Is this how I die?
Qing Ting felt a bit lost. She’d just defeated a second step ghost king and reached the peak of her life by officially surpassing her brother. She hadn’t even had time to cheer her accomplishments or bask in her father’s praises. Was everything about to end, just like this?
She didn’t accept this fate!
But she couldn’t move and could only watch as the horrifying stroke came closer and closer to her.
Whoosh!
Hazy blue light flashed through the air and a crisp sound echoed in her ears. The sword light flashing at her like a leering grin was shattered by the blue light and a body flew through the air, smashing heavily into the ground.
A man with robes as white as snow appeared in Qing Ting’s line of sight.
“Hua Fengwen!” She immediately recognized the man. Why had someone on his level saved them??
The third step kings that’d planned on ambushing the trio were already three corpses.
“Are you alright?” Hua Fengwen asked faintly and swept his eyes across the three. When his gaze flitted past Lu Yun, the corner of his lips tugged up. He didn’t really understand what Lu Yun was doing.
Lu Yun was a supplemental king and he’d created a terrifying sword dao with Dragonrise. He only needed to refine a pill for himself if he wanted to immediately become a titled king. It was even possible for him to ascend as a high level king with just the meaning behind Dragonrise.
But despite that, he voluntarily set aside his accomplishment as a supplemental king and continuously tempered his battle strength to ascend to kinghood in that manner. Is he unwilling to be an ant and wants to walk further?
If Hua Fengwen hadn’t discovered that a second step ghost king was self detonating in this area and swung by out of curiosity, Lu Yun might’ve truly lost everything this time.
“Thank you for saving our lives, Senior Hua,” mumbled Li Zhen. He was like a little fountain as he spewed out a stream of blood and mangled pieces of his organs.
Hua Fengwen’s expression sank and he crushed two pills, injecting pure medicine qi into Li Zhen and Qing Ting’s bodies to stabilize their condition.
“Starspace Region is a very dangerous place and much less stable than before. While the three of you can force a second step ghost king into self detonation, this still isn’t the place for you. Hurry and get out of here.” Hua Fengwen turned on his heel.
“What about me?” Lu Yun lay straight on the ground and laughed ruefully.
“Figure something out for yourself, don’t even think of mooching off my pills!” Hua Fengwen snorted and vanished.
Lu Yun kept chuckling.
“Hua Fengwen is still as remote and aloof as he was a hundred thousand years ago, an otherworldly legend! Strange, though, why would he save us?” Li Zhen crawled up from the ground and looked with puzzlement at the direction the king had left in.
He’d once seen Hua Fengwen before the latter became a titled king. Remote, aloof, distinguished above everyone else, his manner of speech was blunt and he abhorred getting involved in anyone else’s affairs.
To think that the great genius would save the three of them!
“Him? Remote and aloof? Otherworldly?” Lu Yun thought back to when he’d first met the man—someone at complete odds with the transcendent sage of Li Zhen’s perspective.
Qing Ting imitated Hua Fengwen and crushed a king grade healing pill, directing the medicinal qi into Lu Yun’s body to help him slowly recover.
Li Zhen ignored Lu Yun and sat down cross-legged, adjusting his condition.
“I’m still too young… First the Robber King taught me a lesson, then the second step ghost king, and now these three third step kings that suddenly appeared out of nowhere,” Lu Yun mumbled dejectedly to himself.
He’d thought that everything was completely under control because he’d accounted for all possible developments. He’d even anticipated that someone would ambush them! But for all his calculations, he didn’t think that the second step ghost king would think of nothing and self detonate!
Ghosts can self detonate?
Lu Yun didn’t know what to make of all this.
“Ai, I’m still too young!” Lu Yun grumbled softly.
“We did very well this time. If it was my brother here instead of you, we’d all be dead from the explosion already!” Qing Ting comforted him.
Lu Yun had crossed five hundred thousand kilometers in one step with the Boundless Step death art. He’d run fifty billion kilometers in the thousandth of an eye blink and created a life-saving distance between them and the ghost king’s detonation.
There were numerous half step kings in the Hongmeng who could cover the same distance within the same amount of time, but they all needed ponderous quantities of qi to support the usage of these combat arts or methods.
When the ghost king self detonated, it threw the local void into disarray and also scattered qi currents into massive turbulence. It was as if a large prison that left half step kings no place to run. Only kings that’d coalesced their dao rules stood a chance.
“No, it’s my fault!” Lu Yun frowned fiercely and murmured, “From the Robber King destroying a Hongmeng treasure, to the attack of the second step ghost king, and now the ambushes of the third step kings, all of them were tightly interlinked with each other. The slightest carelessness will land us all in absolute disaster.
“I’ve been too confident—we have so many more aces up our sleeve that we’ve yet to use. The king grade formations, talismans, and healing pills all lay untouched in our seed storage. We need to be cautious and prudent, not negligent like we’ve been.”
Qing Ting: ……
“Champion Duke, aren’t you a little too harsh on yourself?” Li Zhen protested. “If it’d been anyone else in those situations… even the Bloodclad Duke and the others… they’d be dead without a doubt too. We’re alive!”
“We’re alive because Hua Fengwen was here. If he wasn’t, we’d be dead!” Lu Yun said dolefully. “I have indeed been overconfident.”
Li Zhen and Qing Ting didn’t respond further; they didn’t want to entertain this funk of his. Instead, they collected the third step kings’ corpses. Though the deceased’s seed storage had burst upon their death and destroyed everything within, there were still a lot of quality treasures on the kings themselves. Their signature flying swords were still clenched in their hands—though they weren’t king grade, they were still rare items.
When the three left the area, they dug a hole in a small mountain and hid inside.
“Qing Ting, you’ve surpassed the Azureclad Duke now, have you thought of giving yourself a striking title?” Li Zhen walked up to Qing Ting with a smile.
“A title?” Qing Ting blinked and propped her chin up with her hands, taking a look at the still contemplative Lu Yun. “I haven’t thought of one yet, have you? You’ve reached the battle strength of a duke and have the right to bear a title too.”
“Of course I have!” Li Zhen puffed his chest out. “The Ghostblade Duke! From now on, I’ll be the Ghostblade Duke!”
He lifted the ghost-headed blade in his hand.
“The Ghostblade Duke? Then you’ll share the same first character as the Robber King, though his is silent,” Qing Ting asked with surprise.
“Pfft, Robber King? More like the Bowdown King! He kowtowed to me just now and cried like a baby!” Li Zhen brought out an impression stone with a flip of his hand. A water curtain flowed out from it—the Robber King from earlier, begging for mercy.
