A hoarse voice answered, “So you really are Yun Lie the Slaughter Sword. Your potential is extraordinary.”
Another voice, identical to the first, said, “All the more reason not to let you escape.”
Several more voices followed, all utterly indistinguishable.
“What a pity to waste such incomparable talent.”
“Who told you to be so unruly?”
“You show others no respect, so naturally no one will respect you.”
“You have only yourself to blame for offending someone you should never have offended…”
“Die!”
“This is where your life ends!”
The words came one after another, echoing through the air as though in an empty valley. They were both real and illusory, impossible to pin down.
They seemed to come from a single speaker, and yet somehow from several. Each voice rang in the ear and disturbed the mind.
Swish, swish, swish!
After several rustling sounds, eight green-clad figures appeared before the cold-faced sword cultivator. Their robes were the color of the grass covering the plain, so that when they stood in the wilderness they seemed almost to merge with it.
These were eight Golden Core Perfected Ones, all at the peak of late Golden Core.
Each had reached the very pinnacle of the Golden Core realm. They needed only a single opportunity to break through, enter Nascent Soul, and attain the rank of Ancestor.
Yet countless cultivators had spent years unable to take that final step. Even so, these eight remained among the most powerful experts of the Golden Core stage.
That was why they had been sent to eliminate Yun Lie, an extraordinary talent who, though only at early Golden Core, had defeated opponents above his realm and earned the title of strongest beneath Nascent Soul. He was an exceptionally formidable sword cultivator who had already comprehended sword intent!
Yun Lie had indeed once swept aside fifty Golden Core cultivators, but those people had not been true experts. The eight before him were plainly different.
Their foundations were solid, their accumulated strength vast. The aura of their divine abilities seemed powerful enough to punch a hole through the heavens.
They were extraordinarily strong, and they had every reason to be proud.
Yun Lie’s expression did not change. “Hiding your faces and concealing your identities. Your intentions are corrupt. Though we belong to the same sect, you deserve death.”
Having spoken, he allowed his killing intent to spread and said no more.
All eight green-clad men were shocked.
They had altered their appearances with Disguise Pills and even made their voices identical. How had Yun Lie so easily guessed their origins?
But the next instant they ceased worrying about it. They had come to kill him, and however he had deduced the truth, he would not escape his fate today.
Their disguises had been intended to conceal them from others, enabling them to act conveniently within Borderguard City.
As for Yun Lie… a dead man was a dead man. Whether he knew the truth scarcely mattered.
One green-clad man thrust out a hand and manifested a gigantic palm, bringing it crashing down above Yun Lie’s head!
The other seven reacted just as quickly. All struck simultaneously, producing immense palms like the first. The attacks blotted out the sky and surrounded Yun Lie from every direction. They meant to use their powerful cultivation to smash him to death on the spot!
A suffocating pressure, like the weight of the ocean, suddenly closed in on every side.
Standing at the center, Yun Lie bore the violent force of all eight attackers!
At that moment, a fine slit opened between his brows.
A colossal golden sword soared upward and pierced the giant palm overhead with a single thrust!
In an instant, an opening appeared in the enormous shadow covering the sky. Yet the golden sword did not sweep sideways. Instead, it abruptly transformed.
One golden sword became two, two became four, and soon there were eight colossal blades angling outward in all directions.
Each carried immense sword pressure. The moment a blade met an approaching palm, it thrust forward fiercely and pierced straight through!
Boom! Boom!
Boom, boom, boom!
After the successive explosions, the eight gigantic palms collapsed into torrents of turbulent power that swept in every direction. The residual force blew Yun Lie’s robes and long hair wildly about him, making him resemble a demon god.
The green-clad men were astonished. They had poured the cultivation of their lifetimes into these divine abilities, fully expecting Yun Lie to fall with a single strike. The battle would have ended quickly, without attracting the frontier authorities’ attention. Never had they imagined he would dispel the attacks so easily. They realized the rumors had not exaggerated his strength, and their envy and resentment deepened.
How could they not feel anger and hatred when all the abilities they had cultivated over so many years proved inferior to those of this junior?
Even so, Yun Lie’s formidable abilities were not enough to make them retreat.
They had come on orders from the Ancestor’s second direct disciple to remove a thorn from the Ancestor’s side. To that end, they had committed a substantial portion of the mountain’s strongest forces. If they failed, they might not only lose the chance to claim credit but also suffer their patron’s wrath.
Their resolve hardening, the green-clad men attacked again.
This time, determined to fight with all they had, each summoned a magical treasure.
A sheet of golden light flashed, and eight small hammers appeared in the sky. Together they formed a parent-and-child set of magical treasures.
Used individually, each hammer was an upper-grade spiritual artifact. But when all eight were summoned and coordinated together, their combined strength was comparable to that of a lower-grade treasure artifact.
These men had long practiced such attacks. They had refined their hammers over many years and trained together until their cooperation was seamless, allowing them to amplify their power still further.
Though they were not equal to a genuine Nascent Soul cultivator, they could be called half-step Nascent Soul!
In an instant, the hammers glittered with gold, and the pressure emanating from all eight green-clad men doubled.
Yun Lie’s gaze flickered faintly.
Then he placed two fingers together against the slit between his brows and said, “Go.”
Bone-piercing cold erupted.
Boundless killing intent surged like a tidal wave, raising towering walls of force. The space around them seemed filled with tangible blades, embodying pure murderous intent and unbreakable determination as they swept outward like a raging storm.
Something appeared to have imprisoned the surrounding heaven and earth, leaving everything within it unable to move freely.
That terrifying pressure surged from the slit between his brows like a violent tempest.
The slit resembled the eye of the storm, possessing savage, overwhelming power, yet it was also like an immovable boulder suppressing everything around it, ancient and unyielding.
All eight green-clad men felt an incomparably powerful pressure.
It bore down from every direction like the crushing waters of the deep sea. Even breathing became agonizing. The pressure penetrated through their seven apertures, organs, and every acupoint.
Circulating true essence became a hundred times more difficult than usual, as though each man carried a mountain on his back.
The small hammers had only just been summoned, but their spiritual radiance already flickered and dimmed because their masters could no longer provide sufficient true essence. Gradually the weapons even began to tremble.
The men’s eyes bulged with desperation as they forced their true essence to circulate, frantically squeezing every last drop of potential from themselves.
None of them noticed thin threads of blood slowly seeping from the corners of their eyes, their lips, and beneath their noses…
Barely seven or eight minutes passed before their eyes began closing.
The hammers fell powerlessly. Blood poured ever faster from their seven apertures until each man was drenched in it.
Finally there was a tremendous bang, and their bodies exploded into fragments.
The strongest among them managed to force out a few words before he burst apart. “Mi… minor cosmos… embry…”
Then he, too, was shattered.
Only eight round Golden Cores remained on the ground.
Yun Lie swept his sleeve, and the pressure filling the sky disappeared. He alone stood quietly where he had been.
After a moment’s thought, he headed in another direction.
Meanwhile, Xu Ziqing had been considering how to refuse the three cultivators’ request to follow him when he abruptly sensed approaching malice. He grew alert and turned toward its source.
The three Foundation Establishment cultivators lacked his vigilance. Seeing his reaction, they asked, “Senior, what’s wrong?”
Xu Ziqing raised a hand, stopping them from asking more.
Four black-clad cultivators wearing masks appeared before him.
Since they wore masks, they clearly wished to conceal their identities. Coupled with the malicious intent he had just sensed, Xu Ziqing knew they had come with ill intentions.
But were those intentions directed at him, or at the three people he had rescued?
In the next instant, he had his answer.
The tallest man spoke. “We’ve finally found you. At least our lengthy search wasn’t in vain.”
He was addressing Xu Ziqing.
The three Foundation Establishment cultivators panicked.
They had enough discernment to recognize the immense auras of these four strangers. How could they fail to see that they were no match for them?
More frightening still, the pressure their rescuer exerted was only comparable to that of one of the four.
Had they barely escaped the jaws of savage beasts, only to become entangled in a new disaster?
Xu Ziqing’s gaze darkened. “I have made no enemies. Perhaps you’ve mistaken me for someone else.”
The man laughed. “There’s no need to test us. Surely you know whether you’ve made enemies.”
Xu Ziqing understood at once.
Since arriving in this great world, if he had truly formed an enmity with anyone, it could only be with Patriarch Ultimate Bliss of Ultimate Bliss Peak.
He had been wary for a long time, expecting someone from that peak to act against him sooner or later. That they had finally found him was not altogether surprising.
On reflection, he and his senior brother had come here to train. Even if they died on the Savage Beast Plains, it would not seem unusual.
After considering briefly, Xu Ziqing said, “Your cultivation is indeed above mine, but compared with my senior brother’s, you fall far short. Aren’t you afraid he’ll come and kill you if you surround me?”
The four exchanged glances. The shortest could not suppress a scoff. “Don’t bother mentioning that senior brother of yours. Since we’ve come to kill you, naturally we’ve left no loose ends. Why not submit and die quickly? Then you can catch up with your senior brother and accompany him on the road to the Yellow Springs!”
Xu Ziqing feigned disdain. “My senior brother is the strongest beneath Nascent Soul. Even if you send assassins, they cannot match him!”
One of the others blurted out, “Eight cultivators at the peak of late Golden Core can’t kill a single early Golden Core?”
Apparently they regarded Xu Ziqing as prey trapped in a jar and saw no reason to guard their words.
Thus Xu Ziqing learned that Ultimate Bliss Peak had committed extraordinary resources this time, determined to kill both martial brothers.
Eight peak late Golden Core cultivators… The thought of such a formidable force filled him with concern.
But the four before him had not yet been dealt with, and there were three burdens behind him. He had no time to dwell on it. Instead he reached a firm resolve.
With his senior brother’s abilities, escape was not necessarily impossible.
Watching Xu Ziqing confront the four men, the three Foundation Establishment cultivators involuntarily took several steps backward.
They began communicating privately through spiritual-sense transmissions.