421: Chapter 421 Covering the Rear

Li Xuanxiao's figure flickered, passing through the gaps between several fighting Cultivators, and lunged straight at Ye Tian's back!

On his long sword, a brilliant clear light surged, and a Sword Intent, several times more terrifying than the previous "Mountain-Breaking," began to condense!

But Ye Tian paid it no mind.

He rushed to where everyone was gathered, swung sword horizontally, forcing back several lunging Cultivators, and shouted sternly: "Senior Brother Dongfang! Open the path! Brother Han, protect the flank! Senior Brother Pei, take the rear! Everyone else, charge with me!"

"Leave it to me!" Dongfang Xinghe gritted his teeth and spat a mouthful of blood essence onto the Formation Flag. The defensive light shield in front of them flared brightly, temporarily smashing open a path.

Han Xiao's sword light was like a curtain, protecting the left flank.

Pei Tieshan was like a crazed giant bear, stubbornly blocking the right side and the pursuers from behind.

The group was like a sharp blade, desperately charging toward the brilliant Five Elements light wheel and the tightly closed hall doors!

Behind them were dozens of Cultivators who had killed until their eyes turned red, and a terrifying sword light drawing ever closer!

Less than fifty zhang from the hall doors! Forty zhang! Thirty zhang!

Li Xuanxiao's sword was already three zhang behind Ye Tian! The Sword Qi was bone-chillingly cold!

Twenty zhang! Ten zhang!

"Stop them!"

"The mark is mine!"

Several figures struck from the side, aiming straight for Ye Tian at the front and those holding the marks!

They were several Cultivators at the Fourth Stage of Sea Transformation who had been waiting for an Opportunity!

Blocked in front, pursued from behind, and attacked on the flanks! A desperate situation!

A ruthless glint flashed in Ye Tian's eyes. He suddenly stopped, turned around to face Li Xuanxiao who had chased up from behind, as well as the several powerful enemies lunging from the side!

"You go first!" he bellowed. The gray-purple lightning on sword blazed with unprecedented intensity, and an aura of determination erupted! "I'll take the rear!"

"Junior Brother Ye!"

"Brother Ye!"

Everyone was horrified.

"Go!"

Ye Tian didn't even look back. He slashed sword fiercely at the enemies who had lunged in front of him, while simultaneously raising his left hand. The black tortoise spirit armor shield suddenly appeared, transforming into a massive earthy-yellow light shield, blocking behind him to meet Li Xuanxiao's furious, lethal sword strike!

"Boom!!!"

The light shield only held for an instant before shattering with a roar!

But in that very instant, Qin Pojun and the others gritted their teeth and charged through the final ten zhang, arriving beneath the massive Five Elements light wheel!

The five Five Elements marks simultaneously erupted with blinding light, resonating strongly with the Five Elements light wheel above!

"Hum!"

The tightly closed ancient hall doors, amidst a massive roar, slowly opened inward, revealing a gap!

Behind the doors was a swirling five-colored mist, an unknown passageway, the final place of Opportunity!

"Enter!" Qin Pojun's eyes were splitting with rage. He glanced at Ye Tian's back, standing alone against dozens of enemies and a terrifying sword light, roared, and was the first to charge toward the gap in the hall doors!

"Junior Brother Ye! Come quickly!" Shui Qingdie looked back, tears streaming down her face, and screamed.

Ye Tian forced back two people in front of him with one sword strike, but he himself was shaken to the point of vomiting blood.

He looked back at the open hall doors, then at Li Xuanxiao who was right before him, and the many enemies surrounding him, watching like tigers eyeing their prey.

The gap in the hall doors was slowly closing at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The time of one incense stick was nearly up.

He suddenly revealed a calm smile to Shui Qingdie, Yun Wuji, Qin Pojun, and the others.

Then, he turned around.

sword pointed at Li Xuanxiao, who had sealed off all his paths of retreat, and the dozens of powerful enemies surrounding him.

The gray Chaos True Essence, mixed with wisps of thunder, slowly rose around his body.

"Now," Ye Tian wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, his eyes as sharp as a peerless divine weapon about to be unsheathed, "it's your turn to come at me together."

As his voice fell, the plaza fell into dead silence.

Five-colored mist leaked from the narrowing gap in the doors, reflecting off Ye Tian's blood-stained profile and the flickering gray light on the sword in his hand.

After a moment of freezing, the encirclement suddenly tightened.

Several figures, ranging from the second or third to the fourth stage of the Huahai Realm, held weapons flashing with cold light, their eyes filled with undisguised greed and killing intent.

The fire element mark was still on Ye Tian; everyone wanted a bite of this severely injured lone wolf.

But their steps were slow and very cautious.

The scene of Ye Tian shattering Li Xuanxiao's "Mountain-Breaking" with one sword strike was still branded in their minds; that strange gray Sword Qi was eerie.

More importantly, Li Xuanxiao was still standing in the very front.

This god of slaughter hadn't moved, so no one dared to truly lunge forward and be the first bird to get shot.

Li Xuanxiao did not move.

He held his sword and looked at Ye Tian, his eyes as if scrutinizing a piece of equipment about to be dismantled.

"Your True Essence," Li Xuanxiao spoke, his voice clear and cold, "is very strange. It does not belong to the Five Elements, yet it can neutralize my Sword Qi. That gray aura of annihilation... what is it?"

He was fishing for information, and also stalling for time.

The hall doors were closing quickly; at most, they would be completely shut in a few breaths.

He was waiting, waiting for Ye Tian to become anxious, waiting for Ye Tian to reveal a flaw.

Ye Tian stood with his back to the hall doors, able to feel the gap of light and hope rapidly narrowing behind him.

Cold air currents surged from within the doors, mixed with pure Five Elements Spiritual Qi.

He did not turn back, his gaze sweeping over the slowly approaching enemies, finally landing on Li Xuanxiao's face.

"Want to know?" Ye Tian twitched the corner of his mouth, blood foam seeping from between his teeth, smiling somewhat ferociously, "Kneel down, kowtow three times, and call me Grandfather, and perhaps I'll consider telling you."

Very vulgar, very provocative. It completely didn't fit his consistently calm image.

But at this moment, he needed to enrage the other party; he needed chaos, he needed even the slightest variable.

As expected, Li Xuanxiao's eyes suddenly turned cold.

There were two things he hated most in his life: impure sword Dao, and vulgar language.

Ye Tian occupied the latter.

"You're courting death."

Without warning, he was like a bolt of white lightning, stabbing his sword at Ye Tian!

The speed was even faster than before!

Ye Tian's pupils contracted sharply.

He knew he couldn't take this sword strike, at least not head-on.

The very instant Li Xuanxiao moved, Ye Tian also moved.

But he didn't block, nor did he dodge that lethal sword light; instead, he threw himself backward, his back slamming hard against the gap in the hall doors, which was now less than two feet wide!

"He's trying to get in!"

"Stop him!"

Exclamations exploded.

The few Cultivators closest to him instinctively swung their weapons, Saber Qi and Sword Qi whistling as they slashed toward Ye Tian's retreating figure.

Li Xuanxiao's sword was only a hair's breadth away!

Just at the moment Ye Tian's back was about to hit the swirling mist inside the doors, he used his last ounce of strength to throw the fire element mark—which he had been tightly gripping in his left hand and which already had cracks—hard into the gap between Li Xuanxiao and those few pursuers!

"The mark!"

Everyone's gaze, including the sword Li Xuanxiao had thrust out, uncontrollably froze for an instant on that crimson light!

Just that instant!

"Puff!"

"Swish!"

Several pursuing Saber Qi and Sword Qi attacks swept past, leaving bloody gashes on Ye Tian's leg and shoulder.

Li Xuanxiao's sword tip even grazed past his neck, drawing blood; the sensation of death made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.

But, that was all.

Ye Tian's back completely submerged into the surging five-colored mist in the gap of the hall doors.

"No!" A Fourth Stage of Sea Transformation Cultivator, seeing the mark about to be in his grasp, was splitting with rage and recklessly lunged toward the falling fire element mark.

Li Xuanxiao's sword, at the final moment before it was about to touch Ye Tian's neck, pierced into the mist.

But he immediately felt a force from the Formation, repelling all "unauthorized" existences, reverberating back along the sword body!

That was the final barrier of the Five Elements Unification Hall, refusing all those who tried to force their way in.

"Hmph!" Li Xuanxiao let out a muffled grunt, his sword-wielding wrist going slightly numb, and his sword momentum instantly vanished.

He could only watch helplessly as Ye Tian's figure was completely swallowed by the mist, and the gap in the doors, right before his eyes, closed completely with a "Boom"!

The plaza was strangely silent.

The fire element mark fell to the ground with a "clatter," rolled a few times, and stopped not far from Li Xuanxiao's feet.

The crimson light had dimmed by more than half, and the cracks were shocking to the eye, but it had ultimately not shattered completely.

After a brief dead silence, greedy gazes reignited, focusing on that lonely mark.

But no one dared to move.

Because Li Xuanxiao was standing there.

Li Xuanxiao did not look at the mark by his feet.

He slowly sheathed his sword; on the snow-white blade, there was a single drop of bright red blood.

He looked at that drop of blood, then raised his eyes to look at the tightly closed hall doors, his face devoid of any expression.

But deep within those always indifferent eyes, something was surging.

Was it surprise, was it annoyance, was it the frustration of being outplayed by one move, or... a trace of inquiry—one he hadn't even noticed himself—about the world behind that door and the prey that had escaped?

He did not know.

He only knew that Ye Tian had gotten in.

And he had done so in the most pathetic and opportunistic way, the one most unexpected to him, managing to snatch his life back from under his sword.