Sun Songli was one of the most outstanding disciples of Blackhill Town's Blackhill Sect. He was an 18-year-old young man and had a cultivation level of first-stage Transformation Realm. He mustered all his strength and released his energy before giving shape to them, creating several shadows that dashed straight toward Xiang Shaoyun and Little White.
Stacked Shadow Kill!
Although Xiang Shaoyun and Little White appeared completely helpless, Sun Songli had no intention of being careless. He still attacked with his full strength. He filled the area with his shadows and sword projections, which proceeded to destroy everything in the area and turned even the grasses in their path into fine powder. Both Xiang Shaoyun and Little White could sense how dangerous this attack was. They were in a critical situation.
"You want to kill me? I'll kill you first!" Xiang Shaoyun roared and stopped suppressing the astral energy within him, allowing it to run wild. The energy coursed through his veins and meridians, instantly flooding his entire body with energy. His 365 acupoints started shining brightly, and his badly injured body started recovering after the rich astral energy coursed through it.
It was at this moment that Xiang Shaoyun's cultivation level broke through the seventh stage to the eighth stage. At the same time, his lightning bone reacted as the purple dragon escaped from it. His nine stars and his astral cosmos sea formed a resonance with the bone, forming a river of stars connecting all of them while Xiang Shaoyun's boundless aura surged to the peak.
At this moment, Sun Songli's sword had already arrived at Xiang Shaoyun's forehead. He was attacking to kill. At this critical moment, a layer of purple energy formed a barrier around Xiang Shaoyun's body, protecting every inch of his body, his forehead included.
Clang!
The purple barrier blocked the sword, creating a crisp clang.
"Shaped energy? So what? Break!" Sun Songli could sense the change, but he yelled and pushed himself over the limits, unleashing 120 percent of his might and concentrating it into his sword. He could not allow his attack to fail.
Xiang Shaoyun started retreating with the sword on his forehead. Cracks were already appearing in his barrier. The sword only needed to go a tad bit deeper, and it would be able to penetrate his forehead.
Under pressure of death, Xiang Shaoyun completed the final step of his breakthrough. His strength reached a brand new level. With nothing to distract his focus, he managed to lean to the side and avoided the sword before raising his unbroken hand and pointing it at Sun Songli.
Sun Songli was right in front of Xiang Shaoyun. Thus, the moment Xiang Shaoyun leaned to the side to avoid his sword, he swung his sword to the side, attempting to follow up with a slash.
He could sense how powerful Xiang Shaoyun was. If he couldn't kill this opponent as soon as possible, he would no longer have a chance. He was right. But unfortunately, he had misjudged Xiang Shaoyun's strength.
His slash landed on Xiang Shaoyun's energy barrier and was able to slightly penetrate the barrier to wound Xiang Shaoyun's shoulder. Even that was only possible because Xiang Shaoyun's activation of Star Destroying Finger had weakened his own energy barrier.
Bang!
Sun Songli had been focusing too much on killing Xiang Shaoyun and had not expected such a speedy counterattack. The attack opened a bloody hole in his body, causing him to wail in pain. The attack had been mixed with Xiang Shaoyun's innate purple lightning. Thus, it was dreadfully destructive.
Sun Songli was completely helpless against the innate purple lightning invading his body. The innate purple lightning proceeded to destroy his organs, and his vitality rapidly dropped.
"Say it! Why are you trying to kill me?" Xiang Shaoyun asked, ignoring his own injuries.
Sun Songli stared at Xiang Shaoyun in disbelief, blood spilling from his mouth without stop. With great difficulty, he spoke his last words: "T-the Bl-Blackhill Sect will not spare..."
He breathed his last before completing his sentence.
"Blackhill Sect? One of the top 10 academies?" Xiang Shaoyun frowned. He did not have the time to ponder. He snatched Sun Songli's jade plate and transferred all the points to his plate. With that, he now had over 1,000 points. What a great gift this Sun Songli had given him.
Now, Xiang Shaoyun definitely had one of the highest points in the competition. But he did not seem to care much about the points. Rather, he was more worried about the injuries he and Little White had sustained. Although he had entered the eighth stage, his injuries were too severe. Moreover, he had suffered excessive blood loss. He had to find a safe place to heal himself.
Fortunately, the gold serpentine crocodiles in the area had all been killed. This place would be temporarily devoid of gold serpentine crocodiles. Moreover, it was rather out of the way, and it was unlikely that someone else would come here. Thus, he selected a random spot in the vicinity and hid himself.
He then took out a low-grade spirit medicine—a blood mushroom—and fed it to Little White to help replenish his vitality. He also directly consumed a blood ginseng stored within his astral cosmos sea to replenish his own vitality. At the same time, he took out a large number of old medicines and mixed them together before using them to treat his and Little White’s external wounds.
They had both suffered terrible injuries and would not be able to fight for a short period of time. Even worse was the fact that one of Xiang Shaoyun's arms had been broken. It was not easy to recover a broken arm. He had to first mend his displaced bone before his arm would start recovering.
"It won't be hard to realign the displaced bone if there is someone else here. But looks like I can only rely on myself now." Xiang Shaoyun sighed. From the moment he decided to move alone, he had expected to encounter numerous difficulties. He did not regret his decision as his heart grew even more resolute. He was now at the eighth stage. Thus, with the abundant energy in him, his recovery speed had also increased.
After one day, he felt much better. His fast recovery was mostly attributed to the blood ginseng and his recent breakthrough. In a much better condition now, he walked to a boulder, stuffed his broken arm into an opening, and twisted his body.
Crack!
Just like that, he forced the displaced bone into its rightful position. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead, and an expression of deep pain covered his face, but he did not make a sound.
"I can finally meditate normally now." Xiang Shaoyun heaved a sigh of relief. He returned to his previous spot, ate some dried meats, and started meditating. Circulating his Heaven Conquering Overlord Manual, he sent his energy coursing through his injured spots to help them heal faster.
He did not notice that by his side, the sleeping Little White had a layer of faint golden radiance around his body. His injuries were healing rapidly and even his demonic aura was growing increasingly strong.
This is too slow. If this continues, I will only fully recover in like 10 days or half a month. At that time, it will be too late to do anything for the competition. I need to think of something, Xiang Shaoyun pondered.
Then, his inner gaze landed on his lightning bone. The lightning bone had an innate purple lightning, a destructive power that nobody at his cultivation level could hope to block. Moreover, this bone also had the magical ability of devouring lightning energy to grow itself.
I'll have to give it a try, Xiang Shaoyun hesitated before activating the lightning bone. Strains of lightning energy started coursing toward his injured spots.
Bzzt! Bzzt!
Instantly, a numb sensation filled his body while an expression of pain covered his face.