Lord Susano had presided at Kyushu for hundreds of years. His influence far exceeded that of the Yukishiro family.
In other words, the Yukishiro family was just one of Lord Susano’s subjects.
A few swordsmen brandishing sharp Uchigatanas swarmed at Chen Fan. Their expression heavy, eyes focused and darted toward Chen Fan like gusts of winds. It was evident that all of them were Internal Force users.
Anyone of these men were mighty figures in their own right. Not even the Lu family in China—also a hundred-year-old faction—could have rallied so many deadly warriors at once. Chen Fan wagered that Lord Susano had summoned all of his subjects from all over Kyushu island to deal with him.
“Hooo!”
Men wielding Uchigatanas let out deep grunts almost in unison as they threw themselves at Chen Fan when they were still half a dozen meters away. They launched themselves into the air and hacked at Chen Fan.
Suddenly, lights ran down from the body of their blades, turning into streaks of silvery light in the air. Although these men were not nearly as powerful as Kawakami Gensai, their combined might nonetheless posed a significant threat. Even a Grandmaster might be chopped and diced into pieces by them, much less any internal force master.
However, Chen Fan was much more powerful than any Grandmaster. He proved it by killing a few of them with ease.
Chen Fan waved a hand, sending a wave of powerful energy that smashed into the half a dozen warriors who led the group. Those men were reduced into piles of bloody body parts in an instant. It was as if a large semi-truck had plowed through them. The energy wave didn’t stop and kept knocking many more warriors to the ground, killing a few.
“Hurr!”
As a dozen warriors were laid low, two dozen more appeared behind their formation, ready to join their ranks.
These two dozen warriors unsheathed their blades and sprung forward to hew the Uchigatana at Chen Fan. They acted out every movement in perfect unison as if they were synchronized robots.
Their Uchigatana were made out of steel that had been held and hammered a hundred times until they were extremely sharp and ductile. These deadly blades come at Chen Fan’s protective True Essence that surrounded him.
“Clank!”
Their attack landed on Chen Fan and made a loud metal-on-metal sound. Blood spilled out from many warriors’ mouth and a few Uchigatanas were snapped in half. However, their joined attack and finally broke Chen Fan’s True Essence with causing any casualties to themselves.
“uh?”
Chen Fan was slightly impressed.
He thought that the energy he shot out should have killed at least a hundred of them, and it did. However, the remaining twenty or so warriors that survived his attack were able to fight back with considerable results.
Such was the difference between the martial artists in China and Japan. In China, only the military would have put together such a deadly team who were not only powerful by themselves but were also extraordinary team players.
Chen Fan didn’t much mind the minor set back. If he put in slightly more effort, all these warriors were fodders. Chen Fan shot out two fingers as azure Blade Auras lanced out from the top of his fingers.
He slashed air with the Blade Auras in a flat backhand sweep to covered a large swath of area.
Those twenty or so warriors were no match against the Blade Aura. They were severed in half; entrails, along with blood spilled out from their belly to the ground. The twenty or so deadly warriors were dead.
However, these warriors were only the beginning of the attack. A dozen or so warriors emerged from the dark corners as soon as the first twenty were dead.
So powerful was Lord Susano that he had the entire Kyushu island under his tight grip. Only the Susano Shrine could rally hundreds of deadly warriors at the same time.
“Shooshooooshooo.”
When the warriors threw themselves at Chen Fan, the Onmyojis and priests of the Susano Shrine didn’t stand idly. They started to prepare for deadly spells.
These Onmyojis stood in a carefully arranged formation. This was a spell that they had practiced by rote. Chizuru Masahiro was the leader of the formation and he was in charge of the threads of energy that came out from each and every Onmyoji into his own system.
A squall suddenly came up behind Chizuru Masahiro as roiling Dharmic powers gathered in his system.
The Grand Onmyoji of Japan slowly produced a Dharma Artifact from his robe and held it out with both hands. The artifact looked ancient. It was a small bell made out of bronze. At the front of the bell was an engraving of an Oni’s face that mimicked the face of Lord Susano.
This was the most prized Dharma Artifact of Susano Shrine.
“Bell of Five Onis”
Chizuru Masahiro jingled the bell as he poured all of his Dharmic powers into it. He pointed to Chen Fan with one hand and shouted:
“Hold!”
The Dharmic powers in all seventeen Onmyojis surged and sent seventeen pulses of energy through Chizuru Masahiro and into the Bell of Five Onis. The sudden swelling of energy stretched the powerful Grand Onmyoji’s ability to the limit. His face was flushed red and the body trembled uncontrollably, trying to contain the surging power.
In the end, all the energies were sucked into the bell. The bell jiggled a little with even being moved and let out a crisp chime. Suddenly, an invisible force, ten times stronger than Lei Qianjue’s Qi Net of the Thousand Trickeries, surrounded Chen Fan. Its potency was on par with that Zhou Daoji’s Dharma Array of Jiu Long.
“Kotodama—Hold!”
This was one of the most popular spells among Japanese Onmyojis.
Onmyojis in Japan was well known for their abilities to drive out the evil spirits and bringing wild ghosts under control. Their practice was very similar to that of the Ghost Witch Sect in China. However, even Lord Susano, their most powerful Shikigami—a revered Ghost Spirit—could not best Chen Fan, much less the weaker Shikigami that Chizuru Masahiro could turn to. Instead, Chizuru Masahiro had decided to form a Dharma Array to distract Chen Fan while the latter fought his deadly opponents.
His plan had worked, at least for now. Chen Fan was stopped cold in his tracks, turning into an easy target.
In a blink, a dozen Uchigatana landed on Chen Fan. These attacks all carried deadly Internal Force.
“Courting death!”
Chen Fan was miffed by the development. These Uchigatanas sliced through his clothing but caused no harm to his body. If they had accomplished anything, it would be Chen Fan’s gaining anger.
Chen Fan shook his body and easily shook off the constraining force. He then thrust a punch toward, shattering the very fabric of reality. As a wave of energy rippled through space, it turned the air into liquid.
Those warriors who had landed blows on Chen Fan didn’t even have time to celebrate before they were shattered into pieces once the energy wave reached them. Even the extremely durable Uchigatana shivered into few pieces.
“True Martial Thirty-Six Forms, Void Dimension Shockwave!”
The development gave his opponents chills down their spines.
There was no doubt now that their attacks were futile, however, it was already too late for them to pull back. Hundreds and thousands of warriors were coming from behind them, if they turned back, they might be stampeded to death. There was only one way.
Ordinary men with firearms and warriors with weapons swarmed at Chen Fan from all sides, all the while, the Onmyojis rained deadly spells onto Chen Fan from above or below ground. From time to time, a hidden Ninja would jump out of his cover and sneak up on Chen Fan. Worse, there were snipers on the roof that tried to land a good shot.
“One slash, two, three…”
Chen Fan brandished the Azure Wood Qi Blade and turned his surroundings into a bloody hell. Men threw themselves to Chen Fan, only to be sliced into a few chunks while they were still in the air; more men came at Chen Fan, rinse and repeat.
The influence of Susano Shrine was incredible.
Nearly all the elite fighters of Kyushu’s underground world had gathered here. Chen Fan had sensed that men had lined up on the mountain path all the way to the foothill. Their numbers were in the thousands.
As Chen Fan revealed in the visceral slaughter, he decided to give up the Azure Wood Qi Blade and used his body instead. He rammed at the crowd like a large semi-truck and plowed through them, making a bloody path. Anyone who came to contact with Chen Fan’s body would immediately turn into pulp.
Let it be blade-wielding warriors, trained gunners, or Ninjas, no one could survive Chen Fan’s attacks. He threw one punch and killed a dozen warriors; he kicked in front of him, killing a few dozens more. Worst was then he barged through the crowd, no one in his way would live to see the bloody path Chen Fan had made.
In a few minutes, Chen Fan had slaughtered over three hundred men.
suddenly, an attack sneaked up on Chen Fan from behind. The energy carried from the attack remained concealed until it was only an inch away from Chen Fan. Then it exploded, unleashing as much energy as a ballistic cannon.
“Kaboom!”
Chen Fan returned the attack with a backhand sweep. The two powerful forces collided in the air and caused a deadly shockwave that crushed a few men who stood too close.
The impact staggered the attack and he hurried to back away.
“Huh?”
Chen Fan furrowed his brows was surprised to find out that the attacker didn’t die after taking the brunt of his force. Chen Fan couldn’t even register any injury in the attacker.
“Peak Level of Transcendent State?”
Chen Fan looked to the attacker and saw a disturbed Genkaza Takeda looking back at him with apprehension.
Genkaza Takeda was one of the most powerful warriors in Japan. He lorded over the Kyushu island on behalf of Susano. The Takeda Family was a renowned Martial Arts family in Japan, similar to the Lu family and the Gu family in China.
However, as deadly as Genkaza Takeda was, Chen Fan had countered his attack with one half-minded sweep of the hand. Genkaza Takeda was shocked to the core and realized that only people like him could have a chance in slowing Chen Fan down. The rest of the warriors were all cannon fodder.
“Humph!!”
Chen Fan smiled derisively. He fanged out both arms and closed them like scissors. A deadly wave of energy slashed through the air and sliced a dozen men in half. Chen Fan’s body flickered a little and then disappeared; in less than half a heartbeat, he descended upon Genkaza Takeda. Genkaza Takeda was terrified and scrambled to get out of harm’s way.
Chen Fan chased after him and kept the pressure on him.
If not because of Chizuru Masahiro’s spells and the suicidal warriors that kept on coming at Chen Fan, he had already caught up with Genkaza Takeda and tore him into pieces.
“Uh? Something is not right.”
Chen Fan suddenly paused.
By now, he had killed at least five hundred men, including all of the most powerful warriors and Onmyojis. The remaining fighters were ordinary in their abilities, and why didn’t they run away? Why were they keep on coming at me knowing they would die?
“Something is off.”
Chen Fan narrowed his eyes and unleashed his Divine Sense.