The Sacred Sun Clan's Twilight Lord's attack had unleashed a Twilight Dark Moon domain that seemingly encompa.s.sed everything in all four directions.
Every single person within this domain would find themselves affected by the Twilight Dark Moon qi.
However, s.h.i.+ Tie was no pushover either.
Faced with such a formidable opponent, the Twilight Lord was forced to put forth all of his strength into the fight without being able to spare any thought for other matters on the battlefield.
Due to this reason, the Broad Creed Mountain martial pract.i.tioners in the twilight domain were only minorly annoyed by it. It served to obstruct their sight, but was unable to do any physical harm to them.
For Yan Zhaoge, all he could see in any direction was a field of pitch black.
However, Yan Xu was also in a terrible situation. After receiving s.h.i.+ Tie's attack, the golden light had permeated his body, constantly exacerbating his injuries.
Yan Xu lacked the strength to expel the foreign energy from his body, to the extent that the golden qi from s.h.i.+ Tie's Vajra Body caused his own aura qi to be virtually ineffective.
The golden qi continued to circulate through Yan Xu's body and emit outwards through his qi points, making his body glow a brilliant golden color. This light was like a beacon signal for Yan Zhaoge.
As far as Ye Jing went, he was fleeing with his full strength. However, his current state was such that he was a fiery red like a bonfire, making him extremely eye catching within the Twilight Dark Moon domain.
The two were like fireflies on a dark night. In fact, they were so eye catching that it was hard to others to not be aware of their existence.
By coincidence, it just so happened that the two fled in the same direction.
This development meant that Yan Zhaoge and Ah Hu did not need to split up and could keep chasing after the two together.
Yan Xu's original cultivation was that of a Martial Grandmaster, meaning that his speed should be incredibly fast – traversing thousands of kilometers with a single thought.
However, he had been injured so heavily by s.h.i.+ Tie—to the degree that he had almost died on the spot—that his speed had dropped dramatically below that of a Martial Grandmaster's.
Under the influence of his worsening injuries, the farther he ran, the slower his speed became.
The two continued to desperately flee until they finally broke out of the Twilight Dark Moon domain.
Ecstatic with the thought of his escape, Yan Xu's eyes lit up as he began to recover from his injuries. But recovering his sensory abilities, he instantly turned around as he felt the presence of his pursuers.
Yan Zhaoge and Ah Hu had indeed chased him here, and were only a short distance away.
Quickly calculating, Yan Xu gloomily realized that continuing to flee like this would only result in him eventually being overtaken.
His eyes flashed as he thought of the possible outcomes of this encounter.
The pursuing Yan Zhaoge was only a short distance away when he saw the fleeing Yan Xu suddenly stop in his tracks, turn around, and charge straight at him.
Yan Xu's face was twisted with hatred, “Little child who still reeks of his mother's milk, since you are seeking death, let this old man a.s.sist you!”
Ye Jing was also nearby, but his violent rage had caused his perception of his surroundings to dull somewhat.
He continued rus.h.i.+ng forward until he faintly heard Yan Xu's angry roar. It was only then that he turned around and realized that Yan Zhaoge had already caught up.
As soon as Ye Jing saw Yan Zhaoge, his pupils turned bloodshot and all else faded from his vision until only the Yan Zhaoge that he hated to his very core remained.
With a hate-filled howl, Ye Jing stopped, turned around, and flung himself towards Yan Zhaoge.
Yan Zhaoge stared straight at the oncoming Yan Xu. Without betraying any panic whatsoever, he flourished his sleeve, causing a jade-colored light to fly out.
Emitting the roar of a dragon, the Jade Dragon Sword flew out to meet Yan Xu.
Ah Hu's injuries had not fully recovered, but he also simultaneously unleashed an attack in conjunction with Yan Zhaoge to intercept the oncoming Yan Xu and Ye Jing.
Yan Xu let out a cold laugh, “At just your level, you dared to pursue this old man.”
“Yan Zhaoge, your path these days have been too smooth. You really cannot see the enormity of the heavens and the vastness of the earth anymore.”
As he was speaking, Yan Xu flicked out with his palm, a light appearing within.
A blue light flashed as a concealed short sword appeared that shot forward to clash with Jade Dragon Sword, forcing it to retreat.
The short sword overflowed with spiritual qi, as it almost seemed like it was glowing. Releasing sounds that resembled the cries of birds, it was as though it had a life of its own.
This was actually a mid-grade spiritual artifact!
Yan Xu fixed his gaze on Yan Zhaoge, his eyes br.i.m.m.i.n.g with murderous intent, “With your irascible temper and arrogant mindset, do you know just why you've been able to survive up till now?”
“If it weren't for your family background, whether you were squeezed into a ball or pinched into a cube, it would only be up to this one's temper.”
“Now, your father Yan Di isn't here; nor do you have any guards. You also don't have any other Martial Grandmasters to protect you.”
The sword-qi in Yan Xu's hand fanned out, “Without having to worry about your father, getting rid of you will be as easy for this old man as pinching an ant to death.”
Even as he spoke, the dispersed sword-qi transformed into an enormous illusory Eight Sceneries palace lantern in mid-air.
The lantern flickered with thousands, tens of thousands of illusory scenes, which moved to envelop Yan Zhaoge.
Yan Zhaoge's expression remained placid as he calmly responded, “I have an outstanding family background which has brought me many benefits. This is something that I have never denied.”
“I will not hypocritically say that being my father's and not actually mine, I feel uneasy relying on it.”
“This body of mine, this flesh and blood; just what part of it was not given to me by my parents?”
“My dad having the ability, he can give me more things. These things are just like my hands or my feet – it would be wasteful of me not to utilize them.”
Yan Zhaoge drew back his left hand, causing the Jade Dragon Sword to dissipate into a jade-colored light that seemed to warp the sky. “What's important right now is not how much power I've borrowed from my family background.”
“Rather, what's important is how high a peak I can reach in the future, considering my high starting point. Only this way can I repay all the benefits my family has given me.”
Yan Zhaoge regarded Yan Xu and laughed: “Regardless, if you want to kill me off under these present circ.u.mstances, it will not be so simple.”
Yan Xu let out a cold snort.
The injuries inflicted on Yan Xu by s.h.i.+ Tie were so severe that they had caused his cultivation to temporarily fall by several levels. Even worse was the fact his mid-grade spiritual artifact, the Hidden Clear Sunlight Sword, was no longer able to exhibit its full strength.
It wasn't only him who had suffered damage.
The blade of his Hidden Clear Sunlight Sword was dotted with numerous cracks, causing the orbiting sword lights to seem somewhat lacking.
The damage was so severe that had it was almost unable to contend with Yan Zhaoge's low-grade spiritual artifact, the Jade Dragon Sword.
Yan Xu helplessly discovered that due to his injuries, he was unable to secure an advantage over his opponent in a short amount of time.
Yan Zhaoge and Ah Hu utilized a flexible battle tactic to slowly whittle their opponent.
As the fight dragged on, Yan Xu found that his injuries were affecting his strength more and more.
Yan Zhaoge asked: “You find me displeasing to the eye. Likewise, I want to help my father remove you from your Disciplinary Elder post.”
“Yet, I don't understand why you developed murderous intent towards me. It can't just be because I made you lose face a few times.”
Yan Xu's hands seemed to react a bit sluggishly as he responded: “You needn't ask this old man.”
“Today, you're dying by my hands. This old man naturally doesn't need to waste words on a dead man.”
“Today, if this old man can't escape, I'll be bringing this secret to the grave. You and Yan Di, can just keep on guessing.”
He had appeared to be distracted while speaking, but all of a sudden, his aura violently exploded out.
Yan Xu's face was suddenly overflowed with a red light as though flames had suddenly erupted.
Wind Fire Calamities, Fire Calamity.
The strength of Yan Xu that had originally been constantly declining suddenly burst forth with vigor as it began to rise abruptly.
He flourished the Hidden Clear Sunlight sword, but this time it was not a sword technique that was so full of transformations like the Eight Sceneries Blade.
His sword-qi suddenly congealed in midair, forming a startling black light.
Within the illusory heaven and earth formed by his aurqi, all was pitch-black.
The light of stars lit up within the darkness, shockingly bringing along with it a long plume of flame.
As the stars descended, a giant meteor plummeted downwards straight towards Yan Zhaoge.
Yan Xu fully exploded out with all of his strength, resulting in this heaven shocking, earth-shaking attack fully concentrated on this one point.
Everything else seemed to disappear as Yan Zhaoge immediately concentrated his entire attention on that descending meteor.
The starlight became more and more resplendent as the plummeting meteor grew larger and larger in his field of vision.
As the sword-qi exerted incredibly intimidating pressure, it was almost as though it had frozen his body, rendering him completely unable to move. It looked like he had no choice but to bear this strike of Yan Xu full-on.
Yan Zhaoge's expression did not change, as he suddenly said mildly: “You have a secret that you are afraid of me and my father finding out.”
“That year, my Yan Family met with an accident mid-journey whilst migrating from Zhaozhou of the Thunder Domain to the Heaven Domain, and a large number of our people were killed.”
“Amongst the casualties were my paternal grandparents.”
“That accident had something to do with you, right?”
The seemingly unstoppable sword strike descending from the sky slightly trembled, as it paused for a moment.
Then, it continued downwards with even more speed and aggression than before, even seeming somewhat crazed and panicked as it descended.
Yet, within that short pause, Yan Zhaoge made his move.