Chapter 8: The Duel (Part 2)
When Yuan Xing and Gu Dao Ren were both desperately trying to get rid of each other as soon as possible, Yuan Fu Tong, who was buried in the snow by the avalanche, finally dug out the accumulated snow on his head and crawled out. However, he did not hear the two men arguing, but instead silently exerted their strength and launched a fierce attack.
Yuan Futong emerged from the snow and looked down. He saw a mound of earth hovering above Yuan Xing's head, not falling down, while the tortoise path cultivator was practicing a tongue-piercing technique, using his own blood to activate the folding fan in front of him, with increasingly complex hand seals that made Yuan Futong dizzy. At this time, Yuan Xing sat on the ground, motionless, holding the talisman and transmitting his spiritual energy into it. The gray talisman paper slowly enlarged under the infusion of spiritual energy. A gray sword shadow emerged from the talisman paper.
"It seems that the two of them are about to reach a critical moment. That person named Yuan Xing should be a cultivator from the main branch of the Yuan family. The two of them are now at a stalemate, and Yuan Xing is probably preparing some kind of ultimate move, thinking of defeating his enemy with one blow. Judging from the reaction of that turtle daoist, this move should be extremely powerful, but it's unknown whether he can actually use it or not. If I help the person from the Yuan family now and let him use his ultimate move to win the battle, I'll have someone to rely on in the future if I enter the Yuan family. My path of cultivation will also have someone to guide me. Looking at how fiercely they're battling, they should be high-ranking experts within their clan. If I help him now, it's possible that he can directly introduce me to the main branch, and I won't need to wait two years to go to Nanhuacity for the selection. Right now, they're in a stalemate, so the danger shouldn't be too great if I go over." Thinking this way, Yuan Futong made up his mind: fortune favors the bold, he'll take this risk."
Yuan Futong walked out from behind the stone, and ran towards the place where the two were dueling with his Lingyun Steps. He stopped about 200 meters away from the two people. The two dueling noticed him, looked at him, saw that there was no spiritual energy fluctuation on his body, he was an ordinary person, and they turned their heads to intensify their transmission of magical powers.
"Ordinary people, leave quickly, otherwise you will be reduced to ashes in an instant." The tortoise immortal shouted in a threatening tone. After all, ordinary people who can appear on the inner mountain are not weak in martial arts, and it's usually not a threat, but a single spell can kill them. In the inner mountain, the tortoise immortal has done this many times, discovering that there are ordinary people or low-level cultivators who have obtained high-grade spiritual medicine, and then taking action to rob and kill them is a common occurrence. Today's dispute was also caused by seeing Yuan Xing obtain a Wind Spirit Grass. The Wind Spirit Grass is one of the main materials for building foundation pills, which is very important for the tortoise immortal as a loose cultivator. He had known Yuan Xing before and knew that he was not selected into the Liet Yang Sect from the Yuan family in Ye City, and was not very strong before, so he took action to rob him. Who would have thought that Yuan Xing was also a master of pretending to be weak?
"First scare this kid away, wait until I deal with Yuan Xing, then catch up and silence him later." Kui Dao Ren thought to himself.
"This red-robed immortal is the elder of the Yuan family in Ye City, and his disciples are the younger generation of the Yuan family who branched out from Nanhua City. The token serves as proof." Yuan Futong took out the token he had received when he left the family and waved it in his hand, shouting loudly to announce his identity to Yuan Xing first.
Whoosh——, a fireball flew towards Yuan Fugong. The Turtle Daoist heard that Yuan Fugong was a clansman of Yuan Xing and immediately threw out a fireball talisman paper at him. At this time, he didn't dare to divide his attention to release the spell, even using high-level talisman papers would affect his magical powers, so he could only use a first-class fireball to deal with Yuan Fugong. Using talisman papers to send it out almost didn't consume any magical power, the drawback was that he couldn't control the fireball to track its target. The fireball was dodged by Yuan Fugong who had long been prepared.
Dodging the fireball, Yuan Futong didn't dare to slack off and started running on the snowy ground with his Lingyun Step, but he also didn't dare get too close to the two of them.
Yuan Xing saw Yuan Fu Tong's token and heard these words, his heart was greatly delighted. He also thought that Yuan Xing was an ordinary person, without any spiritual energy fluctuations, with limited influence, somewhat disappointing. However, having someone to help was still good.
"You only need to shoot arrows from a distance, aiming at his folding fan. Be careful to avoid his spells. After the task is completed, I will reward you heavily."
Gu Dao Ren saw that the sneak-attacking fireball didn't hit Yuan Fu Tong, and Yuan Fu Tong had already started running, so for a while he couldn't be killed. He simply didn't leave Yuan Fu Tong's side, focusing on commanding the folding fan, wanting to quickly settle Yuan Xing.
Yuan Futong received Yuan Xing's guidance and ran while drawing his bow, aiming at the folding fan in front of Gu Dao Ren. As a self-taught master, he couldn't influence the battle between the two high-level cultivators, but now the situation was delicate, with both sides vying for even a brief moment. Therefore, Gu Dao Ren didn't dare to divert his attention to deal with Yuan Futong and ignored him after the sneak attack failed, not thinking he could have any impact, since Yuan Futong couldn't even use talismans and relied on bows and arrows that couldn't harm Gu Dao Ren who had protection. Shooting at the folding fan wasn't a concern either, as it didn't contain spiritual energy, just a minor disturbance, no big deal. Yuan Xing also didn't have much hope, he just wanted to put some pressure on Gu Dao Ren.
Yuan Futong ran while mobilizing his internal energy, and his tense emotions seemed to have affected the Huo Yu within him. The Huo Yu split off a stream of heat that merged with his internal energy, which Yuan Futong condensed onto the arrow. This concerned the first step on his path to immortality, and he had to succeed.
Whoosh——. An arrow shot out, hitting the folding fan right on target. The folding fan shook violently, and the mound of earth that was suppressing the Golden Bell also shook. Gui Dao Ren was shocked, Yuan Xing was overjoyed. Yuan Fu Tong was also startled. The power of this arrow was much greater than when he fought the giant python earlier, such power should be able to break through that beast's defense, and next time he would definitely take it down. Yuan Fu Tong didn't have time to think about why this was happening, but looking at the situation, it seemed that he could help the red-robed person, and their chances of victory would increase. He opened his bow again, preparing to continue the attack.
Gu Dao Ren was very depressed in his heart. Yuan Fu Tong's arrow had severely disrupted him, and if this continued, he might end up losing himself. It seemed that this little guy had some skills after all. Just then, Yuan Fu Tong shot another arrow, and the folding fan trembled again.
Guī Dào Rén clenched his teeth, stopped the spell in his hand, and temporarily suspended control of the folding fan. The earth mound was lifted by a golden bell. Guī Dào Rén chanted an incantation, swung both hands, and a fire dragon rushed towards Yuán Fú Tōng. Yuán Fú Tōng wanted to dodge, but this fire dragon technique wasn't triggered by talismans, making it hard to track. This was Guī Dào Rén's own magic, intended to thoroughly resolve the issue, although its power wasn't extremely great, it could be controlled at will and pursue enemies. Yuán Fú Tōng couldn't dodge this time, was entwined by the fire dragon, let out a mournful cry, and fell to the ground.
Yuan Xing saw Yuan Fu Tong being entwined by the fire dragon, but he didn't come to his rescue. Instead, he focused on stimulating the symbol treasure in his hand. Yuan Fu Tong had bought him a considerable amount of time and also temporarily relieved the pressure on Jin Zhong from the Turtle Daoist, who was specifically using magic to deal with him. This was much better than what Yuan Xing had expected. As for the death of a branch family disciple, it didn't have any impact on cultivators; besides, he had died in a worthy manner.
Yuan Xing's gray sword shadow in his hand was becoming clearer and slowly growing larger. After Gu Dao Ren solved Yuan Fu Tong, he saw that the symbol treasure was about to be activated and felt a great sense of urgency in his heart.
The tortoise path person tore open his brocade robe, revealing his heart, and then with both hands drew a cross. In an instant, a drop of essence blood was squeezed out from each of the ten fingers. He floated the ten drops of essence blood in mid-air, and with his right hand's index finger, he suddenly inserted it into his heart, and a ball of heart blood sprayed out from his chest. The tortoise path person casually touched his chest to stop the wound, then gathered the heart blood and essence blood together. He recited:
"Gather my heart's blood, converge my essence blood, half-blood as medium, blood path divine connection appears!"
Suddenly, the blood splattered onto the folding fan, and the fan was covered in a brilliant red glow. The earth mound that the fan was pointing at also had a layer of red light covering it. However, its power increased greatly. Jin Zhong's eyes widened as he struggled to withstand it. Meanwhile, Gu Dao Ren's body began to wither away strangely, his face turning pale as paper in an instant, without any hint of blood color. This was a desperate move, using half of one's own vital energy and blood as a catalyst to unleash the Blood Path Divine Ability. Its power was extremely strong, but the cost was enormous - after using it, one would need to recover for a year or two, and it would also shorten their lifespan. Gu Dao Ren had learned this from a damaged ancient book. Although the book was incomplete, there were a few basic complete techniques that could be used, which were much stronger than ordinary techniques but required blood as a catalyst. Especially this Blood Path Divine Ability, which required half of one's own vital energy to use. Last time in Xiao Danxia realm, he had used it once to kill Liu Yunxiao, and it took him over a year to recover. Moreover, after using it, he was basically at the mercy of others. Unless it was a last resort, Gu Dao Ren would never do this. But Yuan Xing's talisman was about to be activated successfully, and if he hesitated any longer, he would lose his chance.
This move is indeed powerful, and the Blood Light Wrap has increased the power of the Earth Mountain by several times. The Blood Light also has a corrosive effect. The light screen formed by the Golden Bell was squeezed to make a creaking sound, and the body of the Golden Bell itself began to crack.
Bang——, a loud noise, the golden bell burst. The shield formed by the golden bell also disappeared. At this moment, Yuan Xing's talisman was also successfully activated. Yuan Xing leaped backward in an instant as the golden bell shattered, and with a wave of his hand, he released the talisman. By now, the talisman had transformed into a two-foot-long gray sword shadow, flying towards Gui Dao Ren.
Yuan Xing did not dodge the falling earth and was hit in the waist and legs. Below his waist, he was smashed to pieces, and the splashing blood stained the surrounding snow red. After one strike, the earth disappeared, but the bloody light on the earth stuck to Yuan Xing's body, spreading upwards.
The gray sword shadow formed by the symbol treasure moved forward, colliding with the turtle shield of the Turtle Daoist. The shield was shattered in one strike. At this time, the Turtle Daoist had already flipped his fan, and on the other side was a stream of water that protected him. However, the gray sword shadow's momentum did not decrease, breaking through the water's defense and stabbing into the Turtle Daoist's body. The Turtle Daoist's body exploded with a loud crash. Only then did the gray sword shadow disappear. A gray talisman paper floated gently down from the sky, landing on the snowy ground.
At this time, Yuan Xing was struggling with the blood light that had invaded his body. This blood light was the Blood Path God's divine ability. When attached to a magic tool, it could greatly increase the power of the magic tool. When used in magic, it could erode the magic tool and the body, its power was very sinister. In the Small Danxia Realm, Flowing Cloud Fairy had fought with the Turtle Daoist and was careless after winning, so she was invaded by the blood light, her body was eroded, and then she was taken advantage of by the Turtle Daoist. Although Yuan Xing didn't know what the blood light was, he was naturally cautious. As soon as the blood light entered his body, he felt something was wrong, hastily dealt with the wound on his waist, and quickly went to suppress and expel the blood light. Even so, many places in his body had been eroded by the blood light. Yuan Xing could only use all his strength to suppress it, without any energy left to receive the spoils of war.
At this time, Yuan Futong, who was thought to have died, crawled up and walked towards Yuan Xing.
