Page 264

Xiro shook his head and replied, "There's no way. Could we really escape your pursuit, Teacher? Even if we can escape the battlefield now, do you think we can get away? When we devised this plan, we never expected to leave alive if we failed."

As Xiro spoke, Lan Xian, standing next to him, had a different reaction. After giving Xiro a deep look, he frowned, sighed, and lowered his head, speaking to someone unseen. "Alright, even though I’m not fully convinced, I’ve lost this gamble. From now on, I’ll step down from all positions in the empire and focus on cultivating my martial skills. I’ll leave the matters here to you… Master."

Lan Xian’s master? In the vast Tiele Empire, who else could be the teacher of a royal-born young Sword Master like Lan Xian, other than the "Ferocious Underworld Martial Saint," Chu Wulie? A cold shiver ran down my spine. I didn’t expect that even at this stage of the battle, someone would come to stir things up—and it happened to be Chu Wulie, the only one among the seven great human Sword Saints I had never encountered.

A very ordinary person, wearing the most common armor of a Yellow Dragon soldier, casually walked out from behind Lan Xian. The armor concealed his face, making him indistinguishable from other Yellow Dragon soldiers. However, my alertness shot up. This person had been standing within ten steps behind Lan Xian, inside the range of my "Saint Ice Thorn Aura," yet I hadn’t noticed his presence. This alone confirmed his level of power.

When he removed his helmet, he revealed an ancient and peculiar face. His eyes were deep and glittering, his cheekbones like knives, his gaunt cheeks looking like those of a thirty or fifty-year-old. His eyebrows were extremely long, drooping to the sides like his mustache, giving an extremely odd impression. At the same time, the power he had been suppressing was gradually released. The forces of heaven and earth began to resonate with his power, and invisible winds started to imperceptibly stir everything on the ground. The slightly cold wind, though not violent, caused everything it brushed to dry up and wither. The corpses nearest to him turned into dried husks in an instant.

The unique "Saint Ice Thorn Aura" of the "Ferocious Underworld Martial Saint," capable of causing all things to wither—the desolate wind of the Tiele desert.

Chu Wulie’s gaze was deep and sharp, like a hidden demon sword behind layers of curtains. After scanning me, he spoke. "I am Chu Wulie. You should be satisfied with how the battle has progressed. If you retreat with your subordinates now, I will not pursue you."

The confidence and arrogance in the "Ferocious Underworld Martial Saint's" words were typical of "Saint Domain" experts. They believed they stood at the pinnacle of power, where neither armies nor forbidden spells could threaten their lives. Only another Sword Saint could harm one of them; everyone else was just an ant in comparison. Thus, no matter how humble and amiable they appeared, at their core, they considered themselves to have transcended the ordinary realm of living beings.

However, I wasn’t about to yield. With a cold smile, I said, "That’s exactly what I was about to say to you. If you wisely flee, I might spare your subordinates this time because of your status as a Sword Saint. But if you insist on seeking death, then you can all die here."

A heavy silence fell. Everyone present was momentarily stunned, as no one had ever dared to speak to a "Saint Domain" expert in such a tone. Even the Lion Tribe’s "Emperor Martial," the only one capable of opposing a Sword Saint, had never done so. For a moment, they wondered if they had misheard.

"Hmph, what arrogance. Your ignorance will bring you complete destruction," Chu Wulie said, laughing angrily. The desolate wind suddenly became violent. Before I could fully react, a black shadow descended like lightning. Instinctively, I used "Yellow Spring Phantom" to narrowly dodge the attack. When his strike missed, it instantly created a crack dozens of meters long and of unfathomable depth in the ground. At the same time, I felt powerful forces attacking from my left, right, and diagonally behind. I quickly activated the "Magic Aura" and teleported ten meters away, but I still couldn’t escape the range of the "Ferocious Underworld Martial Saint." Immediately, seven or eight more shadowy strikes came, but by then, I was fully engaged in my evasion techniques and finally discerned that the attacks were whip shadows. It seemed the weapon of the "Ferocious Underworld Martial Saint" was of the same type as Lan Xian’s. Of course, while the type was the same, the actual difference was vast. Lan Xian’s whip could at most be lashed out to five meters, but Chu Wulie’s whip easily exceeded a hundred meters. I couldn’t figure out how he hid such a long whip without me noticing.

Nevertheless, no matter how long or fast his whip was, it was still difficult to harm me, who possessed sevenfold acceleration and the martial skills of the Nine Yin Scripture. Although the "Saint Ice Thorn Aura" couldn’t slow down a Sword Saint, it forced them to neutralize the aura’s effects with immense power. I adopted the secret method passed down by the Temple, rapidly opening and closing the "Saint Ice Thorn Aura" irregularly to disrupt Chu Wulie’s control over his power and speed, occupying much of his attention. At the same time, I drew my "God's Punishment Thunder." Even if a few whip shadows managed to reach me, Chu Wulie, fearing that his long whip might be cut by my invincible blade, had to relent.

For a moment, neither of us gained the upper hand. The whip shadows of the "Ferocious Underworld Martial Saint" spread out, almost covering half the sky, causing sand to fly and stones to crack within a radius of a hundred meters. Xiro had long been pulled out of our battle range by Lan Xian, and the nearby Snow Wolf Knights, under my orders, had begun to bypass the central route and approach the right-wing battlefield. My figure turned into a phantom-like white ghost, rapidly dodging the overwhelming black whip shadows, and occasionally getting close enough to land a couple of slashes on Chu Wulie, forcing him to evade hurriedly.

"Among the seven great human Sword Saints, I fear only the immense power of the 'Dragon Saint.' The 'Blade Saint,' if willing to pay the price, also has the ability to kill me. Apart from these two, no other Sword Saint, no matter how much stronger, can kill me. Your human army is at a disadvantage now, and dragging this out will only lead to its complete annihilation. If you turn your attention to my subordinates instead of me, I’ll have the perfect chance to ambush you. Are you ready to face injury before the decisive battle with the 'War Saint,' Leimen?" As I dodged Chu Wulie’s attacks and looked for opportunities to counter, I continued to verbally undermine my opponent. Although these experts who had lived for nearly a hundred years were undoubtedly as cold and unyielding as ice, the mere mention of Leimen’s existence was enough to give them pause.