Spirit Cultivation

Hearing Master Kai's order, the Saint expert who was the closest to the water, dived in alone to find her. Everyone was anxious that she would be hurt from Master Kai's attack as well as the fall, which would mean that their mission was not fully successful.

They were ordered to bring Tianshi alive and unharmed back to the Tang Family Main Palace, but now they could only hope that she was alive. As long as the injuries were not too severe, they could give her full recovery with just a few high ranked pills. After all, they belonged to the biggest alchemic family under the heavens.

"Find the other girl too! She must be in the water or somewhere close." Master Kai ordered nervously. He could only blame himself for getting tricked by a young lady like that. If only he straight up caught them without playing any games, he would already be done with this mission.

"Sir, I was the closest to the ground when she started falling from the sky, and I saw her falling into the lake. Unfortunately, she has not come back to the surface yet." One of the Saint Experts suddenly flew up to Master Kai and reported, but that only brought a backlash onto him.

"Why are you still here then?! Go and pull her out of the water now!" Master Kai cried out, kicking the unlucky cultivator in the butt, sending him straight into the water. The lake wasn't big enough for Yi to run away from them, even if she wanted to swim underwater far away, so they weren't worried about that.

Sending two experts underwater, Master Kai watched from the sky, waiting for good news to come, when suddenly he frowned, getting a feeling that something was not right.

Boom!

An explosion happened underwater, blowing a large amount of water in the air. It was a clear sign that a battle was happening underwater, or at least, was happening. Right after that explosion, another one followed, but this time a person was thrown into the sky together with the water, and it seemed to not be moving at all.

Master Kai acted quickly, catching the body before it started to fall down and checked it out. It turned out it was the body of the first cultivator who entered the lake first. The body was lifeless and charred completely black. It was a strange sight to see a Saint Cultivator being killed by fire literally submerged in water.

"F.u.c.k, there is another cultivator inside the lake!" Master Kai cursed and warned his subordinates when he heard another loud noise.

Boom!

Something exploded underwater once again, and another body was blown into the sky in the same fashion as the first one. Master Kai took the Storage ring from the hand of the expert in his arms and dropped him before rushing to catch the second one. He was already dead, so he wouldn't need his valuables anymore.

The second body had a similar cause of death, but this time there was also a sword wound on the expert's chest. Normally, Master Kai would be happy to see another sword user he could beat, but this time he was worried.

'Those two were at the Saint stage, so to kill them this quickly, one would have to be at least on the Sage stage or have the power of Water Element which gave him an ultimate advantage in the water environment. It has to be the latter!' Master Kai thought as he plundered his second underling, and quickly figured out what could be going on.

"Everyone! The enemy probably controls both Fire and Water elements! The ones who mastered Water Element, go lure him out so we can kill him! He should be of lower or the same stage as you!" Master Kai ordered.

With two dead, the amount of Saint Cultivators was lowered to thirteen, and only four of them had the qualifications for the job. They quickly grouped up and dived into the water together, shielding and covering themselves from any sneak attacks.

'F.u.c.k, they figured out my advantage... I have to think of something else.' Xuefeng cursed in his mind, hearing the leading enemy cultivator. He was still not strong enough to face four Saint Cultivators fighting him together on the same ground. Xuefeng didn't think that he was even able to fight one without the advantage of his surroundings.

'Just try to stall them for as long as you can. Tianshi is telling me that she already sent the emergency signal to her father, so he should be arriving soon.' Ling proposed, but she sounded different than the usual. Her tone was much warmer as if she cared for him.

As they travelled towards the lake near the Phoenix City, Xuefeng asked Ling about the stuff that was bothering him, but he didn't receive an answer. Instead, Ling decided to smooth their relations by talking sweet to him, hiding her cold nature. She wanted him to forget about it and move on, but Xuefeng wouldn't forget. He wanted to know the truth.

'Mhmm, I will try. How long can they stay in your space?' Xuefeng asked as he prepared for another incoming battle.

'Another two minutes. Don't worry about spending Water Qi. I will provide you with more as you spend it.' Ling assured him.

Before he could respond, he heard four sounds of water splashing and saw four cultivators diving into the water. They instantly released their Water Qi around them to protect themselves from Xuefeng's attacks, but that only made him smirk. That was not his style of battle at all.

Releasing his own Water Qi around his legs, he repeated the process from before and formed two fins that could allow him to have more mobility inside the water. Pulling out his Black Flames Slayer, with its flames extinguished, for now, he swung strongly with his legs, speeding towards the four experts.

Even if he could not beat them, he could at least try and push his limits further. It was a rare occurrence to have a battle versus a bunch on Saint Experts, so he couldn't waste such an opportunity.

As he swam towards them, he created Air Qi orbs layered with Water Qi, before launching them at the enemy. With a Water Qi layer as protection, the bombs would quickly skip through the waters.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Unfortunately, his new enemies were not bad and knew they couldn't allow the bombs to blow up next to them, else they could be injured from the water pressure created by the explosions. They knew how dangerous water battles were, so they didn't hesitate to wrap themselves with Water Qi suits that would protect them, and destroy the projectiles from the distance.

Seeing his attack didn't trick them, Xuefeng didn't give up and rushed towards them head on, right after the explosions. Their movements inside the water were greatly limited, so Xuefeng had to use his advantage well.

His sword started burning again with black flames which began vaporizing the water around it. Before they could collect themselves after the explosions, Xuefeng was already there slashing at the closest Saint Cultivator. He used Water Qi to separate the water from the blade for a few seconds, which allowed him to take a full swing for more power.

Crash!

The water right before the expert suddenly turned into ice, creating a thick wall which Xuefeng crashed his sword onto. It broke the wall in half but the momentum of his attack was already broken, allowing the cultivator to escape.

'Watch out! They want to trap you!' Ling cried out to warn him, but as he felt his surroundings, it was too late. They sneaked their Water Qi behind him and now the water all around him started turning into ice, trying to trap him in the ice.

'F.u.c.k, I really need to learn this from Shan. It seems to be useful in battles…' Xuefeng looked at the approaching ice with amazement, recalling that Princess Shan also used ice in her battle style. Unfortunately, he didn't have time to think about it now, as the ice was almost upon him.

To stop that, he could only do one thing, which was separating himself from the water. He quickly released almost half of his Air Qi stock and created a ball of air around of him right before the water froze, creating around space of around three meters in diameter.

Just as he thought of a possible escape route from this situation, Ling appeared in his mind saying something that would only add to his troubles, 'I can't support their lives anymore, they need to leave. It wastes too many resources.'

Right after Ling's message, two girls were ejected out of Xuefeng's pendant and to prevent them from hitting the sharp walls, Xuefeng reached out to grab them both into his arms. The girls knew that it was Xuefeng that saved them due to Ling's explanation and Tianshi already couldn't wait to meet him. She was very excited knowing that Xuefeng came to save her just when she was in trouble.

"Xuefeng! You came!" Seeing the man herself in front of her, she could not help but cry out and kiss him in happiness.

"Mhmm, I missed you, so I came to see you," Xuefeng said, only allowing her a slow kiss and asked, "Did I came in the wrong moment?"

"No, no, the timing was perfect. I'm glad you are here." Tianshi shook her head happily and hugged him.

"Cough… Young Master, thank you for saving me…" Yi who was held by Xuefeng coughed as she thanked sincerely before she glanced at the hand which held her round boob firmly, saying shyly, "I don't mind you touching them… but I don't think its the right time…"

"Oh! My bad." Hearing her, Xuefeng exclaimed realising what he was doing and released her. He got used to being only around his women, so he didn't think about it.

"It's okay… Where are we? And why are you here?" Yi asked while looking at the closed space they were in.