High Martial Arts: Enlightenment after Practices

Chapter 401: Chapter 401: Leaving

Sensing the danger, the Divine Son lashed out with both sabers, unleashing a cascade of blood-red Sword Gang.

But You Sicheng had already made his move.

He didn’t try to block the Sword Gang. Instead, his body flickered, and he reappeared at the Divine Son’s rear flank—a blind spot, and the most difficult angle from which to reverse his Sword Momentum.

The Divine Son’s reaction was incredibly fast. He swept back with his left saber.

But You Sicheng neither dodged nor evaded, thrusting out with the dagger in his left hand to meet the opponent’s blade head-on.

CLANG!

The blades clashed. The flesh between You Sicheng’s thumb and index finger split open, and the dagger flew from his grasp. But that single moment of paralysis was precisely what he’d been aiming for.

Hong Nianyi’s saber arrived.

There was nothing fancy about this strike—it was the simplest, most direct downward slash.

But her Sword Intent had been compressed to the absolute limit. Where the blade passed, the air was silently torn asunder, leaving behind a pitch-black rift in space.

The Divine Son tried to dodge, but the price You Sicheng had paid in losing his weapon had bought Hong Nianyi that crucial half-second.

The saber fell.

SCHHHK—

The Divine Son was cleaved in two, from his left shoulder to his right hip. With a spray of blood, the two halves of his body flew backward, slamming hard onto the rocky ground.

Hong Nianyi staggered backward, propping herself up with her Long Saber as she coughed up a mouthful of blood. That single strike had consumed all her remaining strength, and a tearing pain shot through her meridians.

You Sicheng was in even worse shape. Taking the Divine Son’s strike head-on had further damaged his already fragile internal organs. He couldn’t even stand, forced to one knee and gasping like a bellows.

But at least they had dealt with one of them.

Meanwhile, the battle between Xu Wuyi and Wu Qige had reached a fever pitch.

They had exchanged more than fifty blows. The afterimages of the spear and the glint of claws wove together, while Dark Gold Flame clashed with dark red bloodlight, pockmarking the ground for a hundred meters in every direction.

The longer Wu Qige fought, the more alarmed he became.

This human had clearly only reached Great Success in Heart Image, and his Life Energy Level was even lower than Wu Qige’s, yet his combat prowess was absurdly strong.

The spear was as heavy as a mountain, each strike carrying a weight that seemed to suppress all before it. The Flame at its tip was as scorching as the sun, constantly burning away his sanguine light.

Even more terrifying was his opponent’s combat intuition.

No matter how Wu Qige changed his tactics or laid traps, the other man always found the perfect counter with unerring precision.

It felt less like a battle and more like a performance, one that had been rehearsed countless times.

"Just who in the hell are you?" Wu Qige roared, his claws tearing through the air. Ten crisscrossing blades of blood-red light shot toward Xu Wuyi.

Xu Wuyi swept his spear, the Dark Gold Flame forming a firewall that incinerated the blades of light. Seizing the opening, he lunged forward, thrusting the spear’s tip straight at Wu Qige’s heart.

Wu Qige bellowed as the blood-red light behind him flared, forming the illusion of a three-headed Celestial Wolf. Though not as solid as the manifestations of true Divine Beings, its ferocious aura was no less potent.

The six eyes of the Celestial Wolf Illusion snapped open, spewing three blasts of blood-red breath.

Xu Wuyi’s footwork was a blur. He sidestepped like a coiling dragon, evading two of the blasts and shattering the third with a flick of his spear.

But Wu Qige seized this fleeting opportunity. He clasped his claws together, and the dark red light condensed into a fist-sized sphere of blood that he blasted toward Xu Wuyi’s chest.

The attack was too fast, the distance too short.

Xu Wuyi had no time to bring his spear back to block. He could only clench his left fist, gather the dark gold Qi and Blood at his knuckles, and meet the blow head-on.

BOOM—!

The sphere of blood exploded. The force sent Xu Wuyi sliding back more than ten meters. His left sleeve was shredded, revealing several gashes on his arm so deep that bone was visible. Like living things, tendrils of dark red light burrowed into his wounds.

Wu Qige hadn’t escaped unscathed. Though Xu Wuyi’s punch had been hastily thrown, the mountain-like intent within it had sent Wu Qige’s own Qi and Blood into turmoil. A sweet taste filled his throat, and he had to force himself to swallow the blood that rose.

They locked eyes across the distance, each seeing the murderous intent in the other’s gaze.

But just then, the other two Divine Sons finished dealing with the distraction from Chen Yuan and Lin Jue. They lunged for Hong Nianyi and You Sicheng.

Chen Yuan was already wounded, a deep gash from a Sword Gang on his left leg impeding his movement. Lin Jue was nearly out of Rune Squares and could barely hold his ground.

Hong Nianyi and You Sicheng were combat-ineffective, about to be slain where they stood.

A cold glint flashed in Xu Wuyi’s eyes.

He would hold back no longer.

Within his sea of consciousness, the Dark Gold Mountain Body thrummed, and the Golden Crow Illusion spread its wings with a piercing cry.

The Power of his Heart Image erupted in full. A column of dark gold light shot from his body, coalescing in the air into the majestic silhouette of a ten-meter-tall mountain.

Atop its peak, the Golden Crow spread its wings, its incandescent Flame illuminating half the sky.

Heart Image Manifestation!

Even though it had yet to fully manifest in the physical world, the oppressive weight that suppressed all things and the searing heat that could incinerate creation were enough to make Wu Qige’s expression fall.

"Stop him!" Wu Qige roared, taking the lead and charging Xu Wuyi.

The other two Divine Sons abandoned their pursuit of Hong Nianyi and also turned to charge Xu Wuyi.

They could sense this human was about to put his life on the line. The power of an Innate Level expert fighting to the death was not something any of them could withstand alone.

The three Divine Sons formed a triangular pincer. Their dark red auras merged, transforming into a gigantic wolf’s head made of blood, which opened its maw to devour Xu Wuyi.

Xu Wuyi did not retreat.

He gripped the spear with both hands. The Dark Gold Flame on its shaft spun wildly, then was compressed entirely into the tip. A point of incandescent white light ignited there, like a sun rising in the darkness.

Golden Crow Carrying the Earth—Heaven-Burning Strike!

He thrust the spear.

There was no sound, no brilliant flash heralding the attack.

There was only the incandescent point of the spear tip and the blood-red wolf’s head, formed from the combined power of the three Divine Sons, colliding in the next instant.

For a split second, time seemed to freeze.

And then—

BOOOOOOM—!!!

A terrifying explosion ripped outward from the point of impact.

Dark Gold Flame and dark red bloodlight consumed one another in mutual Annihilation. The shockwave blasted away all the rock within a three-hundred-meter radius, the ground collapsing to form a giant crater fifty meters in diameter.

Three figures were sent flying out of the billowing dust.

It was the three Divine Sons.

Wu Qige was in the worst condition. The Bone Armor on his chest was shattered and dripping with blood. His left arm hung limply, clearly broken. The other two Divine Sons were also coughing up blood, their auras faint and depleted.

Xu Wuyi stood in the center of the crater, using his spear to remain upright.

He was in terrible shape.

Forcibly manifesting his Heart Image and unleashing the Heaven-Burning Strike had drained nearly all of his Qi and Blood and Spirit. A searing pain coursed through his meridians. In his sea of consciousness, the mountain silhouette had dimmed, and the Golden Crow Illusion had grown faint.

But he was still standing.

"Go!" Xu Wuyi rasped.

Gritting her teeth, Hong Nianyi helped You Sicheng to his feet. Chen Yuan and Lin Jue supported each other as the group of five fled north at full speed.

Wu Qige tried to give chase, but after a single step, he coughed up a large mouthful of blood. The lingering power of the Heaven-Burning Strike was still ravaging his body; forcibly circulating his own energy would only worsen his injuries.

He could only watch helplessly as their five figures vanished into the darkness.

"Should we pursue?" one of the Divine Sons asked, struggling to his feet.

Wu Qige stared intently in the direction they had fled. After a long moment, he finally ground out, "We can’t catch them... They must have a ship."

Beneath the dark red sky, the stench of blood drifted on the wind.

「Three hundred kilometers away, deep within a mountain range.」

A silver-gray, shuttle-shaped aircraft was parked in a hidden valley.

This was the escape route Pan Yan had arranged in advance. It was equipped with a short-range spatial jump drive, powerful enough to return them to the edge of the Star Realm controlled by the Federation.