My Turf, My Rules

Chapter 50: My Turf, My Rules

Xu Yue hadn't sent those words through the Star Mark, as Reincarnators usually did. She'd shouted them aloud.

Xia Hui's expression changed. She instinctively dodged backward and warily watched Nightingale.

Nightingale wasn't foolish in battle. He kept his right hand on his staff while waving his left hand inside his cloak.

With each shift of his hand, Xia Hui's position seemed to change in response, drifting unpredictably from place to place.

It looked effortless, but in less than ten seconds, Xia Hui's face had turned pale.

The stronger an ability was in one area, the greater its weakness was often in another.

The luck ability was certainly the stuff of emperors. At first glance, it seemed impossible to counter, but its toll in battle was far greater than that of ordinary abilities.

Xia Hui was only a one-star Reincarnator, after all, and couldn't control her ability freely. Every time Nightingale looked as if he were about to strike, she instinctively changed position.

By being too wary of anything that might disadvantage her, she was instead wasting energy unnecessarily.

As Nightingale used his door key to suppress Xia Hui's ability, Wu Que immediately launched a thunderous assault on the Daoist. His folding fan seemed light in his hand, yet fell with crushing force.

The Daoist parried left and right with his talisman sword, barely keeping up, let alone finding an opening to send talismans to aid the Butcher.

Xu Yue immediately took over Nightingale's support role, sending whirlwinds of snow and ice sweeping toward the Butcher. At last, his advance was checked, and his movements began to falter.

Xu Feng, who had been on the back foot, immediately regained his momentum. His fists and feet hammered into the Butcher in a relentless barrage.

Just as the tide of battle turned, a figure suddenly rose from the ground behind Wu Que, fingers curled into claws as he lunged for Wu Que's back.

"Grandson!"

Wu Que barked the words and spun around, sweeping his fan across as he struck at Tu Xingsun with the Incense-Cutting Sword Art.

Ever since their contract had been terminated, the two had turned on each other. Wu Que had been on guard all along—how could Tu Xingsun catch him by surprise?

"Let's see how long you can keep this up!"

Tu Xingsun let out a shrill laugh. He didn't meet them head-on, but darted away at the slightest touch, burrowing into the wall and vanishing.

As long as there was earth beneath him, he could use his Earth Escape Technique to come and go as he pleased, making him almost impossible to guard against.

With him joining the battle, the sides were now evenly matched, four against four. Wu Que and Nightingale could no longer suppress the Daoist and Xia Hui, and the situation shifted once more.

A moment later, the Butcher charged wildly again, swinging through a series of horizontal slashes and follow-up strikes. Xu Feng was sent flying yet again.

"The situation's turning bad!"

Blood had already seeped from the corner of Xu Feng's mouth. He fought while retreating, while Xu Yue pressed her lips together, her gaze flickering.

She had already accounted for every possibility, but the Butcher—once a three-star being—was simply too terrifying. His advantage in close combat was practically overwhelming.

If they kept fighting like this, their energy and magic would run dry, and the Butcher would sweep them aside—or Tu Xingsun would ambush them and leave them unable to move.

To win, they had to either take Tu Xingsun down quickly and return to a four-on-three fight, or meet the Butcher's strength with strength and defeat him.

After weighing their options, Xu Yue sent a message through her crest. Xu Feng, Wu Que, and Nightingale all gave the faintest nod.

The two sides fought their way through Worry-Free Cave, moving farther and farther from the Imperial City and heading south.

Though it looked as if the battle line had stretched out, the Butcher's unstoppable attacks meant that little time had actually passed.

Just as Tu Xingsun emerged from the earth once more and went for a Backstab against Xu Feng, Wu Que suddenly spun around and hurled his folding fan. At the same time, Xu Yue and Nightingale switched targets and attacked Tu Xingsun together.

"I knew it!"

Tu Xingsun knew he was drawing too much hostility and had been on guard the whole time.

The instant they closed in on him, he reacted with blinding speed. His figure blurred, splitting into two identical phantom images that darted in opposite directions before vanishing into the earth, escaping by the skin of their teeth.

Tu Xingsun got away, but Wu Que's flying fan curved sharply and slammed into the Butcher's back with a thud.

The Butcher stumbled and took an involuntary step forward. Xu Feng leaped up from beside his knee and drove his fist hard into him.

This time, it wasn't a blast of force. A clear, solid fist shot out, carrying the power of nine oxen and two tigers as it slammed toward the Butcher's chest.

That mechanical heart, beating visibly in his chest, was impossible to miss. Everyone suspected it was what let the Butcher retain two-star strength even after being downgraded. If they destroyed it, the battle would be halfway over.

So their attack on Tu Xingsun had only been a feint. Their real target was the Butcher.

Wu Que and Xu Feng weren't the only ones attacking. Nightingale tapped the Butcher with his staff, casting the spells Loosen Strength and Shatter to strike both his arms in succession.

Blood-colored energy rose from the armor with a sudden flare, neutralizing some of the magic, but the Butcher's movements still seized up.

Xu Yue's ice magic howled past as well, holding back the Daoist and Xia Hui's attempts to intervene, while frost crept over the Butcher's waist.

At the same time, a huge ice blossom, shaped like a tortoise shell, landed on Xu Feng.

It was a way out.

That small detail—the fact that they'd left themselves room to retreat—was crucial. It kept them from being utterly defeated.

In the blink of an eye, Tu Xingsun had just burrowed into the ground when Xu Feng's fist, carrying the power of nine oxen and two tigers, struck straight at the heart of the matter and landed squarely on the Butcher's chest.

But beneath their expectant gazes, along with the sharp clack of the mechanical heart breaking, a low growl beyond description rang out.

The mechanical heart had indeed been damaged, but the Butcher's ability to move hadn't been crippled. Instead, something had broken a shackle, awakening a dormant force within him. A devilish sound rose from his body as the blood-colored energy on his armor and greatsword suddenly boiled, lashing out like claws and fangs.

Xu Feng hadn't staked their entire victory on that one punch. He'd drifted back after attacking, leaving at least a meter between himself and the Butcher.

But even without direct contact, the demonic sound reached his ears. It struck him like lightning, and as the blood-colored energy wrapped around him, he froze in place.

Beneath the Butcher's helmet, his face twisted into a complex expression, at once mocking and sorrowful. He broke free of the spell's restraints and swung his sword at the helpless Xu Feng.

Meanwhile,

inside the Imperial Academy,

Huang Shang's Zhuge Pen paused, and his brow furrowed slightly.

He sensed waves of power rapidly approaching from underground.

The Literary Qi of the statue of Confucius filled heaven and earth, radiating across the entire Capital City. Huang Shang didn't absorb that vast power directly, but during the whole imperial examination, his senses had spread along with it, allowing him to keenly detect the Reincarnators clashing inside Worry-Free Cave.

One of those forces filled him with deep distaste.

It wasn't Xu Feng, Xu Yue, Wu Que, or Nightingale. It could only belong to the other Reincarnators.

Were they from Western Xia?

Or the Liao Kingdom?

Huang Shang had been studying with an undistracted mind and knew nothing of Western Xia's schemes. But there was no doubt that they hadn't come to offer help. They'd come to sabotage things.

They wanted to disrupt Great Song's relatively stable situation and profit from the chaos!

If the country fell into turmoil, he would be caught in the fallout. And if Wu Que and the others lost, would the next group of Reincarnators treat him as he expected?

So, at that moment, Huang Shang connected with the Literary Qi of Confucius. His pen flew like a dragon and snake, and the neatly squared, spiritually charged characters of the Three Academies Regular Script on his examination paper began to glow faintly. Their radiance pierced through the paper, forming an illusory article that sank underground.

"You want to do whatever you please? Did you ask me first?"

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