Han Mao, Yan You, and the others had originally decided that they would have to scatter and flee, gambling on a sliver of life amid nine deaths. But when they saw the violent wind actually veer around Shen Zhui, they were all completely stunned.
Rong Zimo even blinked hard twice, suspecting that he had seen wrong.
"Control over the Power of Heaven and Earth!"
"Xiantian Realm?"
"Shen Zhui was a hidden Xiantian Martial Artist?"
One thought after another surfaced in Han Mao and the others' minds, and they were all wildly excited. Han Mao hurriedly waved his hand. "Everyone, listen to Shen Zhui. Follow him!"
"Whoosh, crash~"
The violent wind soon collided with the flames. Fanned by the wind, the flames suddenly surged again and swept toward the area behind Shen Zhui and the others. Everything around them seemed to be burning.
The earth was scorched black, and even some of the stones caught fire.
"Southwest corner, five zhang away—the stone atop the artificial hill!" Shen Zhui shouted.
After entering the Unity of Heaven and Man Realm, Shen Zhui had become incomparably sensitive to the distribution and fluctuations of the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy around him.
Under normal circumstances, spiritual energy was evenly distributed, without any discernible pattern.
But if the spiritual energy in one place was especially dense and moving on its own, then that place was certainly a crucial point in the formation!
Zhao Hu immediately swung his saber, sending out a golden blade radiance. In the next instant, a stone at the artificial hill five zhang away was shattered by the Gang Qi that pierced straight through it.
The wind immediately weakened somewhat!
"Go!"
Han Mao, Yan You, and the others hurriedly followed.
"Right-side pavilion, third pillar!"
"Bang!" Zhao Hu sent out another burst of Gang Qi. With the divine power augmenting him, doing this was not difficult for Zhao Hu.
"Swish, swish, swish~"
Suddenly, amidst the gusting wind, a buzzing sound arose. Dozens of stones the size of human heads abruptly shot toward the five people. They moved extremely fast and were concealed beneath the windblown sand, making them virtually impossible to guard against as a sneak attack.
At that moment, the steel saber in Shen Zhui's hand suddenly accelerated!
"Clang~ clang-clang-clang-clang-clang~"
Essence of Vital Energy covered the steel saber, and Shen Zhui unleashed the first move of the Falling Snow Saber Technique—Slay Cang!
"Swish, swish, swish~"
The steel saber transformed into a sky full of afterimages, directly cleaving an incoming stone into pieces. Then the spiritual-energy snowflakes surrounding the saber sliced those fragments into even finer pieces.
In the blink of an eye, Shen Zhui had cleaved apart more than thirty stones the size of human heads!
Chunks and splinters flew chaotically through the air.
By the time they descended in front of the people behind him, they were no longer much of a threat.
When the five crossed the area where the giant stones had fallen, a rain of broken rocks began to fall behind them.
Han Mao, Yan You, and Rong Zimo, who were surrounded by Shen Zhui and Zhao Hu, watched Shen Zhui's movements in utter astonishment.
"With Shen Zhui's strength, he didn't even use Xiantian Spiritual Energy. He cleaved apart that sky full of giant stones with saber technique alone?"
Xiantian Martial Artists mainly relied on the pure Xiantian True Qi within their bodies, which gave them immense power and allowed their attacks to cover a vast range with the slightest movement.
Yet Shen Zhui had cleaved apart those giant stones with saber technique alone.
They thought Shen Zhui was holding back the True Qi within his body, inadvertently displaying this exquisite saber technique.
What they did not know was that Shen Zhui was not unwilling to use True Qi to attack from afar. He simply had not reached the level of a Xiantian Realm Martial Artist who could sweep through a vast area with one strike.
No, this is too slow. It won't be long before the fire behind us catches up. Shen Zhui thought to himself.
Although it seemed they had only been moving for a short while, they had already traveled at least a thousand meters!
Yet they were still inside the formation. Moreover, the deeper they went into the violent wind, the more varied the attacks became. It was easy to imagine how vast—and how terrifying—this formation was.
"Zimo, give me your saber." Shen Zhui shouted. As they continued moving toward the depths of the formation, the amount of spiritual energy he could control grew increasingly scarce, and the area he could protect kept shrinking. One saber was no longer enough to ensure the others' safety.
"Use mine." Han Mao immediately threw his saber over. He had just finished borrowing the divine power, and his body was still somewhat difficult to move. With Shen Zhui and Zhao Hu protecting him, having a saber or not made no difference.
"Stay close." Without turning his head, Shen Zhui reached his left hand backward and accurately grasped the steel saber.
"Brother Hu, ten zhang to the left front. Two wolf heads cast from bronze."
"Got it!"
Zhao Hu hurriedly rushed over and chopped down the bronze heads at their foundations. Immediately afterward, the violent wind weakened again. The windblown sand settled, and visibility improved greatly. They were no longer stumbling blindly with their eyes open.
"Cross the river!" With a saber in each hand, Shen Zhui chopped down the second wave of giant stones and issued command after command.
A small man-made river lay ahead of them, only three or four zhang wide. As long as they jumped across, they would no longer need to worry about the flames behind them.
Han Mao and the others leaped into the air one after another and jumped across the stream. The scenery around them suddenly became clear, and no more giant stones fell.
Behind them, the flames burned up to the riverbank, unable to advance any farther.
After Shen Zhui cut down a straw man standing beside the river with both sabers, more than half of this side of the formation had already been destroyed.
"Hm? What's going on?" Daoist Xiangyang sensed that something was wrong below.
He had secretly been delighted when the five of them had actually sought death by walking from the center of the formation, sparing him the effort of dealing with them.
But he had never expected the wind and sand to weaken more and more, until this half of the wind formation stopped altogether!
"Were they killed?" Daoist Xiangyang frowned.
He had great confidence in this formation of his. In particular, his opponents were several Houtian Martial Artists. If they had been Qi Cultivation True Persons, he might not have had such confidence.
This formation specifically targeted Xiantian Martial Artists, reducing their strength and trapping them.
Clearly, he did not think these people could easily break his formation unless every one of them used Summon Deity and borrowed power to flee into the sky.
That was also Daoist Xiangyang's intention: to exhaust the trump cards on their bodies while buying time.
Without the augmentation of divine power, he could easily slaughter all five Ninth Stage Houtian Martial Artists by himself.
"They'd better be dead. If Heifeng and Daoist Mu arrive to help, I'll lose too much face. At least now I can make up for my mistake."
Killing five government constables who could use Summon Deity was equivalent to killing five Xiantian Martial Artists. Of course, that would be a great achievement!
The wind and sand gradually subsided, and the scene below slowly emerged.
The manor, originally exquisitely decorated and ingeniously arranged, was now a complete mess.
Daoist Xiangyang lowered himself and looked carefully.
When Daoist Xiangyang saw the wolf-headed bronze ornament that had been chopped to the ground, his heart suddenly jolted.
"Not good! The formation has been broken!" His expression changed drastically, and he was about to shoot into the sky.
"Old thief, die!" Three figures shot into the sky from the dust.
Shen Zhui, Yan You, and Zhao Hu attacked Daoist Xiangyang together.
Yan You, in particular, activated the azure decree on his body.
"First Summon of Deity: Distinguish Good and Evil!"
Yan You shouted solemnly and majestically. At the same time, the trace of red qi on Daoist Xiangyang's body vanished without a trace.
The Execution Token Dao Plaque pointed clearly, and his evil was revealed!
"Second Summon of Deity: Discern Right from Wrong!"
Daoist Xiangyang's face was filled with terror. The clouds and mist around him were immediately driven away, exposing his true appearance. At the same time, a tremendous force descended.
"Bind!" Yan You spat blood as he pointed at Daoist Xiangyang, attempting to restrain the thief.
"Dream on! A mere Ninth Stage Houtian Martial Artist wants to restrain me?!" Daoist Xiangyang went berserk, and the Daoist Robe on his body suddenly burst apart.
The restraint lasted only a moment before he broke free.
But in that brief moment, Zhao Hu and Shen Zhui's attacks had already reached him.
"Ghostly Imps, emerge!" Daoist Xiangyang's body rose sharply, and two hideous infants suddenly appeared on him.
The flesh below the infants' necks was bright red, but above their necks there was not the slightest trace of flesh—only skulls.
The two Blood Infants bared their teeth and lunged at Zhao Hu and Shen Zhui. Their hollow skull sockets radiated waves of red light, causing Zhao Hu and Shen Zhui to become dazed for an instant!
"As expected of an evil heretic!" Yan You transformed into an afterimage. His blade radiance suddenly swelled as he slashed fiercely.
"What?" Daoist Xiangyang felt the power of the blade radiance and his heart trembled. He immediately recalled the Blood Infant charging toward Shen Zhui, redirecting it to meet that blade radiance.
In his eyes, Zhao Hu and Yan You posed the greatest threat among the three. Yan You was especially dangerous—by using Summon Deity at the Peak Houtian level, his strength had already surpassed Daoist Xiangyang's.
Naturally, he had to focus on dealing with those two.
"Explode!" The Blood Infant charging toward Yan You suddenly burst apart, transforming into a pool of blood that enveloped the blade radiance.
"Sizzle, sizzle~" The blood filth transformed into white smoke and dissipated, but the blade radiance was also continuously weakened.
"He actually ignored me?!"
Seeing Daoist Xiangyang recall the Blood Infant and merely conjure a circular shield to block his saber, Shen Zhui sneered.
"Faster!" The long saber in his hand suddenly accelerated slightly, and the number of spiritual-energy snowflakes abruptly surpassed one hundred.
At the same time, Shen Zhui controlled the spiritual-energy snowflakes to repeatedly strike the azure shield, continuously dismantling its spiritual-energy structure.
In only a moment, by the time Shen Zhui's steel saber slashed over, the azure shield had already been whittled down by more than half, leaving only a thin membrane!
Under the Unity of Heaven and Man Realm, Shen Zhui's Falling Snow Saber Technique and its hundred-plus spiritual-energy snowflakes were like a steel saber thrust into a rapidly rolling wheel, causing the Daoist magic in motion to collapse!
"What? This is impossible. How can you..."
"Pfft~"
The steel saber pierced through the shield and, as easily as slicing through tofu, severed Daoist Xiangyang's head.
Even in death, he could not understand how his spiritual-energy defensive shield had been so easily broken by a Ninth Stage Houtian Martial Artist.
At the final moment before his body died, his cultivation dissipated, and his spiritual consciousness perished, Daoist Xiangyang used his last wisp of divine sense to activate a token hidden inside his body.
This higher-grade Daoist Magic Token, which could record battle scenes, instantly transmitted the course of his battle to Li Mingtai, the Family Head of the Li Family, as well as Daoist Mu and Daoist Heifeng, who were rushing over.
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