According to Ten Thousand Demons Ridge’s calculations, Lu Ye should enter a mountain valley in four hours based on his current pace.
Although the terrain there isn’t as good as the canyon they had just passed, it’s still quite suitable for forming an encirclement.
Messages were relayed, and many cultivators from Ten Thousand Demons Ridge rushed towards the valley to prepare for an ambush. Once Lu Ye entered the valley and accepted the challenge, as long as Zhu Pang could hold on for one incense stick’s time, the encirclement would form. At that point, even if Lu Ye had extraordinary abilities, he wouldn’t be able to break out of it. The only thing awaiting him would be death!
The plan of Ten Thousand Demons Ridge was well thought out...
However, after just two hours, new information emerged.
"Zhu Pang has entered the combat field!"
"What? Lu Yiye didn’t wait for the full four hours? Where is he now?"
Once they figured out Lu Ye’s location, they were all dumbfounded.
The place where Lu Ye had been was actually an open plain—a vast flatland!
This kind of terrain was clearly not suitable for an ambush.
"He must have realized something. Hurry, hurry, hurry! We don’t know how long Zhu Pang can last. Send people to Lu Yiye’s current location immediately."
The people of Ten Thousand Demons Ridge weren’t foolish; by choosing to enter the combat field from a plain, it was without a doubt that Lu Ye was on guard.
The best approach now was to quickly encircle him and form a tight ring before the fight between Lu Yiye and Zhu Pang ended. That way, they could still get the job done.
A large number of cultivators from Ten Thousand Demons Ridge hastily took action, feeling incredibly frustrated. It was supposed to be an opportunity for them to covertly plot against Lu Yiye, but now, somehow, it seemed as if they were being led by the nose!
While the cultivators of Ten Thousand Demons Ridge hurriedly mobilized, Lu Ye and Zhu Pang simultaneously appeared within a few dozen Zhang radius in the combat field.
Logically speaking, since Lu Ye had sensed the intentions of Ten Thousand Demons Ridge, the safest response to such a challenge would naturally be to decline.
But if he truly declined, others would challenge him until he was driven off the Spirit Stream Ranking!
If that were to happen, he would have to start the whole process of climbing the rankings again, and a month’s worth of accumulated effort to receive Heaven’s Augury’s reward would all be in vain.
That’s why Lu Ye had accepted the challenge. As long as he could win this battle, no one would be able to challenge him after that, and the female archery cultivator and Spectral Shadow certainly wouldn’t seek trouble without cause.
However, to avoid being truly surrounded by the people from Ten Thousand Demons Ridge, Lu Ye had to decide quickly; a swift victory was required to not give Ten Thousand Demons Ridge any chance to take advantage.
As the white light in his vision dispersed, Lu Ye immediately spotted the tall figure not far ahead.
During his last ranking battle, Lu Ye hadn’t actually crossed hands with this Zhu Pang because the latter had directly declined the challenge. At that time, Zhu Pang was ranked in the thirties, and Lu Ye didn’t know how he managed to rise to the sixth spot in such a short amount of time.
In the Spirit Stream battlefield, the origin magnetic ore howled and force fields ran wild, causing the spirit force in a cultivator’s body to be restricted.
But in this combat field, they were unaffected.
Without any words, Lu Ye first carefully stored the saber skills manual that his third senior brother gave him into the storage sack and then stimulated the Move-Like-The-Wind Spirit Runes to enhance his legs. Leaving a trail of afterimages behind him, he charged straight towards Zhu Pang.
Zhu Pang seemed to want to greet Lu Ye and stall for time, but seeing Lu Ye come at him with such an imposing manner, he dared not waste words.
With a clattering sound, a strange and rare object draped around him. It looked like a mechanism with a massive round disc on the back. From the two sides of the disc extended four mechanical arms, two on each side, each arm grappling a Spiritual Artifact.
Ordinarily, these mechanical arms should hold different types of Spiritual Artifacts to increase lethality, but at this moment, Zhu Pang had exchanged them all for big shields. Not only that, but he also gripped an even larger shield in his two hands, twice the size of the others, nearly capable of hiding his burly figure.
Considering the mechanical shield on his back and the shields in front and behind, a total of six defensive spirit artifacts surrounded him tightly!
Lu Ye had never encountered such an opponent before; this guy was clearly determined to take defense to the extreme! The intention to stall for time was too obvious.
Moreover, this was the first time Lu Ye had seen a cover armorer on the Spirit Stream Ranking.
This Zhu Pang was not only a physique cultivator but also a cover armorer—a combination of both schools that made his defenses impenetrable.
Undeniably, when Zhu Pang brought out the cover armorer’s creation, Lu Ye was intrigued since the mechanical arms appeared fearsome, like spiders’ limbs, but were incredibly intricate at the same time.
Among cover armorer schools, this type of creation had a collective name: cover armor.
Zhu Pang’s cover armor was clearly the half-body type, as it only covered the upper body. Lu Ye knew that in the Nine Provinces, cover armorers could make full-body cover armor.
That was the kind of cover armor that could completely envelop a cultivator. There were humanoid cover armors and even beast-shaped ones!
Lu Ye had seen these things in books he took from Madam Yun, and since cover armor was filled with numerous spirit runes inside, creating a good set of cover armor required learning suitable spirit runes first.
At the time, Lu Ye had taken a great interest in cover armor but understood that biting off more than one could chew was folly, so he hadn’t devoted much attention to it.
Now, as Zhu Pang donned the cover armor, it was fair to say that he was the person with the strongest defense on the entire Spirit Stream Ranking.
In an instant, Lu Ye reached Zhu Pang’s front, leapt high into the air, unsheathed the Boulder Mountain Saber, and with fiery red spirit light climbing on it, he slashed down.
Spirit force crazily poured into the Boulder Mountain Saber.
Single Flash!
For this strike, Lu Ye utilized saber skills that he was not yet proficient in.
Facing such an opponent who interpreted defense to the extreme, only the most ferocious attack could slay him in the shortest time!
Zhu Pang’s mechanical arm brought up a shield to block his front, and as he stimulated his spirit force, the shield lit up with spirit light, clearly also going all out.
"Roar!" Amber bellowed.
When Lu Ye had previously fought on the rankings, Amber only used Tiger Roar Intimidation when the enemy tried to concede, but this time it knew the need for a swift victory, so it started coordinating with Lu Ye from the beginning.
The sound waves, visible to the naked eye, slammed hard on Zhu Pang’s body, shaking his frame slightly and causing the spirit light on the raised shield to dim a bit.
This was clearly an impact of Amber’s howl, resulting in some sluggishness in the circulation of his spirit force.
With a boom, the Boulder Mountain Saber struck the spiritual shield, and the brute force of the blow caused Zhu Pang’s stature to buckle slightly, nearly kneeling to the ground, while simultaneously, with a clattering snap, the spiritual shield shattered into pieces.
Even the mechanical arm holding the shield was smashed!
Zhu Pang was absolutely horrified!
The last time he was challenged by Lu Ye, he had directly refused because he was under the guidance of a Master Uncle from his sect, crafting his half cover armor, and at that time, he had no confidence in fighting Lu Ye, and his ranking wasn’t that high.
After completing the half cover armor, Zhu Pang’s strength greatly increased, and he rose rapidly on the Spirit Stream Ranking, charging from over thirtieth all the way to the sixth place, qualifying him to challenge Lu Ye.
When he challenged Lu Ye, he was confident he could at least delay Lu Ye for the time of one incense stick’s burning, but as Lu Ye’s saber came slashing down, that confidence was shattered!
A defensive spirit artifact of nine prohibitions was split by someone’s single slash, along with the mechanical arm becoming useless—was this a blow that a Spirit Stream Realm cultivator could deliver?
He now only felt fortunate that he hadn’t underestimated his opponent; in activating the cover armor, he hadn’t used any offensive spiritual artifacts, but had chosen all defensive ones instead, otherwise there would truly be no need to fight at all.
In the moment Zhu Pang was distracted, Lu Ye slashed down with another saber strike!
The same imperfect Single Flash Saber Technique!
Zhu Pang reacted extremely fast, hurriedly raising another shield to block.
With another clatter, the second shield was shattered, and the second mechanical arm was ruined.
Zhu Pang’s heart bled!
A substantial part of his strength was in this cover armor; with two mechanical arms out of commission, his power was reduced by at least twenty percent, not to mention the substantial cost to repair the armor later.
After two slashes, Lu Ye’s arm, wielding the saber, began to throb with pain.
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This imperfect saber technique put an enormous strain on him; during his practice, Lu Ye would rest for a long time after each slash before releasing a second one.
Executing two consecutive slashes without a break, he was no longer able to perform the same third strike; otherwise, his entire arm might lose power, or even worse, sustain a discreet injury.
However, the shattering of two shields had already exposed a flaw in Zhu Pang’s airtight defense.
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In mid-air, Lu Ye raised a finger, and as spirit force surged, a fiery red Vermillion Bird quickly took shape in front of him and charged toward the breach in the defense.
Zhu Pang saw trouble coming and hurriedly tried to dodge aside; yet, at that moment, the Tiger Roar reverberated, causing his body to falter slightly, and the Fire Phoenix Technique was already upon him.
With no other choice, he had to use a shield to block in front, and as the figure of the Vermillion Bird collided with the shield, a blaze erupted, sending out a scent of singed flesh and Zhu Pang’s muffled groan.
Lu Ye discovered that with the opponent wearing half cover armor and bolstered by his strong physique as a physique cultivator, the defense was indeed formidable, but correspondingly, his agility was lacking. Against a combat cultivator like himself, if one couldn’t defend against the attacks, it was easy to suffer a loss.
At this moment, employing weapon control wasn’t the best tactic; it was better to use magic and spells because their power could more easily penetrate the opponent’s defenses.
Lu Ye had already swept to Zhu Pang’s side, and the heavy footsteps made Zhu Pang wary; he quickly turned his defense in that direction, wanting to block the attack coming from Lu Ye.
However, just then, Amber’s nimble figure had already pounced, and a huge tiger paw slammed onto a shield, causing Zhu Pang’s body to stagger.
Amber’s abilities were never limited to Tiger Roar Intimidation; it was a powerful ferocious beast with a metallic element Demon Origin that underscored its murderous nature.
However, there had rarely been a need for it to take action until now; generally, when facing an enemy, Lu Ye could handle it himself, and if Lu Ye couldn’t, Amber’s intervention would be futile.
But this time was different; Lu Ye needed to resolve this defensively enhanced opponent in the shortest time possible, and that’s where Amber had room to shine.