The sword in Ye Tianshang’s hand erupted with light, a red sun appearing on its tip and shooting at Peng Yaolong.
While the Sunthrust Godshaker wasn’t a secret art of the Divine Firmament Sword Classic, it was an immensely powerful spell art, and even Peng Yaolong had to take it cautiously. His body surged with power as he thrust out his palm.
As their powers clashed, a shockwave rippled through the cave. Ye and Peng separated, and while Ye Tianshang yelled as he jumped away, Peng Yaolong only staggered back a few steps.
In terms of strength, Peng Yaolong was clearly superior.
But as Ye Tianshang drew back in defeat, Liu Yuan silently came up and thrust out his finger.
As the finger struck Peng Yaolong, Peng Yaolong furiously roared and swung a punch at Liu Yuan. The two of them separated, and while Liu Yuan threw up blood, a geyser of blood shot out from Peng Yaolong’s back. It was clear that he had been rather badly injured.
At this moment, the Frost Fairy suddenly made her move.
She laughed and waved her hands, summoning another wave of ice.
This wave was much larger than the previous, the entirety of the Frigid Pond sloshing with ice and water. In the distance, the ice trees also began to unleash great clouds of ice bats at the students.
In a flash, the cave was engulfed in a blizzard, and everyone who had been fighting just now was swept up in it.
“Now!” An Rumeng called out. “Protect me!”
Long Dao laughed, putting an arrow on his bow and loosing it.
But rather than at the ice sprite or the students, he aimed the arrow at the distant Red Lotus.
An Rumeng moved at the same time.
She moved with incredible speed, following right behind the arrow.
The arrow created sparks in the air as it flew, aimed at the air above the Red Lotus. It melted the ice wherever it went, opening a passage through this world of ice.
An Rumeng moved so quickly behind the arrow that she seemed like an illusion, a streak of white.
Among Spirit Platform Realm students, this was simply unbelievable. This speed was something that even few at the Mortal Shedding Realm could match!
But An Rumeng was doing it.
She chased the arrow, flying along the passage its fire had created.
As the arrow passed over the Red Lotus, An Rumeng appeared on the surface of the pond.
She turned around, her slender fingers moving to grab the Red Lotus.
With a single tug, she easily plucked it.
She had moved so quickly that everyone was stunned. Before anyone could react, the Red Lotus was in An Rumeng’s hand.
“Success!” Long Dao was ecstatic.
Hiss! The Frost Fairy angrily hissed, her eyes shining as she fired two freezing beams at An Rumeng.
An Rumeng turned around, dodging those dark beams of light, and as her feet lightly tiptoed on the water, they didn’t create a single ripple.
At the same time, she moved to place the Red Lotus in her Mustard Seed Bag.
But just as the Red Lotus was about to enter her bag, a figure exploded out of the water, grabbing An Rumeng and shooting into the air.
“Tang Jie!” Everyone cried out in surprise.
Tang Jie had not been seen since he had been knocked into the lake, so everyone had forgotten about him. It was only when he suddenly appeared that everyone realized that there was another party here after the Red Lotus.
Tang Jie was drenched in blood, and the body of a fish that had had its belly sliced open floated up to the surface. As he hugged An Rumeng, he flashed a smile of shiny white teeth and said, “So sorry!”
He grabbed the Red Lotus out of An Rumeng’s hand.
“You!” An Rumeng tried to struggle free, but her specialty was speed, not strength, so she naturally couldn’t overcome Tang Jie’s brute strength.
As Tang Jie stole the Red Lotus, Long Dao frantically said, “Tang Jie, go and die!”
He loosed another arrow. In his panic, he didn’t even care about what happened to An Rumeng.
At the same time, An Rumeng struck Tang Jie in the belly with her knee.
Tang Jie took the attack head-on, embracing An Rumeng and falling back into the water.
The arrow brushed past both of them, and just as the pair was about to hit the water, Meng Shixue suddenly charged out and pointed at the pond. “Freeze!”
A large swath of the pond surface instantly froze.
Tang Jie and An Rumeng landed on this ice and failed to enter the water, instead rolling.
Tang Jie hadn’t expected to not enter the water, and a moment later, An Rumeng thrust a palm at Tang Jie’s hand, sending the Red Lotus flying.
“Get the Red Lotus!” everyone shouted in unison.
A moment later, the Frost Fairy, Peng Yaolong, Ye Tianshang, Liu Yuan, and all the other students rushed out.
The spectating Cai Junyang also joined the fray, his sword erupting with light.
Wei Tianchong’s puppet, the fiend fox, the little tiger, and Yiyi also took action, and the cave grew even more chaotic.
The Iceflame Red Lotus danced amid the spell arts, but it was not destroyed. However, it didn’t even get the chance to hit the ground.
Countless people were going back and forth, reaching for the Red Lotus.
Ye Tianshang was rather fast, but just when he was about to grab the Red Lotus, Peng Yaolong grabbed him. And as Liu Yuan was about to charge out, the Frost Fairy forced him back with a stream of ice.
Long Dao loosed arrow after arrow. The spell arts he cultivated weren’t suited for this kind of battle, so he could only try and create a chance for An Rumeng. But An Rumeng was in a struggle with Tang Jie and was unable to use her peerless movement techniques. In contrast, Tang Jie was able to use his body to its full extent, exhibiting his fine physique. Alas, at this critical juncture, no one was in the mood to admire it.
As everyone battled, a figure suddenly rushed out.
“Qi Shaoming!” everyone cried out.
This person who had rushed out at high speeds was none other than Qi Shaoming.
No one knew when he had come. He might have just arrived or have been lying in wait for ages and only chosen this moment to rush out.
His sword flashed as he called, “Passing Shadow Phantom Clone Slash!”
Qi Shaoming instantly turned into ten people, all of them lunging at the Red Lotus!
“Stop him!” Long Dao screamed.
But just like how Tang Jie had his tough constitution and An Rumeng had her supreme speed, Qi Shaoming relied on his phantom clones to gain victory amid the chaos.
The illusions shattered under the concentrated attack, but two of them still managed to reach the lotus.
One of them grabbed the lotus and stuffed it into a bag while the other illusion covered it. As it broke apart under a concerted attack, Qi Shaoming was already fleeing into the distance.
He had come and left so suddenly that everyone was caught off guard. Just as it seemed like Qi Shaoming was about to succeed, Tang Jie shouted, “I have darkswamp grass!”
Qi Shaoming trembled.
He had entered the Valley of No Return for the sake of darkswamp grass, with the Red Lotus being a secondary goal. Alas, darkswamp grass was difficult to find, and he had searched the entire valley and found nothing, so he had decided to settle for the Red Lotus.
He hadn’t expected Tang Jie to say this just as he was about to succeed.
Turning around, Qi Shaoming looked at Tang Jie and said, “For real?”
Tang Jie immediately stuck a hand in his Mustard Seed Bag and threw something at Qi Shaoming. “For you!”
It was truly darkswamp grass.
This was truly the perfect time to throw it out.
Qi Shaoming had helped him before, so he didn’t want to directly fight with him, and it wasn’t like this was a situation where they could negotiate. Moreover, the value of the darkswamp grass couldn’t match that of the Red Lotus.
So he decided to just throw the darkswamp grass.
The moment it appeared, Qi Shaoming had no choice but to grab it.
And if he grabbed it, it would mean that he would have a much harder time escaping.
And a deal didn’t matter. All that mattered was a chance!
Sure enough, Qi Shaoming’s brief pause allowed the students and the Frost Fairy to attack Qi Shaoming.
Gritting his teeth, Qi Shaoming flashed as he once more used the Passing Shadow Phantom Clone Slash.
Nine figures appeared, rushing at the crowd, while the original body grabbed the darkswamp grass.
No one fought him over it, so Qi Shaoming was able to grab it easily, but this meant that it was too late to escape, and everyone rushed up, unleashing spell arts.
With no other choice, Qi Shaoming decisively chose to throw the Red Lotus at Tang Jie. “For you!”
He wasn’t after the lotus anyway, and he had taken it mainly in order to trade for resources. Now that he had the resource he wanted, he decided to pass the hot potato to Tang Jie.
As the Red Lotus flew out, everyone lunged at it. This little lotus was the heartstring of desire, pulling at everyone’s hearts.
As the Red Lotus flew over, Tang Jie finally broke free from An Rumeng.
He had embraced this beauty for long enough, and he reached out toward the Red Lotus.
Qi Shaoming used his phantoms to spread out enemy attacks, but Tang Jie relied on his powerful body to just take them all. With the Formless Golden Body bolstering him, Tang Jie shot toward the Red Lotus like a cannonball, disregarding all the spell arts shooting at him.
Just as he was about to close his hand, another hand grabbed his wrist.
It was Peng Yaolong.
With the Apex Combat True Astral, Peng Yaolong could endure attacks just like Tang Jie.
This collision of two musclemen instantly created a powerful shockwave.
Tang Jie’s Formless Golden Body couldn’t defeat Peng Yaolong’s Apex Combat True Astral, and it instantly shattered. But as the Formless Golden Body disappeared, Peng Yaolong bounced back like he had run into an iron board.
“How could that be?” Peng Yaolong roared.
His spell art was clearly better than Tang Jie’s, but he had lost to Tang Jie in a competition of strength. This was simply too absurd.
Tang Jie punched at the ice.
His powerful strike instantly opened a large hole in the surface.
Tang Jie instantly disappeared into the water.
“Bastard!” In a panic, Long Dao began to loose arrow after arrow into the water, and An Rumeng dived in.
But just as she entered the water, she felt a powerful force that instantly pushed her back out.
“What’s going on?” Long Dao frantically asked.
“I’m not sure.” An Rumeng was also confused. The attack had come too quickly, and she wasn’t able to maintain her normal agility in the water, so she was sent flying out before she could even tell what was going on.
“Damn it!” Long Dao stomped his feet.
The Frigid Pond encompassed the entire cave, and Tang Jie could come out anywhere and flee as fast as he could. Chasing him down was impossible.
Liu Yuan suddenly said, “The servant student has run off, but the young master is still here.”
Everyone turned to look at Wei Tianchong.
Wei Tianchong paled, and Cai Junyang shouted, “Run!”
It would be reasonable to say that he had already completed the mission Tang Jie had given him, but he didn’t think so. In his view, since he had been paid by Tang Jie, he would carry out this protection mission until the very end.