No One Makes a Move

"Courting death!"

Lin Ke'er shouted coldly. The next moment, the Shattered Ice Sword in her hand turned into a streak of light and shot straight at the scar-faced man before her.

Lin Xue, unwilling to be outdone, wielded her similarly frost-white Frost Snow Sword and thrust it toward the other man.

"A talisman master?"

After seeing Lin Ke'er make her move, shock flashed across the first scar-faced man's face. He had originally thought Lin Ke'er posed little threat and intended to pick on the easy target.

Yet before he could squeeze the persimmon, he had run into thorns—and the particularly prickly kind known as a talisman master.

At once, the scar-faced man did not dare be the slightest bit careless. He hastily drew his weapon to fend off Lin Ke'er's attack.

However, under the assault of Lin Ke'er's spirit treasure, the scar-faced man was clearly in quite a sorry state.

Lin Xue's opponent, however, was different. Seeing Lin Xue charge at him of her own accord, the vicious, ugly man whose face was covered in scars revealed a savage grin. As a qualified desperado, he was clearly very confident in his fighting skills.

Although the Minor Perfection of Core Formation Realm strength Lin Xue displayed gave the vicious man a slight shock, it merely made him take her seriously; he was not overly wary. After all, quite a few Minor Perfection of Core Formation Realm experts had died by his hand.

"Hehe, what a snowy-white little beauty. Just my type—I like it!"

Seeing Lin Xue take the initiative to attack, the scar-covered Minor Perfection of Core Formation Realm expert wore a twisted, sickly, savage grin.

Yet upon hearing the filthy words from that damned ugly bastard before her, a glacial killing intent flashed across Lin Xue's pretty face.

The next moment, driven by Origin Power, a sharp Sword Qi rose from the Frost Snow Sword in her hand and shot directly toward the ugly man.

"Ten Thousand Plum Swordplay, One Sword Drifting Snow!"

What drifted was not merely snow, but blood as well!

Among the Ten Thousand Plum Swordplay, this strike was the fiercest move—and also the fastest sword.

Although Lin Xue's comprehension was still insufficient for this strike to reach the level of a seventh-grade martial art containing the intent of form creation, it was already stronger than ordinary sixth-grade martial arts.

The Frost Snow Sword shot forth in an instant, like a biting cold wind carrying bone-piercing frost. It even left behind illusory traces of drifting snowflakes in the air.

The instant he saw Lin Xue's strike, the vicious ugly man's expression changed drastically. He had never expected such a young Core Formation Realm expert as Lin Xue to possess such a formidable martial art.

Nor had he expected Lin Xue to unleash such a killing move from the very start, executing her martial art so swiftly that it was already too late for him to counter with one of his own.

Left with no choice, the scar-faced man could only mobilize all the Origin Power in his body, hoping to block the attack long enough to seize an opportunity to retreat.

However, the scar-faced ugly man had clearly underestimated the power of the Ten Thousand Plum Swordplay.

Swords were known for their agility, and speed was one of the core principles of swordplay. This speed did not merely mean swinging the sword quickly; the strike itself had to be fast as well!

That was why so many people in the Lin Clan had switched to swordsmanship. Sword practice was truly formidable—once one got the hang of it, executing sword moves was far faster than using ordinary martial arts.

A cold glint flashed through Lin Xue's eyes. The next instant, a flash of sword light swept past, followed immediately by a shrill scream.

"Ah!!!"

The vicious, scar-faced man flew backward through the air, clutching his eyes with both hands as miserable wails poured from his mouth.

Though in that hurried moment, the ugly man had managed at the crucial instant to use Origin Power to restrain Lin Xue's low-grade spirit treasure, the Frost Snow Sword, the threads of Sword Qi extending from the blade, combined with the spirit treasure's might, still struck his exceptionally fragile eyes.

With a single sword strike, Lin Xue had directly blinded both eyes of the scar-faced ugly man.

The miserable scream also startled the scar-faced man currently being suppressed by Lin Ke'er's spirit treasure. When he turned back and saw his companion's miserable state, his heart tightened.

But in the instant that scar-faced man lost focus, the coldness and killing intent in Lin Ke'er's eyes surged explosively.

"One Sword Comes From the West, Flying Immortal From Beyond the Heavens!"

"Buzz!"

Waves of mist rose from the Shattered Ice Sword floating in midair, carrying a cool, ethereal grace.

Beneath the cover of that frosty mist, the Shattered Ice Sword vanished completely from sight.

The scar-faced man, who had just turned back upon sensing the powerful fluctuations of Sword Qi, saw a cool divine sword seemingly descending from the celestial realm, piercing through the clouds and mist toward him. In that instant, the dreamlike sight made him freeze.

But once the scar-faced man came back to his senses, his expression changed abruptly. Origin Power condensed around him at once as he desperately dodged, trying to evade the strike.

However, the sword was simply too fast. By the time the scar-faced man reacted, it had already reached him.

"Sshk!"

Though he avoided a vital spot such as his heart, the sword still easily pierced through his shoulder. As it flew back through the air, it brought with it a spray of warm blood and an arm soaring high into the sky.

"Ah!!"

The scar-faced man weakly covered his severed arm, his mouth releasing a bone-chilling scream.

All of this seemed to have taken a long time, but in reality, it had happened within only a few breaths. From the moment Lin Ke'er and Lin Xue attacked to the moment those two were severely injured, merely two or three breaths had passed.

Watching two Minor Perfection of Core Formation Realm experts suffer successive grievous injuries in the blink of an eye, the expressions of the three fierce Great Perfection of Core Formation Realm men changed drastically.

Yet before the three could make any move, Little Flame, stirred by the sight of Lin Ke'er and Lin Xue attacking and provoked by the blood, attacked without hesitation. The python head that had remained coiled behind it, faintly showing signs of transforming into a flood dragon, shot out in an instant.

"Sshk!"

Almost in the blink of an eye, the jet-black python body coiled upon Little Flame's back pierced straight through the chest of the Minor Perfection of Core Formation Realm expert before it.

"Urgh, ah!!"

That Minor Perfection of Core Formation Realm expert had never imagined that he would die so inexplicably at the hands of a demonic beast—and one that did not even appear particularly powerful.

In the blink of an eye, two Minor Perfection of Core Formation Realm experts had been severely injured, while another had died. Once the three fierce middle-aged men came to their senses, three Great Perfection of Core Formation Realm auras swept across the entire area.

The next moment, the group of nearly a hundred people surrounded them from all sides.

But just then, a voice slowly rang out.

"None of you are to act rashly!"