CHAPTER 1446: CHAPTER 1444: PYRRHIC VICTORY

The left eye socket of the Skeletal General in the grand hall was pierced by a magic treasure. He was already weakened, being a Moon Jade, and he had been injured by his own Sword Fury Gusts. Using this bizarre fire further drained him considerably.

After these repeated setbacks, even though the Skeletal General had the foundation of a Moon Jade, it was unlikely he could exert much strength anymore.

On our side, however, the energies of the three were always connected, the array unbroken. Though Lu Ye was engaging the Skeletal General alone, he was actually borrowing the strength of the other two, never truly alone.

The continuous clanging sounds reverberated as the Boulder Mountain Saber clashed with the giant sword, each impact ringing loudly with sparks flying. The disparity in stature was evident, yet their abilities were not so mismatched.

While Lu Ye entangled with the Skeletal General, Piao Ke and the Specter were not idle. Piao Ke continued to manipulate his fishing line, deploying various strange tactics for support. The Specter, with fewer such tricks, fought like Lu Ye, closing in on the Skeletal General with ghostly agility, each appearance sapping a significant part of the Skeletal General’s focus.

Spectral fires flickered around, drawn by the Skeletal General’s control to create trouble for them. But each time, Lu Ye would charge into the spectral fires, using the power of the Talent Tree to absorb and devour them.

After a brief engagement, Lu Ye sent an audio transmission and suddenly withdrew.

He needed a breather!

So far, among the formidable foes he had encountered, aside from Qin Yuandai, only this Skeletal General stood out. However, when he killed Qin Yuandai, he relied on the power of the red talisman, so he couldn’t truly gauge her strength.

But the Skeletal General before him was a solid adversary, stronger than him, yet not so overwhelming as to make him feel despair.

For a combat cultivator, such an opponent was most suitable and satisfying.

Engaging in close combat with such a powerful enemy was the best way to temper oneself.

Lu Ye was full of fighting spirit and excitement, but after prolonged clashes, his right hand holding the saber was trembling uncontrollably, his arm a bloody mess, a sign of flesh and blood splitting.

Fortunately, now that he was at the Constellation Mid-Stage, his Essence of Blood and Flesh had been refined to the extreme, so he just needed a bit of rest to recover.

As he withdrew, only Piao Ke and the Specter continued to harass the Skeletal General. Piao Ke managed well, standing from afar using his eerie methods. The Specter fared worse; watching Fa Wuzun battle the Skeletal General seemed effortless, but when it was her turn, every step was perilous, making her feel a foot was in the Ghost Gate, always on the brink of falling.

It was not just due to the gap between her ability and Lu Ye’s, but also because her ghost cultivation faction wasn’t suited for direct confrontation. Her strengths lay in stealth and deceit.

Unable to resist shouting, "Fa Wuzun, help!"

After calling several times without response, like being watched for entertainment, she switched her plea, "FA-ther, save me!"

In matters of life and death, dignity no longer mattered...

Piao Ke’s eye twitched, internally cursing himself for having such a shameless friend, secretly vowing to sever ties with her after this encounter.

Lu Ye charged back, not because the Specter called for her father, but because she was indeed in danger if he didn’t.

The trio formed an array, and even with one missing, victory could slip away, having fought to this point. How could he let such a thing happen?

With Lu Ye resuming the lead, the Specter finally breathed a sigh of relief, promptly retreating to the side for a brief respite.

The fierce battle continued, but victory’s scale slowly tilted towards the trio, for as time passed, the Skeletal General’s bones cracked and fissured more frequently. Lu Ye, in direct combat with him, especially noticed the Skeletal General’s power waned!

Until a critical moment, when Lu Ye cleaved his saber, and the Skeletal General failed to block in time—one of his leg bones snapped!

The towering figure staggered, nearly falling, barely steadying himself, but in face-off with Lu Ye, he had fallen significantly behind.

The breaking of a leg bone was the catalyst, triggering the Skeletal General’s total collapse.

Soon after the first leg bone, Lu Ye seized another opportunity, severing the other leg bone, followed by his sword-wielding right arm!

By then, the Skeletal General had no room for resistance, utterly at their mercy.

He was clearly unwilling, spectral fire in his right eye socket flared violently, and the ghostly fires in the hall also flared up intensely.

The atmosphere became dangerously volatile.

Seeing the peril, Lu Ye intended to withdraw, but the legless, armless Skeletal General relentlessly held onto him.

In the next moment, the spectral fire clustered toward them, its aura growing more ragingly dangerous.

Lu Ye wanted to construct Void Spirit Runes for teleportation, but having done so repeatedly, the Skeletal General had caught on, and a spectral fire ignited the residual weapon control spirit force left behind, depleting it instantly.

With no spirit force in the weapon control, he couldn’t create Void Spirit Runes to teleport himself.

In haste, Lu Ye steeled himself, frantically constructing Sacred Guard Spirit Runes to protect himself.

A cluster of spectral fire drifted over and then exploded.

The roaring sound was incessant, with flames shooting up to the sky, obscuring the figures of Lu Ye and the Skeletal General.

Piao Ke and the specter watched nervously, using the connection of each other’s qi to check Lu Ye’s life and death. Although they hadn’t had much interaction with Fa Wuzun before, this was a grueling battle of life and death.

It is easy for cultivators to forge deep friendships in such battles, where trust and bonds slowly form between each other.

Even though it was a three-person array in today’s battle, Fa Wuzun was undoubtedly the main force. He broke the Sword Fury Gusts of the Skeletal General, ignored the Netherworld Spectral Fire of the Skeletal General, and without Fa Wuzun, even if the current top-ranked person on the Cumulated Points Ranking came, they couldn’t achieve this level.

The specter initially invited Fa Wuzun merely to leverage the power of his array disc, but after this battle, she realized that inviting Fa Wuzun was the wisest and only choice for victory.

Now, with victory in sight, if Fa Wuzun died, it would be hard for either her or Piao Ke to accept.

Fortunately, they kept feeling Fa Wuzun’s qi...

The violent force gradually subsided, and in the place originally shrouded in flames, a figure stood, gray-faced and dusty—who else could it be but Fa Wuzun?

In front of him was a pile of broken bones, clearly belonging to the Skeletal General, with only the skull somewhat intact. The spectral fire in the right eye socket wasn’t completely extinguished yet but had become extremely dim.

When Piao Ke and the specter looked over, they saw the spectral fire slowly extinguishing.

Lu Ye lifted his foot and stepped on it, and with a crack, the fairly intact skull shattered as well.

He plopped down on the ground, took out a healing pill, and stuffed it into his mouth.

Although the power of the Talent Tree could isolate the erosion of those cold spectral fires, the explosive impact in the end could not be isolated. He hurriedly constructed over a dozen layers of Sacred Guard Spirit Runes as protection, but they were all broken through, and he suffered considerable injuries.

At this moment, he was covered in blood and flesh, with shredded clothes sticking to his flesh, and his internal organs were somewhat displaced.

Piao Ke put away his fishing rod and rushed over with the specter to check on his condition. Once they confirmed he was not seriously hurt, they breathed a sigh of relief.

Suddenly, a massive mystic light descended from the sky.

In such exclusive scenarios, winning meant rewards of mystic light and cumulated points, and the rewards were richer than in ordinary scenarios.

If not for this, the specter wouldn’t have bothered to pull in helpers for just a dirk treasure; after all, she had initially judged the dirk to be just a spirit treasure.

The three each occupied one corner of the hall, began to refine the mystic light, and recuperate.

If he were alone, Lu Ye would have refined this mystic light quickly, but with Piao Ke and the specter present, he couldn’t reveal his speed in refining and had to refine it at the normal cultivation efficiency.

Three days passed in a flash, and Lu Ye noticed that the specter had finished refining and was cleaning up the battlefield.

The dirk from the Skeletal General’s left eye socket was in her hands, and she smiled broadly. Then she examined the giant sword of the Skeletal General briefly before putting it down. She began searching the hall again.

As an adept ghost cultivator, treasure-seeking was an innate instinct, especially for someone as poor as her, even a piece of spirit jade in this hall would not escape her.

An hour later, Lu Ye and Piao Ke finished refining one after the other.

The three regrouped.

The specter held the dirk and cleared her throat, "I’ll just take this thing. It’s useless to you anyway, and I won’t take the rest of the stuff!"

Mainly because her information was wrong, almost driving the three of them into a corner, so she voluntarily took fewer benefits.

She then pointed to the giant sword on the ground, "This magic treasure is for Fa Wuzun. He did the heavy lifting, so he deserves more."

Piao Ke nodded, indicating no objections.

Lu Ye didn’t hesitate and put the giant sword into his storage ring. This thing was magic-treasure class, and though he couldn’t use it, he could at least sell it.

Of course, he didn’t lack for spirit jade now, so most likely he would have the sword gourd devour it. He wanted to know what kind of power a Sword Qi birthed from a devoured magic treasure would possess.

Finally, the specter pointed to the two piles of storage rings in front of her, "You two can each choose a pile. Good or bad, it’s all up to your luck!"

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The great Nì Cāng Tiān returns, new book release, "Calamity of Purgatory," stay tuned.

Nì Cāng Tiān has always been my favorite great author, "God of Killers" remains a classic to this day.