Chapter 33: Chapter 30 Martial Spirit Breaks Ground_1
Lu Yan frowned, saying, "Young Master, if I give you the jade stone, I will fall into an illusion."
"Rest assured, when Wu Chaokong and I break those three figures, we will take you with us. As a direct descendant of the Liu Family, don’t you trust me?"
Liu Xingren said, while edging closer to Lu Yan, indicating that if Lu Yan does not hand over the jade, he might forcefully take it.
"As if I would trust you."
Lu Yan thought to himself.
He was certain that as soon as Liu Xingren breaks free, he would prioritize escaping, rather than bring him along.
Nevertheless, he prepared to hand over the jade stone to Liu Xingren.
The reason being, if he wants to leave this place, he would need external help.
Anyway, even without the jade stone, he would not genuinely fall into the illusion.
After Liu Xingren and Wu Chaokong team up to break the three figures, he can escape amidst the chaos.
Staying here for even a moment longer increases his danger. Who knows what the Martial Spirit has in store? Or if the Martial Spirit’s true form breaks free, they are likely to perish here.
"Young Master, here you go."
Lu Yan waved his hand and tossed the jade stone at Liu Xingren.
Roar...
The Martial Spirit below the altar seemed to have sensed something, letting out a tyrannical roar. Following that, the ground began to tremble slightly.
"Not good, that Martial Spirit wants to break through the ground and come out."
Liu Xingren’s face changed.
Suddenly, Liu Xingren marched towards Lu Yan intending to grab his neck.
"Go over there and find a way to hold off the Martial Spirit."
Liu Xingren’s gaze was cold and his strikes as swift as lightning.
Lu Yan’s face darkened. Faced with this attack, he could only respond in kind, else, he would be thrown towards the Martial Spirit by the opponent.
He executed Gale Hand, and his palm cut across Liu Xingren’s palm.
With a bang, Liu Xingren’s attack was deflected, and Lu Yan seized the opportunity to retreat and increase the distance between him and Liu Xingren.
"Lu Yan, you indeed concealed your strength. You are harboring ill intentions by staying in the Red-clad Guard, today I will kill you."
Liu Xingren was murderous. His Qi-blood stirred, and red scales appeared on his arms and palms.
An elite martial arts technique, the Tian Gang Red Scale Palm.
He rushed towards Lu Yan, swinging his palms relentlessly at him.
Actually, he had begun to doubt Lu Yan before.
Seeing the state of others — mindlessly attacking while in the illusion, he too would be alike when in the illusion.
He was very clear about his strength. Approaching him while he was in a frenzied state and delivering the jade stone was not easy. One could not do it without significant strength.
This was inconsistent with what Lu Yan had shown.
Lu Yan burst forth with all his strength to resist.
However, there was still a significant gap between him and Liu Xingren. After barely withstanding three moves, he felt a severe pain in his hand. He vaguely felt his hand bones developing cracks.
The pain made him slow down; Liu Xingren seized the opportunity and hit his chest with a palm.
Lu Yan was sent flying back over ten meters, heavily crashing onto the ground. He coughed up a mouthful of blood, twitched a few times, and then lay motionless.
Liu Xingren frowned, he felt something strange about the blow. He approached to investigate and aimed to deliver another strike.
Roar...
At this moment, the roar of the Martial Spirit became even more savage. The ground not far from the altar bulged, indicating the imminent emergence of the Martial Spirit.
The reason the Martial Spirit did not spring out directly from the altar was probably to avoid disrupting the ’Demonizing Ceremony’.
There was no time left.
Liu Xingren’s complexion changed. He couldn’t go upfront now and quickly dashed towards Wu Chaokong. After exchanging a move with Wu Chaokong, he successfully thrust a jade piece into Wu Chaokong’s chest.
Wu Chaokong instantly regained consciousness.
"We are trapped in an illusion, and the Martial Spirit’s true form is about to emerge, let’s break through together."
Liu Xingren quickly explained.
Wu Chaokong had his doubts, but he was decisive. He quickly joined Liu Xingren and rushed towards the camp gate.
The three figures instantly pounced towards Liu Xingren and Wu Chaokong.
At the altar, with a loud thunderous sound, debris spurted out. The Martial Spirit emerged, roaring and rushing towards Liu Xingren and Wu Chaokong.
In only ten breaths, the Martial Spirit had approached and launched a fierce attack.
And those three figures merged with the Martial Spirit, enhancing its power.
Liu Xingren and Wu Chaokong fought with all their strength against the Martial Spirit.
At this moment, Lu Yan secretly got up.
"That really hurt."
He rubbed his chest.
Of course, Lu Yan had been pretending all this time.
Now, with the Martial Spirit tangled with Liu Xingren and Wu Chaokong, he could seize the opportunity to slip away unnoticed. That’s the best strategy for him.
Of course, it’s not to say that he could really take a straight hit from Liu Xingren and be fine; he wasn’t capable of that yet.
Knowing that he had to go into the mountains to suppress bandits, he had made preparations in advance and bought a half-body armor made entirely of iron, which could protect his chest and abdomen.
To be safe, Lu Yan also layered two pieces of wild buffalo hide outside the armor.
He unbuttoned his outer garment and found the buffalo hide had been punctured. There was a handprint on the surface of the armor, which was deeply indented, almost breaking Lu Yan’s sternum.
Without the armor, this palm strike could have pierced his heart.
This was also why Lu Yan dared to attempt confrontation with Liu Xingren after testing his strength through a few exchanges.
Of course, this plan was not foolproof either.
For instance, if the Martial Spirit had emerged a bit later and Liu Xingren had attempted to ’finish him off’, Lu Yan would have had to fight with all his might.
The pair of sleeve arrows hidden in his sleeve and the two packets of chili powder he carried should also come in handy, he believed.
Lu Yan stood up and glanced in the direction of the fierce battle.
At a glance, his pupils suddenly contracted.
It was that Martial Spirit.
Lu Yan recognized it at once: this Martial Spirit was the same one he had encountered in Kaoshan Village.
Only its appearance had changed somewhat.
The skull bulging from its chest was even more ferocious and it had two more arms than last time.
The extra two arms did not look like human hands; they were covered with pitch-black scales, and their long nails were sharp as knives.
The Martial Spirit’s original two arms, however, had shrunk a lot, looking like the dried-up arms of a baby.
Its whole body radiated an overpowering black force, which was stronger than last time, forcing Liu Xingren and Wu Chaokong into a desperate retreat.
Lu Yan didn’t dare to look any longer. He quietly made his way further into the mountain stronghold.
The stronghold was built in a mountain valley, where the terrain was treacherous, and the entrance was the mouth of the valley. Both sides were cliffs and so was the depth of the stronghold.
But now, the entrance was a battlefield, and he certainly couldn’t go that way. Lu Yan planned to escape from the cliffs at the depth of the stronghold.
With his current strength, climbing cliffs was not an issue.
But this depended on the Martial Spirit being preoccupied.
Otherwise, if he was halfway up the mountain and the Martial Spirit conjured up that shadowy figure to launch a stealth attack, he would undoubtedly die.
Lu Yan quickly arrived at the depth of the stronghold and stopped in front of a stone house.
There were quite a few buildings in the stronghold, but most of them were built from wood or bamboo. This was the only one built with stone.
"Could this be the bandit leader’s house?"
Moved by this thought, Lu Yan went inside.
Before long, Lu Yan pulled out several large boxes from under the bed.
Upon opening them, he was met by a dazzling gleam of silver.
Two of the boxes were filled with silver ingots, which together were probably worth more than five thousand taels.
The Red Sleeve Army really had accumulated quite a fortune from their raids.
The third box was smaller and contained silver tickets and a book.
When he picked up the book, Lu Yan was overjoyed.
The book was a secret martial arts manual, and it was a second-rate martial arts technique - Vajra Body.
It was said that the leader of the bandits was a master who had broken the limit five times. The martial arts he cultivated were naturally second-rate, and this was probably that manual.
Lu Yan put it directly into his breast pocket and then emptied all the silver tickets from the box into his pocket.
However, upon further thought, Lu Yan took out a small portion of the silver tickets and placed them back into the box.
He certainly couldn’t carry away the silver ingots.
The silver tickets could all be taken away, but the emergence of the Martial Spirit here, regardless of whether Liu Xingren and Wu Chaokong could escape or not, would later alarm the bone-level Martial Marquis of two great feudal lords.
The silver taels here would naturally be exposed.
If only silver ingots were found but no silver tickets, it would likely arouse suspicion and cause trouble in a thorough investigation.
Returning a small portion of the silver tickets would avoid this problem.
After all, outsiders didn’t know how many silver notes were here, having some would be enough.
Having covered the boxes and pushed them back under the bed, Lu Yan walked out and quickly arrived at the cliff face.
Selecting a relatively easy place to climb, Lu Yan spurred on his Qi-blood and started climbing swiftly. He was as nimble as a monkey.
Within the time it took to drink a cup of tea, Lu Yan had climbed to the top of the cliff and ran wildly towards the outside of the mountain.
Only after he was more than ten miles away from the stronghold did Lu Yan stop. He found a discreet place and began to circulate his Qi-blood to heal his injuries.
After exchanging a few blows with Liu Xingren, his hands were still throbbing with pain; there must have been fractures.
If he did not treat his injuries promptly, they could become a chronic issue and affect his future cultivation.
Fortunately, he had managed to open up several side channels in his hands, enabling his Qi-blood to penetrate deeply.
Under the permeation and tempering of the Qi-blood, the fractures in his hand bones were slowly healing. A few hours later, he no longer felt any pain.
PS—
I impulsively released a Chapter in the early morning, and now I’m releasing another one. I need to express my heartfelt thanks to "It’s Little Mao" for the donation of a Silver Hierarch - you are so generous! This is the first time I’ve received a Silver Hierarch, and I was so thrilled, I didn’t sleep well all night.
