Lord Xue Ying
chapter-367

"I’ve obtained my reputation through strength." Under the silver mask, Elder You Ping’s eyes glittered with a trace of madness. "It’s easy to tell that you’ve likely learned some kind of survival-focused World Deity grade secret technique in Crimson Rock Mountain. Alas, your survivability might be high, but that does not mean your combat power is just as great. How about I show you, a tiny genius Transcendent from a mortal world, just how vast the world is and how numerous the strong are!"

With the last of those words, an incorporeal power descended, enveloping Xue Ying from every direction.

Inside this vast domain, Elder You Ping was the nucleus. He was the ruler.

"A Deity Domain?" Xue Ying instantly recognized it. "You Ping, this Level 12 Star Pagoda’s rays of light illuminate every corner of the world it creates. Your Deity Domain is useless.

"Is it?" You Ping coldly smiled.

Weng weng weng~~~

Countless ripples appeared inside the domain’s area of effect. Ripple upon ripple spread outward in every direction from You Ping’s location. They covered almost every point between the heaven and the earth. The Star Pagoda world was spread over an area of ten thousand kilometers, but the ripples actually covered it all. Many of them converged onto Xue Ying’s body, at a first glance seemingly tangling and binding him without stop.

You Ping’s body released countless of these ripples, and they all converged on Xue Ying’s body.

They were the two points of focus of all the countless ripples in that area of ten thousand kilometers.

"En?" Xue Ying’s eyebrows slightly furrowed. Of course, he always had the option of hiding inside the Mirage. With his Mirage Secret Skill, Condensing Reality, there was nothing that could stop him from disappearing without trace and leaving his his enemy unable to follow him.

But this was his first life-or-death battle after many years of cultivating inside the Crimson Dust Island.

After defeating You Ping, he feared the Sorcerer God and Great Demonic God would launch an even more frenzied counterattack. So Xue Ying felt that he had to use this battle as an opportunity to truly temper his suite of spear techniques. If it could serve as the catalyst for breaking through to the Deity Heart stage, that would be even more splendid.

"How is it? Can you feel the restrictions: your movement being greatly obstructed and your speed slowed to a crawl?" You Ping’s left hand extended, and a knife appeared out of nowhere. It had a simple black scabbard, but the sword handle itself was of a deep red. "Back when I was still a Transcendent, I encountered many enemies in the Deity world whom I’ve fought time and time again. Among them, there were even some so-called ‘genius Transcendents.’ Not one of them could take a single cut of my dagger. I’d like to see how many cuts you will be able to last for."

"Have none of those opponents ever told you that you talk too much nonsense?" Xue Ying was just standing in mid-air, holding onto the Blood-Drinking Spear.

"I speak too much?" He began saying, when…

Hua.

In what seemed like an instant, Elder You Ping’s entire body, alongside an incorporeal ripple, disappeared without trace. His speed was terrifyingly fast. Only with the aid of the Star Pagoda could Xue Ying confirm his trajectory.

"Too fast." Xue Ying was speechless.

Elder You Ping suddenly appeared a hundred meters to Xue Ying’s left. His left hand held onto the scabbard, while his right hand suddenly flashed.

Shua!

Like the sun’s rays passing through the surface of the water, the first sword light burst forth.

The sword light was so fast that it left behind a ray of light in mid-air!

Dang! Xue Ying moved his spear to block the attack essentially through sheer instinct. He was already displaying one of the spear secret skills he had comprehended—Great Earth.

As the name implied, this skill was a defensive spear technique. It sought to replicate how the earth was unified into a whole so as to make his opponent unable to break through.

The knife’s edge stopped just as it collided with the front end of Xue Ying’s spear shaft.

The two Deity treasures clashed, spraying invisible ripples in every direction.

Shua.

The knife was immediately withdrawn.

The faraway You Ping had already faded away, leaving behind only a clear scar of sword light in the air.

That was too abrupt and quick. Xue Ying was finally serious. Previously, the attacks the Battleship B9 could employ were restricted to the arrays set up beforehand. Attack or retreat— that was about it. Real powerhouses instead comprehended the Laws of the heaven and the earth and grasped a great deal of Profound Mysteries. The attacks they could launch were many and varied. That was why true powers ultimately relied on themselves in battle.

"You’ve actually blocked it. That technique’s defensive ability is quite strong; I’d quite like to see how many more of my attacks you can deflect." You Ping’s voice reverberated throughout the ripple domain.

Shua shua shua.

You Ping suddenly appeared to Xue Ying’s right and instantly released a ray of light.

He then appeared behind him with another ray of light.

His figure flickered again and again.

Again and again, his sword shone.

It was extremely fast.

His sword strikes were fast, but Xue Ying had the advantage of having grasped an entire set of spear techniques. This defensive secret skill, Great Earth, made it so that not even a drop of water could leak through. He could protect himself even if he fell over. Of course, the Star Pagoda also helped by allowing him to discover Elder You Ping’s whereabouts. If he didn’t know where he was coming from when he suddenly struck, the difficulty of blocking the attack would skyrocket.

His speech, of how many opponents were unable to block even one attack of his back when he was a Transcendent, now made sense.

Not only did his figure leave no traces, his sword technique was so fast, those invisible ripples also served to restrict Xue Ying. Thankfully, the majestic Great Chaotic True Force circulated inside Xue Ying’s body, a force of extreme violence. Such a valiant force made a suppression of that level count for very, very little. It allowed Xue Ying, in the end, to block a cut by means of his spear technique secret skill.

"Eh?" Back inside the fortress, the Sorcerer God and Great Demonic God kept watching. The Great Demonic God was somewhat confused. "What’s going on? He, a personal disciple of the Qi Lan Emperor, is continuously striking, but Xue Ying can actually block his every attack?"

"Don’t worry, he’s only doing this to probe his opponent." The Sorcerer God better understood You Ping, having been the one to personally invite him. "Even against an opponent like Xue Ying, Elder You Ping remains very cautious. Right now, he’s merely using a tactic of advancing when he can attack and retreating so he can defend. When he truly shows his fangs, Xue Ying will no longer have any chance to protect himself."

From afar, the Xia Clan Transcendents looked on.

Elder You Ping was just too fast! So fast, in fact, that they couldn’t even see his tracks.

Truthfully, Xue Ying could clearly see Elder You Ping’s figure only when he appeared to attack, while the rest of the time he used the Star Pagoda to observe his movements. The other Xia Clan Transcendents, on the other hand, could not even see him clearly in that instant when he appeared.

After all, just as You Ping revealed himself and made a move, he would immediately flicker back and change positions.

Changing positions, again and again.

The Xia Clan Transcendents were only able to see ray after ray of light flashing in mid-air from the knife. Every time, the knife would leave behind a deep crack-like scar in space where it passed.

"If he were to fight one of us, I’m afraid we wouldn’t even be able to react." Palace Head Chen, Chao Qing, Si Kong Yang, the Sea Deity Palace Head, Chi Qiu Bai—every last one of them could all sense the huge gap. They were witnessing the strength of an apex Transcendent of the Deity world who had already become a Deity.

Over a hundred consecutive cuts, every one of them to be described in a single word—quick!

On top of that, every attack came from a different direction.

"Your spear technique’s defense is truly tight." You Ping’s body suddenly moved ten meters along the ripples. "It’s time for me to launch a direct attack then."

A cold light flashed through his eyes.

Hong!

His body suddenly reappeared in mid-air, each of his hands now grasping a blade—deep red knives raised up high! Their whole blades seemed, at that moment, as if they had become a black sun—a pitch-black sun with countless flames flaring in every direction! Despite only having been raised up, the power those knives emitted made Xue Ying feel apprehensive.

"Ah." The faraway Xia Clan Transcendents watching the battle had also finally made out Elder You Ping’s figure.

This had been the first time throughout this battle that Elder You Ping held a knife in each hand.

Both hands held a knife and raised them up high. It looked as if he was holding a sun on the verge of imploding.

He’s going all out? Xue Ying grasped his spear with both hands. This Elder You Ping had previously launched all of his moves in an instant, but his current battle style was completely different. He was actually showing his moves out in the open. This new way of action made Xue Ying feel slightly unsettled.

"Die!" Elder You Ping furiously howled.

Hong!

In an instant, the knives, which had turned into an enormous black sun, suddenly exploded.

Or, rather, it was the sun that exploded!

A sudden expanse of bright white covered the space between the heavens and the earth. It was impossible to tell anything apart with the naked eye; although be it through the Ripple Domain, his own Mirage Domain, the disturbance of the Extreme Piercing Domain, or the observation of the Star Pagoda, Xue Ying could clearly understand…that hidden beneath the vast expanse of whiteness was a knife slashing toward him with incomparable speed.

Its speed was simply too fast—so fast that even if Xue Ying were to use his spear to block through sheer instinct, it would still be too slow to intercept it.

After all, even an instinctive reaction would take some time to employ.

The attack moved so fast that it was already too late for Xue Ying to block it.

Peng!

In an instant, Xue Ying was struck and sent flying into the depths of the desert.

The vast white expanse between the heavens and earth began to gradually dissipate, revealing the silver-masked Elder You Ping high up in the sky.

All of the spectators, be they the Xia Clan Transcendents, the Sorcerer God, or the Great Demonic God, all nervously held their breaths.

Ke ke ke. After a fit of coughing, Xue Ying walked out from beneath the desert. He wiped the corners of his mouth, which previously showed some blood, and raised his head to look at Elder You Ping in mid-air. "What was that attack? Quite terrifying; it actually made me spit blood."

Due to the suppression of the Star Pagoda, Elder You Ping could previously display the strength of a late-stage Deity at most. This one strike, however, had rapidly soared close to the peak of the Deity stage! But more importantly, it contained terrifying Laws and Profound Mysteries. Through them, the knife moved with such speed that even Xue Ying had no way of blocking it, while its power was enough to damage his body. Even then, Xue Ying had already determined the cut’s power was still within the range that his body could bear, so he chose to resist head-on rather than expose his Mirage secret skill. After all, he had only one opponent at the moment, this person right before his eyes.

"He merely spat some blood?" Elder You Ping gloomily muttered. "I displayed a secret skill, yet that was all it achieved?"

******

I was delayed~~ the update is a little late (author)