Book 4 - Chapter 23

B4C23: The battle on the River Wu

A full moon is hanging high in the sky. The River Wu, several thousand meters wide, is flowing east.

The night is cold, the winds are fast.

Even though the water is flowing very fast, there are no billows on its surface. Looking carefully, one can even see the reflection of the full moon on the river. On both shores of the River Wu there are currently over 10,000 people altogether. Most of them are ordinary people who want to have a good time watching the fight. There are also some internal experts among them.

All of the people present look at that silhouette on the River Wu with awe.

Shangxian!

His black robe fluttering freely, his black hair also flowing, Xiang Yang is standing with his arms folded on his chest. His sharp ice-cold eyes are closed at the moment. Standing in midair this way, Xiang Yang is calmly waiting for the arrival of his opponents, so calm that his face shows absolutely no impatience.

On a shore of the River Wu, a blue-clad Qin De is staring at Xiang Yang, who is standing in midair. His heart cannot help having a hint of impatience.

“This Xiang Yang has come early so his energy is stable and his mind is calm. What kinds of tricks is Yu’er going to use to handle him this time?” Qin De is even somewhat worried in his heart, worried about the battle that is going to starting soon. As for whether Qin Yu will come, he simply has no doubt about that because he knows his son very well.

Qin De has changed his appearance so other people do not recognize him.

“Qin De.”

A voice suddenly rises in Qin De’s mind. Qin De’s face changes color: “Holy sense communication.” Seemingly at the same moment, he sees the person who has communicated with him using the holy sense. He cannot help smiling because it is none other than Fengyuzi.

“Brother Feng, you really made me jump.” Qin De says smilingly using his holy sense.

Fengyuzi has slightly altered his appearance as well. He says to Qin De via his holy sense: “Ha-ha, who let you leave the town of Xiyang directly without telling me anything? Not long after you went, I immediately followed you, but only now do I catch up with you.”

Qin De says smilingly with a shake of his head: “I was worried that Yu’er would rush directly into Ba Chu County and fight Xiang Yang so I went desperately. Now it looks like Yu’er is still a careful person. He has never rushed into battle before.”

Fengyuzi looks around for a while then looks at the bright moon in the sky again, saying doubtfully: “Xiang Yang seems to have come very early. Why hasn’t Xiao Yu shown up yet? It’ll be pretty useful for him to come a bit early to get familiar with the surroundings. Plus, now he shouldn’t have anything else to do, right?”

Not only are Qin De and Fengyuzi somewhat anxious, the other people, who have come to watch the fight, have all become impatient too.

Time slowly goes by. One hour has passed. Then 2 hours has passed …

Qin Yu and the eagle are still nowhere to be seen. The spectators on both shores of the River Wu have started to discuss noisily. Obviously all of them have become anxious because the other party of the fight has not appeared yet. They also find it hard to keep waiting.

Suddenly —

Xiang Yang opens his eyes. There seems to be 2 almost real beams of light shooting westwards directly from his eyes. At the same time his whole body’s aura suddenly becomes fierce. It surges nonstop like a wave that continuously attacks new heights.

Fierce winds rise, sending sand flying and rocks rolling. Most of the people on the shores retreat quickly. Only the few experts can keep staying on the shores. People like Qin De and Fengyuzi cannot help slightly narrowing their eyes looking into the sky.

“Rumblings ~~~” The water of the River Wu starts to roar, as if there is an aquatic dragon rolling underwater. Waves surge one after another and hit the shores, causing deafening noises. However, Xiang Yang, who is standing in midair above the river, is not affected at all.

When the full moon reaches its highest point, 2 blurs come towards him like floating.

“It’s Yu’er.”

Qin De figures out who they are even faster than Fengyuzi. Even though the waves are rolling and he has to look through the water spray from a shore, he can still see clearly that it is Qin Yu with his fierce aura. He also sees a black eagle that is vibrating his wings.

“Xiao Yu has come. That black eagle is really strong. Just by vibrating his wings he can cause the River Wu to roar.” Fengyuzi is also shocked by Xiao Hei’s power. He simply does not know that before overcoming the 4-in-9 Heavenly Tribulation Xiao Hei could already create fierce winds. Now that he has reached the middle phase of the Jindan stage, he has become much more powerful than in the past.

The people who are watching from afar on both sides of the river immediately become excited. All of them stare at the silhouettes in the sky.

The blurs then stop, turning into a man and an eagle. Xiao Hei pulls back his wings. The River Wu’s monstrous waves all weaken sharply with a loud noise. In just a while, the entire river has become as calm as it was a moment ago and great waves can no longer be seen.

The cold winds of the night are blowing nonstop. The people on both sides of the River Wu all hold their breaths.

“You’ve finally arrived.” A faint cold smile appears on Xiang Yang’s face.

Qin Yu and Xiao Hei face Xiang Yang. Staring at Xiang Yang, Qin Yu says with an indifferent smile: “Xiang Yang, did you become too impatient because of waiting? My brother and I came a bit late to let you live a bit more. Why don’t you thank us for this?”

“Cut the crap.” Xiang Yang says angrily in a cold voice.

At the same time, various blood-red streams of energy start to surge to the outside of his body. Afterwards, they form a light blood-red mist that looks like a cloud of blood and spreads toward Qin Yu and Xiao Hei. In only a short while, the blood-red mist has enveloped them.

“Xiang Yang, this kind of trick is only used by ordinary internal experts. Real Xiuzhenists won’t do this.” The light silvery stellar energy surges to the outside of Qin Yu’s body. It rotates continuously, forming a nebula.

The blood-red mist cannot enter the area covered by the nebula.

“Humph.” Xiang Yang utters a cold humph. He detests this young Xiuzhenist to the utmost. During the exchange yesterday, Qin Yu mocked him for not understanding Xiuzhenists’ formations, restrictive spells, flying sword techniques, and the arts of pill making and weapon forging.

Now Qin Yu is mocking him again for using an outdated trick.

“Xiang Yang, you closed the door to practice on your own so your offensive methods are a bit too flimsy. Even if your individual wisdom is high, it can’t compare with a Xiuzhen school’s collected wisdom of countless years.” Qin Yu says with an indifferent smile.

By using words, he starts to anger Xiang Yang.

In a fight between experts, especially super experts such as Xiang Yang, their states of mind are the most important thing. If their states of mind are negatively affected, they will not be able to unleash their full power and their attacks will naturally be weaker than they should be.

“You killed Wu De, right?” Xiang Yang says while frowning. “I’m very curious to know who you are and why you oppose me.” In fact, at the moment Xiang Yang does not want to make an enemy of a Xiuzhen expert for no reason.

“Me?” Qin Yu raises his eyebrows then slowly says: “My surname is Qin!”

“Qin?” Xiang Yang says solemnly while staring at Qin Yu. “What generation of experts of the Qin clan in the 3 Eastern region counties do you belong to? The Qin clan seems to never have had a super expert of your level. What generation of Qin De’s seniors are you from?”

Qin Yu bursts out laughing.

“Let me tell you my name!” Qin Yu slowly says.

Xiang Yang stares at Qin Yu with brightening eyes, waiting for his answer.

“I am …” A faint smile appears on the corners of Qin Yu’s mouth. “Qin Yu!”

“Qin Yu!!!”

Xiang Yang’s face suddenly changes color greatly. He is totally shocked. However, after Qin Yu finishes saying, his whole body arrives at Xiang Yang’s face in an instant like rolling thunder. A light silvery fist quickly appears and smashes directly at Xiang Yang’s chest in an audacious manner at the same time.

Bang!

Xiang Yang’s blood-red body-protecting elemental energy quickly appears outside his body and blocks Qin Yu’s punch directly. But Qin Yu’s fist immediately changes. First it turns into a knife hand and attacks then it forms a finger sword and attacks again.

Attack continuously!

Pu! Pu!

Following 2 sounds of collision, the body-protecting elemental energy outside Xiang Yang’s body has been broken by Qin Yu’s right hand. Qin Yu cannot help giving a faint cold smile. He wants to kill Xiang Yang directly in the next strike using the Flaming Sword. If he can succeed, the whole thing will be too simple for him. But he does not mind succeeding in such a simple way at all.

The Flaming Sword!

With a thought, the Flaming Sword appears in his hand. He thrusts it directly at Xiang Yang’s heart at his fastest speed like lightning.

Clang ~~~

A long metallic noise rises. Qin Yu feels his arm go numb. His body cannot help flying backward. He clenches his teeth, twisting his entire body violently. Making use of the strong force of the waist, his right leg slashes at Xiang Yang like a blade of a windmill.

“Scram!”

Xiang Yang makes a wave of his right hand. His right arm collides with Qin Yu’s right leg once. As a result, Qin Yu has to fly away backward and Xiang Yang also has to back off a short distance of several meters.

This exchange of blows sounds slow in description but it was actually quick as a flash. From beginning to end, the ordinary people on both sides of the river only felt that their vision was blurred for a moment before seeing that both experts had slightly retreated some steps. Their speeds were really too fast.

The eyes of the people on both sides of the river pop out of their heads. None of them doubts that just now the 2 experts really exchanged blows. However, even peak Xiantian experts and people like Qin De and Fengyuzi only saw Qin Yu disappear for a moment then saw him and Xiang Yang fly backward after a shock wave.

“Humph, Qin Yu? Don’t even think about fooling me. But … you’re really cunning and deceitful. Just now you indeed startled me. Too bad … your power is still a bit too weak.” Xiang Yang says with a cold smile.

But he is frightened retrospectively in his heart. The Xiuzhenist before him is really too cunning. Just now he unexpectedly attacked him the moment he was startled. If it had not been for his secret trump card, perhaps he would have died of his heart being penetrated.

Now, as Qin Yu looks at Xiang Yang, his face slightly changes color.

A dark red suit of armor has appeared on Xiang Yang’s body. This suit of armor protects not only the upper half of his body, but also his thighs, arms and lower legs. Xiang Yang’s entire body is now protected by this suit of armor so Qin Yu cannot help getting startled.

“What do you think about my suit of armor? It’s middle holy class. Over 300 years ago, when I was still traveling the world practicing, I found a holy rock. Then I learned the art of forging from Wu De and made this suit of armor.” Xiang Yang takes a look at the suit of armor on his body. His eyes are filled with satisfaction.

Qin Yu secretly groans.

“I never thought this geezer would have a middle-grade holy-class suit of armor. Well, I was able to find a chunk of In-rock Flaming iron so a 1000 year old genius like him should’ve found at least a good holy rock too.” He understands that he cannot be overconfident because other people are not necessarily less lucky than he is.

Xiao Hei is flapping his wings on one side.

“Big brother, it looks like we’ll still have to join forces.” He says using his holy sense. Hearing this, Qin Yu nods his head. With the appearance of the suit of armor, it has become extremely difficult for him to kill Xiang Yang by himself.

A middle holy weapon in the hands of an early Yuanying expert is no less powerful than his high-grade holy weapons. After all, his own power is still inferior to the enemy’s.

“Xiang Yang, your power is pretty good so my brother and I are going to attack you together.” Qin Yu says with an indifferent smile.

Xiang Yang says disdainfully and coldly: “Brothers? A human and an animal unexpectedly call each other brothers? Looks like you’re an animal too.” Xiang Yang also wants to anger Qin Yu and affect his state of mind, but Qin Yu sees through his trick with ease and is unaffected by it.

However —

A resounding eagle cry rises. Qin Yu is not angry but Xiao Hei has become infuriated.

Pa!

His eagle eyes brighten. 2 flashes of lightning shoot out extremely fast at Xiang Yang’s body from them. Because the distance between Xiao Hei and Xiang Yang is not long and these flashes from his eyes are really terrifyingly fast, Xiang Yang is hit squarely by them.

“How dare you scold my big brother? Die!”

Xiao Hei is so furious that he cries nonstop. Flashes of lightning continuously flicker on his entire wings then shoot out at Xiang Yang’s body. Like the god of thunder, Xiao Hei keeps sending out various flashes of lightning unceasingly.

“Animal!”

Xiang Yang has been angered. He can withstand the flashes but if continuously hit by them his entire body will still go numb. He immediately charges at Xiao Hei. However, Xiao Hei slightly shakes his wings, using the Passing Lightning Flashing Nine Times technique.

He then moves around Xiang Yang nonstop. Because his speed is too fast, Xiang Yang simply has no way to catch up with him. Xiao Hei therefore can keep hitting him using his flashes.

“Screw you! You scolded my big brother. I’ll hit you to death. I’ll hit you to death!” Xiao Hei’s voice rises in Xiang Yang’s mind nonstop through holy sense communication. Xiang Yang cannot help getting extremely furious. He finds this black eagle too disgusting. But a beam of light is shooting violently at him.

Actually, it is not a beam of light, but Qin Yu’s body. After Qin Yu gives a fierce shout, the nebulae outside his body and inside his dantian begin to shake urgently in an instant. At the same time, all of the silvery grains in his dantian start to shine, filling his entire body with a raging power.

The Stellar Field!

Qin Yu is moving like an aquatic dragon. His entire body then suddenly seems to split into 6 clones, which attack Xiang Yang simultaneously.

“Sweeping Away Thousands Of Troops!”

Following a loud shout that resounds through the sky, something which looks like a black aquatic dragon comes out from Xiang Yang’s body. It sweeps across his entire vicinity like a storm, blocking incoming attacks wherever it goes. In almost an instant, Xiao Hei and Qin Yu’s 6 illusions are sent flying backward with a bang.

The 6 illusions created by Qin Yu become one. With a movement of his body, he is able to stand in midair again. Xiao Hei also stops beside him. They both stare at Xiang Yang.

Xiang Yang is now holding in his hands a black spear. He says while looking at Qin Yu and Xiao Hei: “The true offensive method of my Xiang clan’s Conqueror’s Heaven Opposing Art isn’t a flying sword technique, but a close-quarters spear technique. This spear is the peerless divine weapon that my father, the West Chu Conqueror, used to dominate the world — the Conqueror’s Spear!”

A bloodstain suddenly flashes on the handle of that shiny black spear.

End of b4c23.