The two members of the Robber Couple had appeared at the same time and wanted to rob more than thirty-three hundred half step kings of the Robber Slayers!
It felt like the world was turning on its head.
Lu Yun charged the twelve titled dukes while Qing Ting rushed the other thirty-three hundred half step kings.
Madness, complete madness!
“What are we afraid of?” someone roared. “There’s two of them and more than three thousand of us! Kill them! We’ll take them down and take back our stolen wealth!”
This was a half step king that Lu Yun and Qing Ting had robbed before; his words snapped everyone out of their stupor.
Rays of scintillating brilliance seared the air as all sorts of flying swords and treasures hurtled through the void. They crashed down on Qing Ting in a messy heap, but the Robber Slayers felt a bit hobbled in their actions.
The Robber Couple had emerged from their own ranks—a vastly different situation than they’d dreamed up! It’d been general consensus that they’d find the villains and overwhelm them in one massive mob, but reality turned out to be the robbers infiltrating the crowd and skillfully separating them into distinct sections, making it impossible for the half step kings to work together.
Qing Ting’s sword was uncommonly sharp and each stroke stole a cultivator’s ability to move. As she battled other cultivators, she also comprehended a new level of mastery in her cultivation realm—one impossible to experience when fighting ghosts.
The biggest difference between cultivators and ghosts was that the former possessed combat arts!
She was as if a dragon coursing through the crowd. Fending off attacks aimed at her from every possible direction from more than twenty people at any given time, she needed to constantly flare with powerful strength and defeat her opponents. She needed to both defend and attack, and block the combat arts of others!
She scrambled slightly at first and had to rely on the sharpness of her sword against her opponents. Since she couldn’t defeat them with one stroke, it was incredibly taxing on her internal reserves.
Blood trickled out of the corner of her mouth, but her combat arts and moves became more precise as time went on. She gradually shifted to paying the smallest price possible to defeat or block an opponent’s combat arts.
The dazzling sword light from Azuresky gradually faded away. It didn’t take long before more than three hundred cultivators lay prone on the ground.
Qing Ting surreptitiously swallowed a few pills as she fought, healing some of her less serious injuries and recovering some of her internal force.
The twelve titled dukes of the Robber Slayers were beside themselves! They wanted to take on the female robber, but her male counterpart blocked them each time. Lu Yun’s Stellar Sword enabled him to fight twelve titled dukes on even footing, thoroughly chilling their hearts with his prowess.
“Azureclad Duke, please move against the girl or we’ll all be jokes!” Blackclad yelled at Azureclad when one of Lu Yun’s blows threw him back.
Azureclad and the four others had hesitated when Qing Ting revealed herself. When they saw how ferocious Lu Yun and Qing Ting were—successfully challenging more than thirty-three hundred opponents—they wanted to withdraw.
But Blackclad’s request pushed Azureclad into the limelight. If he left now, his sterling reputation of a lifetime would truly become a joke.
“Leng Che, You Cang, go help the Seven Slaughters King take down the Champion Duke. Don’t show him any mercy!” Azureclad clenched his teeth. “Little Ying, come with me to force Qing Ting off the battlefield!”
He was completely convinced that his sister had been led astray by that brat. The current situation was too dangerous; more than three thousand half step kings lacking titled kings to maintain order was a more frightening sight than the ghosts outside Cloudexit City!
“Alright!” You Cang and Leng Che exploded with battle strength and charged Lu Yun.
“They’re as strong as titled dukes!” Seven Slaughters and Blackclad jumped with shock. They hadn’t thought that the two sidekicks they’d ignored all this time would be this strong! In fact, the two followers were almost as strong as them!
“Piss off!” Lu Yun split out two shadows of himself that rushed at Leng Che and You Cang when they arrived, slashing at both of them.
Startled, they swiftly reacted. They hadn’t thought that Lu Yun would be able to spare attention for them while he battled twelve titled dukes.
Bam!
Bam!
Two enormous explosions later, both of them smashed into the ground, all of their bones broken by Lu Yun’s terrible stroke.
His sword intent scattered throughout the melee, forming his first stroke—Dragonrise—with utmost perfection. The meaning behind his second move was also brewing. He wanted to make use of this battle to temper his second stroke, pinpoint its weaknesses, and improve upon them.
As wondrous as cultivation in the Army Pagoda was, trials of life and death were equally pivotal.
“What are you doing here?” Qing Ting transmitted with a frown when she saw her brother and Crimsonclad. She was stronger than both of them, but if they dogged her footsteps, she would ultimately be defeated.
“This is completely out of line, you’re being so ridiculous! Robbing thirty-three hundred half step kings?! Do you want to be the death of me??” Azureclad transmitted through grit teeth. “Leave this place immediately and never have anything to do with that Champion Duke ever again!”
He burst with azure sword light that transformed into a huge dragon. Snarling, it pounced on Qing Ting—appearing to be a vicious attack to outsiders, but in reality a front that would let his sister escape.
The remaining three thousand cultivators heaved sighs of relief to see the Azureclad Duke take the field.
Boom!
Qing Ting blasted apart his dragon of sword qi.
“You!!” Azureclad’s jaw dropped.
“Qing Yan, this is the Dragonling Assembly!” Qing Ting declared furiously. “Everyone has their own path to walk, as do I! I am not your shadow or your puppet on strings!”
Whoosh!
She brandished her sword and came for her brother.
“You don’t know what’s right from wrong!” Crimsonclad turned irate to see Qing Ting charge them. A proud phoenix call echoed from her body as fiery smoke swept toward the girl.
Her lips curving upward, Qing Ting stabbed forward and redirected the smoke an instant before her blade touched it.
Kaboom!
A huge mushroom cloud rose into the air, completely demolishing the unprepared and defenseless cultivators nearby. They were all within her sword curtain; there was nowhere to run to.
