They saw that Junior Martial Sister Chen’s Senior Martial Sister, who was originally sitting down activating the talisman treasure, was now lying on her back. A large hole had appeared on her chest as if someone had reached in and torn out her heart.
As she laid in a pool of her own blood, her beautiful appearance became slightly twisted as her limbs continuously thrashed about. Her eyes were filled with an incredulous fear before turning into unreconciled denial as her life slipped away.
Chapter 321: Unseen Battle
“Xue Hong!”
One of Chen Qiaoqian’s Senior Martial Brothers loudly grieved for her; it seemed they were pair cultivation partners. He waved his hands, immediately shooting a black light toward the woman’s corpse that madly attacked its surroundings in an attempt to find the demon who killed her.
It could be said that the death of this Senior Martial Sister “Xue Hong” was truly unjust. Were it not for her competitive spirit, she wouldn’t have used her treasure talisman and might still be alive.
Before she attempted to activate the talisman treasure, a light muslin defensive magic tool had been hovering at her side. But, in order to hasten the activation of her treasure talisman and cut down magic power consumption, she had retrieved her magic tool— consequently, leaving herself defenseless and her life forfeit.
It is truly unfortunate that this woman was inexperienced and made such an extremely careless mistake.
Her enemies had turned into light cocoons in front of her, and her fellow sect members surrounded her; as a result, she dared to activate this talisman treasure with an easy heart. Who could have predicted that the Ice Demon would emerge from the cocoon half transformed and immediately turn invisible before targeting her.
At that moment, the woman had been in the final moments of activating the treasure talisman and was incapable of immediately stopping; thus, she had fallen prey to the Ice Demon’s malicious scheme.
When Song Meng had activated his spear treasure talisman, he hadn’t employed any defenses either. However, the might of his talisman treasure was comparatively smaller, enabling him to activate it sooner. Otherwise, he might've been targeted by the concealed Ice Demon instead.
Furthermore, it wasn’t just those two that hadn’t set up any defenses, neither had Han Li nor any of the the others bothered to. They naturally wouldn’t waste any magic power to deploy unnecessary defensive magic tools; after all, the light cocoons were targets incapable of striking back.
They immediately set up defensive barriers with their magic tools after Han Li’s reminder, preventing any further sneak attacks. Cold sweat ran down their backs from seeing Xue Hong’s tragic death; her heart was torn from her chest, leaving her to die in a pool of her own blood.
But what was most distressing, was that regardless of what methods they used, none of them were able track down this demon.
They occasionally spotted traces of him, but that demon would again disappear before they could react as if he were constantly changing his location at great speed. The Ice Demon was half transparent and would occasionally flicker in and out of their vision in every direction. Even with specialized autonomous magic tools, they were still unable to find a trace of him as if he had completely disappeared.
Suddenly becoming fearful for their safety, they began looking in every direction; they had actually been completely suppressed without addition action from the Ice Demon.
Only Han Li looked at the present scene with a trace of bewilderment.
Senior Martial Brother Wang who fought alongside Han Li had never seen such a bloody scene before. His currently wore fearful expression with pale complexion.
Her death appeared to be a nightmare. He had originally imagined that this would be the time for him to show off his divine strength and easily wipe out the enemy. But things had turned out entirely different from how he imagined. Not long before, he had even joked about in which manner they could have possibly met their end.
With that thought, he looked at the Senior Martial Brother that was Xue Hong’s pair cultivation partner, causing his face to appear even more unsightly.
Could it be that that the more one feared something would happen, the more likely it was to occur?
It was unknown whether he was feeling guilty about the appearance of the Ice Demon or felt a desire to act from his helplessness.
But as he despondently paced back and forth, a transparent ice-cold claw appeared from behind him from thin air, fiercely stabbing toward his heart.
The small bronze shield that was protecting Senior Martial Brother Wang’s body was completely autonomous. Without waiting for a command, it flashed toward the strike and blocked it.
Dāng. Although the sharp, ice-like claws were blocked by the small bronze shield, it was instantly frozen in a layer of thick frost and bluntly fell to the ground, temporarily becoming useless.
At this moment Senior Martial Brother Wang discovered the astonishing event occurring behind him and felt blood drain from his face. He unconsciously turned around, incessantly looking in every direction, losing his mind to panic.
After seeing there was nothing behind him, he hesitated for a moment before crouching to pick up the small bronze shield. He wanted to thaw it so that he would be able use it once more.
“Quick, dodge!”
The nearby Liu Jing loudly yelled in alarm after seeing his actions.
“Huh?” But by the time he realized what was going on, the crisp sound of his protective water-attribute barrier shattering caused him to feel a heart chilling wind down his back.
“Damn it!” At almost the same time Senior Martial Brother Wang realized what was going to happen, the Ice Demon had already left concealment to make a fatal strike.
In this instant, Senior Martial Brother Wang’s mind grew blank, filled with only the scene of Senior Martial Sister Xue Hong’s tragic death.
‘I truly didn’t think that it would be my turn so quickly!’
This was the only thought that occupied his mind.
But suddenly, his vision became hazy and he felt his body become light. His entire body flew as if he were a cloud being carried by the wind, hearing sounds of wind and thunder underneath him along with a loud, furious yell of surprise.
Soon after, his two legs met the hard ground and someone was standing before him with absolute calm.
“Senior Martial Brother Wang, are you alright?”
While not knowing whether he was alive or dead, he heard a familiar voice full of deep concern.
Upon hearing the familiar voice, he blankly turned his head and saw Liu Jing looking at him with worry.
Seeing his face, Senior Martial Brother Wang realized that he was alive and unharmed. With unconcealed happiness, he gratefully said, “Senior Martial Brother Liu, were you the one who saved me?”
Senior Martial Brother was frightened from his own voice. From his coarse voice, it could be clearly be seen that he had been truly shaken from the moment before.
When Liu Jing heard this, he revealed an awkward, embarrassed appearance and said, “I am quite ashamed to say Junior Martial Brother’s survival wasn’t my doing. Junior Martial Brother Han had acted a moment ago to save you and is currently fighting that demon! Sigh, I actually wasn’t completely convinced by your earlier words earlier that Junior Martial Brother Han had killed over ten Foundation Establishment cultivators due to his young age. But now my perspective has been broadened; Junior Martial Brother Han’s strength is truly unfathomable!”
“Junior Martial Brother Han?” When Senior Martial Brother Wang heard this, he was shocked.
He clearly remembered that Han Li had been over fifteen meters away from him. How was be able to make it in time?
With that thought, Senior Martial Brother Wang hastily turned his head toward the sounds of battle. What he saw left him dumbstruck.
The location where he was attacked was now completely empty. However, he could hear the clangs of a fierce battle along with snar
ls and cries of injury. Furthermore, he could see sword Qi and sharp streaks of light flying out of nowhere and strike the nearby terrain, leaving countless deep and shallow grooves.
After a long moment, Senior Martial Brother Wang finally came to his senses.
As he thought to ask something about that astonishing scene, a violent wind suddenly blew at that location. A shining, translucent white silhouette appeared, followed by a strange figure that shot forth to attack it, leaving Senior Martial Brother Wang breathless.
The silhouette attacking the half-transformed Blood Servant appeared even more demonic than his target. His entire body was as transparent as clear crystal.
“Impossible! How are you able to see through my invisibility!? How are you able to match my speed!?”
The demon’s sparkling face was full of furious surprise and even held a trace of fear.
However, after those words left his mouth, he let out a bestial snarl and fiercely pounced forward, his body disappearing from sight once more.
The sound of battle stopped for a moment and Han Li’s cold snort could be heard amongst the silence. The sounds then resumed, becoming even fiercer and were no longer confined to their original location. The sounds began to appear from every direction, causing the others, who could only hear the battle, to retreat with blanched faces.
The pair cultivation partner of the dead female cultivator was the same and could only helplessly fall back. He feared he would unknowingly become tangled in Han Li’s fight with the demon and die without knowing how.
They all knew in their hearts that they were unable to intervene in this unseen battle.
“Quickly, look at the ground!” Song Meng shouted out in alarm.
When the others heard this, they couldn’t help but lower their heads and look. What they saw overwhelmed them with shock.
At some unknown time, a layer of thick clear ice had condensed onto the ground. Underneath the moonlight, it appeared flawlessly smooth.
“This demon is quite crafty. He actually transformed the ground and put Junior Martial Brother Han in a disadvantage!” Song Meng anxiously said with worry.
“That doesn’t seem to be the case. Although I don’t know what movement technique Han Li is using, we were all unable to discover any trace of him, and from what we’ve heard, it doesn’t seem that Han Li is at a disadvantage. It is clear that the icy ground doesn’t have much of an effect on him. However, the transformed demon’s craftiness truly caught us by surprise, unexpectedly causing one of our sect members to lose her life. I am truly to blame for this!” Liu Jing unhurriedly said this after a moment of silence.
After hearing this and seeing Liu Jing’s solemn expression, the others didn’t know how to console him.
However, these people didn’t know that the Junior Martial Brother Han they spoke of was loudly scolding them in his heart as he fought with the Ice Demon.
Chapter 322: Liu Jing’s “Treasure Seal”
Han Li felt furious!
His anger wasn’t due to the fact that he had saved Senior Martial Brother Wang in a moment of benevolence, or even because he had to fully utilize his Shifting Smoke Steps. Han Li’s anger was due to the fact that Liu Jing and the others were squandering this opportunity to eliminate the three transforming Blood Servants. Once the three Blood Servants finished transforming, a huge dilemma would await them.
Han Li was reminded of Senior Martial Brother Wang’s kind assistance during his fight with Qing Wen, and thus, when Han Li noticed that Senior Martial Brother Wang was on the verge of falling in the Ice Demon’s scheme, he instantly flashed forward into order to save him.
Enraged from Han Li’s intervention, the Ice Demon immediately pursued him, forcing Han Li to deal with him. But soon after, Han Li felt that this Ice Demon would prove extremely troublesome for his fellow sect members and decided it would be better for him to take care of it alone. After all, if even more of his fellow sect members died, they would be lacking in numbers for the upcoming battle.
However, during his fight with the Ice Demon, he didn’t expect that the others would just stare blankly. They were actually squandering this great opportunity to attack the three remaining light cocoons!
Even so, Han Li had a faint feeling that the others didn’t even know this opportunity existed due to their fear of the Ice Demon’s ambush. Although they realized that having to deal with the fully transformed Blood Servants would be even more troublesome, they were still hesitant and slightly desired to retreat.
In reality, Han Li didn’t come here in order to eradicate the Black Fiend School but rather for another predetermined objective. As such, he was unable to run away in a rash manner. Ever since the half-transformed Ice Demon left his cocoon, he had been trying to kill Han Li. But Han Li found that so long as he was a bit careful, the demon did not pose much of threat to him. In fact, he felt that the large bald man was significantly harder to handle in comparison to the demon.
Following the transformation, the Ice Demon acquired a transparent body, exceptional speed, and some control over cold Qi. Thus, he was now able to utilise his speed to create an illusion of invisibility similar to that of the Shifting Smoke Steps. But due to the Ice Demon’s transparent body, he became even harder to detect.
Since this strange movement technique could only be displayed on land, as long as they were above ground, they could force the Ice Demon to reveal itself by using large scale magic techniques. After all, his high speed movements were only deadly within a short distance. It was unable to keep up with a cultivator’s flying magic tool.
Because Liu Jing and company had never experienced this kind of close combat, they felt that their opponent was extremely monstrous and difficult to engage. Fortunately, Han Li had often fought in this manner and naturally held greater experience in fighting such battles.
With that in mind, Han Li suddenly repelled the demon’s sharp claws with a wave of his silver sword, buying himself a short moment. He then stood still to become visible and he loudly yelled, “Everyone, fly to the skies and continue to attack the other three Blood Servants. I will prevent this demon from attacking you!” Following these instructions, Han Li’s figure suddenly flickered, disappearing from sight once more.
It was not surprising for Han Li that the silver sword—which had been looted during the Trial by Blood and Fire—was able to withstand the demon’s sharp claws. The fact that caused Han Li to become astonished was that the claws were also undamaged.
When Liu Jing heard Han Li’s instructions, he immediately understood what Han Li intended. Even so, he remained hesitant and felt extremely conflicted.
Although Liu Jing originated from a large cultivation clan, he had been captured by evil cultivators during his childhood. During that time, he suffered from extreme, agonizing torment to the extent where he had almost lost his life. It was only afterwards that he was rescued by his clan and was apprenticed to Li Huayuan.
Due to the trauma he had experienced in his childhood, Liu Jing held deep hatred toward evil cultivators. As a result, he followed an iron-blooded policy to kill all evil cultivators on sight, refusing to allow any evil cultivator from escaping his grasp, regardless of what freakish techniques they practiced.
Much to his delight, these actions rewarded him with great popularity among other cultivators, even causing a few Seven Sect cultivators with higher cultivation than him to look at him with a trace of admiration.
Although Liu Jing continued to appear unfazed on the outside, his heart gradually began to indulge in these feelings of admiration. In fact, he later took the initiative to root out evil cultivators from every direction mostly for the sake of seeing others gaze upon him with admiration.
Naturally, Liu Jing hid this fact in the depths of his heart with extreme care and conducted himself as though he were a moral paragon. Thus, Liu Jing became known as an enemy of evil, the “iron-blooded” Senior Martial Brother Liu.
Now that another evil known as the Black Fiend Sc
hool had appeared, he was compelled to eliminate it. However, they were the strongest evil cultivators he had ever encountered. He wasn’t completely confident that he would be able to rely on his normal magic tools to eliminate the three remaining blood servants. His attack power was lacking and would only serve to end their transformations earlier, resulting in three more half-demons to fight.
One half-transformed demon was already very difficult to handle. They did not know if they could handle additional half-demons or if they would just be throwing their lives away.
But if they were to retreat now, they would have just scared the Black Fiend School away, resulting in the complete failure of their mission. If they allowed the Black Fiend School to disappear without a trace and conceal themselves once more, Liu Jing’s painfully nurtured reputation would be thoroughly and irrevocably destroyed.
The thought of others looking upon him with contempt caused Liu Jing to feel winded and extremely depressed.
Han Li’s exhortation had forced him to make a choice.
“Senior Martial Brother Liu, should we retreat?! The Black Fiend School is far stronger than we’ve imagined. If we’re going to retreat, we must do it now or else it will be too late!” Senior Martial Brother Wang softly said after approaching hesitantly.
Liu Jing could clearly see cowardice from Martial Brother Wang’s shifting gaze.
‘Retreat? If I retreat now, then I’ll appear just as cowardly!’ Liu Jing thought with a bitter smile.
“Everyone, fly to the skies and protect me as I cast my magic. Let me deal with the three Blood Servants!” Liu Jing instructed.
At the same time, he thought, ‘It seems I’ll have to use my life-saving measure in this fight! Otherwise, I won’t be able to win and preserve my reputation!’
“Senior Martial Brother Liu, you want to deal with the Blood Servants by yourself?”
However, when the others heard Liu Jing’s words, they all looked at him in disbelief, causing Liu Jing to feel a bottomless ache in his heart. But still, his appearance remained calm. Without speaking, he flew directly to the sky on a magic tool as he solemnly retrieved a fire-red jade box from his storage pouch.
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