Chapter One Hundred: The Cannibal Flower King’s Highlands

The Man-Eating Flower Valley lay wrapped in stillness. Save for the occasional roar of a bear drifting in from the distant horizon, or the drip of water from the towering trees nearby, there was no other sound.

Jiang Yan stood behind a great tree, gazing silently at the dozens of tall white man-eating flowers on the high ground ahead, not so much as blinking.

Before him lay a rise slightly higher than the ground where he stood, and all over it grew white man-eating flower plants. They were enormous, more than twice as tall as the man-eating flowers Jiang Yan had seen earlier in the underground cavern and at the mouth of the valley.

As time slowly passed, the position of the man-eating flower Jiang Yan had been watching had shifted from directly ahead of him to the other side of the high ground. If Jiang Yan had not kept his gaze fixed upon it the entire time, it would have been easy to miss the change.

This high ground, where the man-eating flowers could move about, was the one that held the Flower King. According to the rune map, every so often the Flower King would shift its position, and with its movement, the road that crossed this elevated terrain would vanish or appear.

After climbing out of the underground cavern, Jiang Yan had already been observing here for some time. He had basically determined the moments when the road across the high ground appeared and disappeared. Since its last disappearance, quite a while had passed, and now he was patiently waiting for it to reappear.

The seconds ticked by, and the Flower King continued to drift slowly to another position.

In the cavern below, Tang Wan was staring intently at the distant glow that was gradually drawing nearer. It was the sword radiance of the Golden Flame Sect disciple surnamed Bai. Even with the great golden sword’s light illuminating the way, Lu Tiannan and Senior Brother Bai were still moving slowly. Earlier, because they had rushed too quickly, Senior Brother Bai had slammed into a rock at a bend in the tunnel. Unsurprisingly, he had broken two more fingers on the only hand he had left.

The instant his fingers struck the rock, what had seemed an incomparably hard stone suddenly split open. Caught off guard, Senior Brother Bai’s two fingers were swallowed by the crimson rock. Though the enraged Senior Brother Bai blasted the red rock into dust, he could not recover his fingers. After that lesson, the two of them dared only to advance carefully and no longer made any attempt to hurry.

Even though they were moving slowly, the golden light still drew closer and closer to Tang Wan. By rough estimate, it was already less than a hundred feet away.

Tang Wan drew her delicate hands behind her back, and between her fingers brilliant azure light began to blossom. Seven verdant wooden arrows started taking shape between her fingertips.

"If only my Wooden Arrows could be as invisible as Senior Brother’s," Tang Wan thought, staring fixedly at the two figures approaching from afar, secretly envious of Jiang Yan’s hidden wooden arrows.

"Go!"

With a sharp cry, Tang Wan flicked her wrist, and the seven wooden arrows became a streak of azure light, lunging straight toward the pair less than sixty feet away.

...

"Finally."

Jiang Yan let out a relieved sigh. Just as he was about to call for Tang Wan to hurry out of the cavern, a dense series of clashes between arrows and blades rang suddenly in his ears.

"Senior Brother!"

A streak of golden light sprang violently from underground as Tang Wan leaped out of the tunnel.

Without hesitation, Jiang Yan raised his hand, and seven wooden arrows rapidly formed in his grasp. The moment Tang Wan emerged from the opening, the seven arrows turned into a streak of flowing light, linked head to tail, and shot straight toward the other glow that had followed immediately behind her out of the tunnel.

"Explode, explode..."

Jiang Yan shouted several times without hesitation, causing the wooden arrows condensed from spiritual power to burst one after another at the cave mouth.

"Ah..."

Lu Tiannan’s drawn-out scream echoed in the underground passage. He had been the first to charge out, only to run headlong into Jiang Yan’s wooden arrows. After falling back into the tunnel and evading them, he was hit overhead by the scattered spiritual power from their detonation. Though the arrows had exploded too high to seriously wound him, the scattered force still left many marks and scars across his body.

With a thunderous crash, the full detonation of all seven wooden arrows finally caused the cave mouth to cave in.

"Go."

Jiang Yan beckoned to Tang Wan and took the lead, rushing into the passage on the high ground where the Flower King dwelled.

"Stay close behind me. Don’t take a wrong step, Wan’er," Jiang Yan reminded her as they ran.

Whoosh, whoosh.

The two of them transformed into twin streaks of light, swiftly threading through the passage on the high ground.

"A sword from the west!"

A furious bellow rang out from the cave entrance. It was Senior Brother Bai, who at last had broken through the collapsed tunnel and emerged. The moment the two of them came out, they saw Jiang Yan and his junior sister racing through the sea of man-eating flowers. Enraged, the golden greatsword above Senior Brother Bai’s head burst with blinding radiance and transformed into a golden streak of light, lunging straight at the fleeing pair.

Buzz, buzz...

A series of explosive hums rippled from the Golden Flow Greatsword as it cut through the air.

Jiang Yan flipped his wrist, and fifteen wooden arrows condensed in his hand. His divine sense swept swiftly through the several-yard radius around him, and without the slightest hesitation he cast the arrows backward.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...

The fifteen wooden arrows linked head to tail, turning into a streak of flowing light that met the Golden Flow Greatsword diving from above.

"Wan’er."

Jiang Yan bent slightly, signaling Tang Wan to lie across his back.

Clang, clang, clang...

A sharp, dense series of sounds, like hailstones striking an iron wok, rang out beside Jiang Yan’s ear. The fifteen wooden arrows had collided one after another with the Golden Flow Greatsword, producing a harsh metallic screech.

Crash, crash, crash...

The Golden Flow Greatsword was struck flying away by Jiang Yan’s wooden arrows, tumbling backward through the air.

"Ah!"

With his mind fully consumed by the urge to kill Jiang Yan, Senior Brother Bai let out a furious shout when he saw his greatsword knocked away.

Three trembling fingers of his remaining right hand rose before his chest, joined together like a sword, pointing toward the greatsword spiraling and dancing high in the air. Under his breath, he murmured, "Golden Shadow of the Drifting Shuttle."

Buzz...

The tumbling Golden Flow Greatsword suddenly blazed with a dazzling golden light, halting its spinning motion and hanging high in the air.

Tang Wan’s graceful body lay against Jiang Yan’s back, one delicate hand wrapping around his neck. The familiar fragrance of a maiden entered Jiang Yan’s nose, and suddenly a hot surge rose in his blood. A fierce, unyielding impulse welled up in him: he would not allow anyone to harm the woman behind him.

Clang, clang...

A few more sounds of swords striking wooden arrows reached Jiang Yan’s ears. It was Senior Brother Bai, rallying his strength and driving the Golden Flow Greatsword forward once more. It crashed into the remaining arrows guided by Jiang Yan’s divine sense. This time the sword momentum was fierce and violent; the arrows that met it head-on all shattered into drifting spiritual energy in the air.

Clang, clang...

More wooden arrows burst apart, their detonations reaching Jiang Yan’s ears.

Carrying Tang Wan on his back, Jiang Yan rose in one smooth motion, turned to glance at Lu Tiannan and the Golden Flame Sect disciple surnamed Bai in the distance, then twisted around and sprinted ahead at full speed.

Clang, clang...

Another burst of wooden arrows shattered in the air. Under the power of Senior Brother Bai’s Golden Flow Greatsword, all fifteen of Jiang Yan’s arrows had exploded one after another, dissolving into spiritual energy that vanished into the sky.

Whoosh...

The sword momentum of the Golden Flow Greatsword slowed to a crawl, yet it still bore down with unstoppable force.

"Go!"

Tang Wan lifted her hand again, and seven more wooden arrows linked head to tail, surging up to meet the greatsword descending from above.

Crash, crash...

At last the sword momentum was spent. The golden light on the blade dimmed, and the Golden Flow Greatsword was sent flying by Tang Wan’s arrows, spinning backward like a gourd turned on its head.

Lu Tiannan’s expression changed. This pair of young man and young woman worked with remarkable tacit understanding, using an exquisite mastery of wooden arrows to withstand the sword energy of a cultivator at the great completion of Qi Refinement. That made Lu Tiannan begin to calculate in his heart. If he could not kill these two youths this time, then once they reached Linqing Prefecture, given the grudge between Mount Tianshan and Mount Hua, only the total death of one side would settle matters.

Buzz, buzz...

Purple light blazed in Lu Tiannan’s palm. He had unleashed the first form of his Cold Shadow Sword Art: Midnight Meteor.

Whoosh...

Purple radiance burst brilliantly from the Water-Cutting Coldlight Sword, becoming a purple streak of light. The sword swept past the Golden Flow Greatsword and shot straight toward Jiang Yan and Tang Wan amid the sea of man-eating flowers.

Crack...

An abrupt sound suddenly exploded beside everyone’s ears.

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