Chapter 192 - An Intense Battle
Three hundred Ice-armored Ancient Insects—with their fangs revealed and their eyes reddened, together with the deafening sound produced from the flappings of their wings—resembled a huge downpour of ice which sparkled under the sunlight. The sight along with the terrifying momentum of the insects could easily cause one’s scalp to go numb.
Even Qin Nan with his current cultivation felt his hair bristling after seeing this.
“G.o.dd.a.m.n it!”
Qin Nan let out a curse as he collected his thoughts, and instantly executed the Mystical Eight Steps, escaping the place at his fastest speed possible.
If there were only a few dozen of the Ice-armored Ancient Insects, Qin Nan would not leave, but facing a total of three hundred of them, even an eighth-layer Xiantian Realm expert would be intimidated and flee for his life. It was extremely unwise for Qin Nan to try opposing a nest of them.
As Foundation Marshal Beasts, these Ice-armored Ancient Insects did possess some sort of intelligence, and their eyes instantly emitted a red light upon seeing Qin Nan trying to escape, as if their murderous aura was increased to the max. The sixteen pairs of wings behind their backs began to flap at a higher frequency, causing their speed to be three times faster.
At that instant, it was as if the three hundred Ice-armored Ancient Insects had transformed into a huge ice-colored tornado, sweeping toward Qin Nan at an incredible speed.
“Such a tremendous speed!”
Qin Nan was shocked. He had now mastered the Greater Success Stage of the Arcane Realm, the speed of his Mystical Eight Steps was equivalent to the speed of lightning, even ordinary eighth-layer Xiantian Realm cultivators would have a hard time catching up.
It was even more terrifying knowing that these Ice-armored Ancient Insects, a type of Foundation Marshal Beast equivalent to third-layer Xiantian Realm, were faster than him in terms of speed.
“Since this battle is unavoidable, I’ll let you guys have a taste of my Saber Intent!”
Qin Nan was incredibly decisive, and instead of moving backward, he launched himself into the air toward the beasts with a kick onto the ground, holding Avaritia in his left hand and Ira in his right, which both emitted terrifying Saber Intent which took the shape of two huge sabers before slas.h.i.+ng toward the curtain of insects.
BANG BANG BANG BANG!
A series of metallic clashes were heard. With his two slashes, at least over thirty Ice-armored Ancient Insects were damaged, but only three of them instantly died after being slashed into halves. The other insects did not receive any damage, but were knocked back by the force.
“Their defense…”
Qin Nan’s eyes flicked. The force of the two slashes was dissipated after killing three of the Ice-armored Ancient Insects.
If this continues, doesn’t it mean that one hundred slashes are needed to end this battle?
Despite the sudden thought, Qin Nan’s figure moved once again. It did not matter if one hundred or two hundred slashes were needed. Since the battle between him and the Ice-armored Ancient Insects had begun, his only focus was to thoroughly eliminate his opponents.
“Tsk tsk tsk tsk!”
Before Qin Nan could execute his attack again, the other over two hundred Ice-armored Ancient Insects uttered a strange buzzing sound, like a raging roar. Following this, the Ice-armored Ancient Insects revealed their fangs and rapidly bit in Qin Nan’s direction while surrounding him from all directions, leaving no gaps.
If one were to spectate from the side, the person would see Qin Nan’s entire figure be encapsulated by a layer of Ice-armored Ancient Insects, as if he was devoured by them.
A hint of coldness rose from Qin Nan’s heart. At this time of life and death, he immediately executed his Eyes of the Divine Battle Spirit and swiftly scanned his surroundings, thoroughly inspecting all of the Ice-armored Ancient Insects to find their weak spots so he could break out from their encapsulation.
“This is it!”
Qin Nan’s eyes flickered as he locked his gaze onto a weak spot. It seemed like there were fewer insects at this spot, which was possibly the spot where the three dead insects were before.
At that instant, Qin Nan emitted a strong Saber Intent, gathering the Qi inside his body, as his two ancient sabers burst forward at a terrifying speed and incredible strength.
In the nick of time, before the Ice-armored Ancient Insects landed their fangs onto Qin Nan’s body, with the help of his Saber Intent, he managed to break a hole where the weak spot was.
With a flash, his figure swiftly escaped from the shocking encapsulation.
However, even with his rapid speed, the speed of the Ice-armored Ancient Insects was even faster. Although he managed to break a hole and escaped, many of the insects collided with Qin Nan’s back as if they had transformed into huge rocks, producing a series of loud explosions.
Qin Nan’s body was sent flying from the impact, and landed on the ground nearby, resulting in a big hole.
“Cough cough…”
A great pain was felt from Qin Nan’s back. After the collisions from the Ice-armored Ancient Insects, his back felt like it was being ripped apart, causing serious damage to his body, as he coughed up a few mouthfuls of blood.
This was the first time that Qin Nan received such significant damage while fighting beasts.
Before Qin Nan could rise from the ground, the swarm of Ice-armored Ancient Insects had their emotions rise as if they were victorious, which continued to buzz and transformed into a few clouds of ice rus.h.i.+ng down at Qin Nan, leaving him no time to rest.
Beasts were different from humans. In their eyes, it was a must to kill a heterogenous presence straight away.
“Screw you!”
Upon seeing this, a terrifying Battle Intent exploded from Qin Nan’s chest.
These mere beasts dare to cross the line?
BANG!
With a loud explosion, a huge green light was emitted from Qin Nan’s back, as the Divine Battle Spirit appeared and floated in the air, looking down upon the swarm of Ice-armored Ancient Insects.
The actions of the swarm of insects came to a halt, as their eyes were filled with a hint of terror.
The suppression from a first-grade Xuan ranked Martial Spirit was quite overbearing for this swarm of Foundation Marshal Beasts.
Due to the buffs from the Divine Battle Spirit, Qin Nan could feel a stronger l.u.s.t for battle, as if he was now an undefeatable general on a battleground. He knew the Ice-armored Ancient Insects would not be stunned for a prolonged period, hence he decided to take use of this opportunity. He launched himself forward using the Mystical Eight Steps.
“Thundercrash Saber Art!”
Qin Nan held two ancient sabers in his hands, which uttered a loud explosive noise when he swung the two ancient sabers at a speed fast as lightning.
Another explosion was heard, as four of the Ice-armored Ancient Insects turned into dust from the two slashes.
The swarm of Ice-armored Ancient Insects swiftly collected their thoughts and shrieked in agony and rage, which then merged into a cloud and surged toward Qin Nan’s direction.
“Great timing!”
Qin Nan’s pair of eyes flickered brilliantly while he executed the Eyes of the Divine Battle Spirit, observing the flying paths of the swarm of Ice-armored Ancient Insects, trying to discover their flying patterns.
“Thundercrash Saber Art!”
In a blink of the eye, Qin Nan lashed out two slashes, and killed three of the Ice-armored Ancient Insects.
The remaining Ice-armored Ancient Insects approached Qin Nan at a great speed. However, instead of rus.h.i.+ng forward, his figure swiftly moved backward with a tip from his left foot, and swiftly moved forward with a tip from his right foot. His movement was insanely strange, unable to be predicted due to its various changes, it exerted the full potential of the secrets of the Mystical Eight Steps.
Hu! Hu! Hu!
Qin Nan’s breathing intensified. Not only did such a difficult movement involve using his Eyes of the Divine Battle Spirit to find the weak spots, calculating with his brain, it also required a great amount of Qi, causing a great burden on his stamina.
However, his series of actions were quite effective, as he instantly created a distance of twenty meters from the swarm of Ice-armored Ancient Insects.
“Hundred Steps Soaring Saber!”
Without hesitation, Qin Nan drew out the Seven Deadly Sins one at a time from his back and hurled them into the air. Apart from the Ira and Avaritia he held in his hands, the other five ancient sabers emitted an eye-catching Saber Intent while being launched forward at a great speed producing piercing sound, before vanis.h.i.+ng into the swarm of Ice-armored Ancient Insects.
From afar, it looked like five rays of lightning striking at the swarm of beasts.
This was Qin Nan’s plan all along.
He had used his Eyes of the Divine Battle Spirit to observe the weaknesses of the Ice-armored Ancient Insects. After learning their flying patterns, he then gave them a surprise with his strange movement using the Mystical EIght Steps, allowing him to draw a distance away from the swarm of insects as they could not alter their flying paths in time.
With enough distance away, Qin Nan could then executed the Hundred Steps Flying Saber with his five ancient sabers to eliminate over ten of the Ice-armored Ancient Insects with a single ability.
If he could continue executing this plan, he could slowly slay the entire swarm of Ice-armored Ancient Insects.
“Three hundred Foundation Martial Beasts are equivalent to three million Xiantian Pills, which could be exchanged for thirty thousand Martial Emperor Pills…”
Qin Nan’s heart was filled with pa.s.sion.
At this crucial moment, a rare occurrence took place.