CHAPTER 366: 213. MASTER LEI IS ABOUT TO CRY.

Having twisted the neck of the middle-aged military officer, Lei Jun casually threw the corpse into the deep valley, where the body was instantly shredded by the violent winds.

Then, with another kick, he sent the young guard tumbling into the belt of violent winds as well.

The greatest advantage of practitioners from the Taoist Talisman Sect was the ability to prepare talismans in advance. With a variety of Spirit Talismans, they could handle numerous complex situations. By pre-preparing talismans with the help of the natural world, they achieved tremendous talismanic power with minimal consumption, thus approaching a state of being proficient in all without being sloppy—essentially, a form of omnipotence.

At least, it was omnipotence in most situations.

Only when facing some rather extreme circumstances and opponents would this perceived omnipotence seem somewhat insufficient.

For instance, when Martial Tao masters of a high Cultivation Realm drew close, or when facing the super long-range attacks of Taoist Flying Swords or Confucian Divine Archery.

When Master Lei practiced his daily cultivation and pondered over various techniques, he sought to avoid such dilemmas.

For example, how effortlessly he dealt with those two Shangguan Clan descendants just now, to the point it made one doubt who exactly was the real martial arts practitioner between them.

Only when facing an extraordinarily unique martial artist like Shen Qubing did Lei Jun feel the pressure in close combat once again.

Shen Qubing’s Supreme Thunder Immortal Body was incredibly robust, gaining exceptional benefits whether it came to cultivating Thunder Methods or researching Martial Tao.

With the support of the Supreme Thunder Celestial Lightning, his already outstanding speed and destructive power as a martial artist elevated further, amplifying his strengths to an even greater degree.

Not even Middle Three Heavens Cultivators, and even some cultivators of the Seventh Layer of Heaven Realm, could match his speed.

Even with all Lei Jun’s techniques such as the Wind-Thunder Talisman, the Heavenly General Talisman, and the Five Ding Open Mountain Talisman fully unleashed, he was not confident in matching the speed of Shen Qubing, who possessed the Supreme Thunder Immortal Body.

It would take a considerable amount of time for the Star-stepping Spell to operate and reach its peak before he could possibly keep up with his opponent.

But in a real life-or-death battle, when would there be so much time for Lei Jun to gradually build up the Star-stepping Spell to its peak state?

Of course, aside from boosting his own speed, Lei Jun had numerous other methods to slow down his opponents—that was another aspect to consider. He couldn’t simply compete with Shen Qubing in terms of speed alone.

And as the middle-aged military officer had said, people like Shen Qubing were incredibly special and rare.

Currently injured, Shen Qubing was putting all his effort into healing, and his sensitivity to the outside world was diminished. This allowed Lei Jun to stealthily eliminate the middle-aged officer without raising any suspicion.

Most of the time, Lei Jun didn’t bother with the affairs of others.

However, considering there was a Fire Yao whose identity he had confirmed, which might be advantageous for future actions, and since Shen Qubing’s presence could be a thorn in the side of the Shangguan Clan, Lei Jun intervened additionally today.

After all, he didn’t find Shen Qubing to be disagreeable, and their previous interactions had been quite amicable.

As for the other scattered Shangguan Clan descendants, Lei Jun temporarily ceased his intervention. After dealing with those two, he faded back into hiding, as though he had never appeared.

The middle-aged military officer of Shangguan descent and the young guard seemingly evaporated into thin air without a trace.

When Shen Qubing regulated his breath and temporarily stabilized his injury, standing up again, he didn’t notice anything amiss at first.

It wasn’t until the turmoil of the violent winds from the earth veins at Kongliu Mountain subsided slightly and others began to regroup that they discovered two were missing.

Searching left and right yielded no results. The disruption of the Earth Vein Spiritual Qi interfered with all forms of communication, rendering them useless.

Seeing no signs of an offensive from the descendants of the Sui Dynasty, Shen Qubing and the others, although surprised, did not immediately consider the possibility that the two had met with disaster.

Rather than assuming they had fallen into the deep valley by accident, everyone’s first thought was that the middle-aged officer had taken people outside the mountain to investigate the environment or to trace the whereabouts of the escaping descendants of the Sui Dynasty.

Yet as they continued their search, there was no sign of the two. A foreboding feeling began to arise in everyone’s hearts.

They moved away from the area where the Earth Vein Spiritual Qi was in chaos and attempted long-distance contact, but there was no response. Searching the vicinity again, they still found no tracking marks or traces left by the two.

The group gathered above the deep valley. The violent winds had calmed, but the Spiritual Energy Veins were still chaotic. They looked down in silence, then at each other in turn.

Could the two have accidentally fallen in?

Despite his injuries, Shen Qubing insisted, "We should go down and have a look; we can’t just have them disappearing without a trace!"

The rest, being Shangguan Clan descendants, were unwilling to accept their kin vanishing so mysteriously and immediately organized a party to venture down into the valley.

When Lei Jun threw the two men into the valley, the violent winds were still fierce, so both were torn to pieces, their bodies obliterated. Now, it was difficult to find even remnants of their flesh.

However, after a thorough search, Shen Qubing and the others finally found some torn fragments of clothing.

Upon returning from the valley with those pieces of fabric, they all fell silent for a moment.

No one suspected Shen Qubing of foul play. Firstly, the lad had been seriously injured. Secondly, he was too straightforward to feign ignorance so perfectly as to leave no trace.

Many present also couldn’t imagine the middle-aged officer choosing to act right after Shen Qubing had helped them all.

In the end, after much speculation, the majority felt that an accident was the most likely explanation.

A few, however, were still in doubt but had no further clues to pursue.

With no choice but to accept their misfortune, the dejected Shangguan Clan descendants left the now chaotic and desolate Kongliu Mountain.

Well, despite the less-than-satisfactory outcome and losses, they still managed to successfully breach a stronghold of the Sui Dynasty’s descendants and destroy a key node in their attempt to destabilize the earth veins and establish their own nation’s fortunes.

The group could still report their success to their superiors with heads held high.