Translator: Asuka
Editor: Dhael Ligerkeys
Lu Ye rode on Amber, fleeing desperately through the mountains. Several Spirit Talisman Papers exploded behind him. During the surge of Spiritual Power, one of the Spell Techniques sealed within the Spirit Talisman Papers struck him and left him in a miserable state.
After a whole day of confrontation, the cultivators besieging him had gotten smarter. They would blast out with Spirit Talisman Papers as soon as both parties encountered each other. Although Spirit Talisman Papers were valuable, low-level cultivators could still afford to purchase them if they simply gritted their teeth and bit the bullet. Therefore, most people would prepare one or two Spirit Talisman Papers as a trump card for life-threatening situations.
At this moment, the fact that they were throwing out Spirit Talisman Papers without regard for the losses was certainly making things very difficult for him. If not because he could frequently activate the Protection Spiritual Pattern to defend against those attacks, he and Amber would have been powerless to resist a long time ago.
Despite that being the case, both man and tiger were covered in wounds all over their bodies. It was not just the Spirit Talisman Papers. The cultivators of the unknown faction had also dispatched Spirit Beasts to hunt them down. Not many cultivators had Tamed Beasts because Spirit Beasts were quite hard to domesticate. The slightest mistake could cause the Spirit Beasts to turn on their Masters instead.
At this moment, Lu Ye was fleeing in front. Five or six cultivators riding on various Tamed Beasts followed closely behind him. These Tamed Beasts might not be as impressive or swift-footed as Amber, but he constantly faced obstructions from the front which severely impacted his efficiency in breaking out of the encirclements. It only took a moment’s delay for them to catch up to him immediately. Therefore, he was almost completely surrounded and trapped on several occasions. It had taken a lot of effort for him to open up a path in those situations and continue his escape.
Following these confrontations, he finally realized something: He could not travel in circles. The more twists and turns he made, the more enemies he would face. On the contrary, he faced lesser enemies if he simply charged forward in a straight line.
What he did not know was that the Tai Luo Clan cultivators had Han Zhe Yue commanding them from the shadows. With the Shadow Moon Disc, none of his movements could be concealed from her eyes.
The sound of something slicing through the air rang out once more. Several arrows shot toward Lu Ye from various directions. Even though he was startled, he did not panic. He activated his Spiritual Power to protect his body while simultaneously pulling out his knife to slash at the air in front of him.
One of the arrows aiming at Amber was cut down by him. At the same time, Amber quickly moved in a zigzag manner to avoid the rest of the arrows. It was not something he commanded Amber to do; it was something Amber learned from previous bloody experiences.
The Tai Luo Clan were aware that they had to cripple Amber first in order to besiege and suppress Lu Ye. The presence of such a Spirit Beast made it very difficult for them to restrain him. That was why the people shooting arrows from the shadows changed their target after the first few encounters and aimed for Amber instead. They wanted to annihilate Amber first.
For that reason, Amber was met with great misfortune and took several arrows to the body. It was fortunate that none of the injuries were serious. Lu Ye had broken off the arrows and left the other half of the arrows in Amber’s body.
Since then, Amber had gotten much wiser. Whenever it heard the sound of arrows slicing through the air, it would begin to move zigzaggedly like a snake. Thus, it successfully avoided many of the attacks. It had only just dodged those arrows when several figures popped out from the front. Under the night sky, the Spiritual Light around them was extremely conspicuous.
[Three Fifth-Order Spirit Creek Realm Masters!?] Lu Ye lowered his eyes. The realization that he was knee-deep in trouble did not escape him. He could manage if it were only one Fifth-Order Spirit Creek Realm Master. It was impossible for him to deal with two at once, let alone the three Fifth-Order Spirit Creek Realm Masters in front of him right now. Once trapped, only death would await him.
[I wonder which Sect’s territory I encroached upon that has such a powerful heritage.] Along his journey here, he had encountered more than ten Fifth-Order Spirit Creek Realm Masters. It had to be said that there were no Fifth-Order Spirit Creek Realm Masters when he participated in the battle between Mystic Sect and Nine Star Clan previously.
What he did not know was that the declaration of war between Mystic Sect and Nine Star Clan had occurred very abruptly. Most of their Fifth-Order Spirit Creek Realm Masters were training outside and could not rush back in time. That was why there had been so few Fifth-Order Spirit Creek Realm Masters. Besides, they were mutually restraining each other. It was only natural that Lu Ye had not seen them.
On the other hand, the Dragon Spring Conference was different. It was held once every three years, so all three forces nearby placed great importance on this event. All the Spirit Creek Realm Masters ranging from the Second-Order to the Fifth-Order had gathered in their respective bases ten days ago in preparation for the start of the Dragon Spring Conference.
Each Sect usually had many Fifth-Order Spirit Creek Realm Masters. The ten or so Fifth-Order Spirit Creek Realm Masters that Lu Ye met so far only made up a small portion of them. Most of them were guarding the various mountain peaks.
Although Han Zhe Yue could not wait to slice Lu Ye into a thousand pieces, she had not forgotten her priorities. She could not mobilize all the strongest members for the sake of dealing with a single Fourth-Order Spirit Creek Realm Master of unknown origins. Green Feather Mountain would definitely take advantage of the situation if she were to do that. At that time, things would not end with just the deaths of a dozen or so people. It would result in the loss of many mountain peaks under their control.
Out of the three Fifth-Order Spirit Creek Realm Masters who leaped forward, two of them charged toward Lu Ye. Meanwhile, the remaining person stood not too far away and raised his hand to point in Lu Ye’s direction. Spiritual Power surged at his fingertip. He was a spell cultivator!
Lu Ye couldn’t help feeling extremely troubled. Most of the people shooting arrows at him from the shadows had relatively low cultivation. Moreover, Lu Ye and Amber had experience dealing with them now. They could no longer be harmed by those attacks under most circumstances.
However, it was different if the opponents were Fifth-Order Spirit Creek Realm Masters. The power of such a cultivator’s spell techniques should never be underestimated. Things might end badly for him if he were careless. That was why he made a swift decision when he saw that cultivator casting spells. He threw an object with one hand and single-handedly formed a seal with the other hand.
The object he tossed out immediately arrived above the spell cultivator’s head and rapidly enlarged. The object transformed into a large bell that overflowed with Spiritual Light, looming over the other party. The spell cultivator clearly did not anticipate such a move from Lu Ye. It was too late for him to dodge the attack and he was firmly covered beneath the bell.
Meanwhile, the other two Fifth-Order Spirit Creek Realm Masters had arrived in front of Lu Ye. The person in the lead was burly, strong, and vigorous. It could be seen at a glance that he planned to become a body tempering cultivator.
Despite facing Amber’s charge, he neither dodged nor evaded but provocatively stepped forward instead. He raised his hands to catch Amber’s two front legs, his posture indicating that he was planning to catch and throw the tiger.
“Roar!” The tiger’s roar resounded throughout the forest. The body tempering cultivator only managed to maintain a stalemate against Amber for two seconds before he collapsed to the ground.
He had overestimated his capabilities. In terms of brute strength, Amber was not as strong as him. Even so, Spirit Beasts had their own advantages. That was especially true for sturdily-built Spirit Beasts like Amber. It was impossible to stop them without enough strength to crush their forward charging momentum.
Taking advantage of the two-second delay brought about by the body tempering cultivator, the other Fifth-Order Spirit Creek Realm Master attacked from behind. This person was most likely a combat cultivator. That was because he was wielding a sledgehammer that was the size of a head. It did not look like something to be trifled with.
The sledgehammer that seemed to weigh thousands of kilograms looked like it weighed nothing in his hands. He leaped forward from behind his companion and brought his sledgehammer smashing down on Lu Ye. The Spiritual Light on the sledgehammer shone so brightly that it was blinding. He shouted, “Get down from there!”
This attack was extremely heavy. It gave off the feeling that one blow could crush ten men. A blow like this was not something Lu Ye could defend against no matter what he did. If he forcefully took the blow, he would only end up with several broken bones. Therefore, he hurriedly activated the Protection Spiritual Pattern to form a shield in front of him.
*Boom…* There was a loud explosion. Lu Ye felt the Spiritual Power in his body gushing outward like the floodwater released from a dam. The Protection Spiritual Pattern seemed somewhat unable to stop this menacing attack. Small cracks appeared along the Spiritual Pattern. Three seconds later, the Spiritual Pattern shattered apart.
It was his first time meeting somebody who could break his Protection Spiritual Pattern in one blow. It had to be said that even Dong Shu Ye, who was a Seventh-Order Spiritual Creek Realm Master, had failed to do that. It would seem that the Protection Spiritual Pattern was more adept at defending against Spell Techniques. In contrast, it had a weaker defense against pure brute force attacks.
The Protection Spiritual Pattern might have been broken, but it had deflected most of the impact from the blow.
When the sledgehammer came down, Amber’s body slumped from the impact and its front legs crouched slightly. On the other hand, Lu Ye fell backward from being struck by the sledgehammer. If he had not hastily brought his knife up in front of him, his chest would have been crushed flat.
He was about to fall off the tiger’s back. At a critical moment, a small hand suddenly emerged to grab him by the belt and pull him back. It was Yi Yi, who had been hiding inside Amber’s body all this while. There was nothing much she could do to help during a fight, so she had kept herself hidden all this while. Appearing and saving him at this time was a stroke of genius.
His mouth was filled with the taste of metal. In addition, his chest and shoulders were incredibly sore. It was clear that he had been injured. A blow like that was not easy to block completely.
At this moment, he was rejoicing over the fact that he had used his Bell Spirit Artifact to restrain the Fifth-Order Spirit Creek Realm spell cultivator. If all three of his opponents joined forces against him, he would most likely die here.
The body tempering cultivator climbed up from the ground and retreated several hundred meters, watching Lu Ye warily. Similarly, the combat cultivator also backed away several thousand meters. He held his sledgehammer with both hands, looking very solemn. If one were to look carefully, one could see that his hands holding the sledgehammer were trembling hard. The attack just now was the result of his full strength… It was a heavy burden on his body.
Just in those few moments of delay, rustling movements could be heard coming from the surrounding forest. Cultivators were surrounding this area from all directions. The cultivators riding the Spirit Beasts were also quickly approaching. ｏｖ𝚕．ｃｏ𝚖
Lu Ye did not have the time to examine the wounds on his body. He quickly identified the weak points in their defense and immediately found a direction. Just as he was about to guide Amber in that direction, he suddenly heard shouting in the distance. The shouting continued endlessly. The shouts were also accompanied by powerful Spiritual Power fluctuations coming from that direction.
Turning to look in that direction, he saw colorful Spiritual Light flashing constantly on the mountain peak closest to him. Somebody was fighting over there! Moreover, it was a rather intense battle!
He patted the tiger’s back and pointed in that direction with his knife. “Head there!”
He did not choose the weak points in the opponent’s defense but the direction where the cultivator wielding the sledgehammer stood!
[It doesn’t matter who is fighting over there. I’m certain one of those parties will belong to the cultivators pursuing me. It turns out that they have enemies…] He immediately decided that that location was a good place to go.
Furthermore, the accumulation of all his previous encounters had allowed him to understand one thing: He could not escape this place with his current methods. The opponent seemed to have some sort of ability to grasp his movements. Moreover, there was a highly intelligent person commanding these people. That was why they could repeatedly form encirclements around him so easily.
Upon seeing Lu Ye fleeing in that direction, the Fifth-Order Spirit Creek Realm body tempering cultivator hurriedly shouted, “Don’t let him escape!”
The combat cultivator wielding the sledgehammer stepped forward with his back straightened proudly. He stood in front of Amber, the veins in both his arms bulging. When he raised his sledgehammer high above his head, the blood vessels along his shoulders burst and crimson blood stained his clothes red.
“Come and die!” He shouted while charging toward Lu Ye.
Spiritual Power mixed with a red light surged violently. Lu Ye lifted his hand and shot a Spell Technique at that man.