Volume 1, Chapter 215 – Malice

The golden ape’s first strike missed. It did not go after Shi Lan. Instead, it spread its huge hands again and, quick as lightning, seized the hind legs of two flood-dragon horses.

“Hiiih!”

The two flood-dragon horses let out a long neigh and were lifted upside down without the slightest ability to resist. The Demon-Suppressing Army soldiers riding them did not dare hesitate in the least. They rolled off their mounts, pulled back at top speed, and retreated into the battle formation.

“Roar!”

With a furious bellow, the golden ape swung both arms in a full arc and hurled the two flood-dragon horses away.

Whooom!

The air shook. Carrying ferocious force, the two flood-dragon horses smashed into the battle formation like cannonballs.

Blood splashed. Severed limbs flew through the air. Two bloody furrows nearly a hundred zhang long were plowed through the formation. Several hundred Demon-Suppressing Army soldiers were either killed or crippled, and miserable screams instantly erupted.

“Bastard!”

Shi Lan clenched her teeth. Recalling Golden Rainbow at the same time, she dropped sharply, plunging down in front of the golden ape. Holding the Leiyin Bow in reverse, she drew the bowstring sideways.

Twang! Bang!

The bowstring snapped back in an instant. The unmatched force of the bowstring slammed into the side of the golden ape’s face like a whip, sending it flying more than a hundred zhang.

After landing, the golden ape shook its head and climbed back up again. Aside from a red welt on the side of its face, it was somehow completely uninjured.

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Seeing that, Shi Lan’s heart tightened. This golden ape possessed monstrous brute force, fierce and unmatched, and the strength of its physical body was even more horrifying. Even an ordinary Heavenly Astral Realm martial artist might not necessarily be its opponent.

Several Thousand-Man Commanders nearby saw how savage the golden ape was. At once, they began changing the battle formation to keep the soldiers from dying in vain while also calling for reinforcements.

Golden Rainbow had flown too far and could not make it back in time. The nine Shattering Void Arrows returned first.

Shi Lan did not dare delay in the slightest. In an instant, she drew the bow nine times in succession. The nine explosive reports were so close together they almost merged into one, and a shrill howl sharp enough to split metal and crack stone echoed across the battlefield.

The nine Shattering Void Arrows joined into a single line, their force flowing together as one. Dragging behind them a hundred-zhang stream of true qi, they stabbed into the golden ape’s left chest like a long spear, splashing up a bloom of blood as they drove straight for its heart.

“Roar!”

The golden ape let out a furious screech. Its fur stood up like steel needles, every strand rigid, and the muscles across its chest bulged even larger, locking the Shattering Void Arrows tightly in place.

The nine arrows, carrying nine overlapping layers of force, penetrated less than half a foot. Compared to its massive body, the injury was negligible.

The golden ape grabbed several of the arrows that were about to return, glared at Shi Lan in a rage, drew its body back, and violently threw them from its hand.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

The arrows shot like meteors, bursting with a piercing sonic boom as terrifying shockwaves roared outward.

Shi Lan had no place to brace herself in midair. Unable to dodge in time, she was pierced through the calf by one of the Shattering Void Arrows, scattering a spray of purple blood.

Her Jade Tempering Art had reached perfection, and she had cultivated a crystalline jade body that ordinary magic treasures could hardly injure. Even so, it still failed to withstand the golden ape’s immense strength.

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The instant her purple blood spilled, the low-level demon beasts within a thousand zhang fled frantically in all directions, clearing out an open space at once and giving the Demon-Suppressing Army a brief chance to catch its breath.

The golden ape’s nostrils twitched as it stared at Shi Lan. The fury in its eyes turned into burning greed, and it let out an excited roar.

The wound on Shi Lan’s calf stopped bleeding within a few breaths, scabbed over, and began slowly healing.

Staring at the golden ape in the distance, Shi Lan put away the Leiyin Bow. Her gaze darkened, and she suddenly lifted a finger.

The golden ape’s excited roar instantly turned into a shriek of pain. A pale golden sword-light slashed across its left shoulder, leaving behind a wound several feet deep and sending blood spraying everywhere.

The Golden Rainbow Star-Chasing Sword was a five-star spirit treasure. The golden ape’s body simply could not withstand it.

The golden light fell into Shi Lan’s hand. The moment the sword entered her grasp, there was not the slightest sense of awkwardness, as though she had trained with the sword for many years. Countless sword forms flowed through her mind.

Though the inheritance of the Guiyun Sword Sovereign had been stripped away by the system, a few traces of it still remained.

Covering its wound, the golden ape looked at the sword in Shi Lan’s hand with wary fear and did not dare move rashly for the moment.

But just because it did not move did not mean Shi Lan would stop.

Shi Lan did not give the golden ape another chance to strike. She launched her counterattack at once.

Without moving from where she stood, she flicked up the long sword in her hand. Dense sword qi shot out for more than a hundred zhang, slashing down from above toward the golden ape’s head.

The sword qi tore through space, dragging thunderous sound behind it as it rumbled forward. The ground within several hundred zhang trembled.

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That strike had already begun to faintly draw upon the momentum of heaven and earth. The Guiyun Sword Sovereign’s sword Dao had long since touched the divine and stood at the summit of all under heaven. Even the tiniest fragment left behind still carried unbelievable divine might.

The golden ape did not dare meet the edge of the sword head-on. As it leaped backward, its body began shrinking, hiding itself within the beast horde.

The other Thousand-Man Commanders reacted quickly. They immediately drew the battle formation back together and continued splitting the beast horde apart alongside the main force.

Shi Lan’s sword qi did not miss. It split the ground and tore apart countless low-level demon beasts. Blood surged up like waves, mixed with severed limbs and shattered flesh, spreading across more than a hundred zhang.

Now less than three feet tall, the golden ape was exposed once more within Shi Lan’s sight, and once again it retreated.

Shi Lan closed in after it. In an instant, the long sword in her hand slashed out hundreds upon thousands of streaks of sword-light, crisscrossing in all directions, digging the golden ape back out from amid a heap of mangled flesh.

With nowhere left to hide, and driven savage by Shi Lan’s relentless pressure, the golden ape let out a roar, spun around, and sprang to her side. Its body expanded in an instant, and with one sweeping palm, it struck out so fast it left a blur of afterimages.

Boom, boom, boom!

A rapid chain of explosions rang out. The ground within dozens of zhang caved in under the golden ape’s assault, and dust billowed up into the sky.

Before the dust had even settled, streak after streak of icy sword qi came whistling out from within, carving countless wounds across its body. In front of a spirit treasure, the golden ape’s tough hide and powerful muscles were as fragile as paper.

“What kind of skill is relying on a magic treasure?!”

The golden ape’s roar weakened. Then, all of a sudden, it spoke in human language, though its tone lacked confidence.

The moment those words left its mouth, the golden ape felt the sword qi around it weaken, and boundless joy burst out in its heart.

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Before it could sneer inwardly at the stupidity of the human race and strike back, a fair hand, white as carved jade, emerged from the sword-light, slowly clenched into a fist, and smashed down onto the top of its head.

The golden ape felt an explosion ring out inside its skull. That punch seemed to carry the weight of ten thousand jun, like an inverted mountain crashing down, hammering it several zhang deep into the earth in an instant as the ground within a hundred zhang split apart.

Shi Lan drove the golden ape into the ground with one punch, leaving only its head and neck exposed above the surface. She flipped her wrist and guided her sword. With one flash of sword-light, she was about to sever its head.

Before the sword-light could land, however, a glowing stone stele came crashing down from midair.

Crack!

With a crisp sound, the golden ape’s skull shattered completely. Red and white matter splattered across the ground, and it was killed on the spot.

Shi Lan’s gaze turned cold as she looked into the air. A young man of about twenty-four calmly recalled the stone stele as though nothing had happened, then gave her a nod.

He then dropped from the air, mounted a flood-dragon horse not far away, turned around, and merged back into the torrent of the main force.

At the sight, Shi Lan felt her teeth itch faintly. The man had not acted early, and he had not acted late. He had chosen exactly this moment.

As fellow members of the Demon-Suppressing Army, such conduct, which was all but equivalent to snatching another’s battle merit, was sickening.

Shi Lan did not value battle merit all that highly, but the man’s behavior made her feel disgusted.