The spear tip thrust toward him, and Jiang Che scrambled backward.
Inner force propelled his body, letting him dodge quite quickly. But before he could steady himself, the man flicked his wrist and swept the spear shaft straight at the small of his back.
Jiang Che raised his sword crosswise to block. With a clang, he was swept clean off his feet and crashed into an Azure Mystic disciple beside him. The two rolled into a tangled heap.
By the time he climbed to his feet, the man was advancing step by step, spear in hand.
"Is that all you've got? Your inner force isn't even solid yet, and you dare come courting death!"
Jiang Che drew a deep breath, recognizing that this man's foundation was far stronger than his own.
He had only just embarked on cultivation. Though he had undergone a transcendent transformation and possessed inner force, he had no accumulated experience whatsoever, nor had he practiced any of the combat techniques of the Embryonic Breath Period. He was fighting entirely with the rudimentary martial skills he had learned in his daily life.
Meeting force with force was a road straight to death.
In both strength and technique, his opponent held the advantage.
What should I do?
He could hardly sit and wait to die. Jiang Che could only rack his brains: What do I have that could count as an advantage?
There must be something.
In terms of cultivation methods, there can't be many like me, who circulated two methods upon entering embryonic breath and gained inner force with the properties of both, can there?
At least, the man before him was not one of them.
When they clashed again, Jiang Che no longer confined himself to dodging and parrying. Instead, he repeatedly tried to cut inside.
The Upper Azure Smoke Cloud Embryonic Breath Method made Jiang Che's inner force light and nimble; the Azure Heaven Wind Dew Embryonic Breath Method made it swift and endlessly renewing. The speed and agility these two methods granted him actually allowed him to slip past the spear tip and squeeze inside along the edge of its flickering shadow.
It was an extremely risky choice. One failure would mean Jiang Che's death.
But once his gamble paid off, the situation abruptly reversed!
His opponent hurriedly drew back his spear and retreated, trying to open some distance.
Jiang Che had risked his life to get this close. How could he let the man retreat? He thrust his sword straight at his opponent's throat!
The man tilted his head aside and avoided the blade. But Jiang Che followed with one strike after another, forcing him into one perilous scrape after the next.
Unable to shake him off, the fellow simply abandoned his spear and hurled a punch.
Caught by surprise, Jiang Che could not dodge. He abandoned the attempt and drove straight in, trading a wound for a life!
The punch struck Jiang Che square in the chest. It felt as though an iron hammer had slammed into him. A sweet taste rose in his throat, and he spat out a mouthful of blood.
But his sword also sliced across his opponent's throat.
Embryonic breath cultivators certainly possessed power far beyond that of ordinary people, but in some respects, they were still scarcely stronger than mortals. They still depended on their flesh to survive. A severed windpipe left them unable to breathe, a cut carotid artery caused blood loss and shock, and blood choking their lungs would suffocate them...
Lying on the ground, Jiang Che propped himself halfway up and warily watched his enemy collapse, clutching his neck. Only after the man struggled for a while and finally stopped moving did he truly breathe a sigh of relief.
But what happened next surprised Jiang Che: he saw a small cluster of white specks of light drift out of the dead spearman's body and float toward him.
No one else noticed these specks of light; only he could see them. Moreover, they gave him a peculiar feeling.
They resembled the pure white within his consciousness space, as though they came from the same source.
He focused his mind and entered his consciousness space-while he was inside, time in the outside world would not pass!
Within that pure-white space, he immediately sensed that his spiritual body had grown a little larger.
Previously, every journey back to the night forty years ago when Liu Bingyuan escaped had consumed roughly one-tenth of his spiritual body's original size. After three journeys, he had been left with only seven-tenths of his initial size.
Now, a little had been restored-only about three percent.
It was not much, certainly, but it pointed Jiang Che toward a clear path.
Until now, he had never known what could replenish his spiritual body within the pure-white space. Now he had an answer.
Killing one embryonic breath cultivator would restore three percent. Killing three would let him travel back once.
As for killing ordinary people, there was probably no benefit. He had killed several during the fight just now, and there had been no reaction at all.
This is going to be difficult...
Jiang Che thought no further. Having confirmed what those white specks of light were, he returned his consciousness to his body.
The instant he returned, pain struck his chest. He sucked in a sharp breath, only to make the pain worse.
His opponent's dying punch had driven force into his body and made him cough up blood. Now all his internal organs were aching.
Another couple of blows with that kind of force could have beaten Jiang Che to death.
Fortunately, Jiang Che's desperate gamble with his life had ultimately given him a narrow edge.
His injuries were far from minor, but the endlessly renewing force granted by the Azure Heaven Wind Dew Embryonic Breath Method was working again. Whenever his inner force circulated through an aching spot, he felt a gentle, soothing warmth.
It could not heal his injuries immediately, but keeping them stable and preventing them from worsening was already a tremendous help.
He glanced toward Jiang Weichuan again. His clan uncle was nearly at his limit.
The burly one-eyed man's cleaver struck hard and heavy, while the other fighter prowled around with his twin sabers, occasionally slashing from a viciously cunning angle.
Jiang Weichuan had several cuts on his body, and a large patch of his clothes was soaked in blood. His wounds were not fatal, and he could still hold on, but probably not for much longer.
Jiang Weichuan could not be allowed to die.
Even setting aside his relationship with his clan uncle, the current battle alone made that clear. If Jiang Weichuan fell, those two embryonic breath enemies would be free to act, and Jiang Che would have no chance of winning.
He walked over, dragging his sword.
The burly one-eyed man was bringing his cleaver down toward Jiang Weichuan's face when he heard movement behind him to one side. He had no choice but to withdraw his blade and defend.
Clang.
He blocked Jiang Che's sword. Their weapons clashed, and both men backed away.
The one-eyed man and the twin-saber fighter wore grim expressions.
They had already noticed another embryonic breath cultivator among the Azure Mystic disciples, but he had clearly only recently begun cultivating and had an unstable foundation. They had therefore sent the Red Tassel Spear wielder to deal with him, hoping he would quickly kill the brat and return to help. Then the three of them could surround Jiang Weichuan together and kill the last Azure Mystic embryonic breath cultivator, gaining a sliver of a chance to escape while Azure Mystic's Qi Refining steward was off in pursuit.
But now Jiang Che was alive, while the Red Tassel Spear wielder was dead. The situation had taken a disastrous turn.
By contrast, Jiang Weichuan's heart was filled with delighted surprise.
Concern bred confusion. His worry for Jiang Che had already thrown him off balance as he fought. Who could have imagined that Jiang Che would not only survive, but kill one of the enemy's experts!
Buoyed by this, Jiang Weichuan's confidence grew considerably.
A moment later, the battle resumed.
The Jiang uncle and nephew were still at a disadvantage. Both were wounded, while their opponents were fighting desperately for their lives. Naturally, the overall situation looked grim.
But at least the two were not swiftly overwhelmed.
Jiang Weichuan's strength had been a little greater to begin with. Now that his confidence had returned, and with Jiang Che beside him offering some support, he would not be defeated so easily.
And time was clearly on their side.
They had only held out a little longer when reinforcements arrived!
Before you continue