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Translator: Truth
Editor: Dhael Ligerkeys
Every member of the Xianyuan City Watch was a powerhouse in their own right, but their actions were rigid because they lacked intelligence. As a result, their skills did not match their cultivation level.
Their advantage lay in the fact that they operated as a squad and knew the Spirit Shackling Lock. When one Spirit Shackling Lock was launched, more would follow. It was especially difficult for isolated cultivators to handle this.
Chu Qing was the prolegate of the House of Wintry Blossoms, so of course she was a powerful cultivator in her own right. The moment she reached the sentries, she surrounded one of them in a storm of swords and cut him down in just three breaths.
It wasn’t a flawless kill, however. The other sentries were hitting her with their Spirit Artifacts while she was cutting down their ally.
After she successfully cut down one of the sentries, Chu Qing immediately withdrew to the back before shouting, “Qiao Yun!”
The fat woman bound by the Spirit Shackling Ropes immediately let out a mighty roar. At the beginning, she was bound by four Spirit Shackling Ropes in total. Now, there were only three since Chu Qing had killed one of the sentries. Incredibly, she grew another size and actually broke free of the Spirit Shackling Ropes just like that.
“I’m coming!” The fat woman named Qiao Yun yelled with obvious anger on her face. She then ran straight toward Chu Qing.
For a moment, it looked like the two cultivators were in a collision course with each other. However, as if she had eyes at the back of her head, Chu Qing leaped into the air and landed lithely on Qiao Yun’s shoulder. The four spectral sentries attacking her had no such luck. They were bowled over by the fat woman and suffered great damage as a result.
“I’ll hold them back!” Qiao Yun declared. She wasn’t afraid even though she was fighting one against four because she was a body tempering cultivator. Her offensive repertoire might be lacking compared to cultivators of other cultivator factions, but the opposite was equally true. No one was harder to kill than a body tempering cultivator.
“Be careful!” Chu Qing warned before rushing back toward Lu Ye.
They had gathered here to kill Lu Ye and take revenge for Chu Xue, not to do battle against the Xianyuan City Watch. Even if their numbers weren’t literally infinite within the city, killing the Xianyuan City Watch wouldn’t help further their objective one bit.
That was why they weren’t going to waste time with the Xianyuan City Watch. They could retreat after killing Lu Ye.
Chu Qing pushed off the ground with both feet and rushed toward Lu Ye at high speed. However, her pupils contracted when Lu Ye abruptly sent the petite woman flying toward her. She even spat out a mouthful of blood in mid-air.
Chu Qing hurriedly put away her swords and caught the petite woman with both hands. They rolled across the ground for a bit before catching themselves.
“Pwack…” The petite woman spat out another mouthful of fresh blood while pushing herself to her feet.
“Ruo Yan!” Chu Qing cried out in alarm.
“I’ll live!” Her companion answered with a light cough before heaving her massive blade over her shoulders once more. She stared cautiously to the front. There, Lu Ye was slowly walking toward them with his saber pointed toward the ground.
Blood was dripping off the blade, and his eyes were narrowed into half-slits. His hair cast a shadow on his face and hid his expression from view. He was just an Eighth-Order cultivator, and yet he was giving off an inconceivable amount of pressure.
“Be careful, senior sister. Something’s not right about that man,” Ruo Yan warned as she recalled her brief clash against Lu Ye. Even now, she had no idea how he had defeated her so quickly.
She wasn’t so arrogant as to think she would be able to toy with Lu Ye as she pleased, but she did believe that she would have the upper hand fighting against a cultivator who was one minor realm below her. It wasn’t until they actually clashed that she found out that Lu Ye possessed some bizarre abilities that were nigh impossible to defend against without prior knowledge.
For starters, he seemed to possess the ability that instantly increased the weight of his attacks by a literal tonne. The hit that had sent her flying had appeared so abruptly and without warning that she had almost failed to react to it. If her intuition wasn’t as sharp as it was, she would be lying on the ground in two halves already.
Chu Qing’s expression turned grim as she stared at the incoming young man. The Battle of Goldentip began replaying itself in her mind. That day, the Fifth-Order young man had accepted the challenge of forty three Sixth-Order opponents, defeated them all, and killed at least thirty of them. The battlefield had run red with his enemies’ blood that day.
Since then, Chu Qing realized that there existed people whose strength defied all common sense in this world. Killing enemies higher than their cultivation realm was as easy as breathing to them. That was why she hadn’t underestimated him one bit when she saw Lu Ye in the valley. The guy had been able to defeat forty three Sixth-Order cultivators when he was just at Fifth-Order. It was not inconceivable that he would be able to kill Ninth-Order cultivators with the same ease as an Eight-Order cultivator.
This was why she had gathered over twenty people to kill him, and for a time, she was sure that nothing could stop her from obtaining her vengeance. That was until the Xianyuan City Watch appeared at the worst moment and ruined her plan completely. It was bad enough that her people couldn’t assist her, even Qiao Yun was busy keeping four sentries off their backs.
Retreat was not an option though. Ruo Yan was hurt, but her injuries weren’t so severe that she had to cancel the mission altogether. No matter how you looked at it, the upper hand was still in their hands.
“Let’s go!” Chu Qing declared before leading the charge. The petite woman named Ruo Yan moved behind Chu Qing and concealed herself perfectly from Lu Ye’s view. The two of them had begun their cultivation journey together, so their teamwork had been perfected a long time ago. More often than not, they didn’t even need to speak to understand each other’s intent.
At the same time, Lu Ye radically shortened the distance between himself and the two women in one step. Fiery red Spiritual Power ran along the edge of the Inviolable as he brought it straight down at Chu Qing. The swordswoman immediately raised one of her swords in response. Her plan was to block Lu Ye’s with one sword while striking him down with the other, but she quickly realized that she was being naive when their Spirit Artifacts met. The force being transmitted to her hand was so massive that she nearly lost her grip!
Chu Qing’s eyes contracted into pins. Was it even possible for an Eighth-Order cultivator to possess such strength? Even Qiao Yun was only this strong!
Realizing she had erred, she hurriedly withdrew her other sword and blocked the attack with both weapons. She would’ve cut herself if she had not done so. However, Lu Ye’s second attack came much quicker than she had anticipated, forcing her to block it in a panic. The third attack had nearly run right through her chest.
‘How is he so fast!?’
There wasn’t a day or night where she didn’t dream of killing Lu Ye and taking revenge for her younger sister, but it was only after she actually engaged him in battle that she realized just how terrifying he was. It was bad enough that his attacks were powerful beyond imagination, they also came almost too fast for her to react.
In fact, she almost certainly could not block his fourth attack!
As expected, Chu Qing was unable to defend herself when Lu Ye swung his saber at her pale neck. Luckily for her, she wasn’t alone. At the critical moment, a massive blade abruptly appeared beside her neck and struck the Inviolable’s blade. It was Ruo Yan finally making a move.
Sparks flew everywhere as the attack that would’ve hit Chu Qing was blocked. Spiritual Light erupted from the blade and nearly slammed the Inviolable back into Lu Ye’s face.
Lu Ye turned his blade to redirect the force acting against him while turning his head at the same time. He survived, but the enemy’s blade was close enough to shave off a few strands of hair.
Sensing an excellent opportunity, Chu Qing reversed her grip on her left sword and thrust it toward Lu Ye’s chest like a dagger.
Suddenly, a great surge of Spiritual Power erupted from nearby. Without thinking, Chu Qing swung her sword in that direction and blocked the spell directed at her.
She looked in the direction of the spell and found a cute girl standing not far behind Lu Ye. She was the one who forced her to cancel her attack. Neither Chu Qing nor Ruo Yan had noticed her until she fired the spell.
The girl channeled her power and fired another spell at her. At the same time, Lu Ye swung his saber.
Chu Qing and Ruo Yan were fighting together, but Lu Ye wasn’t alone either. In fact, Yi Yi had been searching for an opening since the start of the battle. Unfortunately, neither woman had revealed too big an opening even now, and she was forced to reveal herself when Lu Ye was in danger of taking a strong hit.
Frankly, this battle was quite dangerous for the likes of Yi Yi. Thankfully, a spell cultivator like her only needed to attack the enemy from a distance.
Chu Qing and Ruo Yan’s figures blurred as they attacked Lu Ye as one. Their teamwork was perfect even though their Spirit Artifacts were drastically different from each other. Their attacks filled every space within three meters of their person.
In the past, they had fought four Grand Sky Coalition cultivators like this and even killed one of them.
This time though, their perfect teamwork failed to give them a sense of absolute control. It was because the rhythm of the battle was fully in Lu Ye’s grasp. His blade speed was unthinkable, and the spell cultivator’s support gave him just enough power to push them to the edge. Despite having gone all out, they just barely managed to keep his attacks at bay. They couldn’t even retaliate against him!
The two women kept being pushed back as the blood slowly drained away from their faces. At this range, any mistake could be their last.
They weren’t sure when it had begun, but the surrounding fog suddenly looked much thicker than before. At some point, it even started churning as if something was about to burst out from within.
Both sides noticed this unusual phenomenon and realized that their time was short. Lu Ye started pushing harder and harder.
When Chu Qing realized they were seconds away from faltering under Lu Ye’s assault, she finally cried out, “Qiao Yun!”
“I’m here!” The fat woman responded. The next second, she ignored the sentries’ attacks, ran up to Lu Ye like a behemoth, and brought down a fat palm on his head.
Originally, Chu Qing was sure they didn’t need Qiao Yun’s help to defeat Lu Ye. She had imagined herself and Ruo Yan taking down the bastard in the shortest time possible while the body tempering cultivator kept the Xianyuan City Watch at bay. The remaining sentries weren’t a problem as long as they were able to complete their primary objective.
Unfortunately, man plans and the heavens laugh. Chu Qing thought she had already given Lu Ye the highest amount of respect, but reality still gave her a slap to the face. Both her and Ruo Yan were going to die here if she still did not call for help.
