Fire Refines the Twin Fiends

"Second Brother, watch out!" Liu Degui's howl carried utter despair.

The blade wind was already at his back, yet Li Chengjie seemed to have eyes behind him. His left arm swung fiercely backward!

"Flame Shield, form!"

A shield condensed from crimson flames instantly appeared, barely blocking that heavy, powerful slash!

"Clang!!"

A deafening clash of metal exploded within the Pill Hut, sending sparks flying everywhere! The Flame Shield shuddered violently, its glow dimming sharply, yet it successfully neutralized the Fatal Blow.

The immense recoil numbed Liu Degui's arm, causing his attack to falter.

At that critical instant, a trace of resolve flashed through Chen Xing's eyes.

Chen Xing rapidly formed hand seals with both hands. The meager spiritual power within him surged at an unprecedented speed as he rasped, "Green Vine, bind!"

Several emerald vines burst from the ground at his command, coiling around Liu Degui's legs like spirit snakes!

The vines appeared frail, yet they contained resilient Wood Element Spiritual Energy. Though they could not truly restrain Liu Degui, who was at Qi Refining Level 5, they abruptly stalled his movement!

And that momentary delay was already enough!

Li Chengjie's Finger Sword, like a red-hot iron spike, pierced with unerring precision into Liu Deming's chest, left wide open by his shock!

"Pfft—!"

A piercing sound that made one's teeth ache.

Liu Deming's body convulsed violently. His eyes flew wide, filled with utmost agony and disbelief.

Liu Deming opened his mouth, and scalding fresh blood mixed with fragments of his organs gushed out. The life within him drained away like a breached dam.

He stared fixedly at Li Chengjie, so close before him. A strange "heh-heh" sound came from his throat before his body went limp. With a thud, he collapsed to the ground, twitched twice, and fell silent forever.

Qi Refining Level 5, Liu Deming, dead!

"Second Brother!!!"

Liu Degui's eyes nearly split apart. Violent spiritual power instantly snapped the Green Vine around his legs as he let out a heart-rending wail.

Seeing his brother die before his eyes, Liu Degui's eyes instantly filled with bloodshot veins. Boundless regret and towering Killing Intent nearly swallowed him whole.

Liu Degui gripped the Ghost-head Saber tightly. The blade hummed from the frenzied influx of spiritual power as he pointed it at Li Chengjie. His voice sounded as if it had emerged from the Nine Nether Hell, venomous to the bone:

"You little bastard! You dared kill my Second Brother! I'll extract your soul and refine your spirit, then tear your corpse into ten thousand pieces!!"

Li Chengjie rode the force several steps forward before turning around steadily. His face was slightly pale; repeatedly casting high-grade techniques had drained him greatly. Yet his gaze remained cold and calm, like a deep pool.

He shook his slightly numb left arm and looked at the crazed Liu Degui, speaking flatly.

"He who kills shall be killed. You gave rise to greed and harbored murderous intent, so you should have been prepared to die."

"Prepared? I'll make you understand what it means to be prepared to die first!" Liu Degui went completely mad. Holding nothing back, he burned the spiritual power within him without regard for the consequences. His aura abruptly surged, faintly touching the threshold of Qi Refining Level 6!

He formed hand seals with both hands and condensed them into his saber. Gray light blazed brightly as an even colder, sharper aura locked onto Li Chengjie.

"Ghost Slash, Nine Nether Soul Severing!"

Liu Degui roared wildly. His body became a gray afterimage, and the Ghost-head Saber let out a shrill ghostly wail. Its blade light swelled into a gray streak several feet long, as though it truly intended to split space itself and take Li Chengjie's head!

This slash contained all his strength, hatred, and madness! Before the blade even arrived, its icy blade intent nearly froze the air!

"Chengjie, watch out! He's risking his life!" Chen Xing watched from the side, his heart and gall torn apart with terror, and cried out involuntarily.

Li Douzi was so frightened that he shut his eyes.

Faced with this earth-shattering slash, Li Chengjie's pupils contracted slightly.

He knew taking it head-on was not a wise choice. His feet stepped in rapid succession, his body drifting backward like willow catkins in the wind as his hands swiftly formed seals.

"Fire Wall, rise!"

"Boom!"

A solid, heavy crimson fire wall nearly a zhang high suddenly rose from the ground, stretching between Li Chengjie and the blade light!

The flames roared, and scorching waves of heat rushed outward!

"Break for me!" Liu Degui's face twisted savagely. Rather than weakening, his saber momentum grew stronger as he viciously cleaved into the Fire Wall!

"Sizzle—boom!!" The gray blade radiance and crimson Fire Wall collided violently, erupting with a deafening blast!

Flames and gray light intertwined madly, annihilating one another!

The Fire Wall warped violently and was forcibly split open by a massive gap, but more than half the blade light's power was also canceled.

The remaining blade aura that passed through the Fire Wall retained less than thirty percent of its force. Li Chengjie shifted again and easily avoided it.

"Let's see how many more slashes you can block!" Liu Degui failed to achieve anything with one blow and became even more frenzied. He swung his saber again, his style broad and unrestrained, entirely a Mutual Destruction fighting method. Gray blade light engulfed Li Chengjie like a raging storm.

"Ah!! I'll fight you to the death!!" Chen Xing let out a shriek that barely sounded human, crazed beyond reason.

At some point, Chen Xing's right hand had pulled a pigeon-egg-sized crimson pill from his robes. Cracks faintly showed across its surface, emanating a heart-palpitating, scorching fluctuation.

This was precisely the Blood-Burning Exploding Flame Pill he had accidentally concocted during his usual pill refinement. Though it was not even a proper-grade pill, it contained violent fire poison and was extremely unstable. He had always kept it carefully, intending to find a chance to dispose of it. Yet now, it had become the only thing he could think of that might possibly injure a Qi Refining Level 5 cultivator!

Chen Xing poured all his meager spiritual power into it without regard for consequences. The crimson pill immediately flared with red light, and dazzling radiance shone through its cracks, as if it would explode the next instant!

Chen Xing's face twisted. Taking advantage of the perfect opportunity while all of Liu Degui's attention was on Li Chengjie, his aura was disordered, and his back was turned, he used all his strength to hurl the dangerous pill viciously at Liu Degui's back!

"Hm?!" Liu Degui's Cultivation level was ultimately far higher than Chen Xing's. The instant the pill was about to strike him, warning bells rang in his heart! Instinctively, he tried to turn and block it.

But he was still half a step too late!

"Boom!!!"

The pill exploded violently the instant it touched his Body Protection Spiritual Light!

There was no earth-shaking bang. Instead, an incomparably sinister and scorching crimson torrent of fire mixed with a foul blood-colored mist, like a Bone-Attached Sore, instantly pierced through the Body Protection Spiritual Light on his back, which he had neglected amid his mad assault, and burrowed fiercely into his body!

"Urgh, ah—!"

Liu Degui's forward charge came to an abrupt halt. He let out an incomparably miserable scream, his body convulsing violently.

He felt a torrent of violent, scorching fire poison rampaging and burning through his Meridians and internal organs. The pain it brought far surpassed any wound from blade or sword!

His eyes instantly filled with bloodshot veins and took on an eerie crimson hue as his vision rapidly blurred.

The Ghost-head Saber in his hand fell to the ground with a clang.

He wanted to turn around and see which rat had used such a sinister method to ambush him, but his body no longer obeyed him at all. Crimson bloody foam continuously spilled from his nose and mouth, carrying the burnt stench of seared organs.

"You... poison..." He only managed to force out several indistinct syllables before his massive body collapsed forward like a mountain toppling and a jade pillar falling. With a thud, he hit the ground. His limbs still twitched unconsciously, and an abnormal red glow faintly shone beneath his skin as his life rapidly dissipated under the frenzied corrosion of fire poison.

Qi Refining Level 5, Liu Degui, dead!

The Pill Hut fell into dead silence once more.

Chen Xing remained in the posture of having thrown the pill, panting heavily. His entire body trembled uncontrollably as he stared at Liu Degui's corpse on the ground, clearly marked by fire poison corrosion. His face was filled with lingering fear, disbelief, and a trace of... warped excitement and faint dread after using a forbidden object to personally end a powerful enemy.

The dead silence in the Pill Hut did not last long.

Li Chengjie searched the corpses for quite some time, yet failed to find a Storage Bag.

Heavy, uniform footsteps approached from afar, pounding against the taut heartstrings of the three like war drums.

Accompanied by the clanging scrape of armor, a stern and powerful aura rapidly drew near, firmly locking down the Pill Hut.

"Those inside, come out!"

A cold, utterly emotionless voice sounded outside the door, carrying an unquestionable command.

The Spirit Pressure contained within that voice far surpassed the middle Qi Refining stage. It clearly belonged to a late Qi Refining stage cultivator!

The excitement on Chen Xing's face instantly turned into even greater terror. He suddenly threw away the Jade Pestle smeared with bloody filth as if it were a red-hot potato. His voice trembled on the verge of tears. "It's over... it's the Flowing Cloud Sect's Enforcement Team! They're here! We killed people... they won't let us go!"

Li Chengjie's heart also sank.

Li Chengjie had not expected the Flowing Cloud Sect's guards to arrive so quickly, much less to be led directly by a Foundation Establishment cultivator. He swiftly calmed himself and said in a low voice, "Furnace Master, stay calm! We killed them, but it was Self-Preservation! If they refuse to distinguish right from wrong, then we risked our lives for nothing just now!"

Li Chengjie adjusted his breathing and headed for the entrance first.

Seeing this, Chen Xing was frightened, but he could only steel himself and follow while pulling along the shivering Li Douzi.

Outside the Pill Hut, torchlight illuminated the alley as brightly as day.

Eight late Qi Refining stage cultivators wearing the Flowing Cloud Sect's standard green robes stood on either side, holding Dharma Artifacts with sharp gazes.

At their head stood a cold-faced middle-aged man with hawk-like eyes. He wore a green robe trimmed in silver, stood with his hands behind his back, and radiated the powerful pressure of the late Qi Refining stage. He was the one who had spoken earlier.

His gaze swept over the three people exiting the doorway before finally falling upon the chaotic scene within the Pill Hut and the two corpses. His brows creased almost imperceptibly.

"What happened here? Why was there a magical battle? Who killed these two?" The late Qi Refining stage cultivator's voice remained cold, his questions going straight to the heart of the matter.

Chen Xing's legs gave out, and he nearly dropped to his knees. He stammered as he tried to explain, "Ste... Steward... it was, it was them, Liu Degui and Liu Deming. They broke in late at night to murder us and steal our belongings. We, we had no choice but to..."

"I killed them." Li Chengjie stepped half a pace forward, standing in front of the incoherent Chen Xing. Facing the Foundation Establishment cultivator's scrutinizing gaze, he bowed neither arrogantly nor humbly. "This junior is Li Chengjie. Furnace Master Chen Xing, apprentice Li Douzi, and I are all members of this Pill Hut. The Liu brothers took advantage of the Marketplace's turmoil to break into the Pill Hut at night, intending to rob and murder us. In Self-Preservation, we were forced to counterattack and accidentally killed them. The traces at the scene, our injuries, and our spiritual power expenditure can all serve as evidence. I ask Steward to investigate fairly."

Li Chengjie's voice was clear and steady, his explanation well ordered. He made clear that they were the victims, defined the killings as a "forced counterattack" and an "accident," and hinted that evidence could be provided.

The late Qi Refining stage cultivator's eyes flashed like lightning. He lingered on Li Chengjie for a moment, then looked over the pale, spiritually depleted Chen Xing and the terrified Li Douzi before turning his gaze back inside the Pill Hut.

The broken door, the scorched marks and saber marks left by battle, the charred finger-hole in Liu Deming's chest, and the obvious heavy impact wound on the back of Liu Degui's head all indeed matched the signs of fierce resistance and multiple participants.

"Liu Degui, Liu Deming..." The late Qi Refining stage cultivator softly repeated the two names. His gaze shifted slightly, as though he recognized them and knew they were Rogue Cultivators who had set up stalls in the Marketplace.

A guard behind him stepped forward and reported quietly, "Steward Wang, we have checked. They are indeed the Liu brothers, and they have not been dead long. There are remnants of intense Spiritual Power Fluctuation within the Pill Hut, consistent with their account of the battle."

Steward Wang nodded slightly. The sternness on his face eased somewhat, but his tone remained severe. "Even if there was cause, private combat resulting in death within the Marketplace still violates sect rules! The situation is tense now, and you should all conduct yourselves properly!"

Steward Wang changed the subject and fixed Chen Xing with a sharp gaze. "Chen Xing, as master of the Pill Hut, why did you not set up a warning Protective Formation beforehand? If you had prepared earlier, how would things have come to this?"

Chen Xing flushed red from the question and was too ashamed to answer.

Li Chengjie's heart stirred. He cupped his hands and said, "Steward, please judge fairly. The Furnace Master usually concentrates on pill refinement, and with the recent unrest in the Marketplace causing material prices to soar, he was temporarily unable to attend to everything. Moreover, we are insignificant people. In these chaotic times, even with a formation, we likely could not have stopped those truly intent on preying upon us. Had we not fought desperately today, we would already be souls beneath their blades."

Steward Wang snorted upon hearing this, but did not refute him.

Steward Wang naturally knew the state Qingshi Market was currently in. After a large number of guards had been transferred away, the remaining force was stretched thin and utterly incapable of maintaining order everywhere.

As for slaughter among these low-level Rogue Cultivators, so long as it did not spread into the core areas or cause too great a disturbance, they often could only turn a blind eye.

"Hmph, smooth words!" Steward Wang glanced at Li Chengjie, seeming to see through his thoughts, yet he did not pursue the matter.

Steward Wang waved a hand and ordered the guards behind him, "Handle the corpses and clean up the scene. Record this matter: robbers broke into the premises to rob, and were killed in counterattack by the occupants."

"Yes!" Several guards answered and entered, beginning to handle the scene with practiced efficiency.

Only then did Steward Wang look again at Li Chengjie and the other two. His tone softened somewhat, though it still carried a warning. "This matter ends here. The Marketplace is in a special state now. Conduct yourselves carefully and do not cause further trouble. If there is another unjustified magical battle, you will be severely punished without exception!"

"Thank you, Steward, for your fair judgment!" Li Chengjie inwardly let out a breath of relief and quickly bowed in thanks.

Chen Xing also felt as though he had received a pardon and repeatedly bowed.

Steward Wang said no more. He turned and left the alley with the remaining guards, their orderly footsteps gradually fading away.

Watching the direction in which the guards vanished, Chen Xing slumped directly to the ground. Wiping the cold sweat from his forehead, he said with lingering fear, "Sca... scared me to death... I thought we were done for this time..."