Chapter Eighty-One: The Great Battle

The Heirs of the Tomb-Guarding Sect, huh?” Ying Huai nie gave a cold laugh as she drew her weapon from the small of her back. “This young lady would like to see just how much of your so-called Heavenly Law you’ve truly mastered.”

In her hands appeared a pair of straight, foot-long weapons, ringed in the middle and spiked at both ends, shimmering with a pale azure glow. They were strikingly beautiful.

“Twin-Edged Hook Claws…” Yan Chuanming murmured. “Not many people can use those anymore.”

“I’ll handle her.” Faced with such a nimble, elusive weapon, Yin Wen was clearly the better choice to take her on.

“Her target is probably me,” the Tomb-Guarding Sect heir, You Ben, said at that moment.

Ni Manxiu also replied, “Almost certainly. Lady Yan, please protect him well.”

“You don’t know martial arts? Then why are you even here?” Yan Chuanming asked irritably.

“Brother Yan, do not be anxious. He commands the Tomb-Guarding Sect’s Heavenly Law, which will greatly aid us in battle,” Ni Manxiu replied.

“And what exactly is this Heavenly Law?” Yue Zhe asked.

“An ancient art from the Azure Sky Era. It can suppress the spiritual power of the Star Clan—ah, their inner force.”

“Inner force? You mean that power that runs wild inside the body when people are fighting?” Yan Chuanming asked skeptically.

Yue Yuncheng slapped his forehead. “Damn it, I forgot. I was going to guide you through it, but now we’ll have to explain after the fight.”

“Oh, I see…” Ni Manxiu understood as well, and raised his right hand. “Leave it to me. It’ll be over in a moment.”

A dazzling flash lit up Ni Manxiu’s fingertips. With a flick of his wrist, he sent it into Yan Chuanming’s body, and Yan Chuanming had no chance to react.

Startled and furious, Yan Chuanming roared, “What are you doing!”

Ni Manxiu froze, then smiled. “My apologies. I forgot this was our first meeting, Brother Yan. I am Ni Manxiu, a friend of Ye Pei’s.”

“A friend of Ye Zi?” Yan Chuanming was still stunned when he was about to speak again, only to feel his blood suddenly begin to boil, surging through him at a bizarre speed. At the same time, a faint blood-red mist rose from his right hand and coiled around his black halberd.

“Pu!” Yan Chuanming coughed up a mouthful of blood. Yin Wen, who had been holding herself in check beside him, instantly grew anxious and was about to draw her sword and hack Ni Manxiu down when Yan Chuanming suddenly reached out and stopped her.

“Heh… heh heh heh…” Yan Chuanming’s cold laughter rang out at just the right moment. “This feeling…” He drove the black halberd into the bloodstained ground. “It really is pleasant…” To their astonishment, the bloodstains were completely absorbed by the black halberd.

The group spoke among themselves as if no one else were present, paying no mind to the Star Clan around them, who had already formed a perfect encirclement. Yue Yuncheng, however, noticed this and, with his inexplicable confidence, simply ignored it.

Among wandering heroes and martial wanderers, there were not many who truly believed in the Star Clan; most preferred to trust in their own abilities.

Toying with her own twin-edged hook claws—actually emei darts—Ying Huai nie, mindful of her status, did not attack first. Instead, she watched Yue Zhe’s group with an amused smile.

“Miss Ying,” Ni Manxiu said, “aren’t you going to make a move?”

Ying Huai nie smiled. “What, is it not good to live a little longer?”

“Oh… I nearly forgot,” Ying Huai nie said suddenly, as though something had just come to mind. “It seems I can’t kill you…”

“But Heavenly Law is useless against me. If I kill them, can you save them?””

No sooner had she spoken than Ying Huai nie swept her right hand. More than two hundred Star Clan warriors beat their wings and surged forward. She herself toyed with her twin spikes for an instant where she stood, then flashed away in a blur, charging straight toward You Ben.

“Hahaha, come on!” Yan Chuanming was brimming with confidence. Bathed in blood aura, he swung his black halberd and charged out. The others also went to meet the Star Clan from their respective directions, while Yin Wen crossed her sword before You Ben.

At that moment, You Ben had his eyes tightly closed. He held a strange black disc in both hands, its surface spread with constellations and its halo shifting and flowing. As he murmured a string of words in some unknown tongue, the disc spun slowly.

Around them, the Star Clan warriors all faltered at once, their faces turning paler. The worse among them even spat out blood.

Naturally, no one would pass up such an opportunity. Moreover, aside from Leng Mujun, who wielded a dagger, the Yue father and son used twin blades, Yan Chuanming wielded a black halberd, and Ni Manxiu’s staff extended a blade from within it. All were terrifying area-clearing weapons.

In that instant, the Star Clan suffered more than twenty casualties. The warriors who recovered were no longer as swift as at the start, and Yue Zhe and the others were under far less pressure, to the point of moving with ease.

“How brazen!” Ying Huai nie cried softly. Her twin spikes struck out like twin peaks pounding between the ears, bringing with them threads of wind as they stabbed straight toward You Ben.

“What, do you take me for air?”

With two crisp clangs, Ying Huai nie’s twin spikes were deflected by Yin Wen’s long sword, while the sword tip immediately drove for Ying Huai nie’s throat.

Ying Huai nie flicked her fingers against the twin spikes, twirling them to knock the sword aside. The two exchanged a round and then separated.

“Tch… she’s pretty strong…” Yin Wen’s slender phoenix eyes were full of fighting spirit.

“Hmph… I never thought a barren land whose spiritual veins had been destroyed could still produce such an expert.” Ying Huai nie rolled the twin spikes in her hands.

“What?” Yin Wen did not understand a word of what the other woman was saying.

“Nothing. Again!” Ying Huai nie lunged once more. Seeing this, Yin Wen shouted, “You bastard Ni! Keep him safe for a bit!” Then she, too, thrust her sword forward to meet Ying Huai nie head-on.

Yin Wen had never been the docile sort, or she would never have earned the nickname “Pretty Green Ghost.” Now that she had finally encountered such a powerful woman, how could she still worry about protecting You Ben?

Ni Manxiu heard this, turned his head, and saw Yin Wen locked in combat with Ying Huai nie, while You Ben, still sustaining the Heavenly Law, was clumsily dodging the attacks of several Star Clan warriors.

“I’m done for…” With no other choice, Ni Manxiu rushed over to rescue You Ben.

Brandishing his staff to protect him, Ni Manxiu muttered to himself: “I should have listened to my senior brother and brought a gun back… You Yun, if you can hear my thoughts, hurry up and bring a machine gun to back me up…”

He could not help recalling the conversation he had once had with his senior brother, Yun Muchang, when he was preparing to return to the Flame Lands.

“Junior brother, I think you ought to take some firearms back with you.”

“No. I, Ni Manxiu, have trained this body of martial arts for one purpose only: to shine on the battlefield of blades and spears.”

“What good is your martial arts? Come on now. In all of the Central Plains, there are plenty stronger than you. At least bring a gun for self-defense. I can’t always be there to protect you.”

“Tch, are you saying you’re that strong or what?”

“Nonsense. Look around the whole Central Plains right now—who would dare lay a hand on me?”

“I think that’s only because your verse is just way too damn pretentious… ‘With head held high, I mock the clouds and bathe in azure heavens; with lowered brow, I scold tigers and lord it over the Nine Abysses’… Wow, one line and everyone’s scared stiff.”

“Oh… is that so…”

In the end, Ni Manxiu had been personally kicked onto the road back to the Flame Lands by his senior brother, Yun Muchang.

……

Under strange weapons, there are bound to be strange moves.

Although the twin-edged hook claws were not especially unusual weapons, they were rarely used these days. Yin Wen was also facing such a weapon for the first time, and the ceaselessly bizarre techniques Ying Huai nie employed left her somewhat off balance.

Those twin spikes spun around Ying Huai nie’s middle finger, skimming against her palm and twirling in wild disarray. Since she could not grasp Ying Huai nie’s pattern at all, it was instead Ying Huai nie who gradually came to understand her swordplay.

Still, Yin Wen could not understand why Ying Huai nie, though clearly already familiar with her martial arts, had yet to press the attack further.

Meanwhile on the battlefield, although Yue Zhe and the others were individually formidable, this batch of Star Clan warriors were clearly no ordinary foes. Under the encirclement, Yue Zhe’s group barely held their own—this was only because in such a siege, they rarely faced more than three opponents at once.

By now Ying Huai nie was under far less pressure, and she also took the chance to observe the situation on the field. Yue Zhe and the others’ combat prowess shocked her deeply.

“I never imagined the present-day spiritual veins could still produce so many experts… Even with their spiritual power suppressed, these are still the elite soldiers of my clan… and that one over there, the demon king…” Ying Huai nie looked toward Yan Chuanming, who was radiating killing intent. “He’s practically inhuman… If this goes on, something will happen. From how relaxed these people look, they must still be holding something in reserve. Even if I kill the Tomb-Guarding Sect heir, I may not necessarily win…”

After some thought, Ying Huai nie had already made her decision. Glancing at the sky, she suddenly broke into a smile at Yin Wen.

Yin Wen immediately sensed trouble, and sure enough, Ying Huai nie soon came at her again with the twin spikes clutched in her hands. This time, blue mist shimmered over the spikes, carrying a biting chill.

What was more, Ying Huai nie’s speed was clearly much greater than before. Yin Wen crossed her sword to block, only to find she could not keep up with the rhythm of the attack…

“Shhk!”

A low moan escaped Yin Wen’s lips. One of the spikes had pierced her ribs. Worse still, she could feel a bone-deep chill from the spike’s blade, as though even her blood were freezing at the wound.

At that moment, a wild wind suddenly rose. Ying Huai nie seized Yin Wen, spread her wings, and shouted, “Withdraw!”

Upon hearing the order, the Star Clan warriors did not hesitate. They unfurled their wings at once and rose with the wind, gliding away after Ying Huai nie.

“Hahahahaha, the Star Clan is nothing special—come back and fight me another three hundred rounds!” Yan Chuanming laughed with his halberd propped beside him, only to suddenly see that Ying Huai nie seemed to be carrying someone in her arms.

“Bad news! Sister-in-law’s been captured!”

Yue Zhe also noticed it. He immediately drew upon his inner force and pursued them with the wind.

However, even after Yue Zhe had awakened his inner force and refined the Book of Bright Principles, his lightness skill had greatly improved, he still could not catch up to the royal-born Ying Huai nie. Moreover, Star Clan warriors blocked his path along the way. Before long he was beaten back to the ground, staggering several steps, and could only watch helplessly as the Star Clan vanished into the distance…