Lu Xiao was no longer as aloof and indifferent as he had been. His eyes were filled with resentment. However, no one could still remain calm after experiencing what he had just experienced.
When they saw that Lu Xiao was still alive, everyone from the Eastern Palace felt as if they had dropped down from heaven straight to hell.
Bi Linglong quickly said to Zu An, “You should hurry and run; don’t worry about us… Huh?” Suddenly, she noticed that Zu An was no longer at her side. With the flash of an afterimage, Zu An was already in front of Lu Xiao.
The others were in despair, but he wasn’t. He keenly sensed that even though Lu Xiao was still alive, he was currently seriously wounded and had no way of fighting back at the moment. The longer Zu An waited, the more troublesome it would become once Lu Xiao recovered.
Lu Xiao hadn’t expected Zu An to be so fast either. His expression was filled with alarm as he backed up in panic. Normally speaking, with his cultivation, avoiding such an attack was extremely easy. However, he was seriously injured. The fact that he could survive had been a miracle in itself. How could he possibly block the attack just then?
Zu An’s sword was about to cut through Lu Xiao’s throat, but just then, a streak of light flashed past. With a ‘Ding!’, the sword that would have taken Lu Xiao’s life was knocked aside.
Zu An felt a huge force ripple through his blade, and almost lost his grip on the Tai’e Sword. However, he didn’t hesitate and continued to stab at Lu Xiao. He wanted to use this excellent opportunity to kill a master rank cultivator. He gave up on using the Snowflake Sword’s techniques and instead changed to the Bixie Swordplay. He wanted to kill his target as quickly as possible.
Zu An’s body turned into a whirl of afterimages that continuously hacked at Lu Xiao’s vitals. Unfortunately, his attacks were always stopped by that streak of light. No matter what kinds of crazy angles he attacked from, what kinds of tricks he used, that streak of light always intercepted his attack.
Zu An stopped moving, giving up on his offense. He realized that his attacks were all futile.
Just then, a person slowly floated over. That streak of light returned to his side, screaming as it cut through the air. It was a flying sword.
Mi Li’s voice said, “Those at the master rank begin cultivating the soul. Their divine will covers the entire battlefield, so none of your moves can escape his detection. That’s why he was able to block all of your attacks ahead of time.”
Zu An couldn’t help but sigh in relief when he heard her familiar voice. “Big sis empress, you’re finally awake.”
Mi Li merely grunted in response. She became silent again, as if she were thinking to herself. However, Zu An couldn’t be bothered with that. He hurriedly asked, “Do I have a chance at winning?”
“Nope,” Mi Li said without any trace of politeness.
Zu An was speechless. “Even with all of my abilities?” he added, not willing to give up.
“It’s because of your abilities that you might be able to barely run. Otherwise, you’d be dead several times over.” Mi Li harrumphed. “This time, your enemy is different from before. There’s a fundamental difference between the master rank and the ninth rank. There’s nowhere for you to run under the coverage of their divine will, so all of your attacks and evasion will be meaningless. If it were just a single master rank, with your ridiculous abilities, you would have a shot. But there are two right now, as well as two at the ninth rank and a group of seventh and eighth ranked warriors. What are you going to even fight all of them with?
“I advise you to start running while Lu Xiao still hasn’t recovered yet. You might be able to keep your life then. Otherwise, once he recovers, you won’t even be able to run away.”
Zu An turned around and gave the distant Bi Linglong, as well as his friends Piao Duandiao and Jiao Sigun from the Eastern Palace, a look. He fell silent.
Lu Xiao and Wei Pingyang also began to chat with each other. “I would already be a corpse if you waited any longer,” Lu Xiao said, his voice full of resentment. He had clearly been scared quite badly just then.
“Brother Lu, please don’t be upset. Didn’t I hurry over in time?” Wei Pingyang replied with a smile. At the same time, his gaze moved to Lu Xiao’s missing arm. He said with a sigh, “The emperor only left a bit of his aura on her, yet it was still so powerful. It truly is frightening.”
Lu Xiao nodded, still feeling lingering fear. “Thankfully, this dungeon has been a bit strange recently. It seems to have been able to cut off that strand of the emperor’s aura from the outside world. If we were in the outside world, I wouldn’t have just lost an arm.”
“Looks like the heavens are on King Qi’s side,” Wei Pingyang said with a smile. “Brother Lu, how long do you need to recover?”
“An hour. I’ll be able to fight again in an hour. However…” Lu Xiao looked at his bare left shoulder. “I don’t think I’ll be able to recover this left arm.”
High rank cultivators all had powerful regeneration abilities. At the master rank, the speed of their recovery would be even faster. Even though his wounds looked terrifying, the only things he had lost were his soulbound sword and his arm. Recovering from his other injuries wasn’t too difficult.
Wei Pingyang was actually secretly happy to see that. Lu Xiao had always been above him all these years, but after what had just happened today, even if Lu Xiao recovered, his cultivation rank would fall a bit. The position of King Qi Manor’s number one guardian might fall to him.
King Qi had always strictly forbidden internal conflict. With so many people watching, he had no choice but to save Lu Xiao. Otherwise, he would have been more than happy to see him die.
“Alright, you just rest up well, Brother Lu. I’ll protect you.” He stood at Lu Xiao’s side. Then, he waved his hands, indicating for his subordinates to surround the other party.
“Crown princess, why don’t you let this humble Wei experience your sword too?” Wei Pingyang’s voice carried a bit of ridicule. He clearly knew that Bi Linglong definitely couldn’t use her sword again in her current state.
Bi Linglong was upset, but she wasn’t in the mood to retort either. Instead, she calmly looked at her subordinates and said, “Everyone, we’ll most likely die here. I’m alright with all of you defecting to King Qi Manor. Linglong won’t feel any resentment toward your choice.”
Zhao Xi roared with laughter. “What is the crown princess saying? We’re all courageous men who were selected to participate in this mission by our clans. How can we bow and bend our knees here? Furthermore, what happened today is so big; how can it not leak out? Rather than surrendering and dying in such a sullen manner, we might as well fight to our heart’s content to the end.”
Zu An nodded inwardly. Even though Zhao Xi looked like he was rather boorish, there was a good side to him.
There were actually many people who had been tempted just then. However, when they heard what Zhao Xi said, all of them threw away those thoughts and roared out, “We’ll fight to the death! To the death!”
Wei Pingyang sneered. “You deserve praise for your courage. It’s a pity that it’s all meaningless.” He gestured with his hand and coldly ordered, “Don’t leave even a single one alive!”
Arrows rained down and King Qi Manor’s deathsworn soldiers roared as they charged forward, “Slaughter them all!”
“Maintain the formation!” Bi Linglong was extremely weak at the moment, to the extent where she could only barely stand by leaning against Zu An. However, she still continued to command her people.
These were the elites of different clans. When they grouped up together, they would still be strong. But if the formation became disorderly, they would really become sheep awaiting slaughter.
The crown princess was practically lying on another man’s body, yet no one from the Eastern Palace voiced any objections. Instead, it was as if this were how it should be. They maintained their formation to stop King Qi Manor’s charge.
It was instead Wei Pingyang who commented, “Zhao Ruizhi, Zhao Ruizhi, your wife is lying in the arms of another man, yet you don’t seem the least bit concerned? For you to be the crown prince really is the shame of the royal clan. I’d advise you to just abdicate your position and let King Qi take your place.”
The crown prince was stunned. He raised his head to look at the floating Wei Pingyang, asking, “Your wife can’t be in the arms of another man?”
Wei Pingyang laughed mockingly. “Obviously!”
“Then where is your wife right now?” the crown prince asked out of curiosity.
“My wife is obviously in our home outside.” Wei Pingyang harrumphed.
The crown prince replied, “Didn’t you guys say you were in this dungeon for many years already? You never went home. Maybe your wife is already in the arms of another man.”
“What did you say?!” Wei Pingyang’s face immediately became bright red. He had never expected to be embarrassed like this by a fool.
The crown prince continued, “Big bro Zu has always been good to me, and he saved my life several times; he’s my good friend. What’s wrong with lending him my wife for a bit? It’s instead you who keeps bullying me and Linglong. Once this crown prince leaves, I’ll definitely eradicate your entire clan and make your wife lie in the arms of other men!”
“Puahaha!” Even some people from King Qi Manor couldn’t help but laugh.
“You dare to anger me?” Wei Pingyang was so angry smoke was coming out from his ears. “Damn fatty, are you tired of living?”
A streak of light flew at the crown prince’s chest as soon as he finished speaking.