Chapter 25: Slicing Through Lightning

Even though Shang Xia made his escape under orders of Yuan Zilu, he still felt a little bad. However, he soon realized that they were starting to pursue him.

With four experts by her side, the woman quickly arrived at the back of the convoy. Noticing the outer disciples, a smile formed on her face.

“Two of you, stay behind and watch them. We’ll be able to extort the Tongyou Peak soon!”

Her voice rang in the air, and Shang Xia heaved a sigh of relief. Nothing else mattered as long as they could keep their lives!

Tossing away the last of his worries, Shang Xia pushed himself to his limit. He continued to run further away from the battle.

Even without training in any sort of movement art, Shang Xia’s speed wasn’t any slower than cultivators who did. After all, his body was extremely sturdy after being refined by heavenly lightning. Moreover, his qi reserve was much larger than disciples his level.

“With the amount of inner qi I have, cultivators who learned a movement art will only be able to catch up with me if they were right in my face. I’ll outlast them any day. If they try to catch up with Scarlet Cloud Horses, the distance between us will only increase…”

Shang Xia heaved a sigh of relief after running for quite some time. Feeling no one behind him, a trace of delight formed in his heart.

“Handsome man, why did you slow down? Are you tired already?”

Shang Xia felt all the hair on his body standing on end when he heard the voice. Pushing even more inner qi into his legs, he couldn’t care less about the pain shooting through them due to the overload. His speed increased by onefold all of a sudden.

The confidence he felt earlier quickly withered.

Turning back, he saw a lady flying towards him while unleashing a strange movement technique.

Her feet barely touched the ground, but her body would be propelled several feet forward every time it did. Her movements were graceful, and her speed was extremely quick.

Even after pushing himself to his limit, the distance between them was closing fast.

According to his calculations, she would catch up soon.

“Little brother, place the cage down and I promise to let you live!” Even while traveling at high speeds, her voice didn’t seem strained.

Shang Xia yelled without turning back, “After releasing the Cloud Piercing Rainbow Arrow, my reinforcements from the Tongyou Peak will head over as quickly as they can! They are rushing here as we speak! You can continue chasing me if you’re tired of living… Don’t you know where you are right now?!”

“Hehe…” Her laughter rang in his ears before she continued, “If the teams stationed around here are actually doing their job, will we be able to get so close?”

Shang Xia glanced back once again and noticed that the distance between them had shortened.

There were two other experts following closely behind her, and Shang Xia could only curse them in his heart while focusing on his escape.

Seeing how he ignored her, her verbal assault continued.

As the distance between them closed, she seemed to be able to hear the heavy panting from the exhausted Shang Xia in front of her.

All of a sudden, a massive platform that was half a feet tall appeared in their sights.

Due to the randomness of the battlefield between two worlds, a stone platform like that appearing wasn’t out of the ordinary. Shang Xia could leap across it as long as he wanted to.

However, it hit him suddenly. The woman behind wasn’t trying to catch him… She was wasting his energy! If their chase continued, he would eventually be too exhausted to go on!?They’re not trying to get their hands on the Mutated Rain Swallow! They want the method to capture one!

Since that was the case, he would risk it all!

Shang Xia didn’t leap across the platform as planned. Instead, he kicked off the side, using the rebound to charge straight towards the woman.

She obviously didn’t expect something like that to happen. After all, who in the right mind would counterattack when they had no chance of winning?!

Shang Xia used up the entirety of his energy behind his final strike.

Floating in mid air, a ray of golden light converged in his palm before shooting straight towards her.

“Preposterous!” A flash of rage crossed her face. She didn’t think that Shang Xia would attack her, much less the possibility that he had already comprehended his martial intent!

Luckily for her, she was stronger than him.

Without another word, a golden hairpin shot out from her top bun and emitted an eerie scarlet glow. The phantom of a giant scissors appeared in the sky, and it snipped thrice, cutting Shang Xia’s golden lightning into four.

What the fuck?! How can scissors cut through lightning?!

Shang Xia didn’t have time to ridicule the situation. Instead, he quickly unleashed another move, Fearless Storm, in preparation to take the scissors head-on.

He could count his lucky stars as the scissors that formed in the air seemed to lose all power after cutting through his golden lightning. The hairpin fell to the ground powerlessly.

A trace of fear lingered in the female cultivator’s heart when she realized how close Shang Xia’s sneak attack was to working.

However, her heart started to ache when she thought about the hairpin lying on the ground. It was a life-saving treasure that couldn’t be replaced!

Facing Shang Xia’s second barrage of attack, a tinge of resentment formed in her heart and she released two thin strands of silk towards his neck. “Pay me back for my hairpin!”

Shang Xia’s attack might be strong, but the strands of silk danced around him gracefully.

While controlling the strands of silk, the lady used another type of movement art that allowed her to dance in mid air. An elegant dance of death was performed in front of Shang Xia.

As the two of them exchanged several moves, Shang Xia started to fall to a disadvantage.

Her cultivation realm was much higher than him, and it was a foregone conclusion that she would gain the upper hand.

Knowing that he wouldn’t be able to last for long, Shang Xia changed his approach again. He unleashed his Lightning Palm, challenging her in terms of speed.

“Chasing Wind, Racing Moon, Wild Lightning, Capturing Lightning…”

All four moves were used to the best of his abilities and whistling could be heard in the air. As streaks of lightning filled the skies, Shang Xia barely managed to keep up with her.

By that time, the two experts behind her arrived. They joined the battle wordlessly and surrounded him immediately.

Even though they were slightly weaker than the woman, they were more than enough to tip the scales of battle.

Shang Xia cleared his mind of all random thoughts and focused on the battle. One careless move and he would suffer a disastrous defeat!

The more they fought, the more Shang Xia realized that something was wrong. All three of them seemed to be holding back, but he quickly discovered the reason. They were afraid of harming the Mutated Rain Swallow in his possession!

There were several instances in the battle where the three of them withdrew their strike at the last moment, allowing him to remain in battle.

Hold up… are they actually here for the Mutated Rain Swallow?

Taking a hit to his shoulder, Shang Xia removed the cage from his waistband.

Watching the female cultivator’s palm extending towards him, Shang Xia tossed the cage over.

If they tried to grab the cage, he would kill the Rain Swallow without hesitation.

A frown formed on the woman’s face as she avoided the cage at the last second.

In stark contrast, Shang Xia revealed a brilliant smile. Beating back one of the other two, the other almost landed a strike on his back.

Tossing the cage behind him, he heard a yell.

“No!”

The other cultivator was clearly aware of the importance of the Mutated Rain Swallow and he stopped himself. As his inner qi flowed backwards from the abrupt withdrawal, he suffered some slight internal injuries.

The Mutated Rain Swallow chirped anxiously in the cage after being tossed around like a toy.

“You’re despicable!” The female cultivator yelled. “Hand it over and I’ll let you live!”

“Let me leave, or I’ll kill it right now!” Shang Xia harrumphed.

“Impossible.” The female cultivator snorted as anger filled her heart. With her advantage in cultivation, there were times when she could have killed him directly. However, she stopped herself in order to avoid harming the bird. The humiliation she felt couldn't be described in words.

“Looks like we have nothing else left to discuss then!” Shang Xia sighed. No matter how tired he was, he knew that he couldn’t reveal the slightest weakness. With the Mutated Rain Swallow in his possession, he had a chance to live.

Catching on quickly, the female cultivator spoke to the other two. “Hong Que, Hui Que, do not allow him to escape. He has already comprehended a martial intent…”

Their expressions changed slightly, and the look in their eyes changed when they looked at Shang Xia.

Shang Xia cursed her silently. However, his gaze drifted behind her and a smile returned to his lips.

“Chirp!”

A cold whistle came from behind as a familiar silver light reappeared.

The female cultivator’s expression changed drastically and she leaped to the side desperately.

Shang Xia did the same, and the silver light tore through the skies.

𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

One of the silk threads in her palm was torn to shreds by the Lightning Bird as it flew towards the cage.