Chapter 1357: Ambush

Hummm.

Resplendent silver radiance blossomed from Lu Yun’s body. His hair, eyes, and every inch of his skin turned pure silver. Twin flames of silver also ignited in his eyes. Lu Yun’s battle strength rose explosively once more.

“Die!” He didn’t say a word to Li Zhen, redirecting his flying sword at the second step ghost king instead.

“Eh?!” The ghost king trembled and subconsciously twirled its sickle toward the silver sword light.

Kaboom!

Black and silver crashed against each other in the air. Lu Yun’s Stellar Sword came hurtling back to him and the ghost king’s sickle was also flung from its grasp.

“So strong! Since when did so many geniuses exist among the Hongmeng creatures?!” The king’s ghostly fire flickered with agitation. The strength behind the blade was almost on par with the little girl it’d been fighting!

“Die!” Having been given some breathing space, Qing Ting drilled her king grade flying sword through the ghost king’s head, injuring it deeply.

The core of second step ghost kings was their vivid green ghostfire. As long as that remained, they wouldn’t die.

“I can’t stay here any longer!” Highly alarmed, the ghost king rapidly reconsidered the situation. It was confident of killing the girl if she was by herself, but it was very dangerous if another cultivator of the same level appeared. Their flying swords were possibly even higher than king grade!

“Want to leave?” A pitch-black blade light descended from the sky and cut off the ghost king’s avenue of retreat. Ghost-headed blade in hand, Li Zhen’s azure dragon shadow was gradually overtaken by dark shadows until it turned into a wholly black dragon.

“You’re not going anywhere other than dying here!” Lu Yun blocked the remaining path available to the king; the trio formed a triangle that fenced in the second step king between them. The regular ghosts in the surroundings couldn’t participate in their battle anymore.

……

The second step ghost king turned its sickle sideways in front of it; twin pinpricks of vivid green glared out through a haze of black qi and surveilled the three. None of these cultivators were kings, but they’d managed to keep it here and leave it with no option to withdraw!

“Die!!” Li Zhen suddenly roared. Though he was the weakest among the trio, he was the first to act. His blade light transformed into a black dragon that swooped down on the king with a snarl. Lu Yun and Qing Ting made their moves at the same time as well.

The ghost king growled and flared sinister ghostly qi from its weapon, blocking their attacks.

The qi of the area exploded from their clashes and mushroom clouds rose into the air; the ghost king yelped and shrieked as attacks connected with it.

……

“Eh… those… three little fellows who are yet to become titled kings are keeping a second step ghost king down!” Three kings who’d entered Starspace Region to hunt ghost kings noted the disturbance in this area. Their eyes widened with surprise when they took in the situation.

“It’s the Champion Duke of the Trueriver Sect, the Coiling Dragon city lord’s daughter, and the son of the Li Clan traitor—Li Zhen.” A wary third step king sized up the situation. “They’re equipped with formidable treasures and throw out dozens of king grade Detonation Talismans at a time. We shouldn’t provoke them!”

“They’re geniuses from a major faction, alright! We cultivated for a hundred million years to ascend to third step king, but they’ll likely be third step as soon as they become titled kings,” another third step king sighed.

“Forget them, our goal is to accumulate more ghost and purple crystals so we can buy king grade treasures. The monopoly has just been lifted and it’s only because the Immortal Pagoda and Haotian Tower don’t get along that we have such cheap supplemental treasures to buy.”

These kings had cultivated for hundreds of millions of years; they were kings in the era before supplemental dao was restricted to the Supplemental Dao Alliance. Therefore, they clearly recalled how much supplemental treasures used to cost.

A regular king grade flying sword should cost at least a dozen premium grade crystal veins, putting it out of reach for ordinary kings.

The Immortal Pagoda wanted to turn Origin World and Hopeless Major’s long accumulated wealth into purple crystals, so they sold their items at cost. Haotian Tower wanted to crush their rival, so they sold their items at half cost.

One had to know that the true value of a king grade treasure could hardly be calculated in terms of cost of materials. The various great daos and dao rules they incorporated also brimmed with endless bounty.

And when supplemental dao had been monopolized, several tens of billions of premium crystals wouldn’t have even bought one a look at a king grade flying sword.

“Fellow daoists!” A man in black robes and a growing vicious expression suddenly proposed, “They say that with great risk comes great fortune—”

“You can’t be thinking of the Champion Duke’s Stellar Sword, are you?” The wary king cut him off before he could finish.

“That’s right, I want that sword!” The man grit his teeth. “If we get that sword, we can sell it and buy king grade treasures more suited for ourselves. We can even request supplemental kings to personally forge one for us!

“The king grade flying swords and treasures being sold in the Immortal Pagoda and Haotian Tower aren’t necessarily the best fit for us. Only ones containing our own dao rules and personally crafted by supplemental kings will do!”

The other two were swayed by his words.

“And, the son of the Li traitor wields a ghost-headed blade that doesn’t belong to the Hongmeng. If we sell it to the Supplemental Dao Alliance, we might reap unexpected gains,” the man in black continued.

“In… that case, let’s give it a try!” the wary king agreed.

They looked at their third companion, a woman in yellow robes.

“Very well, but we must conceal our tracks.” She nodded and mused, “We must kill them with one move and take their treasures. If we can’t, we leave immediately without hesitation!

“Out of those three, one is a disciple of the Trueriver Sect, another a daughter of the Coiling Dragon city lord, and the third an impenetrable son of a clan traitor. None of them are characters we can afford to offend.”

“Alright!” nodded the man in black. “We have one chance—when they kill the second step ghost king. They’ll be most relaxed then, the perfect moment for us to make our move!”

They hid themselves in the void and silently observed the battle still taking place.

……

The three kings had judged the situation correctly, Lu Yun and Qing Ting combined overpowered a second step king. One azure and two silver dragons in the air continuously walloped the ghost king’s body, shattering its ghostly qi and weakening it.

The ghost king wanted to retreat, but Li Zhen sent it back with a mighty stroke whenever it sought to escape. It could only gibber with indignation.

“Ahhhhh!!” It suddenly lost its mind and howled with desolation. Piercing white light suddenly burst from its ghostfire.

“Get away, get away, it’s self detonating!” Lu Yun gasped when he saw the ghost king’s condition. He grabbed Qing Ting and Li Zhen, deployed Boundless Step without thought of anything else, and traveled five hundred thousand kilometers into the distance.

He took a hundred steps in one thousandth of an eye blink, instantly shifting five hundred million kilometers away.

Boom!!

A black mushroom cloud rose into the air, sweeping across everything within five hundred million kilometers. Lu Yun happened to be precisely on its edge and was still caught up within it. The three hurtled through the air and even Qing Ting’s golden body broke upon contact.

They flew uncontrollably another dozen million kilometers away before crashing heavily to the ground.

“That was just a single second step ghost king—they’re crazy! They self detonate at the drop of a hat!” Li Zhen heaved for breath and vomited mouthfuls of blood, spewing out bits of his organs among the liquid. His entire body was like a ragged cloth bag, almost completely shredded by the force. The only thing still complete on him was his king grade battle armor and ghost-headed blade.

Lu Yun and Qing Ting were just slightly better off, but they were also incredibly injured. With the complete destruction of Qing Ting’s golden body, it would take a lot of time and purple crystals to reform it again.

“We won!” Qing Ting splayed out on the ground and panted heavily. “We really beat a second step ghost kings and forced it to self detonate!”

Though its ghost crystal was also destroyed in the detonation, triumphing over a second step ghost king was a tempering of the heart and soul, an extremely valuable addition to one’s foundations.

That was far more important than a ghost crystal.

However, the scene suddenly darkened in front of Qing Ting’s eyes and a keen sword light aimed at her forehead descended from the sky.

“Who goes there?!” Color drained from her face to find that the sword light was fully locked onto her. She could acutely sense that she wouldn’t be able to dodge this blow even when she was at full strength.

A strike from a third step king at full strength!

Their joy in defeating a second step king instantly dissolved, replaced by a yawning despair.