"A single sword, a rainbow to pierce the long sky!"
Chu Fan knew, of course, that he was no match for Li Mosheng. He knew even more certainly that once everyone else reacted, he would be caught in a quagmire with no hope of survival.
After all, his current Cultivation was only equivalent to the Heartbeat Realm. Among everyone present, besides the few from the younger generation, the one with the lowest Cultivation was Li Mosheng.
Yet even Li Mosheng was three Great Realms higher than him.
That was why he had come with a complete plan: strike with surprise, then flee a thousand miles.
This single strike contained everything Chu Fan had ever learned and was infused with most of his True Qi.
The Sword Gang shimmered like a rainbow in the sunlight, while the Sword Qi congealed like frost, suffused with a boundless, chilling killing intent.
Now that his Chaos Body had been awakened, the True Qi Liquid accumulated in his Dantian was dozens of times greater than it had been at the same stage in the past. One could only imagine the might of a sword strike into which he had poured most of that True Qi.
On top of that, Chu Fan’s Sword Dao had already reached the Second Layer of Sword Gang Like Wind Realm.
Everyone was stunned by Chu Fan’s attack.
Li Mosheng, who stood in his path, never imagined Chu Fan could unleash such an earth-shattering strike. He had still assumed Chu Fan had a crippled physique. When Chu Fan leaped into the air, he didn’t even realize that his body had recovered.
It was a classic case of conventional thinking.
Stunned, Li Mosheng’s first instinct was to dodge.
However, after unleashing his strike, Chu Fan charged forward without a moment’s hesitation, then executed a Body Technique to flit rapidly across the rooftops.
"Yun Xi, you have to wait for me!"
Leaving those words behind, he soared toward the depths of the vast Yunmeng Mountain.
"Don’t let him get away!" Ji Ling was the first to react, pointing at Chu Fan’s fleeing figure and shouting.
Immediately, Yu Zongding, Ji Chengding, and Luo Zefeng of the Celestial Derivation Sect took to the air in pursuit.
Chu Fan had planned everything perfectly, but for all his calculations, he never expected to be ambushed after flying only a short distance.
He was fleeing with all his might. All he had to do was cross the next mountain peak and drop into the jungle. He could use the dense, sun-blotting wilderness to evade the pursuers from the Lingyun Sect.
But then, a soul-shaking surge of Qi Power struck without warning.
Chu Fan had no way to dodge. The Qi Power slammed into his chest.
In that instant, a violent tremor ran through Chu Fan’s entire body. His internal organs felt as if they’d been rattled out of place, and his body, like a kite with a snapped string, fell uncontrollably backward.
He crashed heavily to the earth, gouging out a deep crater.
Only then did he see his attacker.
He was a middle-aged man with a short beard, dressed in a navy-blue robe. He had a square face and sharp, upturned brows, and his eyes held a hint of malevolence.
The man hovered in the air, his hands clasped behind his back. He didn’t spare Chu Fan a single glance, instead directing his gaze toward Cuiyun Peak, seemingly awaiting the arrival of Yu Zongding and the others.
"Yan Qi! You dare show your face here on my Yunmeng Mountain?"
Yu Zongding’s furious roar came from behind.
’Yan Qi?’
Though Chu Fan had never seen the man, he had certainly heard the name. Yan Qi. The Sect Leader of Red Blood Mansion. In other words, the greatest enemy of his life.
Upon realizing his identity, Chu Fan’s gaze filled with pure hatred.
His Master and five senior brothers hadn’t died directly at Yan Qi’s hands, but they had fallen victim to his treacherous schemes.
"Since when did Yunmeng Mountain belong to you, Yu Zongding? I haven’t set foot on your Cuiyun Peak. Aren’t you overstepping your bounds, meddling in matters that don’t concern you?"
Yan Qi spoke, his tone filled with disdain and defiance.
As he finished speaking, he gestured with one hand. A powerful suction force lifted Chu Fan, who was still grievously wounded from the earlier blow. Chu Fan struggled, but it was useless. He was pulled directly into Yan Qi’s grasp.
He seized Chu Fan by the collar and held him aloft.
Chu Fan’s heart was flooded with regret. ’For all my planning, how could I have never anticipated an accident like this?’
’If I had known this would happen, I should have just snuck back to Cuiyun Peak, taken Yun Xi away in secret, and waited until I was strong enough before doing anything else.’
’But now, I’ve thrown myself into a truly hopeless situation.’
’Whether it’s Yan Qi or Yu Zongding’s group, none of them will let me go.’
"Yan Qi, what do you want?"
Yu Zongding and the others had closed in. After a brief glance at Chu Fan, Yu Zongding questioned Yan Qi.
"I was simply out for a stroll, bored, when I saw a traitor from your Lingyun Sect escaping Cuiyun Peak. I just helped stop him for you. Sect Leader Yu, you ought to be thanking me," Yan Qi said with a laugh. Then, as if just noticing Luo Zefeng, he added, "Well, well, isn’t this Elder Luo from the Celestial Derivation Sect? What a pleasure to meet you!"
Luo Zefeng snorted coldly. "Yan Qi, hasn’t your Red Blood Mansion been getting a little too arrogant lately?"
Yan Qi roared with laughter at his words. "What? Does Elder Luo have a problem with that? Or are you, on behalf of the Celestial Derivation Sect, declaring war on my Red Blood Mansion?"
At Yan Qi’s retort, Luo Zefeng snorted again, turning his head away without another word.
Yan Qi’s wickedness and audacity were well-known throughout the Eastern Domain Cultivation Realm. If it weren’t so, the Red Blood Mansion would never have carved out such a notorious reputation in just over two hundred years.
Although it wasn’t counted among the Six Sects and Eight Gates, its power was no less than any of those fourteen millennium-old Sects.
"Yan Qi, aren’t you taking this too far?"
"Sect Leader Yu, you truly can’t tell a good deed from a bad one!"
"The affairs of my Lingyun Sect don’t require an outsider’s interference! Besides, we still have a score to settle with your Red Blood Mansion!"
The moment Yu Zongding finished speaking, Yan Qi shot back, "Fine by me! There’s no time like the present. Why don’t we settle that score right here, right now?"
Listening to them trade verbal barbs, Chu Fan felt a mix of anger and despair. His mind raced, desperately searching for a sliver of a chance to survive.
Just as Yu Zongding was about to speak, Great Elder Ji Chengding cut in. "Sect Leader Yan, please hand this traitorous disciple over to us. Then you may leave Yunmeng Mountain!"
"And who are you to give me orders? You say hand him over, so I should just hand him over? My goodwill was repaid with scorn, and now you want me to give him to you? I refuse. What are you going to do about it?" Yan Qi said with a sneer.
"Sect Leader Yan, are you truly prepared to make enemies of both the Lingyun Sect and the Celestial Derivation Sect?" Ji Chengding’s face now also showed a hint of anger.
"Are you threatening me?" Yan Qi asked, his eyes narrowing.
"And what if I am? What if I do decide to make enemies of both the Lingyun Sect and the Celestial Derivation Sect? What then?" As he spoke, Yan Qi tossed Chu Fan into the air and followed up with a vicious kick.
Chu Fan was sent flying like a sandbag, disappearing over the horizon as a tiny black dot.
Yan Qi’s action was more than just a provocation; it was a resounding slap in the face to everyone present.
Even though Yu Zongding wasn’t prepared to declare all-out war on the Red Blood Mansion, he couldn’t stop himself from attacking now.
As Yu Zongding moved, Ji Chengding naturally couldn’t be left behind.
An earth-shattering battle between Divine Separation Realm Martial Artists erupted.
In an instant, the True Qi rampaging from their battle utterly obliterated the trees on a mountain peak nearly a mile away.
Fighting two against one, Yan Qi didn’t give an inch. The three traded fists and palms, their battle ranging from the sky to the ground, from the mountaintop to the valley below. Everywhere they fought, they left a trail of utter devastation.
"Haha! So this is all the Lingyun Sect amounts to! You can’t even win when you gang up on me," Yan Qi taunted, laughing wildly as he fought.
The three of them fought for a full hour and a half. Their combined Combat Power shaved the top ten feet off an entire mountain peak.
Finally, at Yu Zongding’s request, Luo Zefeng joined the fray, and only then did Yan Qi flee into the distance.