Sudden Shocks One After Another

Hong Linying dove down through the air. "Haha, it's nothing more than a petty trick of thieves and burglars from the martial world. 'Kindred Sound Bug'—ah, what is this?" A miserable scream suddenly rang through the forest. Hong Linying had only spoken halfway when he bellowed, abruptly twisted in midair, and fell away in a bedraggled heap.

Strategist Ji still had his back to the two men. Yet several tree roots had now burst from the ground behind him, piercing straight through the burly man who had already stepped forward and rushed behind him, his "Monument-Splitting Palm" about to strike. Bloody roots jutted from his chest, crown, and neck at crooked angles. He was still twitching, but the burly man was clearly beyond saving.

"Wood Spike Art," a low-grade immortal technique. It was a precaution Strategist Ji had arranged in advance. He had originally only feared that small animals might disturb him while he absorbed spiritual energy and attempted his breakthrough, so he had wanted some form of protection. After recalling Li Yan's earlier "Wooden Raft Spikes," he had considered making use of the dense trees here and summoning their underground roots as weapons. He had not expected them to be so fittingly useful now. Still, he had failed to wipe out Hong Linying in one stroke, which left him deeply dissatisfied. It was not that he had not wanted to; it was simply that the spiritual power he could release at present was pitifully scarce.

Yet Strategist Ji did not even turn his head. He merely muttered, "'Kindred Sound Bug.' It was actually a 'Kindred Sound Bug.'" Then he suddenly lowered his head and sniffed himself before abruptly looking up at Li Yan and shouting sharply.

"You actually put such a filthy, lowborn trick of the martial world on me, and I never even knew! Good, good, what fine methods. Fine methods indeed. Hehe." By the end, he was laughing with a savage expression and voice.

Strategist Ji was so furious that his heart felt ready to burst. First, a veteran like him, so seasoned in the methods of the martial world, had actually fallen into the hands of this child. Second, if not for the boy's trick, he would already have been circulating his energy and healing his wounds. Why would there have been such a sudden upheaval?

The "Kindred Sound Bug" had an elegant name, but it was actually a method used only by those lowly chicken-crowing, dog-stealing scoundrels of the martial world. It was an ordinary herbivorous Demon Beast that could never evolve to the first rank in its lifetime, meaning it could never awaken spiritual intelligence. Yet it possessed an innate ability: every day, it liked to spit out over a dozen transparent, round pellets. These pellets gave off a rather strong scent that some other Demon Beasts disliked. Their main purpose was to mark out a territory for itself and drive away other Demon Beasts. Or, if it encountered food it liked but could not carry away immediately, it would also spit out these crystalline pellets. Food stained by them was extremely difficult for other Demon Beasts to swallow, while it could follow the scent back later and take it away.

The Kindred Sound Bug was extraordinarily sensitive to the scent it produced itself. It could locate it from nearly a hundred li away. This could be considered one of the survival skills Heaven had bestowed upon it. Yet this ability had been put to good use by lowly martial-world scoundrels. They would often crush the pellets and smear them onto the clothes or carriages of wealthy targets, then wait for a chance to rob or steal from them.

Strategist Ji naturally knew of this thing. The nearer this bug came to the scent pellets it had left behind, the more excited it became. But the key was that someone like him, a martial-world expert, could easily distinguish this scent. Now that he had heard Hong Linying mention it and smelled himself, he understood everything after only a little thought.

No wonder Li Yan had planted wildflowers across such a vast area—

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—filling the entire valley with rich fragrance. First, it concealed the scent of the Kindred Sound Bug pellets smeared onto his clothes. Second, his clothes had been hung out to dry in the valley. During spring, when pollen was carried through the air, quite a bit of it would settle on his clothes. Once he put them on, his nose would be filled with floral fragrance, which further covered the scent. Third, the flowers were planted throughout the valley. As long as he returned to the valley, he would be smelling those scents at every moment. That would turn it into a habit, and such a habit would make one lower one's guard. With all these factors combined, how could he possibly notice the scent left behind by the Kindred Sound Bug?

Understanding this left Strategist Ji both furious and alarmed. He had begun to feel a measure of wariness toward Li Yan's scheming mind.

At this moment, Hong Linying had already rolled up from the ground. Horror covered his face as he looked at the seated figure with his back turned and then at his junior brother behind him, whose breath was faint and whose condition was utterly miserable. A peerless martial-world expert had lost his life in an instant. Neither of them had noticed the trap laid underground in the slightest.

The reason the two men had not attacked immediately upon arriving was partly because they feared Strategist Ji had prepared some sort of trick. They had followed from afar before this and had never seen Strategist Ji digging pits or turning over earth here. Still, they had carefully inspected the surroundings just now and found nothing amiss before suddenly launching their attack. How had wooden spikes suddenly shot up from underground, killing one man with a single blow?

But he was also a ruthless man. After only a moment's hesitation, he naturally understood the importance of timing. His body sprang into the air once more. Yet he actually lunged toward his junior brother. When he neared the dying burly man, however, he lightly tapped his toes against the man's body and closed in behind Strategist Ji. His fist drove straight toward the back of Strategist Ji's skull. He had actually used his junior brother's corpse as a stepping stone to launch his attack.

His attack came from a tricky angle. He had not attacked from any other direction because he feared traps might be set there as well. By attacking from this direction and using the corpse as cover, he was prepared. Any further traps would have a much harder time injuring him.

Strategist Ji truly had nowhere to evade at this moment. He struggled to turn his head, inhaled while drawing in his chest and twisting his waist. Hong Linying's fist brushed past his ear and struck empty air. But Hong Linying was a master of the martial world, with incomparably rich experience in life-and-death combat. Seeing this, he knew Strategist Ji was at a critical point in healing and could no longer withdraw. His empty right fist immediately circled back, forming a half-embrace. His knuckles curled and protruded, transforming into a Phoenix-Eye Hammer that smashed viciously toward Strategist Ji's left temple, while his left fist drove upward from below toward Strategist Ji's lower back.

This move completely trapped Strategist Ji within his assault. Left with no choice, Strategist Ji once more drew in his chest and extended his arms, making himself lean as closely as possible into Hong Linying's embrace. His right hand still hung far above Li Yan's crown. The posture was exceedingly intimate, like a woman nestling against the chest of a burly man.

With a muffled bang, Hong Linying's left fist slammed viciously into Strategist Ji's lower back. His right hand's circling Phoenix-

Eye strike missed because Strategist Ji had leaned back into his embrace. Hong Linying knew that Strategist Ji had diverted part of his spiritual power to his lower back. But he was still flesh and blood. How formidable was the force of Hong Linying's decades of training? Strategist Ji spat out black blood in great mouthfuls, splashing much of it across Hong Linying's outstretched right arm and Li Yan's face.

Seeing that he had succeeded, Hong Linying pressed forward without pause. He unleashed the inch-force of close-quarters short strikes, instantly raising both fists level. "Twin Winds Filling the Ears," he prepared to smash them together against Strategist Ji's head in his embrace. If they landed, his brains would burst out. But at that moment, he felt a tremendous force arise in his arms, pushing and sending him away. Then a mass of fire flared before his eyes, and scorching heat surged toward him. He had nowhere to dodge. Within a breath, his entire body was aflame. The tremendous force sent him tumbling backward several times, yet the fire on his body did not diminish in the slightest. He screamed miserably within the flames, struggling to rise and pounce on Strategist Ji, but he no longer had the strength. Several breaths later, he became a roaring blaze burning on the ground.

At the very moment his fist struck Strategist Ji's lower back, Strategist Ji's body had also leaned into his embrace. His crippled left hand moved then. Its five fingers laboriously formed a hand seal, and a fireball shot from his fingertips, striking Hong Linying squarely. Then spiritual power flashed fiercely between his four fingers, generating a force that shoved Hong Linying backward.

"Fireball Art," another low-grade immortal technique. Many of the meridians in Strategist Ji's left hand had been damaged, and it could not move at all. He could only barely use it after closing in. He had endured a heavy blow to kill Hong Linying successfully.

Turning back and seeing Hong Linying still twitching in the flames, Strategist Ji gave a cold smile. But in the next instant, his expression changed drastically. After using those two techniques, the spiritual power in his body had reached the brink of losing control. The moment he cast Fireball Art, the Spirit-Absorbing Great Art began operating on its own. Terror filled his heart. He turned back, about to focus his mind and hold his breath as he circulated the technique with all his strength, when a massive surge of spiritual power suddenly bored into his palm from Li Yan's crown. He was horrified. The Spirit-Absorbing Great Art clearly required him to control the amount of spiritual power drawn from the other person by operating its incantation. Yet the spiritual power coming in now was obviously vast and surging. How could he possibly receive so much spiritual power into his body all at once?

What happened next made his expression change even more drastically. The moment that spiritual power entered his body, the fire poison within him erupted like oil meeting flame, boiling up with a whoosh beyond his control. Most terrifying of all, that spiritual power was utterly incompatible with the wood-attributed spiritual power within him. He was both shocked and enraged.

"You, you, you—what cultivation technique are you practicing? Why is it fire-attributed?" Before he could finish speaking, another massive surge of fire spiritual power flooded into his body, making his consciousness blur.

"This isn't the cultivation of the early first layer of the Qi Condensation Realm. You've cultivated to the peak of the late Qi Condensation Realm. Impossible." At this moment, he felt as though he had encountered a ghost. Not only was the other party's spiritual power attribute wrong, even the quantity of spiritual power was wrong. Either one would be fatal. The first needed no explanation; the second would also shatter the balance he had calculated for his breakthrough.

Seeing the inside of his body boil like a cauldron of oil, Strategist Ji knew he had failed completely. He immediately—

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—roared in frantic fury.

"Li Yan, you actually ruined me, ruined me! Die!" As he spoke, he forcefully circled his right hand back and dragged Li Yan into his embrace. The Spirit-Absorbing Great Art had already taken form. With his right palm pressed against the opponent's surging spiritual power, he could not release force to shatter Li Yan's brain. So he used the same method he had used against Hong Linying, except this time he pulled Li Yan toward his chest. Once Li Yan came within range, he would use his left hand to strike him with Fireball Art and blast him away. He could have moved closer to Li Yan himself, but that would make it easier for Li Yan to block his advance.

Just as Strategist Ji pulled and drew him in, Li Yan suddenly opened his eyes wide. He fiercely suppressed the amount of spiritual power being released from the crown of his head. In an instant, his right hand filled with spiritual power and moved, tugging at the purple clasp at his waist. A streak of white light flashed out and plunged into Strategist Ji's abdomen. It was a gleaming short flexible blade, fastened to Li Yan's belt, its hilt being the buckle of the purple sash.

Strategist Ji felt a chill in his abdomen, followed by piercing pain. His right-hand movement involuntarily stalled. He lowered his head blankly and saw Li Yan gripping something in his right hand, embedded in his abdomen. He could not help but growl, "You actually had another move in reserve. Then you must die too."

When he raised his head, black blood continued to pour from the corners of his mouth. His right hand exerted even greater force, dragging Li Yan toward his embrace. Li Yan was frantic. He strengthened his grip and twisted the hilt with the motion, wanting to stir the blade in his hand and shred Strategist Ji's internal organs. Yet it would not move at all. Strategist Ji had guarded against this move, wrapping the blade inside his abdomen with spiritual power.

As he continued sliding toward Strategist Ji's embrace, Li Yan grew desperate. He had originally been leaning diagonally against a tree, slowly being pulled upright, his legs half-bent and half-extended, while Strategist Ji sat cross-legged at his side. Li Yan suddenly bent one leg and, with spiritual power erupting, kicked fiercely at Strategist Ji's chest. Strategist Ji laughed. "You think that little strength of yours can stop you from coming over?"

He thought Li Yan's kick was merely meant to brace against his chest, using it as a fulcrum to stop his body from sliding over. And now his left hand could only hang at his waist and make small movements; he could not raise it high enough to press Fireball Art onto Li Yan's leg.

In the next moment, Li Yan's kick landed. At the same time, a crisp sound rang out. A section of white blade suddenly extended from the tip of his shoe and plunged into Strategist Ji's heart.

Li Yan could not help but feel delighted, but confusion flashed across his face in the next instant. At the exact moment the white blade pierced in, Strategist Ji wore a strange smile. His cross-legged upper body moved, and Li Yan felt his foot kick into empty air without encountering much resistance.

It turned out that just as the white blade at Li Yan's shoe tip pierced into Strategist Ji's loose black robe, Strategist Ji's upper body twisted and slanted strangely. The blade slid across his chest inside the robe. Then he abruptly straightened his body again and thrust forward, planting himself against Li Yan's sole. A mighty force surged toward Li Yan's foot. With a crack, Li Yan gave a heavy muffled groan, and that leg bent at a bizarre angle before drooping to the ground.

"So this was your final trump card. Nothing much." Strategist Ji's hoarse voice rang out.