The strangely shaped copper ring, the Blood Spider sword, shined a sticky bloody color each time it was waved a noxious odor wafted forth. His strength was much stronger compared to when he had fought Zuo Mo.

Yet the yellow-faced man in front of him moved with ease. A copper dagger axe flew around him. The copper dagger axe emitted a green-blue light. As it flew, it formed a blue curtain. The bloody light was not able to break through this fragile-looking green-blue curtain of light.

“Cultivation using blood, how extremely obscure,” The yellow-faced man said, “it’s a pity that you didn’t cultivate it correctly, you just have the appearance of it.”

“Just the appearance?” Chang Heng’s pupils slightly shrunk.

His fingers twitching slightly, the Bloody Spider sword that was over his fingers flew into the sky. As the sword flew, it turned into an enormous shadow.

Boom!

Six thick legs heavily hit the ground, dust flying away as the ground trembled slightly . A bloody spider stared fiercely at the yellow-faced man. Compared to when it had faced Zuo Mo, it was more than double its previous size. The six legs of the spider were slender and long, full of hooks. The joints were much thicker, stronger and more powerful. The dark patterns on the surface of the blood spider was more evident than before, and there was a slightly metallic sheen, making sure people would not doubt its hardness.

What made others the most terrified was the face of the blood spider. The flat face seemed to have a few marks reminiscent of a human face. This face that seemed human-like was extremely vicious and cruel, a brutal presence emanating from it.

“Oh, not bad. To be able to cultivate almost to the step of Human Face, you have some talent,” The yellow-faced man said, “However, some parts of your cultivation are not correct. If you do not correct it, there will be many side-effects.”

For the first time, a serious expression came onto Chang Heng’s face. The yellow-faced man expressed through his facial expressions and speech that he was familiar with Chang Heng’s cultivation scripture. He might be part of Ling Ying Sect, but the scripture he practiced was not one of Ling Ying Sect’s scriptures. He had obtained the scripture and the Bloody Spider sword from a xiuzhe that he killed.

However, the scripture he had obtained was not complete. Evidently, its previous owner had not received it through proper channels. The blood method was extremely powerful, but at the same time, it was much more dangerous than normal scriptures. Just the tiniest mistake, and it could rebound and kill him. Chang Heng’s personality might seem dominant and vicious, but he was extremely careful when he cultivated.

The yellow-faced man’s words shot straight into Chang Heng’s heart.

Chang Heng suddenly took back the Blood Spider, “What do you want for it?”

The yellow-faced man gave an expression of praise, “Find me after the competition.”

Finishing, his figure disappeared where he stood.

Chang Heng’s heart shook. Regardless of whether the yellow-faced man had been fooling him or not, but just judging from his method of movement it was apparent the yellow-faced man was more powerful than he was.

From the first clash between Chang Heng and the yellow-faced man a very short time had passed. Compared to the flashiness of the other battles, their fight did not attract anyone’s attention.

———

Meng Qing was like a cat as he carefully traversed through the woods. He was most skilled in concealment and assassination, and had once even escaped the pursuit of a jindan expert. But this time he was even more careful. The fifteen mountains covered a large area, but if there were one hundred ningmai xiuzhe fighting, then this battlefield could not be considered large. Quite the reverse, this battlefield was too small.

Since the battlefield was small, the fighting had become chaotic and extremely fierce. What he needed to be careful about was, other than him, that the ninety-nine other people were all his enemies.

Different than the other xiuzhe, he had a clear goal. However, when he thought about it, he felt it strange. A zhuji xiuzhe, was it worth spending jingshi for him kill the person? He looked down at it inside. A zhuji xiuzhe, how could he pass through the last round of fighting?

However, since he received the client’s jingshi, he still decided to complete the job. In his business, having a good reputation was everything. His own cultivation was limited and there were not many jobs he could complete. Usually, his living was very tight. Coming to the Sword Test Conference was because he wanted the prize. Then the luck came. Someone had actually found him and requested a job.

The payment was extremely tempting, and most importantly, the target was the only zhuji xiuzhe in the Sword Test Conference. If it was any other person, he might be slightly unconfident, but since it was Zuo Mo, he did not hesitate in accepting the job. He had seen Chao An and Zuo Mo’s fight. Truthfully, to win from a disadvantage, he admired Zuo Mo. He was suspicious that the person who made the request was Chao An. Chao An must have been unable to bear being eliminated and was now scheming from the shadows.

However, what did that have to do with him? He wouldn’t be at odds with jingshi!

These days, it was hard to make a living. Other than concealment, his battle abilities were average. There were not many jobs he could usually do. He was full of confidence for this job. He thought that the reason Zuo Mo could defeat Chao An was that Chao An had underestimated his opponent. Also, Zuo Mo had prepared very well beforehand. If it had been him, he definitely wouldn’t have given Zuo Mo so many chances to fight. From the beginning, he hadn’t thought of fighting openly. No matter how weak Zuo Mo was, he would persist in an ambush. In any case, he was just going for the jingshi.

However, to complete this job, he needed to find Zuo Mo first. This was the most troublesome part of his job.

Alright, jingshi wouldn’t just drop from the sky. If there was no difficulty, other people wouldn’t have spent so much jingshi to hire him.

He carefully controlled his body, like a blurry shadow, as he carefully moved among the trees. The color around his body kept on blending in with the surroundings. His presence was kept inside his body, it was as though he did not exist and his presence was difficult to detect. It was only due to his skills with this technique that no one had found him along the way. He was especially careful today. The surroundings were all filled with ningmai xiuzhe, and there was no lack of experts. If he was found, he didn’t have a chance of victory.

Hm, there was a mountain valley up ahead.

Meng Qing decided to take a look. Zuo Mo’s own cultivation was lower than other people, and naturally wouldn’t dare to walk around. After taking the job, he had been constantly pondering. He felt it was most probable that Zuo Mo would find a corner and use formation to defend his position. So during his search, he was especially attentive to places like mountain valleys and other hiding places.

The mouth of the valley up ahead was especially narrow. He didn’t dare to be brash, and carefully moved around by taking advantage of the geographic landscape.

———

Inside the mountain valley, Luo Li sat cross legged with his eyes closed. His flying sword was silently floating beside him. He was like a volcano, looking peaceful on the surface, but the sword essence was boiling inside.

Today, would be the first time he used [Self Separation] in battle!

There was a strange excitement welling up inside. This unnameable excitement was like a soundless flame, burning every bit of his body.

But he did not move, he was motionless like an old monk in meditation. He was suppressing it, suppressing this excitement that made him want to fight!

The air around him moved without a wind pushing it. Inside the little valley, it was like a tornado had started. However, what people would gasp at was that, no matter how strong the wind was inside the valley, there was no hint of it at the mouth of the valley.

Suddenly, he opened his eyes!

Someone was here!

[Self Separation] had been created with [Shapeless Sword Scripture] and [Empty Sword Scripture] as the rope and [Cloud Sword Scripture], [Red Flame Sword Scripture] and [Greenstone Sword Scripture] as the beads. He had put a lot of thought into it. Even though it was limited by his cultivation and knowledge, there were still many wonderful aspects, even Xin Yan Shibo had praised it.

Luo Li remained cross legged as his mind expanded with him at the center, to a radius of ten zhang. The mountain rocks, and the trees, slowly disappeared, like they were vanishing into space, turning into a patch of emptiness.

He was sitting in the center of a void.

The slightest animal, if they entered this patch of void, would become evident, and he would easily detect it.

It would be as though a drop of black ink appeared on a piece of snow white paper. No matter how small the ink dot was, it would be abnormally startling.

Meng Qing’s body was blended with the surroundings. He was hard to see using the naked eye, but in this patch of void in Luo Li’s mind,, he detected that there was another person!

The excitement that had been suppressed for so long in his chest finally found a vent.

In reverse to the heat and excitement in his eyes, his expression was serious. His right hand opened, palm faced away from his body. His thumb and pinky crossed as the other three fingers pointed at the sky.

The silently floating flying sword was like a vicious beast that had woken up from its dreams, opening its blood red eyes, and baring its sharp fangs.

A clear hum sounded in the air.

On the sword a green and red light entwined like two ling lovers in a passionate embrace, extremely joyful!

“Separate!”

A light sigh, unable to be traced, spoken as though from far away but like a murmur close to the ear.

The red and green light gradually turned to white light. The joy on the sword quickly became faint, a feeling of loneliness rose, like the autumn wind blowing.

The white flying sword did not move fast. Like a piece of ice, the flying sword quickly melted into the air with speed invisible to the naked eye.

———

At the moment Luo Li moved, Meng Qing knew that he had been detected!

Not daring to hesitate, he jumped up and sprinted for the opening of the valley.

The shocking transformation of the other’s flying sword made his skin on his head prickle. What sword scripture was that?

Especially when he saw the other’s flying sword disappear into space, the danger he felt suddenly reached a peak. In his profession, the thing most trusted was instinct. Each time that he had a bad feeling, he knew there was danger!

But such a strong feeling of danger as he had today, he had only encountered it before, when he had been pursued by that jindan expert.

F***! Didn’t they say it was all ningmai xiuzhe? Did he encounter Gu Rong Ping? Damn it, he should not be so unlucky!

Meng Qing paled. The feeling of danger might not rival the last time when he had met the jindan expert but it secured the position of second. His heart jumped rapidly. He didn’t dare to keep anything back, all of his ling power furiously channeling behind him as he leapt to get out of the valley! Behind him, a ling shield formed, looking slightly like a turtle shell.

He had just taken one step when something invisible suddenly hit the ling shield on his back. The solid and hard ling shield instantly shattered into pieces.

Pew!

It was as though Meng Qing had been struck by lightning, his pupils suddenly expanding. He spat out a mouthful of blood, and instantly became unconscious.

A figure landed from the sky, lightly inspecting the unconscious Meng Qing before saying indifferently, “Eliminated.”

After that, he grabbed Meng Qing and disappeared.

But before he left, the gaze he threw at Luo Li contained a hint of shock.

Translator Ramblings: Guess who’s brilliant? There’s a saying in Chinese that you lose in the romantic battlefield while you win on the soccer field/basketball court/politics. That’s Luo Li at the moment.

I feel Ming Qing is another version of Zuo Mo. Someone had malicious aims against Zuo Mo.. ...