hope that he could run away from this crystal s.p.a.ce.

w.a.n.g Tong registered that the upcoming battle was not only a compet.i.tion of soul energy, but also wits. w.a.n.g Tong reckoned that he should carefully a.n.a.lyze every word spoken by Zachery to see if they contradicted each other. It would not only help w.a.n.g Tong to avoid deception, but it was also a good way to seek out the truth among lies.

This was the first time w.a.n.g Tong had encountered such an opponent that not only tried to outpower him on the battlefield, but also tried to outwit him with words

However, w.a.n.g Tong had decided to never give up regardless of how powerful and deceiving his opponent was.

w.a.n.g Tong kept on studying the terrain. He reminded himself to think with a clear mind and never to be mired in details. The more doubts he had, the harder it would be for him to see through deceptions.

w.a.n.g Tong remembered that Zachery had overspent his soul energy last time at the Aurora city, and it took him a while to recover. While on Norton during w.a.n.g Tong's previous battle, Zachery had spent much more soul energy than he did at Aurora city. Therefore, w.a.n.g Tong was convinced that Zachery had not been fully recovered yet, but he wasn’t certain about how much he had already recovered.

w.a.n.g Tong decided to probe Zachery first. After all, his enemy would only become stronger the longer he waited. He suspected that Zachery had avoided fighting right away by intentionally tricking w.a.n.g Tong to run away from him, saving him some precious time to recuperate his soul energy. However, Zachery had underestimated w.a.n.g Tong's intelligence and determination.

w.a.n.g Tong had only been running for half a day, so he was confident that Zachery would be able to catch up with him. He studied the terrain and tried to find a good ambush spot.

w.a.n.g Tong looked around and found a Zerg Hive. Since this world was somewhat of a copy of the real world, it was not surprising to find Zergs here as well. w.a.n.g Tong reckoned that he might be able to defeat Zachery with the help of Zergs. `He found it ironic that in this virtual world, he would have to fight alongside with his enemies from the real world.

w.a.n.g Tong killed off a few lower level Zergs and smeared their blood and flesh all over his body to hide his scent, then continued searching for an even larger hive.

w.a.n.g Tong finally found what he was looking for after two hours of searching. He crept into the hive and buried himself in the dirt. All he had to do then was to wait for Zachery to turn up. While buried under the earth, w.a.n.g Tong started to initiate the Tactics of the Blade. Soon, he felt as if he himself had become one with the world around him.

From time to time, there was a Zerg who stepped on w.a.n.g Tong's head, but luckily, the cave was too small for larger Zergs to enter. So, w.a.n.g Tong's head was not instantly squashed into meat paste.

Slowly, w.a.n.g Tong fell asleep and forgot the pa.s.sage of time.

He woke up to the heavy thuds of Zachery's boots on the ground. He was finally here.

Zachery knew that w.a.n.g Tong was hiding among the Zergs, and he found w.a.n.g Tong's plan laughable.

Zachery knew w.a.n.g Tong was inside the hive, but the entrance was where the trail went cold. It was clear then that the Tactics of the Blade was capable of concealing the user entirely.

The world inside the crystal was both real and an illusion; it was real because the Zergs would be able to deal real damage to other ent.i.ties such as Zachery and w.a.n.g Tong. Meanwhile, the life force of these Zergs were entirely conjured up by the power of the crystal.