789 Cruel Victory (1/2)
After killing the frail middle-aged man, Ye Chen stood still without helping anybody. There was nobody to help after all.
Jin Wanshuang actually had a slight upper hand against Shi Shaobao. On the other side, he cold-faced youngster and middle-aged scholar were both sword artists. If Ye Chen went to help, he would instead displease the cold-faced youngster.
As for Lin Yuxuan, he might as well not think about it. This person was so arrogant. How would he endure being helped by others?
The two brothers were unreasonable, and their thought process was out of common people's grasp. It would be better to not hastily get involved in their business. As for the yellow-robed woman, as Ye Chen saw it, it was her opponents who needed assistance. If he went to help her, it would be a certain overkill. Murong Qingcheng also had the upper hand, and was unceasingly suppressing the young woman. Their battle would probably settle soon.
And finally, the battle between the experienced old man and the old man in the raincoat was somewhat confusing. The experienced old man's style relied on speed and precision while the style of the old man in the raincoat was just like his attire—eccentric and impossible to understand. During a direct confrontation, he would suddenly take a sharp turn; during an exchange of full powered blows, he would suddenly make a mad retreat and issue a desperate strike while retreating. In short, his style was not something that could be understood through common sense.
Retracting his gaze, Ye Chen turned his attention to the small mountain of upper grade spirit stones at the center.
The reason this astonishing amount of upper grade spirit stones could survive for so many years was due to the array underneath it. If Ye Chen guessed right, this array should be Spirit Locking Array, which could lock spirit Qi within the array, not allowing it to scatter outside.
Apart from locking the spirit Qi, this array also had provided a strong defense. With so many energy blasts flying around in the palace, it had not allowed the palace to even shake. However, the Spirit Locking Array was not a defensive array after all. After being battered countless times, it had begun to slightly fluctuate and flicker.
Ye Chen didn't dare to cut open the array. He feared that the moment he did so, the energy blasts flying all around the palace would immediately crush the stones into powder. If five hundred million upper grade spirit stones were turned into powder, even he wouldn't be able to forgive himself.
Despite being idle, he couldn't get his hands on the spirit stones. He could only spectate the battles from the sidelines.
”Four Way Sky Extinction Sword Art!”
”Slaughter Unbound Sword!”
The confrontation between the two sword artists attracted Ye Chen's attraction. Both the middle-aged scholar and cold-faced youngster revealed their killer moves, intending to determine the winner and survivor with one exchange. The middle-aged schlolar's killer move included four components— the wood, metal, fire, and earth profounds. Of course, these four profounds were not fused, instead complementing each other separately. Four sword strikes immediately cut off all path of retreats and advances of the cold-faced youngster while carrying an aura of destruction with them. Meanwhile, the latter's killer move was a fusion of wood profound and metal profound, containing the sustenance of wood's toughness and the sharpness of metal's edge. He issued a simple thrust without any fanciness, which followed the gaps in the other's move
'Powerful! Both of these are comparable to me in strength. I almost certainly can't beat any of the two without using the Bewitching Mirror Shattering. And even after that, I'll only have a seventy percent chance of victory.' Ye Chen's brain was running at a lightning fast speed, analyzing their strength and how would they fare against him.
Before he could finish his thoughts, the two killer moves collided amidst crackling lightning, and millions of light specks suddenly erupted. Even Ye Chen was unable to see what happened instantly, and could only guess according to the trajectory of the light specks.
Puff!
As the light specks dimmed, a stream of blood shot up to a height of three meters. The middle-aged scholar's head was slightly raised, and his neck had a frightening sword scar. His throat had been thoroughly pierced and vertebra cut open at a strange angle, no longer capable of bearing the weight of his head.
In the confrontation of aces, the middle-aged scholar was the first to fall.
Ye Chen turned his attention to the cold-faced youngster, who was heavily injured. Normally, this would already be considered a mortal injury. Both his right and left chest were separately pierced, and both thighs had deep scar scars, spurting fountains of blood and causing him to be completely soaked in blood.
”One died and the other heavily injured…This is the battle of sword artists!” Ye Chen sighed.
Clang!
Upon killing the middle-aged scholar, the cold-faced youngster's body went soft. His longsword lay on the ground beside his knees as he spurted mouthfuls of blood. His hair were soaked in blood and sweat. At this point, not to mention a half-step King, even an Astral Reaching martial artist could kill him.
The wounds on his legs and right chest were not fatal, but the same could not be said for the wound on his right chest. It was merely missing his heart by a hair's breadth. It could even be said that the reason he could survive was seventy to eighty percent due to luck. The middle-aged scholar was the most frightening sword artist he'd encountered without a doubt, and one who had a good chance of killing him.
”Die!”
Right at this moment, a huge lion claw suddenly streaked toward the cold-faced youngster. The claw was huge, sharp, and shone with a golden radiance. It naturally belonged to the transformed Shi Shabao. He and Jin Wanshuang had both been forced back after an exchange. His direction and timing coincided with the cold-faced youngster killing the middle-aged scholar. Since the former was heavily injured as well, he clawed at him, hoping to easily send him to his grave.
The cold-faced youngster didn't even have the strength to raise his eyes, not to mention pick his sword and block. If nothing unexpected occurred, his death was already determined.
Clang!
However, an unexpected thing did occur as a longsword blocked Shi Shaobao's claw.
It was Ye Chen!
”You're courting death!” Shi Shaobao's huge lion head spat out, glowering at Ye Chen.
Ye Chen faintly smiled, ”We're enemies, so why would I heed you?”
Replying Ye Chen was a roar as Shi Shaobao's body twisted, clawing at Ye Chen.