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Chapter 98 Who’s The Pursuers (1)
Chapter 98 Who’s The Pursuers (1)
Yuan Ji had quickly run out of the city to the mountains outside. With his light profound arts, he did not even need to go through the gates but he had scaled the tall city walls in a few blinks of an eye.
"What the heck! His lightless skill is insane…"
"This is not real…"
Even some of the golden celestials were dumbfounded by his lightless skill display.
Yuan Ji had always been renowned for his lightless profound art. There were almost no places that he could not get into or considered too difficult for him to reach.
Soon there were only a few dozen pursuers that were still following Yuan Ji and they were mostly golden celestials. None of the pursuers that were still following Yuan Ji were weak in their lightless profound art or profound strength.
Yuan Ji soon found himself in a rugged forest that was surrounded by tall cliffs all around him. He had reached the dead end now!
Saint Wu Saint roared with laughter, "He has run into a dead end. Now he is finished!"
"Indeed he is!" a nonchalant voice said.
Saint Wu Saint turned to his back and saw that it was spoken by a handsome golden celestial in white robe.
When he saw him, he was smiling immediately. "I wonder who it is. So it is the Eldest Young Master, Saint Zhan Long of the Great Inevitable Divine Clan."
Many of the cultivators were now muttering when they had heard that it was Eldest Young Master Zhan Long of the Great Inevitable Divine Clan!
It was because the Great Inevitable Divine Clan was one of the seven major orthodox clans and it was also the most powerful of them all!
Naturally Eldest Young Master Zhan Long invoked awe and admiration immediately. Moreover he was also a middle tier saint!
Yuan Ji raised an eyebrow as he looked in the direction of Eldest Young Master Zhan Long with a grin. All in all, he saw that he was being surrounded by more than thirty golden celestials and a hundred low level cultivators that were mostly fourth realm cultivators.
Actually fourth realm cultivators were not low level cultivators and were the main fighting group in the celestial fraternity. But to the golden celestials including Yuan Ji, they were low level cultivators.
In turn, the fourth realm cultivators had thought of themselves as high level cultivators and those beneath them as low level cultivators.
Eldest Young Master Zhan Long had several golden celestials with him and he was smiling, "Elder Wu Heng. Long time no see. I have heard that there is a protégé of the Spirit Blue Moon Sect earlier so I am also giving chase. Judging from his lightless profound art, he isn't weak at all."
Saint Wu Heng was smiling, "There is no better help than having Eldest Young Master Zhan Long here to nail him down. I actually don't care about the rewards on him. I only want his nine-tail spirit fox."
"Haha. Is that so? So am I actually." Eldest Young Master Zhan Long chuckled softly.
Saint Wu Heng: …
Saint Wu Heng forced out a weak smile, "In that case, I will be happy to give the nine-tail silver fox to Eldest Young Master Zhan Long. This is just a gesture of our future friendship."
Eldest Young Master Zhan Long laughed as he bowed with his hands, "In that case, I will be happy to make a friend out of you then. Haha."
Saint Wu Heng was soon laughing. He was actually thinking that he should not try to anger Eldest Young Master Zhan Long because he was going to be the future sect master of the powerful Great Inevitable Divine Clan. It was better to make a friend out of him instead. Moreover Eldest Young Master Zhan Long was a middle tier saint while he was only an initial tier saint.
Actually the other golden celestials that were presented had also wanted the nine-tail silver fox for themselves but when they had heard that Saint Wu Heng and Eldest Young Master Zhan Long had both wanted the spirit fox for themselves, they immediately dropped the lofty idea of obtaining it.
Yuan Ji was actually watching them as they chatted. It was as though they were treating him as an invisible person!
He really did not know whether to laugh or cry because he was the master of Xiaobai and no one had thought of asking him for his opinion.
Xiang Li was giggling, "That is because you can't escape anymore and they can take away your life at any moment. So, are you afraid?"
Actually Xiang Li did not need to ask Yuan Ji about his state of emotions after she had merged with his soul sea. She could actually feel all his little emotions as they were linked as one now.
"Afraid?" Yuan Ji was laughing to Xiang Li in his soul sea. "Not a chance!"
Saint Wu Heng had now turned to Yuan Li to say, "I am Saint Wu Heng, initial mortal-step saint, Elder of the Burning Heavens Pavilion!"
Eldest Young Master Zhan Long laughed as he introduced himself, "Saint Zhan Long, middle mortal-step saint…"
"Eldest Young Master Zhan Long is a middle tier saint…"
One by one, all the thirty golden celestials were all reporting their cultivation realm levels and their tier grades.
"Saint…"
"Supremacy…"
"Celestial…"
This was actually a formality before a death duel and everyone was giving a slow introduction of themselves. It was because in their eyes, this hated protégé of the Spirit Blue Moon Sect was as good as dead!
After Yuan Ji had heard their introductions, he gave Xiaobai a few rounds of warm pat before he put her down gently. "Go to one side and don't get hurt."
The Abyssal Null Goddess reluctantly gave him a forlorn look before moving aside. Are you really going to fight all of them alone?
Yuan Ji grinned as he looked at all his opponents, "Do you know why I have lured all of you out of the city? It is because I don't want to hurt the innocents and I'm afraid that my Xiaobai will be hurt in the process."
The Abyssal Null Goddess was startled. He is afraid that I may get hurt?
"Haha, he is talking big now."
"He is full of bull shits…haha…"
"I bet that this is his last face saving measure before he dies…"
Even Saint Wu Heng and Eldest Young Master Zhan Long were smiling coldly.
With Eldest Young Master Zhan Long who was almost an unkillable middle saint here, no one believes that this 'Li Yuan' would survive.
Yuan Ji added, "Actually I'm not Li Yuan and I am not from the Spirit Blue Moon Sect…"
Saint Wu Heng interrupted him, "Do you think that it is actually meaningful to wriggle yourself out of this situation now? Save your explaining and draw your sword like a real blood and iron man!"
Yuan Ji grinned, "I didn't say that I didn't want to fight."
When he had said that, he had unsheathed his divine sword.
When everyone saw his divine sword, there was a silent damper in their blood curling hearts. In fact their earlier excitements had become a light tremble for some of them.
It was because their divine senses had told them that this was a celestial grade divine sword!
In short this was a half-step celestial sword to be more exact.
But it was enough to command awe because even a half-step celestial sword was better than the best heaven-step divine sword by several notches!
Saint Wu Heng had suddenly gulped as he looked at his half-step divine sword.
With Eldest Young Master Zhan Long looked at his heaven-step divine sword and had suddenly felt a lack of luster in his sword.
Slowly he said to Saint Wu Heng, "I've changed my mind. I will let you have the nine-tail silver fox and I will take his sword!"
Saint Wu Heng was delighted as he quickly answered, "Deal!"
Yuan Ji laughed softly, "I haven't introduced myself yet and you're already thinking of sharing my loot."
Saint Wu Heng laughed, "We already know who you are. Li Yuan, fifth realm golden celestial of the Spirit Blue Moon Sect. There is no need to tell us your cultivation tier because we are not interested."
Now a cultivation tier consisted of the grade and step combined.
"Sword Saint Ji Yuan, seventh realm middle mortal-step golden saint of the Orthodox Sword Sect." Yuan Ji purposely reported his name and cultivation realm to the fullest.
This totally smirked of sheer conceit if one was to report their cultivation realm in such a lengthy manner.
But at this moment none of the cultivators including Eldest Young Master Zhan Long was smiling. In fact many of the fifth realm golden celestials and the low level cultivators were taking slow steps to the back.
One cultivator managed to stammer out. "He is the Sword Demon Ji Yuan…and he had killed…Sword Saintess Jian Yuluo…"
"Isn't Saintess Jian Yuluo a middle-tier saintess?"
"She is…I have heard that she is a peaked middle saintess too…"
"And she died fighting him?"
Saint Wu Heng had quietly turned to the cultivators that were behind him as he asked politely, "How many other saints do we have in our company?"
He was not paying attention to the introduction earlier as he had been staring coldly at Yuan Ji to unnerve him.
"One, two…three…"
Saint Wu Heng laughed aloud, "We have five saints here. So what are we afraid of? This is a pure massacre!"
"Actually I am only a half-step saint. I had my breakthrough a year ago and have only regained my profound strength to the sixth realm level…"
"I'm also a half-step saint. My profound strength is only regained at the fifth realm level. Sure I can forcefully raise my profound strength to the seventh level but I will be screwed for a long time and even my cultivation base will be affected…"
Half-step saints were still seventh realm saints. They could burn their spiritual force to temporary raised their profound strength to the seventh realm level but they would suffer a backlash.
When Yuan Ji had killed Elder Hai Guotian while saving Shangguan Yan, he had forcefully raised his profound strength realm level to the fifth realm and suffered a minor backlash. Although he could raise his profound strength realm level to the seventh realm but he was more calculating and did not want a major repercussion. That was why he had only raised it to the just nice level to kill Elder Hai Guotian.
Saint Wu Heng was exasperated, "What the heck is this? We actually have two half-step saints here?! Why do we have half-step saints roaming the streets instead of in their cultivation chambers?"
When he had said that, a third of the golden celestials were sheepish even though they were not saints. It was because they all had their own recent breakthroughs at various stages. And they were all cursing Saint Wu Heng, "We are not as rich as you. That's why it takes us longer…"
Elder Wu Heng hummed coldly, "Never mind. We can all depend on Eldest Young Master Zhan Long here. Haha."
Eldest Young Master Zhan Long: …
"Actually there is nothing to be afraid of. Go get him now. I will further increase his body part rewards by 100 times!" Eldest Young Master Zhan Long said coldly. "Kill him!"
When everyone had heard him, they were all highly motivated and had all began to charge toward Yuan Ji.
Yuan Ji grinned as he swung his sword forward and immediately a wave of sword energy like a coiling dragon was displayed in front of him!
This was the new profound art that he had created with Ling Feiyue!
Immediately several of the cultivators were completely demolished by his sword energy wave.
Yuan Ji grinned as he had flashed forward to a half-step saint and a golden supremacy, "Want to try my sword stroke?"
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It was only then that everyone could see that Yuan Ji's divine sword had a double halo that indicated that he had perfectly harmonize with his divine sword!
Eldest Young Master Zhan Long was startled. It was because he had not even divine harmony with his sword yet. But he quickly composed himself to rally to everyone, "Ji Yuan doesn't have any powerful profound arts. He is a pure sword cultivator. Moreover he is using a celestial sword. The drain to his profound strength will be heavy. Very soon, he will be completely exhausted by us."
As he said that, he had suddenly noticed half of the original one hundred plus had all fallen in a blink of an eye. All of them were crushed by a single sword stroke by Ji Yuan!
When cultivators fought with their profound arts, profound strength was not the only factor. Profound strength was a necessary factor in using powerful profound arts that produce profound power.
When two swords were clashing against each other, the profound power produced will determine if one side had the 'superior strength'. And this 'superior strength' was a mixture of profound strength and power.
Weaker cultivators could actually still overcome a stronger cultivator by using a powerful profound art at the expense of using more profound strength to generate the profound power to fight a stronger cultivator evenly. However they would still lose if they still could not be able to gain advantage because their drain of profound strength would be much greater than their opponents.
When there was a profound power disparity of 30%, an opponent would be forced to take a small step back, taking another step backward for every additional profound power disparity.
When profound power disparity of 100% occurs, opponents would be knocked back and even if the attack was parried, they would still lose additional profound strength during the exchange.
When profound power disparity of 200% occurs, a crushing blow would occur, causing the opponents to be in a state of defenseless unless the differences in profound power would be matched.
Right now, Yuan Ji was swinging his sword and almost all the cultivators were totally crashed by his profound power with a single hit!
When he had displayed his sword energies, even golden celestials were flying left and right with no defenses to speak of.
It was because swords could aid the profound power that was produced and sword energies had more profound power at the cost of profound strength!
Even though Yuan Ji did not have any divine profound arts that could produce powerful profound power but he got a celestial sword that could enhance his profound strength into profound power. Moreover, he had also divine harmony with his sword and the profound power that could be produced was also much greater!
Usually a power difference of 100% is enough to send fear to the opponents. Now many of the cultivators were witnessing a power difference of 200% to 300%.
"Too strong!"
"He not only has a divine sword but this is a celestial grade…"
"He is a middle tier saint too!..."
"And a sword saint…"
"He is too unstoppable…"
"I don't want to die…"
"My profound aura is like air against him…"
"He is a beast…"
"Don't kill me please…"
"I am only a lowly peak golden supremacy with a precious sword and no divine arts. Please have mercy on this good-for-nothing poor cultivator…"
"I still have my family to feed…"
Suddenly all the celestial clans other than the groups from the Burning Heavens Pavilion and the Great Inevitable Divine Clan had all fled the scene…
Sword Saint Ji Yuan was too OP for them to handle…
Many of the cultivators were now breaking ranks and fleeing!
And the battle did not even last for ten blinks of an eye for this to happen.
Saint Wu Heng had raised his sword as he displayed the Burning Heavens Sword Art, a sword art that could enhance his sword strokes by 100% profound power at a cost of a lot of profound strength.
As for the rest of his group, they had also displayed the Burning Heavens Sword Arts but because they were at a lower mastery than Saint Wu Heng, they could only manage to produce 30-70% profound power of what Saint Wu Heng could handle.
As for Eldest Young Master Zhan Long and his group, they were all displaying their epitome profound arts against Ji Yuan.
Together Eldest Young Master Zhan Long and Saint Wu Heng were at the front line now as they led their fighting group against a lone Yuan Ji.
Naturally with two saints joining hands together, Yuan Ji was now forced to redistribute his profound power more evenly into his sword strokes and the earlier crashing defeats of the cultivators had quickly vanished.
Although they had stabilized the situation but Yuan Ji was still moving through their ranks like an unstoppable fighter and he was still felling cultivators left and right.
Saint Wu Heng had already received several stabs by Yuan Ji. If he was not a saint then he would already be cut down by him.
Even Eldest Young Master Zhan Long had also received several bloody wounds.
It was because all the cultivators had suddenly discovered one fact; whether it was attacking speed, profound strength, profound power and recovery, none of them could compare with him.
Their wolf-pack tactics did not seem to work on Yuan Ji at all!
It was because Yuan Ji's sword arts cost little to his profound strength and he had a startling recovery rate. Moreover he was extremely precise in his attacks that he was drawing blood with almost every attack against the weaker cultivators.
To fight Yuan Ji to say the least, was extremely demoralizing.
Soon even Saint Wu Heng had fallen to the ground, exhausted by his powerful sword art and exhausted from his fight with Yuan Ji.
Eldest Young Master Zhan Long was forced to eat mud on the ground after Saint Wu Heng had dropped to the ground.
He was left to mutter almost incoherent, "This is impossible…we are both middle-tier saints. Why is he…so much stronger than me…is it because of the sword that is in his hands…"
Today they had finally realized how strong a Sword Saint was.
And Yuan Ji was still looking as fresh as ever and he was not even injured.
In the entire battle, Yuan Ji flashed little of his defensive golden profound animus. It was because he did not need it if his opponents could not hit him. As long as his opponents could not overpower him, he could focus all his profound strength into his attacks.
He did use his golden profound animus occasionally during the battle but it was not to defend against attacks or to narrow down the profound power disparity but to use his profound animus to move faster so that he got more room to execute his sword strokes.
Yuan Ji had a look of disappointment as he grinned at Eldest Young Master Zhan Long and Saint Wu Heng, "At first I was a little worried that I may see a divine profound art or two. Turn up that the two of you are only sword cultivators."
Eldest Young Master Zhan Long and Saint Wu Heng were trembling as they lay flat on the ground, "Sword Saint Ji Yuan, please have mercy on us…we promise you we won't hunt you ever again…please let us go…"
"So I am a Sword Saint now and not a Sword Demon?" Yuan Ji mocked them sarcastically.
He waved his sword before saying coldly to them, "Go before I change my mind."
Saint Wu Heng, Eldest Young Master Zhan Long and many others quickly mustered whatever little strength that they could muster to make their hasty retreat.
As Yuan Ji was about to walk away, he saw a female cultivator that was being left behind by Saint Wu Heng. He had of course recognized this lovely golden celestial.
She was limping slowly away. But instead of being afraid of him, she was smiling to him. "So you are Ji Yuan. You are indeed as dashing as the rumors have said. You look good without your beard. I'm Mu Wan'Er." Then with a bashful look, she limped away.
All of a sudden there was a terrifying scream in front that shook the entire mountains.
Yuan Ji was startled as he quickly flashed forward to take a look.
He had only appeared in the vicinity when he saw the dead body of Saint Wu Heng and Eldest Young Master Zhan Long.
In front of him was an alluring maiden that was extremely enchanting to the eyes. However when Yuan Ji had caught the sight of her face, he had immediately turned ashen.
It was because she was Little Princess!
And right now Little Princess was saying to the rest of the survivors, "It is all thanks to Ji Yuan that I have managed to lure the top experts from the two major orthodox clans out of the city. Now scram!"
All the surviving cultivators were scared out of their wits as they bolted immediately!
Little Princess had now turned to look at Yuan Ji with an enchanting smile, "I have finally found you at long time."
Yuan Ji smiled bitterly, "Can't you fight me fair and square? Do you have to frame me up?"
"Why are you so afraid of her?" Xiang Li was asking curiously.
"It is because she is a most venomous maiden and a dark blemish in my Great Dao…"