Chapter 172: The Twelve Golden Giants

Zu An couldn’t help but remember a legend. It was said that after Qin Shihuang unified the Central Plains, he gathered all of the weapons of his enemies in Xianyang, melted them down, and had them constructed into twelve humongous copper sculptures, each weighing over a thousand boulders. He placed these copper sculptures in his imperial court. 

In ancient China, copper and gold were used interchangeably, so copper sculptures were considered golden sculptures too. Also, the ‘weighing over a thousand boulders’ should have been an exaggeration too, but it seemed to have been realized in this world. No matter how he looked at it, the copper giants before him had to weigh at least tens of tonnes each.

“Be careful!” Seeing how Zu An was still blanking out even though the copper giants were already charging over, Qiao Xueying quickly grabbed his hand and pulled him aside. 

With a loud ‘bam’, the area where the two of them were standing earlier was completely smashed under the foot of one of the copper giants. When it finally removed its foot, there was a massive footprint left in its wake. Had Zu An and Qiao Xueying not run away, regardless of whether they were at the third rank or the fifth rank, they would have surely been smashed into pulp.

“You owe me yet another life.” Qiao Xueying harrumphed.

“That doesn’t count. I would have dodged even if you didn’t pull me away,” retorted Zu An.

“You sure are shameless!” berated Qiao Xueying.

There was no time for them to argue on. Another copper giant had begun charging in their direction, so they hurriedly dodged once more.

These copper giants gleamed with a golden glow, and their narrow eyes carried an inexplicable air of imposingness. There were some weird symbols on their forehead, which resembled the characters for ‘1’ to ‘12’.

Could these copper giants be called Copper Giant One, Copper Giant Two, so on and so forth? Hm. This kind of reminds me of those fellows from the Plum Blossom Sect.

While his mind wandered, he rushed toward the back of the closest copper giant. He knew that while the massive physique of these copper giants looked terrifying, it also limited their ability to maneuver around agilely. It would be hard for them to turn their bodies around and make small adjustments.

Zu An looked no more than ant before these humongous copper giants, but he wasn’t afraid at all. He concentrated his ki in his leg and kicked its heel.

These copper giants were shaped like a human, which meant that their massive bodies were currently pivoted on their heels, making it one of their weaknesses. If he could even just twist their heels, the copper giants might find themselves unable to sustain their body weight anymore and collapse to the ground. 

Unfortunately, there tended to be a divergence between theory and practice.

Despite putting his full might into his strike, the copper giant he attacked remained completely unfazed. There wasn’t even any mark left on its heel. Instead, the terrifying rebound left a stabbing pain reverberating through his bones, leaving him feeling as if he had fractured his leg.

All of a sudden, he remembered a joke he had read about in his previous life.

An ant saw an elephant on the road and dived into the earth, leaving just one of its legs exposed. A passing rabbit saw it and asked in incomprehension, “Why are you exposing your leg out in the open?”

To that, the ant replied, “Shh! Don’t make a noise. I’m going to trip the elephant over!”

Right now, Zu An felt that he was the overly confident ant, attempting to use his measly leg to trip the copper giant over.

The copper giant seemed to be provoked by Zu An’s attack, and it raised its leg to kick back at him.

Zu An immediately made a sidestep, but he felt another gush of wind headed in his direction. So, he quickly executed the Sunflower Phantasm to flee several meters away.

Soon, the jarring sound of metal scraping against one another sounded. Another copper giant had drawn a several meters long sword and cut it down on where Zu An was standing a moment ago, scraping out sparks from the friction against the ground.

Zu An gulped fearfully. He had noticed right from the start that these copper giants had a sword sheath hanging by their waists, but he thought that they were just ornaments. Who could have thought that they were actually real weapons?

It was a sword by the copper giants’ standards, but to Zu An, it looked more like someone was hurling a massive billboard straight toward his face.

“What do we do? These copper giants are invulnerable to swords and spears; my sword has already shattered against them!” Qiao Xueying dodged several of the copper giants’ attack before rushing over to regather with Zu An. They stood back-to-back with one another, gasping hard to catch their breath. It would appear that she wasn’t faring any better either.

Zu An noticed the broken sword in her grasp and murmured, “I don’t believe that they’re really invulnerable to weapons!”

So, he summoned Poisonous Prick and dashed right for one of the copper giants.

Even if you can’t be hurt with kicks and swords, I don’t believe that you’ll be able to remain unharmed before my Poisonous Prick!

While these copper golems were clearly inanimate beings, which meant that the sure-kill effect of Poisonous Prick wouldn’t work, its sharpness should still be more than enough to slice right through their defenses.

Zu An was moving so fast that Qiao Xueying was actually seeing multiple copies of Zu An around. She knew that this was the effect of his extreme speed and unique movement skill, and she couldn’t help but be impressed by his means. It’s no wonder why so many of us are unable to kill him even though he’s only at the third rank.

Zu An executed his ‘Bixie Swordplay’ to its limits. With every flit, he would appear right beside one of the copper giants and swipe his dagger with lighting speed, shaving off a large slab of ‘meat’ from the copper giant’s heels. 

The heat had really gotten to him. Now, he was more determined than ever to make them fall.

Ahhhh!

The copper giants began howling out loud, frightening Qiao Xueying. Wait a moment, do these copper giants feel pain?

The copper giants continued swinging their swords down on Zu An. Their movements were slow, but this weakness was complemented by their long limbs and massive swords. Every strike from them really felt like a finishing blow from a boss monster. Even with Zu An’s powerful movement skill, there were still many times where he nearly got swept away by those huge ass swords.

On top of that, the copper giants also didn’t hesitate to use their legs and fists whenever the situation warranted too. It made it look as if twelve humans were desperately trying to swat off a fly, creating quite a ludicrous scene. But putting aside the ridiculousness of the sight, their attacks were effective, especially since they stirred powerful shockwaves that battered down on Zu An even if they missed their target.

A while later, Zu An found himself staring in shock at the twelve copper giants. He was certain that he had already sliced off huge slabs of ‘meat’ from the copper giants, but for some reason, they were still moving perfectly normally, which didn’t make sense at all!

“Look, they’re regenerating from their wounds!” Qiao Xueying pointed to the heels of the copper giants as she shouted.

Zu An quickly took a look too. Just as Qiao Xueying had said, their wounds were healing at a visible pace. The copper slabs he had sliced off slowly sunk into the ground, and it tallied with the rate of regeneration of those copper giants.

“It looks like they are able to regenerate automatically in this environment,” said Qiao Xueying with a pale face. 

Even though these copper giants were lacking in agility, their attacks were powerful and they were nigh indestructible. How could they possibly win this match?

To make things worse, they were severely short on time. If they dragged things out, Chu Chuyan might have already died in Zhang Han’s hands by the time they returned to save her.

“I heard that fire curbs metal. Are you able to use any fire element skills, like fireball or something?” asked Zu An.

Qiao Xueying rolled her eyes. “Don’t you know better than anyone else that I’m a wood element cultivator? If I can use fire, the first one to burn is myself!”

Zu An clicked his tongue in disdain. “Trash. I don’t expect you to be like those novel protagonists who can pull out all five elements from their ass, but shouldn’t you at least be at the level of a lesser villain with two elements or something? Haa, I really shouldn’t bear any expectations of you at all lest I get disappointed again. 

“…” Qiao Xueying.

“What kind of nonsensical novels do you read? Cultivators in this world can only awaken to a single element. This is common sense, common sense!!!”

You have successfully trolled Qiao Xueying for +233 Rage!

Qiao Xueying gnashed her teeth furiously. This fellow really is my nemesis. We must have been enemies our previous life!

“Since you’re all-so-knowledgeable about common sense, why don’t you tell me what we should do now?” Zu An dodged an attack from the copper giant as he asked.

Qiao Xueying fell silent for a moment before murmuring, “As the saying goes, ‘The great dao is complete at fifty, fate accounts for forty-nine, and the final one comes up to unpredictability.’ There’s no such thing as an unbreakable seal in this world. These copper giants must have a weakness, just that we haven’t stumbled upon it yet.”

“A load of nonsense. Give me something that I can work with!” scoffed Zu An.

Qiao Xueying’s face reddened. She glared at Zu An and said, “I’m saying that you should stop staring at their legs! They must have a weakness somewhere else!”

“Somewhere else?” Zu An examined the copper giants once more, specifically choosing to eye their crotch first. However, there was nothing there, which seemed to indicate that these copper giants didn’t have the concept of gender. If so, a ball kick was unlikely to be too effective.

The two of them split up and continued weaving around the copper giants while searching for their weakness, and soon, Qiao Xueying noticed something.

“Hey, could their weakness possibly be that strange mark on their foreheads?” 

She noticed that the marks on their foreheads would glow dimly every single time the copper giants moved.

Hearing her analysis, Zu An nodded in agreement. “Yes, that does seem to be likely. I guess there’s some truth to the common adage that big-breasted women tend to be not too smart.”

Qiao Xueying was stunned. Huh? What does being big-breasted have to do with me? My breasts aren’t too big in the first… 

Realization suddenly struck her. He was basically insulting her for having small breasts in an indirect manner!

You have successfully trolled Qiao Xueying for +666 Rage!

“But these copper giants are way too tall. We can’t reach them even if we know what their weakness is,” grumbled Zu An.

Of course, as cultivators, both Zu An and Qiao Xueying were able to easily leap over twenty meters in height, but the problem was that the copper giants they were dealing with weren’t stationary objects. They would attack them as soon as they came close!

Zu An might have been able to outmaneuver them on the ground, but if he were to leap right up to their faces, wouldn’t that just be courting his own death?

He had no intention of being swatted down like a mosquito, so he hurriedly racked his brain for a solution. Soon, his eyes lit up, and he exclaimed, “Ah, I got it!”

“What is it?” asked Qiao Xueying.

“How long can your hair extend for? How resilient are they?” asked Zu An.

Qiao Xueying’s ability to extend her hair as she pleased and lash them around like whips had left quite a deep impression on him.

Qiao Xueying was hesitant to answer those questions. These were secrets that a cultivator would never tell another soul, or else others would be able to guard against her attack. However, seeing the earnest look on Zu An’s face, she eventually still answered honestly, “I should be able to extend them over thirty meters long. As for their resilience… it’d be hard for normal swords and sabers to sever them.”

“Good. I need your hair to extend as long as possible now,” said Zu An as he grabbed onto her hair and started tugging on it.

Qiao Xueying felt enraged and humiliated by how a man was actually holding onto her hair. Just as Zu An wished, her hair immediately extended outward, morphing into whips that threatened to lash down on him.

“Hey hey hey, calm down! I’m doing this in order to break the seal!” explained Zu An hurriedly. While grabbing her hair, he weaved around the copper giants and wrapped her hair around all of their legs.

The sharp-witted Qiao Xueying swiftly figured out his intention. Hmm, he does have quite some ideas in mind. But at the same time, she felt a little frightened too. Given the strength of these copper giants, wouldn’t they simply tug out all of her hair and make her bald?

As soon as those thoughts arose in her head, she suddenly felt a strong tug on her head. Before she could even react, she was already sent flying by the movement of the copper giants. With tears brimming in her eyes, she cursed the culprit who put her in her miserable state, “Zu An, you bastarddddddd!”

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