Chapter 27: The Dual Heroes’ Ambush

Qu Yi had reached the mid-stage Yuan Ying realm, and he exclaimed in excitement.
Bai Man, Wu Yuan, and Qi Shen immediately flew to his side.
“Qu Yi, you’ve advanced again! It’s really fast,” Bai Man said happily, taking his arm as tears welled up in her eyes.
“Woo, Qu Yi, congratulations!” Wu Yuan said joyfully, hopping around.
Only Qi Shen, who appeared as a baby, acted mature and composed, staring at Qu Yi indifferently.
“Qi Shen, why don’t you congratulate Qu Yi?” Bai Man couldn’t stand it and glared at him.
“What’s there to celebrate? It’s just mid-stage Yuan Ying,” Qi Shen replied disdainfully, rolling his eyes.
This made Qu Yi angry. He flew over immediately, intending to hug Qi Shen and tease him thoroughly. Of course, he failed again.
Qi Shen’s baby form was truly miraculous—there were no energy fluctuations, yet he could appear and disappear in an instant, leaving people puzzled. Since Qi Shen refused to reveal the secret, this mystery troubled Qu Yi for a long time.
“Qu Yi, now that you’ve reached mid-stage Yuan Ying, I think you can also practice the offensive spells from ‘Five Elements and Three Flowers.’ Otherwise, using those few Softwood Ten Styles and Cloud Sword Eight Styles won’t maximize their power,” Qi Shen said, reappearing elsewhere with a smile.
In ‘Five Elements and Three Flowers,’ besides the five basic techniques, there were corresponding spells and movement skills. Qu Yi was aware of this, but due to insufficient vital energy in the past, even if he practiced, he couldn’t unleash their full power. Moreover, he spent all his time scanning arrays, so he never practiced them.
Now, with time available and having reached mid-stage Yuan Ying, he could finally learn some spells.
In moments, Qu Yi inscribed the spells into his soul. With a mental scan, he understood how to practice them.
Metal-element offensive spells: Annihilation, Slaughter, Final Kill.
Wood-element offensive spells: Withering, Deterioration, Death.
Water-element offensive spells: Cold, Ice Field, Silence.
Fire-element offensive spells: Explosion, Sea of Fire, Exhaustion.
Earth-element offensive spells: Collapse, Cracking, Crushing Pressure.
These were the offensive spells corresponding to the five basic techniques in ‘Five Elements and Three Flowers,’ with three spells per element. Of course, the energy required to cast these three spells varied greatly, increasing steadily.

Like the gold-series attack spells, “Slaughter” can be used at the Yuan Ying stage, while “Suppression” can only be used at the Qi Exit stage. As for “Final Slaughter,” it can only be used at the Fusion stage.
Qu Yi glanced around and had a clear idea in mind, then decided to master “Slaughter” first.
……
Outside Nanyun City, cultivators from various places in the Hundred Demons Mountain Range arrived in groups.
Every day, on different peaks, cultivators fought fiercely against each other. Naturally, this situation deterred many weaker cultivators.
Fewer and fewer cultivators at the later stages of Yuan Ying remained.
In addition to the cultivators sent by the nine city lords, there were also a dozen or so highly skilled cultivators who lurked in various places, waiting for the people of San Ding Gate to leave Nanyun City so they could ambush them.
Among these twenty-odd cultivators, the two strongest were the Blood Bone Twins.
At that moment, the Blood Bone Twins met on a peak. They had fought fiercely near Nanyun City, killing many cultivators and strengthening their own vital energy. Yet, they still hadn’t broken through their cultivation level, which was quite disappointing.
“Bone Han, why haven’t you broken through to the early Qi Exit stage either?” Xue Lie stared at Bone Han.
Xue Lie knew that Bone Han was practicing the “Meridian Transformation Technique,” which involved directly refining the bodies of cultivators and absorbing their essence into his own body to strengthen his physique. Thus, as long as Bone Han refined enough cultivator bodies, it would be much easier for him to break through than for Xue Lie.
Bone Han exhaled and smiled faintly. “A strong physique also requires a strong will. I think that as long as I fight fiercely in Nanyun City, I’ll be able to break through the last barrier and enter the early Qi Exit stage.”
Xue Lie nodded, his eyes gleaming as he smiled. “Bone Han, it seems there aren’t many cultivators left around Nanyun City. Should we go and kill those key people of the city lords?”
Bone Han immediately understood Xue Lie’s intention: first, killing these people would increase their vital energy; second, it would draw the attention of the nine city lords, allowing them to fight against them and hope to break through in battle.
“Good, let’s help out San Ding Gate a bit, haha.” Bone Han laughed heartily.
Xue Lie’s eyes turned blood red as he scanned the surroundings, a cruel smile on his lips.
……
In a certain valley, a young man in white, extremely handsome, sat in the center of the valley. The entire valley was silent, as if nothing dared to disturb his meditation. Only a long sword made of white jade stood beside the young man, unafraid of his cold aura.

This young man was Shi Han, the son of Shi Bing, the lord of Zhongli City. He possessed extraordinary talent and had long since reached the later stage of the Yuan Ying phase; now he had even attained the advanced stage of perfection. With just one more opportunity, he could advance to the initial stage of exiting the body.

Shi Han came here after hearing about the changes in Nanyun City and voluntarily asked his father to let him go there. It had been over a month since then, during which Shi Han had killed numerous cultivators in the nearby mountains and acquired many items. However, he had hoped to use these successive attacks to overcome the final obstacle and reach the initial stage of exiting the body, but he hadn’t succeeded, leaving him somewhat dissatisfied.

Suddenly, two intense killing intents flew toward him from afar.

The young man quickly opened his eyes, glanced into the distance, and a cold smile appeared on his lips. Then he said, “Blood Bone Duo, do you want to fight me? Then come on.”

Shi Han took the initiative to start a battle!

“Hehe, Shi Han, so it’s you. You’re also one of the strongest cultivators at the later stage of Yuan Ying. Since you want to challenge us both, fine, we’ll duel with you until one of us dies,” Blood Fiery replied immediately.

A moment later, Blood Fiery and Bone Cold arrived in front of Shi Han.

Suddenly!

The white jade sword that had been standing beside Shi Han appeared in his hand, emitting a faint ringing sound.

Blood Fiery and Bone Cold were highly coordinated and immediately drew out their respective magical treasures—one was the Blood Illusion Pearl, and the other was the Heaven-Shaking Staff.

Shi Han smiled slightly and immediately swung the white jade sword at Blood Fiery. He knew that Blood Fiery’s Blood Illusion Pearl could form a blood mass, and once trapped by it, the battle would become extremely difficult. Naturally, Shi Han had to kill Blood Fiery first.

As the white jade sword pointed forward, an ice sword instantly appeared, carrying a chilling aura that could devour space, and rushed toward Blood Fiery.

“Interesting!” Blood Fiery chuckled.

Blood Fiery didn’t confront it head-on because the spells emitted by its Blood Essence Vital Energy would surely be frozen by the intense cold aura and unable to block anything. So, not wanting to waste its vital energy, it flew back immediately.

Seeing this, Bone Cold immediately channeled his vital energy into the Heaven-Shaking Staff, summoning a hundred-meter-long staff that he then swung at Shi Han.

“You actually want to hit me with a staff? How ignorant,” Shi Han said coldly.

In an instant, Shi Han flew sideways, swinging his white jade sword. Nine giant ice spikes, arranged in a nine-square grid, were shot at Bone Cold at the same time.

“You want to kill me with ice spikes? Hehe, I practice body refinement techniques,” Bone Cold said with a faint smile.

Gu Han’s body suddenly swelled, growing into a massive 20-meter-tall form. Then, with two fierce slaps of his hands, he shattered the nine ice spikes.
“Haha, Shi Han, you’ve attacked twice already. It’s time for us to attack you.” Suddenly, Xue Lie returned.
In the air, a 10-meter-wide blood mass suddenly rushed toward Shi Han, aiming to completely envelop him.
“Hmph, your blood essence is completely under my control. How dare you still attack me?” Shi Han said disdainfully.
Then, Shi Han swung his white jade sword, creating two circular ice blocks filled with extreme cold energy—enough to freeze even Bian Qianlan’s true fire. The ice blocks flew swiftly toward the blood mass.
In an instant, the blood mass disappeared, and Xue Lie vanished, holding a blood-colored bead.
At that moment, Gu Han immediately swung his 100-meter-long staff and struck Shi Han hard. That strike carried the force to crush mountains; with Shi Han’s physical strength, he surely couldn’t withstand it.
“Gu Han, you’re too fierce. I won’t fight you head-on. And Xue Lie, if you two separate, I can definitely take care of both of you. But with you together, it’s hard for me to deal with you. Enough, I’m leaving,” Shi Han suddenly shouted.
It turned out that Shi Han had realized these two, Blood Bone Duo, were indeed an excellent pair. No matter how strong or talented he was, one person couldn’t defeat two.
Shi Han dodged the staff and tried to teleport away.
“Shi Han, if you want to leave, I haven’t given my permission,” Xue Lie said suddenly.
A blood bead suddenly rushed to Shi Han’s side, forming a blood mass that immediately enveloped the caught-off-guard Shi Han.
“Gu Han, help me!” Xue Lie shouted as soon as the blood mass enclosed Shi Han.
“Okay!” Gu Han knew Xue Lie wanted to trap Shi Han with his own essence alone, which was impossible—Shi Han’s cold essence could freeze any blood mass. But if Gu Han transferred his own essence to Xue Lie, their combined essence could resist Shi Han’s cold energy, allowing them to completely trap him.
Indeed, at first, Shi Han, who had been somewhat relaxed, tried to use his water-based true energy to emit cold air, only to find that the cold didn’t fully freeze the blood mass. The mass continued to move, dissolving his cold energy in no time.
“No, that can’t be. Right, it’s Gu Han—he transferred his essence to Xue Lie.” Finally, Shi Han figured it out while trapped in the blood mass.
By now, Shi Han knew he couldn’t escape.

“Blood Fiery, Bone Cold, don’t force me—otherwise I’ll self-destruct, and we’ll all die together,” Shi Han threatened in his hour of crisis.
But the blood mass suddenly shrank and turned into ten thousand blood thorns, which pierced into Shi Han’s body, leaving him no time to activate his true energy for self-destruction.
“Ah…”
Shi Han’s body instantly turned into streams of blood before disappearing.
Blood Fiery regained his human form and smiled. “So I had to sacrifice ten years of my life to unleash this ultimate spell of the Illusory Blood Pearl—Ten Thousand Blood Thorns.”
Bone Cold smiled faintly and said, “What are ten years of life? The ones we plan to kill next can’t stand a chance against us. Your life force will be restored in no time.”
Hahaha!
The Blood and Bone heroes burst into wild laughter.