Chapter 348: Chapter 348: Counter-Killing Mad Blade, Everyone Horrified
“Let’s go and have a look.”
“I’m curious to know who’s so powerful that even Mad Blade has appeared, all to pursue this person.”
“I’m even more curious as to who’s so wealthy they could afford to hire Mad Blade.”
“It’s said that Mad Blade sets a high price, at least a thousand lower-grade spirit stones per job, and the payment must be settled upfront.”
The cultivators of County King City were discussing among themselves.
Some cultivators, confident in their high cultivation levels, hurriedly formed teams to follow after, eager to find out exactly what was happening.
The killers of the Assassin’s Hall had professional ethics.
If they were only there to watch and did not intervene, then Mad Blade would not attack them.
Of course, they had to keep their distance while watching.
If they were killed by the remnants of the battle, they could only blame their own bad luck.
“Let’s go, catch up!”
In a moment, hundreds of cultivators followed suit.
County King’s Manor.
Hearing that Mad Blade was going on a mission, Shu Hongyu merely frowned slightly, muttering to herself, “Mad Blade is at the peak of the seventh layer of the Element Gathering Realm, who exactly has spent such a huge sum to hire him, and who is he supposed to kill?”
She had no idea that the target being hunted was Elder Gong Qingqiu from the Misty Sect’s outer gates.
Beneath the tower of County King City.
Han Er, in disguise, secretly followed.
As the employer, he wanted to witness Mad Blade kill Gong Qingqiu with his own eyes, then record it in his diary.
During the flight, he had already started writing.
“Today, the weather is clear, and I have spent one thousand five hundred lower-grade spirit stones. I hired Mad Blade, ranked tenth among the assassins, to kill Elder Gong Qingqiu from the Misty Sect on my behalf.”
“Gong Qingqiu is stronger than me.”
“However, she is definitely not as strong as Mad Blade.”
Writing this, Han Er closed his diary.
During the battle at the ruins of Shuiyang City that day, by the time Gong Qingqiu arrived, Han Er had already started to flee.
But because he was writing in his diary while running, he did not move quickly, so in the end, he caught a glimpse of Gong Qingqiu and found that she was only at the fifth layer of the Element Gathering Realm, stronger than himself but definitely no match for Mad Blade.
After entering the city, Gong Qingqiu kept a low profile and continuously suppressed her cultivation level.
Thus, Han Er had no idea that Gong Qingqiu had already had a significant increase in her cultivation level on the seventh floor of the Cultivation Tower.
In the sky.
Gong Qingqiu was sitting cross-legged on the Spirit Snake Flying Boat.
After a period of arduous cultivation, she finally broke through the first bottleneck of the “Solidifying Element Technique”.
Whoosh!
As the cultivation technique circulated smoothly, Gong Qingqiu’s True Yuan automatically compressed by one-third, becoming more solid.
Even the True Yuan in her Second Qi Sea compressed as well.
Though the total amount remained the same, the quality had improved.
It was like upgrading from rotten wood to hardwood—while not quite a qualitative change, the improvement in strength was significant.
“Originally, I was at the peak of the sixth layer of the Element Gathering Realm, and now that I’ve mastered the first layer of “Solidifying Element Technique”, my foundation is no less than that of the seventh layer.”
Gong Qingqiu murmured.
Swish!
Suddenly, a blinding blade glow chopped towards her from behind.
Chilling to the bone, it even carried a sense of madness,
“Mad Blade?!”
Gong Qingqiu recognized the attacker, her pupils shrinking as she quickly slapped her seat, the Spirit Snake Flying Boat, sending out a shield that deflected the blade glow.
Rip!
The blade glow shattered, revealing a middle-aged man bearing a long blade—Mad Blade.
“You want to kill me, but who hired you?”
Gong Qingqiu glanced at the tag on Mad Blade’s waist, saw the three blood-red characters “In Service,” and her pupils shrank again.
Mad Blade wasted no words.
He grasped the blade with one hand while quickly forming a spell with the other, activating the Blade Intent within him that made the blade shine like snow, the cold light bursting forth and slashing out with a heart-palpitating aura.
Clang!
The Spirit Snake Flying Boat’s shield easily blocked Mad Blade’s attack.
Clang, clang, clang!
Mad Blade furiously struck dozens of continuous blows, but when he realized the shield of the flying boat was unwaveringly strong, he understood it was an Upper Grade Spiritual Artifact.
“Look, they’ve started fighting!”
Dozens of cultivators from middle and high layers of the Element Gathering Realm rushed to the scene, standing from a distance to watch, only to find Mad Blade slashing fiercely at the Spirit Snake Flying Boat’s shield, yet he was unable to make even a scratch.
“This…”
The crowd was dumbfounded.
Elder Gong Qingqiu also had a strange expression on her face.
She hadn’t expected the protective shield of the Spirit Snake Flying Boat to be so strong that even Mad Blade’s full-force strike couldn’t break through it.
“Are you tired?” she asked instinctively.
As soon as these words were spoken, Mad Blade’s face turned red with frustration.
More and more cultivators arrived at the scene, just in time to hear her words, and they all wore peculiar expressions before turning their eyes to Mad Blade.
They felt that inside Mad Blade’s heart, it must have felt as if countless alpacas were rampaging and spitting at him.
“Die!” bellowed Mad Blade, his voice hoarse.
His main cultivation technique was also the “Five Qi Dynasty Yuan”. In addition, he had two auxiliary cultivation methods that made his aura more robust and his blade glow more domineering and weighty.
As he elevated his combat power to the limit and cast a fifth-grade spell “Scorching Blade Glow”, he suddenly unleashed a blade glow hundreds of meters long, as scorching as fire.
Boom!
This time, even the Spirit Snake Flying Boat shook violently, its protective shield flickering, almost going out.
“What formidable strength!” Elder Gong Qingqiu hurriedly took out two middle-grade spirit stones and embedded them in the Spirit Snake Flying Boat to ensure the energy didn’t run out.
Swoosh!
She activated the Spirit Snake Flying Boat’s assault function, and a beam of light burst forth like a scorching sword qi, causing the air itself to twist.
But Mad Blade was not weak. He swung his large blade wildly, cutting down the beam of light, then charged toward Gong Qingqiu again.
“The Spirit Snake Flying Boat may be an upper-grade spiritual artifact, but its primary function is flight; its defense and offensive capabilities aren’t that strong,” Elder Gong Qingqiu remembered Ye Feng’s words.
She realized that she had to act herself if she wanted to kill Mad Blade.
With a “whoosh,” the Spirit Snake Flying Boat shrank to one foot in length and was stored inside Gong Qingqiu’s storage ring.
“Shuiyang Secret Art!”
“Mystique Catalogue!”
With her hands forming seals, she was enveloped by the power of water and fire, her combat strength increasing exponentially, almost reaching the eighth level of the Element Gathering Realm. The world of mountain and river paintings, amplified by this power, also appeared behind her.
“It’s the Shuiyang Secret Art!”
“It is said to be an exclusive auxiliary cultivation method from Shuiyang City, capable of doubling the power of all spells!”
“I get it now; she’s Gong Qingqiu, the former Deputy City Lord of Shuiyang City and currently the Outer Sect Elder of the Misty Sect!”
The cultivators observing the battle recognized Gong Qingqiu.
“People from the Misty Sect?” Mad Blade’s eyes narrowed.
Had he known that his target came from the Misty Sect, he would have never accepted this mission.
He even felt an urge to slay his employer with a single strike!
“How did she become so strong?” Han Er arrived at the scene, staring at Gong Qingqiu with her overwhelming presence and feeling extreme regret.
Han Yi had given him five thousand spirit stones.
But Han Er thought Gong Qingqiu’s strength was not formidable, so he hired the tenth-ranked assassin Mad Blade for one thousand five hundred stones, which he believed was enough to kill her.
The remaining spirit stones could be used to indulge himself in Goulan.
However, he now realized his oversight.
“If I had known it would come to this, I would have spent all five thousand spirit stones to hire one of the top three assassins on the leaderboard, who are all at the peak of the Element Gathering Realm and could easily take down Gong Qingqiu… Ah, I was so foolish!”
Han Er felt like crying and quietly began to retreat.
In the high sky.
Once the Mystique Catalogue was activated, countless water swords and vines attacked Mad Blade, enveloping him in a dense swarm.
“The blade light shall not extinguish!”
Mad Blade held his sword in both hands, wildly swinging, shattering countless vines and water swords, but he suddenly felt an ominous sense within.
“Hunyuan Qi!”
Elder Gong Qingqiu’s hands formed seals, and five types of spiritual energy gradually merged, eventually transforming into a gray-colored Qi that fiercely struck down from above.
“Not good!”
Mad Blade hurriedly threw out over a dozen middle-grade talismans, forming numerous dazzling shields around his body.
“Qi… fighting technique!”
Elder Gong Qingqiu suddenly extended her hands, using her own energy to guide the Hunyuan Qi around to the relatively weak area behind Mad Blade, plunging it into him.
Puchi!
A brilliant light exploded, and Mad Blade looked down at his shattered chest before trying to point at Gong Qingqiu. But, sputtering, he was unable to say a word.
Rip!
Elder Gong Qingqiu formed a sword with her fingers and, with Streaming Light Sword Qi, slashed through Mad Blade’s neck, decisively ending his life.
“Mad Blade has been counter-killed!”
This scene terrified all of the onlookers.