Ancestral Grotto
"Wait for me! Don't leave me behind!" - A desperate voice called out some distance away on the horizon.
The voice — amplified by gu worms — reached the gu immortals' ears.
Bao Yijun and group didn't slow down at all. If anything, they sped ahead even faster.
"Hmm? There was another one?" - Wen Jiao Feng turned his attention to the new arrival in surprise.
The flying figure didn't seem to have noticed Wen Jiao Feng at all as he headed to fly past him in the distance. His flight path was uneven, stumbling and precariously balancing himself in the air.
"Huh, no wonder I missed such a bottom feeder, his rank six aura is laughable. Not to mention his terrible flying skills."
Wen Jiao Feng narrowed his eyes in disapproval.
"Fearless are those who are unaware; their boldness knows no bounds." - He thought to himself in ridicule and changed his direction to catch the newcomer.
The figure soon noticed him and started to wave his hands frantically.
"Oh goodness! Rank seven senior uncle! I'm here, can you see me?"
Wen Jiao Feng stopped in midair for a moment. He tilted his head dumbfounded.
"Come pick me up quickly! Hurry, hurry! Wen clan is attacking this place! We need to escape!" - The figure changed course to meet Wen Jiao Feng halfway.
"Who is this idiot?" - Wen Jiao Feng paused to take a closer look.
He studied the relevant records of Bao clan before leaving his seclusion and entering Bao clan's land. Yet he didn't recognize this member of them.
"Must be a new gu immortal, huh. If I were Bao clan, I too would be embarrassed to present him at the ceremony. Hehehe. Looks like they left him behind this time again."
Wen Jiao Feng sneered sardonically in his mind, meanwhile a warm smile drew across his face. He wouldn't mind taking a bit longer, the Bao clan gu immortals had nowhere to run anyway.
Trapped in a cage and unable to fight back, they could only wait for Wen Jiao Feng to cut them to pieces.
"Come here junior! I'll take good care of you." - He flew closer and reached out his hand.
But at the next moment a blinding sword light flashed from his palm!
His target unexpectedly stumbled in the air again, the attack missed his head by less than an inch.
"Ah! Senior, you scared me good! Haha! For a moment I really thought I was going to die! But this isn't the time for jokes." - The newcomer stopped a distance of one li away.
Wen Jiao Feng raised an eyebrow.
"What a lucky brat you are. Too bad this little luck of yours was wasted when you met me." - Wen Jiao Feng thought in a moment of silence.
"Huh? Oh, I get it now!" The rookie slapped his forehead. "I remember, I need to give face to my seniors when I meet them publicly. I'm really sorry." - He cupped his hands and bowed toward Wen Jiao Feng.
"This junior greets lord... um... What was your name again?"
"..."
Wen Jiao Feng was dumbstruck once again.
This junior dared to ridicule him?
"Interesting! You are an interesting brat. Much more interesting than the rest!" - A vein popped on his temple accompanied by a dry laugh.
Who was this? He was Wen clan's sword prodigy, the sharpest blade of Wen clan!
Wen clan's Eccentric Sword — Wen Jiao Feng!
Who couldn't recognize the great Wen Jiao Feng?
Naturally the person in front of Wen Jiao Feng was Bao Zhi.
"Such disrespect! Such insolence! I will educate you in place of your parents!" - Wen Jiao Feng raised his voice angrily.
He decided to play along instead of explaining anything. What purpose was it to explain anything to a dead man?
"Take my moves junior!"
"I was wrong! Let me ex-"
Another sword light flashed!
Wen Jiao Feng saw Bao Zhi's figure shift to the right and the sword light go through a green silhouette.
Bao Zhi panted greatly, sweat dripping on his face. He hugged his chest where the sword would have pierced him.
"I- I had to use my evasive-"
At this moment, Bao Zhi lost his footing and started to spiral downwards.
"Oh no! I forgot this killer move used the same gu I was flying with!"
Thud!
He crashed into the ground with a dull thump.
"He fell down? Just like that?"
"No, he should have realized by now I'm his enemy, right?"
Wen Jiao Feng blinked with his brows knotted.
"But trying to get away like this?" - Wen Jiao Feng couldn't make heads or tails what he was seeing.
He flew down to finish Bao Zhi off.
"Cut!" - He activated his basic killer move a third time.
"Ahh—! Take this Empty Void Timber!" - Bao Zhi shouted in panic and threw out a piece of immortal material.
The movement was clumsy and haphazard, but it took Wen Jiao Feng by surprise.
He saw his sword light hit the piece of wood, and missing Bao Zhi.
Wen Jiao Feng glanced at Bao Zhi's figure — only his clothes got cut —, then at the two pieces of wood, he saw ripples of space clearly causing a distortion around them.
"Oh? Right, that Empty Void Timber is a space path plant. It manged to deflect my attack just enough." - Wen Jiao Feng nodded internally at Bao Zhi's last ditch effort.
Bao Zhi looked at Wen Jiao Feng intently.
"Senior?! No... You have no hair! You are not my senior!" - Bao Zhi shouted in fright as he locked gazes with Wen Jiao Feng.
"Cut! Cut!"
Two sword lights shot out without a hint of hesitation.
"Aah! Leave me alone!" - Bao Zhi produced another piece of immortal material and shot it towards Wen Jiao Feng aimlessly.
"The same trick won't work a second time." - Wen Jiao Feng saw through this simple ploy.
Just as Wen Jiao Feng expected, as the sword lights neared the material, his two sword lights changed their path again, curving away from their target.
With a flick of his wrist, he changed the trajectory to make the two sword lights arc in the opposite direction, canceling out the immortal material's space path effect.
"A measly rank six material won't save you from a rank seven expert like me." - His palms were itching for the joyous sensation of being cut when his attack finally connected.
"Ten Thousand Li Willow branch! Go!"
Wen Jiao Feng's eyes twitched, as he noticed a bundle of green and slender branches appear.
His attacks seemingly stopped in place for a split second, just enough for Bao Zhi to shift his body and avoid a fatal strike.
"Expanding the space with Ten Thousand Li Willow just to block an attack?" - Wen Jiao Feng's pupils dilated.
The Ten Thousand Li Willow Tree had a slow growth, it could only be harvested once every three hundred years. Its branches could expand an area of space. Gu immortals used it to save space in their immortal aperture.
"So wasteful! That's a rare rank seven material! It is worth as much as some common rank eight materials." - Wen Jiao Feng narrowed his eyes in resentment.
This was such a great loss. What wastefulness!
"Stop throwing away these resources!" - He demanded.
"Stop trying to kill me!"
"..."
Bao Zhi didn't even look at Wen Jiao Feng, but he could clearly feel his human qi. To his surprise, Wen Jiao Feng did actually consider letting Bao Zhi off, just for a moment though.
"You are funny, young man! But I cannot let you go, but I can promise you a painless death if you hand over those resources. That's much better than struggling at death's door. I'm giving you this chance, so consider it while I have the patience."
Bao Zhi turned on his heel and started running.
"As expected, ignorant youngsters like you know nothing of the pains of the blade. In your final moment, I will let you experience it a thousand times!"
Wen Jiao Feng was done messing around, like a predator bored of playing with its prey, he prepared to deliver the fatal strike.
"It's coming." - Bao Zhi calculated in his mind. He knew the next attack will be the deciding factor of this fight.
Wen Jiao Feng breathed out, the air around him trembled with an ominous aura before plunging into an eerie stillness.
Suddenly, seven brilliant sword lights burst forth from his palms, arcing through the air in a deadly dance, each striking from a different angle!
The sword lights roared through the air from multiple directions, weaving a deadly net destined to ensnare Bao Zhi.
Wen Jiao Feng controlled each one with meticulous precision, his focus ironclad as he guided their lethal paths.
At this moment his sword path attainment was fully displayed as Wen clan's number one sword path cultivator.
His lips curled upwards as he saw Bao Zhi freeze in trepidation with another batch of the Empty Void Timber in front of him.
Wen Jiao Feng was already familiar with these paltry tricks, no space path fluctuations could save Bao Zhi this time.
Swish, swish, swish!
Under a split second, the sword lights converged, creating a blinding flash.
Wen Jiao Feng didn't even have to look, he already felt the familiar tingling of cuts on his body that meant his attacks hit true.
"Guh!" - He unexpectedly coughed up a mouthful of blood.
With shock in his eyes, he looked down his chest. The sensation he just felt wasn't from the side effect of his technique.
"What?!"
His own sword lights have struck him!
The sword lights pierced his body from seven directions, leaving fourteen marks, all oozing blood throughout his torso.
Wen Jiao Feng's eyes widened and his mouth fell open and his figure teetered in disbelief.
He quickly used his healing methods, but sword path excelled in speed and offensive power, its other aspects were only mediocre.
Now that he was inside the wood path environment of the rank eight Ancestral Grotto suppressing other paths' effects, his healing seemed even more lacking in comparison.
Wen Jiao Feng's injuries were not life threatening, but they couldn't be ignored either.
"Such tricks! If only I had my defensive killer move active!"
The shock quickly gave way to a smoldering anger that burned just beneath the surface.
He grit his teeth, it seemed as though they might shatter.
Wen Jiao Feng has never been humiliated like this through the hundreds of years he lived!
His fists clenched so taut that his knuckles turned white, trembling with barely restrained fury.
But he swallowed his anger and concentrated.
His aura surged to its peak!
Immortal Killer Move — Double Edged Devastation!
This was his trump card, the strongest move in the double edge inheritance he cultivated.
The wounds on his body flashed brightly, they emitted a dense sword path aura.
This was the famous killer move that once leveled the mountain now known as Ascension Peak in the Wen clan's history, focusing astonishing destructive force into a single slash.
Double Edged Devastation grew more powerful with each sword path injury the user bore. In this final attack, the core rank seven Double Edge Immortal Gu's usual shortcoming became its greatest strength, allowing the user to use it to its full potential.
In the distance Wen Jie and Bao Chi Ping noticed the commotion as a thick pillar of sword light pierced into the clouds.
"Someone forced Sword Will to use his strongest move. Who could it be?" - Bao Chi Ping exclaimed with apprehension.
"It can only be Bao Yijun. There is no other rank seven gu immortal who could oppose Sword Will to this extent. But..."
"But she should have fled too. With the immortal oath restricting her, fighting back is just throwing her life away." - Bao Chi Ping finished her words.
He turned to her with visible worry in his eyes.
Wen Jie stared silently. According to her plan, Wen Jiao Feng shouldn't need to use his full strength at any point.
Thousands upon thousands of thoughts collided in her mind, quickly deducing and eliminating possible scenarios.
There weren't enough clues. Wisdom path could only deduce matters if enough information was available.
A premonition unique to wisdom path cultivators told her something wasn't right.
Right at this moment, their hearts jumped and their bodies tensed with a bone-chilling shiver.
Rank eight!
An overwhelming aura burst out behind them.
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