Chapter 279: Real Battle
The lower ranked beasts had all retreated a kilometer away from the city, and the human soldiers descended from their position on the wall. Each side backed away to ensure that the shockwaves from the battles between the Saints would not kill them. After retreating, they noticed the fights picked up, and could see different colored flashes of light from many abilities the Saints employed. Hui Yue removed his wings and was now standing on the ground. In front of all the beasts, his eyes never once moving away from the battle that was raging in front of him. This battle would help determine who would win the war. This was the first real clash of the armies, the first real battle that truly mattered.
Wan Qiao was fighting Li Xiaopeng while Lord Pan was fighting the tall Peng Yong. The other Saints were fighting unknown experts. The majority of the battles were fought one on one, yet a few were two against one. The Siban Empire seemed to possess more experts than what Hui Yue expected, but the young Grand Marshall did not appear to regret the decision he had made. Although some of the experts were fighting two Saints at once, they were not being pushed back. As such, the entire battle was very even.
Wan Qiao and Lord Pan were without a doubt the strongest of the Saints on Hui Yue’s side, and these two were the ones he kept observing. The opponents they were up against were no ordinary experts, and just as the battle was about to begin, Wan Qiao released a screech and sprouted feathers. Her arms grew into massive wings, and her face turned into a sharp beak. A horn protruded from her forehead, and her eyes turned completely black shining like two massive black pearls. Seeing this, Hui Yue understood just how powerful the opponent was for him to force her into her original shape. Golden lights continuously flashed between Wan Qiao and Li Xiaopeng; one attacked while the other defended then one defended while the other attacked. The fight went back forth, and the attacks became increasingly desperate growing stronger and stronger.
Wan Qiao roared as she flew into the sky above. She positioned herself right next to the sun so that she blinded Li Xiaopeng then she released a flurry of golden feathers which showered downwards, every feather was as sharp as a razor blade. This attack was as golden as the sunshine itself and as swift as the wind. Hui Yue, having seen Wan Qiao fight before, had never once seen this attack. As he looked at Li Xiaopeng, he saw the human guard himself with his arms. His clothing got shredded by the sharp feathers and his arms finally got cut slightly causing blood to drip from his arms to the ground. As the blood started to flow, Hui Yue shuddered as he saw the young man suddenly look at the blood.
The blood then started to slowly swirl around the him creating a golden dragon from the red swirling blood. The golden dragon coiled itself around Li Xiaopeng, and effectively shielded him from the feathers which were raining down upon him. The moment Wan Qiao saw this, she instantly stopped wasting her energy on the feathers and instead her black eyes were set on the dragon. “So you think a little worm is enough to stop me?” She laughed out loud, “I am a eagle. Worms are what I eat for breakfast!” As she called out she instantly dove towards the dragon, a reaction which caused Li Xiaopeng to be shocked. Despite his shock he quickly regained his composure. Pointing a finger towards Wan Qiao, the dragon made a soundless roar which caused the entire city wall and ground to tremble before it flew towards Wan Qiao. Bird and dragon moved towards each other, and as they collided, golden light shone brightly, so bright in fact that the entire area was bathed in the light. Everyone was blinded for a few moments before they once more focused on the battles they were participating in.
The wind picked up as the two, bird and dragon got ready to collide again in the air. As they did, a shockwave stronger than anything Hui Yue had felt before swept across the entire battlefield. The strength of this shockwave almost sent Hui Yue tumbling backwards. Even the houses in the city started to tremble, and a few of the smaller shacks directly collapsed from the shock wave that appeared from these two saints.
Hui Yue gritted his teeth as he saw how the city walls were taking a toll from the many Saint’s battles. Holes appeared within the walls and crumbled stone constantly fell from the walls. Seeing this, one could tell just how strong these two Saints were just by looking at damage done by their shockwaves. Many of the experts were solely watching Wan Qiao and Li Xiaopeng’s fight. Most of the lower ranked experts even forget about the other thirty-nine Saints who were fighting for their lives nearby.
Forcing himself to wrest his eyes from Wan Qiao’s battle, he looked at the other Saints and saw with satisfaction that the beasts were not being pushed back. Not even the ones who were fighting two against one. The beasts were simply too strong when they held nothing back; they had the advantage of having a savage nature, stronger bodies, a natural affinity for an element, and their attacks which could not be easily stopped by the humans.
Nodding with satisfaction, Hui Yue’s eyes instantly returned to Wan Qiao and Li Xiaopeng. Although the other Saints were battling to the best of their ability, their shockwaves were nothing compared to ones that appeared from the strongest pair.
‘I wish I could participate,’ Lan Feng commented. The phoenix had been very quiet during the time where they were at war. He had been seated in the lower dantian cave and spent all his time refining Wu Wei. Hui Yue could feel that although Lan Feng was not supposed to be a strong Saint after he had used his energy to deal with the reincarnation, but he steadily grew stronger and stronger the more he meditated. Hui Yue had a feeling that Lan Feng was not as simple as he seemed any longer.
‘I promise you, one day we will fight Saints like this. One day, not too soon, we will once more wreak havoc. If not before, then when we are in a tight spot in the war.’ Hui Yue smiled. Lan Feng was his secret weapon. The bird was strong and combining his strength with the abilities he had gained from the red wolf and the monk, he believed that he would be able to, if not kill, then at least defeat an opponent of a rank lower than Wan Qiao and Li Xiaopeng. As for whether or not he could deal with someone at their level, Hui Yue truly had no idea. He hoped that Wan Qiao could deal with the short, young-looking Li Xiaopeng.
“Come on, come on!” Hui Yue kept mumbling as he watched the battle. The dragon had been shattered into thousands of rays of golden light, but the blood which had been imbued within the dragon gathered in front of the young man. Looking at the small portion of blood, Li Xiaopeng instantly made a cut on his arm causing more blood to gush out. The blood gathered in front of him, and yet another dragon was made. This dragon was completely different from the previous one. It was no longer golden with red, but red with some gold to it.
“Come on, you can do it you stupid bird,” Hui Yue continued to say. His hands were clasped together, and he could feel a cold sweat appearing on his forehead. This battle was constantly growing in intensity. The blood dragon was firstly wrapped around Li Xiaopeng, protecting him from the razor-sharp feathers which appeared out of nowhere shot out from Wan Qiao’s wings.
Seeing that the feathers were no good, Wan Qiao descended to the location of the younger man. Her talons gripped the blood dragon, but as soon as she touched it, the dragon was like water. No matter how much Wan Qiao tried to grab it, her talons went straight through, grabbing nothing; instead, the blood started to attach itself to Wan Qiao. It formed a layer of blood on top of the One-Horned Jasmine Eagle.
Feeling the blood stuck to her, Wan Qiao did not to panic. Instead, she urged her mist energy out of her beast core and used it to purify the blood. She made it evaporate into thin air.
Using the blood dragon and having it overpowered like this, Li Xiaopeng felt blood appear in his mouth as the attack which used his own blood to fortify it had been forcefully destroyed by Wan Qiao. This caused the young man to feel the recoil from the attack. Wan Qiao, on the other hand, was not much better off. She had used an astonishing amount of energy to get rid of the blood. Fortunately for her, she was in her original shape making it impossible for both friend and foe to see how pale she had become.
Refusing to give up, the two Saints once more stopped with a small distance between them. Their eyes were fixed on the opponent, their bodies trembling from the previous attacks. Trembling from the attacks they used which drained their energy, and the attacks they received which had wounded them either internally or externally.
Looking closely one could see that Li Xiaopeng’s clothes had been shredded by the razor sharp feathers, and he had small cuts all over his body. Though, it was not only the human who had taken quite a beating. Wan Qiao’s body was filled with wounds, and blood gushed out where her feathers had been ripped out, but the woman seemed to pay it no mind as she gathered the last of her mist energy. She shrouded it around herself making a defensive shield as she once more flapped her wings hard, rushing towards Li Xiaopeng.
The human’s eyes narrowed as golden energy gushing out from his forehead, shrouding him in golden light. The young-looking man stared at the bird coming his way. Slowly he clenched his fist and forced all the golden light down into his hand. Light shone out from within the hand, and it was clearly filed with all the energy that previously gushed out from before. Hui Yue had to admit that this young-looking man was incredibly good at controlling his Wu Wei. None of it was wasted, all of it was forced into a small shape. Looking at it like this, he finally understood just how far away he was from being one of the strongest people on this plane.
“If even Siban has someone this strong, then I imagine that there are quite a lot of strong hidden experts out there,” Hui Yue mumbled to himself feeling slightly dejected.
‘Don’t worry,’ Lan Feng said calmly as he too observed the battle in front of them, ‘They have had years to battle, years to train. You are only a kid; it is natural that you are far from being as strong as they are.’
Hearing it like this, Hui Yue could only nod his head. The short feeling of being dejected was quickly overcome, and determination once more shone in his eyes. The day had almost gone by as the Saints fought each other. Both Hui Yue and the opposing side had stopped fighting, waiting for the final attack between Wan Qiao and Li Xiaopeng, so that they could end the battle for the night and begin again the following day. Both Hui Yue and the Grand Marshall of the Siban Empire unofficially seemed to have agreed on not battling during the night.
Although Hui Yue knew that the beasts had the better potential than the humans during the night, he still wished to take the time needed for the war. This meant that the fighting for today was coming to an end. One more attack, and if they succeeded in killing the other Saint then the war was almost as good as won. Everyone held their breath. The Saints who had battled previously all withdrew and gathered up their soldiers. Only Wan Qiao and Li Xiaopeng were left on the battlefield; one flew towards the other completely covered in mist energy while the other was standing still, waiting for the incoming attack. All his energy focused within his fist. This one exchange of attacks could very well end the entire war.