Chapter 336: Run, Buddy!

The young woman in red was obviously an extraordinary individual. As her eyes flashed, the blood lake behind her seethed, and an eye floated up from its depths. The eye had a vertical pupil and seemed intensely malevolent. It also created crushing pressure that formed a world of blood in the area.

The eye... looked at Xu Qing.

Xu Qing… completely ignored the eye!

This young woman was only in the one-palace level. Her imperial-class technique was also in the second stage, making her battle prowess equivalent to the two-palace level. Combined with her decisive attack methods, she was the kind of person who would generally be able to easily overwhelm any opponent.

But she didn’t understand how strong Xu Qing really was. He had two palaces, but made it a practice of keeping them covered, which made it hard to tell his true level. He also didn’t commonly reveal his second-stage imperial-class technique. Without taking time to examine him very closely, it wasn’t possible to tell how strong he actually was.

Therefore, it didn’t matter how the girl in red struggled, it didn’t do her any good.

Everything happened in an instant. Xu Qing rose to the three-palace level of battle prowess, and his cultivation base erupted. Ignoring the attack of the young woman in red, he reached out and grabbed the golden drop of blood. With it in hand, he shot backward, taking advantage of the force of repulsion to get further speed.

It was over in the time it takes a spark to fly off of a piece of flint. The young woman’s face fell as the drop of blood was whisked out from under her nose. Eyes filling with killing intent, she waved her hand, causing her evil ghost scythe’s eyes to turn bright red again.

“You’re very deceptive. But I can also pull off three-palace strength!” The young woman bit the tip of her tongue and spat out a mouthful of blood onto the evil ghost scythe. At the same time, her eyes glowed just as red as the evil ghost’s.

“Acknowledge the call of Departure, dao lineaments are evasive; The Emperor, Dark Serenity, blesses this individual; Let the battle soul descend, bring help to adherents who show faith; Let the departure begin!”

It sounded like some chant in an ancient cadence. As the words echoed out, heaven and earth was affected, and a sinister wind began to blow. The wind ignored any pressure in the area, swirling rapidly to gather around the young woman, or more specifically, the evil ghost scythe. Thanks to the wind, the evil ghost’s eyes grew even redder, as did those of the young woman. When they couldn’t be any more red, the evil ghost’s mouth suddenly opened, and it lunged toward the young woman and bit into her arm.

The young woman shivered as though she were being blessed by great force. Then she looked up, and her eyes contained intense aggression. Raising her right hand, she looked at the fleeing Xu Qing and made a beckoning gesture. Then she spoke, her voice gritty and hoarse.

“Get back here!”

It reverberated as though her voice had been mixed with the voice of an old woman, and it sounded incredibly vile. This seemed like a secret magic in which this young woman allowed herself to be possessed by the ancient soul of a fallen warrior, thus immensely boosting her battle prowess and strength.

The moment she spoke, Xu Qing shivered as an invisible force closed in around him, binding him in place and then dragging him toward the young woman.

Seeing what was happening, the Captain shouted, “Watch out, buddy! That shrew is using a Church of Departure secret magic to fuse herself with a battle soul!”

Xu Qing frowned. As he sensed the strange, gruish nature of the power within him, the Ghost Emperor mountain in his sea of consciousness glittered brightly, and the power binding him collapsed. Xu Qing blurred into motion, once again heading away from the clone.

However, the young woman in red hadn’t actually been trying to drag Xu Qing back to her, and had operated under the assumption it wouldn’t work. She was actually just trying to delay him a bit so that she could chase him down. A fraction of a second after making the beckoning gesture, she rocketed in his direction.

Even as Xu Qing dispelled the binding power around him, the young woman closed in, bursting with three-palace battle prowess. Moving with shocking momentum, she brandished her scythe and swept it right toward Xu Qing. The weapon was as long as a person was tall, and though it looked corporeal, it was actually illusory. Because of that, it moved with unbelievable speed. It created a black, moon-shaped string of afterimages that split through the air and sliced right at Xu Qing’s neck!

The scythe moved with incredible speed, and she followed, her eyes filled with both killing intent and confidence.

She had also killed three-palace cultivators.

The evil ghost scythe was considered a holy item in the church, and was one-of-a-kind. It had a very unique history, and based on church teachings, was connected to the holy lands. It could bypass any and all defenses; nothing that an opponent had prepared in advance for defensive purposes would do any good.

Suddenly, the Captain shouted again. “Watch out, buddy! The shrew fights dirty! I just remembered what that scythe is. It’s a holy relic from the Church of Departure. I heard that it’s not corporeal, so it can bypass all defenses!”

Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed. He could sense that the black scythe was extraordinary, and that the young woman’s secret magic was astonishing. With a burst of speed, he dodged right out of the way of the incoming blade. Unfortunately, despite avoiding the blow, the pressure radiating from the scythe caused Xu Qing’s cultivation base to teeter unstably. It was the first time he had experienced anything like that.

The young woman twirled the scythe around and brought it back for a second blow, yet again targeting his neck.

Xu Qing’s eyes glittered coldly as he dodged backward again, while simultaneously trying to stabilize his cultivation base. As she pressed the attack further, he kept a close eye on the scythe, which allowed him to confirm that it wasn’t corporeal. It was actually formed from a magical technique.

After making a fifth scythe attack and bringing it swinging around for a sixth time, Xu Qing’s eyes flickered with understanding, and he suddenly threw out his right hand to block the weapon.

As the weapon neared, his hand suddenly went from being flesh and blood to being transparent.

It was none other than his Gruegloom Daoseizing Art. With his hand in the Gruegloom state, he could ignore the power of magical techniques. That was one of the innate abilities of Grueglooms, and was something very rare. As a result, the young woman’s scythe went right through his hand.

As she reacted with shock, his eyes flickered with killing intent and he used the Gruegloom hand to grab the back end of the scythe. Gripping it hard, he pulled himself forward with a yank. Now, the only thing separating them was a distance equivalent to the length of the scythe.

It all happened so quickly that all the young woman could do was look shocked as Xu Qing viciously smashed his forehead into her mask.

A pop rang out, and she uttered a muffled grunt as a huge crack appeared down the length of her mask. Then Xu Qing performed an incantation gesture with his left hand, causing a massive sea to spring up around him. The power of the Ninefold Tsunami erupted, causing a huge wave to appear. As Xu Qing pushed out, the first wave screamed past him and raged toward the young woman.

She shivered as a defensive glow appeared around her, blocking the first wave.

Xu Qing wasn’t surprised. This young woman was obviously someone important in the Church of Departure, so it was a given she would have amazing defenses. Feeling no sense of urgency, he sent the second, third, and fourth waves smashing into her defenses one after another.

Because the young woman’s attention was focused on the waves and Xu Qing’s hand gripping her scythe, she didn’t notice that a host of tiny beetles had begun congregating on her defenses, and were spitting out corrosive poison.

She didn’t know Xu Qing, and thus wasn’t aware of his fighting style and how ruthless he was. However, she could tell that there was something slightly different about him now compared to before. His hand was clamped onto her scythe like an iron vise, and no matter how she struggled, she couldn’t wrench her weapon free.

That, plus the mere fact that he had been able to ignore the attack of her scythe, had her mentally reeling with shock. From the time she had won the approval and legacy of the scythe in her church until now, it was impossible to count how many villainous figures in the church she had slain. The Church of Departure was no virtuous organization, and in fact, it was rife with innumerable fanatics and lunatics.

Even though she had a family member in a position of power in the church, she couldn’t rely on that person to watch over her at every moment, and therefore, had been forced to rely on herself to survive. By hard work and slaughter, she had slowly clawed her own way into a position of power, and had thus earned the freedom to go out on her own. Though she was still a long way from achieving her dream, there was one thing that was certain; this scythe had been an extremely important asset. Because of all that, no matter what happened in this situation, she couldn’t just let go of her weapon.

As the beetles corroded her defensive shields, the ninth tsunami wave slammed into the defenses. As they crumbled into pieces, the killing intent in Xu Qing’s eyes flickered. He extended his right hand, causing a black dagger of flame to appear there, which he slashed viciously into the young woman’s snow-white neck. Blood sprayed everywhere, but her head did not fly off.

In fact, a sensation of intense deadly crisis suddenly erupted within Xu Qing, causing every inch of his flesh to shiver.

Off in the distance, the Captain’s eyes went wide, and he suddenly shouted, “Holy crap!! Run, buddy! There’s something off with this shrew. That’s the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society’s incredibly-difficult-to-master Supreme Arbiter Blood Will Domain! Even a slight measure of success with that technique is incredibly difficult. I heard that in order to gain enlightenment of the Blood Will Domain, you have to have at least two distinct personalities!

“With every additional personality, your eyes lose some of their color. And when you get ten personalities, the only thing left is the color of blood. That’s considered the ultimate level of success!

“Is this person from the Church of Departure or the Supreme Arbiter Immortal Society? This is too weird!!”

Without any hesitation, Xu Qing released the scythe and flew backward.

As he did, a boundless red light erupted from the young woman. As it spread out, it seemed to transform into a hell of blood. A gruish, horrific cackle rang out from the young woman’s mouth.

“Heh heh heh.” The young woman looked up. Though blood poured down her neck, the wound wasn’t fatal. Reaching up, she touched it, then looked at the blood on her hands. Eyes glittering, she shifted her gaze to Xu Qing. “Are you the one who hurt me?”