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Many within the Cloud River Battlefield chose to keep their faces masked to hide their identities. As ubiquitous as they were practical, masks, in all the varying designs and cost, were helpful in concealing identities, allowing many, especially in circumstances where transparency was unwise, to transform into faceless silhouettes that blended and vanished amongst the crowd to preserve their anonymity.
Strangely, He Bing held a unique disdain and disgust for such trappings, and with the power he wielded, he was trying to impose his will on Lu Ye and the others.
“I’ll count to three,” he commanded, his tone ice-cold, “Remove your masks.”
He would have charged forward without a word if not for the geographical disadvantage the moment he realized that the newcomers were enemies. That the newcomers had arrived in a group was all he needed to know that they must be weaker than he was. He had defeated many such enemies before despite the numerical disadvantage and few had managed to put up what could be worthy of a fair battle.
“One!”
“Two!”
Li Baxian reached to remove his mask, resignation etched on his concealed face as he sighed helplessly.
He was such an indomitable presence in the Spirit Creek Battlefield and there was hardly anyone who did not fear the name Li Baxian of the Devoted Ones. Still, here he was, as weak as any novice could be in this new world.
Like lightning flashing across a calm sky, Lu Ye burst forward from behind Li Baxian, his gleaming blade sending an arc of light hurtling toward He Bing.
“IMPUDENCE!”
He Bing boomed, indignant at their defiance. He lifted his spear to retaliate, the weapon effortlessly shattering the incandescent scythe of light.
Rage came in waves. Even despite the odds, these puny voles dared to attack him first when he had not?!
His cold eyes took in the audacious challenger—a mere Third-Order, judging by the glow emanating from him—who was already sprinting at him and he cracked into a wicked grin.
[A Third-Order, eh? Is this fool wishing for his own death?!] he mused. He could easily blast the challenger to death with just one blow.
But a flutter of Spiritual Power from behind caused him to pause.
Someone was behind him!
His focus had been centered on Lu Ye the whole time and it was too late. Something dark shrouded him and by the time he regained his senses, he found himself lost in a completely different environment—ensnared in an unfamiliar rocky terrain.
He Bing’s visage twisted with confusion. He did not know what just happened and what had caused the cave to vanish, replaced by the eerie forest that now surrounded him.
Back in the cave, Yi Yi materialized, holding aloft the mystical Nine Realm Scroll with the drawings of a rocky sprawl etched upon its surface. Right in the center of the sprawl was the image of a solitary figure, unmistakably He Bing, still spinning around, completely confused.
Being stuck here because of the failure of escaping using the Teleportation Ward in such a dangerous predicament with a formidable Seventh-Order to contend with was not Lu Ye’s nor his companion’s idea of fun. Lu Ye knew fully well how dire and desperate the situation was, and so did the others.
They understood that He Bing’s delay in initiating combat was due to his inability to gauge their cultivation ranks at first. Had he perceived their relative weakness, he would have struck without a second thought.
Thus, they planned their course of action.
When Li Baxian stepped forward to shield Lu Ye, the latter made a subtle gesture by tapping on the miniaturized Amber’s head—a silent message communicated through years of shared trials and understanding with Yi Yi.
That was when Yi Yi slipped away, reappearing behind He Bing like a wisp of smoke.
With Lu Ye keeping He Bing distracted, Yi Yi sprung her trap, unfurling the Nine Realms Scroll.
A Spirit Treasure more potent than any Spirit Artifact weapon, its might increased as Yi Yi’s cultivation grew. That, plus the element of surprise, was what helped to ensnare the mighty He Bing within it.
In spite of everything, this was an outcome they would have preferred. Fighting in the cavern risked catastrophic collapse or even attracting the attention of other formidable entities like Wei Que of the Thousand Demon Ridge.
The Nine Realms Scroll could contain whatever damage sustained inside, limiting the risks as long as Yi Yi could endure it.
As soon as He Bing was ensnared, Lu Ye bolted forward towards Yi Yi, followed closely by Li Baxian and Feng Yuechan. They did not know what just happened, but their confused expressions soon morphed into determination as they decided to follow Lu Ye.
Yi Yi flapped the Scroll and all three of them vanished, their forms now joining He Bing within the image of the rocky sprawl, appearing on the parchment’s surface.
Deep in the spread of rocky terrain inside the Nine Realms Scroll pocket dimension, He Bing watched as his opponents appeared one after another. He finally grasped his predicament, realizing where he was at last—the pocket dimension of a Ward Scroll.
He had lived long enough—amassing sufficient skills, awareness, and experiences—to learn about that from the sudden changes in the surroundings and how his opponents had reappeared.
His eyes narrowed, acknowledging the fact that he faced not three, but four adversaries. The fourth had been hiding in the shadows and was most likely the one wielding the Ward Scroll now.
While fear gripped his heart, a thrill of anticipation also coursed through him.
A Ward Scroll was a priceless artifact. In spite of their low rank in cultivation, He Bing was surprised that his opponents were in possession of such an extraordinary item. If he could defeat them, the Ward Scroll could be his.
No longer hesitating, He Bing made his move, charging toward Lu Ye first and foremost.
The decision was an easy one. Lu Ye had already exposed himself as a Third-Order, four ranks well below He Bing. Brimming with confidence, He Bing believed that he could eliminate Lu Ye with a single strike.
With great speed, he covered more than ten meters in just two strides, reaching Lu Ye in the blink of an eye as he thrust his spear forward.
Such a straightforward attack but it gave Lu Ye an immense and panicky sense of crisis. His entire self tensed as Inviolable screamed out of its sheath with a ringing cry. Spiritual Power surged down the length of its blade as Lu Ye slashed the weapon in an upward slash to meet the incoming speartip.
Lu Ye’s eyes constricted the moment steel clashed. The blow came heavy and forceful and for a split-second, Lu Ye felt like his weapon had hit a solid rock boulder instead.
The speartip was barely deflected at all from its lethal trajectory.
A precipice of life-or-death in one solitary exchange—such was the force of an attack delivered by a Seventh-Order and it was clear that He Bing had yet to unleash his full might.
The Fourth and the Seventh-Orders each represented two critical thresholds in the Spirit Creek Realm. Cultivators who made it past these two Orders would find themselves experiencing a significant escalation of one’s strength and the same principle applied within the Cloud River Realm as well.
Therefore, only Cultivators beyond the Seventh-Order Realm possessed both the ability and audacity to venture into the Colosseum alone. Nevertheless, there were exceptions to this rule; there were also Sixth-Orders who fancied their chances solo, such as the one Lu Ye and Yi Yi had defeated together earlier…
The luminescent shield of runes of Glyph: Protection materialized in front of Lu Ye as he contorted himself backward as much as possible.
The spear grazed past him, annihilating the glowing shield in its wake, while leaving a searing trail of pain across Lu Ye’s neck as he nearly tumbled from the blow.
And before Lu Ye could regain his footing, He Bing’s spear, having failed to find its initial mark, descended like a crushing rod about to bash his skull.
With a resounding thud, Lu Ye found himself slammed onto the ground with numbing waves of pain spreading from his shoulder blade down to his lower abdomen.
A flicker of surprise sparked in He Bing’s eyes. Evidently, he was not expecting a Third-Order to survive that blow. Yet, that was the extent of his surprise. With Lu Ye smashed into the ground, his Spiritual Power in complete disarray, and his movements momentarily paralyzed, he was a sitting duck.
He Bing’s spear was wheeling back for another powerful thrust that would have skewered Lu Ye like a boar when a sonorous whistle filled the air. Several menacing waves of death laced with murderous choler and aggression bore down upon him from behind.
“Sword Cultivator!” He Bing swiftly discerned the nature of the assailant bearing down on him, acknowledging that while his three opponents were not on par with him in terms of cultivation, he knew better than to discount the deadliness that Sword Cultivators were so famous for.
In a hurried response, He Bing whirled around to face his attackers, his gaze meeting a sky filled with luminescent flying shafts. He immediately rattled his long spear, setting off a symphony of blooming silhouettes shaped like the tip of his spear.
The resounding clangor of metal on metal echoed through the surroundings as sparks erupted and danced. Every incoming shaft was deftly deflected, their onslaught momentarily held at bay.
Amid the hail of radiantly glowing shafts, streaking spells spiraled around seamlessly, integrating with the flying bolts of light in a relentless and ceaseless assault, an unending tempest of deadly artistry.
Li Baxian and Feng Yuechan had spent their formative years together, their bond forged from shared experiences of growth and cultivation. For the sake of Li Baxian, who had become her childhood sweetheart, Feng Yuechan was willing to linger in the Spirit Creek Realm for over a decade, suffering a stagnation in her progress when she could have achieved more.
This shared history manifested in a formidable partnership, flawless and impeccably coordinated.
The gravity of the situation was not lost on He Bing as he noticed an unsettling detail.
The Sword and the Spell Cultivators were both a step above the Combat Cultivator in terms of rank, each evidently Fourth-Orders. Yet, the depth of their mastery and skill seemed to exceed He Bing’s own level.
All three of them must be acolytes of renowned sects or orders and their prowess clearly a hallmark of their status as elites.
Strangely, this revelation, while daunting, stirred a sense of exhilaration within He Bing.
His roots lay in a modest Tier-Four sect. Even though he had advanced into the Cloud River Realm with all three hundred and sixty Spiritual Points unlocked, He Bing was aware of his inferior standing in comparison to the true prodigies—those whose name had once been on the Spirit Creek Battlefield’s Roll of Supremacy while his own name had been notably absent.
Yet right here, right now, he found himself securely in possession of the initiative in this fight against three formidable adversaries. If this were a fight where all of them were equals in cultivation ranks, he would not have stood a chance at all. Not even in single combat against any of these adversaries.
So what if they came from prestigious backgrounds? So what if they possessed superior talents? Nothing could trump the sheer difference in their cultivation rank!
Nevertheless, he could not shake off an uncanny familiarity that never stopped nagging at him. Some time before, or somewhere unknown, he felt as if he had seen the Sword Cultivator and the Spell Cultivator…
While Li Baxian and Feng Yuechan held He Bing in a tight deadlock, Lu Ye quickly scrambled to his feet and extricated himself from the immediate vicinity. Wiping a hand across his scarlet-drenched neck, he felt the slickness and heat of his own blood on his hand.
He recognized the close shave he had just had; the dangerous proximity of He Bing’s lethal spear and the monumental risk of facing a Seventh-Order all by himself as a Third-Order. He would have been killed if he were any slower.
“Go!”
He Bing unleashed a guttural bark. Several streaks of light—the telltale glow that flying weapons emitted—burst to life abruptly. They sliced through the chaotic whirlwind of flying swords and spells and hurtled toward Li Baxian and Feng Yuechan.
Neither Li Baxian nor Feng Yuechan had the audacity to stand in direct opposition to such an onslaught.
Feng Yuechan produced her umbrella-like Spell Artifact. Unfurling its protective expanse before them, they braced themselves for the incoming cascading impact.
When the flying weapons hit, each of their powerful strikes against the luminescent shield of the umbrella-like Spell Artifact pummeled Feng Yuechan with one piecemeal step, eliciting protesting flares of brilliance from the umbrella.
Surviving the barrage, they looked up to find He Bing successfully penetrating beyond the shafts of light, charging headlong into them. f𝔯w𝔬𝔳l.𝚌o𝚖
Li Baxian brandished his sword. The weapon trembled in his grip as if recalling the legion of glowing shafts that instantly regrouped around him, coalescing into a dragon-like monstrosity to counter He Bing.
Both figures threw themselves into each other but as soon as they met, the dragon burst into countless sparkling white cinders while Li Baxian careened away, crashing to the ground like a ragdoll.
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