Chapter 36: Three Heroes, Battle Against Lin Han!
"Is this guy crazy? All three of them are coming after me!" Hu Sheng quickly crossed his arms over his chest, taking a defensive stance. After witnessing Lin Han’s performance in the previous round, he knew better than to take that blow head-on.
Otherwise, he’d be the one to suffer!
Given the situation, full defense was his best option.
Lin Han’s heavy punch landed squarely on Hu Sheng, the tremendous force sending his center of gravity backward. He was hurled through the air, finally coming to a stop only after skidding several meters.
At that moment, Hu Sheng felt as if his entire skeleton had been dismantled and reassembled—a most unpleasant sensation. He hurriedly shouted to his two teammates, “What are you waiting for? Are you going to let him defeat us one by one before you make a move?”
His words jolted the other two into action. The three of them needed to unite, or there’d be no way to keep fighting Lin Han.
“Rise, all things—thirty million living beings,” one of them intoned.
“All things connected—let me be the anchor,” said another.
“O noble God of the Bow, I am your most devout follower. Grant me the power to pierce all things! Bless me with unerring aim!” On the far side of the arena, Du Li began chanting, and a longbow materialized slowly in her hands.
“A thousand arrows in unison!”
In that instant, Du Li’s hands moved with dazzling speed. Arrow after arrow, conjured from thin air, flew toward Lin Han.
An archer!
Lin Han immediately retreated, dodging agilely with his nimble footwork.
Who is she, really?
The archer was a rare class, one of the signature frontline professions. Anyone able to awaken as an archer would rarely face setbacks in their life—such talent would be courted by every academy in the land.
And yet, to encounter such an opponent in only the second round was beyond his expectations.
Hu Sheng was secretly delighted as well. He hadn’t anticipated that among them was someone of such caliber. Their chances against Lin Han had just improved. After all, Lin Han, despite his strength, was still technically a healer—a class worlds apart from the other frontline professions.
Skills—this was where Lin Han was at a disadvantage!
“Bind all things, wrap a thousand times over,” another voice chanted. “True silk transcends time—none can escape! O revered God of Restraint, I am your most faithful servant, your truest devotee. Grant me the power to bind heaven and earth!”
At that moment, Zhong Sanqian plunged both hands into the ground. Wispy threads, like spirit serpents, shot toward Lin Han.
This move caught Lin Han off guard; his feet were instantly ensnared.
A Binder!
Lin Han felt a headache coming on. Among the support classes, the Binder was particularly troublesome—capable of manipulating spirit threads to immobilize their foes. Legends held that, at the highest mastery, a Binder could entangle entire armies single-handedly.
If paired with an archer, their synergy could be terrifying.
And now, by fate’s twist, these two perfectly complementary classes had landed on the same team.
The archer’s spirits soared as well; with the Binder’s help, her arrows could now strike with true, unerring accuracy.
“Let’s see how you escape now, Lin Han!”
All three watched Lin Han’s every move in tense anticipation. Even the referee looked on anxiously—if those arrows landed, Lin Han would surely be gravely wounded, even if not fatally so.
If Lin Han couldn’t withstand it, the referee would have to intervene and save him.
Despite such thoughts, the referee felt that, given Lin Han’s strength, he might yet surprise everyone.
As the rain of arrows descended, Lin Han’s face did not betray the slightest panic. He simply lifted one foot, and the threads snaking from the earth began to snap—one, then two, then three...
Until, at last, every strand broke. Before everyone’s eyes, Lin Han calmly strode out of the arrow storm’s reach.
“That’s impossible!”
Zhong Sanqian could not accept it. Even some second-tier professionals would need time to break free from her bonds. Yet Lin Han had shattered them all with a single step.
What kind of strength was this?
The referee, witnessing the scene, grew numb with astonishment. As he’d suspected, this young man’s power was prodigious. He’d broken a Binder’s restraints through sheer brute force—a feat that even warriors and knights, the archetypal frontline classes, might not manage at the same level.
But this violent priest had done it.
Lin Han’s original plan had been to endure the arrow storm. With his current shields numbering in the millions, the arrows would have barely dented his defenses, even if every single one hit home. Du Li could shoot until utterly exhausted and still not break through.
But, on reflection, he realized that if he took the arrows head-on, the resulting suspicion would be difficult to explain away. In the end, he decided it was better to break free of the restraint by force.
After all, in the eyes of everyone else, he was nothing more than a violent priest.
“What a pity,” sighed an elderly examiner with yellow hair. “If this boy were a warrior, our empire would have produced a genius of world-renown.”
“Alas, his profession is that of a priest. Even the heavens must be jealous of his strength,” added a white-haired old man.
“There’s nothing we can do about that,” the white-haired one continued. “If he were a warrior, I’d fight you all today and take him back to our school myself.”
“Gentlemen, let’s not dwell on it,” a middle-aged woman said with a smile. “This archer is an excellent prospect too. If you’re not interested, I’ll gladly take her.”
The middle-aged man shot her a look. “Haven’t you already found your favorite? Leave the girl to our school. We’ll take the Binder as well—their future together is promising.”
“You have no shame, wrestling with a woman like me. Aren’t you afraid of being ridiculed?”
“A woman? Really—at your age? You’ve passed fifty and still call yourself a girl? Have a little dignity! Sometimes I’m embarrassed for you—grown as you are, yet unashamed.”