Chapter 197: Chapter 55: Annihilation
“Lame Zhang, Scholar Yu, this guy is a cultivator from our Han Yuan City. Is it really proper for you people from the Yusheng Dynasty to interfere?”
The middle-aged Daoist scoffed.
The scholar-looking middle-aged man gently closed his fan and chuckled, “We’re all here for the money, talking about decency. Miao Lian, are you out of your mind?”
“You!” Miao Lian was visibly upset.
“What about me? We wandering cultivators, rootless and carefree, accustomed to no rules; if you feel my words are unpleasant, we can just have a contest afterwards. But for now… if this guy dares to gamble like this and can safely retrieve money from the black market, he must have a notable background. Why not join forces to seize it, and discuss how to split it afterwards? Even if it comes to blows, no one will interfere.”
Scholar Yu waved his hand.
“I agree!”
The burly man and the old man with green whiskers beside Miao Lian nodded simultaneously.
“Good!” Miao Lian also nodded.
“Fatty, you’ve seen it yourself. Will you hand over the money yourself, or shall we do it by killing you and taking it?”
Seeing everyone’s consensus, Scholar Yu wasted no more words and looked towards Sun Qiang with a cold snort.
“So it’s money you want, why didn’t you say so earlier? I almost thought you were after some other… intentions, that scared me!”
Patting his chest, Sun Qiang stood up, his round face twisted into an awkward smile, “However, this money isn’t mine. I’m afraid our old master won’t agree to giving it to you!”
Scholar Yu shook his head, “Since we dared to come here, we’re prepared to offend anyone. At worst, we’ll just buy a Mask of Painting Skin to change our identity and still live well! It’s you who might lose more by losing your life out of loyalty!”
“That’s a fair point!” Sun Qiang mused, nodding thoughtfully before looking towards the end of the alley, “Old Master, what do you think?”
Scholar Yu and the others turned their heads suddenly, indeed seeing a middle-aged man slowly walking their way—it was none other than Ling Buyang, who they had just seen gambling!
“Weren’t you severely injured?”
Miao Lian’s pupils constricted.
“It’s a trap, everyone join forces to kill him now, or none of us will escape…”
Scholar Yu reacted quickly, realizing what was happening. With a loud shout, he flicked his wrist, and the fan in his hand shot swiftly towards Elder Ling at the end of the alley.
Their strength was not weak, but compared to him, they were still vastly inferior; the best strategy was to strike first.
With the fan thrown, Scholar Yu tapped his foot and dashed swiftly to the side.
Who speaks of camaraderie in the face of death? Wandering cultivators harbor no such sentiment. While they speak of joining forces, when danger strikes, surviving just means running faster than your comrades.
Logically, being the furthest from the opponent and reacting the fastest, he should’ve been the most likely to escape. However, he had barely moved before feeling a fierce wind surge at his back.
His body broke out in cold sweat, and he curled up tightly into a ball, face planting into the dirt as the wind roared past, burrowing into a nearby rock, disappearing deep into it—over two meters deep.
It was the fan he had just thrown, now returned with extraordinary speed. Had he not dodged in time, a single strike would have pierced his heart and killed him on the spot.
“If I had known it was him, I wouldn’t have come to compete…”
His face turned deathly pale, filled with regret.
Thinking the fat man was merely backed by Heaven Mandate Hall, they believed they could rob and escape smoothly; never in their dreams did they expect it would be this man.
The battle they had just witnessed confirmed it; this Elder Ling, even clad in Han Ming Armor like Han Qianye, could bear blows that spat blood, savagely monstrous beyond human.
Turning hurriedly to check on his companions, he saw that the burly man and the old man with green whiskers, not believing the odds, had charged straight forward. Both strong, with strength surpassing 300 horsepower, they appeared as vulnerable as porcelain before their opponent. Ling Buyang shouldered into them, sending them flying, their internal organs bursting mid-air, killing them instantly.
“You…”
Miao Lian trembled all over from fear.
Observing from below the arena, she knew he was fierce but facing him in combat revealed just how swift and powerful he was!
From the moment Scholar Yu initiated the attack to the instant his two companions were destroyed, it hadn’t even taken a full breath!
“Heavenly Jade Needle Sword Technique…”
Knowing escape was impossible against such speed, Miao Lian flicked her wrist sharply, the long sword thrusting forward, a streak of sword qi carrying the might to rip through the air launched at him.
With no family to rely on and no divine fate aiding her cultivation up to the Ninefold Source Pool, her talent was evident. The sword qi spread in the air like a broom, covering a range of more than ten meters.
The spreading qi didn’t lessen in might, striking like countless flying steel needles, a nuisance even for a Dharma Form Realm pinnacle expert to face.
It was her strongest skill, the Heavenly Jade Needle Sword Technique!
With this technique, she had slain five high-level experts of the same caliber.
Across from her, Ling Buyang, just after dispatching the burly man and the old man with green whiskers, saw her sword qi, raised his palm, and casually slashed forward.
Using the palm as a saber, the saber qi roared like a dragon.
Ding ding ding ding!
The sword qi clashed with the saber qi, like raindrops hitting iron bars, failing to stop even a bit of the roaring force that continued to slash towards them. Miao Lian thought of fleeing just to discover, as if fate was locked onto her, a premonition of inevitable death arose, unavoidable, forcing her to face it.
The reason Heavenly Destiny Martial Techniques are so powerful is that they can influence the soul, impact the spirit.
He hadn’t battled it and couldn’t feel it; only through personal experience could he understand how terrifying reaching the second realm of the Heavenly Destiny Mo Dao was!
Indeed, there was wisdom in the saying that man dies for wealth, as birds perish for food.
No sooner had this thought risen in his mind than his corpse heavily fell to the ground, struck by the Heavenly Destiny Saber Technique. It wasn’t just the body that was destroyed—the soul couldn’t escape either.
He killed three men in a row!
Zhang Xuan’s speed didn’t falter; he continued pursuing the fleeing Scholar, forming a sword with his finger and stabbing swiftly to both sides.
“Using a sword?”
The two masked figures in black, seeing Elder Ling, who primarily practiced the Mo Dao Destiny, wield sword qi against them, simultaneously breathed a sigh of relief.
It seemed that although his saber qi was formidable, there were limits to its use—similar to a skill cooldown. After one slash, he needed to replenish his strength before he could strike again.
Otherwise, it wouldn’t be like this.
“Block his sword arts and split up; you go left, I’ll go right!”
The person on the left called out in a low voice, meeting the attack with his sword.
The one on the right nodded, striking out with a move as well.
The strength of a ninth-dan cultivator from the Ninefold Source Pool was like a crocodile death rolling with its prey—ferocious and violent. It was a concept entirely different from Zhang Xuan’s sword qi.
Zhang Xuan’s sword qi carried no power of destiny nor any particularly strong aura; it merely emitted a faint clear light, seemingly not very strong.
Yet, this seemingly not-too-strong sword qi collided with their strength, and in an instant, like a red-hot iron meeting soft snow, it met no resistance at all.
Bang! Bang!
Like a hammer smashing watermelons, the heads of both men burst open simultaneously.
“This…”
Up until their deaths, they couldn’t believe that the seemingly weak sword qi could unleash such formidable power.
The most crucial point was… the consecutive deaths of five people hadn’t slowed Elder Ling’s advance even a bit!
They knew he was powerful, but they could never have dreamed he was THIS powerful!
“Run…”
As Zhang, the lame-legged man accompanying the Scholar, witnessed this scene, his heart turned ice-cold. His right leg, which had been constantly tapping the ground, suddenly was not lame anymore. He took wide strides and sped rapidly towards the distance.
His speed turned out to be even faster than the Scholar’s.
“You…”
The Scholar felt like exploding.
Having known this man for over a decade, he had always believed him to be a cripple—his nickname was even such. It turned out to be an act; this was his trump card!
What a scoundrel!
As he was cursing inwardly, the Scholar suddenly heard the “tap tap tap tap” sound near his ear. Turning his head, he saw a large horse appear beside him, keeping pace, neither fast nor slow. Seeing him look over, the horse grinned.
“???”
The Scholar was stunned.
He was a ninth-dan cultivator from the Ninefold Source Pool and was running with all his might. Although not as fast as lightning, his speed surpassed that of tigers and leopards. A horse… not only keeping up but also having the spare breath to grin at him…
“Origin qi?”
Upon closer inspection, the Scholar was completely dumbfounded.
The horse before him was brimming with Origin qi inside its body, which meant, this creature was a Primordial Beast…
“Die!” Knowing this must have something to do with Ling Buyang, he flipped his palm and lunged at the horse, his attack sharp. Yet before it hit, one of the horse’s front hooves came smashing towards his chest.
The power wasn’t too great, but being blocked, his forward momentum involuntarily stuttered.
Soon, his vision blurred and he was completely engulfed by a glint of the saber.
Before his death, he saw the horse that had just kicked at him already moved behind the lame-legged Zhang, its head vigorously pushing against the man’s buttocks.
Lame-legged Zhang was sent flying. In the next instant, another dazzling saber light flashed by, and the faster-than-him lame man’s breath stopped as well, his head separating from his body.
Shortly after, the Scholar’s consciousness plunged into darkness.
At this moment, he realized why that fat man, carrying three hundred million Origin Notes, dared to strut out of the black market so blatantly—he was clearly baiting them into a trap.
On the shore, Han Qianchou, Han Qianye, and others disembarked from the boat.
“You say… the people chasing that fat man were the Scholar, lame-legged Zhang, Daoist Miaolian, and altogether seven people?”
Hearing his subordinate’s report, Han Qianchou frowned and nodded. “These individuals are notorious scum among wandering cultivators, often raiding other cultivators and inciting many grievances. Yet their strength is considered extremely powerful. Not just that fat man, even I would struggle if I encountered them suddenly, which is why the dynasty’s encirclement attempts have never succeeded. It seems Ling Buyang overplayed his hand; this time, he might be in trouble!”