Edited by RED

Previously, Xu Qi had sent Zhuque and the Icebright Bear back into the Four Divinities Cavern because he was worried about the seven inhuman figures. With the seven lying on the ground unmoving, Tan and Chi weren’t as much of a threat, and it seemed like he could just ignore Lian Tianwei.

The Icebright Bear’s burly figure reappeared in the cave, and it attacked with a casual palm-strike, slamming its paws against Chi’s huge hammers.

There will definitely be casualties whenever two bears collide. Unfortunately, the unlucky one this time was the Icebright Bear. It seemed to have underestimated Chi’s ancient steel hammers.

It let out a furious roar and transformed into a ten-meter tall huge bear, shooting out frosty balls of energy from its mouth, intent on turning Chi into an ice sculpture. However, Chi was no fool. It kept dodging the Icebright Bear’s energy attacks. After dodging several attacks in a row, its seemingly clumsy figure found its way underneath the Icebright Bear’s gigantic frame and swung its huge hammers at it.

From their previous exchange, the Icebright Bear had already learned how fearsome the hammers were. It quickly shrank down to the size of an adult human and tangled with Chi.

On the other side, tiger-headed Tan found itself in a direct encounter with Zhuque, who had been brought out by Xu Qi once more.

Xu Qi had willfully sent her back to the Four Divinities Cavern without warning on two occasions, and she was at the brink of erupting.

After directly clashing against tiger-headed Tan, there was, surprisingly, not a trace of scarlet flame on Zhuque’s Scarlet Firmament Sword. She, who was usually playing with her fires, actually chose to attack with pure swordplay.

Despite exchanging moves with the Scarlet Firmament Sword, tiger-headed Tan’s daggers weren’t in a disadvantaged situation at all. It seemed that its daggers were no ordinary objects, either!

However, range plays a role in weaponry, and power comes along with it. Tiger-headed Tan really disliked the wind generated from Zhuque’s swings. Her sword generated a mysterious wind with each swing, and if by any chance a tongue of flame came along with it, Tan was sure to suffer a loss!

Just as Tan thought of this, its daggers were locked with the Scarlet Firmament Sword. Before it could react to the situation, a tongue of flame shot out from the Scarlet Firmament Sword without any warning.

Tan immediately retreated, but after taking a step back, it realized that there was only a tiny ball of flame on Zhuque’s sword.

Tiger-headed Tan sent a meaningful gaze at Lian Tianwei, who was staring at Xu Qi from a safe distance, before engaging Zhuque once more.

At this moment, Xu Qi was checking on Xuanwu’s injuries. He was relieved to find out that Xuanwu was only fatigued. Suddenly, he felt great danger aimed at him!

A pair of daggers had appeared in the hands of the luxuriously clothed Lian Tianwei. His figure turned into a blur as he attacked Xu Qi.

A rainbow seal instantly formed in Xu Qi’s hand, followed by Xuanwu’s disappearance.

Xu Qi rolled on the ground a few times and slashed out at Lian Tianwei, who had turned into a black blur. However, after swinging his sword at Lian Tianwei, even the blurry figure vanished.

This move of Lian Tianwei was obviously extremely similar to the Shadow Wind Sect’s unique ability. Xu Qi regulated his body in an attempt to calm himself and sense Lian Tianwei’s presence.

Suddenly, a pair of daggers appeared behind Xu Qi without any signs, plunging towards his back.

Xu Qi felt tremendous pain coming from his upper back as he dodged aside.

After his successful sneak attack, Lian Tianwei brought one of the blood-stained daggers up to his mouth and licked it several times with his eyes closed. It seemed like he was savoring the taste, as traces of black fog lingered around his brow. At this moment, Lian Tianwei resembled a demon.

Xu Qi’s impression of Lian Tianwei was initially that of a sly character. However, it hadn’t seemed like he had lost his humanity. Seeing this demonic appearance of his suggested otherwise. There wasn’t any humanity in him to speak of...

Moreover, the aura Lian Tianwei emitted was even stronger by his own by a slight margin. What exactly did he experience after his falling out with Lian Chengwei? Why would he experience such an explosive growth in strength and have such a radical change in his nature?

Lian Tianwei maintained his silence and lunged at Xu Qi once more with his daggers. The most frustrating point of his dual-wielding attacks was that they looked extremely uncoordinated, but they complimented each other perfectly!

Lian Tianwei was using two different styles simultaneously. The dagger in his left hand moved as agile as a snake, while his right hand used a direct, aggressive style that would move the wind with each of his thrusts.

In the middle of his attacks, Lian Tianwei suddenly flipped his dagger around into a reverse grip and stabbed at Xu Qi. Following which, his figure suddenly split into three. Despite looking closely, all three of them looked the same. It was impossible to determine which one of them was his real body.

Xu Qi waved his sword before him, and rainbow energy gathered before his chest. Countless talismanic runes appeared and circled around him, completing the Cursed Wraith Talisman.

However, something unbelievable happened next. The phantom on Xu Qi’s right which had stabbed at Xu Qi with a reverse grip earlier suddenly leapt up and descended head-first towards Xu Qi vertically.

The phantom fell with his body spinning like a top. His daggers spun along with his body’s momentum, aiming for Xu Qi’s skull.

Rainbow energy burst forth with Xu Qi at the core. The Cursed Wraith Talisman’s launched its attack, followed by gradual vanishing of the semi-transparent daoist.

Zhuque, the Icebright Bear, Tan, and Chi had unknowingly paused their fights, all of them observing the battle between Xu Qi and Lian Tianwei.

At this moment, there was only one Lian Tianwei left; his real body, which happened to be the one that attacked Xu Qi from above.

Everyone around them saw that Lian Tianwei’s daggers were buried in Xu Qi’s shoulders. Their skulls were only inches away from one another, maintaining the pose of Lian Tianwei descending from the sky.

On the other hand, Xu Qi had his sword slightly raised. It seemed like he was preparing to defend against Lian Tianwei’s attack, but had failed to do so.

The Scarlet Firmament Sword shot out from Zhuque’s hands towards Lian Tianwei like a loose arrow.

Naturally, her target wouldn’t stand still and act like a live practice dummy. He quickly pulled out his daggers from Xu Qi’s shoulders and dodged aside.

That was not the end of it, however. The Scarlet Firmament Sword that was heading straight as an arrow suddenly changed its direction and shot after Lian Tianwei once more.

Tan was watching opposite Zhuque and saw that she was controlling the Scarlet Firmament Sword to attack Lian Tianwei. It readied its daggers and attacked her, much like dancing around her.

Sensing the imminent danger, Zhuque barely dodged away from Tan’s attacks. The Scarlet Firmament Sword was forced back into her hands as she re-entered into a skirmish with Tan once more.

Lian Tianwei, who had gotten his way on both his attempts to sneak attack Xu Qi, kept up his vicious appearance. This time, there was quite an amount of fresh blood on his daggers after stabbing them into Xu Qi’s shoulder, and he actually licked them all clean.

The blood on the corners of Lian Tianwei’s mouth displayed Xu Qi’s humiliation.

Xu Qi suffered two stabs to his back, and two to his shoulders. Lian Tianwei had actually managed to inflict four wounds to Xu Qi in such a short time so effortlessly. This was something Xu Qi had never experienced before.

Xu Qi didn’t lose his rationality after suffering these wounds, however. On the contrary, he was even calmer than usual.

Xu Qi was very sure that when Lian Tianwei stabbed him in his shoulders, he had been initially aiming for his head!

Despite that, at the last moment, Lian Tianwei stabbed his shoulders instead. He was obviously trying to keep Xu Qi alive. Or perhaps, he lacked the courage to kill him?

Xu Qi applied some basic first aid to his shoulder wounds and said in a low voice, “Lian Tianwei, you’ve truly surprised me. You actually learned such a mysterious style.”

Lian Tianwei revealed a smirk, then licked away the last bit of blood at the corner of his mouth and stared at Xu Qi tauntingly, displaying his disdain.

Seeing as Lian Tianwei kept his silence, Xu Qi spoke out once more, “You could’ve killed me earlier. Why did you hold back?”

However, it seemed that Lian Tianwei had no intention of answering his question.

“Whatever. Such a pity. That was probably the only chance you’d ever get to kill me in your lifetime. Though, I’m really curious. You could’ve taken my life, yet you chose not to,” Xu Qi said and brought out a long sword in his left hand.

Some matters no longer had to be spelled out explicitly. Xu Qi struck first, bringing a strong killing intent with him.

At this moment, Lian Tianwei suddenly shifted about, with his strange smile still on. After moving a few steps in an instant, his figure vanished again.

Xu Qi struck out with a ferocious punch filled with his killing intent, but his attack hit nothing. He cautiously tried to sense for any presence around him. Lian Tianwei must be moving around him and would strike at any moment.

At the same time, the seven figures that had been lying on the ground unmoving since the Eight Demons Heavenly Lock Array was broken suddenly twitched!

Cold sweat poured out from Xu Qi’s forehead after realizing this. If those seven things stand back up again, I won’t be able to escape anymore!

Sou sou sou.. Purple streaks of light fell from above. By the time the sounds reached Xu Qi’s ears, tiger-headed Tan and bear-headed Chi had been shot with arrows emitting purple light.

Following the descent of three purple rays of light by Xu Qi’s side, a black figure appeared from nowhere, staggering in pain. That was, of course, Lian Tianwei! He had received a purple arrow to his arm, too!

More and more arrows rained down from above, and Zhuque was unfortunately within the targeted area. Luckily, her movement technique was first-rate. She came out unscathed after dodging repeatedly, but strangely enough, the Icebright Bear and Xu Qi weren’t targeted by the arrows at all.

On the other hand, Lian Tianwei was showered with a rain of arrows after being shot. However, with his movement techniques, it was difficult to hit him again.

The seven figures were the main focus of the rain of arrows, and were all turned into hedgehogs. Their bodies were full of arrows, and it looked like they had all been nailed to the ground. However, Xu Qi could tell that those seven figures had yet to recover from their previous damage. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been hit by those arrows so easily.

Xu Qi glanced up, and saw that there were about a dozen figures standing by the hole, continuously shooting arrows enveloped in purple energy.

“Xiaoqi?” Xu Qi mumbled. But she could only split into three. There are at least a dozen of them here!

At this moment, tiger-headed Tan let out a shriek after being shot by multiple arrows. It shot away, jumping head-first into the stone wall slightly below where the man was melded into it. Bear-headed Tan and his huge hammers followed suit closely as well, also stuck full of arrows.

Lian Tianwei had disappeared, too, since gods-knew-when.

Seeing the arrows were still raining down on Zhuque, Xu Qi hurriedly rushed over to her side and picked her up. He summoned his Five Elements Wings and quickly dodged aside.

The arrows stopped raining down on Zhuque once Xu Qi arrived next to her.

Zhuque was sweating profusely as she lay in Xu Qi’s embrace, breathing heavily, looking up with a furious expression.

“Is that you, Xiaoqi?” Xu Qi called out to those above.

However, what came after was not her reply. Instead, the figures above all disappeared from his sight.