Chapter 104:
Bang, bang, bang!
Three arrows connected solidly with Long Zhaofeng’s critical parts, but he was wearing soft armor that actually prevented the three arrows from penetrating through.
However, even though they didn’t pierce Long Zhaofeng, a strong infusion of true qi rushing into his body was enough to vibrate his body so much so that he spat out countless mouthfuls of blood, as his internal organs were heavily injured.
“Xue’er, go!”
Long Zhaofeng roared like a tiger, like he was completely mad as he covered Long Juxue’s dash towards the depths of the mountain valley.
Jiang Chen snorted lightly, you want to leave?
More than ten Goldwing Swordbirds with hundreds of Silverwing Swordbirds formed a net from which there was no escape, completely blocking off Long Juxue’s path!
Long Zhaofeng spat out more blood when he saw the situation and knew that things were beyond salvation. Even his daughter wouldn’t make it out.
At this moment, he only felt a breeze over his head. By the time he reacted, Jiang Feng’s Goldwing Swordbird had already swept over like lightning.
Frosty light flashed from a blade as it sliced down.
The gleam raced over Long Zhaofeng’s neck as a crisp, breaking sound rang out. Long Zhaofeng’s head flew towards the skies with a pair of eyes filled with hate, that didn’t even have time to close in acceptance.
He wasn’t reconciled to his fate! He had been in high spirits just two hours ago, wearing the royal robes, a sovereign descending unto the world, and controlling an army of a million strong. And now, his head and body were in two different places and he had become a ghost beneath Jiang Chen’s blade.
Nothing illustrated more the great peaks and valleys of life!
“Jiang Chen! I swear I’ll kill you!” Long Juxue screamed shrilly when she saw her father’s head and body in different place.
Jiang Chen’s heart was apathetic as he spurred on the Goldwing Swordbird beneath him towards Long Juxue. Swear you’ll kill me? How would I even give you the chance to do so?
The Long family had committed countless sins and killed people like they were flies. Whether it was Long Yinye or Long Juxue, dying ten times over was still likely insufficient to wash away the sins on their body.
Therefore, Jiang Chen only had one thought right now and that was to be ruthless and spare none, to pull up everyone by their roots!
Particularly this Long Juxue, she must die!
“You swear to kill me? Why don’t you reincarnate ten more times!” Jiang Chen had already urged the Goldwing Swordbird to within fifty meters of Long Juxue as he spoke.
Long Juxue was surrounded by the great Swordbird army, and had patently reached the end of her resources.
When she saw Jiang Chen arrive, a hint of a bizarre smile actually appeared Long Juxue’s charming face, a smile disfigured by hate. Suddenly, a string of faint rippling runes surged up around Long Juxue’s side. The water-colored runes swiftly expanded, just like an enormous ripple spreading out on the surface of water.
Jiang Chen’s thoughts suddenly raced as a feeling of danger he’d never experienced before assaulted him.
Before he even knew where he was, he had already tightly clamped onto the Goldwing Swordbird beneath him and turned, skewing sideways around a hundred meters.
He also emitted piercing whistles from his mouth, warning the Swordbirds attacking Long Juxue.
At this moment, light like the splendor of the moon suddenly flared out in the air surrounding Long Juxue. The silvery, moon-like runes radiated within the surrounding hundred meters within an instant.
With a speed that the human eye could barely keep pace with, all of the Swordbirds, trees, shrubbery, rocks, and corpses around Long Juxue’s body turned into dazzlingly white ice sculptures in an instant.
The energy emanated by these runes was ice spirit power that was without parallel!
A piece of paper filled with writings of strange runes in Long Juxue’s hands was also being continuously destroyed. It sparkled with a bizarre light, slowly turning into dots of frost white light within her hands. Sparkling dots, like the fragments of stars, slowly disappeared into nothingness.
Upon seeing that Jiang Chen had avoided imminent disaster and escaped from her lethal blow, Long Juxue’s hate filled, charming eyes shot out looks of terrible self-pity.
This was her absolute last trump card, the spirit rune that Purple Sun Sect Master Shuiyue had personally left for her that year -- the Shuiyue True Rune!
The power of this Shuiyue True Rune was seventy percent of Master Shuiyue’s strength. Its force was exceedingly great, and could spontaneously turn all living things within one to two hundred meters into ice sculptures.
She couldn’t bear to use this Shuiyue True Rune even when her father was in dire straights. She’d originally wanted to use it in her final attempt to escape.
Long Juxue had felt like just now was the best timing!
The pity was, with such a good opportunity at hand, she still hadn’t managed to kill Jiang Chen.
Even though she didn’t wish to accept this kind of outcome, she didn’t dare tarry any longer. Her body dashed away as she made for the deep reaches of the mountain valley. Out of all the Swordbirds that had originally been attacking her, apart from a couple lucky Goldwing Swordbirds that had escaped by a fluke, several hundred Swordbirds had been frozen into ice blocks around her and they all crashed to the ground.
“Jiang Chen, you got lucky this time! The next time, when I return from the Purple Sun Sect, it will be the very day your Jiang family is annihilated!”
As Long Juxue spoke, she had already bounded up into the thickly overgrown mountain valley. There were towering trees everywhere within the mountain valley, and they covered the skies and blotted out the sun. When Long Juxue made it into the mountain valley, she was like a bird within the forest or a fish swimming in the seas. Except, Jiang Chen remained unmoving as he looked at the dense patch of mountain valley. A strange smile leaked out from the corners of his lips as he started counting down within his heart.
“Four, three, two, one…”
Indeed, Jiang Chen hadn’t even counted to five when he heard Long Juxue’s shrill scream. It was like she’d seen a ghost as she quickly dashed out of the mountain valley again, her hair streaming wildly loose.
Hulala!
The sounds of a huge patch of flapping wings traveled out of the mountain valley, as if a sea made of winds was howling.
Countless numbers of Swordbirds shot out of the mountain valley like sharp arrows, once again covering the skies above the mountain valley.
It turned out that after Jiang Chen got into contact with Mang Qi through that tooth carved with weird patterns, the amount of Swordbirds that Mang Qi sent out was truly astonishing.
The army of Swordbirds that had surrounded the Long family army just now had only been half of that number.
There was another half laying dormant on both sides of the mountain valley.
Long Juxue had thought herself clever in escaping into the mountain valley, thinking she could leverage the terrain of the mountain valley in escaping. She hadn’t expected that she’d fallen into an even more terrifying trap.
Long Juxue despaired and kept screaming shrilly. The light from her sword flashed as she waved it wildly, marking her death struggles beneath the oppression of the Swordbirds.
“Jiang Chen, if you kill me, the Purple Sun Sect won’t let you off the hook!”
It was a pity that such weak threats such as these were like flies buzzing in Jiang Chen’s ears. Although they were noisy and irritating, there wasn’t any strength to them at all.
He slowly lifted the treasured bow and locked onto Long Juxue with the tip of the arrow from afar.
A long night is fraught with dreams. Jiang Chen didn’t wish to give rise to any further complications. This Long Juxue was the disciple-in-waiting of a sect and would eventually have all sorts of endless treasures and ways about her.
Jiang Chen didn’t wish to have anymore troubles crop up.
Encompassed with the most powerful strength of Jiang Chen’s ten meridians true qi and gathering vast waves of true qi like rivers and seas, a frightening streak of light shot straight for Long Juxue’s forehead with an impressive momentum.
As if a shooting star chasing the moon, an arrow that would surely kill!
Jiang Chen was full of confidence. If Long Zhaofeng hadn’t died, it would have still been difficult for Long Zhaofeng himself to avoid this arrow under the circumstances.
As for Long Juxue, although she possessed uncommon potential and boasted of an azure phoenix constitution, she was still young, and her training had yet to reach perfection!
When Long Juxue heard the arrow breaking through the air, she too felt the rapid approach of death. But, she was at the end of her tether and was incapable of action.
“Jiang Chen, I’ll come after you even when I’m a ghost!” Long Juxue screamed shrilly.
At this moment, an unexpected development took place!
The arrow speeding forth like a shooting star had already come within ten meters of Long Juxue when it was suddenly caught by what seemed to be an invisible hand!
The arrow suddenly stopped in midair like the emergency brakes had been hit!
The next moment --
The arrow broke into pieces and scattered onto the floor with a sharp crack.
“Who’s there?” Highly alert, light shone out of Jiang Chen’s eyes, his Boulder’s Heart activated to the maximum as he sensed the surrounding area on all sides.
There was a dangerous presence that faded in and out of existence. It seemed quite far, yet also quite close, making it difficult for Jiang Chen to pinpoint it precisely.
Even the Boulder’s Heart was unable to sense where the danger was coming from. The God’s Eye, and Ear of the Zephyr was even more unable to capture traces of the enemy’s movement.
The atmosphere in the entire Second Crossing suddenly turned bizarre beyond belief.
Long Juxue has escaped from the face of certain death. Agitated looks of disbelief also shone out from her beautiful eyes. She knew that help must have arrived!
All the Goldwing Swordbirds seemed to have also received some sort of command as they all adopted a posture of facing a great enemy, continuously gathering at Jiang Chen’s side.
The knife-like wing feathers of every Goldwing Swordbird were extended, as their sharp eyes alertly monitored every rustle in the bend of the grass.
At this moment, the glimmering rays of sunset wavered into existence in the air of the mountain valley, and two shapes walked out.
One of them wore flowing turquoise robes and looked to be 22 or 23. He was slightly tall, had regular features, and a tapered chin. He also had a rather dashing and uncommon air about him.
The other one was wearing brown clothing and was slightly shorter. The only point of interest about him was the flattened nose on his face, and two eyes that were suffused with a sense of sinister ruthlessness.
There was a purple sun stitched on the right chest pocket of both their clothing, appearing quite unusual and fey.
When Long Juxue saw the purple sun on their clothing, a joyful expression blossomed on her face. “Two senior brothers, are you senior brothers from the Purple Sun Sect?”
“You must be junior sister Long Juxue?” The turquoise attired man smiled slightly as he asked.
“That’s me, may I know senior brother’s honored name?” Long Juxue was as excited in this moment as if she’d seen her savior, her kin.
“I’m called Yu Jie, one of the ten major disciples beneath Master Shuiyue. Junior sister Long can call me senior brother Xu.” This turquoise wearing Yu Jie had several traces of warmth and politeness in his tone, obviously tagging Long Juxue as someone with high importance.
“This is Xu Zhen. You can call him junior brother Xu when you enter the sect in the future.” Yu Jie pointed at the brown clad companion next to him.
“Xue’er greets her two senior brothers.” Long Juxue was in dire straights right now and didn’t dare strike up any airs in front of Xu Zhen. She thus called them both her senior brothers.
Except, Yu Jie frowned slightly. “Junior sister, you needn’t be so polite. In the world of martial dao, the strong are revered. It wouldn’t be appropriate for you to call him senior brother.”
When Xu Zhen heard these words, he didn’t find it distasteful, but rather chuckled, nodding his head and arching his back. “Senior sister Xue’er, in our Purple Sun Sect, those who have higher potential and strength are naturally ranked much higher. If you call me senior brother within the halls of the sect, then I really wouldn’t know where to put my face.”
Long Juxue laughed lightly instead, “Xue’er hasn’t formally entered the sect yet, please allow me to call you both senior brothers for now.”
One had to say, Xu Zhen was quite touched by the falsely humble show that Long Juxue was putting on. His shifty eyes suddenly shot out killing intent as he looked towards Jiang Chen in the distance.
“Senior sister Xue’er, who is this fellow that dares to pursue and attempt to kill disciples of my Purple Sun Sect? I, Xu Zhen, will kill him and vent a breath of ill temper for senior sister!”
Xu Zhen rolled his small eyes with a few traces of kissing up to Long Juxue as he stepped out and walked up, the aura around his body suddenly increasing many times.
The strong aura permeated the mountain valley immediately as countless Greenwing Swordbirds simply couldn’t withstand the pressure from this aura, and fell down one by one from the sky like dumplings being dropped into a pot for cooking.