Chapter 97: They Are All the Source

Thinking back to the first time he had seen Qingxi, when the other man had been carrying a huge bundle on one shoulder, dragging the Dragon Horse with his left hand, and with a little gold-armored ape crouched atop his shoulder, it had looked for all the world like he was fleeing for his life. That was why Li Kantian had come to such a conclusion.

“My master is matchless in valor, unrivaled under heaven. How could he possibly fear those trifling demons from beyond the sky?” The Dragon Horse spoke in a booming voice, with the little gold-armored ape perched on its head.

Yet its four trembling legs betrayed its terror all too clearly.

Some of the onlookers were astonished to hear the Dragon Horse speak. It was their first time seeing a spirit beast.

A pity, though, that it had already recognized a master.

“Haha, well said. How could I be running away?” A figure appeared before everyone’s eyes. He wore a white robe and had a refined, handsome face.

It was Qingxi, returned after bathing and changing.

The process of advancing his spiritual root was akin to cleansing the marrow and remaking the bones, and so his body had been smeared with filthy impurities. After returning to the surface, he had immediately taken a bath, changed clothes, and hurried up the city wall at full speed.

Looking at the fiend wreathed in flames, he narrowed his eyes.

Innate Great Perfection.

If his cultivation had not just broken through to the middle stage of the Innate realm, he would truly have wanted to run.

“Junior Brother, the enemy is at our gates, and yet you still act so heedlessly. What sort of conduct is that?” Li Kantian frowned, his expression grave as never before.

Though he possessed a damaged bronze-tier ultimate art, and his combat power was far from weak, not long ago he had even gone alone to slay a beast on the level of the latter stage of the Innate realm in order to narrow the gap between himself and Qiu Yingying on the merit list.

But the fiend before them was comparable to an Innate Great Perfection expert. Even if he joined forces with Du Liang, he did not believe they had any chance of victory.

So all he hoped was to hold the line.

As long as the other experts of Five Blessings City could kill the remaining fiends through the advantage of numbers, then everyone could combine their strength to eliminate this strongest flame fiend.

At a time like this, what he wanted most was for all of them to stand united, not for anyone to be as carefree and careless as Qingxi.

Qingxi did not refute him.

It was not that he had no answer, but simply that any explanation would be a waste of breath.

Since those dozen-odd fiends were still nearly a hundred meters from the city wall, outside the range of his scanning ability, Qingxi chose to read their information instead.

Aside from the flame fiend, the weakest among them were all at least at the early stage of the Innate realm. There were five at the middle stage, and as many as two at the latter stage.

“Tsk, tsk. These are all sources of the five elements’ origin energy!”

Qingxi’s eyes lit up.

With his current strength, as long as he dealt with the flame fiend, the rest would be nothing more than easy prey.

Thinking of this, he reached out with his left hand in a grasping motion, and true energy condensed into a burning curved bow.

Because his control was so subtle, no one noticed his true cultivation.

Dukang, Wanhu, and a few others who had participated in this year’s Heroes’ Gathering were all drawn to the Radiant Sun Bow.

“Is that the ultimate art that shattered the strongest defense of Muyue?” Wanhu’s expression turned solemn.

In his view, this was definitely a bronze-tier ultimate art, capable of multiplying the power of true energy severalfold. Even when used by someone at the peak of the Qi Refining realm, it could still unleash strength comparable to the Innate realm.

In that case, Five Blessings City would effectively gain an additional Innate-level combatant.

Dukang’s face brightened with delight. “Brother Qingxi, later on, when the other Innate experts are holding the outer demons in check, you take the chance to fire dark arrows and interfere with them.”

Before he had even finished speaking, he took out more than a dozen bottles of Qi Condensing Pills. “Don’t worry about running out of true energy. I’ve got pills here!”

“Good. Then I’ll thank you for them.”

Qingxi nodded and took the pills without hesitation.

These were benefits delivered right to his door. Why would he refuse them?

Li Kantian withdrew his gaze from the Radiant Sun Bow, feeling that the bow’s aura was somehow strange, yet unable to say exactly what was strange about it.

“Kill them!”

At that moment, the flame fiend’s voice rang out, harsh and grating as though a knife were scraping across iron.

The dozen-odd fiends under its command all roared at once, their momentum rising wave after wave.

Just as everyone thought they were about to charge together, a scene that made their eyelids twitch appeared.

The auras released by those fiends fused together, actually drawing the sand and soil ahead up from the ground. Like a reverse funnel, it gathered in midair and formed a stone giant twenty meters tall, with a shield in its left hand and an axe in its right.

As soon as the stone giant took shape, it charged toward the city wall, shaking the earth with a frenzy of tremors.

Everyone was dumbfounded.

They had thought they would be fighting the outer demons’ true forms directly, but who could have imagined that the enemy would instead summon a stone giant twenty meters high?

Though it did not radiate a particularly terrifying aura, the giant axe was fifteen meters long. One did not need to think twice to know that it was surely a weapon of tremendous weight. If that blow came down, it could probably crush the city wall to rubble.

Under such a barrage of force, even an Innate Great Perfection expert would have to give way.

How were they supposed to fight this?

More importantly, even if they pooled their strength to block the stone giant, it was still merely a construct. So long as the outer demons’ power remained, it could be formed again and again.

Everyone had been stunned by the outer demons’ bizarre tactics.

“This...” Li Kantian swallowed hard, then his eyes suddenly blazed with light as he shouted, “Attack the outer demons themselves!”

City Lord Du Liang reacted as well, bellowing, “All Innate experts, obey! Hold back the stone giant!”

As he spoke, he and Li Kantian had already leapt from the city wall, transforming into two brilliant sword lights as they charged toward the outer demon in the midst of casting.

But only a dull boom was heard. Like a streak of light, the flame fiend swept through the air, punching out once for each man and sending Li Kantian and Du Liang flying. Both of them coughed up blood, their faces changing dramatically.

In their view, the strongest fiend should have been the one taking the offensive, while the others acted as guardians.

But now the roles had been completely reversed.

With the flame fiend protecting them, who could injure those dozen fiends?

“So infuriating!”

Li Kantian cursed under his breath, raised his long sword, and unleashed a damaged bronze-tier ultimate art. Four brilliant sword lights formed a square pattern, revolving around one another as they slashed forward.

But the flame fiend merely unleashed a massive fist of fire, shattering the sword light to pieces. Then another punch followed, blasting Li Kantian back.

“Take this, Starpoint Sword Art!”

Du Liang charged in and employed his family’s black-iron-tier ultimate art. Though he called it one strike, he actually unleashed more than a dozen point-like sword flashes in succession, and their might was not inconsiderable.

But because it was only a black-iron-tier ultimate art, even with so many strikes, it was still blown apart by a single punch from the flame fiend. The rebound of force sent Du Liang staggering back more than ten meters.

On the other side, more than a dozen Innate experts unleashed martial techniques together, condensing a giant sand-and-dust fist to smash toward the stone giant. But with a sweeping chop of that enormous axe, it shattered instantly.

The rebound of force sent many of the Innate experts coughing up blood, their faces filled with terror.

Seeing the situation tilt so completely in the enemy’s favor, everyone on the city wall grew frantic like ants on a hot pan, while Qingxi only twitched the corner of his mouth.

“Good thing I’m here, or this would really have gone badly.”

Qingxi stepped forward and stood before the parapet.

Crack, crack, crack...

After seven sharp snaps in succession, a dazzling scarlet arrow streaked through the void at the perfect angle and struck the head of an early-stage Innate fiend.

Then the arrow pierced through, pinning another early-stage Innate fiend to the ground.