After some time spent eating, drinking, and having fun, everyone relaxed a little. Soon, after a change of drivers, the Qingdao bus set off again.
Li Yunxian was assigned a seat in the middle of the bus.
Yu Qiyao was in the back row.
Li Yunxian glanced around at those near her.
The people surrounding her were all at the Qi Refinement Second or Third Layer, essentially encircling and protecting her, while those in the front and back rows were all at the Qi Refinement Fourth or Fifth Layer.
The most crucial positions—the four corners of the bus—were all occupied by Foundation Establishment Stage cultivators.
There were four in total, with one at the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment. That should be the team leader from Qingdao.
The person sitting next to Li Yunxian, seeing her looking around anxiously, assumed she was nervous and uncomfortable, so they handed her a piece of candy.
“Don’t worry, it’s fine. Our bus is made of special materials—it’s very safe.”
Li Yunxian:
“I thought you were going to say, ‘Relax, nothing will happen.'”
Li Yunxian couldn’t help but laugh.
The other person shrugged. “That would be too fake. If it were really that safe, we wouldn’t need to build the bus out of special materials.”
That actually made a lot of sense.
Li Yunxian burst out laughing.
“In Qingdao, we basically get attacked once every year or two. Can’t be helped. After all, every year we have more than a dozen people participating in the Selection Exam.”
The other person wore a proud little expression, but quickly realized her words sounded off and hurried to add, “I didn’t mean to say that Jincheng is lacking or anything.”
That only made it sound even more awkward.
The person sitting behind Li Yunxian and her companion twitched the corner of their eye several times before finally losing patience and reaching out to knock the talkative one’s head.
“Jiang Qiqing, shut up already.”
Li Yunxian stifled a laugh, and seeing the other’s embarrassed and helpless expression, she kindly changed the subject.
“Jincheng hasn’t had anyone participate for years. So every year there are a lot of people taking the Qingteng Selection Exam?”
Jiang Qiqing rubbed her head and replied, “A lot! There are one or two thousand people every year. With nearly two billion people in Shenzhou, even if only one in ten thousand is a genius, that’s still hundreds of thousands.”
“But it doesn’t matter. Just broaden your horizons, right?” Jiang Qiqing said cheerfully.
Her answer was met with another sharp knock on the head.
“Chen Chen! What was that for!” Jiang Qiqing protested loudly.
Chen Chen looked at her, exasperated by her lack of self-awareness. “…Shouldn’t have let you sit next to her.”
Jiang Qiqing snorted, still quite proud. “Who else but me is the only Qi Refinement Second Layer in Qingdao!”
Chen Chen: “……^£# = 1}……”
Li Yunxian tried to hold back her laughter as she listened to the two banter back and forth, suddenly feeling as if she had returned to her own classroom.
Yet this joy didn’t last for long.
Two hours later, Li Yunxian’s expression suddenly turned serious. She lifted her head and looked into the distance.
The chatting students around her noticed her reaction, a look of confusion appearing in their eyes. Before anyone could even ask “What’s wrong?”, they all felt the bus slowing down.
The students around quickly went on alert.
“Enemy attack!”
Only then did the Foundation Establishment cultivator at the front shout a warning. Right after, a blazing pillar of fire shot toward them, and the sound of shattering glass rang out.
Jian vanished into her palm as Li Yunxian sprang to her feet, rushing forward. In the blink of an eye, she was at Yu Qiyao’s side.
Yu Qiyao stared at Li Yunxian in shock. “What are you doing here? Go back!”
Li Yunxian answered by waving her hand, using Jian to swat away an arrow that had flown through the broken window.
The arrow struck the ceiling and exploded instantly, bursting into flames.
“There are seven Foundation Establishments in total, two at Great Completion of Qi Refinement.” Li Yunxian quickly reported what she sensed.
Yu Qiyao was dumbfounded.
The Foundation Establishment cultivator driving stabilized the bus. Another Foundation Establishment made a hand seal to extinguish the flames.
Yet another tossed out a Magic Tool to seal the broken window, while the last remained alert, scanning the area and confirming with Li Yunxian, “Is that the Magic Tool Jincheng left for you?”
Li Yunxian gave a quick nod and reported the positions of the seven Foundation Establishments.
Hearing this, the Foundation Establishment realized that two of them were indeed at the same close distance he had sensed, and he cursed under his breath.
Seven Foundation Establishments. This year, the Hunters were putting all their main force into taking down Qingdao.
The bus stopped and the door opened. One of the Foundation Establishments quickly said, “Stay inside, support the vehicle. We’ll handle things outside.”
The students nodded nervously, each placing their hand on the bus wall, channeling spiritual power into it.
A faint light shimmered over the bus.
Only then did Li Yunxian realize that the bus itself was a defensive Magic Tool.
Not sure how strong the defense was, Li Yunxian casually took out a Symbol Talisman and stuck it outside the bus door.
This action drew the attention of a vigilant Foundation Establishment.
He spun around and was shocked to see that, somehow, Li Yunxian had slipped out of the bus with them.
“Get back inside!” the Foundation Establishment shouted anxiously.
Li Yunxian put on an innocent expression and pointed at the now-closed bus door. “I can’t go back anymore.”
The Qingdao Foundation Establishment gritted his teeth and glared hard at Li Yunxian.
What was Jincheng Academy Bureau teaching its students? A Qi Refinement Second Layer, and she rushed to the front lines at the first sign of trouble!!
Are they out of their minds?!
But there was no time to deal with that now.
Another arrow shot straight at them. The Foundation Establishment on the scene only had time to shout for Li Yunxian to dodge before quickly engaging the enemy.
Jian lengthened in Li Yunxian’s hand as she silently gathered her sword intent, eyes sweeping across the battlefield.
The number of Hunters wasn’t high.
At the moment, only five at the eighth or ninth layer of Qi Refining and two Foundation Establishment early stages had revealed themselves, plus one Foundation Establishment mid-stage firing arrows from afar.
The four Foundation Establishments from Qingdao were strong, aided by various Magic Tools, and were pressing the enemy hard.
The only reason the Hunters could hold their ground was by targeting Li Yunxian with sneak attacks, forcing the Qingdao Foundation Establishments to split their attention.
Inside the bus, the students anxiously called for Li Yunxian to return, but she slowly closed her eyes.
In her senses, all was silent except for the distant figure of the Foundation Establishment at Great Completion of Qi Refinement.
Li Yunxian sensed that the Great Completion cultivator was already gathering his power, a sphere of energy swirling around him.
He had locked onto the Qingdao Foundation Establishments.
No one paid attention to Li Yunxian, a mere Qi Refinement Second Layer. Even the other Great Completion Foundation Establishment, acting as a bodyguard, never spared her a glance.
FALL……
Li Yunxian twisted her wrist, the tip of Jian humming faintly, causing the pebbles on the ground to tremble.
At this moment, no one could block her sword!
Shudder.
At the very instant the Great Completion Foundation Establishment unleashed his technique—the moment of his greatest relaxation—Li Yunxian swung her sword.
The sword qi roared like a dragon, slicing through the air with unfathomable speed. It traveled so far that only after it passed did the air begin to react, stirring up a wave of grass and leaves.
But by the time the sound reached anyone’s ears, it was already too late!
The bodyguard at Great Completion spun around toward the sword qi, but it had already reached its target.
The Foundation Establishment at Great Completion, who had been grinning as he prepared his move, never realized what happened, even in his final moment.
The sword qi pierced straight through his forehead, then through countless trees, before finally dissipating.
Only then did the tremendous sound of the sword cutting through the air, along with the rustling of grass and leaves, echo across the sky.
The remaining Great Completion Foundation Establishment stared through the clear passage carved by the sword qi and saw Li Yunxian’s calm and indifferent face.
Behind him came the sound of a body hitting the ground, and countless trees crashing down.
His eyes turned blood-red in an instant.
“Damn you!!” he roared, swinging his giant hammer as he soared into the air.
Li Yunxian sneered and charged forward, her long sword flipping in her hand. With a few leaps, she released another sword qi straight into the sky.
The Great Completion Foundation Establishment’s expression changed. Still midair, he hurriedly raised his hammer to block the incoming sword qi.
He hadn’t forgotten the terror of the previous strike.
***
A crisp “ding” rang out.
It was the sound of the sword qi striking his giant hammer.
The Great Completion Foundation Establishment realized he’d been fooled by Li Yunxian!
He’d been scared into withdrawing his move by a Qi Refinement Second Layer!
His face flushed bright red with rage.
At that moment, Li Yunxian had already darted far away, letting the powder of a Spirit Stone fall from her hand in front of everyone.
She used the chance to recover the spiritual power she’d spent on that all-out sword strike.
Li Yunxian raised her sword and pointed it at the Great Completion Foundation Establishment, her eyes shining with excitement. “Again!”
The Great Completion Foundation Establishment looked at Li Yunxian with a complicated expression.
Everyone present was dumbstruck by this turn of events. For a long moment, one of the Qingdao students on the bus finally muttered in disbelief, “Whoa…”
Words seemed inadequate at this moment.
Chen Chen patted Jiang Qiqing. “Your Qi Refinement Second Layer is nothing like hers.”
Jiang Qiqing:
Let her process that for a while.
The four Foundation Establishments from Qingdao looked at their opponents, then at Li Yunxian’s opponent:
So…who was protecting whom, exactly?
The Hunters on the other side couldn’t help but wonder how many times they’d just tried to sneak attack Li Yunxian.
For a moment, the scene was at a stalemate.
The Qingdao Foundation Establishment took a deep breath.
He remembered Li Yunxian had said there were seven enemy Foundation Establishments.
Taking advantage of their slight upper hand, the Qingdao Foundation Establishment spoke up. “You can’t achieve your goal now. Leave—”
Before he could finish, Li Yunxian’s expression changed. She quickly tossed out a Jade Token from her sleeve, instantly blocking in front of the Qingdao Foundation Establishments.
A pillar of earth, wreathed in flame, shot up. The Jade Token suddenly transformed into a curved shield, which shattered at once.
A Jade Token that could only block a single Foundation Establishment strike was still too fragile when faced with two attacks at once.
At that moment, a humanoid creature with an eagle’s head hovered in the air, while another with a human head and snake body emerged from the ground.
Those two attacks had come from them.
“Hee hee hee, so this is what you meant by ‘just leave it to you’ for Ancestor’s sake?” the two monsters taunted.
Li Yunxian’s expression grew grim.
These two were also at Great Completion of Qi Refinement.
Li Yunxian took two steps back, joining up with the Qingdao Foundation Establishments.
The Foundation Establishment Stage Hunters who had been lurking in the shadows, waiting for an opportunity, also stepped forward.
Not counting the Qi Refining cultivators on the other side, it was now 5 versus 8, and the enemy still had three at Great Completion.
The faces of the Qingdao Foundation Establishments darkened.
Their opponents laughed but didn’t attack. “Come on, we’re all just working for the higher-ups. No one wants a fight to the death, right? How about we make a deal?”
“Our Ancestor’s most beloved grandson just happens to have a Mutated Ice Spirit Root. He’s just reached Nascent Wisdom Stage, and what he needs most right now is Essence Soul.”
“Hand over the one with the Mutated Ice Spirit Root, let us complete our Ancestor’s mission, and we’ll let you go. How about it?”
Everyone noticed that the enemy’s gaze seemed to linger on Li Yunxian’s sword.
Though the Hunters and monsters had the upper hand, none of the Great Completion cultivators wanted to risk getting hurt—or worse.
Li Yunxian looked up at the three Foundation Establishment Great Completion cultivators in front of her. “Have you ever heard this saying?”
“What?” the enemy asked, puzzled.
“A Mutated Ice Spirit Root isn’t meant to be used that way!” Li Yunxian gripped her sword tightly and leaped into the air, her voice ice-cold.