595 A Heart of Cherishing Genius

"In that case, bring it on and show me what you've got. I want to see how strong you are."

With his right hand, Ji Gui drew a two-feet-long crescent moon-shaped dagger from his waist armor.

With a sword light flashing past, a stream of cold air flew out of the sword blade and pushed toward Zhang Ruochen.

"Swoosh!"

Amidst the cold air, hundreds of streaks of knife energy condensed into a hideous beast, making thunderous roars.

Ji Gui's broadsword technique was an inferior class technique of the Ghost Level, "Hundred Beasts Knife Technique."

"Hundred Beasts Knife Technique" consisted of 100 movements.

One movement of broadsword technique required refining the soul of a mighty beast and integrating it into the Martial Soul, before combining it into the broadsword technique in the end.

Even among the inferior class martial techniques of the Ghost Level, there were more superior ones.

Apparently, "Hundred Beasts Knife Technique" was top amongst other techniques inferior class of the Ghost Level. It was somewhat difficult to practice, but the power it sent out was formidable.

Only by using "Hundred Beasts Knife Technique," Ji Gui was qualified to challenge a Monk with a cultivation of Eighth Change in the Fish-dragon realm.

What Ji Gui had employed just now was the swiftest move in "Hundred Beasts Knife Technique" called "Flying Leopard Predator."

When a Master of Spiritual Power and a warrior are at the same realm, although the former was stronger in terms of overall strength, the warrior would gain the upper hand if he is no more than 100 feet away from the Master of Spiritual Power.

Right now, Ji Gui was no more than 100 feet away from Zhang Ruochen.

The hideous beast head in the turbulent knife energy howled before rushing toward Zhang Ruochen, leaving thick trails of axe marks behind it.

In a quick response, Zhang Ruochen used "Rolling Thunder Skill" to quickly avoid it.

"Boom!"

The surging knife energy shot toward the sky and then veered onto an array of light screen. All the knife energy immediately dispersed into wisps of cold mist.

"Excellent broadsword technique and fairly quick movement, the only thing you need to improve on is strength," Zhang Ruochen said.

"You are just a Master of Spiritual Power. How could you possibly get the hang of "Hundred Beasts Knife Technique? Believe it or not, I can cut off your head in less than ten moves."

"No way."

"Dancing Dragon and Serpent."

Ji Gui sneered back and then used a more powerful "Hundred Beasts Knife Technique" movement. The crescent moon-shaped sword in his hand glowed in an arc, ushering in a whirring wind.

Ji Gui was flanked by illusory images of a 100-feet-long dragon and a serpent surrounded by knife energy. As Ji Gui charged at Zhang Ruochen, the illusory images of dragon and serpent followed suit, making an incredible spectacle of dragon and serpent dancing together.

""Hundred Beasts Knife Technique" really deserves its reputation."

"I did not expect Ji Gui's cultivation to be so profound."

"Ji Gui has refined 100 beast souls into his body and has also been feeding on the blood of savage beasts ever since he was a child. He eats the flesh and bones of a savage beast each day. I guess he might be able to fight by skipping realms."

"It's impossible. The Eighth Change is a far jump from the Seventh Change in the Fish-dragon Realm. How could that be possible?"

All the Evil Warriors turned nasty and quickly retreated.

Had it not been for the array in the Red Willow Heights being put in complete use, the knife energy brought by "Dancing Dragon and Serpent" should have been powerful enough to match the Red Willow Heights.

"This man is much stronger than Luo Shi."

As a matter of fact, Luo Shi was strong too. If he had not been overconfident about his skills of hiding himself, Zhang Ruozhen would not have been able to hurt him by only using Spiritual Power.

Since Ji Gui is stronger than Luo Shi, he could put even more pressure on Zhang Ruochen to force him back. The situation was a little to his disadvantage.

Zhang Ruochen launched four consecutive Level One Magic Arts moves before he could finally break Ji Gui's broadsword technique.

The Red Wish Emissary was sitting on top and was watching with disbelief in her beautiful eyes. "Considering that his Spiritual Power has reached 44th level, why is he only using Level One Magic Arts? If he used second-level and third-level magic arts, he could've defeated Ji Gui.

Luo Shi had his eyes glued to Zhang Ruochen's legs, realizing that his footwork was rather agile, he said, "This man must have practiced the Martial Arts, and his martial cultivation must have been very extensive."

The Red Wish Emissary stroked her chin and beamed a charming smile while saying, "Interesting! Has your injury been repressed?"

"After taking the healing pills granted by Your Excellency, I now have no serious problems with the injury. I am here at Your Excellency's service." Luo Shi said.

The Red Wish Emissary replied, "In that case, go lend a hand to Ji Gui. I hope that you, with your strong power, can help him fight back with all his force. I wonder how much power might a Master of Spiritual Power bring about when using the second-level magic arts?"

"Yes, Your Excellency!"

Shortly after taking the order, Luo Shi started flying in the air and joined in the battle.

Luo Shi drew a Blood Tattoo Sword and attacked Zhang Ruochen from the side.

The Red Wish Emissary stared at Zhang Ruochen without blinking, finding him very familiar as if she had seen him somewhere before.

"If he is cornered to exert all his force, I might see some clues from his spells."

"There are very few Young Masters of Spiritual Power in the entire Eastern Region. Young people who can hone their Spiritual Power to the 44th level are even fewer. Who on earth are you?"

The Red Wish Emissary's snow-white chin rested on her delicate fingers, and her eyes squinted into an enchanting line.

Luo Shi was astoundingly quick in his attacks. His sword swung out as if it was a bolt of lightning in the sky.

"Swoosh!"

In a flash, the fierce winds sent sands flying about and pebbles hurling through the air in the Red Willow Heights, with the boundary between sword Qi and knife energy obscured. The trees were ground into pieces, the pavilion was ruined, and the pool was freezing into an ice cave.

Zhang Ruochen was alone. Battling with two masters at the same time was becoming strenuous for him. He had no choice but to defend himself.

"It is a pity that I haven't had time to practice spells of superior level. Otherwise, the situation would have been much better right now. If this doesn't work, I have to use the power of Martial Arts." Zhang Ruochen thought to himself.

Zhang Ruochen was better at Martial Arts than at Spiritual Power.

Those who reached the Fish-dragon Realm were all geniuses who were hand-picked from tens of thousands. Generally, in the Fish-dragon Realm, even a Saintly Being could only challenge his rival to a fight by skipping three realms.

Zhang Ruochen has cultivated his body into Treasured Body of Three Spirits that is comparable to a Saintly Being.

Moreover, he was able to get into the Ultimate Realm four times, making him four realms higher than the ordinary people.

Therefore, in theory, Zhang Ruochen was eligible for confronting his rivals by skipping seven realms.

By "in theory," it meant that he could only skip seven realms at his strongest state.

Zhang Ruochen's cultivation reached the Third Change in the Fish-dragon Realm not long ago. Even if his martial technique and Tao of the sword were used at their full capacity, he could only skip six realms at best.

If his cultivation reached the peak of the Third Change in the Fish-dragon realm and completed the practice of Sword One, then he might have the chance to skip seven realms.

Even though he could only skip six realms, Zhang Ruochen, with the cultivation of the Third Change in the Fish-dragon realm, was capable of competing with ordinary Monks who had the cultivation of the Ninth Change in the Fish-dragon Realm.

If Zhang Ruochen used Martial Arts, it wouldn't be a difficult task for him to defeat Luo Shi and Ji Gui.

However, if Zhang Ruochen uses his martial arts, news will spread, and he would arouse suspicion from people with ulterior motives over his true identity.

If his true identity was made public, it would put Sword Saint Xuanji in danger.

As a result, Zhang Ruochen had to refrain himself from using Martial Arts, thinking that he should not expose his power of Martial Arts unless he was cornered.

Luo Shi and Ji Gui were both top masters of Evil. Although they brought Zhang Ruochen on a losing ground, they could not defeat him easily.

The escalating battle between the three masters made on-lookers more agitated.

"For Zhang Ruochen to be able to fend off the attacks from master Luo Shi and Ji Gui at the same time, makes him notorious in the Eastern Evil Land."

"Rising to fame while offending the Black Market? I'm afraid that the battle might be his last."

The Evil Masters standing by all could see that the mysterious masked man was already at the end of his rope and could be killed anytime.

"Being in this situation right now, the man still does not show his spells of superior level. Has he ever practiced any spells of the superior level at all?"

A shadow of a doubt was cast on the heart of the Red Wish Emissary.

In this case, he could be a rogue cultivator who is strong in his Spiritual Power but weak at his spells of superior level.

As big powers monopolized spells of the superior level, such spells were inaccessible without influential background.

The corners of her mouth twitching, the Red Wish Emissary nursed the idea of coaching him while thinking. "Di Yi has Cyan-robed Emissary, Blue Emissary, Purple Wind Emissary and other top masters on his side. But on my part, nobody can really stand up to the three emissaries mentioned above. Ji Gui and Luo Shi are nothing but mediocrities, and I can't rely on them."

"If I can take him in, he is bound to be one of my strongest warriors. He can ward off at least one emissary in my fight with Di Yi for the position of young master of the Black Market Excellence Hall someday."

The Red Wish Emissary took a while to think through the idea but finally made up her mind.

However, instead of making any immediate move, she chose to wait a little longer. After all, it was not too late to win him over when Zhang Ruochen was cornered.

Another 15 minutes passed, and Zhang Ruochen was about to be killed under the successive attacks of the two evil masters.

The Red Wish emissary stood up and said in a bewitching voice, "If Your Excellency is willing to serve me, your feud with the Blood Cloud Sect can be written off altogether. I can also instruct you in the spells of superior level. Are you interested in my offer or not?

He could only defend himself by using Level One Magic Arts even when he was in great danger. The Red Wish Emissary made sure that the man had not practiced any spells of superior level and he was only a mere rogue cultivator.

As long as she taught him the spells of superior level, how could he not be grateful for her? In this way, he was bound to follow her orders submissively and become her capable sidekick.

Before this moment, Zhang Ruochen had set his mind on using Martial Arts, but now, her words changed his mind.

Now that the battle could be ended without wasting his energy, why would he run the risks?

"The siren is very ambitious, and she has always had designs on Di Yi's position as the young master. If I can take advantage of this, it will save me a lot of trouble to defeat Di Yi."

At this point, Zhang Ruochen thought of a new plan.