Talisman Emperor

Precisely speaking, Zuoqiu Yin and the others were trapped within a grand formation.

Divine light rose from within the grand formation and enveloped an area of 500km in the surrounding with layer upon layer of illusions. There were all sort of living creatures, stellar bodies, rising dragons, leaping tigers… Every single illusion contained boundless might and a rather formidable impetus.

However, Chen Xi discerned that even though this illusory formation was profound, it could only trap the enemy and didn’t possess much lethality.

It was even to the extent that under the assistance of the Eye of Divine Truth, it was as if this illusory formation didn’t exist to Chen Xi because the scene within it was clearly revealed within his mind.

It was a group of men and women that had trapped Zuoqiu Yun and the others, and there were over a hundred of them. They were hidden in the surroundings of the grand formation, and they frequently attacked Zuoqiu Yin and the others who were within the grand formation.

These people were obviously from various different powers and weren’t disciples of top powers. Their individual strengths weren’t really formidable, and their combat strengths were mostly equivalent to experts around the 400th position on the Ascensio Immortal Rankings.

The most formidable amongst them had merely ascended into the top hundred of the rankings.

Under such circumstances, even if they’d trapped Zuoqiu Yin and the others within the grand formation, it seemed especially difficult to kill Zuoqiu Yun and the others.

After all, it was an illusory formation and not a slaughter formation. Moreover, the gap in their strengths was rather huge, so they were utterly unable to do anything to Zuoqiu Yin and the others in a short period of time.

This grand formation was probably set up by those experts a long time ago, and it was originally set up for the sake of hunting Cosmos Beasts, yet who would have expected that Zuoqiu Yin and the others would accidentally fall into it? Chen Xi was able to clearly notice that the expressions of those experts that were hidden within the grand formation were suffused with a wisp of anxiousness, hesitation, and even faint fear from being unable to deal with Zuoqiu Yin and the others after so long.

Obviously, they’d guessed the identity of Zuoqiu Yin and the others, but for the sake of obtaining Starpoints, they still chose to attack courageously. Unfortunately, the gap in their strengths was too great, so they were unable to attain success after so long.

Moreover, along with the passage of time, not only had they not killed a single disciple of the Zuoqiu Clan, over ten of their own had been killed by Zuoqiu Yin and the others instead…

All of this caused those experts concealed in the surroundings of the grand formation to become slightly restless, hesitant, and uneasy, and they didn’t know if they should retreat or continue the attack.

Chen Xi couldn’t help but shake his head when he saw such a scene. No matter how difficult it is to chew that bone, they have no way to back down now, so they should battle with all their might. How can they still be irresolute and hesitant?

Even if they chose to leave, they should retreat immediately because once they hesitate, the situation will become even more disadvantageous.

Sure enough, just as Chen Xi had guessed, it wasn’t long before another ten plus of the experts that had trapped Zuoqiu Yin and the others had been killed, and it caused the expressions of the other experts to change without end.

After that, they didn’t dare hesitate to flee in all directions.

Chen Xi’s eyes narrowed when he saw this scene, and then he withdrew the pitch black bow and an immortal sword as an arrow before fully drawing the bow.

Om!

Strands of jet black light arose on the vertical eye between Chen Xi’s brows, and it was like a vortex. A strand of might energy flowed through the surface of the bow while a mist of Immortal Force enshrouded it, and the roar of dragons and tigers could be heard faintly.

Swish!

An immoral sword tore through the sky like a ray of light that travelled 500km in an instant.

Swish! Swish!

After the first immortal sword was released, Chen Xi didn’t hold back in the slightest as he drew the bow repeatedly, causing immortal sword after immortal sword to transform into sharp and murderous arrows that shot out violently under the targeting of the Eye of Divine Truth.

Speed, accuracy, and ruthlessness were the three most essential quintessence of the Dao of Archery. 

    …

“These useless dogs were thinking about ambushing and kill us? How laughable!”

“Turning from hunter into the hunter is surely unbearable. I understand their feelings. Haha!”

“Break open the formation first. Those idiots have probably not fled far. Since they actually dared to provoke the lion, then we have to teach them an unforgettable lesson!”

Within the grand formation, all the disciples of the Zuoqiu Clan sneered without end when they saw their enemies flee in all directions. As they spoke, they even executed various abilities to blast the illusory formation to the point it shook without end.

“There’s no need to pursue them. We’ll head to the central area after breaking open the formation. Don’t forget that damnable bastard might still be behind us.” Zuoqiu Yin’s voice was icy cold and revealed extreme resentment.

Everyone was shocked in their hearts while the excitement and complacency on their faces were wiped off clean before it transformed into gloominess and ruthlessness instead.

Bang!

An enormous bang resounded as a rift was broken open on the illusory formation.

“The grand formation is broken…” A disciple of the Zuoqiu Clan’s spirits was refreshed, and he was about to charge forward when he felt a wisp of a dazzling glow flash before his eyes. In the next moment, he let out a shrill cry as the glow of blood erupted from him, and his entire body was struck flying. He hadn’t even fallen to the ground when he’s transformed into a wisp of violet light that was brought out of the Bloodlands.

Dammit! It’s that kid again!

The others were horrified when they saw this. They were extremely terrified and furious, and they dodged instinctively to the side.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Immortal swords that had become arrows charged through the rift, and they were icy cold, murderous, and merciless. They even caused dazzling sparks from cutting through space and sharp howls that were ear piercing and jarring to the ear.

A few disciples of the Zuoqiu Clan were unable to react in time, causing their bodies to be directly penetrated. Blood sprayed while they transformed into violet rays of light that shot into the sky.

A ruthless expression flashed on the face of one disciple when he was about to be hit, and he directly transformed into a wisp of violet light and vanished at the instant before the ‘arrow’ could strike him

As for the others, they’d taken precautions a long time ago, so they didn’t suffer any harm.

Unfortunately, I only killed four of them, and one of them activated the Violet Ribbon Starcrest and chose to leave the Bloodlands… 500km away, Chen Xi muttered as he waved towards the distance before turning around and vanishing.

Within the grand formation, Zuoqiu Yin recovered from his shock after a long time, and he instantly roared. “How many times have I told all of you to be careful? Are all of you fucking deaf!?”

There was an awkward silence after he roared, and only now did Zuoqiu Yin suddenly realize that those who weren’t careful had already been taken out of the Bloodlands…

Zuoqiu Yin felt extremely irritable and waved his hand forcefully. “Break the formation open and leave!”

But this journey was bound to not be steady and smooth for them. Chen Xi was like a ghost that drifted about indeterminately, and he launched sneak attacks against them from time to time. He was simply like the plague.

Even though it didn’t cause any harm to Zuoqiu Yin and the others, it caused their nerves to be strained. Every bush and tree looked like an enemy, and they were terribly suspicious. After two continuous days like this, Zuoqiu Yin and the others’ minds were extremely tired while their appearances were slightly dispirited. Moreover, their expressions seemed to have become unsightly to the limit.

Not to mention having sneak attacks launched upon them again and again, they hadn’t earned any Starpoints all along the way. They didn’t have to guess at all to know that their position on the floating wall of light was getting lower and lower!

All of this caused Zuoqiu Yin’s chest to feel as if a large stone was stuck in it, and it was unspeakably painful.

At dusk on the second day, Zuoqiu Yin couldn’t take it any longer, and he roared in a grim voice toward the empty gorge in the mountain. “Chen Xi! Show yourself! I, Zuoqiu Yin, am standing right here! Do you dare to fight me like a true expert?”

The gorge was deathly silent, and only Zuoqiu Yin’s roar was reverberating without end.

9,400 Starpoints. I heard that when the Flaming Rain, Ling Qingwu, had only earned a total of 9,000 Starpoints after participating in the second round of the test all those years ago, yet was ranked at the first. I wonder what my ranking is right now… Chen Xi remained indifferent when he heard Zuoqiu Yin’s roar, and he started to check the Starpoints within his Violet Ribbon Starcrest.

The second round of the test had already arrived at the final stages. At this moment, even if he didn’t activate the Violet Ribbon Starcrest by himself and left the Bloodlands, he was entirely capable of entering smoothly into the third round of the test.

According to Chen Xi’s knowledge, many experts with comparatively weaker strengths had probably withdrawn from the test now, whereas those who chose to stay were probably disciples of those top powers.

The reason was very simple. The other experts could disregard their position on the ranking, yet those disciples of the top powers took the rankings to be more important than anything else.

It was related to the glory of the power that stood behind them, and it was even related to whether they would be able to obtain even more resources and a better status in the power they were from, so they had to care about it.

Zuoqiu Yin roared loudly for a while, and he felt it was very useless and even slightly embarrassing. Thus, his expression turned gloomy while he became silent, and then he turned around with the intention of leading his clansmen back on their journey.

However, his pupils suddenly constricted because his immortal sense detected Chen Xi’s figure appearing openly at an extremely distant location, and he was following along the mountain at the other side while moving forward along with them.

All of this clearly told Zuoqiu Yin that Chen Xi would absolutely not stop until he hunted all of them down!

For a time, Zuoqiu Yin actually felt slightly frustrated and was at a loss for what to do. They were unable to pursue Chen Xi nor were they able to get away from Chen Xi. The key was that as members of the Zuoqiu Clan, the test was related to the honor of the clan, so they couldn’t choose to leave the Bloodlands immediately!

In the outside world, many people had noticed that during these past two days, the Starpoints of Chen Xi who was ranked at the first actually didn’t change at all, and it wouldn’t take half a day for Zhen Lu to overtake him.

If such a situation were to continue, then Chen Xi’s position might even be overtaken by Ji Xuanbing, Zhao Mengli, Zhongli Xun, and the others.

Such a scene drew the emotional sighs of many people, and it caused them to be even more certain that disciples who were alone would absolutely be unable to be a match for the might of a group during the final stages of the second round of the test.

For example, Chen Xi was proof of this.

Similarly, there were many people that noticed that the Starpoints of the disciples of the Zuoqiu Clan had actually not changed as well, and their positions were being overtaken repeatedly.

Amongst the seven great ancient clans, Buddha Dimension, Dragon Dimension, Phoenix Clan, and other top powers, the ranking of the disciples of the Zuoqiu Clan were far behind and was extremely conspicuous, so it drew the whispered discussions of many people.

As they heard these discussions and sensed the strange gazes that came from the surroundings, the expressions of Zuoqiu Ke and the others were gloomy to the extreme. If it wasn’t out of consideration for their identity, they would wish for nothing more than to turn on their heels and walk away!

It was too embarrassing!

In the countless years that their Zuoqiu Clan had stood in the Immortal Dimension, when had they even suffered such an embarrassing situation?

“Send my order to Uncle Wen. I want him to stop at nothing in order to immediately eliminate Chen Xi from the second round of the test!” Zuoqiu Ke gnashed her teeth as she sent a voice transmission, and every single word she spoke seemed to be squeezed out from the cracks between her teeth.

The other figures of the Zuoqiu Clan were silent while they sighed endlessly in their hearts. So what if that Chen Xi is driven out now? He’ll still be able to participate in the third round of the test…

“Quickly! Did you hear me!?” Zuoqiu Ke gritted her teeth. She knew she was doing something of no use, but she was unable to stomach this. She couldn’t allow Chen Xi’s name to appear at the position of the first!