A Deadly Trap!!

Flushed with excitement, the three held their newly forged weapons, unable to put them down. Ye Feng stepped forward, cupping his fists and bowing deeply in salute. "Uncle Meng, we three brothers will engrave this immense kindness upon our hearts!" "If there is ever anything you need of us in the future, simply say the word, and we will place ourselves entirely at your command." "However, tomorrow is the day of the wager tournament. We three must depart at once." Meng Jiangchu waved his hand and laughed heartily. "Very well. When you return, tell that boy there's no need to worry about Wanshu. It won't be long now." Their eyes brimmed with gratitude as they stepped onto the teleportation passage bound for the Great Xia Sword Sect. Among the three, Ye Feng had always used an ordinary dharma artifact longsword. Cao Yan had also used a low-grade weapon. Perhaps only Xiao Chen, coming from a family of substantial means, possessed a spear capable of withstanding his earlier spear ruins. Inside the teleportation channel, none of them could bear to set their weapons down, wiping them over and over, examining every inch again and again. Not a single moment passed without them nourishing their armaments with pure primal energy. Meng Jiangchu had even prepared masterless weapon spirits for each of them. The value of such treasures... was practically comparable to a Void Shattering Pill. In fact, even three Void Shattering Pills could not match the worth of a masterless weapon spirit! Cao Yan stared at the fist gauntlet in his hands, which shimmered with flowing light, his eyes welling red with sheer emotion. Ye Feng was equally tender, wiping his frost-glinting longsword as delicately as if caring for a beloved partner. Though the blade had yet to taste blood, he could already feel the spirit of the ruins artifact trembling with eagerness within his spirit ruins. Xiao Chen, meanwhile, cradled the She Shen spear against his cheek, nuzzling it over and over. Seeing him like that, Cao Yan could not resist muttering to Ye Feng, "Why do I feel like Fourth Brother is acting a little creepy right now?" Ye Feng smiled faintly. Looking at Cao Yan clutching the Gu Yang fist gauntlet while frantically rubbing it clean with his sleeve, he countered, "You're hardly one to talk." Yet, after the three had stepped into the teleportation array, Meng Jiangchu had felt an inkling of unease and sent Li Changqing to tail them. His decision proved to be entirely justified! Just as the three were laughing and chatting— *Rumble!!* The teleportation channel leading to the Great Xia Sword Sect abruptly collapsed! A terrifying ray of sword light pierced straight through the void, severing the passage clean in two! Ye Feng abruptly drew Nu Sha, sweeping a sharp, fierce gaze in all directions as violent energy erupted in an instant! "Third Brother! Fourth Brother!!" Slipping the Gu Yang fist gauntlet onto his hands, Cao Yan unleashed rolling waves of fire in every direction! In Xiao Chen's hands, the black She Shen spear flew through the air around him, turning away every shred of the void's tearing force. The three stood back-to-back, their divine senses sweeping outward like a tidal wave. Li Changqing materialized before them in a flash, thrusting a palm violently toward the empty space behind them! "Great Desert Tiangang Palm!!" Li Changqing's eyes were sharp as an eagle's, fixed unwaveringly on the void behind the trio as a radiant palm print spanning a hundred zhang slammed into the nothingness. *Slash! Slash!!* Several arcs of sword light hacked out, detonating with a deafening roar. *Rumble! Crash!!* The ferocious shockwave hurled the three back dozens of zhang. The surrounding space warped continuously, tearing open ragged rifts. Shielding the three behind him, Li Changqing narrowed his eyes. "Who goes there? How dare you attack at a time like this!" Outwardly calm, the elder was secretly rattled. The newcomers were unmistakably hostile, and the area within a ten-thousand-zhang radius had been locked down by some strange power. Not a single spatial transmission ripple could escape—they were clearly intent on eliminating all witnesses! Two black-robed figures appeared before them, their identities thoroughly concealed. Their faces were distorted beneath a shroud of mist, rendering their features entirely invisible. Yet just as Li Changqing glared at the pair, Xiao Chen sneered from the side, "Has the great Ancient Clan's Lu clan truly abandoned all shame? "The wager tournament is tomorrow, yet you ambush us halfway along our journey. You really have thrown all dignity away." The moment Xiao Chen spoke, Li Changqing distinctly felt a subtle tremor in the auras of the two figures. Li Changqing's face instantly darkened, his tone turning frigid. "Do you know who I am? Do you know whom I represent?" The assailants offered no reply, but Ye Feng could clearly sense that their killing intent had weakened considerably. Or rather... These two had never intended to kill them in the first place, which left only one explanation... They wanted to pin them down for as long as possible and stall for time! The Lu clan did not want them to show up at the tournament! "Damn it!" Li Changqing crushed several jade slips in quick succession, but the spatial ripples dissipated after traveling only a few dozen li. His eyes narrowed as a silver gleam flared within them. Looking up into the surrounding void, he realized they had already been trapped inside an isolated domain. "Quite the extravagant move, using a spatial artifact to envelop the entire void! "Shattering the teleportation channel and shifting us straight into this space... It seems no one on the outside has noticed us yet." As he spoke, the elder sent a sound transmission to Ye Feng and the others: "Stay alert. These two possess cultivation no weaker than my own. Watch yourselves. "Within six hours at most, the Domain Lord will realize we haven't arrived at the Great Xia Sword Sect and will certainly come searching for us. "In a moment, I will hold them off and strike with everything I have to shatter this spatial artifact. Once it breaks, make your escape immediately!" Before the trio could even respond, their opponents were already charging forward! Primal energy surged violently around Li Changqing, blasting the three youths back over a thousand zhang. A gleaming longsword appeared in his grip, and amid the monstrous eruption of primal energy, he bellowed, "Go!" With sword in hand, the elder charged straight at the pair. Facing two black-robed figures whose strength and realm were on par with his own, he showed no fear whatsoever. His sword momentum was immensely heavy, broad and unrestrained like the strikes of a reckless brute. Yet precisely because of this, the elder managed to forcibly pin down both adversaries. Ye Feng, Cao Yan, and Xiao Chen exchanged a glance. Ye Feng said heavily, "Move! Help him first, then look for a chance to break free!" *Boom! Boom! Boom!!* Three violent auras at the late Void Refining Realm erupted in unison, and a terrifying wave of fire swept across the space. The combined might of the three scorched the void until it warped out of shape, and in an instant, they joined the fray. Li Changqing breathed a massive sigh of relief. With seamless coordination, the four of them temporarily kept the two foes at bay. Yet Body Integration Realm cultivators were not so easily contained. Before long, wounds of varying sizes covered the trio's bodies. The smell of blood fueled their battle lust, but they remained rigorously restrained. Their current strength... absolutely could not be exposed!! That included the secret arts Li Guanqi had taught them, as well as the true Lethality of their weapons! These were the trump cards they had painstakingly concealed until now. If they revealed them prematurely... Everything Li Guanqi had done for them would be rendered meaningless. Therefore, no matter what, their sole objective was to escape—they could not afford to miss the wager tournament!! *Boom! Boom!!* *Rumble! Crash! Clang, clang, clang!!* Sparks sprayed wherever the blades clashed, the berserk forces condensed into mere inches of space. With every passing breath, the unpredictable tides of battle wound their nerves taut as bowstrings.