1416 From Despair To Salvation

'Why is fate like this?' Cong Shui couldn't help but question the heavens.

For someone sheltered but ambitious as Cong Shui to face death was not unusual. But this was only in the eyes of all those that had seen it happen several times before.

For Cong Shui who was experiencing it though, there was a lot to handle. Especially since she was helpless and could only wait for death to embrace her.

~ZING~

At that moment, a red streak of light struck the man approaching her.

"ARGH!"

The red streak of light directly pierced through the man's chest, burning it before exploding.

~BOOM~

The man's scream stopped at that moment as the top of his body was directly blown into minced meat.

"WHAT!?"

"WHO!?"

The members of the Saber Battle Union were taken aback by the sudden death of their companion. Such a fast death was unexpected to them as the man was a Second Tribulation Stage immortal and had a lot of battle experience as well.

He wasn't like those sheltered nobles who had high cultivation base but little fighting experience. Instead they were itinerant cultivators who had suffered since the start and come out on top[ after a long struggle.

Comparing the two kinds of people was simply not easy.

And yet, one such person had perished from a single attack.

The expert acting as the leader of the Saber Battle Union was the Axe wielding man. His cultivation base was at the Third Tribulation of the Immortal realm and could be considered decent in the Rust Sky world.

'Who attacked us?' the man couldn't figure it out.

The attack had come too fast and was too powerful. And yet, it was not detected by any of them. An attack with such power contained within it would be hard to disguise after all.

~ZING~

Another high pitched sound was heard before a another red streak was seen. Its speed was very high and one couldn't tel what it exactly was, only appearing as a blurry streak.

"No! Dodge it!"

The Axe wielding leader shouted.

~HISS~

The red streak ended up missing the chest of the target, but it still ended up in his foot.

~BOOM~

Then in the next moment, it exploded!

"ARGH! MY LEG!"

The explosion was strong enough to fully destroy the man's leg. Even his other leg was scorched from the flames and showed that their immortal qi defenses were not good to bear this.

"Careful, this is Fire Elemental Immortal Qi!" One of the members recognized it finally.

~ZING~

~ZING~

~ZING~

Unfortunately for them, recognizing it was of little use as three more read streaks descended from the sky. The first streak pierced into the shoulder of a Saber Battle Union member, taking half of his head in the explosion.

The second streak missed entirely, but exploded in the middle of Cong Shui and the leader, forcing the leader back.

Meanwhile the third streak struck the head of another member, killing him.

The leader watched as his men fell one after the other, with him unable to do much.

"WHO DARES! WHO DARES CHALLENGE THE SABER BATTLE UNION!?" The leader roared.

~ZING~ZING~

But his words were only met with more attacks that he was forced to dodge.

The red streaks kept on appearing, and after a minute, the leader was the only one left alive. All the other members had been killed in the barrage of attacks.

The leader was certainly more experience and was using that to dodge the attacks. And when an explosion happened near him, he would defend using qi skill as a small shield would form around his body.

"You can't do it again! I now know how your attacks are! Come show yourself!" the leader shouted in anger.

He had been blocking and dodging attacks for about a minute now and had grasped their trajectories.

'Dammit! If not for this being a surprise ambush, the others would have been able to survive too… The Captain is going to be furious.' The leader thought to himself.

~ZING~

~ZING~

~ZING~

In response to his word, more red streaks appeared. There were nearly seven of them with some looking smaller than normal. The leader noticed this and couldn't help but smirk.

"Running out of juice, eh? I knew attacks of this level cannot be maintained for long." The leader realized that the attacker had gotten weaker.

~DENG~

He summoned his defensive skill again, as a small shield made out of runes appeared. It blocked three of the red streaks and fully nullified the explosion as well.

More streaks arrived but the man managed to dodge these ones.

~CLANG~

But when the final streak stuck it, the leader felt an impact greater than ever.

"What in the…" Before the man could react though, his shield changed.

~CRACK~

A crack spread across the center of the rune shield showing that it could not bear the attack.

"How!? This shield can defend against even a Fourth Tribulation Stage immortal's attacks?!" The leader was confused.

~HONG~

But it had not ended yet. He suddenly felt like the weight of the attack had multiple several times and it looked a little strange. The red streak had faded away leaving behind a stone construct.

"An arrow?" the leader finally saw.

He was sure that the red streaks he had seen before weren't arrows but just qi constructs. They had no actual mass and were composed of fire. But this was had an arrow hidden in the flames.

~CRACK~ CRACK~

What was the most shocking part though was the fact that the arrow's momentum had not stopped. Its weight was far greater than it should be and it was as if a hill had been condensed into a small arrow.

"HAA!" the leader poured more immortal qi into his shield, trying to sustain it longer. 'I need to deflect this,'

He let go of his Axe and used both of his hands to push on the shield, trying to turn it diagonally.

~SCREECH~

The arrow scraped against the shield before being deflected to the side, just a couple meters away.

~SHATTER~

~TREMBLE~

When the arrow hit the ground, it was directly pressed inward, forming a crater. The ground cracked and even shook, making Cong Shui and her companions tremble a bit.

~gasp~

"Just how heavy was that stone arrow?" Cong Shui couldn't help but mutter in shock.

"Haa… HAA… HAA…" The leader panted as he grasped the fact that he had narrowly escaped death. 'Even if that arrow didn't kill me, it would have still stunned me long enough for another attack to come.'

He turned to look at Cong Shui and knew that she was the crux of all this. 'I need to take her hostage!'

"AAAAAAAA!" He lunged towards Cong Shui at that moment, the distance between them narrowing in an instant.

Cong Shui watched with wide open eyes, knowing that the man wanted to take her hostage. She wasn't stupid enough to realize that the attacks had come from someone that was trying to protecting her.

"I…" before Cong Shui could say anything though, a new aura was felt.

~Woolongong~

As if metal was ringing and swords were being drawn, a sharp aura spread over them.

"This… can't be…" it made the leader freeze in his place.

It was a power that he had seen many times before, but very rarely was it like this. Cong Shui too had seen it before and knew what it meant.

"Afternoon Pine," A voice was heard at that moment.

It was filled with a sharp tone and felt like it could cut through iron with just words.

~SHING~SHING~SHING~

"SWORD INTENT! SWORD INTENT THAT MANIFESTS!" The leader was now terrified.

Everyone in the area saw three sword lights appearing from the distance. They were yellow in color and sword intent was infused into them as just looking at it would make one feel prickly.

But then these sword lights morphed and dived into the ground.

~RUMBLE~

And when they rose back up, three pine trees appeared!

They were pine trees made out of sword intent and were fifty meters tall!

The trees directly pierced the leader, tearing him apart. Each of the pine needles was like a small sword, severing his flesh while each branch was like a cavalry saber directly shopping of limbs.

As for the trunk?

It was like a great sword, that decapitated the man's head!

The man's nascent soul was easily extinguished under the domination of the Sword Intent, leaving him no chance to revive. All his defensive treasures were destroyed as well, the power of the attack overwhelming the durability.

Cong Shui and her companions were left in awe as they didn't know how all this had happened.

Just five minutes ago, they were at the edge of death and now they had been brought back to safety.

"Junior shall not forget this grace, Senior! Please grant us the fortune of meeting you!" Cong Shui hurriedly said.

But all she saw was a masked man standing in the sky. He had appeared out of nothingness and held a double edged sword in one hand, while a bow floated behind him.