Chapter 185 – A tragedy of exceptional speed
Shi Chang Xiao grunted; his powerful voice resounded through the sky, and it seemed as if it had startled the rain. It appeared as if an invisible wave had hammered the pouring rain away from his body, and towards the rest of the crowd……
Shi Chang Xiao had just been repelled by the Solitary Falcon’s counter-attack, and had been forced to retreat a short distance. However, he had immediately extended his arms and had cast out this new and strange move almost immediately……
Everyone felt a strange nip in the air, and immediately retreated backwards, and away from the Solitary Falcon’s body due this extremely strange feeling!
Shi Chang Xiao powerful move wasn’t intended to hurt the Solitary Falcon, but only to ward off the other experts away from him, and succeeded in carrying his plan out to perfection since the other experts were too afraid to get caught in the scope of his fierce move, and were forced to retreat.
Two silhouettes swiftly drifted away to a tree about forty or fifty feet away from the center of the combat, and quietly positioned themselves on its top branch amidst this chaotic movement.
The Hongjun Pagoda was still revolving at full speed and was still providing energy to Jun Mo Xie’ body as he tried to recover from the shock of the Solitary Falcon’s strike. Jun Mo Xie almost jumped up the moment he saw this action taking place on the battlefield: finally! My plan can already be considered half-successful, but I still don’t know if……
Shi Chang Xiao’s angry and powerful strike had sent everyone scuttling away to safety, so much so that even the three Elders of the Silver Blizzard City, all Spirit Xuan experts in their own merit had decided to retreat immediately; even Li Wu Bei’s disciples were left with no choice but to retreat since they also knew that weren’t capable of facing a Peak Spirit Xuan’s explosive strength head-on, and were forced to resign into blankly staring at each other in despair.
The remaining Spirit Xuan expert, Fei Meng Chen wasn’t looking any better either. He had also been targeting striking the Solitary Falcon like everyone else, and was only a fingertip away when Shi Chang Xiao’s violent strike forced him to retreat backwards due to fear of injury. Even though he managed to escape unharmed, he was still left cursing his subordinate in authority.
But the most unfortunate was the sixth brother amongst the ten acquaintances of Li You Ran!
Because his speed was too quick!
He had rushed in like everyone else to take advantage of the situation; however, the man was even faster than the three Elders of the Silver Blizzard City and Fei Meng Chen; the man was actually faster than Spirit Xuan experts! Li Wu Bei must have indeed been proud of his disciple’s speed and agility!
But therein lay his biggest mistake….. he was too fast!
He was almost upon the Solitary Falcon at the time when Shi Chang Xiao went berserk, forcing his unknowing backups, the four Spirit Xuan experts away from the Solitary Falcon!
Because he was too fast, he was somehow able to escape Shi Chang Xiao’s attack’s scope; but inwards rather than outwards!
Because he was too fast, he was now placed in the same vacuum zone as the Solitary Falcon and Shi Chang Xiao; alone, without any backups! And to make matters worse, he was so quick that he had actually managed to reach the Solitary Falcon before anyone else, and simply had no place to go now!
At this moment, even though his mind had already started to panic from the surprise of the situation, but his hands were still moving in their previously intended direction, and were nimbly making their into the Solitary Falcon’s pocket…….
An exceptional trait may not always be the best thing…… this exceptionally agile man was an excellent example of this truth!
Solitary Falcon was obviously very disappointed by Shi Chang Xiao’s move, which had forced everyone to drop their plan of attacking him, and then he suddenly realized that one bold and fearless hand was reaching into his pocket to extract the Xuan Core! This obviously made the Solitary Falcon angrier!
If any man from the entire Xuan Xuan continent was ever successfully able to pick-pocket one of the ‘Eight Great Masters’……. This news would bring the Solitary Falcon more shame than actually dying in battle facing a weaker man; it would turn him into a laughing stock!
If it hadn’t been for Shi Chang Xiao’s intervention, this exceptionally fast man would have actually been able to succeed in his attempt undetected! He had selected the most appropriate time to execute this stealth move; his timing was nothing short of perfection!
Moreover, once he had succeeded, he could have easily escaped away since the only person who would notice this theft, the Solitary Falcon, would have been forced to repel four Spirit Xuan experts! ‘….. one of the ‘Eight Great Masters’ was robbed by a pick-pocket…. This news would have shocked the entire world!’
Hence, one could obviously understand the Solitary Falcon’s rage…..
The Sixth Brother was obviously aware of his own exceptional speed, and knew that he was even faster than an average Peak Sky Xuan expert, but he was completely unaware that the Solitary Falcon was as fast….. in his own league. The only difference was…. The Solitary Falcon was a Peak Spirit Xuan expert!
He was only vaguely able to see Solitary Falcon’s hand extending to grab his wrist, which was followed by a snapping sound made by his shattering hand, post which the Solitary Falcon released his wrist and then slapped his waist, and then moved his hand upwards to tilt the man’s head backwards. The usually agile and nimble man wasn’t even able to offer even a shred-worth’s resistance in front of the Solitary Falcon’s speed and strength, and ended up turning into a punching doll for the Solitary Falcon.
The Solitary Falcon was completely indifferent to the life and death of such sideshows, and simply threw the death body, sending it spinning like a windmill in the direction of deceased’s remaining companions.
The nine people reached out to grab their falling brother, but the rotation speed of their brother’s dead body was too fast from them to catch him, and several of these nine men were sent flying down to the ground under the force of the collision, along with their dead companion. The dead body of the Sixth Brother fell to the ground and continued to spin on the ground for a while, splashing and spraying the water in all directions like a beautiful and colorful fountain before finally coming to a stop under the effect of the friction from the turf underneath!
His companions quickly approached their fallen comrade, and were left shrieking angrily after seeing the plight of their brother’s body.
It can be awfully difficult to imagine the dead body of a man spinning like a windmill; but it was even worse to see it after it had stopped spinning!
His arms had been broken in more than seventy eight places under the effect of the Solitary Falcon’s powerful grip; his legs had been folded backwards since the slap on his waist had completely shattered his hip bone, along with his Dan Tian, while his head was turned backwards. Even if the man had survived these strikes, he would have been left worse than paralyzed!
There is no problem with courage as it is, or with hoping to take advantage of a situation, but the one rash mistake that this man had made was that: he hadn’t been able to interpret that he was contesting against a man far beyond his league.
The leader of the platoon, Lei Jian Hong howled in grief and indignation, stood up and thundered: “Solitary Falcon! You’re ruthless! And since you’ve killed our brother, we will see to it that you die an even worse death!”
The Solitary Falcon obviously wasn’t in a very good mood at the moment, and therefore cursed back: “Go to your mother! This guy dared to offend me, and so he deserves what he got! If you also dare to annoy me, then Li Wu Bei will lose more disciples today!”
The hearts of the remaining nine people puffed up with rage, but they suppressed their anger anyway. There was nothing they could do against this man right now. In case they attacked him as recklessly as their brother had, then the Solitary Falcon was more than capable of killing all nine of them as well. Naturally, their best plan of action would be to temporarily endure the pain of their loss, and then slowly channel that anger into plotting their revenge.
Moreover, it was rather obvious that offending the sanctity a Peak Spirit Xuan would come with a considerable price to pay!
“Falcon, this fight is too boring, it’s not as much fun as you and me alone. So how about you and I join hands and sort these guys out first, and then we can go and find some quite place. I’ll let you enjoy a good ‘Three days and three nights’ worth of fighting, and you can give me that Xuan Core in return…. What do you say?” Shi Chang Xiao’s one sentence turned everyone’s faces pale with fright!
If these two Peak Spirit Xuan masters joined hands, then no one apart from the Three Elders of the Silver Blizzard City would have any chances of escaping their combined strength; even Fei Meng Chen, a Spirit Xuan expert wouldn’t be an exception.
After all he was only one man, and wouldn’t be able to escape the combined wrath of two men who were both far more powerful than himself.
The Solitary Falcon laughed as his eyes slowly started turning in a circle, scanning the bodies of all the men, who had already started to step back in fear. As they saw the sharp and blood-thirsty eyes of the Solitary Falcon, some people even started preparing to drop their weapons so they could turn around and run in full force at a moment’s notice.
The Solitary Falcon started laughing even louder: “Shi Chang Xiao, do you really think I’m stupid enough to help you and your men kill everyone here so that you and your men could get this Xuan Core from me later on with ease?! If I help you kill everyone first, then you and your men will be able to take this Xuan Core from me in a heartbeat, but if I don’t… then I can still enjoy a good fight.”
Solitary Falcon’s argument immediately woke everyone with a start; in case the Solitary Falcon and Shi Chang Xiao reached an agreement, then these two Peak Spirit Xuan masters would easily be able to annihilate everyone present on the scene; they may not even spare the lives of Shi Chang Xiao’s own comrades. Later however, even though the Solitary Falcon would prove out to be weaker than Shi Chang Xiao in their one-on-one combat, he wouldn’t mind paying the Xuan Core as a price for a good and satisfying fight; especially considering the fact that he would be guaranteed to survive the fight since he could escape the lone Peak Spirit Xuan master at any time!
In fact, this meant that Shi Chang Xiao would earn far more than the Xuan Core in this deal. It was evident that some of the best experts from all over the continent had gathered to contest for this Xuan Core, and the deaths of these men would be enough to shake the entire power structure of their backing organizations, which would prove out to be a priceless gift for the Shen Ci Empire’s Emperor. And thus, using the Solitary Falcon’s assistance to slaughter so many powerful experts could even earn Shi Chang Xiao the title of the Shen Ci Empire’s Imperial State Teacher!