Black smoke wafted around the saber. When Xiao Chen chopped down on the bloodsucking monsters, they shrieked in agony. As the death saber intent maintained its a.s.sault on the bloodsucking monsters, their bodies withered at a rapid pace.
It is effective! Xiao Chen thought happily.
Then, his saber light flickered as he hacked out three times, finis.h.i.+ng off a bloodsucking monster.
“Stay behind me,” Xiao Chen said to Yue Bingyun, now feeling confident, preparing to finish off these monsters in one go.
Although Yue Bingyun did not know what he intended to do, she still chose to believe in him. She put away her ribbon and quickly moved behind him.
“Flight On Wings, Disordered Dance of a Thousand Years!” Xiao Chen shouted and executed the Disordered Dance of a Thousand Years that he had not used in a long time. Although this Martial Technique was of low rank, it was the most suitable for large-scale melees. Using the death saber soul to drive this move was perfect for dealing with this group of bloodsucking monsters.
His figure flickered, dancing in the wind. With every step he took, he sent out forty-nine saber lights, filling the entire stone room with them.
Anguished shrieks resounded. When Xiao Chen withdrew his saber, not a single bloodsucking monster remained standing. All of them had died, no longer showing signs of life.
Yue Bingyun entered deep thought and said with some surprise, “Unexpectedly, the state of death is so effective on these monsters. It looks like this place will be easy for you to handle.”
Who could have thought that Xiao Chen happened to wield the state of death and would find the weakness of these bloodsucking monsters? In his hands, these problematic monsters were just ordinary Blood Demon subordinates.
However, Xiao Chen did not relax his expression. He shook his head and said, “That might not be so. My state of death has not advanced into a will. While it is sufficient for dealing with these small fries, we’ll have a problem if we run into anything more powerful. Furthermore, those Consummation quasi-Emperors can drive a horrifying amount of the power of the world. These small fries might not be able to stop them.
“Let’s not talk about this for now. Let’s move quickly. This cave is too deep, and there is a ridiculous number of forks. We need to find the LIfe and Death Art as soon as possible.”
With Xiao Chen’s death saber soul to open a path, the two progressed a lot faster.
---
As the numbers of forks in the path increased, the Consummation quasi-Emperors, Bing Xuejian, and Fei Lengyi all slowly parted ways.
In one particular fork, the Smiling Saber Demon brandished his nine-ringed saber and chopped the bloodsucking monsters in his way into several pieces. After these monsters merged back together, he revealed a cruel smile and continued attacking them.
Each saber strike contained immense force, shattering the internal organs of the bloodsucking monsters.
After he repeated this three times, the bloodsucking monsters on the ground stopped moving. The Smiling Saber Demon snorted coldly and said, “Just small fries, and they want to try and kill me.”
However, he did not know that after he left, the bloodsucking monsters on the ground started merging back together again with much difficulty. They were not dead like he thought.
---
Bing Xuejian walked in the tunnel with a cold expression. When he saw some interesting wall carvings, he occasionally stopped to examine them. Each time, the sword intent in the wall carvings gave him many benefits.
“How unfortunate! If I had entered this cave a few hundred years ago, I would not have failed my Great Tribulation of wind and fire.”
Although Bing Xuejian received a lot here, at his level of cultivation, the sculptures did not provide him with much help. If he had come here when he first became a quasi-Emperor, he would have improved remarkably by looking at these wall carvings and absorbing the sword intent in them.
A bloodsucking monster charged Bing Xuejian, who was examining a wall carving. He did not even look before stabbing it with his sword.
His boundless ice sword intent surged out. The bloodsucking monster did not even have a chance to cry out before it shattered; it turned into an ice sculpture and burst into several thousand pieces.
The ice sword intent shot out again and crush each fragment further into several thousand pieces each, completely reducing the bloodsucking monsters to nothing.
The tyrannical sword soul was flabbergasting, incredibly strong.
The other bloodsucking monsters in the tunnel seemed to sense that Bing Xuejian was difficult to deal with, so they avoided him, not daring to offend this person.
As Bing Xuejian looked at the departing bloodsucking monsters, he laughed coldly, “Immortal? Even cultivators who have formed the Golden Emperor Body can be killed, what more you bunch of monsters?”
---
As Fei Lengyi walked in the tunnel of the cave, he appeared very calm as many bloodsucking monsters launched themselves at him.
He cut all the bloodsucking monsters in half with one strike each. Jadeite-green energy lingered on the blade of his sword. Green crystals appeared in the wounds of the bloodsucking monsters that were split in two, spreading over the entire gash. No matter what the bloodsucking monsters did, they could not merge their bodies back together.
Furthermore, these green crystals continued to spread and penetrate into the bloodsucking monsters’ bodies, completely crystallizing them.
Fei Lengyi sheathed his sword. Instantly, there were endless tinkling sounds. All the bloodsucking monsters on the ground turned into green crystals and shattered.
“Crus.h.!.+ Crus.h.!.+” Fei Lengyi trod on these crystal fragments, producing crunching sounds on contact.
This mysterious scene was not a result of Fei Lengyi’s sword soul. Instead, it was because he used the energy of the jadeite from the Heavenly Cloud Jadeite Sword.
Although these bloodsucking monsters could not hurt him, his sword soul was weaker than Bing Xuejian’s.
He could not easily kill these bloodsucking monsters by relying on just his own strength. However, after he activated the jadeite, he did so easily, dealing with a lot of them in one move.
The remaining bloodsucking monsters all felt Fei Lengyi would be difficult to deal with, so they scattered in a fl.u.s.ter, searching for new targets.
As Fei Lengyi watched the bloodsucking monsters leave, he frowned slightly. “These should be the food that the Blood Sword Sovereign reared back then. They were all extremely evil people but not very strong. It will be troublesome if I run into a quasi-Emperor-level bloodsucking monster. However, I have the jadeite, a much stronger advantage than what Bing Xuejian has.”
As Fei Lengyi continued walking, he looked at the wall carvings. His expression was exactly the same as Bing Xuejian’s, entirely regretful.
To any swordsman, these casual works of the Blood Sword Sovereign from fifty thousand years ago were incredibly rare riches.
Unfortunately, Fei Lengyi had already reached half-step Martial Emperor and could not advance any further. His cultivation of the sword Dao was no inferior to that of some Minor Heavenly Martial Emperors. Thus, the sword intent in the wall carvings was not of much help to him.
However, if Fei Lengyi was lucky and could find a wall carving that the Blood Sword Sovereign had put in his full effort into making, it should still be of great help.
As he walked, he saw a stone room on the left side of the pa.s.sageway. He pushed open the door and drew his sword. The jadeite-green sword light containing a vast sword intent swept through the room like a storm.
Miserable shrieks rang out. When the sword light finished sweeping through the room, all the bloodsucking monsters inside were dead.
After looking around the stone room, Fei Lengyi revealed disappointment on his face. There were no prayer mats in there, which meant that this was not the Blood Sword Sovereign’s cultivation room. It was only a storeroom. After searching for a while, he found a stone chest.
“Essence Stones!” After Fei Lengyi opened the stone chest, his eyes lit up for a moment before dimming again.
Essence Stones were crystals that formed naturally in King Spirit Veins. Martial Emperors needed them to cultivate. To others, they were extraordinarily precious. However, they were worthless to him.
After Fei Lengyi failed his tribulation, he could no longer increase his cultivation.
“I’ll put them away first. If I manage to find the Life and Death Art, I might still be able to advance to Martial Emperor. At that time, these Essence Stones will be useful.”
After consoling himself, Fei Lengyi was in a rather good mood as he put these one hundred Essence Stones in his spatial ring.
---
The tunnels did not pose a problem to the half-step Martial Emperors and the Consummation quasi-Emperors. They received plenty of gains. As for the Small Perfection quasi-Emperors and Great Perfection quasi-Emperors, they were in somewhat miserable states. The Great Perfection quasi-Emperors were still fine, but the Small Perfection quasi-Emperors were doomed to die if they ran into the bloodsucking monsters.
Several people already intended to flee. To them, this place was already like h.e.l.l. They were helpless before the undying bloodsucking monsters and could only wait for death.
Xiao Chen and Yue Bingyun advanced rather successfully. Later, it occurred to Xiao Chen to project his state of death. Doing so deterred those bloodsucking monsters from approaching the two.
“There seem to be sounds of battle coming from in front!” Yue Bingyun said.
After walking for a long time, the two had heard the clamor of battle plenty of times. This time, Yue Bingyun spoke up because a voice sounded somewhat familiar.
Xiao Chen listened for a while, then said, “It is someone from the first batch of people who followed us. Let’s go over and take a look.”
The two’s figures flashed, and soon they saw the black-clad old man who bet with Xiao Chen previously in a stone room. This person was currently holding off bloodsucking monsters with ten other people.
The din of battle and the flouris.h.i.+ng Qi of the cultivators kept attracting the bloodsucking monsters. Now, the bloodsucking monsters surrounding them already numbered in the hundreds.
When facing these bloodsucking monsters that seemed immortal, these quasi-Emperors sweated buckets. Wounds riddled their bodies.
“Brother Xiao Chen, quickly leave. These bloodsucking monsters cannot be killed!” The black-clad old man called out to Xiao Chen to leave first. He did not show any joy at seeing him.
“It’s fine. You guys just hold on first.”
Xiao Chen only said something simple before charging in, bringing out his death saber soul. The bloodsucking monsters in the way were no match for him at all, losing in an instant and getting cut into pieces. They showed no more signs of life, unable to revive.
After a few breaths, he killed all the bloodsucking monsters in the stone room, scaring the rest into flight; not a single one of them dared to remain.
Xiao Chen did not give chase. After helping this group of quasi-Emperors resolve their crisis, he sheathed his saber.
This scene was very shocking to the group. The bloodsucking monsters that would not die, no matter what, fell to Xiao Chen like they were vegetables on a chopping board—a very clear-cut victory.
“This…” The black-clad old man and the others fell speechless, unable to understand what had happened.
Xiao Chen answered honestly, “These bloodsucking monsters are all afraid of the state of death. It is a weakness of theirs. I was lucky and happened to have touched on the state of death.”
Only then did the others understand. So that was how he had done it. The black-clad old man released his bated breath and said with a bitter smile, “Brother Xiao Chen, I should have listened to you and not tried to gain some benefits here.”