Chapter 126: Something is Wrong
Without revealing his discomfort, Yu Nianzhen pulled his sword back.
He circulated his qi along his nine divine meridians, and the numbness in his right hand disappeared.
"How was it?" The opponent asked.
His voice was filled with mockery, but Yu Nianzhen wasn’t worried.
Although the previous collision took him by surprise, it wasn’t enough to make him cautious.
"Average."
After saying that, he swung his sword, but his attack was different this time.
The opponent also felt the difference and chose to evade rather than block.
’What was that?’ The person wondered.
He gripped his ruler tighter, and his eyes turned solemn.
From the previous collision, he felt he had the upper hand.
However, the last attack told him he had underestimated the enemy.
’I will aim for a quick fight.’ He thought and swung his ruler.
When he attacked, the cultivator from the Death Flower Ascension Front did not hold his hand.
He coated his weapon with half his qi, and the end of the ruler suddenly gained a pointed tip.
In this way, the ruler resembled a sword, and its sharpness was only slightly inferior.
However, where it lacked in sharpness, it made up in weight, and the attack felt like a mountain falling on Yu Nianzhen.
’This is the importance of having a heavy weapon.’
Yu Nianzhen sighed but didn’t panic.
He mobilised his sword intent, and a sword barrier appeared in front of him.
When the ruler’s attack struck it, the barrier distorted but did not collapse.
Rather, waves rippled from the point of attack and spread all over the barrier.
A moment later, the barrier regained its shape, and the ruler’s attack dissipated.
’My understanding of the soft water sword art is still lacking.’ Yu Nianzhen observed as the barrier disappeared.
The soft water sword art used softness to counteract hardness which was why it was the best defensive sword art in his arsenal.
However, the soft water sword art was only a low-grade silver rank martial art.
Unless he comprehended a mature intent, the barrier couldn’t counteract the opponent’s attack.
Fortunately, Yu Nianzhen had grasped a little of its intent.
This little bit was only enough to slightly strengthen the soft water sword art, but Yu Nianzhen’s swordsmanship had long begun to shift from sword arts to sword intent.
As soon as he understood some of the soft water sword intent, he integrated it into his existing sword intent.
Before this integration, his body’s sword intent was heavily influenced by the intent of the drifting wind sword art.
Because of this, it was sharp and swift but lacked malleability.
This lack was slightly corrected by the intent of the soft water sword art, but there was still a long way to go.
’I need to work harder.’ He thought and swung his sword.
A silver sword light rushed toward the opponent, and the person stared at it in horror.
He wanted to evade or block, but for some reason, he was rooted to the ground.
He could only watch as the light grew larger before his eyes.
In less than half a breath, the light penetrated between his brows, and his breath immediately ceased.
At the same time, Yu Nianzhen looked at the sword in his hand and frowned.
’As expected, it’s taxing.’ He thought and turned to Jiang Yue.
Jiang Yue was dealing with the remaining two enemies, but Yu Nianzhen did not try to help.
He just watched keenly as the other dealt with his opponents and made sure that other enemies would not take an opportunity to sneak attack.
When Jiang Yue was done, he walked a few metres and stood beside Yu Nianzhen.
Although he won his fight, he was frowning, and something was clearly on his mind.
"What’s the matter?" Yu Nianzhen asked.
Jiang Yue did not answer right away, and his face was contemplative.
"Do you feel there is something wrong?" He finally asked.
"Something wrong? With the enemy?"
Yu Nianzhen looked around but didn’t notice anything strange.
The task members were still fighting the Death Flower Ascension Front, Jin Xuan was still hiding, and some random cultivators were trying to break the formation.
Everything was as expected, and Yu Nianzhen didn’t feel any omen of coming danger.
"Not exactly..." Jiang Yue trailed, and his face grew uglier.
"I feel that something is wrong, but I can put my finger on it."
The two fell silent for a moment.
They both considered everything again, but they still couldn’t come up with a reason for Jiang Yue’s feeling of wrongness.
"Don’t think about it for the time being." Yu Nianzhen said.
Although instincts were important, their current situation was chaotic.
They couldn’t spend too much time dwelling on the feeling, instead of dealing with the enemy.
"You are right."
After that, the two immersed themselves in the battle.
Although they fought different enemies, they stayed within sight of each other.
In this way, they would step in if the other was in danger.
However, the enemies were numerous, but the quality was only so-so.
Other than the first opponent who used a ruler, Yu Nianzhen didn’t need to exert himself.
He could eliminate every enemy with one or two swings of his sword, while Jiang Yue needed three or four swings of his whip.
Nevertheless, qi consumption could not be avoided.
Once in a while, they would swallow a pill to replenish qi and slowly refine it as they continued to fight.
’I will need a body cleansing pill afterwards.’ Jiang Yue lamented.’
Although small impurities weren’t too harmful to his cultivation, he didn’t dare to allow too much pill sediment to accumulate in his body.
If they continued to accumulate, there was a chance they would sip into his marrows and blood.
Body cleansing at that time would be difficult, and he didn’t want to go through the trouble.
At this time, Jiang Yue turned about and saw Bei Chengling looking at the formation with a solemn face.
When he saw this, a thought flashed in his mind, but it was too fast, and he couldn’t grasp it.
’Forget it.’ He sighed.
After taking his mind off the unknown feeling, he took a good look at Bei Chengling.
"Is it better to attack him after he breaks the formation?" He looked at Yu Nianzhen when he asked this question.
"What do you think?"
Yu Nianzhen frowned.
On one hand, Bei Chengling was the best formation master in the secret realm.
Allowing him to break the formation would make things easy and save a lot of time.
However, if they allowed him to do this, things could easily go out of control.
There was a chance that the Death Flower Ascension Front would grab the purple crystal herb and the spirit rank herbs within the formation.
If they were not careful, their hard work would come to nought.
"...or we can let him decipher it and attack him before he breaks the last node." Jiang Yue suggested.
"This method is not good." Yu Nianzhen said as soon as he heard the suggestion
If they did it according to Jiang Yue’s plan, they would be tied up fighting Bei Chengling.
This would give others a chance to fish in troubled water.
Yu Nianzhen didn’t want to do such thankless work.
He wanted to have his cake and eat it too.
Ideally, he would capture Bei Chengling alive and find a way to divide some part of the purple crystal herb.
"You are right."
After thinking about it, Jiang Yue also saw the rationale for not following his plan.
However, he was still restless.
He felt like he was overlooking something very important, and it annoyed him that he couldn’t figure it out.
"Calm down first. It will naturally come to you when the time is right."
"I hope you are right."
"Let’s fight in the meantime."
Jiang Yue turned and saw some enemies quickly approaching them.
Like before, there were three enemies; two went to Jiang Yue while the remaining went to Yu Nianzhen.
’Why do they keep coming to me?’ Jiang Yue was annoyed.
He didn’t doubt he could defeat them, but he didn’t want to fight too much if he could help it.
"Shouldn’t you be ganging up on him? He is stronger than me." Jiang Yue pointed at Yu Nianzhen as he said this.
One of the enemies rolled his eyes, and his lips hidden behind his mask curled in a sneer, "who are you trying to fool?"
"Jiang Yue, nineteen years old, moon pearl origin, Sea Cloud region, special target." The other opponent said.
At this point, Jiang Yue seemed to understand why the enemies kept coming to him.
He was a special target, but Yu Nianzhen wasn’t.
This was only because the other had been in retreat for five years, and the Death Flower Ascension Front underestimated his strength.
’They are misguided.’ He thought.
As soon as this thought came to him, Jiang Yue felt like he was hit by lightning.
"I know what is wrong." He said, and his eyes widened in realisation.
