Chapter 417: Entrapment
Translator: Subudai11 Editor: Chrissy
The surprise attack of the king of Harmony River caught Xiang Liang by surprise. He tried to avoid the spear from hitting his vital parts, but he was still stabbed on his shoulder. He was pushed by a copious amount of irresistible huge energy that was rotating like a spinning top. At the same time, black blood mist spewed out from the side of that 'spinning top'.
This was how Xiang Liang did his utmost to resolve the damage from the spear. The resilience of the lead disciple of Royal Soldier Sect was undoubtedly evident at this moment. In spite of the sudden incident, he still managed to resolve more than ninety percent of the damage.
The devastation by the blood mist was shocking, but in fact, it was actually the extremely toxic poison contained within the spear that was pushed out even though the spear itself managed to pierce the body.
The spear strike from the king of Harmony River was intended to kill, but it only caused a minor injury to Xiang Liang. However, this was because Xiang Liang's magical power has bottomed out and many methods were too late to display. After fighting Shengjing Sect team for quite some time, he completely smashed the elite team of Shengjing Sect while not receiving any injury. For someone whose cultivation base was forcibly suppressed, this was as difficult as ascending the heaven.
Now, Xiang Liang had already stood high in the cloud, preparing to fight the new powerful opponent—one that made every strand of hair and every piece of bone in his body excited.
Xiang Liang had already recognized the opponent's identity. That lithe irresistible spear strike contained both strength and gentleness. The tip of the spear also contained soft liquid poison… Even in Nine Regions, only a few Jindan Stage people could do that kind of spear strike. And in this realm, it was even more unique.
Although his surprise attack managed to pierce his opponent, A Ye's complexion was gloomy and unsightly, as if the injured person was him and not Xiang Liang.
For someone who had consistently preferred a head-on fight, although just now he didn't have the meaning to sneak attack, in reality, it was still a sneak attack, which made him somewhat uncomfortable. But what was more difficult to accept was that this spear strike didn't achieve its proper result—the opponent's strength was more than he expected.
After learning that Flaming Valley had attacked his seriously injured wife and the Eternal Tree, his first thought was the ambushing troops of Flaming Valley in the territory of Golden City.
From a rational point of view, both of them have the same goal, the strongest force in the realm, Golden City and Shengjing Sect team. This was especially true for the Shengjing Sect team who has deep enmity with A Ye. Thus, he should join force with Flaming Valley to attack Golden City. However, in A Ye's view, that was not how it worked.
Although the surprise attack from Shengjing Sect people on Harmony River was somewhat despicable and shameless, everyone was hostile to each other, and in times of war, everything was possible. Let alone the success of the sneak attack proved that the defensive work of the capital city of Harmony River was far from adequate, thus for the most part, A Ye could only blame himself. Subsequently, he braved the danger by going deep into the opponent's territory and retaliate in. However, the anger in his heart gradually subsided.
But the subsequent sneak attack from Flaming Valley caused his anger to boil and could no longer be contained. Attacking a seriously injured woman was so out of line! Who would want to join forces with such a despicable and vile beast?
Thus, A Ye was not just going to swallow this, he thought, "Since you sneak attacked my wife, I will cut off your senior general, a tooth for a tooth."
Any alliance was built on mutual dread and mutual respect. If one side was unscrupulous, the alliance would exist in name only.
From the moment he received the news, A Ye took some time to locate his target and immediately came at full speed. And the timing of Shengjing Sect people was also excellent. When A Ye arrived along the creek, it was exactly when Xiang Liang's strength had been spent.
A Ye's unceremonious surprise attack was intended to strike a victory, however, Xiang Liang's coping ability far exceeded his expectation, and ninety percent of the power of the spear strike was dissolved.
A Ye's response was also very quick. When the first spear strike didn't work, he reached out and touched the precious blood mark that was attached on his spear. The amazing weapon passed down from generation to generation of the kings of Harmony River now rose to another level, becoming a sharp weapon that no one could withstand head-on.
Even if Xiang Liang was in his perfect condition, he could not withstand this blow that could break the gold clad army. Seeing A Ye's move, Xiang Liang immediately fled. Like before, in just a single step, he disappeared without a trace.
This kind of rapid withdrawal from the scene once caused Shengjing Sect team to be helpless. Naturally, A Ye was also helpless. The spear in his hand had been brimming with power, but he couldn't lock his target. However, the difference between him and Shengjing Sect team was that, even if he could not find his opponent, he had someone who could.
"Mumu, where is he?"
"... I'm going to share my vision with you. Now he's retreating at full speed. He has no intention to fight again. Are you sure you want to chase him?"
Zhou Mumu's voice contained seven-part feeling of entangled and three-part part helplessness. She firmly opposed A Ye's decision to attack the lead disciple of Royal Soldier Sect, but A Ye's intention had been set and could not be changed.
"Of course I want to chase him, otherwise, why would I come here in the first place?"
With that, Xiang Liang's shadow appeared in his mind. This was Zhou Mumu's overall view of the area from her secret spot, which she shared with A Ye. She had used a secret method from Kunlun Sect to lock Xiang Liang's position. Although Zhou Mumu was not good at fighting, she was very proficient in all kinds of auxiliary spells, which made her the most suitable partner for A Ye who excelled in a frontal fight.
After locking the opponent's position, A Ye rode the waves on the creek to pursue Xiang Liang.
One side was aggressively chasing, the other was fleeing in exhaustion. In this situation, A Ye quickly approached his target. Then, without hesitation, he lifted up his spear which was infused with the power of the blood mark and then threw it.
In his field of view, Xiang Liang's figure was torn apart. The blood mark divine spear was simply unstoppable. Even if Xiang Liang was at his peak, he would not be able to withstand it much less now? This time, he was surely dead.
After that strike succeeded, A Ye scattered the waves and a bit wearily landed on the ground. After rushing thousands of miles to come here and releasing the power of the blood mark, no matter how brave and good at fighting he was, he still felt that his feet almost couldn't hold him. Leaning on his spear while kneeling on the ground, he asked, "How is the result?"
Gentle footsteps came from behind him as Zhou Mumu's figure appeared. The girl was silent for a moment before saying, "I've completely lost Xiang Liang's trace. The likelihood that he's down is fifty percent."
"Only fifty percent?"
"I don't have much contact with him, so I don't know his cards. It stands to reason that if it was me who received that strike, I would only have twenty percent chance to survive. But if it's Royal Soldier Sect people…"
"... Forget it, let's just call it a day."
A Ye thought for a while, stood up, and put the spear back on his shoulder. Then his ice cold vision looked back.
"This time, the elite troops of Flaming Valley has been crippled, and even if the fire spirit didn't die, his skin must have been peeled off, and I… have been reduced to be the pawn of Golden City. This really can't be called as handsome."
Zhou Mumu sighed. She had long wanted to say that it was likely there was the shadowy figure of Golden City behind the sneak attack on Eternal Tree by Flaming Valley.
"You're so bent on retaliating, how could you call that handsome?" she thought, however, after rethinking that A Ye's rage was caused by her wife being injured, Zhou Mumu couldn't say anything.
"Let's go back… No matter how bad and inattentive you are in taking care of a woman, there's nothing else you can do in Golden City."
—
At the same time, within the forested valley, a sliced-into-two-in-the-middle barbarian warrior corpse suddenly trembled.
This barbarian warrior was killed by Shengjing Sect people. At this time, there were countless of meat sprouts that began to wiggle. The meat sprouts on the two sections soon twined together and the two parts corpse became one again.
Then, that barbarian warrior unsteadily stood up and began to step forward. From limping, its pace quickly became steady and soon it began to run. And while running, the barbarian warrior's stature rapidly changed.
From the height of eight feet, it rapidly shrunk into a medium build young man with short hair, cold look, and a cross scar printed on the cheek.
He was indeed Xiang Liang. Before the blood mark divine spear reached his body, he completed the Royal Soldier Sect's secret method of shapeshifting, successfully escaped, and also broke free from Zhou Mumu's target lock. Right now, on the battlefield, no one paid him any attention. In front of him was a stretch of flat land. For him, the battle was already over.
As the lead disciple of Royal Soldier Sect, in the pursuit of military victory, he knew the truth about the usefulness of saving his life. This time, he was able to flee and even score a victory despite being ambushed by two forces one after the other. Despite the cost for this was the annihilation of a thousand elite barbarian warriors, the other party paid a hundredfold more than him. Because of his crack troops, Golden City was enveloped with the flames of war, their front line was heavily pinned down, and now, even the king of Golden City had led his main army to suppress it.
In addition, Shengjing Sect team had also exposed their cards. After this battle, as long as he spent some time to prepare the countermeasures, next time they met, he could do better than this time. Even for the biggest enemy in this realm, Qiong Hua, he had faintly gleamed out a few details of her through the methods of the other members of Shengjing Sect team.
So far, Xiang Liang had already gained a big profit. As long as he brought back this profit to the headquarters, as long...
"As long as you can get out of this valley, I will give my head to you."
Ahead, there was a strong burly figure who had been waiting for him for a long time. With a calm and indifferent face, Jianglu seemed to have determined that, although he was facing an opponent whose rank was completely above him, the victory was already at hand.
Upon seeing Jianglu, Xiang Liang's complexion changed. This time, he really didn't have the power to fight again. In the face of such a master like Jianglu, even his hope to escape was slim.
Perhaps a lone army penetrating deep into enemy's territory was bound to lose from the start, but he did not expect it to come this fast. Much less in the hand of Jianglu...
His enemy was Qiong Hua, not this small fry...
And just as Xiang Liang was stunned, Jianglu had made the preemptive strike. He launched his Power King True Body. Surrounded by golden light, he began to stride forward. With each step, the rocks shook and the ground cracked. His meteor-like fist swung towards his opponent's face.
At the same time, Xiang Liang suddenly sensed something and immediately took half a step back. In front of him, a brown sword light suddenly lit up. A plain sword emerged out of thin air in his field of vision, directly facing that meteor-like fist.
Then, a particularly lazy voice rang out.
"After following you for so long, you finally picked this handsome young man!"