“Not necessarily!” Ruan Zhan coldly threw out two words. Then, he bit the tip of his tongue and spat a mouthful of bloody mist into the air. At the same time, he waved his hand, sending out a lightning palm strengthened by his bloodspell. The crowd of Zhang Xiao Huas were knocked into the air, electrocuted into scrap and falling back to the ground as rubble. He slammed his other hand heavily against the ground.
His palm fell, the blood fell and dust from the ground rose. The nearby Wan Li even felt some tremors. A line of fire suddenly appeared from the ground. It was about a foot high and it scurried towards Bao Da Tong’s direction like a fire snake!
The smaller number of Zhang Xiao Hua’s clones stood in front of Bao Da Tong. Since they were merely shooting hellfire at him from the distance, they suffered almost no losses. However, since they continuously attacked and the bloodwood sword repeatedly destroyed the hellfire, it seemed they didn’t have enough offensive power. When the fire snake formed by Ruan Zhan’s flaming handprint approached, the clones instinctively tried to dodge following Zhang Xiao Hua’s orders. However, the fire was too fast and they were quickly surrounded.
Looking at the helpless clones about to be swallowed by flames, Ruan Zhan was very pleased to realize that Zhang Xiao Hua’s true body was over at his end. Therefore, he called loudly, “Drive the formation!”
With the pressure lessened, Bao Da Tong immediately complied and changed his sword movements, loudly chanting the Radiant Scripture!
The one surnamed Ruan had seen through him!
Zhang Xiao Hua thought resentfully, feeling the boiling aura in the formation rise as Bao Da Tong chanted. He immediately changed his plans to adapt. He had been observing Xiao Xia’s position while he attacked Ruan Zhan, and felt her silent and unmoving state was strange. He then looked at the protective barrier around her and felt it was formed by the natural aura of the jade trigrams. If he was right, the Yang position was the only breakout point at the moment!
Seeing his clones being wiped out by extreme Yang flames and Hong Yu unable to hold on much longer, Zhang Xiao Hua suddenly leapt free of the crowd, swiftly possessing Lil’ Tong’s body. Using all his and Hong Yu’s clones to cover him, he swiftly arrived in front of Xiao Xia.
What strong natural aura! The burning caused him to shrink tighter into Lil’ Tong’s body. Enormous force from behind and the gale from Ruan Zhan was about to break through the clones and strike his body. However, he no longer cared about his vessel at this moment. Although he didn’t dare pick up any of the jade plaques, he used the flesh’s protection to squeeze into the protective barrier, shooting his foot out to kick one of the plaques askew.
A sharp burn spread from his toes. Although his body could enter the barrier, his rushed possession still caused him to get injured. He screamed, not knowing whether it was due to pain or elation at having broken the trigram pattern. However, he still toppled over from the pain.
As he fell, the final clone behind him turned to ashes and the formation’s burning aura reached its peak. Ruan Zhan’s lightning palm shot over, its force not diminished at all. If he hadn’t already fallen, that blow might have knocked him prone.
Ruan Zhan actually didn’t care about Lil’ Tong’s body at all? True, it wasn’t a big deal if the body was hit. It was just an electric shock and wouldn’t cause too big of an injury. The one Ruan Zhan wanted to hurt was him! However, was he not worried about Xiao Xia? She would get hit by the lightning palm too.
Thinking of this, Zhang Xiao Hua looked over. From his prone position, he was finally able to see that there was no one at the Yang position. The abnormal jade trigram’s natural aura had been broken, and Xiao Xia’s figure vanished as well!
So that was why Xiao Xia hadn’t moved at all. She had never been present. He hadn’t been able to tell despite his cultivation because the natural aura had blocked his sight. No wonder she could use her Yin constitution to guard the Yang position. Only the jade trigrams in the Yang position could help Ruan Zhan form an illusion of Xiao Xia It turns out Ruan Zhan still couldn’t bear let his precious face any danger!
The burning sensation continued to spread from beneath the ground. Zhang Xiao Hua once again leapt up, thoroughly abandoning Lil’ Tong’s body and reached a hand out to the terrified Hong Yu. “Come, the formation is broken. We’re leaving!”
Hong Yu almost burst into tears.
After five years in the human world, her big bro was finally escorting her away like he did three hundred years ago. She had thought he had lost such moments forever. She had the feeling things would change after tonight. They had experienced pain and suffering for the first time after centuries.
The two of them held hands, stepping over the broken jade trigrams and out of the Grand Radiance Formation!
But, where was this?
Their joy and arrogance had yet to fade when they were both startled by the scene before them. This wasn’t what the world should look like outside the formation. The should have been a deserted space outside the formation. There was rubble, garbage, uneven road and a dark building on the verge of collapse. But now, there was nothing except darkness.
They were too familiar with the dark. Whether tonight or three hundred years ago, the darkness had always accompanied them. However, why did they feel a huge pressure from the darkness this time? It was one thing for all the objects to have vanished, but the three men had vanished too. They were as if adrift on a moonless sea, unable to tell the sky from the ground.
“Where is this?” Zhang Xiao Hua yelled furiously, knowing he had been tricked once again. He really regretted it. He had just underestimated the enemy once, and now he was restricted at every turn. Did a moment of carelessness truly lead to losing everything? No, he won’t lose. He had three centuries of might. He had absorbed so many natural treasures. Did he still have to fear a stinking Daoist who cultivated three measly decades, someone with an unusual constitution that warded off ghosts and a kid with innate talent?
Absolutely not!
“Welcome to the Wind Screen Formation!” Ruan Zhan’s cold voice came from the northwest.
Zhang Xiao Hua didn’t speak. He merely tugged his sister’s hand and looked around them.
There wasn’t a hint of wind inside the formation. It was weirdly still, weirdly clean and weirdly frightening, like the place was a vacuum. From his ghostly vision, clumps of black drifted across the area. They were clearly tangled wind aura that swept by swiftly like whirlwinds. However, there was no sound of wind at all.
Suddenly, Zhang Xiao Hua felt a trace of nervousness and fear. He had never left this world. Even after death, he had roamed the gap between the mortal and spirit realm as a soul, trapped in the dark below for three centuries. He roamed the three Lotus Vases, not growing yet also not dying, unaware of the events outside. However, from the damn old Daoist’s knowledge, he knew there was a hell. There was one layer of hell that was constantly swept by gales. The wind’s natural aura burned and gave off a bone-scraping chill. It wasn’t any worse than the fires of hell. If struck, the pain would be like scraping bones, and it would be eternal.
Was this that layer of hell? He had never expected such a day while they were enjoying delicacies and the fresh life of a child! But what was the Wind Screen Formation Ruan Zhan spoke of? Was it the hell Ruan Zhan had constructed for them? What right did he have?!
Zhang Xiao Hua tossed aside his fear. He pulled Hong Yu and walked a few steps into the darkness. Things were truly pressing. They actually had another trick up their sleeve, another ace?
“Thank you.” Ruan Zhan’s voice sounded again.
This time, his figure also appeared. Contrasted by the pitch black wind screen, he seemed to have descended from the heavens, so tranquil and assured. It was like the fiends before him had become birds in a cage. Only then did Zhang Xiao Hua notice that the simple white t-shirt and jeans seemed exceptionally glaring in the darkness, as if they were made of light.
“Thank me? Why?” Zhang Xiao Hua responded. He conversed with Hong Yu telepathically while summoning hellfire in his right hand. Wind empowered fire. If Ruan Zhan was using a wind formation, the hellfire would burn fiercer too. They would end up the ones getting harmed.
“Because none of our powers could match yours. If the Grand Radiance Formation would exhaust our spirit power, this Wind Screen Formation is even harder than that.” Bao Da Tong appeared from beside Ruan Zhan. “If you didn’t break the barrier around Xiao Xia, the Grand Radiance Formation couldn’t have been activated. If the Grand Radiance Formation wasn’t broken, this Wind Screen Formation couldn’t have been activated. Therefore, you’ve helped a bunch. Who else would we thank?”
Bao Da Tong’s frivolous tone angered him, but Zhang Xiao Hua laughed instead. “I’ve really underestimated you. Your calculations were truly meticulous.” He spoke to Ruan Zhan. “Was there a need for schemes within schemes just to deal with two brats like us?”
His tone was amused but his heart was incessantly vexed. His one mistake had been used three times. It felt like he was digging his own grave. Ruan Zhan was truly a hateful person. He had to die.
“No need to be humble. You guys have three centuries of mana and cultivated as virgins of pure Ying and Yang. How could a minor mortal like myself contend without any schemes?” Ruan Zhan’s expression was calm, and it was unclear whether he was admiring or mocking. “Even our homeschooled Grandmaster Bao over here has indulged in dual cultivation, and hasn’t been pure in a while. With corrupted mana like ours, we would have died without seeing it coming if we weren’t careful.”
“You’re impressive!”
“I’m just self aware.”
“Why did you mention me?”
Bao Da Tong had just spoken when Zhang Xiao Hua and Zhang Hong Yu suddenly made a move. Hellfire mixed with corpse breath shot towards Ruan Zhan and Bao Da Tong.
Although the two had been speaking, they had still been on guard. Seeing the change, they easily countered. Ruan Zhan used a flaming handprint while Bao Da Tong used the fire spell of the five elements, using Yang fire to overcome Yin fire once again.
With a bang, the flames collided in the air. Both sides were equal as they shoved against each other for a while. The casters behind used all their strength to press the flames onwards. At that moment, the corpse breath within the hellfire suddenly slithered out like a snake, winding towards Bao Da Tong’s face.
They would take care of Ruan Zhan’s helper first before working together to finish him! That was Zhang Xiao Hua’s plan.
He deeply understood that Ruan Zhan had activated the formations using his power because Ruan Zhan himself didn’t have enough. Ruan Zhan also wanted him to waste power breaking the formations so his chance of victory would be greater. Although he had been buried young, he had devoured the old Daoist’s soul. The cunning, treachery and selfishness had all been inherited thoroughly, and he naturally understood Ruan Zhan’s schemes.
But why had he taken him so lightly? When Ruan Zhan had constantly provoked him and caused him to attack that tree during peak day time, he should have already been on guard! It was useless to say anything now. Their powers had reached the equilibrium Ruan Zhan had been after. He could only give it his all. Luckily he had Hong Yu. While Ruan Zhan had Bao Da Tong helping, how could they compare to the bond they shared as siblings, their connection from eating the same soul over three centuries.
“Oof, picking the soft persimmon to squeeze?” Bao Da Tong still wouldn’t shut up despite the danger. “Today I shall let you see that your Daoist granddaddy here shouldn’t be provoked!”
As he spoke, he pulled out a talisman and flung it into the air. It was the one he had used to rid Xiao Xia of the corpse poison. The moment it was flung, it immediately halted in the air. Bao Da Tong still controlled the fire elemental spell with one hand while he manipulated the talisman with his other. He was like a fisherman pulling on a lure, leading the corpse breath on a dance in the air.
While the scene looked easy and Bao Da Tong’s face looked uncaring, his forehead started getting covered with sweat. Luckily, Zhang Hong Yu’s power had decreased after her injuries. It was also hard for her to maintain that corrosive corpse breath.
Ruan Zhan and Zhang Xiao Hua’s Yin and Yang flames were evenly matched. The contest between Bao Da Tong and Zhang Hong Yu would end with both sides injured. Zhang Xiao Hua didn’t seem to care about Zhang Hong Yu, but Ruan Zhan couldn’t ignore Bao Da Tong. He wanted to help, but the moment he weakened his pressure, the hellfire rushed towards him so he had to keep using both his hands. He chanted silently and bit the tip of his tongue, spraying blood into the air.
The Wind Screen Formation had already activated. His actions now were just like pressing the on button!
Immediately, the silent surroundings were filled with sounds of wind.
Zhang Xiao Hua also knew the formation had been activated. Although he had mentally prepared himself, he still felt inevitably uneasy at Ruan Zhan’s methods. Seeing the black whirlwinds around them grow fiercer while sweeping towards the center, he gritted his teeth and red light appeared in his eyes. One of his eyeballs fell to the floor, turning white, black and red as it rolled around with a hint of amusement. When it reached Ruan Zhan’s feet, it suddenly shot a foot into the air and exploded into filthy blood that covered Ruan Zhan’s white shirt.
Bao Da Tong panicked. Zhang Hong Yu insisted on desperately pushing her corpse breath forward at this moment. Although her soul would suffer major damage like this, she still pushed harder, preventing him from speaking.
Ruan Zhan hadn’t expected Zhang Xiao Hua to be so eager to escape. He actually sacrificed one of his eyeballs to deal with him. While he was impressed, he also sighed at the impetuousness.
The old Daoist they had devoured probably also thought himself top of the world. Therefore, they weren’t properly trained and merely used innate power and spiritual constitution. How could they understand not to go all out too early?
A strange, burning sensation spread from his left leg. Ruan Zhan knew that being indecisive would end in disaster. He hardened his heart and endured the hellfire’s assault to swing downwards with a wind blade. He severed the fiend blood trying to worm into his body, gathering his spirit power into his leg and forcing out the remaining fiend blood. At the same time, her formed a barrier with his left hand, protecting himself and Bao Da Tong.
Bao Da Tong cleverly shoved, taking advantage of the barrier to drive the corpse breath far away.
At that moment, a gust of wind blew past his cheek. In the stifling July heat, it cut like mountain winds in the winter.
