Chapter 602
Fighting Style
He was slightly moved, but then he remembered that the enemy had promised not to send out experts at the Spirit Sea Realm, and that the birds and ferocious beasts that were common in the skies above Blood Wolf Plains could only fly up to a thousand feet in the air due to the special aura of this place.
The black dot was located at an altitude far exceeding a thousand feet, making it unlikely to be an enemy scout or a local creature.
"That's interesting..."
A thoughtful glint flashed in Jiang Xuan's eyes, but he didn't delve into it, continuing to move forward with caution.
As night completely enveloped the land, Blood Wolf Plains became pitch black, with only the cold moonlight barely filtering through to outline the blurred contours of the landscape. In the distance, the mournful howls of wolves echoed, and the night wind rustled through the knee-high, dense grass, creating a chilling atmosphere of mystery and danger.
Jiang Xuan stopped in a relatively lush patch of grass.
He neither lit a fire nor set up a tent, but instead chose to hide, like the most experienced hunter.
He took out a palm-sized, exquisitely designed metal disc with complex spiritual patterns imprinted on its surface from his storage ring—the [Awakening of Insects Instrument].
This was an early warning device he had personally crafted using his skills as a spirit rune master and a considerable amount of precious materials before leaving Yanxia City. Once activated by embedding a spirit stone, it would continuously emit an invisible and intangible power fluctuation, covering an area of a hundred feet in radius. If a cultivator stepped into this area, triggering the power fluctuation, it would immediately cause the fluctuation to dissipate, thus alerting the holder.
Unless one is a powerful being at the Cave Heaven Realm with exceptionally high perception, it would be extremely difficult to detect this hidden fluctuation.
Of course, the cost of maintaining its operation is extremely high, and it consumes spirit stones very quickly.
Without hesitation, Jiang Xuan embedded several mid-grade spirit stones into the grooves on the back of the Awakening of Insects Instrument. As the spiritual light flickered, an invisible wave quietly spread out from him, covering an area of a hundred feet. After doing all this, he sat down cross-legged and began to meditate and regulate his breathing.
His cultivation had already reached the perfect level of the Human Gang Realm, and he had even touched the threshold of the Earth Gang Realm, possessing the potential to break through.
However, he did not rush to break through. Instead, he followed the guidance of Mr. Lu and his own insights, pursuing a natural and gradual advancement to lay the most solid foundation and strive for the ultimate in each realm.
Having cultivated for less than an hour, Jiang Xuan, who was in a state of complete absorption in his surroundings, suddenly felt a strong tremor in his heart without warning! At the same time, he clearly sensed that the invisible power fluctuation emanating from the [Awakening of Insects Instrument] dissipated abruptly, like a lake surface tossed with a stone!
The enemy is here! And they've already entered within a hundred feet!
Jiang Xuan suddenly opened his eyes, his gaze devoid of any panic, only filled with icy calm.
He instantly retracted the [Awakening of Insects Instrument], his figure crouching low silently like a cheetah, his back slightly bent, like a powerful bow poised to be drawn, his muscles taut, ready to unleash their full power. At the same time, his powerful soul perception spread cautiously outwards like mercury.
In the pitch-black night a hundred feet away, ghostly figures, using the cover of the grass, were silently closing in from all directions.
They were all dressed in black, their faces covered with black cloths, revealing only pairs of sharp, murderous eyes. There were about thirty of them, and their movements were measured and coordinated, clearly indicating that they were a well-trained team, not a rabble.
"Thirty people..."
Jiang Xuan made a judgment in an instant, his eyes growing colder.
He didn't understand how the other party had found his location so precisely, but that no longer mattered.
Without hesitation, he took off the [Boundless Spirit Bow] he was carrying.
When his fingers touched the blood-red bowstring made of some unknown material, a cold, indifferent aura, as if capable of freezing all emotions, instantly emanated from the spirit bow and surged into Jiang Xuan's mind.
In an instant, Jiang Xuan felt as if all distracting thoughts had been stripped away from his mind. Joy, anger, sorrow, happiness, and even the killing intent itself vanished without a trace, and he entered an absolute state of calm, like ancient ice.
In this state, all the subtle changes in the surrounding world, the sound of the wind, the rustling of the grass, and even the faint breathing and heartbeat of the lurking enemies a hundred feet away, become clearer than ever before!
He didn't need to use his eyes; relying solely on his extraordinary perception, he instantly locked onto the figure among the group of men in black, the one with the strongest aura, clearly the leader.
Draw the bowstring and release the arrow!
The movements were fluid and natural, without a trace of artifice or any spiritual energy fluctuations.
"Om-"
A very faint, almost ghostly sound, like the trembling of a bowstring, rang out.
A completely invisible and intangible spiritual arrow, purely formed from some mysterious power, instantly tore through the void and shot towards a distance of a hundred feet away at a speed beyond comprehension!
The leader in black was cautiously creeping forward, warily observing the seemingly calm patch of grass ahead. Suddenly, the hairs on his body stood on end, and a deadly sense of danger washed over him like ice water! He wanted to dodge, to parry, but there was no time to react at all!
"Pfft!"
A barely perceptible soft sound.
The leader froze abruptly, his forward momentum coming to an abrupt halt.
He looked down in disbelief and saw a bloody hole about the size of a thumb in his throat, from which warm blood and a broken trachea were gushing out.
"Uh... Hehe..."
He tried to make a sound, but could only squeeze out some incomprehensible gasps from the blood hole.
The light in his eyes quickly dimmed, replaced by extreme terror and profound bewilderment. It seemed that he never understood how he had been discovered or how he had been killed with a single blow.
Immediately, the light in his eyes went out completely, and his body went limp as he collapsed forward, lifeless.
"leader!"
"What's going on?!"
The other men in black nearby also noticed this bizarre and terrifying scene and immediately let out suppressed gasps.
However, before their exclamations had even subsided—
"Buzz!"
"Buzz!"
"Buzz!" Several soft tremors of the bowstring echoed in the silent night sky, like the whisper of death.
"puff!"
"puff!"
"puff!"
In several other different directions, almost simultaneously, three more black-clad cultivators had their throats pierced instantly by invisible spiritual arrows! Blood gushed out like fountains, appearing particularly glaring under the cold moonlight.
They didn't even have time to utter a scream before they died instantly, their bodies lying on the spot, filled with the same terror and confusion as their leader!
In the blink of an eye, four elites, including their strongest leader, were silently killed!
"The target has detected us!"
Beware of hidden attacks!
"Don't give him a chance! Charge in with all your might! Take him down at close range!"
After a brief silence, there was even greater chaos and roars of shock and anger! The remaining men in black finally reacted. They no longer tried to hide, but instead unleashed powerful spiritual energy, charging like arrows from all directions towards the patch of grass where Jiang Xuan was hiding! They knew they couldn't give that terrifying archer any more chance to launch a sneak attack!
Jiang Xuan coldly watched the numerous figures suddenly surge forth from the darkness, expressionlessly sheathing his [Boundless Spirit Bow]. The enemy was closing in, and the advantage of bows and arrows in close-quarters melee was no longer there.
"Clang!"
With a clear, resonant clang, the [Flowing Light Battle Blade] was drawn and gripped tightly in his hand. Under the faint moonlight, the broad blade gleamed with a cold, watery light.
A black-clad cultivator was the fastest, bursting through the bushes first. His longsword unleashed a blinding sword light, like a venomous snake's tongue, aimed straight at Jiang Xuan's face! The sword wind was fierce, displaying his considerable Earthly Realm cultivation!
Jiang Xuan's eyes were icy cold. He neither dodged nor avoided the attack. Instead, he suddenly charged forward to meet the sword light that was thrusting towards him! Just as the two were about to make contact, the Flowing Light Battle Blade in his hand slashed out horizontally as if he had teleported!
"Crack!"
The seemingly sharp sword light shattered like paper the moment it touched the Flowing Light Battle Blade! The blade continued its momentum, carrying an overwhelming force as it advanced!
"puff--!"
Blood splattered!
A head wearing a black mask shot into the sky, its wide-open eyes still holding the ferocity of its charge and a hint of disbelief.
The headless corpse lurched forward a few more steps due to inertia before collapsing heavily to the ground.
At the same time, four or five black-clad cultivators rushed forward from different directions, swords drawn and spiritual energy flashing, forming a small encirclement, intending to trap Jiang Xuan within them.
Jiang Xuan snorted coldly, showing no fear in the face of the encirclement.
He flicked his wrist, and the Flowing Light Battle Blade in his hand suddenly burst forth with dazzling light, slashing through the air!
In an instant, countless sword shadows appeared. These sword shadows were not solid; instead, they possessed a flowing, ethereal, and dreamlike quality, as if composed of flowing light and shadow, dazzling the eye and making it difficult to grasp their true trajectory and the source of their killing intent! The sharp and domineering sword energy swept out like a storm!
In an instant, countless sword shadows appeared. These sword shadows were not solid; instead, they possessed a flowing, ethereal, and dreamlike quality, as if composed of flowing light and shadow, dazzling the eye and making it difficult to grasp their true trajectory and the source of their killing intent! The sharp and domineering sword energy swept out like a storm!
On the Blood Wolf Plains shrouded in night, Jiang Xuan, using the [Six-Character Sword Technique] he had obtained from the Blood Killer Camp and modified by himself, bravely faced the enemies attacking from all directions! His swordsmanship was not too flashy; each strike was simple, direct, and efficient, containing the profound mysteries of "splitting, spinning, stabbing, shaking, sweeping, and collapsing"—basic yet infinitely varied.
A flash of light!
A black-clad cultivator wielding a ghost-head saber lunged from the left. He only saw a flash of light before his eyes. Before he could fully unleash his saber, he felt a cold touch on his neck. Then, his vision spun and he saw his own headless corpse, spitting blood.
The blade flashed again!
The two cultivators on the right, who were working in perfect harmony, one attacking the upper body and the other the lower body, had their sword light and saber light dissipate like bubbles the moment they came into contact with the dreamlike, flowing saber shadow. Almost simultaneously, they felt a chill in their chests as the saber energy pierced through them, and they fell backward with astonishment and resentment.
Blood splattered ten steps away, and corpses lay strewn on the spot!
Jiang Xuan was now displaying a completely different side of himself from the relatively restrained, defeat-oriented fighting style he displayed in the provincial examinations—decisive, ruthless, and merciless! This was his most authentic fighting style after emerging from the Bloodthirsty Camp, a place of mountains of corpses and seas of blood, and experiencing countless life-and-death battles!
These black-clad enemies were also elites, with the lowest cultivation level being the late stage of the Human Gang Realm, and many of them being experts of the Earth Gang Realm. They were well-trained and coordinated perfectly.
But their biggest mistake was severely underestimating Jiang Xuan's terrifying power! The intelligence they received might only have shown that Jiang Xuan was at the Human罡 Realm and possessed incredible combat strength, but they could not even begin to imagine how terrifying he would be when this young man truly unleashed his power and set his sights on slaughter!
"He...he's not even human!"
"Monster! This is a monster!"
The surviving men in black were filled with endless fear. They even began to suspect that the young man in front of them, whose swordsmanship was like a god and who killed people like cutting grass, was not a cultivator of the Human Gang Realm at all, but a monster who was proficient in the way of killing!
Jiang Xuan gave his enemies no chance to catch their breath or regroup. He charged forward, his figure weaving through the crowd like a ghost. Every swing of his [Flowing Light Battle Blade] carried the rhythm of death.
His swordsmanship, having perfected the "Star-Gathering Style," has already acquired a magnificent, vast, and all-encompassing aura, even though he has not yet truly grasped its essence of devouring stars. Its power is far greater than before.
"puff!"
A burly man wielding two halberds was cleaved in two by a single blow, his internal organs mixed with blood spilling onto the ground.
"Crack!"
Another enemy wielding a giant door-sized hammer was struck. The hammer cracked the moment it collided with the Flowing Light Blade, then shattered with a deafening roar. His massive body was also torn apart by the ensuing blade energy, and he fell to the ground screaming in agony.
The scene had almost turned into a one-sided massacre! Wherever Jiang Xuan went, no enemy could withstand him. The enemy fell like harvested wheat, and not a single person could stop his advance!
Just as Jiang Xuan was filled with killing intent and preparing to deal with the remaining enemies, his extraordinary spiritual sense suddenly detected an extremely subtle yet sharp sound of air being torn apart, coming from all directions!
"Ok?"
A sudden sense of alarm arose in his mind, and his forward momentum came to an abrupt halt. He slammed his feet into the ground, his body instantly stopping. At the same time, his wrists rapidly rotated, and the Flowing Light Battle Blade in his hand began to spin at a strange frequency, creating layers upon layers of dazzling defensive blade shadows in front of him. This was the "Spinning Technique" from the Six-Character Blade Technique!
Almost at the same time he completed his defense—
"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh—!"
A piercing scream tore through the night sky! More than a dozen crossbow bolts, gleaming with a cold, eerie light, shot out from different dark corners around them! These bolts were incredibly fast, seemingly ignoring the distance in space, instantly traversing dozens of feet, and raining down on Jiang Xuan from all sorts of tricky angles, completely blocking all his possible escape routes!
They are magical crossbows! And there's more than one!
"Jingle bells—!"
Sparks flew everywhere!
Those crossbow bolts, powerful enough to pierce metal and stone, struck the myriad of flowing sword shadows unleashed by Jiang Xuan, producing a dense, crisp sound like raindrops pattering on banana leaves! Most of the bolts were deflected or veered off course by the skillful and powerful sword shadows, grazing Jiang Xuan's body and embedding themselves in the ground around him. (End of Chapter)