Xiao Yang had recognized the Blood Jade Lotus from the moment he set his eyes on it. He immediately came up with a plan to pit the lake bogey and Ye Qing against each other.
The plan was very simple. First, he pretended to die in a manner that would draw the lake bogey’s attention to Ye Qing. The lake bogey should be able to keep Ye Qing busy or better, deal him a severe blow. While the fight was ongoing, he would accelerate the Blood Jade Lotus’ growth and pocket it as soon as it reached full maturity. Finally, he would return to the battlefield and take out both the lake bogey and Ye Qing. He would be killing many birds with one stone so to speak.
Unfortunately, Ye Qing proved to be even stronger than he thought. Not only did he manage to kill the lake bogey without so much as a scratch, he had stolen the Blood Jade Lotus as well.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, Ye Qing was clearly suspicious of him. He wouldn’t have snatched the Blood Jade Lotus from under his nose. Now that he was wary, it would be much harder to kill him!
“Are you alright, brother? Did this lake bogey hurt you anywhere?” Xiao Yang asked with feigned concern. It was a small hope, but there was a chance he might be able to fool the young man still. After all, you never know until you try. If a PUA could fool their targets into parting with their chastity and money again and again, why not him?
Ye Qing did not say anything in response though. He simply stared at Xiao Yang with a half-smile on his face.
The silence felt incredibly awkward, but Xiao Yang did not stop trying, “Well, I guess you’re fine. That’s good. You’re amazing, brother!”
Ye Qing continued to smile silently as if he hadn’t said a word. I’m just the audience, bro. Please continue! I’m going to stay perfectly quiet while you perform on stage!
Eventually, the atmosphere grew so awkward that even Xiao Yang with his thick skin couldn’t stand it anymore. So he let out a sigh and said, “Fine, fine, It’s my fault. I admit that I haven’t done right by you.”
“The lotus you’re holding is called the Blood Jade Lotus. It’s an incredibly rare spirit material that can refine a warrior’s astral qi and even imbue it with a shadow of the Blood Qi’s power, effectively doubling its potency.”
“You probably already know this, but natural astral qi is usually mixed with all kinds of impurities. For a warrior, the purity of the astral qi is directly proportional to its strength. In essence, the Astral Refinement stage is the stage where you refine the natural astral qi you’ve absorbed to absolute perfection.”
“Generally speaking, most warriors can only refine their astral qi one wisp at a time. It’s why any special art or spirit material that can hasten this process is invaluable to any Astral Refiner.”
Xiao Yang paused for a second and continued, “To give you an example, this one Blood Jade Lotus can save an Astral Refiner thirty years of hard work. You can imagine just how valuable it is. So, yeah. I got greedy. I wanted you to keep the lake bogey busy while I claim the Blood Jade Lotus for myself.”
Xiao Yang let out a bitter chuckle. “I was going to help you after I took the Blood Jade Lotus as a matter of course, but well, it turns out that you don’t need my help after all. Dammit, why did I have to get greedy? I’ve brought shame to myself and the Pacification Bureau!”
“You’re probably entering the Astral Refinement stage very soon, right? If you’ll allow me to make amends, I’ll surrender two-thirds of the lotus to you. One-third is fine with me.”
Ye Qing smirked and finally broke his silence, “And here I thought you’ll give me the whole lotus!”
“Haha…” Xiao Yang rubbed his nose in embarrassment. “I did fight the lake bogey for a bit and accelerated the Blood Jade Lotus’ growth. That’s gotta be worth something, right?”
“Fine. The lake bogey was slain, and I wasn’t hurt. Since you’ve confessed your mistake, I suppose I can forgive you this once!” Ye Qing laughed and tossed the Blood Jade Lotus into the air. “I don’t know how to use this lotus anyway, so I’ll leave it to you to split the goods, brother!”
“Hehe! Just leave it to me!” Xiao Yang was overjoyed. It would seem that he had managed to fool Ye Qing after all. He was just about to catch the Blood Jade Lotus when suddenly, a throwing knife appeared behind it and shot straight toward his throat!
The two of them were standing fairly close to each other to begin with, and Xiao Yang wasn’t on his guard because he believed that he had successfully fooled Ye Qing. It wasn’t until the throwing knife was an inch away from his throat that he finally realized what happened and reacted.
Xiao Yang’s reaction was mighty impressive. Not only did he manage to twist his neck out of the way in an instant, his right hand was still moving toward the Blood Jade Lotus. He was planning to catch the spirit material and avoid the throwing knife at the same time!
It was at this moment the throwing knife split into not two, not four, but eight throwing knives in total! They also split up and flew toward his eyes, his neck, his heart and other vital spots!
“Star Plucking Hand—Starfield”
Xiao Yang was astonished. He wasn’t expecting such an incredible transformation from a single throwing knife. Left with no choice, he gave up on catching the Blood Jade Lotus and clenched his right fist. There was a soft pop as the surrounding space froze as if an invisible had caught it within its grasp, freezing the throwing knives in place. The weapons vibrated for a second and shattered into a million pieces.
Xiao Yang wasn’t out of the woods yet, however. A saber energy was right behind the throwing knives and flying straight toward his head! The attack wasn’t just as fast as the wind, his senses were telling him that its trajectory was impossible to predict. It was like the attack contained an infinite amount of variations, and at this range he simply couldn’t identify the correct variation in time to parry it.
Xiao Yang growled and unleashed his astral qi. Like a sun, purple golden flames shot out in every direction and melted away the saber energy like snow. So what if he couldn’t identify the variation in time? All he needed to do was to shield himself completely!
Now that he was safe, Xiao Yang immediately retaliated by throwing a mighty punch at Ye Qing. It was like the sun itself was crashing toward the earth and threatening to burn everything into dust.
Ye Qing did not panic though. Instead, he summoned a mallet into his hand and tapped Xiao Yang’s fist with it. What was a solid, terrifying, and seemingly unstoppable power suddenly fell into complete disarray. The impetus was interrupted, and the intent vanished like it never existed
The lake bogey’s mallet!? Xiao Yang’s eyes bulged as a deadly premonition struck him. Not good!
The thought had just crossed his mind when a bigger, brighter light erupted from the spot where saber energy had melted into nothing a while ago. Light shone brightest in the dark, and life in the shadow of death. As a result, this attack was far faster, cunning, and potent than all the attacks Ye Qing had unleashed until now. As if that wasn’t enough, the saber energy was also wreathed in a layer of cold, demonic flames!
Allow me to send you to the King of Hell with the Netherflames and the Soulchasing Saber!
The flame-wreathed attack cut Xiao Yang from the left waist all the way to the right shoulder, leaving a wound so deep that Ye Qing could practically see his internal organs. Not only that, cold, icy droplets that resembled beads of diamond seeped out of the wound and chilled Xiao Yang to the core. The droplets then popped and released a blast of icy force that withered flesh and blood and worsened his wounds.
Throughout all this, the Netherflames burned as brightly as ever. The icy force couldn’t extinguish it, and blood actually seemed to strengthen it.
Ye Qing still wasn’t done, however. He opened his mouth and spat a literal bolt of lightning straight at Xiao Yang’s forehead!
But before the Lightning Bolt could pierce Xiao Yang’s head and explode it like a watermelon, tendrils of light abruptly slithered down the hat he was wearing. They were thin, but they shone? as bright as the sun itself. They covered his body and formed a retro-style robe carrying the sun and the moon on each shoulder, and the stars on the chest. What looked like an image of the universe also appeared beneath his feet.
Lightning Bolt was about an inch away from Xiao Yang’s forehead when it struck what looked like an invisible, rippling barrier. As a result, the Strange Artifact was deflected to the side instead.
A shame, Ye Qing sighed internally as he summoned Lightning Bolt back to his side. He knew that this was as far as his surprise attack could go.
Ye Qing had planned out every step of his surprise attack as meticulously as he could. He had tossed out the Blood Jade Lotus to distract Xiao Yang before catching him off guard with Starfield and the Soulchasing Saber. Then, he disrupted his attack with the lake bogey’s mallet and seized the opportunity to severely injure him with a Netherflame plus Soulchasing Saber combo. Finally, he unleashed Lightning Bolt to end Xiao Yang.
In fact, his surprise attack had gone without a hitch until the last moment. Caught completely off guard, the Astral Refiner didn’t even get the chance to use his Strange Artifact. Unfortunately, he was just a beat too slow when he unleashed Lightning Bolt, and Xiao Yang was ultimately able to deflect the fatal strike with his Strange Artifact. It was like jogging nine kilometers in a ten-kilometer marathon. In the end, he still failed to kill Xiao Yang.
But of course, his effort wasn’t completely futile. Xiao Yang asked, “What are you doing, brother? I know you're upset because I tried to take advantage of you, but don't you think killing me is a step too far?"
The Astral Refiner was trying to extinguish the insidious force and Netherflame wreaking havoc inside his body, but it was proving to be an extremely slow-going process even with his Strange Artifact. Physical technique wasn’t the only insidious thing about the “Soulchasing Saber”. If the practitioner managed to land a direct hit, its seemingly innocuous force could invade the victim’s meridians and even crush their internal organs. It was how he had spread his Blood Shadow true qi and his Netherflame throughout his whole body.
This meant that Xiao Yang didn’t just look horrible on the outside, his insides were bubbling like a pot of boiling oil as well. There was no way he would be able to extinguish the nefarious energies inside him without a considerable amount of time and effort, and certainly not before this battle was over. It was the perfect recipe for a masochist like him.
“I’ll be taking this Blood Jade Lotus. It’s what you owe me for trying to trick me earlier!”
The Blood Jade Lotus was still falling through the air when Ye Qing caught it and slipped it inside his Nature’s Shell. He then added, “You ask me why I’m trying to kill you? It’s because you tried to kill me first, of course!”
Xiao Yang’s pupils contracted into pins. “I think there’s a misunderstanding between us, brother.”
“Misunderstanding?” Ye Qing grinned. “I don’t think so. You were in cahoots with Qing Kui, weren’t you? Or should I say, you’re the junior brother he spoke of before I killed him!”
Xiao Yang replied innocently, “Who’s Qing Kui? I have no idea what you’re talking about!”
“Seriously, brother? That is exactly what a guilty person would say!” Ye Qing shook his head in mock disappointment. “It’s no use though. Your denial is pointless before the evidence!”