As soon as their party fell into disorder, that serrated edge became all the more ruthless in its slaughter. In the blink of an eye, another was stabbed right in the mouth by the serrated edge; the sharp spearhead protruded out of the back of his head, before being quickly retracted and directed towards the others once more.
The ones in battle were completely terrified. The Jade Lady Sect disciples immediately displayed their skills, and snapped their nine-jointed whips around. Numerous small openings were visible on the steel body and with every attack, it let loose a cacophony of cries—‘Wuuwuu …’—making those who heard it feel dizzy.
Even Miao Yi and the others to the side felt their minds becoming befuddled. They quickly invoked their arts to guard against it. Luo Shuangfei was obviously affected as well, his spear strikes began to waver. He was losing his balance and was in a dangerous position.
"STOP!" A female voice rang out from the foot of the mountain. A silhouette was rushing over. It was none other than Hong Mian.
Back in Long Viridescent Cave, Hong Mian suddenly heard the sound of battle and had a bad premonition, so she immediately followed it here. It turned out she did find the two parties battling.
With the cries from the cracking of the whip muddling everyone’s minds, who could spare the time to listen to her?
As she rushed over, Hong Mian realized something was off. Her mind was also being befuddled. She quickly invoked her arts to protect her mind.
With his arts invoked and on guard against the cries, Gongsun Yu’s eyes brightened. He pretended like he couldn’t hear Hong Mian’s shouting for the moment as he caught a glimpse of victory. He had to at least wait until his own subordinate killed Miao Yi’s subordinate before deciding to stop.
Miao Yi and Yuan Fang silently cursed. The three major sects indeed had some tricks up their sleeves. They were about to head in and a.s.sist, when they suddenly heard a clear ringing sounds.
The cries that confused one’s mind was gone. The tail of Luo Shuangfei’s spear suddenly had a string of purple bells attached to it that was continuously ringing.
One normally wouldn’t feel much of a sensation when listening to the sound of these bells. However, right then, the ringing felt quite pleasant to the ears and was extremely refreshing to the mind.
Once he regained control of the situation, Luo Shuangfei immediately struck out at the culprit, Ye Piaopiao without hesitation—with his spear giving off a viciously cunning aura.
Ye Piaopiao was quite surprised. She quickly pulled her whip back, wishing to entangle the encroaching blade with it.
However, the serrated edge suddenly swept across and drew a b.l.o.o.d.y arc across both of Ye Piaopiao’s arms.
It was not a deep cut. Even through the others could barely notice anything, Ye Piaopiao could feel an intense and unbearable pain in her wrists. She knew that her muscles were already torn apart by this ruthless b.a.s.t.a.r.d.
Pressured by the opponent’s transcendence energy and no able to longer retain her grasp on the nine-jointed whip, Ye Piaopiao dropped it and turned tail to run.
However, the unpredictable spear struck her and pierced through her heart, sending blood gushing out of her chest.
With a cold, indifferent expression, Luo Shuangfei didn’t even bother giving her another look. After successfully landing the strike, he quickly drew his spear back and attacked the others. Amidst the flashing cold glints, three others fell in the blink of an eye.
"What do you both think you"re doing!?" shouted Hong Mian. Seeing six people had already fallen to the ground, Hong Mian glared at Miao Yi and Gongsun Yu. "Are you still not going to ask your men to stop?"
"Cave Master Gongsun was the one who requested to spar," said Miao Yi, immediately pushing all responsibility onto Gongsun Yu.
"You…" started Gongsun Yu. He couldn"t explain himself either but just then, his eyes started to shine again as he looked towards the battlefield.
Miao Yi’s expression had also turned serious. Hong Mian quickly turned to look as well.
They saw that Wu Liu had taken the chance to tap on the beast sack by his waist. With a ‘Whoosh!’, over a hundred odd-looking black bats rose to the sky. They had sharp fangs and claws, and on their heads was a sharp horn. Carrying a fishy stench, they screeched as they circled around in the sky above the battlefield. When Wu Liu pursed his lips and whistled, the bats suddenly dived ferociously towards Luo Shuangfei from every direction.
"Not good!" Yuan Fang shouted, "The School of Imperial Beasts’ Heart-Devouring Bats!"
As someone who was also from a sect in the cultivation realm, he was very clear about what these creatures were.
The Heart-Devouring Bat was named as such precisely because it eats the hearts of men and animals alike. Its speed is abnormally fast and its piercing power is astounding. The sharp horn on its head is able to penetrate transcendence energy shields. The transcendence energy shields of those below Red Lotus realm are not able to guard against them at all. They could pierce through a body in a single dive and devour the heart. Furthermore, they were also venomous. Truly vicious creatures indeed.
Yuan Fang never expected Wu Liu to be carrying such ghastly creatures with him. It seemed this Wu Liu had some background in the School of Imperial Beasts. A normal disciple of the School of Imperial Beasts would not have something like this. If it were him, Yuan Fang had to admit that even he would not be able to defend against the attacks of the Heart-Devouring Bats.
"Milord. Save him quick!"—Yuan Fang secretly transmitted the message. Miao Yi could tell that something was off from how anxious Yuan Fang sounded, and immediately flashed out the Inversed-Scales Spear.
Gongsun Yu narrowed his eyes and immediately exclaimed, "Miao Yi. We agreed that there would be no helping."
"Rubbish! Who said that you can’t help in a spar!?" Miao Yi immediately denied. He couldn’t care less about the rules right now. His gaze met Yuan Fang’s; they were both about to join hands and strike back—but on seeing the situation on the battlefield, they were stunned once again.
As the Heart-Devouring Bats all rushed towards Luo Shuangfei from every direction, he suddenly raised his spear and spun his body around. Amidst the ringing of the bells, he flicked his large sleeves—a fiendish black smoke suddenly billowed out, enveloping his entire body within it.
Those Heart-Devouring Bats that dived into the black smoke immediately screeched in agony; their sharp cries piercing through their ears. They quickly shot out from the black smoke, desperately flapping their wings as they anxiously tried to escape. However, they didn’t manage to fly far before they started dropping to the ground one after another.
Those that had yet to dive in also shrieked, looking as though they had seen a ghost when they saw the black smoke. Terrified that they would not be able to avoid it, they didn’t even dare approach and immediately beat their wings to fly off in a panic.
The Heart-Devouring Bats that fell, were flailing about on the ground because of the poison. Then for some reason, they began screeching in agony. Their whole bodies started rotting away one by one and released a terrible odor. It was a sight that made one’s skin crawl.
In a moment, over sixty Heart-Devouring Bats had melted into black liquid pools and white foaming bubbles. The stench was absolutely putrid.
Gongsun Yu, his two handmaidens behind him and even Hong Mian were dumbstruck.
The expressions on Miao Yi and Yuan Fang’s faces twitched as they glanced at one another.
As for the one who released the Heart-Devouring Bats, Wu Liu was dumbfounded. Something struck his memory and he cried out, "The Black Rakshasa!"
The black smoke billowing about the area quickly shrank. Luo Shuangfei appeared right where he initially stood with his spear angled off to the side. The black smoke swiftly plunged into his large sleeves. He stared at Wu Liu and scoffed, "A bunch of devious tricks. This Lord has seen at least three thousand, if not ten thousand of them. To actually dare try to fool this Lord with such mediocre skills. DIE!"
He lifted his spear and started rushing forward.
Wu Liu came back to his senses and revealed an expression of horror. He turned to run, hollering, "SAVE ME, CAVE MASTER!"
How could he outrun Luo Shuangfei with his cultivation? Without a dragon steed to a.s.sist him, Luo Shuangfei caught up to him in an instant. Wu Liu twisted his body around and struck with his sword, but his sword froze in mid-air—a cold glint had already pierced through his neck.
As the serrated edge was pulled back, it almost tore his entire neck off.
A wicked air hung about his whole body after killing the others without so much as blinking. Luo Shuangfei abruptly turned his head to cast a cold glare at the remaining enemy. It was a Sword Deviate Sect disciple with a White Lotus Third Grade cultivation. As his cultivation was too low, he had been hiding at the other edge of the encirclement all this while. Thus, he was able to survive until now.
When he felt Luo Shuangfei’s cold gaze sweep across his body, he trembled heavily. Like the others, he immediately fled straight towards Gongsun Yu. Since he knew that he couldn’t win, how could he dare to face the battle?
Luo Shuangfei raked his serrated spear across the ground and thrust it forward. A formless, corporeal transcendence energy rolled out and crashed into that person’s back. He instantly spat out blood and was thrown to the ground from the impact.
‘Whoosh!’ Luo Shuangfei threw out the serrated spear—‘Splurt’—it instantly pierced his back and went through his heart.
The disciple was bleeding from his mouth and nose. He tried to lift his head to look where Gongsun Yu was standing on the mountain. He reached out his hand, spitting out another mouthful of blood as he did so, as if still imploring to be rescued.
Yet Luo Shuangfei abruptly dashed over and stomped on his head, burying it straight into the ground—not even giving him the final chance to call out for help.
Luo Shuangfei reached out and grabbed the spear that was embedded in his back, then wrenched it out. The inverted edge of the spearhead pulled out flesh and blood with it as it was retracted, dripping all over with blood.
From Long Viridescent Cave, eight cultivators had joined hands in battle, but they all lost their lives to his serrated spear. He did not let even a single one go. It was a merciless slaughter!
Even Gongsun Yu, his two handmaidens, and Hong Mian’s expressions twisted at the sight of such brutality.
Keeping his Inversed-Scales Spear away, Miao Yi couldn’t help rubbing his nose as he laughed bitterly to himself. This b.a.s.t.a.r.d Luo Shuangfei was at times listless, at times ruthless, and sometimes he was so ignorant that it was maddening to watch. Sometimes he was easily bullied, and at other times, he would cry for almost no reason at all like a woman and made others feel sorry for him. He was also quite lecherous, and looked so weird and ugly that one had no way to describe what he was like at all. Miao Yi could feel a wicked aura coming off Luo Shuangfei’s body. He had no idea what kind of oddball he had recruited.
Miao Yi thought—‘Even though last night I said that you don’t need to hold back once we fought, you didn’t need to be so ruthless, right? This was still under the pretense of a ‘spar’ after all, but you made it look like a ma.s.sacre. Wouldn’t Gongsun Yu immediately know I was intentionally setting him up then? You didn’t even leave a single way for me to find an excuse.’
That being said, considering Luo Shuangfei’s history as a thief, Miao Yi found his actions understandable.
Before he recruited Luo Shuangfei, Miao Yi already knew that this b.a.s.t.a.r.d was extremely ruthless. Not only did he steal, he would kill everyone regardless of gender. He completely didn’t understand the meaning of mercy. As though once you were within his grasp, it was logical to kill you. It was evident from the scene that just played out before him that this fellow didn’t think very much of killing others. Miao Yi didn’t know where he got such a vile temperament from—‘Are all thieves like this?’
Yet in the end, after witnessing Luo Shuangfei’s skills today, Miao Yi deeply felt that it had been worth it to recruit this fellow!
Yuan Fang took a deep breath as he stared at Luo Shuangfei, and laughed bitterly to himself. This Tao Ruping had been courting his own death. If he had allowed Yuan Fang to step up to battle earlier, then he and the others might not have ended up like this.
After witnessing this battle, Yuan Fang thought—‘The three major sects live true to their name indeed. Against the confusion caused by that strange whip of the Jade Lady Sect alone, I would definitely have lost my concentration and have a hard time dealing with it, much less against the Heart-Devouring Bats. If I were the one to step up just now, I definitely would have lost. It wasn’t without reason that Tao Ruping and the rest dared to offend a Blue Lotus cultivator such as myself. They truly did have the rights to be boastful.’
Alas, Tao Ruping could not have made a more terrible choice. He thought that Luo Shuangfei, the White Lotus Ninth Grade, was easy to bully, but it turned out that Luo Shuangfei was incredibly cunning. His cultivation was not high, but he specialized in countering all sorts of tricks. Tao Ruping had more or less sent himself to his own death at the hands of Luo Shuangfei.
Yuan Fang finally understood. No wonder Miao Yi was always been so lenient on this Luo Shuangfei in the past. He was indeed someone capable, and deserved Miao Yi’s good treatment of him.
Luo Shuangfei invoked his arts and cleaned the bloodstains off the serrated edge of his spear with a shake. Then, he moved back to Miao Yi’s side and cupped his fists at him, before obediently moving to stand behind him and became listless once again.