Six figures were duking it out in the Arcane Glade right now. The fiercest fight of them all was easily the one between Lu Ye and the burly man.
The burly man was a body-tempering cultivator and a Fifth Order Cloud River Realm cultivator. He also ascended with over three hundred Spiritual Points, meaning that he was way stronger than the combat cultivator Lu Ye had assassinated, Junior Brother Sun. This was evident from the fact that he still lived despite having lost an arm to Lu Yes ambush and took a dozen injuries all over his body. Not only that, he was still capable of putting up a fight.
He chose to take an injury so that he could bring out a Shield Spirit Artifact that he held with his remaining arm. It allowed him to block Lu Yes attacks and launch a counterattack or two from time to time. An explosive amount of Spiritual Power and vitality were discharged to the surroundings every time the saber clashed against the shield.
It was never a good idea to drag out a fight unless that was the plan. Seeing as his normal strikes werent good enough to settle things, Lu Ye decided to reveal one of his trump cards. After separating them both with a powerful strike, Lu Ye took two steps to the back, raised his saber in front of him, and assumed a stance. At the same time, vitality began flowing into his right arm.
Alarm bells rang in the burly mans head when he saw this. He hurriedly rushed forward and attempted to run Lu Ye over with his shield.
Lu Ye leaped into the air as his arm abruptly swelled like a balloon. Then, he brought his saber down like a swooping eagle.
Flash!
A mist of blood red energy steamed out of the pores of his right arm.
Combo!
When the first attack came, the burly mans eyes had immediately widened into saucers. He felt an unimaginable amount of force impacting his Shield Spirit Artifact and shaking his whole body like a gong. Despite being a body-tempering cultivator, the attack still brought him closer to the ground.
Before he could correct his posture, Combo struck him with even greater force. This time, he dropped to his knees, and his Shield Spirit Artifact hit the ground so hard that a literal crack had appeared on its surface.
Lu Ye wasnt done though. A third attack came, and the Shield Spirit Artifact emitted an explosive flash. He swung for the fourth time, and its light was much dimmer than before. The fifth attack finally did the trick and shattered the octodecuple enhancement Middle Grade Spirit Artifact. Not only that, the attack also cut into the burly mans left shoulder and out of his right waist as easily as tofu.
The burly mans vitality and protective Spiritual Power were powerful, but they just werent tough enough to withstand the explosive attack. Lu Ye had shattered his Spirit Artifact and cut him in half in one strike.
For a moment, the burly man could only stare at Lu Ye with shocked, disbelieving eyes. He moved his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but in the end no words came out of his lips.
Lu Ye maintained his stance as his right arm shook violently, and tearing pain assaulted his senses. When he was at the Spirit Creek Realm, he could only use Flash three times while Combo was active. Today, he could execute Flash five times in a row.
In fact, this wasnt his absolute limit. He could execute a sixth Flash before his right arm became unusable.
But of course, the aftereffects of the combination move were incredibly severe. There was no need to push himself that far unless absolutely necessary.
Three breaths later, Lu Ye straightened his back and glanced at the other two battlefields. What he saw surprised him tremendously. Amber was currently fighting against Ruan Qingzhu. The strange thing was that the woman was bleeding from all her orifices and looking deathly pale. It looked like she had suffered some serious injuries as well.
[Did Yi Yi succeed in ambushing her? I havent sensed any spell activity though, not to mention that shes nowhere to be seen. But in that case, how did Amber manage to push a Fourth Order cultivator this far by itself?]
He did not have the time to puzzle out the answer. Amber might be doing okay, but Kitty Shen was having a difficult time holding Junior Brother Cheng back. The growing bloodstains on her clothes made it clear that some of her wounds had reopened during the fight.
The fight was going in Junior Brother Chengs favor, but the burly mans horrific death and Ruan Qingzhus surprising inability to handle the tiger had thrown his mind into disarray. When he sensed that Lu Ye was looking in his direction, he immediately forced Kitty Shen back with a feint and tried to leap into the air.
Unfortunately, he was too late. Lu Yes flying weapons surrounded him before he could make a run for it, and Lu Ye himself was charging him like the wind.
As Lu Ye had predicted earlier, Junior Brother Cheng was not a good fighter. He was at best on the same level as the combat cultivator Lu Ye had assassinated, Junior Brother Sun. He might be able to gain the upper hand against a heavily injured Kitty Shen, but Lu Ye? He did not stand a chance to escape, much less defeat the young man.
A moment later, a bloodied Junior Brother Cheng hit the ground with a hoarse scream. His screams eventually petered out when all life had departed his body.
With that done, Lu Ye turned around and walked toward Ruan Qingzhu. The woman was currently leaning against the wall and looking quite afraid. She instinctively tried to run when she saw Lu Ye heading toward her, but her injuries were severe enough that she couldnt even rise to her feet.
Kitty Shen also walked up to Ruan Qingzhu despite the fact that blood was still pouring freely out of her wounds. She and Lu Ye stood side by side as they looked down on their former ally.
Ruan Qingzhu stared at Kitty Shen tearfully as she said in a pitiful tone, Sis
Dont call me that. You dont deserve it, Kitty Shen said with eyes as cold as ice. If she wasnt as capable as she was, she wouldve died to Ruan Qingzhus scheme three days ago. She felt not a sliver of sympathy for the traitor in front of her.
Ruan Qingzhu dropped her act and smiled. Fine, I wont call you that. I admit that I have made a grave mistake, but so what? You havent forgotten that weve signed a Sacred Pact, have you? You can neither hurt me nor kill me. This means that releasing me is your only option.
Kitty Shen clenched her teeth in frustration. Lu Ye was inspecting his Battlefield Imprint because Yi Yi had sent him a message. He finally realized what had happened when he read it until the end.
As it turned out, the reason Ruan Qingzhu looked like this was because of the Sacred Pact. One of the terms clearly stated that they werent allowed to injure one another. Since Amber was Lu Yes Tamed Beast, it was included in the effects of the Sacred Pact as well.
When Amber appeared to block Ruan Qingzhu, and she attempted to send it flying, she immediately suffered a severe backlash from the Sacred Pact. In fact, it was so bad that she, a Fourth Order cultivator, didnt even have the strength to escape.
This made sense. It was the backlash for breaking a term in the Sacred Pact that severely injured Ruan Qingzhu, not Amber. It would seem that his decision to send Amber after Ruan Qingzhu was wiser than he thought.
This created a new question, however. Why hadnt Amber suffered a backlash from attacking Ruan Qingzhu?
If Ruan Qingzhu could not attack Amber without suffering a backlash, then the opposite should be the same. However, it was clear that the white tiger was as fine as rain.
He asked Yi Yi about it. The response he received caused his eyebrows to rise up.
If there is nothing else, then Id be taking my leave, Ruan Qingzhu declared almost arrogantly before rising to her feet. The backlash was bad, but she had recovered enough to move again.
That was when Lu Ye surprised them all by stepping forward and slashing at Ruan Qingzhu.
STOP! Kitty Shen screamed.
She had fought on the Cloud River Battlefield for way longer than Lu Ye. That was why she knew full well just how terrible the backlash was. One could go as far as to say that it was impossible for them to hurt each other from the second they signed the Sacred Pact.
It was too late. By the time she had finished screaming the word, Lu Ye was already flicking away the blood on his blade and returning his saber to his sheath.
Before him, Ruan Qingzhu stiffened as her eyes turned horrified. She clutched her neck with both hands, but blood still seeped out of the fatal wound uncontrollably.
She stared at Lu Ye in disbelief. She just could not believe that Ye Six would dare to kill her while still under the effects of the Sacred Pact!
She wasnt going to survive this, but the price was Ye Sixs own life! .
See you on the way to the Yellow Spring! Ruan Qingzhu forced out her final words before collapsing on the ground, her head rolled away from her now neckless corpse.
Kitty Shen stared at Lu Ye in horror as she waited for the inevitable. However, a few seconds passed, and it did not look like Lu Ye was injured at all.
Stunned and confused, she asked, Are are you okay?
This day just kept getting stranger and stranger. She was the one who had prepared the terms and conditions of the Sacred Pact, so she knew its contents like the back of her hand. Logically speaking, Ye Six should one hundred percent be dead for breaking the non-aggression term in the Sacred Pact and killing Ruan Qingzhu, but for whatever reason, he wasnt affected at all.
If Lu Ye hadnt spoken with Yi Yi via the Battlefield Imprint earlier, he wouldnt have dared to gamble his life either. The girl had been watching the fight from the shadows, so she knew that for whatever reason, Amber did not suffer a backlash while it was fighting against Ruan Qingzhu.
Armed with this confirmation, Lu Ye reasoned that if Amber, his Tamed Beast did not suffer a backlash for fighting and wounding Ruan Qingzhu, then he should not suffer a backlash either. In the end, he was proven right.
As for why they hadnt suffered a backlash, Lu Ye could not say. He had a feeling that it had something to do with the Gift of Providence, but he had no way to prove it.
Regardless, he was never going to let Ruan Qingzhu walk away without repercussions. Although she hadnt laid a finger on them from the start until the end of this business, it didnt change the fact that she harbored malicious intentions from the moment she laid her eyes on this Arcane Glade and acted against their common interests. That she had brought three fellow disciples to their Arcane Glade was just the icing on the cake. She only had herself to blame for the consequences of her actions.
To be fair, Ruan Qingzhu wouldve survived if Lu Ye was anyone else. He was the man who received the Gift of Providence though. It would seem that one of the benefits of the gift was special treatment from the Heavens themselves.
Are you really okay, Ye Six? Kitty Shen asked. She was still checking Lu Ye to see if he was truly okay.
No. Im tired, Lu Ye replied before sitting down on a nearby rock and setting down the Inviolable.
Although the battle wasnt long, he had used Flash five times while under the effects of Combo. Judging from how swollen his right arm was, it would take him at least two to three days to recover.
This was Lu Yes first true battle since entering the Cloud River Battlefield. As he replayed the battle in his mind, he realized that he was probably strong enough to kill any average cultivator below the Fifth Order. Anyone who underestimated him because of his cultivation level would definitely pay the price.
He was aware of the strength disparity between Cloud River Realm cultivators. He could now confirm that the rumor was true.
In fact, he couldve killed the burly man without using his trump card. He just didnt want to drag out the fight unnecessarily and risk an unexpected accident.
You must tell me if you feel uncomfortable at all, okay Ye Six? This is no joking matter, Kitty Shen added worriedly even though Lu Ye was obviously fine.
Lu Ye shot her a glance and said, You should take care of yourself first.
𝘪𝑎.𝘤𝑜𝑚