CHAPTER 553: CHAPTER 553. AN EXPERT-LEVEL TALISMAN MASTER IN ACTION

Jiang Tong was like a raging beast among the Khode soldiers. No one could stop him.

Khode soldiers utilized their numbers while being supported by scores of battle puppets to face him. With such a superiority in number, some attacks were bound to hit. However, Jiang Tong didn’t care about those attacks. He didn’t waste any time blocking or dodging them. He let them hit.

None of those attacks had any effect on him. All the assaults bounced off his metallic silver skin. He focused solely on offense.

The two weapons in his hands constantly shifted shape according to the situation. When he needed something with a strong penetrative power, the liquid metal changed into a spear. When he needed something with strong splitting power, it turned into an axe. If he needed something fast, it became longswords.

With such a prevailing combat prowess, he was like a one-man army. That’s why none of his followers who breached the energy wall with him came to his aid. He needed no help. Those followers instead focused on eliminating the talisman bearers to let more of their comrades in.

Xuang Feng also knew the talisman bearers took priority. That’s why he commanded most of the Martial Realm soldiers to protect the talisman bearers. Even so, he couldn’t give Jiang Tong free rein like that. After calling another soldier with good talisman skill, he passed the shield talisman he was controlling to that soldier, before flying toward Jiang Tong.

Jiang Tong again destroyed another Yuanxu Cannon. This time, he used a giant hammer formed from his liquid metal. In his rampage, he had destroyed half the cannons the enemy had. These cannons were advanced weapons. They were difficult to build, and the materials were rare and expensive. So, Khode couldn’t afford to bring many during this invasion. Each cannon destroyed was a huge blow to Khode’s invading force.

After destroying the cannon, Jiang Tong’s hammer split. One half became a sword. The other half transformed into a bladed chakram. He threw the chakram forward, and it cut another Yuanxu Cannon in half. All the while, the sword in his other hand slashed the foot soldiers who dared come near him.

The weapons formed from his liquid metal could rival high-grade weapons. Empowered by his Peak Spirit Stage energy, his weapons easily sliced through most of the enemies’ weapons.

"General Jiang Tong, you have rampaged enough!"

Following the voice, Jiang Tong sensed an assault coming from behind him. He paid it no mind, though. He continued to hack the enemies before him.

The assault turned out to be a collection of blades linked by a metal wire. This bladed whip curled around Jiang Tong’s body and pulled him until he stopped his charge.

Jiang Tong wasn’t wounded. The bladed whip couldn’t penetrate his protective skin. At most, he was annoyed by this interruption. The sword in his hand transformed into a hatchet. He was about to chop the bladed whip, but it released its grip before the hatchet arrived.

Jiang Tong looked back and saw Xuang Feng as the owner of the bladed whip. The metal parts of the whip join with each other. The whip condensed and turned into a longsword. His weapon was a sword-whip like Huang Er’s.

Xuang Feng didn’t rely on only the sword-whip. His other hand held a talisman. He activated this talisman. Numerous vines and tree branches materialized around Jiang Tong. These vines and branches were as if a hurricane. They swirled around Jiang Tong and entangled him. There was no path to escape. Before long, Jiang Tong was buried by a dense clutter of vines and branches. This clutter merged and sprouted leaves. It turned into a tree with a large crown and dense foliage.

The newly created tree didn’t last long, though. As soon as it ended its transformation, a loud booming sound was heard as the tree broke apart. Jiang Tong shot into the sky as the broken parts of the tree splattered all over. He stopped in the air as he eyed Xuang Feng. The chakram he threw earlier flew back to him, after cutting several enemies on its way back.

Xuang Feng was also at the Peak Spirit Stage. On paper, they were equal, but Jiang Tong never considered that to be the case. Now that Xuan Feng challenged him, he saw the man as a more valuable target than the Yuanxu Cannons. It was clear Xuang Feng was the commander of this invading Khode force. If he could defeat Xuang Feng, it would inflict a great blow to the enemy’s morale.

Jiang Tong grinned and charged toward Xuang Feng.

"Protect the General!!" The troops around Xuang Feng exclaimed. They crowded before him, using their bodies as shields, and threw ranged weapons.

The liquid metal in Jiang Tong’s hands turned into a long double-bladed sword. This weapon spun at high speed in front of him as he flew forward. He was like having a propeller before him. His spinning double-bladed sword deflected all the ranged weapons the enemy threw at him. It even cut the enemies to pieces as he rammed into them.

After forcing his way to where Xuang Feng was, Jiang Tong found that his target was no longer there. Only torn pieces of Khode soldiers and battle puppets were strewn across the place. His Spirit Sense scanned his surroundings and quickly singled out Xuang Feng amid the many enemies around him. He looked up and saw Xuang Feng floating above.

Xuang Feng was again using the talisman. In his hand was not only a piece of talisman, but a stack of them. All of them were glowing as Xuang Feng channeled his aether into them.

Jiang Tong was secretly surprised by the display. He knew that Xuang Feng wouldn’t use low-level talismans against him. He had heard that Xuang Feng was a highly skilled talisman master. It seemed that the information was true.

The skill of a talisman master was not restricted only to talisman creation. It also affected talisman usage. Any cultivator could use an engraved-grade talisman without training, but not every cultivator could use talismans of the runic grade and above. Runic-grade talismans required a certain way to activate. A simple channeling of aether was not enough to trigger its effect.

Talisman masters who had learned the way of the talismans could activate a new talisman they had never seen before as long as the talisman’s grade was not higher than their expertise. A cultivator without knowledge of talismans would be at a loss if they were presented with a runic-grade talisman.

However, it didn’t mean only a talisman master could use a talisman of the runic grade and above. If a normal cultivator was instructed in the way of how to use a certain talisman by a talisman master and practiced, he could use it as well, but only for that particular talisman. Other talismans had different ways to operate. It would be a long and troublesome effort if he wanted to learn to use many different talismans. He might as well use that time to practice combat arts.

Hence, it was mostly expert-level talisman masters who fought using high-level talismans in combat.

Xuang Feng was one such talisman master. He was even one of the best. Activating several talismans simultaneously was proof of his expertise. He threw these talismans in Jiang Tong’s direction.

Jiang Tong wasn’t worried. Whatever the effect of these talismans was, they wouldn’t hurt him. Strangely, though, none of the talismans were heading toward him. While he was still confused, these talismans took shape. Each of them turned into Xuang Feng.

Xuang Feng blended with his copies, and they moved randomly. All these copies had the same aura as the original. Jiang Tong’s Spirit Sense couldn’t differentiate between the real Xuang Feng and the ones created by the talismans.

"Hmph! Cheap trick!" Jiang Tong exclaimed.

His liquid metal combined and turned into a super-long glaive. He used its long reach to catch one of the many Xuang Feng moving around him. This Xuang Feng was cut in half. The cut Xuang Feng vanished. In his place were two halves of a cut talisman.

While he managed to destroy one, a new talisman appeared and transformed into a new Xuang Feng. Apparently, Xuang Feng still possessed a stock of these clone talismans.

"Let’s see how many you have! Use them all! I will cut every talisman you use!" Jiang Tong roared.

While Jiang Tong made this claim, it wasn’t exactly easy for him to hit the clones. The clones moved as fast as the original Xuang Feng. Other than the first hit, Jiang Tong required several attempts before he could hit another one. All the while, Xuang Feng’s sword-whip came and harassed him. It couldn’t wound him. All it did was coil around his limbs and hinder his movements. It quickly retreated every time he tried to break it.

After several exchanges, Jiang Tong understood what Xuang Feng tried to do. The Khode General was trying to waste his time. While the Khode Army couldn’t defeat him, they could defeat his army. With each passing second, his army, which was already in trouble, was one step closer to defeat.