Chapter 78: Cruel Victory

Mu Yun smiled coldly and said, “You do know something after all. That’s right, this is indeed a battle skill!”

The man inhaled sharply as he looked at Mu Yun with a greedy expression. Battle skills were highly treasured on the Tian Yuan Continent, and aside from the clans that spanned across multiple generations and experts, no other ordinary cultivator would have one. Although some cultivators came across some battle skills by luck, such occurrences were very few in Tian Yun Continent. If one didn’t have a profound destiny and extreme fortune, then the chances of getting a battle skill were practically nonexistent.

Although the man was a Middle Saint Master and was considered a strong expert in the Boundless Bandits, he still hadn’t grasped a battle skill yet. Just the sight of one had him drooling. Unfortunately for him, his strength didn’t reach the qualifications necessary to receive a battle skill from the bandits.

The middle-aged man lightly moved his right fist, and felt a flash of burning hot pain. But he did not have any anger in his heart, and was feeling quite excited instead. With his knowledge, one look was enough to distinguish that the battle skill that Mu Yun had used was highly advanced. Although he was a wind attribute, this did not stop the man from desiring the fire attributed battle skill at all. After all, battle skills were priceless treasures on the Tian Yuan Continent, and the stronger the skill, the more expensive it was.

“Haha, the gods have certainly been looking out for me today. Youngsters, your techniques will become mine!” The man laughed loudly with extreme excitement. To him, both Jian Chen’s secret speed technique and Mu Yun’s battle skill would be easily taken and learned.

“How arrogant! You look too highly upon yourself.” Mu Yun sneered. Raising his hand, the red sword immediately ignited as the flames lit up the night. Slashing at the man, the hidden aura of the sword spread out in every direction. However, the amount was so small that its aura was virtually undetectable.

But for someone like Jian Chen who had a powerful “Soul”, this faint aura could clearly be detected. The moment he had realized the source of the aura, his eyes widened in surprise.

Seeing the sword bring forth a blatantly powerful pressure, the man sneered, “Brat, although you have a special battle skill, your strength is still far too weak!” The moment the fiery greatsword made contact with the man’s clothes, he disappeared into an after image, causing Mu Yun’s sword to swish into empty air.

The instant the man disappeared from sight, Mu Yun’s face hardened in concentration. Suddenly, an ear-piercing whistle of a blade could be heard coming from the back. Mu Yun instantaneously changed his sword into three giant snakes and made it fly behind him. While in mid-air, the three snakes fused together, and turned into an even bigger fire serpent.

“Clang!”

The sound of metal hitting something resonated through the air as the fire serpent engulfed both Mu Yun and his opponent. The collision had caused the fire to spread out in every direction for a few dozen meters. When the red ripple of energy swept past Jian Chen, their extremely hot temperatures caused Jian Chen’s clothes to blacken from the heat. If it were not for the fact that his clothes were already damp from his blood, then his clothes might have spontaneously ignited into flames.

In the brilliant blaze, both Mu Yun and the middle aged man staggered backwards, the both of them looked haggard from the trade off. Mu Yun’s originally tidy hair had become messy, while his face had become pale in color. Even his fiery greatsword had started to lose a bit of its luster.

As for the middle aged man, while he had been enveloped by his wind attributed Saint Force, his clean clothes had already started to show signs of burn spots. Both of his sleeves had already been blown apart.

Because of the use of a battle skill, the fight between Mu Yun and the middle aged man was on a much larger scale than the man’s fight with Jian Chen. The blaze attracted both the mercenaries and bandits around them, causing both sides to immediately notice the fight out of the corners of their eyes. The moment they saw the radiant blaze, some of the mercenaries further away cried out in astonishment.

“Those are real flames! Unless one is an Earth Saint Master, it’s impossible to summon flames out of nowhere. Could it be…that’s a battle skill!?”

“Battle skill? It’s a battle skill!”

“So someone here knew a battle skill!”

Whether it was a bandit or mercenary, when they saw that Mu Yun possessed a battle skill, they all cried out in amazement. None of them could believe what they were seeing. Battle skills were extremely rare and expensive on the Tian Yuan Continent. Common mercenaries would normally live their lives without even once witnessing a battle skill.

After their shocks wore off, every mercenary’s and bandit’s eyes started to fill with greed. Battle skills were what cultivators in the Tian Yuan Continent desired most; their thirst for these skills far surpassed their desires for cultivation methods. Battle skills allowed one to increase their strength many times more than usual, so many people often fought to the death for these skills. Having a battle skill meant gaining an additional source of protection.

Seeing the greed in their eyes, Jian Chen couldn’t help but to narrow his eyes. He knew just as much as anyone that people would become jealous of another person’s strength. Mu Yun’s battle skill had far surpassed what Jian Chen had thought, and now it had been revealed in front of all the mercenaries. Battle skills were treasured greatly, and would bring great trouble to those that had them. Even losing his life over this battle skill wasn’t unlikely, since Mu Yun was still considered weak.

Right now, not only did Jian Chen take comfort from Mu Yun, but he was also worried for his well-being. Although the two hadn’t known each other for very long, and had only met due to chance, Jian Chen knew that Mu Yun had fought the middle aged man and revealed his battle skill for the sake of rescuing him.

Looking at Mu Yun fervently, the man laughed, “What an amazing battle skill. You even managed to block an attack that contained all my power as a Great Saint!” He paused for a while before sneering once more, “However, you could only temporarily block my Great Saint attack with the aid of the battle skill. Ultimately, it’s not your own strength. I wonder how long you can last?” After talking, he lifted his Guan Dao high into the air. Just as he prepared to slash down onto Mu Yun, another strong source of energy suddenly came flying over from the distance.

Feeling the source of energy, the middle aged man grew joyous. He assumed that it was from the experts that the mercenary captains were trying to kill but failed, and his comrades were now coming to provide assistance for him.

Arriving from the far away shadows, a few figures were running towards them at a rapid pace. In a few moments, the figures suddenly came into everyone’s line of sight. The moment everyone could clearly see who they were, all the mercenaries cried out in joy.

“The captains! The captains came back!”

“Captain Lang Tian, the captain came back victorious!”

“There’s Captain Xia Hou as well, they killed the experts of the Boundless Bandits!”

Lit up by the intense blaze nearby, everyone could see that the five returning members had wounds of all sizes on them. Their clothes were drenched with blood, and some of them were even carrying corpses over their shoulders.

Hearing the shouts from the mercenaries, the middle aged man and the other bandits all turned unsightly. Immediately, the man turned his head and stared at the returning Xia Hou and his men with a look of disbelief.

“How…just how…how were you able to return alive?” The man asked in disbelief as he swallowed some saliva nervously as he tried to get the words out. The middle aged man knew that their return indicated that his bandit group had already faced imminent disaster. Otherwise, the ones returning would have been his own faction’s experts, not the mercenary group’s people.

The man’s words caused all five members to look at him. Immediately, the five slowly put down the bodies they were carrying and glared at him with powerful murderous intent.

Feeling the killing intent of the five, the middle aged man’s heart raced. Without hesitation, he opened his mouth to say, “The situation is looking bad, everyone retreat!” Without even finishing his sentence, the middle aged man had already dismissed his Guan Dao and used his fastest speed to run away. Although the five mercenaries were all somewhat injured, a starving camel was still bigger than a horse. With five people, the middle aged man had no hopes of winning.

The moment the man had started to move, two of the five mercenaries immediately chased after him.

Hearing the man’s earlier words, the bandits all started to give up the fight and scattered in all four directions.

“Kill! Don’t leave a single one alive!”

Hearing that one command, all of the remaining mercenaries immediately sprung to follow it, and began to chase down the fleeing bandits. The mercenaries hated the Boundless Bandits down to their very bones, so they would had never let the bandits run off that easily.

With their experts all dead and the only capable member running away, all of the bandits immediately focused on running away. All of their fighting spirit had practically been wiped out. On the other hand, the mercenaries had their courage bolstered after their captains had returned alive after defeating the experts from the Boundless Bandits. Even the ones who were exhausted had suddenly gained a new spurt of energy and did everything they could to chase and kill the bandits.

The sounds of slaughter rang through the night, but it quickly became peaceful once more as as the remaining three mercenary experts led the mercenaries and killed the majority of the bandits. Only a few of the really fast ones had managed to run away with their lives.

“Victory! We’ve won!”

“The Boundless Bandits were beaten by us!”

“We’ve beaten the Boundless Bandits!”

Once the battle came to a close, the remaining mercenaries all started to cheer loudly. The Boundless Bandits were a great nightmare to the mercenaries, the personification of the gods of death that couldn’t be beaten. Beating the Boundless Bandits was definitely an achievement they were extremely proud of.