Eternal Swordmaster
Chapter 301 - 294: Escape - Part 1

Chapter 301: Chapter 294: Escape - Part 1

Outside the Spiritual Qi Storm.

Daoist Que Yue and two others hovered at the edge of the vast pit, swinging their hands to release bursts of Spiritual Pressure airflow, forming fierce winds that kept the disciples of the Heavenly Dao Sect at bay.

"We are here, and that is enough. Disciples of the Heavenly Dao Sect, please step back. We, too, are from sects of the Immortal Evil Alliance and will surely seek justice for your sect!"

A lady of high status, holding a white paper umbrella, spoke with a stern voice.

"This is an internal dispute within our sect, Madame Yuling, is this really appropriate?" the Vice Sect Leader, an elder, suppressed his anger as he spoke in a low tone.

"Not appropriate? Do you really have the strength to intercept that outlandish fiend?" The lady scanned him with a cold glance, her gaze as bone-piercing as ice, and one could faintly see the blue mist flowing in her pupils, strangely eerie.

"Daoist Heaven’s Will Saber bears the Cave Heaven Divine Talisman, which must not be lost. This is a Secret Treasure shared by the Immortal Evil Alliance, and it must not fall into the hands of outsiders! It’s better if we, the Supervisors, manage it together."

Another elder said lightly, pinching his long beard.

Among the Heavenly Dao Sect crowd, the only person who could actually speak to them as equals was the Vice Sect Leader alone; the strength of everyone else was too low, leaving them fuming yet unable to express their anger.

The Vice Sect Leader held back his anger. But he knew too well what the Immortal Evil Alliance was about; the sects within seemed to all be from the Righteous Alliance with a dignified appearance, but in fact, they had done countless unconscionable deeds behind the scenes. The only difference from the Demon Path was that they wore a coat of morality.

The original Heavenly Dao Sect was actually no different, but...

"My father won’t die! You’re talking nonsense!!"

The cries of Du Xianxian, the Sect Master’s daughter, suddenly exploded.

Despite the persuasion of several disciples, she continued to cry and shout vigorously.

"Niece Qianqian seems to be overwhelmed by grief, you should shut your mouth and rest." With a wave of the high lady’s hand, an invisible force suddenly struck the back of Du Xianxian’s neck, causing her to faint.

"You!!" As the only person in the Heavenly Dao Sect on par with the others, the Vice Sect Leader quickly tried to intervene, but he was ultimately a step too slow.

He glared at them furiously, his chest heaving violently.

"This is outrageous!!"

The Heavenly Dao Sect disciples below were all emotionally stirred. Although what the sect did was indeed not righteous, the Sect Master had been very good to the disciples and was especially protective, so the cohesion within the sect was still strong. But at this moment, no matter how agitated everyone was, they couldn’t do anything against the three Taoist Master Level powerhouses.

The Spiritual Qi Storm had finally begun to subside, and the blurry air outside started to twist, slowly becoming clearer, allowing one to gradually make out the situation inside.

"Huh?"

Daoist Que Yue had been silent up until now, but he was the first to express surprise.

The other two hurriedly looked inside and their faces turned uneasy.

"Where is he??"

Daoist Que Yue carefully scanned every part of the pit but could not find any trace of the masked person from the Demon Path.

"Although that person has killed Daoist Heaven’s Will Saber, he must be at the end of his strength by now. Plus, with our earlier tactics, he couldn’t use any formations like teleportation. Let’s split up and search; we should be able to find him!" he transmitted to the other two.

Both nodded, with one conjuring a magic artifact, which were a copper mirror and a folding fan respectively.

They both flew to the sky above the huge pit, rotating slightly, releasing gleaming lights.

But in a moment, the lady’s expression changed.

"He’s underground!"

The other two hurriedly looked at her, as she was the best tracker among them.

"Twenty li to the west! Chase!" she said in a serious tone.

Three streaks of light immediately shot towards the west.

Below, only the Heavenly Dao Sect and a crowd of onlookers from Jianghu were left.

Among the onlookers, a small boy dressed in a black cloak bit his lip, unable to conceal the excitement in his heart.

Listening to the continuous whispering around him, he kept his head low, but his eyes showed a deep sense of gratification, the kind felt when a grievance is avenged.

"That person... he really did it! He really did!" He remembered the stature and temperament of the man who took on his task, confident that he recognized the identity of the person at a glance—it was the expert who had taken on his task originally.

"Heaven’s Will Saber... I said it, I said it back then, I will make sure you die along with my sister! Now you see it, don’t you? Do you??"

His face twisted with a hint of madness.

********************

Above the undulating hills.

Three streaks of light, one white and two yellow, shot toward the west at high speed.

"It’s right here!!"

A streak of white light suddenly descended and materialized next to a not-so-large burrow on a slope in the forest, revealing the figure of a Daoist Master from the Immortal Massacre Alliance, the noblewoman holding a paper umbrella.

She looked around.

"The fluctuations of spiritual energy have weakened significantly; it’s apparent that he sustained serious injuries earlier. Fellow Daoists, let’s search separately—he must be nearby and hasn’t gone far! The fluctuations are concealed around here!"

"Alright!"

Que Yue and another elder agreed at the same time and began searching in two different directions.

****************

Lin Xin’s complexion was ashen as he sat leaned against a pine branch, suppressing the fluctuations of his spiritual energy to their weakest. He used the dense pine needles to block the view and conceal his figure.

"The Heaven’s Will Saber is truly worthy of a sect leader. If it weren’t for my strong body, which allowed me to catch him off guard unexpectedly, I’m afraid the one dead now wouldn’t be him but me."

Lin Xin was also aware that the strength of the Heaven’s Will Saber was formidable, and the remnants of the second saber technique were still gathering in his body.

The second technique, known as Turning into Clouds and Smoke, effectively turned the proud Precious Weapon of the Heaven’s Will Saber into a state of smoke and penetrated the enemy’s body, forming a core that continuously absorbed the metal elements within the body, thus forming blades that thrust outwards from the inside.

At first, Lin Xin wasn’t too concerned, thinking he could withstand it with his robust body and regenerative power, but now this Turning into Clouds and Smoke seemed endless.

It continued to absorb metal elements inside his body without stopping, and so far, it had already condensed four blades that had thrust out from within.

He looked down at the area near his chest, where the fourth and recently healed scar lay like a centipede.

"I must find a way to eradicate it; otherwise, if this continues, my inner body won’t be able to recover to its original state, greatly impacting my strength." The operation of spiritual energy within his body was also thrown into chaos by the condensing power of Turning into Clouds and Smoke. Even the act of concealing his aura was occasionally interrupted and disrupted.

However, he had suffered such severe injuries many times in the secluded manor. It was only that now, with enemies pursuing him from behind, he had no time to deal with it.

As he lay in the needles, he distinctly felt a powerful aura slowly approaching from this direction.

It was on the same level as the Heaven’s Will Saber, but the frequency of its vibrations was slightly different, not as solid and condense.

"It seems these three are either Daoist Master level experts who are on good terms with the Heavenly Dao Sect or they have come with the intent to take advantage of the situation to snatch treasures."

Lin Xin concentrated and held his breath, suppressing his presence as much as possible.

At the same time, he covertly assessed his own condition.

Offense—14 (18), Defense—13 (17), Evasion—3 (3), Constitution—11 (20).

All his attributes had temporarily decreased, obviously affected by his injuries. Especially his constitution, which had dropped by a whole nine points.

The only consolation was that the Protective Aura was slowly recovering, having already restored two layers. This was unrelated to his physical condition; it was natural absorption and accumulation of external spiritual energy due to his level of cultivation.

"But the gain has also been substantial!"

Lin Xin’s gaze shifted to the location of the Return to Origin Technique.

The Return to Origin Technique, which was originally at the Third Layer of Foundation Establishment with 63% progress, now jumped to 89% and was still slowly increasing. Clearly, killing the Heaven’s Will Saber had brought benefits. The secluded manor had begun to slowly reciprocate and improve his progress.

"I wonder how much it will increase by; pity, if my body hadn’t sustained such heavy injuries, I’d be able to quickly accept the manor’s feedback, and I reckon I would’ve completed my improvement by now."

Lying between the branches, Lin Xin pushed aside the pine needles in front of his eyes and peered through the gaps.

In the distance, an old man with long whiskers flew slowly towards him, wearing a purple-golden Eight Trigrams robe and carrying a large bronze Eight Trigrams mirror on his back, his gaze sweeping the surroundings.

At this moment, Lin Xin couldn’t use the Qilin; he had to wait for Yin Mantuo to recover. It would take at least over ten days of frenzied feeding to do so. His body was also in its weakest state, and the Heart Eye Sword Path relied entirely on the combination of physical quality and cultivation spiritual energy—both were currently severely diminished. If he took action now, the power would drop by more than a notch. If a fight did break out, as long as the opponent possessed even a fraction of the Heaven’s Will Saber’s strength, he would be in real trouble.

Originally, he was only able to match the peak of a Golden Core Daoist Master by relying on the explosive combination of his strong body and cultivation spiritual energy, and that was when he was at his strongest. But now, the approaching man was clearly at the Daoist Master’s peak. With his current condition, a frontal confrontation was definitely not an option. Just the waves of powerful aura emanating from the opponent were enough to send shivers down his spine.

"Even if fighting power doesn’t directly correlate with cultivation level, if the cultivation is high, the resulting fighting ability won’t be far behind. I need to be very careful."

Lin Xin could distinctly feel his body tense up as the old man’s gaze swept over the area.

Fortunately, the elder only glanced quickly and, failing to detect anything, continued to drift away from the region.

Lin Xin remained lying still among the branches, waiting quietly.

Sure enough, after a while, the old man suddenly reappeared above the area, his expression doubtful as he stared down below, still unable to find anyone, before once again departing.

This time, once he left, he did not return for quite a while.

But Lin Xin continued to cautiously slide down from the branches. He could distinctly sense that within tens of meters around him, there was still a powerful aura scanning the area, not having left.

"Those few must have some magic artifact that can pinpoint my location, knowing I’m nearby but not exactly where. I must be careful!"

He recalled the map of the nearby terrain he had investigated earlier, and the layout of the land became vivid in his mind.

"No, that’s not right!"

He suddenly gasped; at this moment, he wasn’t releasing any spiritual energy at all, and his mental perception couldn’t possibly be active—it was just a vague general awareness that shouldn’t produce such a clear image.

Without spiritual perception, without mental perception, the details of every blade of grass within tens of meters around him were presented in his mind as clearly as if captured on camera.

"Is this the ability of the Dragon King Dao Foundation?" he speculated. "No, that can’t be right. If it were the Dragon King Dao Foundation, it would have declined along with the injuries to my body. It must be an ability related to the mind. But in terms of mental abilities, I haven’t cultivated any techniques that would enhance my sensory perception like this..."(To be continued. If you like this work, I welcome you to vote for the recommendation ticket and monthly ticket at Qidian (qidian.com). Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read at m.qidian.com.)