Yu Shangrong did not look at Yu Zhenghai. He said in confusion, “Retreat?”
The two of them had been holding back their strength all this time. They had only unleashed their energies when they encountered Xie Xuan. With their rich battle experiences, they kicked Xie Xuan between them like a ball shortly after they engaged in combat.
Most of the remaining cultivators scattered immediately. Their morale was shattered. This was unexpected.
The duo wondered if they displayed too much of their strength or if the red lotus cultivators were just timid.
Xie Xuan was heavily injured. His internal organs felt as though they were crushed. After spitting a mouthful of blood in the sky, he plummeted to the ground.
Boom!
Xie Xuan landed on the ground.
“Eldest Senior Brother, keep an eye on him. I’ll go after the others.” Yu Shangrong flew forward.
“Second Junior Brother, you should keep an eye on him. I’ll go after them.”
Yu Zhenghai summoned his avatar.
His 150-foot avatar stood on a golden lotus. Every single leaf was bright, full, and brimming with vitality.
After consuming Chi Yao’s Heart, Yu Zhenghai gained 1,200 years of life. Ao Yu’s Heart provided him with 500 years of life while the red fish heart gave him 100 years of life. While breaking through to the Nine-leaf stage, the golden lotus consumed 1,300 years of life. After reaching the Nine-leaf stage, he gained 600 years of life. In total, he gained 1,100 years of life.
For Yu Shangrong, a short-lived citizen of the Melilot Nation, this was slightly cruel.
“Eldest Senior Brother, keep an eye on him.” Yu Shangrong no longer looked at Yu Zhenghai’s golden lotus avatar. He faded out of focus and gave chase.
Yu Zhenghai glanced at his avatar. He felt that he had been too insensitive by manifesting it in front of his Second Junior Brother’s face as well. Therefore, he said with a sigh, “Fine, I’ll let you do what you want just this once.”
After he finished speaking, Yu Zhenghai turned around and looked at Xie Xuan who was lying in a pit. Since his avatar was destroyed, he was inevitably dealt a heavy blow. He glared at Yu Zhenghai and the shining golden Nine-leaf avatar. The nine leaves spun above him, looking as though they would drop at any time and slick his head off his body.
Yu Zhenghai shook his head. “Is this all?”
Yu Zhenghai’s words seemed to aggravate Xie Xuan. He grunted and spat out another mouthful of blood. His body trembled; he had a hard time accepting this. “Nine-leaf golden lotus… Ye Zhen has really done me in.”
Xie Xuan pushed his palms on the ground and shot up toward Yu Zhenghai. He burned his sea of Qi and was bathed in red flames.
Yu Zhenghai shook his head again. “Futile.” The Jasper Saber flew from his waist into his hand.
Xie Xuan joined his palms together. The energy seals in the sky spun around him. His eyes were bloodshot. Up against two enemies, he had no hope of winning. However, he did not believe he did not stand a chance if it was a one-on-one battle. He launched energy seals after energy seals at his opponent until they formed a dragon.
This reminded Yu Zhenghai of the rune seal golden dragon. He did not expect someone in the red lotus domain had mastered this technique as well. The two moves were similar in some ways, but the red energy seals’ power seemed to be more formidable after they had merged.
Yu Zhenghai tossed his Jasper Saber out. Ever since he reached the Nine-leaf stage, he had no chance to use his Jasper Saber without any reservations. Now, he would be able to fight to his heart’s content with a Nine-leaf cultivator.
Sovereign Descent.
Yu Zhenghai’s Jasper Saber spun up before it hovered in front of his 150-foot avatar.
The energy sabers were like a waterfall from the nine heavens as they fell and instantly overwhelmed Xie Xuan and his red energy seals.
“Desolate-grade weapon!”
“Ding! Killed a target. Reward: 0 merit points. Domain extra: 100 merit points.”
“Ding! Killed a target. Reward: 0 merit points. Domain extra: 100 merit points.”
“Ding! Killed a target. Reward: 4,000 merit points. Domain extra: 1,000 merit points.”
The influx of rewards surprised Lu Zhou. He muttered, “The Flying Star House.”
Naturally, he was happy to see the numbers rising on the system dashboard.
Merit points: 50,940.
‘I have 50,000 merit points now. Alas, I can’t purchase Golden Lotus Leaves anymore. Otherwise, I could instantly reach the Ten-leaf stage.’
“The priority is to replenish the item cards.”
Lu Zhou opened up the item column. When he saw the price, he frowned. “20,000.”
‘This is daylight robbery! I’m your only customer. I won’t buy this. I’ll wait until you close down for business.’
He closed the system dashboard and continued to cultivate.
He remembered how he first used the Deadly Strike Cards to kill the third person on the black roll, Zuo Xinchan. After that incident, he had been using the cards frequently. At Measure Heaven River, he used five cards at one go. After reaching the Nine-leaf stage, the prices of the item cards were clearly increasing at a much quicker pace than before.
When he thought about this, he knew that he should not have bought Deadly Strike Cards back then. If he focused on improving his cultivation base and only purchased the Deadly Strike Cards now, he would have been truly undefeatable.
Lu Zhou opened his eyes.
“Purchase.”
“Ding! Spent 20,000 merit points. Obtained Deadly Strike Card x1.”
Lu Zhou stared at the card. As he expected, the price tag under the card changed to 21,000 merit points.
‘Fortunately, the increase isn’t as crazy as before. Come to think of it, I might be too dependent on the item cards.’
Lu Zhou closed his eyes again. He kept hearing the notifications of reward points from the domain extra.
He had a sudden thought. His ears shone with blue radiance.
To gain the power to hear everything, so that we can hear voices in all realms at will.
The sounds in every corner of the Thousand Willow Monastery rang clearly in his ears.
“I didn’t expect Senior Lu’s disciples to be Nine-leaf cultivators. There aren’t even that many Nine-leaf cultivators in the Flying Star House.”
“Do you see the two young girls? The fierce and cute one is almost at the Eight-leaf stage. The innocent-looking one with the flute in her right hand is at the Three-leaf stage. I heard her say that she’s the youngest of the ten disciples. Apart from these four people, Senior Lu has another six disciples who haven’t shown up yet. That’s too scary.”
“I suddenly pity Ji Fengxing. To think he rejected the Evil Sky Pavilion.”
Lu Zhou could hear everything. Moreover, he could selectively mute any sound he wanted as well. He muted this conversation before he increased the input of extraordinary power. The Heavenly Writing power immediately expanded his range to cover the entire Thousand Willow Mountain.
The sound of the wind, the birds, and the waterfall rang in his ears, and he quickly muted them.
The range of this power seemed to have expanded greatly. He found that it was much easier to use it now as well. The consumption of his extraordinary power was like a small stream; it was not as outrageous as before.
Not only did his extraordinary power covered the entire Thousand Willow Mountain, but its range covered 100 miles behind the mountain as well.
The rustling of the grass and tree leaves seemed to have merged with the land that moved in tandem with the sky.
Badump! Badump! Badump.
The sounds of heartbeats.
Lu Zhou recited the incantation for the Heavenly Writing power again.
In the forest behind Thousand Willow Mountain.
A person was panting heavily at this moment. After he caught his breath, he said in a hushed tone, “The most dangerous place is often the safest.”
“I didn’t expect Xia Changqiu to have such powerful helpers.”
“However, the young are too inexperienced, after all. Not even Ye Zhen can do anything to me.”
Upon hearing these words, Lu Zhou slowly opened his eyes. Then, he pushed away from the ground. Like a phantom, he left the courtyard. With his grand technique, he entered the forest behind the mountain.
It was quiet at the back of Thousand Willow Mountain.
Lu Zhou made no further movement. He surveyed his surroundings as his ears glowed blue again.
Powerful cultivators could conceal their auras and keep quiet to effectively stay hidden. Those who were smarter would even fake their own deaths to fool the eyes and senses of the others.
Meng Changdong was leaning against a tree trunk as he concealed his aura. There was a reason he could survive to this day as an elder of the Flying Star House.
To Ye Zhen, Meng Changdong’s timidity was a sign of weakness. However, the Flying Star House was short of talents. Moreover, he was a Nine-leaf cultivator. That was the reason Ye Zhen had to put up with him.
Before they could even make a move during this annihilation mission, their army was completely destroyed.
Meng Changdong did not go head-to-head with Yu Shangrong. As he fled, he had been thinking of ways to escape the pursuit of the terrifying swordsman. When he seemed to have depleted all his power from fleeing, he decided to boldly try his luck and turned back to Thousand Willow Mountain.
He recalled the cultivator who had flown here to relay the message. He was puzzled. Based on his understanding of Ye Zhen and the house master, they would not give up halfway. Moreover, it had been verified that the Thousand Willow Monastery was colluding with foreign tribesmen. Was this not the pretext the Flying Star House wanted?
He finally calmed down at this moment. He shook his head. “Perhaps, it’s time to retire.”
After he finished sighing, a voice rang from behind him. “Where are you retiring to?”