Unsheathed

Chapter 356 (1): Teetering on the Edge

The re-emergence of Sui Youbian from the temple right after her demise had everyone on the battlefield completely stunned, and Wang Qi and the brawny man were also exchanging a bewildered glance with each other.

What kind of immortal technique was this? Could it be that this woman was actually a talismanic puppet, or was she some type of secret Mohist creation? Since when was it even possible to create such an advanced talismanic puppet?

After retreating to a safe distance away, Xu Qingzhou took a glance at Xu Tong. If it weren't for Xu Tong's warning, he would've grabbed onto Deep Infatuation and claimed it for himself.

Thankfully for him, Xu Tong had urged him to get back at the last second, and he immediately did as he was told, springing back in retreat without any hesitation. Only then was he able to evade Deep Infatuation as it flew back to Sui Youbian. Otherwise, he would've had an arm amputated at the very least.

At this moment, there was a grim look on Xu Tong's face, and he said, "That woman is definitely not just an ordinary pure martial artist."

Xu Qingzhou turned to look at Sui Youbian's remains, only to discover that they were nowhere to be found.

Standing on a branch on a faraway tree, the new Sui Youbian was holding Deep Infatuation in her hand, completely unscathed.

From there, she was glowering at Xu Qingzhou and Xu Tong with fierce battle intent in her eyes. She had a feeling that it would only take one more grueling battle of life and death for her to make a breakthrough!

Xu Qingzhou's brows immediately furrowed slightly. Following her "demise," both Sui Youbian's aura and cultivation base had been drastically elevated. Clearly, she had grasped onto a catalyst for a breakthrough during the prior battle, and she was determined to use him and Xu Tong as whetstones to further hone her own powers. If she were to reach the seventh tier, then she would most likely become an insurmountable opponent.

Xu Qingzhou was a seasoned martial artist who possessed mental fortitude and battle experience in equal measure, so his courage was not to be understated. In contrast, Xu Tong was a Qi refiner from the Flora Convent, the largest cultivation sect in the Great Quan Empire, and he came from a clan of generations of cultivators, so his cultivation journey had been very smooth up to this point.

If he were facing a normal pure martial artist at the pinnacle of the sixth tier, he would have nothing to fear. Unfortunately, this was Sui Youbian; not only was there a very good chance that she was going to make a breakthrough on this battlefield, she appeared to be unkillable as well. A sense of fear thus began to set in in Xu Tong's heart.

The world was filled with innumerable strange and wonderful things, but each Qi refiner only had a single life.

Xu Qingzhou could already sense Xu Tong's reservations, but instead of openly denouncing him as a coward or becoming panicked and concerned, he remained calm and collected as he said, "We'll kill her one more time, and if she comes alive again, then we'll fall back in retreat for now."

Xu Tong gritted his teeth, and the golden talisman between his fingers began to glow as he replied, "Fine, we'll do as you say."

Meanwhile, Sui Youbian was watching Xu Qingzhou and Xu Tong with a derisive sneer. In her eyes, they were nothing more than stepping stones for her ascension to the top.

On the other side, Lu Baixiang also needed to replenish his breath of True Qi, but with Xu Qingzhou and Xu Tong's attention diverted away by Sui Youbian, the rest of the enemy master martial artists and Qi refiners posed far less of a threat, so their collective attacks only amounted to a gash over Lu Baixiang's ribs and an arrow through his shoulder.

He clasped a hand over the gash as he shook the blood from his saber. All the while, he didn't even bother to take a single glance at the arrow that had pierced through his shoulder, nor did he attempt to remove it.

Prior to emerging from the picture scroll, all four of them had been informed of something, except none of them were aware of what the others had been told, and Chen Ping'an had also been kept in the dark.

Wei Xian was the first one to have emerged from the picture scroll, but he had revealed what had been told to him quite late.

Lu Baixiang was confident that Wei Xian wouldn't lie about something like that, and he was also convinced that Chen Ping'an wouldn't have told Wei Xian to say such a thing just to convince the four of them to fight to the death.

However, Lu Baixiang didn't want to die for now.

Zhu Lian still wasn't dead either. In fact, right now, he had the most abundant vitality out of the four of them, as expected of the Martial Arts Maniac whose powers only grew with each injury that he sustained.

Lu Baixiang had never heard of gold essence copper coins. Instead, he had only ever heard of three immortal currencies, namely snowflake coins, lesser heat coins, and grain rain coins. Even so, he felt like his life was surely worth a gold essence copper coin, right?

In any case, his kill count was about to reach one thousand soon. Seeing as he was on the verge of completing the agreement, there was no need for him to act with any urgency, especially considering the true battle was really only just getting started.

When it came to making breakthroughs, Lu Baixiang was the one with the least desire out of the four.

Sui Youbian was undoubtedly the one with the greatest desire because she had the wildest ambitions of the four. She wanted to fulfill the wish that she wasn't able to back in the Lotus Flower Blessed Land, namely to ascend with her sword.

The second breath of fresh True Qi was churning through Lu Baixiang's body like a turbulent river, and even though he was not exactly in top shape, this breath of True Qi was still going to be enough to support him for fifteen more minutes of battle.

At the foot of the mountain, there were more soldiers of the Great Quan Empire scaling the mountain to slay the purported demons on the mountain summit.

Gao Shizhen's complexion had turned deathly pale from being pelted by the rain, and in the end, he finally caved to the insistent nagging of the old steward beside him, allowing the latter to raise an umbrella over his head.

Just now, Gao Shizhen had been put through a drastic range of emotions. First, he had received a report from the mountain summit, claiming that the sword-wielding woman had been slain by Xu Qingzhou and Xu Tong. It was reported that she had been decapitated by Xu Qingzhou, following which her soul was destroyed by Xu Tong, so she was most definitely dead.

However, mere moments after that, he received another report stating that the woman had come alive again, and that she was engaged in battle against Xu Qingzhou and Xu Tong. This time, she was focused solely on those two, paying no further heed to the soldiers of the Great Quan Empire.

Gao Shizhen turned to look at the troops standing in silence under the pelting rain not far away, and he could see that some of the younger ones among them were around the same age as Gao Shuyi had been at his time of death, while some of the oldest ones appeared to be around the same age as himself.

Around half an hour later, he received another piece of bad news.

The sword-wielding woman had managed to run her sword through Xu Tong's heart at the cost of taking a blow to the back from Xu Qingzhou and a punch to the head from a golden talismanic puppet. That shouldn't have been enough to kill Xu Tong, but even though he had pulled out all of his trump cards, devouring a multitude of pills and unleashing an array of life-preservation immortal techniques, he still met his demise.

His heart had become as withered as ashes. Following the demise of the sword-wielding woman, her body vanished once again, and for the second time, she re-emerged from the temple, this time as a seventh tier martial artist. Xu Qingzhou had already retreated from the mountain, much to the fury of Liu Cong, who declared that he was going to severely punish the Xu Clan of Mirage City.

Gao Shizhen remained standing in silence, while the rain continued to fall like the insistent chattering of the gods.

The old steward's family had been serving in the duke's manor for generations, and he consoled in a gentle voice, "Don't be dishearted, Duke Gao. As long as Mr. Wang hasn't gotten personally involved, there's still life in the battle yet."

Gao Shizhen offered no response.

On the mountain summit, Lu Baixiang had already sustained a multitude of injuries, but none of them had much of impact on his combat prowess aside from the gash on his waist and the specially made arrow that had pierced through his shoulder, so he was still able to keep the enemy at bay.

As for those who managed to slip through the cracks, they were taken care of with ease by Wei Xian.

It was no wonder that Xu Qingzhou was so eager to get his hands on that suit of West Mountain Dew Armor. It was important to remember that Xu Qingzhou's Golden Crow Armor was a second-grade armor pellet, which made it an armor pellet of a significantly higher caliber than Dew Armor.

Wei Xian had climbed up the ranks from a complete nobody to become the first emperor of Southern Garden Nation, and he had spent most of his life on the battlefield. In the Lotus Flower Blessed Land, it was said that he was capable of taking on an army of ten thousand men on his own, and he was truly unmatched on the battlefield.

Essentially, as long as he remained at the height of his powers, everyone else in the Lotus Flower Blessed Land was merely fighting for a distant second place. Hence, Wei Xian was actually more suited to fighting on the battlefield than Lu Baixiang, and whenever he stepped onto a battlefield, he immediately had an innate advantage, much like that of a Confucian sage in an academy.

This wasn't a quality that any martial artist at the pinnacle of the sixth tier could attain. In fact, this wasn't necessarily attainable even for an eighth or ninth tier martial arts master.

Zhu Lian had been going all out this entire time, so his injuries were extremely severe.

Wei Xian had offered to swap roles with Zhu Lian, but the latter had turned down his offer. Once a fire was lit under the Martial Arts Maniac, there truly was no stopping him.

Wei Xian continued to insist on swapping roles with Zhu Lian, and his intention was to play the hero and charge straight into the depths of the enemy ranks to claim Liu Cong's head. This was what he excelled at the most. It was most likely going to cost him a life in order to slay Liu Cong, but Sui Youbian had already died twice, and Wei Xian felt like a life was a just price to pay for the chance to be able to fight to his heart's content on the battlefield.

Additionally, he had been stationed at the entrance during the battle in the inn on the border, and he was playing the same role here, and that made him feel like a bit of a guard dog, which was naturally not a very flattering feeling.

After knocking back an opposing spirit tool with his fist, Zhu Lian used the force of the clash to send himself sliding back, and at this point, the bones of his hands were already visible on his fists.

Prior to charging forward again, Zhu Lian grimaced as he said to Wei Xian, "Let me give you some words of caution, make of them what you will. We can be revived after dying, and we're spending Chen Ping'an's money to do so, so it's up to us whether we feel like that's a fair trade or not. However, I advise you not to die too easily.

“I can't tell you why, but my instincts tell me that it would be unwise to throw our lives away, even with this safety net. It's up to you whether you take my advice or not. If you want to brush off my concerns, then you're free to go around these pesky flies to kill Liu Cong, and I won't try to stop you."

"Can you take my place to defend the entrance of the temple while I go?" Wei Xian asked.

Zhu Lian offered no response, stomping a foot down onto the ground to launch himself forward, throwing himself back into the fray.

It was clear that he wasn't willing to fulfill Wei Xian's request.

Wei Xian threw a fist at an oncoming enemy soldier, causing the soldier's breastplate to completely cave in. The soldier's lifeless body was sent flying back into his comrades behind him with such tremendous force that all of them fell to the ground in an unconscious state, with blood flowing out of all of their orifices.

Wei Xian then turned to Chen Ping'an as he said, "As the saying goes, cut off the head and the body will die. Should I go directly after Liu Cong?"

Chen Ping'an nodded in agreement, and Wei Xian took a deep breath, then sprang forward like lightning, only giving the battlefield that Zhu Lian was on a slight berth.

"Ignore the sagely wisdom of your elders at your own peril. It's not every day that I feel like offering friendly advice, yet here I am, being ignored. How unfortunate," Zhu Lian grinned.

Chen Ping'an raised his head once again to cast his gaze toward the other mountain.

Meanwhile, Pei Qian had pulled out her little treasure trove once again and was showing off her possessions to the little lotus spirit.

Outside of Chen Ping'an, the little lotus spirit was the only other living being that she trusted in this world.

However, the little lotus spirit wasn't very interested in seeing what she had to show it, and it was frequently getting up onto the tips of its toes to look out the door at Chen Ping'an.

A stern look appeared on Pei Qian's face as she scolded, "Are you not confident in my father? All I can see is that you're missing an arm, are you missing your eyes as well? Who do you think my father is? You think he'll lose? Let me tell you this: even if I turn into an idiot who doesn't like silver someday, my father will still never lose to anyone in a fight!"

The little lotus spirit looked back at Pei Qian with a dazed expression, struggling to draw a correlation between her dislike for silver and Chen Ping'an losing a fight. It had always struggled to understand what this short-tempered little girl was thinking about all the time.

"Take a stick and write down scriptures," Chen Ping'an instructed from outside the temple.

Pei Qian immediately shuddered upon hearing this, then gave the little lotus spirit a slap on the head in secret, but she didn't dare to use much force for fear of having her punishment doubled from five hundred to a thousand characters. She then picked up her hiking pole and began writing out a piece of sagely scripture on the ground.

With each character that she wrote, the little lotus spirit would jump up and sink into the ground, then poked out its head beside the character and giggled up at her. Pei Qian couldn't help but roll her eyes, wondering how something so stupid could exist in this world. At the same time, she was thinking to herself that she had to convince Chen Ping'an to sell this stupid thing. Even with an arm missing, surely it would fetch a good price.

On the summit of the other mountain, the brawny man was raring to go.

"Should I go down and have a look?"

Wang Qi remained silent with an indecisive look on his face.

The brawny man looked up at the sky, then said, "The storm is going to pass soon. Once that happens, even if you beg me to make a move, I'm not going to do anything. Don't forget that I have no obligation to help you kill anyone, I'm only here to keep an eye on the situation for my master, and all I need to do is recover the Sword Nurturing Gourd from Chen Ping'an's body once he's dead."

Of course, his primary objective was actually to help his master find that precious treasure in Chen Ping'an's possession.

As for how he was going to find the treasure, that was a secret that a disgraced noble scholar like Wang Qi had no right to know.

The brawny man cast his gaze toward Lu Baixiang in the distance, and after some careful contemplation, Wang Qi nodded as he said, "You can go, but don't reveal your true form. Otherwise, I won't be able to explain things to Great Subduing Academy. That mountain master of ours is not easy to fool."

"How is that even a problem?" the brawny man sneered. "Just say that you managed to guide me onto the path of righteousness and convince me to renounce my old ways, and that I want to request a water god temple from the Great Quan Empire through you. Hence, I'm willing to help you as a gesture of goodwill. Is that not a perfect explanation?"