When facing innate experts, Jiang Fei had absolute confidence and assurance from the very start. Even if he could not beat them, there was no problem at all in preserving his life and retreating safely from their hands.
The combination of the Dugu Nine Swords, the Northern Darkness Divine Art, and Wudang’s Threefold Cloud—just in terms of how well the moves fit together—might not compare to Duan Yu’s Six Meridians Divine Sword plus the Northern Darkness Divine Art plus the Wave-Treading Microstep from Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, but it was not too far off either.
Of course, when it came to internal energy, the gap between Jiang Fei and Duan Yu was quite large. Duan Yu had absorbed all the internal energy that the Tibetan national preceptor Kumarajiva had built up over many years, making it incredibly deep and powerful. Jiang Fei had only just stepped into the second level of the Northern Darkness Divine Art, with merely fifteen years’ worth of internal energy, so he was still far behind someone like Duan Yu.
So after Jiang Fei discovered the situation here, he did not hesitate at all and stepped forward to interfere.
But now, in this situation, that old bastard Tsukahara Bokuden was so vicious that he directly gave up chasing Jiang Fei and turned back to join Brahma in hunting down the Lion King and the other two. That made things somewhat unfavorable.
Jiang Fei could calmly escape when outmatched and maintain an undefeated position.
But what if he was pinned down and could not escape?
With two innate experts attacking him from both sides, he would probably have his power broken in minutes. There was no way he could hold them off!
But if Jiang Fei did not go back and kept running, then what about the Lion King?
Olivia, this ascetic cultivator from the Vatican, had no friendship with Jiang Fei at all. In fact, when they were in Europe, the two sides had gotten quite unpleasant and had almost come to blows. Jiang Fei did not care at all whether he lived or died. As for Yagyu Munenori, Jiang Fei felt neither fondness nor dislike toward this island nation’s sword saint. The reason he had not killed him at the summit of Emei back then was simply that he had treated him as a boss to farm for experience. Once his Northern Darkness Divine Art entered the second level, he had planned to come absorb the internal energy from him. If Yagyu Munenori died here, his loss might be several years’ worth of internal energy cultivation, but it was not something he could not bear.
The only one Jiang Fei could not stop worrying about was the Lion King’s safety.
And with the intelligence and methods that old monster Tsukahara Bokuden had shown, if Jiang Fei kept fleeing and did not return, then to take revenge on Jiang Fei, he would definitely first hunt down the Lion King, not Yagyu Munenori and Olivia!
Tsukahara Bokuden’s speed was not as good as Jiang Fei’s, but it was already fast enough. Under his full pursuit, it did not take long before he approached Brahma and prepared to join the group hunting the Lion King and the other two. But before he even had time to strike, he immediately turned around and gathered his sword energy to face Jiang Fei, who had turned back and was charging toward him with a furious slash.
“I knew you would definitely come back!” A cold smile appeared at the corner of Tsukahara Bokuden’s mouth, as if he had long expected this scene.
Boom!
Two completely different sword energies collided together. Their respective powers wore away and annihilated each other, and in the end a small portion of the impact struck both sides. Tsukahara Bokuden’s protective astral qi offset most of it, and after a shake of his body, he was fine. Jiang Fei, however, was forced back several steps.
“Haha! With just you few, you still want to escape safely? That’s nothing but a daydream!” Brahma also laughed loudly when he saw this.
His moves became more and more ferocious, and he had already completely suppressed the Lion King, Yagyu Munenori, Olivia, and the other two. Among them, the shoulder of the Vatican ascetic Olivia had already been pierced through with three bloody holes by fingers. If their Vatican did not have special methods, then by now he probably would have lost most of his combat strength.
The three of them were now almost at the end of their rope. It was estimated that after another fifty or so moves, someone would likely lose their life.
“You two bastards!” Jiang Fei cursed inwardly with hatred that made his teeth itch. He pushed the Northern Darkness Divine Art to its limit and, through the third-level complete mastery of the Dugu Nine Swords, unleashed sharp, tricky, and yet majestic sword energies one after another, but it was still very difficult to achieve any lethal effect.
“This can’t go on. I have to think of a way!” Jiang Fei’s eyes shifted. He could see the condition of the Lion King and the other two clearly.
He himself could hold off Tsukahara Bokuden, but the Lion King and the other two could not drag this out too long.
Crack!
One, then two branches, each as thick as two fingers, were cut off from the tree trunk by the shattered sword energy and fell down.
Jiang Fei stepped on the Threefold Cloud and leaped up. He grasped the branch in his hand. With his right hand holding the branch, the middle finger and index finger of his left hand, like sharp swords, lightly wiped along the branch, cleaning off all the forks and twigs, and a simple wooden sword was thus formed.
After the levitation force of the Threefold Cloud was expended, Jiang Fei turned head-down, and the wooden sword in his hand kept dancing, forming circles, like a round fan descending to cover Tsukahara Bokuden.
Dugu Nine Swords, wooden sword, Sword-Breaking Stance!
Although Jiang Fei had now reached the level where no sword was better than having a sword, that did not mean that at all times holding a wooden sword was completely useless and worse than not holding one. That concept was completely wrong.
Sometimes, when using the Dugu Nine Swords, one still needed to use a wooden sword or even an iron sword to unleash the strongest power.
“Faster! I need to be even faster!” As Jiang Fei quickly descended, he thought solemnly in his heart.
Tsukahara Bokuden, who could establish his own school and create a complete sword-style sect, was already a full-fledged “Sword Saint.” His swordsmanship had reached an extremely high level, and he could truly be called flawless and unbreakable.
But Jiang Fei did not think so.
The original intent of the Dugu Nine Swords was to break through all martial arts moves in the world. Its original intent was that no matter what move it was, there was always a flaw to exploit. If it currently looked flawless, then that only meant Jiang Fei’s current realm was not high enough to see it. If he could rise to another level, then he would be able to see the flaws in the opponent’s swordsmanship.
It was true that he had already raised the Dugu Nine Swords to the third-level complete mastery, but that did not mean the power of the Dugu Nine Swords had already reached its absolute peak and could no longer improve.
Jiang Fei had only fully integrated all the sword moves of the Dugu Nine Swords and reached the most proficient level. The sword moves could no longer become more proficient, and the remaining sword intent still required him to constantly study and comprehend stronger methods.
So, he needed to be faster.
As long as he could be a bit faster, Tsukahara Bokuden would inevitably need to use a speed beyond what he could currently control to block it. In that way, a flaw would appear.
Clang, clang, clang, clang!
Jiang Fei stood upside down in midair, and the wooden sword in his hand was already so fast that it could not be seen clearly at all. The white-haired, youthful-faced Tsukahara Bokuden formed sword seals with both hands and kept thrusting toward the sky, sneering, “You are still just a bit lacking after all!”
Jiang Fei sighed inwardly.
Yes, he really was still just a bit lacking.
If only his character level could rise by one more level now and add two points to his basic attribute speed, then perhaps he could find a way to break through. Unfortunately, he was still several hundred experience points short of leveling up.
“I can only take the risk and try that one move…”
Seeing that Olivia finally could not hold on anymore and was struck in the chest by Brahma’s palm, coughing blood and falling to the ground, the Lion King and Yagyu Munenori immediately became gravely endangered. Jiang Fei’s eyes turned sharp. A sword energy from the wooden sword in his hand collided with the ground, and his whole body used the force to leap into the air, then flipped and stabbed downward.
This sword was still the Sword-Breaking Stance of the Dugu Nine Swords. It looked no different from before. If nothing unexpected happened, it would still be blocked by Tsukahara Bokuden.
But when the sharp tip of the wooden sword was still one meter above Yagyu Munenori’s head, Jiang Fei’s left hand, which had been held behind his back, suddenly struck out with a palm. Each finger represented a sword energy, arriving first and attacking above Yagyu Munenori’s head.
Of course, these five sword energies were not very powerful to an innate expert. Tsukahara Bokuden shook them apart and completely dispersed them. But the next sword strike made Tsukahara Bokuden feel somewhat shocked in his heart.
Because when he raised his head and focused, he only saw a wooden sword carrying incredibly strong sword energy stabbing straight down toward his head, while Jiang Fei himself had suddenly disappeared above his head. There was no one there!
Tsukahara Bokuden did not even think. He first made the most correct response: his right hand gathered most of his astral force to fully resist the attack of the wooden sword, while at the same time his spiritual power was completely released to search out Jiang Fei’s true location.
One’s line of sight could only see one direction, not left, right, or behind, but hearing and spiritual power had no blind spots at all—they covered a full three hundred and sixty degrees.
“Sneak attack?”
Without a doubt, Tsukahara Bokuden immediately discovered where Jiang Fei was.
At this moment, Jiang Fei’s true body was right behind him, striking toward his back with a palm.
“Close combat? He has not even stepped into the innate level, yet he dares to fight at close quarters with an innate expert protected by astral qi. Is this courting death?” Tsukahara Bokuden thought in surprise.
Thinking this in his heart, his right hand welcomed the wooden sword falling from the sky, while his left hand gathered the remaining astral qi outside his body and fiercely struck toward Jiang Fei!
