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Amidst the disarray of the mountainous cavern, the Spell Cultivator’s gaze fell upon his adversary who had abruptly materialized out of nowhere earlier, now buried under a mountain of rocks, and clearly unconscious. Beneath the tattered face mask was a comely and youthful countenance, but that was not what the enemy Spell Cultivator was looking at. It was a shimmering glint that had caught his attention.
He looked closely and when he realized what it was, his heart almost skipped a beat: a Gold Amulet!
Overwhelmed with delight, the Spell Cultivator couldn’t help but feel that the Gold Amulet falling into his lap must be some sort of well-deserved providence. As much as he was puzzled by the sudden appearance of this mysterious Grand Sky Coalition Cultivator and the presence of an explosive ward, all of his focus and mind was centered upon the irresistible Gold Amulet gleaming proudly before him.
He strode forward instinctively, driven more by greed and joy before rationale took hold and made him stop.
Although the explosion of the explosive ward earlier showed formidable power, it would still take more than that to fully kill a Cloud River Realm Cultivator. Therefore, he should still be alive! 𝔣𝔯𝔴𝖇𝖓𝔬𝖛𝔩.𝖈𝔬𝖒
And his garb strongly suggested that he was a Combat Cultivator!
[This fellow must be playing dead to get me closer!]
The Thousand Demon Ridge Cultivator might not be a genius, but he wasn’t foolish enough to not see that coming. If a Combat Cultivator could get close to him, especially under such narrow and cramped conditions in the cave, then he could expect nothing but an impending and inescapable woe.
Knowing full well that he ought to be cautious, he channeled his Spiritual Power, his hands performing several hand seals.
Whether the enemy was dead or not, the Spell Cultivator needed to fire a blast or two at him, just to make sure. If the enemy had indeed fainted, then this would send him to meet his maker for good. But if he was really trying to feign being knocked out cold, this attack would make that a reality. No matter what the outcome was, he was determined to get his hands on the Amulet and kill the enemy.
As he prepared to strike, he sensed another signature of Spiritual Power coming from behind him. Before he could wheel around, he could hear something screaming through the air!
The Spell Cultivator swiveled around at once. While the entirety of his vision focused on seeing several aureate scythes arcing straight at him, his peripheral vision caught sight of a figure small and lithe of girth.
The Spiritual Power signature was coming from her and the golden scythe-like projectiles were hardly the only things in store: there was even a huge fireball that she was preparing to hurl at him!
[When did she get here?!]
The Spell Cultivator’s face fell. As a Cloud River Realm Sixth-Order, he took pride in his spiritual senses and awareness. Unless it were a Ghost Cultivator with equal power or beyond, he should have detected someone trying to creep up on him unaware.
But he did fail to detect the other stranger’s presence. If she had not been launching attacks, he would have not even realized that he was not alone in the first place.
That was Yi Yi. She had appeared the moment the explosive ward exploded, using the clamor and disarray caused by the tumbling rocks to make her way to the back of the Spell Cultivator.
The essence of the maneuver was speed. She needed to be ready as soon as possible and fire as many spells as she could to overwhelm the enemy.
There was no way for the Spell Cultivator to evade; the fallen debris had practically kept him pinned in a narrow and cramped space and the only thing he could think of was to quickly erect a luminescent shield of magic that he relied on with every ounce of his Spiritual Power to protect himself from Yi Yi’s onslaught.
Heavy thuds hammered incessantly on the shield of light, jolting the Spell Cultivator’s frame like the cascading barrage of strokes from a hammer as he was knocked backward foot by foot in piecemeal steps. He felt humiliated—abased—that he was forced into such a helpless corner all because of the terrain.
[A First-Order!]
[How dare she! I’ll have her hide for such impudence!]
The Spell Cultivator was about to launch his counterattack when the spilling sound of rocks and stones rolling to the ground alerted him to something else.
[Oh, no!]
The Spell Cultivator felt the surface of his scalp going numb. The sudden appearance of another enemy had made him forget about that Combat Cultivator behind him!
The sharp, impending threat of death made the Spell Cultivator unleash his Spiritual Power almost reflexively, releasing a tremendous pulse of force that blasted in all directions away from him.
A thin trail of blood trickled down the exposed side of Lu Ye’s face, barely obscured by the tattered mask now flapping in the air. It was one of the pieces of debris that had hit him in the head and caused that wound. But the morbid-red stream lent a hint of callousness to his otherwise steely-calm countenance.
Lu Ye drove Inviolable straight at the wave of force pummeling him and nearly fell.
He quickly recovered and switched to bringing his weapon up for a downward hack.
The furious blow from behind could have cloven the Spell Cultivator into a pair of bloody halves, but his defensive shield thwarted the attempt. Despite having not even a graze, the Spell Cultivator staggered forward, nearly tumbling forward as he grimaced bitterly at the pain.
“A Third-Order!” he grunted with venom, accurately guessing Lu Ye’s rank.
The Spell Cultivator was expecting the worst. For a Spell Cultivator to be trapped in such perilous terrain, he was definitely not optimistic enough to think he would survive this ill-fated excursion into this cave.
But now that he realized that his opponents were a First-Order Spell Cultivator and a Third-Order Combat Cultivator, what dread of death in him vanished, replaced by apoplectic rage.
“YOU HAVE A DEATH WISH, DON’T YOU!?” the Spell Cultivator snarled. He flung a hand at Lu Ye and the image of a giant hand appeared and clawed at Lu Ye.
He could easily deal with a First-Order later; right now, he needed to defeat the stronger Third-Order enemy first. Especially since he was also a Combat Cultivator who had a geographical advantage in this terrain.
Once Lu Ye had been dealt with, he could easily crush a First-Order Spell Cultivator in due time.
In the meantime, Yi Yi had not stopped her ongoing barrage of spells pelting at the Spell Cultivator’s shield, its every hit eliciting tiny bursts of sparkles falling to the ground like cinders.
As the giant hand groped for Lu Ye, he responded by firing a Fire Phoenix spell at it. The flaming projectile reminiscent of a bird slammed into the hand and the collision set forth a wave of Spiritual Power.
That gave Lu Ye the chance to bolt forward.
With a frigid and menacing glare, the Spell Cultivator locked his gaze on Lu Ye. As soon as the latter reached within a certain range, he deftly repeated his earlier tactic, unleashing a raging torrent of Spiritual Power—an awesome repulsive force that ravaged everything in its path. So formidable was this force that even Yi Yi’s spells were dispelled before they got any closer to hitting the luminescent shield.
Lu Ye seemed entirely unfazed as if the tremendous impact of the repulsive force was as gentle as a midnight breeze. He momentarily paused as the force came crashing towards him, but then quickly resumed his charge towards his target, undeterred.
Lu Ye’s extensive experience in eliminating Spell Cultivators had made him well-versed in their methods. The ability to repel enemies in close proximity was a commonly employed survival technique among Spell Cultivators, but it posed no challenge for Lu Ye. He knew that the key to neutralizing such a move was to maintain a safe distance from his opponent.
Lu Ye swiftly closed in on his opponent and, in one fluid movement, swung his weapon upwards.
Next, he brought it down with every ounce of might and speed he could muster.
His ultimate move: Flash!
That initially surprised the Spell Cultivator. But he remained calm. Having been wounded by Lu Ye before, he knew that a strike from a Cultivator at Lu Ye’s level was not enough to kill him; his magical shield had prevented any penetration, but the sheer physical force behind it, despite causing him some discomfort, was still not enough to threaten his life.
To no surprise, the blow came down and the luminescent shield was holding. Its sheen had weakened somewhat, but it had not failed entirely. All he needed to do was to reinject a fresh spurt of Spiritual Power and the shield would be restored.
The excruciating pain of the massive impact contorted his face, causing him to careen uncontrollably backward. Despite his attempt to activate his Spiritual Power to repair his weakened spiritual barrier, Lu Ye relentlessly pursued him like a bloodhound on a scent, catching up to him and delivering yet another devastating blow.
The magical shield grew increasingly fragile… Then came a third blow.
A bone-splitting din screamed out, twisting the Spell Cultivator’s expression into one of terror. Frantically, he attempted to replenish the integrity of his magical shield with his Spiritual Power, but even with his swift efforts, it nevertheless required time.
Time that Lu Ye wasn’t going to give him. The already dim spiritual barrier had only just begun to regain its strength and shine brighter when Lu Ye’s fourth blow arrived.
It was all a combination of strokes!
With a loud crack, the shield shattered, leaving the Spell Cultivator defenseless as the blast threw him backward with a trail of blood spraying into the air. Along with the shield, the fourth blow sliced off the Spell Cultivator’s right arm cleanly.
The Spell Cultivator reeled off amid a deafening scream of agony from him.
Lu Ye landed on the ground, gasping for breath. Despite his progress, using combination techniques with Flash active resulted in a tremendous strain on his body as each strike required him to exert himself to the fullest. The flesh and blood on his arm throbbed and pulsed from the strain and the angry-red soreness gathering through the entire length of his arm—now feverish scarlet—refused to scatter. But it mattered little at the moment.
In the meantime, Yi Yi did not stop hurling spell after spell at the Spell Cultivator who had to duck and evade—even in the most undignified manner—as he squealed like a hog.
With his right arm severed and the cycle of his Macrocosmic Orbit interrupted, the Spell Cultivator’s strength was greatly diminished. He clutched his wound, failing to staunch the flow of blood still gushing out the morbid stub, as panic began to fill his gaze. It was hard for the Spell Cultivator to imagine suffering such a huge loss against anyone weaker than him, a Third-Order Combat Cultivator and a First-Order Spell Cultivator no less! The relentless style of fighting was unlike anything he had ever seen before. Reacting quickly, the Spell Cultivator wheeled around and raced for Yi Yi, firing a spell at her as he drew nearer. Yi Yi quickly dodged it and discorporated as if she had melted into the ground.
That stunt confused the Spell Cultivator, and it provided an opening, leaving him vulnerable to a heavy blow to his back, sending him crashing to the ground with excruciating pain.The Spell Cultivator had broken the single-most important rule: to not expose his back to the enemy. The Sixth-Order Spell Cultivator had lost all sense of judgment because of the pain from his wounds. But few could ever remain calm, especially at the sight of impending death. More often than not, their errors caused by the disoriented judgment often have the better of them. The enemy lay in agony with a gaping wound in his back that almost exposed his insides.
With his quarry incapacitated on the ground, Lu Ye caught up and stepped on his back. Next, he held his weapon in a backhand grip and drove the weapon through his fallen enemy’s heart, the weapon’s blade bristling with Spiritual Power and double Sharp Edges activated.
It plunged through him and poked out the front, impaling his heart in the process.
The Spell Cultivator recoiled with unimaginable pain, the residual Spiritual Power inside him detonating like a dynamite with waves of Spiritual Power pulsing before everything went back to silence. That knocked Lu Ye off his feet, slamming him into a nearby rock face with blood bursting out as his saber was dislodged from the body.
When Lu Ye finally got back to his feet, there was the Spell Cultivator, now dead with a pool of red underneath him. Yi Yi quickly scrambled to collect all his belongings and the dead enemy’s Storage Bag that she tossed to Lu Ye before she vanished back into Amber.
Lu Ye raced out of the cave and sped away as quickly as he could, disappearing into the night. By the time more Cultivators arrived because of the commotion the fight had caused, all they found was a disfigured dead body. The wounds on the body showed how furious the fight was and the winner appeared to be a Combat Cultivator armed with a saber. That was all that they could determine considering the lack of evidence.
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