novelraw Chapter 345 - 321 Duel, Part 1
Chapter 345 - 321 Duel, Part 1
Swish.
The grass grows, the warblers fly.
Deep in the night, the moon is bright.
A team of shadows swiftly heads towards the military fortress outside Citong.
"Quickly, quickly!"
The leading silhouette looks ahead while running, constantly alert to potential dangers around.
"We must contact General Li Rui of the garrison before dawn! Mobilize the troops; the city is far too dangerous now!"
Under the moonlight, the silhouette reveals its facial features.
It is none other than the frenetic monk Kongyu, executing the population search mission in Citong with Cheng Hui.
When he received the news from Cheng Hui, he was scared out of his wits.
Copper Arm was stronger than him, but now, Copper Arm is gone. Disappeared.
Cheng Hui’s side has also been wiped out, and he can’t even be contacted.
The Golden Wing Pavilion and the Western Sect have just arrived here, and such a big mistake happened immediately...
"Damn it! If I knew it would be like this, I should have stayed as the head honcho of the Nineteenth Road back then!"
As Kongyu recalls his years of diligent work, being ordered around by his superiors, it feels like being a dog.
Nothing compared to when he was the boss back in the day.
He once thought he had found a great backer, but...
"Master, why don’t we go to Wanghai Temple? Didn’t they say Master Kongding is guarding there? Joining with Master Kongding should be better than heading to a garrison fortress, right?"
Beside him, an expert of the Golden Wing Pavilion, also running swiftly, can’t help but ask in confusion.
"You think I wouldn’t want to go?" Kongyu replied impatiently, "I went to check Wanghai Temple earlier by myself, and before I even got close, I felt dangers all around. There are too many ambushes and spies nearby! Better to head to the military camp first."
He spat on the ground.
"Directly mobilizing troops, with various grade experts combining with guns and crossbow arrows to encircle, even the Three Emptiness Grandmasters can’t easily get away!"
The Three Emptiness experts are indeed formidable, but Great Spirit isn’t easy prey either.
Guns and crossbow arrows in the hands of ordinary people don’t pose much threat, at best managing grade martial artists.
But in the hands of martial practitioners with superior reflexes and dynamic vision, they are threats to Super Grade, even Grandmaster level opponents.
After all, ordinary Grandmasters, no matter how strong, are only strong in technique; their physical limits in speed aren’t much faster than Super Grade.
As long as it’s an open space, they’re still within the range of human eye capture.
Moreover, compared to the regular Great Spirit officers maintaining order inside the city.
The garrison fortress has elite assault troops.
The numbers of these troops are few, but each one is a grade, even high-grade expert, usually serving as mid to lower-level officers.
In critical moments, they can unleash terrifying destructive power in small-scale specialized military units.
Only the military camp has such configurations for elite assault troops.
And they are generally equipped with weapons that are more powerful than conventional crossbow arrows and guns.
So this is one of the key points where Great Spirit Legion sweeps the land.
Forget Super Grade; even Grandmasters, Three Emptiness Grandmasters, if not careful, could be defeated by these elite troops wielding high-level weapons.
What’s more, the camp also has the overseer and Snow Rainbow Pavilion’s Super Grade experts stationed.
Plus, with Kongyu himself launching a surprise attack, the sense of security far exceeds the situation with only one person at Wanghai Temple.
Screech.
Suddenly, Kongyu stopped abruptly.
He raised his head to gaze left ahead.
There, looming quietly, a group of shadows appears.
The figures are plenty, roughly forty to fifty.
Though not many in number, each one’s aura and gait are entirely different from ordinary practitioners.
"So many graded experts!?" Kongyu’s eyes narrowed, sensing things weren’t right.
Don’t underestimate graded experts. Although they’re far inferior in one-on-one to Super Grade.
If they form formations, well-trained, wielding crossbow arrows and guns, the threat they pose might even surpass Grandmasters.
"Prepare!" Kongyu knows this won’t end without conflict.
Their presence here isn’t a coincidence.
He raised his hand, signaling others to disperse, clearing space for confrontation.
"Attack!"
Kongyu rushed forward first.
Wielding his meditation staff, he deploys a set of Great Demon Subduing Staff Techniques, transforming into a shadow of staffs towards the foremost shadow.
This time, he intends to fight swiftly, so he uses full force.
The shadow of staffs, under his complete exertion, instantaneously becomes an illusion of a meditation staff, pressing forward.
With his Three Emptiness Gods’ strength, his physical attributes have long surpassed ordinary martial artists, this strike implicitly...
Bam!!!
Instantly, a huge force slammed into Kongyu’s abdomen, forcefully kicking him back more than ten meters, tumbling and flying across the ground.
The frenetic monk barely stabilized himself, spat out blood, and quickly got up.
Just as he rose, the trace of the man before him vanished.
"Who is it!? Exactly who!?!"
Frightened and a bit dazed, he wondered.
It’s like having just won the world boxing runner-up and, on the way home, bumping into a passerby he thinks he can bully.
Only to find that the other person happens to be an even stronger world boxing champion...
Who is he!?
He is the Three Emptiness Gods! Once the head honcho of the Nineteenth Road, a mountain stronghold leader!!
Yet....
Ah!!
Kongyu roared in anger, swiftly entering Extreme State, enhancing his defense and strength with Dharma Aspect Shura.
He raised his hand, firmly blocking the huge arm falling from above.
A stream of air exploded with the moment their arms collided, dragging his clothes backward.
"Ah!!!" Kongyu roared again, about to lift his leg for a knee strike upwards.
But strangely, as his body was about to rise, his opponent’s finger suddenly touched him.
With just a light touch on one spot on his right side, the force he gathered instantly deviated, losing direction.
"How...!?"
The crazed monk’s half body tilted along with the inertia, instantly losing resistance.
He didn’t even have time to use the second Extreme State before finding himself in a desperate situation.
Watching the opponent once again strike a heavy palm towards his forehead.
The palm was thick, black and red, with clearly visible dark blood vessels winding and bulging on it, rough like a poorly carved junk sculpture.
Yet, that very hand, not even as large as his own, at this moment, brought him unimaginable fear.
Whoosh!
In an instant, that palm stopped only a few centimeters away from his forehead.
The crazed monk hurriedly rolled and crawled, turning to swiftly retreat.
At that moment, he genuinely felt he was going to die.
After running more than ten meters away, Kongyu finally had the space to see why the opponent’s move had stopped just now.
He looked up carefully.
And saw behind the man in black, without knowing when, stood a towering, burly figure like an iron tower.
"Is it Kongding?!" The crazed monk focused his gaze and recognized who saved him.
As soon as he spoke, it seemed to disturb something.
Bang!!
The man in black and Kongding suddenly exchanged blows and separated, standing firm on their own.
"You go first!" Kongding’s face was calm, not even glancing at the other men in black around, his gaze locked on the man in front.
In that recent strike, his strength turned out to be slightly weaker than the opponent.
Both had anticipated moves in advance, using enemy-engaging strategies to their limits.
But ultimately, neither could dodge, and they had to face each other head-on with a palm strike.
"Who are you!? Just now... that was a technique from the Sensing Sect...."
Kongding vaguely recognized the opponent’s martial style.
If the Wester Sect’s Martial Arts were known for fierce strength.
Then the Sensing Sect’s style was ever-changing, with stark contrasts.
One second firm and ferocious, the next eerie and illusionary.
This martial style is unique to the Sensing Sect.
Kongding felt apprehensive, knowing the opponent was clearly a formidable foe. Now, the crazed monk’s side was retreating, and most of their men had already fallen.
He wasn’t sure if he could save Kongyu.
Fortunately, he glanced from the corner of his eye, seeing Kongyu genuinely take off, running like the wind towards a direction far from the beach.
Kongding relaxed a bit in his heart.
Previously, upon receiving secret intelligence from the Golden Wing Pavilion’s channels, he learned that the Copper Arm Chan Master Kong He had unexpectedly disappeared!?
How many days had it been in Citong?
Instantly he was uncertain, quickly going out to investigate and plan.
Unexpectedly, he witnessed this scene in the suburbs.
And he discovered such a mysterious adversary with grandmaster-level strength!
Kongding’s gaze was fixed on the man in black in front.
"No matter who you are, you should know the consequences of opposing the Wester Sect?"
"No need to say more. Since we’ve begun, all preparations have long been made." The man in black responded calmly.
"....." Kongding fell silent.
The opponent’s resolve was unshakable.
It seems....
Just then, the crazed monk who had run far suddenly let out a roar.
The sound, even from over a hundred meters, was clear as day.
"Not good!" Kongding’s expression changed, preparing to rush over there.
But the burly man in black moved and blocked his way again.
The two rapidly exchanged blows, engaging head-on in a powerful clash.
Bang!!
With a blast of energy waves.
Kongding halted slightly, blocked back by the opponent’s brute strength.
Such powerful strength! And it’s Hard Skill too!?
His heart was shocked.
In the distance, the crazed monk’s roar echoed again.
"Get lost!!"
Kongding became anxious, shouting in anger, and immediately his entire skin color turned black and red, with silver lines surfacing on his body, swelling instantly in size.
"Never in my life has anyone dared tell me to get lost," the man in black said coldly, his skin also reddening slightly, and his frame slightly expanding.
Though it was an almost imperceptible change, the resulting aura and pressure were much stronger than before!
Clearly, he too activated the Extreme State.
"I heard that Master Kongding is the future of Wanghai Temple, possibly a top master on par with the Grandmasters of the Yuan generation. Today I come to learn..."
"I’ll say it again, get lost! Otherwise.... today, I’ll definitely kill you!!" Kongding’s eyes shimmered more prominently in silver.
"You can try....." The man in black raised his hand, beckoning to him slightly.
*
*
*
In the forest.
The crazed monk rushed forward alone, leading the way at high speed.
But just as he entered the woods, he felt a sudden chill from his left side.
Pfft!
He raised his hand to block a strike.
Unfortunately, the force of the hit was greater than he imagined.
His body suddenly lost balance, losing the inertia of high-speed rushing, staggering to the right and crashing into a big tree.
With a muffled thud, the crazed monk lightly tapped on the tree trunk, redirecting the force to bend around and frantically flee to the right.
But that cold attack suddenly blocked his path once more.
A burly figure wearing a black mask!