Chapter 49: Butcher's Art
It looked effortless, but to achieve perfection, this single sword strike had nearly emptied Song Yan of all his energy. His body swayed, and he immediately sat down, took out a pill and swallowed it, then slowly regulated his breathing.
The commotion here was far from insignificant, drawing the attention of everyone on the field.
Jiang Xiao cursed inwardly: “Truly useless!”
A look of shock crept into Li Qingfeng’s eyes. He was genuinely startled by his senior brother’s sword control skills.
In a moment of distraction, he was nearly pierced through the abdomen by a disciple of Hanging Sword Mountain.
“Hm? …Wasn’t this person under the control of an illusion?”
If this person had been manipulated by an illusion, then now that Bai Yulu had been sent to the afterlife by his senior brother, the illusion should have been broken.
Li Qingfeng thought to himself: “Damn it, Senior Brother Song’s methods are truly terrifying.”
“Li Fatty, Li Fatty, you need to show some real skill too!”
“Otherwise, people will look down on you!”
He too stopped probing, and held up a white pill between his fingers.
If one looked closely, one would discover this pill was formed from many grains of spirit rice pressed together.
He placed the spirit rice pill into his mouth, chewed it thoroughly, and swallowed it down.
“Hm?”
Song Yan slowly opened his eyes, gazing at Li Qingfeng with some confusion.
“Junior Brother Li’s spiritual energy…”
His senses were not mistaken. Junior Brother Li, who was entangled with the Hanging Sword Mountain disciple on the field, appeared to be slowly rising in spiritual energy cultivation.
Several breaths passed, and now Li Qingfeng’s spiritual energy pressure had risen from the fourth level of the Qi Refining Stage to the fifth level, and was even climbing toward the sixth level!
The kitchen knife in his hand began to swirl, circling around his side.
Li Qingfeng opened his eyes. The iron wok he had been using for defense slowly shrank and returned to his waist.
“Brother, this is also to let those behind you rest in peace…”
“Don’t blame this brother for his crude methods.”
His hand gripped the kitchen knife, and he charged straight toward the Hanging Sword Mountain disciple.
“?”
Song Yan was dumbstruck.
He watched as Li Qingfeng’s figure burst forward like a wild bull charging into formation, the kitchen knife in his hand shimmering with a pale gray cold light.
The Hanging Sword Mountain disciple instinctively raised his sword to block. The sword blade collided with the kitchen knife, but what happened next was a bizarre scene.
The kitchen knife slid sideways in an instant, its edge slicing diagonally down along the sword’s spine, as precise as a butcher separating bone and sinew.
“Pfft.”
The kitchen knife suddenly flipped upward, its blade just grazing past the thinnest point of the opponent’s protective spiritual energy.
The Hanging Sword Mountain disciple stumbled backward, but Li Qingfeng pressed his advantage relentlessly. Within several breaths, he had already spun and closed to within three inches, the back of the knife slapping against the opponent’s left Jianwell acupoint with a “pa” sound, causing the entire arm to go limp.
The man instinctively controlled his flying sword, and a brilliant spiritual light burst forth.
Li Qingfeng formed a hand seal, and his spiritual energy actually condensed on the surface of the kitchen knife into fine serrated teeth.
When the Hanging Sword Mountain disciple formed his sword seal, the dull gray kitchen knife had already cut in along the meridian pathways, just like Cook Ding carving up an ox.
Li Qingfeng’s sleeve was sliced apart by the sword energy.
But the kitchen knife traced along the major acupoints across the opponent’s entire body, each strike precisely severing the key acupoints in the spiritual energy circulation.
The final stroke swept across the Qi Sea.
“Pfft!”
The Hanging Sword Mountain disciple, still holding his sword aloft, finally crashed to the ground with a thunderous impact.
Blood erupted from his entire body like a fountain, as though he were a slaughtered animal being dismantled.
Song Yan’s throat bobbed as he involuntarily swallowed hard.
But soon, Li Qingfeng deflated like a punctured ball, his spiritual energy rapidly draining away, and he collapsed to the ground: “Ouch… Little Fatty is exhausted to death.”
What a strange secret art…
Song Yan was also alarmed by the precision and ruthlessness of that knife technique. On careful reflection, if he were to fight Junior Brother Li Qingfeng to the death, he would not have complete certainty of victory.
However, this secret art likely had some limitations.
Li Qingfeng lay sprawled on the ground in a star shape, gasping for breath, the spiritual energy around him somewhat unstable.
By now, Song Yan had partially recovered: “Junior Brother Li, I’m going to rescue Junior Sister Gu.”
“Alright!”
Even this single word of agreement was shouted with all of Li Qingfeng’s remaining strength.
Song Yan strode forward quickly. He saw that the portion of the blood cocoon that Qin Ying had sliced away was now slowly writhing and repairing itself in an extremely bizarre manner.
He summoned his flying sword, and sword energy surged. Pfft, pfft.
In quick succession, he severed and peeled away the blood threads adhering to that blue-white spiritual light.
Then he sheathed his flying sword, lifted Gu Qingqing in her arms, and with several leaps, carried her far away from the battlefield of the two Foundation Building cultivators.
He swept with his divine sense, but found he could not probe Gu Qingqing’s physical injuries.
Though he could see the girl plainly in his arms, his divine sense probing found nothing at all.
This solidified spiritual light was truly remarkable.
Li Qingfeng had recovered a bit of strength, and crawled and stumbled over to Song Yan’s side.
“Senior Brother, should we go help Senior Sister Qin?”
“?”
“Are you crazy?”
Song Yan’s face was full of question marks. It was the first time he had sworn in front of anyone who was not from Shiliang Village.
“They’re gods fighting each other. We should count ourselves lucky to survive in one piece.”
“Senior Sister Qin’s strength is unfathomable. Defeating that minor demonic cultivator is only a matter of time…”
Li Qingfeng hesitated, looked up at the sky, then back at Song Yan, and finally spoke: “But I keep feeling that Senior Sister Qin’s aura is… growing weaker and weaker.”
“Hm?”
Song Yan focused his gaze.
Above Peach Blossom Dock, blood mist churned.
Qin Ying hung in midair, her robes fluttering amid the blood mist and icy wind. Frost condensed at her fingertips, and dozens of ice spikes suddenly formed, hurtling toward Jiang Xiao with a piercing howl.
Her brow was deeply furrowed as she lowered her gaze.
She saw that along the edges of her arms, specks of crimson substance were gradually covering the surface of her skin.
What was bizarre was that her own protective spiritual energy showed no reaction whatsoever.
“Fellow Daoist, once you’ve entered my Blood Refining Formation, no matter how you manipulate your spiritual energy, it is all futile effort.”
“Here, I am the sovereign…”
Jiang Xiao raised his hand with a savage grin. From the ancient well surged a foul blood wave, which transformed into a ferocious ghostly face in midair.
“Hahahahaha… What nonsense about sects and immortal mountains!”
His gaze was cruel and resolute: “Whoever can achieve the Dao, whoever can attain immortality…”
“Only they are worthy of being called ‘immortal’!!!”
The instant the ice spikes pierced into the blood wave, the dark red liquid suddenly boiled, swallowing the frost entirely and vaporizing into a foul-smelling white smoke.
The flying sword wreathed in black flame beside him suddenly trembled, its blade erupting in a blinding black light, thrusting straight for Qin Ying’s throat.
Clang!
A mirror materialized before Qin Ying, its surface emanating faint ripples of cold energy.
Qin Ying could no longer conceal it, and began to pant softly. The crimson corruptive substance had already crawled onto her pale shoulders.
“You truly do have quite a few treasures…”
“Fine. Once I’ve killed you, they’ll all be mine…”
“What a pity. Your body won’t have the chance to be properly enjoyed…”
In Jiang Xiao’s eyes was deep regret as he formed a strange hand seal with his fingers.
The blood formation suddenly rumbled. All the kneeling villagers around convulsed in unison, thin streams of crimson seeping from their seven orifices, drifting slowly skyward and converging around Jiang Xiao. The blood light around him blazed intensely.
“Only beneath the Blood Refining Formation do I have the opportunity to wield this immortal sword…”
Jiang Xiao was completely immersed in the pleasure of possessing power, seemingly reluctant to let it go.
“Clang!”
Qin Ying’s pupils contracted sharply.
“So fast!”
Her protective spirit mirror had only managed to block the second sword before it began to wobble precariously.
The flying sword hovered mere inches from Qin Ying’s face. She looked up to see the black demonic flame surging with overwhelming force!