Between life and death lies great terror, but also great potential! Facing that fatal sword thrusting from his own shadow, soundless yet bone-chillingly cold, and the five killing intents coalescing around him like venomous snakes waiting to strike, Tang Xiaoqi's mind in that instant seemed to freeze, surrendering all response to his battle-honed instincts and the power hidden deepest within his body! He had no time to think, no time to execute any complex spells! Just as Phantom Shadow's sword of shadow was about to pierce his crown— Beneath his clothes on his chest, the Green Lotus jade pendant that he had always worn close to his body, cultivated together with his life, suddenly blazed with unprecedented heat as if sensing its master's extreme crisis!
Not an attacking heat, but a warmth pure to the extreme, containing endless life force and protective will! "Hmmmm—!" A soft yet incredibly resilient green light halo, centered on the jade pendant, instantly spread outward, forming a barrier thin as a cicada's wing yet seemingly containing the most primordial purification intent of the world's creation, enveloping Tang Xiaoqi's entire body! This was not actively triggered by Tang Xiaoqi, but a protective divine ability autonomously activated by the jade pendant upon sensing an absolutely fatal threat! "Poof!" Phantom Shadow's sword of shadow, confident of success and powerful enough to annihilate souls, struck this seemingly fragile green light barrier, producing a dull sound like a blunt object hitting rotten leather!
The shadow and deathly stillness power concentrated at the sword tip seemed to meet its nemesis, being purified and dissolved layer by layer by the green light halo, its forward momentum suddenly arrested! Though this autonomously triggered barrier couldn't completely withstand Phantom Shadow's meticulously prepared fatal strike—the sword tip still slowly but steadily piercing through, the light barrier violently fluctuating, flickering unsteadily, clearly about to shatter—this momentary obstruction in that flash of lightning bought Tang Xiaoqi that negligible yet crucial... instant! Just that one instant! Tang Xiaoqi's body, dominated by battle instinct, made its most extreme response!
His head, in the nick of time before the shadow sword pierced through the barrier and entered his skull, twisted violently to the left at an angle that nearly snapped his cervical spine! "Whoosh—!" The sword of shadow grazed past his temple with a tooth-grating friction sound! The yin-cold death energy attached to the blade instantly eroded the skin at his temple, leaving a terrifying wound deep enough to see bone, yet without any blood flowing out—instead rapidly turning necrotic black! That yin-cold power was like a leech attached to bone, attempting to bore into his brain marrow!
At the same time, all his muscles and bones produced a series of fine but dense cracking sounds as his body, as if boneless, twisted and contracted in place in a manner that defied human anatomy! "Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!" The second wave of attacks from the other five assassins—two intersecting shadow slashes and three poisoned shadow darts aimed at his heart meridian and dantian—passed almost against his clothes, grazing his skin!
The sharp energy sliced through his green robes, leaving several bloody marks on his arms and ribs as the poison instantly began spreading! Danger upon danger! A hair's breadth difference! Had the jade pendant not autonomously protected its master to buy that instant, had he not performed that transcendent instinctive evasion, at this moment he would have had his brain pierced by the shadow sword and his body torn apart by the following attacks!
However, the crisis was not over! Forcibly twisting his body to avoid all fatal attacks, especially that near-limit turn of his head, caused Tang Xiaoqi's neck to emit sounds of unbearable strain, and intense pain shot through him. More seriously, that yin-cold death energy invading his body from Phantom Shadow's sword, and the potent poison attached to the shadow darts, were madly eroding his meridians and life force! A sweetness rose in his throat as a mouthful of reverse-flowing blood containing yin-cold energy surged up, which he forcibly swallowed back down.
His figure staggered backward in the rain curtain, his aura instantly becoming chaotic, and an abnormal blue-black color surfaced on his face! He was wounded! And not lightly! Though he had avoided immediate death, he had fallen into the most passive situation since the battle began! His body was injured, his breath chaotic, toxins and death energy were invading, while the enemy still lurked in the wind, rain, and darkness, like soul-collecting ghosts, with the next wave of even more fatal attacks possibly arriving at any moment!
The eyes hidden behind Phantom Shadow's mask finally revealed a trace of fluctuation—the surprise of a plan going awry, and even more concentrated killing intent. He hadn't expected Tang Xiaoqi to possess such a strange protective treasure, let alone that the other could perform such inconceivable evasion in that situation. But he didn't hesitate in the slightest, his figure melting away and once again submerging into the shadows, searching for the next opportunity for a one-strike kill. The other five assassins also shifted positions like ghosts, their cold killing intent firmly locking onto the staggering Tang Xiaoqi.
The rain grew heavier. Thunder rolled past. In the spiritual bamboo grove, killing intent intensified. Tang Xiaoqi stabilized his footing, wiping away a trace of black blood from the corner of his mouth, his eyes cold as ten-thousand-year ice. The Green Lotus origin and purification power within him had already begun operating spontaneously, starting to counter the alien energy invading his body.
The sensation of the Nirvana Crimson Flame Sword and the Creation Universe Wok pulsed in his mind. The encounter at the line between life and death had not frightened him—instead, it had thoroughly ignited his anger and battle will. These rats who hid their heads and showed their tails, daring to launch such despicable assassination within Qingxu Temple! He took a deep breath, suppressing his injuries, his gaze sharply sweeping across the swaying bamboo shadows and endless rain curtain around him.
The counterattack had begun.