“Hero Lian!” Abels experience told him not to get close when anything could happen right now, in a place he was unfamiliar with and since the scene followed the release of a toxic gas.
Abels took a step back, then gently raised his hand, lifting Lian Zhuiyue up using a makeshift qi stretcher. Chichen’s corpse didn’t show any bizarre signs as he brought Lian Zhuiyue over, but an absence of a reaction didn’t explain the smoke.
Though he was still alive, Lian Zhuiyue was in a bad, very bad, condition. He had no less than forty wounds on him from possibly fangs or claws, but the worst one was the one at his chest, which was the product of tremendous blunt trauma. Possibly, the enemy took advantage of an unsettled situation to break his sternum. Visibly, it was impossible to determine who or what inflicted the wound, or how they inflicted the wound. No martial arts internal disciplines came to mind, while the mark left behind couldn’t have belonged to a fist, palm, fingers or claws. If one of Six Evils somehow learnt martial arts, then maybe it was how the wound came to be. That being said, the conjecture was outrageous.
Judging from the damage, Lian Zhuiyue would’ve perished had he not utilised Empty Palms to reduce the force of the attack. He had his training, Orthodox Realm internal style and solid foundations to thank, too. Nonetheless, he was barely breathing.
Abels opined, “To think Mount Daluo’s Castoff could be so incredible. The rumours don’t do it justice.” He placed Ocean Deer Hunter onto Lian Zhuiyue to prevent the latter’s condition worsening whilst he lent the renowned swordsman some true qi. On top of that, Sea Deer Hunter would also allow Lian Zhuiyue’s system to repair itself.
Though Abels managed to save Lian Zhuiyue, an important question remained: who was the culprit? In the event that it was the wild beasts in Nieyao, who brought Lian Zhuiyue over all the way from the Dragon-Slaying Formation. The formation and their battleground were too far away for it to be written off as pure coincidence. In addition, it was plain obvious that whoever brought him over wanted the duo to find him.
Given Lian Zhuiyue wasn’t even among the A-rank lineup, the only motivation they could have for attacking was to sabotage the formation, which would explain Chichen’s sudden power up.
Abels was glad to see Lian Zhuiyue looking better because, knowing how tight-knitted Mount Daluo’s disciples were, they could very well scrap the entire plan for Lian Zhuiyue’s sake. Any more chaos than there already was in Nieyao would be overkill.
Moyan Luohou started churning out massive amounts of qi for some reason, infusing it into his blade after he finished wiping it. The reason Abels didn’t detect anything before was due to Moyan Luohou moulding qi and imbuing it into his weapon in one go. Without so much as a word, Moyan Luohou cut Chichen into four.
Abels: Gee, someone’s mad.
Abels pulled his brows together a second prior to Moyan Luohou sheathing his weapon and hollering, “Come out. No matter how you try to conceal your presence, I can see you.”
Since the one hiding refused to show themselves despite Moyan Luohou patiently waiting, he decided to swing.
Following a beast howl, heavy and rhythmic steps suggesting a four-legged animal encroached. A black silhouette comparable to the size of an ape jumped out from Chichen’s body. At first, Abels assumed his opponent was a beast, but it got up on its hind legs, had no fur, no scales and punched. Abels, marginalising his opponent, raised his arm to block with only 30% output. To his shock, the punch sent him skidding back, at least, ten normal steps.
The tall opponent bound forward to put the pressure on Abels. The big punch was over an inch away from Abels’ chest, and one inch a fight was a big deal.
“Have you any idea who you’ve challenged?” Abels redirected the punch’s force with his blue field, then closed the gap without any resistance. He smashed a knife-hand strike onto his opponent’s spine, then lifted his opponent up to hurl away. “You can smell my location. Still, you can’t be precise in your attack, and that’s a fatal weakness.”
Eclipse could be used to veil Divine Realm adepts’ presence visibly and audibly at the basic level. At the advanced level, they could erase themselves from the knowledge base of their opponent, rendering the opponent puzzled. Thus, fighting Divine Realm adepts casting Eclipse was analogous to fighting them blindfolded. Just because this beast had sharper eyes, didn’t mean it was an exception.
Instead of shocking his opponent, Abels was startled when he had the upper hand. The monster had maroon muscles that were stretched as though they were barely containing the energy within. There was no telling if the innumerable wounds across its body were snake bite marks, insect bite marks or whatever; it appeared as though there were bugs crawling underneath its skin. Its eyes were… some sort of snake’s eyes.
“What the hell…?”
