Chapter 70: A Trump Card Within a Trump Card

“My apologies, Junior Brother Pu. It seems you won’t be able to enter the Taichu Mountain of Heroic Spirits.” Though Yelu Qi’s words were apologetic, his actions were anything but. With a few quick hand seals, the tiger talisman swelled to several times its size, becoming as large as a small house.

This Talisman Beast was made from the soul of a full-grown, magnificent tiger. In its talisman form, it not only retained the tiger’s ferocity but, under his masterful control, its attack power was multiplied. A mere Tenth-Leaf cultivator like Pu Hanzhong stood no chance against it.

“Yelu Qi, do you know the consequences of violating the sect’s rules?” Pu Hanzhong demanded, his face grim. He secretly gestured to Qin Haoxuan, signaling for him to run while he held them off.

A Twentieth-Leaf expert. Qin Haoxuan had never faced such power. The immense pressure made his legs tremble uncontrollably. He wanted to flee, but seeing his senior brother’s gesture, his feet felt rooted to the spot. How could he use his senior brother’s life to buy himself a chance to escape?

“Junior Brother Pu, do you really think you can hold me back?” Yelu Qi’s eyes held a trace of mockery. “Neither of you is leaving today. I have no desire to face the sect’s punishment, so I’m afraid I’ll have to trouble you both to die at the bottom of that thousand-fathom cliff.”

Pu Hanzhong formed a hand seal, and his own talisman dog grew with the wind, quickly reaching the size of a water buffalo. Though it was dwarfed by the tiger, its body shimmered with a faint, colorful light.

“An old dog dares to show off?”

Yelu Qi wasted no more words. He directed the tiger talisman with a flick of his fingers. With a muffled roar, it charged Pu Hanzhong, kicking up a foul wind. The immense pressure of its approach beaded Pu Hanzhong’s forehead with sweat.

“Hah, beast!” Pu Hanzhong didn’t hesitate. He commanded his own talisman dog to intercept. But his dog was not only smaller, it lacked the tiger’s innate ferocity. The tiger was the king of beasts, and this one had been a lord among tigers. Pu Hanzhong’s talisman was just an old dog. The disparity was too great.

The battle began, and in an instant, the tiger swatted the dog aside with a single swipe of its paw. Fissures appeared on the talisman’s paper body. But Pu Hanzhong’s skill in Taming was truly remarkable. He immediately commanded the unfeeling talisman to leap back into the fray. He turned and yelled, “Haoxuan! Run! Do you want me to die here for nothing?”

Qin Haoxuan hesitated no longer. Staying would only cost both their lives, and his presence would only distract his senior brother. But just as he turned to flee, Zhang Kuang moved to block his path.

“Qin Haoxuan, where are you rushing off to? Don’t you want to see how your senior brother dies?” Zhang Kuang said with a grin, forming the hand seals to control Yelu Qi’s other talisman dog. “I thought you were so righteous. What’s this? Abandoning your senior brother to save your own skin?”

The dog shook its head and grew to the size of a calf. With a savage bark, it launched itself at Qin Haoxuan, its charge tearing up chunks of turf and making the ground tremble.

Qin Haoxuan twisted his body, narrowly dodging the attack. He was secretly thankful for his opponent’s clumsy control; if the dog had stayed low to the ground instead of leaping, it could have pivoted and been on him in an instant. Zhang Kuang wasn’t flustered by the miss. His hands blurred through a series of complex seals, the talent of his Purple Seed on full display. The talisman dog’s movements became noticeably quicker.

Meanwhile, Pu Hanzhong’s dog was sent tumbling by a sweep of the tiger’s tail. The feedback sent a jolt through him, and he coughed up a mouthful of blood. The dog talisman crashed through two trees before stopping, its body covered in deep cracks. The gap in power was simply too vast. Even with his skill, Pu Hanzhong couldn’t last much longer.

As he dodged the dog, Qin Haoxuan saw his senior brother’s desperate situation. Panic seized him. If that talisman shattered, it would be over. I have to help! Spiritual Sense! Come out!

The golden, mist-like Spiritual Sense in his mind rapidly converged, forming a swirling vortex. He struggled and managed to condense it into a single, invisible beam of golden light and shot it directly at Yelu Qi.

Controlling the tiger, Yelu Qi was suddenly struck by a searing pain deep within his brain. It was so intense that he dropped to his knees with a cry. In that instant, the tiger talisman lost its master’s control, crashing through several more trees before coming to a dead stop.

Qin Haoxuan cursed his luck. A few more meters, and the tiger would have gone over the cliff. Not even Yelu Qi could have recalled it from that abyss.

“Senior Brother!” Qin Haoxuan roared. Pu Hanzhong’s dog was already airborne, ramming into the motionless tiger. This was their best chance.

Yelu Qi, his head throbbing, was terrified. He scanned his surroundings, thinking of the strange rumors about Hundred Beasts Mountain, of powerful beasts that had mysteriously killed even master cultivators. Has some powerful creature set its sights on me? he wondered in a panic.

BAM!

The tiger was knocked back. Pu Hanzhong frantically sent his dog to ram it again and again, pushing it inch by inch toward the cliff’s edge.

“Get lost!”

Seeing his prize about to be lost, Yelu Qi roared, forcing himself to focus. He regained control of the tiger just long enough for it to swat the charging dog away, sending it flying with several new cracks splintering across its body.

So close! Pu Hanzhong lamented. Qin Haoxuan was even more frustrated. If he knew a proper method for cultivating his Spiritual Sense, he might have been able to turn Yelu Qi into an idiot with that first strike, or at least stun him long enough for the tiger to fall.

Yelu Qi redirected his tiger. It let out a deep roar that echoed through the forest and then charged Pu Hanzhong’s battered dog, an unstoppable force of nature. Qin Haoxuan saw that his senior brother’s talisman was on its last legs; this single charge would be the end of it. He quickly gathered his Spiritual Sense for another attack.

Pain! Though Yelu Qi was braced for it, the mental assault was impossible to block. This time, the agony made him scream and clutch his head, dropping to his knees again. The tiger’s charge halted just two feet from its target. An instant slower, and the impact alone would have shattered Pu’s dog.

Pu Hanzhong seized the opening. His dog bypassed the frozen tiger and shot directly towards the vulnerable Yelu Qi.

BAM! BAM!

Two muffled thuds sounded almost simultaneously. Both Qin Haoxuan and Yelu Qi were sent flying, their backs slamming hard against tree trunks. Yelu Qi was too stunned by the pain to react, while Qin Haoxuan, having split his focus to help his friend, had left a momentary opening. Zhang Kuang, whose control of the dog talisman was growing smoother by the second, had seized it, ramming him squarely in the chest.

“Pfft!”

Both men coughed up blood. Even with his body fortified by spirit medicines, Qin Haoxuan couldn’t absorb the full impact. The force of a Talisman Beast was far greater than that of the disciples he had fought before. The blow was both agonizing and, strangely, satisfying. The pain felt like he had a few broken ribs, but the satisfying part was how the impact had helped dissipate the burning medicinal energy in his body, seemingly fusing it with his flesh and bone.

“Junior Brother!” Pu Hanzhong cried out in alarm. He momentarily lost focus on his own fight and commanded his dog to intercept the one that was about to strike Qin Haoxuan again.

BANG!

Zhang Kuang’s dog was sent flying sideways. Pu Hanzhong’s dog was also knocked back a good distance.

“Don’t mind me!” Qin Haoxuan yelled through the pain. “Kill Yelu!”

Pu Hanzhong, a veteran of many struggles, instantly understood. If Yelu Qi lived, neither of them would escape today.

Yelu Qi wiped the blood from his lips, his eyes flashing with a mixture of surprise, fear, and savagery. He was shocked that Pu Hanzhong had actually managed to injure him, and terrified of the strange power in these mountains that could nearly knock him unconscious. But the injury had also ignited a ferocious bloodlust within him.

“Pu Hanzhong! Die for me!” he roared, his hands flashing through a series of seals. As he did, the wind howled around them, whipping the thick layer of dead leaves on the ground into a swirling vortex. In the eye of this miniature tornado stood the tiger talisman, gathering its power.

The sheer force of the display was overwhelming. Against this, not one, but a hundred of Pu Hanzhong’s dogs would be useless. They were not on the same level.

Pu Hanzhong, pushed to his limit, knew it was now or never. Gritting his teeth, he took out the spiritual talisman his master had given him—one containing the full power of a Thirtieth-Leaf Spirit Sprout Realm cultivator.

The moment it appeared, a powerful wave of spiritual energy pulsed outwards. Yelu Qi, who was busy commanding his tiger to tear Pu’s dog to shreds, was startled. He knew Pu must have a trump card, but he never expected it to be a Thirtieth-Leaf talisman. Good thing I noticed in time, he thought. How unjust would it be to die here?

For the sake of the treasure he believed Qin Haoxuan possessed, Yelu Qi gritted his teeth and took out a talisman of his own. The instant Pu Hanzhong activated his, Yelu Qi did the same.

Pu Hanzhong’s talisman erupted, the immense spiritual energy within it coalescing into the form of a giant bear, twenty feet tall. It raised a fist the size of a small hill and brought it crashing down on Yelu Qi and Zhang Kuang. Under its immense pressure, Yelu Qi froze. The power of a Thirtieth-Leaf expert’s attack was indeed more than he could withstand. Channeling his own spiritual energy into his talisman, he roared, “Explode!”

With a crackle, Yelu Qi’s talisman burst open, releasing a wave of spiritual energy even denser and more vast than Pu Hanzhong’s. It was a Thirty-Fifth-Leaf talisman. Yelu Qi’s face contorted with pain as he watched the precious item turn to dust. He glared at Qin Haoxuan, cursing him under his breath. If I don’t find that treasure on you, I will grind you both to dust and scatter your ashes to the wind!

His talisman’s power instantly nullified the threat. The vast energy formed a celestial halberd that shattered the spectral bear and, with its remaining force, struck Pu Hanzhong.

With nowhere to run and no way to dodge, Pu Hanzhong sprayed a mouthful of blood. His ruddy complexion turned deathly pale in an instant, and the fine lines around his eyes seemed to deepen into a web of wrinkles. His body went limp like a soft noodle and collapsed to the ground, gravely injured.

Yelu Qi sneered. “Overestimating yourself.”

He strode forward, ready to silence Pu Hanzhong for good so he could focus on capturing Qin Haoxuan and forcing the secret of his treasure from him.

(End of Chapter)