Martial research master

What happened in the next few seconds couldn't be comprehended by the cultivators on either side of the battlefield. Suddenly a hooded man came into the battlefield and raised his hands. In the next moment, the whole sky above the battlefield was covered with black spheres they slowly started to descend and the cultivators didn't have time to react.

The sphere initially just dropped at them, without having any reaction from the fall, which led to the cultivator to lower their guard to them. Just when the cultivator was to turn towards the hooded man, they saw him especially folding his hands.

"Get away from those." They could hear Li Xuanfa shout, but it was too late. The sphere exploded one after the other, and soon enough the whole battlefield was immersed in a bright red glow, followed by black clouds all around. When the dust finally settled, the loss of life was finally accounted for.

The battle earlier had taken a toll on both sides. They were gravely injured by the continuous clashes, and most of the practitioners were bleeding heavily. The explosion sealed the deal for many of them. As the dust settles, a horrific scene comes into view between the two sides. Around three-fourths of the remaining soldiers on each side had died in the last explosion.

To their surprise, the man from before was still standing in the same position unharmed. He then looked at the two leaders from either side, who seem to have managed to survive too. Li Xuanfa was in a critical condition as the earlier attack had deepened his injuries, but Huang was a bit better since he had managed to recover his strength due to Rakta Transformation.

"I am impressed by your abilities." The hooded man says to Huang.

"Who are you?" Huang asked in a serious tone. The situation was not in this favor as a new enemy had entered the playground, killing most of their men in just one attack. Huang wanted to analyze the situation as he was recovering from his injuries using his own Qi.

But to his surprise, the hooded figure completely ignores the two of them and stares at the remaining soldiers on either side. " I will say this one time, and all you have is one chance. Surrender now, or each one of you will be dead in the next second."

The emotionless voice scared many of the cultivators as they knew that the spheres earlier were thrown by a third party, which meant that there was a force hiding in the shadows. Soon enough many of the soldiers gave up their weapons and knelt before the figure.

"We surrender." The men who knelt spoke up.

"How dare you betray our side? You will be paid for your actions." The man who remained unmoved from the proposal shouts curses at the cowards who gave up before the fight.

The hooded figure signaled and then raised his hands once again. The troops thought that the signal was to initiate another attack like the one earlier, and they began to rush around trying to find cover. To their dismay, though, attacks from the shadows soon hit many of the men, who died almost instantly.

Figures began to emerge from the shadows, and soon enough the whole battlefield was surrounded by them. The hooded figure then turned around the face the two leaders. Li Xuanfa, who was badly injured and o the verge of losing consciousness, looked at the hooded figure and asked.

"Who are you?"

The hooded figure looked at him and then walked towards the two. 

"It makes me sad that you aren't able to recognize one of your old acquaintances. I had imagined that you would be able to recognize me instantly, but I guess not." The hooded figure then proceeded to remove the hood and a face came into view. Huang couldn't recognize the guy, but Li Xuanfa's eyes went wide.

If one could see it clearly, he would experience a combination of shock, disbelief, fear, and excitement coming from the pair of eyes.

"Long Tao." Li Xuanfa spoke in an excited tone.

"So you do remember my face. I imagined you would have forgotten me since our last encounter. We meet again." Li Meng began to joke around.

"How could I forget the first guy who managed to defeat me while being at a realm lower than me. I am just surprised to see you here. Feeling good to see a sect brother becoming so powerful." Li Xuanfa's words shocked Huang. This guy had managed to beat Li Xuanfa while being in a realm lower than him.

"You are someone from Black-Devil church." Huang pointed out.

"If I was, you would have been a corpse by now." Li Meng said in a sarcastic tone. He then looked back at Li Xuanfa. " I am disappointed at how weak you have become. You could even take care of a weakling like this, and you call yourself my sect brother. Laughable" Li Meng then looked at Hunag and spoke.

"I will give you a chance. You will surrender immediately and gift me with all your treasures., every bit of it. Then I might consider making you a slave. A natural body is quite hard to come by."

Huang laughed and said. " Do I look scared of you? I have already recovered from my injuries. Let's see whether you have what it takes to subjugate me." Huang assumed an attacking stance.

"Recovered you say." Li Meng suddenly disappeared from the view of the two figures. When he reappeared, a leg was directly in contact with Huang's abdomen, blasting him to a nearby rock. Huang stood up and spewed huge amounts of blood instantly.

"Sky Cleaver sword canyon is one of the core arts from the Heaven Cleaver sect. Do you think your art would be able to help you recover instantly? You may have had a good advantage if the battlefield was filled with an endless amount of blood, and you have perfect mastery over the art. But you are just a rookie."

"I am surprised to see that you managed to survive the attack from this guy. I guess he hadn't planned on me executing his other backup." Both Li Xuanfa's and Huang's expressions changed almost instantly. Huang was shocked to hear that Li Xuanfa had planned on another group to ambush them. Li Xuanfa was shocked that Li Meng was the one who killed them.

"Anyway. What do you think of my proposal." Li Meng confronted Huang.

" You are just boasting your strength in front of us when we are gravely injured. Do you think you can even scratch me if I was in my prime?" Huang wanted to taunt Li Meng. Li Xuanfa simply looked at Huang with contempt in his eyes. He had no idea what sort of monster he was currently facing.

"Oh really." Li meng raised his hands and an outline began to form in the sky. Soon enough a sword similar to Li Xuanfa's earlier attack came into view. But to either of their surprise, the power extruded from the sword was much devastating than Li Xuanfa's. They were almost suffocated under the pressure.

"My sword canyon is part of the true core arts after which the sect is named. It is called Heaven cleaver. This isn't even the real scale of my movement. It's just something I formulated in a combination of another sword art of mine." Li Meng turned his hands into a fist, and the huge sword instantly divided into countless short swords.

"I call this movie, "Train of Thousand swords." Huang was petrified at his location. He was sure that he was about to die when the attack suddenly diverted towards their forces on the field. Thousands of swords instantly annihilated everyone besides the two leaders. Even the injured Qi Emperor died.

"I will give you a chance to prove your strength. Use your Rakta Transformation to absorb the blood and heal yourself. We will fight once you are done." Li meng simply sat down and started to look at Li Xuanfa. Huang hesitated for a bit before agreeing with the situation. This was the only way he might be able to escape from this situation. 

"Do you want to present me with the same conditions?" Li Xuanfa asked in a serious tone.

"You are the only enemy of mine who managed to live for such a long time after fighting with me. I sort of want to eliminate you, but that would take out the fun and interest I might have again in the future. So the only question is, what price could you possibly pay for your life?"

Li Xuanfa was surprised by Li Meng's words.