Ch22 Blood Sword Sect

[Automatic Inspect Function Activated…]
[Mo Cheng] [Age: 31]
[4th Level Qi Refiner]
[Water, Earth, Metal, Fire Spiritual Roots][7th Grade]
[No Innate Physique]
[Member of the Demonic Blood Sword Sect. Has been hiding out in a hidden stronghold above a Mid Grade 1st Tier Spiritual Vein at the bottom of the nearby backmountain Ravine.]

As my vision turns brownish orange from the massive copper bell forming around me, I see golden text hovering in front of the black-robed figure that just swooped down from the trees to try and kill me.

“What kind of Servant wears a 2nd Tier defensive artifact?” a raspy voice grunts to himself.

I manage to see a small red sword emblem on the inner fold of his robe and swallow hard.

My head is already pounding, and my mobility after breaking a few ribs is dreadful too.

“A 4th level qi refiner…” I murmur back.

I’m able to stay in place, but the black-robed cultivator gets blown flying backward from the talisman’s reflective energy blast.

I could feel the danger resonating from his black glossy longsword. It was hot… full of qi… completely different from the ordinary axes I faced moments ago.

This man is extremely dangerous, far more lethal than even the black-scaled serpent I killed weeks back.

He slides across the forest floor, balancing his footing, then disappears in a blur of black shadows too far for me to see.

A loud copper bell’s ring echoes through the forest as he tries attacking me from behind.

The sword wielder flies backward to slam into a tree, snapping it and causing a few other trees behind it to fall.

More loud ringing bells sound out over and over. This cultivator does not give up.

“Come on! This thing has to have some kind of breakpoint or time limit on it!” he yells, slamming his blade against the copper shield again.

Over two dozen trees have collapsed, and feet marks show up all over the flat clearing by the stream’s edge.

The landscape of the terrain is completely destroyed.

My eyes ache from trying to track his movement.

After ten full seconds pass, I finally get in the rhythm, watching a blur shift through the air when he starts to move. Yet, this is while I’m controlling my breathing, completely still, and undistracted. Once this defensive bell falls, it will be impossible to strike and watch his movements at the same time.

So, I pull a fresh arrow back in my bow as the 15-second counter in my head gets closer and closer to its end. Another bronze upgrade card materializes, turning this ordinary arrow into one stronger than steel and filled with enough poison to kill one hundred of me.

I grit my teeth, watching the black-cloaked man bounce off the copper bell as it begins to deactivate in my mind. The arrow flies the instant I know I have a clear shot at his chest.

The range is less than 10 meters away, and he’s still bracing himself from the impact of this artifact’s reflection damage.

Even if he is a mid-stage qi refiner, this should be a deadly hit…

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At least, that is what I hope.

The instant the dark arrow exits my bow, I finally see a pair of red eyes open beneath this cultivator’s hood.

His whole body glows with a crimson aura, and I watch him kick off the open air with his foot.

I’ve never seen anything like it…

My eyes are open in both awe and fear as he twists away from the fatal shot that should have hit his chest. Instead, it only nicks his left arm, tearing off a portion of his black cloak.

The man yells out with rage, but before his feet even touch the ground, he slices off his own arm at the shoulder.

Two loud thuds echo through the woods, one being an arm shriveling up with a deadly poison. The other is an angry mid-stage qi refiner pointing his blade my way and disappearing in a blur of black mist.