Above the entire training ground, Huo Linfei stood in the air, sweeping a look around, then suddenly let his true qi vibrate outward to project his voice, "Where is the Sect Leader of the Celestial River Blade Sect? This Deputy Alliance Leader did not fight his full strength earlier and was not satisfied. Come out quickly and fight this Deputy Alliance Leader another round."
Huo Linfei's voice carried from near to far, spreading through the entire Celestial River Blade Sect.
On the training ground below, where Celestial River Blade Sect disciples and Alliance Under Heaven members had been engaged in one-on-one combat, everyone was suppressed by the martial pressure contained in his voice.
For a moment, blood energy churned and true qi froze in everyone's bodies, forcing all of them to halt at once and fall back from each other, not daring to continue fighting.
At that, Bai Zihua gave a cold snort, then waved a hand.
Invisible true qi swept over Shangguan Qingqing, Qin Hao, and the Celestial River Blade Sect disciples, dispersing the martial pressure Huo Linfei had released from them.
"The Fifth Deputy Alliance Leader of the great Alliance Under Heaven, and you are making moves against disciples of a younger generation. Have you no shame at all?"
Bai Zihua's wine-flushed nose twitched in contempt as he looked across at Huo Linfei.
Huo Linfei, however, paid absolutely no attention, simply casting Bai Zihua a casual glance and saying with a laugh, "Oh? Are you thinking about fighting me yourself?"
At those words, Bai Zihua's face immediately darkened, and his expression became uncertain and shifting.
Shangguan Qingqing and Qin Hao standing beside him immediately grabbed his arms, afraid he would act on impulse and actually engage the Fifth Deputy Alliance Leader of the Alliance Under Heaven.
After all, Huo Linfei's name was renowned throughout the martial world, a martial artist of the same tier as the Celestial River Blade Sect leader. Their master was no match for him.
At that point, Huo Linfei fixed his gaze on Bai Zihua, who had gone silent, a mocking look surfacing in his eyes, and pressed on relentlessly, "Looking at your age, you have quite a few more years on me, and yet your martial cultivation is not even worth carrying my shoes. And you have the nerve to point out my wrongs?"
He then waved a hand dismissively, his expression dripping with disdain, "I heard the Celestial River Blade Sect is full of people who do not fear death. Looking at this now, that reputation seems undeserved. You cannot even summon the courage to raise your blade against me. You might as well go back and tell your Sect Leader to stop hiding inside the sect like a turtle in his shell and come out here."
At those words, Bai Zihua's old face flushed crimson with fury, his aura surging lightly around him, and he shook Shangguan Qingqing and Qin Hao's grip loose.
Then, with a sudden roar toward Huo Linfei, he shouted, "Take this blade from this old man!"
Before the words were even fully out, Bai Zihua's foot came down hard against the ground, and he launched into the air.
At some unknown moment a blue-bodied blade had appeared in his hand.
Gripping the blade with both hands, his aura spiked instantly to its peak, and the true qi of heaven and earth converged rapidly around him.
In the next instant, a sharp gleam flashed through his eyes, and a deep, surging tide of blade intent fused into one with the blade in his hand.
In that moment, the air above the entire training ground swelled like a raging flood, and from somewhere within it came the faint sound of rivers running wild.
"Strike!"
With a cry from Bai Zihua that shook the heavens, a blade light of extreme density shot from the tip of his blue blade in an instant.
The blade light was like a white rainbow cutting through the sun, and wherever it passed, the sky ripped apart and mountains seemed ready to collapse, as though the very firmament could be cleaved in two.
At the same time, Huo Linfei, directly facing that domineering and astonishing blade strike, narrowed his eyes slightly and looked up at the blade light arriving above his head in the blink of an eye.
He simply raised a hand and grasped lightly at the air, five fingers closing together. In an instant, five currents of immense true qi converged above his head into a cage-like grip that descended and locked the full length of that blade light in place.
Then, with a single casual squeeze of one hand, the overwhelming blade light of river-surging force shattered in an instant, completely swallowed and extinguished by rolling true qi.
"Weak. Far too weak."
Huo Linfei's silver hair billowed, and he parted his lips in a dismissive shake of his head toward Bai Zihua.
Bai Zihua, blade in hand, had naturally seen every bit of what had just happened. The dark fury that had been on his face gave way now to a flash of desolation.
He had understood perfectly well that there was a gap between his cultivation and Huo Linfei's, but he had never imagined the gap could be this immense.
Right at that moment, Huo Linfei kept smiling, then suddenly spoke, "As the saying goes, courtesy requires reciprocation. Since you struck at me, this Deputy Alliance Leader naturally cannot let that go unanswered. If you can take one of my palms and survive, this Deputy Alliance Leader will show mercy and spare your life today."
As he spoke, Huo Linfei, standing in the air, flipped one palm over and, from a distance of more than ten zhang, pressed it down toward Bai Zihua from afar.
In an instant, fierce gusts erupted above the entire training ground, and an invisible surge of true qi poured from the sky like a crushing tide, the air boiling and churning with it, its terrifying aura carrying a force as though capable of shaking heaven and earth.
In that single palm strike, the might of something capable of annihilating all things radiated outward. In its movement and stillness alike, there was nothing but killing intent.
Clearly Huo Linfei had absolutely no intention of holding back against Bai Zihua, a Celestial River Blade Sect elder whose cultivation was below his own.
One palm was all it would take to flatten him right here on this training ground.
Faced with Huo Linfei's strike, Bai Zihua had stayed alert throughout, but now that he could actually feel the terrifying force of that palm bearing down on him, his expression became extremely grim.
He had already been locked in by the man's aura, with no way to dodge. He had no choice but to take it head-on.
But before doing so, Bai Zihua's first instinct was to grab Shangguan Qingqing and Qin Hao with both hands and hurl them clear, throwing them out of range of the strike so they would not be caught in it.
"No!"
Both Shangguan Qingqing and Qin Hao cried out at the same time. They could already see that Bai Zihua had no way of withstanding a palm strike this powerful from the Fifth Deputy Alliance Leader.
Both of them were filled with anguish at the thought, having never imagined they would helplessly watch their master die before their eyes.
Shangguan Qingqing's figure was being flung rapidly through the air. Though she fought desperately to stop herself, Bai Zihua's true qi enveloping her made it completely impossible.
She instinctively gripped the token in her hand tightly, and twisted toward the distant, indifferent-faced Huo Linfei to shout something urgently.
But her voice was swallowed by the wind tearing past, and never carried across.
As for Huo Linfei in the distance, while he had caught Shangguan Qingqing's gaze and noticed she seemed to be trying to say something to him, he could not possibly bring himself to care about an ordinary Celestial River Blade Sect disciple he could crush with one hand.
Huo Linfei simply narrowed his eyes at Bai Zihua, as though appreciating what was about to happen to him.
But right at the moment Bai Zihua was preparing to strike out one more time and try to withstand Huo Linfei's palm, a blade light like a silver river descending from the sky suddenly poured down from above.
That fierce blade light tore a crack through the sky above the Celestial River Blade Sect, and a vast, torrential blade intent cascaded down with it, silencing every mountain and making all of heaven and earth go still with a killing air.
"If you want to break the rules and strike at my Celestial River Blade Sect's people, did you think to ask my blade first?"
The Celestial River Blade Sect leader's voice rang out above the training ground. The blade light fell and directly cleaved Huo Linfei's palm strike to nothing, as though it had never existed.
At that moment, the Celestial River Blade Sect leader's figure descended in an instant, coming to a stop in front of Bai Zihua.
"Perfect timing!"
Huo Linfei suddenly broke into a grin, as though the Sect Leader's arrival was exactly what he had been expecting all along, as though he had never been surprised.
He had barely finished speaking before he vanished from the air.
And the Golden Armor Gate leader, who had been standing silently to one side throughout, had moved even before Huo Linfei, striking out with thunderous force the very moment the Celestial River Blade Sect leader arrived.
In the next instant, the figures of Huo Linfei and the Golden Armor Gate leader appeared almost simultaneously, one before and one behind the Celestial River Blade Sect leader.
Neither said a word. In perfect unison they struck out with full force, both palms aimed at the leader's vital points from opposite sides.
In that instant, the space around the three of them darkened and began to collapse. The surging true qi of heaven and earth clashed and ground against each other like a hurricane meeting a tidal wave, and the resulting shockwave was so devastating it sent even Bai Zihua, standing behind the leader, hurling backward.
With a thunderous boom, the training ground practically collapsed in the blink of an eye beneath the three-way clash, a massive rocky crater dozens of zhang across opening up in the earth. Crushed stone and dust exploded outward in a wave, sweeping across the entire Celestial River Blade Sect above and below.
With a sharp crack, what sounded like blade intent shattering rang out, and then the Celestial River Blade Sect leader's figure was blasted from the cloud of dust and sent crashing down toward the lower mountainside.
"Sect Leader!"
Bai Zihua, who had barely steadied himself, saw this and immediately suppressed the injuries stirring inside him, driving his true qi to leap upward and catch that flying figure in time.
Before long, Bai Zihua managed to shed the remaining force from the Celestial River Blade Sect leader's body and helped him land against a rocky outcrop.
The Sect Leader's face was dead white, his chest visibly caved in.
Bai Zihua could also sense that a tremendously powerful destructive palm intent lingered inside him, still continuously ravaging his body.
"I am fine!"
The Celestial River Blade Sect leader swallowed down a mouthful of blood that had risen to his throat, and before the shaken Bai Zihua could speak, he waved it away first.
Then his eyes sharpened abruptly and he lifted his gaze.
A gust of wind swept through and cleared the blinding clouds of dust in moments, and the figures of Huo Linfei and the Golden Armor Gate leader appeared several zhang before the two of them, hovering quietly in the air.
Huo Linfei stood with his hands clasped behind his back in a casual manner, looking down at the Celestial River Blade Sect leader with a contemptuous smile, "Knew you would come out. I have been waiting."
"Bastards!"
Bai Zihua erupted in fury and was about to shout abuse.
These two had used him as bait to draw out the Celestial River Blade Sect leader, then ambushed him with a coordinated strike they had planned from the start. This was utterly despicable.
But before the words left Bai Zihua's mouth, the Celestial River Blade Sect leader raised a hand to stop him.
At that moment, the leader's face was white as paper, but a strange light flashed in his eyes as he stared at Huo Linfei, "You took my blade earlier, and you have already recovered this quickly?"
At those words, Huo Linfei gave a cold laugh and said lightly, "The martial art this Deputy Alliance Leader cultivates is one of the top two or three divine arts in all of Great Li's martial world. A trivial injury like that can be mostly recovered in no time at all, which puts it far above the crude combat arts of your Celestial River Blade Sect, by more than a little."
The Celestial River Blade Sect leader's gaze darkened. He could naturally guess that the divine art Huo Linfei was referring to was the Heaven and Earth Returning to Origin Art.
A wave of helpless despair washed through him in that moment. He was already gravely injured, and the Celestial River Blade Sect had all but lost.
And right at that moment, Shangguan Qingqing, who had been hurled away by Bai Zihua, had finally managed to stop herself. Without pausing for even an instant, she ran straight back and returned to Bai Zihua and the Sect Leader's side.
"This is no place for you. Get out of here now!"
Bai Zihua saw her coming and was about to throw her out of range again.
After all, even he himself was facing certain death against Huo Linfei. Shangguan Qingqing staying beside them would only mean throwing her life away for nothing.
"Sect Leader, Master, please give me a chance!"
Shangguan Qingqing immediately spoke urgently, afraid Bai Zihua would use the same trick to send her flying again.
At those words, Bai Zihua's brow furrowed sharply, and the Celestial River Blade Sect leader shook his head gently, looking at Shangguan Qingqing, "Child, I understand your heart. No one in the sect blames you. Staying here will not help you. Please step back for now."
With that, the Celestial River Blade Sect leader was about to wave his hand to send her away.
Across from them, Huo Linfei and the Golden Armor Gate leader watched everything without any impulse to stop it.
They were certain they could finish off the seriously injured Celestial River Blade Sect leader at any moment. There was no need to rush.
But right at that moment, both of them watched as the young female disciple of the Celestial River Blade Sect suddenly turned to face them, and raised a token in her hand, shouting urgently, "This is a Tianjin Guards token given by the Great Li Eighth Prince. The Celestial River Blade Sect is under the Eighth Prince's protection. Does the Alliance Under Heaven still dare move against our sect?"
At those words, everything in the surrounding area went abruptly still.
The Celestial River Blade Sect leader who had been about to wave his hand also stopped, and both he and Bai Zihua looked at Shangguan Qingqing with unusual expressions.
The Celestial River Blade Sect had of course never joined the Great Li Tianjin Guards. But they had heard Shangguan Qingqing mention the Great Li Eighth Prince before.
Both of them knew that this disciple of theirs admired and looked up to the man deeply, and had even described him as the greatest martial prodigy the world had ever seen.
Of course, they had also quietly learned the fuller picture from Qin Hao, and understood that Shangguan Qingqing's relationship with this so-called unremarkable Eighth Prince was not a simple one. Some of what she said could not entirely be taken at face value.
"The Tianjin Guards? The Eighth Prince?"
Huo Linfei, standing in the air across from them, suddenly spoke.
He then curled the corner of his mouth, reached out, and plucked the token from Shangguan Qingqing's hand from across the distance.
Huo Linfei glanced at the token in his hand with an air of indifference, then looked at Shangguan Qingqing with a mocking expression.
After staring at her tense and earnest face for a moment, he suddenly burst into loud laughter, "The Great Li Tianjin Guards, you say? That all-powerful force that could wipe out my Alliance Under Heaven with a wave of its hand. Why would I possibly be afraid? Ha ha..."