Guo Haidong grinned slightly. He grasped his ruby-red lance firmly and said, “Zhang Ruochen, I’m a warrior who ranks 874th on the Profound Board. How about you? You’re not even a Warrior of Division Profound! You indeed have no respect for me, don’t you?”
“I don’t want to waste time with you. Come on, let’s fight!”
Zhang Ruochen had already offered him a chance to back off. Yet, he did not cherish it. Zhang Ruochen would not spare him this time.
He moved forward three steps in a row with each step being 21 meters long. In total, he moved 63 meters.
“Boom!” When Zhang Ruochen reached the ground after making the third step, he had already dashed in front of Guo Haidong. His powerful step caused a shallow pit on the ground.
A sword light flashed and seven Sword Breaths appeared before Guo Haidong’s eyes.
And the sound of seven swords harshly erupted next to his ears.
Guo Haidong’s countenance changed again. He held the red lance tightly with both of his hands. Then, he spun it quickly to ward off the sharp sword light.
“Bang! Bang!”
The clash of seven strikes in a row made seven flames flare up. Zhang Ruochen hit the red lance in Guo Haidong’s hand, making it tumble around and shiver.
Such a powerful force descended from the long lance into Guo Haidong’s body, which fluttered and turned his arms numb.
After the seven hits, the flesh between Guo Haidong’s thumb and index finger had been split open which caused a blood rupture. The red lance had almost fallen out of his hand.
He could not help but back off in distress. This was the first time that he found Zhang Ruochen to be scary. Not only did he possess a fast speed but he also had an exceptionally high degree of power.
“Waaa!”
Abruptly, Zhang Ruochen swung his sword onto Guo Haidong’s arm. A blood-light flashed—his arm was chopped off and it flew in the air.
“Phew!”
The icy air on the Snow Dragon Sword then manifested. A thin layer of white Ice Crystals condensed on his right arm where the blood had begun to freeze. It looked like it had turned into a translucent, scarlet crystal agate.
Guo Haidong screamed out loud. His left hand grabbed the long red spear tightly and he retreated back with a stagger. He was in such serious pain that cold sweat covered his entire body while the muscles on his face were distorted.
“Zhang Ruochen, how dare you cut off my arm today! I’ll take revenge and have both your arms and legs cut off in the future! Wait and see!”
Guo Haidong stared at Zhang Ruochen maliciously with hatred and resentment in his eyes.
He turned around and rushed toward Chikong Secret Mansion at a speed of 63 meters per second.
Zhang Ruochen had acquired a faster speed than Guo Haidong as he could move 500 meters forward in just nine steps. Then, he flew on top of Guo Haidong’s head and surpassed him.
“Go to hell!”
From his arm, Guo Haidong took out a Battle Formation that was drawn on Spiritual Paper. He quickly opened the Battle Formation, activated the Genuine Qi, and smashed toward Zhang Ruochen.
“Boom!”
Wisps of thunderbolt inscriptions gradually appeared on the surface of the Battle Formation. It emitted an eye-catching light and formed a round-shape attack array with an eight-meter diameter that Zhang Ruochen was wrapped up in.
“Haha! Zhang Ruochen, this is the ‘Electric Cloud Formation’, a second-class attack array that even a warrior of the Initial Stage of the Earth Realm would be killed by.” Guo Haidong laughed out loud outside the array.
“Do you really think that you can trap me with a second-class attack array?”
Zhang Ruochen’s hands clenched the sword handle. His clothes ballooned out while his hair was fluttering in the air. A Blood Wave with a nine-meter diameter appeared under his feet.
The Blood Wave was formed by Spiritual Blood. Countless blood inscriptions condensed together and generated a mysterious image.
When the Blood Wave started rotating, it exploded out a forceful vortex power and broke down the Electric Cloud Formation.
“Puff!”
The Battle Formation was floating in the air. Suddenly, it shattered, burned up, and turned into ashes.
All of the thunderbolt power had been pushed out by the Blood Wave. It turned into gleams of electric strips and dissipated in every direction.
“Your Blood Wave… it’s a Divine-stage Blood Wave…” While looking at the Blood Wave under Zhang Ruochen’s feet, Guo Haidong was totally shocked. Without any hesitation, he released the Wings of Wind and was ready to escape.
A warrior who was able to generate the Divine-stage Blood Wave possessed an extremely strong fighting force. Having seen the power of Zhang Ruochen, Guo Haidong clearly knew that he was not his match in fighting. Therefore, running away was the only way that he could save himself.
Guo Haidong started transferring a wisp of his Genuine Qi into the Wings of Wind. Before he fully activated the Wings of Wind, there was a sword light that flashed in front of him and caused pain in his eyes.
“Pfff!”
Zhang Ruochen’s sword had pierced through Guo Haidong’s glabella. By making his glabella the center, the icy air surged out from the sword and had completely frozen Guo Haidong’s head in the ice.
“Boom!”
The body of Guo Haidong heavily fell on the ground.
Zhang Ruochen retrieved his Snow Dragon Sword. Not even one drop of blood had contaminated the cutting edge of the sword. It remained bright and clean like a piece of snow-jade.
“You chose to carry evil in your heart, so you only have yourself to blame for what happened!”
Zhang Ruochen picked up the Wings of Wind in Guo Haidong’s hand and took a closer look. They were lower-class Wings of Wind that only allowed him to use them three times.
Then, he put away the Wings of Wind and stored Guo Haidong’s red lance in the internal space of the Time and Space Spinel. It was a valuable fifth-class Genuine Martial Arm and Zhang Ruochen would consider himself a fool if he did not take it.
There was a bag on Guo Haidong’s back in which three bags of water, four bottles of pills, an Anti-Thunder Pearl, a Thunder Pearl, and eight Spiritual Crystals were carried.
Zhang Ruochen took everything in the bag away and decided to count the treasure when he found a safer place to rest.
When Zhang Ruochen stood up and was about to leave, he felt that there was a strand of icy air that suddenly broke out behind his back. Every inch of his body tensed up that his body changed into a shadow, dashing five meters sideways.
“Whew!”
A cyan brilliancy radiated out back and forth from where Zhang Ruochen was standing. It drew a magnificent arc in the sky.
Lang Xin, who was standing under the giant wooden door, caught and grasped the cyan brilliancy, which was flying back.
Surprisingly, the cyan brilliancy was indeed a 15-centimeters-long blade with a vulture glyph on it. The blade handle was embedded with smooth Spiritual Crystals and it came with a sharp blade edge in cyan.
The blade was a fifth-class Genuine Martial Arm, on which 27 inscriptions had been carved.
Lang Xin gripped the blade with two of his fingers. He glanced at Guo Haidong quickly and spat out the mean words coldly: “Such a waste!”
He then shifted his sight towards Zhang Ruochen and mocked him. “Zhang Ruochen, I think people might have underestimated you for killing Guo Haidong in such a short period of time. With your capability, you’re certainly qualified to rank in the top 500 on the Profound Board.”
Lang Xin was in his 20s and looked relatively young. His arms were slightly longer than ordinary people’s as well as having wider shoulders. Moreover, his thick eyebrows and straight nose gave off a resolute and persistent feeling.
Zhang Ruochen stared at the blade in Lang Xin’s hand. He asked, “What’s your ranking on the Profound Board?”
“My current ranking is 580th,” Lang Xin responded.
Zhang Ruochen was confused and asked, “But still, you want to kill me?”
Lang Xin’s eyelid sightly lifted and he said, “Yes, I do. The most idiotic thing you’ve done is offend Xun Guihai by marrying the woman that he loves. You are absolutely an eccentric nut meddling with Commandery Princess Yanchen of Qianshui Commandery. Don’t you know that there are a lot of top warriors whom you should admire in the internal School of the Martial Market that are chasing after her?”
Zhang Ruochen asked, “Then why do you want to help Xun Guihai kill me?”
“Stop being naive. Do you think I want to kill you just because of Xun Guihai?” There was a sense of coldness displayed in Lang Xin’s eyes. He lifted up his head and looked around the underground world of Chikong Secret Mansion. He said, “Since I’ve entered Chikong Secret Mansion, I don’t need to suppress my Realm. I’m going to break through to the Earth Realm now!”
Lang Xin took out a thumb-sized Pill and swallowed it down his throat. Instantly, there was a crackling sound that emanated from his body. Every inch of his skin turned red with gleams of Genuine Qi that were displaying out from his body. It formed a large Genuine Qi cloud which totally engulfed his body.
In order to participate in the Intermediate Relic Exploration Test, Lang Xin had suppressed his realm to the Final State of the Black Realm for four years. Since he had already entered Chikong Secret Mansion, his Realm could be freely elevated.
Not only Lang Xin but Xun Guihai, Luo Shuihan, Huang Yanchen, Duanmu Xingling, Tuo Muzi… all of them planned to break through to higher realms when they entered Chikong Secret Mansion.
Shortly after, Lang Xin had broken into the Initial Stage of the Earth Realm and greatly enhanced his fighting force. With his current ability, even the top five warriors on the Profound Board were probably not strong enough to be his opponent.
“Where is he? Has he escaped?”
Lang Xin looked around and tried to find Zhang Ruochen. Yet, Zhang Ruochen had already disappeared without a trace.
Under the circumstances, Zhang Ruochen had no reason not to escape.
Lang Xin was a warrior of the Division Profound. Once he broke through to the Earth Realm, no doubt his power would be enhanced a few times more. Zhang Ruochen clearly understood that he was no match fighting against him so, therefore, he left.
Zhang Ruochen displayed Shadow of the Royal Wind Dragon, by which he could move tens of meters forward with each step. He had reached a speed of 66 meters per second.
He did not use the Wings of Wind as each of the wings could only be used three times. It was a precious treasure that he would not use randomly unless it was needed.
“Zhang Ruochen, you have nowhere to hide!”
The voice of Lang Xin resounded behind Zhang Ruochen and it was getting closer.
“He’s so fast!”
Zhang Ruochen looked back and identified Lang Xin, whose speed had reached 74 meters per second. Even the No.1 warrior of the Profound Board was not as speedy as he was.
“Clash!”
Lang Xin had shortened the distance between Zhang Ruochen in a hundred meters. He swung his arm where a flying green blade flew out between his fingers as if it had turned into a rainbow and pierced on Zhang Ruochen’s back.
While the flying green blade pierced into the Time and Space Domain, Zhang Ruochen applied the power of space warps. That forced the flying green blade to change its flying pattern and revert back toward Lang Xin.
Lang Xin was shocked and got out of the way immediately.
“Boom!”
The blade hit the ground behind Lang Xin and created a half-meter-deep pit. Smoke and ashes vented out from the bottom of the pit where the flying green blade was thrust into.
Since Chikong Secret Mansion was located deep underground, the ground was covered with a thick vermilion lithosphere. The power of the flying green blade was clearly shown by making a half-meter-deep pit in the ground.
Lang Xin stretched out his arms as his fingertips released a strand of Genuine Qi light that wrapped the flying green blade up.
The blade trembled before flying back into Lang Xin’s hand.
“Zhang Ruochen is so incredible! What type of martial technique did he just display?”
Lang Xin looked at the disappearing Zhang Ruochen with frustration in his eyes. He whispered, “There will be chances to kill Zhang Ruochen in the future. I had better take care of my own business. According to the Chief, the warriors of the Black Market have all been imprisoned in Magma Valley. Once I set them free, we must get every single student of the School of the Martial Market killed. As for those pretty genius female students… we should keep them alive and sell them to the Black Market. It’s going to make a good profit!”
Then, Lang Xin took out a fragmentary beast-skin graph and looked to find the direction of Magma Valley. His shadow disappeared in the dark miasma within a flash.
After Lang Xin had left, Zhang Ruochen came out from the Time and Space Domain. He stared at where Lang Xin was heading and mumbled, “He’s the spy of the Black Market!”