Although activating this title skill would temporarily deprive Takeda Tomo of her weapon and consume a full 500 points of her Spirit Energy, the effect of this ability was indeed extremely powerful...

First, units within the Rakshasa Interdiction Pillar could not be killed, nor could they make any attacks, use skills, items, or other special abilities until the Interdiction Pillar disappeared; of course, attacks from people "outside the pillar" could not penetrate the Interdiction Pillar either.

Second, people inside and outside the pillar could enter or leave the range of the Interdiction Pillar, but… regardless of whether they went in or out, they would suffer damage equivalent to 95% of their maximum Survival Value.

That is to say, Zhao Yingwang now had two paths: one, stay within the Interdiction Pillar and wait for the skill effect to disappear before acting; two, rush out of the Interdiction Pillar's range and regain freedom of action, but immediately drop into a near-death state.

Obviously, choosing the second option was too risky; Zhao Yingwang's main body's physical skills were very ordinary. Even if Takeda Tomo was empty-handed at this moment and being chased by the Platinum Stone Demon, it wouldn't be difficult to kill a character with only 5% Survival Value... she could win even if she traded blood.

Therefore, Zhao Yingwang could only choose the first path…

Staying inside the pillar was absolutely safe for at least the thirty seconds the skill lasted. In that case... when the Interdiction Pillar disappeared, Zhao Yingwang would still be at full health. Although his opponent might use these thirty seconds to charge up a big move and time it perfectly to blast him (this was a common tactic used by Takeda Tomo, it was no secret), Zhao Yingwang had plenty of room to maneuver and respond when at full health. In any case, it was more stable than going out with 5% health.

All in all, after weighing the pros and cons, Zhao Yingwang realized that he wasn't at a great disadvantage. He even felt that Takeda Tomo's skill was a bit of a miscalculation; it was clearly a strategically powerful control skill, but it hadn't gained any obvious advantage, at most it had delayed the time.

The commentators and spectators who were watching also thought that this move was poorly used; because... if she really wanted to delay time, she might as well have cast the skill on herself.

However, just two seconds later, Takeda Tomo slapped everyone in the face with her actions.

"Eh? This is…"

When his opponent rushed towards the Interdiction Pillar without hesitation, even the usually calm Zhao Yingwang was shocked.

Everyone could see that Takeda Tomo, who had been fighting the Platinum Stone Demon, had lost more than 5% of her health, and she definitely couldn't afford the damage of entering and leaving the Interdiction Pillar.

But… she still resolutely rushed into the pillar.

"Pfft—" The moment she stepped into the Interdiction Pillar, Takeda Tomo knelt on one knee, spitting out blood, her face full of pain.

But… she didn't die.

This was only natural, because—"Units within the Rakshasa Interdiction Pillar cannot be killed."

Although Takeda Tomo's Survival Value was less than 95% when she entered the pillar, due to the Interdiction Pillar's "immortality principle", her Survival Value instantly decreased to 1% and stopped decreasing. The excess damage was converted into mental shock.

Boom—

A second later, the Platinum Stone Demon, which was chasing its target, followed and immediately fell forward, sprawling on the ground.

Only at this moment did Zhao Yingwang suddenly realize, and he widened his eyes and couldn't help but say, "Heh~ Clever…"

"Hoo…" After taking a few seconds to adjust her breathing, Takeda Tomo stood up again. Because she didn't have much "overloaded" health, the painful feeling subsided quickly. "Hmph… If you hadn't taken the initiative to run into my skill's range, I wouldn't have been able to pull off this ‘clever move.’"

At present, two players and one Stone Demon were all within the range of the Interdiction Pillar; although their health differences were large, this was meaningless in the absence of "mutual harm"...

Before the skill ended, Takeda would naturally not go out again, she would die if she stepped out; as for the Stone Demon... Zhao Yingwang could not possibly issue an order for it to step out and commit suicide; Zhao Yingwang himself could go out, but that would not do him any good, it would not allow him to kill his opponent, and it would cost him 95% of his Survival Value.

In summary, for the next twenty or so seconds, the people in the pillar could only wait.

"I thought you used this move by mistake, but now I think about it... it is indeed a title skill, and the holder's understanding is different from us outsiders." Anyway, since he was idle, Zhao Yingwang simply chatted with the other party, "Although I also know the effect of your skill, the first thing that came to my mind was to cast it on myself…" He shrugged, "But you… were able to think of using the fact that ‘units inside the pillar cannot die’, decisively sacrificing a large amount of Survival Value in exchange for time and the overall situation…"

"You flatter me," Takeda Tomo replied coldly, "This is not some quick wit, it's just experience... after all, this title skill has been with me for a long time, and I've used it to deal with all sorts of situations."

At this point, the audience also reacted—clever, it was indeed clever.

If Takeda Tomo, like the audience thought... had directly surrounded herself with the skill, she could have indeed avoided the loss of health and temporarily removed herself from the battle; however, if she had done that... in thirty seconds, the full-health Zhao Yingwang would have been able to support his teammates without any worries. In other words, it would have been equivalent to Takeda Tomo spending a large amount of Spirit Energy to cast a control skill on herself, creating a two-on-one situation for her opponent in half a minute.

Compared to the current situation, the difference was obvious.

"However… there are still one or two things I don't understand…" A few seconds later, Zhao Yingwang continued, "Why didn't you target the Stone Demon with the skill?" He paused for half a second, then continued, "In that high-speed attack and defense, I didn't have time to give the Stone Demon the command to stop; if you directly surrounded the Stone Demon with the Interdiction Pillar, it would definitely rush out of its range the moment the skill appeared… and would have been instantly killed."

"You yourself said… ‘the attack and defense speed is very fast’, so what's there not to understand?" Takeda Tomo crossed her arms in front of her chest, and replied in a rather unhappy tone, "To use the method you said to kill the Stone Demon, I must ensure that—‘at the moment the Rakshasa Interdiction Pillar appears, its edge is exactly between me and the Stone Demon.’

"But your Stone Demon is stronger than me in physical skills, and I have to use feints and turning bursts to distance myself from it, and that distance will be closed again by it in less than two seconds.

"In this situation, it's already difficult enough to accurately calculate the release point, and what's even more disgusting is… your Stone Demon's ‘reaction time’, ‘closing route’, and ‘instant speed’… are all not fixed, so how am I supposed to operate?"

She said to this point, curled her lips, and then said: "In addition, this tactic is not only demanding, but also has a low tolerance for error… If the skill misses, I won't even have a knife, and if the placement is wrong, I myself might die; so… it's not that I don't want to kill it, but this thing is too difficult and too risky… If I had even a 50% chance, I would have done it long ago."

"Hmm…" Zhao Yingwang nodded when he heard this, "Alright… it seems you have indeed considered it carefully… I was being presumptuous in asking."

Takeda Tomo had done more than just consider it… From the moment she was entangled by the Platinum Stone Demon, she had been desperately thinking of countermeasures; in fact, she was only telling half the truth in the above statement…

During this time, through constant probing and observation, Takeda Tomo had actually grasped the Platinum Stone Demon's reaction and action patterns under certain specific actions. If she had a few dozen more seconds, her chances might have been more than just "50%". At that time, she might have really successfully killed the Platinum Stone Demon with her title skill, and then the situation… would have been different again.

"Hmph…" Two seconds later, Takeda Tomo let out a triumphant snort, and immediately said, "Speaking of which… you just said there were ‘one or two things’ you didn't understand, what else is there besides this?"

Zhao Yingwang thought for a while, and then asked, "Although you successfully controlled me and the Stone Demon for thirty seconds, and the Stone Demon's health has also been dragged down to a near-death amount; but when the skill time limit is up… you with only 1% Survival Value (he speculated that Takeda Tomo had also dropped to 1% health and was forcibly not dying by relying on the Stone Demon's health), how much chance of winning do you have against me who is almost at full health?"

Just as he finished speaking, there was only one second left until the Rakshasa Interdiction Pillar was dispelled…

"Heh…" In that one second, Takeda Tomo smiled.

At the same time as the corners of her mouth curled up, her pupils suddenly turned red.

"Ha!" Immediately afterwards, the Platinum Stone Demon's shout and fist arrived together, aimed directly at the back of Takeda Tomo's neck.

Chi—

The fist wind landed, but the figure was no longer there.

In a flash of lightning, suddenly! A slender, white and tender hand pierced through Zhao Yingwang's back and emerged from his chest.

The white hand instantly turned into a blood hand.

At that moment, the coldness covered the pain and swept through Zhao Yingwang's body.

"I just have to kill you without taking any damage… and that's it, right?" The next second, Takeda Tomo, who felt confident of victory, brought her face to Zhao Yingwang's ear, and uttered this life-threatening declaration in a murderous tone.

At this time, her other hand had already grasped the katana that had returned from subspace.

While she was speaking, she pushed with her wrist…

When the tip of the knife sprang out from Zhao Yingwang's left chest, Lao Zhao only felt a chill through his body and his heart stagnated…

The flowing blood added crimson to the blade.

The fatal blow also made Takeda Tomo breathe a sigh of relief.

But before she could finish exhaling, she heard…

Da da da da…

In the distance, the sound of footsteps was approaching like a storm.

Hearing this sound, Takeda Tomo's first reaction was to draw her sword back and turn around to meet the enemy.

Unexpectedly!

"What…" At this moment, Takeda Tomo couldn't draw her sword back.

It wasn't until she watched the video later that she understood… the reason why she couldn't draw her sword back at this moment was: Zhao Yingwang, who was about to die and had not completely turned into white light, relied on his blurred consciousness to direct the dying Platinum Stone Demon to hold her blade's tip.

For Takeda Tomo, who had already entered Blood Rakshasa transformation state, this last-ditch counterattack could only restrain her for a moment.

But, it was this moment… that changed the balance of victory…

Whoosh—

The halberd's edge transformed into a swirling dragon, and the majestic Battle Qi broke through the air and descended upon her.

Takeda Tomo, who was a beat late, was hit head-on by the halberd attacking from behind… The halberd's blade pierced through her armor and body, unstoppable. Driven by a steady and powerful force, it advanced relentlessly, and even Zhao Yingwang and the Platinum Stone Demon in front of Takeda Tomo were penetrated…

In a short breath, the three figures, from small to large, were strung on the halberd like a kebab.

"Lao Zhao, thanks for your hard work." As Juan Menghuan's voice fell, Zhao Yingwang had completely turned into light and dissipated, and his Platinum Stone Demon naturally disappeared with its master.

However, Takeda Tomo had not completely died yet; although she was also about to turn into white light and be teleported away, in the few seconds before this transformation process began, her corpse that had not yet disappeared would still be strung on Juan Menghuan's halberd.

And during this period… Chonglou would absorb her blood.

As mentioned earlier, Chonglou could be temporarily strengthened by absorbing blood, and the specific degree of strengthening was related to both the "quantity" and "quality" of the blood.

Takeda Tomo's Blood Rakshasa transformation had similar activation conditions to Shangshan Ren's Sixfold Ghost Meditation, that is, "can only be opened when near death"; although this transformation could only increase her damage and speed and could not help her recover health, the principle of "Blood Rakshasa" was indeed closely related to blood… It was roughly an ability to demonize the blood and increase its flow rate.

In short, this "Rakshasa" blood… was of very high quality.