Was that a fucking distraction?  0

It wasn’t something new, but diverting someone’s attention like that was a surefire way to ensure that one would be able to launch a successful sneak attack.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to deal with Shang Xia.

Even without using his Hundred Gold Sword, Shang Xia casually released a Chaos Essence Lightning Palm at the hairpin that was flying at him. A reddish-gold lightning bolt appeared and crashed directly into it.

That wasn’t all. After stopping the golden hairpin, the tiny streaks left in the air continued to fly at the pale lady who sneak attacked him.

With a listless look on her face, the clothes of the lady cultivator lit on fire and she turned into a paper figure. Going up in a blaze, the paper figure disappeared in the next second.

A quick look at "pawread dot com" will leave you more fulfilled.

“So that’s it…” Shang Xia wouldn’t believe that the person hidden in the mist would reveal themselves so easily and still fail to land a proper hit on him.

If he were in their position and had a grasp on his own location, he would think of how to cause the greatest amount of damage without revealing himself. That would allow him to gain an advantage by paying the lowest price possible.

The thought barely flashed through his mind when he detected another disturbance in his divine perception. Raising his head violently, he saw that the space that had been blocked out by the Misty Palace Lantern deformed violently as it was pressed inwards.

5 huge fingers made from heaven and earth qi tore through the formless layer that prevented Shang Xia from being affected by the storms and fog. In the next instant, a violent heaven and earth qi storm swept through the area and a soft silvery light also entered from the gaps. 

A frown appeared on Shang Xia’s face and blew with all his might. He used his Four Constellation Qi while doing so and the fingers quickly scattered. However, the silvery light separated themselves from the fingers of heaven and earth qi and continued to fall on him.

With his expression changing slightly, a brilliant glow surrounded his body. The Misty Palace Lantern spun around above his head and topped itself upside down. The pressure it emitted changed directions and pushed everything upwards.

The silvery lights that were approaching him quickly earlier started to slow down and their true appearances were revealed. They were actually 5 silver hairpins and Shang Xia waved his sleeves casually to send them flying.

The moment he did, 3 bronze hairpins broke through the formless layer as well and they came from 3 different directions. They shot towards him from the front, back, and one of them came from below.0

The bronze hairpins were clearly different from the golden and silver ones from before. They blended into the void the moment he noticed them.

With a slight intention, Shang Xia finally raised his Hundred Gold Sword. The Yin Yang Sword Formation he had been maintaining around himself was revealed. Seven pairs of sword qi rampaged about the void around him and caused the bronze hairpins to reveal themselves. After that, they started to split and a dazzling 49 rays of sword lights appeared to grind the 3 bronze hairpins into dust.

Even though Shang Xia stopped the mysterious person’s third offensive, his final trump card, the Yin Yang Sword Formation was also revealed. A sarcastic laughter came from outside the range of the Misty Palace Lantern’s protection.

Perhaps it was because Shang Xia had to deal with the repeated attacks and couldn’t place much attention on the Misty Palace Lantern. The area that it covered shrunk to less than half its original size.

When Shang Xia was surprised that the area was reduced by such a huge amount, the formless screen was broken yet again. This time, he failed to detect what exactly it was. 

A formless weapon?!

Shang Xia expanded his divine perception to try to lock onto the location of the threat but he failed. All he could feel was the approximate point they were at.

At the last second, Shang Xia swung his Abyssal Blade, and blade lights fell in the form of snow.

3 wooden hairpins were revealed by the pure-white snow that covered the area. This time, they were several times stronger than the gold, silver, and bronze hairpins that flew at him earlier.

Before they arrived, Shang Xia felt a sense of pressure coming from them. A fierce aura locked onto the 3 main acupoints on his body and his movements started to turn sluggish.

Alarm bells went off in his mind and Shang Xia pushed his Four Constellation Qi to the limit. He poured it into the Abyssal Blade desperately before swinging it in front of him.

Due to his desperation, he came up with another move on the spot with inspiration coming from the 10th of the 24 solar terms. Summer Solstice!

“Bang! Bang! Bang!” 3 explosions rang through the air as the 3 wooden hairpins flying his way shattered. They turned into broken splinters that flew through the air.

Shang Xia’s expression was exceptionally ugly at that point. The person who was making a move on him seemed extremely familiar with his methods. Moreover, they were slowly forcing him to reveal his trump cards one by one. The mocking laugh rang in his ears once again and the flames of fury burned even brighter in his heart.

Obviously, that was no time to be getting angry. Because of how he had to defend himself twice, he had to slow down to catch his breath.

The person hiding in the shadows wouldn’t give Shang Xia a chance to recover. In fact, that might be the person’s plan all along.

After the wooden hairpins shattered, two figures rushed at him from two different directions. Each one of them held a White-Jade Bone Hairpin in their hands before stabbing at Shang Xia.

The sharp bony hairpin tore through the void and a strange whistle ripped through the air. The sound was extremely jarring and it affected Shang Xia’s Divine Perception.

Two of them?

No… This has to be an illusion art! It’s an illusion created by that strange whistle!

Shang Xia’s accomplishment in his Heaven and Earth Synergy Chapter was high and his soul was unaffected. He quickly discovered that one of the figures rushing at him was full of vitality while the other was nothing but an empty body. 

If the danger only came from one side… Shang Xia ignored the fact that his inner qi was still churning violently in his body as he released another blade strike. An intense explosion appeared as he unleashed Grand Ignite, one of the moves of his Twenty Four Solar Terms.

Clang!

Shang Xia’s Abyssal Blade clashed with the White-Jade Bone Hairpin in mid air. Their inner qi collided and formed a concentrated ball of energy that shattered the void between them. A powerful shockwave was released from the huge concentration of energy and destruction. It directly flipped over the Misty Palace Lantern above Shang Xia’s head and continued to spread thousands of miles away. Due to the pushing force of the shockwave, the area covered by the Misty Palace Lantern was forcefully transformed into a strange oval shape.

Both of them were blown away from the impact and the cultivator who tried to sneak attack Shang Xia was forced to retreat. The exchange between them looked even due to Shang Xia’s use of his divine weapon and the other cultivator's deep foundations.

However, Shang Xia wasn’t out of options even though he was sailing through the air. He tossed the Hundred Gold Sword in his hand at the ‘dead’ image that came to attack him along with the cultivator earlier. 

He didn’t throw it out for fun either. He used the principles of Piercing Sun, one of the moves of his Nine Providence Spear Art, when flinging his spear.

Clang!

Even though the ‘dead’ image was supposed to be made from an illusion, a loud ringing sound tore through the air when his sword arrived.

A White-Jade Bone Hairpin that was half a foot long appeared from beneath the image to block Shang Xia’s sword.

Because it was struck by Shang Xia’s sword, the hairpin spun about in the air before finally returning to the mysterious cultivator who sneak attacked him earlier.

Even though Shang Xia felt that the other figure was a lifeless image who attacked him, that didn’t mean that it didn’t pose a threat.

From what it seemed, the White-Jade Bone Hairpin came as a pair.

With one of the hairpins in his hand, the person launched a devastating sneak attack on Shang Xia. His other hairpin was thrown out along with the ‘dead’ image to carry out an even sneakier sneak attack.

Ordinarily, after cultivators saw through the illusion, they would think that all the danger came from the actual enemy. They would completely ignore the other image and thus fail to detect the White-Jade Bone Hairpin that was coming at them.

Moreover, the mysterious cultivator already carried out 3 sneak attacks on Shang Xia before entering the fray personally. No one would expect him to layer his sneak attack into one where he was physically present.

If his target wasn’t Shang Xia’ he would have a much higher chance of success. 

Unfortunately for him, he had to run into a monster who had an unusually sharp divine perception and a shocking recovery speed. Not only did he discover the true danger hidden in the attack, but he even had spare energy to deal with it.

He didn’t even forget to pull his Misty Palace Lantern when he retreated. The mysterious expert who came to intercept him on his journey to the heaven and earth qi vortex quickly left the area covered by the Misty Palace Lantern and was swept away by the heaven and earth qi storm outside.