A battle on the scale of two hundred thousand people could already be considered a war. Abilities exploded, giant beasts flew around, and river water flooded all at the same time as sword ki surged. All kinds of roars and pained cries rang out across the battlefield.
Fortunately, the Swordking Faction was hidden rather deep in Silverriver Valley. There were only a few disciples from Dragonmight and Azureriver who could surround them at the same time, allowing them to barely hold on. Had they been on a flat field, they would have been easily crushed by the enemy that had three times their number. Even so, Swordking was in a really bad situation. If this went on, the longest they could last was two hours. They had nowhere else to run and could well be wiped out by the other two factions.
Usually the three years after the faction battles were when the factions changed the most. There was no doubt that Swordking would lose all their disciples. Xuanyuan Yufeng's methods were really ruthless; Jian Xueyi was far too honorable and couldn't compare to him when it came to insidious plots.
The whole battlefield shook as Dragonmight and Azureriver surrounded them without giving them a chance to escape or to take a breather. Tianming could see all that very clearly from the hill he stood on.
"Looks like Swordking is going to collapse," Lin Xiaoxiao said.
"There's still a chance, isn't there?" Tianming said plainly.
"What are you going to do? Fight thousands of them on your own?"
"Isn't that what a real hero would do?"
"Your mental fortitude is amazing. To think that you can even smile at a time like this, not to mention boast."
"Just watch," Tianming said as he gave her head a pat. "Just watch me give it my all to save Swordking from danger!"
"Just keep boasting!" Lin Xiaoxiao rubbed her head and grit her teeth. What kind of person pats someone's head for no reason?
The moment she said that, Tianming disappeared before her eyes.
......
"Friend, who are you? Why haven't I seen you before?" asked a burly man.
"There’s forty thousand disciples in Azureriver. Do you know all of them?" Tianming had jumped into the fray; there were people all around him, all of whom were trying to squeeze into Silverriver Valley. There were still at least twenty thousand people outside.
"That's not what I meant," the red armed man said as he looked him over. "You look rather young and fresh. Why don't we be friends? I’ll look after you."
"Huh?"
"Very intimate friends, if you catch my drift," the man said as he hinted with his eyes.
"What the hell?!" Tianming suddenly felt a huge wave of humiliation. He didn't think that there would be a day when a man would l.u.s.t after him. "To hell with you!"
He sent the man flying with his black left arm.
"Why did you hit one of us?" asked a thin man nearby.
Tianming lashed out with the Three-Thousand Starfield and pulled the man over, then choked him with his black arm. "Where is your faction lord? Fang Hongxuan, where is he?"
"You're not from Azureriver?"
"That wasn't the question!" Tianming gave his stomach a punch, causing him to spit out some bile.
"Over there! They were talking there!" he hastily said.
Tianming smashed his face into the ground before disappearing. The battle was too chaotic, allowing him to slip in and out without others noticing.
"I finally found those two!"
The battlefield was huge, and there were too many people. It was really hard to find the leader under such circ.u.mstances. Fang Hongxuan and Fang Bihan were right in the middle of tens of thousands of other Azureriver Faction disciples, giving orders and directing the battle. Tianming was unable to approach them at all.
"Watch the flank. Snowclear Hall, advance from there. Seal off the skies and stop them from leaving!" Fang Hongxuan ordered.
"They won't be able to hold. Swordking will be gone in an hour," Fang Bihan said with her arms crossed.
"Jian Xueyi always loves to steal the limelight, but I'm sure her confidence will tank after this mistake. This will be the end of her," Fang Hongxuan said.
"She really is naive. I didn't think she'd ask for my help after she beat me up years ago."
At the end of the day, they were simply too different. Jian Xueyi had wanted to work for a better future for all of the disciples in her faction, while all Fang Bihan cared about was her grudge. Either way, it didn't matter, because Tianming's targets were the faction lords of Dragonmight and Azureriver. He stood behind them without being noticed, perfectly blending in with the crowd of people.
These two are sixth-level empyrean saints, and it won't be easy to deal with them. I guess I should bring it out, he thought as he took Grand-Orient Sword out of his spatial ring. It was the first time he had used it in this battle.
With the gold sword in his right hand and the black one in his left, he would be even faster and fiercer, allowing him to better channel the sword ki of the Hexapath Samsara Sword. He swiftly charged toward his targets. Amidst so many people, not even Xuanyuan Yufeng would dare target the faction lord for fear of ending up completely surrounded.
He sped up more and more until he became a blurry black figure with trailing white hair as he approached the siblings. His first target was Fang Bihan.
"Careful, Faction Lord!""Surprise attack!"
Some others nearby had noticed what was going on.
"What?" The two turned back in wonder. They were in their main camp, so who would be daring enough to come attack two sixth-level empyrean saints? Not to mention, if it were the other two faction lords, they would've been recognized long before making their approach.
They saw a white-haired youth blazing toward them with two swords. The moment the gold sword struck, its sword intent seemed to be an aggregate of billions of people as he executed the Mortal Dao Sword.
The two managed to react, with Fang Hongxuan taking out his sword and his sister her fine blade that was as thin as an insect's wing. They were both tribulation artifacts. However, Tianming was even faster, giving them no chance to summon their lifebound beasts back from the battlefield.
All of a sudden, he summoned all three of his lifebound beasts, sending Ying Huo and Meow Meow toward Fang Hongxuan like a bolt of lightning and a burst of flame, forcing him back.
The moment Tianming's strike connected with Fang Bihan, she was beaten back incessantly, not being able to hold her ground at all. When he attacked with his black sword, Omnisentient Sword Will was converted into rage and fury. All of a sudden, a hand was lopped off.
"Aaaaaaagh!" Fang Bihan cried, startling those around her.
The hand fell into Tianming's hand, along with the spatial ring on its finger. He took the Scarletflame Tome out of the ring and tore it before tossing the hand back to her.
"Who are you?!" Fang Hongxuan snapped. He felt rage, shock, and doubt. How could someone so powerful and daring be participating in the faction battles?
However, the only answer he got was a sword.
"Kill him! Surround him and kill him!" Fang Bihan cried with a deep grimace.
Almost immediately, thousands surrounded them and chaos broke out. Even the siblings' lifebound beasts, both phoenixes, returned from the battlefield. The Sterling House of Fang was the most famous of all phoenix users across the continent, being the house of Fang Qingli and Fang Taiqing.
The two phoenixes each had a hundred and fifty stars in their eyes; they were powerful tribulation beasts. The first was black and surrounded by thunderclouds, called a Blacksky Thundercloud Phoenix, while the other was green and covered in flames, called a Greensky Blazewind Phoenix.
Though Tianming was surrounded, he was so quick that he didn't give Fang Bihan any time to take a breather. The moment she got her hand back, he was already charging at her again.
The Grand-Orient Sword unleashed the Imperealm Sword Formation, covering an area with a diameter of two kilometers around it. When Tianming had become an empyrean saint, the power of this formation soared. Terrifying gold and black sword ki automatically attacked the other disciples and lifebound beasts the moment they came in range. Tianming was basically a tank with a portable formation he could use to control the crowd.
Within the formation, Fang Hongxuan and Fang Bihan stared blankly at Tianming with his lifebound beasts. They finally knew who he was.
"It's him! The one who killed Gu Qingyao, Li Tianming!"
"How could he be so strong?!"
"Enough nonsense. Let's call more people over, break his formation, and take his weapon!" Fang Bihan said.
"Alright!" Seeing the Grand-Orient Sword made Fang Hongxuan salivate a little. A weapon with a portable formation must have at least seven or eight tribulation patterns. Where could it have come from?
More and more people charged toward him. At that instant, Lan Huang turned the terrain into an ocean. Tianming burst out of the water behind Fang Bihan. "Without your tome, you can't surrender. Now, you can only be a slave."
