Chapter 96: Speed of Life and Death

  Even Liu Yidao himself thought he was doomed and prepared to wait for death with his eyes closed, when two loud roars startled him awake.

  Only to see that the two martial artists of the late Wu Emperor period, after killing the last Udongshi warrior, one from behind hugged the gray-clothed Wu Zun, and one knocked away the golden halberd in the hand of the gray-clothed Wu Zun.

  "Make a quick escape and remember to avenge us!" The two men's faces were extremely ferocious, already prepared to die together with the Grey Robed Martial Master.

  A middle-aged man from the Wu Empire fled first, Liu Yidao and Lu Tianyu entered the 'cave' together, while Bai Qiutang looked at Xu Hua and Luo Cheng who were on the flat ground under the stairs. Seeing this, Xu Hua immediately shouted: "Hurry up and escape, we'll be right there!" Bai Qiutang gritted his teeth and also escaped.

  "Wanna die with me? It's not that easy!" The Grey Robed Martial Lord finally realized the crisis he was facing, and his entire body burst forth with a powerful aura shield. At the same time, he struck the late-stage Martial Emperor who had grabbed him from behind with an elbow strike to the abdomen.

  Pfft!

  That late-stage Martial Emperor Realm martial artist was immediately struck flying by Grey Robe's punch, flying towards the entrance of the cave. A mouthful of blood sprayed out in mid-air. Another late-stage Martial Emperor Realm martial artist charged at Grey Robe, self-destructing as he went and shouting: "Avenge me...!"

  Rumble... Rrrrr!

  A martial artist from the late Wu dynasty suddenly self-destructed, and Xu Hua and Luo Cheng, who were originally trying to escape, immediately retreated backwards to avoid being affected by the residual shockwave. The middle-aged man in gray clothes, who was severely injured after being knocked into the cave entrance by the respected martial artist, struggled to get up and entered the tunnel.

  "Damn it!" The Grey Robed Martial Master had intended to dodge, but he was too close to the self-destructing late-stage Martial Emperor. He didn't have time to evade. As soon as he cursed, his entire body was engulfed by the force of the self-destruction.

  Boom! Boom! Boom!

  Bang! Bang! Bang!

  The power of the self-explosion of a Martial Artist in the late stages of the Wu Emperor period was already enough to threaten a Martial Artist in the early stages of the Wu Zun. The power of the self-explosion was too strong, almost comparable to the one blow of this Grey-clothed Wu Zun, and the powerful force directly blasted off the stairs below the 'Dong' entrance.

  After the large pit appeared in the center of the plain, the entire plain began to shake and cracks opened up everywhere. At this moment, with the addition of a late-stage Wu Emperor's self-explosion, the staircase below the 'cave' entrance finally completely collapsed, plummeting into the depths of the abyss. The entire plain also massively sank downwards, and the Earth Fiend Fire in the depths of the abyss seemed to have gone berserk, rapidly rising upwards.

  "Gongzi, let's hurry up and leave, if we don't go now, this place will be engulfed in flames and that old man from the Wu Ding clan won't be far from death either! The self-explosion of a late-stage Wu Emperor's warrior is not something even a Wu Zun can withstand casually." Luo Cheng said as he pulled Xu Hua to fly towards the entrance of the 'Dong'.

  "Ah~ Ah~ Ah~!"

  At this time, a mournful cry suddenly came from the place where the smoke was swirling around the self-explosion center. Luo Cheng secretly said that something was wrong and immediately accelerated his speed to fly towards the 'cave' entrance.

  "Not good!"

  However, when they approached the entrance of the 'cave', they found that the gray-robed martial arts expert had appeared at the entrance. At this moment, his whole body was covered in blood and flesh, and it was impossible to distinguish which parts were his own. The arm holding the golden spear and bloody halberd was flowing with fresh blood, dripping down drop by drop, looking extremely disheveled.

  "How is it possible? How did you manage to dodge the self-destruction just now!" Xu Hua exclaimed.

  Grey-clothed Wu Zun wiped the blood and flesh from his face with his left hand, and said in a deep, mysterious tone: "I didn't dodge, but I was lucky. The shockwave from that self-explosion blew me towards this cave entrance, and this Golden Spear also blocked part of the impact for me!"

  "Although I'm seriously injured, it's still no problem for me to deal with you two!" He didn't make a move, Xu Hua and the other person wanted to leave but had to exit from this 'cave' entrance, as long as he guarded here, the two wouldn't be able to escape.

  However, he was indeed seriously injured and his strength was not at its peak. This was also the reason why he didn't go after the four people who escaped earlier. Among those four people, there was a martial artist in the late stage of Wu Huang, if he self-destructed again, even someone as strong as him would fall.

  "Your current injury is not optimistic, and you're in danger of falling at any moment. Why do you still want to fight us two to the death?" Xu Hua said while extracting the life force from the Grey Robed Martial Master's body. At this point, the Grey Robed Martial Master's life force was less than half of its peak state, and even if he managed to survive and return, it was unknown how long it would take for him to recover.

  "Who made you two so treacherous? If I let you go, it won't be long before Luocheng has two more formidable figures! If we hadn't had a falling out, I might have even recruited you two. But since we've already become enemies, the only way I can rest easy is by killing you both." The two of them were not the strongest among this group that entered the ancient ruins, but they were far from weak either. Plus, they were still so young - if they didn't die, it would be hard for this old ancestor of the Wudeng clan to feel at ease.

  "So you're not going to give us a way out!" Luo Cheng's eerie blood pupils gleamed with a chilling light. At that moment, the gray-robed martial arts master felt his internal blood circulation become somewhat unsmooth, and his heart was greatly shocked! "What a sinister move, it seems you really can't let us leave!"

  Just as Luo Cheng and Xu Hua were about to make their move, the Grey Robed Martial Grandmaster suddenly took a step back, raised his Golden Halberd Blood Lance and slashed it at the top of the rocky wall with great force!

  Rumble...!

  A large rock fell down, sealing off the entire entrance of the cave, leaving only a small opening that was too narrow for people to pass through.

  "No!" Xu Hua and Luo Cheng's eyes were bloodshot as they roared wildly. The entrance to the cave was blocked, they couldn't get out, and the flames below were rising, if they couldn't escape then they would definitely die!

  "Hahaha!" At this time, the laughter of Zhang Kuang, the gray-clothed martial arts master, came from behind the blocked 'cave' entrance. "Looking at it like this, you can't get out even if I want to! You're dead for sure! Hahaha!"

  The sound faded away, and it was clear that Wu Ding's ancestor had left. He didn't think Xu Hua could escape!

  "Gongzi, what should we do?" Luo Cheng looked at the rising earth fire and his eyes were extremely anxious.

  "Blow it open!" Xu Hua's eyes were filled with a crazy gleam, and he began to punch the rocks blocking the entrance of the cave with his fists. Fortunately, there was still a small space in front of the entrance where the two could stand, otherwise they would have had nowhere to exert their force.

  Boom! Boom! Boom!

  The massive boulder emitted a series of loud noises under Xu Hua's pounding fists, but it didn't budge!

  Ah! Ah! Ah!

  Looking at the motionless rock blocking the 'cave' entrance, Xu Hua furiously roared and immediately struck the rock with even greater force.

  Wow!

  One fist came crashing down, and some small pieces of rock broke off from the boulder, but it still didn't move. However, Xu Hua's fist burst open with blood and flesh, revealing the white bones inside!

  "Sir, this is all in vain!" Luo Cheng was anxious but not as frantic as Xu Hua.

  "What to do!" "What to do!" Xu Hua was like an ant on a hot pot, anxiously turning around in circles, he didn't want to die, he wanted to get out!

  Xu Hua suddenly thought of the Golden Spear and the Blood Halberd, thought of the spiritual instrument, and thought of the dragon-patterned spiritual sword he had obtained from the Clear Peace Lake Palace!

  "Luò Chéng, Lingqì! Use the Lingqì! Quick!" Xu Huà didn't need to drip blood anymore, his blood had already dyed the space ring. He immediately communicated with the space in the space ring and took out that dragon-patterned sword!

  At the same time, Luo Cheng also took out that Heaven-Slaying Sword. Although this sword was damaged and no longer had its original power, it was still extremely hard and using it to strike the boulder was much better than using his hand!

  Boom! Boom!

  The two immediately began using their spiritual tools to smash the boulders blocking the entrance of the 'cave'.

  Clang, clang! Clang, clang!

  Maybe it's a problem with the angle, and the two of them only split open some small rock fragments, but it was still much stronger than Xu Hua's hand strike earlier.

  Just as the two were frantically pounding away at this rock, the flames from below had already risen and submerged the original large area of flat ground, less than three zhang high from Xu Hua and his companion! The two were drenched in sweat, feeling extremely hot and unbearable, but they still endured it. Because stopping meant death!

  Gradually, a large number of rock fragments were cut open by the two with their spiritual instruments. Perhaps it wouldn't be long before this piece of rock would be completely "penetrated". However, they no longer had the opportunity, as the Earthly Fire was now less than one zhang away from the two!

  Luocheng was in unbearable pain, and Xu Hua was originally the same, but the Life Crystal in his body immediately released a large amount of life energy to nourish the part that was being scorched by the earth fire, making him not so painful. Xu Hua immediately transported some life energy to Luocheng, and Luocheng suddenly felt much better.

  "Luò Chéng, after you go out, help me protect Xiǎo Yíng's safety! I don't want Xiǎo Yíng to get hurt! Wū Dǐng Shì temporarily doesn't need to provoke him, he is definitely not simple!" At this time, Xú Huá suddenly 'exposed' a smile, while continuing to transmit life 'essence' to Luò Chéng, and said.

  "Gongzi, it's about to break open! We'll go out together! In a few years, we'll take revenge on the Wuding clan together!" Luocheng had a bad feeling in his heart and struck the rock with even greater force.

  Perhaps just a dozen breaths would be enough to break through the rocks blocking the entrance and escape, but it was too late. The earth fire had already spread to their feet, and at the rate it was spreading, it would engulf them in just a few more breaths. The consequences...

  "Luò Chéng, we are brothers!"

  Xu Hua suddenly took two steps back, and then raised his fist to rapidly strike the rock blocking the entrance of the 'cave'. At this moment, Xu Hua chose to let Luo Cheng escape, not only because Luo Cheng was his brother, but also because of the goodness and benevolence that had gradually dissipated from his heart.

  Boom!

  The rock was pierced by Xu Hua's powerful impact, but at the same time, Xu Hua himself rapidly flew backward, his blood-stained face with a faint smile looking at Luo Cheng, his throat moving as if wanting to say something, but immediately drowned out by the rising flames.

  "Your Highness!"

  Luò Chéng was in extreme pain, constantly screaming, but it was too late to rescue him. He watched as the flames shot up and quickly flashed into the 'cave' tunnel!