Chapter 131: Chapter 127: The Battle Begins

The Martial Artists’ speed was astonishing. From the death of the eight cultists to Su Yue activating her Blast Shock State to support the battlefield, the entire process took no more than ten seconds.

The heavy rain concealed the sounds of battle, and almost no one noticed that Tianning County was facing a crisis.

On the county road, the surviving cultists huddled cautiously in a ditch. Just moments ago, they had been struck by super-powered weapons, and eight of them were killed instantly.

Di Yunliang’s face was a mask of horror. The other Inner Qi Martial Artist who had just been shot in the head had been sitting right next to him. This sudden attack reminded them of the days they were hunted like dogs.

In the end, they were nothing more than rats in a gutter.

Dust Sacrifice’s expression darkened. He sensed that, unbelievably, there were two Gang Qi Martial Artists in Tianning County. This was far beyond what he had anticipated.

’Rose... Can she handle this?’

He murmured to himself, ’We shall see...’

He glanced at the wretched group of consumables on the ground, his expression filled with displeasure. ’Utterly useless. You can’t make a wall out of mud.’

He snorted coldly, unleashing the full force of his Grandmaster’s aura upon those below. The cultists instantly turned pale, their legs trembling uncontrollably.

Dust Sacrifice stood in mid-air, hands tucked into his sleeves. The downpour warped as it neared him, not a single drop touching his clothes.

"Rose has eliminated the opposition. Move out immediately..."

The words struck the cultists’ ears like a hammer blow. After exchanging glances, they began scrambling forward, each trying to outpace the other. The atmosphere was silent as they advanced, their earlier arrogance completely gone. Though Dust Sacrifice often appeared amicable, he would not tolerate the slightest defiance when his interests were at stake.

Rose sensed a dangerous presence approaching rapidly from the distance, but she paid it no mind. With a swift swing of the crimson curved blade in her left hand, she sent waves of fiery blade energy surging toward Zhang Yuanqiao. The rain evaporated before it could even get close, carving out a temporary domain of fire within the downpour.

Zhang Yuanqiao mustered all his strength, brandishing the dark green long fan in his hand. It swept up countless water dragons that rushed to collide with the blade energy. But the water dragons dissipated far more quickly than the attacks, and he watched as the formation of crimson blades steadily closed in on him.

Zhang Yuanqiao roared. Surging his Gang Qi until the veins bulged on his forehead, he used every ounce of his strength to barely suppress the formation of crimson blades. When he looked up, the woman in red had vanished. Alarm jolted through him. With no time to think, he prepared to move, but before he could act, a flicker of movement in his peripheral vision caught his eye. A ghostly red shadow, holding a sharp black blade, was silently closing in.

He thought he smelled a dark, rusty fragrance.

’The blade is poisoned...’

Zhang Yuanqiao came to an instant conclusion, but the peculiar scent had already affected his senses, slowing his actions by a fraction. ’It’s too late...’

The red-robed Apostle wore an Evil Ghost Mask. All Zhang Yuanqiao could see was the intense, resolute killing intent in her eyes. Her advance seemed slow, but was deceptively fast.

"Die..."

Zhang Yuanqiao’s face was a mask of terror. He frantically waved his Water Dragon Fan, which shimmered with a green light. Twelve paper-thin, high-speed blades of water shot out from the fan’s ribs, converging on the approaching red shadow in an attempt to shred it.

This was his ace in the hole. By channeling the unique properties of his Cyan Profound True Gang Water through his Water Dragon Fan, he could maintain twelve high-speed water blades. Over time, their power would only grow stronger. It was a one-of-a-kind weapon, custom-designed just for him.

Before Zhang Yuanqiao could even catch his breath, he saw the red-robed Apostle lash out with the other crimson scimitar in her left hand. Streaks of red light met the ribbon-like water blades, and with a series of sharp hisses, they all vanished into puffs of steam.

Rose’s killing intent was unwavering. She brought the black scimitar in her right hand down toward Zhang Yuanqiao’s head.

This time, he was at his wit’s end. His ultimate technique had been so easily dismantled. Zhang Yuanqiao was filled with despair.

’This is it for me... Lang... I’ll see you in the afterlife... OOF! My kidney!’

Just as Zhang Yuanqiao closed his eyes and waited for death, Su Yue finally arrived. She had been monitoring the fight, and Zhang Yuanqiao’s pathetic performance was so far beyond her expectations that it completely shattered her perception of the Gang Qi Realm.

But she couldn’t just watch him die. Regardless of his performance, Zhang Yuanqiao had come voluntarily to help. She had to save him.

The situation was critical, and Zhang Yuanqiao’s life was hanging by a thread. Seeing no other choice, she kicked him out of the way. She’d only used a little bit of force. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

Su Yue and Rose wasted no words. The moment they met, blasts of Gang Qi erupted between them. The strange thing was, Su Yue was on the offensive, but Rose merely defended, keeping the greater part of her attention on Zhang Yuanqiao. Most of her crimson blade slashes were still aimed at him. If Su Yue hadn’t been running interference, Zhang Yuanqiao would have been hacked to pieces by now.

And so it went: Su Yue attacked, Rose defended, then turned to hack at Zhang Yuanqiao. He could only flee in desperation, but with Su Yue guiding him, Rose was never able to land a finishing blow.

Su Yue was happy to stall for time. She was waiting for Yan Sea to recover from his injuries. After all, Su Yue didn’t excel at direct combat; her abilities were mostly supportive. Her Yan was the real frontline, heavy-hitting Martial Artist. Rose seemed formidable, and she was certainly skilled, but in Su Yue’s eyes, her power didn’t even come close to Yan at his peak.

In a collapsed building at Position Y2, Li Cunliang and a group of soldiers lay buried under earth and stone, all of them seriously injured and unconscious. A pained expression was on Tao Lang’s face. He was pinned in place by a streak of crimson blade energy.

Strangely, he wasn’t harmed, but the blade energy completely restricted his movement. Tao Lang was focusing his entire being on fighting it, his heart burning with anxiety to get back into the fight as soon as possible.