Chapter 4959 — Just Die in Peace
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
The sandstorm howled without cease, and what went on inside it was impossible to tell from without. Not only could the naked eye make nothing out—even divine sense recoiled from it. In truth, probing with divine sense was no kindness to oneself; there was every chance of being devoured by backlash.
After a long while, a sword aura of heaven-splitting force suddenly clove the whirling sandstorm in two. Out flew Liu Ziqi in her white robes, blood spilling from her lips, a slender silver softsword of unknown provenance now in her hand.
Wei Zhao's heart lurched. But in the next instant he saw that Chang Minghui, too, had been wounded—a vast gash across his chest, deep enough to show bone, bleeding without stop, a sight to make the blood run cold. By the look of it, the heaven-splitting sword aura just now had done the work.
"Hmph. I see I did underestimate you after all. Never in my life have I seen a woman push things this far—you, Liu Ziqi, are the first." Chang Minghui snorted. It was not merely that her strength had forced him to look at her differently; what left him speechless was that in a fight this woman was more ruthless and overbearing than he was himself. What in the hell kind of woman was she?!
"That only means you've seen too little of the world." Liu Ziqi sneered, unimpressed. Strong as she was, and few other female cultivators could stand against her, few did not mean none. The Isle Mistress of the Western Isle, Ning Shanghe, for one, was far above her in true strength.
"Is that so?" Chang Minghui closed one hand on empty air, neither accepting nor denying, and curled his lip. "All you can do now is talk tough. Your Nine Palaces Sand Formation is broken. What comes next is your death. Go in peace."
As the words fell, a crescent wind blade appeared in Chang Minghui's hand. At a glance it looked no different from the moves he had used before, but once it left his hand, Liu Ziqi and Wei Zhao, watching from afar, both went wide-eyed.
Bang! A gash deep enough to show bone opened on Liu Ziqi's body, and she was hurled dozens of zhang backward, disbelief written across her face. The wind blade had arrived in an instant!
Wei Zhao's scalp prickled at the sight. Fast as the wind blade truly was, even at his level and with the jade pendant's warning, he could hardly have dodged it cleanly—but with Liu Ziqi's strength she should never have been reduced to such a sorry state. She was, after all, a mid-Kaishan expert, and by Wei Zhao's judgment she ranked at the very top among her peers; otherwise she could never have held Chang Minghui off this long on the strength of a single Nine Palaces Sand Formation.
The trouble was that the wind blade left no flight path at all. One instant it was flung from Chang Minghui's hand; the next it was already on Liu Ziqi's body. How was anyone supposed to dodge that?
A move like this had all but transcended spatial speed. The last time Wei Zhao had seen such godlike skill was when he received the lightning inheritance of the giant electric eel, when he had watched a human swordsman's sword aura arrive in the very same instant.
Judged purely by presence, Chang Minghui of the late-Kaishan stage was far from that human swordsman's equal—that one had been a being who could cross blades with a giant electric eel. Yet the essence of their moves was cut from the same cloth, proof enough that Chang Minghui's reputation was no empty wind, and that he was a force to be reckoned with.
"How does it feel? Not so pleasant, being grazed by my wind blade, is it?" Chang Minghui grinned in satisfaction, baiting her into talk and distraction while his other hand, hidden in his sleeve, quietly gathered power—and soundlessly loosed another wind blade that arrived in an instant.
Bang! This wind blade cut straight across Liu Ziqi's throat, and her head dropped to the ground.