Ninth In the World

Geng Jihua retreated to Di Jiu’s side as fast as he could. Di Jiu had already grabbed an array flag and begun to arrange a Defense Array.

After spending a long time in the Marsh Ocean Forest, he had arranged various arrays and become extremely skilled at it. He used a dozen array flags to successfully arrange a third-level Defense Array and another dozen array flags to form a third-level killing array outside the Defense Array.

As the herd of swamp lions rushed over, the confinement array screeched as if it was about to be torn apart.

The giant axe in Geng Jihua’s hands had already turned into several axe blades as it struck out. Each time it did, it took the life of a dozen swamp lions.

Di Jiu was constantly repairing the confinement arrays and arranging all kinds of killing arrays.

More swamp lions were torn apart by the various saber flares of the killing array before they fell right in the middle of it. Geng Jihua killed dozens of swamp lions each time, while Di Jiu’s killing array also killed big batches of them.

Almost all of them were first-class swamp lions. Several serial killing arrays were eventually stabilized by Di Jiu before they continued to increase.

Di Jiu even began to try to integrate his first and second saber move flares into the killing arrays. However, Geng Jihua was suddenly struck by a violent force that sent him flying.

“Brother Jiu, this is a third-level swamp lion…” Geng Jihua climbed up from the ground and wiped the blood away from his mouth.

Di Jiu threw all the array flags in his hand to the Tiny Treant. “You are responsible for helping me stabilize these killing arrays. I am coming!”

The swamp lion that had caused Geng Jihua to fly at impact was indeed a third-level monster. The intelligence of this monster was obviously incomparable to that of a normal swamp lion. After it struck Geng Jihua, the monster tried to break Di Jiu’s killing arrays. It obviously knew that if Di Jiu’s killing arrays were broken, the three of them would become its next meal.

Could Di Jiu allow the swamp lion to tear apart his killing arrays? As he stepped out of the two killing arrays, the long knife in his hand stirred up a whirlpool of saber flare and slashed at the third-level monster.

The swamp lion’s battle experience was no worse than Di Jiu’s. The monster seemed to feel that Di Jiu’s realm was inferior, so it did not avoid it. Instead, it opened its mouth to reveal a dozen teeth that smelled like blood. Meanwhile, it leapt up and turned its two front claws into a protective wall with strong Quintessential Qi.

Boom! Boom! The whirlpool saber flare struck the swamp lion’s body and created long bloody wounds on it.

Di Jiu’s heart sank. Even though his whirlpool saber flare was slashing at the beast, the injuries it caused felt like mere tickles to the swamp lion.

Di Jiu was sure that this was not a swamp lion that had just entered the third grade. It was most likely a late-stage third-grade monster, which was why it was extremely strong. If there had been only one swamp lion, Di Jiu would not have minded fighting with it slowly. However, there were countless swamp lions around him, so if he took the time to fight with this swamp lion, the three of them would be at a disadvantage.

As soon as he made this decision, Di Jiu did not try to stop the blade arrows flying towards him. After he avoided the two arrows shot at his head, the long knife in his hand turned into saber waves that headed towards the swamp lion.

When it saw that Di Jiu did not stop the blade arrows flying towards him, the swamp lion roared and turned its front paws into five claws. The claws’ shadow formed an almost substantial iron hook in the air that clawed at Di Jiu.

As the iron hook of the swamp lion attacked him, Di Jiu found it hard to breath. The space around him suddenly became thick.

Boom! Boom! Boom! A dozen blade arrows smashed into Di Jiu’s chest. When his chest exploded, Essence Energy escaped in every direction.

Even though he was wearing a Spirit Weapon Inner Armor, Di Jiu couldn’t help but vomit blood.

Di Jiu’s heart slowly calmed down. He was not afraid anymore. If he had not mastered the Gathering Peaks and Furious Waves moves, he might have been worried. However, he knew very well that the swamp lion’s move was similar to his two moves, so he could use his killing aura to oppress his opponent.

After this attack, Di Jiu threw a punch without hesitation and used the Gathering Peaks move, which he had used rarely ever since he had mastered it.

Meanwhile, the saber waves had already slammed into the swamp lion. As Di Jiu expected, the swamp lion was not bothered by this. It seemed like the monster was confident in its refined body, veins and bones, so it was not annoyed by Di Jiu’s saber wave attack.

Di Jiu sneered as the Gathering Peaks amassed continuous fist mountains. When the first fist mountain rolled up, Di Jiu’s whole body felt loose. After the second and third fist mountains appeared, Di Jiu disengaged himself from the swamp lion’s iron claw completely.

Although he could avoid the iron claws of the swamp lion at any time, Di Jiu did not intend to do so. His fists were still out, while his saber turned into a white whip that lashed out.

The white whip gathered all the killing aura around it and turned it into an icy cold saber intent inside the bones that seemed determined to kill.

Boom! Boom! Boom! The twisted saber wave slammed into the swamp lion. Just as the swamp lion had expected, it only created a small bloody fog. The swamp lion did not think that the bloody fog was worth its attention. What was really worth its attention was the continuous fist mountains that Di Jiu bombarded it with and the icy cold saber intent that seemed determined to kill it.

Bang! Bang! Bloody fog burst from the swamp lion’s body as the swamp lion started screaming.

Suddenly, the monster realized that Di Jiu’s continuous saber wave was just a lead. The real killing move was the Saber Qi explosion of the saber wave that wounded its body. The saber wave struck its body like waves hitting stone. Countless saber flares rushed directly into his body before the Saber Qi exploded inside it.

Boom! Boom! Boom! The mountain shadow of the Gathering Peaks finally collided with the iron claws of the swamp lion. If there had been no saber explosion, the swamp lion would have been able to smash Di Jiu’s Gathering Peaks and grab onto his skull.

However, now that countless saber flares had burst inside its body, it would have to retreat or die right there.

The swamp lion was no longer motivated to fight.

Unfortunately, the decision to retreat was out of its hands now. By the time it decided to retreat, its demise had already been set in motion. The Wind-Rustling Move’s saber intent followed the Gathering Peaks and landed on the swamp lion’s neck.

The saber intent that gathered the space’s killing aura suddenly burst, while a bloody arrow shot forward. The swamp lion was decapitated by Di Jiu’s saber move.

A strong self-confidence filled Di Jiu’s heart as the surrounding Spirit Qi continued to gather. Di Jiu had been in a similar situation before, so he knew that he was about to attain the mid-stage Foundation Establishment, which was the fourth-level Foundation Establishment.

Every time he advanced during a battle, his improvement was much stronger than the strength of his retreat.

After the third-stage swamp lion was killed, the rest of the swamp lions seemed to sense that danger was approaching, so they turned around and escaped into the boundless swamp forest.

Boom! Di Jiu suddenly broke through the third-level Foundation Establishment and attained the fourth-level Foundation Establishment. As his heart filled with unrestrained pride, he raised the long saber in his hand.

Ever since he had escaped from the Ji Nation, he had never thought that he would reach such heights.

The Foundation Establishment back in the Ji Nation had allowed one to exist as a Martial King. Di Jiu was now at the fourth-level Foundation Establishment. However, before he had attained the Foundation Establishment Realm, he had killed a late-stage third-level swamp lion in a one-to-one match.

Although the swamp lion had been partially killed by the killing array, Di Jiu knew that his rushed killing array had not actually been that useful against the third-level swamp lion. What had really killed the swamp lion had been his fifth split-wave saber move and the Gathering Peaks.

The Wind-Rustling Move had only been able to slash the swamp lion’s skull because of the fifth saber move and the Gathering Peaks.

The fact that Di Jiu had been able to kill a third-level swamp lion meant that he had attained the fourth-level Foundation Establishment and he was now able to deal with the average Golden Core cultivator.

“Brother Jiu, have you attained the mid-stage Foundation Establishment Realm?” Geng Jihua, who was still at the third-level Foundation Establishment, asked excitedly.

The Tiny Treant was even more delighted. The more powerful Di Jiu was, the more it would benefit. Killing a third-level swamp lion was no big deal. What mattered was that Big Brother could now deal with Golden Core cultivators, which meant that they’d have no problem getting out of the Marsh Ocean Forest.

“Yes, I am able to handle normal Golden Core cultivators now, so we don’t need to deliberately stay here and fight for our survival. We can go to the Marsh Ocean Town and see if the Qi Family’s Commercial Building has been rebuilt,” Di Jiu said calmly with a laugh.

“Are we still going to rob that building, Brother Jiu?” The Tiny Treant’s eyes brightened with greed. This was its favorite kind of activity.

“If the Qi Family’s Commercial Building does not cause me trouble, we will leave it alone. If it does, then we’ll get all our cultivation resources directly from that building. After robbing the building in the Marsh Ocean Town, we’ll move on to branches in other locations.” Di Jiu smiled, as he did not think that the Qi Family’s Commercial Building would let this go.

He would not intentionally provoke the Qi Family. Before he attained a certain level of strength, he would try to use a mask as a disguise.