Chapter 81: Chapter 79: A Life for a Life
First came the brutal prelude, followed by the most arduous battle, and now, a perilous fight where life and death hung in the balance!
Ding Xiaodao’s gaze was fixed on Jiang Jichen, his mind in turmoil.
Just now, when Jiang Jichen had executed that saber strike, he had actually sensed the aura of the Celestial Saber.
"Blood Saber Cuts Green Threads; Wordless Before the Heavens!"
’This is one of the most guarded Secret Techniques of the Ancient Saber Family. Why can he use it? Could he be one of them?’
At that moment, Ding Xiaodao’s mind was flooded with countless questions.
The Sword Intent behind Jiang Jichen’s saber strike just now had actually surpassed his own.
Jiang Jichen then retrieved an ancient sword from his Storage Bag. He dragged the longsword behind him, taking one step at a time, carving a long gash into the snow!
His steps were faltering and unsteady. He looked like he could collapse at any moment, appearing utterly frail.
From five meters away, two cultivators—one at the Innate First Realm Perfect Realm, the other at the Innate Second Realm Perfect Realm—lunged, their Treasure Swords stabbing from cunning angles.
Jiang Jichen shifted his body slightly, avoiding vital spots, and let the two longswords pierce his shoulders!
Blood splattered, and two new wounds appeared on his shoulders.
But Jiang Jichen didn’t even frown. His muscles clenched, trapping the two longswords so the assassins couldn’t pull them free. With a single slash of his own sword, two heads flew into the air, leaving two headless corpses on the snow.
He was directly trading injury for life. In his normal state, why would Jiang Jichen need to go to such lengths to kill two Spirit Cultivators of the Innate First and Second Realm?
This showed that he was truly so weak that he could only trade injury for life. Soon, all that would be left was trading life for life.
However, just as Jiang Jichen had slain the two men, a nearby snowdrift exploded. Three figures shot into the air, their longswords flashing with a deadly glint as they stabbed toward his vital points.
This time, Jiang Jichen barely managed to execute Shadow Step. He avoided the fatal blows but was still struck three times.
His left chest, left thigh, and right arm!
But Jiang Jichen’s expression was as cold as thousand-year-old ice. His longsword flashed, and in an instant, he unleashed three strikes of his Life-taking Sword Technique.
PFFT! PFFT! PFFT!
The three ambushers’ hearts were pierced almost simultaneously, and they became cold corpses in an instant!
The freezing wind was too cold, the snow too heavy. Before the blood could even well up from Jiang Jichen’s wounds, they were already frozen shut.
His body had grown somewhat stiff, but the moment he moved to kill, he was still incredibly swift—fast to an extreme.
This scene made the hearts of those blocking his path ahead, or those lurking in the Darkness, grow cold with fear.
But the Storage Bag at Jiang Jichen’s waist was so conspicuous that people were willing to risk their lives to snatch it.
After walking a thousand meters, Jiang Jichen had twelve more wounds on his body, but at the same time, there were twelve more corpses on the ground.
His body was covered in wounds, not a single spot left unscathed. Even a Body Cultivator would absolutely be unable to endure this.
But Jiang Jichen possessed an unquenchable will and the conviction of his own invincibility.
Many times, everyone thought he was about to collapse, that he was about to die, but he remained standing.
His steps were staggering, his figure weary, but in the eyes of the crowd, he appeared incredibly tall and insurmountable!
At the two-thousand-meter mark, Jiang Jichen encountered a fearsome enemy: an expert at the Innate Third Realm Perfect Realm.
"You’re going to die!"
The old man at the Innate Third Realm Perfect Realm spoke coldly, pronouncing Jiang Jichen’s death sentence.
Before this, he had held back and not acted. In the entire Ice Dragon Valley, he was perhaps the last expert at the Innate Third Realm Perfect Realm.
At this very moment, killing Jiang Jichen should be as easy as crushing an ant.
But at that moment, Jiang Jichen’s speed suddenly erupted. Without a word, he took the initiative and charged toward the old man of the Innate Third Realm Perfect Realm.
The old man’s eyes narrowed. Just as he was about to react, he discovered that Jiang Jichen had already latched onto him.
In that split second, Jiang Jichen had, with no regard for his own life, used a Secret Skill. He unleashed a burst of speed and grabbed the Innate Third Realm Perfect Realm elder before the man could react.
At that moment, the elder saw a deathly serenity in Jiang Jichen’s eyes. There was nothing else.
’He’s going to trade his life for mine!’
The Innate Third Realm Perfect Realm elder understood in an instant. His heart jolted in alarm as he felt the Spiritual Power in Jiang Jichen’s body roil—he was going to self-destruct!
The self-destruction of an Innate Realm Spirit Cultivator who possessed a Golden Qi Sea was enough to inflict Destruction upon any Innate Fifth Realm cultivator caught at close range.
Before, Jiang Jichen was trading injury for life, gambling his life away. Now, he was even more ruthless, directly trading life for life!
"Don’t! I’ll back down!"
Feeling the threat of death, the Innate Third Realm Perfect Realm elder immediately surrendered.
Jiang Jichen calmly released him, then said in a flat voice, "I can still use that Speed Secret Technique one more time!"
Hearing Jiang Jichen’s words, the Innate Third Realm Perfect Realm elder, who had been about to strike with thunderous momentum, forcefully held himself back.
His meaning was clear: don’t force him to use that Speed Secret Technique one last time, because then, mutual destruction would be inevitable.
And the Innate Third Realm Perfect Realm elder had no confidence at all that he could be faster than Jiang Jichen using the Speed Secret Technique, because he had already witnessed it.
"Fine. Even if I don’t act, you won’t make it to the end!"
The Innate Third Realm Perfect Realm elder uttered a final threat and quickly retreated!
Jiang Jichen continued forward, and no one else dared to block his path.
Until he walked into an Ice Forest.
CLANG!
A cold light flared. Amidst a blur of Sword Shadows, eight beams of Sword Light shot out from the Ice Forest without warning, aimed straight at Jiang Jichen.
Jiang Jichen’s expression was indifferent. With his extraordinary Soul Divine Sense, how could their ambush possibly escape his notice?
Fortunately, the eight ambushers’ Cultivation was not high; they were only at the Innate First Realm!
Jiang Jichen took a few casual steps, weaving between the beams of Sword Light, always managing to just barely dodge them.
"Eight-direction Wind and Rain Sword!"
The longsword danced lightly, its Sword Shadow swaying. Like the Eight-direction Wind and Rain, it swept in from far and near, in an instant filling the entire space.
The sword strikes fell like wind and rain, seemingly chaotic and without pattern, yet they were all filled with the essence of Natural Daoist Skill and Heaven and Earth Dao Charm.
For this Sword Skill, Jiang Jichen used no Spiritual Power, because he had very little left to draw upon.
But the power of the Sword Skill was terrifyingly potent, for he had just entered the Sword Dao Mysterious Realm!
Spiritless Sword Skill, every move takes a life...
PFFT! PFFT! PFFT...
There was no flow of Spiritual Power, yet the Sword Aura slit the throats of the eight Innate First Realm Spirit Cultivators, one by one.
Haaaah!
With the eight Innate First Realm Cultivators finally killed, Jiang Jichen felt as if all the strength had been drained from his body. It was his weakest moment, when his old strength was spent and new strength had yet to rise. He had just let out a breath of relief.
But just then, from within the Ice Forest, a cyan Forbidden Artifact, a figure clad in black, and a Qingyi old woman suddenly attacked Jiang Jichen from three different directions.
