Chapter 24

Tang Yin was no match for Yuan Kui even when he wasn’t injured, not to mention the fact that he had been deeply stabbed in the ribs now.

Seeing Yuan Kui was about to release his spiritual pressure again, Tang Yin had no time to think about anything but just waved his arm and threw out the steel sword in his hand.
Dalang!

Yuan Kui shook the silver spear and knocked out the steel sword threw by Tang Yin easily. The smile on his face deepened. Without the weapon, Tang Yin would only die faster.

But this time he was wrong. After throwing out the steel sword, Tang Yin took a leap, but he did not rush to Yuan Kui, he instead plunged into the surrounding crowd of Ning soldiers.

He opened up his palms with dark flame burning in his hands. After plunging into the crowd, he spread out both hands to strangle two Ning soldiers.

Before the two soldiers even started to scream, Tang Yin’s black flame had burned all over their bodies. With the clinks of metal, only their armor and weapons fell to the ground, not even a strain of hair was left for the two soldiers; they disappeared into the thin air.
This was just the beginning. After burning the two soldiers with the <Flame of Darkness>, Tang Yin did not stop and immediately ran towards other people…

The burnt corpse turned into black fumes, floating in the air, surrounding Tang Yin as if it were alive. At last, it was absorbed by him.

As Reiki [1] was continuously absorbed by him, he managed to staunch the blood from the wound under his ribs, and the wound started to heal quickly. This was the magical effect of the dark Reiki.

The Ning generals could see all these clearly and they were shocked. They exclaimed in unison, “A Dark Spiritual practitioner!”
Yuan Kui’s face took on a ghastly expression as he let out a sudden roar, and he went after Tang Yin while holding his spear. His speed was extremely fast, he caught up with Tang Yin in the blink of an eye. He struck out the silver spear and stabbed at Tang Yin’s back.

Knowing that Yuan Kui was an expert and himself would be no match for him, Tang Yin didn’t bother with Yuan Kui’s attack. As soon as he sensed the incoming silver spear, he didn’t bother to block it but rushed to the side where there were many Ning soldiers.

Tang Yin was using some odd moves and moved like a mud fish. Plus the fact that he had mixed in with the crowd, Yuan Kui pursued several strikes in succession, but he couldn’t even touch his clothes. He could only watch the Ning soldiers turned into black fumes by the <Flame of Darkness>.

At this time, Yuan Kui was actually triggered. He roared at the sky, and the silver spear in his hand suddenly flashed out blinding bright rays and then it turned into countless of steel needles, shooting towards Tang Yin.
It was the <Soul Chasing Thorns>!

Tang Yin recognized Yuan Kui’s killing strike. He reacted in a flash without any thinking. He reached out and lifted a Ning soldier beside him, and he slammed his body against Yuan Kui.

Pu pu pu!

The poor Ning soldier had yet to figure out what was actually happening, his body was punctured with many holes by Yuan Kui’s <Soul Chasing Thorns>. When his body fell to the ground, it was left with only a lump of bloody flesh that no one could tell that was a human figure.

Although he used the Ning soldier as a shield, Tang Yin who was at the back was not spared. Fortunately, he responded quickly enough by rolling out after he threw out the Ning soldier. He managed to dodge the fatal blow with only his left arm being punctured with dozens of blood holes.
Tang Yin who was injured escaped faster, and he used the <Flame of Darkness> more frequently. From time to time, there were Ning soldiers who screamed and disappeared along with <Burning of Death>, and they were all ‘eaten’ by Tang Yin.

Seeing this scene, Yuan Kui’s eyes were filled with flame and the anger was accumulating in his chest. He was switching between various spiritual art skills, but Tang Yin’s moves were agile and odd as he sneaked his way through the crowd. Yuan Kui’s killing strikes not only couldn’t hurt him, but had accidentally killed many Ning soldiers.

At this moment, a large number of Ning soldiers had ironically turned into Tang Yin’s meat shield, and they were obstructing Yuan Kui’s moves.

“What’s going on here?”

Along with the voice, a young man in a silver robe and a long black crown came out of the military tent. Beside him stood several guards in silver armor and several beautiful maids.

The Ning generals were shocked when they saw his appearance. They immediately approached him and surrounded him tightly as to protect him. One of the higher ranking generals said to him respectfully, “His Royal Highness, it’s dangerous outside. Please go back into the tent.”

The young man crossed his legs and stretched his neck, looking at the direction of the fierce battle. He then looked at the Ning general, grunted in dissatisfaction, “I heard that there is only one intruder, why haven’t you get rid of him?”
The Ning general pouted slightly and answered softly, “Your Highness, General Yuan has come forward to face the enemy, I believe that it wouldn’t take long for him to defeat the enemy. Please return to the tent first!”

The Ning generals dared not to let loose their guard for this young man. If anything were to actually happen to him, all of the generals in this checkpoint would have their heads chopped off for that.

“Hehe!” The young man sneered, not listening to the Ning general’s advice. He shook his head and said, “We have so many great generals on our side, while he’s just a small thief. Why do I need to be afraid of him?” While he was speaking, he rolled his eyes at the Ning general who was blocking in front of him. He pushed him away and selected a high lookup point to observe the situation over at Tang Yin’s side.

This young man was none other than the third successor of Emperor Ning, the third prince Yu Shang.

When he first heard that the checkpoint was attacked by enemies, he had immediately hid inside the military tent. Then he heard loud noises outside and was shivered in fear inside his tent. Soon, his subordinate reported to him that there was only one enemy outside the tent, and he was reassured by the news. It was only by then had he gained some courage and mood to come out and watch the battle.

As Yu Shang was cheerfully watching the battle, it was easy for Tang Yin to spot him as there were many Ning soldiers and generals gathered around him. There was a huge crowd over there when he looked from a distance. Yu Shand who was standing at a high spot stood out from everyone around him, as he was the only one in a fine silver robe among the army.
It was easy for Tang Yin to judge that this young man must be the enemy’s chief. Since he came out and showed himself, he could not let go of this great opportunity.

After thinking about it, Tang Yin took a deep breath and rushed over to where Yu Shang was.

Yuan Kui was extremely experienced; he could guess of Tang Yin’s intention just by looking at the direction he was taking. If Tang Yin are to really do something terrible to the third prince, then that’s it for me!

He snorted and released his Reiki; the silver spear in his hand turned blood red in colour, and it grew a lot longer. After completing the <Transform Spirit of Weapons>, he sprung out after Tang Yin. He couldn’t care anymore whether he had accidentally killed many Ning soldiers at this critical moment. As long as he could kill Tang Yin with his spear and protect Yu Shang, the dead counts didn’t matter to him at all.

Tang Yin was fast, but Yuan Kui was even faster. He caught up with Tang Yin in just a few steps. He lifted the spear in his hand high up above his head, aimed at Tang Yin’s back, and he slammed it down with remarkable force.
Weng– The long spear cut through the air, making a soul-shaking sound.

Tang Yin could already tell how remarkable the strength was for this strike just by listening to the sound of it. He clenched his teeth and snatched someone’s halberd in an instant, then he lifted it up high above his head, turned around to take the strike.

Dalang, Kacha!

The transformed long spear slammed harshly on the halberd. They first heard a piercing metal sound, then a snapping sound of the weapon. The halberd in Tang Yin’s hands snapped in half, his body was blown off by the crushing force and he flew backward like a kite with its string cut.
Putong!

Yuan Kui’s full-strength blow was too powerful. Even the soldiers around him were pushed back by its pressure, while Tang Yin who had took the blow head-on suffered from worse damage. He knocked over dozens of Ning soldiers in the air and flew back for more than eight meters before falling to the ground. Even after he fell to the ground, he couldn’t balance but rolled another few meters off.

He crouched on the ground, feeling stuffy in his chest and a sudden sweetness in his throat, he then spit out a mouthful of blood.

However, he didn’t have time to recover. The surrounding Ning soldiers had swarmed in, and they were stabbing all over him with countless long spears and halberds.

Tang Yin widened his eyes and had the tip of his tongue at the hard palate, gathering his strength and jumped up from the ground. He was fast like lightning and dashed out in between the opponent’s attacks, rushing towards Yu Shang who was not far away from him.
He didn’t take Yuan Kui’s harsh strike for nothing. The strike did cause him a huge damage, but it had also greatly shorten the distance between him and Yu Shang.

“Ah?” Seeing Tang Yin rushing out of the crowd like a ghost and straight at Yu Shang, all the Ning soldiers and generals exclaimed in shock.

The guards and generals around Yu Shang stepped up subconsciously and protected him with their bodies. They then held up their weapons and launched deadly attacks at Tang Yin.

These people were all masters of spiritual art, and their strength were deeply cultivated. Pick anyone from them and he could win over Tang Yin. They were of astonishing strength when they joined forces against the enemy!

Tang Yin still had half of the halberd in his hand, and he barely blocked two strikes coming in his face. However, he couldn’t manage to dodge the incoming long spears from the left and right sides. Both spears stabbed into his ribs followed by two stabbing sounds. Lucky enough, Tang Yin was able to avoid being stabbed in his vital spots as he had been preparing for this critical moment. But even so, he still suffered badly from these two strikes.

“You’ve nowhere to run! You’re going to die now!” Yuan Kui who caught up from the back shouted. He once again lifted his spear and slashed diagonally at Tang Yin’s back.
The transformed silver spear had a longer and bolder tip, and the blades were extremely sharp. Moreover, Yuan Kui’s strength was deeply cultivated. If Tang Yin were to really get slashed by the spear, he wouldn’t stand a chance even with a spiritual armor on, not to mention that he had yet to master the <Spiritual Armor>.

Yuan Kui from the back was charging towards him, and the generals and royal guards in front of him didn’t stop as well. Knives, swords, axes, halberds, spears; all kinds of weapons were striking at him. The cold light of weapons was woven into a giant net in the air, overwhelming Tang Yin.

Tang Yin’s current situation could be described as a dead end valley. Plus, all his opponents’ attacks were after his life. What’s more deadly was that the double spears that pierced his left and right ribs were squeezing him like steel tongs, restricting even the slightest movement of his body.

He could neither dodge it nor block it. What should I do now?

Tang Yin stared desperately at Yu Shang, who was hiding behind everyone and was that close to him. He was only one meter, or even just half a meter away from capturing him. A millimeter of gap had caused a huge difference. With just a distance of one meter between them, Tang Yin couldn’t get any further and had fallen into a desperate situation.

[1] Reiki: Japanese, a universal life energy