Chương 366: Escaping

Bai Zijun lowered his gaze to stare at the hilt of the sword that was still showing from his chest. He couldn't yet feel the pain, nor could he see his back, but he could tell that there was a sword tip covered in cracks extending from his back. If that was all, it wouldn't be the end. But... the sword had pierced straight through his heart, not mentioning the other irreversible damages. He ardously raised his head to stare into Long Feng's eyes while sensing his life flowing out of his body numbly.

"Don't... be happy... just... yet..." he spluttered inaudibly as the flames around them began to die down rapidly.

"You'll die... a miserable... death... soon..." these words seemed to exhaust the last bit of strength in his body. He continued glaring at Long Feng with clear resentment and unreconciled emotions in his eyes. Long Feng stared back directly into his eyes without emotion.

"Even if that time comes, you won't be there to witness it." He responded in a calm yet weakened tone that couldn't conceal his own physical and mental exhaustion. Bai Zijun's pupils slowly lost focus as the final traces of life faded from his body. Along with his life, the final sparks of flame within and without his body died down, revealing their figures to the two deities. Zhou Zheng's first reaction was extreme disbelief. His eyes could see clearly, yet he was doubting his own sight.

Both he and the metal Dao youth were frozen to the very core of their souls as they stared at the lifeless figure of Bai Zijun. A silence that seemed to echo more than noise consumed the surroundings for over a minute. A resounding thunder roared as a purple streak of lightning approached from the distance, radiating an aura of extermination that was unique to the lightning Dao. The lightning faded to reveal a youth with sharp facial features and flowing hair.

Tiny strands of purple lightning occasionally jumped around him as he stood proudly and swept his cold gaze across the entire battlefield. The next second, his eyes bulged with disbelief as all the elaborate calm he built was crumbled down in a single instant. His shock was so great that he lost control of his energy slightly, unleashing several streaks of lightning that formed minor craters on the earth.

"What the hell happened here?" He stared directly at the two youths who were pretty much the center of attention. Long Feng let out a light sigh as he confirmed that Bai Zijun was truly dead. The moment his heart was pierced through, there was already no hope for him again. A mournful cry seemed to resound within Long Feng's soul as the sword hilt in his grasp trembled slightly, sending a tremor through his entire body.

This was the sword's final cry as the blade finally broke into countless fragments of metals that were pulled down by gravity. A strange pain gripped Long Feng's heart as he watched each fragment losing their glow as though the soul of the sword was dispersing. This was just a weapon, but it's death caused a heavy feeling to enclose Long Feng's heart. As a swordsman, this was much more significant to him than anyone else could understand.

The death of this sword was no less painful than the death of a close comrade who had survived many battles by his side. Bai Zijun's lifeless body was previously being held up by the sword that pierced through his chest. With the sword breaking to pieces, his body also fell downwards silently and crashed into the ground, stirring some dust into the air. Long Feng's fingers tightened around the sword hilt that had now lost its blade as a mouthful of blood sprayed out of his mouth.

The veins on his arm popped up hideously and even burst open in some places. This was naturally the backlash from straining his body with so much true essence. His veins and meridians were shriveled and twisted together, lacking any sign of vitality. Even the slightest movement would send a wave of excruciating pain from his meridians and torment Long Feng. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. He was in an extremely bad state right now.

Bai Zijun's final counterattack had sent a great deal of flame into Long Feng's body, burning up his innards and worsening it all. The new injuries merged with the old ones he was suppressing and completely rendered him completely incapacitated. Forget fighting, even standing would be a huge challenge to him in a short time. Another burst of blood splattered from his mouth as well as his nose, making his pale white face to appear almost corpse like.

Before the remnant aura of Situ Hong's lightning could fade away, two more auras rapidly approached, each aura signalling another of the top ten deities. By now, each and every deity in the realm would be headed in this direction, and given the time that had passed, they would all be arriving around now. Long Feng could already tell that the situation was extremely dire. Situ Hong's presence alone right now was a massive threat to him in his current situation.

Luckily, the latter was still shaken by Bai Zijun's death and trying to digest the situation. But if more deities arrived, then Long Feng wouldn't be able to leave this place alive no matter what he did in his current fragile state. Therefore, he didn't waste a single second. Before the shock of Bai Zijun's death could disperse, he burned a tiny bit of his cultivation to generate more energy which he focused completely into escaping.

Before anyone could react, his figure transformed into a beam of light that sped through the sky, becoming a tiny dot in the horizon within seconds. Even after he left, no one in the scene moved. Their entire attention was focused on the cold dead body on the ground that belonged to Bai Zijun. Even with the facts presented before their eyes, they still found it hard to believe that Bai Zijun was dead just like that!

As one of the pillars of the outer peak, his death would significantly impact the entire outer peak and destabilize the current power hierarchy. As seconds turned to minutes, more auras rapidly approached from the distance. The first two to arrive were similarly frozen in shock upon the sight of Bai Zijun's corpse. More of them arrived at the scene and within ten minutes, seven deities were gathered, floating in their air with their combined auras releasing an impressive and awe inspiring pressure in the area.

The silence grew increasingly heavy as time passed. Each of the seven deities had extremely grave expressions on their faces as they continuously exchanged glances while waiting. A few more minutes later, a powerful wind began to blow. It began as a slightly stronger wind and slowly strengthened till a massive wind storm formed, towering into the sky with an overwhelming pressure. Even the auras of the deities felt slightly suppressed compared to this singular presence.

None of the deities were startled by the appearance of the windstorm. They seemed to have already expected it and didn't reveal any trace of surprise. The windstorm suddenly dispersed at once, returning calm to the surroundings. The only change was that a youth was now kneeling beside Bai Zijun corpse out of thin air. His hair was scattered across his shoulder and his robes was ragged and torn in different places.

His face overall gave off a lazy temperament, but that laziness was replaced by extreme focus and seriousness at this moment. This was the widely accepted strongest outer peak disciple, Qiu Yushi. He extended and arm to touch Bai Zijun's forehead and frowned slightly before he looked up.

"What happened here?" He asked calmly with a tinge of solemness and coldness in his tone.

Long Feng sped through the air for hundreds of meters before he finally exhausted the little bit of energy he had forcefully generated and had to land in a small valley. His landing was extremely miserable as he ended up rolling on the ground and laying flat on the floor with his blurry eyes staring at the sky. He coughed several times, each cough drawing up a spray of blood that dyed his chest red as well as the floor he rested his head on.

It took nearly an hour before he stabilized enough to stop coughing up blood at every turn. As he lay there in silence while staring at the sky with a faint smile, a chuckle suddenly escaped Long Feng's throat. The chuckle was hoarse and weak, and it sent a new wave of pain washing through his body, but the excitement it contained couldn't be suppressed in the slightest. The chuckles continued and slowly transformed into a mirthful laughter and finally into a full fledged chortle.

Who could understand the excitement and thrill coursing through his blood and veins? Over a year of looking up to deities as near invisible beings... from the moment he began cultivating, even before he ever knew it, the shadow of the deity realm and above mercilessly pressed down on him and the entire Yihua Continent, suffocating them and leaving little space to breath. The deity realm... the limit of respect and power in the Yihua Continent.

Even mid ranked continents were ruled only by deities, and they would still hold extremely noble positions in high ranked continents. From the moment he left the continent zone, Long Feng was forced to realize how profoundly weak he was. At every turn, he had to think thrice and ensure that his life wouldn't be at risk. He couldn't even really leave the sect due to his weak cultivation. Even then, the top ten deities were high in the sky to him, completely untouchable.

Any of them could casually kill him just months ago. Today, he had finally surmounted that quantitative gap between him and the deities... Both the mental and physical suppression were utterly ripped apart. He single-handedly fought three of the deities, each of them several times stronger than crimson Chen, and he killed the strongest one among them. From the ancient time until now, not many could claim to have accomplished a similar feat at the Imperial realm.

The thrill he felt completely surpassed any pain he could feel in his body. He endured the guy wrenching pain and slowly raised his right arm. The horrendous looking veins popping out, the blood flowing down the arm as well as the shiver which he couldn't suppress... the pain was there, but it simply reminded him of one thing; One significantly tall peak was surmounted in his path...

"I'm still weak before stronger deities, but at least, I have the capability to stand my ground. From now on, I have the right to be called strong in this region!" He gasped lightly with considerable pride.

"There are just a few hours left till the closure of the serene heaven mystic realm and we'll all be sent out. It's not realistic for me to expect to recover much in a few hours, but I should at least be in a better state than this. I don't know what kind of storm will be awaiting me back in the sect." He quickly got over his pride and pondered seriously. Killing Bai Zijun was a rather rash action, but he still went ahead with it.

If it was the other way round, would Bai Zijun have hesitated even a bit before killing him? Instead of leaving a hidden threat that could pose a risk to him in the future, he would rather kill him and deal with whatever the consequences were later. Leaving Bai Zijun alive would only be ruthlessness to himself in the future.

"Besides... deaths in the mystic realm aren't pursued, similar to dying in the battle rings." This heightened his confidence slightly. Just in the same way, Long Feng recalled Zhou Zheng's brimming hatred and couldn't help but want to kill him as well to completely erase any future threat, no matter how minor. After this, if nothing went wrong, then he would easily participate in the inner peak test and become an inner peak disciple.

It was a very remarkable feat to become an inner peak disciple in less than a year after entering the outer peak. Most times, even three years would hardly be enough for such progress. Becoming an inner peak disciple would pave a much easier path towards achieving his goals in the near future. For starters, he would be one step closer to entering the Supreme Heaven mystic realm which housed endless opportunities.

Just based on Lord Ao Zhentian's words, the Supreme Heaven mystic realm was a lucky chance that shouldn't be missed if it could be helped.