Chapter 356: Chen Xin Breaks Through, Reinforcements Arrive, Spirit Hall Retreats!
After Chen Xin, Gu Rong, and Ning Fengzhi regrouped, the four Titled Douluo from Spirit Hall did not immediately launch another attack.
Thousand Jun Douluo pulled Chen Xin's severed right arm into his hand. With a burst of spirit power, he blasted it into powder.
With the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan's capabilities, even if an arm was severed, as long as not too much time had passed and the severed limb remained intact, there was still a good chance of reattaching it. However, Thousand Jun Douluo acted so ruthlessly that he directly destroyed Chen Xin's severed arm, leaving him with no hope of recovery.
"Uncle Sword, your arm…"
A flash of grief crossed Ning Fengzhi's eyes. For his sake, Chen Xin had lost an arm. This pained him deeply, as he had always regarded Chen Xin as an elder.
"Chen Xin, are you alright?"
Gu Rong and Chen Xin had an excellent relationship. Seeing Chen Xin lose an arm, he was naturally extremely concerned.
For a Spirit Master whose Martial Soul was a sword, losing the right arm was a severe injury, one that would greatly affect his strength.
When Chen Xin saw his severed arm destroyed by Thousand Jun Douluo, completely removing any possibility of retrieving and reattaching it, he suddenly felt a deep sense of loss.
The extreme excitement from earlier, when his eyes had turned bloodshot, now transformed into profound emptiness. This massive emotional shift caused Chen Xin's spirit to fall into a strange, ethereal state.
In that state, Chen Xin seemed to receive sudden enlightenment. Almost instinctively, he activated his spirit power.
The shackles that had trapped him for decades were instantly broken.
Sword Douluo Chen Xin had broken through!
An immense spirit power fluctuation, powerful enough to overshadow the entire battlefield, erupted from Chen Xin. Everyone present who sensed this fluctuation looked at him in astonishment.
Although all of them were shocked, Gu Rong and Ning Fengzhi's eyes were filled with pleasant surprise, while the four Titled Douluo from Spirit Hall were full of disbelief. Thousand Jun Douluo even felt a trace of regret.
He had destroyed Chen Xin's severed arm to strike at his spirit, hoping to make him expose a flaw in the coming battle and make it easier to kill him. Who would have thought that this action would instead stimulate Chen Xin and cause his strength to break through?
Before this breakthrough, Chen Xin's cultivation had already reached the peak of Rank 96. Now that he had broken through, he had naturally reached Rank 97.
Rank 97!
Spirit Hall had a total of seven Enshrined Elders, and five of them, including Thousand Jun Douluo, were stuck below Rank 97. From this alone, one could imagine how difficult this hurdle was to cross.
"Old Bones, protect Fengzhi well. I'm going to fight them!"
After giving Gu Rong that instruction, Chen Xin gripped the Seven Kill Sword in his left hand and charged fiercely toward the four Titled Douluo of Spirit Hall, opening with a downward slash.
Facing Chen Xin's sword strike, even Thousand Jun Douluo did not dare to block it head-on. All four of them retreated to evade it.
Block it directly? What kind of joke was that?
Before Chen Xin's breakthrough, none of them could defeat him in a one on one fight. They had only been able to distract him by attacking Ning Fengzhi. Now that Chen Xin had reached Rank 97 and was further amplified by Ning Fengzhi, his combat strength was already approaching Rank 98.
If they tried to take his attack head-on, even if they did not die, they would certainly be severely injured.
After dodging Chen Xin's sword strike, Thousand Jun Douluo shouted with a solemn expression, "Do not be afraid! He just broke through, so his realm is still unstable. Circle around and attack him together!"
With Thousand Jun Douluo taking the lead as their backbone, the other three Titled Douluo also steadied themselves and launched a joint attack against Chen Xin.
However, facing the siege of four Titled Douluo, Chen Xin showed no fear. The Seven Kill Sword in his hand slashed horizontally and vertically, allowing him to fight one against four without falling into a disadvantage.
Watching from the side, Gu Rong felt his heart surge.
He had already been slightly inferior to Chen Xin before, and now that Chen Xin had broken through again, reaching such a level of strength, the gap between them had widened even further.
However, Gu Rong and Chen Xin had a very good relationship. He felt no jealousy toward Chen Xin's breakthrough, only admiration.
Just as Chen Xin broke through in battle and displayed his might, the reinforcements from the Heaven Dou Royal Knights finally arrived.
A thunderous roar of battle cries rang out. The Royal Knights immediately launched a charge against Spirit Hall's army the moment they reached the battlefield.
Although the vast majority of the Royal Knights were ordinary people, their equipment was excellent, and they were well-trained. Their actual combat effectiveness was comparable to that of low-level Spirit Masters.
Moreover, the Royal Knights numbered fifty thousand. Such a large-scale cavalry charge would be difficult for Spirit Hall's lower-level Spirit Masters to resist, even if the riders were all ordinary people.
Combined with the Royal Knights' advantage of launching a surprise attack from behind, Spirit Hall's army was thrown into confusion for a time.
"This is… the Royal Knights?"
After confirming the identity of the suddenly appearing army, Salas immediately frowned.
"Is the Heaven Dou Empire getting involved?"
The current situation placed Salas, as Spirit Hall's highest commander on this battlefield, in a difficult position.
Salas felt that they were just about to breach the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan's fortress, but at this critical moment, the Royal Knights had suddenly arrived to support the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan. If Spirit Hall's army retreated now, all their previous efforts would be wasted.
Salas could not make that decision. Or rather, he could not bear the responsibility for it.
"Retreat!"
Just as Salas hesitated, Thousand Jun Douluo made the decision for him.
He had also noticed the arrival of the Royal Knights, and he immediately used his spirit power to spread his voice across the battlefield, issuing the order to retreat.
On the high-end battlefield, Chen Xin's breakthrough had made him unstoppable. The four Titled Douluo of Spirit Hall could no longer defeat him. On the low and mid level battlefield, the Royal Knights had arrived as powerful reinforcements for the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan, preventing Spirit Hall's army from achieving any meaningful result.
Given this, the Soul Hunting Operation had already been declared a failure in all but name.
There was no point in continuing the battle. It was better to retreat.
"Retreat! Everyone, retreat!"
Since Thousand Jun Douluo had ordered a retreat, Salas no longer hesitated. He immediately signaled his people to withdraw in an orderly manner.
This time, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan had avoided destruction entirely because the Heaven Dou Empire's Royal Knights intervened. Otherwise, the operation would certainly have succeeded.
Salas had already begun thinking about how he should report this to Bibi Dong. However, what he did not know was that by the time he returned, his own home had already been torn apart by Yang Wudi and his people.
Thus, the Soul Hunting Operation against the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan came to an end.
With the help of the Royal Knights, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan successfully repelled Spirit Hall, though they had still suffered damage from top to bottom.
At the highest level, Sword Douluo Chen Xin, just as in the original work, lost his right arm but broke through to the Rank 97 realm.
As for the middle and lower-level Disciples of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan, more than a thousand had been lost.
In the original work, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan had directly lost more than two thousand people. Compared to that, their current losses had been cut in half, which was already quite good.
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