Love & Redemption
Chapter 178: Volume 4 Hua Meng’s Sudden Rift - 35 Conference (Part 7)

Chapter 178: Volume 4 Hua Meng’s Sudden Rift Chapter 35 Conference (Part 7)

Valley Master Rong proclaimed in a loud voice, "I will first lay out the taboos of this competition: no one is to take another’s life, forbidden Immortal Techniques are not allowed, and the spectators outside the arena must not be affected. Once such an event occurs, the qualification to compete will be immediately revoked."

He glanced at the two competitors on the field and, seeing that they both remained silent, raised his hand, "The Flower Pinning Conference is a fair and impartial exchange. I hope everyone will abide by the rules. With that said, prepare—begin!"

After the start, neither of them moved. After a long while, Hao Feng slowly bowed with clasped hands to Xuanji, then flicked his wrist, revealing his weapon—not a sword, but a pair of unique-looking sabers, one long and one short, one black and one white. Most used treasure swords in Cultivation Sects; few chose other types of weapons, especially such odd ones. Xuanji was somewhat stunned, but in the next moment, Hao Feng attacked. The sabers in his hands created a fierce wind as he wielded them with great momentum.

Xuanji raised his sword to parry, only to feel that his opponent was not someone of great strength; he easily deflected Hao Feng’s dual sabers. The man promptly followed up, and the two of them exchanged three or four moves in a blink. Suddenly, Xuanji exerted his strength and struck down towards the black long saber with Bengyu, only to hear a "clang" sound. The blade shook violently in Hao Feng’s hand but did not break. Xuanji was startled; a chill suddenly came over his face, and it was the short white saber slashing towards him.

She stepped back two paces, uneasily exchanging a dozen moves with him. His saber technique was not particularly sophisticated, and even she could find flaws at any moment. However, no matter how hard she tried, she could not cut through the peculiar pair of sabers. She clearly had the upper hand in terms of technique, but defeating him was not something that could be achieved in a short time.

The clashing of swords and sabers rang incessantly; Xuanji fought until she gradually lost track of time. Hao Feng’s black and white sabers sometimes joined together, sometimes flapped open like butterfly wings. Their movements were odd but carried an inexplicable beauty. After watching for a while, even one’s soul felt sucked in.

Daylight poured through the clouds directly onto the huge stone column arena; the short white saber was even more dazzling, becoming unbearable to look at. Xuanji felt dizzy and the pressure on the sabers became stronger. From initially deflecting with ease to struggling to parry, each collision with his sabers now made her palms throb with soreness. Persisting in such a prolonged exchange clearly did not suit her, a young girl of her age. Moreover, since her adversary was a well-built adult male, as time passed, she gradually felt a waning of strength, barely warding off his dual sabers and staggering backwards.

The man showed no mercy and advanced quickly, seemingly wanting to take advantage of her slight retreat and overpower her in one fell swoop. Xuanji stared blankly at the Shura mask on his face, thinking about Yu Sifeng and the others saying that this man’s identity was suspect. She had originally thought that once the fight started, he would summon a huge spiritual beast for an earth-shattering contest where she would have had a sure chance of victory. But he was so cunning, choosing to deplete her strength first with a series of moves that she was least skilled at, looking to beat her thoroughly with technique!

As the double-bladed attack aimed for her face, Xuanji had no choice but to lean backward, when suddenly something forcefully tugged at her feet, causing her to lose her balance and tumble backward. In the blink of an eye, she glanced down and saw the shadow at her feet writhing as if alive, and from within the shadow emerged a huge head with a pallid greenish tint, an extremely bizarre appearance, upside-down eyes, and fangs that could rival fierce tigers and beasts — this monster had bitten onto her skirt, dribbling saliva in copious amounts onto the ground, greedily eyeing her as if she were a sumptuous meal.

Xuanji had never seen such a terrifying face before, and she screamed in fright, falling on her backside, her sword hacking aimlessly at the strange head. In an instant, the thing vanished back into its shadow, and the treasure sword Bengyu struck the ground hard, leaving many marks.

She had just heaved a sigh of relief when she felt a sharp breeze above her head and knew Hao Feng was seizing the opportunity to attack. Rolling to the left, she dodged the blade. Just as she was about to get up, something bit her heel again. Looking back, it was that same terrifying head, biting onto her shoe with hot breath blowing on her foot, sending shivers down her spine.

"Tengshe!" Xuanji cried out miserably, discarding her shoe and running barefoot for a few steps until she bumped into Tengshe, who had just leaped into the arena. She rapidly grabbed his arm, exclaiming, "There’s a monster! A head! In the shadow! It bit me!" Xuanji was not normally faint-hearted, but the ghastly face she witnessed was so horrifying, it was unlike anything she had ever seen, and she was now so scared she became incoherent.

Tengshe let out a cold chuckle, pushing her behind him and boasting arrogantly, "The stench of the wench is truly insufferable! I’ll go meet that demon!" No sooner his words fell than he leapt forward, swift as a falling star, charging at Hao Feng. His figure suddenly dipped low, his hand pressing down onto the latter’s shadow — miraculously penetrating right through it!

Hao Feng swung his double blades down at Tengshe’s head and back, feeling as if he hit stone, eliciting no reaction at all. Tengshe’s hair remained uncut, not even a single strand severed. He smirked coldly, "You’ve hidden quite a few treasures, haven’t you? Let me see what they are!" With that, he leaped high into the air, soaring a dozen feet off the ground, and forcibly dragged out something colossal from the shadow, a being towering over a dozen people high, glittering blood-red scales shining brightly — it was the giant python spiritual beast that Hao Feng had released. Now this enormous creature, grasped by Tengshe by one fang in its mouth, was effortlessly lifted, not daring to move or stop trembling, its tail coiling towards Hao Feng as if pleading for help.

Hao Feng looked up at Tengshe, his snow-white hair blazing in the sunlight, exuding an air of unchallengeable superiority. Hao Feng said solemnly, "Might I inquire who you are...?"

Suddenly, a pair of massive Fire Wings emerged behind Tengshe, unfolding layer upon layer like vivid red gauze in the sun, an unspeakably magnificent sight. With a light flick across the python, crimson flames instantly enveloped it. "Giving your stinking snake back to you!" Tengshe tossed the conflagrated python, effortless despite its length of several meters.

As the burning behemoth hurtled towards them, Hao Feng and Xuanji swiftly dodged it, and with a massive "bang," the python hit the platform, struggling a few times before being burnt to black ashes in the blink of an eye, leaving behind only a black trail.

"Hahaha! What other demons do you have? Release them all and let me have some fun! Hurry up!" Tengshe roared arrogantly, his Fire Wings behind him spreading and contracting intermittently, beautiful like a dream. Yet now everyone knew, these wings were more terrifying than the worst nightmares, a killing flame that took lives.

The surrounding wooden buildings were at first filled with continuous clamor, which gradually quieted down. Linglong opened her mouth wide, watching Tengshe in disbelief. She had always thought that this white-haired man was an ignorant villain, but who would have known he was actually a spiritual beast! So powerful indeed!

Hao Feng was silent for a long moment before he said, "This is the Flower Pinning Conference, not a killing contest. With your reckless display of fire, what if someone gets hurt?"

"Stop the nonsense." Tengshe, completely unresponsive to his clichéd objections, beckoned with a crooked finger, "Release it now. If you don’t, I’ll catch it myself!"

As if he heard nothing, Hao Feng continued, "The Flower Pinning Conference is meant for exchange of skills. I do not wish to fight to the death with you..."

"Blah blah blah!" Tengshe grew impatient. With a quick dive, he swooped down, his Fire Wings opening in the air, bringing a wave of heat that felt like it could burn the sky. Hao Feng was forced to protect his face and crouch down, and even Valley Master Rong had to retreat to the edge of the high platform to barely stabilize his breath, shouting, "Do not harm anyone! Do not harm anyone!"

To Tengshe, his shouting was nothing but babble. He swiftly landed on the ground and lunged at Hao Feng’s shadow. This time Hao Feng dodged swiftly, using his twin swords to protect his vitals—sadly, he guessed wrong about Tengshe’s attack target; it was not him, but his shadow. In the next instant, Tengshe grabbed his shadow again, reached in to search, and after a while, his face turned incredibly strange as he leapt into the air.

Hao Feng’s shadow suddenly began to spread, like ink diffusing on paper, slowly unraveling, as if something inside was about to break free. Xuanji instinctively sensed it was that bizarre head again, and in fright stepped back several paces, dreading it would leap out and bite her again.

Hao Feng suddenly sheathed his twin swords and said sternly, "Since you want to contend with a spiritual beast, then let’s have a thorough contest! Life and death, we’ll leave it to the heavens!"

Having said that, he suddenly flipped backwards, and the huge shadow emitted a deafening roar, like thousands of soldiers charging or countless iron pieces clashing and grinding against each other; the bones in one’s body felt as if they could be shaken apart by the roar. Then the roar turned into the wailing of a child, mournful and intermittent, as if life was hanging by a thread.

As Xuanji watched in confusion, a massive creature sprung from the shadow, and a stench assaulted her. It ran wildly around the arena, then suddenly leaped skyward, straight at Tengshe in midair. Blinded by the sunlight, one could not see its true form, only sensing a beast with four legs, yet it had a huge head on its neck, with messy hair, protruding horns, and a long, thick tail trailing behind, swishing like a supple thorn.

Tengshe seemed to have a deep fear of it as well, choosing to dodge rather than confront its attack for the first time. His Fire Wings flicked open with a "whoosh," as if to envelop the creature within. But the monster, undaunted by the flames reaching to the sky, turned and leapt, its massive mouth snapping shut on his Fire Wings. Tengshe had to spread his wings in a nimble twist in midair, and only after quickly gathering them did he land on the ground.

Seeing his embarrassing dodge, Xuanji hurriedly ran over and asked anxiously, "What is that thing? Are you afraid too?"

Tengshe’s face had turned somewhat pale, but his tone was defiantly tough, "You’re the one who’s scared! Is there anything in this world that can frighten me?! Just stand aside and watch! Shut up!"

As he spoke, the creature had also chased him to the ground, turning in place and splattering viscous saliva everywhere. It was the bizarre face that had latched onto Xuanji’s dress before. Despite its wild animal body, the creature’s head was human, with twisted and weird features, fang-like teeth within its mouth, dribbling saliva down to the ground in a sticky mess. The head was at least three times larger than that of a normal human; no monster could be as terrifying as this human-like face.

Xuanji felt her whole body go numb and immediately pushed Tengshe forward, "If you’re not afraid, you deal with it!"

"Annoying girl!" Tengshe cursed loudly as he saw the creature’s tail suddenly lengthen, striking like lightning. A hit from it would surely gouge a large hole in the body. He grabbed Xuanji and dodged, then threw her far to the side, next to Valley Master Rong. "Stay still! Don’t move!" No sooner had he finished speaking, when a wailing sound came from behind, followed by a sharp pain on his shoulder. The bizarre face had bitten him, its countless sharp teeth penetrating his body as hard as steel.

(To be continued. To find out what happens next, please visit www.qidian.com. More Chapters are available and support the author by reading the official release!)