“Can’t you just knock them all out with your mist?”
Logically, this kind of low-quality group battle should have been Hua Jian’s specialty.
She’d use her Magic Mist, knock out the cultivators one by one—not hard, right?
But since the fight started, Hua Jian hadn’t used her Magic Mist once, which Linglong just couldn’t understand.
“If I could, I would have already!”
Normally, Hua Jian’s Magic Mist required the Array of Bewilderment to reach its full power.
But this fight was moving toward the center of the Flower Sea—they had no chance to set up an Array Formation.
Worse, Hua Jian found her abilities severely limited inside the Flower Sea.
The mist she produced dissipated far faster than usual, and the enemies’ resistance to it was abnormally high.
Before, a Spirit Master hit with a Maze Mist Bullet would at least be dazed for a moment.
Now, these enemies were like they’d activated invincibility—take a hit from Hua Jian’s bullet as if it were a snack, not even blinking.
Hua Jian’s best fighting style was pretty much sealed away—she could only be a powerless husband.
Fighting under these conditions, Hua Jian felt as if her hands and feet were bound—all her powers harshly suppressed.
After a moment’s thought, Hua Jian guessed the reason: she and Bai Hua Zun Zhe were of the same tribe.
This was Bai Hua Zun Zhe’s territory, and the cultivators here were definitely already under her influence.
For Hua Jian to use mist against them was like trying to steal them from Bai Hua Zun Zhe.
Great—let a Spirit Master steal people from a Spirit Lord. The difficulty was off the charts!
Understanding this, Hua Jian gave up on using the mist, switching to the most basic fighting methods.
But with this, she could help Linglong and Shiqi much less.
Seeing that Linglong’s battle with the three cultivators was holding steady, Hua Jian decided to help Shiqi first—this girl really wasn’t suited for head-on combat.
Her opponent, the bald Gang Wolf Legion member, seemed to have a grudge against her and chased her relentlessly.
Using Feihua Dun to dart behind the bald man while he was busy with Shiqi, Hua Jian unleashed a powered-up Maple Explosion at his back.
After multiple uses in battle, Hua Jian had grown more skilled with Maple Explosion and could now easily control its power and scale.
This time, rather than a wide attack, she focused all the explosive power into a single maple leaf—inside which was hidden a Ling King Flying Blade.
The maple leaf shot out, exploded right behind the bald cultivator, and sent the Ling King Flying Blade hurtling forward.
Whoosh!
A flash of silver pierced through his back and out his chest, making him freeze.
But he didn’t die instantly—bloodshot eyes, mouth frothing blood, he kept attacking Shiqi as if he felt no pain or weakness at all.
Shiqi was forced onto the defensive, her sword blocking blow after blow. She felt like a piece of red-hot iron being hammered again and again.
Every heavy strike made her feel pressed down, but strangely, she seemed uninjured.
In the past, attacks like these would at least leave her sore or numb from the impact, if not outright wounded.
But this time, her back and waist were fine—even her hands weren’t numb.
The bald man’s attacks hit her like there was only force, but no other harm—where had the damage gone?
“Kill you! Traitor…” The bald man’s movements grew sluggish at last—Hua Jian’s ambush was finally taking effect.
Blood dripped from his lips; his breath grew rapid and heavy.
Seizing the chance, Shiqi knocked aside his heavy sword and lunged, slashing at his unprotected neck.
If your body’s protected by a spirit garment, then I’ll just cut your unprotected throat!
Clang!
This bald man was truly an expert of a major power. At the last moment, a white light shone from his body, wrapping him in a protective aura.
The Black Sword struck the light membrane but didn’t break it.
He tried to retaliate, but several Stinger Vine Seeds shot out at his feet, wrapping tightly around his limbs.
Naturally, these were catalyzed by Hua Jian—she’d been waiting for this opening.
“Shiqi, finish him off!”
“Got it!” Shiqi gripped her sword with both hands and swung it down like a hammer.
Once, twice, three times!
Under pure brute force, the light membrane was smashed apart.
Then, the fourth swing!
Blood sprayed from his severed neck like a small fountain.
Shiqi wiped the blood off her face expressionlessly—this was the third dead Gang Wolf Legion King.
After the bald man’s death, the two of them found their feet suddenly surrounded by white vines, which wasted no time in claiming the spoils—burrowing into the corpse and sucking it dry.
The body shriveled before their eyes, while the vines turned pale pink.
“Aren’t we just helping her?” Hua Jian’s feelings were complicated.
Here they were, supposedly trying to stop Bai Hua Zun Zhe, but ending up helping her kill people. How hellish was that?
“Then we’ll just have to leave no corpse behind.” Shiqi, on the other hand, was unbothered—she just wanted to cut down all her enemies.
As for stopping Bai Hua Zun Zhe, she didn’t feel it had anything to do with her anyway.
The simplest way to leave no corpse was to burn them to ash. Unfortunately, neither Hua Jian nor Shiqi could do that.
Shiqi was a metal-type girl—at most, she could chop someone up finely.
As for Hua Jian… she did have a way to keep the corpses from being absorbed by Bai Hua Zun Zhe, but if she used it, she’d be in huge trouble.
Because her method was to absorb the corpses herself.
She couldn’t let Bai Hua Zun Zhe absorb them—Bai Hua Zun Zhe could afford to ignore the world’s scorn, but Hua Jian couldn’t.
She couldn’t exactly finish things and then spend her days as a man-eating flower in the northern mountains, could she?
“Sigh, let’s worry about it later—first, let’s shake off these guys… Damn, more are coming.”
Hua Jian had just suggested running for it, but then two red-eyed cultivators charged at them.
“Vengeance for the King!”
One of them shouted loudly.
Well, here came the Gang Wolf Legion to avenge their fallen King.
Hua Jian glanced at the two new attackers—not very strong, and there were two more cultivators from other factions chasing behind them.
Seriously, to avenge their boss, they didn’t even care about the enemies they’d just been fighting?
“Vengeance? I’ll send you down to join him!” When Shiqi saw the wolf-head on their clothes, her fatigue vanished.
If they came seeking death, she’d kill as many as came!
Seeing the situation, Hua Jian realized that refusing to fight would only make things worse.
She gripped a Ling King Flying Blade, waiting for them to close in.
Once the battle started, it wouldn’t just be the two Gang Wolf Legion cultivators—they’d have to deal with the other pursuers as well.
These bloodthirsty maniacs wouldn’t care who was friend or foe.
The fight began anew. This time, Hua Jian and Shiqi made a clear choice: first kill the two from Gang Wolf Legion, then deal with the remaining two.
They couldn’t just bypass the Gang Wolf Legion to attack the others—that would mean taking on a two-versus-one, or a one-versus-two, both much worse than just killing the Gang Wolf pair.
Only a fool would pick the harder option.
The two Gang Wolf cultivators were crazed, completely ignoring the enemies behind them.
Their minds had become single-threaded, focused on one thing: vengeance.
With that thought in their heads, they ignored everything else—just vengeance.
So they were quickly finished off. The two pursuing cultivators weren’t just bystanders—after Hua Jian and Shiqi blocked the Gang Wolf pair’s attacks, the pursuers promptly stabbed them in the back, sending them to join their King.
This was how battles between Spirit Masters went—not many ways to save your life, so deaths were far more likely than among higher-level cultivators.
After “cooperating” to kill the two Gang Wolf idiots, the pursuers naturally turned on Hua Jian and Shiqi.
But they weren’t too strong, so the fight wasn’t hard.
After a few exchanges, Hua Jian started to notice something wrong with these cultivators.
Their mental states were completely off. Every attack was reckless, totally ignoring defense, as if they weren’t afraid of counterattacks at all.
But how could a sensible enemy let themselves be hit so easily?
For example, Hua Jian’s opponent, after several wild misses, was caught off guard and got his throat pierced by a Maple Explosion with a flying blade.
Sure, he had a protective artifact, but Hua Jian’s flying blade was a Ling King Spiritual Artifact. Spirit Master-level gear couldn’t stop it.
Against a Spirit Master who wasn’t expecting it, this move was always fatal—powerful, with a mid-flight speed boost. Hardly anyone could block it.
After killing one, Hua Jian controlled the spinning blade with her spirit to return to her hand, then launched another at the Spirit Master fighting Shiqi.
He too fell to a single sneak attack.
The fight ended so easily that Shiqi was a bit dazed. She and Hua Jian were this strong working together?
“Don’t just stand there. Let’s go help Linglong!”
“Oh. How is your move so powerful?” Shiqi hurried to catch up and couldn’t help asking.
Hua Jian rolled her eyes. Powerful? Really?
She’d realized that although her abilities were suppressed in this Flower Sea, the environment actually worked in her favor, similar to her Magic Mist.
It was even better than her mist—the Flower Sea made all the cultivators lose their minds, so dealing with them was a breeze.
Everyone else was an idiot; only their group’s brains worked as normal. It was a one-sided slaughter.
As for why they weren’t affected, Hua Jian glanced at the white flower bracelets on her and Shiqi’s wrists—gifts from the mastermind. Having a backer really was invincible.
“They don’t know how to defend or guard against attacks from other directions. As long as one of us blocks them, the other can sneak attack from behind. It’s easy.” Hua Jian quickly explained.
To make her point, she sent another flying blade wrapped in a maple leaf at a cultivator fighting Linglong.
When the cultivator was fully engaged with Linglong, the blade shot through his chest.
Even after that, the cultivator didn’t react, continuing to cast Spirit Techniques as if nothing had happened.
Only after a few breaths, when blood spurted from his chest, did he collapse dead from the sky.
Using a Spirit Technique with a pierced heart—clearly, he wanted to die faster.
“See? You can do it too.”
Everyone here was already mad—there was no point fighting them normally.
Shiqi nodded, half-understanding. So just sneak up and attack from behind, right?
“Go, let’s free Linglong!”
“Alright!”
The two circled behind the last two cultivators. Taking advantage of their distraction by Linglong, they swiftly finished them off.
Linglong, who had been getting a headache from being tied up, was momentarily stunned by the sudden turn—how did her opponents die all at once? Didn’t they even try to defend?
She’d guessed right—they really didn’t.
“We can’t stop these lunatics. Let’s go now.”
Before anyone else noticed, Hua Jian hurried Linglong to run.
If they didn’t leave now, they’d have to fight everyone else before escaping.
Linglong glanced at the chaotic battlefield. She realized Hua Jian was completely right—they really could kill everyone here, but what would that accomplish?
Wouldn’t it just help Bai Hua Zun Zhe’s plan?
It was better to leave now and let the lunatics keep fighting.
“Alright, let’s go.” Linglong landed beside Shiqi, grabbed her shoulder, and said, “I’ll carry her—you follow.”
Linglong’s Thunder Escape was faster than Hua Jian’s Feihua Dun, so it was best for her to take Shiqi.
Hua Jian had no objection, and the three of them took off. Before the Spirit Masters behind even reacted, they had left the chaos behind.
Some cultivators saw them fleeing and tried to chase, but their speed was far too fast—Spirit Masters without escape techniques couldn’t keep up.
After a brief chase, the single-minded cultivators soon forgot about the fleeing trio and resumed fighting their original enemies.
Meanwhile, as they went deeper into the Flower Sea, Hua Jian increasingly felt an invisible pressure weighing on her heart.
It was as if a voice were warning her: go no further—the abyss ahead is terrifying.
But having come this far, she couldn’t back down now. She had to try, no matter what.
Boom!
At that moment, a loud explosion sounded from ahead.
Hua Jian looked up and saw a pitch-black monster blocking their path.
Its appearance was almost identical to the Protector from Hei Long Gang she had seen before!