Zhan Meng and Ji Lian felt as though they had plunged into a swamp. Their speed plummeted instantly. They had barely travelled ten li before their bodies came to a complete halt.
Zhan Meng’s body tilted and crashed onto a rock wall several zhang high. Ji Lian landed directly on the bare stone ground where no wall was absent.
“Hm? There is some strange power restraining us here?”
Ji Lian’s brows jumped. He immediately sensed that his body could scarcely move.
An inexplicable force enveloped him, binding him tightly in place.
“What is going on?” Zhan Meng, off to the side, also paled dramatically. He tried to retreat, yet could not shift even an inch. He circulated his inner power to advance, but taking a single step was impossible.
Both men were completely dumbfounded.
At their realm, very few things could restrict them like this.
The place did not appear to have anything special about it, yet it rendered them immobile.
What exactly was happening?
What baffled them even more was that they, Martial Saints, had only entered a few dozen li, while Lin Xiao, a mere Martial Emperor, had flown more than a hundred li inside.
And from the looks of it, he was completely unaffected and could continue forward?
“Could it be… the stronger one’s cultivation is, the stronger the restraint becomes?” Zhan Meng could not help but voice his guess.
Ji Lian instantly understood. Lin Xiao could move while they could not. That was the only explanation.
Clang!
Their bodies had stopped moving, and the floating heavenly palace Lin Xiao had thrown clattered onto the stone ground ahead of them. It bounced twice before coming to rest only a dozen zhang away.
Both men’s faces turned exceedingly ugly. They had rushed in here solely for the palace; killing Lin Xiao was merely incidental.
Yet now the palace lay right before them, and they could not move. This was a different kind of humiliation.
“Hm?”
At that moment, Lin Xiao, who had been fleeing forward, also noticed the abnormality and halted.
Originally he had hoped the two would fight over the palace and temporarily overlook him, giving him a chance to escape with his life.
But now he discovered that both men were completely unable to move.
“Could it be that the warm current from the Heavenly Eye is shielding me from the restraining power here?” Lin Xiao silently wondered.
By now he had stopped entirely.
The palace was still lying there. If the two truly could not move, perhaps he could even retrieve it.
However, it was only a dozen zhang from them. For Martial Saints, that was practically within arm’s reach. If they could still twitch even slightly, it would be fatal.
Should he turn back to take it, or not?
Lin Xiao hesitated.
Of course, to be chased by two Martial Saints, nearly lose his life, and still be able to stop and consider his options, very few young men could achieve that.
Any other youth would have fled long ago, regardless of whether the Martial Saints were truly immobilised.
By cautious logic, Lin Xiao should run immediately. What if the two suddenly regained mobility?
“What happened to you two?” Lin Xiao called out probingly.
“You!” Both men nearly spat blood in rage.
Not only had Lin Xiao not fled, he actually dared to mock them. This was outright humiliation.
Hiss!
Lin Xiao tested circulating his spiritual power and vital energy and discovered, sure enough, that his power could no longer leave his body.
This place truly possessed a special restraining force.
Seeing their condition, Lin Xiao was now completely certain: the two men really could not move.
Thus, a bold idea formed. He flew slowly toward them.
He approached carefully, first fifty li away, then thirty, then ten.
When he saw they still showed no reaction, he finally he flew to within a dozen zhang, calmly picked up the floating heavenly palace he had thrown earlier, and stored it back in his ring. He murmured to himself, “Looks like you two didn’t come for the palace after all.”
“Lin Xiao, you’re courting death!” Ji Lian roared darkly.
A junior actually dared to taunt them like this.
“Truly ignorant of life and death!” Zhan Meng also snarled coldly.
“Heh, I wonder who exactly is ignorant of life and death.” Lin Xiao gave a faint smile, eyes gleaming with excitement. “If the two great powers learned that two Martial Saints had fallen by my hand, I wonder what they would think.”
He laughed to himself again, face blooming with delight. “Slaying Saints, ah!”
“You… you actually want to kill us?!” Ji Lian nearly exploded with fury. A mere First Level Martial Emperor junior dared to declare in front of them that he would kill them?
This was naked humiliation!
“Hmph. Killing us? Keep dreaming!” Zhan Meng spat angrily. “Even if we stood here motionless and let you hack away, you could not harm us in the slightest!”
The difference between Martial Saint and Martial Emperor was like heaven and earth. Their bodies had undergone a qualitative transformation.
Even Martial Saints who did not specialise in body refinement were unimaginably tough. A Martial Emperor could never injure them.
Even a half-step Martial Saint could not.
“Is that so?” Seeing the confidence and contempt mixed with their rage, Lin Xiao frowned slightly.
Could he really not cut a Martial Saint?
He immediately drew the Yaoguang Fragment and walked step by step toward Ji Lian, who stood on the bare stone ground.
Watching Lin Xiao approach menacingly, both men fumed.
Soon Lin Xiao stood right before Ji Lian, positioned just outside the reach of a Martial Saint’s arm.
“Elder Ji Lian, time to be on your way!”
Lin Xiao raised the blade and slashed down at Ji Lian’s head.
CLANG!
A tremendous metallic clang rang out. The broken sword actually bounced back. Ji Lian’s head remained completely unscathed.
“So hard?” Lin Xiao’s brows knitted tightly.
His vital energy could already sweep aside Ninth Level Martial Emperors and even contend with Martial Saints. More importantly, the Yaoguang Fragment was feared even by Monk Budong and could cleave many extraordinarily tough anomalies. Yet it could not cut a Martial Saint’s head?
Were Martial Saint bodies truly this powerful?
“You little beast, you’ve infuriated this old man to death!” Ji Lian seethed, nearly coughing blood.
Although the strike had not harmed him in the least, being chopped at the head by a junior, if word got out, he and the entire Ji family would become the laughingstock of Yang Province.
While Ji Lian burned with rage, Lin Xiao raised the sword again and brought it down heavily on his neck.
CLANG!
Another metallic ring. Ji Lian’s face turned iron-blue. Zhan Meng could not bear to watch.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Lin Xiao hacked wildly all over Ji Lian’s body, even stabbing at his stomach with the broken edge. In the end Ji Lian could not restrain himself and spat several mouthfuls of blood. “Vermin! When I break free, I’ll make you wish you were dead!!!”
Zhan Meng watched with a chill in his heart. Being unable to move while a junior beat them at will was simply horrifying.
“Don’t worry, you won’t have that chance!” A wicked smile spread across Lin Xiao’s face. “But before you die, I’ll let you enjoy yourselves plenty!”
With that, he slashed randomly at Ji Lian’s eyes, nose, mouth, and other places. Then he even put away the Yaoguang Fragment and began pummelling Ji Lian with fists and feet until his own hands and feet ached. Ji Lian spat several more mouthfuls of blood in fury.
Afterwards, Lin Xiao gave Zhan Meng the same brutal beating. Zhan Meng too was livid.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
After quite some time, numerous figures suddenly streaked toward them from the distance.
