Li Yang moved like a hare breaking free, his sword following his every move.
The instant he struck, his entire aura changed.
Keen, razor-sharp, unstoppable!
Gripping his second-grade, eight-pattern Spirit Sword, he faced the five enormous palms closing around him. There was nowhere to dodge, so he did not dodge.
His crimson sword intent took tangible form, clinging to the blade with a hum.
He delivered a plain, unadorned yet immensely powerful slash, cleaving the overlapping Hell-Prison Hands apart by brute force.
Then he stepped forward, charging straight at Chu Du like a lord of the underworld come to claim his life.
In an instant, Chu Du shed his carefree, flippant air. The pressure on him soared.
He formed guiding gestures with both hands, then opened his mouth and unleashed a thunderous shout before Li Yang could close in.
"Hah!"
A streak of sword light also erupted like lightning, locking onto the point between Li Yang's brows.
It was a flying sword, nurtured with the five-element viscera qi he cultivated, capable of unleashing a terrifying close-range attack to kill his enemy.
He had not used it against either Wang Liexiao or Senior Brother Zhou, yet now he decisively brought it out against Li Yang-a clear sign of how seriously he took him.
This flying sword was no ordinary Spirit Artifact, but a special secret treasure. Five-element essence swirled around it, each element reinforcing the others, giving it appalling offensive power.
Especially when unleashed at such close range, it could still kill a Golden Core cultivator even with their cultivation levels equalized.
Yet, to everyone's astonishment, Li Yang neither dodged nor evaded. He charged straight into it.
This time, however, no one thought Li Yang was overestimating himself.
After all, had they been in his place, the Hell-Prison Hands alone would have spelled disaster.
"Junior Brother, dodge!" Su Miao cried in desperation.
First came a clang as Li Yang met it with his sword, weakening its power.
Then came a shick as he reached out to seize the flying sword with his bare, flesh-and-blood hand.
The sword was so sharp that it instantly pierced his palm.
But the peculiar killing-intent spiritual power in Li Yang's dantian surged out, grinding away the five-element essence on the flying sword.
The sight made Chu Du frown.
Li Yang could clearly have dodged just now, or evaded after delivering his slash. Instead, he had chosen to intercept the flying sword with his own flesh and blood, injuring himself.
"Why would he do that?" Every cultivator who had experienced a life-and-death struggle was baffled.
"Fool!" Chu Du snorted. "It's only an ordinary Spirit Sword, nurtured chiefly through the cultivation method I practice. I can have as many as I want. Do you think taking it away means I can't launch a second attack?"
Su Miao shook her head.
"His offensive power is certainly formidable, but he probably used some forbidden item that burns through his life. He has far too little experience in mortal combat."
At first, Qin Feng really had fooled her.
But on second thought, Qin Feng was not that accomplished.
He was merely a second-generation cultivator who relied on his background and harbored lustful designs on his five senior sisters.
Yet Li Yang's next move made her tremble.
He refined the flying sword in an instant, then stepped onto it and swiftly soared into the air, his aura growing even more terrifying!
"What kind of Sword Cultivator can't even ride a sword? Now all you need to do is accept your death!" Li Yang's voice was icy.
Only at this sight did everyone understand.
Li Yang had risked so much to seize the sword because he needed it for Sword-Flight.
But that only left them more puzzled—a direct disciple of Sect Master Peak, a direct-line descendant of the Qin Household, did not even own a flying sword for Sword-Flight and had to injure himself to steal one from his opponent. That made no sense!
Su Miao frowned as well.
Just then, a graceful figure flew over.
It was He Lu, Sect Master Peak's third disciple.
"Fifth Sister, you're here! Good. I have to complain to you about Qin Feng!
"He not only stole the sword I forged for our youngest junior brother, but refused to repent and even beat him up. He actually dared to attack me, too!
"Does he think that just because he gave us some artifact-refining materials, pill-refining materials, talisman-making materials, and cultivation resources, we should all pledge ourselves to him?
"Master went too far as well. After all that, she didn't punish him and even refined an eight-pattern Spirit Sword for him. That's far too biased!"
Hearing this, Su Miao looked at the sword in Li Yang's hand on the Life-and-Death Arena.
"That one?"
He Lu looked over and nodded. "That's the one. I originally forged it for our youngest junior brother, but he stole it. Haven't you seen our youngest junior brother using it before?"
Su Miao fell silent.
Now she knew why Qin Feng did not even possess an ordinary Spirit Sword for Sword-Flight.
With his twofold status, he could have had countless treasures. Yet for the sake of his four senior sisters' cultivation, he had given them the resources that should have been his.
How could she not know that even the materials He Lu had used to forge their youngest junior brother's Spirit Sword had come from Qin Feng?
Yet now, Qin Feng was locked in an extraordinarily dangerous fight to the death. His opponent was an unrivaled prodigy of an orthodox spell-cultivation lineage. The slightest mistake could kill him on the spot.
Even in such a perilous, tightly contested battle, Qin Feng had to risk his life and suffer an injury just to seize an ordinary Spirit Sword.
At that moment-
Every trace of resentment she had felt over Qin Feng's earlier rudeness vanished without a trace, leaving only a sigh and aching pity.
"What's going on?! Who is Qin Feng fighting? Isn't that the Life-and-Death Arena?!"
He Lu finally realized what was happening.
But her tone remained reproachful.
"He's not a child anymore, yet he still acts on impulse, challenging people to the Life-and-Death Arena at the drop of a hat. When he trots out his status later, if his opponent doesn't care, he'll have to beg for mercy through his tears. I certainly won't plead for him!"
Su Miao forced down the anger in her heart.
"Take a good look. His opponent is Chu Du, the unrivaled prodigy of the Five Elements Dharma Palace!"
He Lu was startled, but that only made her angrier.
"A useless fool who can accomplish nothing and ruin everything! Why provoke someone like him? He goes around offending people just because he's the Mystic Heaven Sword Sect master's direct disciple!"
At those words, Su Miao could not hold back her rebuke. "Enough!"
He Lu froze, unsure why Su Miao was angry.
"Why are you shouting at me? I didn't say anything wrong."
Nearby disciples of the Mystic Heaven Sword Sect cast strange looks at them.
Su Miao looked at He Lu and enunciated every word.
"Junior Brother wasn't stirring up trouble. He's defending our Mystic Heaven Sword Sect's reputation! Defending it with his own life!!!
"Senior Brother Wang and Senior Brother Zhou were both defeated by Chu Du, who then belittled our Mystic Heaven Sword Sect as utterly worthless and even denied the very meaning of our existence as Sword Cultivators.
"When everyone else fell silent, Junior Brother alone stepped onto the Life-and-Death Arena to restore our Mystic Heaven Sword Sect's honor.
"So-
"I won't allow you to belittle him again. Otherwise, we're no longer fellow sisters!"
Su Miao had already been dissatisfied with her four senior sisters' behavior-taking the benefits while putting on airs of virtue. Yet He Lu had not only accepted Qin Feng's favors, but was now maliciously slandering him.
No wonder Qin Feng had been so rude to her earlier as well. He must have finally seen things clearly and decided to stop giving in a one-sided devotion.
That was for the best.
She only hoped Qin Feng could survive and live a brilliant life of his own.
"Senior Sister He, did Junior Brother Qin give all his cultivation resources to you, leaving him without even a single flying sword?" someone approached and asked.
It was a female cultivator who was also a disciple of a supreme elder of the Mystic Heaven Sword Sect, so she asked quite bluntly.
Qin Feng's performance in the arena had already won her over.
Not only had he struck back hard at Chu Du with his words, but he was now displaying terrifying strength, actually beating Chu Du back!
Precisely because of that, she found He Lu's earlier disparagement of Qin Feng all the more intolerable.
"How could he possibly not have..." He Lu had just begun to defend herself when she remembered Qin Feng's shabby Cave Abode. The words lodged in her throat like a fishbone.
Instead, she answered evasively, "I don't know. How would I know!"
Before you continue