Archfiend

It was a pure-black arrow.

An arrow of spiritual energy.

Sharp as the tip of a spear, silent, and ready to reap life. It was over a meter long, and shooting right at Xu Yangyi’s chest.

In a spark of flint, Xu Yangyi’s figure blurred and flickered again. In the next second, the ground where he was standing loudly exploded!

But despite this, the arrow was only the beginning. Xu Yangyi clearly sensed vast quantities of spiritual energy materialize around him. They were like fully drawn bows, becoming hundreds of spirit-arrows that furiously launched towards him!

They were as numerous as the stars in the sky! As pressing as a rain shower!

Fuck! Xu Yangyi inwardly cursed, and activated his physique art to the max. Like an agile hawk, he shifted through the rain of arrows with lightning speed. Heavy thuds rang out from the ground, and scattering pieces of rubble even hit him.

“This isn’t right. He should know this kind of attack is useless against me.” In the instant he hit the ground, his mind turned at great speed. “That was a wide-area attack. There’s only one place he could attack me with that kind of indiscriminate AOE.”

His gaze flashed in understanding. “I got it.”

Shing! The Fishbowel Sword was awesomely spurred into motion, and the imprint of ten purple fire-dragons immediately appeared on it.

“Control the high ground.” Purple flames flared on the sword, and Xu Yangyi slashed out. The fire-dragons boiled. “You’re in the air!”

“Ten Cardinals Purgatory!”

BOOM!!! In the darkness, purple flames roared, but just as they surged out something unknown collided with them. As if the ten purple fire-dragons were imprisoned on the ground, they revolved around Xu Yangyi as they snarled and rampaged. Three seconds later, the flames exploded! Raging winds quickly swept towards the boundless black fog, but it formed again in less than a second.

In this instant, Xu Yangyi clearly saw the thing in the dark.

At some point, the front of him had already become filled with invisible black threads. Under the fire’s flow, they reflected a cold deathly glint. The threads, without limit and without end, were firmly trapping him inside.

A targeted attack!

In a short couple seconds, Althorne had drawn a mark of death in the arena!

“Three minutes.” He murmured to himself as he walked in front of the spider silk and used his hand to gently flick it. A hum reminiscent to a zither rang out. “The time it takes to complete the entire arrangement. The black fog isolates qi, and eight eyes suddenly flash and then die out. This isn’t a lapse, but a physiological reaction instantly brought by the absolute darkness, for your actual ace to make a fatal setting.”

“I think that’s only bait, if someone pays attention to the eyes. The real sure-kill, though, comes from above. When soldiers are separated into two paths, the enemy is enticed to enter deeper. This deserves to be the Elves’s hidden secret art. Each step goes through strict calculation. In several minutes, you can force an opponent into a dead end on the battlefield. I think…”

He wordlessly moved his foot. In the instant, it fell on the ground, he felt as if it was firmly stuck in place. His actions were limited.

“This should be spider silk. Your third insurance. In yours eyes right now, are my limbs nailed down? Is that your plan? To kill a sheep?”

In the darkness, all was quiet. After a brief silence, Althorne said, “Mr. X, I don’t want to hurt you. Presently, you still have the chance to withdraw.”

He finished speaking these words, and his voice became serious. “This spider silk is sharper than a blade. You should realize the situation you’re in now. As long as I act, you won’t be able to dodge. You can’t leave from where you are, and you also don’t know where I am above.”

“I think your understanding is wrong.” Not even waiting for the elf to finish, Xu Yangyi interrupted Althorne again without the slightest politeness and laughed coldly, “I’m saying that that you don’t have time to use it.”

Xu Yangyi charged out like a rocket, but this time his target was shockingly the endless web in the darkness.

He doesn’t want to live? In the sky, golden eyes snapped wide open and watched Xu Yangyi jump three meters up. If he forces his way through the web, he’ll be shredded to pieces! No one can rush through the Growth of the Wilds! A full-speed attack? Does he want to get ripped apart?!

While he was dazed for two seconds, Althorne suddenly reacted, and an indescribable anger arose in his heart. His furious howl made space tremble. “You dare threaten me?!”

“Are you betting whether I risk killing a master spirit-technician?” He gritted his teeth as he watched Xu Yangyi’s figure draw a beautiful arc in the air. “You insult this battle! The understanding of certain death is needed to enter the arena! Mr. X! I feel incredible humiliation from your disgraceful conduct! How could you have such vulgar thoughts?!”

“Good… since you want to die… I’ll help you achieve your goal!”

Hum… Eight legs collectively moved the spider silk in the darkness, and all the threads were drawn taut. All he needed to do was wait for the moth to walk right into the trap.

He didn’t see the cold smile that was now Xu Yangyi’s face.

Threat? Xu Yangyi didn’t have this thought at all!

Through that seemingly casual flick just now, Xu Yangyi had made a clear probe with his spiritual sense. The spiritual sense of a master that was several times more careful than an ordinary cultivator. This spider silk couldn’t cut the fleshy body forged by a Thousand Li Invincible!

Although it could injure him, it definitely wasn’t able to cut him like tofu!

Boing! Following a crisp echo, Althorne’s narrowed eyes saw the first strand of silk take the shape of a bow. The hand under the spider silk was instantly drenched in blood, but in less than a second there was no crunch of bones and snap of muscles like he’d expected! After a sharp snap, the silk answered and broke!

A several-centimeter-long cut bubbled with blood, but Xu Yangyi didn’t stop as he rushed towards the vast prison of silk above.

The furious Althorne’s rage was doused as if a basin of ice water had been poured on his head. In the blink of an eye, he was dumbstruck.

He could hardly believe it as he saw his silk, which was still taut like a bow string a second ago, now fall to the ground like a cut strand of hair. Still, he didn’t have time to consider. Heavy thuds were soon followed by heavy thuds, his silk practically responding and breaking at the same time!

Bang bang bang! Xu Yangyi’s body was riddled with cuts dripping with blood. He was dyed with so much that he became a figure of blood. He appeared dreadful, but in fact he wasn’t greatly impeded.

“This is… an apex physique art!” Althorne grinded his teeth. He finally realized that Xu Yangyi wasn’t threatening him, but rather had the strength to charge through since the beginning!

“Heavenly Wolf Spider’s Bow!” The elf quickly reacted. In the wake of his command, all the silk in the air gathered in his claw and became a giant black bow that was five meters long. A pitch-black arrow of spiritual energy was already nocked on the bowstring.

Thruuummm… The bow was fully drawn, but not released. Althorne banished all of his contempt. He clearly understood that his last advantage was that Xu Yangyi couldn’t see him, so the demon slayer wouldn’t know that his bow and arrow was already taking aim.

Swish swish swish! Once Xu Yangyi broke through the final strand of silk, like a Kun Peng spreading its wings, he raised black ripples in the air.

Insect, huh…

In that case, I’ll let you see what the ultimate insect is like!

“Dream Eater,” he said softly. In his dantian, the Dream Eater, which was boredly turning qi into balls, began to cry out with sudden excitement.

BOOM! The black fog was like a cocoon, wrapping around Xu Yangyi and ceaselessly billowing. Half a second later, the sound of unfurling wings rang out in the endless darkness and then four blood-red eyes brightened in sync!

White eyes, golden pupils, bloodshot. Just like a demon-god’s eye!

“Gasp…” Althorne exhaled coldly. He clearly saw the four giant wings on Xu Yangyi’s back. Each one had a one-meter-sized eye!

How was this possible?!

Althorne almost wanted to rear his head back and roar. This was a secret hidden art of the Elves! Unless one obtained the recognition of a Sacred Spirit, there was no way to clearly see everything in his domain! Nonetheless…

What the hell was this thing?! Where did this monster come from?! First it had broken through the silk prison and then it was able to see through something that only a Sacred Spirit could?!

“DIE!!!” In the moment he lost his final advantage, Althorne roared. But in the exact instant he readied his bow and arrow, he suddenly felt a burst of agonizing pain in his brain.

“Urgh!” Without a supply of spiritual energy, the bow and arrow collapsed into countless threads of essence. He cradled his head and began to shout. It was like someone had stuck their hand into his head and was frantically stirring.

With the boost from Pill Cauldron Is My Heart, Xu Yangyi forcibly interrupted Althorne!!

And at the same time in front of the elf, a rampaging spiritual force rumbled and attacked!

For a Marquis, 500 meters was crossed in the blink of an eye!

Xu Yangyi also clearly saw that it wasn’t a person cradling their heads and sobbing in front of him, but rather a black-and-red-striped crow!

Forcing down his boiling blood, he considered the Art of Arrival in close-quarters combat. It was a tactic of infinite weakening in combination with infinite terror. He wasn’t planning on using it this time, since it was one of his aces.

“Splitting Air!”

White scars quickly pervaded the air. But as crisis swiftly approached, Althorne raised his head and screamed. In crow form, he turned in the air, and a white beer over twenty meters tall appeared without warning.

“ROAR!!!” On the bear’s head, veins of moonlight were softly shining. Spiritual energy frantically caused the surrounding black fog to explode out for dozens of meters!

BOOM!!! All that could be seen from the outside was the giant protective light-cover shaking. Quite a few Marquises among the elves bolted up to their feet uneasily.

“The boundary field from Growth of the Wilds is shaking?” A female elf looked at the light-screen in shock. “Is the fight inside already that intense?”

“A master spirit-technician…” Another handsome elf tightly gripped the armrests of his seat and looked down incredulously. “Can actually fight Althorne at an equal level?”

Crash… Above, the black fog seemed to churn like rivers and seas. Jolting the entire audience to shake, tremendous booms rang out. Everyone found it somewhat inconceivable. This originally hopeless first battle was actually so violent!

“ROAR!” as the bear raised its paw, it carried raging flames. The human hand that faced it, however, was likewise wreathed in azure qi that filled the sky!

BOOM! The bear paw and the human hand struck each other. Enormous wind pressure caused the ever-present black fog flush away. Althorne’s paw seemed to be quite a few times larger, but the elf was unexpectedly punched three steps back!