Chapter 49: Chapter 49: Martial Arts Phenomenon
The Fire Spirit King didn’t care about the life or death of the little insect that had intruded into her attack range. What she wanted now was to break through the array in front of her and reclaim the sacred artifact.
"Leader Yue, do you have any other ideas? We don’t have many spirit stones left, and we can’t maintain the array for long," said the green-clad swordsman.
"Competing with the Fire Spirit King in this secret realm, even more spirit stones won’t hold out," responded Leader Yue. "Someone must hold off the Fire Spirit King. As long as the Sun Remnant is taken out of the secret realm, the Fire Spirit will give up the chase."
"Who will go?" The three exchanged looks, knowing that while taking the sacred artifact out of the secret realm would stop the Fire Spirit from pursuing, intercepting the enraged Fire Spirit King would likely lead to death.
"Why don’t we all go?" the green-clad swordsman suggested.
"Who will protect the Sun Remnant then? Don’t forget, there’s more here than just one Fire Spirit King; there are many others," said the man in blue, shaking his head.
The three glanced back at the Sun Remnant held by the controlled Fire Spirit child, momentarily at a loss for a better plan.
Although the power of the Sun Remnant was subdued, it was not something ordinary people could touch. The three could only use the God-Control Talisman to manipulate the Fire Spirit child to hold the Sun Remnant.
"Should we notify others to rescue us?" suggested the green-clad swordsman.
"Are you trying to make things worse? And you’re daring to involve other players. Besides, dealing with the Fire Spirit King requires someone at the Spirit Condensation stage, and the Fire Rain Mountain secret realm only allows Qi Cultivation and Body Refinement stages. Where would we find players capable of cross-boundary combat?" said the man in blue.
"If it really can’t be helped, we’ll have to shed some blood and lure the martial cultivators outside to besiege the Fire Spirit King, giving us a chance to escape," proposed Leader Yue.
"Wait, something seems off," said the man in blue, staring outside.
"What’s happening?" asked the green-clad swordsman.
"Someone is rushing towards the Fire Spirit King."
After a while, the three saw no movement in the flames and sighed, "Looks like it’s time to prepare for a big sacrifice!"
Crawling with difficulty to the edge of the attack range amid the flames, Lu Yu’s Fire Spirit Body was ninety-nine percent transformed, needing just a little more to complete the transformation. He felt that once the transformation was complete, it would mean his death.
During the transformation, spiritual qi and qi blood continuously helped Lu Yu rebuild his body, but once complete, this benefit would cease, and staying in the flames would truly be fatal.
A faint red spiritual light appeared on Lu Yu’s skin surface, a sign that the Fire Spirit Body was about to take shape. The surrounding fire spiritual qi surged into Lu Yu’s body, aiding his final step.
What should have been the easiest step, succeeded with ample fire spiritual qi, turned into the most challenging step.
The Fire Spirit King’s fire spiritual qi entered Lu Yu’s body, instantly helping him complete the final transformation step, yet the absorption of spiritual qi didn’t stop, with more fire spiritual qi pouring into Lu Yu’s body.
Lu Yu felt his eyes burning, all the fire spiritual qi entering his body concentrated around his eyes, and his eye sockets showed no eyeballs, but two flames.
When his eyes opened, the two flame vortices in his eye sockets continually absorbed the surrounding fire spiritual qi, affecting the Fire Spirit King’s attack.
Through a chance occurrence, the Fire Demon Eyes were partially unlocked, granting Lu Yu the ability to manipulate flames.
The flames unleashed by the Fire Spirit King were torn open by the power of the Fire Demon Eyes, and Lu Yu moved along the ripped passage out of her attack range.
Releasing the Fire Demon Eyes’ power for less than two seconds, Lu Yu felt unbearable eye pain, his mind went blank, and the flame vortices in his eyes vanished.
Noticing Lu Yu tearing through her flames, the Fire Spirit King’s attack paused momentarily, and Leader Yue saw an opportunity, placing both hands on the peculiar patterned wooden box and continuously channeling spiritual power into it.
The wooden box lit up with a blue glow, and the Xuan Water Array meant for defense flipped to envelop the Fire Spirit King. Noticing the Xuan Water Array’s transformation, the Fire Spirit King released massive spiritual power to resist the flipping array.
Yet under Leader Yue’s relentless control, the Xuan Water Array reversed to seal the Fire Spirit King, the cost being severe damage to the costly multi-functional array plate in his hand.
The pattern on the wooden box shattered in large areas, emitting black smoke.
Without time to mourn his beloved item, Leader Yue hurriedly said, "Go quickly, the Xuan Water Array can only suppress her for ten seconds."
After all, the Fire Spirit King was a Spirit Condensation stage monster and on her own turf, she wouldn’t easily be subdued.
The green-clad swordsman and the blue-shirted man forged ahead, while Leader Yue divided his attention to control the little boy carrying the Sun Remnant, covering the rear as they moved swiftly toward the secret realm’s exit.
Seeing the Fire Spirit King suppressed, the others emerged from the array, surrounding martial cultivators swarmed towards them, some staying in the secret realm with aims on the sacred artifact.
The sacred artifact so prized by the Fire Spirit clan must be of extraordinary value. Everyone had seen the gigantic flame shadow; its strength exceeded everyone’s comprehension, and it valued the sacred artifact in their hands so highly.
The artifact’s value was evident.
"Courting death!" roared the man in blue as several martial cultivators moved to attack him, smashing his spiritual weapon at them.
As the man in blue employed martial arts, a vision of a towering mountain appeared behind him—a result achievable only by cultivating spirit-grade martial arts to a certain level.
Though the vision had no attack power, it nonetheless captivated and preempted his opponents.
The few men, stunned by the mountain-toppling vision, unable to effectively defend themselves, were struck by a stick from the man in blue, spitting blood in mid-air.
The swordsmanship employed by the green-clad swordsman also spouted visions; countless indistinguishable swords accompanied his strikes, his opponent having no time to discern the authenticity before being silenced by a single thrust.
Leader Yue’s hands flew through talisman papers, whether for attack, defense, acceleration, or talisman soldiers...of various types, he safeguarded the Fire Spirit child while also killing foes.
Ouyang Lie observed the group of three, astonished that each could execute martial arts with visions; he had just barely grasped a martial art to the level of producing visions.
When he left his family, the elder had told him that martial arts visions were not attained by arduous training; they required a genius’s insight, that only a genius could manifest visions.
But now, recently away from his clan, he saw two genius martial cultivators capable of manifesting martial art visions, a huge blow to Ouyang Lie’s ego.
He once imagined himself a rare genius, but now it seemed... his perspective was much too narrow.
After a brief rest, Lu Yu regained consciousness but felt a mental fog as if deprived of sleep for three days and nights.
It was a perplexing state, aware of his condition but unable to summon the energy, as if all his spirit was drained.
As the Fire Spirit Body autonomously absorbed nearby spiritual qi, Lu Yu’s condition gradually improved, though he felt something missing from his mind, yet he wasn’t as uncomfortable, able to control his body.
"Let’s move!" shouted Ouyang Lie, snapping out of his internal turmoil and swiftly rushing to Lu Yu’s side to take him away.
The Fire Spirit King was about to break free.