268 Wings of Ligh

Chen Changsheng's expression was serious and intent, but it was not confident,because right now his posture was rather strange. If he were to use his umbrella as a shield and move forward with his dagger,then it would be like a brave warrior ascending onto the battlefield. However,right now, the umbrella was not being wielded in his hand, rather being draggedalong the sand. He held his dagger upside-down at his wrist, while his kneeswere slightly bent. His body was leaned forward, as if he was ready at any timeto flee. He seemed just like a little thief, a little thief ready to fight forhis life. Because he was almost at his breaking point, his physical strength had beenused up to the extent that he could no longer hold up the Yellow Paper Umbrellafor extended periods of time. He could only let it drag on the ground, onlybringing it up to block when the attack was just about to arrive. Theincredibly sharp dagger was in a similar situation. The remnants of his trueessence were not enough for him to use those extremely formidable sword styles.Even such simple actions such as slashing and thrusting were very difficult forhim to do. The dagger being held upside down at his wrist meant that the sword-play heused was naturally not very open and sweeping. He could only use very finemovements. The two demon women had to have several close calls before theyrealized that he was actually using the Holy Maiden Peak's Icebreaking Sword.They could not help but be exceptionally shocked—this method had always beenpracticed by the disciples of the Holy Maiden Peak, so where did he  learn it? Whether it was the demon beauty with not a thread of clothes or that dignifiedwoman wearing Qi Jian's robe, they each had very solemn expressions. The gazesthat they focused on Chen Changsheng were also abnormally grave. It ratherpuzzled them, even giving them a faint sense of admiration, that a human youthcould actually hold on for such a long time in this situation. However, if the battle persisted, victory would eventually belong to theSpirit race. Behind them were two large wings made of light, which quickly began to vibratefaster. There was only a whoosh on the beach, and then the demons disappeared.In the next moment, they appeared behind Chen Changsheng, their hands glowingwith a ghastly green light as they came piercing at him. With such terrifying speed, like bolts of lightning, these sly demons werelike smoke. Their abilities far surpassed the imagination of the vast majorityof humans. This was what Chen Changsheng had resisted for such a long time. How did he do it? In the instant that those two wings appeared behind him, hemoved. His true essence flowed through his damaged meridians and his feet movedseemingly very naturally, but in fact very precisely, to the left. His figuresuddenly disappeared, and reappeared several zhang away. Those two wings swiftly moved once more, bringing those two women to ChenChangsheng's back, and blocking him from the lake. Chen Changsheng raised up the umbrella to block. With only a hiss, both sideslaunched a flurry of rapid blows against each other, then split apart. The bodies of the two women were covered with sword slashes once again, whichgradually disappeared, just like the numerous cracks Chen Changsheng had madeon the wings at their backs. The demon beauty stared at Chen Changsheng. Her face pale. "So it really wasthe Yeshi Step." Previously they had been shocked by Chen Changsheng's abnormal movements.After several probing attacks, they finally confirmed what it was. They were Nanke's maids and also her two wings. Moreover, they hadextraordinary bodies, so they possessed a terrifying innate speed. Just interms of leaping and rushing over short distances, they could truly bedescribed as bolts of lightning. Ethereal Opening cultivators had no chance;even amongst true Star Condensation experts, there were very few people thatcould keep up with their speed. Chen Changsheng had bathed in the true blood of the Black Dragon, allowing hisstrength and speed to reach the peak of Ethereal Opening, but even he wasincapable of keeping up with their speed. However… he knew the Yeshi Step. Yes, although his Yeshi Step was not perfect, since he only practiced asimplified version of his own making, it was enough to help him in those mostdangerous moments when he needed to avoid their lightning-quick attacks. This was the most important reason he had been able to live up to now. Liang Xiaoxiao grasped his sword and stood in the forest. As he viewed thisscene and heard that demon woman speak, his expression subtly changed. As for those two women that had competed with Chen Changsheng in terms ofspeed and reactions many times, their expressions grew even more grave. The reason why the Demon race's plan in the Garden of Zhou had yet to succeedwas all because Chen Changsheng had exceeded their expectations: whether it behis many powerful magical artifacts or his body and sword techniques, or evenhis tenacious and unyielding will. However, what really made them nervous wasthat on the various details around Chen Changsheng, including his surpassinglysharp dagger, his extremely firm umbrella, or the precious Thousand MileButton, and even his mastery of the Yeshi Step; the Military Advisor mostdefinitely knew all about these. So why had the Military Advisor not given themany sort of warning before they had entered the Garden of Zhou? The Military Advisor had not even brought it up. It could not be that these were Chen Changsheng's secrets that not even theMilitary Advisor knew about. The Military Advisor was omniscient; this was aconviction that all demons cleaved to……then what was the Military Advisoraiming to do? Could it be that in this plot, there were still details that theywere not aware of? Did it involve their master? They could not resolve thisproblem, so they were uneasy. In reality, their master, and even the greatDemon Lord himself, were mystified about the true motives of the enigmaticBlack Robe. They suddenly realized that the wind blowing off the lake had became muchcolder. This brought their attention to the fact that the sun had almost setbehind the mountains. However, they had not received new orders from the Military Advisor, whichmeant that they had to extinguish the four flames floating in the life sea—tokill off those four people. Chen Changsheng suddenly felt that the trees by the lakeshore were beginningto move. Liang Xiaoxiao, his expression grave and his sword at his chest,unhesitatingly used the Mount Li Sword Sect's most powerful sword technique. He had already crossed swords with Chen Changsheng several times. Regardlessof how powerful his sword style, or how dense his sword energy, he had beenunable to pierce through his opponent's Yeshi Step. Twice now Nanke's two maidshad used their lightning-fast speed to entangle Chen Changsheng, at which pointLiang Xiaoxiao looked for an opportune time to attack. Yet, both times, ChenChangsheng had easily broken through his sword moves. Liang Xiaoxiao was unable to get the better of Chen Changsheng. He felt thatno matter what move he used, it was as if this youth had already guessed itbeforehand. Moreover, his opponent had always been able to execute the movewhich was most adapted to hurting him. This sort of feeling was extremely uncomfortable, extremely disastrous. This time was no exception. The dagger pressed up against Chen Changsheng'swrist was thrust towards that sky filled with sword wind. It easily found themost critical point of his sword energy and fell upon it. With a snap, thismost simple and yet most effective action had stopped the sword move.Afterwards, the slightly gloomy forest by the lake was lit up by a sword glow.Liang Xiaoxiao was compelled to move backwards in order to avoid the attack. All of the secrets of the Mount Li Sword Style now rested in the OrthodoxAcademy. If Liang Xiaoxiao had been even more learned in the traditional Mount Li SwordStyle, if he was even more skilled, how could he have gotten the better of ChenChangsheng? His magical artifacts were many, and fortuitously so, but what he had the mostof was still knowledge. Memorizing the entire Daoist Canon was one thing, butof the books on cultivation in the Orthodox Academy's library, the vastmajority of them had become nutrients for his sea of consciousness within thevery short span of one year. Countless sword arts had been committed to hismind. Besides Gou Hanshi and Guan Feibai, amongst this generation of youngcultivators, who would dare say that they knew more sword styles than him? If he were facing off some other demon experts, then even if it was one versusthree, Chen Changsheng—with all of his treasures and methods to protect hisbody—could perhaps really have killed his way out, and maybe even obtainedvictory. Just like before…… He had broken through Liang Xiaoxiao's Mount LiSword Style, then pretended to retreat into the woods. In reality, he gatheredup the remnants of his true essence and burned it all up, pouring all his powerinto that dagger. With a flip of his wrist, it turned into a biting cold awland stabbed at a tree branch in the air. There was a sharp screech. Those two women had just appeared in that place, their wings flapping. With a whirlwind of blood, a deep sword slash appeared on their necks. If itwere even deeper, one would even be able to see the bone. The setting sun illuminated the forest by the lakeside. The wind brushedagainst the surface of the lake, and the waves gently splashed. One hand held a dagger, the other an umbrella. Chen Changsheng's chest heavedup and down, and his gasps for breath slowly returned to normal. In his eyes was a tinge of regret. His move, although it had heavily injured those two woman, had not cut throughthe throat, so it was meaningless. They could even regenerate severed hands, so what meaning was there to woundson the body? Why did that dignified woman have no horns? How was her blood red? How was itthat when the naked demon beauty had used her charming arts, the demon horns onher head had disappeared of their own accord? All of it was because they werenot humans, nor were they demons. They were shamans. To be more precise, they were shaman spirits. Their bodiesrested on the line between the real and the spiritual. When they stood together, it was obvious that their facial features andappearance were completely different, and yet they gave the feeling that theywere twins. It was because they had always been twins—they were a pair of wings. Just like those two wings of light on their backs. Those wings of light and their almost spiritual bodies allowed them to possessan unimaginable speed. Even if Chen Changsheng used the Yeshi Step, he stillwould not have been able to escape. If there was only one wing, then it would have never been impossible to takeflight. Just like how if those two were separated, they were just ordinaryupper level Ethereal Opening experts. This was why in the center of the lakeand the lakeshore, Chen Changsheng and the others had been able to severelyinjure them. If they were together, they could directly fly up into the bluesky, increasing their battle strength by more than ten times.  The most powerful Liu Wan'er and Teng Xiaoming, the Demon General couple, hadtaken their leave to pursue Zhexiu and Qi Jian mainly because Qi Jian was theirprimary target, but there was also another reason. This was because thathusband and wife could tell that due to some problem with his true essence orcultivation method, Chen Changsheng lacked the strength to instantly kill. Sothe only thing that lay in store for him was death. Those two wings made of congealed light slowly flapped behind those two women.It was very beautiful. In Chen Changsheng's eyes, those wings of light were just as terrifying. Hisgrip tightened on his dagger as he attempted to find a means of escaping thisencirclement, but he could not find one. Those two women lowered their heads to look at the wounds on their necks, butthey could not see it. Then they looked into each other's eyes, and then lookedat Chen Changsheng's neck. All their actions were perfectly synchronized. Monstrous green blood and gaudy red blood flowed incessantly from those twosword wounds. They clearly felt the pain, and they had seen the shadow of death. They weretruly angry, yet their expressions grew increasingly calm and solemn. Those two wings suddenly began to beat much faster. A massive wind rose up on the lakeshore.