Chapter 661 (1): Surrounding One Person? Or Being Surrounded by One Person?

The five innate sword talents could only hear the voice in their minds, but they couldn't see its speaker.

Liu Bai had been observing the surrounding battlefield the entire time, and using her mind's lake, she quickly said, "Everything has taken place suddenly, so there's no sword immortal rushing over to rescue him at the moment. We need to end this battle as soon as possible."

This female sword cultivator and Sword Immortal Shou Chen both hailed from Zhou Mi's scholarly lineage, and she had always worked as Mu Ji's deputy in the Jia Shen Tent. Until now, she had yet to unleash a sword attack in battle.

Tun Tan was the first to summon his bonded flying sword, and it flew extremely close to the ground as it drew a long arc around the colossal crater, leaving a lingering glow of sword light in its wake.

"We have to force him to show himself!"

Tun Tan placed his hands on the hilts of his two swords, while his gaze focused on the bottom of the colossal crater that was filled with swirling dust. Something like this couldn't block a sword cultivator's vision. However, their opponent was using some lofty and unknown concealment technique, and the five innate sword talents surprisingly failed to find the young Hidden Official's whereabouts. However, Chen Ping'an definitely hadn't left this area.

Tun Tan used his mind's lake to communicate with his friends, saying, "Forget about it. Since we can't find him with our eyes, I'll directly enter the crater to look for him. We can't give him an opportunity to rest. Zhu Qie, keep an eye on the movement of the mountain roots. Liu Bai, get ready to launch a sword strike to kill Chen Ping'an."

After saying this, Tun Tan jumped into the crater and used his bonded flying sword, Armored Cavalry, to open a path. Sword light dispersed around the perimeter of the colossal crater, following which thousands of armored cavalry materialized and entered into formations. Each cavalry unit was only palm-sized, making things appear very bizarre and comical. In reality, however, each cavalry unit was like a flying sword.

The thousands of palm-sized armored cavalry poured over the edge of the crater and charged down, appearing like a rising tide flooding a low-lying land.

The bonded flying sword, Armored Cavalry, opened the path with its large army, and this was most suitable for detecting any traps laid by the young Hidden Official.

If Tun Tan were a sword cultivator from the Sword Qi Great Wall, just the bonded mystical ability of his flying sword alone could win him a rating of at least the second grade from the lineage of the Hidden Official, putting him on equal footing with Yue Qing's Thousand Feet Spring and Soaring Cloud Sparrow, and Qi Shou's Jumping Spider. If Armored Cavalry possessed even more mystical abilities, however, then it could perhaps be placed on equal footing with Wu Chengpei's Sweet Dew.

Zhu Qie was Liu Cha's opening disciple, and if it weren't for Liu Cha taking several unofficial disciples during this battle, Zhu Qie would have been his only disciple.

However, Zhu Qie hadn't launched a single attack on the battlefield, and he was even more mysterious than Liu Bai, who belonged to the same military tent. Apart from everyone in the world knowing about Zhu Qie's master, his number of flying swords, the bonded mystical abilities of his flying swords, and his sword techniques were all unknown.

There was a huge sword case on his back, and six of the swords left their scabbard at this moment, circling the colossal crater and ultimately adjusting their tips and instantly piercing into the ground. The swords entered a formation deep underground, not giving the wounded Hidden Official any opportunity to flee. Even if Chen Ping'an still had some strength left to break free from the sword formation, he would definitely leave some traces behind. And at that time, what awaited the young Hidden Official outside would definitely be numerous incisive flying swords.

Yu Si was wearing a black robe, and there was only a single snow-white silk ribbon tying his hair together, making him appear like an elegant and carefree young master.

With a single thought, several shattered weapons nearby immediately shot into the distance, each heading in a different direction. They eventually fell to the ground again, and not a single ripple appeared along their path. This signified that there wasn't any formation or trap.

Theoretically speaking, Chen Ping'an had experienced surprise after surprise, beginning from the moment he engaged in battle against Hou Kuimen, a bait set up by a great demon, and all the way until Hou Kuimen was possessed by the great demon from the twelve thrones, after which Hou Kuimen had absorbed the martial fortune and been sacrificed to wound Chen Ping'an.

Even if Chen Ping'an were wearing the celestial-grade Dao robe, Golden Sweet Wine, he would still have been severely wounded if he hadn't been killed instead.

However, Yu Si still had a nagging feeling that something wasn't right.

Li Zhen had already squatted down and scooped up some dirt, lightly pressing it between his fingers before letting it fly away into the surroundings, with the small pieces of earth each carrying a wisp of sword intent.

He looked around and said with a faint smile, "Sure enough, something appears strange. There's a restricted area that appears like a small world, and he didn't use this ability the last time I fought against him. Good. Very well. I can finally accept my loss."

As it turned out, the small pieces of earth had all disintegrated like dying wicks the instant they had hovered thirty meters away.

Yu Si once again controlled some broken weapons on the ground, and even the broken corpses of some demons, sending them flying far into the distance.

Sure enough, these items also fell to the ground as if hitting a wall.

The young Hidden Official was both a sword cultivator and a pure martial artist, making him especially difficult to kill. Even if Chen Ping'an exhausted his breath of True Qi, he could still summon his flying swords and continue to do battle. Similarly, he could revert to his fists once his spiritual energy needed to be replenished. In this way, he could continue to alternate between using his True Qi and using his spiritual energy, never needing to pause.

The Jia Shen Tent had analyzed the military merit earned by both friend and foe in the second full-scale battle before, and after participating in the entire battle and using quantity to make up for quality, Chen Ping'an's military merit had surpassed everyone else from the Sword Qi Great Wall.

Of course, this result was biased due to the sword immortals needing to guard the golden river, needing to guard the city wall, or being responsible for protecting the young sword cultivators. The sword immortals didn't have too many opportunities to genuinely unleash attacks and earn military merit.

During that battle, the young Hidden Official had concealed his identity the entire time, disguising his aura and using a plethora of different skills and techniques. This was completely different from the first full-scale battle when Ning Yao had guarded Chen Ping'an and allowed him to boldly tear through the enemy formation as a pure martial artist, and he had appeared more like an assassin picking off isolated or weakened victims during the second full-scale battle. He was only using his fists and swords when he was forced to do so.

Thanks to this, the outsider at the Sword Qi Great Wall had earned himself a new and novel title in the various military tents of the Savage World: Shou Chen in the South, Hidden Official in the North.

Locating Chen Ping'an on the battlefield was already very difficult, and trying to locate and wound him was even harder. Even if one were willing to exchange wounds with Chen Ping'an, or go one step further and die for the sake of wounding Chen Ping'an, the young Hidden Official was incredibly resolute when it came to retreating and fleeing.

Most importantly, Chen Ping'an's stamina on the battlefield was far too astonishing, so he was even more repulsive than those sword immortals from the Sword Qi Great Wall who possessed paramount destructive ability and attacked in a proper and upright manner.

"Tsk, not bad; I was almost tricked by him. Apologies, everyone, it was my mistake just then."

There was burning anger in Yu Si's heart, and his sword intent condensed into a tangible form as he placed his hand on the hilt of his sword. Wisps of snow-white sword qi hovered around his arm and sword, exuding a menacing aura that caused a thin layer of ice to climb down the scabbard.

"However, we can see from this that he was wounded quite seriously. Otherwise, the Hidden Official would have definitely continued to hide despite Li Zhen's actions just then. He wouldn't have given away these clues so quickly. To make up for my mistake just then, I'll be the last to launch a sword attack in a moment!"

Those who weren't from the Jia Shen Tent would definitely be confused by Yu Si's comment at the very end.

Zhu Qie frowned and asked, "Where did this isolated small world come from, Li Zhen? Did he borrow it from a sage? Can isolated small worlds even be borrowed?"

Among this group of innate sword talents, Li Zhen was undoubtedly the most familiar with isolated small worlds.

Li Zhen started to stroll around, appearing calm and leisurely like he had during his first battle against Chen Ping'an. He tossed a precious immortal treasure onto the ground every few steps, and this was something he couldn't help but do. He was the closing disciple of Holding Moon Mountain, after all, so he was never short on immortal treasures from the mountains.

The formations set up by Li Zhen were all extremely profound.

Li Zhen didn't trust Zhu Qie's underground sword formation, and he could only feel at ease if he set up another formation, one that could prevent Chen Ping'an from breaking free and also delay the sword immortals from rushing over to render assistance.

Li Zhen smiled and replied, "Heaven knows where this isolated small world came from. The most important task right now is to understand its mystical nature. Can it help Chen Ping'an elevate his cultivation base to the next level, or is it a lawless region that specifically targets Qi refiners? Or perhaps it's merely an illusion being used as a delay tactic, buying time for the sword immortals to rush over to join forces with him.

Yu Si was already investigating these possibilities, and there were broken limbs and shattered corpses flying around him and slamming into the invisible wall nearby. He glanced at the colossal crater, where the dust had already been blown away by him. Even so, the bottom of the crater was still shrouded in hazy white mist.

"Apart from a restriction isolating the area, the situation near the bottom of the crater is still difficult to ascertain. It seems like the region around us is completely normal. Maybe we should unleash sword strikes to shatter this isolated small world?"

Li Zhen shook his head and squatted down, retrieving one final immortal treasure and placing it on the ground. At the same time, he used his mind's lake to say, "That won't do much, and Chen Ping'an won't mind if we break free from this isolated small world. Don't forget what our goal is. We're here to kill Chen Ping'an.

"I already obtained an answer when I tested the area with sand before, and just like you said, Chen Ping'an has indeed suffered serious wounds. As such, he's purposely acting mysterious and using the isolated small world to buy time so he can rest and recuperate. In any case, let's look at the results of Tun Tan's sword strikes first.

Yu Si felt extremely frustrated.

They were surrounding their target, yet they were surprisingly unable to pinpoint his location. This made him feel slightly vexed.

The armored cavalry in the colossal crater were wielding spears and lances with small flags of various colors.

In fact, these colorful flags and tassels attached to the weapons were the second mystical ability of Tun Tan's flying sword.

A huge amount of resources were required for refining this flying sword, and one of the most important and fundamental ingredients was soil from the feet of the Savage World's various Five Mountains. Moreover, this soil wasn't simply for the sake of decorating the heavy cavalry manifested by the flying sword.

Tun Tan's mind wavered for a short moment, and when he focused his gaze again, he discovered that he was hovering above a sea of clouds, with several mountain peaks vaguely towering above the clouds like floating islands.

Heaven and earth were vast.

Tun Tan immediately paused in midair and looked down. The land below was like a battlefield, with numerous heavy cavalry charging forward. However, they were unexpectedly galloping around like headless chooks, especially since the topography of the land was completely unreasonable. Many of the heavy cavalry were extremely far away from each other to begin with, yet they somehow ended up crashing into each other in the next moment.

He watched as an army of dark green heavy cavalry crashed into an army of bright red heavy cavalry.

However, Tun Tan didn't retrieve his bonded flying sword, Armored Cavalry, because of this. The armored cavalry, who had small flags on their spears, wouldn't be wounded or damaged as long as they galloped across the land, even if this were only a stretch of land in an illusory small world. This was indeed the case on the battlefield, and the heavy cavalry were reborn again and again after being continuously obliterated. They didn't wear out or tire, and they continued to charge forward time and time again.

It wasn't long before Tun Tan discovered the source of the battlefield's unique nature. It was as if the battlefield were thin pages in a book, with the person behind the scenes using a meticulous technique hidden from their gaze to fold these pages and thus manipulate the movements of the heavy cavalry, causing them to crash into each other.

Tun Tan discovered that he was already unable to communicate with Zhu Qie and the others using his mind's lake, but his sword heart remained calm and limpid despite the challenging situation. He drew his two swords and disappeared with a flash.

One sword disappeared, after which arcs of lightning wove a web over an area in the sky. The web of lightning pulsed ferociously, creating a heart-stopping scene.

His other sword transformed into a ray of light and flew far away, rapidly shooting toward the most distant location in an attempt to understand the boundary and size of the small world.

Tun Tan made a grabbing motion, and the second sword that should have flown thousands of meters away surprisingly thrust toward the back of his hand. However, Tun Tan eventually grabbed it by the hilt.

He smiled coldly and spat, "You're just going to hide and rely on these petty tricks to waste time?"

Atop the pinnacle of some mountain, a tiny figure suddenly grew to the size of a mountain. This was a towering young man in azure with a sword case on his back.

His Dao Manifestation was standing on the mountain peak, and it looked as if he were a normal person standing on a small stone.

Chen Ping'an smiled and looked down at the young demon holding a sword, after which he raised a hand and retrieved the jade bamboo folding fan from his disciple. He violently brought the folding fan down, and the resulting wave of majestic energy caused the sea of clouds to churn like boiling water, with the sound of rumbling thunder vaguely discernible.

Tun Tan surprisingly remained still, allowing the huge folding fan to slam down and ultimately pass through him.

He smiled coldly and commented, "Sure enough, your true body is severely wounded, so you can only rely on these illusions to buy time and delay the inevitable."

Chen Ping'an raised his other hand, where a mountain-sized Daoist seal rotated in his palm before rushing toward Tun Tan.

Tun Tan unleashed a sword strike and slashed the mountain seal into two. There wasn't a single ripple of energy, and there was only a ray of sword light.

Once again, the seal was nothing more than a false projection manifested through Chen Ping'an's thoughts.

Tun Tan shook his sword and raised a finger, beckoning to the young Hidden Official who was acting mysteriously and playing small tricks.

"Chen Ping'an" smiled faintly and retrieved a golden talisman, and the talismanic core appeared like a gigantic golden lightning pool in Tun Tan's eyes due to the talisman being scaled to the size of the colossal Dao Manifestation. Radiating with a ferocious aura, the golden talisman hovered toward the young demon sword cultivator.

At the same time, Chen Ping'an's Dao Manifestation lightly raised its left hand and directly severed the mountain roots of a mountain range, lifting the mountains and launching them at Tun Tan along with the golden talisman.

Tun Tan ran his fingers along the blade of his sword, stopping at the tip where a speck of brilliant light was released. With the young demon sword cultivator as the center point, this speck of light transformed into a sphere of sword light that collided with the golden talisman and mountain range.

Sure enough, the attack of the young Hidden Official was tangible this time!

Tun Tan's sixth sense suddenly tingled, causing him to lean backward and form a seal with two fingers. A spectacular seven-colored radiance burst from his Dao robe, amid which there hovered many musical performers wearing colorful and flowing robes. Their figures were small and adorable, and they immediately guarded the critical acupoints of the young demon.

Tun Tan jumped on his sword and flew far away from his original spot. He came to a hovering stop shortly thereafter, and a Golden Dao Manifestation also materialized behind him. This was a stunningly beautiful divine maiden who was leaning slightly forward, with her cupped hands holding the young demon's figure.

A long trail of blood slowly seeped from Tun Tan's neck.

The sword under his feet trembled slightly, appearing as if it were being suppressed by the Great Dao of heaven and earth.

The Golden Dao Manifestation protecting Tun Tan also started to peel, and the initially flawless and radiant golden body of the divine maiden eroded at an alarming speed.

Holding a sword in one hand, Tun Tan raised his other hand to lightly wipe the blood from his neck.

This was clearly a lawless land that targeted all Qi refiners in the world.

Tun Tan had almost been beheaded by Chen Ping'an's strike just then.

The young demon finally experienced the feeling of going up against the young Hidden Official.

Illusions crashed with reality, and the tangible was woven amid the intangible. Everything was an examination of the heart, and everything was part of a scheme.

Atop the city wall of the Sword Qi Great Wall, Wei Jin turned to the old great sword immortal and asked, "There's truly no need for me to help him break free?"

"Help him break free?" Chen Qingdu asked with a smile. "Are you sure you're helping Chen Ping'an break free? Or are you helping Wei Jin break free? Do you think the enemy doesn't have some hidden trump cards? Just focusing on the five extremely talented young demon sword cultivators, who's responsible for meeting up with them and taking them back? The Jia Zi Tent will be badly hurt if any one of them is killed."

"Lu Zhi can watch over the situation, so I can give it a try," Wei Jin said.

Chen Qingdu shook his head and replied, "Just stand back and wait. Whoever moves later will have the advantage."

Chen Qingdu gazed at the many military tents of the demon tribe in the south. Of the great demons from the twelve thrones, things would be okay if Zhou Mi were the one to step forward. However, things would become slightly difficult for the Sword Qi Great Wall if Liu Cha were given an excuse to draw his sword.

For example, if Liu Cha's direct disciple, whom he had extremely high hopes for, were killed.

At that time, the situation would make it difficult for Chen Qingdu to draw his blade.

That being the case, who could stop Liu Cha? Dong Sangeng was tied up with the golden river, and Lu Zhi was far from enough to deal with him. In fact, it wouldn't be enough even with the help of the old deaf guy guarding the dungeon, who would also have an excuse to join the conflict at that time.

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