My sword was still strapped to my hand, as I finally managed to open my eyes, I found myself laying on the hard floor, beneath me there seem to be something wet and faintly cold, I was still feeling the two fetal wounds that I had just gotten in my fight with that weird thing .
The ball of light sinking into my chest was the last thing I saw before I appeared here again, my senses were a bit dull, it seem that sun was about to rise, maybe we were still at dawn, maybe I was imagining it, but I did sense that the sky got a bit brighter .
I tried to reach for my pouch and luckily it seemed to be still there, I withdraw an Azure Wood Pill and directly swallowed it, instantly a warm current of energy swept through my whole body and helped me in mending my injuries, another pill bottle was opened and a Blood Qi Recovery Pill was withdrawn and eaten as well .
Instantly I felt that my weak body seemed to become vigorous, I managed to sit down and this little action of mine, caught the attention of my already leaving opponent, but I was able to see that he wasn't leaving, he was merely heading to where the two parties Gu Yi and Chu Jian were fighting .
These guys weapon clanging sounds still sounded loudly in my ears, there seemed to be reaching climax with their fight, Chu Cheng sensing a movements behind him was taken aback at first and couldn't help but stop in his tracks and turned his head and saw me setting there looking at him blankly, a look that seemed to trigger his anger, then with a quite the vicious and cold smile on his face he said :
So you are still alive, good, I thought that I had unintentionally killed you just now, so do you want to start talking or should I kill you for real this time .
I continued to stare at him with the same blank look on my face, then I stood up and started to walk towards him, he seeing me like this seemed to be erupting with even more anger for some reason, he draw his sword and unleashed a flurry of Blood Qi slashes at me .
I looked at the incoming sword attacks and used the Integration concept that I had recently comprehended, then using Tiger's Strike as the basis, I started to urge Life-Severing secret technique to the maximum and saw my Retribution sword started to gleam completely, then with each swing of my sword, an energy slash would materialize in an arc of light .
In an instant, my whole Blood Qi reserve was empty again, but my flurry of energy blades met with his and they both offset one another, my flurry of attacks managed to make his be directed elsewhere, cutting through house edges, demolishing walls, wrecking havock in this area .
The echoes of what just happened seemed to hit him deep, I saw that without even saying a single sentence, he directly tried the move he used before and raised his sword beside his head and said :
You were on the verge of death just by this shockwaves that this move created, I wonder how would you like its full taste, its name is the Impaling Sword, the second sword move of the Killing Shadow Sword technique that I practice, don't worry I won't kill you, but a limb would do .
As he finished saying this, he disappeared from my vision and was now like a speeding streak of red aiming to impale me with that sword of his, having full confidence in his ability to best me, seeing that my eyes wasn't able to follow his movements, I discarded the thought of using it and closed my eyes, he seeing me acting like this said :
It's good that you had accepted your fate, this might make you suffer less pain .
He said this sarcastically, not even thinking about whether I had a plan for him in mind or not, no it was better to say that he believed that I should not pose any danger to him, well he is about to experience whether was that truly the case or not .
As he reached me and his sword was thrusted forward into the tendons in my left arm, the arm holding the Retribution Sword, it seemed that he was still determined on getting it, I moved and we clashed, then an arm flow into the air, a right arm holding a red gleaming sword that was now losing its gleam was in that arm .
He directly fell on the ground in front of me and released a pained shrill that was deafening to the ears, after he realized that he was still in my grasp, he rolled on the ground and made some distance between us while falling into a hysterical condition of denial and disbelief, he kept on thinking about how and why was I able to do something like this out loud .
After he had already expected to severe my arm and almost succeeded on doing so, his arm was the one that got severed, how, it was quite easy actually, Retribution wasn't a weapon that had shown much of grand qualities before, but one of the few great qualities it have was being much sharper than normal weapon .
Not to mention my Resentment energy which can erode the body of all living things, the Sword needed to touch the skin of an opponent and it will be instantly able to pierce through it instantly .
All I needed was good timing and fast reflexes, the sword move that I used was a basic sword move that I had happened to have witnessed only in movies and live actions, an upwards cut and due to how much strength he used and how timed my actions were, instead of getting impaled by his sword, his arm got cleaved by an upward vertical sword slash .
Something that was done perfectly and exactly as I had imagined, thanks to Fluidity and the Essence of Thunderclap I was able to have good enough reflexes to know when to strike him, me loosening my guard made him loosen his too, allowing me to catch him completely off guard .
As for how I was able to pick the right time to strike even with my eyes closed and that shouldn't allow me to do this so accurately, well using Soul Power made perceiving him the second he come close to attack me pretty easy .
I was able to spread my Soul Power around me and the second he stepped into the area covered by me, I was able to perceive it instantly and devise the appropriate response in time, his attack hadn't missed, I was the one who managed to evade it in time, leaving him completely baffled and unable to retract his extended hand in time, so the only fate that awaited it was to be severed by me .
I looked at his arm that happened to fall beside me and I nearly lost my composure after merely stealing a glance at it, but recalling that this wasn't my first encounter with severed limbs, I managed to compose myself and steady my heavy breathing .
But I just managed to calm myself slightly, for some reason even though I had already seen deaths and people suffering even more cruel deaths, seeing that severed limb on the ground filled me with quite the mix of emotions, I was aware that it was either him or me and I preferred the first .
But I was still feeling a bit guilty, for some reason I felt that living with a severe limb was much more cruel than death, I wasn't concerned about him, it just made me wonder what other outrageous scene this world had for me in store .
I turned towards the guy who was currently trying everything to make the resentment energy dissipate, the moment that resentment qi touched him, his whole body was a goner, or so I at least thought, but then I saw him make quite the bold move, even though he was still groaning in pain and his arm or what remains of it stopped bleeding .
He actually understood how the resentment energy worked and he severed what remained of his shoulder and was already corrupted by the resentment energy and was currently being corroded, just like how a lizard cut its tail in hope of survival, he also made that difficult decision for the exact same reason .
The rest of his shoulder was cut by him and as that part fell, it directly began to be eroded and like an old dead tree branch that had withered and had been eroded for who knows how many years or centuries, it directly turned into ashes and even the ashes weren't left to rot on the ground .
Nothing of his whole shoulder was left, both body parts that were severed didn't continue to linger around for even the slightest bit of a chance on reconnecting them again, something that I don't know if it was even possible in this world or not .
Yooouuuu !!!! .
As I followed the trace of blood and the aura of intense hostility and looked at his twisted face with anger and disbelief, he was still focused on the emptiness he felt on his left side, then after he sensed my gaze he turned to me with completely filled with hatred eyes and saying only one word .
Seeing him like this I couldn't help but smile faintly and say while approaching him leisurely :
" Why are you looking at me like I was the one who did something to you, you were the one to severe what remained of your arm and your shoulder, accepting your fate will make you feel less pain .
Just as these words escaped my mouth, I stood right in front of him and saw that his whole body was flashing with red, then a louder groan of pain escaped him, then I saw a scene that sent chills running down my spine, his left side which should no longer have nothing, started to actually regenerate the arm he just lost .
In less than a second, he regained his arm back, then without wasting a second in meaningless argument he jumped at me and engaged me in a close fighting situation, evading his strike, I was able to sense that his combat strength seemed to have been reduced greatly .
It seem that this new arm of his wasn't working like his previous one, the strength it was able to unleash was meager compared to his right hand, he was forcing it to move like his old one using Blood Qi, but even with that, it can only unleash strength compared to a Flesh Tempering Realm Practitioner .
Why can't I hit you, what sorcery are you using ? .
His attacks were still dangerous, but with the help of Soul Power and Fluidity, I was able to pinpoint where and when he will attack and evade it in time, barely every time, hearing him roaring angrily to the sky and then the red aura of light covering him becoming even more intense, I couldn't help but get a bad feeling about this .
Swallowing another Blood Qi Recovery Pills, I noted that I no longer have anymore of that pill on me, this was the last one on me, so I must use it well, evading a kick by moving to the other side, I saw that he instantly appeared behind me and issued a punch to my back, recalling how that thing in that weird space twisted his body .
I did exactly the same thing, I managed to turn my body and evade the right punch of his barely, then I gathered enough strength and momentum in my other side and exploded with a punch that had Solid Thunderclap Fist and Tiger's Strike integrated together in this attack .
He seemed to sense the faint threat of death and tried to retreat, but urging my Spiritual Qi and let it support this attack, made my fist shine brightly, then in the next second an energy attack that was made of spiritual qi and took the shape of a yellowish red punch went directly towards Chu Cheng .
The punch wasn't grand, it might even sound smaller if compared to the energy attacks like tiger claws back in that weird space, but even though it was like this, Chu Cheng was able to tell how grave this punch was, his eyes contracted slightly and his face become solemn, he tried to escape, but the air around him was locking him in place .
Seeing that there was no way to retreat, he decided to go all out and confront this attack head on, urging all the power he had in his body, I saw that a shield of white light seemed to materialize in front of of him, then the fist clashed with that shield and shockwaves soon began to be released in all directions from our clash .
But this didn't carry on for long, after what seemed to be less than 5 seconds, that guy was happy to see that my fist energy attack seem to starting to dissipate, then the relieved smile on his face that was starting to form, directly turned into a frown as he felt something was wrong .
The barrier he put around him suddenly had a crack in it, then what remained of the energy attack directly sunk into his body, the next second I saw him staying still in place, but his face had become even paler than before, his last words was a curse aimed at me, then he coughed blood and collapsed on the hard ground behind him .
Seeing him like this, I wanted to go and check on whether was he still alive or dead, but I discarded that thought when I got some time to focus on what was happening on the other side, I no longer able to hear any sounds coming from the other side .
My fight had carried on for an incense stick of time or maybe a bit more than that, Chu Jian was still clashing with Gu Yi, but now that things had calmed down on my side, I realized that their fight seemed to have ended for some time now, so I couldn't help but let go of checking Chu Cheng's state for the time being and focus more on checking on Chu Jian, hoping that he won't die here today .
The move just now had consumed almost all of my Blood Qi, there was no more Blood Qi Recovery Pills, so even though I was still reluctant, I stooped using my secret technique, making use of the two concepts that I had realized seemed to need a huge amount of energy to support them, using twice or thrice in a fight seemed to be my limit, for now at least .
After using Gliding Swallow once, I was propelled towards where the two were fighting, as I reached them, the first thing that came to my view was the blood ponds on the floor, following the trace of blood, I saw that Chu Jian seemed to have lost an arm, but in exchange for the arm he lost, Gu Yi seemed to have also paid his arm as a price too .
Chu Jian was currently left bleeding to death, he already seemed to be out of it, as for Gu Yi, that guy seemed to be still standing and seemed to have already stopped the bleeding, he was currently looking at Chu Jian with hatred in his eyes, he was even kicking the unconscious Chu Jian and saying :
Curses on that Chu Hong, he actually gave you such a life-saving move and instead of using to escape, you used it to try and take me with you, curses, curses, huh, you, what are you doing here, where's Chu Cheng ? .
Just as he was engrossed in continuing what he was doing, he suddenly heard the sounds of footsteps and become instantly wary and held his spear with his remaining arm and pointed it at me, hearing what he said just now, I couldn't help but turn my gaze towards Chu Jian, then back to him and said :
" How about this, I might be willing to exchange your friend for mine, what do you say ? .
His face held a frown as he saw that other than a few wounds marks, I was completely fine and I didn't seemed injured much, but the thing that most likely had made him baffled was me being here in the first place .
What do you mean exchange, where's Chu Cheng, how come you are here ? .
I looked at him going crazy like that and held a smile on my face while saying :
" Your friend for mine, what do you say ? .
He seemed to be thinking about it for a few seconds, then he directly pointed the spearhead towards Chu Cheng's chest and said with a smile :
Why would I even care about that coward life and death, it's indeed a surprise that you had managed to force him to escape on his own, as for this exchange you are suggesting, I believe that you are bluffing .
So that was what he was thinking, he seemed to believe that Chu Cheng had actually escaped and didn't believe that I had actually managed to best him, although a big part of me succeeding was because of him looking down on me .
Seeing me not saying anything in return, Gu Yi's expression become even colder and he thrusted his spearhead forward while saying :
With or without Chu Cheng, this Chu Jian will die here today for offending our Young Master, don't worry, the trick you used to force him to escape should have been spent by now, after dealing with him, I will send you to accompany him .
Who would dare to harm my disciple, I Chen Fan .