Chapter 53: Breaking the encirclement
Chapter 53: Breaking the encirclement
Success!
Gu Qing Shan and Leng Tian Xing both breathed out in relief.
As Leng Tian Xing held the eyeball, his cold expression changed.
He only just held the eyeball and his hand was already covered in a foul-smelling whatever-this-is.
He quickly threw it to Gu Qing Shan, took out a piece of towel cloth, used a Water-element spell to produce water and rinsed his hands again and again.
It smells so bad that Leng Tian Xing couldn’t handle it even for a moment longer.
He came from a large clan, being a jewel among his peers, everything he eats and uses are always the best, even the sect he joined was one of the very best the world, not to mention his privileged treatment, so he has never touched such a foul thing in his whole life.
Leng Tian Xing would rather jump into the sea of demons and fight to the death rather than touching that again.
"You’ve done well!"
Gu Qing Shan complimented him, received the Rotting Eater Demon’s eyeball and chopped it into mush.
Taking the mush in hand, he starts smearing it all over his body, the standard military armor made from demon silk very quickly starts to let off a foul stench of rotting corpses.
Leng Tian Xing was nauseous, couldn’t help but said: "Do you have any idea how much this stinks?"
Gu Qing Shan was still seriously smearing it on his body and answered: "Rotting Eater Demon’s fluid glands are contained in its eyeballs"
"If you smear this on yourself, the demons will instinctively think of you as a Rotting Eater Demon"
"Both yours and mine spirit energy are limited, so unless we use a trick like this, we’ll definitely die when we attract stronger demons"
He took a chunk of mush eyeball in hand and presented it to Leng Tian Xing: "Although you won’t have to be a vanguard in front, but the back is also very dangerous, I highly encourage you to also do this"
Leng Tian Xing immediately retreated a few steps and frowned: "I don’t need it"
Gu Qing Shan sincerely said: "If you don’t use it, when you’re surrounded by demons you will die"
Leng Tian Xing looked at the mush eyeball again, shaking his head constantly: "To get this thing on myself, I’d rather just die and reincarnate"
How different people from large sects are, Gu Qing Shan just shrugged.
A few dozen seconds later, both of them are fully prepared.
Gu Qing Shan signaled: "Go"
"Ready" Leng Tian Xing stood up, also signaling that he’s ready.
Gu Qing Shan breathed in, looking at the War God UI.
"Spend 1 Soul Points to comprehend martial arts: Mountain Levelling Rush"
"Current Soul Points: 0/7"
A warmth flowed from the shoulder pad to Gu Qing Shan’s body, concentrating at his Thought Sea.
Gu Qing Shan pointed at a direction, saying: "We’ll break through from here"
Leng Tian Xing looked a bit and was surprised: "If we go that way we’ll have to make a detour"
Gu Qing Shan answered: "I’ve confirmed, on this there aren’t that many strong demons"
Leng Tian Xing looked at him again: "You seem to understand demons very well"
Gu Qing Shan tapped his shoulder and said: "I do, I’m part of the Vanguard legion"
Not waiting for Leng Tian Xing to ask anything else, Gu Qing Shan shouted: "I’m going!"
Blood essence filled his body as he rushed out of the formation.
Mountain Levelling Rush!
Just like Wu Jin, Gu Qing Shan was using the same rushing attack.
The only difference is that his spirit energy isn’t quite as strong as Wu Jin, so the attack didn’t look quite as impactful.
But when Gu Qing Shan rushed out, the amount of demons that got knocked away was a few times more than Wu Jin.
You can’t even compare the two!
As Gu Qing Shan was on his way, the heavy shoulder pad knocked a Crimson Gold Demon flying.
The Crimson Gold Demon was flying in the air screaming, then suddenly a sword slash was seen, cutting off its head.
As the small-scale rain of blood poured on him, Gu Qing Shan held the sword with one hand, quickly running forward.
Each slash is quick as the wind, his figure blurry without sight as Gu Qing Shan was coldly harvesting the demons’ lives.
Leng Tian Xing gasped
"This is Wind Slash Style? How is it so strong!"
Leng Tian Xing have met quite a few Sword Cultivators who can also use Wind Slash Style.
But he swears he has never seen anyone use this Sword Style so fluently like this.
"Catch up!"
Gu Qing Shan used three slashes in a row, cutting off a Giant Elephant Demon and reminded him.
Leng Tian Xing regained his senses, quickly jumped after him.
A straight path
A few breaths later, when Mountain Levelling Rush’s power was dying down, Gu Qing Shan’s body shifted a bit, quickly regaining his balance.
A second later, sword slashes could be seen all over the air.
His actions are fluid and natural, seamless like the flowing water, each time he strikes there’s already numerous patterns prepared to deal with any coming danger, so he wasn’t afraid of any kind of attacks or sneak attacks.
Observing it clearly, you can almost feel a sense of rhythm.
Gu Qing Shan was a bit sorrowful, but glad at the same time.
The experience from all those times, struggling to get out of a sea of blood and corpses, taking the general’s head amongst his own troops, they only started to reawaken after all this time.
It’s only right now that he can truly be considered to have returned.
The Space-time Vortex is a much scarier and stranger place than the Space Vortex that he used to get here, it’s hard to guess what the System is afraid of so much that it would seal all his memories of Sword Styles.
The only difference between himself now and in the past is his cultivation, and that there’s still quite a few Sword Skills that he hasn’t awoken yet.
There’s a few very power Sword Skills, that he couldn’t even think about with his current cultivation, otherwise the overwhelming Sword Will contained within
This is also the War God UI’s way of protecting him.
As Gu Qing Shan was moving left and right along the sea of demons, all the demons were covering their noses and scattered about.
A demon’s sense of smell is at least a dozen times more sensitive compared to humans, and this is something they have from birth.
In their perspective, the thing they’re facing is a young Rotting Eater Demon.
These pieces of literal shit, if you kill them the stench will stay on yourself for years without washing away.
If you eat them, you’ll have a stomach ache for months on end.
Having to choose either of them, all the demons decide not to choose at all and just make way.
Taking that chance, Gu Qing Shan was like a wraith, suddenly appeared in the middle of the sea of demons, the sword in his hand swung without making a sound.
Qian Qi sword in his hand is like an awaken fiend, cruel, blood thirsty, crafty, and most of all, hungry for demon’s lives.
Facing the danger of death, a few Foundation Establishment realm demons has already reacted, wanting to retaliate.
As Gu Qing Shan saw that, his eyes glowed.
"Wind Slicing Consecutive Slashes!"
The sword is like a wind, fierce yet quick.
Wind Slash Style’s forte is its killing speed!
Gu Qing Shan movements are neat, without a shred of excess, every slash he makes accurately slices off the demons’ neck, arms, hip, legs.
One breath later, around where he stood, there no longer is any demon capable of moving.
After walking a few dozen more meters, when Gu Qing Shan’s slashing speed had slowed down, the painful shrieking of demons could be heard altogether.
The demons who are very far away are complacent, not caring a single bit about their kin’s screaming.
Demons very frequently have fights to the death, so this was a daily occurrence.
There’s not even a hint of human’s blood in there, just the foulest stench in the world, clearly a Rotting Eater Demon.
————–who the hell is willing to offend that sickening piece of shit without any gain?
Even demons have a sense of self-preservation, quickly turned around and escape the smell.
It feels long, but in fact Gu Qing Shan and Leng Tian Xing had only started to break the encirclement for only a dozen breaths.
The two of them freely moved forward more than a few hundred meters, just like a miracle, so easily that Leng Tian Xing felt like he was dreaming.
When they were about to reach their destination, a strange demon suddenly appeared.
This demon had a coat of burning flame, emitting immense miasma, even the ground was scorched red where he stood.
"Crimson Flame Demon!" Leng Tian Xing shouted in dismay.
But Leng Tian Xing have no way to get away from the horde of chasing demons to deal with the Crimson Flame Demon.
Because he doesn’t have the foul smell on himself, he was very quickly discovered and got his hands full with the demons from behind.
Luckily Gu Qing Shan’s advancement speed was quick enough so the demons had no way to surround them just yet, making it possible for him to not be swarmed by the demons.
"I see it, let me" Gu Qing Shan answered.
"You——-" Leng Tian Xing didn’t know what to say.
Crimson Flame Demons are Fire-element demons, its whole body is created from a black flame, almost intangible, and incredibly hard to be killed by physical means.
Crimson Flame Demons also have a lot of spells that it can use, and once it does, it’s very hard to deal with.
A single Crimson Flame Demon can fight 2 Foundation Establishment realm cultivators at the same time without losing.
Even himself doesn’t have full confidence to deal with this monster, let alone a qi training realm like Gu Qing Shan.
Gu Qing Shan threw his sword up and quickly moved forward.
Qian Qi sword spun a few times in the air, then suddenly disappeared ———it was hidden into a subspace with Wind Slash Style.
The Crimson Flame Demon saw that the two of them were running towards it, laughed cruelly and opened its mouth about to use a Fire spell.
"Too far away, I can’t reach it!"
Leng Tian Xing needed only a single look to know it’s already a life and death situation.
Crimson Flame Demon’s Fire-element spells all reach the rank of "Magma", the two of them have no way to block it, only dodge.
But if they dodge, their offense will also be temporarily stopped, and it’ll be much harder to keep pushing forward like before.
And that’ll be their death.
Leng Tian Xing’s heart sank.
He’s already busy dealing with the demons behind himself and can’t do anything to stop the Crimson Flame Demon.
Could it be, this is where I fall?
Then suddenly a bow appeared out of nowhere in Gu Qing Shan’s hand, before he could even see Gu Qing Shan’s action, a streak of light had already flew from the bow.
"Bombardment!"
"Sharpshooter!"
"Riding Wind!"
Under the effect of Bombardment and Riding Wind, Gu Qing Shan’s arrow contain both power and speed.
A cold gleam of metal.
Khih!
The arrow hit the Crimson Flame Demon directly on its forehead, its whole head bent upward.
As a great demon, the Crimson Flame Demon is very powerful, and couldn’t possibly be killed by Gu Qing Shan’s qi training realm weak spirit energy.
But Gu Qing Shan’s purpose has been achieved.
Because of the arrow, the Crimson Flame Demon had bent its head upwards against its will, as the horrifying flame it had prepared was shot straight up at the sky.
"You can use it like that?" Leng Tian Xing couldn’t believe his eyes and muttered.
He spent so long just to accept that he’s a Sword and Martial Cultivator, then suddenly he pulled out a bow, using one arrow to solve their dire situation.
Being a direct disciple of a large sect, Leng Tian Xing is very knowledgeable, as soon as Gu Qing Shan moved he could already tell the three Skills used were "Riding Wind", "Sharpshooter", "Bombardment".
But they’re all General-class archery Skills!
Leng Tian Xing felt like he was going crazy.
Just who is this? A natural-born Saint?
Otherwise, how could a single person use formation, Martial arts, Archery and Sword arts all to this degree?
Leng Tian Xing already couldn’t keep his calm anymore.
In reality, right now Gu Qing Shan was basically a Great Sword Saint who’s suppressing his own cultivation to qi training realm and fight demons.
With his wealth of experience, he doesn’t even have to think to find the best way to deal with an enemy.
Gu Qing Shan still didn’t say a word, taking the chance when the Crimson Flame Demon was still stunned, he stepped forward and hit it with his shoulder pad.
Mountain Levelling Rush!
The Crimson Flame Demon was quickly sent flying, falling into the sea of demons a few dozen meters away.
These demons were first shocked, then angered as they started to attack the Crimson Flame Demon.
While the Crimson Flame Demon was still disoriented, it felt angry and wanted to retaliate, but it was stuck dealing with other demons, so it couldn’t get away.
"We’re fine, let’s go!"
Gu Qing Shan spoke with a low voice.
Leng Tian Xing could only feel his common sense numbed.
Gu Qing Shan silently checked his spirit energy, seeing that after advancing to qi training stage 7, his spirit energy had increased greatly. Before, one use of Bombardment took 90% of his spirit energy, now it only takes 50%.
He still has strength to spare!
Gu Qing Shan put away the bow and grabbed the air.
Qian Qi sword appeared from thin air, fitting perfectly in his hand.
He stopped his feet, using the few breaths he bought for himself to fix his breathing.
The demons from around hesitated for a bit as they saw him grab his Longsword.
They were all screaming, wanting someone else to come up first.
A very rare sight.
In the short moment of a few breaths, the demons were actively retreating, not a single one moved up to attack.
Gu Qing Shan held his sword in his hand, as his eyes passed through the sea of demons, he muttered.
Leng Tian Xing could hear what he said, but was thinking if he actually heard wrong.
Because what he heard Gu Qing Shan say was: "It’s just a few minions after all"
Note:
(1) Sword Will: The will or meaning behind a sword strike, Chinese novels usually attribute this as a thing that only the best swordsman can have, as their attacks carry a will of its own, fueled by the emotion or expertise of the user. If you’ve ever seen an anime or movie scene where the fighting spirit of the fighters materialize as animals or objects, that’s essentially what a sword will is.
Occasionally it is also called sword spirit, but since sword spirit could also mean the spirit of the sword (like Fi from Zelda Skyward Sword), I decided to translate this as Sword Will instead.