“Are you Brother Ai Shu-Tao?” the voice asked.
With a happy face, the skinny cultivator called out, “It’s me! Are you Big Brother Lu?”
The sound of footsteps slowly approached, and a red-faced brawny man appeared on the other side of Peng Chang-Qing. The brawny man and Ai Shu-Tao created a pincer formation that trapped Peng Chang-Qing in the center.
Ai Shu-Tao’s face was a little shocked when he saw that it wasn’t the person he’d been expecting.
Noticing his shock, Peng Chang-Qing moved decisively. He immediately shot one of the four fires towards Ai Shu-Tao.
The red-faced cultivator shouted, “Watch out!”
At the same time, a verdant sword light flew out like an arrow towards Peng Chang-Qing.
Ai Shu-Tao reacted quickly, but in his haste, he only had time to cast a small bell in the air. The fire exploded on the bell, and launched Ai Shu-Tao backwards, crashing through two huge trees before stopping. His aegis energy had shattered completely.
The red-faced cultivator’s sword light had cut into the protective flame barrier around Peng Chang-Qing, but was blocked by a mystic instrument. The impact from the sword light knocked Peng Chang-Qing back several feet.
The shock on Peng Chang-Qing’s face was clearly visible now that his protective flame barrier had been extinguished.
His nascent fires were each contained inside of a yellow lantern, and the lantern hovering in front of him was densely cut with dozens of slits.
Peng Chang-Qing probed his divine sense, his expression turning serious when he looked at Lu Ping again. “Eighty-one sword lights at the Seventh Layer Blood Condensation Realm. Mister, you’ve actually comprehended ‘Sword Complexity’ and attained the State of Sword Intent!”
The red-faced cultivator also didn’t expect his sword attacks to be so powerful when casted with his Sword Intent. In just one blow, he managed to impair a top-grade defensive mystic instrument and almost shattered it.
Looking at the sword marks on the surface of the yellow lantern, the red-faced cultivator secretly thought it was a pity that he’d just mastered Sword Intent.
If his attainment in Sword Intent had been deeper and if he could produce more than eighty-one sword lights, he might have shattered this top-grade mystic instrument in a single blow.
The red-faced cultivator ignored Peng Chang-Qing’s words, and instead looked at the fallen Ai Shu-Tao. “Brother Ai, are you alright?”
Ai Shu-Tao whined in pain as he slowly picked himself up, and he answered, “I’m fine. I can still fight!”
In mid-air, Ai Shu-Tao’s six mystic instruments fused together to form a huge trident. This time, the trident’s strength was comparable to that of a top-grade mystic instrument, and it went straight towards Peng Chang-Qing.
In response, the four lanterns hovered around Peng Chang-Qing, the fires inside shooting out flames to deflect the incoming trident.
He then cast a spell and manipulated the flames into four fire snakes. The red-faced cultivator countered by casting a Water Crystal Bowl, forming four water eagles that clawed towards the fire snakes.
Now that Ai Shu-Tao and the red-faced cultivator had joined hands, Peng Chang-Qing knew that he’d lost the chance to kill Ai Shu-Tao. Not to mention that he intuitively sensed that this red-faced cultivator had not yet given his best.
This red-faced cultivator was only in the Seventh Layer Blood Condensation Realm, and the aura around him was still fluctuating—he’d clearly made use of the rich spiritual energy in Heaven of Seven Stars to break through.
In other words, he should just be one of the many ordinary cultivators out there. Yet, despite all of that, he had attained the State of Intent.
As Peng Chang-Qing exchanged a few blows with them, he realized that Ai Shu-Tao was the main attacker; the red-faced cultivator was only assisting from the side.
However, whenever Peng Chang-Qing was about to gain the upper hand, the red-faced cultivator would always attack at the right moment, returning balance to the tide of the battle back.
After this happened several times, Peng Chang-Qing eventually realized that the red-faced cultivator was actually using him to sharpen his sword skill and spells.
He grew even more afraid of the red-faced cultivator.
He quickly cast out the four lanterns to simultaneously block their attacks. Then, the fires in the lanterns suddenly shot out a rain of flames that covered dozens of feet around Peng Chang-Qing.
The red-faced cultivator shouted, “He’s trying to escape!”
His blue aegis energy swiftly fused with the water curtain raised from the Water Crystal Bowl. The rain of fire was immediately extinguished upon making contact with the water barrier.
At the same time, a verdant sword light shot out and multiplied into eighty-one sword lights, all aiming in the direction of Peng Chang-Qing’s escape route.
The sword lights contained the red-faced cultivator’s Sword Intent, and like a white wave emerging out of thin air, they surged after Peng Chang-Qing.
Ai Shu-Tao also released a white mist from his hands that blew towards the fleeing Peng Chang-Qing. Lu Ping looked back and saw the jade talisman held in Ai Shu-Tao’s hand—it turned out he was actually using his talisman treasure!
Peng Chang-Qing immediately cast all four of his lanterns behind him to defend against the attacks.
When Lu Ping’s sword lights struck them, the previously damaged yellow lantern couldn’t hold out anymore and shattered in pieces.
The white mist then blew over the exposed fire and extinguished it completely.
The rest of the mist continued to swirl over the other three lanterns and froze their exteriors, causing the fires inside the lanterns to sway dangerously close to being snuffed out!
Peng Chang-Qing had condensed four nascent fires which were closely linked to his cultivation base. Now that one was extinguished and the other three severely impaired, his cultivation base had taken a heavy blow.
After suffering severe internal injuries, he spurt out a mouthful of blood, causing him to be even more afraid and determined to escape. In an instant, he disappeared into the mountain forest.
The red-faced cultivator saw Peng Chang-Qing escape, and he took off the mask from his face. “Peng Chang-Qing is truly powerful. We still couldn’t hold him back even after joining forces.”
After removing his disguise, Lu Ping returned to his normal appearance.
Ai Shu-Tao was really happy to see that it was really Lu Ping, and he said, “Peng Chang-Qing is one of the North Ocean 18 Warriors, and he’s as famous as my elder brother. Naturally, he’s quite skillful. It’s amazing enough that we forced him to flee with serious injuries.”
Lu Ping didn’t deny it, and he asked, “Brother Ai, what brings you here to Heaven of Seven Stars? It’s been several years since we last met, but I see that you’re already in the Eighth Layer Blood Condensation Realm. That’s very impressive!”
Hearing Lu Ping’s compliment, Ai Shu-Tao answered proudly, “Of course, I’m the genius of the family! This time, I secretly followed my big brother out to see the monster race sea and to broaden my horizons.”
Then as if remembering something else, he said sullenly, “Big Brother Lu, you’re still so powerful. Peng Chang-Qing only escaped because you suppressed him to the point that he had no power to fight back. I also didn’t expect you to comprehend the State of Intent!”
Lu Ping laughed. “It’s all just luck. By the way, I heard you say your big brother is also one of the ‘North Ocean 18 Warriors’. So your big brother is indeed Xi Ling Island’s Ai Bo-Tao?”
Seeing Ai Shu-Tao nodding proudly, Lu Ping asked, “How did you get into a fight with Peng Chang-Qing? That guy is highly valued in the Hai Yan Sect, and offending him might cause problems for you in the future!”
Ai Shu-Tao explained what had happened at the Amethyst Bee nest, and excitedly shared a large bottle of Amethyst Bee Royal Jelly with Lu Ping, unmindful of the possible revenge from Hai Yan Sect in the future.
The Amethyst Bee Royal Jelly had a wide range of uses for cultivators.
When mixed with spiritual spring water to drink, it could help increase their cultivation base, and be used for spiritual energy and wound recovery. However, this was the most wasteful way to use the Amethyst Bee Royal Jelly.
As an alchemist, Lu Ping knew Amethyst Bee Royal Jelly’s usefulness was comparable to those rare 1000-year spirit herbs. It was used to concoct various Blood Condensation Realm and Core Forging Realm medicinal pellets.
Not only could it improve the effectiveness of medicinal pellets, it could also enhance their success rate.
Therefore, the Amethyst Bee Royal Jelly was also known as the alchemist’s panacea.