High Martial Arts: Enlightenment after Practices

A defensive line of over twenty Werewolf Warriors confronted them, a dense formation of long spears, War Axes, and heavy shields.

But to Martial Artists who had achieved Great Success in their Heart Images, these ordinary warriors might as well have been made of paper.

Hong Nianyi swept her Sword Gang across, cutting over a dozen men in the front rank in half at the waist.

With Spear Momentum like a dragon, Xu Wuyi thrust forward, piercing through three heavy shields and skewering the three warriors behind them like fruit on a stick.

The air instantly thickened with the stench of blood.

”Where did they go?” Hong Nianyi grabbed a dying Werewolf Warrior, pressing her blade against his throat.

Fear filled the warrior’s eyes. He could only vaguely understand the language of the Human Race, but he could guess what she meant.

He pointed a trembling finger toward the eastern tunnel. ”The High... High Priest... is after them...”

Before he could finish, Hong Nianyi silenced him with a single slash and rushed into the tunnel with Xu Wuyi.

Inside the tunnel, Chen Yuan and Lin Jue were in grave danger.

Ghostly green fire snakes pursued them relentlessly, clinging to them like a plague.

The wound on Chen Yuan’s left shoulder was worsening. Bluish-black veins had already spread to his chest, and every breath brought a searing pain.

Lin Jue supported him, her right hand holding a runic shield. She struggled to fend off the fire snakes’ lunges, but cracks were already spiderwebbing across the shield’s surface.

”We can’t escape like this...” Chen Yuan gasped, his voice hoarse. ”We should split up. I’ll hold them off—”

”Shut up!” Lin Jue cut him off, her eyes filled with grim determination.

Just then, two figures swept around the corner ahead like a hurricane.

Xu Wuyi and Hong Nianyi had arrived.

Seeing their battered state, especially the ghastly wound on Chen Yuan’s shoulder, a cold glint flared in Hong Nianyi’s eyes.

She stepped forward and slashed with her Long Saber. A pale golden Sword Gang swept out in a crescent, shattering two fire snakes that had drawn near.

The ghostly green Flame scattered, only to be annihilated by the Sword Gang’s razor-sharp Intention the moment they made contact.

”Can you walk?” Xu Wuyi supported Chen Yuan, his gaze sweeping over the wound, his brow furrowed. ’This fire poison is incredibly insidious,’ he thought. ’It’s eroding the very foundation of his Qi and Blood.’

”I’ll live...” Chen Yuan gritted his teeth. ”But the High Priest... he’s strong... at least thirty percent stronger than the one in the canyon...”

Before he could finish, heavy footsteps echoed from deep within the tunnel.

The High Priest’s figure slowly emerged from the shadows.

He still held his bone staff. His scarlet eyes swept over the four of them, finally landing on Hong Nianyi and Xu Wuyi. His lips curled into a savage grin. ”Two more have arrived... Perfect. I’ll sacrifice all of you to the Wolf God.”

Xu Wuyi could feel it—this Priest’s aura was indeed more condensed than the one from the canyon.

The cold, decaying pressure he exuded was so palpable it seemed to make the surrounding temperature drop.

”Chen Yuan, Lin Jue, go destroy the base’s control system,” Hong Nianyi said calmly, without turning around. ”Leave this to us.”

Chen Yuan froze, but before he could speak, Hong Nianyi interrupted.

”Execute your orders. The control system is on the second basement level of the fortress; it was marked on the schematics. Send the signal after you’ve destroyed it, and we’ll withdraw.”

’They’re planning to kill the High Priest,’ Chen Yuan realized.

Understanding, Chen Yuan said no more. He looked at Lin Jue, who nodded. Supporting each other, they retreated down a different branch of the tunnel.

The High Priest didn’t try to stop them.

His attention was completely focused on Hong Nianyi and Xu Wuyi. His animal instincts told him that these two humans were the real threat.

”Hoping they’ll destroy the control center?” the High Priest sneered. ”A pity you won’t live to see the outcome.”

He slammed his bone staff on the ground. A tide of ghostly green Flame surged from the direction of the altar, pouring into the tunnel.

Wherever the Flame passed, countless black Spells appeared on the rock walls, transforming the entire space into a vision of hell.

Hong Nianyi and Xu Wuyi sprang into action at the same time.

No probing attacks, no holding back. They unleashed their full power from the start.

Hong Nianyi raised her Long Saber high. A pale golden Sword Intent soared upward, condensing behind her into the spectral image of a five-meter-long great saber.

Before the blade even fell, its razor-sharp Intention was already slicing through the air, making it shriek.

Xu Wuyi, meanwhile, sank into a low horse stance, his Meteor Iron Long Spear held horizontally before him. The Dark Gold Mountain Body Heart Image roared to life in his sea of consciousness.

The Qi and Blood throughout his body roiled like a boiling Melting Furnace. A spark of Golden Crow Flame ignited at the tip of his spear, its searing, tyrannical aura challenging the ghostly green Flame.

The High Priest’s expression flickered.

’These two humans are even stronger than I expected!’

He didn’t dare underestimate them. Raising his bone staff high, he began chanting an abstruse Spell.

The ghostly green Flame frantically converged, condensing behind him into the phantom of a three-headed wolf. Its six eyes snapped open at once, locking onto the pair with a scarlet light.

The battle erupted in an instant.

Hong Nianyi struck first.

The spectral great saber fell. The pale golden Sword Gang tore through the Flame, cleaving straight down toward the High Priest’s head.

There were no frills to this attack, only the ultimate Intention to ’cleave,’ as if it could split space itself in two.

The High Priest shrieked. The three-headed wolf phantom threw its heads back and roared, one of them opening its great maw to spew forth a blast of dark green breath.

The Sword Gang and the breath collided.

BOOM!

An Energy Shockwave erupted in the narrow tunnel. The walls on both sides cracked, and rock fragments rained down.

Hong Nianyi was knocked back three steps, the webbing of her hand splitting open as blood dripped down the hilt of her saber. But her eyes only shone brighter. Her Sword Momentum had not dispersed; instead, it grew even more condensed.

The High Priest hadn’t fared well, either.

The three-headed wolf phantom dimmed slightly, and he himself let out a muffled grunt as a trickle of dark red blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.

Just then, Xu Wuyi’s spear struck.

His spear struck like a dragon, Dark Gold Flame spiraling around the shaft before condensing at the tip into a single point of incandescent white light.

This strike wasn’t aimed at the High Priest himself, but at the three-headed wolf phantom behind him.

Xu Wuyi had seen it: the phantom was linked to the High Priest’s aura. It was the core of some kind of amplification technique.

The High Priest reacted with lightning speed, blocking the blow with his bone staff.

CLANG!

The spear tip struck the center of the bone staff. The Dark Gold Flame and the ghostly green, unholy fire clashed violently, emitting a teeth-grinding sizzle.

The two forces were locked in a stalemate, but then Xu Wuyi’s Spear Momentum suddenly changed.

His Hundred Refinements Melting Furnace technique activated at full power, his Qi and Blood erupting like a volcano. The spear shaft trembled as a Second Layer of Power surged through the bone staff.

The High Priest’s face contorted in shock; it was too late to pull his staff away. He could only grit his teeth and bear it, frantically pouring ghostly green Flame into the bone staff.

BOOM!

A second explosion rocked the tunnel.

The High Priest was sent sliding back ten meters, his feet carving two deep grooves into the ground.

The three-headed wolf phantom dimmed further, and faint cracks even appeared in its six scarlet eyes.

Xu Wuyi hadn’t gotten off easy, either. The recoil sent a stifling pressure through his chest, and the Dark Gold Flame ran amok within him, forcing him to struggle to suppress it.

After a brief exchange of only two moves, both sides had sustained significant injuries.

But the battle had only just begun.

The High Priest was utterly enraged.

He never imagined that two humans who had achieved Great Success in their Heart Images could push him this far. Holding nothing back, he bit the tip of his tongue and spat a mouthful of blood essence onto his bone staff.

The runes on the staff’s surface instantly flared with a blinding, blood-red light. The ghostly green Flame turned a deep crimson, and the temperature dropped instead of rising, yet the fire now carried an even more sinister, corrosive quality.

”Blessing of the Wolf God... Blood Sacrifice...”

He growled, and the three-headed wolf phantom behind him began to substantialize. Its fur, fangs, and sharp claws grew distinct as its aura surged, climbing higher and higher.