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Lu Ye was right. Li Baxian came with Feng Yuechan and they were fighting side-by-side with each other—he with his Telekinesis and she with her Spiritual Power pulsing in huge undulations as she fired one spell after another at their assailants.
But there were not three, not four, but five assailants in all.
Had been, more like. One of them was sprawled on the ground with a spreading pool of red beneath him. There was no telling if he was already dead, but he was clearly put to the ground by Li Baxian, no less.
Another one was some distance away. His entire person radiated rich Spiritual Energy as he waved a flag—a ward flag—back and forth again and again.
Without any doubt he had to be a Ward Cultivator and the signature of his Spiritual Energy indicated that he was a Fifth-Order.
So were the rest of the remaining three assailants still engaging Li Baxian and Feng Yuechan; they were also Fourth-and Fifth-Orders.
Yet despite their superior advantage in numbers, none of them looked like they were enjoying this one bit. If anything, their eyes were fraught with shock and trepidation for Li Baxian and Feng Yuechan must be far more powerful than they expected.
It was an ambush that should have worked with the elements of superior numbers and surprise. Yet they were not able to capitalize on their advantage and defeat this duo, instead one of them was killed. Fortunately for them, the Ward Cultivator had managed to activate the ward that he had cast beforehand in time, and that somehow evened the odds considerably.
Nevertheless, that did not make the fight any easier. The deadly shafts of light with speeds, intensity, and power that could snuff out their lives if they were not careful, plus the powerful spells that never stopped screaming at them were all enough to make this easily one of the hardest skirmishes they had ever fought in.
[Where the hell did these two monstrosities pop out from?!]
Instead of waylaying what they anticipated as easy targets, these enemy Cultivators knew very well that they had just poked the hornet’s nest.
But it did not take long for the enemy Fifth-Orders to realize that prolonging this fight was not going to end in their favor. Even if they could still hold their ground, the commotion of the fight could attract unwanted attention. All would still be well if allied Thousand Demon Ridge Cultivators were to come this way; any form of help would be sorely welcomed. But if it was someone from the Grand Sky Coalition, then these marauders would have to rue their poor luck.
It was a fifty-fifty wager that none of them were willing to risk.
“Hold up!” one of them cried at last. “This is just a misunderstanding! Now, everybody stop and take one step back before we do anything else we might regret!”
As much as they wished to withdraw, this could only be done if both parties had arrived at an understanding with Li Baxian and Feng Yuechan ceasing and desisting just like them.
There was little pity for the one who was killed. As an outsider who was only roped in to make up the numbers, the others were more than willing to chalk his demise up to bad luck than to further endanger themselves.
The cry did its job; Li Baxian quietly furrowed his brow and dialed back his power.
Being trapped in the magical ward might have limited both his and Feng Yuechan’s power to eight-tenths of their usual level, but the presence of a Ward Cultivator in the midst of the enemy did not mean that he lacked both the confidence and ability to slay all these enemies.
In fact, the odds of success were even higher with Feng Yuechan’s help.
The magical ward wasn’t anything too powerful or complex for them to overcome.
For more than ten years he and Feng Yuechan had stayed in the Spirit Creek Battlefield. They might have squandered precious time, but the time had also allowed them to develop valuable experience, skill, and maturity.
The enemies were just a ragtag crew of a few mediocre Fourth-and Fifth-Orders that never stood any chance in the first place.
Then again, Li Baxian was hardly a fool who failed to recognize the risks of waging open combat in broad daylight within Colosseum grounds where untold perils awaited everywhere and anytime. His primary objective remained to regroup with Lu Ye.
Relieved at the chance for a parlay, Li Baxian grunted his agreement, “Very well!”
Li Baxian toned down his attacks further.
The enemy Fifth-Order who sued for peace was about to heave a long breath of relief when a shrill cry of pain slashed across the newly-minted truce. His face fell with dismay; that cry was the voice of the Ward Cultivator!
His peripheral vision caught sight of a figure he had not seen before. Creeping up on the Ward Cultivator from behind, the stranger had impaled his saber through the chest of the Ward Cultivator, the cool glint of the weapon only veiled by the macabre sheen of blood on its surface.
[Blasted!]
When Lu Ye first got here, he immediately saw how Li Baxian and Feng Yuchan were pinned down. With his Glyph: Insight he quickly discovered that they were trapped in a magical ward that was being maintained by an enemy Cultivator. That was what prompted him to stealthily sneak close and deliver his one-hit kill.
His poor quarry had had his hands full in dealing with both Li BaXian and Feng Yuechan. Their deadliness and prowess had kept him so tense, anxious, and awed that he did not even see Lu Ye creeping closer. By the time he noticed Lu Ye lunging, it was already too late.
Inviolable stabbed through his ribs, eliciting a huge fountain of blood out of the gash at his front when Lu Ye yanked it free before it came back in an arc that lopped off the head like a cook chopping off the greens on top of a carrot.
At the same time, the swarming shafts of light that had been diminishing and their movements slackened suddenly flared up as if they were given a new lease of life. As Lu Ye decapitated his quarry, the shafts of light all dove at the Fifth-Order who called for a truce just now, raining a furious onslaught upon him that he could barely hold his ground as he stumbled backward due to the sheer strength of every shaft that attacked him. But just when he thought he had managed to regain a steady foothold, death came from behind.
It was Lu Ye stepping within the bounds of the magical ward, charging straight at them.
Inviolable swung in a deadly curve even before he got near. A scythe of glowing luminescence roared through the air and smashed through the enemy Fifth-Order’s protective aura and blasted a gaping hole on his back that never stopped bleeding in profuse spates.
All he managed to do was let loose one agonizing shriek that lasted not one second at all before he went dead silent.
Lu Ye did not stop. He bolted past the dying enemy still wobbling and churning out blood, to race for his next target, his saber now dripping a slick trail of crimson as he moved.
Only after he was far away did the Fifth-Order drop dead to the ground.
But Lu Ye wasn’t anywhere near his next target when the latter was hit by a lightning-elemental spell. Serpentine tendrils of electricity snaked all over him, paralyzing him like a giant web of lightning as he slowly cooked to death before a second spell blasted a hole straight through his chest, killing him instantly.
On the other hand, Li Baxian swiftly made short work of the last Fourth-Order enemy with his flying sword-shaped shafts of light.
In barely ten seconds, the battle was over—all thanks to Lu Ye.
In the wake of that action-packed ten seconds, Li Baxian and his junior brother shared a quick look at each other, the former’s gaze filled with surprise and marvel. Lu Ye gave a wave and yelped, “Come on! This way!”
He wheeled around and scampered off with Li Baxian and Feng Yuechan peeling closely behind.
Yi Yi quickly swooped up what loot she could collect before she went back underground and followed after them.
As he ran, Lu Ye took the chance to look up into the sky. His vision homed in on the first name on the Carnage Roster and the dread and apprehension that followed made the corners of his eyes throb—both involuntarily and uncontrollably.
Once they got inside the cave, Lu Ye instructed Li Baxian and Feng Yuechan on how to avoid triggering the explosive wards before they finally reached the vastness and safety of the rock chambers deeper inside.
They sat down and Li Baxian looked around. His face went alight with amazement, “What is this?! A magical ward?!”
He could tell that a magical ward had been constructed here, although his lack of knowledge in the arcane mastery of ward-building prevented him from identifying it.
But Lu Ye had brought them here. That would mean that this magical ward must mean something.
“A Teleportation Ward.”
“What?! A Teleportation Ward?!”
Li Baxian and Feng Yuechan could not believe it. They had heard about how talented Lu Ye was in the mastery of ward-casting, but neither of them knew that he was skilled enough to construct a Teleportation Ward!
Neither of them had imagined this was possible!
Especially since Lu Ye was only just a Cloud River Realm Cultivator.
“How far can you go with this?”
Li Baxian had to ask. The further the Ward could reach, the greater its value would be. Teleportation Wards that could go only as far as a dozen miles were useless, to say the least. Any other Cloud River Realm enemies worth their salt could easily close that amount of distance in no time.
“About two hundred miles.”
“Huh…”
Li Baxian inhaled a long, deep breath.
Even Feng Yuechan looked utterly bewildered.
They might be of similar ranks of Cultivation, but they were nevertheless more experienced and seasoned than Lu Ye, and that was why they understood the significance behind Lu Ye’s ability to construct a Teleportation Ward that could scale distances as far as two hundred miles.
For what it was worth, Lu Ye’s skill and gifts in ward-casting was far greater than they expected.
And beyond any doubt, he had to have constructed several such Wards or he would not have chosen to hide inside this cave.
With these Wards, Lu Ye would be able to maintain his safety even though he was weaker than most of the contestants of this Carnage Colosseum—assuming he hadn’t been everywhere causing a ruckus and inviting unwanted attention.
Still, Li Baxian could barely prevent shedding beads of anxious perspiration down the side of his face. He had been so worried about Lu Ye’s safety, thinking that his young junior brother was trapped somewhere, besieged by mortal threats. It was this belief that had driven them both to rush here at once. Of all the difficulties they anticipated Lu Ye to be in, this scenario was definitely not what they envisioned.
But this was, unequivocally, good news. Lu Ye was safe and with these Teleportation Wards, he could easily escape if he encountered an enemy that was too powerful to handle.
That reminded Li Baxian of something else: their rank of cultivation. “Wait a second, you’re a Third-Order now, Lu Ye!”
It had not been two months yet since Lu Ye had made his ascension into the Cloud River Realm. That was why Li Baxian had been under the impression that Lu Ye was not in the Second-Order yet until he noticed otherwise.
“I was lucky. I found a pocket dimension not long ago and that allowed me to earn enough to exchange for several Amulets.”
Yi Yi finally arrived as they were talking. She demurely bowed to Li Baxian and Feng Yuechan, “My respects to you, Brother Baxian and Sister Yuechan.”
“You’ve grown prettier since I last saw you, sister,” Li Baxian nodded approvingly.
Which was true. Since Yi Yi and Amber’s ascension into the Cloud River Realm, the former had begun to grow more beautiful as a woman.
The praise made Yi Yi so happy that her eyes turned into crescents.
Feng Yuechan took her aside to talk but not before Yi Yi handed the loot she fetched from the scene of the battle earlier to Lu Ye.
Lu Ye took the loot from her and laid it down. Then he began undoing the magical seals of every Storage Bag while he and Li Baxian continued their chat.
Lu Ye had taken note of Li Baxian and Feng Yuechan’s cultivation rank during the earlier fight. Both of them were one rank higher than he was—Fourth-Orders.
They had been here in the Cloud River Battlefield longer than he was; his fortune had been good and so had theirs. To that end, everyone had managed to progress quickly enough.
The conversation took a turn and Li Baxian began asking about the recent events in the Crimson Blood Sect.
Li Baxian sighed when he finally heard that the Sect was improving and its future was bright and promising, “This is where I say I’m sorry, brother.”
The Sect’s present prosperity was Lu Ye’s singlehanded hard work and toil. Back when he first arrived, there was no one else but him and Shui Yuan aside from their mentor Tang Yifeng.
But today, the Crimson Blood Sect could boast a membership of seven to eight hundred-man strong, if not a thousand, stationed at its outpost in the Spirit Creek Battlefield. No other sect or order could possibly claim to wield similar strength and influence, especially in the outer ring regions of the Battlefield.
To say nothing of the Blessings on the outpost’s Divine Opportunity Column that had ensured a level of Spiritual Qi ambiance that few other outposts could emulate. Even the Contribution Points owned by the outpost were enough to purchase more Blessings.
Furthermore, the riches that the Thousand Demon Ridge sects and orders had surrendered as tributes were enough for the outpost to go on operating for at least another couple or more decades.
Such were the contributions that Lu Ye alone had made to the Sect.
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