Blade light and trident shadows flashed, figures flickering.
In the dim secret chamber, the danger became all the more oppressive.
An opening!
Ji Chengkong lunged out suddenly, using his folding fan as a dagger as he stabbed straight at Qin Jianghe's lower back.
Though he was in darkness,
Qin Jianghe had been keeping watch on Ji Chengkong's movements.
The instant his opponent threw himself forward,
Qin Jianghe's ears twitched. His body slipped aside like a swimming fish, riding the fierce force of Fang Yu's Mixed Iron Trident to dart away.
Fang Yu now stood before Ji Chengkong.
Ji Chengkong could have withdrawn his move and pursued Qin Jianghe, but Fang Yu could not see his surroundings.
When faced with threats striking from the darkness, whether force or hidden weapons, he sought to snuff them out at the first instant.
Therefore,
Fang Yu immediately swung his Mixed Iron Trident in a sweeping arc. As his inner force surged, it was as though he had raised a towering tidal wave.
It completely engulfed Ji Chengkong.
Bang!
The folding fan shattered into fragments.
Ji Chengkong had been wholly unprepared. Fang Yu's sweeping trident struck him solidly, and he spat out blood with a puff.
His body flew backward.
He crashed heavily into the stone wall.
"Faction... Leader Fang, you..."
Ji Chengkong spoke with difficulty.
He had never imagined Fang Yu would stab him in the back.
Qin Jianghe gave a cold laugh.
"Fang Yu, you're still as ruthless as ever. You don't spare even your own allies, huh."
Fang Yu snorted coldly.
"Ji Chengkong?"
"Nothing more than a clown."
"Whether he lives or dies is utterly irrelevant."
He raised the Mixed Iron Trident in his hand and slowly pointed it at a dark silhouette within the shadows, shouting harshly,
"Qin Jianghe, you are my true opponent."
"You have exhausted your tricks!"
"Only the two of us remain here now. Let me send you on your way!"
Fang Yu's hair and beard flew wildly about him. Holding the trident in both hands, an overwhelming and peerless aura suddenly rose from his body, like a demon god from hell!
He had already fully adapted to the darkness.
With his ability to locate by sound and his faint perception of auras, he could now firmly lock onto Qin Jianghe's position in the dark.
That was enough!
Bang!
Fang Yu thrust with the Yaksha, like a gale-driven arrow!
It shot straight for Qin Jianghe's chest.
Boom!
Fang Yu's trident plunged into the stone wall, leaving Qin Jianghe drenched in cold sweat. What terrifying speed—it had nearly surpassed his ability to react!
Fang Yu clenched the Mixed Iron Trident and swept it sideways with the momentum!
The entire stone wall seemed to have been sliced across horizontally. With rumbling crashes, a long trench was carved into it!
It forced Qin Jianghe back again and again!
Until he was driven into a corner, with nowhere left to retreat!
Fang Yu crouched and sprang. Pulling back his Mixed Iron Trident, he then thrust from his waist with blinding speed! Like a flood dragon bursting from the sea!
Clang!
He could not evade!
Qin Jianghe raised his broken saber and barely used its blade to block the trident's sharp point!
Yet that tyrannical inner force, carrying unmatched power, slammed Qin Jianghe into the stone wall with a thunderous crash.
Blood seeped from the corner of Qin Jianghe's mouth.
His wounds burst open once more, and the strength throughout his body melted away like ice and snow. Fang Yu only needed to add one more thrust.
Then Qin Jianghe would die on the spot.
"Farewell, old rival!"
Fang Yu said calmly, raising the Mixed Iron Trident to stab it into Qin Jianghe's chest.
Suddenly,
A fierce wind howled in from outside the stone chamber.
Then a torch spun in through the doorway.
The flame, instantly snuffed out by the wind pressure, gave the pitch-black chamber a fleeting wash of dusky yellow light.
In that very instant,
Qin Jianghe saw a shadow outside the chamber leap up and descend through the air behind Fang Yu.
Clang!
The sound of a saber leaving its sheath rang beside Fang Yu's ear!
Shen Yi had charged in at full gallop!
To deal with the possible encounter with the Yaksha Faction Leader,
Before leaping into the stone chamber, he had already chosen to pour three years of secluded cultivation into the Hidden Edge Saber Technique.
After three years of unceasing diligent cultivation, your understanding of saber techniques has advanced further, and you have completely grasped the meaning of Hidden Edge. When the saber is sheathed, wind stills; when the saber emerges, ghosts and gods are startled! Your Hidden Edge Saber Technique has entered the realm of perfection, and you have comprehended the saber technique's ultimate move, Demon Slayer Strike.
At this moment, Shen Yi used that flash of firelight.
He had already clearly seen the situation within the secret chamber.
Qin Jianghe was severely wounded, but fortunately his life was not in danger.
The man in the center, his hair and beard whipping about as his force surged like a dragon, needed no introduction. He was surely the leader of the Yaksha Faction!
Without the slightest hesitation, Shen Yi pushed Grass Treading Flight to its limit.
With a flash, he leaped up.
His strongest saber move was already poised to strike!
In an instant, Cold Night left its sheath. Its pitch-black blade seemed to melt into the darkness, with only a sliver of snow-bright edge faintly visible.
A sharp saber intent rose from nothing.
Like a volcano erupting, bolstered by Shen Yi's Array Breaker Art inner force pouring into it at full strength, it crashed down!
The saber struck!
Demon Slayer Strike!
By the time Fang Yu came to his senses, Shen Yi's saber intent had already gathered at its peak. He only had time to hastily raise his trident to block it.
Clang!
The force of the two men collided with a thunderous boom.
The entire stone chamber seemed to shake violently from the impact, as though it might collapse at any moment.
Shen Yi's slash cleaved Fang Yu into the stone wall.
With a rumble, it smashed out a deep crater. Fang Yu coughed repeatedly, while both his hands trembled faintly.
Shen Yi landed and drew a deep breath.
That single strike had consumed more than half his inner force.
The surroundings sank into pitch darkness once more.
Yet this was no time to rest. Shen Yi remembered Fang Yu's position and immediately gathered his breath to attack again.
"Old Qin, are you dead?"
"If you're not dead, get up and help!"
Shen Yi called out. Cold Night whirled up a curtain of saber radiance in his palm, slashing down upon Fang Yu like falling leaves swept by the wind.
The urgent clashes rang out once more in the darkness.
Like dense drumbeats, they played a dangerous symphony in the dark.
Amid the occasional sound of weapons entering flesh and muffled groans, blood sprayed through the shadows.
"Old Qin isn't dead yet!"
Qin Jianghe's face was deathly pale as he forced himself upright.
But he did not rashly enter the fray. The surroundings were dark, and with three men locked in battle, who knew who might strike whom.
"Switch if you can't hold on!"
Qin Jianghe gripped his broken saber tightly, staring fixedly at the two tangled, intersecting shadows in the dark.
Clang!
A crisp collision rang out.
Their force crashed fiercely in the chamber.
One shadow gave a muffled groan and flew backward, slamming hard into a stone pillar to one side.
"Go!"
Shen Yi growled a warning.
Without another word, Qin Jianghe followed up.
His broken saber scattered endless blade shadows, sweeping out freely and enveloping Fang Yu.
"Damn it!"
Fang Yu cursed inwardly and raised his trident to fight again.
The sounds of weapons clashing in the secret chamber nearly never ceased. Whenever Qin Jianghe was driven back, he immediately called Shen Yi in without hesitation.
Shen Yi withdrew.
Qin Jianghe charged forward again.
The wounds on all three men, Fang Yu included, continued to multiply, and their once-swift movements grew increasingly sluggish.
Huff, huff.
No one knew whose labored breathing it was.
Fang Yu did not know how many saber strikes he had suffered.
Nor did he know how many times his Mixed Iron Trident had pierced someone.
He did not even know whom he had stabbed.
Doubt filled his heart as he roared,
"Why? Why haven't you two fallen yet?!"
Shen Yi and Qin Jianghe were likewise forcing themselves to endure.
Qin Jianghe especially.
He was the most severely wounded, and now he was sustained solely by willpower.
One was an old rival he had battled for years.
The other was a junior.
He could not lose face by being the first to fall!
"Ahhh!"
Fang Yu gathered a surge of true force in both hands and erupted fiercely. With one sweeping trident strike, he sent Qin Jianghe flying backward, tumbling to the ground.
Then he fled down the path!
Before you continue