Chapter 67: Melee

Translator: Cenniwdyl  Editor: Caron_

She entered the valley at the hour of the dog ¹ yesterday and now, it was already the last quarter of the hour of the rat ² . From her calculations, she needed to wait six hours before she could leave the valley. A lot of things might happen in these six hours, and at the same time, the dead might be numerous. She had to be a bit more cautious.

The exit formation would be opened in the centermost region, yet the closer she got to the area, the more dangerous it would be. Therefore, Mo Tiange pondered her situation for a long time and decided to pass these six hours by wandering around the surrounding area and only going to the center area after the formation was opened. Furthermore, she also decided that her divine sense must be on alert at all times to avoid both people and demonic beasts alike.

This was quite difficult but was a bit safer compared to staying in the poisonous spring. After all, the remains of a second rank demonic beast were extremely attractive for Aura Refining disciples like them, so who knew whether or not that old man would call his fellow Zixia Sect disciples to the spring?

This mountainous forest had thousands-feet-tall waterfalls in the east, a high mountain barrier in the southwest, cliffs where they had come down in the north, and near the cliffs in the northwest area, a poisonous spring. The only area she could leave this forest from was in the northwest where the poisonous spring lay. Nevertheless, the poisonous spring was very dangerous. Not only were there packs of demonic beasts and poisonous fogs everywhere, unknown dangers also lurked in the water. Basically, no one would think about leaving this forest from that area.

Because of that, almost a thousand Aura Refining disciples had to remain inside this mountainous forest. Even though this forest was extremely vast, and it wouldn’t be easy to run into one’s friends, encountering other random people wasn’t at all difficult.

Within just an hour after she left the poisonous spring, she had come across several groups of people. What Murong Zi told her was indeed true. To protect their safety as well as to annihilate their enemies, disciples from the three groups were traveling in groups.

Avoiding these people cost her a tremendous amount of strength. Her Breath-Concealing Technique was something she learned from Ye Clan’s records, so it couldn’t be considered remarkable. However, because her Spirit-Concealing Jade Pendant could also gather and purify spiritual aura in addition to concealing her constitution, the effects of magic and techniques she employed were somewhat strengthened.

Because she was well aware of her own strengths and weaknesses, she became even more cautious. Whenever she perceived the presence of other people from a distance, she immediately steered herself away from them.

Along the way, Mo Tiange could clearly see the horrifying battlefield situation. On more than one occasion, she saw traces remaining from fights of magical power – scorched trees, cracked rock, and even dried bloodstains. Each dark red spot on the ground perhaps represented the end of a life.

Sometimes, she also came across abandoned corpses. Some were in purple robes, some were in yellow robes, and some were even in black robes. The expressions solidified on their faces were the same – resentful and frightened. Once in a while, she also saw familiar faces. They were her fellow martial sisters and brothers from her sect. Luckily, none of the several people she considered friends were among them. Later, she gradually became numb. No matter what kind of battlefield remnants she saw, she was able to turn a blind eye to them.

Nevertheless, even after being this cautious, she was still discovered by two Zixia Sect disciples.

Mo Tiange discreetly watched her surroundings, holding her Green-Wood Sword in one hand and several talismans in her other hand.

The two people besieging her were a man with a robust build not inferior to that of Liu Yidao and a beautiful woman. The woman was in the tenth layer of the Aura Refining realm while the robust man was in the ninth layer. Both of them seemed very experienced in fights of magical power. One stood behind her while the other stood in front of her, completely blocking her way. The trees around her were very dense and where the two people were standing happened to be the easiest spots she could escape from.

Mo Tiange unconsciously furrowed her brows. Since running away was apparently impossible, she had to kill them first. However, from the fact that these two people were able to surround her silently, they would most likely be hard to handle. She had to think of some ways to deal with them.

After scrutinizing her for a moment, the robust man uttered a surprised “oh!” and said, “Wife, this boy seems to be the one old man Chen talked about!”

Old man Chen? Mo Tiange pondered. Is he perhaps that old man from the Zixia Sect who escaped from the poisonous spring?

Nonetheless, she never expected that these two people were actually husband and wife. Mo Tiange really couldn’t help but take another glance at the wife. The wife had a high cultivation level and beautiful looks, yet she actually chose this crude man with mediocre cultivation level as her husband?

Seeing Mo Tiange’s face, the wife chuckled and said, “Husband, it isn’t like you don’t know that old man Chen has always been a coward. But this little brother really looks charming, what a pity…”

Hearing his wife calling another man charming, the robust man indignantly exclaimed, “Wife!”

The wife seemed very smug that her husband was jealous and covered her mouth as she burst into soft laughter. She then said, “Husband, what are you worried about? No matter how charming he is, isn’t he still going to die by our hands?”

The robust man felt she was being reasonable and chuckled. “What my wife said was right.” He then turned towards Mo Tiange and gloweringly said, “Boy! Come and deliver your life!”

Right after his words landed, Mo Tiange made her move. Green-Wood Sword was swiftly launched, but it was nothing but a decoy. Under the bright rays radiating from Green-Wood Sword, the Flame Talismans she had been holding in her hand were hurled forward.

Having the ability to make the first attack robbed from him made the robust man furious. He flung the spirit tool in his hand towards the Green-Wood Sword. His spirit tool was a huge iron disc; it seemed very fitting, considering his build, to use force to win and to confidently use spirit tool to fight others.

Unfortunately, Mo Tiange’s real killing move wasn’t from her spirit tool. Green-Wood Sword was promptly withdrawn after it struck forwards. On the other hand, after beating Green-Wood Sword back, the iron disc still rushed violently towards Mo Tiange. At the same time, the wife behind Mo Tiange opened an umbrella then tossed the umbrella at her.

Mo Tiange wasn’t flustered. The Flame Talismans reached their target. A loud explosion rang out, followed by the robust man’s miserable screams. At this moment, the iron disc and umbrella were about to reach Mo Tiange, yet her body suddenly disappeared.

In the next second, she reappeared in front of the robust man, ruthlessly stabbing him in his stomach with the wooden sword in her hand. The robust man uttered an even bitterer howl before he finally fell on the ground, quiet and motionless.

“Husband!!!” The wife sharply cried out and rushed forward. Mo Tiange jumped using Light Body Technique to avoid her umbrella.

This time, Mo Tiange’s sneak attack succeeded because her cultivation level was a layer higher than that of the robust man and also because the robust man underestimated her. Disguising oneself as a pig to eat the tiger was indeed the most useful trick in the cultivation world.

Apparently, the wife’s feelings towards her husband were quite deep. When she realized her husband was dead, she charged at Mo Tiange in a rage, itching to cut her into thousands of pieces.

Mo Tiange, however, didn’t have any intentions of confronting her head on. Her opponent clearly lost her rationality; she didn’t want to be dragged down with her. A barrage of talismans and spirit tools was launched at Mo Tiange, yet she simply relied on Light Body Technique to dodge. When her opponent seemed to have completely lost control of herself, Mo Tiange finally flung her weapons. Green-Wood Sword, talismans, the only handful of seeds she had left, and some other things were hurled.

The wife was angry to see Mo Tiange using the same method as her to fight her. She pasted a defensive talisman on her body and used her umbrella to block the attacks. Her other hand clenched a stack of talismans, intending to throw them at Mo Tiange.

However, she didn’t get the chance. Before she could throw the talismans, she felt a pain in her body. The hand holding the umbrella lost its strength and dropped the weapon. She then fell headfirst to the ground.

Having confirmed that her opponent died, Mo Tiange collected all of their belongings, dealt with their corpses, and fled the area right away.

Although this fight seemed very smooth as she managed to handle two people in just a moment, in reality, the losses she suffered weren’t small. To quickly injure that robust man, she wasted about five or six Flame Talismans which worth several dozen spirit stones. Furthermore, she also used the priceless Body-Concealing Talisman that cost Second Uncle a lot of spirit stones to buy.

Killing the wife by taking advantage of her distraught state appeared like Mo Tiange was using the same method she used in attacking the robust man, but in fact, she mixed the glittering flying needles Murong Zi left behind among her talismans. That was how she silently broke through the wife’s umbrella and protective barrier.

Although these days she had experienced lots of fights of magical powers, this was actually her most successful fight. She managed to make a judgment in a split second, promptly make her moves, didn’t make a single mistake during the fight, and gain the upper hand in a flash.

Mo Tiange cautiously reviewed the fight in her mind. It was important to be in a calm and focused state, hold the details of the battle in her grasp, make the correct decisions in a split second, and make every attack count.

She had to maintain this state of mind. After all, in a fight of magical power, this was indeed the best state.

Mo Tiange turned around when she realized that there were people ahead of her. Nevertheless, she hadn’t run far when she once again detected the presences of several people nearby. With no other choice, she hid her breath, climbed up a tree, and hid her body.

The first ones who passed by were a mixed group of Jindao School and Yunwu Sect disciples. Mo Tiange had no intention of revealing herself and greeting them. Such a large group traveling together would be easily found, and infighting was also likely to occur. Although having more people would provide a bit more safety, the more disputes they had also increased their possibility of dying.

It took only a moment for these people to leave, but Mo Tiange decided to stay up in the tree instead of getting down. After sitting down and controlling her breath, she then took out her recently-won Qiankun Bags.

The seeds she had were already completely exhausted. However, in those Zixia Sect disciples’ Qiankun Bags, there were quite a lot of talismans and medicinal pills. In addition, there were also several kinds of pretty good spirit tools, but for Aura Refining disciples, spirit tools that hadn’t been personally refined by them weren’t handy to use and could only be treated as backups.

Other than those, the flying needles Murong Zi left behind were also quite useful. Controlling these flying needles required divine sense and not spiritual aura, so the limitations that prevented Aura Refining disciples from using two spirit tools at the same time didn’t apply for these needles. If these flying needles were used properly, Aura Refining disciples would unlikely be able to protect themselves against them.

After storing away everything that seemed useful for battle, Mo Tiange jumped down from the tree and continued on her journey. After walking for some distance, however, she was completely stupefied.

Numerous corpses of disciples from all three groups lay on the ground. When she saw the faces of dead Yunwu Sect disciples, she realized that they were part of the group that just walked past the tree she was on. As it turned out, they actually came across a group of Zixia Sect disciples and perished together.

Mo Tiange shook her head and began collecting their Qiankun Bags before igniting a fire to burn all the corpses.

Not to mention that there were many other areas she didn’t pass through, she had seen at least fifty to sixty people dead just along the path she walked on… The numbers of people who would leave this place alive would probably be less than half the original number.

When she thought about this, she couldn’t help but sneer. Zixia Sect had probably never anticipated this, right? They annexed Yunwu Sect and Jindao School, yet the outcome was losing countless high-level Aura Refining disciples from their own sect. Furthermore, among these people were Aura Refining disciples who had the highest prospects in building their foundations. This way, their Foundation Building cultivators would substantially decrease within the next hundred years. Instead of becoming one of the eight great cultivation groups, they would definitely get a lot weaker.

She wasn’t afraid of being punished for killing others upon leaving this place. Because then Zixia Sect would realize that it couldn’t afford to lose any more Aura Refining disciples.