Three strikes, and Qin Changshan was injured and coughing up blood!
Regardless of whether they sided with Zhou Zhili or Xiang Tianqiu, everyone was stunned. They stood there like clay statues.
They would never have guessed that the Dragonlake Hermit, a fifth-level Grandmaster famous throughout the Great Zhou for the imposing might of his sword qi, would lose to Su Yi!
Xiang Tianqiu’s heart sank.
Yu Baiting’s expression clouded over, and his hand and feet quivered uncontrollably.
Kang Shanjing’s jaw suddenly hurt. Only then did he realize he’d clenched it too hard and that his hands gripped his beard so tightly that he’d pulled out several strands of hair.
Xue Ningyuan’s expression changed dramatically.
Undisguisable shock rose unbidden to the gathered Imperatorial Province big shots’ hearts.
In contrast, Zhou Zhili, Zheng Tianhe, and their allies inwardly rejoiced, and their faces lit up with delight. Their chests filled with excitement.
A man like an immortal banished from the heavens injured his foe with three casual swings of the sword!
Chang Guoke looked admiring, but also shaken.
Qing Jin’s heart searched with an indescribable sourness. Those three slashes were so fast, watching them was like watching an immortal practice martial arts. The sight shattered her inner pride into pieces.
For the first time, she felt a thread of vague and wordless regret.
The mountaintop was in tatters. The boulders had been shattered to pieces, the vegetation was destroyed, and numerous, eye-catching sword scars lined the ground, like intercrossing canyons.
After coughing up blood, Qin Changshan seemed to age several years. He looked exhausted, but also indescribably bewildered.
How vast was the gulf between late-stage Qi Accumulation and the fifth level of the Grandmaster Realm?
But now, he was injured! And with severe internal wounds at that!?This was unquestionably unbelievable!
“That all you got?” Su Yi stood not far away. He shook his head. “Those three strikes had some degree of refinement, but alas, they had numerous flaws too. You’re blindly chasing grandeur, but making your attacks as big and showy as possible disperses your power. Your sword intent is unconcentrated. So long as your foe locates a weak point, they can break your attack head-on and leave you completely and utterly defeated.”
Qin Changshan stood there in a daze, his pallid face filled with uncertainty.
A moment later, he took a deep breath, and his eyes flashed with sharp, unyielding ferocity. “I admit that I underestimated you earlier, but that doesn’t mean you can slander my Dao of the Sword or humiliate me!”
His words showed that he wasn’t yet reconciled!
“Slander your Dao of the Sword?” Su Yi laughed dryly. “Then I’ll just have to show you a true sword cultivator’s killing technique.”
Clang!
Guiding Mysteries let out a clear hum.
Su Yi’s aura suddenly transformed. His eyes were sharp and indifferent—this was the emotionless gaze of a deity.
A formless, contemptuous pride filled the air around him. He was neither happy nor sad, as if life and death were both perfectly unremarkable, and as if victory and defeat were utterly meaningless.
Sharp killing intent accumulated in his mind and body.
It was pure to the extreme!
Fright suddenly arose on Qin Changshan’s features, and his heart shook. He felt a bone-piercing chill course through him in response to the imminent threat, and without even the slightest hesitation, he chose to fight with everything he had.
“Cut!” Qin Changshan bellowed, his hair and beard fluttering in the wind and his eyes wide with fury. It was as if he were on fire. He poured his entire body’s worth of spirit, qi
He slashed his sword.
This attack was unquestionably this hegemon amongst Grandmaster’s strongest possible strike. It was even fair to say that this was the most dazzling sword strike he’d ever unleashed.
In that moment, he even felt a bit grateful to the monstrous youth before him. If not for Su Yi’s provocation and urging, he might never have exploded forth with all of his latent potential. He might never have achieved such heights of mastery!
Clang!
But in that very same moment, the edge of a sword struck with irresistible force, breaking Qin Changshan’s ultimate attack and sending Mountain’s Eminence flying from his grip.
The sharp tip of a sword then pierced right through him in a perfectly straight line.
Splurt!
Fresh blood, gushing, scalding, and eye-catching, sprayed in all directions.
Qin Changshan lowered his head in a daze and stared at the sword that had run him through. He seemed dazed, flabbergasted, and stunned….
Finally, he raised his head and, with great effort, met the gaze of the aloof, handsome blue-robed youth before him. His expression turned complex, and he said in a raspy voice, “Bearing witness to that attack was like catching a glimpse of the bearing of a peerless sword cultivator. Dying beneath your sword is a good way to meet my end. I can proceed to the Nine Springs with a smile on my face.”
His voice still echoing through the air, the famed sword cultivator ranked twenty-seventh on the Great Zhou’s Grandmaster Leaderboards fell over backward, facing the sky.
His expression no longer looked dazed, flabbergasted, or stunned.
All that remained was tranquility and release.
That sword was truly beautiful….?In the last moments before his death, that was Qin Changshan’s final thought.
The mountaintop fell deathly silent.
Xiang Tianqiu and company were so stunned that they broke out in cold sweats. They felt as if they’d been plunged into an icy abyss—they were dazed and beside themselves.
When Su Yi attacked just now, they didn’t even have time to react, nor could they comprehend his sword’s profundities. By the time they realized what was happening, Qin Changshan had already been impaled!
Such an attack was like lightning striking flat ground. It shook their hearts, dispersing all their remaining confidence and conceit!
A fifth-level Grandmaster like Qin Changshan had been killed in a single attack. After witnessing this, who wouldn’t feel shaken and terrified?
But even more crucially, Qin Changshan’s death meant that at today’s Tea Party, they had lost….
Even Zhou Zhili and his allies froze in place, completely stunned.
Just what kind of a sword was that?
It didn’t seem like something of this world!
Some time passed before Xiang Tianqiu came to his senses. His expression was overcast, and his voice was low and muffled. “Impressive, Your Highness. I…. Admit defeat!”
His voice contained dense bitterness and dejection.
He had lost.
He’d done everything he could, using all of his trump cards, but this lone swordsman was more than he could defeat!
Xiang Tianqiu had gone into this with complete assurance, so this result caught him completely off guard.
Yu Baiting and his other supporters felt so stifled that they were on the verge of coughing up blood. Each wore a more unsightly expression than the one before. ｂ𝚍ｎｏ𝚟ｌ.
Zhou Zhili was initially stunned, but afterward, his heart surged with irrepressible excitement. Indescribable delight coursed through him, to the point that the sixth prince almost forgot himself.
I won??Haha, I really won!?
It was only out of consideration for his status and the situation that Zhou Zhili resisted the urge to burst into wanton, unrestrained laughter.
Victory had seemed unattainable.
Chang Guoke and Qing Jin couldn’t intervene. Xue Ningyuan betrayed them, Zheng Tianhe had to hold back out of consideration for his status as an imperial relative. It had been one harsh and heavy blow after another.
Yet in the end, they’d turned things around, settling everything in one fell swoop!
Who would dare believe this?
Zheng Tianhe, Chang Guoke, and?Mu Zhongting’s?faces filled with delight, and their hearts shook with excitement. This result was both stunning and unexpected.
Now, when they looked at Su Yi, their gazes contained a hint of worship and fervor.
He was just one man with a sword, yet he’d truly single-handedly turned the tides!
Yu Baiting, Kang Shanjing, and the others fell silent. This was too heavy a blow; a long time passed before they emerged from their shock.
“Congratulations, Your Highness. Congratulations, Your Lordship Mu. From this day forth, the duties and responsibilities?of provincial?governor shall fall to you,” said Xiang Tianqiu with a rigid smile.
Zhang Lingyu, the governor of Huai’an Prefecture and the man he’d planned as his replacement, looked ashen. He felt hollow inside.
“Hmph. I have no need for?your?congratulations. I want you to pass on full control over all of the provincial government’s affairs within three days!” Zhou Zhili said with a cold snort.
A hint of sullen anger flashed through the depths of Xiang Tianqiu’s gaze, but he said no more. He just waved. “Everyone, the Tea Party is over. We should be on our way.”
He was unwilling to remain here any longer.
He’d come here certain of his inevitable victory, but his confidence disintegrated in the face of Qin Changshan’s death. This was an enormous blow, and Xiang Tianqiu had no idea how he was supposed to explain this to the second prince.
But it was then that Su Yi spoke up. “Who said you could leave?”
His voice was light, airy, and indifferent, yet it seemed to contain a demonic power. Xiang Tianqiu and the others’ hearts shook, and their expressions changed.
“Su Yi, the Tea Party is already over, and we’ve already admitted defeat. What else do you want to do?” growled Xue Ningyuan.
He might have looked calm, but in truth, he was inwardly frantic. He could already vaguely guess what Su Yi was planning.
“The Tea Party is over, but there’s still people I ought to kill while I’m here.” said Su Yi flatly. “Since you were the first to speak up, let’s start with you.”
As he spoke, he raised Guiding Mysteries and slashed through the air.
Xue Ningyuan stood about fifty feet away. He was the head of the Xue Family, a third-level Grandmaster. The people of the provincial capital even said it was “better to provoke King Yama than to offend Xue Ningyuan.”
But in the face of Su Yi’s sudden slash, Xue Ningyuan instantly activated his life-saving trump cards.
Bzzzz!
A flashing golden shield floated into view, blocking the front of Xue Ningyuan’s body. Its spiritual light circulated, and one strange and obscure inscription after another rose on its surface.
The Golden Light Shield!
It was made of talismans crafted by an Origin Dao cultivator, and its defensive powers were incomparably shocking.
Bang!
A deafening boom followed as both Su Yi’s attack and the Golden Light Shield burst with a turbulent spray of sparks.
The attack dispersed, but the impact sent Xue Ningyuan staggering back, and he almost coughed up blood.
Su Yi’s next attack came before he could stabilize himself.
“No—!” Xue Ningyuan’s hair stood on end, and his soul seemed to leave his body.
The crowd watched as his head flew through the air.
The stump of his neck was perfectly smooth and flat. Fresh blood gushed forth like a geyser.
The onlookers’ minds went blank. They were so stunned that they broke out into cold sweats.
Xue Ningyuan was the leader of one of the Imperatorial Provincial Capital’s five peak-level clans. His name shook all six prefectures, and he wielded vast authority.
Yet he’d just been decapitated, just like that!
Even Zhou Zhili and his allies felt a chill; this bloody scene stunned them too.
Not even they would have guessed that, immediately after the Tea Party ended, Su Yi would execute Xue Ningyuan without the slightest reservations!
But then….
It really was satisfying, too!
Zhou Zhili thought back to how Xue Ningyuan betrayed them earlier, as well as to how he’d once ridiculed Su Yi. Seeing Xue Ningyuan dead with his corpse lying in pieces felt as refreshing as drinking a big glass of cold water on a hot day.
“Su Yi, have you gone mad?” Kang Shanjing barked harshly, “The Tea Party is already over, and victory and defeat are already clear. Why continue to kill? Do you know the consequences of your behavior?”
Of those present, he had a relatively unique status. He hailed from the Hidden Dragon Sword Sect, and he proclaimed himself transcendent and detached from mundane affairs.
As such, although he was stunned at Su Yi’s despotic and heartless methods, he wasn’t truly scared.
But when they heard his rebuke, both Chang Guoke and Qing Jin’s expressions shifted. They knew better than anyone that when Su Yi wanted to kill someone, he didn’t care who they were.
Take the Wheel of the Moon Sect outer sect elder Liu Hongqi. Su Yi had killed him without the slightest politeness. How could someone like Su Yi fear the Hidden Dragon Sword Sect’s name and prestige?
Despite knowing this, Chang Guoke and Qing Jin remained silent. Neither of them warned Kang Shanjing.
Admittedly, they both came from the same sect, but they were as diametrically opposed to each other as fire and water. This was because they supported the sixth prince, while Kang Shanjing was among the third prince’s supporters.
They were in different camps, so although they were fellow sectmates, it was hard to avoid enmity.
But when Xiang Tianqiu saw Kang Shanjing?stick?out his neck, his spirits soared.
Remember, the Hidden Dragon Sword Sect was the Great Zhou’s number one holy land, a faction of cultivators that transcended the mundane!
Su Yi dared to slay the Su Family deacon, Yue Changyuan. He dared kill the man the second prince had personally invited here, Qin Changshan. He dared kill the head of the Xue Family, Xue Ningyuan, but….
Did he dare kill someone from the Hidden Dragon Sword Sect?