Chapter 190: Immortal Fire

Yang Hu had never been in such a situation, nor had he anticipated encountering such a situation at this time and place.

He knew that people had minds, and at this moment, the feeling was like his mind being picked out and then locked into a sealed iron box.

This wasn't a feeling that could be explained by covering eyes, blocking ears, or sealing the nose; it was truly "losing everything."

Never mind about dealing with it based on memory—without hands, how to attack and defend? Without feet, how to advance and retreat?

At the moment he felt his body "disappearing," Yang Hu had time to give the last instruction to his body. It could be a backward leap, or a forceful forward stab, but he had no time to react to what was going on, nor did he know how long this would last.

Suddenly, he was about to fall into an abyss.

Therefore, in this instant, he chose the most correct and stable method—withdraw all True Qi and thickly wrap his vital parts.

True Qi Technique · 【Iron Clothes】

In the cellar, when Seeing Pei Ye stared at Wu Wu Zai Gu's throat, he thought, "Even if your True Qi is thick, you don't have scales growing on your vital parts."

Now he truly saw the scales.

Heart, throat, joints... every vulnerability of the old man was wrapped up. True Qi formed into transparent flakes, hard, smooth, and one could imagine its invulnerability.

The old man was completely swallowed by darkness, his body draped in this suit of armor.

"Oh, so this is how you respond." Seeing Pei Ye thought, and then frowned deeply.

This sword strike could have been ahead of Wu Wu Zai Gu at that time, but he couldn't guarantee it could be ahead of this old man. It was certainly because the old man was deep in strength, in a perfect state, and ready to go. It was also because Seeing Pei Ye was not in that state of mind deep enough to touch the "heart" level at this time.

Therefore, he couldn't bet on the old man's speed and reaction, and stake everything on this sword.

If the old man had time to respond, he had to think of a way to break this response.

This was the first step of the tightrope he was walking.

When he stimulated the sword intent, that roaring staff dragon had already reached his eyes, and the overwhelming force approaching his face made his heart clench tightly.

The old man truly didn't leave him any leeway. This was a purely killer move—it was just to trick him into this sword strike with a pause, and then this full-strength staff strike would crush everything.

Facing this staff, Seeing Pei Ye was like a chopstick poking tofu. He no longer had the Small Serpent Heart, and the Seventh-Life in front of him was no longer heavily injured and exhausted. He didn't have any possibility of following up.

Even though Seeing Pei Ye had been retreating since he struck, unfortunately, his speed wasn't enough to dodge this staff. Even if he was grazed, it would be an injury he couldn't accept in the following error-free battle.

So only let the old man withdraw it himself.

Therefore, the young boy's sword strike was both an attack and a defense. Seeing Pei Ye gave him the sudden deep darkness, and also gave him a moment of reaction time, just to ensure that the old man could think clearly that facing such a sudden change, the most reasonable response was full defense.

Because the True Qi poured into this must-kill staff was too sufficient, so he had to defend, and he had to withdraw this massive amount of True Qi.

When the pressure of this staff disappeared, Seeing Pei Ye could look for the opportunity to cut the throat with one sword.

However, the old man's defense was truly such a simple and unadorned "defense," simply flawless at the root—even if the old man stood still and let him hack, it was hard to say whether the young boy could break this armor.

The opportunity for this sword strike had passed. Seeing Pei Ye relaxed his frowned brows, decisively retracted his sword, gave up this attack, and instead drifted backward.

And for Yang Hu, he lost his perception of time.

That moment seemed like eternity. He even suspected that he had died inexplicably like this.

When he opened his eyes, he knew that only a moment had passed.

As the young boy's sword strike withdrew, that deeply buried feeling also dissipated simultaneously. Only then did the old man react—this was actually the effect of this sword strike!

This was actually an intent sword!!

In this instant, he even felt some unease—what places pass down intent swords? To be able to obtain such an inheritance, what was standing behind the young boy?

But he was calmed down by the investigation and surveillance of the past ten days or so.

And there were no more arrows to turn back at this time.

Moreover, the touch on his body was transmitted back—no place was injured, not even a trace of 【Iron Clothes】 being attempted to be broken. The old man looked up and saw the young boy landing his feet three zhang away.

He was actually retreating too.

The old man suddenly realized—although his five senses were blocked, that staff strike was still stabbing out. The young boy simply didn't dare to meet this staff to attack him.

Because he couldn't face such a sincere strike from a Seventh-Life. 【190-4

And the next moment, although he retracted his staff, the reaction speed the youth displayed could not support such a change; by the time he realized the long staff before him had lost its lethality, it was already too late to lunge forward again to strike with his sword.

Therefore, theoretically speaking, he didn't need to retract this staff; he could have guaranteed his own safety just the same, and perhaps even dealt the youth a heavy blow.

All these thoughts flashed through his mind in an instant; the old man raised his head, not knowing what this youth with the composed face before him was thinking, but in any case, he would not give his opponent any chance to catch his breath.

Just as the youth would not give him any.

The second 【Cloud-Heaven Obscuring-Eye Feather-Loss】.

"If Wu Zai Gu watched this sword ten times in advance, he still wouldn't know how to break it"—for the old man before him, it was the same.

The old man thrust his long staff out, and the youth before him began his move; the terrifying darkness had not yet enveloped them, but the old man's heart was already inevitably palpitating.

Even though he knew that once trapped within it, the youth would find it difficult to cause him any real harm, the feeling of being unable to resist falling into an abyss was absolutely suffocating.

Such sword intent—placed in the Mystic Gate Realm, this was a top-tier killing move; how could it possibly appear here?

His inner thoughts were not reflected on his face, and he had no time to search for answers; before him, it was still one sword against one staff.

But this time, the responses of both sides had changed.

As the old man thrust out this staff, his other hand also pushed out lightly; and this time, Seeing Pei Ye did not retreat; he went to meet the old man's long staff, erupting with his fastest speed.

Darkness descended once again.

Before the old man's long staff could exert its peak force, it was already severed by the darkness.

This time, it was far too fast compared to just before!

The old man's pupils shrank; if the youth's response to his staff just now had been very hurried and strained, this time he actually displayed a sense of composure, as if his offensive movements had been completely perceived.

He had just... been slow on purpose!

Seeing Pei Ye wielded his sword and advanced; the perception brought by 【Quail Head】 was only now fully revealed; the youth's eyes were fixed, and the killing intent between his brows was chilling.

This was the second tightrope he was walking.

Unlike his sudden encounter with Wu Zai Gu, the old man before him was an enemy Seeing Pei Ye had pondered; he had made full preparations to sever this head.

By now, death had brushed past his body twice, and every decision the old man before him made was entirely based on his own correct judgment.

But things had always been within the youth's predetermined flow.

【Cloud-Heaven Obscuring-Eye Feather-Loss】 was the first killing move; this attempt had failed to take effect, so it became the nourishment for the second attempt.

【Quail Head】 was Seeing Pei Ye's second information gap regarding the old man, and also the reliance for his second killing move; he had deliberately responded to the first sword with a reaction speed just barely exceeding that of a third or fourth-life cultivator, which was indeed to give the old man time to decide to retract his Qi, but also to lay the groundwork for the current offensive.

Under the surprise created in this way, because of 【Quail Head】, and because he had lunged forward before the old man even began to retract his staff, Seeing Pei Ye was absolutely one step faster this time!

What he was racing for was his own sword, which could reach the old man's neck faster than the old man's Qi!

What he judged was that the old man would choose to defend again!

Yang Hu was indeed facing a choice in an instant.

Just as he concluded that he should continue his attack, the opponent's sword suddenly descended upon him twice as fast, and this time he had almost no time to think.

He should have followed his mental inertia and chosen to continue the attack, but at the last moment before the darkness enveloped him, that sharp sense of a "trap" gripped his intuition tightly.

Why had this youth's eyesight and reaction suddenly become almost beyond the sixth life?

This time, would he really return empty-handed like the first time?

Unknown unease and deep darkness enveloped him; amidst the palpitations, the old man once again chose to retract his Qi with all his might, and his other hand also dropped down.

At the very last moment, he felt a sudden, sharp regret.

But everything had already fallen into darkness.

Seeing Pei Ye knew what the old man was regretting.

It was precisely because the old man retracted his staff again that Seeing Pei Ye was able to lunge before him.

He used his fastest speed to snatch this sword strike; as he swept up, the long sword brushed against the old man's fierce pole, first 【Eating Leaves】, then 【Spreading Wings】, like plucking whiskers from a tiger's mouth; as he slid away, the youth had already stolen a portion of overwhelming power from above.

The strength of this power was such that Seeing Pei Ye felt he could barely hold onto it; the sword hilt was trembling against the web of his hand.

A sword strike to the throat; in this instant, the old man was like a target, that fragile neck right before his eyes.

However, he fell short of success.

This painstaking, all-out effort still couldn't keep up with the speed of a seventh-life cultivator's Qi mobilization under sudden shock.

The moment before the youth's blade slashed down, surging Qi solidified into scales on the old man's neck and chest even faster.

Seeing Pei Ye could have changed his target to the opponent's arm or back, but that was meaningless. How many swords would it take to kill the enemy? Bleed to death? And how many times could he use "Flying Goose on a Snowy Night"?

So Seeing Pei Ye slashed his sword with all his might at the scales on the neck.

【Clear Sound】, the strongest sword of breaking and defense the youth currently mastered; it had met Zhang Zhang Junxue's saber and Yang Yan's sword, never falling behind in the slightest.

After absorbing the power from the old man's staff, the eruption of this sword strike exceeded any time before.

As the sword slashed onto the scales, the blade slipped instantly; fortunately, 【Clear Sound】 was a vibrating sword style, and Seeing Pei Ye relied on its extraordinary firmness and stability to control the sword, pressing down without letting too much power dissipate.

It was truly the sound of metal clashing, followed by the sound of tiles cracking and jade shattering. The old man's body was knocked askew to the ground, the scales shattering piece by piece; Seeing Pei Ye pressed this sword down with all his might, yet beneath the shattered scales was not a soft neck, but another kind of hard, tough viscosity.

【Iron Garment】; beneath the scales was oxhide; scales could be slashed, but oxhide had to be cut.

This Qi technique was, after all, formed by the entire Qi of a seventh-life cultivator.

In his second attempt, with all his might, the youth could neither be faster than the seventh-life speed nor break through the seventh-life defense.

It was within his expectations, after all.

But it didn't matter; on the third attempt, he would take everything.

The moment the blade met resistance, Seeing Pei Ye decisively flew back; the opportunity for this sword strike had been used up by him again.

Sure enough, the next moment, the long staff stabbed toward his original position like a venomous snake.

This time he had slashed out 【Clear Sound】, so he withdrew a bit late; when the old man woke up, Seeing Pei Ye was still within a yard of him.

The youth twisted his body dangerously to dodge this staff; 【Snowy Night Soul-Startling Death-Fall】 was already gripped in his hand, but the old man did not launch another attack; Seeing Pei Ye landed and took a deep breath; the two intent-swords were already starting to bring him a bit of a burden.

The old man opposite him stood with his staff supporting the ground, one palm covering the side of his neck, staring over with sunken eyes.

Just looking at this expression, Seeing Pei Ye knew that things were still proceeding along the predetermined flow.

And Yang Hu could not help but feel a lingering fear.

That unbreakable sword intent enveloped him in an instant, but an instant can be broken down into many thoughts.

In that instant, his reactive decision was to retreat and defend, but at the very last moment before his consciousness completely sank, the image of the youth flying over struck his brain.

The youth's leaping motion was before he retracted his staff.

In other words, this youth had already determined that he would retract his staff to defend, and this sword strike of his was precisely to force him to retract his staff to defend.

He was precisely trying to use the space vacated by this staff retraction to kill him!

And he had almost succeeded.

A dull pain continued to come from the side of his neck; the old man rubbed it twice slowly, looking coldly at the youth. He began to clearly realize that the opponent's ability to complete these two attempts was not actually due to this powerful sword strike.

But rather from the courage he had lost before this sword strike.

The old man would not give the youth a third chance to test his courage.

Within three breaths, he would have him lying on the ground.

Seeing Pei Ye's third sword was already prepared to be unleashed, and then, he saw the old man stand his staff on the ground—that was not the posture for attacking with a staff.

The old man slowly raised the hand he had just put down.

Seeing Pei Ye felt for the first time that things had slipped off the tracks.

He had decided to kill this seventh-life cultivator while on the Zhuoyue Tower.

He had carefully pondered the pitifully little information the opponent had revealed, and had also carefully counted every card in his own hand. He believed that everything he held was sufficient to kill this seventh-life cultivator, and now he was just about to arrive.

He also knew, of course, that the part the opponent hid beneath the water would very likely bring about some accidents. So he tried his best to shorten the path of this tightrope; he had already dangerously completed two attempts, and combining what he had gained from these two times, the next sword would end it all.

But the accident arrived as scheduled.

And the weight of this accident was something the youth could barely bear.

The old man's hand reached out toward him; Seeing Pei Ye instantly felt as if he were being enveloped in a cage; the surrounding air suddenly became heavy, and then began to squeeze him violently.

The next moment Seeing Pei Ye identified them—they were expanding!

Seeing Pei Ye's pupils shrank; he immediately lunged forward to strike with his sword, but it was already too late.

It was a suddenly intense high temperature, fire rubbed out of the air; the quiet night of the martial arts arena was illuminated as bright as day by the huge flames that suddenly rose up.

A huge fire lotus bloomed in the center of the arena; the drizzle was illuminated and then evaporated without a trace, and even the moonlight was driven away.

Qi Technique: Immortal Fire

Finishing the fight tomorrow, extra chapter!

(End of chapter)