"Junior Brother Chen, rest easy. I've already sent word. Hold on a little longer, and help from the sect will surely arrive."
As Lu Zhiyuan maintained the light shield, he also took a moment to reassure Chen Shuangbai, hoping his junior brother, who was leaving the sect for the first time, would not be frightened.
Chen Shuangbai felt slightly helpless.
He looked at Lu Zhiyuan standing guard before him, then raised his eyes to the earthen-yellow light shield all around them, which kept trembling, steadying, trembling again, then steadying again. A guess was confirmed in his mind.
It seems both senior brothers have taken me for someone who's no good at fighting.
Though his heart felt warm, if he stayed in the rear, they would probably suffer a crushing defeat in the end.
"Senior Brother Lu, thank you."
With the Cold Spring Sword in hand, Chen Shuangbai simultaneously formed a Method Formula with his left hand and uttered an incantation. The primal Qi of heaven and earth gathered above his left hand, forming a spirit flower that settled onto Lu Zhiyuan.
In an instant.
The fresh fragrance of grass and trees filled Lu Zhiyuan's nostrils. As the spirit flower entered his body, he felt his Law Power, which had been depleted to only forty or fifty percent, recover by ten percent at once.
"Junior Brother Chen, you can do that?!"
Lu Zhiyuan was somewhat delighted.
Chen Shuangbai smiled faintly. "Senior Brother, go face the enemy. I can protect myself."
Hearing this, Lu Zhiyuan burst out laughing, his gaze turning sharp at once. He turned to the four of them with a cold smile and held his golden mace in a reverse grip, using a surge of powerful earth-aspect Spirit Power to drive them all back.
"Demonic-path beasts, how dare you act so arrogantly! You really are asking to be killed!"
As he spoke.
Lu Zhiyuan charged with his golden mace, instantly engaging two of them. His moves were wide and sweeping, seemingly clumsy, but they contained tremendous force. Even though one of the two was a Late Qi Refining Stage demonic cultivator, neither dared to meet his blows head-on lightly.
Such was the overwhelming brute force of a cultivator who practiced an earth-aspect Cultivation Method.
There were five cultivators from the Heart-Eroding Stronghold in all.
Jiang Xunzhen had engaged the staff-wielding elder with the highest cultivation, while Lu Zhiyuan had tied down another Late Qi Refining Stage cultivator and a Middle Qi Refining Stage cultivator. The remaining two naturally came at Chen Shuangbai.
Taking advantage of this opening.
As Chen Shuangbai's clear incantation rang out, spiritual light flowed around his left hand. His fingertips moved as though plucking invisible strings, drawing on the primal Qi of heaven and earth and transforming it into water- and wood-aspect Spiritual Qi.
A Flower Bloom Incantation landed on Jiang Xunzhen at once. Feeling his Law Power recover again, Jiang Xunzhen let out a bright laugh.
"Junior Brother Chen, thank you!"
Chen Shuangbai replied, "Senior Brother, you're thanking me a little too soon."
Chen Shuangbai formed Hand Seals and chanted again, sending two flashes of cyan spiritual light onto Jiang Xunzhen and Lu Zhiyuan respectively. Lu Zhiyuan felt the meridians in his body that had burst from the turbulent surges of Law Power slowly mend, and even his injuries gradually began to heal.
This was the Sweet Dew Incantation, a technique primarily used for healing.
The staff-wielding elder's offensive was immediately hampered, while Jiang Xunzhen, empowered by two incantations, attacked with greatly increased ferocity. His Fire Crow Incantation, which had already gained a hint of its true essence, became a streak of fire that continuously spewed spiritual flames, suppressing the elder's offensive once more.
The elder was a wood-aspect cultivator, already at a disadvantage against Jiang Xunzhen and his fire-aspect Spirit Root. Now that Jiang Xunzhen had been empowered, he used his graceful Movement Method and fierce attacks to force the elder onto the defensive.
"Hahaha! Old demonic dog, die!"
The fire crow wheeled through the air as flying shuttles crisscrossed in streaks of light, suppressing the elder's poisonous Qi.
Lu Zhiyuan had likewise been empowered, and he swung his golden mace with growing ferocity. Every blow made the little valley tremble.
Seeing this, the staff-wielding elder thought, This is bad. He found a moment to cast a murderous glance at Chen Shuangbai and shouted, "Why haven't you killed that brat casting the incantations yet?!"
On a battlefield with so many combatants, cultivators capable of providing such enhancements were the most troublesome to deal with.
For if they were not singled out and dealt with in advance, it meant your enemies would have an inexhaustible ability to recover and the strength to fight on and on. That was undoubtedly a nightmare.
And Chen Shuangbai was playing precisely that role on the battlefield in this valley.
The two remaining Heart-Eroding Stronghold cultivators were a man and a woman.
One wielded twin sabers, the other a flying wheel. They exchanged a glance, then both transformed into streaks of black light and attacked Chen Shuangbai fiercely.
In an instant.
Poisonous mist spread out, concealing the two of them, and murderous intent arrived in a flash.
Yet Chen Shuangbai, the target of their attack, showed no panic at all. He stood tall and straight, his gaze calm as still water, the Cold Spring Sword ringing in his hand.
"Misty Willows Brush the Waves."
The second move of the Spring Rain and Flowering Wood Sword Instruction.
With a soft shout, the young man traced a gentle, rounded arc through the air with his blade. Water- and wood-aspect Spiritual Qi stirred around him at once, and waves of sword force spread out.
Like supple willow branches touched by a spring drizzle, like ripples stirred up as they fell into a pond, the sword force unfolded in overlapping layers, diverting the force of the two attackers' strikes.
"What?"
The Heart-Eroding Stronghold cultivator wielding twin sabers felt as though his attack had plunged into viscous water. The fierce saber Gang he unleashed was drawn along by the supple sword light, losing thirty or forty percent of its force at once. Its course shifted subtly as well, sweeping past Chen Shuangbai's side and cutting two enormous gashes in the ground behind him.
The flying wheel hurtling toward him met the same fate, drawn away to strike elsewhere.
But before the two could react, Chen Shuangbai unleashed a second sword move.
"Green Shoots Break Through Snow."
The deep-blue flying sword flashed past, followed by an immense force gathered into a single point. It became an emerald-green Sword-Ray that shot toward the twin-saber cultivator's chest.
At the critical moment, the cultivator followed his senses and crossed his sabers over his chest to protect himself. Even so, he could not withstand the tremendous force. With a wail, he flew backward and crashed into a cluster of large bluestones, shattering them.
Misty Willows Brush the Waves was a sword move for diverting force, while Green Shoots Break Through Snow was an offensive sword move.
Like a seed beneath the snow, sensing the call of spring and gathering all its strength at one point to push upward with all its might, finally breaking through what buried it to see the light of day once more.
All its force was concentrated at one point; anyone struck by it would suffer a heavy blow.
Chen Shuangbai thought it a pity.
He had practiced the Sword Instruction for too short a time and was not yet proficient enough to punch a great hole through his opponent's chest with one strike and finish him off.
Seeing this, the female cultivator with the flying wheel was overcome with shock and anger. A blood-red hue tinged her eyes, and she looked at Chen Shuangbai with bitter venom.
"Well, brat, I underestimated you at the Qi Refinement Fourth Layer!"
With that.
The flying wheel in her hand began to spin at a bizarre speed.
She muttered an incantation, and the dark green poisonous mist around her surged violently. Its color rapidly deepened into a viscous, almost tangible dark purple, which gradually clung to the flying wheel as well.
"Heart-Eroding Demonic Wheel!"
She roared, and the flying wheel, now a swirling mass of dark purple poisonous Qi, arrived in an instant, crashing into... an enormous, thick curtain of water floating before Chen Shuangbai.