Lord Xue Ying

Chapter 331: Black Iron Cannon Army

Translator: Radiant Translations Editor: Radiant Translations

The six sledgehammers matched each other with incomparable grace, forming what seemed like an accurate revolving machine, overwhelming anything in their path. Just like two fists would have a hard time deflecting attacks coming from four fists, only the eight-armed Chen Jiu was truly able to freely respond to such a frenzied attack.

Even Xue Ying found no way of responding to the shockingly fast hammers using his single spear.

Hong!

Even so, he didn’t dodge, nor did he hide. He just sent out a thrust from his spear.

Once the spear began revolving, a bizarre scene, comprised of stars expanding and becoming dazzling flames before rapidly shrinking into a point, suddenly encompassed the surroundings. Despite the scene being faint and somewhat indistinct, it was still clearly visible to the naked eye! The spear had struck with such speed that it caused expressions of even deeper surprise to appear on the faces of the spectators.

It had been too fast!

The Star Meteor Annihilation Xue Ying could unleash at that point was already enough to completely shock the Meishan Clan Master, Chen Jiu, and Jian Huang! The speed of the attack was simply beyond comparison! The spear actually struck out along the trajectory of a set of revolving arcs and could summon an exceedingly powerful gravitational vortex.

Pu!

One of the sledgehammers closest to the incoming attack lashed out to block it, but the rapidly changing effect of the gravitational vortex, as well as the spear’s revolving trajectory, made it ultimately unable to do so. The spear slid across the side of the sledgehammer and stabbed into the child holding it. After receiving the attack, the child immediately dissipated, turning back to nothing in a flash.

Hong hong hong. The other four sledgehammers were already upon Xue Ying, when his body suddenly blended into the air as he entered the Mirage.

"Too fast! That spear technique was simply too fast," Jian Huang exclaimed. "And on top of being exceedingly quick, it also carries a sort of destructive force! The trajectory of that Star Meteor Annihilation spear technique is mysterious and hard to fathom, making it quite difficult to even think about blocking it. As soon as the child formed from the Laws and Profound Mysteries of the array received that attack, it was instantly defeated and dissipated! That was only one move! The destructive power of his spearmanship is shockingly strong."

"This could actually be considered a perfect attack. Be it speed, strength, or Laws and Profound Mysteries…they all make one exclaim in admiration," the Meishan Clan master followed up. "I didn’t think Xue Ying’s strength would surpass ours so quickly."

"He’s even stronger than just a while ago, when he killed Lord You Lan," Chen Jiu exclaimed.

During those eighteen years worth of time, Xue Ying had not idled away!

The other two children did not follow Xue Ying inside the Mirage. If they did, the strength they could display would be reduced, so they preferred to remain in the real world.

Hu.

Hu.

The terrifying spear technique struck out once more, this time into the real word from the inside of the Mirage. Everywhere the spear passed, the surroundings would summon phantom images of a star expanding and collapsing into a meteoric extermination. This frightening power made it so that the two children had an even harder time trying to block the attack. Despite using all of their strength to defend, the two children became unbalanced by Xue Ying’s first strike, their coordination falling apart. The second strike killed one of them, and the third killed the other.

He had won this stage.

Xue Ying stepped out of the Mirage and walked down from the arena.

The arena’s array then condensed another set of three children, who continued to meditate with their eyes closed. As long as a challenger would appear, they would continue to do battle.

...

"Formidable, formidable," Jiang Huang exclaimed. "Xue Ying, when I saw you display your secret skill back at the Black White Deity Mountain, I knew your talent far exceeded ours! After all, even without any powerful figures guiding you, and without a place like the Temporal Temple to squeeze out your potential, you could still come up with a secret skill after cultivating for less than two hundred years. I did not consider, however, that not too long after the battle at Black White Deity Mountain, your strength would once more break through. You’ve already genuinely surpassed us."

"En," the Meishan Clan Master exclaimed.

One of the two was a Reincarnator of the Temporal Temple, while the other had already stepped away from being a Reincarnator. The two of them had thus clearly seen an incredible amount of geniuses over the years, but Xue Ying was still absolutely the most impressive one.

Of course, legends spoke of unique existences having comprehended a grade one True Meaning, but they had never seen any such figures in person. This Xue Ying, with whom they had just spoke, was still the strongest they knew.

"So I wasn’t wrong, was I? Xue Ying’s strength really is much greater than you thought. It’s even higher than back when he killed Lord You Lan," Chen Jiu exclaimed.

"I had some time to practice my spear skills in the Grand Canyon," Xue Ying responded.

Xue Ying didn't show the slightest bit of arrogance.

His Star Meteor Annihilation might have been strong, but it had many shortcomings. For one, it was a completely offense-oriented skill! Secondly, while the strikes he could unleash nowadays were very fast—and after going through eighteen years of cultivation, the foundations of his three True Meanings further deepened after a few improvements—the Star Meteor Annihilation had already reached a stage where Xue Ying had no way of making any further improvements. It was incredibly fast, even faster than simply using Extreme Penetration, but strikes couldn’t link together sufficiently well.

When using Extreme Penetration, one strike could be followed by another strike, and in an instant, a thousand more stabs would arrive.

As for Star Meteor Annihilation…when it came to a single strike, its speed surpassed that of Extreme Penetration, but after that single strike, he had to gather up more power, which made it impossible to truly link up attacks. There was nothing to be done; with the extreme nature of its attack power, it naturally also meant a weakened ability to achieve consecutive attacks.

The world naturally had no single set of spear techniques that could be absolutely perfect. A technique with attack, defense, unpredictability, gentleness and fierceness…simply didn’t exist!

Therefore, all weapon techniques followed a ‘rule’ of always having both weak points and strong points.

Even then, being able to create the Star Meteor Annihilation was already very difficult. He would not find it an easy task to create another secret skill.

"With your talent, Xue Ying, and a senior to instruct you along with the experience of a few life or death trials, you might even have a chance of reaching the grade one True Meaning spoken of in legends." The Meishan Clan Master sighed. "Achieving that would really be like reaching the heavens in one step. A grade one True Meaning…"

Xue Ying smiled. "A grade one True Meaning—truly difficult."

When they invited Xue Ying to join them, the Temporal Temple had also believed him to have the potential to comprehend a grade one True Meaning. This potential, however, needed to be unearthed, and that was precisely what the Temporal Temple excelled at. But, in a way, they were just too ruthless! Had they been willing to help Xue Ying watch over the Xia Clan and allow him to instantly return to participate in the war once it broke out, Xue Ying would’ve surely become one of their Reincarnators.

Unfortunately, the invitation had been sent by a simple artifact spirit, and everything ultimately had to comply with the rules set down by its master.

Not only that, the artifact spirit actually searched for geniuses everywhere along the millions upon millions of mortal worlds, in the Deity world, and in the Dark Abyss. One genius more or one less didn’t mean much to it.

"A grade one True Meaning is too hard to attain. Mere talent isn’t enough—only countless tribulations and the experience of many setbacks can ultimately transform someone." Jian Huang also sighed.

"One of those peerless Transcendents with a grade one True Meaning, in terms of value, almost matches Crimson Rock Mountain." Chen Jiu sighed. "When it came to those, the owner of this place wouldn’t even bother testing them and would instead go out of their way to actively receive them as disciples. And not even just as an inner disciple, but as a personal disciple!"

"You can stop dreaming now," Xue Ying teased. "Don’t overthink it; just keep taking step after step with your feet firmly on the ground. For the moment, we still have to defeat the opponents of these two arenas.

"En."

Jian Huang, the Meishan Clan Master, and Chen Jiu all looked at the arenas.

Indeed, the third leaf world had actually stopped them in their tracks.

"I’ll give the other arena a try." Xue Ying strided forward—sou—turning into an afterimage as he charged up onto the arena.

Instead of immediately launching an attack, Xue Ying stood there, simply grasping the spear in his hand and looking at the snoring fat hunk in the distance.

The fat hunk sluggishly got up.

He was wearing a tight-fit armor. His body was both fat and large, as if a small mountain stood there. Glancing at Xue Ying before him, he opened his mouth to say, "Youngster, your strength can be considered decent among the countless Transcendents I’ve met. You were actually able to get an easy win against those three kids."

"He actually spoke." Jian Huang was stunned. "When he faced us before, he almost never spoke a single word. At most, he would utter a few ‘get lost,’‘kill,’ and such."

"It means he’s never thought much of us." The Meishan Clan Master shook his head.

Chen Jiu also sighed.

Indeed, they had all been crushed, and the difference in strength had been very clear.

"Take this attack!" Xue Ying coldly shouted. He thrust out his spear, which moved along a revolving arc and carried a terrifying destructive power. Wherever the spear passed, the surroundings would turn into a scene of stars falling and merging into a single extreme point…

Peng. The fat hunk once more smacked out using his palm.

Rather than smacking, however, it was more accurate to say that the palm pushed out! This pushing motion made one seem as if there were a towering mountain rushing out to collide.

While Xue Ying’s spear technique was fast and profound in addition to being very hard to defend against, the fat hunk’s palm was huge! The palm, which was akin to a fan and in ways like a shield, had actually sealed Xue Ying’s strike.

Hong! ! !

The tip of the spear and the huge palm collided.

Xue Ying couldn’t help but stagger and consecutively retreat for ten or more steps, each of those steps making the floor tremble. Meanwhile, the only effect on the fat hunk’s body was a slight ripple along the fat.

"Such terrifying strength." With another step, Xue Ying’s body vanished out of thin air and entered the Mirage.

"Hmph," the fat hunk sneered coldly. The huge palm suddenly waved and pierced directly into the air, actually stretching out into the Mirage.

Hong~~~

The inside of the Mirage rumbled.

Xue Ying actually left the Mirage, his brows slightly creased. The fat hunk’s slap just now had entered the Mirage unhindered, its strength completely unaffected. It simply meant that his entering the Mirage for this fight would achieve nothing.

"There’s no point in hiding inside the Mirage against me," the fat hunk said. "You’ve already reached the stage three of Mirage, so your body ought to easily switch between real and imaginary! That’s a very powerful ability in close combat; come, let me have a look at your strength. I’ve already retired from the Black Iron Cannon Army, so it’s been a long time since I got to fight a Transcendent who excels in the Mirage. Don’t worry, I draw my strength from the body condensed by this array, so my power is suppressed. Since it won’t exceed the boundaries set down by the holy master, you still have some hope of beating me.

"Black Iron Cannon Army?" From below the arena, Chen Jiu let out an expression of pure shock. "He really was a member of the Bloodshed God Palace’s Black Iron Cannon Army once?"