Chapter 600: A Strange Sense of Familiarity, Xia Hong’s Strongest Combat Power |
"Fa...ther."
Li Longyu had been raised in a honeyed life; since she could remember, she had never suffered a single grievance. Her mother, Li Xuanling, long managed Xia Palace, and whenever Li Longyu quarreled with her brothers and sisters, Li Xuanling always sided with her. That’s why she was so attached to her mother.
As for her father, there was no need to say more. Being the youngest among her siblings, her father spoiled her to the heavens. No joke: she remembered that in Great Xia’s 48th year, when she was seven, she once casually mentioned to her father that there was a particularly bright star in the sky above Xia City. On that birthday, her father actually plucked that star down and gave it to her.
Some fathers spoil their daughters as if they could pluck stars from the sky. To many people it’s a joke, but to Li Longyu it was literal truth.
So when she saw her father slash out a strike with a force no less than two hundred jun—the River-of-Stars sword edge—and the blade carrying a huge amount of Fire Tribulation Qi, clearly a full-power strike, she immediately broke down emotionally. Overwhelmed by hurt, she almost shouted out “father.”
Fortunately she only managed the single syllable, and then, remembering that at this time her father did not recognize her, Li Longyu quickly swallowed the grievance, drew her sword to block the incoming river-of-stars sword qi, and dragged Li Baobao as she charged straight after Xia Hong.
"Miss Li, put me down! If you take me, you won’t get away. Xia Hong obviously doesn’t intend to save us..."
"Shut up!"
Yelled at again, Li Baobao felt unbearably wronged. If her strength weren’t so depleted right now—barely a tenth of what it had been—she truly would have tried to wrench free from Li Longyu’s grip. Even if it meant dying, she wouldn’t take this humiliation.
Granted, Li Longyu had saved her life—if Li Longyu had not appeared in time, she would have died—but that inexplicable hostility still irritated her. Worse, it occasionally welled up into a feeling of grievance inside her, which she couldn't explain.
"If you keep chasing like this, he won’t stop to wait for us!"
Seeing Li Longyu drag her in a frantic pursuit of Xia Hong—who kept accelerating ahead and kept turning to slash a sword to stop them from closing—Li Baobao couldn’t help but let out a cold snort.
"Can you do anything about it? What good is spouting sarcasm here?"
Li Baobao’s expression froze for a moment. She bit down on her silver teeth and turned to see the Demon Soldiers less than a hundred meters behind. After a moment’s thought she raised her voice toward Xia Hong ahead: "Lord Xia, those two Xia people aren’t dead yet. Don’t you want to know where they are?"
Whoosh...
Xia Hong, charging ahead, suddenly halted and turned to look at the two of them. The rage on his face remained, but a few lines of bewilderment had crept into his brows.
Six days earlier he had heard from those scattered spirits that Jiang Yiqing and Xiahou Yong had gone toward White Bone Mountain together with Li Baobao, so Li Baobao really did know their whereabouts.
At this moment he shouldn’t risk himself for two Warmth Realm people, yet since arriving in the Ice Abyss his temperament hadn’t changed: he would not abandon any Xia person unless absolutely forced to.
"The speed of those Demon Soldiers seems slower than mine. Li Baobao is only Third Turn of the Tribulation Body, they can’t catch her, so they certainly can’t catch me. Xiahou Yong and Jiang Yiqing should be rescued, and those two women are quite capable—going to White Bone Mountain could get them help..."
Xia Hong was less than a hundred meters from the two women. He already knew Li Baobao’s Third Turn Tribulation Body cultivation. The white-clad girl in front of her—Xia Hong found he could not read her. Since she was the one dragging Li Baobao, it was obvious her strength must be above Li Baobao’s.
Rescuing those two people wouldn’t be useless!
Fan Jun’s anger pressed into his chest as he looked at the racing Demon Soldiers and found that below them a red-robed old man holding an iron fan was speeding forward. I dared not be careless. Slowing a bit as I charged down, I grabbed the white-clad youth and Li Xuanling by their arms, then turned and fled east.
Just then, as he grabbed the white-clad youth’s right arm, a cool aura rushed into his mind. The anger that had been on the verge of overflowing in Xia Hong’s chest suddenly dissipated; his head cleared noticeably.
Fan Jun had never felt anything like it. While fleeing at top speed he couldn’t help but glance at the white-clad youth.
At that glance he immediately met a pair of dark, muddled beautiful eyes. Seeing tears glint in those eyes, he was stunned.
Don’t misunderstand—this white-clad youth’s looks were something to talk about, on par with Fan Jun—but in that instant, grabbing his arm, Xia Hong felt the other’s true bone-age was at least a decade younger.
I was stunned for two reasons.
First, that exquisite face gave him a strangely intense sense of déjà vu. He prided himself on a terrible memory, yet at the sight of that face he was certain he had never seen that person before. How could such intense unfamiliarity produce that overwhelming feeling?
Second, that youth’s gaze at him was so strange: reverent, mixed with a fierce cold devotion. He rarely saw such a look in Xia people, so he noticed it immediately. In that gaze there was also a heavy fondness, as if looking at an elder.
There even seemed to be a hint of grievance.
Countless thoughts flashed through Xia Hong’s mind in an instant, but in the end he was utterly baffled. Both sides left him confused, so he ceased thinking and focused solely on running for his life.
"I nearly got recognized by father..."
Li Longyu reacted a moment later, quickly lowering her head to avoid looking directly at Xia Hong. She wasn’t actually from this world; if discovered, she would be instantly rejected by spacetime and return to her original world. The thought made her heart tremble with fear.
"Father hadn’t broken through yet. Right, I remember the Cultivation System Section of the Xia Rites mentioned father only broke to the Tribulation Body in Great Xia’s 21st year. His heart-fire is so disordered, the organs probably haven’t fully formed, causing extreme agitation. My Superior-Purity spiritual energy can help him..."
From the abnormal heat transmitted through Xia Hong’s palm, Li Longyu had already deduced most of his condition. She knew the Superior-Purity spiritual energy within her could help calm his chaotic heart-fire. She thus spared no effort to draw it out and secretly send it into Xia Hong.
Superior-Purity spiritual energy is the perfect tool to neutralize Five-Element Tribulation Qi. Its warmth and gentleness are unique to her; others can’t sense it. This secret was known only to her, her future father, and her future mother.
"Another fresh rat has arrived, great, let’s deal with them together!"
Charging for his life, Xia Hong heard that voice from behind and immediately realized the red-robed elder had caught up. He didn’t look back, only kept running, trying to put distance between them.
"Why is your speed so fast? Is it because of that lamp above your head?"
Although Li Baobao was being dragged by Xia Hong, she had not been idle. She had been channeling Tribulation Qi around her body, saving Xia Hong much effort.
After running a while and finding the Demon General Crimson Flame couldn’t catch up in short order, she suddenly realized Xia Hong’s burst speed was comparable to Li Longyu’s earlier—far faster than herself.
Like Li Longyu, she had been in contact with him and could feel that although he carried Fire Tribulation Qi, it was unusually thin and wildly disordered. In her experience that typically indicates a failed Tribulation Body breakthrough, where the Golden Body failed to open organs.
She wasn’t surprised that Xia Hong had reached the pinnacle of Sun Manifestation. From Li Longyu she’d learned that one day in the Dark Realm equaled one year in the Ice Abyss. Even though they had been fleeing, when he rested to heal she had sensed the Dark Realm’s terrifying cultivation efficiency. If he had been cultivating since arriving, his level made sense.
What puzzled her most was Xia Hong’s flight speed in the Dark Realm—how could it surpass hers and match Li Longyu’s?
She was Third Turn Tribulation Body; Xia Hong should have failed his breakthrough and at most be a half-step Tribulation Body. Under the Dark Realm’s rules his flight speed should have been far lower than hers.
After thinking, she could only attribute it to the small, antique lamp above Xia Hong’s head that emitted an eerie blue flame.
"Do I have time for your chatter?"
...
Li Baobao’s face flushed red, about to speak, but Xia Hong actually hurled her backward first, then turned and suddenly thrust his sword toward the rear.
...
The Demon General Crimson Flame had arrived!
Li Baobao had already seen Crimson Flame’s speed and tracking methods over the past six days. Honestly, if not for the little censer in Li Longyu’s hands that strongly suppressed Crimson Flame, they would never have lasted this long.
Unfortunately, just before meeting Xia Hong, that little censer seemed to have reached its limit and could not emit the previous terrifying blaze. Li Longyu alone could not match Crimson Flame and seemed to have no other means. If not for meeting Xia Hong at a dead end, the two would have awaited death.
But although Xia Hong could burst with a speed surpassing theirs, he hadn’t yet broken into the Tribulation Body. Could he handle Crimson Flame?
The answer came quickly.
Before Crimson Flame himself even arrived, the fire-dragon spewed from his folding fan had already roared forward at Xia Hong’s face. That’s why Xia Hong had just cast them off and turned to face the dragon.
Another River-of-Stars sword edge flashed out. Unlike the previous time, the Fire Tribulation Qi attached to this blade was denser by at least five times. As he slashed, something within Xia Hong seemed to awaken; the blade, already reaching extreme sharpness, shot forward several meters and then accelerated several times over.
Because the Dark Realm’s primary color tone is eerie blue, even the flames took on a strange tint. Like Crimson Flame’s dragon, not normal red and yellow, Xia Hong’s sword edge likewise resembled the Ice Abyss ghost-fire: an eerie blue.
The bluish sword edge struck out, dragging a black river-of-stars through the air studded with tiny blue lights. The blade seemed to tear space; at least that was the visual effect.
It didn’t end there. The blue points within the black river-of-stars suddenly flared, igniting into countless clusters of yellow embers.
Real, yellow embers—not the eerie blue.
"I want to see what you can do, Demon General!"
Before slashing, behind Xia Hong a forty-three zhang-tall Golden Body had already formed—not a skeletal phantom, but a genuine Golden Body.
"Over five hundred jun—no, this is more than double my previous number. How? He hasn’t broken into the Tribulation Body, how is this possible..."
When Li Baobao saw Xia Hong’s forty-three zhang Golden Body she was already a bit dazed. When the river-of-stars sword qi spread fully, its shockwaves reached her and flung her dozens of meters away. The shock within her soared to its peak.
Impossible... impossible...
Only those four words echoed in her mind as she kept questioning herself.
She, Li Baobao, titled Wei Bo Commandery Princess and the designated future Fang Bo within the feudatories, likely to become the first female Fang Bo in the history of Mo'ao Chuan and surrounding regions. Counting six days in the Dark Realm as six years, she was only fifty-two this year, Third Turn Tribulation Body, Golden Body thirty-nine zhang, base strength just 370 jun, with a max deliverable battle strength around five hundred jun.
Yet Xia Hong, who hadn’t broken into the Tribulation Body and whose physical body hadn’t fully fused with his Golden Body—this was obvious from how he fought—was unleashing six hundred, perhaps close to seven hundred jun of power?
Li Baobao felt her worldview being reshaped. She even unconsciously downplayed the earlier shock Li Longyu had given her.
Although Li Longyu was Fifth Turn Tribulation Body, because they had fought side by side six days she could estimate Li Longyu’s base strength as just over five hundred jun. She hadn’t seen Li Longyu use any special techniques; her peak burst was only slightly stronger than Xia Hong’s current output.
By that comparison Xia Hong’s shock was far greater.
But what came next made Li Baobao realize she had been naive: Xia Hong’s strength was far more complicated than that.
...
As if an eternity and an instant passed at once, the river-of-stars sword edge finally collided fiercely with the fire-dragon. In the final stage the blue points had produced real yellow flames that instantly coalesced and spread hundreds of meters forward.
Those normal yellow flames did not pierce; they consumed the fire-dragon.
Yes—consumed.
...
A sea of flames exploded across the sky and formed a great inferno. The fire-dragon twisted within it for a moment, then dispersed without a trace. The sword-qi that had become a sea of flames surged relentlessly toward Crimson Flame who had not yet reacted.
The flaming sea seemed to be reborn; or rather, Xia Hong’s slashed sword-qi hadn’t vanished but had transformed into a fire-dragon. Blessed by the inferno, it writhed and roared like a dragon, charging at the Demon General Crimson Flame who was still stunned.
"World-fire, karmic extinguishing—how do you possess karmic extinguishing fires..."
Indeed Crimson Flame had not reacted. Only when the sword-qi reached his face did his pupils contract violently. He snapped to attention, panic-stricken, and without thought retreated rapidly.
At the same time Li Baobao finally understood why Xia Hong could produce those normal yellow flames in the final stage.
"A censer, of all things."
Within Xia Hong’s Golden Body abdomen a colossal censer faintly manifested, and a fierce blaze burned inside it. If his Golden Body weren’t so vast, the flames would have scorched the outside world.
Seeing that huge censer, Li Baobao mumbled under her breath. She glanced at Li Longyu to the side and found Li Longyu’s eyes toward Xia Hong filled with reverence and fanaticism, even a tinge of lust. Li Longyu’s brow was tightly knitted, and for some reason Li Baobao felt very uncomfortable inside.