Chapter 349: Red Dust

The massive blade aura fell almost the instant it appeared, leaving dozens of afterimages in the sky.

Bai Cangshu's figure flipped back into the wind, and the surrounding air instantly condensed into ice crystals.

The blade aura sank into the asphalt road; the next moment, the surrounding overgrown wilderness turned silver-white at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Crack!

The sound of the earth splitting was like a glacier collapsing; after the sound of fine ice layers breaking came the thunderous roar of an explosion.

Boom!

The ground tilted and collapsed in an instant, and the area for several kilometers around sank several meters downward.

Bai Cangshu appeared from the cold wind, staggered two steps, and wiped his chest with his hand; the freezing blood had already turned into ice crystals, and his mouth and nose were also bruised. Although the cells that had been frozen instantly had already healed, the blade aura wrapped in cold air still made his muscles feel slightly stiff.

This strike was incomparably domineering; the area of several thousand meters slashed through by the blade was completely frozen.

Just a single move made Bai Cangshu feel that the strength of the person before him was not in the same dimension as the Reincarnators he had encountered before.

Even that eerie 【Crimson Night】, in terms of pure pressure, could not compare to this person.

Hongchen dragged his blade, his long hair dancing in the cold wind; the ponytail he had tied had already snapped under the intense eruption of Inner Qi.

His expression was bold and unconstrained, his brows and eyes completely relaxed, his entire body's cells seeming to open wide to breathe, and his hair began to spread outward from the follicles.

This was a sign that his battle intent had fully erupted. Just by locking eyes with that Tao Baibai, Hongchen was certain that what Huaxian said was correct: this Tao Baibai was a rare powerhouse, an Outlier.

He was completely incomparable to those other so-called Elite Reincarnators.

As it happened, he was not one either...

Thinking of this, Hongchen suddenly laughed out loud and stepped onto the completely ice-cracked ground before him. Force erupted, and the shoes on his feet instantly shattered in the air current, flying off in all directions.

Bang!

The air was completely displaced, and Hongchen appeared before Bai Cangshu in an instant like a ghost, that precious blade overflowing with cold light slashing diagonally.

Fast, extremely fast!

Even without 【Heart Net】 and 【First of the First】, Bai Cangshu could fully see the movement of the opponent's blade, but precisely because it was undisguised, the blade was so fast it left only an afterimage.

The moment Bai Cangshu raised his left hand, the blade edge had already sliced into his shoulder; the sharp blade entered his body by only an inch before the blade body was pinched by his left hand.

Hongchen's eyes also moved slightly; Tao Baibai's speed was beyond his imagination. His agility naked-stat had already touched the second Extreme Value, entering the special state of 【40+】, and combined with the 1.7 performance of 【Whistling Wind Cold】, his actual agility stat was already close to 70 points!

This meant that Tao Baibai was in all likelihood also the type whose agility had broken through the Extreme Value, and his base stats were terrifyingly high. He had never heard of any Reincarnator who could stack base stats so high after having experienced so few worlds.

There was only one explanation: either the Intelligence was wrong and Tao Baibai was not some newcomer, but a veteran Reincarnator who had changed into a new Avatar, or...

The opponent was a Special Reincarnator!

Unlike those newcomers who only had a half-baked understanding of Special Reincarnators, Hongchen and the Sage belonged to the command of a certain big shot and had seen some of the methods of Special Reincarnators.

This kind of high-stat newcomer fit the characteristics of a Scarlet Sin Reincarnator who killed other Reincarnators to rapidly plunder stats for growth, or perhaps they were a Tarot Sequence like 【Chariot】 or 【Strength】.

Hongchen pulled back to withdraw his blade, but the edge seemed stuck in the opponent's muscles. He heard the sound of a large bow being drawn taut; the muscles of Tao Baibai before him instantly bulged inch by inch, his entire person swelling by more than a circle, his figure breaking through two meters.

That left hand pinching his 【Snow Hidden Blade】 had meridians protruding like black snakes, and the entire arm was completely hardened by Armament Haki.

Hoo~

White mist sprayed from Tao Baibai's mouth and nose.

Seeing this, Hongchen guessed that Tao Baibai likely possessed some kind of special Bloodline, but he was not panicked. At the Second Tier, while base stats like strength and agility were still important...

Reincarnators were long past the type that relied purely on physical strength to fight.

Energy was the core of the Second Tier!

Boom!

Freezing Inner Qi surged and erupted in an instant; the white mist around Hongchen's body was blown away in an instant, replaced by ice crystals condensed from the rapidly dropping temperature.

Bai Cangshu, closest to Hongchen, instantly had frost hanging on his body surface; this was his first time feeling such a direct energy impact.

Inner Qi suddenly shook, and Bai Cangshu felt the space before him go empty. The opponent had already stepped on his body surface, used the momentum to pull the hilt and leap above his head, and as his figure rotated, countless leg shadows fell.

Bai Cangshu's left hand pinched the opponent's blade and suddenly pulled downward with force. The cold precious blade sliced a wound open on his shoulder; the wound did not bleed, but the area around it was completely frozen, the muscles turning blue-white, and the healing speed was slower than a normal injury.

"Ha!"

Bai Cangshu exhaled and shouted; this kind of injury only further stimulated his battle intent. He dragged the red-haired man down from the air, and his own legs kicked up like afterimages as well.

Wind God Leg!

A violent whirlwind wrapped in Force collided with the opponent's leg shadows.

The opponent's leg technique was fierce, but Bai Cangshu's physical strength and power were even more horrifying. Wind God Leg was originally a light leg technique, but under Bai Cangshu's feet, the head-on collision was even more terrifying.

Bang bang bang bang!

Amidst a series of impact sounds, Hongchen's body instantly ignited with brilliant flames. He instantly pulled away and rotated backward, his freezing Inner Qi extinguishing the brilliant flames in an instant; there were no injuries on his body surface, only his clothes were damaged.

And Bai Cangshu's body surface also ignited with crimson flames; that was 【Solitary Jealous Fire】 rising during the high-frequency attack.

【Tese: Solitary Jealous Fire triggered, all stats +1】

Hongchen reached out and summoned the ice-blue precious blade that had been pulled out of his body by Bai Cangshu back into his hand. He walked barefoot on the frozen earth, pacing before Bai Cangshu.

"You are quite good, Tao Baibai, exceeding my expectations."

Bai Cangshu's build was taller than the opponent's; he looked down at this man holding a long blade.

Although the opponent did indeed make him feel strong and full of pressure, but...

Thump, thump...

Bai Cangshu's heartbeat began to accelerate, and electric light appeared in his eyes.

"Giving your victory speech already?"

"Isn't that a little early..."

The opponent was strong, that was true, but Bai Cangshu also believed he was strong.

In the distance, a cactus broke through the ice-cracked ground, and it had actually grown ears and eyes.

Huaxian, hiding in a car over ten kilometers away, closed her eyes, her expression solemn.

She looked at the cold, deathly silent land before her, knowing that Hongchen had already made a move, but Tao Baibai was still standing, clearly not having been defeated.

"You must win, Hongchen..."

In fact, Huaxian knew more information about Tao Baibai from secret Intelligence; a man claiming to be the president of the Yixin Society had given her some Intelligence and invited her to conduct a transaction.

(End of this chapter)