"Martial sister Zhou, at least make your appearance..." Xuhan muttered as he gazed at her undead army being beaten up and chased away.

Things were not supposed to be like this. Yuen Zhou should have come before the rest of the cultivators taking the third test could. Did she mess up somehow?

The window for movement Xuhan had marked was getting tinier by the second. Qian Yun had somehow managed to enslave all the cultivators except him, Mu Ran and Yuen Zhou. If those enslaved cultivators returned after chasing away Yuen Zhou's zombies, Han Xuhan would be completely surrounded without any hope of escape. He was just a cultivator at the second layer of physique transformation realm. Even the weakest of his opponents had a cultivation base of fourth layer.

"No, can't wait any more. It's useless to hope for another coincidence at this point," Xuhan muttered to himself, his eyes narrowing, a gleam of excitement appearing in his gaze.

"This is gonna be fun..."

In his mind, he recalled the doom music from his previous life, repeating it in his head continuously like a loop. It fit the current mood.

Qian Yun was just a few meters away from him, with Mu Ran's body lying a bit further ahead. He had lost sight of Feng Jun's silhoutte at some point due to being distracted by the appearance of the other cultivators.

If Feng Jun had changed his position by this time, he could either attack from his right, or his left side. Xuhan could not predict which direction the attack might come from. So he did not want to take the risk. Only one way ahead was open now.

Three, two, one...

Silently counting down the numbers, Xuhan took a deep breath, suppressed the wild excitement in his heart, and moved at the fastest speed possible for him at his realm instantly.

First move, throwing out a knife directly at Qian Yun's feet, at an angle where it'd bounce back upwards if deflected.

His sudden burst of movement didn't surprise Qian Yun in the slightest, as he had already expected Xuhan to make a desperate attempt to escape any second. Qian Yun was ready to greet him with fists and feet.

A paper full of complicated legal terms fell down on the ground at unnatural speed, completely ignoring the friction with air. It was one of Qian Yun's unfinished contracts with the cultivators they had subdued on their way to the third stage. As long as the contract wasn't over, the contract paper would be protected by the sentient judge that oversaw the legal procedures.

The paper and the knife made contact a fraction of a second later. But instead of being torn apart by the knife, the paper blocked it as if it was made of metal.

Ding~

The knife rebounded off, rising up in the air for a fleeting moment, almost near Qian Yun's left kneecap.

Meanwhile, Xuhan had rushed out of the area covered by the protective law fragments on the ground, directly rushing toward Qian Yun like a madman, attracting his attention. This was his second move.

Qian Yun's heartbeat quickened form excitement. Finally, that damned turtle was out of his protective shell. But surprisingly enough, he didn't try to escape in the directions where Qian Yun had placed the other three cultivators. Instead, he had attacked. Does he want to go down in style?

Heh, a cultivator at the second stage wanting to defeat a cultivator at the fifth stage ? In his dreams !

Qian Yun instantly ordered the cultivators surrounding Xuhan to charge forward. Three figures from three directions rushed toward them displaying inhuman speed, leaving a trail of fog behind them.

By now, Han Xuhan had executed his third move already. Stimulating his qi on the knife !

The knife, which had rose into the air and was about to fall down, exploded with a repulsive force that spread to a radius of three meters.

Qian Yun, who bore the brunt of the force, was about to shoot out another piece of paper at Xuhan's fast approaching figure when he felt the ground beneath his feet suddenly disappear. Before he could react, his body was thrown backwards.

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Han Xuhan, knowing full well the effect of his exploding knives, had already carefully timed his sprint. Right when Qian Yun's body flew backwards, the erupting force from the knife ended, and that's when Xuhan entered the three meter radius of the explosion, harmless and uninterrupted by the blast. His movements were seamless and practiced, without a gap.

With a thud, Qian Yun fell on his back right in front of Mu Ran. Even though he had suffered some internal injuries from the explosion, it was nowhere near enough to disable a cultivator at the fifth layer of physique transformation realm. He immediately recovered and tried to get up after a second.

But Han Xuhan had already taken out the thick shaft of his glaive and leaped upward with all of his strength. His continuously stacking momentum showed its might in that leap.

Qian Yun, who had barely sat up, saw a magnificent scene above him. A slender figure was highlighted by the vague glow that suffused the fog overhead. The airborne figure held both of his hands upward in a swinging posture that would have looked incredibly terrifying had he held a sword.

But the staff that vibrated due to the inertia over Han Xuhan's head was no less intimidating. And as it swung down down right on top of his head while making the whistling sound of cutting through thin air, Qian Yun felt the world in his eyes becoming black.

BANG !

A fountain of blood poured out from his forehead. A numbness spread all over his body. By the time he shook the shock and dizziness off, Han Xuhan had disappeared from his sight.

His head spinning, Qian Yun staggered up and looked around. Even the strongest strike from a cultivator at Xuhan's level wasn't enough to injure him fatally. What's more, he had managed to deflect part of the attack using one of the contract papers in the last second. Only a few seconds had passed since he had been hit, yet the bloody injury created by that staff's blow was already showing signs of clotting.

Mu Ran's body was missing from his side, having been carried off by Han Xuhan who had never stopped in his sprint.

Meanwhile the cultivators who were rushing toward Qian Yun and Xuhan's position had already become visible within the fog. All three of them passed by Qian Yun's sorry figure one by one and chased after Xuhan and Mu Ran in their top speed.

Shaking off another wave of dizziness, Qian Yun followed them as well. He wanted to see how long Xuhan could keep running while carrying Mu Ran. His original speed was much slower than his pursuers due to the difference in cultivation base. What was he trying to achieve by running ?

Han Xuhan carried Mu Ran on his shoulder and rushed toward the platforms. Mu Ran was pretty heavy, and he slowed Xuhan's speed down by quite a degree. But Xuhan had bet everything on this one sprint. He soldiered on without being disheartened.

Soon, his pursuers were only a few meters behind him. The platforms were close, but his opponents were closer. Right then, one of the cultivators chasing him pounced on them, catching Mu Ran's dangling legs behind Xuhan.

Instead of playing tug of war with Mu Ran's body, Han Xuhan let go of it, surprising the attacker. What was the point of carrying him for so long if he was going to leave him on the first chance ?

The pursuer who had grabbed onto Mu Ran's figure stumbled due to the sudden weight being shifted on his chest.

Freed from the burden, Xuhan rushed toward the platform with the other two cultivators still chasing after him.

A few seconds later, Qian Yun jogged over to the cultivator who had snatched Mu Ran away.

"After risking so much to save his martial brother, he used him as a disposable shield? Truly sinister...For a second, I was convinced that he actually cared about his friend. Hah~"

Qian Yun's remarks were quite loud, at least loud enough for Xuhan to overhear. Even while running for his life, Xuhan couldn't help turning backwards to flip him off.

"You think you can make me feel guilty like that? Hehe, dream on kid! "

Qian Yun's expression darkened. Ordering the other cultivator to stand guard over Mu Ran, he shot toward Xuhan and his pursuers again.

The platform was only a few yards away from Xuhan's position. Feng Jun, who had become Xuhan's closest pursuer suddenly squatted down on the ground and smashed his fists on the soil.

Han Xuhan felt the ground beneath his feet turning into unnaturally smooth sand. His feet unable to exert force, he stumbled and landed on all fours, his speed instantly reducing to zero.

Standing up, Feng Jun thrusted his hands forward and the wind in front of him rippled.

Han Xuhan felt a great, invisible pressure landing on his chest, as if he had dived dozens of meters under water.

Elemental techniques... No wonder Feng Jun had chosen the elemental type law techniques. Due to his inexperience with duels between cultivators, Han Xuhan had forgotten about the fact that he was facing cultivators who could cast all sorts of magical spells. Although most cultivators had expended all of their qi during the entrance into the third test, the test had offered qi replenishment, something Xuhan had forgotten. That mistake came to bite him in the ass real quick.

Unable to even get up, Han Xuhan gazed at the two cultivators closing in on him cautiously while Qian Yun jogged over to the place he had fallen.

"Don't worry, guys. No need to be cautious, I don't bite," Han Xuhan laughed nervously.

Right then, while Qian Yun, Feng Jun and the other cultivator's attention was on him, a distant yelp from behind them caught everyone off guard...well, everyone except Xuhan.

The cultivator who had been guarding Mu Ran was lying on the ground, unconscious. Mu Ran stood over him with his arms crossed and his qi rippling around him, making it evident that he had just executed a technique. Han Xuhan could recognize that 'astral heatwave' spell even from where he was lying.

"One down, three more to go," he muttered.