Once the giant stood up, it immediately charged at Man Huishan, who had already risen to his feet with his broken bones fully repaired. When Man Huishan saw the giant coming towards him, his face turned all murderous. He raised his hand and took out another sword before pouncing towards the giant.
Even if he currently possessed one ten millionths of his original strength, it wasn’t something that this giant could resist. Not to mention, Man Huishan no longer was in the swamp at this time.
Sword shadows instantly shrouded the giant, but Ning Cheng, still trapped in the swamp, could see that Man Huishan hadn’t used any sort of spirit essence or spirit technique. The sword shadow also had no technique imbued within it; in other words, it was just a pure sword shadow.
Even so, it still drew blood from the giant’s body. But even if streams of blood and scraps of flesh rained down from the giant’s body, the giant could only use his fists to try and fight back.
After a few more strikes, Man Huishan’s sword shredded up the giant like a dirty rag. After Man Huishan understood that this giant’s only strong point was its strength, he made it a point to never come within the range of the giant’s first.
The giant eventually let out a howl filled with sorrow and could no longer withstand Man Huishan’s barrage. With one last lunge, it fell to the ground and couldn’t get up at all. Ning Cheng sighed; he already understood that the giant wouldn’t survive this fight.
Ning Cheng couldn’t help but feel sympathy for this giant in his heart. Ning Cheng also had a vague feeling that this giant was from the same race as Pan Qian for some unknown reason.
“A’ye….” A sharp roar suddenly emerged, followed by a black shadow streaking across the swamp and quickly appeared by the giant’s side.
This black shadow, just like Ning Cheng, was of a male of average stature. He quickly jumped onto the giant’s back and screamed at it in a somewhat miserable tone. Ning Cheng noticed that this man also carried a huge beast’s head in his hand, which he had already thrown aside before jumping onto the giant.
As for Man Huishan, after noticing that another person had joined the fray, he immediately grabbed the sword and slashed it towards the new arrival.
But a strange white light suddenly burst out from the man’s body that blasted away Man Huishan’s sword while surprising Ning Cheng.
Ning Cheng’s eyes widened with surprise. He knew very well that one couldn’t use any spirit techniques in the Land of Broken laws. So how could a defensive artefact’s light erupt from this new arrival’s body? Was that the light from an artefact? Not to mention Ning Cheng, even Man Huishan couldn’t use any techniques. If not, why would Man Huishan wait till now to catch him?
“You can use techniques; it’s impossible, it’s impossible……” Man Huishan looked at the man in front of him with the same shock.
Man Huishan could still use some of his spirit essence and spiritual consciousness in this place, mainly because he was a Dao Essence powerhouse. Even then, he could only use some basic sword moves and couldn’t use any of his dao laws in the Land of Broken Laws. Even if he tried to use any spirit technique, it would instantly dissipate into thin air. In other words, even his best spirit technique wouldn’t hurt a single fly in this place.
It was because of this that he looked at the man in front of him with some disbelief. Did this man’s cultivation exceed his? Could this person form a law world?
Only powerhouses that could form a law world could ignore the laws of the world. Even in the Land of Broken Laws, it wouldn’t affect their ability to use their spirit techniques.
However, such people were few and far between. Even if he looked at his Barbarian Dragon Clan’s Man Suotian, he wouldn’t dare to say if Ancestor Suotian could form a law world in this place.
“No, I get it.” Man Huishan quickly understood why this man had a white light coming out of his body that managed to block his slash.
When that man saw that there was no way to save A’ye, he stood up and stared at Man Huishan with a hateful gaze in his eyes. “Cultivator, you killed A’ye. You are the life and death enemy of my Blue True Hope Tribe[1]. We will not rest till you die…..”
As the man spoke till here, he raised a bull’s horn-like horn, put it to his mouth, and blew it hard. At the same time, he kept a deadly stare trained at Man Huishan. However, Man Huishan only stared at Ning Cheng with hatred. He didn’t want to leave this place without catching Ning Cheng.
In just half an incense stick worth of time, several figures rushed over. It didn’t take long before even more people rushed over. These newly-arrived figures looked similar to the man who blew the horn, all barefoot, with long hair, wrapped in bark and grasping wooden-like sticks made of unknown materials.
When these men saw the fallen giant with a body full of sword wounds, they all let out howls of rage. Apart from the man who came earlier, the roars from these people were so loud that Ning Cheng couldn’t understand what they were saying or if they were even saying anything.
It was apparent that these people were all furious at the death of this giant called A’ye. In just an instant, these people surrounded Man Huishan, and one of them quickly moved to attack him. Even Man Huishan started to feel a sense of danger and wanted to retreat temporarily.
However, each of these newly-arrived people had a faint white light coming from their bodies. This light seemed to have a unique effect that prevented Man Huishan from escaping.
A moment later, countless wooden sticks came crashing down on Man Huishan. The sword in Man Huishan’s hand also swept out simultaneously, drawing a trail of blood with it. Not everyone had the same protective weapon as the man who had come first. Therefore, Man Huishan managed to cut down many of them continually. However, the more people died, the more people kept closing in on him.
Finally, one person’s stick struck Man Huishan’s hand that held the sword. Man Huishan couldn’t bring out the full power of his sword in this place; therefore, the moment the stick hit the sword, it immediately disarmed Man Huishan, and the sword flew out.
But what amazed Ning Cheng was that Man Huishan didn’t take out another sword.
Man Huishan simply couldn’t even vent the rage building up in his heart. He wanted to take out another sword, but his spiritual consciousness couldn’t even stretch out anymore. Surrounded by these strange people, the faint light coming from their body had entirely suppressed what little bit of spiritual consciousness he could use till now. The suppression wasn’t as bad at first. But as these people spun and started coordinating their attacks with much more precision, it strangely amplified the power of the white light. As a result, the suppression grew to such an extent that it suppressed every bit of his spiritual consciousness.
“Boom-boom-boom……” One by one, the wooden sticks rained down on Man Huishan’s defenceless body, each one stirring up a burst of white light that caused Man Huishan to shrivel up a little more.
Man Huishan knew that he couldn’t let this continue. The wooden sticks by themselves didn’t pose any danger to him; they couldn’t even injure his body. However, the white light from the sticks would mysteriously tire out his mind and weaken his already depleted strength.
Ning Cheng, who initially felt nothing but glee at Man Huishan’s current situation, suddenly felt a tug deep in his mind. He felt a familiar aura amid this white light. It was the Power of Hope. Ning Cheng believed that he hadn’t sensed incorrectly.
Just when Ning Cheng thought it was too late for Man Huishan to escape, Man Huishan suddenly let out a sharp roar and opened his mouth to spit out a golden orb of light. The next moment, this golden orb of light swallowed him up, and Man Huishan disappeared without a trace.
Seeing Man Huishan suddenly vanish, the group surrounding and attacking Man Huishan felt somewhat bewildered. They didn’t seem to have thought that someone could have escaped even in such a situation.
Ning Cheng sighed internally. It wouldn’t be an easy feat to kill a second-step Dao Confirming expert. Suppose he was in that situation, with his spirit essence and spiritual consciousness virtually unusable. In that case, he couldn’t have escaped, especially when surrounded and attacked from all sides.
Within the Land of Broken Laws, this group of people could use that white light to suppress Man Huishan. Yet, even under such suppression, Man Huishan could still escape using that golden orb of light.
With Man Huishan gone, everyone’s gaze then quickly landed on Ning Cheng.
The man who arrived here earlier quickly walked up to Ning Cheng, while the rest walked up and lifted the giant along with the men killed by Man Huishan. The man still looked a bit clean compared to the other people. Apart from that short burst of hysterical and manic look after learning about A’ye’s death, he seemed pretty calm and composed right now.
Ning Cheng didn’t wait for this man, who had just walked over to him, to speak and quickly took the initiative to cup his fists. “Thank you all for saving my life. That guy from earlier had chased after till now. If you had not come here, I would have died long ago.”
It was Ning Cheng’s way of using psychology with these barbarian-looking men. He first thanked the other party for saving his life and made them think he now owed them. He then pivoted to paint Man Huishan as the common enemy. Theoretically, it should reduce any animosity these men might harbour against him.
Sure enough, the man’s expressions turned a little more genial as he nodded and spoke with a somewhat broken language. “I can tell that you and that dharma cultivator aren’t of the same kind.”
As he spoke, he grabbed Ning Cheng and, with a tug, lifted him out of the swamp without any effort. He then took out a rough bracelet made out of tree bark and handed it to Ning Cheng, “You should put this on.”
Puzzled, Ning Cheng put on the bracelet and immediately felt surprised. He discovered that the swamp beneath his feet no longer sucked him down. However, Ning Cheng also found that he still couldn’t bring out his spiritual consciousness.
“Where did you come from?” The man had just asked another question when another hulking man with a face full of black pimples walked over. He spoke something to this man in a language Ning Cheng couldn’t understand.
But even if Ning Cheng couldn’t understand a single word, he could tell that this pimple-faced man simmered in anger.
Sure enough, after a bit of back and forth arguing, the man then spoke to Ning Cheng apologetically. “Pimple thinks that you’re somewhat dangerous as you come from an unknown origin. He thinks that you’re someone from the side of dharma cultivators. Therefore, I will have to tie you up and take you back to see our king.”
A person named Pimple. Ning Cheng didn’t know whether to laugh or curse at this new development. But he still spoke up with a little helpless tone, “I’m not from that cultivator’s side. That guy chased me here, and then I fell into the swamp.”
The man, who looked a bit more civilised than the others, seemed to have a good impression of Ning Cheng. He patted Ning Cheng’s shoulder, “You don’t have to worry about it. Our king is a kind person, and our Blue True Hope Tribe is also different from those dharma cultivators. Those dharma cultivators like to kill and scheme against each other. But our tribe believes in heaven and earth as truth and offer our prayers to it every day with sincerity.”
The more Ning Cheng heard, the more wary Ning Cheng became in his heart. He had reached the Eternal Realm’s full circle and fully transformed his celestial essence into spirit essence. However, Ning Cheng still didn’t understand anything about the Power of Hope. The truth is, he had come into contact and used the Power of Hope a few times in the past. The most recent being when he had gone to the Graceful Star Mainland[2].
Before that, he had crossed the Graceful Star Sea using the True Brahma Buddha Flame Wheel that required the Power of Hope as fuel. He also had the jade seal that stored Power of Hope. It was the primary reason he managed to connect that the white glow coming from those sticks was the Power of Hope. Moreover, this man said something about the Blue True Hope Tribe and a king, which gave him an even more familiar feeling.
He had once entered the ruins of Blue Resolve[3] True Country in the desert of the Graceful Star Mainland and encountered people from a North Jue Tribe. Ning Cheng recalled that the ruler of the North Jue Tribe was called Lan Xiu[4].
Originally, Ning Cheng wanted to ask what was happening with this swamp and how it had suddenly cracked apart after the explosion. But at this time, Ning Cheng had no idea about what was in store for him in this near future, and no longer was in the mood to ask.
Man Huishan might no longer be here to put pressure on him, but being pressured by a group of strange people to go to some Blue True Hope Tribe, Ning Cheng didn’t feel too happy about it either. At least he still had some freedom to do what he wanted when Man Huishan chased after him.
The group soon crossed the swamp and entered a narrow canyon passage. Many people from the group didn’t follow them inside but instead stayed outside. But when the rest of the group passed through, Ning Cheng saw greenery for the first time in this place. It was a vast open area, but the first thing that caught his eye was a statue that towered over everything, almost touching the clouds in the sky.
When Ning Cheng’s gaze fell on this statue, he couldn’t help but feel shocked. He had a copy or at least a reproduction of a part of this statue.
A young girl in a rough blue dress slowly walked out barefoot from somewhere beneath the statue. Behind this young girl, several men and women followed. After pausing her gaze for a moment at the now-dead A’ye, the blue-clothed maiden’s gaze then slowly shifted to the tied up Ning Cheng.
[1] TL Note: The character ‘蓝’ means ‘blue/indigo plant’, ‘诚’ means ‘honest/sincere/true’, ‘愿’ means ‘wish/desire/hope/faith’
[2] I believe it should be ‘Mysterious Yellow Mainland’. Still, the raws specifically state it as ‘Graceful Star Mainland’, so I decided to leave it as it is.
[3] Blue Resolve True Country – Lan Yi True Country
[4] Lan Xiu – Blue Rain
