Chapter 604: The Battle Outside the City

Jian Chen had only laughed. Without fear for his own life, he charged straight for the elder as well. With a thrust of his right arm, the Origin energy surging through out it had arced straight outwards in a brilliant gleam of light straight for the elder’s chest.

From within his earthen armor, the elder had been startled by Jian Chen’s course of action. He had no idea that Jian Chen would be that fast.

Up until now, the few individuals of the s.h.i.+ family had figured Jian Chen to be an Earth Saint Master. It had been outside of their expectations to see that within such a short amount of time, Jian Chen would have gone from a Second Cycle Earth Saint Master to become a Heaven Saint Master. The speed at which Jian Chen had struck out with his sword had been far faster than what an Earth Saint Master with a wind attribute would even be capable of. Shocked by this, the elders were now reevaluating Jian Chen to be an even bigger threat.

Despite the speed of his stab to be out of their expectations, the elder wearing the earthen armor had been equally fast in his reaction. In a flash, his giant sword had exploded forth with a yellow light that originated from his body. The light on the sword had grown even larger with the amount of energy being fed into it before it finally smashed against the Origin energy Jian Chen wielded.

“Boom!” With the collision between Jian Chen’s Origin energy and the elder’s Saint Weapon, a tremendous amount of Saint Force had been expelled from the area and over the entire earth. With dust pervading the air from the blast, the area between Jian Chen and the elder had been completely blocked by the dust and had made visibility almost impossible.

The other four elders from the s.h.i.+ family had used a thin layering of Saint Force protecting them from the incoming dust and had stared intently through it with stunned expressions.

“Third elder, is Jian Chen truly a Second Cycle Earth Saint Master?” One elder asked in disbelief.

The third elder gave a small hum as he tried to think. “One year ago when I fought him, he was only an Earth Saint Master. But with just barely a year after that, his strength has basically toppled the heavens to make a tremendous change. What’s startling is the fact that he isn’t a cripple even after his Saint Weapon was destroyed. His strength should be extremely low and not what it is now.”

“Every man is destined for fortune after surviving a great disaster. I suppose that saying is true because of cases like these.” Another elder sighed.

Within this moment, a single person came flying straight out from the dust and out towards the third elder.

The elder had narrowed his eyes for a moment before letting out a grim sound of laughter, “Unharmed? It seems elder Ma hadn’t left even a single scratch on you! Jian Chen, you really did grow even stronger than before.” Surrounding his body with the wind element, the elder shot up fifty meters into the sky without a second to spare.

Jian Chen’s figure had flown straight up into the sky as well. Aided with the wind element from the world, Jian Chen had chased after the third elder without reprieve.

“What? He’s a Heaven Saint Master too?!” The other three elders had been astonished. Not a single one of them had expected or thought to see that someone that was only a Second Cycle Earth Saint Master would become a Heaven Saint Master that was capable of such a speed that could leave the three Heaven Saint Masters tongue tied in a single year.

Seeing Jian Chen fly through the air had caused no small amount of shock to the third elder as well. Stupefied, the elder couldn’t help but remark, “But how?! Just a year ago, you were merely just an Earth Saint Master before you had your Saint Weapon destroyed, how did you become a Heaven Saint Master instead of becoming a cripple?!” The third elder was no longer as calm as before. His face was filled with abject disbelief and even in his heart, waves of shock had surged everywhere with great power.

Unable to stop himself from sneering after seeing the look on the elder’s face, Jian Chen laughed, “Third elder, I should really pay you back for that debt from one year ago. Don’t even think that you’ll leave here alive today.” With the final word spoken, Jian Chen had already closed in onto the third elder and brought his Origin energy sword straight at the throat of the other man.

The third elder was already aware of just how devastating the Origin energy was and knew better than to cross swords with it. Borrowing the speed boost his wind affinity gave him, the third elder tried his best to gain some distance away from him. Then, with his Saint Force pulsating into his sword, the elder shouted out loud, “Earth Tier Battle Skill--Cloud Piercer!” The wind attribute Saint Force that had been around the third elder had immediately condensed into a thicker wave of energy that helped propel his body towards Jian Chen with the speed of an arrow shot out from a bow in an attempt to spear him straight through.

Jian Chen had laughed coldly once more when he saw the third elder decide to approach him instead of retreating. With the Origin energy, Jian Chen moved to stab the elder when all of a sudden, something behind him had prompted him to turn around and stab at the empty s.p.a.ce behind him.

“Ding!”

A crisp sound could be heard as from what was once an empty s.p.a.ce in the air had now a single figure levitating over it--it was the third elder. The third elder that had been approaching him from the other side had been nothing more than a mirror image that disappear as soon as Jian Chen looked at it.

“What a strange battle skill.” Jian Chen praised with some astonishment. The Cloud Piercer that the third elder had used was nothing more than a diversion--the first body had been a mirror image that would move as he pleased while his actual body used some sort of strange method to hide himself. It had been a silent and strategic course of action that allowed the elder to traverse to behind Jian Chen to attempt at a fatal strike. If not for the presence that Jian Chen had spread out, then the third elder would have most likely delivered a fatal blow onto him.

“Pfft!” A mouthful of blood escaped from the third elder’s lips as his face paled due to the blood loss. Glancing at his Saint Weapon, there was now a new jagged chip to its edge.

“Elder Hunyuan! Elder Hunyuan is dead! Third elder, Jian Chen has killed elder Hunyuan!” From down below where the dust was finally beginning to recede, the first Heaven Saint Master that had fought with Jian Chen could be seen on the ground. From between his eyebrows, a single hole could be seen leaking blood from the spot.

“What! Elder Hunyuan is dead?” The third elder cried out. Turning to look down, his body grew rigid with shock when he saw the sight for himself.

Taking advantage of the elder’s period of shock, Jian Chen charged forward with the Origin energy to pierce through the elder’s eyebrows. In the blink of an eye, the distance between the two had closed to less than a meter.

Letting out a startled yelp, the elder swung his head as if his life was hanging by a thread. Despite just barely dodging the strike by a hair’s breadth, there had been a single gash on his forehead.

“Whoos.h.!.+” The second delivery of Jian Chen’s sword had been just as fast as the first and followed the elder’s movements without leaving him time to even breathe.

The elder had been dreadfully terrified of the Origin energy and wanted nothing more than to distance himself away from it. With no other choice but to rely on his own speed, he retreated backwards to widen the distance. Unfortunately for him, Jian Chen had harbored no desire to allow him such a course of action. Encasing himself within the wind from the world, he dashed towards the third elder in order to pressure him into a situation where he couldn’t even retaliate.

“a.s.sist the third elder!” The other three elders had snapped out from their shock and immediately shot into the skies to help the elder.

“Don’t bother helping me, just use your Heaven Tier Battle Skills! Only those could hurt this b.a.s.t.a.r.d. Who would have known that a single year was enough to cause such a drastic change in his power?” The elder cried out in anger. His heart had been thrown into disarray with today’s events; this was a first in his three hundred years of living. A single youth not even fifty years old was giving him a thras.h.i.+ng that had not only affected his physical self, but his pride.

Without delay, the three Heaven Saint Masters immediately split off into three separate corners and began to charge up their Heaven Tier Battle Skills.

The usage of a Heaven Tier Battle Skill by three Heaven Saint Masters was more than enough to cause a tremendous influx of energy to surge around the area. The clouds in the skies above had already started to swirl around the area and the dirt on the ground was being thrown about due to the fierce wind blowing around. As if an angry dragon was about to awaken, the power that was beginning to unfold here had started to spread out to such distance that even the inhabitants of Mercenary City could feel the change in weather.

“This is a Heaven Tier Battle Skill! Only those can cause such a tremendous amount of pressure; a Heaven Saint Master must be doing battle somewhere!”

“There’s people outside the city fighting! Looks like they’re about to use a Heaven Tier Battle Skill--two or three of them I’d wager. That’s something that’s extremely hard to come by, let’s go watch!”

Mercenary City had instantly gone into a clamor with many of the people running out of the city to look where the battle was taking place from a distance.

From within an inn, Hu Xiaotian had been sitting by himself as he enjoyed a cup of fine liquor and a platter of cooked meat. When he sensed the influx of pressure caused by the Heaven Tier Battle Skill, his eyebrows narrowed together as he thought to himself, “There was a Heaven Saint Master following Jian Chen yesterday. And today Jian Chen had only just left the inn, could he be the one fighting?”

“Jian Chen partic.i.p.ated in the Gathering of the Mercenaries as an Earth Saint Master, but that was barely four years ago. Did he perhaps become a Heaven Saint Master within those four years? No, that shouldn’t be possible--but only a Heaven Saint Master should be possible of using Heaven Tier Battle Skill like this. It has to be someone else that’s fighting; I should take a look for myself.”

Scattering several golden coins onto the table, Hu Xiaotian left the inn as well.

From the skies above Mercenary City, the sound of a young woman could suddenly be heard.

“Big brother? That’s big brother! He’s fighting someone! There has to be trouble then. Should Little Spirit help big brother then?”

“But...but….master told Little Spirit to not interfere in things like this. If Little Spirit interferes, wouldn’t master scold Little Spirit when master gets back? But...but big brother has the scent of master on him. Could Little Spirit really watch big brother get hurt without doing anything?”

“Aiyah. What to do, what to do? How is big brother doing? Should Little Spirit save big brother?” Little Spirit’s voice grew even more frantic by the second as if she was unsure of what decision to make.