Su Jie summoned back the White Bone Sky Slaying Sword and watched the two approaching figures with an expressionless face. His eyes darkened as he said, "Stop now, and I might let you off the hook. Otherwise, once we start fighting, it won’t end so easily."
Cao Yuan seemed to have heard a joke and burst into laughter, "Haha, do you really think you can beat me? How about this, if you can even land a hit on me, I’ll..."
With just a single word, Su Jie made his intentions crystal clear.
Cao Yuan sighed lightly and patted the golden gourd at his waist, "Turn around, my treasure."
A beam of black light shot out from the mouth of the gourd, accompanied by the sound of thunderous explosions.
The black light headed straight for Su Jie’s chest, revealing itself to be a three-foot-long Low Grade Advanced Flying Sword.
Su Jie channeled the Green Rainbow Sword Technique, and the White Bone Sky Slaying Sword spun to meet the attack, tangling the two flying swords in battle immediately.
In the forest, a black and a white sword intertwined and shot back and forth, moving too fast to see clearly, looking like a black and white aurora tangling together.
Wherever they passed, ancient trees collapsed, boulders shattered, and the ground was crisscrossed with a maze of deep ravines and fissures.
The newcomers in the distance watched, dumbstruck, feeling as if their field of vision were enveloped by the deadly murderous intent hidden in the beautiful aurora.
However, with this exchange, Su Jie realized something was wrong.
The grade of the opponent’s flying sword was clearly lower than that of the White Bone Sky Slaying Sword, yet its power seemed to be a notch higher.
He couldn’t help but look at the red gourd at Cao Yuan’s waist and remembered a type of Magic Artifact.
"A Mid Grade Sword Nourishing Gourd, seeing one for the first time, aren’t you? Did you think a Low Grade top-tier Flying Sword could dominate?"
Cao Yuan, as if having read Su Jie’s mind, confidently displayed his Magic Artifact, which was indeed a Mid Grade Magical Artifact.
The Sword Nourishing Gourd is a special Magic Artifact that complements Flying Swords. It utilizes the gourd vines that grow naturally and have inherent spiritual properties. Small gourds picked from these vines go through several refinements, with various materials added, to finally be crafted into what they become.
Once forged, the Sword Nourishing Gourd nourishes the Flying Sword placed within it, maintaining its sharpness and radiance and allowing it to exert its power to a greater extent.
In Su Jie’s understanding, the Sword Nourishing Gourd was like the combination of firearms and ammunition.
A Flying Sword nurtured by the Sword Nourishing Gourd would elevate in speed, distance, power, and controllability.
Moreover, the Sword Nourishing Gourd was not limited to housing just one Flying Sword. A Mid Grade Sword Nourishing Gourd could house up to a hundred Flying Swords, as long as one had the wealth and abundant reserves of Spiritual Energy.
Su Jie stared at the opponent’s Sword Nourishing Gourd at his waist, the golden-red gourd teeming with life and entwined with Spiritual Energy. Its golden-red patterns on the shell gleamed with a dazzling luster as the Spiritual Energy surged, like flames dancing.
"Nice piece, I’ve decided, it’s mine now."
Su Jie licked his lips, his desire evident.
Cao Yuan’s face darkened as he intensified his efforts.
The White Bone Sky Slaying Sword gradually began to lose ground in the clash; with each collision, the sword trembled and buzzed. If it hadn’t been made from such hard material, it might have already developed cracks.
"Let me show you my true strength, so you’ll be thoroughly convinced of your defeat," Cao Yuan said.
He brought his fingers together as if wielding a sword, and more than a dozen Flying Swords flew out of the Sword Nourishing Gourd.
Although these flying swords were all of the lowest grade, Low-Grade Beginner Flying Swords, valued at a little over a hundred Blood Marrow Crystals, the sheer number of them, coupled with the boost from the Sword Nourishing Gourd, formed a vast swarm that immediately overwhelmed and blasted away Su Jie’s White Bone Sky Slaying Sword.
"All these flying swords you see have been gathered by me through hard labor. No one can compete with me in the sea of swords; this is my path as a sword cultivator,"
Cao Yuan said with a smug smile, confident of his victory.
"Playing the sword cultivator in Ghost Ridge Palace, you’re indeed talented,"
Su Jie said speechlessly, realizing that in the realm of flying swords, he was indeed no match for Cao Yuan.
"Brother Cao, let me help you,"
Nan Wenli, unwilling to be left out, saw Cao Yuan’s impressive display and, waving her sleeve, summoned her lifebound poisonous insect—a five-meter-long, Low Grade First Refinement Evil Horned Beetle.
At the same time, she employed the Body Worm Focusing Method, and one after another, robust flame locusts emerged from the Insect Control Bag and swarmed towards Su Jie.
But Cao Yuan was not grateful, feeling that Nan Wenli was just there to take advantage of the situation. He again manipulated the torrent of flying swords toward Su Jie, hoping to reap even more benefits afterward.
"It seems the fight is about to end,"
the many disciples watched intently as Cai Shangbai made his conclusion. Your is on empire
"He hasn’t used his poisonous insects yet, but it probably won’t last much longer,"
Ruan Feng also made the same judgment, doubting Su Jie’s chances of victory even if he resorted to his insects.
"Let’s not end up with a loss of life here, we..."
Tang Peiqing hadn’t finished his sentence when he suddenly noticed something, paused mid-sentence, and turned his head in surprise towards the battlefield.
There, Su Jie faced the joint attack of two Inner Sect disciples, his expression unchanged. He did not summon his trump card, the Thousand-Handed Centipede, but instead pulled out the Ten Thousand Soul Banner from his chest.
"The soul yearns for life, while the shade yearns for death,"
with a gentle wave of the Ten Thousand Soul Banner, the scene was immediately filled with flying sand and stones, and the sounds of ghosts wailing and wolves howling echoed from all directions.
The approaching swarm of Flame Locusts trembled slightly, as if sensing something unsettling.
On the surface of the banner, myriad yin souls revealed their forms—vague and ghostly shapes with hollow and eerie gazes set upon all living beings, surging out of the banner like a tide.
Ten thousand yin souls wildly danced in the air, casting a shadow that covered the heavens.
One by one, the Flame Locusts fell like rain. In the instant they were pierced by the yin souls, their spirits were taken, leaving behind merely warm corpses as they fell.
"Humans have three souls and seven spirits: the Heavenly Soul, the Earth Soul, and the Life Soul. Of the spirits, there are seven: one is the Heaven Surge, the second is the Spirit Wisdom, the third is Qi, the fourth is Strength, the fifth is the Central Hub, the sixth is Essence, and the seventh is Heroism,"
With another wave of the Soul Summoning Banner, it flapped loudly, and a scent of blood began to permeate the air. Ten thousand yin souls shrieked in unison, forming a terrifying tapestry.
The atmosphere transformed; a bloody mist permeated, and the ground turned ominously dark. Layers of black clouds churned as if night had descended, with silence and stillness that pressed heavily around them.
The howling wind caused Cao Yuan and Nan Wenli to stumble backwards repeatedly, their faces as foul as if they had swallowed flies.
"Are you ready? Which soul, which spirit, do you wish me to pluck?"
Su Jie’s eyes were filled with cold indifference as he waved the Soul Summoning Banner one last time, unleashing the Ten Thousand Yin Blood Nether Array.
A river of blood flowed from the sky above as if billions of ghosts were wailing and moaning in the air. A bridge spanned across the river with strange corpses suspended from it. Human limbs rose and fell in the Blood River amidst a scene like the apocalypse, as if the gods were enraged and ready to punish all beings.