Chapter 77: Battle Skill
The man’s wild attacks were pushing Jian Chen to his limit. After all, Jian Chen was still using all of his might to use his barely proficient knowledge of Tai Ji Jian to deflect the man’s moves. Each time Jian Chen had blocked and diverted the enemy’s Guan Dao, a large part of his Saint Force was used up. With the both of them fiercely fighting it out, they had already used up more than half of their Saint Forces’. Since Jian Chen had a serious gash across his chest, he was starting to feel quite weak as time went on, even just blocking was getting harder now.
Jian Chen’s beginning Saint strength was able to contend with a Middle Saint Master thanks to his higher expertise with the sword and his past experiences from the countless number of battles he had been in his past life. If it was another person with Jian Chen’s strength, then it would be hard to say if they would be able to last 10 rounds against the man’s storm-like blows.
After all, the difference between a Saint and a Saint Master was huge; there were at least two levels separating the two.
The cyan colored blade ripped through the air once more as it slashed down towards the Light Wind Sword. At last, Jian Chen wasn’t able to deflect the Guan Dao’s frightening power, and his sword was sent recoiling backwards. While the Light Wind Sword wasn’t hurt in any way, it had been forced back into Jian Chen’s chest with a loud bang.
The crash caused Jian Chen to be sent flying backwards 10 meters, before falling onto the ground. He spat out yet another mouthful of blood, filling the sky with droplets of it.
“Brat, I can tell that you don’t even have the energy to escape from my blows now. Just be obedient and come along with me.” The man sneered. Without waiting for Jian Chen to answer, he moved once more, and in a flash, he appeared 10 meters ahead where Jian Chen was. He reached out, and grabbed at Jian Chen neck with both hands.
Coldly looking at the man come closer with his hands outstretched, Jian Chen’s eyes flashed with a dangerous glint as he inwardly sighed, “Ai, seems like I have to use my last resort.”
The last resort was Jian Chen’s ultimate life saving skill. It was the one skill that only he within the Tian Yuan Continent would know–the Soul Sword.
The Soul Sword was learned back when he had fought against Dugu Qiubai a long time ago. At his moment of death, he had made a breakthrough and learned this supreme skill.
Yet, just as Jian Chen was about to use his ultimate skill in this predicament, a bright red glow of light suddenly filled up the night sky. It headed towards the middle aged man, who was currently about to capture Jian Chen.
Seeing the giant red sword out of the corner of his eye, the man let loose a look of disdain as he gave a gentle snort. Moving away from Jian Chen, the cyan colored glow in his right arm began to brighten dramatically, essentially covering his entire arm in a shroud. The man’s wind attributed Saint Force enhanced arm lashed towards the fiery red sword, firmly catching it in his hand.
Taking advantage of this situation, Jian Chen immediately crawled up from the ground and looked at the person who had rescued him with a gratuitous look.
The owner of the red sword was a mercenary that looked to be around 20 or 30 years old with an ordinary appearance–the type of person that would blend in with a crowd easily. Yet, this mercenary was no stranger to Jian Chen; this was the kind person he had talked to on the road–Mu Yun.
The middle aged man sneered at the sword wielding Mu Yun, “You overestimate yourself.”
Hearing the man talk, Mu Yun expressed a strange smile and laughed, “You’re only just a Middle Saint Master yourself, not all that much stronger than me. I can say what I please.” Mu Yun’s sword emitted a splendid glow as well as a high temperature. In the night, his sword lit up the area around them with a strong glow. The temperature around them also steadily increased. In just a few moments, the red sword became entirely enshrouded in a blinding fiery red. The light constantly pulsated, making it seem as if the sword was actually on fire.
Feeling the Saint Force surge in endless waves from the sword, the man furrowed his eyebrows together. He let go of the blade, and then fiercely slammed his hand against the blade.
“Bang!”
Receiving the energy-filled blow from the man, Mu Yun’s sword was sent towards the side. But with Mu Yun’s battle experience, he took advantage of this sudden movement to whirl around. The sword traveled in a circular motion as Mu Yun immediately slashed at the man once more.
“Since you want to die, I’ll grant you your wish!” The man bellowed, his Guan Dao flashing with a cyan glow as he waved his weapon around. A gentle breeze accompanied his weapon as it flew towards the fire red sword.
“Clang!”
Mu Yun’s sword and the man’s Guan Dao collided with each other, causing a loud metallic sound to ring out. The moment the two Saint Weapons separated, Mu Yun staggered 10 meters backwards. On the other hand, the middle-aged man stood as steady as Mt Tai, without any indication of moving.
A single glance was enough to see who was the weaker one, and who was the stronger one.
Standing on the side, Jian Chen knew that Mu Yun was still weaker than the other man by a large amount. However, Mu Yun was still stronger than himself, and by Jian Chen’s estimates, Mu Yun’s strength should put him between a Middle Great Saint or a Peak Great Saint. Despite this, he was still much weaker than the other man. Since the man specialized in speed thanks to his wind attribute, he was weaker in terms of attack strength than the fire attributed Mu Yun. The fire attribute was the rarest attribute after the light and dark attributes, and it was publically known as the strongest attribute in terms of strength.
If the man relied on his wind attributed Saint Force to fight, then he would be able to dominate the fire attributed Mu Yun. And if the man were to show the special characteristics of his wind attribute and fight against Mu Yun, then Jian Chen was certain that Mu Yun would not be able to last long in a fight against him.
But if he and Mu Yun were to join together and fight, then he was sure that they would be able to beat the middle aged man.
The unfortunate thing was that Jian Chen had taken in heavy damages already; the vital parts of his body had each taken a beating from the fight. In his current state, helping Mu Yun was out of the question. Just standing there was already an abnormally strenuous task.
Attacking Mu Yun, the middle aged man’s eyes flashed with strong killing intent. He didn’t give Mu Yun time to even readjust himself before gathering the wind around his Guan Dao, and rushing forward, leaving only an after image where he had stood earlier. In an instant, he appeared in front of Mu Yun, and chopped at his head with extreme speed.
When it came to Mu Yun, the other man didn’t restrain himself. The moment Mu Yun appeared, the man had tried to kill him. After all, Mu Yun didn’t have any special characteristics that peaked his interest.
Mu Yun’s face hardened. He shouted in anger as the sword in his hand suddenly grew even more red, emitting a boiling hot temperature. At the same time, a flame burst into existence and engulfed the sword within itself. With the fire sword, Mu Yun then brandished it towards the wind wrapped Guan Dao.
The moment Mu Yun waved his sword, it transformed into three giant snakes of fire. The first two flew out towards the Guan Dao, while the last one flew towards the enemy himself.
“Bang!”
The Guan Dao and the fire snakes collided with a huge crash. The two flaming snakes had been cut in half by the Guan Dao, causing sparks to fly out everywhere. If one were to look at it from far away, the sight looked like it was a flower that was getting ready to bloom.
While the first two snakes had been stopped by the Guan Dao, the third snake had become like a fierce tiger, increasing in temperature as it traveled through the air towards the man.
Just as the third fire snake was flying towards the middle aged man, his right hand loosened its grip on the Guan Dao. The man gathered the wind Saint Force into his fist, and blew it out towards the fire snake.
The fist made contact with the fire snake causing a resonating crash. Dispersing into the air, the fire snake sent sparks flying throughout the night sky for a while before disappearing into the night.
After blowing the fire snake apart with his fist, the man stopped his attack to glance at Mu Yu in astonishment as he cried out in alarm, “This is a battle skill, to think you actually knew one.” No one had discovered that the man’s right fist had actually turned bright red, and had even swelled up in size.
Hearing what the man said, Jian Chen looked at Mu Yun with an amazed look. Jian Chen wasn’t very familiar with battle skills, but he knew that they were a cultivational treasure within the Tian Yuan Continent. It was possible to increase one’s strength multiple times with them, and were not things that ordinary people would be able to get their hands on. Jian Chen hadn’t thought that the ordinary looking mercenary like Mu Yun would unexpectedly have such an expensive item. Since battle skills were so rare and expensive, even Great Saint Masters couldn’t possibly possess them.
Battle skills had both high and low points. Although this was the first time Jian Chen had left his home to travel in the Tian Yuan Continent, he had read many books in the library, and thus was not inferior in any way to some of the more experienced mercenaries in terms of knowledge. With his foresight, he could tell with a single glance that both Mu Yun’s battle skills and cultivation methods were definitely top-ranked. This was because ordinary battle skills and cultivation methods were nowhere adequate enough to be able to produce material flames based on just Mu Yun’s strength as a Great Saint.