Chapter 25: Intimidation
Mister Twelve was not a small figure amongst the Rong Clan.
He was a Light Shaking Realm cultivator from a Demonic Emperor Bloodline Clan, commanding respect everywhere he went, but now a youth without a bloodline was forcing him to this extent. Even though he had the advantage, he was never able to quite defeat his opponent. Every leap Cloud Leopard made was like a slap resounding across his face.
Rong Zixing was growing angry.
He had managed to control the poison in his right arm and was slowly forcing it out, and the Origin Energy in his body was bubbling violently as he activated his Darkness Snake Bloodline to its greatest extent.
The Rong Clan’s Mister Twelve was about to attack with his full strength.
At that moment, a voice spoke. “The fight has gone on long enough. It’s time to stop.”
The surroundings suddenly seemed to congeal.
Unlike Rong Zixing, who used the vast amount of Origin Energy contained in his body to control the surroundings, this change had a real tangible substance to it.
Rong Zixing could sense that the pressure he was creating was beginning to disintegrate, and a new wave of pressure was beginning to envelop him.
Who was it? Who was able to defeat him in an open contest of strength?
Rong Zixing was stunned.
With the pressure on Cloud Leopard alleviated, Cloud Leopard was suddenly free to pounce at Rong Zixing.
“Courting death!” Rong Zixing clawed out, his fingers seemingly raking open a void in the air as they glowed with intense black color.
When faced with such a claw strike, Cloud Leopard actually felt somewhat like the laws of Heaven and earth were being reversed.
Just as this claw strike was about to slam into Cloud Leopard, a hand suddenly appeared.
It appeared seemingly out of nowhere. The person who had blocked Rong Zixing’s claw was Su Chen. As he calmly received the claw strike, Su Chen said, “Leopard, stop.”
Cloud Leopard retreated unhappily.
Rong Zixing saw that there was an opportunity, and he clenched his fist rapidly. “Go!”
The Darkness Snake Arrow appeared again and slammed into Su Chen. Rong Zixing was delighted. “Let’s see if you die this time!”
The Darkness Snake Arrow was extremely poisonous. Even Iron Cliff, with his powerful physical body, might not be able to endure it. Rong Zixing’s attack was quite vicious. Since he was an opponent, then they needed to die. There was no hesitation on his part whatsoever.
However, when the Darkness Snake Arrow landed on Su Chen, none of the expected corrosion or death occurred. Su Chen turned around nonchalantly, even smiling at him a little.
He actually smiled!
Smiled at him!
Smiled!
Rong Zixin was stunned.
What was going on?
How come it was like this?
He didn’t understand, and he didn’t have time to understand.
Su Chen grabbed his hand and said, “Not bad. How about another one?”
Rong Zixing stared at Su Chen in disbelief.
Su Chen’s expression was very sincere.
Upon seeing that Rong Zixing was frozen in place, Su Chen frowned. “If you won’t hit me, then I can only take my turn. You hit me once, and I’ll hit you back once. That should be very fair. Look closely - here I come!”
As he spoke, he shoved his palm right at Rong Zixing.
Su Chen’s palm glowed with a dark flame.
Shadow Flame Claw!
The attack was similarly suffused with Shadow Origin Substance. Rong Zixing instinctively tried to defend himself. When their arms collided, Rong Zixing cried out as a swath of black flames ran across his hand. Shockingly, Rong Zixing was unable to put the flames out.
The flames burned more and more intensely, gradually spreading across his arm and eventually his entire body.
“How can this be?” Cloud Leopard stared at Rong Zixing in shock.
“The Shadow Flame is a combination of Fire Origin Substance and Dark Origin Substance. His body contains a lot of Darkness Origin Substance, so it serves as fuel for this strange fire. As a result, it can burn ceaselessly,” Su Chen replied.
Yes, the Darkness Snake’s energy source was Darkness Origin Substance. Given how familiar Su Chen was with Darkness Origin Substance, he was able to recognize it immediately.
The reason why Rong Zixing’s attack had been nullified was because Su Chen had directly activated his Origin Conducting Tool and sucked away all of the Darkness Origin Substance. As a result, it did not harm Su Chen and even gave Su Chen a large amount of Darkness Origin Substance, supplementing what was already in the Shadow Flame Glove. On the other hand, when Su Chen used a darkness-type Origin Skill, Rong Zixing was completely unable to defend himself.
This was the difference between control and comprehension. Even though the Rong Clan’s bloodline gave them the ability to control Darkness Origin Substance, their understanding and comprehension of its attributes were far inferior to Su Chen.
Of course, this didn’t necessarily mean that Su Chen was invincible against the Rong Clan. The Shadow Flame Glove could only absorb so much energy. In addition, Rong Zixing was also at the Light Shaking Realm and had no cultivation base advantage over Su Chen, allowing Su Chen to convert his Origin Energy into his own. If Su Chen were to run into someone with a stronger cultivation base than him, merely relying on a Shadow Flame Glove was pointless.
By the same token, the Shadow Flames were not invincible. As long as the darkness-type Origin Energy was restrained at the right moment, the Shadow Flames would lose their fuel source and disappear.
Rong Zixing was quite dumb and didn’t realize that.
He howled in pain, instinctively activating the energy in his body to its limit. The only result, however, was that the Shadow Flames burned ever brighter as they covered him from head to toe.
“Are you not planning on saving him?” Cloud Leopard felt a chill run down his spine as he watched Rong Zixing flail around in the flames.
Light Shaking Realm cultivators possessed powerful vitality and didn’t die easily. It was for this reason that the torment of being burned alive was particularly painful for them.
The sight of Rong Zixing covered in dark flames and howling was incredibly terrifying.
Su Chen stared at him coldly. “He wanted to kill my brother. Why would I let him off?”
Cloud Leopard sighed with a smile, “Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to copy you and challenge those more powerful than me. I still prefer to take care of my opponents all by myself.”
“It’s already quite impressive that you were able to achieve such a result,” Su Chen said as he patted Cloud Leopard on the back. “He’s still someone with a Demonic Emperor Bloodline. How could it be so easy to jump realms against someone like him? Don’t worry, you will be able to do so in the future.
As they spoke, Rong Zixing’s cries began to subside. The black flames had consumed his entire body and all his energy, turning him to ash. No matter how powerful his vitality was or how extraordinary his skills were, it was impossible for him to survive once he had been turned into ashes.
Su Chen glanced left and right. “Is there anyone else who still wants to try and stop us?”
Everyone simultaneously took a step backwards.
Su Chen had managed to kill a Light Shaking Realm cultivator with a single blow. Everyone watching felt a shiver run down their spines. How could anyone dare get in his way?
When he saw that no one stepped forwards, Su Chen began to continue walking forwards.
Cloud Leopard, Iron Cliff, and the twelve Sword Servants followed closely behind.
As the bystanders watched them leave, they began to mutter to one another in fear.
“They killed Mister Twelve. We cannot let them get away, otherwise the Rong Clan will definitely not spare us.”
“You do it if you have the ability.”
“That’s right. If Mister Twelve died with a single blow, then wouldn’t we just die even faster?”
“But we cannot not take action.”
“If we act, we die, and if we don’t act, then we also die!”
“Dammit, I’m going to risk it all!”
No one knew who was the person who had cried out.
However, no one responded to this cry. Everyone else was hoping that someone else was going to risk it all, and no one wanted to do so themselves. As a result, no one moved.
As Su Chen advanced, the crowd parted as if they were walls lining the streets, staring at Su Chen silently.
The somewhat more courageous individuals, upon seeing Su Chen’s group departing, suddenly realized that they could ambush them from behind. In his mind, as long as he attacked and wounded one of them, he would have an excuse for the Rong Clan. As a result, he chose to target the weakest opponent he could find - the Sword Servants.
Whoosh!
A streak of cold light shot at one of the Sword Servants.
The cold light had just formed when the Sword Servant spun around and slashed out with his sword.
The sword strike was peerlessly sharp and cut right through the cold light. The momentum from the strike continued until it slammed into the assailant.
The assailant took out a copper mirror and placed it in front of his body.
Unexpectedly, the sword Qi actually curved, arcing past the copper mirror and slicing through the assailant. The assailant’s elbow was immediately separated from his body.
The assailant wailed piteously and attempted to fly away, but frost actually began to form on his body before he was able to get far, completely encasing him ice.
Once encased in ice, he began to fall from the sky like a giant ice cube, shattering into many tiny pieces upon hitting the ground. Not even a drop of his blood was spilled.
Everyone was badly shocked when they saw this.
The ambusher had also been at the Yang Opening Realm, but had been killed in a single blow by his opponent. What did that mean?
These guys were all incredibly powerful. The fact that they were all at least at the Yang Opening Realm was quite impressive already, but their ability to kill those at the same realm as them like they were slaughtering chickens or dogs was unbelievable. They even dared challenge a Light Shaking Realm cultivator with a Demonic Emperor Bloodline, and even kill him with a single blow.
And there were more than ten such people all in this group!
What did that mean?
Everyone was scared so badly that they began to tremble.
However, one of the other Sword Servants said when he saw that blade strike, “Your use of the ice power was still a bit too slow. If you were to run into someone with faster reactions, they might have been able to block it.”
“Mm,” the Sword Servant who had attacked said. “My Ice Swallow Aspect is not as well-practiced as my Fire Monkey Aspect.”
Not as well-practiced as his Fire Monkey?
Everyone felt dizzy.
And what was a Ice Swallow Aspect?
No one understood.
Actually, this Ice Swallow Aspect was derived from Ji Hanyan’s Frostbird Bloodline, which Su Chen had supplied to the Aspect Hall and given the name Ice Swallow. This Sword Servant had inherited this particular aspect, imbuing every one of his sword strikes with a large quantity of ice-type Origin Energy. Even though he was not as dominant nor overbearing as Ji Hanyan, the ice power he could unleash was still staggering.
The ambusher didn’t know the subtle details. Actually, his running had only accelerated his death.
It wasn’t that Su Chen and his subordinates were now untouchable. However, because many of Su Chen’s techniques were self-created, no one in the outside world had ever seen them before, and they lacked ways to deal with them accordingly.
Rong Zixing suffered from this, as did the ambusher. That was the reason why they had died so quickly.
Even so, that was how battles went. Even though being much more powerful felt great, targeting the opponent’s weak points was much more efficient.
Once the ambusher died, everyone gave up on any thoughts of trying to block the road.
Before the other members of the Rong Clan arrived, no one else would come to stop their advance.
As such, Su Chen and the others very quickly arrived at the Scarlet Road.
The sides of the road were lined with countless people.
The Scarlet Road was an important division that delineated whose territory you were in.
And now, Su Chen was going to cross the line.
If Su Chen was to cross the line, then the Rong Clan would have to give up on killing Su Chen unless they were prepared to go to war.
Su Chen didn’t immediately step over the line when he got there. Instead, he turned around to glance behind him.
“I’m going to cross,” he said. “Is anyone thinking of stopping me?”
No one responded.
Su Chen smiled slightly. “Since no one is willing to stop me, then I will see you all later.”
He turned back around and prepared to cross the line.
At that very moment, however, a figure came streaking in his direction through the sky.
“Don’t be so arrogant!”
A massive spiritual hand came descending down on Su Chen, enveloping him and his subordinates instantly.