Volume 8, Chapter 547 – Where Did This Heavenly Tribulation Realm Expert Come From? (Part 1)

The cold-faced steward in the dense forest had the same thought. He had originally intended to check whether the target had arrived, but as soon as he released his divine sense, he collided with an unfamiliar one.

“Hmm?”

Steward Leng frowned. In the brief moment he hesitated, that divine sense receded like a tide.

“Humph! Trying to run?”

Steward Leng’s expression twisted into a snarl as he immediately manipulated his divine sense to chase after it. This operation required absolute secrecy, he couldn’t afford to let any witnesses escape.

Unfortunately, reality did not comply with his wishes. Though Steward Leng’s pursuit was swift, the other party’s retreat was even faster. His divine sense failed to latch onto anything.

“How is this possible? Where did such an expert come from in this tiny Qili Kingdom?”

Steward Leng muttered to himself, his face darkening. Speed was one of the indicators of divine sense strength, if the other party could shake him off, their cultivation was at least on par with his.

“What’s wrong?”

Wu Hua, standing beside him, asked in confusion.

“Just now…”

Steward Leng had been about to explain, but he swallowed his words. He didn’t want to shake morale.

“It’s nothing. Stay sharp. Based on the timing, the Huarong Sect’s Holy Maiden escort team should be arriving soon.”

After issuing the reminder, Steward Leng nervously swept the area with his divine sense again. This time, he actually detected the Holy Maiden’s escort team in that very direction.

“Target spotted, thirty li ¹ 15 km/~9.5 miles to the south. Everyone, enter the spatial rings!”

Steward Leng immediately stood and barked the order. His subordinates were too slow, so to avoid delays, he had no choice but to carry them inside spatial rings.

Wu Hua tensed, then swiftly stored over twenty of the Cao family’s guards into a spatial ring.

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“Let’s go!”

Steward Leng called out, transforming into a streak of light as he shot into the sky.

“Heh, I’ve been lying around so long my body’s gone stiff. Finally, I can stretch my limbs.”

Wu Hua grinned cruelly before vanishing like a ghost.

Qi Huang had no intention of stirring trouble, but it seemed fate had other plans. In the blink of an eye, the enemy was charging straight for the Holy Maiden’s escort team.

She considered intervening but hesitated, suppressing the impulse. After all, she didn’t know the other party’s identity, and she was never the type to selflessly do good deeds without expecting anything in return.

“Someone’s approaching! Go on alert!”

At that moment, Protector Yuan at the forefront of the escort team also sensed the anomaly and immediately issued a command.

The entire team tensed, swords flashing out as they formed a protective circle around the carriage.

“Disciple, stay inside. Don’t come out no matter what.”

Shi Yuqi instructed Cheng Hongling inside the carriage.

Cheng Hongling didn’t respond, hiding behind others wasn’t her style. She decided to assess the situation first.

“Hahaha, stop right there!”

A rough voice boomed from the north like rolling thunder, shaking the very air.

The Huarong Sect disciples turned to look. Visible soundwaves rippled outward, dispersing clouds in their path and reducing countless birds to bloody pulp mid-flight.

“Pathetic tricks!”

Protector Yuan sneered, casually crushing a high-grade soundproofing talisman. A translucent barrier, dozens of zhang in diameter, materialized around them.

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BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The terrifying soundwaves crashed against the barrier like tidal waves, distorting the surrounding air until space itself seemed shredded. Though the Huarong Sect disciples couldn’t hear the noise inside, the violent distortions outside made them hold their breaths in fear.

When the final soundwave collided, both it and the barrier dissipated simultaneously.

As the air cleared, the Huarong Sect members saw twenty to thirty masked black-clad figures standing before them, weapons drawn and hostility radiating from their stances.

“Who dares block the path of the Huarong Sect’s Holy Maiden? Seeking death?”

Protector Yuan floated forward, sword in hand. Despite being a woman, her tall and robust frame exuded an imposing aura.

“Tch, such arrogance! Unfortunately, the cultivation world operates on strength, not titles.”

The leader, a tall and thin elder, sneered. This was none other than Steward Leng.

“Exactly. After today, her title will change, from ‘Holy Maiden’ to ‘Last Maiden’. I guarantee only she’ll be left standing among you women.”

A brawny middle-aged man cracked his knuckles as he stepped forward, Wu Hua.

“Reckless fools!”

Protector Yuan’s face darkened. She turned to the Huarong Sect disciples behind her. “Protect the Holy Maiden. Leave these people to me.”

“Hah! You overestimate yourself!”

Wu Hua roared with laughter, charging forward like a tempest. A massive nine-ringed blade appeared in his hands, flames erupting along its edge from friction with the air. A blade qi several zhang[1 zhang = 3.33 m/~11 ft[/mfn] long dyed the sky crimson as it descended toward Protector Yuan.

Unfazed, Protector Yuan channeled her water-attributed true qi into her sword. The temperature around her plummeted as layers of ice rapidly encased the blade, extending it to match Wu Hua’s strike.

CRASH!

Sword and blade collided. Fire and ice exploded outward in a storm of scorching spheres and frozen shards, shrieking through the air.

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Elders from both sides immediately deployed divine sense barriers to shield their comrades.

“All of them are at least Incarnation Realm experts?! Who are these people?!”

Shi Yuqi gasped, her expression grave.

Meanwhile, Protector Yuan and Wu Hua, evenly matched, were both flung backward from the impact.

Wu Hua barely stabilized himself. Humiliated, he tore off the thin metal wires securing the rings on his blade and swung again.

“Again!”

“Bring it on!”

Protector Yuan raised her ice-glazed sword, its edge gleaming blindingly under the sun.

Another collision. Another explosion of fire and ice.

But this time, Wu Hua’s strike wasn’t so simple. The freed rings clashed violently, emitting ear-piercing shrieks.

Protector Yuan’s eardrums throbbed, her focus fracturing.

Seizing the moment, Wu Hua’s foremost ring, propelled by momentum, shot toward her face like an arrow.

Though her ears rang, Protector Yuan’s divine sense held firm. At the last possible moment, she jerked her head aside, narrowly avoiding the projectile.

But her expression twisted in horror, the ring was now hurtling toward the Holy Maiden’s carriage!

The ring expanded mid-flight, its diameter swelling to over a zhang, wreathed in flames as it arced toward Cheng Hongling’s transport. A feint!

Fortunately, one of the Huarong Sect elders, a mid-stage Divine Realm expert, acted instantly. She poured her wood-attributed true qi into a gnarled staff in her hands.

The withered wood revived, sprouting a colossal “banana leaf” several zhang tall to shield the carriage.

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BANG!

The ring slammed into the leaf, carving a massive dent. The flames clinging to it rapidly scorched the surface, sending up thick smoke as cracks spiderwebbed outward.

“Elder Tao, I’ll assist!”

Another elder rushed forward, injecting her own wood-attributed true qi into the staff. The leaf’s charred sections stopped expanding as the two worked together to hold back the ring.

“What are you all standing around for? Attack!”

Steward Leng barked impatiently at his subordinates.

The Cao family’s experts roared, charging the Huarong Sect’s female disciples like a pack of ravenous wolves.

The women met them head-on, weapons clashing as battle erupted.

“Not bad! Quite the spectacle!”

Qi Huang watched with amusement, her divine sense carefully monitoring the fight. Whenever a Huarong Sect disciple found herself in peril, a strand of hair from Qi Huang’s head would silently shoot forth, piercing the attacker’s skull.

Amid the chaos and the hair’s near-invisible speed, no one noticed, only the bewildered Huarong Sect disciples left standing unharmed.

“Humph! Now, who can protect you?”

Steward Leng smirked, soaring toward Cheng Hongling’s carriage like a diving raptor.

The Huarong Sect women paled. With Protector Yuan tied up by Wu Hua, no one could stop a Divine Ability Realm late-stage expert.

“That would be me.”

A hoarse voice rang out as an overwhelming divine sense pressure engulfed the battlefield.