Chapter 696 – Broken Blade
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Xing Yang’s face was filled with a gloomy uncertainty. As for Mu Yuhuang, she was panicking. She had no idea just how this situation would end.
“Prepare a sound transmission talisman, report what is happening!”
As the guard captain spoke, several Revolving Core Protectors quickly reacted, their fingers tracing their spatial rings. After all, this was the territory of Yin Yang Profound Palace. As long as they called for more manpower, they would be the ones with the advantage.
Seeing a Revolving Core Protector light up a sound transmitting talisman in front of her, Lan Xin sneered. She instantly flash-stepped in front of that martial artist, her sword slashing at the wrist!
Having stayed in Skysplit Tower for several years, although Lan Xin looked like a beautiful sun-dappled girl, in truth she was a decisive person with no soft corners. Otherwise, it would have been impossible for her to survive in Skysplit Tower.
“Evil little girl, you dare!?” The guard captain’s eyes flashed with anger. He slashed with his saber at Lan Xin’s neck.
“Humph!”
Lan Xin showed no weakness. Her sword slashed upward, intersecting with the saber. True essence collided, and the guard captain’s saber light was ripped to shreds by Lin Ming, followed by Lan Xin’s sword light slicing towards his vital points.
The guard captain’s complexion paled. He never imagined that this twenty-or-so-year-old girl could make him suffer a loss with a single sword strike.
Just who were these people?
“Line up in formation!”
The guard captain shouted, shocked. Although the eight of them were only mid and late Revolving Core martial artists, once they fell into formation and combined that with several array flags and array discs, together they could actually resist a first stage Life Destruction powerhouse for quite a bit of time.
Woosh!
Several keen saber lights fused together. As the eight guards combined their power, their aura suddenly shot up drastically.
Lan Xin came into contact with this saber light and gave a stuffy cough, her beautiful face paling. Luckily, Duanmu Qun was quick of eye and hand. He slashed downward with his sword, fending off the fused sword energy that rushed towards Lan Xin.
“Very well, since you want to play so much, then this old man will accompany you!” Xing Zizan stepped forwards. With it, his aura suddenly erupted. Mu Qianyu, Mu Bingyun, and everyone else felt a great pressure pushing down on them. Xing Zizan was a first stage Life Destruction master as well as the Yin Yang Profound Palace’s Vice Palace Master and the strongest powerhouse present.
With Xing Zizan’s status, participating in the battles of these juniors and Revolving Core martial artists was somewhat embarrassing. But, seeing that Xing Yang had already lost control of the situation, he had no choice but to step in.
“Second Uncle, they might be related to a Holy Land somehow,” Xing Yang quickly reminded.
For Duanmu Qun and those others to be so young and to also have a heaven-step treasure on them, they must have either come across a massive chance, or they must have come from a Holy Land.
“I know,” Xing Zizan coldly replied. Now it was no longer the time to consider the other party’s origin. Even if they did come from a Holy Land, he still had to establish his dominance.
Everybody was already at odds, swords drawn. If they could capture the other party, then they would have the advantage. But, if they could offend them and still defeat them, then that would be an even better result. In the world of martial artists, strength was everything. One’s background was never as good as the person. At the very least, he had to suppress them in strength.
Xing Zizan specifically targeted Lin Ming. “So young and yet already so greedy. You dare to propose such a ridiculous request to us? This old man just wants to see whether or not you’re capable of backing up your preposterous words!”
Lin Ming glanced at Xing Zizan and sneered, “Greedy? Are you talking about your own Yin Yang Profound Palace? You rented a third-grade spiritual land to Divine Phoenix Island. Even you lot feel it doesn’t match their worth and on top of that you didn’t even give them any training resources. With this alone, you wanted to exchange for Divine Phoenix Island’s fundamental Vermillion Bird bloodline and all sorts of secret skills? You even hid your goals and plotted to annex Divine Phoenix Island! And now, you want to say that I’m the greedy one here? Should we also bow down as we hand over all of Divine Phoenix Island to you? The South Sea Demon Region is already publically trying to destroy us, and yet you try to secretly absorb us. In my eyes, there’s no difference between you all!”
“Hahaha, what a well-spoken young man! Your Divine Phoenix Island came to my Yin Yang Profound Palace to rent a spiritual land and also seek refuge, so what problems are there in the conditions we presented? But you, you are unbelievably greedy. As soon as you opened that mouth of yours you demanded half of Yin Yang Profound Palace’s resources. How laughable!”
Lin Ming scoffed as he derided Xing Zizan, “I really admire how thick-skinned you are. Is deceiving the disciples of Divine Phoenix Island also part of the conditions you set for Divine Phoenix Island?”
After being questioned like that, Xing Zizan could no longer keep calm. He glowered, “What an impossible pompous and arrogant junior! You keep spitting out such rude insults. Then, this old man will teach you a lesson as your elder!”
“Humph! With me here, it’s not your place to teach my disciples anything!” said Mu Yuhuang, stepping in front of Lin Ming. Xing Zizan’s cultivation was an entire great boundary higher than Lin Ming. At this time, Mu Yuhuang could no longer bother to be conflicted about her dealings with Yin Yang Profound Palace. Since Xing Zizan wanted to act, then she naturally had to follow him as the only one in Divine Phoenix Island who had the combat strength of a Life Destruction powerhouse. As for Mu Fengxian, although she also had a Life Destruction cultivation, her life source was too greatly damaged and now her strength had fallen to that of an ordinary late Revolving Core martial artist.
In this situation, she had to stand up in order to support those on her side.
Lin Ming only needed to look at Mu Yuhuang and Xing Zizan’s contrasting auras to instantly perceive that Mu Yuhuang was simply not Xing Zizan’s match. Mu Yuhuang had just broken through into Life Destruction one year before, and she hadn’t yet consolidated her strength. Her foundation was still shaky. But looking at Xing Zizan, he had already been stranded at the Life Destruction level for 100 years. Now, his strength was a large cut above Mu Yuhuang.
Seeing that Mu Yuhuang was willing to stand up for him even if it meant disgracing herself, Lin Ming felt grateful for her actions. Although Divine Phoenix Island had become increasingly pitiful these last years, losing a massive amount of disciples while their resources rapidly disappeared, and dropping from a peak fourth-grade sect to a medium fourth-grade sect, one thing that never changed was Mu Yuhuang’s character, proud and loyal to a fault. Even if Divine Phoenix Island was suppressed by Yin Yang Profound Palace from all sides, she would never show weakness in front of others.
Lin Ming calmly walked beside Mu Yuhuang and stood side by side with her. With a true essence sound transmission, he told her, “Sect Master, I have confidence in myself.”
“Mm?”
Mu Yuhuang was startled. At that moment, Xing Zizan glared at Mu Yuhuang with contempt and said, “Mu Yuhuang, you really care too much about saving face. You simply relied on medicine to reach Life Destruction; your talent isn’t even at the Saint level. Since you want to die so badly, then allow me to help you!”
“I am your opponent.” Lin Ming waved his spear, gripped the shaft with one hand and pointed the shimmering white tip at Xing Zizan’s eyes, his aura dominant and forceful.
Pointing at someone with the spear point was already a great provocation. Xing Zizan immediately became furious. “You really don’t know what it means to die! You are arrogant and you have talent, but arrogant talents often die young! This old man will help you! Since you’re a junior, then this old man won’t bully the young. If you can force me to use my saber then it’ll count as your win!”
In Xing Zizan’s eyes, he didn’t care too much about Lin Ming using that spear energy to wound Elder Sun. Even if that were his normal strength, Xing Zizan was still confident he could deal with him. Moreover, although Xing Zizan’s weapon was a saber, the truth was that he could use his palm as a saber and his strength still wouldn’t weaken by too much.
What he didn’t notice was that when he said these words, a strange look came over Duanmu Qun’s face. Lan Xin also faintly smiled, waiting to see the good play about to take place.
“Pooh! Old fool, you are far too shameless. At your age, you’re already over thirty times older than Lin Ming! Let me accompany you!” Mu Yuhuang was afraid that Lin Ming would suffer a loss. She immediately extracted her long sword, ready to fight Xing Zizan.
At this time, Mu Qianyu’s voice suddenly sounded out in Mu Yuhuang’s ear, “Sect Master, Lin Ming is very strong. As long as it’s just forcing him to use a weapon, he should be able to do that.”
Hearing Mu Qianyu’s words, Mu Yuhuang was startled. Indeed… Knowing Lin Ming, she could tell that he never acted recklessly. Even though he liked taking on challenges a bit too much, he would only do so if he had confidence in himself.
Perhaps he really could force Xing Zizan to use his weapon. If so, then even if Lin Ming couldn’t defeat Xing Zizan, it would still be possible with her help. With two against one, it would be more than enough to defeat him.
Thinking this, Mu Yuhuang gave one final look at Lin Ming before stepping back.
“Humph, since you don’t care about your life, then this old man will be rude!” Xing Zizan lifted his hands. Even without a saber, his palm saber was still incomparably sharp. As he closed his fingers together, the space around them seemed to tremble!
This degree of combat strength... Lin Ming simply didn’t place it in his eyes. He felt no threat at all from someone like Xing Zizan, or anyone else there. Within the entire Yin Yang Profound Palace, the only ones that could possibly endanger Lin Ming would be the Xing couple, the two Palace Masters.
Lifting the white spear in his hands, thunder began to flicker atop the shaft. After infusing his spear with his battle spirit and the power of thunder, Lin Ming suddenly thrust out.
Chasing Thunder!
In that instant, the entire courtyard lit up with the radiant light of thunder. A sharp and savage aura recklessly surged forward. Everyone felt as if they had gone blind, their souls completely exposed, as if they were nothing more than common mortals standing in an endless plain of cold snow.
Woosh!
Lin Ming’s spear shot through space, instantly arriving in front of Xing Zizan!
How!?!?
Xing Zizan was scared witless. He was about to thrust out his palms when something felt wrong. And sure enough, when his saber energy touched Lin Ming’s spear light, it shattered like a pane of glass!
Xing Zizan paled. He no longer cared about status and quickly drew a saber from his spatial ring. He fiercely bit down on his tongue, spraying out a mouthful of blood onto the saber and then slashed out!
The violent saber energy was like a storm as it rushed outward.
Kacha!
Sword and spear collided; Xing Zizan’s saber was straight out cut in half!
What!?
Xing Zizan couldn’t even believe this was real. He had completely forgot his rank and pulled out his weapon, hoping to keep this strike away. But just as he had struck out with his saber, even using blood essence to enhance the blade, his saber had actually been cut in half!?!?
In that split-second, Xing Zizan hadn’t even had time to realize what had happened.
After the white spear shattered the saber, its momentum didn’t slow at all. Without any ability to respond, Xing Zizan gave a miserable shout as he felt the cool touch of the spear light as it pierced through his chest, blood spraying out from behind!
An energy fused with battle spirit savagely poured into Xing Zizan’s meridians. It tore his lungs into a mess and even crushed several of his ribs.
A crazy shockwave flushed out in all directions, completely blowing away all the walls of the meeting hall and sending every standing structure collapsing to the floor, pulverized into gravel. As for the courtyard, everything had been razed and even the roof had been blown away.
Xing Zizan spat out a mouthful of blood. On the right side of his chest, a massive bloody hole appeared, bright-red blood gushing out from it. His vision turned black, and he nearly fainted where he stood.