Chapter 525: Chapter 525. Slain Royalty
Huang San started moving away following Amon’s instruction. He told Xin Wuming and Yang Li, "Don’t move too fast. The hole is not that big. You might miss it. Keep your eyes on the sand."
"Don’t worry, we can’t be fast even if we want to," Xin Wuming replied.
Huang San looked at the figure approaching from the distance. It adjusted its approach, following his movement. It was evident whoever was approaching had their eyes on him.
He increased his speed. In this way, the enemy wouldn’t notice the hole in the sand.
After flying for a few minutes, he sensed another person approaching from a different direction. He turned and saw a man flying over. This new arrival was not far already. He even recognized the man as one of Huang Zhan’s lackeys, whose name was Yong Kang. Huang San had his eyes fixed on the first enemy so didn’t notice Yong Kang until the man was within his sensing range.
Huang San adjusted his flight, but with two enemies dogging him, it was more difficult to keep them at bay. Additionally, Yong Kang was an Intermediate Mystic Stage cultivator. Yong Kang’s base flying speed was faster, and his movement art didn’t lose to Huang San.
The other pursuer also came close enough that Huang San could identify him. This other one was Lei Shao. He was a Beginning Mystic Stage cultivator.
Huang San tried his best to continue moving. The longer and further he could keep these men from the fire hole, the more unlikely they were to disrupt Xin Wuming and Yang Li. Anyone from Huang Zhan’s team still unaccounted for was most likely on their way to either his or Amon’s positions.
Huang San sensed Yong Kang unleashing an attack in his direction. He quickly adjusted his flight. An arrow swept past his original flight path. He turned to Yong Kang and saw him stretching the string of a long bow. Yong Kang let go of the string and an arrow shot at high speed toward him.
The speed of the arrow was faster than one fired by a normal bowman. This was because Yong Kang used a martial art to fire his arrow. If not for the sufficient distance, Huang San would have a problem dodging.
The first two shots seemed to be only warm-up assaults because Yong Kang performed rapid shooting afterward. His hand turned into blurs as he picked an arrow, nocked it in the string, pulled, fired, and repeated the process all over again.
Consecutive arrows shot in Huang San’s direction. Yong Kang’s shootings were not only fast, but they were also accurate. Each shot followed Huang San’s adjustment in flight. This caused Huang San to adjust non-stop. He couldn’t keep this up and was forced to use his golden longsword to parry the arrows.
Because of this, his other pursuer, Lei Shao, managed to catch up. Lei Shao didn’t waste time. He closed in and attacked using a mace. He imbued the mace with the fire element. Each swing resulted in a burst of fire.
Because of the fire bursts, Huang San avoided a direct clash with Lei Shao. He used his arcane art, the barbed whip, to keep Lei Shao at bay. As for his golden sword, he used it to block Yong Kang’s arrows.
Huang San knew he couldn’t win against these two. He tried using his status to intimidate them. "How dare you assault a royalty! Aren’t you afraid I will keep a grudge once I ascend the throne?"
Instead of getting intimidated, the two laughed instead.
Yong Kang said after a short laugh, "Your Highness, first of all, the one who will ascend the throne is Prince Huang Zhan. Secondly, we are not afraid of the grudge from the deceased."
Huang San frowned upon hearing that. "What do you mean by that?"
Lei Shao answered him, "You will not be the first royalty we slew in this trial space, nor will you be the last."
"How about you try using your escape stone? Hehe," Yong Kang added.
Huang San’s plan to intimidate the two had backfired instead. What the two said caused him to have unsettling thoughts. Due to that, his concentration wavered. One of Yong Kang’s arrows slipped past his defense and grazed his arm. If not for his royal clothes, which were highly resistant to sharp weapons, the enemy would have drawn first blood. Even so, his rhythm was disrupted, and he was forced into the back foot.
"You said I will not be the first royalty you slew in this trial, who was the one you referred to?" Huang San asked as he retreated. He conjured a gust filled with countless leaf darts to assail the two.
When Yong Kang and Lei Shao only responded with wicked grins, Huang San demanded, "Answer me...!!"
"Hehe, you will be meeting your brother in the afterlife soon," Lei Shao replied.
Huang San’s eyes turned wide. "Are you saying brother Zi is..."
"Ask your brother in the afterlife...!" Lei Shao exclaimed. He charged forward under the support of Yong Kang’s arrows and executed a high swing.
Huang San used movement art that displaced his position just as the mace came swinging. The mace slammed into the ground, which to Lei Shao’s surprise, was thick with vines. These vines came alive once they came into contact with his mace. They snared his body, preventing him from moving.
While Huang San was indeed perturbed by what they told him about Huang Zi, he was not inattentive. Instead, he pretended to be rattled to bait them into making a reckless assault. He prepared his wood-element arcane art under his feet and waited for the enemy to take the bait. Lei Shao did and was bound by his entangling vines.
Nevertheless, Huang San couldn’t follow up with an attack that finished Lei Shao, because Yong Kang stepped up his game after seeing his partner being incapacitated. He used an arcane art that fired countless arrows made of light.
These light arrows rushed toward Huang San from different directions. Huang San used his longsword and barbed whip to parry them while continued retreating. The arrows chased after him. Only after he parried every single arrow did the assault stop.
When the last arrow was blocked, he sensed something coming at him from behind. He had been so focused on blocking the light arrows that he was almost late in sensing this incoming. He used his displacement movement art again. However, the art didn’t displace him far enough. He felt something hard slammed into his side.
"Ugh...!!" He endured the pain. He learned that the thing that slammed into him was someone’s foot.
He had a good look at his attacker then. It was a woman in armor. He recognized her from the list of Huang Zhan’s underlings. Her name was Gan Mei. She was an Intermediate Mystic Stage cultivator. She specialized in martial arts that focused on kicking. Her martial arts were called the Flamboyant Killing Legs. The pain he felt in his side told him not to underestimate this opponent.
Gan Mei lunged. Her legs moved in a confusing series of combos. Her kicks were fierce and fast. Huang San wasn’t given the chance to recuperate. He had to step back continuously while using his longsword to block the never-ending kicks. He tried using his barbed whip to capture her legs, but all the whip captured were her afterimages.
While Gan Mei kept Huang San busy, Lei Shao channeled his strength and broke free from the entangling vines. He then charged forward, joining Gan Mei.
As for Yong Kang, he circled to Huang San’s back. He wanted to score a killing shot while Huang San was preoccupied. He pulled his bow and was ready to end this battle, but something he sensed from his back made him cancel his attempt.
He swiveled back and found his view covered by fierce flames. He fired the arrow he had nocked into the flames before jumping away. His arrow disappeared into the fire without injuring his attacker, but the flames also failed to hit him.
The flames rushed away after disrupting him. He saw, as the flames past him by, a woman riding inside the raging fire.
The woman was Yang Li. Huang San was their liege. If he was gone, then this trial would be for naught. So, even though Amon asked Huang San to lure the enemy away, he didn’t let him deal with those enemies alone. He commanded Yang Li to rush to Huang San’s aid.
After finding Huang San, Yang Li activated Concealed Ghost Body to get as close to the enemy as possible before she attacked. The raging flames surrounding her came from a combination of her Burning Hand and Scorching Field. His mastery of the Scorching Field had already reached the Master level. The fire generated by this arcane art not only deflected attacks but also constantly burned nearby enemies. Thanks to her S-level fire affinity, the generated flames were as if a blanket of fire on her body.