Chapter 188: The Fourth Combat Intent

Yin Shiyi was just about to urge Li Youyi to leave quickly and not to act tough, fearing that both of them would end up dead here today.

However, he saw that Li Youyi had already attacked first.

Yang Qingxi and Yang Zhiyong were naturally happy to see their opponent display such a desperate spirit; conversely, if the two of them were single-mindedly trying to escape, that would be the truly thorny issue.

"Well come."

Yang Zhiyong no longer held any trace of contempt.

He held the halberd with both hands, his front hand as close to the blade as possible, in order to cope with the disadvantage of a long polearm in a narrow environment.

Vast magic power surged from his Qi Sea, condensing into a four-zhang-tall combat intent figure, like a giant of light and shadow, moving alongside him.

"Swish! Swish!"

From the insect bag, seven Phoenix-Winged Moth Emperors flapped their wings and flew out.

Their speed was even faster than Li Youyi's, carving out seven bright trails of light, and in an instant, they flew before Yang Zhiyong's eyes.

Yang Zhiyong was alert, his pupils constricting.

The seven exotic insects released by his opponent gave him a sense of extreme danger, so he hurriedly retreated, hiding himself inside the combat intent figure.

"Boom! Boom!"

The seven Phoenix-Winged Moth Emperors crashed into it, striking ripples of energy at various points on the four-zhang-tall combat intent figure.

The body length of the seven little ones had already approached five inches, and with their advantages in speed and defense, their comprehensive combat power was enough to challenge the weakest martial cultivators of the Fifth Realm of the Five Seas.

This was already quite terrifying, because there were so many of them.

Yang Zhiyong had already sensed the prowess of the seven Phoenix-Winged Moth Emperors; under their frenzied crashing, he actually felt a sense of being unable to hold them off. He retreated a step and released his magic power with all his might to neutralize that impact.

However, he still had not realized the severity of the situation.

In his view, although these exotic insects had great strength, they were still far inferior to him, and their intelligence was very low; each one could be killed in an instant.

"Whoosh!"

He swung his halberd, drawing out a large expanse of energy, precisely striking two of the Phoenix-Winged Moth Emperors.

The two insects were knocked flying, falling to the ground and smashing out two deep pits.

Seizing the opportunity, Li Youyi, who had been poised and ready, leaped up like lightning, carrying three combat intent divine shadows on his back, and slashed down with all his might.

The sword hummed like a dragon's roar.

The yellow radiance illuminated the falling snow, making it look like golden goose feathers.

The sword Qi of the "Taiyi Sea-Opening" move was several zhang long, easily tearing open Yang Zhiyong's magic power. But it was not aimed at Yang Zhiyong, but rather at his combat intent.

At this moment, Yang Zhiyong had just knocked the two Phoenix-Winged Moth Emperors away and had no time to swing his halberd to defend. He had no choice but to abandon his combat intent and instead thrust his halberd from bottom to top toward Li Youyi's abdomen.

It was no big deal if the combat intent was shattered.

As long as this halberd strike could wound his opponent, he would be making a steady profit.

Yang Qingxi saw things much more clearly than Yang Zhiyong and had already realized the severity of the problem. Li Youyi's killing move was not this sword strike at all; rather, once Yang Zhiyong's combat intent was shattered, he would be completely exposed to the claw and wing attacks of those extremely fast exotic insects.

When that time came, everything impossible might perhaps become possible.

It was already too late to warn him.

"Clatter!"

The sound of flowing water was like a great river surging.

Yang Qingxi's graceful figure moved, rushing out from the three-story-high eaves, the blue stream beneath her feet flowing in the void, green radiance scattering, infinitely miraculous, rapidly spreading toward the battlefield in the alleyway.

When she was born, the sound of a stream echoed inside the house.

Therefore, the Changhe intent was a congenital intent.

"Miss Yang, let's play first!"

Seeing that the exotic insects Li Youyi raised were actually so powerful, Yin Shiyi regained his confidence, released a five-zhang-tall combat intent, and collided with the green stream and long river in mid-air.

After retreating two steps.

The fire-scaled dragon claw gloves he wore on his hands, under the urging of his magic power, transformed into two crimson clouds of fire.

One of the nine fundamental martial arts of the Nine Li clan, the "Angry Dragon Capturing the Dragon Claw Technique," was subsequently unleashed. This was a martial art that, according to legend, could allow one to fight against a superior when cultivated to the extreme.

On the other side, after Li Youyi shattered Yang Zhiyong's four-zhang-tall combat intent figure with one sword strike, he used all his strength to perform his movement technique to dodge, but was still struck by the opponent's halberd under his left armpit.

The combat power of a Pure Immortal Body that had cultivated the Sixth Sea was terrifying; even if he was just grazed by his opponent's combat weapon, his armpit was already a mess of blood. Fortunately, he had cultivated the Golden Bone to a small success, otherwise, two of his ribs would have already been broken.

Li Youyi, who had fallen back to the ground, felt so much pain that his left side felt as if it had lost all sensation. However, he dared not stay in place for even half a moment, nor did he dare to retreat to heal his wounds; instead, he gritted his teeth and attacked again with swiftness.

Stopping and retreating were both dead ends.

Advancing, however, offered a great opportunity to kill Yang Zhiyong within a few rounds.

Yang Zhiyong never imagined that Li Youyi would be so fierce and brave; what was even more beyond his expectations was that the two moth-like exotic insects, which should have been dead after being swatted into the ground by his halberd, were actually jumping around, their bodies as if cast from immortal iron, impossible to break.

An exotic insect that could be killed in one strike and one that could not were completely different things!

While dealing with Li Youyi's overwhelming sword moves, Yang Zhiyong felt pain in his right neck, having a piece of flesh torn away by the claw of a Phoenix-Winged Moth Emperor.

The next instant, the back of his right hand, which was gripping the halberd, was grazed by the membrane wing of a Phoenix-Winged Moth Emperor, leaving a deep bloody mark.

The halberd nearly slipped from his grasp.

"Oh no..."

Yang Zhiyong's expression changed rapidly, and realizing the severity of the situation, he hurriedly leaped toward the white wall on the right side of the alleyway to fight for a chance to catch his breath and re-release his combat intent figure.

"Boom! Boom!"

Two Phoenix-Winged Moth Emperors crashed into his back from the left and right, as if he had been struck by two heavy punches.

Despite having his magic weapon battle suit for protection, Yang Zhiyong still fell back into the alleyway.

After a few more moves, Yang Zhiyong had as many as eight wounds on his body, all located on his head, neck, and hands, which his magic weapon battle suit could not protect. His face was covered in blood, and his left eye had even been slashed; he was already dizzy and disoriented, wanting to escape but unable to, feeling only that danger was everywhere.

"Clang!"

A piercing sword hum approached.

Li Youyi decided to end the battle, slashing horizontally with his sword, aiming straight for his neck.

When Yang Zhiyong's right eye clearly saw that brilliant sword light, it was already too late to dodge or block. He was filled with despair, defeated and convinced, with no hatred or resentment in his heart, only one thought: this child would surely rise like a comet, unstoppable.

"Whoosh—"

Suddenly, a slender, long black shadow flashed out from behind Yang Zhiyong.

This black shadow was completely wrapped, with only a pair of eyes exposed, bright as cold stars.

She pushed Yang Zhiyong away with one palm, and a strange, needle-thin long sword broke through the night sky. The sword was so fast that the falling snow around them seemed to stand still, thrusting straight at Li Youyi's brow.

In Li Youyi's pupils, the tip of the sword grew closer and brighter.

Before the sword arrived, his brow already began to ache.

The sense of powerlessness Yang Zhiyong had felt when he was near death was now playing out on him.

The difference was that at this critical moment, Li Youyi did not feel despair; instead, a vigorous fighting spirit to contend with the heavens rose in his heart, and his state of mind entered an unprecedented tranquility.

In this state, he could even see himself in the pupils of the woman opposite him, and the sense of familiarity brought to him by those cold eyes.

"Whoosh!"

Behind Li Youyi, there had originally been only three combat intents.

A fourth combat intent quietly condensed, like a painting being filled in stroke by stroke, gradually becoming perfect and full. The sword strike he had originally intended as a horizontal slash was forcibly changed in route, switching from attack to defense.

Hand shadows and sword shadows were layered upon one another.

This was his instinctive reaction in a moment of crisis, and also the result of his years of practicing the Chan Sect's Twelve Scattered Hands, the "Wish-Fulfilling Qiankun Sword," a move that had already reached the edge of a breakthrough.

Once broken through, the intent would form on its own.

Wish-fulfilling Qiankun, ever-changing and unpredictable.

With the fourth combat intent condensed, the power of his sword move increased by another ten percent.

If one cultivated one combat intent, it was considered the normal result for a normal martial cultivator. Going all out, ten percent combat power.

Li Youyi, with four intents upon his body, had already increased his combat power to thirteen percent.

"Ding!"

The sword that should have pierced Li Youyi's brow struck the body of the Huang Long Sword he had held up to block, emitting an explosive sound.

In the air, ripples exploded and scattered.

Li Youyi flew straight out like a cannonball, crashing into the wall at the turn of the alleyway, his vision going black from the pain, as if he were about to pass out on the spot.

The black-clad woman standing beside the shaken Yang Zhiyong had an extremely surprised look in her eyes, clearly not expecting that her opponent could block her fatal sword strike in such a situation.

With her cultivation, she hadn't even seen how Li Youyi had changed his move to block.

If it had been a character of the successor level, in that must-die situation with the sword at the brow, their head should have been split open like a gourd.

The black-clad woman's killing intent climbed to an unprecedented level, and she was just about to strike again.

"Whoosh!"

A folding fan flew through the alley, rotating and stirring up thousands of snowflakes.

"Brother Zuoqiu Ting is here, retreat!"

The one who said this was the veiled Yang Qingxi.

The black-clad woman stared fixedly at Li Youyi, feeling extremely unwilling, and with one sword strike, she knocked the folding fan away, but she could only grab Yang Zhiyong and flee into the dark alley.

Brother Zuoqiu Ting's figure flashed and shifted, catching the folding fan before it could fall to the ground: "You all go first."

Leaving these four words behind, he had already disappeared from before Li Youyi and Yin Shiyi, chasing after the three from the Sui Sect.

Li Youyi finally caught his breath, but his left armpit and right arm were both in extreme pain; it was Yin Shiyi who grabbed his shoulders, straightened him up, and helped him sit against the wall.

"Awesome, your combat power is actually so perverted, what realm are you exactly?" Yin Shiyi was very excited and extremely curious.

While circulating his magic power to heal his wounds, Li Youyi recalled and pondered, then suddenly asked: "How many times have you dealt with Yang Qingxi?"

"Counting this time, we've clashed twice. Why?" Yin Shiyi said.

Li Youyi said: "I feel... Yang Qingxi might be two people!"

"What did you say?"

Yin Shiyi's tone rose much higher all of a sudden.

Li Youyi recalled his several meetings with Yang Qingxi and always felt that the black-clad woman's gaze just now could match the one from the first time he saw her. But at that time, he had just arrived in this world and only had a fleeting glance, so he couldn't be sure.

"Maybe I'm thinking wrong!"

Li Youyi's physical body recovered extremely quickly; after moving his arms, he stood up to look for the Huang Long Sword that had been knocked out of his hand.

The two Phoenix-Winged Moth Emperors had already carried the Huang Long Sword back.

One of them, as if asking for credit, was flying back and forth before his eyes, holding the corpse of a bee-insect with its claws.

Seeing that the bee-insect had been killed by them, Li Youyi's bad mood cleared up instantly: "Great, I'll get you some thousand-year essence medicine when we get back; I'll definitely let you break through your realm in these two days."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 189 =====