Chapter 11: The Decisive Battle in the State of Wei - Section 23: World-Shaking Prestige (Part 5)

Section 23: Peerless Prestige (Part 5)

In such a fierce battle, Bu Jingxian feared a sudden failure of his abilities the most, followed closely by blood loss. Once he lost too much blood, his regenerative capacity would decline and even impair his combat effectiveness, which would inevitably spell mortal danger.

Having suffered the initial wave of the flying sword onslaught, Bu Jingxian recognized their lethality. Careless of whether it looked ridiculous, he transformed his long spear into a floral umbrella. With this, he barely managed to block the second wave of attacks raining down upon him, using the Seven-Star Longyuan to successively sever more than twenty flying swords wielded by the masters of the Quanzhen branch sect. However, trapped deep within the enemy formation, merely breaking enemy weapons could only buy time; the enemy naturally possessed a vast reserve of armaments.

The white umbrella, painted with white ink, swept through wave after wave of light swords shooting across the sky. Having successfully withstood three consecutive waves, Bu Jingxian knew that such passive defense, entirely devoid of any counterattack, was not a sustainable strategy. He immediately shattered the stone ground with two steps, scooped up a massive boulder, and hurled it forward with all his might.

Most of the flying swords used by these Quanzhen branch sect internal martial artists had an effective range of about ten zhang. The giant boulder exploded upon impact, and the screaming, whistling shards instantly knocked dozens of flying swords out of the air while wounding seven or eight flying artists who failed to dodge in time.

The opening for a counterattack created a flaw in his defense, allowing two flying swords to pierce straight into Bu Jingxian’s chest. When he exerted his internal force to shake them free, two gouts of blood instantly sprayed forth. The Void-Transforming Divine Skill converted the invading internal qi into a thin mist of blood, which was released around Bu Jingxian’s body. When this mist made contact with the blood spraying from his own wounds, the blood suddenly ignited, burning away instantly into a ball of red smoke that drifted and scattered in all directions.

When he was first injured by the flying swords, Bu Jingxian had noticed this phenomenon, but at that time, the blood loss had been minimal, and the smoke had been faint, sparse, and quickly dissipated. This time, however, he found it exceptionally striking, feeling that the transformation was bizarre and tinged with something uncanny.

The wound on his chest healed rapidly, and his blood stopped flowing. He had no leisure to ponder the strangeness of the red smoke. Gripping the umbrella, he seized the opportunity to fiercely charge a group of Quanzhen branch sect martial artists, kicking up fragments of stone in all directions to counter the enemy's flying swords.

Those Quanzhen branch sect masters naturally knew they should avoid close-quarters combat with the Northern Monarch. However, because a multitude of experts had initially surrounded him, and seeing how difficult it was for the Northern Monarch to deal with the Quanzhen flying swords, they had sensibly retreated behind the Quanzhen branch sect masters. When Bu Jingxian suddenly counterattacked and charged forward, even though those individuals wished to fall back, their formation inevitably became sluggish.

A group of a dozen Quanzhen branch sect martial artists, blocked by the crowd behind them, were unable to retreat and were instantly reached by Bu Jingxian.

The Seven-Star Longyuan killed three men in quick succession, and for a moment, other flying swords dared not approach, fearing they would strike down their own fellow disciples.

Yet those dozen Quanzhen branch sect martial artists were fierce and valiant; while desperately trying to fall back, they frantically manipulated their flying swords.

Within moments, eight Quanzhen branch sect martial artists were slain by Bu Jingxian, while five or six flying swords stabbed into his body. As his blood sprayed out, it touched the thin mist of the Void-Transforming Divine Skill, instantly igniting once more into red smoke that drifted away in all directions.

The masters who had been blocking the Quanzhen branch sect martial artists retreated far into the distance. Even though Bu Jingxian swung his sword with all his might, he only managed to kill eight Quanzhen branch sect martial artists, having to watch helplessly as the rest scattered and fled.

Just as Bu Jingxian was secretly calculating how to extricate himself from the predicament, he suddenly noticed that several Quanzhen branch sect martial artists who clearly had not been slashed by his divine sword and had successfully retreated were now collapsing to the ground one after another, in agonizing pain, wildly clawing at their own bodies with both hands.

*So that’s how it is. Vital blood as the guide, soul energy as the medium.*

Upon seeing this, Bu Jingxian’s mind raced. He strode swiftly toward a fallen martial artist, scooped him up, thrust his sword straight into the man’s heart, and withdrew it just as quickly. A great geyser of blood immediately erupted from the martial artist’s chest. When it touched the thin mist of the Void-Transforming Divine Skill that Bu Jingxian had deliberately conjured, all that blood ignited into bursts of flame, transforming into red smoke that drifted in all directions.

*Just as expected: the blood carries poison, contaminating any enemy who touches it. The enemy's blood becomes poisonous blood, which can transform into toxic smoke!*

The blood gushing from the heart of that Quanzhen branch sect martial artist turned into plumes of red smoke, drifting in all directions. When martial artists ten zhang away either inhaled or touched the red smoke, every single one of them collapsed to the ground, frantically and indiscriminately clawing at their own bodies in the exact same manner. In the blink of an eye, over sixty martial artists within a ten-zhang radius were poisoned and incapacitated.

The surrounding crowd panicked and retreated far away, unable to launch their flying swords for the moment. They were utterly terrified by the sudden turn of events, having no idea what potent poison the Northern Monarch had employed.

Bu Jingxian was both startled and overjoyed. His thoughts raced, and he suddenly understood where he had gone astray in his past cultivation. According to Old Man Northern Spirit’s martial arts system, it was fundamentally different from the vast majority of martial artists who cared so much about the lethality and technique of every single move and form. The direction of the Soul Decimation Art lay in absolute destructiveness and resilience.

Clearly, the Soul Decimation Art could not produce distinct stances, yet he had always fussed over how to improve his combat techniques. In truth, the Soul Decimation Art required no such things. The Soul Decimation Art required absolute cultivation power as its foundation, relying on a deeper foundation of power to make oneself a war god who would never fall. The foul qi of the Soul Decimation Art was a destructive means of slaughter that feared no horde of enemies.

Having figured this out, Bu Jingxian immediately formulated a new plan.

The Void-Transforming Divine Skill was, in essence, the utilization of phantom physical stamina generated by taking on proxy-birth, causing it to manifest externally. Therefore, he only needed to manipulate his internal energy to collide with itself within his body, properly controlling the degree of energy agitation to maintain the continuous existence of this phantom stamina without inflicting self-injury.

A continuous stream of red mist expanded outward from Bu Jingxian’s body. Within moments, it spread across a radius of over ten zhang, and the red flames of the tenth-tier Soul Decimation Art energy field seemed to burn even more fiercely.

Dozens of stone fragments were continuously hurled by Bu Jingxian, successively piercing the bodies of the martial artists who had been poisoned and felled. Under the shroud of the red mist, their blood rapidly burned, transforming into red smoke that diffused in all directions. In the blink of an eye, over a hundred more martial artists were poisoned and downed. Seeing this, the remainder fled in panic, terrified of being overtaken by the red smoke.

Yet as they fled, the sound of wind suddenly rose behind them. A poisoned corpse, spraying blood, flew close overhead, only to be instantly converted into red smoke by the dispersing red mist. Those fleeing martial artists who failed to dodge in time were instantly poisoned and tumbled headlong to the ground, one after another!

The red light and flames of the Soul Decimation Art energy field had originally enveloped a radius of thirty zhang, already making the martial artists within it feel an inexplicable sense of oppression. Now, the continuously expanding red mist reached the very edge of the energy field, provoking an even deeper, unaccountable panic in the hearts of beholders. Seeing that anyone who touched the red smoke was instantly poisoned, the area within the red light and flames of the energy field resembled a terrifying hell, and the retreating martial artists dared not approach it at all.

Within a short span of time, over two hundred Wei State martial artists who failed to retreat in time were poisoned and collapsed on the ground.

Bu Jingxian had already precisely mastered the boundary of agitating his internal energy without harming himself. He took a step to the left, and the circle of martial artists on his left immediately stepped back; he took another step forward, and the circle of martial artists before him hurriedly retreated a step in a flurry.

The red smoke filled the energy field, seemingly blocked by the energy field of the Soul Decimation Art, unable to drift beyond the perimeter of its red light. Some of it drifted before Bu Jingxian and was inhaled into his body. After a few moments of this, he suddenly discovered that once the red smoke entered his body, his vigor grew increasingly boundless, gradually realizing that this red smoke, upon entering his body, was transformed into vital breath and blood through the action of his mental technique.

He had no need to worry about a deficiency in breath and blood at all.

*Ten days of continuous battle is entirely unnecessary! What harm is there in slaughtering continuously for two days straight like this?*

Seeing that the surrounding enemies were blindly retreating and dared not enter the red-lit zone of the Soul Decimation Art energy field, Bu Jingxian laughed involuntarily and said, "Since you all dare not attack, then this monarch shall attack!"

Having spoken, Bu Jingxian chose a direction and charged fiercely. Those martial artists, each desperate to avoid him, employed their lightness kung fu to scatter and flee, leaving Bu Jingxian unable to catch anyone for the moment. He simply turned and charged toward the group of martial artists surrounding July, hurling two poisoned martial artists he had grabbed from afar. Following this, he threw jagged stones, reusing his old trick of utilizing poisonous blood to generate red smoke.

The dispersing red smoke instantly poisoned and brought down the large crowd of martial artists surrounding July. The fallen men, subjected to the attacks of Bu Jingxian’s spear, sword, and stones, spewed even more poisonous blood, transforming into still more red smoke.

Having lost the threat of the sword formation, July, though trapped in the encirclement, faced no danger. Relying on the astonishing physical stamina and internal energy generated by her Spirit-Blinking movement, she felt no fear whatsoever of the attacks from the numerous martial artists. The battle was entirely one-sided. While the multitude of martial artists appeared to be surrounding July, not a single one could harm her; instead, they were battered to death by her fists and feet one by one. The encirclement grew increasingly scattered, completely collapsing into disarray.

"Are the martial artists of Wei State truly so utterly worthless?" July crushed a man's windpipe with a grab and shattered another's skull with a kick. In the next moment, her figure flashed, shifting outside to a spot between three enemies a zhang away. As she passed, her fists and palms slew two of them respectively, while the third, hastily retreating, was still blasted to death by her palm force and hurled high into the air.

Only then did these martial artists realize just how unfathomably terrifying July truly was. The various internal and external martial arts forms in which they took such pride and had practiced with bitter hardship finally struck her, only to feel as though they were hitting a wall of solid copper and iron. Not only could they not inflict the slightest injury upon her, but they were instead violently rebounded by the force, sending their breath and blood surging chaotically!

Most of these martial artists belonged to the younger generation. Many of them had sparred with disciples of the Flying Immortal Sect, yet they had never witnessed such a terrifying supreme divine skill of the Ten Directions Ninety-Five. Every single one of them felt that they had previously been frogs at the bottom of a well, deeming this Martial Sovereign utterly invincible, with a cultivation realm so profound it defied imagination.

The multitude of martial artists surrounding July had been fighting tensely. When Bu Jingxian suddenly charged over, few of them had noticed the terrifying scene of the red smoke poisoning men on the other side. Before they could react, large swathes of them were poisoned down by the red smoke, and only then did they begin retreating to both sides.

July paid no heed to the situation behind her. Suddenly sensing that the enemy crowd behind her had dispersed, she surmised that the Northern Monarch had fought his way back. Seeing Wei Wuquan and other high-level masters fiercely surrounding and attacking Ling Luo, she immediately crashed headlong toward Wei Wuquan to slay him.

The martial artists blocking her path already feared her. Seeing that all those who tried to block her were slain beneath her fists and palms, those further back dared not stop her either, hurriedly retreating to both sides to let her pass.

Now, Wei Wuquan had been participating in the encirclement of Ling Luo, but he had not been going all out. He knew of Ling Luo’s formidable might from the Divine Martial Arena and was merely putting on a pretentious show of force while assisting the others, hoping only to bide his time and launch a sudden, fatal strike. Therefore, he had managed to keep a watchful eye on his surroundings. When July charged toward him, he inwardly cried out that it was bad, and immediately unfolded his sword momentum to spin around and fly backward in retreat.

Yet as fast as he retreated, July pursued even faster, arriving before him in an instant and striking down with a palm toward his head.

Wei Wuquan inwardly sensed that this palm was every bit as swift as Li Yijian’s—how dared he block it!

Unexpectedly, as soon as he dodged the first palm, a second palm swept horizontally across. Wei Wuquan exerted every ounce of his strength to spin and leap away, barely managing to evade it. Before he could catch his breath, he saw July flying in pursuit, delivering yet another palm. Seeing this palm strike with incomparable swiftness, and having dodged twice consecutively while his internal Qi struggled to sustain itself, he was seized with a terror that scattered his very soul!

At that exact moment, a sword Qi slashed through the air from the side, flying straight to intercept July!