A Martial Odyssey Book 3: The Stellar Sanctuary – Chapter 19

The Eternal Light and the Blessed Heaven

Lie Qing and Ye Yin had charged into the midst of the two monstrous Hellhounds that were taller than them!

Yi Ping clenched his fists nervously as he prayed for them…

Yixian whispered to him, “You ought to trust them. After all, they were exponents that had been through hundreds of battles on their own!”

Yi Ping heaved a soft sigh, “Indeed. Before I was acquainted with them, they are already superb fighters on their own…”

Lele said firmly, “Ping’Er, just you watch! Sister Qing’Er is not the vulnerable maiden that you think she is nor is Ye Yin!”

Yi Ping nodded but said nothing. It was impossible for him not to be anxious even with the Absolute Spirits. It was because he was watching their heart stopping battle right in front of him!

In a blink of few eyes, Lie Qing had made several dozen slashes against the Hellhound before she was forced to scurry back; the Hellhound was agile and had raised its razor claws to slash against her!

The precise and the attack speed of the Hellhound startled her!

As Lie Qing scurry back, the Hellhound began to pounce upon her!

She quickly raised her Perpetual Darkness and at the same time, she focused eight whirling wisps of her Invincible Divine Force to her front!

There was a tremendous impact as she was flung back against the wall!

Ye Yin called out to her, “Lie Qing, are you alright?”

Lie Qing quickly rolled against the wall as the Hellhound made a tremendous charge against the wall with a thunderous explosive impact, barely missing her!

As she made a quick slash on the side of the Hellhound, she stammered out. “I…am alright. I have made several slashes and even hit it with my sword energies but it doesn’t seem to bother this freaking monster!”

Ye Yin smiled bitterly as she evaded several attacks from the Hellhound that she was facing, “Same here. Its hide is impervious to my sword…”

As if to demonstrate it, she leapt upside down as she made a tremendous slash on the body of the Hellhound with all her martial strength!

Immediately a burst of explosive force impacted across the howling Hellhound as it was knocked aside and was floored to the ground but the Hellhound was upon her again in the next instant!

Its recovery rate was startling!

Ye Yin inhaled deeply as she stepped aside from the charging Hellhound, “You…see…what I…mean…”

Lie Qing smiled bitterly, “I know what you mean but you don’t have to demonstrate it for me to have a look…I need a solution…very badly!”

All of a sudden she gasped as the Hellhound had cornered her. She quickly unleashed three brilliant bursts of sword energies that exploded in a blue flare on the face of the Hellhound as she sent it knocking back!

The Hellhound was furious as it opened its jaw to exhale a stream of incarnating fire on her!

The Divine Trinity Fire!

Immediately the air around Lie Qing exploded into bursting scorching flames and the entire passage became burning hot! 

Lele gasped, “So hot!”

Yi Ping shouted thunderous, “Lie Qing!”

“I am…alright!”

She emerged from the sparking fire with a weak smile; a red orange outline could be seen around her eight hovering blue wisps.

She quickly made a quick slash at the Hellhound as she flew into a rage, “Heavens! For a moment I thought that my Invincible Divine Force would give way…”

Suddenly she became wobbly as she struggled for breath, “What is happening…why did I feel so weak all of a sudden…”

She emerged just in time to witness the other Hellhound exhaling a torrent of incarnating flames on Ye Yin!

Indeed Ye Yin was under attack by the Divine Trinity Fire at around the same time that Lie Qing was. It was as though the two Hellhounds had made a pact together!

She raised her long sleeves panicky to send flurrying martial windforce to part the flames as the Divine Trinity Fire exploded upon her!

To her utter surprise the ball of fireball that was upon her had actually dispersed into tiny fireballs by her martial force!

That was not really her martial force or else she would not be surprised. Rather, it was the Heavenly Empress Robe that she was now wearing that seemed to have enhanced her martial force! 

That was not all. When the Divine Trinity Fire had come into contact with her, it seemed to glow and the insignia of phoenixes that were on the Heavenly Empress Robe seemed to be fluttering from it.

Ye Yin thought, “Weird. While I can feel the heat of the flaming fireballs but it is not as hot as I have thought? Even my sword is as cooling to the touch as ever…”

She was immediately grateful to Alice for this precious robe for she knew that it had saved her life!

Her thoughts were interrupted when Lie Qing had bumped into her!

Ye Yin gasped out as she caught hold of Lie Qing, “Watch out where you are going!”

Lie Qing smiled weakly, “It is not my choice. How come you got air here? I thought that these two monsters have burnt up all the air in the passage. So what is the plan?”

Ye Yin darted her eyes at the two approaching Hellhounds, “Indeed we need a plan. Do you think that we are even doing damage?”

Lie Qing smiled weakly, “Maybe we are but we are not strong enough to inflict enough. At this rate, we will surely lose!”

All of a sudden Ye Yin looked at her with a curious look, “Maybe you are right.”

Lie Qing was startled, “Huh? What do you mean?”

Ye Yin raised her divine sword protectively around Lie Qing as she guided her to dodge the two Hellhounds, “Maybe we did not afflict enough damage alone. Why don’t we…”

Lie Qing continued for her, “…attack together as one?”

Ye Yin pushed Lie Qing back, “I will initiate the first attack and distract them! Go on and muster as much martial power as you can for the next strike!”

She had immediately gone into the midst of the two Hellhounds as she evaded their attacks!

In a blink of an eye, she had evaded dozens of attacks as the Hellhounds attacked her with their claws, bites, bodies and flaming fireballs!

Lie Qing was startled at how reckless Ye Yin was and even more astonished that at her ability to evade all the attacks without battling an eye!

But she had no time to think anymore as she leaned weakly against the wall to muster her Invincible Divine Force to the ninth level! 

“An opening!” Ye Yin cried out as she finally found an opening for her to attack!

She immediately mustered her Denunciation Force as she imbued everything that she got into her Despairing Heaven as she slashed against one of the Hellhounds!

Almost immediately a thunderous impact was heard as a burst of powerful martial explosion imploded on the Hellhound! 

So great was the impact that the Hellhound was swept aside!

A dark sword surrounded by nine energy wisps flashed past Ye Yin!

It was Lie Qing! 

This same Hellhound never recovered from the initial impact as Lie Qing had suddenly charged and impaled it on the wall with a thunderous explosive impact with her Perpetual Darkness ! 

The Hellhound wailed aloud before dematerializing! 

One down and one more to go!

The eyes of the remaining Hellhound turned red as it entered into a frenzy! 

Because the Ascension Goddess Ye Yin was nearest to it, she became the blunt of its furies! 

But instead of hitting her, it was slashed a dozen times repeatedly by her as the gigantic Hellhound was knocked aside!

And before the Hellhound could recover from its loss of momentum, Lie Qing had flashed next to it and slashed it a couple of times!

The Hellhound became desperate as it tried to ram into Lie Qing headlong but Ye Yin pulled her to safety as they switched positions!

Because of that Lie Qing continued to make a dozen powerful slashes against the Hellhound, followed by six slashes from Ye Yin!

As the Hellhound charged into their midst again, they had suddenly split to both side of the Hellhound as they slashed another six times on its side! 

When the Hellhound turned, Ye Yin and Lie Qing had switched position again as they slashed repeatedly at it again! 

These two heavenly maidens seemed to have turned into berserkers as they slashed one after the other!

All in all, they had made a total of eighty slashes in a few blinks of an eye! 

The Hellhound could not take their continuous slashes anymore. Finally it howled aloud before dematerializing!

Ye Yin and Lie Qing both collapsed on the floor, utterly exhausted!

Yi Ping and the entire group simply could not believe their eyes as they watched the heart stopping battle! 

For a moment their legs were so weak and they were so breathless that they could not move!

Ye Yin gasped breathlessly as she looked at Lie Qing, “Hey, I make a total of thirty-six slashes…you have slashed a total of forty-two times!”

Lie Qing smiled weakly, “What, the reason why you persist is because you are trying to compare slashes with me?”

Ye Yin laughed softly, “Indeed! I have thought that you would have tumbled first. You can’t even use your Invincible Divine Force by the time you engage the second Hellhound!”

Lie Qing laughed weakly, “Either can you use your Denunciation Force anymore. But you know the martial strength that you have exerted is enough for you to use the Denunciation Force a few times!”

Ye Yin laughed, “The same goes for you too. Honestly, I am dead beat by the time I have executed my eighteen strokes!”

Lie Qing managed a weak smile, “The same goes for me too. But the monster did not fall; you did not fall so I have forced myself to go an extra mile…”

Ye Yin laughed weakly, “Same, same! It is more like extra ten miles…”

All of a sudden Ye Yin and Lie Qing were both lifted by Yi Ping and were in his embrace!

Yi Ping said solemnly, “I really got a good scare. Fancy the two of you. You still have the good mood to chat…”

At the same time that Yi Ping had lifted them up, they were surrounded by the entire group!

“Lie Qing! Ye Yin!”

“You have won!”

Lie Qing smiled weakly as she closed her eyes, “Without Ye Yin, I cannot do it alone.”

Ye Yin laughed softly, “This victory can’t do without Lie Qing…”

All of a sudden Yi Ping was gasping and it was followed by the entire group!

Ye Yin was startled as she asked weakly, “What is wrong?”

Lie Qing was too weak to ask as she rested comfortably in Yi Ping’s embrace…

Yi Ping gasped, “Ye Yin, Qing’Er! Your foreheads! You have awakened your Heaven Eyes now!”

Indeed, there was a pink fire on Lie Qing’s forehead and a white clover on Ye Yin’s forehead! 

Ye Yin was startled! It was because she knew how difficult it was to initiate the awakening of the Heaven Eyes. Moreover she had only been a true celestial practitioner for only a hundred years! 

Alice was smiling divinely, “Heavens blessing indeed. It seemed that their Heaven Eyes start off at the Lesser Heaven Positioning too and look at their divine swords. They had finally broken the curse of their Darkswords and had become the true mistresses of these two divine swords!”

The Perpetual Darkness and the Despairing Heaven were enveloped with a soft divine light. All the onlookers could feel a wondrous and peaceful aura that was emanating from these two divine swords!

Lie Qing murmured, “The new name of my divine sword is now the Eternal Light…”

Ye Yin said quietly, “The new name of my divine sword is the Blessed Heaven…”

Alice smiled as she divined with her fingers rapidly, “I can only say that things may not turn up this way if your martial strength is at its peak.”

She took a glance at Lie Qing and Ye Yin, “You have not only awakened the true divinity of these two divine swords but you have earned yourself a true comrade in your greatest need.”

Ye Yin looked at the semi-conscious Lie Qing and at Shen Xingyue as she murmured, “Maybe I do have some real friends after all…”

The Goddess Isa smiled weakly, “You must know these two divine swords are infamous even in the Immortal Realm…”

The Goddess of Mercy quickly said, “Isa, maybe next time. We ought to hurry.”

Isa caught her hint and nodded, “Let’s us go then!”

Yi Ping was thinking as he looked at Lingfeng who was also nodding lightly at him, “Lingfeng, you have the same feeling as me too? There seem to be more to these two divine swords that they are willing to share. I wonder what it is…”

It did not escape Yixian, Yunzi and Youxue either. Even though they were also curious but they had restrained from asking. But whatever thing it was, it must be related to the passage that was ahead!

Yi Ping said, “I will help to carry Lie Qing and Ye Yin. Aiel, Han Lin, Youxue and Lingfeng, let us be on our move.” 

Lingfeng nodded as she took a last look at their weary party.

Party members that could still fight: Two
Joyful Goddess (40%)
Shen Xingyue (30%)

Party members that could still manage a little fight: Eight
Celestial Fairy Yixian (20%)
Eclipse Heaven Goddess Yujian (20%)
Axis Heaven Goddess Meijian (20%)
Dugu Yunzi (20%)
Xiao Youxue (20%)
Heaveness Lingfeng (20%)
Goddess Aiel (20%)
Han Lin (20%)

Everyone was already thinking. What would the passage ahead take them? More trials or fights? 

Or a terrifying boss monster awaited them there? 

Either way, no one wanted to think of it now!