Cultivation: Fortune by Lots-Chapter 386 - 222. Lei Jun: I gave him an offer he couldn’t refuse_2
Facing Wei Ancheng in battle, the scene was not as tragic as the earlier clash at the eastern side of Chaoyang Peak on the Great Southern Mountain, but it was hardly optimistic.
Wei Ancheng had the right to choose the battlefield, thus places like Gepo Mountain and the Ancestral Court of the Samsara Abyss Sacred Land couldn’t be left too vulnerable. Therefore, although Sang Lu and Feng Gui had left their respective mountains, they still held back some of their strength. At this point, their only option was to do their best to contend with this formidable enemy.
Li Tianqing fought against Yuan Shanji again, and neither side opened a new battlefield.
The former relied on Sang Lu’s Nine Songs·Great Commander, deploying his own Ghost God Sacrificial Array, Nine Songs·Lord of the East.
The latter relied on Wei Ancheng’s Blood Sea, likewise deploying Nine Songs·Great Commander.
Within the large battlefield, they created smaller arenas for their duels, neither willing to give an inch.
Far from the area covered by the Blood Sea, another stretch of blood-red saber light rose and fell continuously, domineering and unrestrained.
It was Xiong Gang, an Elder of the Eightfold Heaven Realm from the Blood River Sect.
His decision to distance himself from Wei Ancheng’s Blood Sea was partly due to his reluctance to benefit from Wei Ancheng’s support, and partly because the person attacking him was at a great distance.
An attack from such a distance was something most cultivators from the Upper Three Heavens would generally only attribute to two possibilities.
Confucian Divine Archery or Daoist Flying Swords.
The attacker was from the Daoist Sect. Even though it wasn’t Flying Swords, twelve Vermilion Flame Flying Forks continuously shuttled through the air. Their master, however, remained outside of Xiong Gang’s field of vision.
To counterattack, Xiong Gang needed to close the distance with his opponent first.
As the opponent sought to increase the distance further, Xiong Gang stopped in his tracks, refraining from pursuing too deeply.
Both sides chased and halted, constantly shifting positions, yet overall they did not move far from the wasteland that had once been Sleeping Dragon Lake.
Lei Jun did not approach Sleeping Dragon Lake either.
He simply used the Heavenly Eye Mirror to watch from afar.
Seeing those twelve Vermilion Flame Flying Forks, Lei Jun had already guessed the identity of the newcomer.
Xu Duan.
An elder and a senior member from the previous generation of the Mount Shu Sect.
Teacher of Jiang Dongyu and the Grandmaster of Yang Chengjun.
An esteemed elder from the Eightfold Heaven Realm of the Daoist Artifact Refining Sect.
After a period of internal strife, the Mount Shu Sect had also suffered numerous deaths and injuries.
Xu Duan was now one of the few remaining elders from the previous generation in Mount Shu.
Due to his age, rumors had long circulated that he hadn’t left Mount Shu for many years. His appearance today was an exception, naturally because of what his disciple Jiang Dongyu encountered in the Southern Wilderness.
It had been previously heard that because of Jiang Dongyu’s death, a Mount Shu expert was urgently making his way to the Southern Wilderness, and indeed it was this elder.
"Demon Lord, your time is up," Xu Duan’s voice seemed to emanate from everywhere, his tone steady without fluctuation, but filled with bone-chilling coldness.
Xiong Gang was also an elder from the Blood River Sect who had roamed the world for many years, and this wasn’t his first encounter with Xu Duan.
He swung his Blood Saber, the blade light impervious, sweeping across all directions, consecutively warding off the multiple Vermilion Flame Flying Forks aimed at him, "He who kills must be prepared to be killed. If you, old Taoist, seek revenge from me, I will face it. But if you lack the ability, then it will be me using your life to sharpen my blade!"
Xu Duan held some caution against the sorcerers of the Witchcraft Sect from the Southern Wilderness.
The combat style of the Daoist Artifact Refining Sect was also more suited to controlling distance and skirmishing; therefore, Xu Duan did not enter Sang Lu’s Sacrificial Formation.
Luckily, his presence still helped alleviate some of the pressure on the besieged Sang Lu, Feng Gui, and Li Tianqing.
But the present Blood River Sect powerhouses weren’t just limited to Wei Ancheng and Xiong Gang.
There was also another Eightfold Heaven master, Lian Ran. Although a woman, she was no less vehement and formidable than Xiong Gang.
She hadn’t taken part in the previous battles at Golden City Stronghold or Yintuo Mountain. Now, she suddenly emerged, her strength surpassing the impression she had previously left on the people of the Southern Wilderness.
"One major advantage of the Blood River Lineage, or rather, what makes them so detestable...is right here," Lei Jun raised an eyebrow subtly.
Compared to other Taoist Inheritances, one advantage of masters from the Blood River was their capacity to grow stronger through battle.
The grim nature of the battles could also result in casualties and losses for the Blood River Sect.
But unless their opponents could decisively defeat the disciples of the Blood River on the spot, an outcome where both sides were merely weakened generally signified a victory for the Blood River disciple. As long as they had time to recover from their injuries and assimilate what they gained during the battle, they might return stronger than before.
The cultivators of the Blood River love war partly because of the influence of their tradition, and partly because it is a path of cultivation rife with both danger and opportunity.
Often, they become enemies of everyone for this very reason.
Though Lian Ran was less skilled than Sang Lu and Feng Gui, the stewards of the two Sacred Lands, her assistance to Wei Ancheng put Sang Lu, Feng Gui, and Li Tianqing, who were also within the formation, in a perilous situation. This continued until a figure suddenly appeared in the distant sky.
Then, with a flicker of his form, as though ignoring space and time, he arrived directly beneath Wei Ancheng’s Blood Sea.
The dark halberd, glimmering with a faint Golden Glow, swept across. It appeared to lack any earth-shattering momentum, but once its force was amassed, a single strike had the power to cleave the Blood Sea in two!
Yet the halberd ultimately did not come down.
There was another Blood Saber.
A saber even more wild and domineering than the one in Xiong Gang’s hands slashed down.
Wei Ancheng, the Sect Leader of the Blood River, was versed in the full range of the Blood River Lineage, possessing vast Divine Skills not limited to the Blood Sea.
His Divine Skills in close combat even surpassed those of experts specialized in this field, like Xiong Gang!
A move more violent than the Xuezhan Mountain and River Style, the Blood Battle Mortal World Style, was unleashed. The entire Blood Sea spontaneously parted, extending a terrifying blood-red saber edge hundreds of meters long, slashing directly at the incoming black and gold halberd.
The most intense single clash since the battle began erupted between the two.
Wei Ancheng faced off against Shangguan Yunbo, who wielded the Expelling Invaders Halberd.
Amidst the shifting wind and clouds of heaven and earth, the scene within the void where the saber and halberd crossed appeared to be neatly offset, as if a scroll painting had been precisely cut and then slightly shifted. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞
The strength of both sides was concentrated, resulting in a lack of tremendously loud sounds.
But on the blade of that giant blood saber, falling as if from the firmament, a notch suddenly appeared.
