Chapter 95: Treading a Fighting Path

Eight men in black, each above the second rank of the Yellow Realm, had surrounded Lin Zhan. Every one of them far surpassed his own first-rank cultivation.

And not far behind them stood another heavy-hitting expert above the fifth rank of the Yellow Realm: Wei Xiaoran, holding the rear and overseeing the battle.

Losing two Yellow Realm fighters meant nothing to him. No family’s strength grew without bloodshed; in the struggle for survival, only the victors endured, and only those who lived became the backbone of a family’s revival.

But he still had one weakness: Young Master Wei.

That only son, the sole heir to the family, was idle and lazy, refusing to train properly and stirring up trouble outside all day long. He was both beloved and resented.

So whenever Wei Xiaoran saw young men of great promise around the same age as his son, he always wanted to grind them into the ground.

As for Lin Zhan, facing the encirclement, he had long since made his calculations. He would never remain in one place and wait for them to attack, or he would surely die.

At that moment, he raised the spiritual energy within him to its fullest and most abundant state, gripped the heavy sword with both hands, and launched himself upward with a gust of movement beneath his feet. The blade pointed straight at the two black-clad men directly opposite him, and in an instant three feet of dazzling red radiance burst forth from the sword’s edge. Such sword force had already taken shape, carrying a terrifying might.

The two black-clad men, each holding a weapon, did not hesitate in the slightest and also shot upward.

To encircle and kill an enemy was itself a matter of merit and achievement. Seeing Lin Zhan charge toward them, they knew this was their chance. If they joined forces to slaughter him in one move, the rest could only watch helplessly.

"Heh," Lin Zhan sneered in his heart. "As if I’d be that stupid. If I really charged straight in, wouldn’t I be completely surrounded?"

His first move was merely a feint. He advanced only a few yards before abruptly twisting in midair and breaking westward. There, at the very edge of the encirclement, stood only one man, while the nearest ally of that black-clad fighter was still several yards away.

A Yellow Realm encirclement was not like an ordinary crowd pressing in from all sides. It was a formation designed to cover an effective attack range.

So when Lin Zhan first charged forward, several black-clad men had already struck, sending the power of various weapons and magical treasures toward the path he was taking.

Yet Lin Zhan’s sudden change of direction caused most of those attacks to miss their target. The most furious of all were the two men in the center, and also the one Lin Zhan had turned toward as his next target, whom we may as well call Black Eight.

Black Eight’s weapon was a saber. Just now, he had already slashed at the airborne Lin Zhan, his strike heavy and forceful, the saber light stretching three feet, no less powerful than the black sword in Lin Zhan’s hand. More importantly, Black Eight was a third-rank Yellow Realm cultivator, clearly stronger in cultivation level as well.

But Lin Zhan’s twisting advance came before Black Eight had even withdrawn his attack.

The speed was so great it could only be described as happening in the blink of an eye. Lin Zhan had already appeared at his side!

"Damned if that isn’t fast!" Black Eight thought, and even he admitted he could not move that quickly. He promptly drew back the saber momentum that had not yet fully unfolded and turned to strike, but the force behind it was no longer at its peak. Having seen Lin Zhan’s earlier ferocity, and now facing him alone, he could not help feeling a little uneasy, and that only made him more vulnerable.

Lin Zhan’s black sword blazed with golden flames and silver light, crackling and exploding as though it could cleave apart a mountain. It came down diagonally toward Black Eight’s side, aimed at his shoulder.

Clang!

Under the heavy impact, Black Eight was knocked several yards sideways. Sword and saber qi scattered in all directions, and a clear gap opened on the blade.

His shoulder was injured by the sword force, leaving a scorched wound deep enough to reach the bone, and his aura was thrown into disorder for a moment. Thankfully, he could still remain in combat, so he quickly circulated his spiritual energy again and continued to fight Lin Zhan with all his strength!

But before the clash of blade and sword even rang out, Lin Zhan had already decided on his next course. Using the force of the rebound, he let his body swing away like an arrow and shot off toward another direction.

This left Black Eight furious to the point of madness. He immediately leapt after him, brandishing his saber in pursuit.

Only after he had escaped the rebound did Lin Zhan let out a muffled grunt.

Black Eight’s strength was indeed no small matter. In that last clash of sword and saber, Lin Zhan could feel a sweetness rising in his throat, almost enough to make him spit blood. His arm had also been shaken painfully, and the black sword nearly flew from his grasp.

To strike Black Eight, the best outcome was to cripple or disable him with a single blow. If that failed, Lin Zhan would retreat at once. This was the tactic he had set for himself: if he became entangled too long in one place, he would immediately be met with a swarm.

Because after he broke free, the remaining seven were already closing in rapidly. This was the advantage of numbers. Lin Zhan had to use his footwork and speed to offset that advantage, ensuring that at every exchange he faced no more than one opponent if possible.

In the blink of an eye, Lin Zhan had already slipped out of the encirclement. In truth, given his movement technique and speed, escaping the encirclement was no difficult matter. Even if he chose to flee, the eight men would likely be forced to chase him from afar. But Lin Zhan knew there was still Wei Xiaoran behind them. If he wanted to leave unscathed today, that would be no easy task. He would first have to eliminate at least some of these eight Yellow Realm fighters.

His strike against Black Eight also allowed Lin Zhan to understand the enemy’s strength. They were truly formidable, and in a life-or-death battle such as this, every one of them was fully alert and utterly focused. None were like those Yellow Realm cultivators he had once defeated by exploiting a gap in rank.

In this battle, what was truly being tested was strength.

Lin Zhan did not move in a straight line. Black Eight had already been left far behind, and the three black-clad men closest to Lin Zhan were now Black Five, Black Six, and Black One. Those were the two who had previously occupied the central position, along with Black One.

Within a few breaths, Lin Zhan’s spiritual sense clearly detected the differences in their movement techniques. Aside from the three in front, the five behind them had formed a pursuit line with varying distances between them.

It seemed that if he wanted to pick them off one by one, he would still have to start with Black Eight.

Feinting back and forth, darting left and flashing right, Lin Zhan moved about among the black-clad men. More than once, just as an enemy’s attack was about to land, he suddenly accelerated and shot away again. Repeatedly foiled, the black-clad men were driven to the brink of fury, each eager to tear him apart and be done with it, yet each time he slipped from their grasp.

Not far away, Wei Xiaoran, overseeing the battle from the rear, managed to restrain himself when he saw this.

"No matter how long he keeps fleeing, what use is it? In the end, once his energy is exhausted, won’t he still die?"

After several exchanges, Lin Zhan finally caught another chance to isolate Black Eight. He feigned a move eastward, luring the others away in the opposite direction, then held his breath and accelerated with all his might, swinging the pitch-black sword as he charged again.

This time, the third stance of Fierce Flame came crashing down over Black Eight’s head!

And this time, the power of creation within his dantian and spiritual sea was no longer merely a simple enhancement. It poured fully into the black sword, filling its dark blade until it seemed like a burning brand had been lit within it.

The silver arc of light, for the first time, faintly overwhelmed the golden sword flame that was the very nature of the sword’s qi, and thunderous force struck like a violent explosion!