Chapter 822: Jin Wiped Out

"Now he's getting fired up," Niu Youdao muttered.

So many people had joined forces and still failed to bring down Taishu Shanyue. Instead, Taishu Shanyue had battered them into disarray. No one had called Wu Zhaoxing over, yet he had charged into the fight on his own. Clearly, he could no longer stand watching. His competitive spirit had been stirred, and he could not resist making a move.

A dazzling streak of cold sword light blazed forth.

Sword-force like a rainbow shot toward Taishu Shanyue.

Taishu Shanyue whipped his head around and, without caring about anything else, swung his hammer straight at it.

Boom!

The air shook violently.

Sword-force and condensed hammer exploded together. Both men were thrown backward, while the blast of escaping force sent the chaotic clouds Lang Jingkong had summoned rolling away.

The sword-force had shattered, but Wu Zhaoxing twisted in midair and immediately charged in again with sword in hand.

"Courting death!" Taishu Shanyue roared like thunder.

Golden flames seemed to flicker within his eyes.

Both hands closed at once.

A hammer of condensed force suddenly appeared in each hand.

Two?

Wu Zhaoxing was badly startled.

Too late.

The two giant hammers swept inward from left and right in a simultaneous crushing strike.

Wu Zhaoxing snapped his sword horizontally across his chest. The blade expanded into a vast sword-shadow of force, bracing against the attack from both sides.

Boom!

He managed to block the fatal strike, but the sword-force collapsed.

Wu Zhaoxing's ears rang violently. A mouthful of blood burst from his lips as the savage blast of force hurled him away.

Watching from below, Yun Ji shifted the foot planted on the branch slightly, preparing to act.

Niu Youdao's calm voice sounded beside her. "Unless there's absolutely no other choice, you should avoid exposing your strength as much as possible. There are too many eyes here."

Yun Ji fell silent for a moment.

She understood what he meant.

Misty Pavilion had already taken notice of her. She should restrain herself as much as possible.

Yun Huan glanced back at his mother.

With Niu Youdao's warning, Yun Ji temporarily suppressed the urge to intervene and continued watching the battle overhead.

...

Amid the tangled figures in the sky, a furious roar suddenly came from high above.

"Roar!"

Hong Gaitian plunged downward as though he had leapt from the heavens.

Taishu Shanyue, holding a hammer in each hand, snapped his head upward.

Demonic qi churned wildly around Hong Gaitian as his entire body began to transform with astonishing speed.

The faster he fell, the more violently his form changed.

Hong Gaitian, who had looked like a shaking-maned lion only moments before, swelled rapidly. In the blink of an eye he had transformed into a gigantic ape more than three zhang tall.

Its face was savage, its entire body covered in red fur, while long crimson hair streamed from the crown of its head.

The red-furred giant ape descended like a meteor of heavenly fire.

Taishu Shanyue's spell-driven brute force was astonishing. His fighting method was one of sheer strength overwhelming all technique.

Hong Gaitian, enraged, had revealed his true demon-beast form as well. He intended to meet Taishu Shanyue's brute strength head-on with brute strength of his own.

Taishu Shanyue showed no fear.

He spun, whipping both arms around. The giant hammers accelerated in speed and force as he swung them upward.

The red-furred giant ape smashed down with both enormous fists.

Boom!

Both giant hammers collapsed.

Blood seeped from Taishu Shanyue's mouth and nose as his body dropped rapidly.

The giant ape's downward plunge was halted. Its two descending fists rebounded, and its enormous body spun diagonally away.

A cold streak flashed across the slanting sky.

Taishu Shanyue, still falling, tried to twist around and strike back.

Too late.

Wu Zhaoxing flashed horizontally past him, then turned his hand and rested his sword behind his back, face expressionless.

Drops of blood on the blade behind him scattered into the wind.

Taishu Shanyue's fists remained tightly clenched.

His eyes bulged wide. His mouth opened soundlessly, only faint "wu, wu" noises escaping his throat.

Then the change appeared behind him.

His body split open from the back in a spray of blood.

In the next instant, he separated diagonally at the waist into two halves. Blood scattered through the air as both pieces tumbled downward.

Wu Zhaoxing's full-powered sword had broken through Taishu Shanyue's copper skin and iron bones.

Taking advantage of the instant Hong Gaitian disrupted Taishu Shanyue's defensive rhythm, he had killed him with a single strike.

Wu Zhaoxing turned in the air and adjusted his glide, flying straight toward Niu Youdao on the treetop below.

As he approached, he came in headfirst, arms spread wide. Then he abruptly raised his head, lifted his upper body, dropped his feet beneath him, and descended with his robes fluttering.

He landed lightly beside Niu Youdao.

With a turn of his wrist, he tossed his sword upward.

The blade fell.

Swish!

It slid cleanly back into the sheath behind him.

Niu Youdao turned his head and noticed the blood at the corner of Wu Zhaoxing's mouth.

After a moment, he asked slowly, "Injured?"

Wu Zhaoxing shook his head. "A minor injury. Nothing serious."

"First time fighting an expert from Qiyun Sect like that?" Niu Youdao asked.

Taishu Shanyue's sudden second hammer had caught Wu Zhaoxing completely off guard.

Wu Zhaoxing nodded slightly.

He was, after all, only a so-called independent cultivator. Who would go looking for trouble with a colossal sect like Qiyun Sect without reason, much less provoke an Elder-level expert from that sect?

He raised a hand, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and looked at the crimson stain on his fingers.

"Judging from Qiyun Sect's internal standing, he probably wasn't even among their very strongest experts. Only today do I understand why Qiyun Sect can awe the entire cultivation world. Their strength truly is formidable."

What he felt most was regret.

No wonder someone like him, supposedly ranked sixth on the Golden Core Ranking, was not taken seriously by those great sects.

Niu Youdao nodded in agreement.

His eyes had likewise been opened today.

The four leading experts sent by the Four Seas had joined forces and still failed to defeat Taishu Shanyue. One could imagine how deep Qiyun Sect's strength truly ran.

No wonder Jin dared act so overbearingly.

No wonder the other great factions were reluctant to provoke it casually.

"You personally killed Taishu Shanyue. A lot of people here saw it," Niu Youdao reminded him calmly.

Wu Zhaoxing nodded in silence.

He understood what Niu Youdao meant.

He had been too impulsive. Jin would probably not let the matter go easily once they returned.

Wu Zhaoxing replied, "You personally killed the presiding Elders of Zhao's three great sects."

Niu Youdao shook his head. "Different. The moment I get out, the entire State of Zhao will be nervous. There'll be a time when they need something from me. Killing a few of their people doesn't amount to much."

Wu Zhaoxing understood.

Niu Youdao was implying that the power standing behind Wu Zhaoxing could not be exposed and therefore could not openly step forward to support him.

"I, Niu, like making friends, and I don't mistreat my friends. If you're interested, you can come to Maolu Villa. The food and wine there aren't bad. They're exactly what we use to entertain friends. Stay as long as you like," Niu Youdao said by way of reminder.

Wu Zhaoxing fell silent.

Yun Ji and Yun Huan exchanged a glance.

They suspected Niu Youdao was trying to recruit yet another expert to Maolu Villa to guard the house and courtyard.

Then again, when you're covered in lice, one more itch doesn't matter. Niu Youdao was already opposing Jin anyway.

Boom!

A gigantic figure crashed to the ground, sending a violent gust rolling toward them.

The group turned.

The enormous red-furred ape had landed in the forest. Two massive palms pulled the branches aside, revealing its head. A pair of huge eyes stared toward them.

Any ordinary mortal who saw such a sight would probably have been frightened half to death.

Niu Youdao's gaze fell on those enormous hands.

The flesh of both palms and the webbing between thumb and forefinger had split open in great gashes, clearly torn apart by the force of the earlier clash.

"Brother Hong, you've worked hard," Niu Youdao said with a smile.

Crash!

The gigantic figure moved again, stirring another gale as branches, leaves, and soil flew everywhere.

It leapt upward, then dropped toward the ground below.

Niu Youdao had not seen many demon cultivators transform. The sudden movement startled him, and for an instant he thought Hong Gaitian meant to sit on them and crush them to death. His hand instinctively tightened around his sword hilt.

He had worried for nothing.

Demonic qi erupted around the descending giant, then rapidly contracted.

The enormous body shrank with it.

By the time the demonic qi withdrew and vanished, Hong Gaitian had transformed back into human form. His feet landed lightly atop the canopy, rising and falling with the branches in front of them.

Both hands were smeared with blood and still trembled visibly, difficult to control.

Niu Youdao asked, "How are the injuries?"

"Ptui!" Hong Gaitian spat to the side. "That old bastard was damn strong!"

Niu Youdao chuckled. "What does Qiyun Sect do? They forge metal. It's only natural they'd be a little stronger than most. You were too careless."

Too careless?

Yun Ji gave him a strange sidelong look.

In any case, this man almost never personally entered a fight, so whether someone else's strength was great or small had very little to do with him.

"Forge metal..." Hong Gaitian split his mouth into a broad grin, revealing large white teeth. He laughed, then turned to look toward the battlefield.

The others looked there as well.

Fuhua, Lang Jingkong, and Duan Wuchang had already descended from the sky and rejoined the battle, helping deal with the most troublesome opponents.

With the many attacking the few, and the disparity in strength so great, the result was inevitable.

Under the encirclement, not a single Jin cultivator who had fled here managed to escape.

The entire force was wiped out.

Once the fighting stopped, Niu Youdao gazed into the distance, his eyes deep and unreadable.

Others naturally handled the battlefield cleanup.

Fuhua and the rest returned.

Situ Yao's expression was not good. Niu Youdao asked, "Sect Leader Situ, are you all right?"

"We lost nine people." Situ Yao sighed.

The exit was about to open. The fifty people who had entered with him had survived intact all this time. He had never expected to suffer such losses just before the very end.

The final casualty count soon came in.

Leaving injuries aside, their side had lost nearly a hundred people in total.

Jin's fleeing remnant had numbered only around a hundred.

Fuhua, whose face had taken on a faint greenish cast from her injury, said angrily, "That lot had already fought one battle and then fled over such a long distance. Even exhausted, they still made us lose this many people. Jin's combat strength really is formidable!"

But at this point, that was no longer Niu Youdao's greatest concern.

He quietly calculated the manpower still under his command.

A little over six hundred remained.

After waiting for some time, all the Spirit Seeds carried by Jin were gathered together.

The quantity differed little from their estimate.

Only then did Niu Youdao finally let out a genuine breath of relief.

Facing everyone, he began analyzing where the Spirit Seeds currently lay among the various factions.

Excluding the three neutral sects, the seven states each had three factions, so the total Spirit Seeds could roughly be viewed as twenty-one shares.

Zhao had been destroyed, and Jin, Han, and Song had divided its Spirit Seeds.

Now Zhao was gone, and Jin was gone as well.

Yan held three shares.

Wei held two.

Qi likewise held two.

Han held three.

Song also held three.

As for the Four Seas side, their original allotment could have been viewed as six shares. Unfortunately, they had never properly gathered Spirit Seeds from beginning to end, so what they had personally collected amounted to only about two shares. But earlier they had seized four shares, and now they had obtained the four shares Jin carried.

After roughly tallying everything, Niu Youdao smiled broadly.

"In other words, we now hold ten shares, close to half of all the Spirit Seeds. Of the five states remaining, at least four would have to join forces before they could possibly surpass us. Four states joining together just to compete for the rankings is extremely unlikely. We can basically say that first place in this Tiandu Secret Realm gathering is already in our grasp!"

They had paid an enormous price.

The result was gratifying, but it also left everyone deeply moved.

When they first entered the Tiandu Secret Realm gathering, who could possibly have imagined that their side would end up taking first place?

Situ Yao said, "There's still what Zijin Cave has in hand. First place should be no problem at all."

Niu Youdao shook his head. "What Zijin Cave holds was only a contingency, something prepared in case the unexpected happened. Now that we've successfully taken Jin's share, there's no need to ask for theirs anymore. If the amount in our hands becomes too absurdly large, it'll look bad."

"The most important thing now is carrying everything out safely. For what comes next, I ask all of you to lend me your full strength!"

Sword in hand, he cupped his fists to everyone.

[End of Chapter 822]