Chapter 350: Man in Black
Everyone was surprised by the sudden development.
After knocking away Gu Hao, Bao’er turned to Xu Qing and Xie Qiang.
Unless one was an elite student like Tang Jie, a Spirit Sensing fiend beast was usually stronger than the average student. Moreover, Xu and Xie were both shaken by the sudden appearance of Bao’er and didn’t have the will to fight, so Bao’er easily sent them flying.
He was the last to enter the battle, but he was the quickest to end his side of things.
The three disciples had barely put up any resistance.
The second fastest was Yiyi.
The Silkheaven Net reappeared. The flower flood was capable of fighting against one or a group, and it now turned into eight flower snakes that rushed at the eight disciples. But as it had been split up too much, the eight disciples were able to work together and fend off the eight torrents. However, from how they were gasping, it was clear that the effort had badly tired them out.
One of them laughed, “Let’s see what other tricks you have now!”
Yiyi tilted her head. “You stopped it? So it really wasn’t strong enough. Let’s try it again.”
With a wave of her little hand, another sea of petals appeared.
“How could this be?” The eight of them looked up in shock at the cloud of petals. Such a powerful spell could be cast again so quickly?
They didn’t know that this was Yiyi’s innate spell art. Just like the Frost Fairy’s palace, it was the strongest she had. Spellcasting sprites didn’t know as many spell arts as cultivators, but they had outstanding innate spell arts, far above those of the average person. On many occasions, they could rely purely on their innate spell arts to end battles. This was true for the Frost Fairy, and it was also true for this green rose sprite.
A moment later, eight more snakes frenziedly attacked, and the eight disciples began to throw out whatever they had, whether it was talismans or medicines, in order to fight back. While the strikes of the flower snakes left them in great pain, the talismans and medicines allowed them to miraculously hold on.
“Stopped it again?” Yiyi was angry.
The little girl once more summoned a flower sea and eight flower snakes.
Perhaps because they knew they couldn’t stop it this time, the eight of them despaired. Casting aside all apprehensions, they began to throw out fire talismans and the like. A cloud of fire erupted, and it actually managed to neutralize a significant number of petals.
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The remaining petals battered them, and while they put on some pressure, it wasn’t that mountainous pressure from before.
It was only then that the eight of them realized that offense was the better method, and they all cheered.
Yiyi was extremely angry now.
Her stubbornness started to show, as another flower flood appeared, eight snakes dancing.
The eight disciples joined together to resist.
Layer after layer of petals appeared and disappeared, dancing across the sky like flames and enchanting the spectators.
Yiyi stood up and raised her hands high, summoning another torrent of petals.
Bao’er had finished cleaning up his three, but as he was about to go and help, Yiyi shouted, “Don’t come over! You think I can’t deal with them!?”
From above, Tang Jie asked, “Yiyi, why don’t you split them up and deal with four of them first?”
Everyone was stunned by these words. He was right! This little girl only needed to decrease the number of targets by one or two, or perhaps focus her attacks a little more, and the disciples she focused on would never be able to hold out against the Silkheaven Net. The four Mortal Shedding cultivators couldn’t help but think to themselves, This kid can face down attacks from four people and still have time to observe the battle below?
But Yiyi replied, “No! I’m going to do it like this!”
It seemed she was throwing a tantrum.
The flower flood rose, continuing to crazily smash down. The eight disciples were able to hold out at first, but they gradually began to lose ground. Worst of all, they realized that while they could weaken the petal attacks with their attacks, this led to a drop in their defenses, meaning that even the decreased number of petals striking them still had an effect.
After several rounds of this, the eight of them were covered in wounds.
The little girl crazily continued her flower torrent assault as if she had suffered some great injustice.
And from her perspective, this was true. The eight of them had managed to last so many rounds against the strongest innate spell art of this sprite? It was just unacceptable!
A disciple finally faltered under Yiyi’s frenzied assault and shouted, “I concede!”
The flower snake attacking this disciple suddenly stopped, and then it dispersed into seven small torrents to attack the remaining seven.
This level of control dumbfounded the Mortal Shedding cultivators. The seven disciples hadn’t expected this attack from behind, and blood gushed as the seven of them fell from the sky.
It turned out that they had been only a paper’s thickness away from defeat.
Yiyi finally drew back her hand in satisfaction, turning to the disciple who had shouted his concession.
The disciple looked at Yiyi, looked at the people fallen on the ground, and realized what he had to do. Taking his sword, he struck himself on the head with the hilt and fainted.
The battle in the second zone had come to an end, and all that was left was the battle involving Tang Jie and the four Mortal Shedding cultivators.
Tang Jie looked down and muttered, “I’m the only one not done yet. Fine, I’ll be a little faster. Blink!”
He blinked away, appearing in another region of the sky.
His position this time was rather strange, not close to any one cultivator. However, three Mortal Shedding Realm cultivators were within ten meters of him, in a straight line, and the last one, while slightly farther away, was still on this line.
The moment he appeared, the Heartbreak Saber unleashed a dazzling band of light at the four.
Matchless Slash!
The moment this wave of saber energy appeared, it engulfed the three in front. Its power was so great that even the fourth cultivator seemed to be in its range. The four of them were so frightened that they immediately threw up their barriers.
The whiskered Daoist took out something and threw it at Tang Jie. It was a golden hoop that expanded as it flew, aimed at Tang Jie’s head. The female cultivator threw out a silk belt, and the other two separately threw out a sword and a golden stamp.
At this key moment, they had all taken out their strongest abilities.
Tang Jie laughed loudly. “Go!”
A golden light shot toward the hoop: a tiny golden pellet.
Tang Jie swung the Heartbreak Saber at the golden stamp, blocking it, and as for the golden hoop, the moment the golden pellet made impact, it shattered into pieces. The whiskered Daoist howled in pain, “My baby!”
The female cultivator’s silk belt flew over, trying to wrap around Tang Jie, and the other cultivator’s magic sword cleaved through the air.
Tang Jie once more blinked away, easily dodging the silk belt and magic sword.
“How could this be?” the female cultivator shrieked.
Her silk belt had a sealing effect and should have rendered instant movement spell arts ineffective. But Tang Jie had completely ignored it.
She didn’t know that Tang Jie had comprehended a part of the Great Dao of Space three and a half years ago when making the charge at Mortal Shedding, in addition making great progress in the Chaoswind Step.
The Dao of Wisdom allowed Tang Jie to grasp the Chaoswind Step much more quickly. In just three and half a years, he had reached twelve stars in the Chaoswind Step, attaining what could be considered a divine speed.
The Dao of Space, on the other hand, greatly improved the Chaoswind Step’s range, effect, and variation. Let alone the auxiliary sealing effect of a low-grade art relic like the silk belt, even a middle-grade art relic made specifically for sealing wouldn’t be able to hold Tang Jie.
After dodging the silk belt and magic sword, Tang Jie laughed and threw a punch.
This punch unleashed a dazzling golden light.
It struck the golden stamp cultivator first, causing him to throw up blood and fall. It then struck the pursuing magic sword, which shattered into a resplendent golden star. Finally, it struck the female cultivator, causing her to fall into the clouds.
One punch had wounded two people and destroyed a treasure. The strength was simply absurd!
The Heartbreak Saber’s saber energy swept around and slammed into the magic sword cultivator, knocking him from the sky. Finally, Tang Jie made twelve consecutive punches against the whiskered Daoist.
The whiskered Daoist lived up to his Nine Revolutions cultivation, managing to resist the twelve punches. But Tang Jie’s wild strength had left him feeling like his body was going to break apart.
“What spell art is this?” the whiskered Daoist yelled in shock.
He could tell that those twelve punches had actually consisted of six heavy punches and six light punches. The six heavy punches had come from Tang Jie’s flashing golden right hand, while the six light punches had come from the normal left hand. This meant that the golden light was what truly made the punches so terrifying.
Tang Jie stopped punching, and the golden pellet that had destroyed the golden hoop returned to his hand. As it impacted with his left hand, it turned into golden liquid that flowed over his hand, forming a thin golden gauntlet.
Only then did the whiskered Daoist realize that the golden light had actually been a gauntlet.
In these three and a half years, while cultivating, Tang Jie hadn’t forgotten to go to the Forging Platform and break down broken tools. Although he no longer toiled away at it night and day like before, as the days passed, the golden pill grew larger and larger. It was now big enough that it could form a pair of gauntlets, and if they were flying needles, there would have been several dozen.
His hands flashing golden, Tang Jie smiled and asked, “Again?”
The six heavy punches from before had already broken this old Daoist’s bones, and twelve heavy punches after that? The whiskered Daoist didn’t dare to try. Seeing that he was the only one left standing, he sighed and said, “There’s no need. I concede!”
With his concession, the battle naturally came to an end.
Tang Jie smiled. “So, can we leave now?”
The whiskered Daoist hastily said, “Daoist Brother, please state your name!”
Tang Jie’s eyes flashed with killing intent. “What? Still not satisfied?”
The whiskered Daoist said in fright, “That’s not it! This one serves the Gu Clan and must give an explanation. But if Daoist Brother is not willing, then it’s fine.”
He knew that asking for a name at this time would cause him to be suspected of trying to plot revenge, so he quickly gave up on the idea.
Tang Jie landed and said to Yiyi, “Give the people back to him and then we’ll go.”
Yiyi tossed a vine toward the Daoist. “Here’s your grapes back!”
She had somehow managed to bind all 21 cultivators with a single vine, even stacking them with three or four to a level. From a distance, they really did look like a big bundle of grapes.
Holding these “grapes” in hand, the whiskered Daoist didn’t know whether he should put them down or not. As for the other cultivators, as normally aloof and proud existences, they had never been so humiliated, and they were so ashamed that they wanted to die.
Tang Jie prepared to leave, but just as he was about to go, a sinister voice said, “Going to leave after you’re done fighting? You think things are really that easy?”
Hmm?
Tang Jie looked in the direction of the voice and saw a man in black standing in the distance, coldly staring at him. He had a yellowish and deathly-looking face that was devoid of expression, like a particularly life-like mask.
The whiskered Daoist spotted that man in black as well, and a look of joy appeared on his face. “Sir Qiu!”
Tang Jie chuckled. “So it was someone else from the Gu Clan.”
Despite his laugh, he was on his guard. While the man in black was just standing there, Tang Jie could sense danger from him.
The man in black coldly said, “I’m not part of the Gu Clan. I only do some business with them. But since I’m a guest of Gu Clan, I don’t mind helping the Gu Clan take care of a few problems so that they owe me a favor.”
He waved his hand, and a dark cloud instantly appeared and started to fly toward Tang Jie. Upon closer inspection, it was actually a swarm of black bees.
These black bees had spherical bodies and were a purplish-black color. In the sunlight, they had a metallic luster. Tang Jie rapidly retreated and fired off an Energy Needle. This struck one of the black bees, which instantly erupted with green blood. But before dying, it fired a sharp stinger that was aimed right at Tang Jie’s face.
Tang Jie waved his saber, and there was a clang as the stinger was sliced in two and dropped to the ground.
But Tang Jie didn’t feel any happier.
“Arrowtail Bees,” he coldly said, finally recognizing these insects.
Arrowtail Bees were an extremely vicious kind of venomous bees. They were called Arrowtails because they could shoot out their stingers to attack the enemy.
An Arrowtail Bee could only ever fire off a single venomous stinger in its life, and it would die after firing it. As they were only single-use, they weren’t especially valuable, but if they were gathered together and unleashed all their essence at once, they could exhibit a power far above their level.
The sharp stingers were quite solid, and a large number fired at once could even pierce through an art-level barrier. While the venom wasn’t strong, if accumulated, even the Jewel Body might not be able to withstand it.
In short, this was a special consumable item that could use quantity to increase quality.
Tang Jie hadn’t expected his foe to have something like this. He knew that dealing with these venomous beas required annihilating them before they could attack, so he stopped hesitating, unleashing a blast of wind with the Heartbreak Saber.
But the bee swarm dispersed, flying off into the crowd before continuing forward.
If Tang Jie fired off another blast of wind, he would be able to kill the bees, but he would also hurt innocent civilians.
“Shit!” He hadn’t expected this tactic. Unable to use his saber, he swiftly retreated. The man in black saw that he didn’t attack and sighed as if he had actually hoped that Tang Jie would strike.
The bee swarm rushed at Tang Jie, and as they got close, they fired countless stingers, dying in the same moment.
Tang Jie was just about to activate the Chaoswind Step when he heard a soft grunt from the man in black.
This grunt made Tang Jie’s Chaoswind Step freeze for a moment.
This freeze allowed several dozen stingers to strike. Tang Jie grunted, and then he disappeared, appearing several meters away.
The man in black and Tang Jie were both in disbelief, looking at each other and almost saying in unison, “How?”
The man in black hadn’t expected Tang Jie to still be able to use the Chaoswind Step after his casting had been interrupted and he had been left shaken. Tang Jie was also flabbergasted at his foe’s ability to break the Chaoswind Step. Although he had managed to complete it, it had been extremely forced. He had originally been planning to move right next to his opponent, but some inexplicable strength had forced him to settle for dodging the swarm of bees.
Most importantly, if this man was ready for the Chaoswind Step, he had to know that Tang Jie was from the Basking Moon Sect.
Knowing that Tang Jie was from the Basking Moon Sect and still daring to attack him…
Tang Jie looked at the man’s yellow and emotionless face, somewhat understanding what was going on.
Coldly snorting, he blinked away, this time successfully getting behind the man in black. But as he appeared, the man in black abruptly threw an elbow behind him, as if expecting Tang Jie to appear there.
But as Tang Jie appeared, he threw out his left hand, grabbing his opponent’s arm. He had expected his opponent’s attack, too!
The two of them instantly began to grapple with each other, the man in black turning his palm and firing a bolt of lightning. Tang Jie dodged to the side and swept the Heartbreak Saber at the man’s throat. The man in black leaned his head back to dodge, and as he did, a bone-piercing needle left his hand and shot at Tang Jie.
Tang Jie’s left hand flashed with golden light as he blocked the needle, his palm continuing forward into his opponent’s chest. The man in black twisted his body to the side, brushing past Tang Jie. As they passed each other, he chopped his left hand, glinting with the sharp light of the Wind Cutter spell, at Tang Jie’s neck.
Tang Jie’s body flashed with golden light as he relied on the Formless Golden Body to take the strike. At the same time, he thrust out his palm, but the man’s barrier appeared and stopped the attack.
The two of them swiftly exchanged many more blows.
Unlike with the whiskered Daoist, the two of them were locked in such close quarters and so anxious to gain the initiative on each other that they employed both spell arts and martial arts! Each spell art was mixed with a punch or a kick, and each one emphasized swift casting rather than power. Thus, in this close combat, they exchanged several blows per second. There was simply no time to cast anything like an art.
This was a situation that Tang Jie had created on purpose. The man in black was extremely cunning and had challenged Tang Jie while standing in the crowd.
He wasn’t like the whiskered Daoist, who had taken to the skies to avoid involving civilians. He had never left the crowd, fully intent on using civilians as a shield.
With no other choice, Tang Jie had decided to fight him in close combat.
As they fought, Tang Jie sensed that this man had unusual strength, but there appeared to be something holding him back, and he only used very ordinary spell arts like Wind Cutter or the Bone-Piercing Needle.
But it was also for this reason that the man in black gradually began to lose ground.
As the man in black was pushed back, Tang Jie shouted, “Since you decided to show up, why hide your strength?”
The Heartbreak Saber flew from his side, and as it spun in the air, an eagle appeared and flew at the man in black from above. As for Tang Jie, he punched with both fists, thus flanking the man in black.
If the man in black wasn’t willing to use all his strength, Tang Jie would force him to.
When he saw that eagle phantom appear, the man in black knew he was in trouble and cursed at himself for butting in.
He had actually come a little late and only knew that Tang Jie had defeated the Gu Clan cultivators, not how he had done it. He only knew that Tang Jie had some sort of instant movement spell, knowing nothing about some Chaoswind Step. Of course, he had guessed that Tang Jie might be from the Basking Moon Sect, but he hadn’t taken it seriously. All he needed to do was take care of this person and have the Gu Clan owe him a favor.
He had taken a rather safe option of mixing into the crowd. If this kid were rash and killed innocents, he would be signing his own death warrant.
But this kid was far stronger than he had imagined, actually choosing to fight him in close combat, and very competently at that, forcing him back.
As the saber approached, the man in black could no longer dodge, so he slapped his body. A ball of light appeared and blocked the eagle saber, holding it in the air.
Tang Jie’s steel fists arrived, and the man in black roared as he threw his own punches in response.
Four steel fists collided. Tang Jie wasn’t using his golden gauntlets, only relying on his own strength and the Formless Golden Body, but the man in black still found it hard to hold on. He knew that this was bad and bellowed, the veins on his arm bulging. It seemed like something was swimming in his arms, and then they traveled out from his fists and into Tang Jie’s fists.
Plush! Plush! Tang Jie’s fists erupted with geysers of blood.
“Urgh!” Tang Jie grunted as he staggered back a few steps.
The man in black’s eyes gleamed with murderous intent. “Die!”
For forcing him to use such methods, this young man had to die!
A dark energy gathered in his palm, pointed at Tang Jie.
At this moment, Tang Jie raised his head and looked at the man, a light spinning on the center of his forehead.
The man in black was momentarily dazed, upon which Tang Jie opened his mouth. A golden light shot out of his mouth and struck the man in black, piercing right through his body and causing the man to scream as he fell back.
The two of them broke apart, and this battle that had left everyone’s eyes spinning finally came to a stop. Both Tang Jie and the man in black were heavily wounded.
Tang Jie looked down at his hands.
Blood was gushing from his fists, and there still seemed to be some creatures running rampant in both his arms. He was forced to use spiritual energy to suppress them, which also rendered his arms unusable for the time being.
Tang Jie laughed. “Even if I don’t use my hands, I can still kill you.”
The man in black held his chest as he laughed. “It’s been a long time since I’ve run into such a tough kid. I’m even more interested in killing you now.”
The two of them stared at each other, murderous flames blazing in their eyes.
Just as a new battle was about to begin, Wei Tianchong’s voice came from the distance. “Who dares to bully around the Gu Clan? You had best ask this Wei Tianchong about it first!”
Wei Tianchong’s chubby figure rapidly flew out of the distance.
A mysterious cultivator getting all up in Tang Jie’s business! And Wei Tianchong coming to…save the day?
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