Chapter 54: Revealing One's Edge

When the combined forces of the three factions launched their assault against the Yi Tribe, casualties had already reached three or four thousand. Most notably, the loss among high-level warriors was devastating. The Reincarnation Squad led by Yi Tian alone had slain thirty or forty elite fighters, and aside from them, the chief Yi Ke and the other three hundred advanced warriors mainly targeted those with formidable strength. As a result, by the time the attackers reached the gates of the Yi Tribe, only a scant twenty or thirty high-level warriors remained from the original two hundred among the three allied factions.

None of the Wu family, Black Dragon Society, or the Dark Skull Regiment could have imagined that the Yi Tribe, within a single year—at the cost of enormous amounts of elemental stones—had cultivated over three hundred high-level warriors. This was an astonishing figure and matched only by the Black Dragon Society’s own elite.

“Kill!”

The three elders of the Wu family—Wu Ke, Wu De, and Wu Lei—were now filled with regret. They had brought half of their best troops, only to lose them here. It was a crushing blow to the Wu family. Now, their only hope was to annihilate the Yi Tribe and claim its treasures to stave off ruin.

The three Wu elders, the left and right guardians of the Black Dragon Society, and the Dark Skull Regiment’s God of Killing, Titan, and Heavenly Fiend, all burst forth with true energy swirling around them. Their powerful aura blasted aside arrows, their spiritual weapons deflecting any threatening shafts as they charged up the fifty-foot stone walls within a few breaths.

For ninth-tier warriors, they were already the strongest among ordinary fighters, able to slay enemy leaders amid armies. Eight top-tier warriors surged forward. The chief Yi Ke and more than twenty eighth-tier warriors, already prepared for battle, rushed to meet the three Wu elders, the Black Dragon guardians, and others. Each ninth-tier warrior was beset by four or five eighth-tier fighters.

Even so, they could not quickly overcome these ninth-tier warriors, and danger lurked at every turn. At this perilous moment, six elders emerged from the ancestral temple and joined the fray, engaging the Wu elders, the Black Dragon guardians, and others in fierce combat.

“Die, kill!”

At that moment, Heavenly Fiend mounted the stone wall, intent on unleashing a brutal slaughter upon the Yi Tribe. His brother Earth Fiend had perished in the previous assault; after decades dominating Black Dragon City, only he remained of the trio known as Heaven, Earth, and Man Fiends.

Heavenly Fiend, upon reaching the wall, charged toward the area where Yi Tian and his team were positioned. Earth Fiend had been slain by warriors from this direction; he vowed to kill everyone there.

Clang!

With a single sword strike, he sent a tribe warrior blocking his path flying; true energy carved a deep fissure in the stone wall. Had the warrior not been seventh-tier, he would have been killed outright instead of merely crippled.

Heavenly Fiend attacked with relentless fury. Seventh and eighth-tier tribe warriors who surrounded him were severely wounded, some nearly killed outright. Facing a ninth-tier warrior, the others could barely resist, yet every time Heavenly Fiend sought to slay someone, the nearby warriors would attack him, thwarting his slaughter.

“Kill!”

Just then, Heavenly Fiend unleashed his battle technique. Terrifying true energy surged around him; his sword radiated dazzling light and grew several feet in an instant, slashing toward an eighth-tier warrior.

The strike was as swift as lightning; the eighth-tier warrior could not react and was about to be cut down. Suddenly, a beam of light, faster still, darted through the crowd and, before Heavenly Fiend could respond, pierced his external true energy and ran him through the heart.

Heavenly Fiend, dead!

From over ten yards away, Yi Tian withdrew his gaze from the fallen foe. At such close range, not even a ninth-tier warrior could stop his arrow. Of course, had the ninth-tier warrior noticed him, Yi Tian would never have had the chance to shoot.

Yi Tian surveyed the battlefield. At this moment, thousands of warriors from the three factions were scaling the stone walls, hoping to storm them, but most were shot dead by the Yi Tribe’s defenders. Only a few managed to reach the top and engage in fierce combat with the tribe’s warriors. Their numbers were limited.

All the tribe warriors had, over the past year, advanced to at least fourth-tier, becoming mid-level fighters. Their strength was formidable, and they slew every intruding warrior with minimal losses. Even so, casualties were inevitable.

Yi Feng, Yi Shan, and others dashed about, putting out fires; each death-arrow shot down those climbing the walls.

Yi Tian turned his focus to the Wu family’s three elders, the Black Dragon guardians, and the Dark Skull Regiment’s God of Killing and Titan. The Wu elders and Black Dragon guardians were tied up by the tribe elders and surrounding eighth-tier warriors in fierce, intense battle. However, God of Killing and Titan were ferocious.

Four tribe elders fought God of Killing, but his reckless attacks forced them back, inflicting wounds and barely holding the line. Titan, towering and mighty, was even more terrifying, swinging his giant meteor hammers and shattering the weapons of high-level warriors; anyone grazed by the hammers had their bodies blown apart.

“The Sword of Mortal Slaughter!”

Unable to defeat the four tribe elders, God of Killing finally unleashed his ultimate move.

“Not good!”

Yi Tian was ready; his Dragon Roar Bow was drawn to a full crescent. With a thunderous roar, a silver streak sliced through space toward God of Killing. Having walked the razor’s edge between life and death countless times, God of Killing possessed a terrifying intuition for mortal danger. As he prepared to strike down the tribe elder, he abruptly changed direction, his sword slicing through the void and colliding with the silver light.

Clang...

The immense force nearly knocked the sword from his hand, and God of Killing staggered back over ten steps, his right hand trembling.

“It’s you!”

His gaze locked onto Yi Tian, twenty yards away. Upon seeing his face, he immediately recognized the youth he had once fought.

“Die!”

God of Killing’s murderous intent surged. Suddenly, he charged at Yi Tian. But Yi Tian loosed a second arrow, lightning-fast.

Clang!

God of Killing narrowly deflected the arrow, but his sword was struck and nearly knocked from his grasp; his momentum faltered. The next instant, Yi Tian’s third arrow arrived. God of Killing barely managed to block it, unable even to catch his breath.

Yi Tian fired one deadly arrow after another, each imbued with formidable power and blazing true energy. God of Killing’s face grew paler with each shot. At last, with the fourth arrow, he could no longer withstand the assault; his sword was blasted aside, and the arrow pierced his throat.

Yi Tian needed only four arrows to slay the infamous God of Killing, one of the four dark gods of the Skull Regiment.

This astonishing scene stunned the Wu family elders and Black Dragon guardians, throwing their minds into chaos and nearly allowing the tribe elders to deal them fatal blows.

Titan, the other dark god, saw this and flew into a rage.

“Roar!”

Titan charged straight at Yi Tian. Every warrior blocking his path was smashed aside by his meteor hammers, bones broken, their fate unknown.

Boom!

Yi Tian unleashed the ninth wave of his Secret Art of Surging Waves; an armor-piercing arrow shot forth like a ray of death, streaking toward Titan and appearing before him almost instantly.

Bang...

Titan blocked the arrow with one of his meteor hammers, which acted like a shield, halting Yi Tian’s shot. The arrow only punched a finger-sized hole in the hammer. Titan’s strength was monstrous; each hammer weighed over ten thousand pounds.

Yi Tian kept firing at Titan, but each shot was easily deflected.

Eventually, Yi Tian put away the Dragon Roar Bow and summoned the exquisite Golden Scale Sword, charging at Titan with lightning speed.