Yan Xixin personally believed he neither possessed the speed to dodge the sun vines or such a powerful attack that could cut through the tree bark in a single strike. He could only rely on his own recovery, and before long, he would run out of energy, while his opponent could replenish himself endlessly. Under these circumstances, even if there were ten Yan Xixins rotating through the battles, they would still be wasted away forcefully. The situation was extremely disadvantageous.
Si Bao thought, Oh no. Originally, we still had a sixty percent chance of victory with this round, but with this, we probably don’t even have a thirty percent chance.
Gu Yanying expressed for her to not worry and glanced backwards.
Li Qingshan had already refined the five arcane artifacts, drinking heartily as he watched the duel in the Dragon Arena. His expression seemed rather similar to Si Qing’s.
Right now, he agreed with what Si Qing said very much. Duels truly were more interesting than dancing. Of course, if sect master Qiu were naked, that would be a whole different story.
Si Bao directly turned around and glanced at Li Qingshan, If we lose this round, then Si Qing will still have two fighters, and they’ll both be in perfect condition. Big sis trusts him so much, but is he really that powerful?
Li Qingshan grinned back at her, which Si Bao found extremely dissatisfying. “What’re you grinning for? You’ve drunken so much! Have you already come up with an idea?”
“Not yet, but when I go in later, hic, I’ll obviously have one,” Li Qingshan said. There was no need for him to find a way to deal with the rainforest environment. If Yan Xixin lost, they would obviously change the battleground.
Si Bao could see there was no drunkenness in Li Qingshan’s eyes at all. Instead, they blazed with a will to fight, shining even brighter than before.
A while later, only forty percent of Yan Xixin’s spiritual qi remained, while the dwarf was unscathed. He launched towards the huge tree again. Not only did he want to win this round, but he even wanted to maintain his strength and win the next one.
He did this to prevent Yan Xixin from forfeiting when he had basically run out of spiritual qi. If that happened, he would not be able to make use of this advantageous environment anymore.
Yan Xixin’s eyes suddenly lit up. Now! He stowed his shield away and used a technique. A swathe of yellow sand rose up in the sea of trees, whistling towards the dwarf and swallowing him.
This was not a real sandstorm, but the earth element technique “Shrouding Sand”. It was specially used to obscure the opponent’s six senses, to cut off their soul sense. If earth element cultivators encountered an undefeatable opponent, they could easily escape with this move.
The dwarf happened to be weaving between the sun vines. If his vision became obscured and he ran into a sun vine, his life would immediately be in danger. He would get burnt for playing with fire!
The dwarf sneered coldly. He showed no fear at all. He watched as the sand swept over, but before it could even approach him, the sun vines extended out and produced a gentle glow.
Yan Xixin was currently maintaining the technique, but he suddenly discovered that his spiritual qi was being depleted at a rapid rate. If he tried to keep up the technique, all of his spiritual qi would be drained away before long.
Si Qing smiled. “Yanying, this move your subordinate has taken isn’t particularly clever. Even if spiritual and arcane artifacts become entangled by sun vines, they’ll lose all of their powers before long. It’s even more difficult for techniques to be of any use.”
Qian Rongzhi took note of this. The sun vines were rather similar to the Heaven Climbing Vine she possessed, but there was nothing strange about that. Many vines were parasitic plants. Draining spiritual qi could be considered as their instincts.
Strange plants like sun vines and Heaven Climbing Vines only amplified these instincts, while Heaven Climbing Vines possessed the ability to cross through worlds. It was far more powerful than sun vines, except it was far too difficult to nurture.
Ever since she reached Foundation Establishment, she basically spent all the resources she had built up over the years to buy spiritual water so that she could nourish the Heaven Climbing Vine. Despite her efforts, it was not even a foot tall. Although the rate at which it siphoned spiritual qi had become slightly faster, she did not use any of it at all, leaving it all to the Heaven Climbing Vine to nourish itself.
This required extremely great willpower. With the purity of the spiritual qi the Heaven Climbing Vine siphoned, it was extremely enticing to cultivators. It was basically like drugs from Li Qingshan’s past life. They would become addicted after tasting it once.
Chu Tian did not necessarily have much difficulty in understanding the principle of accumulation and delayed gratification, but he was unable to resist the temptation of the pure spiritual qi. Coupled with how he wanted to maintain his title of “genius”, he was eager for quick successes and benefits.
Any additional restraint and accumulation now would lead to additional benefits in the future. If the Heaven Climbing Vine could grow to the level of sun vines one day, then who could still be her opponent in the world?
These thoughts had only flashed through her head with lightning speed. With another slash, the dwarf obtained another mouthful of tree sap.
The sand that had its spiritual qi drained smashed into him. Yan Xixin continued to maintain the technique tirelessly, but it was merely a sandstorm now. It was unable to interfere with cultivators like him.
The dwarf launched back. As soon as he left the vicinity of the sun vines, he felt the sand suddenly become denser, bombarding him like secret weapons. However, this had always been an offensive technique without any lethal power, so it obviously could not get through his protective spiritual qi.
A sword slash whistled over. The dwarf had been anticipating a sneak attack, so he dodged it with ease. Afterwards, another huge sand man rushed out of the sand, lunging towards him with its arms outstretched.
The dwarf destroyed the sand man with a wave of his hand, and a figure burst out of the sand man’s chest. It was Yan Xixin. He had hidden in the sand man to approach him.
The dwarf sneered inside, Puny tricks. Are you trying to force me back into the range of the sun vines? Even if you ignore the fact that it’s impossible, what can you do to me even if I do retreat?
He drifted backwards, and the impact from the sand immediately plummeted. If Yan Xixin were bold enough to pursue him here, then that would be equivalent to walking towards his doom. The sun vines would definitely choke him to death.
However, Yan Xixin charged over without even looking back, casting aside his sword and shield and wrapping his arms around the dwarf firmly. The dwarf paled in fright. If he had been elsewhere, he could dodge with ease, but he had already entered the range of the sun vine. The dancing vines attacked him from all directions, basically sealing off all of his room to move about.
He never thought Yan Xixin would be bold enough to charge in here either, so although he was fast, he was unable to avoid being caught. The two of them rushed towards the towering tree, but before they could even approach the trunk, sun vines swept over wildly, wrapping them up into a ball of vines in the blink of an eye.
It was easy for the dwarf to break free from Yan Xixin’s embrace, but it was impossible to break free from the sun vines. He could feel his spiritual qi flood out of his body like a dam had given way as his body weakened and grew numb. It was impossible for him to muster the strength to fight back. He was in shock as he called out with difficulty.
“The spiritual qi in me surpasses yours. If you don’t admit defeat quickly, not only will I win, but you’ll lose your life for nothing too. Even your soul won’t be able to escape.”
Yan Xixin said calmly, “I might die, but your cultivation will basically be crippled. And, my body is tough with plenty of vitality, so the one who dies first might not necessarily be me!”
The dwarf’s expression changed drastically. If he really lasted until Yan Xixin died, not only would his cultivation be completely gone, but he would be heavily injured too. His future in cultivation would basically be destroyed. To a cultivator, this was basically something as horrifying as death.
Li Qingshan felt admiration towards Yan Xixin. Yan Xixin was not particularly talkative, nor was he confident like Wei Ke, but he was over ten times more vicious and decisive than Wei Ke. He had forcefully changed this battle of certain defeat to mutual destruction.
The dwarf’s viciousness was riled up too. “Then let’s see who gives way first!”
But in the blink of an eye, the spiritual qi the dwarf had recovered from drinking the banyan tree sap had been drained away completely. Tiny vines directly plunged into his body, sucking away at his body. On the other hand, Yan Xixin showed pain on his face, but there was no fear or hesitation at all.
Watching as his cultivation was about to be reduced to nothing, the dwarf finally gave in and called out, “I admit defeat!”
The way assassins fought was about fleeing far away if their first and only strike failed. Although he possessed plenty of courage and decisiveness, he was unable to persevere. He could not help but consider for his own safety, refusing to go ahead with something as foolish as mutual destruction.
Si Qing’s face sank. With a wave of his hand, the towering tree and the vicious sun vines all vanished from the Dragon Arena. They had returned to the original empty battlefield.
Yan Xixin and the dwarf fell out of the air together. For a moment, neither of them could move.
In the blink of an eye, Yan Xixin’s cultivation had already fallen to mid Foundation Establishment. He had paid quite a heavy price for this victory. Fortunately, the basis of his cultivation was not damaged, so he could gradually recover as long as he had sufficient pills.
He removed his helmet, revealing his honest and ordinary face. He was also badly shaken, but he smiled victoriously.
The dwarf left the Dragon Arena and knelt down before Si Qing in a hurry, requesting for punishment. He knew that Si Qing hated weak and spineless people the most.
Si Qing had been extremely displeased. However, after considering how one of his three most powerful fighters had already fallen in battle, perhaps it would be good too if he could preserve his life. Victory was guaranteed in the last round anyway, so he relaxed and said indifferently, “Stand up! Victory and defeat are common in battle. Bring that bastard over.”
Clank! The sound of rattling chains rang out from the back of the palace. A cart with a cage on it was pushed over, and the temperature in the hall suddenly increased.
Li Qingshan only saw a ball of blazing fire trapped in the cage. Only after a closer glance did he realise it was not fire, but a completely naked man. He sat down with his legs crossed, covered in large, thick chains. The shackles were all engraved with inscriptions, clearly made for subduing cultivators.
The man did not move at all, but the feeling he gave off was like a volcano that could erupt at any time. He hid explosive power.
He was riddled with muscles and extremely sturdy. The colour of his skin was anything but normal, a reddish-yellow like blazing fire. His hair stood on end, rising upwards, which seemed even more like flames. He had a scarlet-red horn on his forehead with a tiny, scarlet-red tail on his back. Li Qingshan could tell with a single glance that he was not human.
Li Qingshan was surprised inside. This is my opponent! I didn’t think he’d be an otherfolk!
Gu Yanying was surprised. There were many otherfolk in the Dragon province, but Fire Devouring folk were violent and bellicose in nature. They could not live in the Dragon province. Most of them dwelled in lands of remote wilderness, with the majority in the Mist province. How had one ended up in Si Qing’s hands?
Si Qing said, “This was one of the spoils I captured when I was hunting for suitable battlegrounds in the Mist province. It took quite the effort to capture him.”
He turned towards the otherfolk and said, “Zhu Lie, I only have a single question for you. Do you want to live or do you want to die? I’ve basically run out of patience already. If you want to die, then I’ll give you what you want today. If you want to live, then pick up your weapon and fight!”
