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Jiang Liuzi felt his blood turning into ice. He felt as if he had accidentally disturbed an ancient beast’s slumber, and the angry creature was now attacking him with all its power. He could barely breathe from the sheer amount of pressure pressing down on him from all sides.
[This bastard… he’s a combat cultivator!]
It was only now that Jiang Liuzi finally realized Lu Ye’s true Faction. The foxy bastard was really a combat cultivator. Everything he had shown off until now was a ruse meant to mislead him!
[How deceitful!]
There was no time to be distracted, however. Jiang Liuzi quickly cleared his mind and conjured multiple energy blooms with his sword. However, Lu Ye easily cut them all with his flame-wreathed, Sharp Edge-empowered saber. It wasn’t long before metal clashed against metal, and Jiang Liuzi was flung uncontrollably into the air once more. A massive, bone-deep wound had appeared on his chest as well. The wound was inflicted when Lu Ye was surprised earlier.
Jiang Liuzi had defeated two opponents beforehand, and the fight against the body-tempering cultivator especially had used up much of his reserves. Now that he was seriously injured as well, his cool was lost as a matter of course. Even his aura was starting to grow a little disjointed.
Every strike Lu Ye dished out felt almost impossible to block. His violent strength and impossible speed wasn’t something a Third-Order cultivator should possess at all. Looking at his explosive power alone, Jiang Liuzi could almost believe that Lu Ye was a body-tempering cultivator who honed his body. After all, brute strength was a body-tempering cultivator’s greatest strength and privilege.
His speed though, that was something even he, a Fifth-Order sword cultivator, could not hope to match.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, something was extremely off about his saber. Sometimes, a blow would feel as light as a feather. Sometimes, he felt as if he was trying to block a literal mountain. The only warning he got was the intermittent flashes. It was impossible to guard against it effectively.
No matter how much he backed away, he was unable to weaken his opponent’s storm-like assault by even a little. In less than ten breaths, he had suffered a couple more wounds that exposed his bones. The worst of them all was a penetrating wound. Normally, a penetrating wound wasn’t a big problem as long as it didn’t hit a vital spot, but Jiang Liuzi clearly felt something erupting inside his body right as the saber pierced through his flesh. It was many tiny spikes skewering his internal organs!
His energy was swiftly leaving his body. He was literally seeing double due to how much blood he had lost. Despite this, he refused to surrender the battle.
He was a sword cultivator, and a sword cultivator would rather break than bend to another! He would rather die than surrender to his enemy!
If he had one regret, it would be falling for Lu Ye’s ruse just because his spells looked as impressive as a spell cultivator’s. If he wasn’t so certain in his judgment, he might have been able to avoid taking that decisive blow and put on a better fight.
The sword cultivator had encountered plenty of deceitful people in his life, but he had never encountered one as cunning as Lu Ye. His earlier performance was just too convincing. Since when was a combat cultivator capable of casting a large variety of spells at high speed? The spells were pretty powerful as well. Anyone would’ve thought that he was a spell cultivator.
When Jiang Liuzi glanced at Lu Ye once more, he felt as if the combat cultivator was silently mocking him from behind his mask. He immediately lost control of his composure and vomited a mouthful of blood.
Jiang Liuzi gritted his teeth and began pouring all of his Spiritual Power into his sword. The Spiritual Artifact began shining like a mini sun.
Jiang Liuzi’s intention was obvious to Lu Ye, but he saw no reason to be afraid whatsoever. He was dominating the sword cultivator in every manner possible. He was confident he could block Jiang Liuzi’s trump card no matter what it was.
His vitality surged and mingled even closer with Amber’s. Their combined vitality began flowing into his right arm.
Before Lu Ye’s could execute his blade technique and end Jiang Liuzi’s life though, he suddenly frowned and leaped at least thirty meters back.
Meanwhile, Jiang Liuzi had finished channeling his final move and fired a shockingly powerful sword beam at Lu Ye. However, a figure descended from above and blocked the attack with his hand. He was none other than the young man leading the opposing group.
The young man was in the Ninth-Order, but Jiang Liuzi’s final move still managed to drive him back a few steps and disturb his aura a little. After he caught his footing, he faced toward Lu Ye and declared with a frown, “I surrender on behalf of my companion!”
He could do this because Xia Qianqian had set a precedent earlier. He also knew Jiang Liuzi was probably going to die here if he refused to step out.
The problem with sword cultivators was that they were as bad-tempered as they were one-track-minded. If Lu Ye’s cultivation level was identical or higher than Jiang Liuzi’s, then the sword cultivator could’ve swallowed this defeat. However, Lu Ye was two minor realms below him. How could he possibly endure such humiliation?
It would damage or even destroy his sword heart to surrender to a theoretically weaker foe.
As soon as the young man finished his declaration, he heard something hitting the ground with a dull thud. He turned around and saw that it was a bloodied Jiang Liuzi dropping to his knees. That final move had clearly depleted all of his strength.
The young man then turned back toward Lu Ye and said, “You’re incredible!”
What else could he say? The mysterious young man had literally defeated Jiang Liuzi, a powerful sword cultivator who was two minor realms above him. Sure, there was a bit of deception involved, but that didn’t mean he was weak by any means. If anything, it proved the opposite.
[Just who is this guy?]
The young man was sure that Lu Ye was pretty famous in the Spirit Creek Battlefield. Judging from his cultivation level, he could not have entered the Cloud River Battlefield more than half a year ago.
In any case, it shouldn’t be difficult to discern his identity despite the face mask. All he had to do was ask around to see if there was anyone in the Spirit Creek Battlefield who distinguished themselves in the past half a year or so.
The young man carried the unconscious Jiang Liuzi in his arms and flew away. Lu Ye stayed where he was and waited for his next opponent to step up.
To be fair, his fight against Jiang Liuzi wasn’t completely fair. For starters, the sword cultivator had used up some of his strength during the earlier fights. Two, his deception and subsequent surprise attack was literally perfect. No one—not even he—could’ve figured out his true fighting style and reacted accordingly. A surprise attack that powerful could only be blocked with sufficient preparation and defense, and sword cultivators were hardly famous for their defense.
Of course, Lu Ye was confident he could’ve beaten Jiang Liuzi in a perfectly fair fight. His opponent wasn’t weak, but his composure could definitely use some work. It would just take a bit of work, was all.
On the Spirit Peak, the Fourth-Order spell cultivator’s mouth had turned into an O-shape. It would remain that way for a very, very long time.
When she thought that Lu Ye was a spell cultivator, she was still worried for his safety despite his exceptional performance. That was because a sword cultivator just possessed too much of an advantage over a spell cultivator. The fight would be over as soon as the sword cultivator got close enough to attack them.
When Jiang Liuzi appeared next to Lu Ye almost like magic and attempted to stab him, she thought for sure that was the end of the battle and Lu Ye’s life. Then, the young man had pulled out a saber out of seemingly nowhere and proceeded to whoop Jiang Liuzi’s ass so hard even his mother wouldn’t be able to recognize him. It was such a drastic turn of events that the woman was unable to regain her composure even now.
“Is… is he a combat cultivator, senior sister?” the spell cultivator asked a little too late.
“I guess,” Xia Qianqian replied vaguely. No one label truly fit Lu Ye.
“He’s… incredible!” The spell cultivator declared ecstatically and admiringly. She had no idea where her senior sister found him, but he was beyond incredible to put it mildly.
Jiang Liuzi had already wowed her to no end, but Lu Ye had made him look like a small fry. The world truly was a vast place. Lu Ye’s genius made an ordinary cultivator like her feel as small as an ant.
On the opposite Spirit Peak, after the young man finished inspecting Jiang Liuzi’s injuries with another cultivator, he warned, “Be careful. Something’s fishy about that guy!”
No one could have anticipated this outcome. It was so unbelievable that the Ninth-Order young man even wondered if Lu Ye was wearing a Spirit Artifact that concealed his true cultivation level. After all, how was it possible for a Third-Order cultivator to be this powerful?
The youngster he was speaking to shared similar features with Jiang Liuzi. He just looked a little shadier than the sword cultivator. He nodded and declared, “That bastard won’t live to see another day!”
The youngster’s name was Jiang Chengzi, and Lu Ye had just destroyed his blood-related brother. Of course the youngster was beyond livid. On the inside, he swore to engrave the word “terror” into Lu Ye’s heart before killing him.
In a fair fight, Jiang Liuzi would beat him ten out of ten times. But when it came to killing, not even three Jiang Liuzis were a match for him. It was because he was a ghost cultivator!
Jiang Chengzi leaped over the cliff and landed in the valley. He then ran straight toward Lu Ye.
Lu Ye watched as the ghost cultivator turned invisible after taking just a few steps. Jiang Chengzi couldn’t see his expression, but he was just barely suppressing the urge to chuckle.
[A ghost cultivator, huh.]
Of all the known cultivation factions, there was no one Lu Ye loved to face more than a ghost cultivator. It was because they loved nothing more than to exploit their connection to the Nether, skulk over to their target, and attack them from behind.
Here’s the problem: Ever since Lu Ye left the Lost City of Xianyuan, he had encountered exactly one ghost cultivator who managed to remain concealed from his senses, and that was only because the ghost cultivator never entered his range until the end. As for the others, it was as if they weren’t even communing with the Nether!
Imagine that you were a ghost cultivator, and you were sneaking up to your target while your concealment skill was running at full capacity. You had no reason to believe that your target was able to sense you at all. Then, right as you were about to assassinate them, they turned around and put a saber right through your heart!
Just how scary was that?
In any case, a ghost cultivator who could not conceal themselves was just a poor man’s combat cultivator. In fact, they were far inferior to their combative counterparts in terms of combat abilities!
The second Lu Ye saw his opponent turning invisible, he immediately applied Insight to his eyes and rushed forward. His view changed drastically, and all kinds of invisible colors suddenly entered his view.
Lu Ye had a hard time adapting to Insight the first time he constructed the Glyph. Now, he had long since adapted to the strange view.
On the other hand, Jiang Chengzi was both surprised and impressed that Lu Ye would dare to rush him, a ghost cultivator. Generally speaking, the best way to deal with a ghost cultivator was to stay where you were. It was how Jiang Liuzi had defeated his ghost cultivator earlier.
Most of the time, a cultivator who charged a ghost cultivator who just turned invisible was hoping to score a lucky hit. Theoretically speaking, they could knock the ghost cultivator out of their invisibility right from the get go if they were lucky enough to attack the right location, and if their attack covered a wide enough space.
Unfortunately, the tactic rarely worked in practice. In Jiang Chengzi’s case, every single opponent who had tried this tactic against him had had their asses handed to them. From his perspective, he was sure that Lu Ye was attempting the same tactic.
He quickly discovered that he was wrong, however. Although Lu Ye was charging toward him, he wasn’t attacking at all. To be specific, he was expecting Lu Ye to cast a massive spell or execute a wide-reaching blade technique or something. Instead, he merely launched his nine flying weapons toward his exact location!
Jiang Chengzi frowned and swerved out of the way. However, the flying weapons abruptly scattered in every direction and knocked Jiang Chengzi out of his invisibility.
While holding a dagger in front of his face—it was how he had parried the sudden attack—Jiang Chengzi screamed inside his heart, [How is the sonuvabitch so lucky!?]
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