Chapter 426

"Where is my Seven Kill Token?"

No one answered the exclamation of the seventh-tier Qiao Shen from the Sumeru Palace, but the gazes of the seventh-tier experts toward the gate of the Seven Kill Palace gave Qiao Shen his answer.

In the rear, Xu Jin was somewhat speechless.

In this battle, although the nine seventh-tier human experts were united and gave their all, they didn't reach the point of fighting to the death.

However, their command was still insufficient.

They were all acting according to the previously discussed tactics, and even the nominal initiator, Song Shoujie, the Marquis of Luoshui, had no way to command in real-time.

If Song Shoujie could have commanded everyone in real-time, he only needed to have one seventh-tier expert guard the Seven Kill Palace gate while Ju Xuan was counterattacking Qiao Shen, and they could have killed Ju Xuan a third or even a fourth time.

And the cost would have been at most one more seventh-tier expert using a substitute-death opportunity.

It was a pity that these nine seventh-tier experts of the current-era human race were all the cream of the crop among current-era human cultivators and top-tier existences of their respective factions.

Xu Jin estimated that to make them obey commands wholeheartedly, an ordinary eighth-tier expert wouldn't be enough; it would take a top-tier eighth-tier expert from a major faction to make them accept command and dispatch willingly.

But then again.

They had already killed Ju Xuan twice, and Ju Xuan still had one substitute-death opportunity left.

Moreover, Ju Xuan was definitely not lightly injured.

To kill Qiao Shen in one fell swoop, he had destroyed a layer of his Star Tower, lowering his cultivation base, suffering heavy injuries, consuming a great deal, and damaging his primordial spirit.

Xu Jin had long ago confirmed one thing: the substitute-death opportunity in the Seven Kill Secret Realm was just a substitute death, not a perfect rebirth.

It was just a substitute death at the very moment the target was killed.

However, all the injuries and consumption sustained before the substitute death would be fully inherited and would not disappear.

From everyone's gazes, Qiao Shen got his answer.

Ju Xuan had snatched his Seven Kill Token and successfully charged into the Seven Kill Palace.

The anger in Qiao Shen's heart was indescribable.

He had already died in battle once, yet this group of people before him hadn't stopped Ju Xuan.

But more important than anger was the fact that the Sumeru Palace no longer had a Seven Kill Token!

Previously, Song Shoujie had only given one Seven Kill Token, and now, it was lost.

Failing to obtain the Seven Kill True Monarch's inheritance was a small matter; not obtaining the Divine Dao True Meaning was the big matter.

The sky could collapse!

Qiao Shen and the other seventh-tier expert from the Sumeru Palace, Liu Ju, instantly realized this.

Their gazes swept toward the other two Seven Kill Token holders in an instant.

Dong Zhao and Xu Jin!

Almost the moment their gazes swept over, everyone present had realized something.

Whether it was Xu Jin, Dong Zhao, Song Shoujie, the Marquis of Luoshui, or the other seventh-tier experts!

"Since Ju Xuan has already charged into the Seven Kill Palace, our mission is complete. Without violating our Great Dao oaths, we must also enter the Seven Kill Palace immediately, lest Ju Xuan take advantage of the situation."

After the seventh-tier powerhouse Hou Ziang of the Wood Spirit Palace finished speaking, he simply cupped his hands toward the crowd. The next instant, he and his junior brother Du Wei turned into streams of light, holding their Seven Kill Tokens, and charged toward the gate of the Seven Kill Palace.

In an instant, they disappeared inside the gate of the Seven Kill Palace.

At the same time, the seventh-tier powerhouse Zhang Lin of the Heavenly Yang Star Palace, the seventh-tier powerhouse Ye Feng of the Cangming Star Palace, and the four seventh-tier experts from the Zhen'e Star Palace, Abatai and Yuxi, also charged toward the gate of the Seven Kill Palace holding their Seven Kill Tokens.

At this very instant, a voice transmission from Song Shoujie, the Marquis of Luoshui, rang in Xu Jin's mind.

"Quick, enter the Seven Kill Palace, I'll cover you!"

Almost at the same time, Xu Jin and Dong Zhao received the voice transmission from Song Shoujie. Anticipating that something was wrong, Xu Jin and Dong Zhao instantly turned into streams of light and charged toward the gate of the Seven Kill Palace.

Song Shoujie was a fraction of a second slower, in order to cover Dong Zhao and Xu Jin.

And at the same time, Qiao Shen and Liu Ju of the Sumeru Palace exchanged a single look, and a decision was made!

Snatch!

They had to snatch a Seven Kill Token!

Among everyone present, the only ones they could easily snatch a Seven Kill Token from were Xu Jin and Dong Zhao of Da Chen—one a fifth-tier, the other a sixth-tier.

In an instant, star power fluctuated around Qiao Shen and Liu Ju, and spatial barriers appeared silently on the path Xu Jin and Dong Zhao were charging along.

The Sumeru Palace's spatial star arts were extremely fast to cast and appeared without any warning.

This was also the fundamental reason why these two had been assigned to focus on defense earlier.

Unexpectedly, Ju Xuan had managed to charge past them!

Xu Jin, who had been driving his Bright Era Star Emblem, sensed it instantly. As he drove his Willow Catkin Star Emblem, his figure turned like a bending willow, making a sharp turn to avoid the spatial barrier.

Dong Zhao, on the other hand, hadn't discovered the spatial barrier blocking his path in advance; by the time he did, it was too late, and he almost crashed into it head-on.

Fortunately, Song Shoujie, the Marquis of Luoshui, had been paying attention to their movements. At the critical moment, he threw a punch, shattering the spatial barrier blocking Dong Zhao and giving him a helpful push.

Dong Zhao, clutching his Seven Kill Token, instantly accelerated and charged directly into the gate of the Seven Kill Palace, disappearing from sight.

At this very instant, the tactics of Qiao Shen and Liu Ju of the Sumeru Palace changed again.

Seeing Dong Zhao charge into the Seven Kill Palace and Song Shoujie about to follow, they immediately focused all their efforts on blocking Xu Jin.

In an instant, the two launched continuous attacks, with spatial barrier after spatial barrier constantly blocking Xu Jin, keeping him a hundred meters away from the Seven Kill Palace gate.

Song Shoujie, the Marquis of Luoshui, looked at the Seven Kill Palace gate behind him, then at the two seventh-tier experts from the Sumeru Palace. After weighing the situation, he turned and stepped into the gate of the Seven Kill Palace.

One-on-one, he didn't fear the seventh-tier experts of the Sumeru Palace, even though their star arts were famous for being strange and hard to defend against.

But two-on-one, he had no confidence; if things went poorly, he would be left behind.

"Don't be reckless. If you can't get in, give up; survival is the priority," Song Shoujie, the Marquis of Luoshui, sent a voice transmission to Xu Jin before stepping into the gate of the Seven Kill Palace.

Xu Jin listened, feeling both angry and amused.

In the end, he had become the one to be abandoned!

The next instant, Xu Jin stopped dodging, landed instantly, and began to counterattack.

He took a step, Earth Origin Magnetism.

Falling Star and Angry Spear were cast simultaneously.

Caught off guard, Qiao Shen and Liu Ju's figures fell simultaneously. At the same time, Qiao Shen was locked onto by Xu Jin's Falling Star star art and Angry Spear.

It looked like he was about to be hit.

With this momentum, if he were hit, even if he didn't die, he would be heavily injured.

In an instant, a massive spatial fluctuation rose.

Spatial Cutting.

The hill-sized Falling Star that Xu Jin had slammed down at high speed was instantly cut into dozens of pieces, losing all its power!

At the same time, Ning Yuchan let out an angry shout and swept toward Liu Ju like a whirlwind.

Once her heavy hammer came out, it forced Liu Ju to retreat repeatedly.

As for the remaining Da Chen elites and the Sumeru Palace elites, they engaged in a chaotic battle in an instant without needing command.

The advantage Xu Jin had intervened in multiple times earlier was now showing.

Da Chen had one more sixth-tier elite who had survived than the Sumeru Palace.

In the great battle between fifth-tier and sixth-tier experts, with Da Chen holding a slight advantage, the disciples on the Sumeru Palace side had no opportunity to intervene in the battle.

On this side, Ning Yuchan and Liu Ju had reached a white-hot state of battle in an instant.

As for Xu Jin, being besieged by two seventh-tier elites with all their might, he was finding it somewhat strenuous.

But dealing with one person was not that strenuous.

In just ten breaths, the two had exchanged hundreds of blows, and Xu Jin had also grasped the general idea of the Sumeru Palace's strange star arts!

The next instant, Xu Jin cast Earth Origin Magnetism again, and Falling Star and Angry Spear slammed toward Qiao Shen simultaneously.

At the same instant, streaks of lightning began to appear in Xu Jin's palms.

The moment Qiao Shen quickly used Spatial Cutting to break Xu Jin's earth-type star art attack, a booming sound of thunder suddenly rang out!

The Five Elements Divine Thunder, fused into a mass of five-colored brilliance, slammed down toward Qiao Shen's head.

Swift and fierce!

Boom!

The spatial barrier set up by Qiao Shen was directly shattered by the terrifying Five Elements Divine Thunder. At the same time, the brilliance of the top-grade Seven-Star Spirit Armor on Qiao Shen's body surface flashed to the extreme!

This was a life-saving treasure bestowed upon him by his master, the Sumeru Palace Master.

But under the bombardment of the Five Elements Divine Thunder, the brilliance of this Seven-Star Spirit Armor was fading rapidly.

With the buffer of the Seven-Star Spirit Armor, Qiao Shen finally had the opportunity to use the Sumeru Palace's life-saving strange art—the Small Teleportation Art!

The next instant, the Seven-Star Spirit Armor, which was about to shatter under the bombardment of the Five Elements Divine Thunder, disappeared along with Qiao Shen, appearing hundreds of meters away.

But this position was right in front of the Seven Kill Palace gate. Clearly, Qiao Shen had learned the lesson from his previous great battle with Ju Xuan.

He was terrified that a gap would allow Xu Jin to escape into the Seven Kill Palace, which would mean all their previous efforts would be wasted.

This trip to the Seven Kill Secret Realm would then be a complete failure!

Furthermore, he would lose the opportunity to compete for the Divine Dao True Meaning.

At that time, the master's anger would not be something they could bear!

But almost the moment Qiao Shen used the Small Teleportation Art to save his life, a cold sneer appeared on Xu Jin's face.

Before Qiao Shen appeared, his Bright Era Star Emblem had already sensed abnormal spatial fluctuations at that location.

Xu Jin concluded that the location with abnormal spatial fluctuations was where the seventh-tier Qiao Shen would appear.

The moment the sharp whistling sound of breaking air rang out, the Huang Long Sword was already in Xu Jin's hand!

Five-fold Triple Liushuo.

Swish!

The moment the sound wave exploded, Qiao Shen, who had just appeared, suddenly discovered that his top-grade Seven-Star Spirit Armor, which he regarded as a treasure, had suddenly split into pieces.

He himself turned into starlight and disappeared.

Starlight appeared before him.

A familiar starlight prompt.

Continue participating in the battle or leave!

Only then did Qiao Shen realize that he had been killed!

Subconsciously, Qiao Shen wanted to choose to continue participating in the battle, but suddenly he hesitated.

Twice!

He had only comprehended the Seven Kill Escape Dragon Stake to the second layer, and the third layer was still lacking, so he had only obtained two substitute-death opportunities.

He had just used one, and this was the second.

Once this second one was used, if he died in battle again, he would truly and genuinely die!

If he went back, would he die in battle again?

Yes!

Qiao Shen immediately made a judgment.

Previously, he had the protection of a top-grade Seven-Star Spirit Armor and was still killed by that Qi Qi Tian Sheng of Da Chen.

Now, the top-grade Seven-Star Spirit Armor was shattered, and the possibility of dying in battle was even greater.

Thinking of the shattered Seven-Star Spirit Armor, Qiao Shen felt as if his heart were being cut by a knife!

In an instant, a thousand thoughts raced through Qiao Shen's mind.

However, Qiao Shen ultimately chose to go back and continue participating in the battle!

Although Qiao Shen understood that going back to participate in the battle was extremely dangerous.

However, if he didn't go back, and his master later learned that he had feared death and failed to return to the battle, thereby missing the opportunity to obtain the Divine Dao True Meaning, his master would certainly be extremely disappointed in him.

At that time, he would be better off dead.

It was better to turn back and take the risk now!

The next instant, a point of starlight barely appeared, and Qiao Shen chose to be reborn through substitute death.

On the other side, Xu Jin had just killed Qiao Shen. Before Xu Jin could turn back to participate in the battle, he saw the early-stage seventh-tier Liu Ju just shred the fifth-tier, eighth-layer Ning Yuchan into starlight.

Ning Yuchan had been killed by him.

However, Xu Jin knew that Ning Yuchan still had two substitute-death rebirth opportunities unused, so there was no need to worry.

The next instant, a stream of light rose again, Five-fold Triple Liushuo.

Swish!

Xu Jin, holding the Huang Long Sword, turned directly into a phantom and passed through Liu Ju at close range.

The distance between Liu Ju and Xu Jin was just over a hundred meters.

Liu Ju didn't even have time to react; his Seven-Star Spirit Armor was shattered, and his entire person was blasted into a mass of starlight and dissipated.

Second kill.

At the same time, the Bright Era Star Emblem that Xu Jin had been driving suddenly sensed starlight appearing not far behind him—the place where he had previously killed Qiao Shen.

It was Qiao Shen who had returned.

Xu Jin couldn't help but sneer; he was truly bold!

Originally, as long as Qiao Shen returned at this time, everything would be fine, and Xu Jin would have charged into the Seven Kill Palace.

But the position where Qiao Shen returned at this time happened to block the entrance to the Seven Kill Palace, and Xu Jin, who was turning to charge toward the gate of the Seven Kill Palace, was blocked by Qiao Shen.

Amidst the starlight, Qiao Shen, whose figure had completely appeared, did not hesitate to use the Sumeru Palace's strongest star art: Spatial Turbulence!

The terrifying spatial fluctuation instantly covered Xu Jin, who was rushing toward him.

Even Xu Jin's Fish Screen Star Bell, strong as it was, began to fluctuate and disintegrate under Qiao Shen's Spatial Turbulence star art.

The strange thing about the Sumeru Palace's star arts is that you cannot measure them by the attack power of other types of star arts.

Their star art power is far stronger than other star arts.

Of course, they are also truly difficult to cultivate!

The next instant, Xu Jin, feeling that his Fish Screen Golden Bell was about to shatter, did not hesitate to use the Seven Kill Escape Dragon Stake.

Xu Jin disappeared into thin air, causing Qiao Shen's other spatial star art to miss.

The next instant, a massive star power fluctuation rose from the ground.

Without knowing when, Xu Jin had already appeared below Qiao Shen.

Earth Origin Magnetism was activated instantly, the moment Qiao Shen fell downward.

Xu Jin, holding the Huang Long Sword, instantly turned into a residual shadow, and the sharp whistling sound of breaking air suddenly rang out.

At this very moment, Qiao Shen subconsciously looked toward the top of his head.

Previously, when Xu Jin cast this star art, whenever his body fell uncontrollably, a terrifying hill-sized star would descend from the sky.

But this time, there was none!

The moment the ear-piercing whistling sound rang out, Qiao Shen realized something was wrong.

At the same instant, intense pain struck, and a rain of blood exploded across the sky.

"Senior Brother Qiao!"

Liu Ju, who had just returned from substitute death, happened to see this scene and screamed in terror, wanting to step forward.

A forest-white starlight appeared, and Ning Yuchan's whirlwind heavy hammer had already spun into a mass, bombarding Liu Ju at high speed.

The moment he used Five-fold Triple Liushuo to kill Qiao Shen from bottom to top, Xu Jin put the Huang Long Sword into his Sumeru space at the first opportunity.

Most people wouldn't recognize the Huang Long Sword, and when he used it, it was at extreme speed, so others couldn't see it clearly.

But after using it, he had to put it away to prevent anyone from recognizing the origin of the Huang Long Sword.

Amidst the rain of blood across the sky, Qiao Shen's primordial spirit appeared.

Without hesitation, a streak of lightning appeared at his fingertip, blasting Qiao Shen's primordial spirit until it dissipated by half. Xu Jin's spirit power probed out like a light rope, heavily sealing Qiao Shen's primordial spirit, and then threw it into his own Sumeru space.

Completely slaying Qiao Shen's primordial spirit was just a matter of lifting a finger for Xu Jin.

But capturing Qiao Shen's primordial spirit alive was a rare commodity.

If he couldn't squeeze anything out of it later, it wouldn't be too late to slay it then.

The next instant, Xu Jin looked at Liu Ju, who was fighting Ning Yuchan.

Because Qiao Shen had been killed, Liu Ju acted like a mad tiger, but no matter how mad he was, Ning Yuchan was even madder than him.

They were all head-on techniques.

Moreover, after the previous round of great battle, Ning Yuchan already had some understanding of the power of the seventh tier and was also familiar with spatial star arts.

At this point, it was no longer possible to slay Ning Yuchan quickly.

At this time, Xu Jin's gaze made Liu Ju's heart jump violently, and he secretly thought he was done for.

But at the same time, Ning Yuchan's voice transmission rang in Xu Jin's mind, "You hurry into the Seven Kill Palace, don't be late."

"What about you?" Xu Jin asked.

"I'm just taking this seventh-tier expert to challenge myself and hone my actual combat! I still have substitute-death opportunities, don't worry," Ning Yuchan transmitted.

The next instant, Xu Jin turned around, holding the Seven Kill Token, and charged into the gate of the Seven Kill Palace.

(End of chapter)