21 – Walking Natural Disaster
Hua Tianji, a magnificent sect master, used a despicable method like poison. Xue Qilin bit her lower lip.
Although she secretly scolded the other party hundred times over, but at the same time, she understood that the end justified the means. However, both Ye Zhen and Qi Qiqi seemed to have underestimated the other party.
But none of this matters. Xue Qilin shook her head and took a deep breath, trying to dispel the dizziness entangling her.
At the same time, she forcibly accelerated the circulation of her true qi, suppressing the poison slowly invading her body.
“Little Qing, are you okay?” She looked up at Luo Qing, who had already stood up, and asked.
Luo Qing took a deep breath, and then nodded without hesitation, “I’m okay. I can still suppress it.”
“Then go!”
“Okay.” In the next moment, as if an eagle, Luo Qing rushed forward and broke the door with her palm. After making a turn, she disappeared from Xue Qilin’s view.
Xue Qilin slowly walked out of the room, looking afar.
Several teams of people approached from different directions, surrounding her. From the team coming from the front, Xue Qilin could detect a billowing aura.
A Heaven Realm expert. This Hua Tianji doesn’t even hide his aura! Is he that confident? Xue Qilin couldn’t help smiling.
“Then… let’s give the dear Sect Master Hua a small gift.” True qi gushed out of her dantian [1] and poured into her qi passageways. Every breath Xue Qilin took was accompanied by sparks.
Countless sparks appeared around her, her hair moved without wind, and her big sleeves made flapping sounds.
…When she was still a wizard in the modern times, she was called Battle Maniac, and this was not without reason.
Unwittingly, Xue Qilin’s expression has become ferocious.
Flames sprang out from her, formed several streams, and then slowly converged towards the sky. In an instant, the sky was ablaze, illuminating the yard.
Numerous spears of flame were suspended in midair, ready for action.
Xue Qilin puffed out a mist with fire tongues. However, her purpose wasn’t to pacify her billowing true qi, but to…
“Turn into shish kebabs!” A slightly high-pitched child’s voice reverberated in the sky.
“Third Arms Ruin!” As if receiving an order, the numerous spears of flame cut through the sky and shot in all directions.
Explosions rang in quick succession as flames soared and dust lifted and swept in from the distance, nearly obliterating the courtyard she was in.
Xue Qilin retracted her gaze and looked at Luo Qing and Gong Tianqing standing beside her.
Luo Qing looked normal, while Gong Tianqing looked a little frightened as she gazed into the distance.
Did I scare you? Xue Qilin thought.
Just as she wanted to greet the other two, a tepid aroma of rust rushed up her throat, and Xue Qilin spat out blood. The blood was black.
“Young Ancestor, are you alright?” Luo Qing hurriedly approached. The hurried footsteps sounded a little unsteady.
“I’m fine.” Allowing Luo Qing support herself, Xue Qilin wiped the blood from the corners of her mouth with her sleeve.
She knew herself. This was nothing more than the consequence of her forcefully operating her true qi, which prompted the poison to flare up and injure her internal organs.
However, this internal injury didn’t pose a great threat to the Heaven Realm expert her. What worried her was the unknown poison. Because of it, her control over the true qi in her body was gradually declining.
The true qi started to become a little disobedient.
“Let’s go. This poison is a little strange.” Xue Qilin said in a deep voice, and Luo Qing nodded with a solemn look on her face.
“Where should we go?”
“This way.” Xue Qilin turned to look behind Luo Qing.
The number of people in that direction was the largest. But it was precisely because of this that she chose this way.
As the other party didn’t know from where the three people would try to break through, it was necessary to ensure that all teams had equal combat power, so as to restrain the opponent as best as possible.
This method of balanced distribution of combat power had its benefit, that is, even if Xue Qilin’s group split up, it wouldn’t matter who tried to break through where, they could deal with them effectively.
However, in order to balance the combat power, a balance between quantity and quality had to be reached.
The lack in quality was often made up by quantity, and vice versa.
In other words, the people in the team with the largest number of people must have weaker individual combat strength.
Luo Qing probably understood this point and nodded in agreement. Of course, it didn’t rule out the possibility that she just obeyed Xue Qilin without any objection.
At this time, Xue Qilin suddenly felt something, and she abruptly turned around and swiftly waved her hands.
“Have you seen enough?!” Two rays of sword qi slashed towards the empty roof. But…
Blood spattered, and a figure suddenly separated from the darkness.
“Ah!” A round object dropped next to Gong Tianqing’s feet. When she saw what it was, she took a step back and exclaimed.
It was a head. There was indeed someone keeping watch! The other party seemed to be very skilled at hiding his aura, which was why he wasn’t discovered by Xue Qilin until now.
With a flash, Xue Qilin arrived next to Gong Tianqing and took her hand.
Gong Tianqing trembled and looked at Xue Qilin blankly.
“Don’t be afraid! I’m here!”
Gong Tianqing finally returned to her senses. Although she was still trembling, but she nodded firmly.
“Good girl.” Xue Qilin turned to look at Luo Qing and shouted: “Little Qing, let’s go!”
After saying this, Xue Qilin took the lead and jumped up. Using the courtyard wall as a launching pad, she shot out and instantly appeared in a manor of the Heavenly Sword Gate, and then came to an empty area.
She could feel the aura of Luo Qing following closely behind her.
As the three people rushed along at a high speed, Xue Qilin rushed into an empty space, raising a cloud of dust.
“They…” A cry of surprise came from the side. Xue Qilin slapped out in passing and sent the other party flying.
But she was still late. That one word was more then enough to attract the attention of others.
“Spread out and surround them!”
Numerous footsteps sounded, some approaching, while others distancing.
What a quick response! Xue Qilin was a little surprised. She expected the other party to fall into disorder for a while.
Although the visibility wasn’t much here, but her majestic aura was like a bright beacon in the darkness.
However, Xue Qilin could not stop the circulation of true qi to conceal her aura. After all, once her true qi stopped, she couldn’t do anything, let alone move at the current high speed.
Xue Qilin swung her big sleeve, and a drew a flame arc.
“Flying Flames!” At her command, the flame arc shook violently and turning into countless flame arrows that scattered about.
Sorrowful cries came from in front, and there was confusion once again.
Taking advantage of this gap, Xue Qilin puled Luo Qing by the hand, and then…
“The wind of spring, please come from the Gate of Limit, and coil and whirl…”
Following this sentence alone, the surrounding airflow experienced an incredible change, and gales blew for all directions and revolved around Xue Qilin’s group of three.
“… turn into the southeast gale!”
The strong wind spread and dispelled the dust.
As if an arrow leaving a bowstring, Xue Qilin accelerated explosively and shot towards the crowd of people in a state of confusion ahead.
At the same time, flames continued to appear in front of her, and then strike out.
Every time the flames tore through the air, people blocking in front of Xue Qilin were shot by flame arrows, and fell to the ground one after another.
As cutting through tofu, with strong wind propelling her forward, Xue Qilin easily broke through a side of the encirclement.
“Mons…ter!” “What sort of witchcraft is this?!” “How do we catch her?! She’s a walking natural disaster…” A cacophony of comments caught up to Xue Qilin and stabbed into her ears.
“What are you panicking for!” A strong aura suddenly burst out, and then Hua Tianji appeared not far in front of Xue Qilin.
Just as Xue Qilin wondered how the other party could catch up with her in such a short time…
Incoming! After pushing Luo Qing and Gong Tianqing aside, Xue Qilin pulled the brakes, and her body leaned forward due to the inertia. Taking advantage of this, she made a somersault forward. When she was upside down, she slashed out with her right leg and sent a huge ray of sword qi shooting forward.
Boom! Her ray of sword qi collided with a sword ray, and then exploded.
A billowing dust cloud was kicked up. Then, a shadow shot out from within like a falcon, and a violent wind tore open the dust cloud.
A sword tip reflecting a cold gleam stabbed at Xue Qilin.
So fast! He’s two notches above Situ Mutou!
Lightning coiled around the sword tip before her eyes and tried to make the sword tip bounce off.
Although the greatsword deviated from its trajectory, but it was only by a fraction.
However, Xue Qilin has already reacted. She stepped aside and turned her body in order to avoid the strike.
Yet blood was still spilled.
The sword qi on the sword opened a gush on Xue Qilin’s right arm.
“Hua Tianji, your hospitality is really unique.” Xue Qilin turned around and said sarcastically to the figure with a sword in hand standing not far away.
“Senior Xue, I’m flattered.” Looking carefree, Hua Tianji even cupped his hands towards Xue Qilin.
“As things stand, you don’t have to adopt that sanctimonious appearance, do you?”
The corners of Hua Tianji’s mouth rose slightly, yet he said respectfully: “Of course I do. After all, you are the Merak Palace’s Young Ancestor, Senior Xue. Of course I must show you respect.”
He didn’t conceal the scorn in his voice.
“Eh, young fellow Hua Tianji, is there something wrong with your head… you can’t even read between the lines? What I asked was why do you still have that expression – if I can’t defeat then I’ll use poison, on your face.” Xue Qilin mocked, “Tsk, what a scoundrel.”
The thickness of Hua Tianji’s skin exceeded Xue Qilin’s imagination. The other side still stood there without his face betraying any shame or anger.
“Shameless.”
Hua Tianji spoke with a smile: “The proverb ‘the end justifies the means’ holds true since ancient times. The winner, no matter how despicable their means, will be cleansed by their victory, while the loser…”
Xue Qilin squinted her eyes and asked in a bemused tone: “Ha, do you think that your victory is assured?”
“You should have less than half of your true qi left, right?”
“So what? That’s enough to beat you silly.”
“Oh? Senior Xue, surely you jest.”
Xue Qilin scoffed and put on a disdainful expression.
Only she knew what her status was. Just now, she put on a tough front, but the consumption of her true qi was quite large – she had less than 70% remaining. Besides, with the unknown poison invading her body, she could only utilize less than half of her true qi.
Although her cultivation base was higher than Hua Tianji’s, but as they both were in the Heaven Realm, the gap between them wasn’t an insurmountable ravine. With her current situation, and Hua Tianji at the top of his form, she wasn’t certain about her odds.
Unless she could kill Hua Tianji with a single blow, she didn’t intend to fight him head on. She didn’t know how long she could last if she was stuck in a deadlock. But…
“Little Qing [2], take Little Qing and go ahead first. I will stop them.”
“But…”
“You know that you’ll be in the way if you stay here.”
Luo Qing bit her lower lip. Although she was reluctant, but she still nodded.
“Be, be careful, Young Ancestor.”
“Who do you think I am, Little Qing?” Xue Qilin responded with a big smile to Gong Tianqing’s concern.
Then, she looked at Luo Qing.
Luo Qing first looked worriedly at Xue Qilin, and then gave Hua Tianji a deep look, “Sect Master Hua, the Merak Palace won’t forget your hospitality. Please take care.”
Leaving this sentence behind, Luo Qing looked worriedly at Xue Qilin again, and the latter nodded back.
“You must be careful, Young Ancestor.”
“Come on! Who do you guys think I am?” Xue Qilin intentionally put a dissatisfied expression on her face and waved her hand. Then she stared at Hua Tianji with a fierce look in her eyes, and a ferocious smile crept onto her face, “I’m Battle Maniac Xue Qilin!”
Without saying anything else, Luo Qing pulled Gong Tianqing and left in a hurry.
Hua Tianji didn’t seem to want to stop them. In other words, his target was only Xue Qilin.
Great! She narrowed her eyes, which were instantly dyed golden, and released dim light alike cat eyes.
“But do you really dare to act against me? Aren’t you afraid of the Merak Palace? In my current shape, although I’m not certain of my victory, but I can still achieve a lose-lose outcome if I go all out.”
“Senior Xue, surely you jest. I cherishes this life of mine. I naturally wouldn’t dare to face you alone…”
“Oh? Are you going to rely on the disciples of your sect?” Xue Qilin taunted.
Although there were many disciples in the Heavenly Sword Gate, but few of them were in the Earth Realm.
“Of course not…”
“Deliberately mystifying!” Xue Qilin snorted. He probably wants to rely on the poison to wear me down.
But she was wrong…
“A good friend of mine is here.”
Xue Qilin’s eyes widened, and she looked behind Hua Tianji, incredulous.
There was an aura no weaker than Hua Tianji’s approaching at a high speed.
… two Heaven Realm experts.
[1] – Dantian
[2] – The first Little Qing (小青) is referring to Luo Qing, the second Little Qing (小晴) is referring to Gong Tianqing
