The Attack of the Wastrel

Cluck!

Just when Gu Lingzhi thought that she was about to be crushed by Pan Luming, Rong Yuan’s low-pitched voice rang in her ears. Her body then lightened and gave her a moment to respire. Gu Lingzhi did not dare to hesitate before fleeing to a side, but she was followed closely by another Demigod’s attack.

Fortunately, this Demigod’s cultivation was lesser than Pan Luming’s. Gu Lingzhi managed to block the opponent’s attack narrowly.

Previously, Rong Yuan had forced the flow of time in the domain so as to let Gu Lingzhi have an opportunity to escape. At the same time, Pan Luming, who was affected by the powerful rebound while breaking free, had a tint of fresh blood leaking from his lips. Before he could wipe off the scarlet colour, Rong Yuan re-forced the space and time to confront Pan Luming, giving Gu Lingzhi another chance to escape.

“Go to Lord Fashen!” With the Sacred Weapon at hand, Pan Luming would not be able to hold them down despite having the numerical strength. Otherwise, he would not have thought of the two-pronged strategy.

“Okay!” Gu Lingzhi replied through her consciousness. She strived to control her legendary space-dimension realm, reducing the spiritual power at present and dashed towards Lord Fashen’s direction.

After rushing for a distance, she came to realise that Rong Yuan had not followed along. Gu Lingzhi turned her head out of doubt and saw a scene that pierced her heart. The usual calmed and victorious Rong Yuan was now pale-looking and had scarlet blood dripping from the edge of his lips into his collar. As he had used too much strength to hold his Dragon Sword, his phalanges were now protruding such that the blue veins were visible.

The kaleidoscope-like tiny spaces around him in which he used to withstand the attacks were almost all fragmented. The heavy sword held by Pan Luming slashed towards Rong Yuan.

“No—” Gu Lingzhi roared. Her blood seemed to have frozen at this instant. Rong Yuan heard her voice and turned back to look at Gu Lingzhi with a comforting smile before being swallowed by a golden halo.

“Rong Yuan…Rong Yuan!” Gu Lingzhi shouted Rong Yuan’s name repeatedly and rushed back hysterically. Just half an hour ago, she was still full of confidence in their future. Would they be separated by life and death in just a blink of an eye?

She did not believe it! She did not believe that Rong Yuan would leave her so easily!

The golden halo that had swallowed Rong Yuan was the work of Pan Luming. The sword had swept away all the space barriers superimposed by Rong Yuan with an irresistible force. It struck Rong Yuan with unabated force, forming a deafening sound.

With a single hit, Pan Luming retracted with satisfaction and watched as Gu Lingzhi rushed in the direction of the loud noise with sorrow. With the golden flag in his hand that could isolate the Inheritance Space, he was not afraid of Gu Lingzhi being able to escape from his palm.

The previous blow had used up all his strength. If it was an ordinary Demigod being hit by that blow, he would either die or be left with only half of his life, let alone a mere Martial Sage?

The open field in which the fight took place had already been shattered by his sword. There were countless gravels flying and trails of blood left on the ground. Gu Lingzhi was frantically rummaging in hopes of finding Rong Yuan’s ruins.

“He would not have died if you had surrendered and stopped fighting.” Pan Luming coughed at Gu Lingzhi’s frenetic look and sneered, “Poor Third Prince with god-given talents. He was already a Martial Sage in his early years. Maybe in time, he would actually reach the legendary stage and become the first Martial Artist in a hundred thousand years to ascend into a True God. What a pity, what a pity…”

Pan Luming pretended to sigh as each and every of his words pierced like ice cones into Gu Lingzhi’s heart. Upon seeing Gu Lingzhi on the verge of collapsing, Pan Luming felt a surge of happiness.

How many years had it been? In order to find the Spirit Tribe that was hiding like a group of rats. 

As long as he was able to catch her and force her to confess the whereabouts of the Spirit Tribe, he could use this information to seek merit from the Deity King. He was shaking with excitement at the thought of the reward he was about to receive. Was this the moment that the Pan Family has long awaited?

Suddenly, a soft cough was heard from under the gravel. Gu Lingzhi was stunned and could not believe her ears. It was until a dusty hand emerged from under the gravel that Gu Lingzhi was awakened and grasped onto that hand. Tears fell down uncontrollably from her cheeks.

“Rong Yuan, Rong Yuan, Rong Yuan…” The succession of sounds was slight and careful, as if she was afraid that her loud voice would frighten the hand’s master.

“Cough!” Rong Yuan pushed away the gravels on his head. His heart ached as he saw Gu Lingzhi’s helplessness, “Stupid girl…” Didn’t he let her go over to Lord Fashen? Why did she come back again? Why didn’t she use the opportunity to escape when he had blocked Pan Luming? 

Upon seeing the meaning behind Rong Yuan’s gaze, Gu Lingzhi choked with sobs and said, “I won’t leave!”

How could she let Rong Yuan block the attack for her while she ran away?

“He is really lucky…” He actually didn’t die from that fatal blow? Pan Luming smirked and concealed his astonishment, “Since you are so affectionate as husband and wife, I will be nice today and let you both know how futile it’ll be when faced with absolute power.”

Then, Pan Luming’s left hand became a claw and charged towards Rong Yuan fiercely. Rong Yuan, who had just crawled out of the rubble with the help of Gu Lingzhi, was sent flying backwards involuntarily. The destination was Pan Luming’s palm.

If he were to be sucked in by the palm, it was evident of what would be his consequences.

Gu Lingzhi watched in horror as Rong Yun was sucked away. She tried her hardest to catch up but was unable to match Rong Yuan’s flying speed. She watched in despair as he got closer and closer to Pan Luming. Rong Yuan desperately mobilised the remaining spiritual power and mental energy in his body to interfere, but he was still unable to shake off Pan Luming.

They… were still too weak! And his strength was barely able to save his life under the blow of Pan Luming.

When Rong Yuan was only ten meters away from Pan Luming, the right hand in which Pan Luming had been holding onto the heavy sword was slowly lifted up. He swung down again with a stronger momentum than before.

Everyone who had witnessed this scene did not believe that Rong Yuan would once again escape from Pan Luming. After all, the pressure induced by this blow would even cause a few Demigods to tremble in fear.

Just when everyone thought that Rong Yuan had died and even Rong Yuan himself thought that he would be unable to escape this trial such that he cast a deep and sorrowful glance at Gu Lingzhi, a blue-gray figure had suddenly appeared beside Rong Yuan. “Boom–” The whole world seemed to have shaken from the sound. The center of the loud noise began to rain stones in which the flying sand blurred out everyone’s vision.

Gu Lingzhi used this opportunity to slam forward and embraced Rong Yuan who was wounded again from the attack’s aftermath. She then ran towards the direction of Lord Fashen.

“Why must it be you?!” Pan Luming roared instantaneously. He looked furiously at the fresh blood under his sword. It was clear that the man would not have survived but he was beginning to doubt his eyes for the first time. He had clearly sent that blow towards Rong Yuan but how did it become Tang Feng who was beneath his sword?

Looking at the place where smoke and dust dissipated, who else would that be other than Rong Yuan who was in the arms of Gu Lingzhi?

It was at this very moment when Gu Lingzhi thought of Tang Feng whom she had forced into the Inheritance Space. Just as she could no longer hold him further in the space as he was causing havoc, she took the chance to release him so as to block the sword for Rong Yuan.

“Don’t you dare to escape!” Pan Luming shouted and did not care about Tang Feng who was about to turn into a corpse. The heavy sword was raised for the third time and struck towards the both of them. The strong sword once again pressurised Gu Lingzhi and made her lose control of her own body. Then, Lord Fashen appeared at this moment.

The huge arrows containing wood spiritual energy blocked off the sword sent by Pan Luming. Lord Fashen descended like a mountain which led Gu Lingzhi to be extremely grateful.

“Lord Fashen, thank you…” If he had not shown up in time, Gu Lingzhi could not have imagined how Rong Yuan and her could block off another of Pan Luming’s attack.

After assigning a stoneman to protect Gu Lingzhi and Rong Yuan, Lord Fashen calmed down and spoke, “You don’t need to thank me. When the Third Princess Consort saved me previously, you also did not ask for any repayment.”

Not only did he not repay her, he was also given priceless spring water from the Spiritual Essence Spring in her Inheritance Space. He had remembered all of these.

“...You had actually caught up so quickly.” Pan Luming squinted at Lord Fashen and secretly scolded the Demigods that were responsible for blocking him. How could they not accomplish this small task? How long has it been? Couldn’t six Demigods persist for an hour? 

“This is good too. I can catch everybody at once and save the trouble of a second trip.” With that, Pan Luming coughed harshly for a few times. The three consecutive attacks had taken a toll on his poor health. In order to not let the opponents see his flaws, Pan Luming waved his hand behind him and sent a handful of Demigods to besiege Lord Fashen.

The North Qiu Kingdom was indeed the strongest nation in the Continent. Even after suffering losses from a decade of war, they could still dispatch so many Demigods. It’s no wonder they have such great ambitions of dominating the whole Continent.

Lord Fashen glanced at the crowd surrounding him and spoke calmly, “It seems that these people alone won’t be able to hold me.”

It was not due to his arrogance but simply of how unbelievable his Sacred Weapon was. The stonemen created had half of their master’s strength. It was not impossible for them to get away from a group of ten when the four of them joined their forces.

“Oh? But I have another Sacred Weapon.” Pan Luming smugly said and shook the golden flag in his hand, “The effect of this Sacred Weapon is not to segregate spaces solely but can also serve as an auxiliary weapon to form a formation…”

Before he had finished his sentence, Pan Luming shook his wrist and the ground shook like an earthquake. After a few seconds, stone pillars of more than two meters high emerged in front of their eyes. They moved speedily as though they have a life of their own and formed a formation.

The formation formed by the stone pillars was not difficult to crack. However, he feared that Pan Luming had manipulated the formation such that he would be unable to take care of Gu Lingzhi and Rong Yuan.

Lord Fashen shouted loudly and slashed in the direction without a stone pillar. He had temporarily opened a passageway to the outside. The stoneman protecting Gu Lingzhi and Rong Yuan dashed out at a speed that was completely a mismatch to its figure. Pan Luming glared but did not expect the power of Lord Fashen to be so strong such that he was able to cut off the formation’s layout in one blow. It was already too late to stop the stoneman. His eyes were bleak as he looked at Lord Fashen. He could only spit out one word with a desolate expression: “Die!”