Chapter 148 - Slaying Tian Rui (2)

Tian Rui’s pale golden eyes stared at Xu Yuan without the slightest emotion.

Dao Charm Secret Art, Rewind.

Without any warning, Xu Yuan discovered that everything before his eyes had begun to reverse.

It was as if the world had been forced into rewind. The blood spraying from Tian Rui’s body began flowing backward. The blood-ink sword mark that should have vanished into the air solidified once more, then was erased bit by bit. The brilliant blood dancing through the air, the blood in the jade sword’s groove, all of it flowed back into Tian Rui’s body. After the blood came the wound on his severed body, then his clothes, and finally that purple-gold film of light.

Everything had been reversed to half a second earlier.

Xu Yuan’s pupils shrank slightly. Almost instantly, he realized what this was.

This was the Dao that Tian Yan had repeatedly emphasized to him.

This was the chasm between third and fourth rank, a gap as vast as heaven itself.

Without the slightest hesitation, Xu Yuan swung the jade sword horizontally once more.

Blood Ink Jade, Waltz.

“Instant.”

The ink-wash sword mark cut through empty air. Tian Rui’s figure appeared more than a hundred feet away from Xu Yuan.

Standing in the void, Tian Rui stared at Xu Yuan with his golden eyes, his voice utterly cold. “You don’t match the information.”

Xu Yuan sighed softly. Holding the jade sword, Thousand Thorns, he repeatedly sent Tian Yan his warmest regards in his heart.

That woman clearly knew what Dao Tian Rui cultivated, but she just refused to say.

Taking a deep breath, Xu Yuan twirled the jade sword Thousand Thorns in his hand. “What, you mean the reason you got ambushed was because the sword art I used didn’t match my Yang Restoration Art?”

At this point, Xu Yuan smiled with a hint of amusement. “Looks like someone leaked all the information on Splendorbloom Sect’s younger generation to you. No wonder Shen Weixiu could win so easily and kill Senior Brother Li and Bai Fan. Tsk, tsk. Truly, a thief inside the house is hardest to guard against.”

Intelligence really was important.

Just like a moment ago, if Tian Rui had used his death-substitution secret art, then Xu Yuan might genuinely be dead by now.

Still, even after failing to kill Tian Rui in one strike, Xu Yuan was not too panicked.

That was because Tian Rui was leaking qi. Source qi was uncontrollably spilling from his body. That was a sign of an enormous instant consumption of source qi, damaging the meridians inside him.

A third rank cultivator had only just comprehended his Dao. He still could not wield it as freely as his own limbs.

If Xu Yuan had run into Tian Rui when this guy was second rank, or even first rank, then the target of Tian Rui’s Rewind might very well have been Xu Yuan himself.

Just imagine it. He charges up a big move, then uses Dao Charm to rewind you to a specific position at the exact moment it is released. Taking that head-on with no defense at all... Just thinking about that combo was enough to make one’s scalp go numb.

Raising the jade sword and pointing it at Tian Rui, Xu Yuan said with a light smile, “But no matter. Let’s see whether you, the Saint of Heavenwatch Pavilion, can force me to use my Dao Charm.”

Tian Rui’s pale golden eyes turned extremely grave. “You have two types of Dao Charm?”

Huh? What two types of Dao Charm? Xu Yuan’s expression did not change. He replied with a light laugh. “Who knows? Why don’t you try and find out?”

Tian Rui did not dare act rashly. He simply watched the man across from him and let out a long breath. “Haa... It seems I underestimated your Splendorbloom Sect.”

The intelligence was wrong.

This Jing He was absurdly strong. He had not even used his Dao Charm, yet with one move, he had heavily injured him.

As he thought this, Tian Rui’s gaze swept toward the battle at the edge of the sky.

At this moment, Shen Weixiu was being beaten into scurrying all over the place like a homeless dog.

Things on Shen Weixiu’s side were probably just as bad.

It seemed Tian Rui needed to start thinking about how to escape.

Xu Yuan did not give Tian Rui much time to catch his breath. He slowly raised his hand. Following his movement, more than a dozen blood-colored spiral spikes condensed around him in an instant, their tips gleaming with a faint, chilling light.

He waved his hand down.

The dozen or so bone spikes instantly turned into streaks of bloody light, shooting toward Tian Rui.

At this point, Tian Rui no longer dared use the Divine Shield mantra to take any of Xu Yuan’s attacks head-on. He uttered the Instant mantra, and his figure flickered several meters to the side, dodging them.

Xu Yuan smiled outright when he saw this.

After getting familiar with him, even Tian Yan knew that his Blood Phoenix Drills could not be dodged.

Either you used mantras like Break or Sever to smash them head-on, or a mantra like Seal or Disrupt to cut the connection between the Blood Phoenix Drills and him. In short, one had to deal with them directly.

Xu Yuan suddenly pulled his hand back. The dozen or so Blood Phoenix Drills instantly turned at sharp angles and continued tearing toward Tian Rui.

Tian Rui’s pupils shrank slightly. He spat out a single word. “Seal!”

“Heh.” Feeling the source qi in his body stagnate ever so slightly, Xu Yuan narrowed his eyes. His body sank lower as he raised the jade sword horizontally before his chest.

Fast reaction. Pity.

These days, even Tian Yan did not dare carelessly use the Seal mantra against him. Before using the Seal mantra, she would at least keep the Instant mantra ready.

Void Step Slash.

Tian Rui’s pupils contracted. His pale golden eyes swept rapidly around him, but found nothing. And just as he was on full alert, Xu Yuan’s figure appeared behind him like a ghost.

“Trap!” Tian Rui spat.

Xu Yuan’s entire body instantly sank under a heavy pressure, but after so many live combat drills with Tian Yan, he had long since come up with a countermeasure.

Yang Restoration Art, Six Yang Bulwark.

Fiery, blazing patterns spread outward from Xu Yuan’s body, directly breaking free of Tian Rui’s Trap mantra.

Blood Ink Jade, Waltz.

A blood-ink sword mark tore through space. But unlike last time, Xu Yuan was aiming for his head.

WHOOSH! Tian Rui’s head flew high into the air.

By now, Xu Yuan had almost no source qi left in his body. He prepared the last Blood Phoenix Drill, ready to face the other party’s death-substitution secret art.

But there was no death-substitution secret art.

Tian Rui’s severed head flew high. The blood spraying from it did not rewind, nor did the head vanish. After tumbling through the air for several breaths, it fell straight down into the mountain forest below.

And at that moment, Xu Yuan faintly sensed a strange fluctuation of soul intent flash past.

Because of that inexplicable soul intent fluctuation, Xu Yuan remained standing in the void on high alert for a long time. Only after confirming that there was no lingering aura did he fly down toward Tian Rui’s headless corpse.

He landed on the ground. Shrubs grew thick all around. Sunlight filtered through the yellowing crowns of the trees and spilled into the forest, shining on the headless body lying quietly atop dead branches and fallen leaves. The place was dim and silent.

Xu Yuan stayed fully alert. He did not rashly approach. Instead, he first used the Blood Marrow Drill as a medium to repeatedly confirm that the other party was thoroughly dead. Only then did he walk up to the corpse.

The headless body was drenched in blood, a sight nauseating enough to turn the stomach.

Xu Yuan frowned and suppressed the discomfort in his heart. With one slash, he cut off the finger wearing the Sumeru Ring, then burned the corpse directly into ashes with a burst of flame.

Sometimes, that was simply how things were. Take one wrong step... and you died.

After finishing all this, Xu Yuan took Tian Rui’s Sumeru Ring and sent his soul sense inside.

As the Saint of Heavenwatch Pavilion, the young man should have carried quite a bit of information about Heavenwatch Pavilion in his ring. But the first thing to appear before his soul sense was the Beguiling Divine Sakura’s tree sapling radiating waves of soul intent.