Chapter 222: The Mantis, the Oriole, and the Hunter

After making his decision, Wan Yao immediately gave an order. “The entire army is on lockdown! No one is allowed to enter or leave the main camp! Anyone who tries to force their way out will be shot on sight!”

Although Su Wu was confused, how could he dare to question him? He acknowledged the order and left to make the arrangements. There were tens of thousands of soldiers in the army camp. With Qin Haoxuan wearing the uniform of an ordinary soldier and using the Mortal Talisman, he was completely indistinguishable from the others, so it would be a while before he could be found. But to continue staying here was not an option.

“What do we do now?” Qin Haoxuan asked Xing.

Xing looked at the soldiers who were quickly setting up the lockdown. “Why don’t we just charge out on horseback?”

Qin Haoxuan rejected the idea. “Although we’re not afraid of being shot by arrows, Wan Yao is at the Thirtieth-Leaf of the Spirit Sprout Realm. We can’t outrun him on horseback! We need to find a more reliable method. If we alert Master Chi Lian, it will be even more troublesome.”

“An Earth Evasion Talisman?” Xing suggested to himself, then immediately dismissed the idea. “That won’t work either. We used it to ambush the Fifteenth-Leaf Perfected Man Hulu, and because his cultivation level wasn’t high, he couldn’t detect us. But Wan Yao is a Thirtieth-Leaf cultivator, and his strength is far greater than a rogue cultivator like Hulu. Using an Earth Evasion Talisman will definitely cause a slight fluctuation of spiritual energy, and he will certainly be able to sense it.”

Unable to find a way to escape, Qin Haoxuan said to Xing, “Then let’s wait until nightfall to decide. We’ll escape then; it will be much harder for these mortal soldiers to find us.”

Xing nodded. “That’s the only way.”

They were both cultivators. Even without using spiritual energy, they could easily evade the mortal soldiers and escape. But to their despair, that Wan Yao actually began to set up an array. This Wan Yao was ruthless enough. He knew that relying on mortal soldiers alone would not be enough to hold a cultivator like Qin Haoxuan, so he had simply spent his entire fortune of spirit stones to set up this array, covering the entire camp. Now, any movement would not escape his senses.

This warning array was extremely costly in terms of spirit stones, and after setting it up, Wan Yao was completely broke. But he did not feel any regret. Qin Haoxuan was someone his master, a Spirit Tree Realm expert, was putting so much effort into capturing. The treasures on him were coveted even by such an expert. For him, a Thirtieth-Leaf cultivator, it would surely be a heavenly fortune.

After enveloping the camp in the array, Wan Yao ordered Su Wu to begin screening the soldiers, to prevent Qin Haoxuan from hiding among them. At the same time, he constantly sensed the surrounding spiritual energy. Although he didn’t know what method Qin Haoxuan was using to conceal his aura, as long as there was the slightest fluctuation of spiritual energy within the array, he would be able to detect it immediately.

“This Wan Yao is truly decisive and ruthless, a worthy disciple of Master Chi Lian,” Xing praised. He then said to Qin Haoxuan, “They’ve started to check the soldiers’ identities now. It won’t be long before they get to us. I have my True Demon Transformation; I can just turn into an ant and crawl out. But you can’t! Decide quickly, otherwise, when Master Chi Lian arrives, we’ll have even less chance of escaping.”

“There is no other way now. He can detect any fluctuation of spiritual energy. Our only option is to be forced to fight him. Perhaps then we’ll have a chance to escape,” Qin Haoxuan said. “A Seventeenth-Leaf Long Tian’ao was already so difficult to deal with. Wan Yao is a Thirtieth-Leaf cultivator from the Taichu Sect; he’s certainly not someone a rogue cultivator can compare to. With his strength, killing me would be a sure thing.”

Xing said, “We can’t fight him head-on, so we’ll ambush him! Find a chance to ambush him and kill him!”

“Never mind if we can ambush him or not, even killing him would be a problem,” Qin Haoxuan sighed. “He’s a disciple of the Taichu Sect. If we kill him, Master Chi Lian will surely seize on this and say we are killing our own. That’s a major crime. At that point, even if he doesn’t kill me, the sect’s rules will deal with me.”

Xing frowned. “Then what do we do?”

“What else can we do? If we can kill him, we’ll kill him immediately. Saving our own lives is what’s important,” Qin Haoxuan said with a wry smile.

To screen the soldiers one by one was easier said than done. After all, there were tens of thousands of them in the camp. A full day passed in the blink of an eye, and soon, it would be their turn.

Xing said anxiously, “What do we do? Do we attack or not?”

Qin Haoxuan observed Wan Yao’s tent from a distance. “There’s no opportunity. His tent is guarded by Su Wu’s personal guards. We can’t get close.”

“Then what? Are we just going to wait to be captured?” Xing said. “I have a way to escape, but you can’t get out.”

Soon, the generals who had seen Qin Haoxuan before, led by Su Wu, were leading the search party, carrying his portrait, and were about to reach the unit he was hiding in. Qin Haoxuan and Xing exchanged a look, both preparing to fight their way out the moment they were discovered.

…

BOOM!

“Kill…”

Before they could make a move, they suddenly felt the earth tremble. A powerful spiritual energy blanketed the area like an earthquake, and then the sound of battle cries filled the air.

Su Wu, who was screening the soldiers, his expression changed. “What’s happening? What’s happening?”

Soon, a soldier covered in blood came running to report. “Reporting to the General, another High Immortal has appeared in the enemy camp. That High Immortal is flying in the air, and at the same time, the enemy we had surrounded is launching a counterattack!”

“What, another High Immortal has come? And he’s flying in the sky?” Su Wu’s face changed. Neither Qin Haoxuan nor Wan Yao, nor the several enemy cultivators Qin Haoxuan had killed, could fly. But this enemy immortal could? Even a fool like him could guess that this time, the enemy’s immortal was extremely powerful.

Immediately, Su Wu also stopped screening the soldiers and gave an order. “Form up the entire army! Prepare for battle!” After giving the order, he also rushed to ask Wan Yao to meet the enemy cultivator in battle.

When the ground had trembled and the powerful spiritual energy had descended, Wan Yao had already walked out of his tent with a look of utter shock. Qin Haoxuan and Xing also took advantage of the chaos to go outside and look at the cultivator hovering in the sky.

He was a middle-aged man, his face like white jade, his green long robe looking both proper and refined. Floating in the air, he was like a god descended to the mortal realm, looking down with an indifferent gaze. His sharp eyes seemed to scan every single person, and everyone could feel a powerful pressure. Even these battle-hardened soldiers couldn’t help but feel their hearts tremble when they saw his indifferent gaze.

This middle-aged man was standing on a flying sword. The sword was glowing with a cyan light, and its sword intent was cold and clear. Qin Haoxuan just glanced at it and felt as if a sword qi had pierced his heart.

Xing, seeing the flying sword he was standing on, let out a low cry. “A flying sword! That’s a real flying sword!”

Wan Yao, after walking out of his tent, was visibly startled when he saw the cultivator on the flying sword. This person’s aura was even sharper than his master’s, and he possessed a true flying sword. He could imagine that he was definitely a Spirit Tree Realm expert. A true Spirit Tree Realm expert!

The middle-aged man saw Wan Yao come out and let out a cold snort. The flying sword under his feet flew into his hand. As the sword returned to his hand, the aura of the surroundings changed. Even a Spirit Sprout Realm cultivator like Qin Haoxuan could feel that all directions were filled with sword qi. Although this sword qi was not actively attacking anyone, it felt as if with a single thought from the cultivator, anything within its range would be ground to dust.

The heavens and the earth, at this moment, were all within this Daoist’s sword. If he wished… not a single blade of grass would be left in this place. In Qin Haoxuan’s eyes, this middle-aged man holding the flying sword was no different from the god of death.

His body was like a great roc swooping down towards Wan Yao. At the same time, he raised the flying sword in his hand and swung it down. The clear blue sky, without a single cloud, instantly turned dark. The blue sky and the sun that radiated heat both dimmed at this moment, as if all the light in the surroundings had been sucked away by the flying sword in the man’s hand.

The heavens and the earth were darkened by the sword, and the sword was made dazzling by the heavens and the earth. In this world, there was only this one sword, only this one streak of sword qi. As the flying sword came down, the sword qi kicked up a series of tornadoes. The battlefield, which had been filled with the stench of blood, was instantly swept by a storm of flying sand and stones. Severed limbs were swept into the air and were ground to dust by countless tiny sword qi. The minced flesh fell like rain, but what was incredible was that while countless limbs were ground to dust by the fine sword qi, not a single one of the mortals present was harmed.

This giant sword qi, hundreds of zhang long, slashed towards Wan Yao with an unstoppable momentum. Wan Yao was so frightened his soul nearly fled his body. A flying sword! This was a real flying sword, a powerful weapon that not even his master possessed. How could the Tongtian Temple have such a monster?

Although this was a casual strike from the cultivator, a single blow from a Spirit Tree Realm expert using a real flying sword was not something a mere Thirtieth-Leaf cultivator like him could block. He immediately crushed a protective talisman. This talisman had the ability to defend against one strike from a Spirit Tree Realm expert. It had been given to him by his master, Master Chi Lian, and he usually treated it as a priceless treasure. But at this moment, he crushed it without a second thought.

A powerful spiritual energy rose from the talisman and then formed into a giant black shield in front of him. The sword qi, which seemed capable of splitting the heavens and the earth, cut into the shield. Like a landslide, it shattered the shield, but the remaining sword qi, its force greatly depleted, still slashed at Wan Yao. His protective spiritual energy was shattered, and a deep gash, revealing his internal organs, appeared on his chest, spraying blood. A single strike from a Spirit Tree Realm expert using a flying sword was this powerful.

“What a powerful strike!” Seeing this, Qin Haoxuan was completely stunned. Although the sword qi had been aimed at Wan Yao, its terrifying sword intent left a huge shadow in his heart. “If that strike had been aimed at me, I would have certainly died, no matter how many tricks I had.”

Recalling that snow-white sword qi, like a bolt of lightning that had torn across the sky, carrying the majestic might of the heavens, in front of this middle-aged man’s sword, the powerful Thirtieth-Leaf Wan Yao had been completely powerless to fight back.

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