Legend of Swordsman

“Is he dead?”

The events did not escape the observation of the cold and contemptuous woman as she smiled wickedly, evidently satisfied with the results of her revue. “This token was given to me by that most prodigious Senior Brother of mine. It contains the explosive powers of his strike. You should be proud to have fallen under his stroke!”

“Outrageous!”

Jian Wushuang stared angrily at the woman as he cursed through gritted teeth, seething with intense fury and malice boiling within him.

But he quickly repressed his rage and bloodlust.

“We must leave now!”

Jian Wushuang roared with exasperation. His Original Bodies followed behind Jian Nantian as they withdrew back to the Battle Fortress.

Jian Wushuang and his father were fully aware that with the fall of the Sunrise Sword Emperor, they have lost the capability to use the Quadruple Supreme Sword Formation to destroy the monstrous vortex.

Hence, they could only retreat back into the Battle Fortress and make another plan.

Jian Wushuang did indeed want to immediately execute the woman, Jiu Xi, for the sacrilege she had committed. But the distance between them and Jiu Xi’s prowess in escaping have left him with hardly any other choice.

Despite their discontentment and rage, they could withdraw back to the Fortress.

Still, even the notion of a retreat was not without difficulty.

“You will never get away!”

It was the Monarch of the Jin Kingdom who had snarled at them. Despite being desperately defending himself against the Fire Puppet earlier, he was slowly regaining the upper hand. The Monarch had noticed that the Puppet Fighter was losing strength rapidly!

“This is bad! The Fire Gems are nearly depleted!” Jian Wushuang became jittery with anxiety. He had been controlling the Fire Puppet; he would surely know about its situation.

The remaining Fire Gems would only allow the Fire Puppet to continue operating for merely seconds.

And with that few seconds, the Monarch could easily catch up to them and strike them down like predators swooping down on their prey!

“Few seconds!”

Jian Wushuang’s gaze turned cold as he searched wildly for solutions, and one came to him instantly.

“Keep the Monarch occupied, Fire Puppet!”

Jian Wushuang barked his command while his second Original Body veered off their way back to the Fortress. Instead, the Original Body flew towards the Fire Puppet who was still in combat against the Monarch.

Having received his orders, the Fire Puppet fought to his utmost as the last remaining fragments of the slowly burned. It had bought Jian Wushuang a few seconds of time. With its energies exhausted, the Puppet froze in its movements, hanging motionless in mid-air. With his long-awaited opening, the Monarch hurled himself forward, eager to catch up to Jian Wushuang and Jian Nantian.

But Jian Wushuang’s first Original Body and Jian Nantian were still thousands of kilometers away from the Fortress.

It was a distance that usually passed swiftly for him. Yet, now, the journey back to the Fortress seemed like an eternity.

“You have been fortunate to slip through my fingers once. Do you think I will let you slip by again?” The Monarch growled viciously, his face gleeful with malice.

His figure streaked with an explosive speed as he chased after his prey as he imagined himself dealing the final blows to them both.

However, at this moment…

Swish!

A flicker of light blinded the Monarch momentarily as he braced himself. It was Jian Wushuang second Original Body who had turned back earlier.

“OK.”

The Monarch wore a dark, ugly look as he beheld his new target briefly. Eager to continue his chase, the spear in his grasp stabbed at the Original Body with the speed and intensity of a striking serpent. With hardly any incident, the Monarch instantly drove his spear through the second Original Body. He then cast a look forward, ready to continue his pursuit.

But suddenly…

“Explode!”

There was a strange, frenzied expression upon the face of Jian Wushuang’s second Original Body.

Boom!

The second Original Body exploded into smithereens. Shockwaves from the explosion rippled through the air, rolling towards all directions.

“Self-detonation!” The Monarch of the Jin Kingdom gasped incredulously.

He had not foreseen that Jian Wushuang would be eager to come to such lengths, to sacrifice one of his doppelgangers just to stop him.

Shaken violently by the shock wave himself, the Monarch was momentarily thrown off-balance. He readied himself to continue his pursuit, only to find that he was too late. Jian Wushuang had escaped.

“He’s escaped again! This wretch is indeed a slithery one!” The Monarch barked angrily, his face darkened with rage.

The news that a Dao Master had been able to slip past his clutches not once, but twice, would be tremendously pernicious to his name.

“Lord Jin Feng.”

Jiu Xi reappeared at the side of the Monarch, looking at him with an amused smirk, “This Jian Wushuang has the most remarkable fortune indeed. Twice he has defied you and yet twice he is able to escape!”

“Hmph!” The Monarch merely snorted indignantly without muttering any words.

The pair stood wordless and motionless for a brief moment. The Monarch turned and glanced at Jiu Xi, “What happened earlier, Jiu Xi?”

Jiu Xi’s features immediately turned gloomy with annoyance. “I did not expect that the Green Fire World has someone who is able to divine the weaknesses of the Enduring Samsara Formation. The four earlier were trying to use a sword formation by standing above the four vital parts of the Enduring Samsara Formation, ready to strike at its fatal point to destroy it!”

“It was fortunate that I was able to react swiftly and use the token that my Senior Brother had given to me to kill one of the four. Otherwise, the Grand Formation would have been destroyed by their hand!”

“Ah?” The Monarch’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Were you not supremely confident in this Enduring Samsara Formation of yours? How is it possible that its secrets were so easily divined?”

Jiu Xi merely pursed her lips and frowned, unable to retort against the Monarch’s mocking words.

Never in her life, she had thought the events of this day were possible.

“Hmph! It is fortunate that the Formation still stands lest it would have been a tremendous waste of my time and resources to have you here.” The Monarch scoffed. It was clear, through his tone and demeanor, that he has lost great faith and confidence in Jiu Xi and her Formation.

“Please be at ease, Lord Jin Feng. That was merely a last-ditch derring-do of the Green Fire World. They have even put to use a Puppet Fighter that could nearly best you, only to have achieved nothing. I trust that they are at their wit’s end now.” Jiu Xi wore a wicked grin once again.

“That may be true.” The Monarch nodded. With a flick of his hand, he summoned the Fire Puppet to his flank.

The Fire Puppet, having exhausted its entire store of Fire Gems, has now fallen into the hands of the Monarch of the Jin Kingdom.

He had forcibly erased Jian Wushuang’s mark that allowed the latter to control the Puppet, so that he himself could claim ownership of it.

“Hehehe… a Silver Armored Fire Puppet.” The eyes of the Monarch burned hungrily as he identified the Puppet Fighter. “Many treasures abound this battlefield, that even a Puppet Fighter of such caliber exists. But now, they will all be mine! Just like this Puppet!”

With the Puppet now his, the Monarch then helped Jiu Xi to subdue Fu Yi and claimed him as well.