Chapter 1765: Dropping the Facade
A second ago, Yan Qingchen’s handsome face was full of smiles. Now, it was radiating murderous intent. Before his words had even finished echoing, he vanished from his spot.
Ming Qi and Ming Yu had anticipated this. They split apart instantly. In a flash, they flicked their wrists, and two light green sashes flew into the air. What had seemed like soft material screamed as it cut the air, straightening into two sharp spears that pierced the void.
“Boom! Boom!”
Two explosions rang out. Red and black spheres of light appeared in the air, clashing directly with the green sashes. In the moment of the explosion, the sisters were knocked back. As they retreated, they each carved a semi-circle in the air and converged again.
The moment they met, they struck downward at a diagonal. Ming Qi’s fist hammered into the empty air, while Ming Yu’s palm slashed down, creating a yellow arc of energy that hissed through the air.
“Bang! Bang!”
Yellow and red lights erupted. A figure solidified and was knocked back—it was Yan Qingchen, who had lost his concealment.
‘What heavy strength!’ Yan Qingchen felt a numbing ache in his arms. They were using close-quarters combat. By using the collision with his artifacts as a springboard, they had closed the distance to him. They were incredibly fast. He hadn’t even had time to dodge, forcing him to meet their blow with his bare hands.
However, they hadn’t managed to surround him. Sensing the danger, he borrowed the momentum of the clash to float away. Yan Qingchen realized that even with his cultivation, he couldn’t afford to trade blows like this. Their physical strength was nearly at the Void Refining level, and one sister was noticeably stronger.
His own body wasn’t that resilient. He had to use his range and strike from a distance to end this quickly. He was only slightly surprised by their prowess; since they could find their way here, they had clearly come prepared.
As Yan Qingchen retreated, the sisters pursued him relentlessly. He only managed to put some distance between them by borrowing the force of the clash. In another second, they would be on him again.
Yan Qingchen clapped his hands together. The two artifacts that had ambushed them earlier returned to his hands. They were two Dharmic Wheels the size of dinner plates, one red and one black. Their surfaces were carved with complex, ancient patterns that gave off a sense of immense weight and solidity. Their edges were lined with sharp spikes, one set glowing blood-red and the other as black as refined steel. At a glance, they felt as though they could cut through anything in existence.
The moment he caught them, he shouted, “Go!”
In all his years at Huangqi Valley, he had never used his natal artifacts, using others as substitutes. He could never show his true strength there. Now, to capture or kill these two as fast as possible, he didn’t hesitate. This was the only way to manifest his true power, which far exceeded his peers.
The red Dharmic Wheel struck toward Ming Qi, while the black one emitted a mournful, shrill whistle as it spun toward Ming Yu’s forehead.
‘He might possess the rare Water-Fire dual attribute roots!’ Ming Qi thought. Her cultivation was higher than her sister’s, and combined with the feeling of the first clash, she sensed the extreme Yang and Yin forces in his artifacts. They could achieve such an effect through their own cooperation, but they couldn’t replicate such pure elemental conversion through spells alone.
She warned Ming Yu. Her sister would sense the opposing forces in a moment, but the distance was too short; their cooperative combat style required them to be in perfect sync.
‘Water-Fire waste roots? Hmph!’ Yan Qingchen sneered in his heart. The roots others thought were rare were nothing to him.
The sisters didn’t slow down. Their green sashes appeared again, wrapping around the incoming wheels.
“Bang! Bang!” Two more muffled thumps. This time, the sisters failed to knock the wheels aside.
Yan Qingchen was using seventy percent of his power. The sisters’ physical strength was immense, but their magical power was limited by their own realms. When they poured their power into their artifacts instead of using their physical bodies, they were far inferior to him.
The sisters had tried to use Yan Qingchen’s ambush to trap him, but they had failed to injure or pin him. He had escaped their pincer maneuver. This momentary delay caused a tiny stutter in their coordination.
Yan Qingchen’s counter-attack was swift. Though his realm was late-stage Spirit Transformation, his true strength was far higher. This was why he had been chosen for this mission; he could operate under the radar of Huangqi Valley while ensuring success and safety.
The green sashes struck the center of the wheels, which began to spin and grind against them, trying to shred the material. For a moment, they were stuck.
An icy aura traveled up the sash toward Ming Yu’s hand, instantly covering the fabric in frost. Simultaneously, an intense heat surged up the other sash toward Ming Qi, manifesting as a flaming dragon.
They were too close, and their movements were at their limit. They couldn’t dodge. The frost and flames traveled up the sashes and struck their hands.
“Boom! Boom!”
Two massive explosions erupted between the three. Blinding lights of red-yellow and black-yellow shot into the sky. The sisters’ bodies shook violently, yet they didn’t retreat. Instead, their bodies erupted with yellow light several feet high, blocking the immense force of the attack.
“Eh? Defensive treasures!” Yan Qingchen’s surprised voice came from behind the explosions.
He hadn’t expected that even after using so much power, he hadn’t injured them. Seeing the light around them, he understood. Their yellow gowns were powerful defensive artifacts.
‘They definitely came prepared. They didn’t just stumble into this place!’ Yan Qingchen’s eyes turned cruel. He was now fully intent on killing them. He had wanted to capture and search their souls, but he could no longer afford to hold back.
He used the clash to retreat a hundred fathoms away. He didn’t want to engage in close combat with two Body Cultivators. His hands moved in a blur of hand seals, light flickering from his fingertips. He clapped his hands together, the light merging. His fingers interlaced as he pointed forward.
The merged light split in two, vanishing as they entered the two Dharmic Wheels…
“His strength is beyond the Spirit Transformation realm. His power is too much for us; we can’t let him kite us from a distance!” Ming Qi transmitted.
They hadn’t retreated, but Yan Qingchen had used the chance to move away. She could sense he still wasn’t using his full power. He likely wanted to capture them alive for soul-searching.
At full strength, they could match a cultivator at the early stage of Void Refining, with Ming Qi being even stronger, but that required getting close. The hot and cold forces he was emitting weren’t just simple spells; they were pure energies that were slowly eroding their defenses.
The fastest way to counter this was to use opposing elements to neutralize the erosion, then overwhelm him with a lightning strike. If Ming Yu were at the mid-stage of Spirit Transformation, Ming Qi was seventy percent sure they could have trapped him already. It would have at least been a stalemate. But as it stood, their combined strength—which could match a Void Refining expert—was being pushed back.
Ming Qi and Ming Yu had Wood and Fire roots. Ming Yu used her fire power to neutralize the frost, while Ming Qi used water spells to suppress the flames. Though Ming Qi’s water spells weren’t as fast as a true water-root user’s, they were effective. Their reactions were perfect.
Relying on their physical strength and defenses, they charged through the attacks. They weren’t ignoring the attacks to be brave; they had to close in. Yan Qingchen’s Dharmic Wheels were eerie; they not only emitted two opposing forces that were hard to handle but also possessed a suction effect on their magical power.
The sisters didn’t know that this strange power was the same one Yan Qingchen had used in the abyss to trap four Spirit Transformation cultivators. If they tried to withdraw their power now, the artifacts would follow them instantly. It was a style of combat that left the enemy with no good choices.
Just as they closed to within twenty fathoms, their expressions suddenly changed. The force attacking their green sashes had shifted in a heartbeat.