Lord Xue Ying
chapter-653

The blood-robed cold man frowned. 'This soldier of the Destruction Legion is quite hard to deal with. The Dao he opened is actually one that allows him to create another world. That might seem weak in terms of offensive ability, but when it comes to survival capabilities and escaping methods, it is very formidable. The blood creature can't seem to even touch him!'

How could it win against an enemy it could not touch?

"Is that all you have?" Xue Ying stood there, sneering at the creature. "I'm just standing here, but it seems to me that you can't even touch a single strand of my hair. I thought you Blood Creatures were more formidable."

While it seemed like he was just criticizing the blood creature, he was actually also observing it searching for ways to defeat it.

"You're only hiding." The blood creature stopped in place, and let its huge claws fall by the sides of its body as it growled out, "Unless you come out, you won't be able to win either, and if you can't win, you will eventually be thrown out! By then, you likely won't get another chance to enter the Three Devil Palace for the rest of your life."

"Hide? I was merely giving you a chance by allowing you to attack first. Since you can't deal with me, I'll be making my move." Xue Ying's words had a tint of challenge in them, but it quickly became apparent that the blood creature, a lifeform groomed by the Ancestor Devil for the sake of battling, would not be affected in any way by any critique or challenging words.

"Hu."

Xue Ying suddenly disappeared from his original location.

While he was inside the Mirage world, if he decided to allow the other party to discover him, his opponent would be able to see him. But if he instead wished to conceal himself, the other party would not be able to see even a trace of him! This was just like how his flying knife True God weapon would disappear the moment it was thrown.

"He has truly entered another world." The blood-robed cold man watched on in silence.

...

Within the Mirage.

Just like standing by the side of a bank, watching the world underneath the surface of the water, Xue Ying got a rather unique feeling as he stood there, watching the ordinary world.

'The vast cosmos is truly mythical and unfathomable.'

'The ordinary world is where the absolute majority of lifeforms live in, but there are many unique places that can't be reached in the ordinary world. There are even other cosmoses!' Xue Ying was sighing. The more profound a realm he reached, the more he realized how little he knew. He now saw himself like an ant underneath the starry sky, seeing only half a dot within a single star.

However, he was quite happy and excited about his future journey down this road.

After all, with every bit of knowledge he gained, he would begin to understand more and more of the world. The current him had already transcended beyond the ordinary world, and he was starting to grasp hold of the Mirage world which he had opened. He was even starting to suspect that the Starting Ground was also some a sort of world similar to the Mirage world, but a few levels more profound. That is the reason he could teleport into the Starting Ground from anywhere in this cosmos, as well as the other way around.

The will of the material realm, the will of the Abyss, the Sun Star, the Moon Star, the Lake Heart Island, the Six Heavenly Wheel; none of these, or any other terrifying place could hope to obstruct the forced teleportation of the Starting Ground.

This single point was enough to leave Xue Ying sighing in praise.

Furthermore, the way he understood it, the senior of the Starting Ground should have been to many cosmoses and wasn't actually a member of this cultivation cosmos.

Even so, the strongest expert of his cosmos, the Lake Heart Island Master, had been able to discover the Starting Ground and force his way in, breaking through some of the security left behind by the senior. In terms of combat power, even if he had not reached that of the senior at that point, it should at least have been close.

'Since the Lake Heart Island Master was able to do it, our epoch should be able to achieve such a thing as well. I too must have a chance at reaching that level, and by then, I'll definitely start visiting the many different cosmoses to broaden my horizons.' Xue Ying revealed a grin. 'Maybe at that point, the Ancestor Mother Religion might be no more than a joke in front of me.'

The path of cultivation was indeed such that people would often become addicted to it.

Xue Ying could not help but laugh as he walked through the Mirage while continued to observe the alerted blood creature which was staring vacantly within the ordinary world.

'How about a slash as a start.' Xue Ying extended his hand, and the Flying Knife appeared in it.

"Hu."

In a flash, the Flying Knife reached the side of that blood creature and almost immediately afterward, it entered the ordinary world to attack the beast.

"Over here!" The blood creature twisted its body, and with a wave of its claw, parried the sudden appearance of the Flying Knife, sending it flying backward. Immediately afterward, the Flying Knife disappeared, returning to the Mirage world.

"What?!" Xue Ying was startled as he went out to collect his Flying Knife. Looking at the blood creature within the ordinary world, he thought, 'It was able to discover and parry the attack?'

Back when he fought Leaf Saint, he had yet to open his Dao of Mirage, so he was forced to rely on the Flying Knife itself. However, even though Leaf Saint had discovered it in advance, his combat power was much weaker, so he could only barely defend against it.

But this blood creature was different; it had discovered the attack even earlier! Furthermore, its combat power was much stronger than Leaf Saint', allowing him to parry the Flying Knife completely.

'Again.' Xue Ying did not dare believe it. 'I've already opened the Dao of Mirage, so my attacks should be harder to detect than this.'

"Xiu."

He threw the Flying Knife out again, but this time he was carefully observing its movements. What he discovered was that the creature discovered the attack as soon as the Flying Knife entered region filled with black ripples.

'It's those black ripples that are giving off the feeling of a powerful threat. Who would have thought that it could provide defenses in the ordinary world and even sense the Mirage world.' Xue Ying was shocked. 'The Ancestor Devil is indeed formidable. A simple lifeform he created for battle refined could actually sense my moves. Fortunately, his black ripples only affect a small area.'

The black ripples covered an area that was roughly 33 meters in diameter.

Xue Ying did not find this surprising. After all, even the Ancient Demons located in the Lower Three Edens were all at the ruler realm. Furthermore, similar demons located in the Upper Three Edens were even stronger. Even the Bloodshed God Emperor himself would suffer if he were to battle any of them! It must be stated that the Bloodshed God Emperor had reached the eternal large success level with his Shadow World, and the Temporal Island Lord had reached the eternal level with his Dao of Time-Space, but even they could not overwhelm these demons!

Clearly, even though their methods were rather unique and formidable, they were not even worth mentioning in front of the Ancestor Devil.

"Is throwing that Flying Knife the only thing you know how to do?" the blood creature growled but kept a close eye on any change in its surrounding.

"Have a taste of my spear technique, then," Xue Ying's voice reverberated within the palace hall. As he spoke, he had already begun charging forward with the Blood Serpent Spear in his hand. However, he did not forget to maintain a distance of more than 33 meters from the blood creature, so as not to enter the region covered in black ripples.

"Hu."

The Blood Serpent Spear began to stretch, quickly reaching a length of over 33 meters, then rapidly left the Mirage world to strike at the blood creature located in the real world.

There was a qualitative difference between the spear and the Flying Knife.

The Flying Knife was not very flexible, and its specialty laid n covert attacks alone.

However, when wielding the spear, he could make use of all his spear techniques, giving rise to flexibility and an element of surprise. Furthermore, Xue Ying could brandish it to much greater effect than the dagger. On top of that, while the spear had a single Dao inherent to it—the Dao of Slaughter—that single Dao had already reached the eternal level, giving it truly tyrannical power. On top of that, the Blood Serpent Venom it contained was also very sinister. Overall, while the spear was weaker than the knife in terms of its covertness, it triumphed over it in every other aspect! In addition, Xue Ying specialized in the Dao of Mirage, so he was able to keep his spear stealthy enough anyway. At least against this blood creature, it made no difference as long as the weapon did not enter the region where the black ripples could reach.

"Weng."

The spear's body twisted, bringing about a terrifying revolving force as it slithered toward the blood creature like a huge snake.

The blood creature hurriedly moved to parry the attack, but it was simply too close.

A region of 33 meters was too insignificant to someone of Xue Ying's level! Faced with the Flying Knife which was too straight-forward a strike, the blood creature was able to parry it easily. But now that he had to block a spear technique completely with its ability to change forms on the fly, the creature had a very hard time keeping up. It was, after all, not even a true lifeform. Although it could increase its power and defense, it was difficult for it to improve regarding its utilization of combat techniques.

In a single move, the spear poked through a gap between the beast's front claws and thrust itself right into its chest, leaving behind a fist-sized bloody hole.

"Hu hu hu~"

The Blood Serpent Spear formed afterimages as it struck frenziedly, but with great nuance in its movements.

The blood creature was roaring out as it tried its best to parry against the incoming attacks, but the Blood Serpent Spear had come thrusting straight out of the Mirage world, and was already too close by the time he could react, making it very difficult to deal with. The beast's claws turned huge as it tried its best to defend itself, but the spear would simply start sneaking attacks in from the flank.

"Peng."

Now and then, the spear would come into contact with the claws, yet even at such times, Xue Ying would merely be forced to take two steps back in the Mirage World. 'The force wasn't reduced at all even though it had to go through the weapon and into the Mirage world. This beast's attacks are truly concise.'

'Its strength is also slightly higher than mine, but it is fortunately still within a range I can manage without getting injured.'

Xue Ying was quite carefree; he had yet to suffer any injuries.

...

'He's opened a Dao that allows him to enter another world, so he should be very weak in terms of pure offense. On top of that, the defensive ability provided by the scales of the blood creature is quite formidable.' The blood-robed man continued to watch from a distance. Closely afterward, though, a fist-sized cavity hole appeared in the body of the blood creature, which left him in a momentary gaze. However, he quickly recovered his confidence as he thought, 'I did not think his offense would be this strong. The recovery ability of the blood creature is very strong, though, so it should be able to easily recover from this injury.'

But the actual result was quite different from his imagination. The beast's injuries were recovering very slowly, while more and more holes appeared all over its body; its injuries were getting heavier by the moment.

'How can this be?' The blood-robed man was genuinely shocked, and he hurriedly asked, "What happened, blood creature?"

"The assault launched by this soldier of the Destruction Legion is very unpredictable but also powerful," the blood creature growled. "On top of that, his weapon is coated in a hexing poison that is hard to deal with."

"This…"

The blood-robed cold man was staring slack-jawed at this scene.

Even though the battle was still ongoing, the conclusion was already clear.

The blood creature could not touch Xue Ying, while every attack Xue Ying launched further increased the blood creature's degree of injury. On top of that, its injuries were recovering much slower than new ones appeared. Unless something changed, the blood creature would die as a result of the battle.

The battle continued for an hour or more before the blood creature finally collapsed. It then condensed back into a drop of black blood, but this time, the aura inherent was much weaker.

The blood-robed man waved its hand, and the black blood disappeared.

"It's your win," the man said with a snort.

Only after hearing this did Xue Ying step out of the Mirage to once again stand within the palace hall.

"This is the command token for the Three Devil Palace," the blood-robed man said in a frigid tone as he threw the token towards Xue Ying.

"Now get lost."

Immediately afterward, the blood-robed man teleported Xue Ying out of the palace—a bubble enveloped him just like earlier.

Now that he was alone in the empty palace hall again, the blood-robed man muttered, "Who would have thought that a soldier of the Destruction Legion would obtain the command token for the Three Devil Palace! Sir Ancestor Devil was too benevolent to leave a chance even to those damned soldiers from the Destruction Legion."

...

"Hu."

Xue Ying had just obtained the command token for the Three Devil Palace when he felt his entire body shatter into pieces, then condense once again.

'This is…?' Xue Ying looked around him, quickly noticing the enormous Ancient Demon sleeping in the distance.

'I'm out, and I was sent back to where the Ancient Demon is.' Xue Ying smiled. At the same time, he borrowed the Mirage world's ability to investigate his surroundings, and it was not long before he discovered the four protectors from the Ancestor Mother Religion who were hiding away. At the same time that he discovered them, the protectors also noticed Xue Ying, and vigor began filling their minds, followed quickly afterward by expressions of joy.