A Chaotic World

The light sound of rainwater tapping against the surrounding vegetations echoed within the cave, slowly growing louder and louder as it began to pour heavily outside.

This downpour came swiftly, and in a timely manner as well.

With it helping to hide their tracks, the two human martial artists would definitely have a higher chance of shaking off their pursuers.

At this time, Lu Tianzi and Hu Shenwei were seated in the deepest depths of the cave, safely sheltered from the cold rain as they continued to eat up.

"So why did you not use the second paper talisman earlier?" Lu Tianzi suddenly asked while they continued to eat.

Hu Shenwei shot him a meaningful glance before continuing to eat his fill, choosing not to answer.

However, even without him answering, Lu Tianzi was still able to make an approximate guess.

The power of the paper talisman was extremely tyrannical, with enough strength to even suppress five separate Essence Condensation realm martial artists at the same time!

In order to achieve such an effect, the amount of energy required to activate the paper talisman must not be small either.

On top of that, earlier when Hu Shenwei had been pursued by all but one of the demons, he had returned with a huge gash on his back. Such an injury might not be enough to severely impede his actions, but it still was not a light injury by any means.

After which, Hu Shenwei still forced himself to bear the brunt of Nanhong Yechang's Blade of Darkness. Doing so with an injury must have resulted in quite a huge strain on him.

Having already activated one paper talisman earlier, on top of the strain resulting from the battle, Hu Shenwei must have already been stretched to his very limit.

With him in such a state, it would be surprising for him to still possess enough energy to activate a second paper talisman!

Otherwise, why would he not do so earlier?

Doing so would have completely rid them of the entire group of demons, sparing them from having to retreat in defeat!

That meant that the current Hu Shenwei was in a weakened state, unable to even activate the life saving paper talisman that he had been holding onto!

Such a situation was a rare opportunity for Lu Tianzi!

From the very moment Lu Tianzi realised that Hu Yuanbo wanted to remove him so as to solidify the standing of the father and son pairing within Ivory Rock City, Lu Tianzi had already decided to return the favour.

As long as the opportunity arose, he would never allow this father and son pair to live!

And this was the opportunity that he had been looking for.

Apart from the two of them, none of the other team members were around. So whatever Lu Tianzi did, there would not be anyone who would bear witness to it.

Lu Tianzi could only lament that he was not able to hit Essence Condensation realm before encountering such a situation.

If that happened, then he would have that much more confidence in taking Hu Shenwei down!

But there was no other choice.

If he missed this chance, Lu Tianzi highly doubted that he would ever encounter such an ideal situation in the future, where he could act without caring about the consequences.

However, the same applied to Hu Shenwei as well.

If Hu Shenwei wanted to get rid of Lu Tianzi so as to seal his mouth forever, then this was the best chance to do so. In this situation, he would be able to act freely without having to worry about his reputation being tarnished.

On top of that, Hu Shenwei even had the advantage in terms of cultivation realm at the moment!

The atmosphere within the cave was tense as the duo seemed to be nonchalantly filling their stomachs. All that could be heard was the sound of rainfall and the chewing of meat.

"You should tend to your wound soon," Lu Tianzi spoke up, once again breaking the silence. "It does not seem like a light wound."

"Indeed I should," Hu Shenwei answered with a gentle smile.

With a flick of his hands, Hu Shenwei returned the food in his hands back into his spatial ring.

At the same time, Lu Tianzi kept the rest of his meat jerky as well.

"Let me help you with dressing the wound," Lu Tianzi stood up and started to walk over.

"There is no need for the trouble. For such a small wound, I will be fine on my own," Hu Shenwei answered immediately.

But Lu Tianzi did not slow his steps at all, merely smiling as he replied. "I insist."

There was only a short distance of barely fifteen metres between them. This was a distance that was as good as nil in the eyes of martial artists. If either of them wanted to strike, they could cover this distance in the blink of an eye!

However, Lu Tianzi was approaching slowly, taking steady and measured steps.

At this time, Hu Shenwei finally stood up and seriously regarded the young man before him.

Fourteen metres.

"Is something wrong?" Hu Shenwei asked with his gentle smile still plastered onto his face.

In response, Lu Tianzi similarly kept up that smile on his face as he took another step forward.

Thirteen metres.

Hu Shenwei's smile stiffened as he saw Lu Tianzi's hands move slightly, landing on the two blades hanging by his belt.

Twelve metres.

Hu Shenwei's right hand subtly traced his spatial ring, preparing to retrieve his weapon at a moment's notice.

"We are still being pursued by the demons, and their leader is even at the Intermediate Essence Condensation realm. Our location could be discovered at any time so it is best to rest up for now," Hu Shenwei spoke out once again. "We don't know when we have to start running again."

However, Lu Tianzi's expression did not waver in the slightest.

He naturally knew that if they fought here, it might attract the attention of the demons if the demons were in the vicinity.

But if he did not act even in such a situation, then when was he ever going to act?

If anything, the heavy rain would serve to partially conceal any energy fluctuations that resulted from their battle. As long as the battle did not drag on for too long, it should not be too risky.

Eleven metres.

By now, Hu Shenwei's expression had turned extremely ugly.

Even if Lu Tianzi did not say anything, how could Hu Shenwei not know what he was thinking?

Lu Tianzi actually wanted a battle even though they were in such a dire situation?

So be it then!

Hu Shenwei was initially thinking of first resting up a little so as to recover from the previous battle, but that was only because he wanted to escape right after killing Lu Tianzi!

After all, what he was afraid of was being discovered by the demons.

As for Lu Tianzi, Hu Shenwei had never placed him in his eyes. He might be a rare genius, but in the end he was merely at the Essence Building realm.

No matter how talented Lu Tianzi was, if he was not given the chance to grow, then all that talent counted for nothing!

Even if Hu Shenwei was currently in a weakened state due to the fight from before, how could he ever lose to an Essence Building realm brat?

Of course, if he had witnessed how Lu Tianzi matched up evenly with one of the five Essence Condensation realm demons earlier, then he would definitely have thought differently.

Unfortunately, he had been under the pursuit of Nanhong Yechang and other demons at that time, forced to escape from the scene.

At this time, Lu Tianzi's next step landed.

With this step, Lu Tianzi actually got within ten metres of Hu Shenwei. This absolutely placed them within direct striking distance of each other!

As though heralding the start of the fight, lightning flashed and a loud thunder suddenly reverberated through the cave at this moment.

And with that as the signal, both of them simultaneously made their moves!

"Seeking your own death!" Hu Shenwei roared as he drew his sword from his spatial ring, slashing out towards Lu Tianzi.

His sword instantly burst into flames, sending out a terrifying wave of heat through the entire cave.

A combat skill!

The forced smile on Lu Tianzi's face faded off as he regarded the approaching flaming sword with a cold light in his eyes.

Driving his Spiritual Essence to the limit, Lu Tianzi slashed out with his sword as well, with a thin film enveloping the entire blade.

Bang-!

The two swords met in a heavy collision, and the result was that Hu Shenwei was actually pushed back from the clash!

However, even though Lu Tianzi managed to overpower Hu Shenwei, the flames from Hu Shenwei's sword continued surging forward as it rushed towards him!

"Damn it!" Lu Tianzi immediately drew back, but even then he was unable to completely avoid the flames.

A searing pain overcame him for a moment as the flames managed to engulf his left arm before dissipating.

From that alone, Lu Tianzi immediately understood that this was no ordinary fire.

The temperature of this fire must have reached an extremely high degree in order to penetrate through the tough bodily defence of Lu Tianzi with such ease.

If Lu Tianzi had been just a little slower in retreating, there was no doubt that he would have suffered severe burn injuries!

But at this moment, the person who had received a greater shock was not Lu Tianzi, but Hu Shenwei instead.

To think that he was actually overpowered by Lu Tianzi in a frontal clash… was this Lu Tianzi really just an Essence Building realm martial artist?

Even though it was in an elementary form, that just now was definitely materialisation of Spiritual Essence!

Lu Tianzi was actually able to achieve such a feat at just the Peak Essence Building realm?

Terrifying!

Simply terrifying!

But even though he was taken aback by Lu Tianzi's strength, Hu Shenwei quickly recovered his composure once again.

Against an opponent like this, he definitely had to stay focused!

Lu Tianzi was thinking the same thing as well.

Focus!

He could not afford to be caught in a direct hit by the flames on Hu Shenwei's sword!

But at the same time, that previous clash revealed a vital bit of information to Lu Tianzi. The power behind each of his strike was higher than that of Hu Shenwei's!

Lu Tianzi charged forward once again as he pierced forward with his sword.

Hu Shenwei snorted as he took a step to the side and deflected the blade. However, Lu Tianzi suddenly slashed out with his sabre after his sword was deflected!

"As if that will work!" Hu Shenwei's sword moved extremely quickly as he slashed down once again with his sword on fire.

Bang-!

The sword and the sabre collided, but Lu Tianzi had already dodged out of the path of the surging flames.

The surging flames charged forth as it struck the walls of the cave, creating beautiful embers that lingered for a moment.

But neither one of them was in the mood to appreciate the beauty of the embers.

Due to him being hung up on dodging the flames, Lu Tianzi had been unable to channel all of his strength behind his sabre, resulting in Hu Shenwei easily deflecting it as well.

At this moment, Hu Shenwei's sword pierced forward at an awkward angle, forcing Lu Tianzi to dodge to the side in evasion.

Lu Tianzi rode on the momentum and attempted to move behind Hu Shenwei completely, but the attack had not ended just yet.

Hu Shenwei's sword abruptly stopped right beside Lu Tianzi, who had sidestepped the attack, before slashing down mercilessly.

The speed of Hu Shenwei's sword was extremely fast as he performed this sudden change in direction, way too fast for Lu Tianzi to even bring up his own sword for some sort of haphazard defence!

Hu Shenwei was no weakling.

In fact, just the amount of time that Hu Shenwei had spent training with the sword was even longer than the amount of time that Lu Tianzi had been alive!

After so many decades, his comprehension of the sword might not be considered as impeccable, but it was still far beyond Lu Tianzi's current level of weapon mastery.

All that Lu Tianzi could do in response to that attack was to hurriedly draw back, attempting to retreat out of the range of the attack.

Slash-!

Hu Shenwei's sword sliced across Lu Tianzi's back as he barely got out of the way.

It was only a shallow wound, but that did not matter for Hu Shenwei.

Bang-!

It was like an explosion had occurred as it caused echoes within the cave.

Upon contact with Hu Shenwei's flaming sword, the shallow wound on Lu Tianzi's back immediately burst into flames!