Chapter 244: Jian Chen’s Action–A Fast Sword
The area around Wake City had already become a bloody battleground with 200,000 mercenaries and armored soldiers fighting by the city gates. They had already speared their way through a few kilometers and were soaked with the blood of a few magical beasts.
In the back, many of the support soldiers streamed about the battleground with stretchers so that the fallen could be brought back to the city to recover. The entire battleground was dyed red with blood as the greasy smell of battle wafted through the air and into the noses of everyone fighting.
Although the battle had only gone on for a small amount of time, the ground was littered with the corpses of magical beasts and humans alike. Every second a person would get injured while the next second another person would die.
A hundred Class 4 Magical Beasts and a few dozen Great Saint Masters were fighting against each other, but the situation wasn’t looking to well for the humans. A Class 4 Magical Beast required two Great Saint Masters to fight against, but at the moment, each magical beast was fighting against one Great Saint Master. For a short while, the Great Saint Masters would be fine, but if time dragged on for too long, then the situation would be hard to tell. Since magical beasts had a natural superiority, humanity could only rely on their Saint Weapons to fight against the magical beasts, but when that ran out then their lives would be in extreme danger.
The ten Magical Crystal Cannons on top of the city walls never stopped firing, so the air was filled with the tremors and ear deafening blasts of explosions that claimed the lives of multiple magical beasts whenever they slammed against a group of them.
As the war went on for a longer period of time, the amount of injured people increased as well. The stretchers of men continued to weave in through the city gates with the injured men laying on them crying out in pain. Many of them were missing an arm or a leg, and so the amount of people fighting against the magical beasts began to lessen. Thus, the pressure began to increase on everyone; if this were to go on for any longer, then the surrender of Wake City would only be a matter of time.
On top of the walls, lord Yun Li looked at Jian Chen and the two envoys with a troubled look. “This magical beast wave has more magical beasts than before and even more Class 4 Magical Beasts than anticipated. Their numbers far outweigh our Great Saint Masters, and if this goes on for any longer, then even if the Class 5 Magical Beast doesn’t attack the Class 4 Magical Beasts will trample Wake City.”
“I’ve looked at the records of the past magical beast waves and I’m afraid that this wave is definitely the most serious one. The amount of Class 4 Magical Beasts has never gone over fifty, but there are well over several hundred of them. Goddamnit, could all of the Class 4 Magical Beasts from the Magical Beast Mountain Range have come running over?” Yun Li wiped at his eyebrows to clear away the sweat.
The two envoys didn’t say a word so Yun Li continued to speak. “Senior envoys, do you have any solutions on how to deal with this situation?”
Katata shook his head with an equally serious expression, “I’ve none. Right now we shouldn’t make a move yet. That hidden Class 5 Magical Beast is extremely strong, so my brother and I must remain here and save up our strength until the moment of its appearance to ensure the best chance. If we waste our energy now, then when that Class 5 Magical Beast attacks, we won’t have a chance of defeating it.”
Yun Li’s face grew whiter and whiter as he listened to Katata’s words. His entire body began to shake as he observed the battle ground below them. His eyes couldn’t help but widen and tear up a bit as he muttered, “Could it be? Could this day be the last day for my Wake City?” The two Earth Saint Master envoys were the greatest stabilizers to Yun Li’s heart, but with Katata’s words revealing that it would be difficult to deal with the hidden Class 5 Magical Beast even if he and his brother joined hands, those words were like a clap of thunder to Yun Li’s eardrums. By now, he was feeling a great deal of despair.
Seeing the look on Yun Li’s face, Jian Chen let out a breath of air. “Then I’ll go down to help. The threat of the Class 4 Magical Beasts is far too big for us to ignore anyways.” With that, Jian Chen leaped down the fifty meter tall city wall. In midair, Jian Chen’s body began to speed up somehow like a speeding bullet toward the Class 4 Magical Beasts
The new member of the Flame Mercenaries, Duo Kang, was currently fighting against a Class 4 Magical Beast. This Class 4 Magical Beast was a three meter long black cheetah with extremely fast movements. Both of its paws swished through the air as the extremely sharp talons flew at Duo Kang. Along with the claws, the cheetah roared loudly with a jaw full of blood from the various times Duo Kang was hurt.
The black cheetah’s eyes were crimson with bloodlust as they glared at Duo Kang almost as if he were its prey. Growling with an angry snarl, its entire body suddenly disappeared in a blur as it shot toward Duo Kang. In that instant its sharp talons glistened in the sunlight as it flew at Duo Kang’s chest.
Duo Kang’s eyes flashed dangerously with no fear at all as the Saint Force enhanced weapon in his hands slashed at the cheetah. The sword and talons met against each other with a large ear screeching sound as the blast of the impact forced Duo Kang to fly back a few steps.
Duo Kang’s Saint Weapon wasn’t enough to cause any sort of damage to the cheetah. The cheetah was momentarily sent back before instantly bounding forward to slash at Duo Kang’s back from behind.
Duo Kang had not yet fully stabilized his footing after the cheetah had sent him flying backward, so it was hard for him to attack the beast with the same strength as before. Helplessly, he could only bring his sword across his body to protect himself against the claws.
The cheetah’s claws swiped at Duo Kang’s Saint Weapon, causing the sword to be knocked back a bit. With the sword firmly out of place, the cheetah suddenly opened its jaws in an effort to bite Duo Kang.
With his Saint Weapon out of the way, Duo Kang’s actions were severely limited. Seeing the wide open jaws of the cheetah, Duo Kang’s face suddenly changed and he abruptly swung his head out of the way.
With its jaws wide open, the cheetah emitted an ear deafening roar as it tried to clamp down its jaws onto Duo Kang’s chest.
Duo Kang’s face was extremely serious. This cheetah had been exceedingly clever when it had attacked him with its claws, leaving him unable to retaliate at all. It would seem that today would be a hard day to escape calamity, since this magical beast was even stronger than he was, and Duo Kang wasn’t able to fight against the cheetah with his Saint Weapon.
This time as Duo Kang dodged the fangs, he could feel some color come back to his face. If he were just one second slower dodging the fangs, then his chest would have become a bloody mess.
“What a troublesome matter this is.” Duo Kang had a look of despair. Right now he was almost at the whim of the cheetah. With the cheetah attacking at any time, it was getting harder and harder to dodge.
This time, a small child like sized tail suddenly wrapped around Duo Kang’s neck, making all movement impossible for him now.
Once more, Duo Kang’s face turned deathly pale as his eyes gleamed with despair. With his neck captured by the tail, he could no longer dodge the next strike from the black cheetah. Even his Saint Weapon; the most important item to his life wouldn’t help him here. He would sooner die than relinquish his Saint Weapon.
The iron scent of blood stung Duo Kang’s nose as the cheetah’s bloody jaw encaptured Duo Kang’s eyes once more.
Just before Duo Kang was ready to accept his death, a silver light suddenly flashed in the corner of his eyes. Startled, Duo Kang could only see a silver lightning like trail of light fly straight through the cheetah’s throat.
The bloody jaws of the cheetah immediately came to a close just an inch away from Duo Kang’s chest. The putrid scent of its jaws was so nauseating to Duo Kang’s nose that he didn’t dare breathe.
Duo Kang was instantly dazed, but the moment he saw the long blade insert itself deep within the cheetah’s throat, a look of pure joy appeared within his eyes. This blade was one he was extremely familiar with because he knew just who the owner was.
Duo Kang couldn’t help but feel extremely grateful after his narrow escape from death. Turning his head to look at the twenty year old youth to the side, he called out emotionally, “Captain!”. On this road between life or death, Duo Kang finally realized just how beautiful living was.
Although Duo Kang had been in many life or death situations, he had never been in such a perilous situation as this one. If Jian Chen was a second too slow, then his life would have been forfeit and his body a corpse.
Jian Chen slowly took the Light Wind Sword out from the cheetah’s neck and spoke out to Duo Kang, “Go help out the others, make sure our Flame Mercenaries lose as few men as possible.”
“Yes, captain!” Duo Kang immediately responded. Grabbing at the tail still enwrapped around his neck, he uncoiled it and cut away the ear of the cheetah. Then storing it into his Space Belt, Duo Kang immediately ran off to help out the other brothers of the Flame Mercenaries.
Jian Chen didn’t hesitate at all as he immediately ran off to the next closest Class 4 Magical Beast. This next one was a viper with six Saint Masters fighting against it. Two of them were injured, leaving the remaining four to weave in and out in attempts to protect themselves. Each strike was getting harder to dodge and they were already in a miserable condition. The viper’s poison that was spat out at them was enough to make all of the Saint Masters there afraid of coming into contact with it.
So the six Saint Masters could only try to run away from the viper. Suddenly, a silver arc of light streaked by them and immediately pierced into the vitals of the viper before it could even respond.
The viper immediately let out a miserable hiss as it collapsed down to the ground. Jian Chen’s sword was incomparably fast, so even a Class 4 Magical Beast like the viper wasn’t able to perceive the attack at all.
“Captain!” The six Saint Masters who were fighting the viper called out to Jian Chen straight away. Their eyes had a look of extreme joy in them as they immediately recognized that their captain had rescued them.
“If you’re injured, head on back to get yourself treated. The rest should go help our fellow brothers. Remember, help our own first and foremost.” Dropping an order, Jian Chen immediately ran off to the next beast.
With the introduction of Jian Chen to the battlefield, the pressure was significantly less now. In the span of a few breathes, Jian Chen had killed a good amount of the Class 4 Magical Beasts. Each and every strike of his was unbelievably fast as he weaved in and out of the battlefield. Practically no Class 4 Magical Beast could dodge Jian Chen’s sword, and so with each stab from his sword, another magical beast had its throat stabbed, dying before realizing what was happening.
Following the series of Class 4 Magical Beasts dying in one strike, more and more people on the battlefield were quickly regaining the higher ground. Immediately, each group would run off to help another group fight off a Class 4 Magical Beast, causing the pressure on everyone to lessen dramatically.
Jian Chen traveled forward and backward by himself toward the next closest Class 4 Magical Beast with his Light Wind Sword continuously flashing with light from each stroke. Whenever a Class 2 or Class 3 Magical Beast got too close, they would be slaughtered ruthlessly. In Jian Chen’s path of destruction, he had left behind a bloody trail.
In the time it took to burn a single incense stick, Forty Class 4 Magical Beasts had died by Jian Chen’s hand and countless more Class 2 and Class 3 Magical Beasts.
In the beginning, Jian Chen’s strength at the Peak Saint Master level was enough to kill a Class 4 Magical Beast. Now that he was at the Great Saint Master despite being only at the Primary level, his strength had been multiplied. Killing a Class 4 Magical Beast was now much easier than before and didn’t require as much energy.
That was because Jian Chen’s best point was his speed. He was so fast that the magical beasts weren’t fast enough to react and in Jian Chen’s eyes, these magical beasts might as well be standing still and would definitely be too slow to dodge.
In the world of martial arts, only speed would not betray you. Jian Chen’s sword relied heavily on this word, “Speed”. The moment your speed surpassed your opponent’s reaction time, then that opponent would be nothing more than a moving target awaiting for you to strike.
“Hou!” Suddenly, an extremely loud roar could be heard from a snowy white bear around two meters tall and four meters wide emerged out of nowhere and slapped a Great Saint Master with its paw.
“Bang!”
Despite the Great Saint Master using his Saint Weapon to protect himself, the amount of force behind its giant paw was enough to send him flying through the air, blood spurting out from his mouth.
At that moment, another nearby Great Saint Master instantly charged at the figure and slashed at its belly with his Saint Weapon. A thunder like sound could be heard as the Saint Weapon stopped right on top of it fur without leaving a single scratch. Not only that, but the recoil the Great Saint Master felt from his blow was enough to send him staggering back three steps.
The giant bear let out another roar as it moved to slap the Great Saint Master with its paw. All of sudden, a silver light flew in between the bear and the Great Saint Master. Before the giant bear could even react, the silver light had immediately stabbed straight through its throat.
However, the fur defenses of the giant beast was extraordinarily strong, as only the sharp tip of the sword could be stabbed into its throat.
Sensing how the Light Wind Sword had been stopped, Jian Chen’s eyes flashed with surprise, “What a strong defense!” Without any further hesitation, a large amount of Sword Qi exploded from the tip of the sword and enlarged the wound.
Immediately the giant bear let out a painful shriek as it then moved away from the Great Saint Master to slap at Jian Chen.
Jian Chen pulled out his sword and increased the amount of Sword Qi radiating from it before stabbing at the bear’s throat once more before it could attack him.
The incredibly strong defenses that were there before suddenly disappeared into nothing as the Light Wind Sword pushed through the fur, embedding itself deep within the bear’s throat.
However, the giant bear’s paw didn’t stop due to inertia and continued its path toward Jian Chen. Jian Chen’s right arm clenched onto his sword as he twisted his sword in its throat before pulling it out. With an explosive leap, he flew backward to dodge the paw.
Jian Chen didn’t care anymore about the bear after that and immediately ran off to the next Class 4 Magical Beast. He had confidence in his last strike to land a fatal wound on the bear. His Light Wind Sword had completely obliterated the major parts of the bear’s throat with its Sword Qi. With a crucial blow like that, there was no way that the bear would be able to live.
Not too long after Jian Chen had left, the giant bear’s body finally fell to the ground with a large stream of blood flowing from its neck, forming a pool of blood.
The second Great Saint Master looked at the bear’s body with a pale face. Looking at its corpse, he turned to look at the other man who had been fighting it, “Laz, did you kill this Earthen Bear?” Jian Chen’s death blow had been far too fast for the man to register and when he had nearly been hit by the bear’s paw, he hadn’t seen Jian Chen make his move.
The other Great Saint Master looked at the body with an extremely shocked expression, “How amazing, to kill an Earthen Bear in two strokes, could that man be an Earth Saint Master?”
“Laz, you didn’t tell me, how did you manage to kill the Earthen Bear? When did you get so strong?” The Great Saint Master repeated with curiosity.
Hearing that, the one named Laz shook his head, “This Earthen Bear was not killed by men but by a white robed figure.” With that, Laz’ voice suddenly grew emotional as he clasped onto the other man’s shoulders. “Lie Dao, you didn’t see it, that man’s strength is truly profound. He had only needed to stab twice with a speed far beyond anything I’ve seen in order to kill this Earthen Bear with ease and no retaliation.”
“It took two sword strikes to kill the Class 4 Earthen Bear?!” Lie Dao cried out with shock, “Laz, who is this person, could he be an Earth Saint Master?”
“That’s what I believe as well. He was wearing white, but I don’t know who he is.” Laz muttered.
Lie Dao looked around them only to find the white robed Jian Chen who had just stabbed another Class 4 Magical Beast in the throat with his sword not too far away.
“Could it be that person…?”
……
On the wall.
“This Jian Chen is quite strong. His fighting ability is somehow extremely strong to the point where even a Class 4 Magical Beast is nothing to him. It only requires one strike for him to kill one!” Katata looked at the group of magical beasts being killed by Jian Chen before exclaiming his thoughts out loud.
“What a fast sword!” The soft spoken Katafei said.
Katata nodded his head, “That’s right, his sword is incredibly fast with no wasted movements. Each stroke lands firmly and at the weakest point of the magical beasts’ neck. Countless Class 4 Magical Beasts were killed by Jian Chen’s sword, and even I can only capture the hazy figure of his sword on the rare occassion. With a speed like that, it is no wonder a Class 4 Magical Beast can’t dodge it. However, what I don’t understand is, just how did Jian Chen obtain such a fast sword play like this, could it be the work of a battle skill?”
“No, I can tell that this is no battle skill.” Katafei spoke.
“It would seem that this Jian Chen’s identity is quite mysterious. He has to be the young lord of a well known clan, otherwise, how could his skill be so outstanding? A young man like him already has such a powerful strength and such a fast sword…”