Engaging in Battle

The newcomer was a dashing young man with sharp eyebrows and bright eyes. He wore a white cloud robe and carried a long sword, exuding an air of grace and handsomeness.

Lu Ming had seen him before. The day he and Li Chonghu fought in the street, this young man had been in the crowd, standing out like a crane among chickens.

That was why he remembered him so clearly.

"A jade brocade white robe... are you an inner disciple of the Wuji Sect?"

The appearance of the young man startled the three of them.

"Inner disciple of the Wuji Sect, Chu Yunxiao, I've come specifically for you."

The young man announced his origin and landed lightly on the ground.

"Us? It seems we haven't had any conflict with you, sir?"

It was clear that the three were extremely wary of this inner disciple of the Wuji Sect.

Chu Yunxiao shook his head. "Indeed, we haven't. I'm here on a sect mission."

He then said, his voice turning cold, "Mission: Investigate the traces of the demonic cult appearing near Shuofeng City and report back."

This brief statement caused the bodies of the three to tremble visibly.

They clearly hadn't expected their movements to have already been noticed by the sects.

However, they were relieved that there was only one sect disciple in front of them, and he was here to investigate. This meant there were no reinforcements.

"Now that things have come to this, do the three of you still intend to hide your identities?"

"That's right, we are people of the Sacred Cult."

The three exchanged glances and then admitted it directly. The one in the middle, who was at the mid-stage of the Zhen Qi Realm, spoke.

"Do you think you can stop all three of us by yourself?"

"It will indeed be a bit troublesome."

Chu Yunxiao frowned slightly and then looked at Lu Ming. "Can you help me hold off one of them first?"

In truth, as he had said earlier, his main purpose here was to investigate. He had only revealed himself now to help Lu Ming out of a difficult situation.

From their conversation, Lu Ming had a general idea of why these three were chasing him. They likely wanted to lure him into the demonic cult.

He had learned something about the demonic cult from Old Man Zhao's collection of books.

The demonic cult had two branches: the Corpse and the Ghost. They actually called themselves the Two Sacred Cults.

The Corpse branch could refine people into Iron Armor, Bronze Armor, and Gold Armor Corpse Puppets, which possessed immense strength and fearlessness in battle.

The Ghost branch, according to one account, had movements as elusive as ghosts.

Another account said they absorbed Yin Qi to cultivate, becoming neither human nor ghost, and went around killing indiscriminately.

This eventually led to public outrage, and they were annihilated.

He hadn't expected that remnants of this demonic cult would appear before him now, and that they wanted to recruit him.

"Little Brother Lu, since things have reached this point, we'll be direct. We're chasing you because we want to bring you into the Sacred Cult. With your talent, our Cult Master will surely take notice and accept you as a personal disciple."

Seeing that Lu Ming remained silent for a moment, the mid-stage Zhen Qi Realm individual spoke.

In their original intention, they had wanted to forcibly take Lu Ming away, as that was how they had joined.

However, with the unexpected appearance of an inner disciple from the Wuji Sect, they had no choice but to extend a friendly invitation first.

Chu Yunxiao remained silent, wanting to see Lu Ming's choice.

Knowing what kind of force the demonic cult was, Lu Ming naturally had no interest in joining, so he directly shook his head and refused. "I'm not interested."

"Little Brother Lu, you should think carefully."

Upon hearing this, the mid-stage Zhen Qi Realm individual's voice turned cold, and an oppressive aura suddenly emanated from him, bearing down on Lu Ming.

However, Lu Ming stood firm like an unsheathed treasure sword, completely unaffected.

This surprised everyone. They felt something was strange but couldn't quite pinpoint it.

"I told you not to waste your energy. Let's just kill him and be done with it."

At this moment, one of the three who had not spoken before finally spoke. He threw off his bamboo hat, revealing his true face.

It was Li Chonghu, the leader of the Black Tiger Gang, who had disappeared.

Seeing him, Lu Ming only paused slightly before regaining his composure, as he had already felt that this person looked somewhat familiar.

"That's the only way. A genius we can't obtain is better off destroyed!"

With that, the mid-stage Zhen Qi Realm individual attacked directly, lunging towards Chu Yunxiao. He didn't forget to issue orders, "Li Chonghu, you hold off that kid first. Chi Wuya, you and I will quickly deal with this sect disciple."

Upon hearing this, Chi Wuya remained silent and also lunged towards Chu Yunxiao.

"Good!"

Facing the two, Chu Yunxiao was undaunted. With a tremor of his back, his long sword was sent flying out of its sheath. He then leaped up and caught it steadily.

"Take this Mysterious Yin Palm!"

Just then, the mid-stage Zhen Qi Realm individual reached close quarters. Mid-air, he waved his palm, condensing a dark palm print that shot towards Chu Yunxiao.

"A petty trick!"

Chu Yunxiao snorted coldly, swung his long sword, and sword energy instantly filled the air before converging into a single strike that shot towards the black palm.

Bang!

Upon contact, the black palm was shattered by the sword energy, which still had enough force to continue towards the man in the middle stage of the Zhen Qi Realm.

The man in the middle stage of the Zhen Qi Realm was startled. He hadn't expected the sword energy of someone only in the early stage of the Zhen Qi Realm to be so sharp, and his Mysterious Yin Palm strike hadn't even managed to block it.

He quickly retreated.

Just as Chu Yunxiao was about to pursue, he suddenly felt a strong gust of wind from behind him and quickly changed direction, swinging his sword to block.

It turned out to be Chi Wuya. Seeing his attack fail, he immediately turned into afterimages and retreated.

"Ghost Shadow Steps."

Chu Yunxiao recognized the movement technique.

"And Three Corpse King Fist, take this!"

Chi Wuya, combined with Ghost Shadow Steps, dodged left and right, closing in again in an instant. He then swung his fists, imbued with grayish-brown True Qi, launching a rapid barrage of attacks at Chu Yunxiao.

At this moment, the man in the middle stage of the Zhen Qi Realm also attacked again.

"Excellent!"

Facing the fierce wind surrounding him, Chu Yunxiao instead let out a hearty laugh. He leaped straight up, evading the pincer attack, and then descended from the sky, sword in hand, to attack the two of them.

Bang bang bang bang!

In an instant, palm energy, sword energy, and fist shadows filled the air, erupting in a series of explosions.

The three had clearly engaged in a full-blown fight.

Lu Ming watched Chu Yunxiao fighting two opponents and still holding his own, feeling admiration. This also made him realize the strength of the sect disciples.

At the same time, he breathed a sigh of relief. It was his turn to act next.

Just then, Li Chonghu happened to look his way. Lu Ming heard him say with a cold laugh:

"Kid, I've figured out your saber techniques, and I understand the secrets of your palm techniques. This time, how will you fight me?"

Li Chonghu admitted that Lu Ming was strong, but this time he was confident. As long as he guarded against the palm energy unleashed at close range, those saber techniques, though fast, wouldn't be able to do anything to him.

"Is that so? Then take this."

Lu Ming cut the nonsense, drew his saber, and proactively attacked. In the blink of an eye, he was in front of Li Chonghu like a phantom.

"He's gotten faster again!"

Seeing this speed, Li Chonghu was greatly alarmed. Although he had seen Lu Ming's realm advance to the ninth level of Inner Qi, he hadn't expected such a significant increase in speed from just one level.

But there was no time to think further. He quickly circulated his True Qi and extended his claws to block.

As expected, just like last time, he grasped at empty air as the saber light came from another direction.

He grasped again, and again, it was empty.

After several such attempts, he became increasingly alarmed. Compared to last time, he could clearly feel that the opponent's speed had increased dramatically, and his claw techniques could no longer keep up.

Swoosh!

Sure enough, in the next second, his ribs were struck. Although his True Qi automatically protected him, it wasn't as strong as he had imagined.

After all, he was only in the early stage of the Zhen Qi Realm.

Furthermore, the opponent's saber techniques seemed to have a qi-breaking ability, making it impossible to defend against. Blood stained his clothes, and a sharp pain shot through him.

"Ah!"

Soon, he was struck again, then by two more blows, then three.

After being hit several times in a row, Li Chonghu's movements became chaotic, and his True Qi began to circulate sluggishly. He cried out in pain repeatedly.

"Skyward Slash!"

Hitting him once more, Lu Ming seized the opening and unleashed a skyward slash. This time, Li Chonghu didn't have the energy to lure the enemy deeper.

"No!"

Facing the blinding saber light, Li Chonghu's soul was filled with terror. He quickly raised his claws to block, but he was a step too slow. The saber light had already descended from above his head.

"What?!"

Li Chonghu cried out in panic, which naturally drew the attention of the other three who were fighting. As they looked over, they saw Li Chonghu being cleaved in two by a saber strike.

They were all startled.

"Well done. Now, let me show you my true skill, Chasing Stars and Seizing the Moon!"