Chapter 11: The Decisive Battle in the State of Wei - Section 19: Unrivaled Prestige (Part 1)

Section 19: Unmatched Prestige (Part I)

If Wuyfei had not arrived in the nick of time, unleashing a split-air sword qi powerful enough to force July into desperate defense, that vast formation of Wei soldiers would inevitably have been pushed back and crashed into a massive expanse of the military camp.

Although July’s initial charge had been executed in one single bound with terrifying momentum, she had inadvertently plunged herself into a precarious position of deep isolation.

Wei Wuquan, accompanied by a large cohort of high-level martial artists from the Sword Peak Sect, drew their swords to surround and attack her. Meanwhile, holding a pink floral parasol, Wuyfei drifted into mid-air, launching wave after wave of flying sword qi in continuous assaults.

July circulated her inner art, converting her entire reserve into physical might. She effortlessly deflected Wuyfei’s oncoming sword qi with mere waves of her palms, remaining completely unscathed. Yet, Wuyfei’s sword qi was characterized by its blinding speed and dense concentration, leaving July utterly devoid of any breathing room. July shifted her position with extreme rapidity, desperately seeking to snatch a fleeting moment amidst her evasions to deal with the charging Wei Wuquan.

Seventeen long swords—half of them cultivating both internal and external prowess, the other half purely focused on external martial arts—thrust toward July in a tight encirclement.

In the span of a single breath, July cycled her internal art six times, swiftly adjusting the ratio of her physical stamina to her internal energy. First, she shattered several trailing strands of sword qi fired by Wuyfei; then, readjusting her physical power, she used a single palm strike to drive back Wei Wuquan’s long sword. Simultaneously, she whirled around to kick a Sword Peak Sect master to death, converted her stamina back into internal energy to repulse and injure two internal-martial-arts masters with a wave of her sleeve, dodged two close-range long swords, and forcibly withstood seven streams of inner-energy sword qi.

The formidable effects of the tenth tier of the Supreme Sovereign of the Ten Directions Divine Skill were fully displayed here. To fend off a horde of external, internal, and dual-cultivation masters without suffering injury was entirely the result of this divine skill's miraculous abilities.

Zha Xiaogai, the Wild Sword, kept his eyes locked on Ling Luo. Employing the art of riding the void and commanding the wind, he soared three zhang high into the air, unleashing blue sword qi like a tempestuous ocean that flooded downward toward Ling Luo in overwhelming fashion.

"Do not be so arrogant, Lord Xinhou of the State of Zheng!"

As he spoke, over three hundred strands of sword qi soared a hundred zhang into the high heavens, blazing brightly like towering New Year fireworks.

Ling Luo activated his Divine Shield, causing the white light around his body to glow even brighter and form a protective canopy. Shifting his position mid-air, he dodged the vast majority of the sword qi, while the remainder struck the Divine Shield without being able to pierce it. At first, Zha Xiaogai’s tempestuous, storm-like sword qi had greatly astonished Ling Luo; however, after observing for a brief moment, Ling Luo gradually perceived a massive flaw in his swordsmanship.

Zha Xiaogai’s sword qi possessed staggering momentum, with each stream of energy enhanced through a special breathing art to reach eighty percent of its maximum potency. Yet, he fell into the same erroneous mindset as the Northern Martial Sect, sacrificing the destructive area of his sword qi in order to elevate its lethality. At a glance, every projection of Zha Xiaogai’s sword qi pursued, locked onto, and intercepted the enemy's movement space in a targeted manner, seemingly without waste.

In reality, however, only two-tenths of this sword qi struck Ling Luo’s internal-energy protective barrier, while all the rest missed completely. In this brief span of time, Zha Xiaogai had already consumed ten percent of his internal energy.

*There is no need to engage him directly. If I let him pursue me from behind, his internal energy will be exhausted before long.*

Through the Divine Eyes, ten golden light spheres were visible on Zha Xiaogai’s forehead, indicating a divine value of 10; his human-shaped purple shadow was 1, and his spiritual value was 1; his physical stamina was deep red, occupying roughly one-third of his body, with a stamina count of 300; the blue light spheres attached to his meridians clearly exposed which acupoints he had cultivated. There were a total of thirty-nine blue light spheres, twenty-six of which were located above and below the acupoints, clearly representing innate enhancements, bringing his total internal energy count to 3,900.

From the distribution of the blue light spheres storing internal energy along Zha Xiaogai’s meridians, Ling Luo instantly recognized the acupoints he had cultivated, immediately perceiving that Zha Xiaogai pursued a path of pure lethality. His internal energy recovery rate was utterly ordinary, and his sword qi consumption was exorbitant, making sustained combat impossible.

Amidst these thoughts, Ling Luo executed the Avatar Shadow-Transformation technique, creating several illusory figures out of thin air. Like a gale-force wind, he bypassed Zha Xiaogai from both sides and soared behind him. Simultaneously, he drove his internal energy to condense streams of qi into his hands, waving them to create flashing white lights akin to light swords. Wherever they passed within a ten-zhang radius, anyone brushed by the white light was either killed or injured.

***

Soaring forward and pressing the advance, Ling Luo saw that July was being besieged by a throng of State of Wei masters and was finding it increasingly difficult to cope, so he hurriedly accelerated his flight to go to her aid.

Meanwhile, relying upon the overbearing might of the Supreme Sovereign of the Ten Directions Divine Skill, July had been single-handedly holding off more than a hundred State of Wei masters, including Wuyfei and Wei Wuquan. Initially, relying on her ability to convert between internal and external power, she had not only neutralized enemy attacks but had even slain quite a few opponents. Later, however, as the encircling masters grew numerous, many of them drew upon previous combat experience gained against the Flying Immortal Sect.

They directed the deployment of over a dozen sword formations of the Sword Peak Sect, channeling the strength of multiple individuals into a single person, utilizing either external martial power or internal energy. Every attack was launched in perfect unison, thereby countering the miraculous effects of the Supreme Sovereign of the Ten Directions Divine Skill and eliminating any temporal discrepancies in the attacks that would allow July timely opportunities to circulate her inner art and mobilize her internal and external powers.

Originally, when July’s tenth-tier Supreme Sovereign of the Ten Directions Divine Skill was activated, gales would whip up around her entire body; but at this moment, disturbed by the interfering energy fields of so many masters, it had lost its lethal capability. These individuals were all elites of the State of Wei, each possessing internal capacities exceeding a thousand. Amplified and condensed through their formations, their combined internal attack power reached at least eight,000, and their external sword techniques—further enhanced in lethality by their weapons—made them even harder to withstand head-on.

This forced July, amidst her desperate parries, to endure numerous internal injuries.

"Attack!" A martial cultivation master of the State of Wei was issuing specialized commands. At the order, four sword formations simultaneously thrust from the upper, middle, lower, and flank paths.

Unable to take the blows head-on, July shifted half a step sideways at the cost of being struck by Wuyfei’s sword qi. Relying purely on her physical stamina, she violently crashed into and repelled three surrounding enemies, forcing the sword formations' attacks to be restricted by distance and creating a microscopic time-lag. At the same time, she circulated her internal art, rapidly shifting the numerical values within her body. With a single palm sweep directed at the foremost arriving sword, she sent its wielder flying backward to crash into and tumble through six fellow formation members. Transforming her physical strength back into internal energy, she used the momentum to raise her arm and block the immediately following sword formation composed of internal-martial-arts masters. In her haste, she had no time to counterattack and injure her foes, managing only to deflect and neutralize the incoming sword qi, before frantically converting her energy back into physical stamina and spinning around to kick away the long swords thrust by the third group of formations.

At this moment, July was employing the special spiritual application technique she had comprehended from Li Yijian in the Divine Martial arena. The numerous intricate moves of the Supreme Sovereign of the Ten Directions Divine Skill could not be deployed at all; she relied entirely on the extraordinary, unyielding resilience gained from the rapid, repetitive transformation and adjustment of her physical and internal numerical values to weather the encirclement. Surrounded by enemies on all sides, the converging masters refused to give her the slightest breathing space, and despite holding out in the encirclement for quite a while, she remained utterly unable to launch a single counterattack.

Floating in mid-air holding her floral parasol, Wuyfei saw Ling Luo break through Zha Xiaogai’s interception and fly in to offer rescue. She hurriedly brandished her parasol, drifting across the sky to meet Ling Luo head-on.

As the two approached each other mid-air, both simultaneously released over twenty qi-spirits that whirled and danced around their bodies. Divine sword qi slashed across the void in a continuous web, twisting like dancing serpents within a space of several dozen zhang.

Clashing explosions of internal energy echoed incessantly, and within an instant, they exchanged over thirty moves.

Following this brief bout, the two hovered in the void, maintaining a distance of five zhang from one another.

Ling Luo felt a jolt of shock and doubt in his heart, never having imagined that the Sword Peak Sect of the State of Wei possessed such formidable figures.

Through the Divine Eyes, the internal-energy light spheres on Wuyfei’s meridians revealed that her cultivation was comprehensive and well-rounded, possessing both formidable offense and defense, with exceptional internal energy recovery capabilities. Furthermore, she had successfully unblocked the notoriously difficult Baihui acupoint, mastering the ultimate technique of the unity of heaven and man. Her meridians possessed the wondrous ability to constantly absorb, store, and transform the natural energy of heaven and earth, making her internal energy supply practically inexhaustible.

*Judging by her meridians, this woman has mastered at least three ancient divine skills. She must not be underestimated!*

For a single person to cultivate multiple internal arts did not mean they possessed the ability to deploy them all simultaneously.

However, being able to switch mental formulas at will—utilizing the Northern Martial Sect’s formula to block and neutralize an enemy's offensive in one moment, and employing another internal skill to execute a ferocious assault in the next—was entirely possible. Although human energy was limited and it was impossible to train the strengths of multiple profound internal arts to an equal peak, targeted and selective cultivation was by no means unviable.

For instance, one could intensively cultivate the Northern Martial Sect's forte of neutralizing enemy force while leaving other aspects untouched; paired with the illusory, unceasing offensive sword stances of the Hengshan branch of the Sword Peak Sect, it would naturally produce formidable results in actual combat.

Consequently, martial cultivators all yearned to gather the strengths of a hundred schools and learn as many profound mental arts as possible.

The Divine Formula was originally created by the Northern Spirit Elder by combining various ancient divine skills, boasting exceptional adaptability alongside the miraculous effect of neutralizing enemy force derived from the ancient Wudang mental art. The Divine God Posture comprised three stances: the Divine Shield, the Divine Wall, and the Divine Light. The white canopy surrounding Ling Luo's body was the Divine Shield, which could naturally neutralize incoming enemy force upon impact; the higher his cultivation, the greater the enemy force he could neutralize simultaneously.

The Divine Wall was used to block enemy force from a specific direction—the very technique he had used to shield July from the evil winds that day.

The Divine Light possessed an extremely broad coverage area and consumed a massive amount of internal energy. During the battle against the Wei army, Ling Luo had once deployed the Divine Light to shield the charging Zheng troops from the Wei army's arrow volleys.

The exchange just now had allowed Ling Luo to perceive the true terror of Wuyfei's sword qi. Zha Xiaogai’s sword qi offered astonishingly amplified power, but its flaw lay in its singularity—sheer, piercing sharpness was its only advantage. Wuyfei’s sword qi might not match Zha Xiaogai in sheer raw enhancement, but it was far more flexible and faster. Moreover, she could massively boost her lethality through concentrated, unified gigantic sword qi, while also being capable of unleashing scattering-type sword qi with a vast killing radius.

Compared to Zha Xiaogai, Wuyfei was superior by several notches in Ling Luo's estimation.

"I am Ling Luo, Marquis of the State of Zheng. May I know the young lady's esteemed name?" Ling Luo had never met Wuyfei before, nor had he heard of such a figure on previous battlefields. Surmising that she had only been drawn into the conflict due to the State of Wei's current desperate situation, and wishing to learn her name, he cupped his fists and asked politely.

"Wuyfei of the Hengshan branch of the Sword Peak Sect." Wuyfei replied with a placid expression, returning the fist salute.

At this moment, the Wild Sword caught up. Ling Luo hurriedly shifted his position mid-air to dodge the incoming sword qi, and seeing this, Wuyfei swung her treasured sword once more, assisting Zha Xiaogai in a pincer attack against Ling Luo. The three of them instantly became locked in an intensely tangled battle high in the air.

Meanwhile, Bu Jingxian had taken some time to deal with the Wei troops on the left side of the city wall. By then, July had already plunged deep into enemy territory on her own. When he leapt down from the rampart to carve his way inward, he encountered several wandering martial artists who had managed to evade his initial assault on the wall and had escaped being blasted to death by Ling Luo's thunder.

By this time, his Soul Formula cultivation had reached the eleventh tier, and through the Divine Eyes, his entire body radiated a pale purple hue, accompanied by a fully replenished stamina reserve of 10,000. At this moment, his baseline physical stamina was 1,200; the Soul Formula enhanced it by 100%, and the tenth-tier Soul Formula energy field increased it by another 200%, bringing his stamina value to 4,800. His Hundred Battles Talent and Undying Talent further boosted his actual combat lethality by 100% and his damage resistance by 300% respectively. When absorbing blows, his effective stamina reached 8,400; when striking enemies, his stamina value hit 6,000.

The masters he encountered all possessed the Innate Internal Talent, with internal energy reserves hovering around two or three thousand. Their offensive internal martial arts techniques enhanced their lethality by no more than ten percent. In the past, such attacks would have inflicted considerable injury upon Bu Jingxian; but now, having mastered the techniques comprehended from the veteran soldier at the inn, Bu Jingxian's illusory stamina surged by 3,600 when subjected to damage.

Those internal forces striking his body were completely neutralized by this phantom surge of stamina, instantly dissipating outside his body in the form of a pale red, mist-like energy. It was as if ordinary foot soldiers—whose physical strength was far inferior to his—were brandishing weapons to strike him, posing no threat whatsoever.

Wielding a spear in one hand and a sword in the other, he showed not a shred of fear in the face of the encirclement. Wherever his spear and sword passed, not a single one of the surrounding martial cultivation masters could block him. With his very first spear sweep, he severed the arm of a martial cultivator, sending him flying while his internal organs were utterly pulverized. The remaining five realized the horrifying might of his strength, and seeing that their internal force techniques struck him like stones sinking into the ocean, they knew they were utterly powerless to block his path.