Hei Diao was the vice leader of the Qin Mountain bandits.
However, he was aware that among the eight Yin Yang Cleansing elders, he wasn't the strongest.
His position was entirely based on his past friendship with Qin Houzi.
Due to lacking strength, he never tried to use his authority to provoke others, lest it draws their ire on himself or his friend.
Having lived for so long with a cautious personality, he had developed an acute sense of danger.
So when he felt a dangerous sensation from Tianlong, he immediately chose to back up. First the weird thing with old Zhan then this man's occurrence, the entire matter seemed fishy.
Furthermore, he couldn't gauge the cultivation base of the other party. Which could mean only three things: the person was either a mortal, he had a treasure which hid his cultivation base, or he had a far higher cultivation base than his own.
The first two were the most likely reasons …but what if by any chance it was the third one? …He didn't want to take the risk.
Unfortunately, it didn't seem that the other person wanted him to leave.
If he had to face him, then so be it. He may be cautious, but he wasn't a coward.
"Who are you? What's your relationship with Zhan Damian?" Even as he spoke, he was already circulating his cultivation base.
Tianlong answered him by flicking his forefinger.
The air around Hei Diao slightly rippled and a 10 metres long blade sliced towards him. What was different about it, was that there was no sound of wind when it passed by. Moreover, the blade materialised itself just 2 metres away from Hei Diao.
Immediately sensing the danger, he clasped his hand. Immediately, all the fur in his body stuck to his skin and turned a deeper shade of brown. It resembled the bark of a tree.
The technique had amazing defensive properties but the blade was sharper. It sliced open the skin like a piece of paper and directly inflicted a wound on Hei Diao.
Hei Diao gave a shrill cry and rapidly retreated.
"Your excellency, what's the meaning of this?" Although his face was full of hatred, he had already decided to kill his enemy.
The wind attack had taken him by surprise. But now that he saw its power and was aware of how it acted, he wasn't fearful at all.
A greenish glow flashed through his body. It caused the wound to close up. It wasn't the self-healing of a body refiner, but rather the result of his wood spiritual energy.
The massive power of Yin Yang Cleansing roiled out of his body which left the cave trembling. Any ordinary Qi condensation cultivator who came in his vicinity would find their Qi flow going out of order.
Balancing the Yin and Yang meridians of the body, they could connect with the elemental spirits and gain enlightenment on them.
When Hei Diao reached the Yin Yang cleansing realm, he was able to connect with the wood spiritual energy of heaven and earth. Being a wood spiritualist, he had more reserve of internal Qi than others and could easily heal himself.
"A master wind user …this will be slightly troublesome." Although he said that, his expression was still calm.
Taking out a handful of beans, he exhaled a green gas and scattered them on the ground.
The beans rooted themselves on the stone floor and sprouting. In the space of two breaths, each of them turned into six metres tall plants with a single gigantic dahlia on them. But instead of petals, the flowers were composed of swords.
Shu! Shu! Shu!
The swords petals glowed with a purple light and shot towards Tianlong who still had his eyes closed.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
As if meeting some invisible obstruction, the sword petals were sliced apart in mid-air before they could even come close to him.
However, the barrage of sword petals seemed to be endless. The flowers started to rotate which caused more and more swords to flash towards Tianlong.
The area around Hei Diao seemed to be covered in purple while the air around Tianlong was constantly shimmering. It was an incredible sight.
"That'll keep him occupied." Hei Diao revealed a cold smile. He believed that Tianlong needed to keep his entire attention to control the wind blades.
With that in mind, he waved his hand and a three-coloured palm leaf appeared before him.
Sending his spiritual energy inside of it, he waved it once. It caused 12 blue bamboo swords to materialize around him.
He waved it again. A total of 24 green bamboo spears surrounded him.
The third wave caused 36 yellow wooden arrows to manifest.
After the three waves, the spiritual energy surrounding him dimmed a bit. Obviously, the leaf magical treasure consumed a lot of his spiritual energy.
"Go!" Hei Diao pointed the fan towards Tianlong. It caused all the manifested weapons to turn into a green light and shoot towards him.
Unlike the sword petals, these weapons didn't have a corporeal form but were rather just spirit bodies. Also, the fan which produced them could resist the wind energy up to a certain extent. This caused the spirit manifestations to pass through the barrage with ease.
"Fellow cultivator, I don't know who you are, but since you decided to attack me, you must pay the price!" His face was full of mocking.
He could see the other person being cut to pieces and his different body parts being impaled. "What a waste of a pretty face!"
Just when the swords were just a few inches from him, the dragon blood in his body released its prestige. Driven by it, his spiritual sense rushed into his throat and he let out a roar!
It was as if a clap of thunder had gone inside the cave. It created a booming sound so loud that a vacuum was created in front of him.
When the roar swept past the swords, it caused blades to shatter! As for the spears and arrows, none of them withstand its power and exploded in mid-air!
All of this happened too quickly and didn't give Hei Diao the chance to assess the situation. As such, he was only able to shift the dahlias in front as a form of defence.
But how could some mere sword dahlias block his roar?
Due to the action of the 7-element lotus, his sea of consciousness had turned silver and was filled with spiritual thunder. What he now possessed wasn't a formless spirit sense but rather lightning sense! Only extremely rare cultivators had the fortune to fuse their sea of consciousness with some attribute.
Tianlong's roar wasn't simply a wind art. It was also fused with his lightning sense. It was something he had comprehended while his sacred blood awakened.
As soon as the roar swept by the plants, they immediately lost their lifeforce and stopped functioning. Lightning and fire were the banes of all wood cultivators!
The green glow surrounding Hei Diao's body dimmed and he felt his blood and qi going out of order. Although his cultivation base didn't drop, the internal Qi of his body seemed to get suppressed. It was as if he had met his natural nemesis!
"You …you are just a Qi condensation realm junior!" Blood seeped out of the corner of his mouth as he stared dumbly at Tianlong.
While releasing his attack, Tianlong's cultivation stage which was blocked by his lightning sense was finally revealed to Hei Diao.
Disbelief was written all over his face as he considered the matter.
The mere aura of a Yin Yang Cleansing stage cultivator could change the flow of spiritual energy of heaven and earth. If a Qi condensation cultivator came in front of them, they would feel as if their internal Qi was flowing according to someone else's will!
Yet, he could feel that the cultivation of the other person was just in the Qi Condensation realm. Moreover, it was just the sixth stage!
The attack had cracked the walls as well as Hei Diao's notion of cultivators. All the fantastic things he had seen in his life couldn't measure up to what he was just witnessing.
Hei Diao understood that he was facing a deadly crisis. Even though he gauged the cultivation of the other person, he didn't believe it for a bit. Instead, it raised even more fear in him.
He knew that escaping wasn't an option. After all, as a wind cultivator, his opponent should be much faster than him.
Tianlong hadn't opened his eyes or moved from his position from the beginning. Hei Diao felt as if the latter was disdaining to even cast a glance at him.
Gritting his teeth, he took out a golden talisman from his robe. There was a mystical symbol flickering on it which caused the space around it to hum.
"It's a body locking talisman which contains a single strike from my friend …dying by his hand, even in death you should be proud!" He pealed coarse laughter as he stared at Tianlong with hatred.
However just as he raised his hands to release the Talisman, Tianlong's body trembled and he vanished without a trace!
Hei Diao felt a shiver run down his spine. "What kind of concealing art is this?"
In the next moment, he felt a gust of wind behind him. Just as he turned around, he felt a cold palm grasping his neck.