Chapter 288: Surprise, It’s Me!

“What the fuck are you standing there for? Hurry up! Use the… Use the Essence Harmony… Formation! Send an attack in here!” Liang Shuangren’s roar caused the four cultivators to panic.

𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

“Martial Uncle Liang… What did he mean by that? Is he calling us to back him up?” Senior Brother Lin scratched his ear in disbelief.

Liang Shuangren’s yell earlier seemed to be disrupted by the fluctuation of heaven and earth qi, but he managed to get a part of his message across.

“He should be telling us to use the Essence Harmony Pulse Formation to send a powerful attack towards him, right?” Shang Dao explained.

From his voice, the four of them could tell that he was in a bad spot.

In fact, it was so bad that he had to ask a bunch of Martial Intent Realm cultivators to back him up!

“Sending an attack in there blindly? What if we accidentally hit someone from our side?” Yuan Gang scratched his head and looked at the others.

Finally, someone else spoke. “Even if we manage to lay down the formation and send an attack in there, our strike won’t be as strong as something unleashed by a Martial Extermination Realm expert. Martial Uncle Liang is at the third layer of the Martial Extermination Realm. How could we be of assistance?”

“Wait. Junior Brother Di and Junior Brother Yuan, you make sense!” Shang Dao looked at the chaotic air in the distance and muttered, “All of us can tell that Martial Uncle Liang might be in trouble. Since he told us to send an attack in randomly, we can tell that he might be facing more than one opponent. He needs our help, and it doesn’t matter who we hit.”

“Yeah…” Senior Brother Lin nodded slightly. It was as though Shan Dao had spoken his thoughts out loud.

Glancing at Senior Brother Lin from the corner of his eye, Shan Dao continued, “Since we can be certain that Martial Uncle Liang is currently facing more than one enemy, we can also say that they’re not as strong as him since he’s able to last for so long under their combined assault.”

“Yeah.” Senior Brother Lin clapped once and took over. “Martial Brother Shan took the words right out of my mouth. Since Martial Uncle Liang needs our help, we’ll do as he says. Our combined strength might be able to reach the standard of a first layer Martial Extermination Realm expert and that might be enough for him to turn the situation around.”

Tilting his head slightly to the side, Senior Brother Lin revealed a haughty expression as though he managed to see through Liang Shuangren’s thoughts.

“You… Hurry… Hurry!” Liang Shuangren’s voice became more hurried, and he barely managed to force out a few words.

This time, the four of them no longer hesitated. They got into position immediately. According to what they learned in the Changbai Holy Land, they circulated their inner qi before merging them with each other.

“All of you… You… You’ll die today…” Liang Shuangren’s voice seemed to boom through the air. He sounded much more casual all of a sudden, and a trace of excitement could be heard in his voice. It was as though the pressure on him lessened significantly.

Standing nearly forty feet away from the four of them, Shang Xia could also hear Liang Shuangren clearly. He might not know what was happening in the battlefield, but he could tell that Mister Bu’s side held the slight advantage from the strained breaths Liang Shuangren was taking. However, he also knew that once the stalemate was broken, Mister Bu would be in grave danger.

Unless… Mister Bu was on the same side as Liang Shuangren!

Of course, Shang Xia didn’t quite believe it was possible for a third change to happen in the battlefield. He wasn’t willing to believe it either. However, the Painting Finger Mister Bu unleashed at the start of the battle aroused Shang Xia’s suspicions.

As someone who had experienced the weaker versions of the Painting Finger against members of the Rose Party, Shang Xia clearly recognized the move.

A conflict was raging in Shang Xia’s heart at the moment. He eventually managed to keep his head clear, and he looked at the problem objectively. He didn’t interfere with the cultivators of the Azure Spiritual World when they were setting up their formation. Instead, he patiently waited for them to link their inner qi.

His divine sense might not be able to spy on the battle with the four Martial Extermination Realm experts, but it was more than enough to detect what the four Martial Intent Realm cultivators of the Azure Spiritual World were doing. He could feel that the four of them finally fused into a single entity.

It seemed as though their inner qi broke through the upper limits of what was achievable by a Martial Intent Realm cultivator. Shang Xia could see that a blurry halo appeared above the four of them, and the space started to tremble.

Shan Dao, who was the strongest among the four, stood at the very front. He slowly unsheathed his sword.

Their merged qi entered Shan Dao’s blade slowly, and a terrifying pressure descended on Shan Dao’s physical body.

With all his strength, he sent out a single strike towards the chaotic battlefield. However, that one attack seemed to suck all the energy out of their bodies at once. A huge blade made of heaven and earth qi flew towards the battlefield, and it seemed to resemble a single ray of extermination origin.

From the looks of it, Shan Dao wasn’t far from breaking through to the Martial Extermination Realm.

The instant the blade emerged and flew towards the battlefield, Shang Xia knew that his opportunity had arrived!

With the Scarlet Star Spear in hand, he leaped over the hill and released the fourth move of his Providence Spear Art, Void Evasion. It was the strike that was the hardest to avoid, and with their weakened states it was the perfect attack.

The secret art that allowed the four of them to display the power of a Martial Extermination Realm expert proved to be their downfall. After expending most of their energy in the strike, they were basically wooden targets waiting for Shang Xia to reap their lives.

With a single stab, the tip of Shang Xia’s spear went straight into Yuan Gang’s back. As the tip emerged from his chest, Yuan Gang lowered his head slowly with blood pouring out of his mouth. Darkness started to encroach on his vision.

“I… I… What’s happening to me?” Those were the last words he could mutter before his vision went completely black. He fell to the ground, never to get up again.

“Brother Yuan!”

“Junior Brother Yuan!”

Shan Dao and Senior Brother Lin roared with rage, but they couldn’t do a thing as Yuan Gang fell before their eyes.

Since their secret formation had to be maintained by four Martial Intent Realm experts, Yuan Gang’s death signified that they wouldn’t be able to use the formation any longer.

Fortunately for them, the formless blade that they sent towards the battlefield wouldn’t dissipate because of that. However, they would suffer a heavy backlash from the sudden broken connection.

Shan Dao suffered the most as he took on the brunt of the backlash. The others felt the inner qi in their body fluctuating violently, but they could calm it down in a second. However, time wasn’t on their side at the moment. After killing Yuan Gang, Shang Xia’s second attack arrived!

He needed to kill another one before they recovered!

With time of the essence, Shang Xia used the fastest strike he comprehended, Lightning Stonefire!

Of the moves he comprehended, it possessed the weakest offensive ability. However, it was the fastest!

The Scarlet Star Spear flashed like lightning and it went towards Junior Brother Di who had the next weakest cultivation. The last thing Junior Brother Di saw was a frosty light that drew a perfect arc across his neck.

With his eyes wide open in shock, the light slowly faded from them.

Due to their limited cultivation level, Shang Xia managed to instakill the two of them.

However, his actions weren’t without consequences. Senior Brother Lin and Shan Dao were enraged. Releasing a guttural cry, hatred filled Senior Brother Lin’s face. He glared at Shang Xia, wanting nothing more than to tear the person before him into pieces. His originally calm and dignified demeanor was nowhere to be seen.

“It’s you!” Shan Dao yelled as he recognized Shang Xia.

In the past, his ambush failed. He even allowed Shang Xia to kill one of their members before escaping!

He wasn’t just angry at the whole situation. He felt utterly humiliated!

Watching two of his junior brothers close their eyes for eternity, he ignored all his injuries as he swung his blade at Shang Xia.

Even if he had to die, he wanted to drag Shang Xia with him!

His crazed and desperate attack couldn’t be more well-timed. In order to ensure that every one of his strikes slayed his enemy, Shang Xia didn’t hold back on his Origin True Qi expenditure. After killing the two of them, he had to regulate his inner qi and it was the perfect time for Shan Dao to launch his counterattack.