Chapter 179 – A Quick Escalation

“There’s movement in the east as well, however the strength……” The Sixth Elder looked at the Blue colored lights which were flying towards their target from the east, and coldly stated: “The strongest is only a Sky Xuan. Well, these guys are a bit overconfident….. They shouldn’t be any trouble for you Third brother, so we’ll just head out south.”

The third elder nodded gently as his two companions spread out their arms, and burst out southwards like flying meteors.

The Sixth and the Ninth Elders’ body cut past the storm and towards their new target. The Sixth Elder opened his mouth and shouted in a resonating voice: “Silver Blizzard City’s greetings to Brother Shi Chang Xiao and Fei Meng Chen!”

Shi Chang Xiao’s figure suddenly came to a halt mid-air, and he started staring blankly at the two Elders from the Silver Blizzard City: “It’s you guys!”

Fei Meng Chen also stopped and then broke into laughter: “It’s a small world, and one can never be sure who you bump into these days. I would have never thought that we’d run into the Third, the Sixth and the Ninth Elder of the Silver Blizzard City here; It’s nice to meet you though!”

He realized that since only two of the three Elders had come to greet them, the third one must have gone ahead to seize the Xuan Core, which is why he chose his words carefully and hoped that Shi Chang Xiao would understand the meaning.

Although winning the Xuan Core was already being estimated to be fairly difficult task, but allowing the Silver Blizzard City’s people to take it away this easily was out of question. These three Elders were all inside the Spirit Xuan realm, which is why beating one or maybe even two was possible for Shi Chang Xiao, however defeating all three wasn’t possible for even a man with his skill.

Shi Chang Xiao smiled as he nodded, but his Spirit Xuan eyes remained motionlessly glued to the two men obstructing his path as he calmly stated: “Step aside!”

“Where are you planning on going brother?” the Ninth Elder smiled: “Tell us; After all, we’re old friends, and if you two gentlemen have some urgent business then we could always help you out if you wish it.”

“You think you can stop me?” Shi Chang Xiao sneered: “Even Han Feng Xue wouldn’t dare to muster such courage!”

Although they were all Spirit Xuan experts, but Shi Chang Xiao was one of the ‘Eight Great Masters’, which meant that his strength had already reached the pinnacle of the Spirit Xuan realm, whereas even the strongest of these three Silver Blizzard City’s elders had only managed to reach the peak of Spirit Xuan realm’s foundation. And this gap was quite large! Naturally, Shi Chang Xiao was more than qualified to say these words since needn’t fear them as much. But as far as Fei Meng Chen and others were concerned, they were quite terrified of being caught up in the middle of their battle.

“Elder Brother Shi, please don’t say such a thing. We haven’t even seen each other in ages, and now that we’ve met on such a sultry night and with such amazing autumn drizzling to make this evening even better…. We must definitely sit down together and have a cup of that special Silver Blizzard City tea that I’ve brought with me.” The Sixth Elder continued to talk nonsense; in fact, he had even managed to refer to the downpour of rain as ‘drizzling’, and the thundering dark sky as ‘sultry’; on top of that, he had even managed to invite his ‘dear friends’ over for a cup of tea!

“Ha ha…..” Shi Chang Xiao broke into laughter. His laughter continued to get louder and louder, almost to the point where it started replacing the deafening thunderbolts!

Another bolt of lightning pierced through the sky and the light from it lit up the sky, but only to reveal the deathly-pale expression on everyone’s faces!

Shi Chang Xiao had burst into action at the same time as that lightening had stricken, and the palms of his two hands were almost upon the chests of the Six and the Ninth elder now!

“You’re truly worth of being called a ‘Great Master’ brother!” the Sixth and the Ninth elder shouted back at the same time as they dodged his attack.

Even though these two men were Spirit Xuan experts, they were both well aware that they wouldn’t be able to defeat the man they were confronted with, and would only be able to make a temporary stand against him at best. Moreover, Fei Meng Chen was waiting on the sidelines for the right opportunity. The Sixth and the Ninth elder simply couldn’t dare to neglect the gravity of the situation, and hence they immediately mustered their entire Xuan Qi and moved into action!

They shot out at the same time, but found their attacks repelled and their bodies flying backwards through the falling rain; ‘Cling’ ‘Cling’, and suddenly two silver colored blades lit up the sky.

It was the Flying Snow Swords!

A wall of the snow encased the entire sky ahead as the two men blocked their paths once again!

Shi Chang Xiao roared out in excitement: “It seems that you two are catching up to Han Feng Xue after all; your expertise with that sword is reaching your master’s expertise!” They attacked with their swords, but he was able to dodge them with ease.

“It’s like the Elder Brother said; I’m catching up with Han Feng Xue’s skills”. The Sixth Elder’s body started moving erratically in the sky as he mustered his entire Xuan Qi and burst out.

“Then don’t hold back!” Shi Chang Xiao roared as he moved forward furiously. Even though the Six Elder had stated that he wasn’t far behind Han Feng Xue now, but he was still far behind his superior in reality. Therefore, he was obviously in no position to match a man like Shi Chang Xiao with ease. Their bodies started spinning around in the air like bats in the midnight sky, making for a marvelous spectacle.

Suddenly, Shi Chang Xiao’s figure came to an abrupt halt in the mid-air. Suddenly, several silhouettes started disintegrating from his body, painting a very strange and baffling scene in the sky, almost as if several Shi Chang Xiao were standing in a line in the middle of the sky… at the same time!

Whoosh!

A strange piercing sound was issued as all these figures brazenly came crashing down on that snow wall, and smashed it into pieces!

Simultaneously, Fei Meng Chen charged past the Sixth Elder at a lightning fast pace, and rushed towards that small cabin!

His timing was simply perfect!

The Sixth and the Ninth Elder were left with just two options in that moment: One, to stop the charging Fei Meng Chen, or two, to stop the deadly incoming strike of Shi Chang Xiao’s from killing them! There was no way in which they could have obstructed Fei Meng Chen while blocking this deadly strike from Shi Chang Xiao!

Jun Mo Xie was sitting alone in that small cabin with closed eyes as he continued to pour more Aura into the Xuan Core. He suddenly opened his eyes, and burst out of the cabin; a big hole split open in the roof of that cabin the moment he escaped out of it, which was followed by another loud ‘bang’, and a white-haired elderly man rushed out after him, while the cabin shook a bit and then eventually collapsed to the ground.

The Third Elder looked that Xuan Core in Jun Mo Xie’s hands, and then smiled kindly as he stated in a calm voice: “Sire, an innocent man like yourself mustn’t get into trouble on account of such a cherished item; what you’re carrying is called a Xuan Core, and if you hand it over to this Old man, then I will defend your life in return. Your life for this Xuan Core, Sire; It’s a fair deal!”

“Fair, really? This Xuan Core and my life are both my own, and I can protect them both! Anyway, since several distinguished experts such as yourself have made their way to the Tian Xiang City for this Xuan Core, I don’t think that you’d be able defend me from them all!” Jun Mo Xie’s face was beginning to get tense under the effect of his thoughts: how come only one? Where have all those other damned idiots gone off to die?! Don’t tell me that I exposed this Xuan Core at the wrong spot!

His mouth was rambling incoherently at the moment; after all, he was faced with a Spirit Xuan expert at the moment!

I’m sure that if he decides to act, then this Xuan Core will be in his hands and not mine……

Is this guy really going to get away with this so easily? Why are those other people so damn slow?

The Young Master Jun knew that there was no room for mistake here since it was rather obvious that this man wouldn’t stop at anything to procure this Xuan Core. Moreover, the strength of this man was far superior than his own, which was rather obvious from his speed of arrival and the collapsing house in the background!

Even if he was somehow able to dodge the man’s attack, he was sure that he wouldn’t be able retain the Xuan Core; therefore, if he acted rashly at this time, then this entire fiasco would end up bringing more harm than good!

“This Old man is the Third Elder of the Silver Blizzard City; I believe that has some credibility attached to it. As long as you hand over this Xuan Core to me, I promise that you will exit this place safely!” The Third Elder stepped forwards as he smiled again.

Being a Spirit Xuan expert, the Third Elder had already identified that this masked man’s Xuan Qi wasn’t very high, and he would be able to grab hold of this man even before the man could take one step away!

However……

Power isn’t the only thing one can rely on; intelligence and wits are also often very resourceful! Jun Mo Xie was well aware that fighting against a Spirit Xuan would be tantamount to courting death!

Therefore Jun Mo Xie needed to buy himself some time; enough for the other competitors to show up!

Suddenly a green colored light flashed out of Jun Mo Xie’s body, and slowly started turning darker and darker as it enveloped his entire body, making it seem as if a giant, dazzling human-shaped emerald was standing in the middle of the rainy street.

“Jade Xuan Peak? Ha ha, that won’t be sufficient ah.” The Third Elder shook his head as he stated in a sorry tone. He had already made up his mind to take the Xuan Core by force since the man in front was only a Jade Xuan expert; such people would normally be regarded as good quality experts in the eyes of normal people, but in the eyes of a Spirit Xuan expert, such people were nothing more than a ‘joke’!

Or perhaps even ants!

He was a bit careful earlier since he was completely unaware of the man’s strength; but now, he was planning on simply taking the Xuan Core by force!

The Third Elder was absolutely certain that he’d be able to grab the Xuan Core the moment he shot out, and was sure that the man in front wouldn’t even be able to destroy the Xuan Core in time, if he chose to in order to protect himself!

But at this very moment, he discovered something extremely strange!

And this particular thing was strange enough to seize his footsteps in their stead!

The green-colored light encompassing Jun Mo Xie’s body had suddenly disappeared, and had been replaced by a faint yellow light, which immediately after transformed into a khaki colored light in the blink of an eye! Then, this light slowly transformed into a deep brown colored light, and started dazzling in the rain in a very elegant and magnificent manner!

How’s this possible?

How can someone’s Xuan Qi realm change from Jade Xuan peak to Earth Xuan Peak like this?

The Third Elder had travelled extensively over the course of his lifespan, but this was the first time that he was witnessing something so weird and mysterious! What is this guy’s true Xuan Qi level?