Vow to Settle Life and Death

Li Muge landed, and behind him came a thunderous boom and the clang of a bell. Su Yun and Ancestor Yuan San had collided head-on, and the wooden tower beneath their feet immediately creaked and groaned!

Seeing the white ape whistling past him and the Flood Dragons dancing through the air, Li Muge's heart skipped a beat. "This Ancestor Yuan San is a monster with boundless strength, so does Scholar Su Yun's true form also belong to some mountain-sized monster? Is he a wild buffalo demon, or a hippopotamus?"

He was puzzled. Anyone capable of contending with an exotic beast like that white ape naturally had to be something born with immense strength, like a wild buffalo or hippopotamus.

Li Muge had no time to think further. In the night sky, Artificer Puppets clad in tattered rags flew through the air and charged toward them.

Beneath those ruined clothes were skeletal frames of white bone, driven by Spiritual Nature and turned exceptionally ferocious.

The Land Candle Dragon continued onward as though unaware. It was a colossal creature, and its relationship with humans was merely one of mutual use: it carried humans on their journey, while humans provided it with food.

The Artificer Puppets posed no threat to it, nor was it responsible for the humans' safety.

Among the eighty small towers on its back, only the one where Li Muge stood had lost the protection of its lights, becoming a breach for those Artificer Puppets.

Li Muge raced across the tower platform, gripping the treasured sword formed from his Spiritual Abilities. He unleashed the sword arts he had learned. With every thrust, sword after sword shot forth from his abilities and danced through the air, each one performing the exquisite sword techniques he had honed over many years!

Before and behind him, to his left and right, above and below, streaming sword shadows were everywhere, making him seem like an eight-armed swordsman.

One Artificer Puppet after another was directly cut down by his formidable swordsmanship ability. Its intricacy and dazzling splendor were truly breathtaking.

Cultivating a swordsmanship ability was extraordinarily difficult. One needed utter sincerity toward the sword: practicing swordplay every day, visualizing swords in one's mind, thinking only of swords with one's Spiritual Nature. One had to carry a sword while cultivating, carry a sword while bathing, and even sleep with a sword clutched in one's arms.

Day after day and night after night, with sincerity enough to split gold and open stone, one's Spiritual Nature would turn the sword's imprint into a projection and reflect it into the mind.

Once that imprint combined with one's own vital energy, it would become a Spiritual Ability and gain power.

Li Muge was precisely such a sword fanatic.

Yet after those Artificer Puppets were cut apart by him, they quickly reassembled themselves and flew back into the air to pounce on him once more.

Though swordsmanship abilities were sharp, dealing with strange creatures from the Old No-Man's Land like Artificer Puppets was still difficult. They were not as effective as those lanterns.

Li Muge frowned. From the carriage below came the sound of glazed windows shattering and people screaming. Clearly, Artificer Puppets had already broken through the windows and entered the carriage!

Just then, a shaking dragon roar came from within the carriage. A window abruptly exploded, and a Flood Dragon of blood and qi could be seen coiling around an Artificer Puppet. It twisted its body fiercely and crushed the puppet to pieces!

"It's that little fellow in the dog-ear hat!" Li Muge was somewhat relieved.

Inside the carriage, the youth transformed from Flower Fox was only as tall as an ordinary person's waist, yet he flashed through the carriage like a Flood Dragon, coming and going like the wind. One moment he was at the front of the carriage, the next at the rear!

He darted up and down, like a Flood Dragon clinging to the roof and walls of the carriage, speeding about like flight itself.

His blood and qi circulated within him, erupting with peals of thunder. Whenever an Artificer Puppet rushed in, before it could lay a hand on the terrified passengers, he would immediately kill it with Flood Dragon's Chant!

Meanwhile, in another small wooden tower, Hu Buping, Li Xiaofan, and Qingqiu Yue were even smaller, yet more agile. Their childish shouts rang out one after another.

"Dragon Roaming the Winding Marsh!"

"Crocodile Dragon's Roll!"

"Dragon Fights in the Field!"

Every time the three little ones made a move, they shouted with full-throated vigor. The passengers in the carriage were worried about being snatched away by the Artificer Puppets, but they also found the scene rather amusing.

Every stance and move of the three children brimmed with wildness, and their strength was astonishingly great. They smashed the intruding Artificer Puppets to bits.

But once the Artificer Puppets shattered, they reassembled, and more and more of them flooded into the carriage. Hu Buping and the others found themselves struggling harder and harder. Then Li Muge's voice came from outside: "Hold on! Once the Land Candle Dragon crosses this mountain, it will leave the Old No-Man's Land! As long as we get over this mountain, the Artificer Puppets will retreat on their own! Hold on!"

The Land Candle Dragon was still climbing the mountain. The path was steep, and the wooden towers on Candle Dragon's back tilted with it.

Li Muge was tense beyond measure. The Land Candle Dragon was about to reach the summit, but the Artificer Puppets' assault was growing fiercer and fiercer, leaving him no time at all to check on Su Yun and Ancestor Yuan San's battle.

The period while Candle Dragon climbed and descended the mountain was crucial.

If Ancestor Yuan San killed Su Yun during this time, he could immediately rush over and slaughter Li Muge and the others, perhaps even massacre everyone aboard this Candle Dragon Carriage!

If Su Yun could survive Ancestor Yuan San's offensive, then once Candle Dragon left the Old No-Man's Land, Li Muge would be free to help Su Yun surround and kill Ancestor Yuan San!

Victory or defeat, even life and death, would be decided in the time it took to climb and descend this mountain!

Li Muge gave a muffled groan, feeling the vital energy within him weaken. Fighting so many Artificer Puppets at once was draining his cultivation faster than he had expected.

Though he was a Spirit Scholar of the Spirit Infusion Realm and possessed a Spirit Infusion Realm cultivation art, his vital energy cultivation was not particularly powerful. He was inferior not only to Ancestor Yuan San, but also to Su Yun.

Neither Ancestor Yuan San nor Su Yun possessed a Spirit Infusion Realm cultivation art. Yet one had been blessed by heaven, a violent ape born with vigorous blood and qi, while the other had studied the Old Sage Classics under Mister Wild Fox for six or seven years and, with no one to teach him, cultivated an unparalleled Spiritual Ability in three years.

When Su Yun cultivated Great Furnace Transformation: Qi Cultivation Chapter to the sixth level, his vital energy cultivation had already surpassed that of most Scholars at the same realm. Still unsatisfied, he went on to cultivate Immortal Ape Qi Cultivation Chapter, making his body even stronger and his blood and qi as deep and abundant as a demon's!

Su Yun was weaker than Ancestor Yuan San in raw strength, and his abilities seemed ordinary only when measured against Ancestor Yuan San.

If it had been a Spirit Scholar like Li Muge instead, his strength before Ancestor Yuan San would have been utterly unable to withstand a single blow. Even the depth of his blood and qi gave him no power to contend with Ancestor Yuan San.

Only a monster could deal with a monster.

Su Yun was that kind of monster!

On the tower platform, Su Yun's feet kept sliding backward. His soles were like sharp dragon claws, digging into the rooftop of the wooden tower and bleeding away Ancestor Yuan San's force.

Ancestor Yuan San swung the Iron Cudgel. Explosive clangs rang out in an unbroken stream as the Great Yellow Bell above Su Yun's head shook continuously, sending out ring after ring of light.

Those were the halos bursting forth as the Yellow Bell dispersed the force of Ancestor Yuan San's attacks.

This Yellow Bell had a strange effect: it could disperse the force of attacks directed at Su Yun and increase his ability to endure them.

Even Su Yun himself did not know where this strange effect came from. He had only just gained the ability to wield the power of Spiritual Abilities. Without systematic instruction from the official academy, he knew almost nothing about the Spirit Infusion Realm or Spiritual Abilities.

As the Yellow Bell spun, Flood Dragons and white apes continuously flew out from its moment markings.

Controlling six white apes or six Flood Dragons at once was Su Yun's limit. But this time, instead of controlling six white apes or Flood Dragons all at once, he controlled only one Flood Dragon and one white ape.

Because if a Flood Dragon or white ape formed from his blood and qi imprints was smashed apart by Ancestor Yuan San, his blood and qi would suffer severe losses and his combat strength would plummet. It was better to control only two. That could both enhance his power and improve his ability to adapt.

Every white ape or Flood Dragon represented different moves and Unbound Moves. Different combinations of moves could produce unexpected effects.

Moreover, as soon as each white ape or Flood Dragon completed its attack, he immediately withdrew it into the Yellow Bell's moment markings, turning it back into an imprint.

This was a technique for conserving blood and qi.

After fighting Ancestor Yuan San, his understanding of Spiritual Abilities had steadily deepened.

Clang!

Su Yun took another blow from Ancestor Yuan San and was swept off the tower platform by the white-furred violent ape's cudgel.

While he was in midair, two Artificer Puppets suddenly flew at him from the left and right. Two skeletal arms extended from beneath each set of tattered clothes!

The youth remained calm in the face of danger. The Yellow Bell above his head spun, and a Flood Dragon of blood and qi flew out. It darted and battled through the air, killing the two Artificer Puppets, then immediately returned to the bell and became an imprint upon one of the Yellow Bell's moment markings.

Su Yun's feet sank, and his body fell downward, landing squarely on the body of Candle Dragon as it raced toward the mountaintop.

The Land Candle Dragon's body was covered in dragon scales the size of tabletops. As Candle Dragon raced along, the scales scraped against one another, bursting out strings upon strings of sparks.

From the sensation beneath his feet alone, he could tell how terrifying the power contained in the muscles beneath those dragon scales was!

Ancestor Yuan San landed with a thud. Several Artificer Puppets pounced toward him, only to be smashed apart by white apes flying from his Iron Cudgel. Broken bones and torn clothes fell down the mountain, only to gather together again in the wind.

Ancestor Yuan San frowned and raised a hand to touch his chest. The wound left by the gigantic ghostly creature had split open again, and blood flowed out.

Su Yun shook his somewhat numb arms. A Flood Dragon suddenly swam out from the Great Yellow Bell above his head, coiling around the bronze bell. A white ape leaped up and crouched atop the bell's knob, staring at Ancestor Yuan San.

"Young man, you are formidable."

Ancestor Yuan San's muscles tightened as he forcibly held down his wound. In a hoarse voice, he said, "You learn things very quickly. I admire you. If you passed through Yuanjia Ridge on an ordinary day, I would invite you up the mountain as a guest, and we could become mountain kings who blocked the road together."

Su Yun said nothing. He activated Great Furnace Transformation: Qi Cultivation Chapter. At this moment, he discovered that Great Furnace Transformation: Qi Cultivation Chapter was still better at rapidly replenishing the blood and qi he had expended. Immortal Ape Qi Cultivation Chapter was more than fierce enough but lacked sustained force; it did not have Great Furnace Transformation's powerful reserves.

Ancestor Yuan San was also doing his utmost to activate Immortal Ape Qi Cultivation Chapter and restore his blood and qi. He said heavily, "My Yuanjia Ridge has thirty-seven households and one hundred and eighty people. Of them, forty-two are able-bodied adults, while the rest are women, children, and the old and infirm. Of those forty-two able-bodied adults, fourteen died by your hand."

Su Yun bent his legs slightly, ready to exert force at any moment. His expression was calm as he said, "They hunted me down, and I killed them in return. Tianshiyuan has no rule saying that if someone comes to kill you, you are forbidden from fighting back."

"You could fight back. You could kill them."

Ancestor Yuan San said indifferently, "But as the head of a village, I must also avenge my villagers. I cannot nurse my wounds. I must eliminate you tonight, because your rate of improvement is too fast. I fear that once my injuries heal, I will no longer be your match!"

He laid bare his innermost thoughts, showing Su Yun his determination to fight until one of them died. Su Yun could not help but regard him with solemn respect.

This was an opponent whose will was so steadfast that it commanded admiration. He had already resolved that Su Yun must die in this battle!

At the same time, Su Yun reached his own conclusion: he had to kill Ancestor Yuan San in this battle!

Because if he showed even the slightest hesitation, he would die at Ancestor Yuan San's hands!

"Mooong—"

The Land Candle Dragon's long dragon roar rang out. This Giant Dragon had finally reached the mountaintop. Along with that shaking roar, a long dragon cry also sounded from Su Yun's chest, resonating with Candle Dragon!

His feet shifted, and for the first time, he turned from defense to offense and charged at Ancestor Yuan San!

Tonight, they would vow to settle life and death!

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