Chapter 349: Chapter 66: Parting the Clouds with the Eight Trigrams, Forging Spears in the Face of Battle
Ling Yunpo couldn’t remember the last time he’d fought such a suffocating battle.
If Senior Sister An wasn’t here, he could have acted freely, advancing to attack, retreating to escape with a dash… But since Senior Sister An was inseparable from him, he could only honestly play the part of Ling Yunpo; it was all about swordsmanship and more swordsmanship, occasionally taking a few non-fatal blows from the Sword Qi to show he was giving it his all.
An Zhisu had no suspicions, only her face grew paler and paler. To help her junior brother escape the pursuit, she truly was giving it her all.
The two of them kept fighting while retreating, then retreating while fighting, not knowing where they had reached.
After all, the environment here was completely unfamiliar to them, and with the frenzied Sword Immortal’s relentless pursuit, they really had no leisure to observe their surroundings and choose their path.
After running an unknown distance, they found they were still not at the edge of the swamp, and Ling Yunpo realized that the direction he had chosen in his panicked flight was certainly leading deeper into the swamp.
An Zhisu suddenly staggered, and although the movement was slight, Ling Yunpo still noticed it sharply.
“Senior Sister, are you poisoned?” he asked quickly.
An Zhisu didn’t answer, but Ling Yunpo grabbed her wrist and sent his Divine Sense swiftly into it, swirling around in her meridians for a moment, soon finding that her True Yuan was almost fully tainted by a green poison.
“Senior Sister! How could you…” Ling Yunpo panicked and subconsciously wanted to blame her, but swallowed his words before they could leave his lips.
What’s going on, Ling Yunpo, don’t you have a clue in your heart?
He cursed himself a few times in his heart, then started to think with the fastest thoughts he had ever mustered in his life.
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Simply running around like a headless fly was surely no way to escape.
The reason was simple; although the Sword Immortal was insane, his speed was by no means slow. It was clearly some kind of profound step born of instinct.
“Ah Jing.” Ling Yunpo said in a deep voice, “Have you finished analyzing everything?”
Kunlun Mirror didn’t speak, but meticulously analyzed and replayed to him all the scenes of its previous battle with the frenzied Sword Immortal.
Green Duckweed Sword explained as it cooperated with the footage:
“I don’t know the name of this footwork, but it contains the theory of the Eight Trigrams from the I Ching. Listen closely, and I will explain…”
“Get to the point!” Ling Yunpo interrupted it brusquely.
The frenzied Sword Immortal is coming to kill us, and you’re trying to give me a detailed explanation?
“Don’t interrupt me!” Green Duckweed Sword also uncharacteristically scolded him, “The philosophy of the I Ching is profound and vast. If I don’t explain in detail, you won’t understand at all!”
Ling Yunpo was left speechless, not knowing why Green Duckweed Sword was suddenly so ill-tempered, he could only say anxiously:
“Then explain quickly, I’ll try to understand!”
Green Duckweed Sword huffed and began to rattle off an explanation to him.
It must be said that this theory was indeed arcane; if written down, it would look like gibberish, convoluted and hard to comprehend, hardly resembling human speech.
But Luo Yan, after all, had studied Formations thoroughly in Penglai Pavilion, which was like math… with a good mathematical foundation, how hard could cryptography be?
Before he even finished learning, the frenzied Sword Immortal had already come charging over from afar, saying ominously:
“Don’t run, user of the Seven Kills Sword Technique. Are you only brave enough to flee like a rat?”
Ling Yunpo didn’t waste time bantering with him, directly activating the Green Duckweed Sword’s Daoist Magic, Green Mist Veil Over the Mountains.
This first-tier technique of Green Duckweed Sword might have almost no killing power, but it was extremely useful against an enemy of a higher realm. Even a Golden Core Realm Sword Immortal at Great Perfection couldn’t expand their Divine Sense in this dense Water System fog.
The moment the dense fog closed in, the frenzied Sword Immortal fired a Xinjin Huaqi Sword at Ling Yunpo. However, Ling Yunpo had already figured out his pattern and didn’t meet the attack head-on. Instead, he threw the Thunder Punishment Sword behind him and achieved “Man-Sword Unity” with the Green Duckweed Sword to escape the scene.
“Why is it always me!” Thunder Punishment Sword screamed in agony as it was sent flying head-on by the Xinjin Qisword and then, following the guidance of Ling Yunpo’s consciousness, whirled back around.
The Xinjin Qisword was still attempting to pursue, but Ling Yunpo wasn’t nearby; it slashed through the air several times, to no avail.
By the time the Mad Sword Immortal charged out of the mist, Ling Yunpo had already carried An Zhisu far away.
“Senior Sister An, just hang in there a little longer.” Reaching a deep water area, Ling Yunpo stood on the Flying Sword, noticing that An Zhisu had fallen into a semi-conscious state.
He hurriedly fed her several elixirs, then took hold of Senior Sister An’s wrist, clasped his hands together, fingers opposite one another, and infused True Qi into her meridians to forcefully draw out the poisoned True Yuan.
It had to be said, although Senior Sister An’s True Yuan wasn’t as robust as his, it was exceptionally agile and nimble, dodging his True Qi’s attraction within the meridians endlessly.
Ling Yunpo was also listening to Qing Ping Sword’s elucidation of the I Ching, while simultaneously trying to guide An Zhisu’s internal True Yuan, utterly swamped with tasks.
“Run, run, run, where do you think you can escape to?” The Mad Sword Immortal’s voice floated over from afar, “Is the essence of the Seven Kills Sword Technique really just to dodge and hide?”
Ling Yunpo ignored him, merely forcing out a portion of the toxins from An Zhisu’s body and finishing absorbing the theories from the Qing Ping Sword, then nodded in agreement,
“Hmm, I’ve almost got it.”
“Can you use it now?” Qing Ping Sword asked leisurely.
“Not sure,” sighed Ling Yunpo, “How would I know without having tried it?”
“You’ll have the chance very soon,” said Qing Ping Sword, with a profound meaning.
Ling Yunpo paused for a moment, then suddenly hoisted An Zhisu onto his back, stepped on the Eight Trigrams, and quickly chanted,
“Five meridians intersect and diverge, responding and resonating with the times; four sevens conflict and deviate, indulgently separating and ascending… ”
With a shimmer in his form, he appeared dozens of steps away in an instant.
The place where he and An Zhisu had been standing was now pierced by the shadow struck by the Xinjin Qisword.
The Mad Sword Immortal arrived on the scene in a flash, eyeing Ling Yunpo, who was stepping with intricate footwork. His bloodshot, murky eyes gradually widened in astonishment.
Then, veins throbbing, teeth tightly clenched, hair and beard standing on end, his rage thunderous, he bellowed,
“My Cloud-Parting Eight Trigrams Step! My Cloud-Parting Eight Trigrams Step! How dare you stealthily learn it… You filthy, shameless little thief!!!”
After repeatedly cursing in rage, the Mad Sword Immortal hurriedly strode across the water’s surface, taking more than ten steps in an instant, his form flickering as he rapidly pursued Ling Yunpo, moving even faster than before.
Ling Yunpo glanced back and nearly had his soul scared out of his body, yelling,
“Qing Ping, what comes next? Quick, chant it!”
“Thunder resonates in the eastern corner, signifying the thunder trigram; the Heavenly Abyss lies in the west, representing the lake trigram…” Qing Ping Sword recited swiftly.
Following the chant, Ling Yunpo’s movements quickened, again widening the distance between them.
But his speed still fell short of the Mad Sword Immortal’s; one reason was a lack of proficiency, the other being his True Yuan’s intensity didn’t measure up.
Despite exerting all his strength, his True Qi surging and his mind racing, the Mad Sword Immortal’s shifting silhouette gradually closed the gap yard by yard.
“Go on, keep running!” As Ling Yunpo was gradually caught up to, the Mad Sword Immortal roared furiously, “Do you really think that by learning a fraction of my steps, you can escape from the palm of my hand? Once I catch up to you, I’ll skin you alive and draw out your tendons, use your flesh to feed my sword, and I’ll imprison your soul within the sword to torment day and night…”
Before he could finish his sentence, boundless dense fog rose up once more, not only obscuring vision but also completely constraining divine sense, leaving no trace of Ling Yunpo to be seen.
“Aaahhhhh!” The Mad Sword Immortal’s voice filled with despair echoed through the thick fog.