Yu Shangrong appeared calm. He had expected that someone would stand in his way. The black cloud of smoke was clearly meant to stop him.
Just as well.
Yu Shangrong brought Bi An to a slow descent.
Three people walked out of the forest.
One of them was lavishly dressed with a sparse mustache. He stood in the lead as he said, “My friend, I’d like to buy something off you.”
“What is it?”
“The lotus-severing survival pills.” At this moment, the lavishly-dressed man waved his hand.
The other two brought out their riches and packed them before they handed the bundle of riches to him.
Cultivators were never attracted by materialistic items.
“Are you certain that you want to buy them?” Yu Shangrong smiled faintly.
“Naturally… You can think of this as a robbery as well,” the lavishly-dressed man said as he returned Yu Shangrong’s smile, “The Core Yang Sect is protected by a barrier. We’ve caught quite a number of their customers. However, this is our first time seeing one on a mount.”
Yu Shangrong nodded. “You can use witchcraft. Are you from Lou Lan or Rouli?”
The lavishly-dressed man was slightly taken aback by Yu Shangrong’s words. He said, “You have a keen eye, my friend… Since Great Yan has entered the Lotus Severing era, we, Roulians, naturally, can’t lag behind.”
‘So, they’re from Rouli.’ After thinking about it, Yu Shangrong found this normal. Great Yan’s cultivators were now severing their lotuses. When there were enough Nine-leaf cultivators, that would be the day where the Other Tribes were going to be exterminated. Rongxi and Rongbei would not let this opportunity slip through their fingers. It was only natural for them to send scouts here.
“Roulians.” Yu Shangrong maintained his smile. “My sword never kills those without a name.”
“You’re proud, alas, it’s ill-placed.” The lavishly-dressed man waved his hand.
The two others removed their clothes, revealing their sculpted bodies. Their skin was covered in densely packed runes. They seemed strange and ostentatious. Well, they were Other Tribesmen, after all.
Whizz! Whizz!
Two wolf king avatars appeared.
Yu Shangrong glanced at them. They were both Two-leaf Golden Lotus avatars.
The Golden Lotus could be used as a means to attack and defend. If the lotus, which possessed considerable defensive strength, was used well, a Two-leaf Golden Lotus avatar was, theoretically, much superior to a Two-leaf avatar without a Golden Lotus. Alas, Yu Shangrong was not one who could be defined by theory alone.
Yu Shangrong did not expect to run into Other Tribesmen here.
The two Roulians charged at him. With their wolf king avatars, their strength and agility were rather shocking.
Whoosh!
The two wolf king avatars leaped and lunged at Yu Shangrong in unison.
Yu Shangrong remained unruffled as he patted Bi An’s body and said, “Move to the side. I’m worried that I might hurt you.”
Auurrr!
A seemingly unwilling and disdainful expression appeared on Bi An’s face, but it did as it was told. With great reluctance, it took several steps back.
When the two avatars were descending on Yu Shangrong…
Zing!
Yu Shangrong unsheathed his Longevity Sword! It glowed brilliantly with a scarlet light! With his sword in hand, he moved swiftly. Instead of retreating, he advanced. With a tap of his feet, he leaped nimbly into the air and forcefully swung his sword. There was a blur of movements. Not even the shadow of the sword could be clearly seen. “Traceless Sword.”
The Longevity Sword slid across the two wolf king avatars. The two avatars shattered immediately. Concurrently, two miserable cries resonated in the air.
Yu Shangrong landed behind the two Roulians. He did not even turn back to look at them to know the outcome.
The Longevity Sword returned to its scabbard.
Pa! Pa! Pa!
The lavishly-dressed man clapped his hands and said, “You’re quite skilled with the sword, my friend…”
“You flatter me.”
The lavishly-dressed man continued to say, “There are many with outstanding sword skills in Great Yan… I’ve heard about many sword path elites. Sword Freak Chen Wenjie, Sword Devil Yu Shangrong, Sword Slave Wang Haichao… Alas, compared to them, you still have a long way to go.”
“Indeed.” Yu Shangrong did not contradict the man’s words. His current cultivation base was only at the Three-leaf stage. He was a far cry from his former self.
“Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Karran, younger brother of Rouli’s great General Karol.” Karran smiled confidently.
“Never heard of you.”
“…”
“Karol, on the other hand, sounds familiar…”
“Hm?”
Yu Shangrong wielded his sword with his right hand. He held it at an angle as he stepped forward. He was smiling; he clearly did not think much about Karran. A slight breeze ruffled his robes.
Karran was filled with a sense of foreboding when he sensed Yu Shangrong’s aura.
Whizz!
Karran spread his arms, and a huge wolf king avatar appeared behind him.
It was a Six-leaf wolf king avatar!
“A witchcraft Formation has been laid here… Inside this Formation, my strength can be temporarily boosted to the Seven-leaf stage,” Karran said.
Yu Shangrong continued advancing with a smile on his face.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Whizz!
When Yu Shangrong was ten meters away from the wolf king avatar, his 30-foot avatar appeared next to him. The avatar was in a horizontal position as though it was flying.
“Three-leaf?” When Karran saw Yu Shangrong’s avatar, he frowned slightly. Soon after, a sneer appeared on his face. “I’ve overestimated you.”
The black smoke from the forest gathered around the wolf king avatar.
At this moment, Yu Shangrong ran toward Karran. In just a blink of an eye, he vanished from sight.
Karran was stunned. The world before his eyes seemed to distort and turned blurry.
Three shadows appeared to the left, right, and center.
At the same time, Karran saw the leaves of the Three-leaf avatar spinning around a sword in a clockwise direction!
Karran was shocked. There was no Golden Lotus! This was an avatar with only leaves! He wasted no time in releasing a burst of Primal Qi. “Erupt!”
The Primal Qi from Karran’s avatar spilled into the surroundings.
“I’m sorry, but you’re too slow.”
A sharp sword struck. The Three Souls were gathered.
The sword seemed to have penetrated Karran’s soul as it pierced his avatar before it pierced his chest.
The battle was over.
The entire place was silent.
Yu Shangrong stood behind Karran, his back was straight, and his posture was poised. He was unbelievably graceful. His sword was still pointed ahead.
Yu Shangrong did not care about Karran’s life or death. Instead, he looked at the scarlet Longevity Sword. The three shining golden leaves spun around the Longevity Sword and vanished. This proved his hypothesis. Although the Golden Lotus’s defense was formidable, the sharpness of the leaves was also remarkable.
Karran pressed a hand to his chest as he fell to one knee, coughing violently. An incredulous expression could be seen on his face. Before the witchcraft had even completely boosted him, he was already killed. How did this happen? Why was this random Great Yan cultivator so powerful?
“You… You…” Karran said with great difficulty, “Can you… tell me y-your name? S-so that I can rest in peace…” Blood trickled out of the edges of his lips when he spoke, dyeing his robes red.
Yu Shangrong turned around slowly. He did not even spare Karran a glance. He looked at the bundle lying between the two corpses as he raised his hand. The bundle flew up, its scent reminding him of a certain medicine. ‘Survival pills?’ He smiled as he finally replied to Karran, “Yu Shangrong.”
After revealing his name, Yu Shangrong flew up, mounted Bi An, and shot toward the horizons.
Karran sat on the ground and chuckled to himself. “Sword Devil… No wonder… No wonder. Alright… curse my rotten luck, then!” He spat out another mouthful of blood. There was almost no chance that he could survive that sword strike. Nevertheless, his strong survival instinct kept him upright.
“I can’t die… I can’t die… Sword Devil, there’s too much… too much that you don’t understand about Rouli!” Karran muttered to himself feverishly as he removed his clothes and drew several peculiar symbols on his body with his blood. It did not take long before he was completely covered in his blood.
Pa! Pa! Pa!
A figure walked out, clapping his hands. He looked at the Bi An’s shrinking figure in the horizons with an expression of reverence and awe. “No way, he did this? A Three-leaf cultivator killing a Six-leaf cultivator?!”
Karran’s head swiveled to look at the newcomer.
The newcomer was peculiarly dressed. It seemed as though he did not notice Karran as praises flowed out of his mouth. “How did he do that? A Three-leaf killing a Six-leaf? Did my eyes deceive me? Or is your Six-leaf cultivation base fake? No way, that’s impossible! It can’t be!”
Karran was puzzled.
“Hey, I’m talking to you!” The peculiarly-dressed man kicked Karran.
“Ahh!”
