Shang Xia’s sudden attack caught the two of them off guard and he basically incapacitated the stronger of the two!
The change in situation caught Qing Que completely by surprise. However, as a cultivator who survived in the battlefield between two worlds for quite some time now, he reacted quickly. Energy gathered in his fists and he punched upwards.
After landing his initial sneak attack on Ling Que, Shang Xia leaped out from his hiding spot. He was less than ten feet away from them, and the distance was covered in an instant. His Delicate Jade River Sword flashed as a soft glow emerged from the tip of the blade. It stabbed straight towards Qing Que’s chest.
Shang Xia clearly underestimated his enemy. Qing Que was at the Martial Realm, or in the terms of the Azure Spiritual World, the Blood Essence Realm, but he was no weakling. His ability to react to changes and adapt wasn’t poor!
Shang Xia’s sword didn’t contain any special moves. All he had to supplement it was his inner qi and brute strength. Under Qing Que’s nimble fist art, it was redirected.
Of course, Qing Que wasn’t able to escape completely unscathed. The mid-grade weapon sliced deep wounds in his fists.
Using the impact from the exchange, Qing Que quickly retreated. After opening the distance between himself and Shang Xia, he took a protective stance in front of the seriously injured Ling Que.
The shockwave of the exchange caused the hills beside them to crumble and massive chunks of rocks came raining down on them.
Struggling to get to his feet, Ling Que brought out his nine-segmented staff from his robes.
His left arm might have turned to ash, but that wasn’t what impacted his combat abilities the most. The left side of his face was charred black, and all he could see out of his left eye was a blurry picture of the world.
However, he was at the Vital Blood Realm in the Azure Spiritual World! He was comparable to experts at the Martial Extremity Realm here, and he was able to withstand a wound at that level.
Ling Que obviously remembered the man before him.
He was the person who fled with the Mutated Rain Swallow, drawing Yan Ming, Hong Que, and Hui Que away from the team. He was the reason they were unable to leave the god forsaken place!
He left with Yan Ming in hot pursuit. However, he was the only one who appeared! Where did the others go?!
Ling Que might have criticized Yan Ming previously, but that was only because of her actions. He understood the importance of her bloodline in their race.
“Where is she?! Where did Yan Ming go?” Ling Que was able to keep his calm when half his body was incapacitated, but his hands started to tremble when he thought of the possibilities.
Shang Xia finally understood how important she was to the group of cultivators from the Wind Swallow Race. If he messed with them, he might be able to make them go crazy…
“Hehe, since I’m here, where do you think she is?” Shang Xia had to admit that her pursuit caused a massive grievance to build up in his heart. He wanted nothing more than to annoy the members of the Wind Swallow Race.
He didn’t expect Ling Que’s reaction to be that large after hearing what he said. As the blood drained from his face, his hands stopped trembling. He glared at Shang Xia with hatred in his eyes.
“Since that’s the case, you can go to hell!” Ling Que lunged at him without warning. A sharp whistle could be heard in the air as his nine-segmented staff cut through the air.
Shang Xia stared at Ling Que in shock. It seemed as though he had underestimated the man’s determination! How could he, a newcomer to the battlefield between two worlds, compare to Ling Que who had been toeing the line of life and death there?
His will was stronger than steel. It wasn’t something that Shang Xia could destroy with a sentence or two.
Ling Que might be acting impulsively, but Shang Xia didn’t dare to let down his guard. He made Shang Xia lower his guard while fighting for an additional breath of time to recover when he asked about Yan Ming.
In fact, Ling Que knew the answer in his heart. Now that he was caught in a surprise attack and lost a huge portion of his fighting strength, he no longer held back. He wanted to injure Shang Xia at the expense of his own life!
At the crucial moment, Shang Xia calmed himself down and released a heavy palm towards the incoming Ling Que.
The second form of the Chaos Essence Palm, Empty Distance!
A torrential amount of qi emerged from his palm and the space three feet in front of him flipped upside down.
A dent appeared in Ling Que’s chest as blood sprayed out from his orifices.
Even so, he ignored all the damage he received and he charged at Shang Xia. He staked his life on his final strike!
Shang Xia could see his intentions, and his sword trembled slightly. It slashed at the nine-segmented staff in Ling Que’s hand.
A cold light sliced across Ling Que’s arm and formed multiple lacerations.
Spitting out a mouthful of blood, Ling Que imbued his inner qi into them. Bloodied droplet filled with true qi shot at Shang Xia.
Not expecting that type of suicidal attack, Shang Xia hastily retrieved his fan to protect himself. He managed to block a portion of the blood rain, but the rest fell on his body.
Because of that, his sword missed its consecutive strikes. It clattered against Ling Que’s weapon and failed to stop his advance.
Ling Que’s plan was to create an opening with his life, allowing Qing Que to deal the final blow.
It was too bad his desperate attempt failed. Shang Xia’s sword soon wrapped around his arm.
In his last ditch attempt, he stumbled forward to close the distance as much as possible.
Circulating his inner qi, Shang Xia sent a massive lightning bolt into Ling Que’s body. It went through his staff and out the other side of his body, causing Ling Que’s body to tremble violently. He instantly lost all mobility.
“Qing… Que… Why… Why haven’t you killed him…”
Ling Que forced the words out of his lips.
Even though a lot had happened, the time that passed was barely enough for Qing Que to blink! How was he supposed to land a killing blow on Shang Xia?!
Roaring in rage, Qing Que appeared from behind Ling Que. His fists came crashing down towards Shang Xia’s skull. Before it could arrive, the sound of arrows tearing through the skies rang through the air. Stopping a few of them with the strength he had, the arrows soon overpowered him.
“Run… Run…” Ling Que knew that Qing Que only had a single chance to hurt Shang Xia. Now that he lost it, there was only one thing left to do. He had to run for his life!
Shang Xia no longer bothered with Ling Que. As a yell escaped his lips, the lightning bolt running through Ling Que’s body exploded. It brought with it the destruction of his weapon. As the segments of his staff flew in all directions, most of it crashed against the cliff faces beside them but one flew straight into Ling Que’s chest.
A hole was blown through his body, and from it, Shang Xia could see Qing Que’s escaping figure.
A mirthless smile formed on Ling Que’s face as he crumpled to the ground.
While Qing Que was focused on running away, a familiar silver streak appeared in front of him. When the two crossed paths, Qing Que continued to stumble forward several steps before his head fell from his shoulders.
Huang Zihue and the other disciples quickly arrived on the battlefield and they caught sight of Qing Que’s headless corpse lying not too far away from them. They raised their heads to look at the Lightning Bird standing on a branch and a look of shock formed on their faces.
“Senior Brother Shang…” Jiao Haitang carefully approached him.
Turning his head, a brilliant smile hung on his face. He looked at the bow in their hands and chuckled, “Cloud Piercing Crossbow? Who would have thought that there were such treasures in the carriage…”
A bitter smile formed on Huang Zihua’s face in response. “We might be able to kill some undead corpses with them, but cultivators at the Martial Realm will be able to avoid them easily.”
“At least they came in handy at the crucial moment! If you didn’t stop the other cultivator, I might be a corpse lying on the ground too!” Shang Xia laughed.
“Senior Brother Shang, have you entered the Martial Extremity Realm?” Jiao Haitang asked softly, interrupting their conversation.
Seeing no point to hide it, Shang Xia nodded. “That’s right. We’ll clean up the battlefield first. Check their corpses carefully! Make sure not to leave behind any valuables!”
Huang Zihua and Jiao Haitang walked towards the corpse, and as soon as they took their first steps, the sound of crumbling came from behind them.
Shang Xia looked at the cliff faces around him and saw cracks forming all over their surface. Soon, the entire structure fell.
Thinking back to Ling Que’s staff, he recalled how they crashed into them.
Could they actually cause the valley’s destruction?
Shang Xia ran out of the valley, but when he saw the group of disciples rushing towards him, he yelled in fright, “Stop right there!”
As the words left his lips, the entrance to the valley carved in. It was blocked off from the outside world.
“What… What do we do now?” Huang Zihua looked at the blocked entrance and asked helplessly.
After searching through the corpses, Jiao Haitang sighed, “The entrance is sealed, but none of us are injured. We can follow in Senior Brother Shang’s footsteps and climb out…”
Huang Zihua patted his chest and sighed, “Oh right… I was worried for nothing. Too bad we won’t be able to save the carriages and the horses…”