Chapter 194: 194 Chapter 193: Scorched Earth

"Did you do it?" Tong Xue asked, almost as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing. The shockwaves buffeted him and he struggled to remain standing, being weighed down by Tang Qi Hong and Lian Rou. The ice that coated the two girls shattered, falling onto the ground like snow, dispersing immediately into frosty powder.

"Nope." I shook my head, a little disappointed. "I was hoping that would kill him, but I guess he's still quite the powerful dude. Well, at least he went out with a bang."

"The hell?! Even after an explosion that powerful?!"

I shrugged and continued to watch, my lenses darkening to filter out most of the bright light of the devastating detonation and protecting my eyes. Within a single blast, the extremely powerful shockwave had erased the ice, shattering them into countless fragments and vaporizing them instantly from the sheer heat.

Not only the ice, but the few blood tendrils that had remained intact despite being frozen had also disintegrated from the blast.

"Ugh!"

Blood Shadow was groaning. As the bright light and inferno died away, even after blossoming into a tiny mushroom cloud, his broken body slowly became visible under the diffusing flames. He looked completely mangled and mauled, white bone exposed into the air after having his flesh and raw muscle melt off them. In fact, most of his bones had been charred black from the sheer heat. It was harder to find any place where there was still skin attached.

"Wow…I totally nuked him."

My jaw dropped a little. Even I had totally underestimated the terrifying strength of my newly invented Sunburst. It was too bad I had just used the only remaining prototype I had after field-testing the other one, or I would toss it to finish off the sorry-looking Blood Shadow. Admittedly it would be overkill, but I refused to let my guard down with this bastard.

Blood Shadow let out a moan. Tong Xue studied him for a moment, his eyes widening when he realized something was wrong.

"Where's the blood?"

"Hmm?"

I glanced at him, not comprehending. Tong Xue gestured Blood Shadow with a jerk of his head – since both his arms were occupied in carrying Lian Rou and Tang Qi Hong. On closer inspection, particularly with the help of the readings on my glasses, I understood what he was driving at.

Astonishingly, despite the severe injuries that Blood Shadow had clearly sustained, he wasn't bleeding a lot. The readings in my glasses indicated that he had only lost a relatively small amount of blood.

I frowned. Something wasn't right here.

Tang Qi Hong and Lian Rou were also staring at Blood Shadow in dread, but for different reasons. Blood Shadow's hideous mask had been blasted off and incinerated, revealing his true face. Don't ask me why, but for some reason Blood Shadow's nose and ears were cut off. Probably the author of Spirit Realm had some background explanation or something that had to do with Lang Xie's past, but I honestly couldn't care less.

"Tong Xue," I instructed calmly, still feeling disquiet over Blood Shadow surviving a direct hit from a nuke. Well, a mini-nuke, but you know what I mean. "Take Qi Hong and Lian Rou and leave this place. Right now."

"What about you?" Tong Xue asked.

"I'm going to finish this guy off," I replied. As if to suit my words to the letter, my six mobile turrets hovered behind me for a moment before speeding upward and unleashing a barrage of qi beams that punched several holes through the grievously injured Blood Shadow, causing him to shriek in excruciating pain.

"Are you sure? I think you've incapacitated him enough. It should be safe to leave him here." Tong Xue had a point, but my intuition told me that it wasn't that simple.

"This guy…I don't know why, but my instincts are telling me there's more to him than what meets the eye. The fact that he's still not dead even after I nuked him means that he's hiding something. Don't dally, otherwise we'll all die here."

"You might be right." Tong Xue suddenly paused, as if remembering something. "Earlier, Blood Shadow executed his Blood Arts: Materialization, so I think he was only fighting with fifty percent of his power. The other fifty percent of his power manifested in the form of his Blood Arts: Materialization, using half his soul as the core and his shadow as the body. That shadow is fighting with Instructor Hai right now and must be carrying the other fifty percent of his power!"

"And you're only telling me this now?" I asked dryly, trying not to sound too annoyed. Tong Xue scowled defensively.

"I only just remembered it myself! You can't blame me! I was too busily trying to escape and stay alive while saving Lian Rou at the same time! I have a lot of other things on my mind all this while!"

"Fair enough," I conceded. "And if you want to save Lian Rou, please go now. And take Qi Hong with you."

Before Tong Xue could obey, however, the two of us spun around when we sensed something dreadful approaching. A scarlet blood shadow was howling violently as it rushed back toward our direction at top speed.

"Bloody hell, looks like we're too late," I grumbled grimly.

Fortunately, it seemed that the blood shadow wasn't dashing toward us. Rather, it was rushing straight for Blood Shadow's mangled body, which remained motionless.

Even more fortunately, Hai Rong was trailing it, adamant on not allowing it to escape. From her expression, she must have seen the explosion and mushroom cloud that my Sunburst caused earlier, and she nodded at me gratefully.

"Damn it!"

Tong Xue still jumped away, just in case, carrying Tang Qi Hong and Lian Rou with him. I glared at him, and catching my expression, my friend nodded and began his escape at top speed. Fortunately for him, the blood shadow ignored him and continued rushing toward its master.

I immediately understood what it was trying to do. If Blood Shadow fused with his blood shadow (okay, that sounded weird, I know), he would regain fifty percent of his strength, and more than likely heal from his wounds. Even though he would still only be at half-strength, he would continue to remain a formidable opponent. I still remembered what a struggle he forced us into earlier, almost killing me despite my Snow Aegis.

And that was when he was fighting with only fifty percent of his strength!

We had to stop him before he drew upon his remaining power to recover.

Highly aware of that, I quickly stepped between the blood shadow and Blood Shadow's true body. The blood shadow struck out mercilessly, but Snow Aegis drifted between us and its attack clanged ineffectually off my shield. In retaliation, the six mobile turrets streaked upward and fired a volley of qi beams that punctured cauterized holes through the blood shadow, but being an inhuman puppet created from blood and shadow, it only staggered and faltered a little from otherwise fatal wounds that would have killed a normal human being.

The blood shadow only required a few seconds before it righted itself and charged toward me again, desperate to break past me and reach its true body.

Unfortunately for me, I had not intended for the six qi beams to deliver the killing blow. They were but a diversion for my real attack.

Plunging my Azure Lotus Sword into the ground, I yelled, "Enhance Armament!" the Spirit Engravings on my blue blade glowed brightly as they activated under my command, and the entire barren landscape was frozen in ice again. Even the blood shadow was ensnared, entombed within an ever expanding block of ice that resembled its coffin.

"Well done!" Hai Rong praised me. She was still wielding that sword of hers, which emitted an immense amount of qi. She stabbed the frozen blood shadow, and I saw it shudder while simultaneously feeling its qi diminish significantly.

"You…!"

Blood Shadow spat out another mouthful of blood. He shut his eyes for a moment, forcing his mauled body to gather qi, and despite the excruciating pain that wrecked him, he excuted his technique.

"Return with Blood Escape!" he roared.

Clearly this was a last resort technique that Blood Shadow was reluctant to use. He was hoping that his blood shadow would return to him without him using this technique, for it agonized him greatly to execute it in his current state, and forced him to expend more qi that he couldn't affod to, especially with someone of Hai Rong's caliber returning to confront him. Nonetheless, he recognized that if he continued to hold back, he might really die.

With a sickening splash, the blood shadow exploded into seven streaks of blood-colored lights and surged underground, through the cracks created from my Sunburst's explosion earlier. They sped in different directions, smashing the ice that I had so recently created, and escaping through various crevices.

"Damn it!" I cursed, but I was helpless to do nothing but watch as each and every light traveled underground before vanishing back into Blood Shadow's real body.

Every time one of those lights entered his body, his severely weakened qi would recover somewhat, and his body would heal a little. When all seven blood-colored lights merged with his real body, all of his injuries were healed, flesh seeming to materialize from the blood and solidifying over his bones. While he still seemed very pale and I could sense the amount of his qi being significantly lesser than before, in terms of physical condition he seemed to have restored himself completely. Nonetheless, he couldn't conceal his current weakness and was hobbling unsteadily.

Even so, his formerly hollow eyes had regained his terrifying, murderous gaze and he glared at us.

"I'm going to kill all of you!" he howled furiously. The next second, he actually vanished from existence, his physical body morphing into crimson smoke and misting over the crater where he was lying on a few seconds ago. I could only gape as a terrifying spherical aura that was blood-red appeared and weighed down heavily upon the entire ruined courtyard.

"Go ahead and try it!" Hai Rong mocked him with cold laughter. "We'll see who dies! Do you really think you can defeat me after you withdrew your blood shadow? Now that you're using your real body to fight me, you're vulnerable to my attacks!"

Raising her finger to her mouth, Hai Rong bit down and drew a drop of fresh blood before spreading it across the blade of her sword. The demonic aura that shrouded her Spirit Sword suddenly intensified to the point where the Blood Blades instructor's killing intent actually dwarfed that of Blood Shadow's.

"Wait a minute," I protested, annoyed. "If you have such a powerful technique, why didn't you use it earlier?"

And don't give me that excuse about Blood Shadow having that 50% blood thing flying around. Hai Rong could still have obliterated it easily with her powered up blade, and then proceed to finish off the weakened Blood Shadow's true body afterward. I had no fucking clue why she decided to hold back, and potentially cost Tong Xue and me our lives.

Of course, Hai Rong didn't answer my question. Granted, this might be a qi-consuming technique and she didn't want to expend too much of her strength when there was no guarantee of victory. Now that Blood Shadow had been reduced to less than half of his original strength, her odds of winning had risen considerably, so she thought it no longer necessary to hold anything back.

"Blood Arts: Soul Shackle!"

Hai Rong slashed her sword in the air. At first, I wondered what the hell she was doing, waving her sword when her enemy was so far away. But her flashing blade left crimson streaks in the air, visible lines that coalesced into an arcane pattern. Within seconds, the streaks of blood intersected in the air to form a blood-red net.

I shuddered unconsciously when I felt the soul-shackling, potent power emanating from the newly materialized blood-red net.

"Trap him!"

Hai Rong pointed at Blood Shadow, and responding to her will, the blood-red net fell onto Blood Shadow, imprisoning him. I realized that it didn't just physically restraint him, but the arcane patterns woven into the fabric of the blood-red net were glowing fiercely to shackle his qi and spiritual consciousness, restricting his power.

"You!"

Blood Shadow growled defiantly and struggled to break free from the blood-red net, only to find himself unable to use his qi efficiently.

To be clear, he could still use his qi, but not as much as before. Clearly, losing more than half of his original qi had put him at an overwhelmingly disadvantage. I now understood why Hai Rong held this technique back for so long. If it had been the Blood Shadow at full strength, he would undoubtedly have broken free within seconds.

However, even if this spirit blood net was ineffective against Blood Shadow at his peak condition, it was more than enough to overwhelm both me and Tong Xue. Tong Xue and I were struggling to remain standing, our spiritual consciousness tensing unconsciously from a deep-sated fear upon seeing the blood-red net materialize. Even though the spirit blood net wasn't aimed at us, it continued to emanate a chilling, terrifying aura that caused our throats to constrict and our souls to shrink back in fear. Tong Xue stumbled back while my knees buckled.

"Fei Wu! Tong Xue! Grab one girl each and leave this place as soon as possible!" Hai Rong ordered, snapping the both of us out of our stupor. Shaking our heads, we nodded and quickly made to obey, trying to avoid meeting her gaze. Right now, Hai Rong's beautiful eyes were shining with a lethal light that made us uncomfortable despite her killing intent directed elsewhere. If I had taken a closer look, I would have realized how bloodshot her eyes were.

"Take care, Instructor Hai!"

Tong Xue complied immediately, and passed me Tang Qi Hong as soon as I reached him. With his burden lightened, he was able to move faster than before, but with my footwork techniques I was able to keep up with him.

As much as I loathed to leave Hai Rong behind by herself, I was keenly aware of how much of a burden I would be if I remained behind. Both Hai Rong and Blood Shadow were top experts of the highest pedigree. I was just an amateur bumbling into a high-level fight I had no place meddling in. It was sheer luck that I had survived against Blood Shadow thus far.

If only I had another Sunburst…I could have blown up the heavily wounded Blood Shadow and finished him once and for all. Unfortunately, I only had one of the prototypes left after using the other one for a field test. Once I returned to my workshop, I should return to making more of them. They really saved my life.

My Snow Aegis hovered behind me, the mobile turrets returning to dock with the core, and I grabbed it as it shrank back into the snowflake-shaped tiny portable device that allowed me to carry it on my person wherever I went, shoving it into my pocket.

While we ran, I did several rough calculations. I was fighting against Blood Shadow at half-strength, and I was still completely outmatched. If it were not for my Sunburst, I might even be killed, despite the defensive capabilities of my Snow Aegis. And as much as I hated to admit it, while the qi beams from my DRAGOON system could wound Blood Shadow and hurt him badly, they were not enough to decisively defeat him and drive him back. In all likelihood, I would just make him mad and he would pulverize me to the ground once he got serious.

The idiot was going to regret underestimating me and holding back instead of professionally doing his assassin job and using all his strength to kill me from the start. Typical idiot antagonist, in other words.

Well, it worked in my favor, so I couldn't complain.

In any case, the blood shadow had returned to Blood Shadow, and he had fully recovered, which brought me back to square one. Worse than square one, considering I was no longer armed with my Sunburst.

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Best to leave Blood Shadow to Instructor Hai then. Right now, it would be incredibly difficult for me to pose a threat to the fucker. If I insisted on staying and taking potshots at the bastard, I would only become a burden to Hai Rong.

That was why I complied and carried Tang Qi Hong with me, following Tong Xue back to the relatively safe grounds of the sect. More Blood Blades would be present, and they would help us protect the two girls. And we could even provide the necessary first aid.

No, wait. I couldn't help but frown at that. Dark Asura Sect's Yuan Tian Ya was here, both Di Shi Jiu and Liang Yang Zu from the Divine Shadow Sect were also here, with the latter still hiding somewhere in the shadows. The bastard clearly wasn't seeking revenge for his son, or he would have emerged to kill me long ago. As I suspected, he was only using Liang Shao Yang's death as an excuse to justify his attack on Nine-Tailed Fox Sect. He clearly thought nothing of me, the adults writing me off as an insignificant kid who wouldn't pose a threat to any of their plans.

Right now, they were only scheming to eliminate Blood Blades.

In other words, Lang Xie and Hai Rong. Cut off the heads of Blood Blades, and the rest of the body would fall in short order. Of course, there was still Sect Lady Zi Da Ji to consider, and her prowess was not inferior to that of Lang Xie's. Even so, just getting rid of Lang Xie and Hai Rong alone would reduce our combat ability significantly.

Damn it!

"Yuan Tian Ya, Di Shi Jiu, Liang Yang Zu…who else? Someone said something about Smart Shadow Sect as well. So Smart Shadow Sect has joined the fight as well?"

Then again, Smart Shadow Sect was a subsidiary sect of Divine Shadow Sect, a tiny branch, so I guess I could just count it as part of Divine Shadow Sect.

Good thing Tong Xue was still on our side.

As if he heard my musings, Tong Xue turned around, his expression grave.

"I suspect the Seven Valley Sects and even Cloud Sky Mountain are also in this as well," he declared quietly. I felt a chill clamp down around my heart.

"Are you sure about that?" I asked uneasily. Tong Xue shrugged.

"Sure as sure."

The chill turned into a blizzard, freezing not just my heart but also my spine while turning my stomach into ice.

If Nine-Tailed Fox Sect is assaulted on all sides by more than ten sects, then how are we supposed to defend against that?

No matter how I racked my brain, I could only imagine one outcome. There was no way Nine-Tailed Fox Sect could stand against so many enemies, even if we were one of the eight major sects. We might be powerful, but we were far from invincible.

"Fei Wu!"

Suddenly, Tong Xue skidded to a stop, his grip tightening over Lian Rou. While carrying Tang Qi Hong, I joined him, already understanding the reason for his abrupt halt. I had already detected the presences of martial artists long ago with my Heaven and Earth senses, but Tong Xue had evidently picked them out with his netflies.

"I sense them." closing my eyes briefly, I reached out with my Heavenly Flow and Earthly Steps. There were surges and wild fluctuations in the qi of countless martial artists all around us, the intense sound of combat echoing from afar as Spirit Weapons and techniques clashed. "They've already invaded the city."

"Yes, but worse." Tong Xue was grimmer than I had ever seen him in our years of friendship. "We're being followed."

"We've been followed ever since we went into the courtyard. That's how Hu Mei Er and the Divine Shadow Sect assassins found us. They're probably keeping their distance because they saw us get rid of the first wave so easily, and even survived the onslaught from Blood Shadow." I pointed out, not unreasonably.

"You knew this and you didn't tell us?" Tong Xue's brow furrowed.

"I thought you knew," I replied sheepishly. "What with your netflies and other Vanus clade gear…I mean spy gear."

Tong Xue looked a little embarrassed. "You give me too much credit." But he frowned and shook his head before jerking it toward the roof of a nearby building. "Let's go up there and take a look for now."

"Even though there's people following us?" I asked, bewildered. Tong Xue grinned and shrugged.

"You're the one who said they wouldn't dare attack us. For now, anyway."

With no argument against that, I followed him, the both of us jumping from contusion to contusion, until we reached the rooftop of the building.

Gazing down from so high, the scenery in the distance shocked me and chilled my blood. Even though we were currently located in a fairly secluded area that was some distance away from the bustling city area, we still had a good view of Tushan City.

"They really made it inside our walls," I whispered in dread.

Below us, houses and buildings burned, their structures immolated by manmade fires. Even as Blood Blades clashed with enemies, there were even more martial artists slipping past their lines and venturing deeper into the city.

"They're not from Nine-Tailed Fox Sect," Tong Xue sighed softly when he caught sight of those martial artists.

"No shit," I muttered.

Taking a deep breath, I momentarily closed my eyes and reached out with my Heaven and Earth senses, but Flame Volcano and Nine-Tailed Fox Sect were too far away for my senses to reach. They remained dark under the night sky, seemingly untouched by the conflagrations that blazed throughout the city districts.

"What should we do now?" Tong Xue's face was ashen. "Can Blood Blades really survive this?"

I swallowed, unable to give voice to the thought that was occupying my mind. I didn't want to say it, because I had the feeling that I would be bringing the inevitable into reality by vocalizing what I thought. And I didn't want to believe it either.

I had only been here for a little over a year, but I had gotten close to the people here, and this place felt like my second home, more so than even Wu Ling Academy.

However, there was one thing clear enough for me.

"We return to the sect, ensure the girls are safe, and then make our last stand with everybody there."

Tong Xue looked at me silently, his expression complicated. I could tell that he was warring inside whether to remain and die together with the sect, or whether he should just take Lian Rou in the opposite direction and flee together with her. He would tell me to come with him, but he knew me well enough that I wouldn't be persuaded to abandon Nine-Tailed Fox Sect.

Friendship over love. That was currently the mental conflict violently raging inside his mind right now.

"Four years ago, when Lian Rou came to visit Smart Shadow Sect, it was one of the lowest points in my life. I had disobeyed my seniors and practiced a forbidden technique in the sect, and as a result, ruined my muscles and qi vessels. Not only would I be unable to strengthen myself, I would even grow weaker over time."

Tong Xue finally spoke up as he looked at Lian Rou gently. I frowned, my vein twitching in my temple as I worried over the copyright issues regarding his backstory, and worse, the inconsistencies during my timeline.

"I don't remember that happening."

"It was during the time when you were in Sen Lin Forest. You know, after you fell into the abyss when fighting the Behemoth."

I called utter bullshit, but obviously I didn't say that. Besides, Tong Xue had a point. Evidently a lot of things occurred in Wu Ling Academy and the sects of the students enrolled within it while I was busily trying to survive inn the abyss.

My classmates just didn't tell me about it. And they had no reason to. Furthermore, it was partly my fault for not asking and assuming nothing happened. The world didn't revolve around me, after all. Even after my disappearance, life went on for the rest of my classmates.

"Then I was demoted from the most talented martial artist in Smart Shadow Sect to a mere guide. Everyone taunted and bullied me during those months. I was looked down upon by the people I once thought to be less talented than me, and I disappointed the seniors and masters who had offered me the chance to join their sect and had great expectations of me."

"I'm surprised you didn't quit the sect," I said. Tong Xue smiled wryly.

"Even if I did, where I would go?"

I had no answer to that, and so said nothing. Nodding, Tong Xue continued.

"It was during that time when Lian Rou visited Smart Shadow Sect. As her guide, I was ordered to bring her around the nicest places in my sect."

"Is your sect a tourist attraction or something?" I scowled. "I thought it was supposed to be a top secret sect for spies and espionage."

"Maybe." Tong Xue shrugged. "The locations might be a smokescreen, a cover to distract people from our real base."

"Fair enough." I nodded. Tong Xue then continued.

"Lian Rou was our classmate, so she was aware of my condition, but she did not look down on me at all. While I brought her around, I felt some peace from her cheerfulness, and it was that peace of mind that motivated me to succeed in cultivating that forbidden technique in the end." He looked at me. "And I recovered just in time before you finally showed up at the second exam in Sen Lin Forest, and even got stronger than before."

"The time matched perfectly," I agreed, recalling the time when I ran into my classmates in Sen Lin Forest.

"I met her during the the lowest point of my life, and fell for her. That's why…I'll do whatever it takes to protect her."

"So are you going to leave Nine-Tailed Fox Sect, to save Lian Rou's life?" I asked, aware that Lian Rou was shaking her head desperately, not wanting Tong Xue to do this.

"If I do so, she will never forgive me." Tong Xue smiled bitterly. "And where will we go? I have renounced my place in Smart Shadow Sect. For better or for worse, I'm now a fully fledged member of Nine-Tailed Fox Sect and one of the Blood Blades. I will have to live and die with the sect. In any case, we'll just be hunted down if we try to escape anyway."

Lian Rou relaxed a little at that, but I was still bewildered by his babbling.

"Um, okay? So why are you telling me all this? Are you trying to raise a death flag or something? Don't die on me, man."

Tong Xue chuckled at that. "You might be right, you know. I probably have raised a lot of death flags before this, and as things stand, none of us are going to make it out alive. If I'm going to die, I want to at least tell my story to someone before I disappear from this world. I want you to know about me, at least, so that if I'm dead, someone still remembers me." He grinned. "If anyone's going to survive this, it'll be you."

"Because I have plot armor?" I replied dryly. Tong Xue laughed.

"You know it."

"Well, no one is going to die," I declared fiercely. "You're not going to die, Lian Rou is not going to die, Qi Hong is not going to die, and I sure as hell don't intend to die." I jerked my head in the direction of our pursuers. For some reason, they had split off, having been spotted by a nearby patrol of Blood Blades, who were moving to intercept them. "Seems like our stalkers have lost interest in us. Let's go."

Tong Xue nodded, and then paused when his netflies picked up something else.

"A new group is heading in our direction."

I sighed. "They just keep coming, don't they?" Drawing a deep breath as I pondered our next move, I came to a decision. "Let's split up. You go this way, I go that way. That way, we might be able to confound our pursuers and shake them off."

In reality, I had detected a familiar presence in the group and strongly suspected their target was me, so I decided to have Tong Xue go a different way so that he wouldn't get drawn into the conflict. I wanted him and Lian Rou to be safe, at least.

Tong Xue looked at me suspiciously, and I covered it up with a hasty, "hurry up! Don't waste time!" before jumping off the building and heading in the direction I suggested.

"Make sure you don't do anything reckless!" Tong Xue hollered from above before he also jumped down from the building, but in the opposite direction, and disappeared toward the route I pointed him in.

I smiled vaguely, and didn't reply, not trusting myself to make another lie. Instead, I proceeded toward the direction of the new group of people.

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