Chapter 158: Hidden Cloud Cave (1)
From the Hidden Qilin Cloud Cave to the central region, the terrain was not complex. After crossing a small ravine, Song Yan arrived at the edge of elimination, barely stepping within the restriction barrier in time.
“Phew–“
That was close.
Gazing at the token in his hand, at that last sliver of spiritual light, Song Yan felt a lingering tremor of fear.
He had nearly been eliminated prematurely — that would have been a terrible loss.
Once inside the restriction barrier, the spiritual energy within the marking would slowly recover.
Yet now, nearly half the duration of the Sword Testing Assembly had elapsed, and his spiritual markings still numbered only five.
He needed to accelerate.
“Just as well…”
Song Yan hung the token back at his waist.
Upon the cliff before him, three cultivators waited.
His divine sense, far surpassing that of ordinary cultivators, had already gathered all relevant information about the three.
Their current positions, likely movements, and the extent of their strength.
“One at the eighth level of Qi Refining, two at the seventh level.”
In truth, Song Yan still harbored doubts about the true measure of his own strength.
After all, he had rarely encountered opponents of genuine caliber at the same cultivation level.
No reasonable comparison could be drawn.
He estimated privately that he was perhaps comparable to an ordinary cultivator at the ninth level of Qi Refining.
At full power, overturning these three unknown quantities before him should pose no difficulty.
After all… numbers alone did not guarantee coordination or tacit understanding in disassembling techniques.
Under the onslaught of devastating Sword Dao offensive prowess, a one-against-many engagement could often be disassembled into countless one-on-one encounters.
And because Song Yan had never ceased circulating his Cloud-Traversing Intent, his seventh-level Qi Refining cultivation was plainly visible to the three.
“This person…”
The cultivator surnamed Guo found the figure oddly familiar.
But now was not the time for recollection. The other two cultivators cast sideways glances toward their leader, their pillar of support.
The instant Song Yan stepped beyond the restriction barrier, the fingertip of the cultivator surnamed Guo moved ever so slightly.
Immediately.
Three bolts of long-gathered spiritual light erupted from three different angles, surging toward him in attack!
On the left, a wind-element blade technique; on the right, a fire-element technique manifested as a fire crow; and directly ahead, a earth-yellow flying sword pierced through the air.
The three’s combined assault sealed every angle of evasion in a single instant.
What no one had anticipated was that Song Yan did not flee. Instead, he posed a question.
“Fellow Daoists…”
“How many markings have your jade tokens recorded?”
“?”
All three were taken aback by the baffling query.
But soon they sensed something amiss.
Song Yan’s voluminous sleeves stirred without wind, and two torrents of majestic azure sword qi surged forth from within.
Simultaneously, eighteen white sword shadows poured from the sword box upon his back like a cascading waterfall.
The central incoming yellow flying sword collided with the sword shadows, its spiritual light stuttering violently before erupting into a chaotic spiritual ripple.
Its trajectory began to waver erratically.
“!?” The pupils of the cultivator surnamed Guo contracted sharply.
When he beheld the bifurcated sword light, he understood why the figure felt familiar yet had eluded his memory.
For the information concerning this person had come from his junior sister’s lips.
“An azure-colored sword box, bifurcating sword light, azure sword qi…”
This person…
Was Song Yan!
The cultivator surnamed Guo now knew precisely whom they had encountered, but the two seventh-level Qi Refining cultivators remained entirely bewildered.
The two torrents of azure sword qi, one to the left and one to the right, effortlessly scattered the two techniques.
How peculiar.
This person possessed only a seventh-level Qi Refining cultivation, and even now, it had not shifted in the slightest.
He had concealed no realm — yet how could his sword qi wield such formidable might?
It defied all reason.
There was no time to explain. The cultivator surnamed Guo hastily changed his hand seals.
His waist pendant suddenly erupted with blinding golden light, coalescing before him into three turtle-shell-shaped spiritual shields.
He bellowed: “Run!”
This plan was his own invention. He wished to delay as long as possible, allowing the two juniors to escape first.
He was a man of principle after all.
But… run?
The two froze at his words. Song Yan smiled at them.
The pair thought to themselves that even if this person possessed some means, he was merely at the seventh level of Qi Refining. Could he possibly…
They turned their heads, only to find that the Sword Trial Peak disciple had vanished from where he stood.
“?!”
Between one breath and the next, the white-robed figure materialized like a specter behind the one on the left, his robes snapping in the wind.
“Ah Long!”
Too late.
Song Yan held nothing back. The sword qi within his sleeve erupted with devastating force, shredding his protective spiritual aura to fragments.
“Ugh…”
On the other side, the seventh-level Qi Refining cultivator seemed to sense something dimly.
Six white sword shadows had already flowed silently to his side.
The edge surged.
Shh.
In almost the same instant, the spiritual marking jade tokens at both their waists were severed.
Song Yan extended a hand: “Come.”
Both tokens fell into his palm. Then two threads of spiritual light were slowly drawn from within and merged into his own jade token.
The number upon it shifted.
“Eighteen.”
Wrapped in the white light of teleportation, the cultivator on the right remained frozen in the posture of his hand seal, standing as if turned to stone.
He seemed to find it difficult to accept that he had already been eliminated.
And the cultivator surnamed Guo, seeing both his juniors already transported away, promptly abandoned his bravado. He frantically circulated his spiritual energy to resist the encroaching sword qi surrounding him.
Then he produced an ordinary escape talisman, intending to flee the area first.
But Song Yan had no intention of letting him go.
Eighteen sword shadows deployed in unison, and the Green Snake Within the Sleeve was likewise driven to its utmost.
Azure sword qi swept toward him like a tempest.
Yet three turtle-shell-shaped spiritual shields still protected the cultivator surnamed Guo, and the chaotic sword shadows could not breach them in short order.
The opponent had devoted every resource to defense. If the stalemate continued, he might truly slip away.
Song Yan pressed two fingers together in a sword seal and held nothing back. The sword qi within the Sword Suppression Sword Repository surged forth almost in its entirety.
Upon the white sword shadows, the sound of wind and thunder resonated. Twelve of them swiftly coalesced in the sky above.
In a single fleeting moment, Song Yan exhaled softly.
“Descend.”
A single beam of refined, concentrated sword light flickered between heaven and earth for but an instant.
Boom!!!
The three small spiritual shields crumbled one after another.
In the final image that the cultivator surnamed Guo beheld, that figure descended lightly to the ground, his great sleeves stirring without wind.
Eighteen sword shadows were slowly returning to the sword box upon his back. His fingertips beckoned once toward the cultivator surnamed Guo.
“…”
The jade token at his waist was already flying toward Song Yan.
Spiritual light exchanged hands, and the number recorded upon it shifted once more.
“Twenty-six.”
A flash of white light, and the cultivator surnamed Guo was also transported away.
Now, upon Flowing Cloud Cliff, silence reigned absolute.
Only a young cultivator remained, gazing at the number upon the jade token in his hand, lost in thought.
“Still far too few.”
Over sixteen hundred cultivators had entered the Sword Testing Assembly. According to Granny Qin, at least six hundred to eight hundred of them had no interest whatsoever in entering the restriction barrier’s interior.
Their goal, upon surviving, was simply to gather as many valuable spirit herbs as possible.
Now, with the assembly past its midpoint, venturing deeper into the restriction barrier’s domain grew ever more perilous.
Many cultivators who disliked combat would voluntarily walk beyond the barrier, awaiting their teleportation out.
Still others might encounter skirmishes outside the barrier, deplete the spiritual light of their tokens, and be eliminated beyond the barrier’s boundary with “substantial” quantities of markings.
The time and prey remaining for him were, in truth, no longer plentiful.