Chapter 122 The Conspiracy (part 6)

He might sound contemptuous, yet he was actually very focused and alert.

This time he would no longer look down on Li Ye or hold back his full strength. At first, he never saw Li Ye as much of a threat and thought he could kill him with only three attacks of Sword Qi, yet he never expected to be kept so busy responding to Li Ye’s attacks, let alone being wounded by them. Liu Xingshen might be confident or arrogant in nature, yet the situation had forced him to be extremely cautious now.

Liu Xingshen was also surprised that all masters of Regal Guards didn’t have much advantage while fighting against Li Ye’s followers.

Although the main camp of Regal Guards was located outside the Imperial City, most of the masters in Regal Guards were assigned to remain in the Imperial Palace. In order to safeguard the Imperial Palace, it would be safe to say that all top-notch soldiers in Regal Guards were here. Despite so, they didn’t defeat the invaders so quickly as Liu Xingshen expected.

“I didn’t know that kid’s so influential and have gathered so many masters in secret! Damn it, I’ve always overlooked him, and now he’s trained so many capable warriors under him!”

Gritting his teeth, Liu Xingshen not only felt exasperated, but also regretful.

“Regardless, I’m going to kill him first!” Liu Xingshen pushed his hands with great strength as he decided on his next move, and shouted, “Toppling Mountains and Draining Oceans!”

All of a sudden, dark clouds gathered above their heads, covering up the stars and started rumbling above their heads. Liu Xingshen jumped into the air. Looking like an immortal in the midst of clouds, he pushed his palms incessantly and the clouds gained the momentum as strong as sea waves, coming at Li Ye as if he was going to be engulfed by the clouds.

“Boundless Sea of Lotus!”

With the shout, Li Ye was immediately surrounded by purple clouds as lotuses started blooming under his feet. A giant pool of lotuses was soon formed around him, following him wherever he went in the midst of the clouds. With the cultivation of Level 8 Qi-refining, this technique of his became multiple times more powerful than before! Everywhere was covered by it within a thirty meter radius. Although it would be an exaggeration to call it a sea, it still had the size comparable to a lake.

Waves of dark clouds started rushing towards Li Ye, and all lotuses under his feet turned into green streaks of Sword Qi and dashed toward the clouds at the same time.

The sea of clouds was immediately penetrated by the Sword Qi, and it became much less aggressive and threatening over time.

Liu Xingshen’s expression changed again. “This kid really has a lot of measures to counter my attack... Very well, today I shall witness how many more tricks have you left!”

With that thought, Liu Xingshen started forming Incantation Gestures as he silently recited spells. Suddenly, his eyes were shining with immense energy and he shouted, “Web of No Escape!”

The battered cloud sea was immediately sliced into numerous pieces, which then transformed into multiple straight lines intertwining with each other, forming a giant web that aimed at Li Ye from above!

The numerous straight lines formed by Spiritual Qi were extremely bright and sharp, if Li Ye was hit by any of them, his body would definitely be cut into tiny pieces.

Liu Xingshen stared at Li Ye and snorted, “I’ll see how you’re going to respond to this one!”

Li Ye moved his mouth to say something. After reading his lips, Liu Xingshen knew that all he said was “Screw you!”

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Liu Xingshen was stunned and irritated. He was looking forward to Li Ye’s counter-attack, yet he didn’t expect him to curse at him.

Just as the green light around Luke Sword’s body turned brighter, Li Ye slashed it with full strength, unleashing multiple streaks of aggressive Sword Qi, ripping up a giant hole in the huge web. He broke the technique with pure strength!

Seeing that Li Ye was approaching him, Liu Xingshen got a little afraid. He wasn’t a master at close-up battles, meanwhile, when Li Ye fights him close-up, he would definitely use flying swords. Despite having a high level of cultivation, Liu Xingshen still felt challenged by the situation at hand. After all, it was beyond his experience and knowledge to see Li Ye combing frontal attacks with flying swords, hence he naturally felt a little lost.

“I won’t let you come close to me so easily!” said Liu Xingshen as he stepped back and swung his sleeve. An uncountable number of green peas flew out from his sleeve towards Li Ye—”Pea Soldiers!”

At that moment, all green peas exploded in mid-air and turned into hundreds of soldiers in shining golden armors and sharp spears. They were arranged in neat formations, each one of them exuded confidence. It seemed that they all had the strength of a practitioner, which made hundreds of them even more overpowering as if nothing could ever stand in their way. Together, they shouted, “Charge!”

The Golden Armor Barrier was like a giant chariot, and even Li Ye didn’t dare break into their formation impulsively. Being unleashed by Liu Xingshen himself, the Pea Soldiers possessed the power that was even comparable to the Spiritual Master Realm. If it was some other ordinary cultivator up against this technique, he would have run away for sure.

However, with the experience from his last life, Li Ye was very familiar with such techniques. The Golden Armor Barrier had overwhelming strength, because it was powered up by its formation.

There were smaller formations interconnected with each other within the giant formation. For any cultivator, rushing into the formation would cause him to face certain death, just like how a clay sculpture would melt upon contact with water. This was because as long as the giant formation remained intact, no matter how many golden armor soldiers one could slaughter, he would still be surrounded by even more soldiers. His strength would be restricted by the giant formation, and he would eventually run out of stamina and die due to the numerous smaller formations inside!

However, Li Ye was almost like an expert in breaking any formations. He broke the Small Mystery Formation at Tai Xuan Summit effortlessly, for instance. He watched closely for the crucial joints of the formation, and suddenly pushed off from his feet with great strength, shouting, “Step-by-step Lotus!”

Li Ye then rushed into the formation like a shooting star. He followed a winding path and eventually destroyed all smaller formations at seven different locations, then broke out of the formation!

The Barrier that was still intact and strong a moment ago immediately turned into a mess and Golden Armor soldiers exploded into thin air one by one!

Liu Xingshen’s eyes became so big that they were almost going to pop out. He could feel his body trembling upon seeing Li Ye’s movement, he looked at Li Ye with eyes filled with disbelief, and thought, “How’s that possible?” “My Barrier of Pea Soldiers is extremely high-level. There is barely any cultivator below the Spiritual Master Realm that can grasp the essence of it, let alone being able to break the formation upon their first encounter, but how can this kid do it so easily?”

Breaking out of the Barrier of Pea Soldiers, Li Ye dashed right in front of Liu Xingshen in the blink of an eye with a bright light shining below his Cloud-walking Boots. When there were less than six meters between the two of them, he raised his Luke Sword high and slashed downwards with all his strength. An imposing Sword Qi was unleashed, aiming right at Liu Xingshen’s forehead!

Liu Xingshen’s face turned as black as ink as he saw Li Ye right in front of him. He couldn’t accept the fact that after fighting each other with various techniques, he was the one facing defeat. He always believed himself to be a knowledgeable cultivator when it came to the understanding and mastering of diverse techniques, it was supposed to be his forte as well.

Li Ye had only started Qi-refining for a very short period of time, so Liu Xingshen couldn’t figure out how he could break his techniques so easily. Except for that astonishing “Mountain of Green Lotus” technique, all other techniques he used were not overpowering at all. That could only mean Li Ye was able to find out the weaknesses in his techniques and target those weaknesses accordingly!

However, Liu Xingshen found that too absurd to believe. As a young man who had only reached his twenties, how could he know so much?

If he was fighting against any ordinary Level-8 Qi-refining cultivators, all his previous techniques would have ended their lives for more than once, because it would be impossible for them to respond at all.

“Who exactly are you?” bellowed Liu Xingshen as he released energy from his palms to blast away Li Ye’s Sword Qi. He found Li Ye always giving out an unusual vibe, and he would never believe Li Ye to be someone who just reached his twenties, he simply couldn’t.

“I’m your senior.”

Liu Xingshen was so irritated that he shook his arms violently as two invocations flew out from his sleeves and transformed into a pair of giant spears aiming at Li Ye. Those spears were more than thirty meters long and were extremely sharp. Its stunning speed even made it a threat to a cultivator at Level 9 of Qi-refining!

Li Ye kept Luke Sword and performed a seal, then said, “Halt!”

His word made the two spears stop their movements in mid-air. Li Ye then unleashed two streaks of green Sword Qi with Luke Sword, smashing the spears into ashes on the spot!

“The Nine-word Method? You even know how to use the Nine-word Method?” Liu Xingshen couldn’t be more shocked. When Li Ye showed his ability to control flying swords, he already found it hard to believe, now that he even used Nine-word Method, and that was driving him crazy! He had never encountered anything more absurd than this in his whole life. “Are you Yuan Tiangang himself? Were you resurrected?” shouted him.

“There’s no time for chit-chat!” Li Ye kept pushing forward as he slashed Luke Sword along his way. As Liu Xingshen stepped further back, the Sword Qi destroyed every wall and attic in its attacking range. Sounds of the explosion could be heard repeatedly.

Liu Xingshen now looked much more ferocious. Li Ye’s strength was too strong to be that of a young man.

Liu Xingshen continuously applied magic tools and invocations, together with his other unfathomable techniques. During this fight, he had fully proved his strength as the Lieutenant of Regal Guards. One would have no idea how many places were destroyed as a result of their battle. Had the Imperial Palace not been protected by the barrier, it might already be a pile of debris by now.

The longer Liu Xingshen fought, the more confused and upset he became. Li Ye’s vast knowledge and mastery of techniques were just as strong as himself. No matter what kind of magic tool he used, Li Ye would always attack with his Luke Sword with full strength, using one single sword to break all his attacks.

“You must be Yuan Tiangang himself! You have to be! You were already resurrected when you visited Tai Xuan Summit. You’re a liar! And you’ve fooled us all!” shouted Liu Xingshen.