Chapter 57: Between Life and Death
"Go, don’t stop!"
Seeing Guangxuan hesitate on the city wall, Wang Ping urged him on as he leaped down.
Meanwhile, in the part of the city where the Prefecture Magistrate’s Office had stood, an Evil Cultivator from the Taiyin Sect manipulated countless skulls into a massive array, attempting to devour all the Corpse Soldiers within the city.
Seeing this, Yuanqing Taoist quickly threw a Spirit Gathering Array from his storage bag to surround himself. At the same time, he formed hand seals to channel the fire spirits. Scorching flames instantly ignited the Spiritual Qi in the air and spread toward the array the Evil Cultivator had set up.
"You can’t stop me..."
The Evil Cultivator’s voice carried an unsettling shriek, as if some non-human monster were mimicking human speech. As he spoke, he formed a spell with his hands. A layer of grey-black light then appeared on his sallow, withered body, resonating with the temporary array formed by the surrounding skulls.
He was actually using his own body as the core of the array. The next moment, his array formed an invisible barrier, blocking all the surrounding flames. It also pulled the nearby Corpse Soldiers into its bounds, where the swarming skulls devoured them completely.
Yuanqing Taoist’s expression turned grim. He took a crimson fire pomegranate from his storage bag and swallowed it. Instantly, terrifying flame-like patterns appeared on his skin. The temperature of the flames burning the surrounding Spiritual Qi rose at a visible rate. The ground and buildings touched by the fire rapidly melted into liquid, and most of the Evil Cultivator’s defensive barrier melted away as well.
"Heh heh heh..."
The Evil Cultivator let out a bizarre laugh. The spell he was forming with his hands shifted, and after a deep breath, he spat out a puff of black gas. The moment the black gas appeared, it rapidly materialized a vision of everything that had just occurred.
"What is this?"
The Evil Cultivator was dumbfounded by the scene of a multi-colored flash of light exploding into powder. Yuanqing Taoist was equally baffled. But in the next moment, the figures of Wang Ping and Guangxuan appeared in the vision.
"Caught you!"
The Evil Cultivator made a grabbing motion with one hand, pulling the lingering auras of Wang Ping and Guangxuan into his grasp. This was the signature magic of a First Realm practitioner of the Taiyin Secret Technique: the Soul Chasing Skill.
Yuanqing Taoist’s gaze hardened. He strengthened his connection to the fire spirits, igniting all the Spiritual Qi around the Evil Cultivator. But just then, the Evil Cultivator vanished amid a swirl of innumerable skulls. Using the lingering auras he had just captured, he unleashed two Tracking Talismans!
...
Fleeing Yuma County Town, Wang Ping and Guangxuan sprinted across the scorched earth, looking rather disheveled.
Even more disheveled were Hong’an and Gao Ding. The arm Gao Ding used to toy with his metal balls now hung limp, his sleeve torn to shreds. The entire arm looked as if it had been mauled by something. Hong’an, however, was in much better shape, protected by a shield generated from a Magical Artifact on his wrists.
Further away, Yu Shi and Leng Shan were uninjured, perhaps because the enemies they had faced weren’t particularly strong. However, the morbid pallor of Yu Shi’s skin had now spread to his face.
Suddenly, as he was running, Wang Ping’s heart lurched. Yu Lian shouted, "Such intense malice!"
’Every time Yu Lian mentions ’intense malice,’ it’s never good news!’
This time, Wang Ping rapidly formed a series of hand seals, activating his Inner Armor’s defenses. He simultaneously took out two Thorny Vine seeds, instantly matured them, and invoked the ’Every Plant a Soldier’ technique. In the blink of an eye, a soldier made of Thorny Vines appeared on each side of him.
Wang Ping then stopped running. ’After all,’ he thought, ’if I keep fleeing now, I’ll just be a living target. I have to suppress my fear and anxiety and calmly assess the danger.’
Within his soul’s Spiritual Power Realm, Wang Ping saw a talisman made of grayish-black energy hurtling toward him and Guangxuan.
"I’ll take care of it!"
Yu Lian’s form instantly swelled. Opening her massive maw, she gathered and spat out a ball of transparent energy. It formed watery ripples in the Spiritual Power Realm, causing the incoming energy talisman to distort and then dissipate into nothing.
But that only dealt with the energy talisman aimed at Wang Ping. The other one continued hurtling toward Guangxuan.
Guangxuan had stopped when Wang Ping did. Seeing the approaching talisman, he formed a spell with his hands, drawing on the half-assimilated essence of water within him. He used his Spiritual Qi to manifest a single drop of azure water, which then expanded to form a transparent barrier around his body.
Just then, the talisman arrived. It eerily bypassed the barrier around Guangxuan’s body and struck him directly in the chest.
There was no sensation of impact. Guangxuan’s brow furrowed slightly as he looked at Wang Ping and said quickly, "It’s for tracking..."
As he spoke, he reinforced the shield of light around his body. At that exact moment, five longswords glowing with five different colors tore through the void above and plummeted toward their location.
Wang Ping was hit by an immense pressure. For a moment, it felt as if gravity itself had warped, leaving him without the strength to even lift a finger. Then, his hearing vanished, followed by all his other senses, leaving only the despair of awaiting death.
At the critical moment, his Armor Talisman activated, enveloping him in a protective shield. His hearing and senses snapped back. The first thing he heard was a piercing sonic boom, its vibrations jarring his ears as if someone were stabbing his eardrums with needles.
Turning his head, he saw Guangxuan standing there with a vacant look, only his eyes darting around. His clothes flapped violently in the fierce, oncoming wind.
Then, Wang Ping sensed a message from Yu Lian in his Spirit Sea. ’I can feel a Fire Spirit Cultivator rushing over,’ she conveyed. ’We only need to hold on for three breaths!’
Wang Ping’s eyes lit up. He rapidly formed a magical formula, pouring a portion of his consciousness into one of the Thorny Vine soldiers. His main body then used ’Void Evasion’ to instantly teleport toward Hong’an. The moment before he vanished, he controlled the other Thorny Vine soldier to punch Guangxuan in the chest, knocking him sideways through the air.
All this happened in the blink of an eye. Just as Wang Ping and Guangxuan left their original positions, the five brilliant longswords descended. Two of them shredded the Thorny Vine soldier Wang Ping had left behind, while the other three pursued Guangxuan as he was sent flying.
Guangxuan snapped back to his senses the moment he was struck. Despair filled his face as he saw three longswords tracking his soul. The leading sword had just torn open his abdomen when, at the critical moment, it pulled back, returning to the sky with a sharp whistling sound.
Meanwhile, Hong’an, who had been watching Wang Ping’s predicament, was horrified to see him suddenly teleport over. After a split-second decision, he instantly activated the Defensive Spiritual Artifact on his wrist, creating an ice wall over five feet thick. Wang Ping immediately ducked behind it.
After this, the three of them behind the ice wall felt a wave of heat from above.
The heat source was coming from the sky. As they looked up, the scorching heat on their faces began to sting. ’This is nothing like the feeling from Yuanqing Taoist’s fire magic,’ Wang Ping thought. ’If his flames were a thousand degrees, this has to be at least five thousand!’
"It’s a Second Realm Cultivator from the True Yang Sect..." Gao Ding muttered.
Wang Ping breathed a sigh of relief. ’This must be the backup Yu Lian mentioned.’ After quickly performing a divination, he glanced over at Guangxuan in the distance. Guangxuan was clutching his bloody abdomen, but he was still alive. They exchanged a look, then immediately turned and continued sprinting away.