Chapter 1863

A beam of light rose slowly, yet it was the Lone Moon Saber drifting and rotating, its light blade pointing straight at Princess Xima's neck; although Xima had just been rescued by Bu Bu Ma's side, after they sacrificed two people and Xiang Shancong escaped again, Xima was forgotten.

The Lone Moon Saber was being remotely controlled by Ji Feihua, who softly said, 'Exchanging this Black Hu Princess for Madam Xu's corpse would be a profitable deal.'

Bu Bu Ma glanced at Xima without expression: 'What does her life or death have to do with me? If she dies, this debt will also be charged to Dakang.'

Ji Feihua frowned, thinking to herself that Bu Bu Ma and the Black Hu envoy's purposes in coming were not consistent. She had agreed with Hu Xiaotian to trade here, but her goal was not to rescue Princess Xima; it was to eliminate Hu Xiaotian.

Hu Xiaotian nodded and said, 'I won't trade with you, Bu Bu Ma; you will die here.'

Bu Bu Ma laughed loudly: 'Kill me? Just with the two of you?'

At this moment, the burly figure of Gangbaduo staggered to his feet from the deep pit he had smashed out, his whole body flushed red, making it impossible to tell whether he was bleeding.

Hu Xiaotian thought to himself, 'This guy really has a charmed life.' He exchanged a glance with Ji Feihua, secretly resolving that his mother's tomb had already been destroyed by these people, and Bu Bu Ma using his mother's corpse as leverage had actually exposed her inner panic; given the situation and his own nature, he could not retreat even a step, for yielding to the enemy would not earn their understanding but only embolden them.

Although Ji Feihua had not spoken a word to Hu Xiaotian, she had already understood his intent and softly said, 'I'll take on Bu Bu Ma!' The implication was that Gangbaduo was left for Hu Xiaotian to deal with.

Hu Xiaotian gave a slight smile, raising his black-iron sword again; it was the same move, the Heaven-Splitting Sword, but now it carried more killing intent and a more valiant, fearless spirit that pressed forward regardless of cost.

Gangbaduo's joints cracked all over his body, his whole body flushed red as if about to bleed; having pushed his Fierce Tyrant Dragon Elephant Skill to its limit, he stepped back a large step to dodge Hu Xiaotian's sword edge, then seized the momentum to uproot a pine tree as thick as a thigh, roots and all, sweeping it with dirt and sand toward Hu Xiaotian, filling the air with sand and stones that spread across the space before Hu Xiaotian's charge.

Hu Xiaotian did not waver; before his body even arrived, the icy sword qi already forced the sand and stones outward, carving out a one-zhang diameter space in the center, the sword tip spinning, the surrounding air sucked in by this powerful inward force as if the space had suddenly collapsed, the sand and stones forming a vortex that swirled around the invisible sword qi and rushed toward Gangbaduo.

Gangbaduo's face changed abruptly; grabbing the pine tree with one hand, his divine strength at this moment was such that even Xiong Tianba would sigh in inadequacy upon seeing it; the six-zhang-long pine tree, under his control, became like a giant sword, its treetop first colliding with the opponent's sword qi, sending needles flying everywhere; wherever the sword qi reached, the pine's trunk and branches were instantly shredded into fragments, the trunk visibly shrinking at a rapid pace, its six-zhang length reduced in an instant to less than three chi.

Gangbaduo promptly discarded the trunk, retreating further; under Hu Xiaotian's pressing assault he had no choice but to fall back, and this retreat brought him to the front of Xu Fengyi's tomb, where he actually wrenched the tombstone free and hurled it at Hu Xiaotian like an iron discus.

Seeing his mother's grave first destroyed and now the tombstone snapped by this scoundrel, Hu Xiaotian's heart filled with rage; he lunged toward the tombstone, propping it up with a single palm, halting its forward motion in midair, then hurling it back at Gangbaduo like a small mountain.

Gangbaduo rolled his eyes at the incoming tombstone, snorted, gathered all his strength into his right fist, planted his legs firmly, and roared as he threw a punch, intending to shatter the tombstone into pieces. He had not anticipated that Hu Xiaotian would not easily damage his mother's tombstone; he was not using the tombstone to attack but merely as a shield to draw Gangbaduo's attention. Gangbaduo believed that Hu Xiaotian and the tombstone had become one, so smashing the tombstone would strike Hu Xiaotian hiding behind it like striking a mountain to hit a cow. However, when the tombstone was still a zhang away from him, it suddenly dropped.

Hu Xiaotian's figure emerged, his dull black-iron sword now coated with a layer of azure glow; with the tombstone blocking Gangbaduo's view, Hu Xiaotian had gathered his internal energy into the sword in a short time, his fury unlocking his potential, and this strike had reached the greatest power he had ever achieved in cultivating the Heaven-Splitting Sword.

By the time Gangbaduo realized something was wrong, it was too late; Hu Xiaotian had no intention of dodging his punch, willing to take a blow himself if it meant cutting him down with a sword. The sword qi broke through the fist wind; although the fist wind split into two streams and still struck Hu Xiaotian's chest and abdomen in succession, his sword qi simultaneously slashed down onto Gangbaduo's crown. Gangbaduo's crown first showed a dent, his whole face twisted as if his rubber‑like, astonishingly elastic body had finally exceeded its limits; the sword qi tore the skin on his crown, sliced through his fascia, and severed his skull. Gangbaduo heard a crisp bone‑cracking sound, as if he saw a white light flash above his head, and then his vision changed—both eyes suddenly could see the scenes to his left and right.

His massive body was split in two by Hu Xiaotian's black‑iron sword, dark‑red blood gushing out like a fountain from his cavity; as the blood spurted, Gangbaduo's body rapidly shrank, the two halves of his corpse falling to left and right.

"No one dares to disrespect my mother!" Hu Xiaotian's black‑iron sword pointed obliquely at the ground; the night breeze brushed past, and a drop of blood slowly fell from the sword's tip.

A drop of rain fell on Bu Bu Ma's face; the overwhelming strength of her opponent exceeded her imagination, leaving only Ji Feihua as an enemy before her—not because she was focused, but because she seemed to have been suddenly isolated, her sight and hearing affected, as if an invisible barrier had arisen around her; she dared not pay attention to anything around her, for she had reached the brink of life and death.

In her gray‑blue eyes welled deep alarm, and she whispered, 'You have already mastered the power of Heaven's Way…'

Ji Feihua replied calmly, 'Defy the Heavenly Way, and heavenly punishment and earthly annihilation shall follow!' She raised her right fist, which turned almost transparent.

Bu Bu Ma felt the surrounding space suddenly compress toward her; she had to struggle against this invisible pressure, and no matter how she strained she could not escape it, leaving only the option to rush forward and fight Ji Feihua to the death. Her pair of hand‑guards seemed to fuse with her body, making her whole person like a drawn steel blade as she slashed at Ji Feihua.

Ji Feihua's gaze was light and calm; within the invisible sealed space she had created, she was the true sovereign, the radiance of her almost transparent fist surging to the extreme, an invisible force forming a barrier before her; Bu Bu Ma's body slammed heavily into that barrier, and although she could see Ji Feihua less than three chi away, no matter how she struggled she could not shorten that distance, let alone break through the barrier.

Ji Feihua's fist struck the void, seeming to miss its target, yet each blow caused the space containing Bu Bu Ma to shrink by a fraction; her burly body was tightly bound in an invisible space, her body slowly rising as her limbs continually twisted and struggled.

"You deceived me…" were Bu Bu Ma's last words.

Ji Feihua frowned; this remark was clearly not aimed at her. Who had deceived Bu Bu Ma, and who was the mastermind behind today's encirclement? Her right hand suddenly clenched, and a series of bone‑cracking sounds rang out from the air; Bu Bu Ma's body plummeted from midair, and when it hit the ground her bones were utterly shattered and her meridians severed.

Hu Xiaotian stared, dumbfounded, at the duel between the two; Ji Feihua's martial prowess far exceeded his imagination, and even as the Black Hu's top expert, Bu Bu Ma had no power to retaliate before her. Hu Xiaotian could not help but wonder, if he were to face Ji Feihua as an enemy, what chance he would have of winning, but he immediately dismissed the thought—between them they could never truly become foes.

Of the five Black Hu experts, four had already been slain on the spot; only Xiang Shancong, the most cunning, had seen the tide turn and fled in advance.

The first thing on Hu Xiaotian's mind was still his mother's corpse; after disposing of several enemies, he immediately leapt into the tomb to inspect his mother's coffin, which remained in place, yet its appearance suggested it had been tampered with.

Ji Feihua seized Xima once more and brought her into the tomb; she noticed a cave in the tomb's southwest corner, through which Xiang Shancong and the two lamas had evidently entered and hidden, so they had not been detected at first.

Hu Xiaotian said, 'The coffin has been moved.' He pressed his ear to the coffin and listened—also out of caution, fearing an enemy might be hidden inside ready to attack—and, confirming there was no movement within, he slowly opened the coffin.

From the coffin's seam a pale blue light seeped out, pushing the lid open, yet inside lay only a blue translucent sphere the size of a goose egg, nothing else—Xu Fengyi's corpse had vanished without a trace.

Hu Xiaotian was still astonished when Ji Feihua's expression suddenly shifted, and she exclaimed, 'Xuan Guang Lei!'

After the blue sphere was exposed, its light blazed, a blinding white radiance; Ji Feihua embraced Hu Xiaotian and, together with Xima, lunged toward the tomb's robber tunnel.

A heaven‑shaking, earth‑rending explosion echoed through the silent night, the white light illuminating half the sky.

Xia Zhangming and the others, who had been waiting quietly at the foot of the mountain for news, were also shocked by the violent blast; the intense ground tremor sent them staggering, some even sitting straight down on the ground. Once things settled, they immediately reacted, gathered their forces, and rushed toward the tomb. (To be continued…~^~)