Chapter 960: Variable
The moment Luo Bingfeng raised his fingers, Yun Zhong and Yun Hai’s expressions changed drastically. Sweat began pouring down their foreheads as they sensed a feeling of mortal peril.
The elder from the imperial family blurted out, “Oh no! They can’t block that!”
The experts from the imperial family were shocked. Yun Zhong and Yun Hai were fairly celebrated, and their arts specialize in restraining experts. Not many people in the entire palace could break through their defenses. The two of them were transferred to the neutral lands specifically to deal with experts at Luo Bingfeng’s level.
Yet who would’ve thought the city lord would be this powerful. A casual attack of his was outrageously powerful, destroying the duo’s defenses with just a single hand. Who among the many imperial experts would survive if he were to go all out?
Everyone saw the danger, but no one took action because, if even Yun Zhong and Yun Hai couldn’t stop the attack, they would simply be committing suicide.
The old man from the imperial family was shocked, but there was no time to blame the other people. He took to the air, about to provide assistance personally when Luo Bingfeng turned around and stared coldly at him. The elder felt as though he had been drenched in ice water—his entire body froze up and actually lost the ability to move!
The old man had just left the ground when he fell back onto the deck in a miserable fashion, prompting the surrounding experts to move in and help. Fortunately, Luo Bingfeng merely glanced in the direction before turning away and seemed to have no intention of performing a follow-up attack.
The old man had escaped a calamity, but the brothers were consigned to damnation after being locked onto by Luo Bingfeng’s gaze.
The city lord raised his finger-sword to eye-level, ready to slash out.
Yun Zhong and Yu Hai were ashen-faced as they laid down dozens of origin shields around them. Despite that, they knew that no number of shields could block this earth-shattering sword strike.
Just as Luo Bingfeng was about to launch this attack, he suddenly turned toward the side with a surprised exclamation. In his line of sight, Qianye’s standing figure was faintly discernible in the air.
The moment Luo Bingfeng noticed Qianye, the latter’s silhouette vanished with a flicker.
After a moment of hesitation, the city lord finally retracted his sword fingers. His eyes erupted in light as he scoured the earth and sky for traces of Qianye. For some reason, Qianye had always given him a feeling of danger. This sensation was fairly ineffable because his cultivation was simply too low. Luo Bingfeng felt that, despite possessing a supreme origin power like Venus Dawn, Qianye should be of no threat to him.
Yet, he could still feel an indescribable sense of apprehension from Qianye. He would rather let the brothers off temporarily than take a risk. Despite that, he had no intention of letting them off so easily. He flicked his fingers repeatedly, firing several palm-sized bolts of sword energy which hacked at them from all directions and left them howling in misery.
Luo Bingfeng’s gaze suddenly locked onto a certain direction. With a snort, his figure then flickered and appeared above that point.
Qianye’s silhouette happened to appear right at that location. He had just completed a Spatial Flash when he was locked onto by Luo Bingfeng.
Without the slightest hesitation, the city lord raised his palm like a blade and slashed down onto Qianye’s head!
In the aristocratic fleet closest to their location, the Li family elder saw that Luo Bingfeng had already left the range of the holy mountain. Clenching his teeth, he flew out with an icy-sword in hand and thrust at Luo Bingfeng’s back.
Luo Bingfeng sneered as he shifted from slash to sweep and drew a hundred-meter arc of light toward the Li family elder. This sweep was incomparably grand and brilliant—the Li elder was greatly shocked, but there was no retreat at this point. All he could do was brace himself and meet the radiance with an all-out slash.
The hundred-meter arc of light was slashed apart, but the icy sword in the elder’s hand also crumbled inch by inch. He flew backward and staggered back toward his flagship.
Meanwhile, Luo Bingfeng’s right hand only trembled briefly before recovering. Another palm was soon slashing toward Qianye.
The palm-sword shot out another beam of light. The jade-green radiance descended like a sharp blade, poised to slash Qianye into two halves. However, the latter’s figure warped, twisted, and vanished—he had used Spatial Flash again.
Luo Bingfeng let out an astonished exclamation. “You run quite fast! Let’s see how many times you can actually do that!”
His eyes erupted with a brilliance capable of illuminating every shadowy corner. Just as the city lord was searching for Qianye, a sudden rebuke echoed in his ears, “Insolence! Do you think our Great Qin has no one left to deal with you?”
Luo Bingfeng glanced back and found a speck of violet energy tearing through the skies, making straight for his forehead.
Thirty meters away, the old man from the imperial family was pointing in this direction. His entire finger was a translucent purple with a segment of golden bone inside.
In the face of this violet energy, a flash of mockery appeared on Luo Bingfeng’s countenance. He brought his fingers together in the shape of a sword and tapped lightly on the incoming attack.
The old man’s body jolted to a stop and was flung backward.
How could the city lord just stop there? He tapped again from afar, shooting a stream of sword energy at the imperial elder.
Yung Zhong and Yun Hai appeared at the critical juncture, crashing into the incoming energy as one. This sword energy shot through the two, but it also lost its sharpness in the process, allowing the imperial elder to evade it easily.
Luo Bingfeng didn’t follow up with the attack. With his left hand behind his back, he said coldly, “I do think that, what will you do?”
Most of the violet intent on the imperial elder’s finger had dispersed and was gradually recovering at the moment. Hearing the city lord’s words caused him to tremble in anger, and a stream of blood trickled down the corner of his mouth. Despite that, he needed time before he could attack again after that big loss in their previous exchange. He had no other choice but to control his anger.
Luo Bingfeng scanned the duo with a frown. “You two are quite troublesome, I can’t leave you alive.”
Shocked out of their wits, Yun Zhong and Yun Hai drew away from the city lord. If one were to look closely, the injuries on their bodies were healing fairly quickly. They were littered in wounds during their initial exchange with Luo Bingfeng’s sword energy, but now, most of the damage had been repaired. With such powerful regenerative capacity, it would seem that the two would have the power to fight so long as they remained alive—no wonder they were entrusted with such an important mission. It was just that Luo Bingfeng’s attack was too destructive. No degree of defense or recovery could work before him.
Luo Bingfeng suddenly turned toward Yan Ding.
The latter was actually hundreds of meters away, sneaking about as he searched for a good firing angle. Being glared at gave him quite the shock. He began trembling all over and almost dropped his gun. After the initial shock, Yan Ding discovered that Luo Bingfeng hadn’t used his Death Stare at him. He retreated in relief, no longer daring to operate under Luo Bingfeng’s eyes.
Luo Bingfeng couldn’t be bothered to look at Yan Ding. He closed his palms in front of his chest and formed an extremely complicated hand seal with thousands of variations. Every transformation would shoot out a beam of sword energy, which filled the entire area like raindrops. These sword energies were only as long as a palm and as thick as a finger, but no one dared to underestimate them after experiencing the previous battle.
Yan Ding was fairly lacking in the luck department, being locked onto by three sword energies at the same time. He made up his mind quickly this time, immediately abandoning his sniper rifle and cutting down two of the incoming beams with his sword. He then turned to flee, flying about the entire area with the remaining sword energy on his tail.
Just as the experts of the empire were busy dealing with the rain of sword energy, Luo Bingfeng appeared in front of the aristocratic alliance flagship. He spread out his five fingers and clawed at the flagship. The aristocratic experts were shocked. Having seen Luo Bingfeng destroy an airship with a single palm strike, they didn’t dare to let him unleash this attack.
But with how strong Luo Bingfeng was, whoever went to stop him alone would surely die. In the face of this hopeless situation, the Li clan elder erupted with a loud shout. All the aristocratic experts began to move and take up their positions. An origin array lit up under each of them and connected together to form a single large array over the entire ship.
Luo Bingfeng was unafraid, still. He closed his fingers with a loud roar and threw a solid punch.
The might of this punch was enough to destroy mountains, boil the ocean, and destroy everything in its way.
With the Li clan elder as the center, the aristocratic family experts channeled their power into the formation with a uniform cry. Luo Bingfeng remained unmoved after the exchange of fist and formation; the only change was the appearance of spatial tears below his feet. Meanwhile, the formation made up of many experts was pushed back a hundred meters!
The Li clan elder’s hands were trembling ever so slightly. “Stepping through the void, attacking with the might of eight peaks! H-He’s actually that strong!?”
According to legends, heavenly monarchs and great monarchs would come close to becoming one with the world. They looked like they were standing in empty space, but the entire world and void was their support. One could forget about making them step back without relying on external power.
Although Luo Bingfeng hadn’t really reached the heavenly monarch stage, he was apparently not too far off. Such a character had long since surpassed the capacity of their plans. There was really no telling if Song Zining would’ve gone along with this plan if he had known the man’s true power.
Luo Bingfeng didn’t follow up with a second attack, but the experts didn’t dare dissolve their formation. All they could do in this state was seek self-preservation at the expense of attacking. This was proof that they were apprehensive.
Luo Bingfeng looked around the battlefield and suddenly focused on Song Zining.
At this moment, a fully-armored Song Zining was standing at the bow of the ship. Seeing Luo Bingfeng glancing over, he couldn’t help but let out a self-deprecating smile. “I would’ve never thought the city lord was such a peerless character. I take this miscalculation is probably the madam’s doing?”
Luo Bingfeng’s expression turned gentle. “Nan Nan, I truly owe her too much. Your loss isn’t unjustified.”
Song Zining said with a scoff, “This isn’t necessarily a loss. May I ask, why me this time?”
Luo Bingfeng said calmly, “You will be a great enemy one day in the future.”
“That’s in the future. Right now, this young noble is…”
Luo Bingfeng cut him short. “You’re also quite difficult to deal with right now. If I don’t kill you, there might be changes to the outcome.”
These words, coming from Luo Bingfeng, were actually extremely high praise. It proved that Song Zining was an opponent he couldn’t tolerate, equal in status to the elders from the Li family and imperial clan. Yun Zhong and Yun Hai together could only equal a single Song Zining.
Nonetheless, Song Zining didn’t approve. “This isn’t reason enough.”
The experts from the Empire thought that Song Zining was stalling for time since they couldn’t understand his reasoning. Who would’ve thought Luo Bingfeng would reply seriously, “Qianye will surely appear if you’re in mortal danger.”
Song Zining was startled. Donning his mask, he raised his spear horizontally at the bow of the ship, saying, “Qianye won’t come. No need to say more, come if you want to kill me!”
Luo Bingfeng took a step forward—just about to attack—when he felt a sharp, faintly discernible pain on his back.