A Pawn's Passage

The Rogue Cultivator took full advantage of his lineage’s vast range of knowledge, increasing his combat power.

Although he was not a pure Martial Arts Practitioner, he was knowledgeable about the different martial arts techniques. At this time, he used the Green Phoenix Guard’s Everchanging Palm Technique. His body kept moving erratically, and his palm whooshed by, seeming illusory as he avoided Zhang Yuelu’s horizontal sword.

Suddenly, he jumped out of nowhere and raised both hands, striking Zhang Yuelu incessantly.

This move was fast and unexpected, so Zhang Yuelu had no time to dodge and could only rely on her Five Elements Qi Shield to endure the palm strikes.

The Martial Arts Practitioner used all his strength to barely break through the Five Elements Qi Shield, but this Rogue Cultivator completely shattered her qi shield with one strike.

This Rogue Cultivator did not give Zhang Yuelu a chance to breathe when he gained the upper hand. He took advantage of the situation and increased his force, intending to shatter Zhang Yuelu’s chest and kill her on the spot.

However, he felt a sudden surge of foreign energy, which dissipated the energy in his palm in an instant.

The Rogue Cultivator was shocked and did not dare to let this foreign energy enter his body, so he stopped his attack immediately.

At this time, the Diviner’s spell began to dissipate, and the hands that were grabbing Zhang Yuelu’s ankles turned into mush. Zhang Yuelu retracted her feet and gently shook off the pile of rotten meat.

The Rogue Cultivator’s steps were nimble as he struck her with his palms again.

Zhang Yuelu faced his Everchanging Palm Technique head-on without any intent to dodge. Instead, she aimed her paper sword at his palms.

The Rogue Cultivator’s palms and Zhang Yuelu’s sword moved in a flurry, both rapidly changing variations.

Zhang Yuelu used the Lotus Steps in the Cihang Sword Sequence and turned her sword into three. From an outsider's perspective, it seemed as though three people were wielding swords simultaneously, outnumbering the Rogue Cultivator's pair of fists.

The sword qi was so sharp that the Rogue Cultivator risked losing his fingers if he tried to fight with his bare hands.

Thus, he did not dare to fight her head-on and decided to retreat. From this perspective, Zhang Yuelu had completely suppressed the Rogue Cultivator.

At this moment, the leading Qi Refiner finally took action. A faint green light shot out of his sleeves and disappeared in a flash.

Zhang Yuelu, who had always been able to handle the situation with ease, finally looked a little flustered. Although she had already dodged the green light, a lock of her hair was cut off.

The green light jumped erratically as it circled and struck Zhang Yuelu again.

Fortunately, Zhang Yuelu was on guard. She narrowly avoided the green light at the critical moment.

This green light finally revealed its true appearance. It was a small emerald-green sword without a hilt that hovered in the air, the famous Flying Sword of the Taiping Sect.

The Qi Refiner’s right index and middle fingers were pressed together as he pointed to the front. The small green sword flew forward again.

Flying swords were rare and expensive. They were also lethal weapons.

Since Zhang Yuelu had to concentrate on dealing with the flying sword, the Rogue Cultivator had a chance to breathe. He curled his fingers like hooks, and a green qi emerged from them. It was powerful, comparable to the sharp sword qi.

The Rogue Cultivator approached Zhang Yuelu again, pointing, grabbing, and changing more than ten kinds of variations with his fingers.

In the blink of an eye, Zhang Yuelu fell to a disadvantage.

At this moment, the Qi Refiner stopped controlling the flying sword and stepped forward to strike Zhang Yuelu with his palm.

Zhang Yuelu quickly blocked his attack with her palm. When their palms touched, the force vibrated their bodies, blood, and qi. At this moment, the Rogue Cultivator approached Zhang Yuelu and pointed at her Danzhong meridian, located at the center of her chest.

She had no choice but to force the Rogue Cultivator back with her long sword.

At the same time, the Qi Refiner's flying sword attacked her.

Since Zhang Yuelu could not retract in time, she could only activate the Five Elements Qi Shield again. The faint, five-colored aura surrounded her body in a mystical flow.

However, the Five Elements Qi Shield still could not compete with the sharpness of a flying sword. It was cut open after a slight resistance, but the flying sword also slowed down visibly.

Zhang Yuelu took advantage of this opportunity to retract her paper sword and block the flying sword. She also slashed at the Rogue Cultivator with her sword qi.

The Rogue Cultivator blocked the strike with his bare hand, but Zhang Yuelu’s sword qi was so powerful that it severed all five of his fingers, leaving only a bare palm.

Howling miserably, the Rogue Cultivator grabbed his bloody hand and stepped back.

Zhang Yuelu was about to finish off the Rogue Cultivator when she felt something approaching her. She stopped abruptly and turned sideways to avoid it.

Although Zhang Yuelu managed to avoid injuring her vitals, she still felt a sudden chill on her neck.

Zhang Yuelu reached out to touch her throat, which was wet with blood.

She raised her eyes and saw a small purple sword without a hilt hovering not far away.

The size of this sword was similar to the green flying sword earlier. Only their color was different.

It turned out that the Qi Refiner had two flying swords—one in the dark and one in the open, one female and one male.

The female purple sword ambushed Zhang Yuelu.

These two flying swords were modeled after the Daoist swords, Purple Afterglow and Green Cloud. They were each regarded as high-grade spiritual objects. However, when used together, they were regarded as treasures.

The green flying sword was male, while the purple flying sword was female. Together, they were called the Purple and Green Swallows. They were designed by the Taiping Sect in the first year of the Jiushi Era to celebrate the new emperor’s coronation.

There were a total of 365 sets of swords made for this occasion, one set for the number of days in the year. Most of them were given out as gifts to various dignitaries in the Imperial Court. Only a few of them circulated outside.

Forty years have passed since then. Excluding the damaged and missing ones, there were about a hundred sets of these flying swords left in the world. Some were sold on the black market at a high price of 5,000 Taiping coins per set.

Zhang Yuelu covered her throat to stop the blood from gushing out and made a hoarse and indistinguishable sound from her mouth.

Among the seven ambushers, six were restrained. Only this leading Qi Refiner truly posed a threat to Zhang Yuelu.

Being able to control two flying swords at the same time showed that the Qi Refiner was not far away from becoming a Heavenly Being. His cultivation level was higher than that of Lin Zhenyuan.

The two flying swords were also of good quality, able to circulate qi and move with such agility. A low-quality flying sword was not as spirited and was slow, hence requiring a lot of effort to maneuver.

The Qi Refiner’s two flying swords were the best among spiritual objects. Compared with the flying swords in the treasure level, they were not as tough or sharp. However, when combined, the two flying swords compensated for each other’s shortcomings and were considered to be at the treasure level.

However, a slit in the throat was not enough to kill Zhang Yuelu. She held her breath by using the Fetal Breathing Technique and controlled her qi to seal the wound, preventing the blood from flowing back into her lungs. At the same time, her wound began to heal slowly.

The Qi Refiner stretched out his hands, creating a loud squeak, as bursts of mysterious green and purple light appeared on his cuffs.

The two flying swords moved rapidly, with the green male sword taking the lead. A glaring green light was aimed straight at Zhang Yuelu.

The purple female sword did not have such an intense light as the male sword. Instead, the purple light flickered and appeared erratic.

Zhang Yuelu kept dodging the flying swords, but she was still wounded. She glanced at the Qi Refiner not far away, who was concentrating on controlling the sword. She knew that if she wanted to win, she could not target the flying swords, which had almost no weaknesses. She had to target the person controlling the swords.

The Qi Refiner was also aware of his weakness, so he asked the Rogue Cultivator to stay by his side.

The Rogue Cultivator had his fingers severed earlier, so he dared not be careless. He took out a bead from his pocket and injected his qi into it, creating a semicircular light shield that covered the two of them. Zhang Yuelu failed to attack them, as the shield was a treasure-level object.

The Qi Refiner concentrated on controlling the flying sword while the Rogue Cultivator focused on defense, working together seamlessly. It was obviously not the first time they had done this.

Zhang Yuelu was helpless. Before the Heavenly-Being stage, good-quality flying swords had almost no weaknesses and were hard to defeat. Thus, one would easily fall into a passive position and get beaten when facing a Qi Refiner with a flying sword. Even the Shaman’s golden body and the Martial Arts Practitioner’s strong physique could only withstand the attacks for a short while. The flying sword would continuously inflict wounds until the opponent collapsed.

As a Banished Immortal, Zhang Yuelu was superior to Qi Refiners in terms of lineage. In fact, she could have easily handled two flying swords. But because there was another Guizhen-stage Rogue Cultivator protecting the Qi Refiner, she could not easily defeat them. Moreover, with the treasure-level object as a defense, it was even more difficult for Zhang Yuelu to break through their shield.

The Rogue Cultivator acted as a hindrance toward Zhang Yuelu so that the Qi Refiner could seize the opportunity to seriously injure her with his flying swords.

Zhang Yuelu was a Banished Immortal and was naturally a step ahead of other lineages in one-on-one combat. In the Heavenly Being and Pseudo-Immortal stages, these traits became more obvious. It was also unlikely for a Banished Immortal to be outnumbered during that stage because there were not many Heavenly Beings or Pseudo-Immortals around.

Although Zhang Yuelu had a semi-immortal object, the Qi Refiner and the Rogue Cultivator each had a treasure. According to Daoist standards, a semi-immortal object was equivalent to a Heaven merit, and an ordinary treasure was equivalent to an Earth merit. Three treasures were equivalent to one semi-immortal object. Thus, this slight difference was not enough for Zhang Yuelu to gain the upper hand when fighting against two opponents.

As a last resort, Zhang Yuelu could only use a Spiritual Statue as a defense.

However, the energy consumption for using a Spiritual Statue was high, so she would not be able to sustain it for long. If this became a drawn-out battle, Zhang Yuelu could be defeated.

It was not so easy for her to escape because she could not run faster than a flying sword. Moreover, she had to stay on guard to protect herself from being stabbed in the back. Zhang Yuelu could barely block the flying sword from the front, so she would probably end up dead if she turned her back on the flying sword to run.

All kinds of thoughts flooded Zhang Yuelu’s mind, but she still could not think of a way to escape.

The only thing she regretted was dragging Qi Xuansu into this mess. If she died here today, she would have no choice but to apologize to him on her journey to the netherworld.

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