Chapter 248: A Battle of Two Powerhouses in the Illusory Sea of Consciousness

But besides Qin Haoxuan, who had this fated encounter and happened to meet a Lan Yan who could set up the Illusory Sea of Consciousness, how many other cultivators could experience death even once? Let alone Qin Haoxuan, who had experienced it a full one hundred and fifty times, to the point of becoming slightly mentally deranged.

The current Qin Haoxuan was in urgent need of a slaughter to vent the bloodlust in his heart, to vent the fear of death.

When Li Jing saw Qin Haoxuan, he was also startled. In his impression, he had always been very normal. Whether it was Zhang Kuang dealing with him, or himself plotting against him, his expression had always been very calm. How was it that after this seclusion, he seemed a bit mentally unstable?

Without wasting any words, Li Jing arranged two teammates for him, and their three-man interception squad set out.

Among the three, the one with the lowest realm, the Eighth-Leaf Qin Haoxuan, took the lead. The other two teammates, a Sixteenth-Leaf and a Tenth-Leaf, tacitly acknowledged his status and obediently followed behind him. It wasn’t just that his two slaughters before the seclusion had won their respect, but more importantly, after his seclusion, his aura was more restrained, but the occasional sharp glint and killing intent that flashed in his eyes frightened them.

Having experienced one hundred and fifty deaths, he also cherished life more. He did not walk around swaggeringly in remote places as he had before, but instead found a path that the rogue cultivators had to pass through and hid himself.

WHOOSH!

Like a hungry wolf that had spotted a sheep, the moment the Nineteenth-Leaf cultivator drew near, Qin Haoxuan’s body shot out like an arrow released from a bow.

SPLAT! His head was directly smashed to pieces.

From the moment he launched his attack to the moment he killed the enemy, his two teammates had not even had time to react. All they knew was that the Qin Haoxuan beside them had disappeared. When they looked at him, who was calmly, even smilingly, collecting the spoils of war, four words flashed through their minds: “Like a wolf, like a tiger!”

When combat becomes a person’s daily routine, progress becomes inevitable. After ten days and more than a hundred life-or-death battles, Qin Haoxuan had continuously summarized, learned from his mistakes, and tried to change. Both his body’s coordination and his control of spiritual energy had made great strides. This could be seen from today’s bloody slaughter.

As his two astonished teammates walked out from their hiding place, he had already collected the spoils of war and said indifferently, “Next one.”

Soon, a Twentieth-Leaf rogue cultivator appeared ahead. But this time, it wasn’t him ambushing, but the other party ambushing them. This Twentieth-Leaf rogue cultivator had an arrogant air. In his eyes, this Taichu Sect interception squad, with its strongest member at only the Sixteenth-Leaf, was just a side dish. Killing them would be a matter of no suspense at all.

He commanded his Talisman Beast to pounce on the strongest of them, the Sixteenth-Leaf disciple. The disciple hadn’t even had time to react when Qin Haoxuan, who had already sensed the airflow and the sound of the wind, released the fierce ghost sealed in his right arm. The ghost threw a punch and directly blew the Talisman Beast to pieces.

How is that possible?

In the instant between life and death, the rogue cultivator, knowing he shouldn’t be distracted, was still stunned for a moment. An Eighth-Leaf junior cultivator, how is his combat strength so powerful? Then, under Qin Haoxuan’s command, the fierce ghost, like a meteor, once again charged in front of him. This pitiful Twentieth-Leaf rogue cultivator hadn’t even had time to react.

SPLAT!

His head was smashed, and blood and gore splattered everywhere. Before his headless corpse had even fallen, the fierce ghost had already been recalled by Qin Haoxuan and resealed. From the moment he had struck to the moment he had killed the enemy and resealed the ghost, the speed and the low consumption of spiritual energy were much greater than before. This was also a result of his ten days of seclusion.

But this pitiful rogue cultivator who had been hiding in the shadows for a sneak attack could never have imagined that his ambush on three Taichu disciples much weaker than himself would fail, his Talisman Beast would be destroyed, and he himself would be killed. Everything had happened so fast he hadn’t had time to react. It was almost as if the moment he had released his beast, his head had been smashed in the next second.

His two teammates were stunned for a long moment. It took the Sixteenth-Leaf senior brother a long time to come to his senses—Qin Haoxuan had just saved his life.

“Let’s go. Continue,” Qin Haoxuan said, turning his head to his grateful senior brother with a faint smile, his expression calm and unruffled.

After two battles, or rather, two one-sided slaughters, a great deal of the pent-up frustration in his heart had been released, and his spirit had returned to a more normal state. He no longer looked so terrifying.

In the following few hours, they ran into another rogue cultivator, but it was the same story. Qin Haoxuan took the lead, and his two teammates didn’t even have a chance to get involved. Footwork, strike, a single blow to kill.

Xing, in his soft armor form, sighed in a voice only he could hear, “Amazing. Unbelievably awesome.”

…

Returning to the tent, Qin Haoxuan was in a great mood, no longer looking like the man-eater he had been in the morning. He had killed three rogue cultivators today, and although their realms were generally not high, he had still earned seven thousand spirit stones.

He was extremely happy and said to Xing, “Well, was my killing spree today awesome or what? Am I formidable?”

Xing seemed to have completely forgotten that he had praised him before. He glanced at him out of the corner of his eye and said, “Is that so? Why don’t you let me see how formidable you are?”

At this moment, Qin Haoxuan’s self-confidence was overflowing. He nodded in agreement without hesitation.

“Let me see how formidable you are first.”

Qin Haoxuan smiled confidently, with the air of an expert. “Bring it on.”

Xing gave Lan Yan a look, and she also happily set up the formation. A moment later, Qin Haoxuan was sitting in the formation, entering the illusory sea of consciousness.

The moment he entered, he took a look and immediately cursed, “Holy crap! Why are both Master Liuyun and Jian Chen here? Can two enemies come at the same time in the illusory sea of consciousness?” While cursing, he was already engaged in a struggle with Master Liuyun, while at the same time having to defend against Jian Chen’s attacks.

Against either one of them, he would have won easily. But with the two of them teaming up, two experts who both excelled in speed, they suppressed him completely. Before long, he was cut down like a vegetable and sent out.

Clutching his head, enduring the intense pain from both his body and soul, he cursed, “Holy crap, why were there two of them? Since when could two enemies enter at the same time? Ah…”

Lan Yan looked innocent and said, “Who said the illusory sea of consciousness can only accommodate one enemy? I certainly never said that.”

Xing chimed in from the side, “Exactly. Didn’t you say to let us bring it on?”

Clutching his head, Qin Haoxuan no longer paid them any attention. He waited for the pain to subside and then sat cross-legged to recover his spiritual energy. After he was full, he glared at Xing, his eyes wide with anger.

Xing smiled in surprise. “From the looks of it, are you challenging me?”

Qin Haoxuan gritted his teeth and nodded, the anger in his eyes seeming to condense into a physical substance.

Xing laughed in amusement. He very straightforwardly plucked a hair and gave it to Lan Yan, then squeezed out a drop of blood. “With blood and hair together, my consciousness can also control the me in your sea of consciousness. The fight will be more like a real one. Come on.”

Entering the sea of consciousness again, it was still the same gray sky and gray earth. Opposite him was Xing, who had reverted to his demonic form. He was exceptionally handsome, with the appearance of a beautiful man. Unlike the person who had been condensed from just a hair before, this one had a wicked smile on his face, his gaze casually falling on Qin Haoxuan.

Qin Haoxuan roared and shot out like an arrow released from a bow. As he approached, he suddenly released two fierce ghosts. If it had been an ordinary Twentieth-Leaf rogue cultivator, caught off guard, they would have only had to wait for death. The two fierce ghosts attacked him from the left and right, while he, from the front, raised a fist. To get his revenge for just now, he used all his strength. This was a strike with his body adjusted to its absolute peak. He was confident that even if Xing could block it, he would surely be injured.

BOOM!

A loud bang sounded. One of the fierce ghosts crashed into Xing’s fist. The other, as it approached him, was dodged by a flash of his figure. The ghost that had crashed into his fist was dissipated, its body shrouded in yin energy, a sign that it had been seriously injured. Xing’s body also swayed, and blood flowed from his fist.

After meeting the fierce ghost head-on, the disdain on his face vanished, because Qin Haoxuan’s own punch had also arrived. However, he had no intention of letting it hit him. He flashed to the side and dodged it.

His punch having missed, Qin Haoxuan immediately condensed a Heaven-Cleaving Slash, a twenty-foot-long cyan blade of qi chopping straight at him.

Xing was still unhurried. He chuckled and formed a hand seal. A pool of green water appeared in front of him. When Qin Haoxuan’s slash hit it, it was like hitting a ball of cotton; it had no force at all. He deliberately provoked him. “This is specially designed to counter your Heaven-Cleaving Slash. Not bad, right?”

Qin Haoxuan dispersed the blade of qi and, turning his hand, formed another seal. A ball of fire appeared in front of him. Just as the fireball was about to strike him, Xing also immediately formed a hand seal. His speed of preparing a spell was much shorter than Qin Haoxuan’s. In the blink of an eye, a dark cloud appeared above Qin Haoxuan’s head, and a torrential downpour fell, directly extinguishing his flame. He was turned into a drowned rat.

His first strike having failed, he was not discouraged. He condensed another spell, and a series of ice arrows appeared in front of him. With a wave of his hand, they shot towards Xing.

Xing chuckled, and as if he were just playing, he formed a hand seal, and instantly a wall of fire appeared in front of him. Before the ice arrows could even get close, they were melted into water and then directly evaporated.

“Interesting, interesting!” Xing clapped his hands and dispersed the fire wall, laughing. “If you wanted to give me a bath, you should have made more water. This isn’t even enough to wash my face.”

Qin Haoxuan’s face was grim. He had used three offensive spiritual arts, yet they had all been so easily countered. He knew that to perfectly counter an opponent’s spell, besides having a higher cultivation realm, technique was also very important. If one’s control was not good, one could even misfire and get injured.

His combat strength was not much weaker than Xing’s, but his cultivation realm was indeed far inferior. This was his biggest disadvantage.

“My turn, right? Behold my Nine Nether Demonic Fire!” Xing blinked and then, like a child who had seen a toy, he waved his hands, and a large patch of fireballs appeared in his hands, which he then casually threw over.

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