Chapter 55: One Against Four (Please keep reading, please vote)

Since they had only just separated, it was inconvenient to strike immediately. It was the perfect time to take these people for a stroll through this palace complex; while searching for fortuitous lands, he could also get a clear understanding of the layout of the underground palace.

Perhaps there were formations or restrictions he could leverage.

Of course, it wouldn't matter if there weren't. He was confident he could take down these four. Although his cultivation was far from the realm of invincibility, few in the Qi Refinement stage were truly his match.

Various perfected techniques and secret methods were all part of his combat strength.

In particular, the power he possessed after reattaching his severed limb had completely elevated him to a different tier. If he didn't fight with everything now, when would he?!

Three sticks of incense later.

The moment he rounded a corner of the palace, tucked away in the shadows, Wang Yu fully activated the Night Hiding Curse. His aura vanished instantly, and his entire being seemed to dissolve into the shadows, achieving a visual effect of invisibility.

Pressing himself tightly against the palace wall, he even held his breath. Within moments, Su Qingshan and his three companions rushed over, their expressions grim.

"Cunning brat, how could he run so fast!"

"His aura has vanished too."

"Did we lose him?"

Su Qingshan’s face was dark. Just as he turned his head to speak, his pupils shrank. Known in the outer sect for his combat skills, he felt a sudden tightness in his skin—an extremely dangerous sensation emanating from his neck.

He immediately leaped backward while simultaneously summoning a high-grade magic tool shaped like an ice-blue longsword, holding it vertically in front of him as a defensive measure!

In the next instant, his pupils constricted further.

A massive ice sword, nearly thirty feet (ten meters) long, swept toward them, aiming directly for their heads. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the hilt.

It was Wang Yu, wielding the sword with his left hand, swinging it with ferocious force.

This was another variation of the perfected Ice Sword Technique; by merging scattered elements into one, its power far exceeded that of ordinary high-grade spells.

One person reacted in time, throwing himself backward to dodge, yet his chest was still frozen into patches of frost.

Another person used a subtle movement technique, tapping his toes against the ground to evade the sudden assault.

However, one Qi Refinement seventh-layer cultivator, in a panic, chose to do as Su Qingshan did, summoning a mid-grade magic blade to block.

Then, the group witnessed a scene of absolute horror.

The giant ice sword was unstoppable, shattering the precious blade into fragments. The cultivator himself exploded into a mist of blood, scattering a large amount of flesh and organs. The sheer force was nothing short of terrifying!

"Cough, cough—"

Su Qingshan, who had defended with his tool, dropped to one knee, spitting out several mouthfuls of blood as he stared at Wang Yu with wary eyes.

He could roughly guess how Xu Jiaojiao had died.

It was nothing more than a clash of raw strength where one side was a move behind. Amidst his wariness, a sense of greed toward Wang Yu's left hand arose; that abnormal swelling and the dense corpse qi felt very much like a special magic tool.

"This boy is fighting with everything he has, which means his composure is lacking. Attack!"

The one with the exquisite movement technique left behind a trail of afterimages. He swept his leg out, his foot striking with a visible nine-foot "Step罡" (罡步) like an autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves.

This was a physical technique unique to Barbarian Ghost Peak: the Wind-Rending Step.

The Spirit-Reversing Blood Sect did not possess entirely dark legacies; they had normal techniques as well. As the attack arrived, Wang Yu’s body swayed, splitting into three phantom forms that quickly dispersed.

His perfected Phantom Step was so realistic it could deceive the senses. One phantom moved forward to take the brunt of the Wind-Rending force, while the others approached the man like butterflies fluttering through flowers.

In an instant.

Wang Yu’s left hand grabbed the kicking leg. With a surge of raw strength, there was a series of cracks as the bones and tendons were displaced, and he slammed the leg into the ground.

*Splat—*

The leg actually broke into three segments, and the upper body was crushed into minced meat. Such ferocity made people gasp in horror!

The one whose chest was frozen felt a surge of retreat. When his eyes met Wang Yu's dark, greenish pupils, his legs trembled, and the urge to flee took hold.

"Die!"

At that exact moment, Su Qingshan swung his ice-blue longsword downward with great force. Under the enhancement of spiritual power, the magic tool emitted a shimmering ripple, possessing a quality strikingly similar to the Ice Sword Technique.

As a massive ice sword descended, Wang Yu’s previous momentum had been exhausted, and his new strength had not yet built up. Driven by his divine sense, he summoned the bronze bell magic tool he had previously claimed as a trophy.

*Dong—*

The ice sword collided with the bronze bell, producing a metallic clang. Being of the same high-grade tier, but with Wang Yu having a weaker cultivation, he was suppressed by Su Qingshan in the clash and was forced to his knees.

Su Qingshan shouted joyfully, "Brother Zhicai, move now!"

Xi Zhicai, who had intended to simply flee, saw how difficult it was for Wang Yu to defend, and greed rose in his heart again. He hesitated for a moment before suddenly striking.

He was an inner disciple of Evil God Peak. As he circulated his energy, dark, sinister patterns covered his forehead, and a vertical pupil seemed to open, emitting a beam of pitch-black light.

Wang Yu's pupils shrank. Although he had not been with the Spirit-Reversing Blood Sect for long and did not have a deep understanding of the Nine Peaks' legacies, he had lived in the Evil God Market for a long time and was quite familiar with Evil God Peak. The legacy of this peak focused on divine sense, nurturing Yin ghosts to become ghost gods, known as the "Evil Gods"!

They could use the abilities of an Evil God through a human body, specializing in attacking a cultivator's divine sense.

Divine sense is difficult to cultivate; generally, only Foundation Establishment cultivators begin to consciously strengthen it. The legacy of Evil God Peak was profound, allowing them to cultivate divine sense starting from the Qi Refinement stage, which made the entry barrier extremely high. Without talent in this path, it was difficult to reach a profound level. This was also one of the reasons why there were no Nascent Soul cultivators presiding over it.

Aside from the growth in divine sense he gained while refining pills, Wang Yu had no foundation in this area. This man had struck exactly at his weakness.

Seeing the black light approaching, Wang Yu gritted his teeth and pushed himself.

The moment his palm hit the ground, his entire body shifted sideways. Although he dodged the beam of black light, the bronze bell was knocked away by Su Qingshan's sword, and a massive amount of ice crystals erupted from thin air, freezing it instantly.

The window of opportunity vanished. Su Qingshan immediately closed in and swung his sword again, the blade emitting a cold light and a continuous stream of foot-long energy blades.

Wang Yu blocked with his left arm. The "Mountain Ridge Iron Armor" inherent to his divine corpse arm emitted a piercing grinding sound, once again proving the effectiveness of a Second-Order Armored Corpse arm.

Seeing that he was struggling to finish the fight, Su Qingshan grew impatient.

In the past, even facing an eighth-layer Qi Refinement cultivator while he was only at the sixth layer hadn't been this difficult. Now, even though he was at the eighth layer, he couldn't take down a fifth-layer cultivator.

He shouted immediately, "Brother Zhicai, what on earth are you doing!"

*Boom—*

After a clash, the two men retreated past each other.

Su Qingshan's pupils shrank as he looked behind Wang Yu in disbelief. It turned out that Xi Zhicai had been trapped and killed by an ice coffin, with three thick ice spikes piercing through the coffin and skewering him, turning him crimson.

"When did..."

"Naturally, during our clash and defense. Did Senior Brother Qingshan truly think that I, Wang, was being completely suppressed just now?"

Using his sleeve to hide his face, Wang Yu swallowed a top-grade Spirit Recovery Pill.

The spiritual power consumed by multiple uses of high-grade techniques was rapidly replenished. Wang Yu once again produced a series of phantom forms, spreading out in ten directions. His right hand formed a seal, and hundreds of handleless ice swords shot forth.

Su Qingshan swept his sword, shattering all the ice swords, and said with a dark face, "Do not be conceited. I, Su, am famous in the outer sect; you are not someone a mere fifth-layer Qi Refinement cultivator can defeat."

"Mystic Yin Hand!"

(End of Chapter)