Killing Ma Yuan

"Fellow Daoist Lu?" Ma Yuan froze, unable to react for a moment to who Lin He meant by Fellow Daoist Lu.

"Big Brother, it's that yellow-haired brat!" Ma Shan said resentfully from the side.

Then Ma Shan swept his gaze around the many cultivators present and noticed a detail he had overlooked all along.

"Where is Lu Qingshan?!" Ma Shan was filled with uncertainty.

That was right. The cultivators present were clear at a glance, yet Lu Qingshan alone was missing.

Only after Ma Shan mentioned it did Lin He realize that Lu Qingshan had vanished into the crowd at some unknown time.

But the pressing matter was still to deal with Ma Yuan's group first.

Lin He waved the Formation Flag in his hand, and the fire snake spewed forth a blazing torrent, finally wiping out Ma Yuan's Dark Sting Golden Bee Gu in one fell swoop, leaving not a single one behind.

Looking at the corpses of the Dark Sting Golden Bee Gu all over the ground, Ma Yuan's heart bled, and traces of savagery gradually surfaced on his face.

He watched as Lin He controlled the fire snakes to split apart and charge toward his group.

Ma Yuan finally could bear it no longer.

"Old bastard, you forced my hand!"

As soon as the words fell, an intense blood-red glow suddenly spread across Ma Yuan's entire body.

Pop—

Pop—

Pop—

A string of clothes-bursting sounds rang out.

Ma Yuan's body swelled like a balloon out of thin air, instantly bursting apart the clothes covering him and revealing his lean, muscular physique.

Sinister blood-red patterns emerged across Ma Yuan's naked body, like magma flowing over parched, cracked earth.

Seeing Ma Yuan's sudden transformation, Lin He, who had been certain of victory, showed a flash of horror. "Blood Frenzy Gu—you actually succeeded in refining this Gu!"

Blood Frenzy Gu: Rank 1 Gu Worm.

Description: Requires a human child as the primary material for refining the Gu. It must be refined slowly over several years. Once successfully refined, its power is unstoppable.

Refining Requirement: Charm attribute greater than 5.

Gu Worm Effect: Activating the Blood Frenzy Gu sends the cultivator into a berserk state, granting immunity to most Rank 1 spell damage, Strength +n (n = Charm attribute), and Health +30.

Duration: Three minutes.

Cooldown: Sixty days.

This was a Gu Worm that, once successfully refined in the Qi Refining realm, was nearly invincible.

The process of refining the Blood Frenzy Gu was exceptionally cruel. A human child had to be used as the raw material, combined with one hundred kinds of venomous insects as supplementary ingredients, then sealed inside an airtight container and refined over several years.

During that time, not only did the child have to be kept alive, but the Gu Cultivator himself also had to constantly feed it with his own blood essence.

Back then, Ma Yuan had been discovered by outsiders while refining this Gu. Under the pressure of Great Xia, the Ma Family had no choice but to clean house.

Who could have imagined that Ma Yuan had only pretended to flee? He had changed his identity and gone into hiding in Yuanshan City.

After going into hiding, Ma Yuan had not given up on refining the Blood Frenzy Gu. Instead, he continued his previous work and truly succeeded in refining it in the end!

—The chance of failing to refine the Blood Frenzy Gu was extremely high.

Rip—

After activating the Blood Frenzy Gu, Ma Yuan's ferocity erupted. Facing a fire snake rushing straight at him, he neither dodged nor evaded. He simply stretched out his swollen hands and forcibly seized the fire snake formed from spiritual power.

Ma Yuan gave Lin He a savage grin. Light suddenly flashed across the blood-red patterns on his hands, and before everyone's eyes, he viciously tore the fire snake in half.

Sparks flew in all directions and landed on Ma Yuan's body.

Ma Yuan was not affected in the slightest.

One had to know that when a Rank 1 formation was being controlled by someone, ordinary Qi Refining cultivators had absolutely no power to fight back.

Yet now, empowered by the Blood Frenzy Gu, Ma Yuan did not fear the power of the Fire Snake Formation at all.

The might of the Blood Frenzy Gu was terrifying indeed!

"Miss, run! I'll hold him back! The Ma Family sheltered Ma Yuan while he refined an evil Gu. As long as we report it to Great Xia, the Ma Family won't escape accountability!" Seeing this, Lin He also realized that surviving against Ma Yuan, who had refined the Blood Frenzy Gu, was likely impossible today.

All he thought of now was using the Fire Snake Formation's power to hold Ma Yuan back for as long as possible, so that Lin Yao could seize the chance to escape.

Lin Yao bit her lip lightly, unsure what to do for a moment.

In a daze.

Ma Yuan's figure flashed as he charged straight toward Lin He.

As long as he killed Lin He and seized the Formation Flag, without the Fire Snake Formation covering them from the side, the remaining Lin Family cultivators would be nothing but lambs awaiting slaughter!

"Miss Lin, use your Illusory Sound to hold Ma Yuan for one breath. I can kill him."

A strange man's voice suddenly sounded beside Lin Yao's ear.

His tone was calm, but what he said left Lin Yao unable to believe it.

At this very moment, Ma Yuan in this state could practically be called invincible among Qi Refining cultivators.

Who would dare claim so lightly that they could kill him?

Yet the determination in the man's voice made Lin Yao instinctively do as he instructed.

"Edict!" Lin Yao parted her crimson lips.

Soul Chilling Sonic Wave Secret Technique!

Although Ma Yuan in his berserk state could resist most Rank 1 spell damage, that was limited to spells that struck the flesh.

His soul defenses had not been strengthened in the slightest by the Blood Frenzy Gu.

But the Soul Chilling Sonic Wave cast by Lin Yao targeted his soul.

Ma Yuan only felt his soul shudder, and he briefly lost consciousness.

Seeing this, Lin Yao sighed inwardly.

Secret techniques that attacked the soul were far too precious. They were simply not something a small Lin Family could possess.

Though the Soul Chilling Sonic Wave she unleashed targeted the soul, it was not truly a soul-attacking technique.

That was because the Soul Chilling Sonic Wave possessed no destructive power at all. It could only briefly intimidate the soul, leaving Ma Yuan dazed for an instant.

Yet even the Soul Chilling Sonic Wave Secret Technique, which had not the slightest killing power, had been obtained by her father from the Lin Family in Zhenjiang City after pleading for it.

Yuanshan City had no such technique.

At the instant Lin Yao unleashed the Soul Chilling Sonic Wave, an afterimage flashed past.

It was Lu Qingshan!

The strange man who had instructed Lin Yao was Lu Qingshan, who had vanished into the crowd at some unknown time.

He had disappeared at some unknown time, only to suddenly reappear in the blink of an eye.

Ma Yuan had just recovered from Lin Yao's Soul Chilling Sonic Wave when he saw a flash of cold light before his eyes.

Then his soul shuddered again.

Again?!

That was what Ma Yuan thought in the instant before he lost consciousness.

Cry Soul Sword, Soul Shock!

Even Foundation Establishment cultivators found it difficult to resist the Soul Shock technique. Ma Yuan plainly had no reason to be able to block it.

Falling Bright Sword Art!

Cry Soul Sword: Sharpness +1.

Just enough to break through his defenses.

Lu Qingshan moved with extreme speed. His sword flew like the wind, his figure ghostly. Within the duration of Soul Shock, two flashes of cold light had already swept past.

Lu Qingshan struck twice in succession.

When Ma Yuan regained consciousness again, a sharp, searing pain like fire had already spread throughout his body.

Ma Yuan's heart trembled.

Years of battle experience made Ma Yuan instinctively twist aside when Lu Qingshan's sword came slashing down again, trying to evade its edge.

Even in his berserk state, the damage from Lu Qingshan's sword art was not something he could ignore.

Yet his expected swift sidestep to evade the attack did not go as he wished.

As though he had fallen into a swamp, his movements had inexplicably become far slower.

Falling Bright Sword Art: Each sword form carried one layer of Dark Erosion power. Each layer of Dark Erosion reduced Speed by 1 and could stack.

Ma Yuan currently had two layers of Dark Erosion stacked on him, reducing his Speed by 2.

Unable to adapt in time, he seemed to lag for a moment and was struck by another sword form from Lu Qingshan.

Burst!

With a thought from Lu Qingshan, the three layers of Dark Erosion stacked on Ma Yuan's body exploded.

Ma Yuan was bound!

Lu Qingshan showed no mercy and brought down another sword upon his head.

A string of data messages appeared:

"You activated the Sword Weapon skill Soul Shock."

"Soul Shock successfully hit. The target will enter a brief soul-loss state."

"You used Falling Bright Sword Art on the target. Falling Bright Sword Art hit and dealt 10 damage!" (x3)

"You detonated Dark Erosion. The target has been briefly bound!"

"You used Falling Bright Sword Art on the target. Falling Bright Sword Art hit and dealt 10 damage, with an additional 5 (10*0.5) points of vital damage, dealing a total of 15 damage to the target!"

"The target has died. You killed Ma Yuan (Lv10) and gained a total of 100 experience points!"