Chapter 226: The Sword Formation Rises!
“Dead?”
“How is this possible!”
The captains of the garrison team, who had still been in the mood to joke earlier, now stared blankly at their companions lying dead at the bottom of the rift valley, completely unable to believe it was real.
As captains of the city guard, not only had their strength reached the level of peak high-level martial artists, they also wore B6-level battle armor for defense.
Even when facing a terrifyingly powerful high-level monster, they would not be killed in a single blow, let alone by a slash of sword qi from a high-level martial artist.
With such a large-scale attack of sword qi, although its might looked shocking, how much internal force could a high-level martial artist truly muster? With the force so spread out, the impact on each unit of area would be greatly weakened.
Such force might shatter stone tablets and split rocks without issue, but to pierce the defense of B6-level battle armor was absolutely impossible; being able to injure a peak high-level martial artist would already be impressive.
Yet the more than fifty captains lying in the rift valley were a solid fact before their eyes, forcing them to believe it.
At this moment, not only were the captains at the front stunned, even Mans and the others watching from outside the cave were gaping in shock.
“Could she be a Bone Forging Realm expert?” Mans stared fixedly at the graceful figure swinging her sword, his heart full of terror.
To create such overwhelming might and power with a single slash might be beyond a high-level martial artist, but was not at all difficult for a Bone Forging Realm expert. In particular, he had seen clearly from afar that several captains in the rift valley had been cut cleanly in half.
Even the B6-level battle armor had not blocked the sharpness of that strike. To achieve this meant the attacker was already an inhuman Bone Forging Realm expert, and not just any ordinary one.
“You are overthinking it, she is not a Bone Forging Realm expert.” Jia Long looked at Luo Wu Shang in the distance, his eyes filled with unprecedented excitement and agitation. “A Bone Forging Realm expert’s qi and blood are like pillars, even taking substantial form. She is still quite far from that, but her strength might already be no weaker than a beginner level Bone Forging Realm martial artist. That last strike should be some very powerful martial skill, though the consumption must be immense. She probably cannot use it many times.”
After Jia Long spoke, Men Luo also nodded, licking his lips as he looked at Luo Wu Shang. “I originally thought the one who killed Steel Bone and Sharp Tooth being close to our strength from half a year ago would already be impressive. I did not expect Obsidian Martial Arts Hall to truly have such a monster. My trip here has not been in vain.”
“There is only one such monster. Which of us is going up?” A Liu Si of the Half-Scale Race flicked his tail, sounding troubled.
For a moment Jia Long and Men Luo both fell silent, clearly just as troubled. Watching this, Mans also went quiet.
So many captains of the garrison had died, and these captains were followers of the three. Yet the three seemed completely unconcerned about their deaths. Instead, they treated the captains’ deaths as a valuable opportunity to discover a worthy opponent.
With such a mindset, it was clear the three did not regard these martial artists as people at all.
“So it is true that without reaching Bone Forging Realm, everyone is just an ant?” Mans thought of the enormous gap within the clan between how Organ Refining Realm martial artists and Bone Forging Realm martial artists were treated, and he could not help clenching his fists, a hint of relief in his gaze.
For others, stepping into Bone Forging Realm might be extraordinarily difficult, but what the White Feather Gang had obtained was no ordinary thing. In particular, he had already managed to learn that secret technique by luck. As long as he had time, he would definitely reach Bone Forging Realm in the future.
By then, so-called monsters of the garrison, so-called genius martial artists of the clan, would all have to step aside.
Just as Mans was imagining his future as a Bone Forging Realm expert, looking down on all Organ Refining Realm martial artists, Jia Long suddenly made a suggestion.
“Why don’t the three of us compete and see who kills more Obsidian Martial Arts Hall disciples? Whoever kills the most gets to deal with that woman.” Jia Long looked at the battle raging in the forest. With numbers now even and Luo Wu Shang joining in, the garrison had clearly fallen into disadvantage. If they did not help, it would only be a matter of time before the garrison was wiped out.
Men Luo and A Liu Si both glanced at the clashing sides and nodded in agreement.
Though they did not care how many of their followers died, these followers were still captains of the garrison. If the captains were all wiped out by Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, regardless of what the clan thought, the garrison alone would not take it lightly.
The three of them then turned into three afterimages, charging straight into the crowd and joining the battle.
The instant Jia Long, Men Luo, and A Liu Si appeared on the battlefield, the players present also noticed them, or rather, it was impossible not to.
The pressure the three exuded was simply overwhelming.
In just one instant move, Jia Long of the Three-eyed Tribe easily dodged the Ghostly Light Finger unleashed by a beginner martial artist player. Without using any martial skill, he simply grabbed the player’s head and smashed it into the ground.
With a boom, a deep pit with a radius of more than five meters appeared. Even though that player had trained the first level of a body strengthening secret technique and his body was close to a mid-level monster’s, he was still killed outright by that smash.
Men Luo was no weaker. With one horizontal slash of his battle saber, everything within ten meters, trees and people alike, was cut in half. Even players blocking with B5-level weapons were of no use. In an instant, the dense forest was carved out into a huge empty area.
As for A Liu Si, who fought with a greatsword, a single swing took out three beginner martial artist players who had rushed in. Before they could react, their bodies and their B4-level battle armor were sliced into hundreds of fragments scattered across the ground. His sword speed was so terrifying that even Fang Zhen and the others could not help but be stunned.
Such sword speed was practically on par with Luo Wu Shang’s Ghostly Light Finger. Even they could not react in time.
“Are these three martial artist-level bosses?” Yi Ye Fu Yun was shaken by how easily the three slaughtered players.
Though they had not clashed directly, it was clear that the attributes of Jia Long and the others were on a completely different level from the other garrison captains.
“Martial artist-level bosses, huh? I will test them.”
Zhang Qing Wei looked at Men Luo with the saber, her fighting spirit surging. She rushed forward, wanting to see how powerful a martial artist-level boss was and to test her current level.
“Courting death!”
Men Luo watched Razor (Zhang Qing Wei), who was only at intermediate martial artist level, charging at him and showed open disdain as he casually slashed.
Though it looked casual, this strike was a genuine martial artist-level martial skill. Empowered by his terrifying strength, the saber carried more than 25 tons of force. Even an ordinary high-level monster would be injured by such a blow, let alone an intermediate martial artist wearing only B4-level battle armor.
“Good!”
Seeing the incoming blade light, Zhang Qing Wei used her famed Rippling Wave Saber from the Pilgrimage. Unlike in her apprentice days, after becoming a martial artist she, like Luo Wu Shang, had chosen the agility route. With the godlike speed of Ghostly Light Finger, she had finally perfected Rippling Wave Saber.
In the blink of an eye, saber shadows too fast for the naked eye to track fused into a single blade ray that crashed into Men Luo’s blade light.
With the stacked saber shadows, the very first blade ray alone carried a triple power boost. Combined with Zhang Qing Wei’s first level perfection body strengthening secret technique and the bonus from B4-level battle armor, the force exceeded twenty-three tons, not much weaker than Men Luo’s casual slash.
Boom!
The blade lights collided, the air exploded, and all the trees around were knocked down. Zhang Qing Wei only halted for a fraction of a second before swinging her saber again.
This time the saber shadows were clearly faster and fiercer. This was the second wave of Rippling Wave Saber that she could unleash after completing the first strike, only possible after mastering the technique, raising the power boost from triple to quintuple.
Over twenty-seven tons of force slashed toward Men Luo.
“You actually have some skill. I will have to be a bit more serious,” Men Luo said, looking at Zhang Qing Wei as he sharply raised his battle saber.
High-level martial artist-level martial skill Mountain River Split, first level, Mountain Breaker!
With a triple power boost, the earth cracked, and more than thirty-two tons of force blasted Zhang Qing Wei away.
“Not dead?”
Men Luo stared in astonishment at Zhang Qing Wei landing dozens of meters away, full of confusion.
Zhang Qing Wei was coughing up blood from the violent impact of the internal force, her face pale, but clearly Mountain Breaker had not taken her life.
This was the very strike that had heavily injured high-level monsters in the past, yet it had failed to kill Zhang Qing Wei. She still possessed ample combat power and could stand up with ease.
But Men Luo did not dwell on it. Whether she could still fight or not, he intended to end her.
He took a step, covering more than a hundred meters in a second, appearing right in front of Zhang Qing Wei, and swung his saber down again.
High-level martial artist-level martial skill Mountain River Split, first level, Mountain Breaker!
As the saber was about to fall and Zhang Qing Wei’s qi and blood had not yet recovered from the shock, making her incapable of using Rippling Wave Saber to block, a scorching beam flashed by, shooting straight at Men Luo’s head.
Whoosh!
The scorching beam dissipated in midair, and Men Luo, who had been swinging his saber, froze. A charred burn mark appeared on his cheek. His eyes locked fiercely onto a gun-wielding man over sixty meters away.
“What fast reactions. Has he reached the Microscopic Realm?” Yi Ye Fu Yun was astonished that Men Luo had dodged a coilgun shot.
Though his shooting precision was not as good as that of professional players like Fang Zhen, his sense of timing was not inferior.
He had fired at the moment Men Luo swung his saber. Even if it meant sacrificing Zhang Qing Wei, he could blow off the head of a martial artist-level boss like Men Luo. By any calculation, it was a worthwhile trade.
And as an Organ Refining Realm martial artist, no matter how hard Men Luo’s head was, could it be harder than a B6-level alloy bullet?
Yet after he pulled the trigger, Yi Ye Fu Yun was shocked to find that Men Luo seemed to sense his presence. Men Luo actually stopped his swing by brute force and whipped his body so that his head snapped aside like a whip, narrowly avoiding the nearly Mach 5 bullet. His control over his muscles was unbelievable.
Dodging a near Mach 5 bullet at a distance of just over sixty meters made Yi Ye Fu Yun wonder if the game system was giving this boss cheats.
“You are looking for death!”
Men Luo glared at Yi Ye Fu Yun, his eyes full of fury and fear. He raised his hand, intending to finish Zhang Qing Wei first before going to kill Yi Ye Fu Yun.
Just now, Men Luo had almost thought he was dead.
If he had not already reached the Microscopic Realm, allowing him to maximally control his body, he would never have dodged that sudden shot.
If he ended up being killed by two Obsidian Martial Arts Hall intermediate martial artists, Jia Long and A Liu Si would laugh themselves sick.
However, as Men Luo swung his saber again, more than ten B6-level arrows suddenly fell from the sky, forcing him to retreat. He looked angrily toward the woman stepping up from within the rift valley, walking up along arrows one step at a time.
“Big sis, you are finally here.” Yi Ye Fu Yun let out a sigh of relief as he saw her approach. “If you had taken any longer, I would be dead.”
Men Luo’s strength was beyond expectations. Yi Ye Fu Yun’s strongest attack methods had failed. If the fight dragged on, he would surely die together with Zhang Qing Wei. With resurrection and travel, it would take nearly an hour to get back; everything would be over by then.
“The B6-level arrows on those people were too few, that is why I am a bit late,” Ye Qinglu said with a smile as she came to Yi Ye Fu Yun’s side. “But I have collected all the arrows now. Leave the rest to me.”
“Big sis, let’s work together. This guy is not simple. He has probably reached the Microscopic Realm. Ordinary attacks will struggle to touch him.” Yi Ye Fu Yun tried to dissuade her from challenging Men Luo alone.
Though Men Luo was strong, if the three of them joined forces, killing him would not be difficult. But if Ye Qinglu, the only one able to hold him head-on, died, he and Zhang Qing Wei would soon be killed.
“No need. I can handle this alone.” Ye Qinglu ignored Yi Ye Fu Yun and simply lifted her finger.
Suddenly thirty-six B6-level arrows rose and circled around Ye Qinglu. She walked toward Men Luo step by step, as if going to meet an old friend, utterly at ease.
“With such control of internal force, so you are one of those who killed Steel Bone and Sharp Tooth,” Men Luo muttered, frowning at the arrows floating in the air.
If it were a one-on-one fight against Ye Qinglu alone, without Zhang Qing Wei and Yi Ye Fu Yun present, he would have gladly accepted.
But now, if Ye Qinglu joined forces with the other two, he no longer had full confidence.
Though he disliked admitting it and could not fathom how Obsidian Martial Arts Hall had so many experts, the simple fact was that two intermediate martial artists who had casually appeared already possessed strength comparable to the top ten in the garrison’s grand competition. Together, they indeed had the power to contend with him.
Before Men Luo could decide how to respond, Ye Qinglu was already within twenty meters of him, and he was now fully inside the sword formation.
“Then I will use you to test the sword formation,” Ye Qinglu said with some anticipation as she controlled the thirty-six B6-level arrows to strike Men Luo together.
In an instant, a rain of arrows filled the sword formation. They did not just fall from above, but came from all directions.
Moreover, these arrows were no longer guided individually by Ye Qinglu’s conscious control; they attacked entirely according to predetermined trajectories. Their speed was extremely fast, and their attacks left no openings.
Even with his Microscopic Realm reactions, Men Luo, in less than two seconds of fighting, already had dozens of arrow marks on his B6-level battle armor. They were not yet fatal, but as the marks accumulated, it would only be a matter of time before the armor was completely destroyed.
Once he lost his B6-level battle armor, his flesh and blood body would never withstand B6-level arrows.
“Damn it! How is she this strong!” Men Luo frantically blocked the rain of arrows, his heart full of shock and panic.
Inside the sword formation, the arrows were too fast and too numerous. He was using all his strength just to defend and evade, without time to use any martial skills. He had no chance to counterattack at all and could only watch as his B6-level battle armor was gradually chipped away and worn down.
This feeling was even more hopeless than facing a Bone Forging Realm expert.
Against a Bone Forging Realm expert, he could at least fight back a little. Inside Ye Qinglu’s sword formation, he had no chance to fight back at all.
Seeing his B6-level battle armor about to give out, Men Luo gritted his teeth and contacted Jia Long and A Liu Si.
“Get over here and help me. I have a very troublesome enemy on my side,” Men Luo shouted into his smart watch.
He no longer cared about his pride. Death would be real, and his future was not merely to rival a beginner level Bone Forging Realm martial artist. Once he reached Bone Forging Realm, he would immediately match an intermediate Bone Forging Realm expert. How could he die here?
But what greeted him was silence. Before he could ask further, two signal flares shot up from the forest, illuminating the sky.
“Request for aid signal flares!”
Men Luo stared in shock at the sky dyed red.
Those were for when they encountered Lin Qi, the hall master of Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, and could not win, a last-resort call for help.
He himself being unable to beat one of the people who killed Steel Bone and Sharp Tooth could be understood. But what was going on with the other two?
Men Luo did not know that Jia Long of the Three-eyed Tribe was being besieged by Lu Fanchen and two others. At the cost of one life, Lu Fanchen had used the extraordinary martial skill Heaven Shaking Fist to seriously injure him with a single punch. If not for Jia Long’s Microscopic Realm mastery letting him avoid the center of the impact, he would have died.
As for A Liu Si of the Half-Scale Race, though his sword speed was extraordinary, facing the joint sniping of Fang Zhen, Li Ranxing, and Chen Ya, his body already had several holes. If he had not reached the Microscopic Realm and dodged fatal blows at the last instant, he would have long since died.
The signal flares also drew a flying car that quickly appeared above the White Feather Gang stronghold. A giant man of the Three-eyed Tribe descended from the sky, landing in the center of the battlefield.
“Everyone, stop!”
As the giant, nearly four meters tall, spoke, his qi and blood surged like a tidal wave across the battlefield, instantly making everyone feel as if a great mountain pressed down on them.
His arrival also made Mans, who had been watching outside the cave, let out a long breath of relief.
This giant man was none other than the reinforcements Jia Long and the others had called: Mihos, vice leader of the City of Light Chasing Defense Group.
With Mihos’s arrival, Jia Long and the others also relaxed.
As vice leader of the City of Light Chasing Defense Group and an experienced intermediate Bone Forging Realm martial artist, his word alone was enough that even Lin Qi, hall master of Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, would not act recklessly, let alone the hall’s disciples.
However, the firing of the signal flares also meant their plan against Obsidian Martial Arts Hall had failed. In the future, when they tried to deal with the hall again, it would be far more alert.
Just as the three felt relieved, Ye Qinglu and the others did not stop their attacks. Instead, they attacked even more fiercely.
“I told you to stop! Did you not hear me?” Mihos roared when he saw Ye Qinglu and the others still fighting. His qi and blood surged further, pressing down on the members of Obsidian Martial Arts Hall across the battlefield.
But those who had cultivated the first level perfection of the body strengthening secret technique and above were barely affected. Their movements did not slow much at all.
“Hurry! The final boss is out! Finish off these three mini-bosses!” Yi Ye Fu Yun shouted a reminder while wildly firing at Men Luo.
The others also attacked without hesitation. Lu Fanchen, using his last remaining hand, unleashed Heaven Shaking Fist once more. Chen Ya used her strongest gun technique, firing twelve shots in quick succession. Together they cut down all three where they stood.
With their deaths, the battlefield instantly fell silent.
“How dare they?!” Mans stared at the dead Jia Long and the others, completely stunned.
