Chapter 170: Clearing the Field
“…” The silence of the Ancient Vine Forest was finally broken by the sound of Li Yi’s great laughter.
“Ha ha ha ha ha…”
The black-robed youth on the distant hilltop threw his head back and laughed.
“Young brother!” Li Yi’s voice boomed like a great bell, his eyes blazing with the fires of battle.
“Your sword technique is remarkably fierce. You truly merit the words ‘astonishing talent.'”
He grinned. “Though I am impatient to fight you, taking advantage of another’s plight is not the act of a hero.”
“You and I…”
He swept his great halberd forward, pointing it from afar at Song Yan. “We shall settle who is superior when we meet on the Debate Stage!”
Song Yan was taken aback. He had expected the other to strike immediately.
He currently held one hundred and sixteen spirit inscriptions upon his person.
From the present rankings alone, whoever took his spirit inscriptions could end the selection phase of the Sword Tempering in first place.
He had not expected this man to hold such regard for the code of the martial world.
But the moment his words fell, the restrictions surrounding the Deer Chasing Terrace officially began to contract inward.
This round of selection had truly entered its final moments.
At the same time, several streaks of spiritual light suddenly blazed to life around the edges of the Ancient Vine Forest.
Those cultivators who had been lying in wait for so long had not come merely to watch the spectacle.
In that very instant, at least seven or eight figures erupted into motion, charging inward from every direction.
They had been waiting for precisely this opportunity.
Song Yan had just fought a fierce battle against Kong You and must have expended a great deal of energy.
Though waiting longer would be safer, no one dared underestimate this man’s true strength. If he recovered his spiritual energy, he would become another untouchable “Li Yi.”
“Attack!”
Four Taiping Peak disciples on the southern side of the ancient forest struck first. Several talismans transformed into fire finches, surging toward Song Yan in a sky-darkening swarm.
Song Yan’s brow furrowed. He was about to mount a defense when he heard a fierce whistle cutting through the air!
“Hoh, how shameless.”
Swish!
A black-red great halberd shot through the sky like a nocturnal meteor, wreathed in a surging crimson mist of spiritual light.
A single sweep of the halberd scattered all those chaotic techniques to nothing.
Boom—
The great halberd embedded itself at an angle between the rocks. A black-robed figure descended from the sky and landed steadily beside it.
A great hand gripped and lifted the halberd, resting it upon one shoulder.
An indescribable aura swept forth from his body. From a distance of several zhang, it held the four of them at bay.
His gaze swept over them with contempt, his eyes filled with disgust for such despicable creatures.
The four of them exchanged glances, trapped between advance and retreat.
Li Yi did not give them time to deliberate.
The black-red figure moved with the speed of lightning, charging straight at the faces of the four.
The great halberd swept horizontally in a sudden arc, its blade erupting with a blinding crimson flare.
The protective spiritual energy of all four shattered upon impact.
His great hand seized the jade token of the leader, then his foot drove fiercely into the man’s chest.
Crack.
The spirit-inscribed jade token was wrenched free. A flash of white light, and the man vanished.
From the perspective of outsiders, it was as though Li Yi had…
Kicked him clean out of the Grotto Heaven realm.
The remaining three had no room to resist and were eliminated by him one after another.
“If you do not dare fight honorably, then even if you win some petty competition, what of it?”
“Heh…”
He let out a derisive snort. “Mediocre talent.”
He turned to look back.
But he saw three afterimages dart from the area nearest to Song Yan, spiritual light of techniques flickering in their hands as they closed in.
One of them moved with uncanny footwork, splitting into three afterimages that lunged forward simultaneously.
A disciple from the Sitting Forget Peak even produced a black flying shuttle artifact. Its dark light surged and it shot straight ahead!
Endless pests.
Li Yi snorted coldly and was about to advance.
But his steps halted.
Song Yan’s eyes, which had been tightly closed, suddenly opened. Within his pupils, a burst of golden light flashed. Eye of the Void.
In this moment, the trajectory of that dark-light flying shuttle, the true bodies behind the afterimages, even the slow condensation of spiritual energy flowing in one of their hands…
All were laid bare in the Eye of the Void, down to the finest detail.
Song Yan raised his sword finger lightly. From the sword box, a second flying sword—cyan-purple in hue—emerged and flew out alongside the Untethered Vessel.
Hummm—
The black-and-white sword light raced like a swimming dragon. The dark flying shuttle was cleaved in two. That cultivator’s body lurched violently. With a sharp pain in his divine sense, his mind went momentarily adrift.
Lianli swept casually past and sliced the jade token from his waist.
“He still has strength to spare?”
And he was controlling two flying swords simultaneously!
The Phantom cultivator was horrified in his heart. But with the arrow already on the string, it had to be loosed. He had already closed to Song Yan’s side.
His palm extended, and a purple light appeared at his fingertip. He actually tore apart Song Yan’s protective spiritual energy with his bare hands.
Ha!
The Phantom cultivator’s heart pounded wildly. His fingertip was about to touch the jade token at Song Yan’s waist.
Over a hundred spirit inscriptions!
Whatever genius or prodigy he might be—is he not mine to take down?
But the thought had barely risen before it was snuffed out.
Song Yan’s figure shifted eerily backward by several inches. Then sword qi surged forth, fierce and overwhelming, and its keen edge flung the attacker a full zhang away.
Before the Phantom cultivator could steady himself, the black-and-white flying sword swept past in a cold flash, already upon him.
He felt only a fierce gust of wind brush by. Looking down, he found the jade token at his waist had already been carried away by the sword qi.
Clatter. A soft sound.
Two jade tokens fell into Song Yan’s palm at the same time.
As the spirit inscriptions flowed, the number belonging to him became “one hundred and fifty-two.”
Facing that black-and-white flying sword directly, the Phantom cultivator finally understood why Kong You had “suddenly” lost.
Now it seemed that Senior Brother Kong You had merely succeeded in drawing out the opponent’s true methods.
Nothing more.
A flash of white light, and he vanished.
“Excellent!” Li Yi’s eyes shone with even greater delight. He leaned on his halberd and laughed aloud. “Now that is a worthy opponent for me, Li!”
The golden light in his eyes slowly faded. The twin swords circled his body like swimming fish.
He turned toward the distant black-robed youth, about to offer some pleasantries.
But he saw that the surrounding cultivators had been herded inward by the contracting restrictions. With no alternative, most of them chose to direct their attacks at Song Yan.
“Very well!”
Li Yi lifted his great halberd and vaulted forward.
“Young brother, take a moment to recover. In the great battle just now, I have seen through many of your techniques.”
“But you have not yet seen my methods. To win under such circumstances would be unjust.”
“Watch closely!”
He let out a long cry. The black-red great halberd swept outward, and crimson spiritual light rolled across the Ancient Vine Forest like a tidal wave.
Cultivators scattered and retreated wherever it passed. Not a single one could withstand its edge.
Li Yi laughed as he skewered a Taiping Peak disciple—man and artifact together—and flung them aside, tearing the waist token from them in passing.
The disciple was still midair when he was transmitted out of the competition, unable to even cry out in time.
Xiao He coiled upon Gu Qingqing’s shoulder, her emerald serpent pupils fixed intently upon the battlefield.
Whenever a cultivator was sent flying by the aftershocks of Li Yi’s attacks, she would dart out like lightning, her snake tail snatching up the scattered spirit tokens and bringing them back.
The spirit inscriptions she collected were naturally credited to Song Yan’s tally.
Some cultivators also discovered Gu Qingqing’s position and launched attacks against her.
Xiao He accepted them all without complaint.
As the range of the restrictions grew ever smaller, the battle shifted in the blink of an eye.
Song Yan watched Li Yi’s combat from afar.
But in truth, he gained little from it.
Because his opponent was relying entirely upon overwhelming spiritual energy, crushing halberd techniques, and that strange force of presence…
To sweep through the entire Ancient Vine Forest, routing every disciple within.