Chapter 110: A Frightened Yu Jie
Should he deploy the secret arts or not? Yu Jie hesitated, but still restrained himself in the end.
He knew that currying favor with Long Juxue was a must, but he couldn’t put everything on the line either. If he found it difficult to proceed in his training in the future, then he’d be worthless in the eyes of Long Juxue as well.
Such a price wasn’t worth it, no matter how he looked at the situation.
“Yu Jie, you don’t have to hold on in the face of extreme pain. I can give you a choice. Leave Long Juxue behind, and you may go.” Jiang Chen readjusted the formation, and was actually quite at ease.
“My slash has already caused injury to you. The more you battle, the worse your internal injuries will become. If we keep dragging things out like this, the first one to die will be you.”
Jiang Chen attacked psychologically with every step.
The fight was in a stalemate at this moment, and they were competing with endurance.
In actuality, the Goldwing Swordbirds had also fought to an exceedingly weary state, even though they were fighting in groups.
They hadn’t dared relax their guard against a spirit dao practitioner, and had brought one hundred percent of their strength to bear.
If this continued, the only advantage that the Goldwing Swordbirds had, was that they could substitute in for each other.
Whereas Yu Jie had to go at it alone from beginning to end.
However, Yu Jie was a sect disciple after all. Maybe he had all sorts of spirit medicine that would help him hold on even longer.
Yu Jie knew that Jiang Chen was making a psychological attack, but he too hesitated under the circumstances. He knew that although his attacks were wild and violent, it would also expend quite a lot of energy.
If he could break through this formation in a short period of time, he would have roughly a thirty percent chance of winning.
But if he still couldn’t break it after an hour, then he would be the one in danger.
When his spirit power was consumed, the dominating presence he held, that of a spirit practitioner, would fall greatly, and his battle capabilities would also greatly decrease. With the number of Goldwing Swordbirds, they would be able to swallow him whole, and not even leave scraps of bone behind if they just attacked randomly.
Except, if he ran away with his tail between his lands after a few threatening words from a common practitioner, where would he put his dignity and pride as a sect disciple?
If word of this got out, he would become the preeminent joke amongst all the sects.
And, Xu Zhen had died on this trip. If he couldn’t even leave with Long Juxue, this mission would be an undoubted failure. How would he explain himself to Master Shuiyue when he went back?
Yu Jie knew that he could neither advance nor retreat now that things had gotten this far. He could perhaps gloss things over for Xu Zhen’s death, but Master Shuiyue would never forgive him if he didn’t bring Long Juxue back.
“Jiang Chen, junior sister Long Juxue is a disciple personally handpicked by my Master Shuiyue. If you allow me to take her with me, then the matters of today can still be resolved.”
Yu Jie knew that he couldn’t afford to continue on in this way. He knew that both sides were gambling on who could hold on longer, but he, Yu Jie was a sect disciple, the golden boy. He didn’t want to make a bet with a desperado like Jiang Chen.
“I gave you a chance to leave, but you didn’t want to leave. Then stay here together.” Jiang Chen’s words just now were also a test.
In reality, he knew that if he let even one of them go, he would’ve been creating endless troubles for himself in the future.
Now that things had developed to this point, he had to eliminate evil at its roots, and not let even one of them go, whether or not that had any effect.
Except, he also knew that the Goldwing Swordbirds had expended a lot of their fighting capabilities. It was an unknown factor whether or not they could outlast Yu Jie.
Therefore, his words just now had been half truth and half falsehood. He’d wanted to probe Yu Jie’s attitude.
Seeing Yu Jie waver internally, Jiang Chen formed a covert plan.
He gave a surreptitious command to the Goldwing Swordbirds leading the army above the Second Crossing to have a portion of the Silverwing Swordbirds swoop down and ambush Long Juxue.
When the Swordbird Army had retreated earlier, they were led by a few Goldwing Swordbirds. They hadn’t joined the fight earlier, and hadn’t expended much of their energy. They still had a vigorous fighting spirit.
After receiving Jiang Chen’s command, they brought several hundred Silverwing Swordbirds, and dived down upon pass like arrows loosed from a bowstring.
Their target was Long Juxue.
Long Juxue had already exhausted herself in the great fight earlier. She didn’t have the protection of Xu Zhen by her side now, and had abruptly become utterly isolated.
If Long Juxue hadn’t been engaged in the battle earlier and hadn’t expended her resources, she would’ve been able to hold out for a while against a few Goldwing Swordbirds, even though they would’ve given her great trouble.
But now, she had come off the tail end of the great battle and didn’t have much true qi left in her. Although she had pills recovering her true qi, it looked like she’d only recovered forty to fifty percent.
It was impossible to hold up against the continued waves of attacks from several Goldwing Swordbirds and several hundred Silverwing Swordbirds with half of her fighting abilities.
She was in a precarious position after a few rounds. Her hair was flying wildly everywhere, and she was utterly run down. She called out, “Senior brother Yu Jie, come save me!”
How could Yu Jie not have seen the situation below?
Except, he had been entangled by the situation on his side as well. Although he hadn’t been surrounded by the core of the formation, even the outer rings of the formation wouldn’t permit him to leave as he pleased.
However, Long Juxue’s plea was incredibly urgent.
If he didn’t save her, and Long Juxue was lost, he would absolutely be unable to explain himself when he returned to his honored master.
“Confine him!”
How would Jiang Chen let Yu Jie leave so easily at this moment? Although he couldn’t kill Yu Jie, it was completely doable for him to delay him momentarily with the more and more familiar “Eight Trigrams Assimilation Formation”.
After receiving JIang Chen’s strong order, the Goldwing Swordbird army became even more fierce. The formation changed, and they clung onto Yu Jie with a death-grip.
The original four quadrants of defense and four quadrants of offense all turned into offense.
Eight quadrants started attacking at once, increasing their power and effect by more than twofold.
If Yu Jie kept attempting to retreat, he would have to contend with countless numbers of blows.
Any of this formation’s attacks were enough to worsen Yu Jie’s injuries.
Yu Jie’s heart was torn with anxiety as he knew that if he didn’t make it down there, Long Juxue would be dead without a doubt.
If he were to make it down and disengage from up here in a short amount of time, he’d have to take one or two hits. But these one or two hits would absolutely worsen his injuries.
“What to do?!” The fires of fury burned in Yu Jie’s heart as he roared out raspily, “Jiang Chen, don’t you push someone too hard. If anything happens to junior sister Long, you’ll face the flames of wrath from my honored master Shuiyue.”
Jiang Chen snorted coldly. He was saying this now? This Yu Jie was seriously too childish. With the way the situation had developed, this feud would never be resolved if he didn’t kill Long Juxue.
If Master Shuiyue valued Long Juxue this much, she would surely strike out on her beloved disciple’s behalf. He’d have to face Master Shuiyue’s rage sooner or later anyways.
Jiang Chen chuckled and continued to give orders, “Delay Yu Jie, I’ll go kill Long Juxue myself.”
Jiang Chen didn’t have the slightest ounce of pity towards the Long family.
If it hadn’t been for him, the Jiang Han manor would have long since been bathed in blood by the Long family. This Long Juxue was even more malicious, and had a murderous heart. If he let her go like this, there’d be no end of troubles in the future.
He raised the nameless saber and was about to dive down when his consciousness suddenly perked up. An undetectable trace of danger suddenly flashed through the part of his consciousness training the “Boulder’s Heart”.
“What’s going on?” The mental strength of Boulder’s Heart was exceedingly sensitive and it generally wasn’t prone to error.
Jiang Chen visibly held himself back and grasped the nameless saber in his hands, on the alert, and battle ready. HIs entire being was like a taut bow, ready to fire out sharp arrows at any time.
At that moment, countless beams of white light shone out from around Long Juxue’s body down below. Beams of silver light danced around like silvery carp, darting to and fro in the air.
Dreadful screams sounded out in the next instant.
The Silverwing Swordbirds exploded in midair, turning into clouds of bloody mist and spreading out continuously.
Several hundred Silverwing Swordbirds were annihilated almost in the span of a single breath. They blew apart one after another, and fell towards the ground.
Around a hundred Silverwing Swordbirds had been destroyed in the time it took to take a single breath.
The Goldwing Swordbirds had wanted to use their durable golden feathers to stand up to the white light that was like silvery carp, but when their feathers intersected with the white light…
Pfft pfft pfft pfft.
The Goldwing Swordbird’s indestructible feathers were ripped apart like paper. Agonized cries rang out as these Goldwing Swordbirds were shredded to pieces by this silver-white light.
Jiang Chen was dumbfounded when he saw this scene.
When Yu Jie and Xu Zhen had attacked together earlier, they had leveraged their strong spirit power to oppress the Swordbird Army. Those killed were mostly Greenwing Swordbirds.
Several Goldwing Swordbirds had also been killed, but those that had died had been the result of solid attacks. The Goldwing Swordbirds had only died because they’d used their bodies to protect Jiang Chen.
And this time, he hadn’t even seen the person, just the dancing of the silvery-white light. Six or seven Goldwing Swordbirds, and a hundred Silverwing Swordbirds, had been annihilated within the span of a single breath.
This level of strength was horrifying.
Long Juxue had thought she was dead without a doubt, and hadn’t reckoned on this scene happening. Her panicky and frantic eyes finally recovered some semblance of calm.
She knew that even stronger reinforcements must have come from the Purple Sun Sect.
“Yu Jie, what’s the matter with you? You couldn’t even handle such a simple matter?” A low voice traveled out of the air. The owner hadn’t appeared, but a mysterious sense of presence caused the blood of any listeners to churn and roil when they heard his voice.
Yu Jie had been in poor shape indeed, but was overjoyed when he heard this voice — like an extremely thirsty person finding a bubbling spring.
“Senior Brother Xing Han?”
Yu Jie’s voice was both agitated and fearful.
Jiang Chen’s heart tightened as he commanded the formation to change. All the Goldwing Swordbirds immediately halted their attacks, and resumed a position of defense.
At the same time, his “Boulder’s Heart” began warning him uncontrollably.
This unseen and only heard opponent gave Jiang Chen a powerful sense of pressure — the type of despair that occurred when one absolutely couldn’t measure up to one’s enemies.
Yu Jie ignored Jiang Chen and the others at this moment, and landed back on the ground in front of Long Juxue. His eyes stared fixedly at the empty air.
A slit seemed to be drawn in a patch of clouds in the horizon to the west. A cold beam of frigid light shot out like a shooting star, stepping onto the white clouds and riding on the shooting star, landing in front of Long Juxue.
This person was wearing clothes made of hemp, and his body was rather tall. His originally imposing appearance encompassed a few traces of faint desolation, but a heart pounding sense of depth was able to be found between his brows.
“I greet senior brother Xing Han.” Yu Jie’s previous arrogance and attitude had completely disappeared, as if this newly arrived “senior brother Xing Han” occupied an even higher position in his heart than his own father.