Chapter 323

Lou Xihe knew full well that the longer he waited, the more disadvantageous his position would become.

He realized he had been outmaneuvered by this insignificant ant before him.

This was the opponent's truest and strongest attack—earlier, when he had been wounded repeatedly, even nearly split in two by Lou Xihe's blade, the man had still held back his full power.

Just as Lou Xihe believed the opponent had exhausted his moves and was preparing to rescue Jiuyuan Star, the man unleashed his full strength, plunging Lou Xihe into this dire predicament.

Indeed, the instant Lou Xihe fell into disadvantage, Ding Huan's swirling veils of icy spear mists fully engulfed him.

At this moment, in Lou Xihe's perception, the entire universe seemed swept and covered by these swirling veils of icy spear mists.

Perhaps the next instant, this entire universe would collapse beneath these icy spear mists!

Even though he knew this was surely an illusion, and despite the booming drumbeats of the Drum of Slaughter, Lou Xihe's spirit was profoundly shaken, so much so that he couldn't help but ponder a question he had never considered before.

Would he perish here?

The spear mists shattered everything in the universe; the Blade Mountain Technique, already weakened by the Drum of Slaughter, was torn apart by these swirling veils of icy killing intent.

Beneath these swirling veils of icy spear mists, the universe appeared both a chaotic space and a boundless void-sea.

One after another, the spear mists tore through all within this space, slammed against the chaotic void, and blasted every object upon the void-sea into shattered fragments.

Like jagged rocks piercing the sky, thunderous waves crashing against the shore!

Where the icy spear mists swept, a thousand piles of snow rose!

The aura of death exploded fully at this moment.

The third technique of the Nine Techniques: Thousand Piles of Snow!

Faced with this violent, death-laden spear intent, and trapped within this chaotic cosmic space, Lou Xihe's eyes bulged with rage.

Originally, had he ignored Jiuyuan Star, he could have easily slain this ant before him.

Now, he was trapped beneath this violent killing space, facing the spear mists of Thousand Piles of Snow—and for the first time, he saw death.

As for Jiuyuan Star, it was already too late to save.

"Die!" Lou Xihe spat a geyser of blood; his long blade suddenly tore a gap through Ding Huan's endless sea of spear mists and slashed toward Ding Huan.

Boom! Crack!

Ding Huan's second Departure Spear shattered.

At this moment, Ding Huan's eyes narrowed—he hadn't expected Lou Xihe to still be able to counterattack under these conditions?

His Departure Spear was too low-grade; otherwise, as long as Lou Xihe didn't shatter it, he could not break through Ding Huan's Thousand Piles of Snow spear mists.

Ding Huan desperately wanted to summon his iron pot, but he simply could not summon it anymore.

Simultaneously wielding the Four Techniques—Yellow Flower Slaughter, Annihilation, Drum of Slaughter, and Thousand Piles of Snow—with no restraint, even though he possessed a Cosmic Mind Sea and a True Qi Star in his dantian, he could no longer hold on.

"Puff!" The long blade severed Ding Huan's legs outright.

Yet this was not the end—the blade itself shattered, one fragment piercing through Ding Huan's chest and embedding itself upon his heart.

Likewise, the deathly blade intent that severed Ding Huan's legs showed no weakening, continuing to ravage his flesh and meridians.

At this moment, Ding Huan had no capacity to fight back; any ordinary person could kill him.

Just as Lou Xihe rushed forward to tear Ding Huan into fragments, the Thousand Piles of Snow engulfed Lou Xihe.

No matter how strong Lou Xihe was, he could only tear one gap in the Thousand Piles of Snow and inflict heavy wounds on Ding Huan—he had not shattered the technique itself.

Streams of blood mist and shattered fragments burst forth; Ding Huan saw Lou Xihe's head torn apart, his body cracking like porcelain.

Yet he himself lacked the strength to move forward and claim the victory—even with his unmatched recovery ability, he could not actively heal at this moment.

Jia Baihe, who had been watching from afar, finally sensed something was wrong.

She rushed over and saw Ding Huan's legs severed, a shard of broken blade embedded in his heart, his entire body seemingly lifeless.

How could Jia Baihe know Lou Xihe had already been torn into fragments by Ding Huan's four techniques? She only knew to pick up Ding Huan's body and snatch his severed legs, preparing to flee.

"Wait…" Ding Huan could only utter one word before collapsing into unconsciousness.

Though terror gripped her to the core, Jia Baihe once again hurled several array flags, retrieving Ding Huan's iron drum.

She assumed Ding Huan's "wait" meant not to abandon the iron drum.

Had she known Ding Huan had meant to say Lou Xihe was dead, perhaps she would not have fled so desperately.

Half an hour later, Jia Baihe sensed something was amiss.

Why had Lou Xihe not pursued them?

Right—he must have been severely wounded too.

Otherwise, he would never have abandoned the chase.

She must use this time to flee as far as possible.

While desperately fleeing, Jia Baihe still admired Ding Huan.

With his level of power, Ding Huan had survived against a Xianfanqiao cultivator—something impossible, yet Ding Huan had accomplished it.

Only now did she remember she should have first reattached his severed legs.

Jia Baihe summoned her spaceship, laid Ding Huan flat upon it, then reattached his severed legs.

For a Earth Immortal cultivator, reattaching a severed limb was a simple matter.

But Jia Baihe sensed something was wrong.

For she saw swirling deathly energy at Ding Huan's severed stumps—clearly not his own Dao resonance, but the killing deathly aura left behind by Lou Xihe.

Jia Baihe's fear deepened.

She could only barely reattach Ding Huan's legs, then violently yanked out the half-blade shard lodged in his chest, and unleashed every ounce of her strength to flee in the spaceship.

Jia Baihe knew exactly how Ding Huan had found Lou Yunsheng.

It was because Ding Huan had once left a trace of Dao resonance on Lou Yunsheng, allowing him to track down Lou Yunsheng hiding on a derelict planet.

Now, as long as that killing deathly aura remained on Ding Huan, no matter how far she fled, Lou Xihe could still track them down.

The more Jia Baihe thought about it, the more terrified she became—and the more terrified she became, the faster she fled.

From beginning to end, she had never considered that simply throwing Ding Huan away would solve all her problems.

Several days later, Jia Baihua's uneasy heart finally settled a little.

She didn't know whether Lou Xihe had been injured as well, but up until now he had not pursued her.

Even though she didn't know what reason had kept Lou Xihe from pursuing her, Jia Baihua still did not dare to stop.

One month later, Jia Baihua finally breathed a sigh of relief. Her divine sense fell on Ding Huan in the ship's cabin, and to her surprise, Ding Huan's legs seemed to be recovering.

Not only that, the death qi at the place on Ding Huan's chest where the broken blade had wounded him also seemed to be weakening.

That was strange.

Because at the death qi on Ding Huan's injured legs, she had not helped Ding Huan reattach his legs back then.

By all rights, Ding Huan's legs should have necrotized.

The best outcome would have been that Ding Huan's legs necrotized, yet Ding Huan survived.

As long as Ding Huan survived, there would be a chance to find heavenly materials and earthly treasures and regrow his legs.

This way his great Dao would suffer some damage, but compared to his life, that was nothing.

Perhaps for a heaven's favored son like Ding Huan, he wouldn't be able to accept it?

Jia Baihua sighed.

Although Ding Huan's injuries were recovering, that death qi would still relapse and cause Ding Huan's legs to vanish entirely.

If Ding Huan survived, she would take the initiative to counsel him, to take everything more lightly.

Back then she had wanted to die more than once, but the heart for revenge had kept her alive.

And she had cultivated to the Earth Immortal Eight-Layer realm.

She only hoped Ding Huan could also face it with such an ordinary heart.

Half a year later, Jia Baihua was lost.

Her divine sense fell on Ding Huan in the flying ship, and to her surprise, around Ding Huan's body there seemed to be a faint trace of Dao charm, and not only that, there were also spiritual qi fluctuations.

She placed her divine sense on Ding Huan's legs again, and Ding Huan's legs actually showed no trace of reattachment, and that death qi had grown much fainter.

As for Ding Huan's chest, the injury was likewise recovering rapidly.

Wait, Jia Baihua suddenly recalled her situation outside the Jiuyuan Star.

Ding Huan had laid out a top-grade spirit vein for her, which had allowed her to break through to Earth Immortal Eight-Layer.

Ding Huan's situation clearly required spiritual qi.

Thinking of this, Jia Baihua was about to take out that top-grade spirit vein and implant it beside Ding Huan.

Then she realized that spirit vein was still several dozen zhang long, and her flying ship was only a little over ten zhang long—how could she implant it?

Cutting it off would be too much of a pity.

Once a spirit vein was severed, its value wouldn't even be one-tenth of what it was.

Jia Baihua grabbed a pile of spirit stones and tossed them beside Ding Huan, and from her ring she found a section of a high-grade spirit vein and implanted it beside Ding Huan.

She decided to find a fixed place and first let Ding Huan go into closed-door cultivation for a period of time.

Continuing to drift about in this starry sky wasn't a proper situation either.

She herself didn't care, but Ding Huan couldn't.

After implanting the spirit source for Ding Huan, Jia Baihua was pleasantly surprised to discover that the aura on Ding Huan's body was growing steadier and steadier, and the place where his legs had been severed was also getting better and better.

Could Ding Huan really make a full recovery?

At this moment Jia Baihua secretly hated herself for having spent all her time studying the Dao of Poison, and never having studied the Dao of Medicine.

Otherwise, she might have been able to help Ding Huan a little.

Reality seemed to be playing a joke on Jia Baihua.

Previously, as Jia Baihua had fled all the way here, she had seen several abandoned planets, and a pile of enormous meteorites as well.

Now that she wanted to find a place to take Ding Huan into closed-door cultivation to heal, she had walked for nearly a month without seeing a single suitable spot.

Either the planets were too harsh, or the meteorites were too small.

That day, while Jia Baihua was still using her divine sense to search for a suitable place for closed-door cultivation, her divine sense swept across a colossal star continent…

Was that a living star continent?

Jia Baihua's heart rejoiced—a living star continent was the best place for healing.

Jia Baihua controlled the flying ship to speed over, but when she got close she was a bit stunned.

It was a colossal flying ship.

Jia Baihua had never seen such a huge flying ship; rather than calling it a flying ship, it was more like a void city.

Because on the outside of this flying ship, there was a void plaza built with formations, and indeed there were some flying magical treasures parked there.

Not only that, Jia Baihua also saw many cultivators coming and going.

Looking again at the top of that flying ship, four great characters were written: Ten Thousand Realms Void Flying City.

It really was a void flying city.

What did it mean?

This didn't look much like a dangerous place, did it? With so many cultivators coming and going, if it were dangerous, how could there be so many people?

Yet it also looked somewhat eerie—in the vast boundless cosmic starry sky, a city suddenly appearing—no matter how you looked at it, it felt strange.