When Wu Tianxiong's wild, unrestrained laughter and that terrifying command capable of splitting mountains and shattering rocks thundered through the deathly silent mountain hollow, a lightning assault launched by the "hunters" against their "prey" officially began!
"Yes!"
Already fired up by Wu Tianxiong's godlike display of Empty Hand Catches White Blade, dozens of Heavenly Martial Society elite members, their fighting spirit soaring into the heavens, let out a perfectly synchronized, earthshaking roar the instant they heard the command!
The next moment, this "luxurious" force composed of the finest geniuses in the entire outer academy no longer hesitated or held anything back!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Dozens of differently colored yet equally powerful flashes of Spiritual Energy shot into the sky at the same time!
Like a pack of primordial beasts breaking free of their shackles, they carried an invincible momentum capable of crushing every enemy before them, transforming into an unstoppable torrent of steel that swept madly toward the deep, unknown valley where Lin Xiao and the others had vanished.
Their faces all bore the same expression—cruelty, excitement, and the innate arrogance and disdain born of absolute strength!
In their eyes, this so-called "battle" held no suspense whatsoever!
They were lions! The undisputed kings of beasts in the outer academy of Cloud Creek Academy, where the strong devoured the weak!
And those Yellow Class trash who did not know the height of heaven or the depth of earth, who had actually dared provoke this lion first, were nothing more than ridiculous jackals courting death!
They could practically foresee how, in the coming one-sided slaughter, those pathetic "jackals" would be torn into miserable pieces beneath the iron hooves of their invincible lion legion!
Yet they had no idea what kind of lavish feast awaited them within the seemingly tranquil death valley ahead!
Inside the valley, all was deathly silent.
Only the mournful cold wind passing through the woods silently spoke of this place's ill omen.
"They're here!"
Hidden within an extremely concealed recess in the cliff wall, Lin Xiao clearly "saw" the torrent of steel charging toward them with unstoppable momentum through the 360-degree real-time battlefield radar provided by the system. A bone-chilling killing intent flashed through his deep, ancient-well-like eyes!
He could even clearly "see" those young faces filled with arrogance and disdain!
"They came even faster than I expected."
"It seems that little 'gift' of mine truly enraged him completely."
A cold, sinister curve slowly appeared at the corner of Lin Xiao's mouth.
This was exactly the effect he wanted!
A calm Wu Tianxiong who knew how to plan and strategize was terrifying; but a Wu Tianxiong blinded by fury, who only knew how to crush his opponents head-on with absolute power, was far less threatening!
"Since you want to die so badly..."
"Then I'll grant your wish!"
Lin Xiao slowly raised his right hand and made a light, icy gesture signifying "slaughter" toward the Yellow Class Nine members who had long been lying in wait like the most patient hunters in every corner of the valley—
"Begin the feast!"
Rumble!
With dozens of Heaven Class geniuses at Body Refinement Seventh Level and above charging at full speed, how terrifying was their momentum?!
They were like humanoid armored vehicles running at full throttle. Wherever they passed, whether towering ancient trees thick enough for two people to wrap their arms around or incomparably hard black mountain rock, all were smashed into powder by their violent Spiritual Energy!
However, the instant they stepped into the entrance of that seemingly tranquil death valley, a sudden change occurred!
Bzzzz—!
An extremely faint, nearly inaudible hum of energy suddenly sounded at the very front of the formation!
Then, beneath everyone's slightly stunned gazes, the thick layer of dead branches and fallen leaves on the ground seemed to come alive, instantly lighting up with dozens of blood-red rune formations brimming with death and destruction!
"Not good! It's a trap! Everyone, be on guard!"
Zhao Wuji's expression changed sharply at the front of the formation. Without even thinking, he let out a furious, alarmed shout!
But his warning was ultimately one step too late!
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Before the Heavenly Martial Society members behind him could even understand what had happened, the dozens of blood-red rune formations detonated at once!
Clumps of dark green smoke filled with corrosive poison erupted like the breath of death spewing from the Nine Nether Hells, instantly enveloping every area within a hundred zhang!
"Ah—! My eyes! My eyes hurt so much!" "Cough, cough, cough! Th-this smoke is poisonous! Everyone, quick... hold your breath!" "Damn it! My Spiritual Energy... my Spiritual Energy is actually... actually being suppressed! What the hell is this thing?!"
For a time, miserable screams and furious roars rose and fell one after another!
The dozen or so Heavenly Martial Society members charging at the very front were caught completely off guard and fell victim to the trap in an instant!
They felt as though they had suddenly plunged into a horrifying swamp filled with sulfuric acid and aqua regia!
The dark green poisonous mist was not only crazily corroding their skin and eyes, but also carried an extremely strange numbing and suppressive effect. It burrowed madly into their bodies through their mouths and noses, causing their originally robust Spiritual Energy to become incomparably sluggish and difficult to circulate!
This was precisely the trump-card item Lin Xiao had exchanged from the Talisman Pavilion of the Merit Hall through his extravagantly lavish spending—Second-Order High Grade talismans worth five hundred merit points each: [Miasma Swamp]!
This sudden, extravagantly saturated talisman bombardment instantly blew the Heavenly Martial Society's previously unstoppable charging formation into chaos, leaving them sprawling in all directions!
However, this was merely the appetizer Lin Xiao had prepared for them!
At the instant their formation fell into brief disorder due to the sudden eruption of [Miasma Swamp]—
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Dozens more piercing, lethal whistles tore through the air from the dense woods on both sides of the valley, pouring down like pear-blossom rain in a storm!
This time, it was no longer a single massive crossbow bolt, but a simultaneous indiscriminate volley from thirty Armor-Piercing Heavy Crossbows that the Ghost Shadow squad had long positioned at the optimal firing points!
More than a hundred specialized armor-piercing arrows, each capable of easily punching through three feet of steel plate, traced black arcs of death through the air, ruthlessly harvesting the Heavenly Martial Society members whose defenses had fallen to their lowest point as they struggled in agony from the poison, like reaping scythes wielded mercilessly by the Grim Reaper!
Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!...
A dense series of dull sounds of sharp blades piercing flesh rang out!
Blood shot into the sky like fountains with no price tag!
"Ah—!" "My leg! My leg is broken!" "Save... save me! There's... there's an ambush!"
Miserable screams filled with endless terror and despair instantly replaced the previously arrogant battle cries, becoming the only melody in this death valley!
Just one exchange!
They had not even seen the enemy's shadow!
Yet this luxurious army of the Heavenly Martial Society, composed of the outer academy's finest geniuses, had already paid the grievous price of three members being shot dead on the spot and seven suffering severe injuries, completely losing their combat capability!
This... this was simply a complete nightmare!
"Bastards! Hold your ground! They're only some pathetic sneak-attack tricks! Blast this poisonous fog apart with your Spiritual Energy!"
Just as everyone was scared out of their wits and thrown into utter panic by the sudden hellish scene, a thunderous shout brimming with boundless fury finally rang out from the rear of the formation!
It was Wu Tianxiong!
A brilliant, scorching golden Spiritual Energy suddenly erupted from his iron-tower-like body!
"Break for me!"
He roared and threw a punch through the air!
Rumble—!
A gigantic fist phantom condensed entirely from golden Spiritual Energy appeared like a miniature sun out of thin air, carrying a terrifying heat capable of burning mountains and boiling seas as it smashed fiercely into the dark green poisonous fog covering a hundred zhang!
Sizzle! Sizzle! Sizzle!
A series of violent evaporation sounds, like boiling oil poured over ice and snow, rang out!
The deadly miasma created by the Second-Order High Grade talismans [Miasma Swamp], enough to give even Body Refinement Seventh Level cultivators a vicious headache, could not endure even a single breath before that tyrannical golden fist phantom. It was forcibly vaporized into nothingness by the terrifying heat of utmost yang and utmost hardness!
The might of a single punch had reached such a level!
However, when the poisonous fog fully dispersed and revealed the bloody scene beneath, even Wu Tianxiong's eagle-sharp eyes could not help but contract violently!
The once relatively flat valley floor before them had already become a complete mess!
Ten cold corpses lay scattered across pools of blood, their deaths unimaginably gruesome!
More than twenty companions lay around them as well. Though still alive, they had suffered equally severe injuries and continuously let out pained groans!
Just one round of traps and ambushes!
Their Heavenly Martial Society elite force, numbering only sixty in total, had lost half its members in an instant!
This... this could no longer be called a "battle"!
It was clearly a premeditated, one-sided bloody massacre!
"Lin! Xiao!"
Looking at the tragic scene before him, enough to drive any normal person mad, Wu Tianxiong could no longer maintain the pride and calmness of the "number one of the outer academy"!
An unprecedented, towering rage that nearly swallowed his reason whole erupted from his chest!
He suddenly raised his head. His eyes, already filled with terrifying bloodshot veins, locked tightly onto the deep, silent forest ahead like peerless vicious weapons drawn from their sheaths!
He knew that damned culprit was hiding there!
"Get out here!!!"
His roar, filled with endless killing intent, echoed through the death valley like rolling thunder for a long time!
Yet what answered him was not Lin Xiao's figure, but—
Whoosh!
A tiny sound of air being torn, lighter and more impossible to guard against than any before!
And a black bolt of lightning so fast that not even an afterimage could be seen!
Pfft!
A dull sound of a sharp blade entering flesh suddenly rang out behind a Heavenly Martial Society member whose mind had been thrown into chaos by his companion's gruesome death!
The expression on that member's face froze instantly.
He lowered his head with difficulty, staring in horrified disbelief at the half-length black dagger stained crimson with blood that slowly protruded from his chest!
"Urgh..."
He opened his mouth, as though he wanted to say something, but the incomparably cold, destructive force emanating from the dagger had already shredded every trace of life within him in an instant!
His body crashed to the ground.
And in the reflection of his pupils, which had already lost all light, the final image was a deathly face wearing a savage ghost mask, its eyes cold and utterly devoid of emotion!
"En-enemy attack!"
Only then did a companion standing beside him finally recover from the immense shock of that sudden close-range assassination and let out a shriek warped by endless terror!
Yet his scream had only just begun—
Pfft!
The same sound rang out at his throat!
An equally pitch-black blade silently severed both his voice and his life like the fangs of a venomous snake!
The battle entered its second, and bloodiest, cruelest stage—the jungle strangulation battle!
Under Lin Xiao's command, the Fangs and Ghost Shadow squads, who had long lurked throughout the valley like phantoms, finally bared their long-hungry fangs of death!
Like life-taking evil ghosts that had crawled straight out of hell, they used the valley's incomparably complex terrain as cover, repeatedly erupting from the blind spots of those Heavenly Martial Society members who had already been scared out of their wits. Then, with blades coated in throat-sealing poison at the sight of blood, they mercilessly harvested one fresh life after another!
"Ah—! Help! They're... they're among us!" "Don't panic! Back to back, all of you! Form a defensive formation!" "Damn it! My foot! There's a trap beneath my feet!"
In an instant, the entire Heavenly Martial Society force fell into unprecedented chaos!
They were like plump sheep targeted by dozens of bloodthirsty jungle wolves. No matter how they struggled or roared in rage, they could not escape the shadow of death that kept descending upon them from all sides!
This was not an evenly matched battle at all!
It was clearly a symphony of death personally composed for them by Lin Xiao!
And he was the sole conductor of this bloody feast!
Before you continue