chsdbacks Chapter 8 Tribulation 2
Chapter 8 Tribulation 2
Chen Fan raised his left hand again! Another talisman shattered! Three azure ice spikes, each about a foot long and exuding a chilling aura, shot towards the skinny man's brow, throat, and heart with a piercing shriek!
The skinny man was terrified! The Water-Splitting Spear danced swiftly like the wind, knocking away the ice spikes aimed at his brow and throat with two sharp clangs! But the third ice spike, like a venomous snake, pierced his left shoulder with a "thud"!
"Ugh...!" A sharp pain struck, and the skinny man screamed in agony as his left shoulder was instantly covered by a layer of solid ice, and his entire left arm became stiff and numb!
Chen Fan wouldn't give him a chance to breathe. The flying sword continued its momentum, and his right hand flashed from his waist, revealing a gleaming short sword in his hand! Using the momentum of his charge, the sword, sharp as lightning, ruthlessly stabbed straight at the skinny man's vital point in his dantian!
Fast! Accurate! Ruthless!
The skinny man suffered a severe blow to his left shoulder, greatly slowing his movements. In his panic, he managed to turn to the side! The sword light grazed past his dantian, a vital point, and with a "sizzle," pierced through his right rib! Blood gushed out like a fountain!
"Ah...!" A heart-wrenching scream echoed through the desolate mountains! The skinny man flew backward like a broken bag, the Water-Splitting Dagger slipping from his hand!
"Third Brother!" The burly man in brown robes and the short, fat man roared, their eyes bloodshot with rage! With a furious shout, the two pounced on the left and right, their fury palpable! The axe, carrying scorching wind pressure, came crashing down! The black short stick gleamed brightly, accompanied by a muffled thunderous sound, and swept across the waist!
Chen Fan didn't linger in the fight! With a swift movement of his left hand, he snatched the storage bag from the skinny man's waist! His flying sword shot forward with a fierce leap! The scorching wind from the axe almost grazed his nose! The chilling wind from the staff also swept past his back, raising goosebumps! He then flicked out another talisman!
"Whoosh!" A thick, solidified, earthen-yellow stone wall, over three feet thick, rose from the ground, blocking his path between him and his pursuers!
"Break!" The burly man in brown robes was furious. His axe shone brightly with red light as he slammed it down on the stone wall!
"Boom!" The stone wall shattered with a crash! Dust flew everywhere!
But those two breaths of separation were enough for Chen Fan to retreat ten feet away on his sword!
The burly man in the brown robe stared at the thin man lying in a pool of blood behind the earthen wall, barely breathing. His face was ashen, his eyes filled with a mixture of shock and rage. He raised his axe to give chase, but his steps abruptly halted. His opponent had been ruthless and decisive, wielding talismans like flowing water; he was no easy opponent! The short, fat man beside him also showed fear, his hand gripping the staff trembling slightly.
"Go!" The burly man in the brown robe spat out a single word through gritted teeth. He and the short, fat man quickly lifted the heavily injured thin man and fled into the depths of the desolate mountains without looking back, disappearing in the blink of an eye.
Chen Fan did not pursue them. He stood on his flying sword, his divine sense fully activated, vigilantly scanning his surroundings. Only after confirming that the three had indeed fled far away and there were no more ambushes did he slowly lower the flying sword, landing at the foot of the mountain under a sheltered rock wall.
As the tension eased slightly, the pain in his left arm and back became immediately apparent. A small gash, barely an inch long, had been cut in his left arm by a piece of gravel; though not deep, it burned intensely. His back, grazed by the force of the short stick, throbbed with pain. Nearly forty percent of his dantian's magical energy had been depleted; the rapid movement with the weapon, the probing with his divine sense, and the desperate strike had all taken a heavy toll.
What pained him even more was the loss of four talismans—a fireball talisman, an ice cone talisman, an earthen wall talisman, and a Golden Bell talisman that he had prepared but never used! These four talismans would be worth at least thirty low-grade spirit stones in the market!
One encounter cost him thirty spirit stones, plus a body full of injuries.
This is the truest depiction of the cultivation world. No one will share your losses; all pain and consequences must be borne alone.
Chen Fan leaned against the rock wall, took out a healing pill and swallowed it. The medicine took effect, and the pain eased slightly. After a short rest, he stepped back onto his flying sword. This time, he flew even lower, expanding his spiritual sense to a range of fifty feet, and returned to Fire Cloud Peak as if walking on thin ice.
Back in the stone chamber, dawn was breaking. Activating the protective barrier, Chen Fan sat down on a futon, not immediately beginning to meditate, but instead taking out the skinny man's storage bag.
The restriction on the bag's opening was rudimentary, easily broken by his current spiritual sense. Inside were only a few items: a dozen or so low-grade spirit stones, a few common herbs of insufficient age and weak spiritual energy, two bottles of inferior pills of unknown purpose, and the Water-Splitting Thorn magic weapon. All the items were valued at approximately seventy or eighty spirit stones.
After deducting the cost of thirty spirit stones for the four talismans, the net profit is about fifty yuan.
In addition, he survived.
If it weren't for his advanced divine sense detecting the ambush in advance, if he hadn't instantly judged the opponent's strength and weaknesses, if he hadn't decisively chosen the weakest to strike with lightning speed, if he hadn't been willing to use the talisman as a resource to consume... the one lying in a pool of blood on the desolate mountain at this moment would be Chen Fan.
After putting the spirit stones into his bag and setting aside the miscellaneous items for sale, Chen Fan closed his eyes and began to review the battle.
The three opponents were poorly coordinated. When the burly man in brown robes was forced back by the fireball talisman, the short, fat man reacted a beat too late, failing to block his retreat in time. The thin man, positioned too far forward, gave him an opening.
However, these are all superficial appearances.
The real problem lies within oneself.
He shouldn't have taken that route. Even less should he have established a fixed route for the third time he sold pills. The first two times he escaped unscathed were merely lucky. Ambushers are most adept at detecting such predictable patterns of movement.
The injury was more complicated than expected.
The wound on my left arm scabbed over in just two days after the medicine was applied. The real trouble was my back; the gust of wind from the black short stick contained a chilling power that had invaded my meridians. Although this power wasn't domineering, it was like a leech, clinging to the walls of my meridians, causing sharp, needle-like pain every time I circulated my magic power.
It took Chen Fan three whole days to completely expel this wisp of cold energy.
For the past three days, he hadn't stepped out of the stone chamber. Aside from meditating to heal his injuries, he had been refining Qi-refining pills by activating the mysterious vortex in his palm. The golden-backed mantis larva lay quietly in the corner of the futon, nibbling on fragments of spirit stones when hungry, and remaining motionless like a dark gold pebble after it was full. This was the larva's nature—to sleep more and move less, absorbing spiritual energy in its slumber and slowly transforming.
Seven days later, the injury was finally healed.
Chen Fan did not rush to the market again, but sat cross-legged on the futon and repeatedly replayed the battle in the desolate mountain in his mind dozens of times.
Every detail was dissected and examined in detail, one of which was the precise timing for divine sense to capture fluctuations in spiritual energy.
Secondly, it provides the precise basis for determining the number of people involved in the ambush.
Thirdly, there are deeper considerations behind choosing thin people as the entry point.
Fourthly, the order and rhythm of casting talismans.
The final, desperate strike was delivered with a tricky angle and force.
Each step was repeatedly simulated in my mind, seeking out its flaws and learning from the lessons.
This was an instinct he had developed over many years of struggling to survive.
Without a master to guide me, and with few fellow students to spar with, I can only rely on myself. Every battle, regardless of victory or defeat, is an experience gained at a cost. If I win, I must understand where I succeeded and where I can improve; if I lose but survive, I must delve deeper into the reasons for my defeat to avoid repeating the same mistakes.
This battle taught him three lessons:
Firstly, the power of his divine sense far exceeded his previous expectations. If it weren't for the "Great Evolution Prison Suppression Scripture" which greatly enhanced the coverage of his divine sense, it would have been extremely difficult for him to detect the spiritual energy fluctuations of the three people from thirty feet away. Without this early warning, he feared he would have already been beheaded by the time they launched their attack.
Secondly, talismans are truly life-saving tools. They require no expenditure of one's own magical power, are activated swiftly, come in a wide variety, and are effective in both offense and defense. A fireball talisman for restraint, an ice spike talisman for injury, and an earthen wall talisman for blocking—using these three talismans in succession allowed him, a mere Qi Refining Stage 10 cultivator, not only to escape unscathed from the siege of three Tribulation Cultivators but also to kill one of them. If he had lacked sufficient talismans or had used only one type, the outcome would certainly have been different.