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Chapter Four Hundred and One – Big Guy
This fiend soul beast was more than three times the size of an average fiend soul beast. Its body shimmered with a metallic sheen. It stared coldly at Lei Peng and Nian Lu.
Its icy stare didn’t contain any hint of warmth.
Lei Peng and Nian Lu felt as though they were two little insects about to be stomped under the steps of a colossal giant. The other only needed to gently raise its foot and could crush them.
This fiend soul beast was unusually ugly. Its flat head was like that of a toad. The wide maw was tightly clenched and its jaw askew. The hunched posture was poised to strike. Every tense muscle fiber was visible to the eye. Its abnormally thick limbs made it appear asymmetric, but when these unbalanced features were combined together, it left them terror-stricken from the sense of danger.
The duo’s scalps felt numb but they did not dare to move rashly. The two of them were experienced. They knew if that they ran right now, there would be no chance of survival.
The fiend soul beast was motionless as it gazed down at the duo with indifference.
“What do we do?” Lei Peng maintained his posture as he asked in a low voice.
“Drag it out.” Nian Lu was also motionless. His eyes twirled about. “This thing is making such a spectacle. The others will definitely detect the disturbance. We will drag the fight out until they come to reinforce us.”
At the same time, the fiend soul beast suddenly opened its mouth.
The terrifyingly wide mouth opened like a gaping maw.
“Move!”
Lei Peng and Nian Lu’s bodies moved at the same time. The two of them darted away, one to the right and one to the left, each gathered all the ling power they could muster. The sword energy and sabre energy left their hands at the same time and howled as they flew towards the fiendish soul beast.
The fiendish soul beast seemed to not see it. Its eyes widened, and it inhaled through its enormous mouth.
Hiss!
The fiendish mist in the surroundings gathered furiously towards its gaping mouth. At a rate visible to the naked eye, a red black ball of light formed in its open mouth. It actually condensed the fiendish mist it had gathered in into a ball of light the size of a fist!
Ding ding!
Two clear sounds of impact rang out. Lei Peng and Nina Lu’s complexions changed. Their sword and sabre energies had struck the body of the fiend soul beast and only caused two sparks to fly.
What kind of monster was this?
These two were both xiuzhe that had comprehended “essence.” Their blows had been thrown with all their power, but they hadn’t even left a mark behind. The duo’s hearts sank. This big guy’s strength was far beyond their predictions!
A black red light erupted from the open mouth of the fiend soul beast.
It frightened the two into using all of their power to dodge to the sides.
Boom!
The red and black light lit up behind them. They were not able to react as they thrown backwards, and tossed through the air like blades of grass.
Pia pia, the instant the two landed on the ground, they were barely able to stabilize themselves. Their legs sunk into the dirt from the force, they were left in a sorry state. They could not dwell on the shock they were feeling. Turning around, the fiendish mist behind them had been swept clean away. Black smoke rose from a twenty zhang wide burnt black pit that stretched out behind them.
This, this was a monster!
The duo’s faces were ashen white.
———
Ma Fan moved like a ghost in the fiendish mist as he searched for fiend soul beasts. His entire body was covered in faint sword essence. Ever since he had comprehended sword essence manifestation his strength had leapt forward, but this also made his status slightly awkward, and this was even more evident when Zong Ru had stepped into jindan.
Compared to his normal fellows, he was much stronger, but he was a step behind the strongest group. After Wei Sheng came, and Zong Ru’s core formation, the stage of jindan had become the sign of being in the first group. It seemed as though he was only one step away from the stage of jindan, but this step was not so easily crossed.
If it wasn’t for Wei Sheng teaching the principles of the sword , he wouldn’t have dared to hope he could break through to jindan.
Zong Ru’s core formation was enormously influential on the entire group. Xie Shan’s core formation had been expected due to this many years of cultivation. Teacher Wei’s core formation was to be expected due to his talent. Only Zong Ru’s core formation was motivational to everyone. In the camp, Zong Ru was not the best in strength or the most talented. The fact that he could become jindan made it that core formation no longer seemed so out of reach in everyone else’s eyes.
For Ma Fan, other than motivation, this was also a kind of pressure.
He suddenly raised his head, his expression was grave.
Such a powerful presence!
There was a situation!
He suddenly changed directions and accelerated to fly towards the energy ripple. There were no other people in this fiendish mist other than their group. As he flew, he muttered inside. Who had such misfortune to encounter a big guy?
Ma Fan’s movement skill was not low, and after comprehending sword essence which was merged into his movement method, there were few in the camp that could rival him in speed. When he put focused on speed, he was like lightning. If one looked down from high up, they would see that Ma Fan was cutting through the mist like a sharp knife. Behind him, the two waves of air were like the lines of water when a ship travelled through and was extremely pretty.
That burst of shocking presence quickly became clearer and Ma Fan’s expression became increasingly serious.
Boom boom boom!
Sounds of explosions continuously echoed from ahead. With each sound, Ma Fan’s heart would jump.
At just this moment, his pupils suddenly shrank.
It was Lei Peng and Nian Lu!
The three were teammates from Sky Peak Platoon. Ma Fan was very familiar with the presences of these two, and instantly recognized them. The duo’s appearances were messy and panicked which made it evident that the situation was very dangerous. Ma Fan snorted coldly, and his speed increased again!
When he flew closer and saw Lei Peng and Nian Lu’s sorry state’s, fury rose in his eyes.
With a long howl, his body suddenly shot up in the air. The sword essence vibrated from his body and continuously increased. When he reached his peak, his sword essence had accumulated to an extreme and was blinding!
The fiend soul beast raised its head and shot a fiendish mist bullet towards Ma Fan in the air.
Ma Fan could clearly sense the danger from the black red light. If this was any other situation, he would definitely dodge and wait for a chance to strike. But at this time, his ling power and sword essence were surging without being held back. He seemed to be inside a burning fire cauldron. Every muscle felt as though it was being sliced by a thousand knives. He knew those were fine sword essences. His sword essence might have reached the stage of manifestation, but he still need a considerable amount of practice to control them at will.
He had seen Teacher Wei practice the sword. The sword essence was concentrated without a single thread going astray. That was the stage he dreamed about!
He tried to control the sword essence around his body and concentrated them inside his flying sword.
His blood vessels expanded and were on the verge of rupturing. The countless fine sword essences were like knives, but Ma Fan ignored all of this. All of his attention was focused on the merging of ling power and sword essence. Teacher Wei had said only when ling power and sword essences came together would they have the greatest power. With ling power and no sword essence, it only had the appearance. With sword essence but no ling power, there was blood but no flesh.
All the sword essence and ling power in his body furiously flew towards the sword.
The sword hummed lightly, and released a dazzling blue light. This layer of blinding light also covered Ma Fan.
The blue light was like a drop of ink that had splattered onto a white piece of paper. It spread outwards at astounding speeds. In the blink of an eye, the area ten zhang around Ma Fan was as blue as the sky.
The black red light finally reached him.
The sword energies that were as blue as the sky tore apart the fiendish mist. In a patch of red black fiendish mist, it was peerlessly dazzling.
Pew!
The sword energy sliced across the fiendish mist bullet without any resistance like a hot knife through butter and entered the forehead of the fiendish soul beast.
Pew!
Black liquid flew and turned to a ball of mist in the air before disappearing.
The fiend soul beast wailed in pain. For the first time, its icy cold eyes showed a ripple of emotion. It seemed unable to believe it had been injured! The ripples quickly turned to anger. The ant like prey in front of it had actually wounded it!
The fiendish mist in the surroundings seemed to have felt an invisible magnetism and furiously flooded towards it.
———
“This guy, he is this strong now?” Lei Peng was gaping as he stared.
“Handsome! Too handsome!” Nian Lu’s face was shocked.
They both recognized Ma Fan’s sword scripture. Fifth-grade [Clear Sky Sword Scripture], it had been a spoil of victory after Daren killed Clear Sky Old Forefather. There were many in Vermillion Bird Camp that cultivated this sword scripture, since it was a fifth-grade sword scripture and was very attractive.
However, Ma Fan was the first to cultivate [Clear Sky Sword Scripture] to this level!
He really was too strong!
With one move, Ma Fan was able to wound the fiend soul beast that they could do nothing to!
However, when they saw Ma Fan panting in the air, they realized that this move was at a great cost to Ma Fan.
“How are you?” Lei Peng turned to ask Nian Lu. Battle spirit roiled in his eyes.
“I won’t die!” Nian Lu looked at the sky and smiled with slight difficulty. “He is such a show-off, how can I let this guy take all the glory?”
The two rose into the sky and formed a triangle with Ma Fan. When Lei Peng and Nian Lu stood at his flanks behind him, Ma Fan’s confidence increased. Between the three, a sharp killing intent formed. The terror in their eyes decreased.
“This big guy definitely has something good on his body.” Lei Peng’s eyes flashed viciously.
“Kill it!” Nian Lu said maliciously.
“Troublesome … …” Ma Fan muttered.
The three figures charged towards the fiend soul beast!
———
Wei Sheng, Xie Shan, and Zong Ru flew through the fiendish mist at high speed. They had all detected the alarming presence in the distance and knew a situation had occurred. They had hurriedly acted.
Deep in thought, Zuo Mo was ignorant of everything else.
The fire yao art that had been spinning on the tip of his finger suddenly stopped on his palm and burned silently.
Zuo Mo’s fingers slowly started to move.
As his finger movements changed, the ling power was like an undercurrent that silently wrapped around the wisp of fire.
The fire wisp shook and became extremely unstable as though it could extinguish at any moment. Pia pia pia, a string of light explosions sounded around the wisp of fire.
The finger movements gradually became faster.
The fire wisp shook more fiercely. Suddenly, it exploded.
In this instant, Zuo Mo’s eyes suddenly lit up. He seemed thoughtful.
Fire yao art, consciousness, ling power, controlling fire … …
He seemed to see a thread that connected them.
Translator Ramblings: This chapter was pretty insubstantial … …