Chapter 607: Imprint of Death (Two)
Without another word to be said, Jian Chen began to do his best to fight the four elders.
Wielding the Origin energy, he chased down the four to stab at them with it. The unbelievable speed in which he swung his weapon had been fast enough for several mirror-images to be seen. Stroke by stroke, the Origin energy struck out accurately and swiftly. In the art of the sword, fast, accurate, and unrelenting were the three aspects to master to have a successful mastery over it.
While the four elders had the advantage in numbers, they were all deeply afraid of the power of the Origin energy and were thus limited in their ability to fight. Since they were handicapped as such, the result was that they were being completely overwhelmed by Jian Chen and had felt sullen about it.
Jian Chen had his presence to help him serve as a radar in every direction possible. No matter where they tried to turn about around Jian Chen, it was completely without success. Each and every time, Jian Chen would manage to evade their strikes or sometimes swing his Origin energy at their Saint Weapon instead. As a result, they would have to dodge as well.
“This bastard is clearly injured, so why can he still fight like this?” After several dozen exchanges, one elder had let out an angry curse as he dodged Jian Chen’s strike.
“We can’t go on like this! The four of us will have to use a Heaven Tier Battle Skill together now!” Another elder spoke. With one arm tied behind their backs, they could only resort to this.
But the third elder had refused, “No, a Heaven Tier Battle Skill is far too tiring to use at this moment. A single use of one is enough to take out fifty or sixty percent of our Saint Force. If we use it a second time, that’d use up the rest of it so we’d be powerless to fight. That serves us no use.” The third elder had been loathed to admit it, but if he had known that Jian Chen was this strong, then he would have notified the family to dispatch some people. And if he had sent a message to the Jiede clan, then the two households could fight Jian Chen together. There would have been no need for his own household to fall into such disrepair and lose a member.
“Ah!” Suddenly, a cry could be heard from one of the elders. The reason for this outcry was due to the fact that Jian Chen had speared his chest through with the Origin energy.
“Elder Mark!”
The third elder and the other two had let out a startled cry before they launched an Earth Tier Battle Skill at Jian Chen in order to save the elder.
But Jian Chen’s mobility had been even faster than they thought. Just before they could unleash their Earth Tier Battle Skill, Jian chen had already stabbed his Origin energy into the forehead of the elder and extinguished his soul.
“Elder Mark!” The three cried out in misery. It had been a very painful experience for them to witness the death of elder Mark in front of them.
Jian Chen hadn’t bothered to stop after killing elder Mark. His right hand lashed out with three separate rays of Sword Qi to strike at the three dazed elders.
The death of elder Mark had weighed heavily on the remaining three elders. Only the third elder had been able to regain his wits in time to dodge the Sword Qi. The other two had been too late to react, resulting in the Sword Qi to pierce straight into their chests.
Knowing that this was a chance to kill the other two, Jian Chen immediately rushed forward with the Origin energy flashing in his hand. Swiftly, Jian Chen moved to slice down their necks.
“Pft!” Two jettisons of blood could be seen as the decapitated heads of the two elders fly through the air. Since their lives had not yet completely ended, looks of complete terror could be seen in their eyes.
With a flick of his finger, two bursts of Sword Qi erupted from his hands and stabbed a hole straight through the middle of their foreheads, extinguishing their soul.
In an instant, three Heaven Saint Masters had been killed from the four. Only the third elder was left.
At this sight, the third elder had lost all color in his face as well as all his fighting spirit. Turning around, he began to run away. With the four of them, they were already no match for Jian Chen, so with just him now, it would only be a matter of time before he too would die.
The Jian Chen of today was already vastly different to the Jian Chen a year ago. He was no longer the same Jian Chen that he could chase down to the ends of the earth with.
“Don’t even think about running!” Jian Chen laughed. With the wind element wrapping around his body, Jian Chen flew off into the direction the third elder had been flying to. This speed of his was even faster than the third elder, and halfway through his flight, Jian Chen had unleashed a burst of Sword Qi to chase after the third elder.
“Whoosh!” The sound of the Sword Qi flying through the air could be heard before stabbing straight through the third elder’s chest with lightning-quick speed.
A mouthful of blood escaped from the third elder’s mouth, causing his face to pale even further. His figure shook slightly as it floated in the sky as if he was on the verge of losing control. But then, it was with a timely manner that he managed to slow his descent and regain his flight.
Seeing that escape was impossible, the third elder had given up on the notion. A resolute look appeared on his face as he turned to stare down Jian Chen. “Jian Chen! Even if I die, I won’t let you live in peace after! My Shi family will never renounce our anger towards you, and you won’t live to see yourself outlive it--Imprint of Death!” The third elder howled. In the next moment, a faint red mist began to arise from his body while his body itself began to dry up. Within seconds, it looked as if his body had lost all of the moisture within the body, leaving him as a dried up husk of a skeleton.
This red mist had gathered above the third elder’s body before forming a grotesque bloody pattern. And in the next second, it flew towards Jian Chen with unbelievable speed.
Jian Chen hadn’t enough time to dodge the bloody pattern due to the unbelievable speed of it. It was almost as if it was made of lightning with how fast it had been going. In no time at all, it had embedded itself into Jian Chen’s body and then out of sight.
Seeing that the blood pattern had laid true to Jian Chen’s body, the third elder’s eyes slowly closed as he fell down to the ground. His body resembled a mummy that had been deprived of moisture for an extremely long time.
Paling with fright, Jian Chen hadn’t even bothered to look at how the third elder had been doing as he hastily checked his own body. From where the blood pattern had touched him, there had been some sort of seal on his body that looked as if he had been branded.
Grim, Jian Chen thought back to what the third elder said before he died. “Imprint of Death,” He muttered, “What kind of black magic is this?”
“The Imprint of Death is something that makes use of the three vital energies of the human body to create to leave an unwashable mark on their enemy for easy tracking.” As soon as Jian Chen had finished speaking, Hu Xiaotian’s voice could be heard as he flew on over.
Staring at Jian Chen with a complicated expression, Hu Xiaotian’s mind had been far more chaotic than what his expression showed. The fact that Jian Chen had killed four Heaven Saint Masters was something that he still found hard to believe.
Arriving by Jian Chen’s side, Hu Xiaotian let out a long sigh as if trying to calm himself. Giving himself some time to think first, Hu Xiaotian said, “There is a huge cost for using the Imprint of Death. It is only when all hope is lost, and death is inevitable that one will use this technique. But once it is used, then the caster will have all of their energy sucked away and their spirit vanquished. All of the lifeblood in the body will evaporate, and the body will wither away just like that man just now. But the one marked with the Imprint of Death, wherever he might go, will be easily tracked by it. No matter how far he runs, he will be unable to evade detection.”
Still staring at Jian Chen, Hu Xiaotian spoke, “Brother Jian Chen, you must pay attention to this next part. The people behind this elder will definitely use the Imprint of Death to find you. No matter how far you go, you cannot escape from them. If you can’t handle this future, then you should hide in Mercenary City.”
Jian Chen had felt his mind cloud over with those words. According to what Hu Xiaotian was saying, then the Saint Ruler of the Shi family would be able to find him with ease. There was no use in running to throw him off.