Chapter 52: One with the Wind
Half a kilometre from Jiang Yue’s battlefield, Yu Nianzhen faced three sea beasts.
All three were peak rank class one beasts, but they belonged to different families.
On the right, a seahorse clutched a wooden staff with its curled tail. The staff had three claws at the top, and a pearl was embedded within.
"Human, fall under my claw." A shout came.
The shout was followed by a loud clacking, and a giant claw came from the left.
Yu Nianzhen jumped backwards to escape the claw, but a black spike followed him from the front.
He retreated again, and frantically slashed with his sword to parry the urchin spines coming from the front.
"Is running all you can do?" The seahorse sneered.
It shook its tail, and the pearl on its staff radiated a blue light.
The light turned the world an eerie blue, and Yu Nianzhen slowed in his retreat.
His limbs felt heavy and moving felt as difficult as walking against a current.
"Illusion?"
This was not the first time Yu Nianzhen was placed under an illusion, and he immediately recognised the feeling.
When he first met elder Chen, she tested him with an illusion attack.
At that time, he felt like he was stuck in a quagmire without a way to get out.
Although the seahorse’s illusion was incomparable to elder Chen’s, its effect couldn’t be ignored.
If he was caught in it, his movements would slow, and he would be a sitting duck.
With such thoughts in mind, he bit his tongue which temporarily cleared his mind.
When his mind was clear, he took the opportunity to escape from the blue light.
’Luckily, the seahorse is a class one sea beast, and its strength is not much higher than mine.’
’Still, it takes too much effort to escape from its illusions. I can’t keep getting caught.’
After escaping, Yu Nianzhen didn’t stop moving.
However, he wasn’t moving randomly.
After fighting the three beasts for more than an hour, he had figured out their attack patterns.
The lobster on his left was the most straightforward.
Its claws could be used continuously, but its body was bulky.
This affected its speed, and if he moved just a little bit faster, he could evade it without any trouble.
The sea urchin in front was also slow, but its spikes were troublesome. They were sharp like needles and moved fast in unpredictable trajectories, which was difficult to deal with.
As for the seahorse, its attacks were the most troublesome.
At first, Yu Nianzhen thought that it only had illusion attacks.
However, after fighting for so long, he suspected that it had a trace of divination power.
This was because its blue light would often arrive at a position just before he got there.
Although the light couldn’t hold him for long, it was often long enough for the lobster or urchin to injure him.
’It will be my loss if this fight goes on for much longer.’
Yu Nianzhen narrowed his eyes, and his hand tightened around his sword.
He swung his sword, and three sword lights shot out towards the seahorse.
At the same time, he rushed to his left and swung his sword.
"Drifting wind slash."
Nine silver lights shot out from his sword and rushed toward the lobster.
The lights were incredibly fast, and they landed on one of the lobster’s claws before the beast could react.
Instantaneously, a clacking sound was heard, and a claw flew outwards.
By the time the severed claw hit the sea surface, Yu Nianzhen had retreated a few metres away.
’I could have gotten both claws if my speed was a little faster.’ Yu Nianzhen lamented, and a frown marred his face.
The drifting wind sword art was one of the sword arts he redeemed from the inner sect martial hall when he first joined the sect.
Although it wasn’t the most powerful sword art he had cultivated, it was the fastest.
When cultivated to completion, six wind blades would attack a single point. At perfection, nine wind blades could be released at once.
However, Yu Nianzhen felt that this was not the limit of the drifting wind sword art.
At the moment, he felt like the wind blades he released were restricted by something.
This feeling had grown increasingly clear as he used the art when fighting the sea beasts.
"Damned human." The lobster roared.
Yu Nianzhen forced down his thoughts and looked at the three beasts.
His attack on the lobster had worked, but the seahorse was uninjured.
"Again."
This time, he didn’t attack the lobster and instead chose the seahorse.
He once again used the drifting wind sword, and nine wind blades slashed at the seahorse.
However, the seahorse was expecting it.
It glided backwards, and blue light covered Yu Nianzhen.
Immediately, his body grew sluggish, and his mind was filled with fog.
He forcibly jumped backwards, but the urchin was prepared.
As soon as he landed, black spikes appeared in front of him.
He swung his sword to block them, but there were dozens of spikes.
His sword was fast, but it wasn’t fast enough to block all, and four pierced his body.
Yu Nianzhen gritted his teeth and pulled the spikes out.
However, the damage was done.
Although he had removed the spikes right away, some of the urchin’s poison had gotten into his body.
The area around the wounds was turning a greenish-black, and he could feel a tingling numbness.
On instinct, he moved his mind, and a bottle appeared in his left hand.
"Don’t think about it."
Hundreds of black spikes rushed toward him, and Yu Nianzhen paused his actions.
He evaded the spikes, but he no longer had a chance to take the antidote.
"Let’s finish him quickly." The urchin screamed to the other two.
The seahorse also reacted quickly, and blue light spread from its staff.
"Die." The lobster rushed towards Yu Nianzhen.
At this time, Yu Nianzhen’s only option was to jump backwards.
However, from the edge of his eye, he saw the seahorse glide towards his back.
If he dared to go backwards, he would surely fall into an illusion.
When that happened, the urchin and lobster would not fail to kill him.
These thoughts crossed Yu Nianzhen’s mind, and his body reacted on instinct.
Instead of going backwards, he jumped forward.
"Three bells sword art, first bell."
A golden light appeared around Yu Nianzhen as he rushed forward.
The light was shaped like a bell, but it exuded a sharpness that slashed at the black spikes that fell on it.
The three bells sword art was a defence sword art that piled up sword lights in the shape of a bell.
Although it was powerful, it consumed a lot of qi.
At the fifth level of the origin forging realm, just the first bell would consume a third of Yu Nianzhen’s qi.
If he used it for too long, he wouldn’t have enough qi to continue the fight.
However, he only needed to use it for a short time.
As long as he got close to the sea urchin, he could kill it in one blow.
"I need to move faster."
"Faster..., faster...,"
As he flew forward, Yu Nianzhen felt a strange emptiness.
He saw air streams flowing faster than the surrounding air.
"Wind?"
In one of the streams, a green leaf floated with the wind.
"Borrowing the wind to turn weightless. In this way, it can have the same speed as the wind..."
"Is this becoming one with the wind?"
Suddenly, Yu Nianzhen’s understanding of the drifting wind sword art came to mind.
A wind blade was called so because its fast speed produced wind.
For a wind blade to be fast and sharp, it had to be as light as the wind.
Still, the blade was only like the wind, but not the wind.
’What if the blade was one with the wind?’
Subconsciously, Yu Nianzhen lifted his sword and swung forward.
Twelve wind blades rushed forward, and soon after, they arrived in front of the sea urchin. Before it could react, the blades fell on its body and split it in two.
At this time, Yu Nianzhen came out of the strange state and stared at the two halves of the urchin.
"What was that?"
He looked at his sword and tried to recall what happened.
However, all that remained was a lingering feeling in his subconscious.
He felt he was close to grasping something, but the thing was a little beyond his grasp.
However, this was not the time to linger.
Although the urchin was dead, the seahorse and lobster were still around.
Without another thought, he turned around and rushed towards the lobster.
"Heavy mountain strike."
His sword swung, and a thick sword light flew toward the lobster.
The sword light was slow compared to the drifting wind blade, but the lobster was injured.
After losing one of its claws, its body was unbalanced, and it couldn’t move as fast as before.
Because of this, it couldn’t escape the sword light, and its body was split in two.
After killing the lobster, Yu Nianzhen turned to the seahorse.
