Nine Star Hegemon Body Arts

Chapter 5774: Setting Out

Long Chen looked at Bi Yingxue with a smile that wasn’t quite a smile. He indifferently said, “Taking advantage of someone’s plight is the style of your Bi family. Our Luo family isn’t so despicable.”

Seeing that Luo Yanfeng and the others had no intention of attacking, Bi Yingxue relaxed slightly. However, the humiliating nature of Long Chen’s words ignited her anger.

Unfortunately, her injuries were too severe. If she fought them now, she would undoubtedly be at a disadvantage. Worse, her entire group might be annihilated.

With a snort, Bi Yingxue chose to bypass them and quickly left. Seeing her departing figure, Luo Jiang spat, “If the roles were reversed, they definitely wouldn’t let us go. Why can they be so ruthless while we’re supposed to be gentlemen?”

“Luo Jiang!” snapped Luo Yanfeng as he glared at Luo Jiang.

After all, Luo Jiang’s comment made it sound as if Long Chen was being too soft.

Luo Jiang turned to Long Chen, intending to apologize, but Long Chen merely waved his hand to stop him.

Long Chen said, “Your thinking is correct. Furthermore, everyone here is free to speak their minds. There’s no fault in expressing your thoughts. Frankly speaking, what you say isn’t wrong.”

Thinking Long Chen was displeased, Luo Jiang hastily said, “Long Chen, I was just bitter.”

Long Chen nodded. “I understand. I let them off because in my eyes, they are of no threat at all. This is not me being soft—killing them or not means nothing to me. But if they were capable of posing a threat to my brothers and sisters, they would definitely die today. I let them go today to give them the courage to come after us in the future. It takes resolve to turn against your own kind. That is a kind of courage only they can give you.”

Long Chen understood human nature all too well. The Luo family’s disciples were too kindhearted. They had the courage to fight and die for their race, but to have them raise their butcher’s blade against their own people? That would leave a shadow on many of their hearts.

To truly steel their hearts, they needed a reason—a battle where they had no choice but to raise their blades against those they once called comrades.

Everyone heard Long Chen. However, whether they fully grasped his words was uncertain. In any case, Long Chen didn’t elaborate further. He simply continued leading them deeper.

Before long, they encountered a group of devil race experts resting and recuperating—the very group that had chased Bi Yingxue.

These devils had slaughtered many experts of the violet blood race and were still basking in their victory when Long Chen and the others appeared.

The Luo family disciples directly drew their blades and descended upon them like hungry wolves. Luo Yanfeng went straight for their leader.

Having gone through the totemic blessing, all of them unleashed their violet blood’s full potential. Their power surged, and in a frenzied assault, they tore through their foes with unparalleled ferocity.

Luo Yanfeng struck six times in quick succession. On his seventh slash, his opponent was sent flying, blood spurting from the devil leader’s mouth.

Taking another step forward, Luo Yanfeng spun and swung his sword at the devil leader’s head.

However, the sword missed.

Luo Yanfeng was startled. When he finally saw clearly, he realized that his target was now in Long Chen’s grasp.

“Long Chen…?” Luo Yanfeng was baffled. He had no idea what Long Chen was doing.

Long Chen pressed a finger to the devil leader’s forehead, and his Spiritual Strength erupted as he conducted a soulsearch.

Suddenly, runes ignited all around the devil expert’s body. He exploded.

BOOM!

“Long Chen, watch out!”

Luo Yanfeng was shocked. He knew that the devil race had defensive mechanisms against soulsearching. The moment someone attempted it, they would self-detonate, releasing curse runes that could be extremely troublesome if they latched onto the soul.

As the explosion occurred, those curse runes surged toward Long Chen. But before they could reach him, violet flames erupted around him, incinerating the runes instantly.

The Luo family’s disciples were stunned. The devil race’s curses were infamous for their potency, yet they were utterly powerless before Long Chen.

“Long Chen, what were you thinking?” asked Luo Yanfeng.

A soulsearch was meaningless if it was doomed to failure. It only put him at unnecessary risk.

“I managed to glimpse an image,” Long Chen said calmly. “And I’ve confirmed one thing.”

“What is it?”

“Bi Yingxue’s injuries weren’t caused by this group.”

“What?!”

“She must have led her team deeper into the battlefield and encountered a powerful foe before fleeing back here. This group was nothing more than a fraction of those pursuing her.”

Through the brief flash of memory he had extracted, Long Chen pieced together the events. While he couldn’t be completely certain, his deductions were likely close to the truth.

From the beginning, he had found it odd. This particular group of devils wasn’t strong enough to wound Bi Yingxue so grievously.

The aura left on Bi Yingxue’s wound reminded Long Chen of the elite devil race warriors who guarded key locations deep within their territory. However, Long Chen couldn’t believe how dumb Bi Yingxue was to lead her people to death by going there.

She had sacrificed nearly her entire squad, escaping with barely a tenth of her forces, and suffered a severe injury herself. Fortunately for her, the devils respected their own rules. Whoever injured her didn’t pursue her beyond their domain. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been able to escape.

Thinking about it, the situation was almost laughable. Bi Yingxue didn’t view her own people as comrades.

That said, her methods—while brutal—had an undeniable effect. The ones who managed to escape from such a disaster were the strongest. The weak had been culled immediately. Of course, those who were weeded out never had a chance to grow stronger in the first place.

“There are even stronger existences deeper in?” gasped Luo Yanfeng.

Just now, Luo Yanfeng had held back against the devil leader, using only eighty percent of his strength, and still dominated the fight. That had led him to underestimate Bi Yingxue.

But Long Chen’s words changed everything. Even in her heavily injured state, Bi Yingxue had managed to escape foes stronger than this devil leader. Now, Luo Yanfeng had to reevaluate her true strength.

“Aren’t we already deep in the battlefield? How can there be even stronger enemies?” asked Luo Ying.

They had assumed their location was the heart of the war zone.

Long Chen chuckled. “Alright. I suppose it’s time for you to witness some true experts. Otherwise, you’ll grow too arrogant.”

With that, he waved his hand and led them even deeper.