Reaching the Pinnacle? Grandmaster Saber Technique!

"What?!!"

Ding Feihu and Ma Wenfeng were both startled.

"The warm-up is over. Now, please die."

Chen Yan bared his teeth in a smile. His gaze was cold as the power of Blood Qi within him erupted, gathering in his limbs. The muscles in his legs and arms swelled by a full circle, brimming with strength, while his speed and power surged by a great margin!

"Whoosh—"

His long saber slashed out like a crescent moon cutting across the sky. The gale it raised carried such crushing pressure that Ding Feihu's face twisted slightly, terror flooding his heart.

This brat had not even used his full strength before!

His heart shuddered, but at the brink of life and death, Ding Feihu's savagery erupted as well.

"Block it for me!"

With an enraged roar, Ding Feihu threw out both fists. Immense strength burst forth, the bulging veins on his arms twisting like little snakes.

The tremendous force even tore apart the web between his thumb and forefinger, bright red blood running down his arms and dripping to the ground.

But he could no longer care about that.

Because if he failed to block this strike, he would die!

Clang!!!

The violent clash of metal rang out like muffled thunder exploding.

He had blocked it!

Joy flashed across Ding Feihu's face, but the next instant, his smile froze.

Clang!

The saber that had slashed at him with extreme speed did not stiffen in the slightest after the collision. With a flickering rebound, it swept out another half-moon arc of saber light.

The icy saber light rushed toward him. Reflected in Ding Feihu's widened eyes was an unbelievably young, indifferent face.

The next moment—

The saber light severed his fist guard, severed the five fingers raised to block it, severed his thick arm, and swept past his neck!

"No!!!"

Ding Feihu only had time to let out a terrified scream before his body suddenly felt light.

A vicious head was hurled high into the air by the blood spraying from his neck.

His rapidly coursing blood shot more than ten feet into the air, carrying a stinking bloody mist that drenched several nearby bandits from head to toe.

Silence!

Dead silence!

For a moment, none of the bandits present could react. Everything had happened too quickly—so quickly that before they could even process it, Ding Feihu of the Third Blood Qi Realm had already died miserably on the spot.

"He's dead! The chief is dead!!!"

"Run! Run now! The chief is dead! Run!!"

"Monster! He's a monster!!!"

Someone in the crowd cried out in terror. In an instant, fear spread through every bandit's heart. Not a shred of resistance remained as they fled in utter panic.

Ma Wenfeng, who stood closest to Chen Yan, had lost all courage the moment Ding Feihu died. Feeling the youth's gaze turn toward him, his legs gave way as he opened his mouth in terror to beg for mercy.

"My lord, spare—"

Before he could finish, an icy streak answered him.

Pfft!

The snow-white blade plunged straight in, piercing through his heart.

Ma Wenfeng's eyes bulged wide as he crumpled limply to the ground.

Chen Yan kicked Ma Wenfeng's corpse aside and looked coldly at the bandits fleeing for their lives.

He would not spare a single one of them.

Blood debts... had to be repaid in blood.

Half an hour later.

"Ah!"

As the last bandit was split in two by a single slash, blood and entrails splattering across the ground, the once-noisy mountain forest finally returned to silence.

Only the low whistling of the cold wind remained, like the wailing of ghosts.

"It's over..."

Blood dripped from the blade's edge. Standing amid a field of mangled corpses, Chen Yan finally relaxed.

The forest now resembled a hell of Asura, strewn with broken corpses and chunks of flesh. Blood had gathered into a winding stream, and the air was thick with the stench of it.

In an instant, exhaustion washed over him.

Not caring whether the ground was clean, Chen Yan dropped onto the bloodstained earth.

"Meow~"

At that moment, Facai gave a soft cry and slowly walked to Chen Yan's side, extending its tongue to gently lick the blood from the back of his hand.

Seeing Facai, Chen Yan's face softened into a smile. He reached out to rub Facai's head and asked quietly, "You weren't hurt, were you?"

Facai was also covered in blood now, its jet-black fur dyed crimson.

Facai had contributed greatly in this battle as well, helping Chen Yan hold back the ordinary bandits so he could focus fully on dealing with Ding Feihu and Ma Wenfeng.

Facai shook its head and quietly sat beside the youth.

Under the moonlight, the youth and cat sat quietly amid corpses carpeting the ground. Peaceful and serene, yet strange in a way that carried an indescribable beauty.

When Old Daoist Liu arrived, panting heavily, this was the exquisite scene he saw.

"Brat, you..."

Looking at the forest littered with corpses, then at the youth and cat sitting quietly amid blood and remains, Old Daoist Liu was too shocked to speak.

Sensing movement behind him, Chen Yan turned around. Seeing the old Daoist, he grinned.

"They found me, so I had no choice but to kill them all."

"You, you, you..."

The old Daoist was dumbstruck. He rubbed his eyes fiercely, seemingly unable to believe what lay before him.

The Tiger Head Mountain bandits had actually all been slaughtered by this brat alone?

There had been two Third Blood Qi Realm Martial Masters, several First Blood Qi Realm Martial Masters, and more than a dozen strong Tiger Head Mountain bandits!

And this brat had killed them all by himself?

On the way here, Old Daoist Liu had imagined many possible outcomes, but this was the one scene he had never anticipated.

Only after a long while did Old Daoist Liu finally force out a sentence, half shocked and half horrified.

"You broke through again?"

"Not yet."

Chen Yan shook his head, then added, "But soon."

Yes.

Soon.

This battle had greatly improved Chen Yan as well. The desperate bloodbath between life and death had allowed him to vaguely sense his Blood Qi power beginning to gather within him. He knew that once this gathering momentum took shape, an entirely new power would be born—True Force.

"You killed all nineteen bandits, including two at the Third Blood Qi Realm, without breaking through?!"

Old Daoist Liu's eyes were wide, his mouth open enough to swallow a hundred eggs.

Rather than believe that the unbroken-through Chen Yan had slain Ding Feihu and the other bandits, the old Daoist would rather believe that Chen Yan had already broken through to the True Force Realm.

"Because I discovered that my saber technique is very strong. Extremely strong."

Chen Yan grinned. With a casual sweep of the Fish Dragon Saber in his hand, a fallen leaf was sliced apart along the center of its veins without the slightest deviation!

Though Old Daoist Liu was not a Martial Master, his eye was exceedingly sharp. In an instant, he looked as if he had seen a ghost and shrieked, "Grandmaster Saber Technique? You brat mastered Grandmaster Saber Technique?!!!"

This time, Old Daoist Liu was far more shocked than when he had seen Chen Yan break through to the Third Blood Qi Realm in one go.

"Grandmaster Saber Technique? So reaching the pinnacle corresponds to the Grandmaster realm?"

Chen Yan came to a sudden realization.

It could only be said that both Chen Yan and Old Daoist Liu had greatly underestimated Chen Yan's strength.

Old Daoist Liu only knew that Chen Yan had broken through to the Third Blood Qi Realm. How could he have imagined that Chen Yan had also mastered a Grandmaster Saber Technique at the pinnacle realm?

And Chen Yan himself?

He had never fought a Martial Master before. His only battle had been with the Skin-Peeling Puppet. Yet aside from beheading it, the Skin-Peeling Puppet was practically immortal. That had kept Chen Yan from understanding the true might of saber technique realms, and left him without a clear grasp of his own strength.

It could be said that with a Grandmaster Saber Technique, Chen Yan was not a Grandmaster, yet was better than one!

Of course, Grandmasters could unleash even more powerful True Force, even projecting true qi beyond their bodies. That was far beyond anything Chen Yan could contend with.

But among Qi and Blood Martial Artists, Chen Yan was invincible.

Even ordinary True Force Realm Martial Masters might not necessarily be Chen Yan's match.

That was the power of Grandmaster Saber Technique!