Battle Through the Heavens

A group of red shadows, like a raging flood, whizzed past the forest. Their dense, bloody, aura caused some of the low ranked Magical Beasts, which were out looking for food, to fear coming any closer. They could only use their frightened gazes from afar as they watched the group of people as they ran pass.

A short while after that group of red-colored humans had rushed past, another black-colored shadow leaped and appeared from in between the trees. His body flashed and stopped at a tree branch before lifting his head, overlooking the red-colored group of people who had their heads lowered as they ran wildly. He could not resist frowning. In a soft voice, he said, “If I continue to delay like this, Fan Lao might really come chasing…”

Xiao Yan mused slightly, clenched his teeth and said quietly, “If there is no opportunity to strike, then I can only forcefully create one.”

Once he said this, Xiao Yan’s feet gently pressed against the branch. His body gently drifted down before his body continued to follow the group in front.

Two groups with a great disparity in numbers rushed through the mountain forest, with one at the front and the other trailing behind. The distance between them did not exceed a hundred meters.

Xiao Yan remained close behind the group in front, quietly counting the time in his heart. It continued in this manner for a couple of minutes before he finally could not endure any longer. His feet violently stepped on a tree branch. His speed had just soared when he suddenly realized that Fan Ling’s group in front had actually stopped. His heart leaped as he quietly reduced his speed and sneakily landed on a tree branch before he carefully approached.

In an empty clearing within the forest, Fan Ling waved his hand and reduced the speed of the group. His face was solemn as he watched a Blood Guard in front whom he had sent to scout ahead. He coldly asked, “Is there some activity in front?”

“Junior Sect Leader, there are signs of people on the mountain path in that direction. After careful investigation, it appears to be people from the ‘Black Skeleton Tomb’.” The Blood Guard knelt on one knee as he respectfully reported.

“Black Skeleton Tomb?” Fan Ling’s expression changed slightly as he heard this. He asked, “Have we also been stopped? How did they come to know of our whereabouts?”

“Junior Sect Leader, looking at their manner, it does not appear that they are ambushing us. Instead, they appear to be searching for a remote mountain path and using it to hurry back to Skull City…” The experienced Blood Guard hesitated a little before speaking.

“Oh? Hei, after buying the Di class Dou Skill, they are looking for a small, remote path to quietly hurry back to Skull City. This does match those fellows’ characters quite well…” Fan Ling’s eyes narrowed. He recalled that the ‘Three Thousand Lightning Movement’ Agility Type Dou Technique, which he coveted greatly was in their grasp. A fiery desire that he had difficulty restraining suddenly rose within his heart. His gaze swept around him as he suddenly asked, “How many people do they have?”

“Exactly ten of them.”

“Is that fellow Hui Ku among them?” Fan Ling quickly followed with another question. The Hui Ku he had just spoken of was the gray-robed, middle-aged man who had fought with him for the ‘Three Thousand Lightning Movement’ at the auction fair yesterday.

“Yes, he is. According to this subordinate’s judgement, the other party should have two strong Dou Lings and two Da Dou Shis. The remainder is of them are of the Dou Shi class.” The Blood Guard solemnly replied.

“Two Dou Lings, two Da Dou Shis huh…” Fan Ling softly muttered to himself. A long while later, a greed and savage smile flashed across his narrowed eyes. With a wave of his hand, he said in a dark and cold manner, “Increase our speed, catch up with the people from the ‘Black Skeleton Tomb’. Originally, I did not plan to have any ideas about this matter, but it so happens that they themselves chose to take this small mountain path. They should not blame this young master for having a black heart…”

“Junior Sect Leader, the Sect Leader said that the most important mission we have now is to send the ‘Yin-Yang Mysterious Dragon Pill’ back to Mu Zhi City. If any issues were to appear, it might be very disadvantageous to us.” Seeing that Fan Ling was actually planning to stop the people from the Black Skeleton Tomb, the old man, who had been following beside him, could not help but hurriedly advise against it.

“Elder Luo, you need not worry. The other party is far weaker than us whether it is in terms of numbers or overall strength of the group. It is worthwhile for us to take this risk for a Di class Dou Technique.” Fan Ling spread his hand and spoke faintly.

“This…” Elder Luo hesitated for a moment when he heard this. He exchanged glances with another old man by his side and then looked at Fan Ling, whose face was filled with determination. He could only helplessly nod his head.

“When that time comes, I will need to trouble you two Elders to hold off the other party’s Dou Lings. I will lead the Blood Guards to finish off the other people from the ‘Black Skeleton Tomb’. This time around, it will be the same as what we did with the people from the ‘Sky Serpent Mansion’. We must not let even half a person sneak away!” Fan Ling coldly said. His killing style was resolute without the slightest hesitation and could be considered a figure of power. However, he was just a little too greedy.

As Fan Ling’s voice fell, the group of Blood Guards nodded quietly without emitting even the slightest bit of complaint or rejection.

Fan Ling nodded with satisfaction. He waved his hand and led at the front as they charged into the forest.

Not long after Fan Ling and the others disappeared, Xiao Yan’s body appeared on top of a large tree. He eyed the spot where the former’s group had disappeared from, and a strange smile surfaced on his face. In a soft voice, he said, “What an overly greedy fellow. When he sees something good, he just wants to snatch it… but this time around, you are destined to be robbed.”

Xiao Yan laughed softly as his body drifted down from the large tree before turning into a black shadow which leaped into the forest.

Xiao Yan’s figure drifted within the forest. Around ten minutes later, he suddenly slowed and hid his body behind a large tree. He tilted his head and threw his gaze out.

At this moment, on an empty ground which was merely tens of meters away, over ten Blood Guards enwrapped by bloody aurae formed a circle, surrounding a few people with black-colored skulls sewn onto their robes. From the looks of the mess on the ground and the wounds on their bodies, it was clear that both parties had already been engaged in an explosive battle during the short amount of time earlier.

At a spot not far from the battle circle, there were another two small battlegrounds. Four human figures intertwined with one another. The sharp weapons in their hands carried a ferocious force as they violently hacked at each other. Occasionally, the glint from the knives and the aura of a sword would strike air, and the enormous rock or large trees by their sides would be directly sliced apart. From this, one could see that both parties were really engaged in a life or death battle and did not have any intention of simply sparring.

“Have they already started fighting…” Xiao Yan’s gaze swept across the messy empty ground. He then glance at the two small battleground. A grey-robed, middle-aged man among them was shockingly the person from the ‘Black Skeleton Tomb’ during the auction fair yesterday.

“The people from the ‘Black Skeleton Tomb’ are not able to endure being attacked like the ‘Sky Serpent Mansion’…” As Xiao Yan muttered in his heart, the Blood Guards, whose entire bodies were surrounded by a bloody aura had once again began to attack. The bloody scent that came rushing over nearly caused people to vomit. Under over ten shining blood knives, the eight people from the ‘Black Skeleton Tomb’, with the exception of the two Da Dou Shis, who were gritting their teeth and enduring, were directly hacked to death by the chaotic knives. Their deaths were extremely miserable.

“Xiu!”

A dark, black, cold arrow sudden shot out explosively. The cold arrow carried a dense bloody aura as it violently pierced into the throat of a Da Dou Shi in a lightning-like manner. The enormous force contained in it directly caused the arrow to passed through the man’s throat and exit from the back before finally nailing itself firmly into a tree trunk. The tail of the arrow quivered swiftly.

Xiao Yan’s gaze swept across the direction where the arrow was shot out from. The person who had attacked was actually Fan Ling, who was holding a longbow in his hand. At this moment, he had once again raised his bow after killing one Da Dou Shi and targeted the other Da Dou Shi from a distance.

Seeing that Fan Ling was pointing the arrow at him, the expression of the other Da Dou Shi changed drastically. Dou Qi surged wildly within his body. In an instant, it agglomerated and formed a somewhat crude Dou Qi armor on the surface of his body. From the looks of this Dou Qi armor, the strength of this Da Dou Shi was likely around two or three stars.

“Hei, you want to block my ‘Blood Eclipse Arrow’ with just that broken Dou Qi armor?” Fan Ling could not help but laugh coldly when he saw the Da Dou Shi’s action. He pulled the bowstring back and released his finger. An arrow that was covered by a blood-colored energy, shot out with explosive force. It turned into a bloody glow that violently collided with that Dou Qi armor in a lightning-like manner. A ‘crunch’, that would make one’s face sour, immediately rang out.

The crunching sound did not last for very long before it was abruptly stopped. This was because the blood-colored arrow actually corroded a small hole in that Dou Qi armor. The arrow then drilled into the throat of that Da Dou Shi through the hole…

Fan Ling indifferently eyed the Da Dou Shi who had collapsed softly on the ground. He then watched the final attack of these two Da Dou Shi just before their deaths, killing nearly ten Blood Guards. His heart could not help but feel a little pain. It was not easy to groom these Blood Guards…

“Fortunately, there is the ‘Three Thousand Lightning Movement’ as compensation…” Fan Ling repeated in his heart. Only then did he feel a little better. He tilted his head and eyed the other two strong Dou Lings of the ‘Black Skeleton Tomb’ in two other areas, who were being held back by the two Elders until they were unable to move. In a faint voice, he said, “Mo-er Han. Hand over the ‘Three Thousand Lightning Movement’. If you comply with my demands, I will leave you with an intact corpse.”

The expression of the middle-aged man called Mo-er Han was dark and solemn as he dodged the attack from his opponent in front of him. His voice was hoarse as he said, “Fan Ling, you will regret this!”

Fan Ling laughed coldly as the bow and arrow in his hand swayed slightly and pointed at the strong Dou Ling. Blood aura was concentrated at the tip of the arrow and his eyes had tightly shrunk together at this moment. At a certain instance, he finally found an opening of the Dou Ling, which was forced out by the latter’s opponent. He relaxed his hand and the blood arrow shot out explosively. An instant later, an arrow violently shot into the chest of the strong Dou Ling.

“If I am to die, let’s die together!”

That strong Dou Ling from the ‘Black Skeleton Tomb’ was also extremely aggressive. Despite being struck by the cold arrow of Fan Ling until he was seriously injured with fresh blood being repeatedly spat out of his mouth, he threw away the weapon in his hand. He crazily withstood the intense pain of having his hand being cut off by his opponent’s knife as he used his other hand to tightly wrap around his opponent. His face was ferocious as he cried out loud, “Bone Explosion!”

“Elder Han, quickly pull back!” Fan Ling’s expression changed and hurriedly cried out when he saw that the face of the strong person from the ‘Black Skeleton Tomb’ had suddenly turned into a bizarre green and purple.

“Bang!”

Fan Ling’s warning had just fell when that strong Dou Ling suddenly exploded. The strong energy ripples from the explosion removed nearly half a foot of soil from the surrounding ground. That strong Dou Ling from the Blood Sect had also been blasted by the explosion until his clothes were tattered and his skin broken, revealing the flesh inside. His face was pale as he hung on by only a breath.

“Damn it!” Seeing Elder Han, who had kept his life, but temporarily lost his fighting ability, Fan Ling let out a furious curse. He waved his hand and said in a dark and cold voice, “Blood Guards, listen up, surround and kill Mo-er Han!”

“Yes!” As Fan Ling’s orders fell, the remaining twenty plus Blood Guards lifted their long knives which had traces of blood that had yet to dry. After which, they carried a bloody aura all over their bodies as they surrounded and attacked Mo-er Han.

Surrounding and killing and being surrounded and killed. This brutality was happening on this empty plot of land.

A strong Dou Ling was keeping Mo-er Han in check in front as tens of strong Blood Guards were attacking from all around and he needed to be careful of the cold arrows from Fan Ling who was outside the encirclement. By being forced to be distracted to such extremes, an opening was forced out by the Elder Luo after merely enduring for a couple of minutes. Although he had also risked his life to strike back and caused the Elder Luo to be badly wounded, he was also struck by the latter’s ferocious palm and completely fainted.

“Pooh…”

That person called Elder Luo held his chest and exhaled a couple of long breaths. He spat out a mouthful of fresh blood. As he glanced at the Blood Guards, where only ten remained, as well as the heavily wounded Elder Han, he could not help but smile bitterly and shook his head. He did not expect that the people of the ‘Black Skeleton Tomb’ were this fierce and unafraid to die. What a bitter fight…

Seeing that Mo-er Han was finally unconscious, Fan Ling, who was pulling his bowstring outside the battleground, finally heaved a sigh of relief. He carelessly put aside the bow and arrow in his hand and swiftly walked forward. He then randomly snatched a long knife from the hands of a Blood Guard before fiercely hacking Mo-er Han’s neck with a ferocious face, completely finishing him off.

He flicked the tip of the knife gently and lifted the storage ring on Mo-er Han’s hand. Fan Ling hurriedly flipped everything within it. A long while later, a wild joy that was difficult to hide swarmed onto his face. He shook his hand and an ancient silver-colored scroll appeared in his other.

“Ha ha, the ‘Three Thousand Lightning Movement’ has landed in my hands. Once I successfully practice it, what can a strong Dou Wang do to me? Ha ha!” Fan Ling held the scroll tightly and could not resist facing the sky and laughing crazily.

Just as Fan Ling had forgotten himself and laughed wildly, a suction force suddenly appeared out of nowhere. That silver-colored scroll instantly flew out, and was finally carelessly grabbed by a long arm.

“Ke ke, thank you very much for your hardwork Junior Sect Leader Fan Ling. However, it is better for me to take custody of this technique.”

A black-robed man strangely appeared on a tree branch. That silver-colored Di class Dou Technique scroll was reflecting with a faint luster under the sunlight.