”N-no way… this… this cannot be true…”

Song Guanyu fell to his knees.

He was looking up as did the three female Imperial Family members and all of their entourage.

Even the previously inconsolable uncle and grandfather stopped their sobbing over their crumbled dreams, joining the others in looking up into the sky.

All of their eyes reflected a man with a hand thrust into the lifeless body of a withering bird.

They could not see the entire battle, as it was too fast for their eyes to capture, only seeing the echoes of it in the shadows painted on the dark clouds.

In less time than it took for the barrier dome to completely envelop the area, the battle was over.

But then, a beam of yellowish light coming from the East lit the dark clouds again, heading straight for the man and the bird, easily piercing the already almost complete barrier, as if some Heavenly flame both lighting up the sky and igniting a glimmer of hope in the eyes of the Imperial Family members.

“Heh, finally decided to take a shot?”

The corners of Wu Long’s lips curled up as he recognized the attack as the same one that once shattered the Sect Protective Formation of the Brilliant Sun Temple.

However, as the beam came within 100 meters of Wu Long whose hand was still inside the withering Azure Eagle, it suddenly split in two, the two halves passing to the sides.

“Thanks, Ling’er”

Wu Long chuckled.

The shot was actually very well-timed, as Wu Long would have had to lose the last, and coincidentally most precious, bits of the Azure Eagle’s bloodline power to block it.

“Anytime, My Love”

Ye Ling stood on the walls of the Mansion, sheathing her sword with a bead of sweat going down the side of her forehead, but a bright smile blooming on her lips.

Wu Long’s figure then disappeared along with the bird corpse.

The grass plains below which fell into darkness again after the bright glow of the attack dissipated, were once again basked in the light of a myriad lightnings.

An old man with a thin mustache and goatee stood on top of a distant rocky peak in the Serpent’s Spine mountain range.

His hands holing a bow were still in a position of someone who just shot an arrow when he widened his eyes.

He saw the very moment his attack was cleanly cut in half and then a rapidly approaching chain of lightnings still far off in the distance, but that would approach him within mere dozens of seconds of a Mortal’s time perception.

Seeing that speed, he gave up any thoughts of being able to flee in time and fired off several arrows, one after the other while flying up and away to try and at least maintain some kind of distance for as long as he could.

*Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*

Loud explosions rang out along with the rumbling of thunder as his attacks exploded not reaching their target by a few dozens of meters while it got closer and closer.

Neither feint arrows nor invisible arrows worked as his target only slightly lost speed to deal with each attack but not enough to matter for him.

Suddenly, the old man stopped moving away, putting down his bow with the already nocked arrow, as the bow slowly took its usual undrawn shape.

“Heh, you win, young fellow”

A smile appeared on his face, as a small stream of blood started trickling down the corner of his mouth.

“Well fought”

Wu Long, standing behind and a little to the right of the old man, turned his head to the side to look back at the latter.

Wu Long’s spear was held comfortably at a natural angle, a drop of blood going down the blade while his figure was basked in the bluish white glow of thick lightning arcs coiling around him.

His eyes revealed a slightly surprised look coupled with a somber respect for the way this archer took his defeat.

*Rumble! Rumble!*

The thunder reached the vicinity, as a bloody line appeared on the old man’s neck, and then his body was swallowed by lightning, disappearing in it.

Only a smoking Spatial Ring fell down to the palm of Wu Long’s hand after the flash of light subsided.

“Now, let’s quickly deal with the aftermath and go back to get Mengqi, Mingyu, and Cui’er”

He chuckled, not willing to spend much time on anything right now, as the first confrontation that happened before this one started to take its toll on him.

“Fuu~, still a bit tough…”

He breathed out on the way, going over what happened and analyzing his current strengths and weaknesses.

No matter how easy the battle with the Azure Eagle looked from the outside, that victory did not come easy for Wu Long at all.

Part of what made it look that way was that it was short, but that was an illusion, as the short time span of the confrontation was something forced by Wu Long instead of natural.

Not only did he force the opponent to be focused on escaping the rapidly closing barrier dome, creating a sense of urgency and numbing his perception of what was happening, but he also made sure to always propel the pace of the fight without giving the Spiritual Beast any breathing time.

‘Heh, while it is now not a problem to match Reinforced Qi of Essence Awakening Realm cultivators it still is a heck of a drain on my reserves of Spiritual Qi’

Wu Long chuckled.

In truth, aiming for a short decisive battle was his style of combat, each move made with the intention to strike the opponent, but it was also a necessity in this particular case.

Because the longer the battle dragged on, the more advantage would the Azure Eagle have gained.

‘If he had enough time to think he might’ve managed to realize I was manipulating the wind to bridge the gap in our speeds too…

As I thought, I need to at least reach Core Formation Realm before facing Gu Zhen, or I would be outmatched in basic parameters’

Wu Long narrowed his eyes as he rapidly approached the place he left not that long ago.

Another factor which made the battle look easy was that it went smoothly for Wu Long from the beginning to the end, but that also was the wrong way to look at it, as he used his complete knowledge of the opponent’s abilities, as well as the tactical advantage he created beforehand to achieve that result.

And even then, he had to exert all of his current capabilities to the full, condensing it into a short but incredibly intense struggle.

‘Well, at least Gu Zhen’s subordinates should be no problem now, for the most part’

A light chuckle escaped Wu Long’s lips.

The reason the second confrontation was truly far easier for Wu Long was in part due to the fact this was an Archery Cultivator.

The old man did not stand a chance against Wu Long as long as he could not maintain distance, and his main strength was firing at a range normal cultivators would not even be able to detect him at, let alone being able to cross in such a short time.

But it was also due to the fact that Azure Eagles were actually far more formidable opponents than any of Gu Zhen’s subordinates.

There was a reason these Spiritual Beasts were confident against anyone except Gu Zhen or Zhao Xieren in this war, despite the vast difference in numbers of cultivators in the Seven Profound Realms on both sides, as the likes of Do Bishui or this archer did not stand a chance against them one-on-

one.

Case in point, the Azure Eagle that Wu Long slayed earlier was faster than him in base speed, and could tank the archer’s attacks instead of striking them down as Wu Long did.

Thus, if the two were to fight each other, it would have been the same result, with the archer dying, only even faster.

Azure Eagles were members of a Spiritual Beast Race with incredibly high combat capabilities, whose lifespan was on average triple that of humans in the same Realm.

Thus while most human cultivators in the Seven Profound Realms in this Fractured World were in their dusk years, the Azure Eagles were actually still in their prime.

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