Ding Hao laughed out loud. Holding the rusted sword in his hand, he glided around disappearing and reappearing like a ghost.
The more than a dozen experts at the Martial Emperor Realm could not see his tracks at all.
He was like a traveler wandering in the void. From time to time, he would stab out with his sword. A silvery light would flash in the void, and someone would gasp in shock and retreat frantically.
Singlehandedly, he was able to fight more than a dozen of the most outstanding young fighters within the neighboring several million kilometers. This scene left the countless spectators on the ground agape and tongue-tied. At first, everyone thought that this handsome youth dressed like a teal-robed scholar was simply courting death. He was digging his own grave, trapping so many masters with his formation. But now, it seemed that he was merely confining them first before giving them a good thrashing.
Within the gigantic flag formation, there was a series of angry roars.
On the opposite side.
Golden Cicada moved as fast as lightning, approaching the Moonlight Fairy. His airborne figure suddenly hit out a palm.
A massive golden Buddha palm print hurtled toward the Moonlight Fairy with overwhelming force, as though uprooting a rotten stump, as interminable Sanskrit incantations resounded.
“I’m just a feeble woman. Why are you so cruel, Your Eminence?” the Moonlight Fairy said in a resentful voice. She raised an arm and unleashed a palm. A wisp of Chaotic Aura twirling around her body parted from the rest, stabbing toward that Buddha’s palm like moonlight.
Boom!
The collision between the Buddha’s palm and the Chaotic Aura resulted in an explosion.
In the sky, there seemed to be a gigantic display of bright fireworks going off. Endless fiery sparks and flames burst in all directions, like falling stars. The scene was so shockingly spectacular as to flabbergast everyone.
At almost the same time, Golden Cicada’s figure had passed through this chaotic Qi and streaked before the Moonlight Fairy like lightning.
“The Great Thousand-Armed Buddha Palm!”
One after another, faint golden palm prints materialized behind him like a peacock spreading its tail. Then, like thousands of arrows being fired at the same time, they bombarded the Moonlight Fairy like meteors, attacking mercilessly without the least bit of tenderness for her pitiful plight.
“Hahaha, Your Eminence, are you so cruel to any woman you can’t get? Love is something you can’t obtain by force… The Primordial Divine Wall!” The Moonlight Fairy cried out with a winsome smile, finally showing her delicate hands in the mists. She gave a gentle pull, erecting a Primordial Chaos Light Wall in front of her.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Countless golden palm prints crashed into the wall of light, like rain hitting the surface of water, stirring up ripples.
The Moonlight Fairy’s strength was quite extraordinary, and she managed to physically resist the bombardment of these innumerable palm prints.
“Great Compassion and Mercy Palm!” Golden Cicadas eyes were pellucid and calm, without showing any emotion—joy or sorrow. He was not enraged by her words.
He dashed forward, and a 300-meter tall golden manifestation of a Buddha with blurred features appeared behind him. He suddenly struck out a palm, filling the air with infinite compassion, as if this Buddha was unwilling to hit out this palm, but was imbued with boundless compassion for all sentient beings, making his opponent feel the surging remorse in her heart, sapping her will to resist.
Under the pressure of the palm print, the air surged and billowed like boiling water.
Crack!
The Primordial Divine Wall shattered like glass.
The Moonlight Fairy was shocked and retreated rapidly.
Golden Cicada did not give chase. Instead, his figure flashed and he disappeared into the Golden Boat in an instant.
“Monk, you’re too rude.” The Moonlight Fairy’s expression finally changed. Her figure moved as fast as lightning, pursuing him closely.
“Who the hell are you?”
In the formation, a young expert asked in shock and anger.
With more than a dozen men joining hands, they were definitely an invincible force within the surrounding several million kilometers. Even experts of the older generation did not dare challenge them now, not to mention other young warriors. But now, this young scholar before them in teal robes, who seemed younger than them all, was actually able to intercept them singlehandedly.
The young man’s swordsmanship was exceptionally profound. With only a rusted sword, he firmly inhibited them.
Ding Hao said nothing. With a flash of his body, he stabbed out his sword.
The sword light was as swift as crimson lightning.
That young expert could not dodge in time, his shoulder stabbed by the sword. He only felt an exceptionally icy Qi enter his body through the wound. In the blink of an eye, he seemed to have been completely frozen. He was so frightened that he stepped back immediately, mobilizing his inner Qi with all his might to suppress that icy Qi and no longer cared to fight.
In the void beside him, there were already five or six men like him, hit by the sword and freezing in the void. Stock-still, they urged the Qi to circulate within their meridians, their faces pale.
“What kind of a demonic technique is this?” The remaining men cried out in alarm.
Ding Hao’s figure flashed and he unleashed his sword again.
His figure was agile, like a banished immortal under the moonlight. Unrestrained and elegant, his trail was as elusive as the proverbial divine antelope hanging on its horns. The four or five young experts fighting him only felt a strong gale blowing on their faces. Before they could see what it was, they felt a chill in the acupoint on their shoulders. A rare icy Qi pervaded their bodies, as though they were trapped in some ice cave. The Qi coursing around their bodies began to stagnate.
“Are you… that swordsman from the Northern Region who defeated the White-Robed King in Chu City five days ago?”
Someone seemed to have remembered something and asked loudly.
Ding Hao retracted his sword and retreated to the center of the formation.
The 16 young experts at the Martial Emperor Realm were all standing in the void with pallid faces. At this moment, they could not even speak, mobilizing the Qi around their bodies to expel the Icing Qi. Pale blue icicles began to form on the surface of the bodies of those lower in cultivation.
Ding Hao waved his hand and removed the six flags around him.
These were the flags the Miluo Spider Emperor used to trap and kill Ding Hao, on that ancient westbound road on the Sage Battlefield. In order to stop Ding Hao from escaping, he had used these flags to seal off the surrounding space. After killing the Miluo Spider Emperor and his men, Ding Hao had grabbed these flags. Then, guided by the Saber Master and the Sword Master, he refined them again and turned their inscriptions into Chinese characters that could seal off space.
Ding Hao named these six flags the “Harmonious Five-star Flag”. Despite successfully refining them, he had not used them much. But today, they had happened to come in handy.
The strongest of these young masters was only at the four-apertured Martial Emperor Realm—naturally, still no match for Ding Hao. Ding Hao did not confront them head-on, but suppressed them with his swordsmanship. Every time he hit one with a stroke of the sword, he would inject Hell Ice Qi into that opponent’s body.
Ding Hao knew precisely how to execute each stroke to perfection.
Not only would he not seriously injure these warriors, he could also stop them from retaliating in the next two hours. They would not delay his and Golden Cicada’s rescue work.
The whole process took only 15 minutes—as long as it took to make a pot of tea.
Below, next to the Dreamy Cloud Swamp.
Numerous men watching the fight in the sky had their mouths agape, completely tongue-tied.
They simply could not believe what they had seen. Everything that was happening in the sky was an incredible reversal for them. All the young experts were presences they could only look up to, the most outstanding young fighters from the surrounding provinces.
However, although this team of future martial arts exponents of the Human Clan had joined hands, they were still defeated.
Moreover, they had been defeated so thoroughly, it was completely one-sided.
The teal-robed scholar stabbed each one with the sword, like an adult fighting children. He won the final victory easily with ineffable grace and leisurely panache.
From his expression, there was not the slightest hint of joy. It was as if this fight, which could cause a sensation within several million kilometers around Jin Province, was not considered much of an accomplishment for him.
The earlier exclamation of the young expert reached the ears of the spectators.
It turned out that this teal-robed youth was a swordsman from the Northern Region. Yet in the opinion of many from the Divine Central Continent, the Northern Region was a harsh and hostile terrain with ice and snow all year round. It was said that many in the Northern Region clothed themselves in raw fur and drank blood. They were all barbarians, and almost all their martial arts styles were straightforward, matching brute force against finesse. Yet why was this teal-robed scholar not only handsome and refined, but his swordsmanship also elegant like the dance of a banished immortal?
Five days ago, he had defeated the White-Robed King. And now, he had defeated so many young superiors around Jin City all at once. Was this young man going to wipe out the younger generation of the Central Region?
He was so powerful!
If things went on like this, who among the younger generation of the Central Region would be able to stop him?
As a result, the spectators forgot the other fight on the Golden Boat for a moment. They forgot the Moonlight Fairy’s seductive pose and stared blankly at Ding Hao in the sky. All was quiet, the moon bright and the stars sparse. The clear moonlight seemed to have converged completely on Ding Hao alone.
Right at this moment…
Boom!
All of a sudden, there was a violent explosion on that massive Golden Boat of the Nine Heavens Mystic Fairies.
Countless golden Sanskrit dragons penetrated the hull of the Golden Boat. The inscriptions on the dragon bones cracked and burst open with terrible energy. Pale rippling transparent golden Qi expanded unceasingly in all directions, yet the sky seemed frozen. It only shattered with a thunderous boom after several hundred Qi waves had rippled outwards. Golden splinters of all kinds were sent flying in every direction.
Ding Hao was greatly shocked.
“How did it cause such a great explosion?”
“Could it be that Golden Cicada had met a strong opponent?”
Until now, Ding Hao could still not fathom Golden Cicada’s true strength, but one thing he was sure of: the strength of this diabolically handsome young monk was greater than his.
Ding Hao was about to go and support him…
… When suddenly, a massive Golden Buddha manifestation emerged out of the explosion, amidst all the erupting shards. Golden Cicada’s entire body stood on the chest and abdomen of this Golden Buddha manifestation, his arms carrying a comatose woman with short black hair, as blood oozed out of his mouth. The flesh on the right side of his neck was bleeding and mangled, as if some beast’s sharp claws had ripped off a large part of it.
“He’s injured?”
Ding Hao was shocked.
“Where do you think you’re going, demonic monk?” An angry roar rang out, as the speaker emerged from the explosion, chasing after Golden Cicada. The pursuing black fog was like a parasitic maggot gnawing the bones, assaulting Golden Cicada’s back mercilessly.
“Get lost!”
Ding Hao bellowed. The next moment, he had already appeared behind Golden Cicada.
The rusted sword in his hand shook. Tens of thousands of sword light burst out, forming an impenetrable sword barrier in front of his body.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Like a giant octopus, the black fog bombarded the sword barrier continuously.
There seemed to be a giant invisible drum beating in the sky. Terrible sound waves emanated one after another, stirring up huge waves dozens of meters high on the lake below by the great Dreamy Cloud Swamp. The spectators standing on the shore felt dizzy, and their ears buzzed as if they had lost their hearing. Blood started to trickle out of the mouths and nostrils of some warriors with low strength.
The quakes caused Ding Hao to keep retreating.
“What kind of a power is this?” He was thoroughly shocked, feeling the destructive power of the black fog claws so strong that it far exceeded anything he had encountered before.
In that split second, they had collided several thousand times.
Ding Hao’s wrist was numb, and his rusted sword almost slipped out of his grasp.
He suffered a hell of a shock.
Since integrating the Purple Emperor Jade in Stone into his body, his physical strength had reached the five-apertured Martial Emperor Realm. Moreover, he had been constantly practicing all these days, so it was not difficult for him to confront a six-apertured Martial Royal warrior. But at this moment, he felt like he could not withstand the blows. His sword barrier was about to break down.
At this moment, an exclamation rang out from the black fog, coming from some place well concealed.
“A demon…! There’s a great demon hiding on the Golden Boat. Be careful, Brother Ding.” Golden Cicada’s voice rang out from behind him. His breathing was unsteady, sounding like he was seriously injured.
“A demon?”
Miaoyu Bordello was a Human Clan force. How could there be a savage demon hiding on their Golden Boat?
Ding Hao was shocked and did not dare to be reckless. No wonder the black fog looked strange. It did not look like Qi cultivated by humans. So it turned out to have been some Demon Aura, disguised in some secret way, camouflaging most of its demonic characteristics and proving elusive for the moment.
A great demon that could injure Golden Cicada was definitely not to be underestimated.
Ding Hao’s heart skipped a beat and he activated his rusted sword. Its rusty mottled sword body buzzed, soaring, ready to release its forbidden supreme power.
However, at this moment, the black fog opposite suddenly retreated, instantly withdrawing thousands of meters. It was actually fleeing deep into the Dreamy Cloud Swamp as fast as lightning—too late for Ding Hao to go after it.
“Golden Cicada, Ding Hao, you two lust after my beauty and use your power to bully me, destroying my Golden Boat and killing hundreds of the disciples of Miaoyu Bordello. We have an irreconcilable feud! Moonlight swears to take revenge, or I won’t regard myself as a human being. I’ll make your ugly deeds known to the world. So what if you’re from the Great Leiyin Monastery? They must give our Central Divine Continent an explanation for raising such a despicable and shameless disciple!”
The Moonlight Fairy’s voice echoed clearly in the void.
She also turned into a stream of flowing light and disappeared into the mists deep in the Dreamy Cloud Swamp.
She was really a most sinister and vicious woman. Even before she left, she did not forget to bite back.
The Dreamy Cloud Swamp was located next to Jin City, as large as a sea, vast and mysterious. Deep within, the swamp was shrouded in miasma and mists all year long, home to many ancient behemoths and great demons. An extremely dangerous place, it was comparable to a maze—no one who did not know the terrain well would dare trek deep. Ding Hao and Golden Cicada exchanged glances and decided to give up the chase.
In the sky, countless fragments from the exploded Golden Boat fell into the lake below.
At the same time, the dead bodies of several hundred disciples of Miaoyu Bordello fell from the sky as well. Also falling were the corpses of several hundred young experts from around Jin City, who had got on the Golden Boat tonight intending to get close to their fancied lady.
The explosion of the Golden Boat almost shredded everyone inside into pieces within an instant.
It was a catastrophic disaster.
The Golden Boat of the Nine Heavens Mystic Fairies, quite famous in Divine Central Continent, had been completely destroyed.
Below by the lake, the onlookers watched this scene stupidly in a daze.
No one had expected this outcome from the earlier fights.
“Reverend, is your injury serious?” Ding Hao came to Golden Cicada’s side.
“It’s not serious. It’s just that the Demon Aura has invaded my body, and it will take me three to five days to get rid of it. I was really too careless, ambushed by that demon in the dark, and almost lost my life.” Golden Cicada shook his head, his expression calm.
However, the wound on his neck was spurting with blood, looking extremely horrific.
The mangled flesh had turned black, giving off a fetid stench. The blood vessels around the wound were protruding, bruising into a dark green. This color was spreading inwardly along the blood vessels, looking extremely horrific.
Ding Hao inhaled a cold breath.
The injury was more serious than he had imagined.
Golden Cicada was a disciple of Buddha, and the Buddhist cultivation he practiced was the best at restraining Demon Aura and sorcery, yet he could not get rid of this black Qi quickly enough. One could see how powerful this black Qi was. Had it been an ordinary man, he would not have survived and would have long turned into a pool of black pus.
“Brother Ding, please help me carry Sweet Sound first.” Golden Cicada handed him the short-haired woman in his arms.
Sweet Sound?
Ding Hao took a closer look and found this woman with short black hair only cloaked in a gossamer black cloth, a large part of her skin exposed, smooth and fair as white jade or goat’s fat. She was indeed Sweet Sound, that female disciple of Zero Thought Sect who had gone missing and disappeared.
However, for some reason, her hair was now long. It was dark and thick, just reaching the ears. She looked extremely beautiful.
It turned out that Golden Cicada had managed to save Sweet Sound after all.
Ding Hao took Sweet Sound in his arms.
Golden Cicada immediately took out a golden Buddhist rosary from his storage ring, and pressed it on his neck wound, gently rolling it.
The Buddha rosary emitted a faint golden sheen, and had wondrous efficacy. Wherever the rosary rolled over, the fetid black pus would slowly recede, restoring a healthy crimson to the skin. The wound now looked much less serious than before, but still not completely healed.
“What a powerful Demon Aura. Even the Fiery Buddha Beads can’t completely eliminate its Yin Qi.” Golden Cicada sighed. “It seems that this wound will take a long time to heal.”
“Let’s get out of here first.” Ding Hao examined her somewhat and found that Sweet Sound had lapsed into a very strange coma. She was in a serious condition, and in need of careful treatment.
Golden Cicada nodded.
Right at this moment…
“You two butchers, your hands are stained with blood! And you still want to leave?” A man bellowed angrily, standing in their path and intercepting them.
He was one of the young experts who had been defeated by Ding Hao earlier.
His face was full of anger, his eyes almost bursting out with rage. He was staring straight at the two.
“That’s right, you two can’t go!”
“You’re too despicable. You’re a Buddhist after all, monk. Why are you so cruel and ruthless as to destroy the Golden Boat, killing so many people there without regard to their lives? You’re an executioner, a butcher! You’ve got to give the Human Clan in Jin Province a proper explanation!”
“Tonight, on the Golden Boat, there were not only several hundred pitiful girls from Miaoyu Bordello, there were also five to six hundred disciples of the Human Clan killed by you.” A young warrior pointed angrily at Golden Cicada, cursing him, and then lambasted Ding Hao as well. “You’re so proficient in swordsmanship. Why don’t you do something good? Instead, you chose to help this wicked man commit evil! Is your heart black?”
The eyes of more than a dozen young masters were burning with anger.
Ding Hao frowned as he always did.
Golden Cicada’s expression was calm as he said, “Amitabha, the Golden Boat was indeed blown up by Miaoyu Bordello. I wasn’t the one who did it, and I even tried to save them. Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to. Sadhu, sadhu.”
“Shut up! Put away your hypocritically compassionate face, monk! It’s so absurd. The girls of Miaoyu Bordello aren’t fools, why would they want to blow up their own boat?”
Someone was cursing angrily.
Golden Cicada explained patiently. “I find this very strange myself too. Maybe in the future, the Moonlight Fairy will give an explanation. However, there really was a demon hidden on the Golden Boat, an indisputable fact. Maybe they were hiding something.”
“Hahaha, how preposterous! Shameless! How can you come up with such a silly excuse? Everyone here saw with their own eyes you courting the Moonlight Fairy. You were shamed so you got angry and killed them. Not only did you kill so many human beings like yourself, you also maligned Miaoyu Bordello for colluding with demons. Monk, you’re shameless!”
“That’s right. Even supposing that it were true and Miaoyu Bordello were organizing a conspiracy, would they have killed their own people?”
“Humph, I didn’t expect such scum in the Great Leiyin Monastery.”
The young masters had surrounded Ding Hao and Golden Cicada.
Some of those below who did not know the truth were also roused, cursing loudly. A few above the Primordial Realm even soared into the air and stood behind those young masters, their manners aggressive and uncompromising, surrounding Ding Hao and Golden Cicada.
“What a bunch of idiots.” Ding Hao was also feeling a headache.
He could not start a massacre and kill all these idiots who did not know the truth.
Now it seemed that the two of them could no longer stay anywhere in Jin City.
The words the Moonlight Fairy said before she left had really deluded them. In addition, the black fog had concealed the Demon Aura so well that almost no one had noticed it. Now it appeared that he and Golden Cicada were really butchers.
“Let’s go.”
Golden Cicada’s words were direct and pithy.
“Humph, where do you think you’re going? You have to kill us all before you can leave.” A young man shouted.
Ding Hao shook his head helplessly and said, “A bunch of idiots fooled by a woman think themselves as geniuses. To be honest, you really ought to take some tonics for your brains. Your zeal and courage have been applied in the wrong place.”
As soon as he finished speaking…
With a brilliant flash, Ding Hao and Golden Cicada disappeared.
Dozens of experts wanted to stop them, but they could not keep up with their speed. In the blink of an eye, the two had disappeared.
“Spread everything that had happened tonight to the major provinces of the Divine Central Continent. Make sure that those two butchers have no place to hide. Humph, they have committed a heinous crime! I don’t believe that the Super Divine Guards of the Super Heaven Pavilion will let them off!”
“Get an artist to paint their portraits. Put them on the wanted list across the entire Divine Central Continent.”
“Spread the news!”
The young experts shouted one after another, all still livid. They were going to mobilize the entire martial arts world of the Divine Central Continent to save face.
A rather intense storm was about to break out soon.
