Pei Guang's two jabs made the girls burst out laughing.
Guinaifen: "Learned something new—today I learned how to talk trash back at people."
Sushang: "Look at that Heliobus getting all flustered. So funny."
Tail: "You know, this guy really knows how to get under that Heliobus's skin."
As everyone was bantering, the Heliobus Apyra up front had completely lost its temper. It wasn't human, sure, but having spent so much time around humans, even it fell for this kind of provocation.
"Fine, fine, fine!"
After yelling several "fine"s, Apyra looked at Yanqing. "What a disappointment you are, kid. You had limitless potential, but you're distracted by too many pointless thoughts."
But before Yanqing could even respond, the sword in his hand let out a hum. The other flying swords that had surrounded him now floated behind him.
Seeing Yanqing in that state reminded Pei Guang of the days when he used to play Sword God in Drop Line City.
"So young and so unskilled. Dodge back with Sword Qi, get your Awakening interrupted, second Awakening whiffs completely… Yanqing, you've got what it takes to be a Sword God!"
No one, including Yanqing, understood Pei Guang's nonsense, (not even the reader!) but Yanqing did catch the compliment at the end.
"Oh? Sir, are you saying I can become a Sword God? I won't let you down!"
He didn't care much when others praised his strength, but somehow, Pei Guang's compliment filled him with a deep sense of confidence.
Seeing Yanqing now bursting with confidence, Apyra suddenly burst out laughing. "None of that matters anymore. While guiding you, I've already fully grasped your every move and technique. Since you've issued a challenge, I'll gladly accept. I'll use your own form and techniques to give you your final lesson."
As he spoke, Apyra transformed into Yanqing's appearance. Seeing this, Huohuo whispered, "Your Majesty Tail… is it really okay to let him face this Heliobus alone?"
Tail: "One word for this guy: trash. Besides, nothing's gonna happen with him around."
In truth, Apyra was one of the stronger Heliobi of this batch. It had possessed countless sword masters and learned numerous deep and mysterious sword techniques.
But in Tail's eyes, it was still trash.
Sure, Apyra had mastered a ton of moves, but all of them were created based on others' personal conditions and needs. For ordinary people, they were decent, but in Tail's opinion, nothing special.
Always imitating and never surpassing.
Tail: "That thing? Good enough to bully some average folks. But that kid, under Pei Guang's influence, has already looked into his own heart. You can't bully someone like that~"
Now Tail was ready to sit back and watch the show.
He could tell that after being led around by Pei Guang's nonsense, Yanqing had undergone a subtle awakening. Forget anything else: just the swords around him were already enough to give Apyra a hard time.
Compared to Tail's snark, Pei Guang's expression sharpened as he listened to Apyra speak so confidently.
"What? He copied all of Yanqing's abilities? Then he's already invincible!"
Guinaifen gasped: "Why are you boosting the enemy's morale?!"
While Guinaifen was panicking, the not-so-bright Sushang caught on to something. She suddenly recalled the time during the Xianzhou Luofu crisis, when she had fought alongside Seele and Dan Heng.
Back then, when they encountered the Abominations of Abundance, Stelle and Dan Heng effortlessly knocked them all down and captured them. Their movements were so smooth that even Sushang couldn't help but praise them at the time.
"You two are practically invincible!"
Sushang now recalled how casually she had praised them back then, but the expressions on Seele and Dan Heng's faces had always stuck with her.
She remembered Seele saying: "Invincible? Invincible isn't a good thing. Ah Guang said that anyone called invincible is doomed."
And Dan Heng had added: "There's no such thing as true invincibility in this world. Even the Aeons can fall one day."
Though Pei Guang hadn't gone on about the "invincibility debuff" in front of Sushang, she remembered this incident clearly.
Back then, she didn't know Pei Guang, and had no clue what kind of weird character "Ah Guang" was.
But now that she knew him and thought back on it, her gaze sharpened. She might not be much of a reader, but her battle instincts were sharp.
At that moment, she pretended to be scared and said, "Yeah! So scary! To be so familiar with all of Yanqing's moves? Isn't that basically another Yanqing? How are we supposed to fight a Heliobus with that kind of power? Right?"
Huohuo nodded frantically: "Yes, yes! Waaah, how terrifying!"
Tail: "At least act a little more convincingly scared!"
Huohuo whispered, "Don't ruin it! Ah Guang said invincible is a debuff!!!"
Unlike Sushang, Huohuo had heard Pei Guang's full rant about the "invincibility" theory, including the detailed explanation. So when she saw Pei Guang praising the enemy as invincible, her clever little brain immediately understood what he was doing.
He was applying a debuff to the enemy before the big fight!
Sure, verbal debuffs wouldn't cause an instant loss, but with this kind of superstition, better to believe it works than not. Especially since it only took one sentence.
At first, Guinaifen still didn't get it, but her social instincts kicked in instantly. Realizing something was off with those words, and recalling Pei Guang's trickster nature, her eyes darted around and she began exaggerating too.
"Let's celebrate! Let's offer tributes for the birth of the invincible Heliobus!"
Guinaifen immediately turned into a celebration monster, after all, who cared what the words meant? If everyone else was doing it, might as well join in.
As the saying goes, "flattery always works", and for a Heliobus, human flattery worked just fine.
At that moment, Apyra who had taken on Yanqing's appearance became full of himself.
"Hahahaha! Look at these people! They've already submitted to me. Your talent far surpasses theirs. If you're still willing, I will continue to guide you to make you the strongest in the world!"
While the Heliobus was reveling in its arrogance, Tail sighed. "He's done for. Totally done for."
Tail clearly remembered what happened to Cirrus after it offended Pei Guang: all the "invincibility buffs" Ah Guang loaded onto it, and the outcome was tragic, to say the least.
But since Tail and Apyra didn't get along anyway, and no one seemed intent on killing it on this journey, Tail was more than happy to watch the show.
But as that thought came, Tail reflected further.
Though Pei Guang had been trying to capture Heliobi this whole time, he'd only used the ones that were purely energy-based and lacked consciousness. Even the one that possessed Fu Xuan early on had only been half-alive, and after Pei Guang developed that emotion-transformation power system, even that one had a decent life now.
"So the only one that really got wiped out was Cirrus? Interesting…"
Thinking about it more, Tail realized Pei Guang was even more intriguing than he thought. Looking back on everything they'd experienced together, Tail realized he'd actually become quite fascinated by this guy.