The sound of sothing tearing through the air beneath the clouds was jarring. Everyone on the battlefield felt its effects. The Qi Cultivators and demons alike sensed the Spiritual Qi in the air tremble, and they instinctively created distance between themselves.
The discomfort vanished in an instant, and the din of battle returned. Wang Ping suppressed his thoughts and cast a divination hexagram. After confirming there was no risk, he retrieved a steel sword from his storage bag. His left hand ford the hand technique for the Sword Control Technique as he circulated the Spiritual Qi throughout his body. A cold glint of light then streaked across the sky, piercing toward the falcon’s head.
A direct hit!
The next mont, the falcon shrieked. Its dive faltered for a second before its body began to spin wildly, flinging the Tiger Demon from its back. Wang Ping locked his eyes on the spot where the Tiger Demon would land and pushed off the ground in pursuit.
THUD.
The Tiger Demon stabilized itself before landing, touching down behind the Militia’s battle lines. An instant later, Wang Ping appeared before it, longsword in hand, more than fifty feet away.
ROAR!
The Tiger Demon was furious that its grand entrance had been ruined. As it roared, its ears shot up, and it bared a mouthful of yellowed fangs. The demonic qi around its body solidified into a jet-black longspear, which it aid at Wang Ping as it bellowed:
"Ignorant human, I will make you—"
"Suppress!"
Wang Ping voiced the edict. He pressed his left index and middle fingers together, forming the hand technique he had designed for the Mountain Suppressing Technique.
The Tiger Demon’s roar was cut short. An invisible pressure slamd down from above, forcing it to its knees. The jet-black longspear fell from its grasp. A wet SPLAT followed as an irregular crater appeared in the ground, and gore splattered out from within.
...
Wang Ping was stunned. The nearby militian who witnessed this were utterly horrified. Then, Wang Ping felt a sudden emptiness in his Dantian and Qi Sea. Two-thirds of the Spiritual Qi in his Qi Sea had been instantly depleted!
The amount of Spiritual Qi consud by the Mountain Suppressing Technique was determined by the target’s strength, not a fixed amount. This realization startled Wang Ping. ’I’ll never use this move again unless it’s absolutely necessary,’ he secretly resolved.
"He’s dead..."
Yu Lian’s voice reminded Wang Ping from within his Spirit Sea. She materialized to her normal size, her tail coiling around Wang Ping’s left wrist. Her body snaked up his arm to his shoulder, bringing her head level with his.
"You really weren’t going to dodge, huh?"
Wang Ping took out a bottle of elixirs, quickly shook out two, and swallowed them. They were Qi Replenishing Pills brought by Wang Kang—the most common type of elixir for Qi Cultivators, used to temporarily restore depleted Spiritual Qi. At the sa ti, Yu Lian began replenishing the Spiritual Qi in his Qi Sea, alleviating his exhaustion.
After a mont, Wang Ping recomposed himself. He stepped forward to glance at the Tiger Demon, now just a paste of flesh in the crater, before leaping with Yu Lian to a nearby high point. His eyes swept across the battlefield until he located Feng Miao. He started toward her to provide reinforcents, but his steel sword moved first, flying toward the nape of the Wolf Demon she was fighting.
CLANG.
The strike was blocked by a long saber held in the Wolf Demon’s tail. "Return!" With a quick change of his left-hand technique, Wang Ping recalled the longsword to his side as he landed on Feng Miao’s flank. Now that he was closer, he realized it wasn’t a Wolf Demon at all, but a Mouse Demon!
"Use your full strength! Let’s end this quick!"
As Feng Miao spoke, flas flickered to life across her body. The heat of the fire clinging to her long saber climbed at a visible rate, scorching the very air around her until it warped.
Wang Ping and Yu Lian worked in tandem, absorbing all the Spiritual Qi from the surrounding area. He ford the hand technique for the Sword Control Technique, simultaneously defending against the Mouse Demon’s assault while maneuvering his steel sword into an attack formation.
The Mouse Demon’s eyes darted around, however. It took a swift step back, tossed aside one of its long sabers, and ford a hand technique with its now-free hand. Demonic qi swirled around its body, and it burrowed straight into the ground.
"I can’t sense him anymore!"
Yu Lian’s voice was laced with surprise; she couldn’t understand why the Mouse Demon had fled. Wang Ping instinctively exchanged a look with Feng Miao.
Feng Miao: ...
Wang Ping: ...
"Cowardly and cunning creature..."
Feng Miao was the first to snap out of it. Having fought demons for years, she was ntally prepared for a Mouse Demon to desert a battle. She then turned her gaze to Xia Yao’s fight in the distance.
Wang Ping also turned his attention to where Xia Yao was fighting. The offensive power of his steel sword was already coalesced; now he needed a target to unleash it on. He and Feng Miao moved to reinforce Xia Yao almost simultaneously.
Feng Miao’s attack ca first. Her speed was astounding. As their enemy closed in on Xia Yao, she slashed her saber across its path...
HISS.
The intense heat instantly vitrified the ground, leaving a gash several feet long.
She missed. The enemy checked its pursuit and dodged the blow by a hair’s breadth. Just then, Wang Ping’s steel sword struck.
CLANG.
CLANG.
Two tallic clashes rang out in quick succession. The four-ard enemy used its two long sabers to block Wang Ping’s empowered strike. The first saber was sent flying, and the second barely managed to parry the blow.
Just then, Xia Yao ford a hand technique and voiced the edict: "Bind!"
It was the sa magic she had used on the river. It worked on land, too. At her edict, a series of bubbles erupted from the ground beneath the enemy. They quickly ford a rope of water that wrapped around the enemy’s lower body in the blink of an eye, tripping it to the ground.
"Die!"
With a vicious expression, Feng Miao brought her long saber down on the enemy’s chest.
CLANG.
The enemy crossed two of its long sabers to block the strike yet again.
But then, the steel sword struck again, piercing its neck before its terrified eyes.
"Argh..."
It seed to want to say sothing, but only blood filled its open mouth...
"Still not dead?"
Feng Miao followed up with another strike. While the enemy’s grip was weak, she plunged her long saber into its chest. The next instant, scorching flas engulfed its entire body.
"Sigh."
Xia Yao sighed softly as she watched their fla-engulfed opponent. She took out an elixir and placed it in her mouth. She had sustained considerable injuries fighting the Half-Demon.
"Why are you pitying it? It’s just a confused fool that doesn’t even know what it is!"
Feng Miao scoffed at Xia Yao’s display of emotion.
BOOM.
Just then, a muffled boom echoed from above the clouds...
Then, a tattered flag, mostly destroyed, fell from the clouds. A streak of blood-red light shot toward the distant horizon, closely pursued by another ball of light.
The battle between the Secret Technique Cultivators in the sky had ended as well, though it was impossible to tell who had won.
The fighting on the ground paused again for a mont at the sound from the sky. A few breaths later, the earth-shaking battle cries resud...
No one ca to tell Wang Ping and the others the outco of the battle in the sky. Down on the ground, however, the scales of victory shifted dramatically once the three of them had dealt with their opponents.
「Half an Hour later...」
Most of the demons had been slain; only a few dozen managed to escape back into the mountain forest.
Guangxuan organized a small group to clean up the battlefield, while the rest continued with the mountain search that had been scheduled for the day!
Full of energy, Feng Miao began interrogating the captured demons. Xia Yao, after a short rest and ditation, consulted briefly with Guangxuan before going to interrogate the deserters who had been the first to flee.
Wang Ping, however, returned to his tent to ditate, rest, and await the results of the mountain search.
The first piece of news to arrive was that Gu Heng Taoist of Sanhe Temple had defeated the Secret Technique Cultivator in the forest.
Next, Zhao Qing had soone carry in a jet-black longspear.
"I heard this is your trophy, Senior Brother!"
’It’s the Mountain God Tiger Demon’s weapon...’
Zhao Qing said with a laugh, "This is quite a treasure. It’s forged from fine iron nurtured by an Earth Vein. It was a gift from the Xia Country’s Imperial Family when they granted the title of Mountain God."
"lt it down and forge a sword for . You can do what you want with the rest."
"Yes, Senior Brother!"
Not long after Zhao Qing left, Feng Miao and Xia Yao entered Wang Ping’s tent.
Feng Miao began speaking before she even sat down. "The lead on the human trafficking connects. This is the final distribution point. Aside from a few of the missing who were... consud locally, the rest were all brought here. They even set up a whole smuggling route for it. This runs deep. I’ll have soone send you a ssage if there’s any news after I report back."
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