Facing life and death crisis, Li Weiyi dared not hide anything. He threw on the Ghost Flag, pulled out his Silver Thread Gloves and put them on, and gripped his Yellow Dragon Sword in his hand. Now wasn’t the time to worry about exposing his magical artifact—if he could survive this round, he’d have a tomorrow.
After a moment’s thought, he covered his face once more. Li Ling stood up and observed outside, speaking softly, “Soon the two from the street and backyard will come crashing in together. I must catch them by surprise at the very first move, wound them unexpectedly, so that we have a chance at survival.”
“If the first move fails, then find your own chance to escape! Just promise me that once you’ve escaped, you will tell my brother every single detail of tonight. They might be strong, but my brother can crush them at will with a single hand.”
In that instant, Li Weiyi felt an odd sense of fate linking the two of them together. His displeasure with her diminished a bit, and he managed to calm his mind enough to reconsider the trustworthiness of her earlier words. Perhaps the bonds and feelings between people really do only form in the midst of life and death.
After a while of pondering, Li Weiyi came to the conclusion that it was most likely her idea to drag him along as a backup.
“What are you whispering about? Girl, so you arrived at Burial Immortal Town tonight because there’s some wild man hiding here,” Yan Qingqing’s voice rang out from outside.
“Not surprising, you canine freak—the nose truly is the spirit. You can even smell a man’s scent. Auntie, you know men all too well, don’t you?”
Li Ling shot Li Weiyi a look, as if to say, “See? I was right. You can’t hide anything from her nose.”
“This girl not only has a heavy heart but her tongue is poisonous. It’s a huge contrast to her sweet and obedient appearance,” Li Weiyi thought to himself.
Yan Qingqing trembled with anger, “Prepare to attack!”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
She first drove three torches into the derelict house, illuminating the darkness. Luckily, the abandoned house had nearly been emptied, leaving only earthen walls and roof tiles with no combustible material; otherwise, if it caught fire, Li Ling’s plan to strike the enemy by surprise would be rendered useless.
Yan Qingqing and Xing Wanxing charged into the room one after the other almost simultaneously.
Whoosh!
Seven streaks of light shot forth from the space between Li Ling’s brows. They twisted and curled, imbued with a sharp and fiery energy that split the air inside the room. Taking advantage of the moment, Li Weiyi burst out of a window with a loud bang.
Swish! Swish…
Waiting outside, the Earth Wolf King Army’s martial arts practitioners had already made all the necessary preparations. Not even a moment after he landed did five or six arrows fly towards him. The enormous Ghost Flag draped over Li Weiyi rolled up, gathering all the arrows into his hand before throwing them back out.
In the darkness came muffled sounds and miserable screams; two of the attackers fell to the ground. Before Li Weiyi could break out of the backyard, two experts from Kai Four Springs rushed forward simultaneously.
One was a malformed, tiger-like creature of a man, over three meters tall, with both hands transformed into sharp tiger claws, thick eyebrows meeting his hair, and a powerful palm force that whipped up a windstorm filling the entire backyard. The other wielded a crescent-shaped battle-axe roughly the size of a fishing hoop.
Weighing three hundred jin, the axe swung down with such force that it blocked Li Weiyi’s escape route. These opponents were battle-hardened veterans possessing extraordinary combat senses and skills. Up close, even when facing a mental sense master like Li Ling, they dared to join forces in battle.
With no way to avoid them, Li Weiyi first clashed palms with the tiger-man and managed to drive him back so forcefully that he crashed through the backyard wall. Then he clashed with the Kai Four Springs expert holding the battle-axe, exchanging sword strikes until he dislodged the heavy axe from his hands.
In that clash his own hands suffered deep cuts, with his tiger-like thumbs splitting open and blood flowing freely.
“Thankfully, they’re only two Kai Two Springs martial arts practitioners,” Li Weiyi silently congratulated himself.
With one kick, he sent the Kai Four Springs expert—now disarmed—flying away. A cracking sound of broken ribs resounded on his chest as he spat out large sprays of blood. Bursting out through the collapsed backyard wall, Li Weiyi swung his sword and with one stroke sent the Kai Four Springs tiger-man soaring.
“Even a Kai Two Springs malformed man has strong defenses. I almost couldn’t slice him in two with a single sword stroke. When I was Kai Two Springs, I wasn’t nearly as fast as him!”
Before this, Li Weiyi had only fought two Kai One Springs malformed men when rescuing Zhao Zhi Zhuo. Now, facing off against two Kai Two Springs martial artists at once, the pressure was immense, and he dared not hold back.
More than seven or eight martial arts practitioners from the Earth Wolf King Army charged in, each as fierce and death-defiant as the next. Fully aware of his own low cultivation, Li Weiyi summoned his magical power into the Yellow Dragon Sword and attacked with all his might.
In an instant, sword light mixed with blood light, with screams of agony and terror echoing throughout the night. Behind him— Boom! The derelict house could not withstand the fierce battle among these three great powers.
The structure collapsed, sending a thick cloud of dust billowing upward. Li Ling, Yan Qingqing, and Xing Wanxing leaped out from the rubble, their eyes widening as they took in the sight of seven or eight corpses of martial arts practitioners—each one a Kai Two Springs or even a Kai Four Springs expert—clearly slain by Li Weiyi’s hand.
In a hurried glance, Li Weiyi saw that all three of them bore injuries. Among them, the stout Xing Wanxing was the worst, his body marred by several ghastly slashes made by the streaks of light.
Li Ling had not fared much better; her face was as pale as a bleached stone, the marks on her brow dim and the area around her waist and abdomen still bleeding from where Yan Qingqing’s soft sword had stabbed her. In close combat, a mental sense master was at a serious disadvantage.
“No wonder the wild man who became the granddaughter of the Cang Li Tribe’s chieftain isn’t just some useless pretty face. Let me see just how profound your abilities are!”
Xing Wanxing, as if to a giant toad, leaped three or four zhang away and slammed a palm toward Li Weiyi. In front of his hand, a wide wall of air formed. Compared with this, the tiger-man’s palm power earlier simply was on another level altogether.
Just as Li Weiyi was pouring Golden Crow Blood over his scripture belt in preparation to make his escape, he suddenly felt as though heaven and earth were collapsing. A terrifying force, as if intent on crushing him utterly, rushed in like a landslide.
“Heaven-Turning Palm Seal.”
He summoned every bit of the Kai Three Springs within him. Especially the spring of energy in the palm of his right hand; under the influence of this palm technique, it erupted in an instant into an unprecedented frenzy. The brilliance of his Silver Thread Gloves surged mightily.
With one palm strike, his palm wind solidified to its extreme limit, as if a massive seal was being pressed down onto his opponent.
Bang!
Unable to withstand it, Li Weiyi was blasted outward, crashing against a soil wall which collapsed under the impact. Xing Wanxing wasn’t feeling too well either. He suddenly felt Li Weiyi’s power piercing into him.
His left arm went numb and icy, and after landing, he staggered back several steps.
Whoosh!
Li Weiyi burst out of the fallen wall. Cloaked in the blood light of his scripture belt, he dashed at breakneck speed, fleeing toward Burial Immortal Town in Jidong. Jidong bordered the Sui River as well as the Killing Dragon’s Mouth Waterfall.
If things got desperate, he could always jump down the waterfall, attacking death only to transform it into chance for rebirth.
“Kai Six Springs martial artists really are terrifying. With a mere wave of the hand, they’re forces beyond my defense. But why was I left unharmed? Did he injure himself too gravely, causing a severe drop in combat prowess? Or perhaps he underestimated me and did not use his full power?”
Li Weiyi thought that Xing Wanxing’s palm earlier was at most comparable to a Kai Four Springs martial artist, and with the Silver Thread Gloves on his hands, it was natural he could withstand it.
“So you’re really that formidable—I knew that the Mourning Lantern Guide’s sense of fortune was accurate.”
Li Ling flew over the rooftops of the houses, chasing Li Weiyi stubbornly.
“Stop following me. Let’s part ways here.”
Li Weiyi cursed in his heart. With his Kai Three Springs cultivation, he could handle killing those Earth Wolf King Army soldiers of Kai One or Kai Two Springs. But chasing after him were disciples from Stone Nine Chamber—a Kai Six Springs and a Kai Seven Springs expert.
If those two decided to be serious, a single finger could crush him.
“It’s that magical artifact. He’s amazingly fast.”
Xing Wanxing, chasing from the rooftop, kept his eyes fixed on the blood glow enshrouding Li Weiyi. Feeling that his own speed could hardly catch up, he channeled all his magical power and hurled the short sword in his hand—a sword barely a chi long. Empowered with Kai Six Springs magical energy, the short sword reached an extreme speed.
“Watch out!”
Li Ling cried out in alarm. There was no time to dodge—the short sword had already struck the back of Li Weiyi’s chest. In the next instant, an astonishing scene unfolded that left the three behind slack-jawed.
The very Li Weiyi, who had been sprinting at lightning speed, suddenly turned around with the swiftness of a flash. His hand moved like a phantom and caught the hilt of the flying short sword, drawing it into his grasp. Then, as he turned to continue his escape, he deftly tossed the short sword back toward Xing Wanxing.
Startled, Xing Wanxing scrambled to dodge and tumbled from the rooftop. His trousers were slashed open along the thigh by the sword’s edge, leaving a long cut that stirred a cold chill inside him. It wasn’t life-threatening, but it nearly cost him dearly.
Xing Wanxing had never witnessed such masterful weapon-stealing techniques. Cold sweat beaded on his forehead—what level of cultivation did his opponent possess?
But…
What was there to run for? Li Ling was equally amazed by Li Weiyi’s move and chided, “You shouldn’t have hidden your strength! If we had joined forces earlier, we might have been able to slay all of them.”
What Li Weiyi had just executed was the “Spirit Treasure Plunder” technique—a move from the Chan Sect’s Twelve Scattered Hands. In his view, it was with the boost from his scripture belt’s speed that he managed to seize the enemy’s weapon.
Otherwise, a Kai Three Springs mortal seizing the weapon of a Kai Six Springs master would be nothing short of a fantasy. Li Weiyi truly thought that magical artifacts were invaluable. They could allow ordinary martial artists to unleash fighting power far beyond their own cultivation.
No wonder Zhao Meng had warned so cautiously about magical artifacts. The scripture belt was definitely of a higher grade than the Silver Thread Gloves. Yan Qingqing’s gaze shifted downward to where a mysterious man clad in a Black Flag and with his face tightly concealed stood.
His cultivation was inscrutable, and he was likely even harder to deal with than Li Ling. More importantly, this mysterious man had learned of their secret and had to be silenced. She took out a pinch of Stone Monkey Flying Needles.
Focusing her magical power into her fingertips, her fragrant sleeves fluttering, nearly a hundred fine needles flew silently in the direction of Li Weiyi. Sensing danger, Li Weiyi had no time to dodge. He could only lift the Ghost Flag draped over him and infused it with his magical power.
Whoosh!
A dense black mist of nether fog surged forth from the Ghost Flag. Every flying Stone Monkey Flying Needle fell to the ground. …… Monday, please vote for a monthly ticket!
(The chapter ends.)