Chapter Nineteen: Battle of the Eighth Rank

At the temple steps, the scene had become a slaughterhouse stripped of all reason. Figures that could only briefly hover in the air repeatedly plunged downward, seeking out their prey.

By then, everyone had been driven mad by the bodies collapsing again and again, blood spraying into the air. The fighting had long since lost all order. Many seemed to be swinging their blades purely by instinct, pouring every ounce of strength into each strike regardless of whether it landed. Naturally, such men were also the first to die.

Because Chen Hongxu and the other three had kept their distance, they had not yet been swept into the carnage. But that was only temporary. Once the small fry below had been wiped out, these people would surely turn their attention to the four of them.

Chen Hongxu narrowed his eyes to a slit, watching the man who had just questioned Su Daji while standing in the air, and silently weighing his own chances of surviving if he were truly forced to face him. At present, he could think only of staying alive. Judging by the burly man’s manner of striking, each move surely claimed several lives; this was not an opponent he could contend with now.

Suddenly, amid the battlefield, a young man with a slightly pale face burst apart in midair, splitting into countless tiny black points of light, as though a shower of black rain were falling from the sky.

The people beneath the black light cried out in terror. Chen Hongxu stared at the drifting specks and cried out, “Such a powerful vampire.”

Those black points of light were in fact countless tiny bats. Wherever they touched someone, the flesh at the point of contact began to scorch. A black flame that could not be extinguished slowly spread through the crowd, while the black specks, having completed their task, merged together again. After a moment of writhing, they reformed into the pale young man once more...

By this point, there were not many people left in the arena. Many who were still standing but understood they had no hope of winning a place among the chosen began looking for a chance to retreat. After all, no matter how good an opportunity was, one had to be alive to enjoy it.

More than a dozen figures fled quickly in all directions. When Ma Ji, atop the temple, noticed the situation below, he frowned and swept his sleeve. Instantly, walls rose around the battlefield, square and towering all the way to the heavens, sealing off every route of escape.

With their paths blocked, the crowd knew that what happened today would not end peacefully. Their faces hardened with despair, and at last they summoned the spirit of one who would break pots and sink boats. Some resolved to die fighting and drag one or two others down with them; others fought with the mentality of cats toying with mice. In the end, the struggle remained roughly balanced. At times like this, these high-ranked experts killed almost as an afterthought, never daring to risk themselves lightly. After all, even if they dealt with these people, who could say whether the ensuing battle between the high-ranked experts would not be decided by some insignificant wound?

Chen Hongxu surveyed the dozen or so figures still putting up desperate resistance, then glanced at the many experts who wore amused expressions and treated killing as nothing more than entertainment. He had the feeling trouble was about to come looking for them.

Sure enough, a bald man in a red robe drifted over toward Chen Hongxu and the other three with a sinister smile.

“If I were you, I wouldn’t be standing aside expecting tigers to fight each other. What, a mere ninth rank wants to play the mantis-and-oriole game?”

The bald man’s voice was sharp and grating, unpleasant to the ear.

“We stay out of each other’s way. Get lost, and get lost far,” Su Xiaoxiao said, her eyes wide, the black pupils within them flickering with a strange yellow light, as though she were ready for trouble at any moment.

“Feisty. I like that.” The red-robed man narrowed his eyes, licked his lips with his tongue, and raised a finger to point at Chen Hongxu and the other two men. With a mocking smile, he said, “These three are your little wolfhounds, are they? Let me see how you plan to keep them safe.”

The instant he finished speaking, a hand like a dead branch reached out from the wide sleeve of his robe and seized toward Chen Hongxu. After all, Chen Hongxu looked to be the weakest among them. He lacked the bear-like bulk of the burly man, and he lacked the arrogant air of Fan Caobao. Standing there, he naturally made the best target.

Of course, the reason the red-robed man chose Chen Hongxu was also because of where he stood. A man positioned in front of a ninth-rank expert must have some means, and so this strike was meant as a probe.

If these few people were truly strong enough to fight across ranks, he would not be so foolish as to bite this bone alone. In such a crucial moment, the more one consumed, the smaller one’s chance of entering the barrier became. One might even end up becoming another man’s dead beneath the blade.

Seeing the red-robed man’s withered claw stretch toward him like rubber, slowly yet in a way that gave the illusion of being impossible to evade, Chen Hongxu’s expression darkened. He spread his legs slightly, and a vortex of air surged upward from below. The space around him seemed to twist faintly, flashes of red light appearing from time to time.

Fan Caobao and the bear-like man also changed in an instant, their auras shifting as they resolved to use numbers to bully the few. However, the somewhat bewildered Su Xiaoxiao stopped them and pulled them back several paces, leaving the battlefield entirely to Chen Hongxu.

The red-robed man in the air stared at the changes in the aura around Chen Hongxu, shocked to disbelief. His brow furrowed, and the withered claw lunged faster, even producing the impression of tearing through the wind.

Chen Hongxu gave a cold snort and raised his palm. The swirling air currents rising around him seemed to receive a summons, clinging all at once to his palm and slowly taking the shape of a lotus made of void.

The lotus was enormous, and the red light that wove across it from time to time made one’s scalp tingle at the mere sight of it.

Chen Hongxu’s eyes turned a blazing crimson, and even above his brow, a lotus-shaped mark seemed to emerge faintly.

The red-robed man stared at Chen Hongxu’s present appearance, and the thought of continuing the fight vanished completely from his mind. It was not that he was afraid; rather, there were more important matters ahead. To keep fighting this freak, who was clearly only at the seventh level yet could actually command the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, would be utterly irrational.

But he was, after all, a high-ranked expert. If he turned and fled without even making contact, people would laugh at him to his face. So the arm he had thrust out kept pressing forward, intending only to brush Chen Hongxu once, make a token gesture, and withdraw so that someone else could chew on this bone.

A cold smile curved Chen Hongxu’s lips. He did not know what path the red-robed man cultivated, but to attack while still daring to hold back so much strength—did he truly take him for helpless?

Chen Hongxu stepped decisively onto the void. A lotus bloomed beneath his feet as he rose to meet the dead claw.

There were no flashy techniques, only a brutal collision of raw force. Chen Hongxu lifted the lotus clinging to his palm and slammed it hard onto the withered claw...

A piercing scream erupted.

A delicate lotus blossomed upon the dead claw. Red light spread outward, and everywhere it passed was burned to ashes that drifted away with the wind.

The red-robed man’s cry drew the eyes of many. More than a few gazed at that massive phantom lotus in astonishment, unable to imagine what manner of cultivation this youth, who could step upon a lotus in midair, actually possessed.

Even Su Daji, who had said she was going to sleep, was roused by the chaotic spiritual energy between heaven and earth. Her phoenix eyes gleamed with predatory brilliance, and she seductively licked her lips with the tip of her tongue. This man seemed to have some talent for becoming a male favorite...

Seeing that the lotus flames were still spreading soundlessly, the red-robed man dared not delay. His face turned cold, and gritting his teeth, he raised his hand and ripped the dead claw straight off, then hurled it away as if it were poison.

The black withered claw had not even reached the ground before it had been completely burned away. The red-robed man’s expression was grim. He glanced toward the many malicious looks in the distance, and while cursing inwardly in misery, he also made up his mind that he must kill the man before him. It was because of him that he had been wounded; because of him that he had gone from hunter to prey in the eyes of others.

“Brat, I want you dead!”

The red-robed man dove downward, intending to kill Chen Hongxu on the spot and then escape at the first opportunity. In truth, if he had gone all out from the beginning, Chen Hongxu would never have had a chance to wound him. The gap in their levels was simply too great. But since this fellow had insisted on merely “making a token effort,” being injured could hardly be blamed on anyone else.

Watching the red figure plunge rapidly toward him, Chen Hongxu felt the remaining spiritual energy in his battle embryo within his body. It seemed he had played too wildly just now; the stored power inside the battle embryo was almost exhausted. Was he really going to have to draw on the battle embryo’s origin essence? If so, he would probably be cursed to death by that battle spirit.

There was no time to think about it anymore. Chen Hongxu’s aura continued to surge upward without reason or restraint. Fighting intent blazed in his eyes as he stepped forward on the lotus, advancing instead of retreating to meet the red-robed man.

The warrior clan never feared a battle.