Chapter 37

The green-robed elder hadn’t made his move, but guards were already pressuring Jiang Xiaofan. They rushed at him like an impenetrable squall of wind, sweeping up dust clouds into the air.

*Clang*

He swung forth his sword and parried the blow of a silver spear. Following the noise of the two metals clashing with each other, a crack suddenly appeared on his sword and a piece of his blade was chipped. Immediately, another spear, with cold light surrounding it, stabbed at the center between Jiang Xiaofan’s brows. A simple but ruthless strike!

*Fwoosh*

A blurry shadow appeared on where he stood, and in an instant, Jiang Xiaofan surfaced in another area. His heart frosted over as he wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. It was a good thing that he had a good grasp on his Shadow Steps technique; otherwise, it would’ve been very difficult to avoid that strike.

After that brief encounter, Jiang Xiaofan concluded that these people were extremely frightening. Despite them both being eight heaven Micro Realm cultivators, Ding Gao, whom he had beaten up earlier, was much weaker than these guys. In fact, his current opponents were above par. The gap in power between them and Ding Gao was too vast!

“Little fellow, leave first. Wait for me on the outskirts of the forest,” he whispered. Against such strong opponents, he was unable to care for the bird at the same time.

The little bird was very intelligent. As if it understood that it would only drag him down in battle, the little bird chirped at him, telling him to be careful. It then flapped its wings, flew away, and soon disappeared from his sight.

Once the little fellow left, Jiang Xiaofan’s expression grew morose. He didn’t stay to resume the battle, but rather, he turned around and darted towards the inner depths of the forest. These people were too strong. He couldn’t face them head-on, or else, death would be his only end.

Not to mention, that green-robed elder was his main concern. He could sense an enormous power from that man. The invisible qi that the elder exuded was suffocating.

Rustling sounds echoed around the forest. The guards rapidly chased after Jiang Xiaofan.

The sounds of weapons clanging reverberated everywhere. Falling leaves scattered onto the ground and the colony of Fire Birds fled.  The sword within Jiang Xiaofan’s hand soon shattered into pieces, but he wasn’t worried about his predicament. With his mystical techniques, he smoothly knocked the enemy beside him flying and conveniently grabbed his enemy’s silver spear.

“Definitely something else!”

When he first held onto the silver spear, Jiang Xiaofan was shocked. The spear wasn’t even a spirit-ranked weapon, but it was extremely sturdy. Its composition was unusual, rendering it even more powerful than his flying sword.

The green-robed elder followed Jiang Xiaofan and stood on the branch of an ancient tree from afar, peering below at Jiang Xiaofan with a blank look.

With his weapon taken away, his opponent’s expression remained unchanged and was still ice-cold. He clenched his right fist, and with blue light radiating from it, he punched at Jiang Xiaofan’s head. The others around him concurrently lunged forward and pierced at Jiang Xiaofan.

Jiang Xiaofan smirked. His left hand greeted the incoming punch, and the spear in his right hand thrust forward.

*Bang*

The long spears coming at him were blocked, and the person who punched at him was sent flying backward like a broken kite. His opponent’s entire right hand drooped down. Shattered by Jiang Xiaofan’s counter, it would be unable to recover any time soon.

Even so, without any hint of expression on his face, he charged at Jiang Xiaofan again without fear of death. Because his right hand was now useless, he switched to his left hand. After his left hand was shattered, he switched to his legs. It was as if he wouldn’t stop until Jiang Xiaofan was dead.

Jiang Xiaofan grew more solemn.  These people weren’t that simple. Every one of them was very strong. If he was in a one-on-one, maybe he wouldn’t need to fear them. However, with them attacking him at once, the battle would be an onerous one even if he was much stronger than they were. While fighting off his opponents, he continued to push deeper into the forest.

The guards relentlessly hunted him down. Although they could not match his terrifying agility, they were able to create trouble that caused him to be unable to extricate himself from them.

The only source of relief for Jiang Xiaofan was that the green-robed elder hadn’t attacked him yet. He was eminently wary of him. Even in the midst of the battle against the dozen guards, he had to apportion some of his attention onto the elder.

Jiang Xiaofan zipped in and out of the encirclement. His clothes were already stained with blood. After all, he wasn’t just facing against one person but at least a dozen. None of them had cultivation levels lower than his. The fact that Jiang Xiaofan could withstand their attacks until now was already a miracle. Even so, the longer he fought on, the more scared he became. These people were just too formidable. Their cultivation methods were very distinctive, particularly that blue-colored spiritual energy. Jiang Xiaofan was on high alert throughout the battle.

*Pff*

The battle lasted several hours. Jiang Xiaofan suddenly vanished. Avoiding the strikes of the silver-colored spears, he left a blurry shadow at his original location and pierced the body of the guard whom he had previously heavily injured with his sharp weapon.

This was the first time that Jiang Xiaofan had killed someone. Actually, he had neither time to think nor feel anything after his execution of the death blow. Without even time to pull out his spear from the corpse, he rolled on the ground and avoided the cold lights that stabbed at him.

With one comrade killed, there were eleven guards remaining. However, their expression remained the same as if they were unconscious, vegetative people. They emanated nothing except murderous aura. They didn’t even bother to glance at the corpse on the ground.

The green-robed elder was even more indifferent. Like usual, he didn’t intervene in the fight.

Jiang Xiaofan got up and darted for the inner depths of the forest once more while fighting his formidable opponents. Solely relying on his peerless, primordial Buddhist Sutra was no use. His energy would eventually be used up, and he would inevitably be killed. These people were different from the pack of wolves. In addition to having little to no emotional reactions, his current enemies were extremely powerful.

“Xia Fengming, one day, I’ll cut you into pieces!” Jiang Xiaofan cried out as he wildly fled. His right shoulder was bloodied with the spear almost piercing through his humerus. If not for his illusory Shadow Steps, his entire arm could have been destroyed.

Four hours later, more bloody cuts appeared on his body and his clothes were stained red. However, his opponents were in no better condition either. Two more people were slain by Jiang Xiaofan. Now, only nine guards and the green-robed elder were left.

Specks of blood, including his own but more so from his opponents, dotted the spear in his hand. His spirit energy had been depleted to half already; however, he was still unable to shake off his enemies.

Behind the nine guards was the green-robed elder who seemed calm. His speed wasn’t fast, but he was able to keep up with the nine guards in the chase and maintain a fixed distance from them. He didn’t open his mouth the entire time, nor did he lift a finger.

Jiang Xiaofan could already imagine just how fearsome the old man’s cultivation was. It wasn’t something that he could defend against. The only course of action that he could take was to flee.

The road to the Emperor’s Heaven Sect was sealed off by his opponents. He couldn’t turn back and run. The nine guards would just gang up to kill him. Should that happen, it would be completely game over for him. Therefore, he could only keep running deeper into the forest.

The sky began to darken. The attacks of the nine guards became more ferocious. Numerous fresh cuts appeared on Jiang Xiaofan’s body. Their combat techniques seemed godly, and their blue light auras unceasingly slashed towards him.

*Boom*

A glaring flash of light exploded in the forest like a beautiful firework that just lit up.

Under the immense killing pressure of the blue auras, Jiang Xiaofan was finally pushed to the brink. He could no longer hide his true might. Golden rays of divine light exploded from within him. Even his hair was dyed with a layer of gold.

“Gold-colored spirit energy?!” The green-robed man muttered. This was the first time that he furrowed his brows.

It was common knowledge that the color of a cultivator’s spiritual energy corresponded to the cultivation method practiced. On Planet Ziwei, only seven known colors were recorded in the archives. They were silver, black, verdant, grey, light green, blue, and purple.

Gold-colored spirit energy had never appeared in the cultivation history of Planet Ziwei, nor did it ever appear in the archives. There was never any mention of it. Hence, the green-robed elder’s eyes instantly flashed with brilliance.

*Swoosh*

With the activation of his primordial Buddhist Sutra, the intensity of Jiang Xiaofan’s qi soared. In a split second, he vanished from his spot. The spear in his right hand radiated with bright golden rays while his left fist looked like it was doused in gold paint.

*Pff*

*Bang*

With the Diamond Sutra that tempered his physical body beyond comparison and the Shadow Steps that allowed him to elude their strikes, Jiang Xiaofan was able to break through their encirclement. He forcefully pierced through an opponent’s chest with his long spear and then smashed another in the head with his left fist whose body then flew out, fell to the ground, twitched for a while, and made no movements afterward.

Both of them were powerful cultivators at the eighth heaven and ninth heaven of Micro Realm. Unable to see through Jiang Xiaofan’s moves, they had already lost, their lives abruptly coming to an end.

Around this time, a green figure glided in midair, suddenly appearing before Jiang Xiaofan in the blink of an eye. He extended his right leg, ready to stomp on Jiang Xiaofan’s face.

Jiang Xiaofan’s complexion immediately paled. The old man had finally made his move. Even with his Shadow Steps, the green-robed elder’s agility caught Jiang Xiaofan off guard. Unable to dodge in the nick of time, Jiang Xiaofan attempted to hastily block his attack with the long spear horizontal to his chest.

Within the next moment, Jiang Xiaofan witnessed firsthand just how terrifying the old man’s strength was. The silver-colored spear snapped in half, and Jiang Xiaofan’s chest was stomped with a footprint. He was consequently kicked flying out for more than ten meters and broke several trees from the impact before finally crashing to the ground.

“Cough….”

Jiang Xiaofan vomited a mouthful of blood. His face was paler than the color of snow. Utterly dumbfounded, he struggled to prop himself up with a fallen tree branch.

The power of the green-robed elder was too horrifying. Even with his increased strength from the Diamond Sutra and the bodily protection from his peerless, primordial Buddhist Sutra, that kick from his attacker was enough to take his life away.

The green-robed elder remained expressionless, but his heart was wavering with a flood of emotions. He was confident in the force of his kick. Even a Realm of Dust cultivator could not survive his strike, but the person before him not only survived, he was able to get up!

After the elder made his move, the remaining seven guards motionlessly stood behind him. From their understanding, once the old man struck, Jiang Xiaofan would inescapably become a cold corpse.

Jiang Xiaofan trembled as he retrieved an Immortal Spirit Root from his spatial ring and ferociously bit into it. His pale complexion immediately began to fill with vigor. The old man was stunned yet again as he could sense dense Immortal Spirit Qi exuding from Jiang Xiaofan.

Taking advantage of the old man’s stupefied state, Jiang Xiaofan rapidly dashed into the depths of the forest once more. Fighting them head-only would only result in death. Fleeing was his only option!

“Give chase!”

The green-robed elder flatly commanded, and the seven guards burst forth with lightning speed.

With the sun setting, the last ray of light disappeared below the horizon. Night fell, and the stars glimmered across the sky. The Forest of Scorching Flames was immersed in the darkness. Nothing was visible.

Jiang Xiaofan smiled frostily. Like the calling of the grim reaper, the qi around him suddenly vanished without a trace. It was as if he had merged with the air.