Archfiend

Chapter 214: Danxia Temple (33)

“Shooting Sun!” An enraged shout came from Nangong Xiaoran’s mouth. In a blink, the bow saturated the air with ten thousand rays of golden light. Yet at this juncture, Xu Yangyi’s hand formed seals at lightning speed.

Pill Cauldron Builds Spirit! Spiritcleaver Pulse!

In the next second, Nangong Xiaoran’s mind abruptly quaked, as if a giant hand had stretched into his brain and was madly stirring around!

“ARGH!!!” He released miserable screeches that exhausted his strength. He’d almost never experienced such anguish. In a twinkling, his hawk eyes turned crimson, and he cradled his head as he shrieked painfully, “Spiritual-sense attack! S-Spiritual-sense attack divine ability… You!”

His bow’s golden light suddenly faded away, but Xu Yangyi’s blade had already arrived at the side of his neck!

“YOUNG MASTER!!!” Qiao Wu heard Nangong Xiaoran’s scream, so frightened that he turned his head in shock, and he instantly paled in horror. He was almost needless of further thought, and an ancient mirror promptly appeared in his hand. He shined it towards Zhao Wuye, and a streak of faint azure light flared out. In a flash, Zhao Wuye felt as if his entire body was being burned by raging flames. The earth master quickly began to screech wretchedly.

“Open… the formation!” Qiao Wu’s eyes seemed as they on the verge of splitting open in fury. This was the Nangong Clan’s Sixth Young Master. The Nangong Clan was one of the Five Great Demon Clans! Nangong Xiaoran ranked fifth in the clan’s echelon! If some mishap happened to him...

He simply dared not continue this line of thought!

“Dream on!” Zhao Wuye’s entire body emitted smoke, but he made strange, bitter laughter, “If you have the skill, then kill me now!”

“Very good…” Qiao Wu’s anxiety burned. He formed a seal, and an azure bird raced out from the mirror and madly rushed Zhao Wuye!

Boom! Mao Ba’er’s enormous body blocked the front of Qiao Wu. This time, there was no wretched scream but only an extremely mournful whimper. Shockingly, a bloody hole on Mao Ba’er’s neck had been pecked out by the azure bird! 

Quan Liu’s entire body was icy-cold. Behind him, Quan Ningyue’s Spirit Extermination Cannon was aimed right at his back. He clearly understood… He realized that after this cannon, Quan Ningyue would undoubtedly be without the slightest power to counter. She could even possibly go into shock. Nonetheless, he dared not risk whether or not he could withstand this blast!

In a spark of flint, Falling Moon’s edge had reached Nangong Xiaoran’s neck!

Rustle… At this time, Nangong Xiaoran’s chest erupted with a golden brilliance. His rather vicious face calmed by a sliver. Directly after a following bang, Xu Yangyi’s blade edge surprisingly hacked into a golden light-shade that had appeared at some unknown time!

Time seemed to come to a standstill in this second! In the next second, a crash resounded! The entire light screen fragmented!

Xu Yangyi inwardly lamented. Every chosen of heaven’s pride had their own protective magik artifact. This time, the Spiritcleaver Pulse failed to hit mark, but next time the other would surely be on guard!

Buzz… A black talisman quietly flew out from Nangong Xiaoran’s body, revolving around him and spinning incessantly. In all likelihood, this was an item to prevent spiritual-sense attacks. Yet under Nangong Xiaoran’s great alarm, his hawk head released a long cry towards the heavens. Shortly afterwards, his entire body quickly whirled like a spinning top. From his body, countless feathers attacked without distinction!

“Feathers Fall On The Three Realms!!!” In his heart, he could truly be said to so terrified that he was robbed of his soul at this moment. He’d never expected that Xu Yangyi actually had a divine ability that attacked spiritual sense! Even he didn’t have the qualifications to study such a divine ability!

Just a tad short… A little bit more and his head would’ve fell to the ground! 

His heart was wildly pounding. This great terror between life and death allowed his divine ability to be completely exhibited! In the wake of his spinning, his body ascended higher and higher! As for these feathers, their edged qi shockingly carried traces of sword qi!

“Golden Edge Enters Sea!!!” Without hardly any pause, two divine abilities united into one. The Nangong Clan’s advantage was their long-range sniping. This was why he’d brought two half-step Foundation Establishment retainers. Here and now, he evidently had to overtake the close-combat Xu Yangyi in distance apart from himself!

Xu Yangyi’s gaze flickered, and both of his hands formed seals again without the least bit indecision. He then slammed the ground!

BOOM! The ground immediately flushed up with a large sandstorm! In the sky, Nangong Xiaoran’s spinning figure was swiftly encircled by a ten-meter area of sand!

“Be careful!” Quan Liu couldn’t help but loudly cry out in alarm. Like how ginger became spicier with age, with his depth of age and wisdom, he could already see… that this sand and dust… was abnormal!

This sand wasn’t a divine ability; he couldn’t sense qi inside it at all! Instead, it was a kind of magik artifact… A magik artifact specially created to hinder the eyes!

Everywhere around, sand and dust revolved. Both of Nangong Xiaoran’s hands united and pulled apart. A folding fan then appeared in his hand, and the ink characters on its surface emitted red light. Bereft of hesitation, he lifted the fan and suddenly fanned away the dust surrounding him!

“Sixth Master, you can’t!!” Qiao Wu’s heart leapt out. At this very moment, the last plan had departed! 

“This diversion is nothing more than a smokescreen! Forget about him; leave this place now!”

The key moment was already lost. Right now, the most important thing was getting several hundred meters away and displaying the Nangong Clan’s long-range sniping advantage! Not staying in this smokescreen with Xu Yangyi and bothering with arcane combat!

“Fan… Exhales Wind!” Nangong Xiaoran heard their voices, but this matter had come abruptly! The blade from moments ago utterly caused him to lose his composure.

He hadn’t foreseen that the Xingtian legionnaires would actually be so valiant and unafraid of death, truly entrapping two half-step Foundation Establishment!

He also hadn’t anticipated Xu Yangyi being so fierce and tough. Xu Yangyi seriously dared to use his blade to behead him!

He moreover hadn’t foreseen… that the other was actually still preserving a hidden ace, a spiritual-sense attack. A little bit short… Just a tad more and his soul would’ve returned to the netherworld!

At this moment, between the great terror of life and death, he was indeed somewhat disorientated. However, he was likewise a genius of the Nangong Clan. Immediately, a blue demon pupil opened above him. This demon pupil could capture all beings facing it within 180 degrees! There was no place for anything to hide!

Swoosh! Following this fan, the sand and dust ahead crumbled away at once. And yet, a black blade-light twinkled in his eyes at the same time of this crumbling!

“Your weakness… is that your divine abilities are too few!” In his heart, Nangong Xiaoran relaxed. He had seen someone… Seeing someone was good. He was unconvinced that he, Nangong Xiaoran, ranked fifth in the Nangong Clan’s echelon, would fall in this place!

“Second Fan… Ignites Flame!” He took a deep breath. His next fan swung out at person in front of him with maximum power!

Swish… In the air, a ten-plus-meter-wide flame instantly flashed in the wake of the fan’s power. There, a black blade-light and red flame formed a remarkably distinct contrast!

“YOUNG MASTER!!!!!!” At the same time, Qiao Wu screamed out miserably, shouting himself hoarse. Quan Liu stretched his mouth wide and looked up at the sky in disbelief.

This sound caused Nangong Xiaoran, who had just calmed himself down from amidst deadly terror, to finally feel a sliver odd.

Xu Yangyi’s blade was without fire… without the black dragon. The Xingtian Legion’s commander had done nothing more than use his blade to slash down.

This question… He had no time for further thought. His blaze had annihilated Xu Yangyi’s figure at once, causing the other to make a repressed shout of pain. At the same time, though, he felt the entire world spinning.

Huh… What’s going on… How can I see my body… Why are there so many people getting closer and closer to me… Why can’t I feel anything… The world is turning dark...

The instant the the world completely darkened, Nangong Xiaoran recalled what was odd at last. He saw that his body… didn’t have a head. But also… he saw… two of Xu Yangyi...

SPLURT!!! A fountain of blood sprayed up high!

Xu Yangyi was standing behind Nangong Xiaoran, his hand gripping a blade. His body had been splashed all over by Nangong Xiaoran’s blood, yet his face was expressionless.

Swoosh… The headless corpse was still standing upright in its original position. It wasn’t until the moment that Xu Yangyi stowed his blade that Nangong Xiaoran’s head thumped as it hit the ground.

His eyes rounded and glowering with anger, Nangong Xiaoran died with a remaining grievance. He didn’t understand… In the end, he still hadn’t realized. How did he die? Why were there two of Xu Yangyi?

Silence. A silence like that of death.

Everyone gazed at Xu Yangyi, who picked up Nangong Xiaoran’s head, in shock. Quite a few people’s eyes were fairly vacant. They dared not believe everything confronting them.

“This… This…” The lips of the CSIB’s Cultivator Li were quivering. “The Nangong Clan… Nangong Xiaoran… was beheaded? H-H-He actually did it! He actually really did it!”

“Huff…” Sister Nine and Yi Old Five happened to both stop their actions. They looked at the blood-soaked Xu Yangyi with immense shock.

“Fifty-two seconds…” Sister Nine inhaled deeply. “In fifty-two seconds… he beheaded Nangong Xiaoran…”

“If word of this gets out, I’m afraid that the sky really will flip over…” Yi Old Five intently studied Xu Yangyi. “What I care more about, though, is how are there two of him?”

At this time, a voice bearing a trace of surprise echoed. The coffin was already open wide. Two words caused everyone to be suddenly enlightened!

“Thousand Illusions.” A pale hand grabbed onto the coffin’s edge. Withered and bone-thin, an old man climbed out from the coffin like a dead man.

Xu Yangyi’s gaze faintly flashed. Worthy of being a Foundation Establishment Senior… Although Bloodblade had suppressed his cultivation, his insight still remained.

That was correct... It was the Thousand Illusions!

The Xingtian Legion had entered with six people, but Qiao Wu only counted five. This was because Zhan Twelve had hid himself early on. On his person, he wore Xu Yangyi’s Thousand Illusions.

The Spiritcleaver Pulse was Xu Yangyi’s first attempt. He didn’t have a hope at all that this move would slay his opponent. His foe was by no means trash. This maneuver was his inadvertent alert to the enemy, beating the grass to scare the snake. All he needed was to force the opponent into a state of confusion! 

The following sandstorm wasn’t a divine ability but rather Zhan Twelve’s magik artifact. At the very beginning, Xu Yangyi had asked whether or not Zhan Twelve had this item.

Zhan Twelve’s answer: he did.

Even in his dreams, Nangong Xiaoran wouldn’t have expected that two people were hiding in the sand and dust. One of them was an assassin—relying on concealment to make a living—transformed into Xu Yangyi’s appearance. The other was Xu Yangyi himself.

Zhan Twelve was at the front and Xu Yangyi was behind Nangong Xiaoran. As for Nangong Xiaoran’s first fan, when it had fanned away the sandstorm in front, it was Zhan Twelve that appeared! Thus, his blade was unable to bring forth the black fire-dragon!

Yet because he saw Xu Yangyi, Nangong Xiaoran entered a state of total relaxation. 

The true Xu Yangyi used the reaper’s sickle to behead Nangong Xiaoran in the instant that the latter fell into a lull!

The exchange of experts was decided in a flash. A sliver of negligence, and the price was one’s life!

The scene was deathly quiet. After an unknown passage of time, an extremely furious voice rang out in madness, “JUNIOR! I’ll have you pay with your life!!!”

Qiao Wu had more or less already gone insane. In front of him… Sixth Young Master had been killed! He and Quan Liu had actually been trapped by two initial-stage and two middle-stage Qi Condensation cultivators! Those four had trapped them without hesitation towards their lives!

They had still believed… that Nangong Xiaoran and Xu Yangyi were at the very least equally matched.

They had still believed… that they could provide assistance with all speed and quickly slay the cultivator before them.

They absolutely hadn’t expected...

Fifty-two seconds. A measly fifty-two seconds!

Nangong Xiaoran’s head had landed on the ground!