the monster horde was smashed open by this brutal throwing attack.
Nan'an followed closely behind, leaping boldly into the center of the area where monsters were most concentrated.
The moment his feet touched the ground, the crimson flames surrounding him erupted with a deafening roar!
Centered on him, a raging sea of fire instantly swept across and devoured everything within a radius of several meters.
The monsters' shrieks, the crackling of burning plants, and the smell of burning flesh mingled together.
The firelight illuminated his slightly excited smile—he seemed to be enjoying the fight.
A rough, guttural voice couldn't help but ring out.
"Look, its approach to most monsters is either a headshot or a heart-piercing attack—how did you determine that he was a Heroic Spirit and not an Evil Spirit while I was away? And who decided it was the style of a frontier adventurer?"
"Tata, we're all just children in front of this senior. The museum of history and literature rarely provides detailed descriptions of adventurers' fighting styles. So, guess who in Nora is qualified to judge Nan'an?"
The chief, named Tata, suddenly fell silent.
"If I had to say, it's understandable that you're excited, Tata. Given Nan'an's experience, he probably wouldn't mind killing some goblins for bounties. In the border cities of the Gray Star era, there were indeed many bounties related to your clan. However, the good news is that, given his methods, your ancestors from the Gray Star era should have died a quick and painless death, and wouldn't have to experience the methods he used to treat cultists."
Tata scoffed, "So, he's a respectable cult assassin? But his methods seem more like those of a cult."
"Shouldn't the idea of 'an eye for an eye' be condemned?"
In the short time it took them to have this discussion from afar, in the field of vision, Nan'an had already carved a scorched path through the raging woodland like a red-hot blade slicing through butter, carrying Suiyue out of the living thicket of thorns.
He used only one spell, Element Drive, to quickly pass Ivila's test.
"A one-sided massacre."
"Does he only know one spell?"
"His elemental manipulation is very interesting; the casting rhythm and speed are faster than previously recorded. Is it a self-improvement?"
Basically, all the chief elders expressed their appreciation.
that is----
"It's a pity that Suiyue is only at the third tier; otherwise, Nan'an would be even stronger, right?"
"How to nurture Suiyue is Nan'an's problem. Let's avoid that topic. The summoning ritual has already made its choice, and we can only accept it."
Beneath the towering ancient tree, Ivila's figure was as light as a falling leaf, gracefully descending, her toes touching the tree roots silently.
She clapped her hands gently: "As expected, this isn't even a test for you."
Knowing that the chief elders were paying attention, Nan'an decided to lay his cards on the table.
"I'm more curious about what you want to see from this test. If you can't even quickly eliminate these low-level creations that are temporarily generated by talent, then my life as an adventurer will probably end much sooner."
Before his death, Nan'an killed a high-level troll in a 1-for-3 exchange, even though he himself had only barely reached the threshold of high-level.
Now resurrected as a heroic spirit, with the added benefit of a summoning ritual, he's tasked with dealing with the low-level creations stemming from his talent—
He was very puzzled as to what he was in the eyes of the chief elder.
Is he weak? He's always assigned low-level tasks.
A burst of laughter came from the chief elder's communication array.
"Tata, Nan'an is asking you, do you still want to watch?"
"Since Lord Dunakalon has already made his judgment, you should have informed me in advance, instead of leaving me completely ignorant when I try to reconstruct the ancient documents."
"We informed you that you reprimanded the clansmen and strictly forbade them from approaching the study during the research period."
Tata, feeling embarrassed, remained silent for a moment.
Fortunately, at that moment, Ivera in the projection broke the awkward silence.
Her transparent wings unfurled once more, shimmering with iridescent light in the dappled sunlight cast by the ancient trees.
"Time for chit-chat is over, it's time to head to the real venue." She extended her hand to the two of them. "Relax, don't resist my pull."
Gentle yet resilient magic softly lifted Nan'an and Suiyue. With a flap of Ivila's wings, the three of them gracefully ascended to the treetop and then flew swiftly towards a certain direction outside Twin Crown City.
Double crowns are banned from flying, but the chief elder is clearly not subject to the restrictions.
She flew very fast, and the outlines of the city-states and pastoral scenery below quickly shrank as she flew backward.
They entered the vast mountains.
Along the way, Nan'an's sharp eyes caught sight of some people dressed in familiar dark gray robes in the folds of the mountains below.
The figure has a "green cat eye" logo on the collar.
They were on guard patrols in secluded mountain paths or high vantage points, appearing heavily guarded.
Ivila's destination was a secluded valley quite a distance from the Twin Crown City.
The valley entrance is cleverly concealed by magic, and from above, it is further obscured by clouds and mist. Ordinary Pegasus riders passing by would only glance at it briefly and choose to ignore it, making it difficult to perceive the structure below.
Ivira landed with the two on a relatively flat rocky platform in the valley.
Before them stood a massive, gray-white building entrance embedded in the mountainside, its style austere and imposing, reminding Nan'an of a scaled-down version of the Keren Cave.
The stone gate opened, and the interior structure made Nan'an feel as if he had returned to Keren.
The style is indeed consistent; apart from the larger interior space, the overall design is almost identical. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that it's deployed as a base vehicle.
However, this underground facility is much more popular than the deserted Kren Cave.
As they walked through the spacious and brightly lit passageway, Nan'an saw several scholars in academic uniforms passing by.
Nan'an couldn't help but cover his face with his hands.
Good heavens, Nora's people really regard JK uniforms as the standard attire representing academies and scholars, and everyone, regardless of age, wears them.
Fortunately, they didn't force the men to dress like that, otherwise Nan'an really wouldn't dare to face a group of old men wearing pleated skirts.
Ivila nodded to the scholars he passed along the way, enjoying their bows and greetings.
She silently led the way, passing through several heavy gates that required authorization verification, and finally entered an unusually spacious area.
Judging from the surrounding area, Nan'an estimated that this area was the size of two standard football fields, with an astonishingly high ceiling, smooth walls, and intricately engraved magic arrays of unknown purpose.
The dome is covered with lighting crystals, illuminating the entire space as bright as day.
In the center of this vast, seemingly uncultivated land, there exists only one solitary "object".
It was a sandbag about half a person's height, looking quite ordinary, and roughly sewn from thick brown leather.
The sandbags were secured to a simple wooden frame by several seemingly haphazardly tied hemp ropes.
The wooden stakes were estimated to be two meters high, while the sandbags were positioned about half a meter off the ground.
Its presence seemed out of place in this space.
Ivila stopped about twenty meters away from the sandbag, signaling Nan'an and Suiyue to stop as well.
She still had a smile on her face, but her voice had become somewhat serious.
"Here are a few scrolls; please take a look."
As Nan'an unrolled the scroll, he made a judgment: "I can already sense the aura of gods and demons."
Ivila exclaimed, "Excellent! Many fog breakers who venture deep into the black fog need years to develop a keen sense of gods and demons, but you, Nan'an, seem to have done it in less than three months."
Nan'an's perception ability is closely related to the Rubik's Cube.
As soon as you get close to the sandbag, the giant Rubik's Cube starts spinning faster.
Gods and Demons: Echoing Sandbag Active Gods and Demons.
Threat level: Controllable, but poses a high risk to unsuspecting individuals.
Echo Punch also benefited from the cat food.
Before the cat food, something that exhibited such obvious abnormality would only be destroyed on the spot by the Fog Breaker Squad, rather than being brought out of the Black Fog for in-depth research.
According to the scroll, any physical or magical strike with offensive intent applied to the Echo Sandbag, regardless of its force, will trigger its "echo" mechanism.
Once triggered, the sandbag itself is not completely destroyed, even by an eighth-level mage casting high-level magic. However, it already shows signs of damage. Judging from the observation, continuous high-intensity attacks can directly destroy it, turning it into fragments of gods and demons.
When the echo sandbag is hit, a physical attacker is instantly generated in the vicinity of the sandbag, usually within three to five meters in front of the attacker, using the sandbag as its coordinate.
The race, appearance, and equipment of the generated individuals are randomized, but the ability system they use will strictly imitate or map any professional known to Nora, ranging from Tier 1 to Tier 7.
They could be a pure magician, a martial artist, or a magic-martial artist.
Note: It is possible that the Echo Sandbag is a summoning-like event that recreates historical figures from Nora.
The most eye-catching aspect is the core rules of the Echo Sandbag game.
Once generated, the individual will ignore the environment and other targets, lock onto the person hitting the sandbag and launch an attack.
Its attack behavior "appears" to follow a rule.
The total damage dealt to the locked target must be approximately equal to the damage inflicted on the sandbag when the triggerer initially struck it.
If an attack fails to achieve the same amount of damage, it will continue to attack until the accumulated damage meets the condition, after which the generated individual will immediately disappear.
The only known way to interrupt this retaliatory process is for the person hitting the punching bag to clearly and loudly shout the command, "I don't want to be the punching bag!" during the attack.
Once the order takes effect, the generated entity will immediately cease attacking and dissipate.
Additional notes: The generated individuals are pure derivatives of gods and demons, lacking intelligence and self-awareness.
Their abilities and combat skills do not correspond to the rank of the attackers and there is no discernible pattern.
The sandbag spawns individual units with an extreme and direct fighting style, whose sole objective is to inflict damage.
The type of damage dealt to the sandbag (such as blunt, slash, fire, frost, etc.) does not affect the class choice of the generated individual, but may affect its attack method preference.
Friendly reminder: Do not attempt to trigger with extremely weak force.
There are records of experiments where a single entity generated by a light touch required a full day of continuous attack to achieve the same amount of damage due to its low attack power.
In the experimental notes, Nan'an also saw the name of an acquaintance.
Bewitching Raven: "If anyone flirts with the Sandbag again and falls for him, I'll take him for a stroll in the Black Mist."
Suiyue looked up blankly at Ivera.
"What do you mean by 'teasing the sandbag leads to finding your soulmate'?"
"Oh, because the echo sandbag generates a physical entity based on the attack intent, and the entity's combat power is directly linked to the damage dealt. Therefore, some people used to deliberately knead the sandbag to generate a physical entity that would chase and attack it."
Nan An rubbed his temples: "Because the attack method is rubbing," the physical form generated by the sandbag will also have a very gentle attack force—are they creating yandere partners by repeatedly generating and canceling to randomly select a style they like?"
Ivira was taken aback: "Yandere—what a novel term, but surprisingly apt. I like it."
Yes, these are the Nora scholars who house controllable gods and demons. After dealing with all sorts of neurotic gods and demons for years, they have learned to find joy even in hardship.
What was originally intended as a free application to test the anomalous properties of the sandbags has been tirelessly turned by these scholars into a process that requires the approval of the chief elder.
Nan'an asked, "What do I need to do?"
"It's simple, go and punch the echo bag a few times," Ivila said. "The force is up to you, but you need to remember the slogan: I don't want to be the punching bag."
""
The knuckles of the man in Nan'an cracked and popped.
"Interesting. Take good care of Suiyue for me."
Upon hearing this, Ivira silently shielded Suiyue behind her—she had already realized that Nan'an indeed valued this cow very much.
As Nan'an arrived in front of the sandbag, the chief elders watched the projection intently, curious about what kind of opponent he would choose for them.
"Element Drive - Lightning." As arcs of electricity crackled around Nan'an's right fist, he unleashed all his strength without hesitation, slamming his fist into the sandbag.
The rope suspending the sandbags whooshed up, carrying the sandbags into the air, before they fell heavily back down.
"Knock knock knock!"
Nan'an didn't care when the entities were generated. Since the element-driven mechanism was already on, punching a few more times wouldn't generate any more entities. He just wanted to have some fun.
"Uh—where's the physical entity?"
The chief elders counted down the seconds, utterly astonished.
Why do we only see the punching bag being hit, but not the actual punching bag coming out to hit people?
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