"Cough... cough cough..."
A violent bout of coughing came from the ruins outside the inn.
Lei Lie struggled up from the gully in the ground. He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, his chest heaving violently.
He stared at the black-clad youth standing before the gaping hole in the inn, whose clothes did not even bear a single wrinkle. His face was filled with disbelief.
His Raging Thunder Qi had actually been withstood head-on by the other party's fleshly body.
And the other party's strength had completely crushed his!
How was that possible?
"What kind of monster are you?"
Lei Lie's voice was hoarse and dry.
"The one who will kill you."
Shen Che's voice was calm, as though he were speaking of something utterly trivial.
"Haha... hahahaha!"
Lei Lie suddenly burst into wild laughter, his voice full of unwillingness and madness.
"Good! The one who'll kill me, huh!"
"I've roamed the martial world for so many years, and you're the first person to force me into such a state!"
He stomped his foot fiercely, and an even more violent aura surged skyward from within him.
"Boy, being able to witness this move of mine means you can die with pride!"
"Secret Technique: Raging Thunder Body Tempering!"
As the words fell.
The thunderous qi within Lei Lie's body no longer burst outward. Instead, it crazily poured back into his muscle cells.
Crackle! Pop!
A series of explosive cracks, like beans being stir-fried, rang out from within his body.
His body swelled at a visible rate. Muscles bulged like granite, stretching his purple robes until they seemed on the verge of bursting apart.
His originally black hair stood straight on end, every strand dyed with an eerie shade of purple.
Within his pupils, it was as though two thunder spheres were constantly forming and vanishing.
In just a few breaths, his aura soared to a terrifying level, firmly stepping into the limit of the Primordial Qi Realm!
This was a forbidden technique of the Thunder Blade Sect. At the cost of burning one's life, it greatly increased speed and strength for a short time, but afterward it inflicted an enormous, irreversible burden upon the body.
Lei Lie had gone completely mad.
He reached back and gripped the hilt of the saber on his back.
Clang!
A treasured saber wrapped entirely in purple lightning, broad-bladed and suffused with an aura of destruction, was slowly drawn from its sheath.
The Thunder Blade Sect's treasure, the Meteor Thunder Blade!
"Come on, let this old man see just how hard your bones really are!"
Lei Lie's voice became as thunderous as rolling thunder.
He moved.
His entire body turned into a purple lightning phantom, leaving a string of afterimages in place.
His true body had long since vanished among those phantoms, making it impossible to distinguish.
Ultimate Saber Technique: Raging Thunder Dance!
The next instant, saber shadows filled the sky like heavenly lightning punishment descending from the Ninth Heaven. Howling as they tore through the air, they hacked wildly toward Shen Che from every direction.
This move perfectly combined speed, power, and lethality.
The phantoms bewildered the mind, while the thunder saber qi was unstoppable. Within its range of coverage, there was nowhere to evade.
It was said that no one could survive this move!
The surviving martial artists in the inn held their breaths, their hearts nearly leaping out of their throats.
This was the true strength of an Earth Ranking expert!
World-destroying!
Bai Fengling and Elder Bai's hearts sank to the bottom.
Facing this killing strike as violent as a raging storm.
Shen Che's expression finally gained a trace of gravity.
He took a deep breath, and the true qi in his body began circulating at an unprecedented speed.
Dragon's Roar Iron Shirt!
Tiger Roar Golden Bell Shield!
Roar—!
Roar—!
A soaring dragon's cry and an overbearing tiger's roar rang out from within his body almost simultaneously.
A layer of silver Dragon Scale Battle Armor appeared out of thin air over his body, the dragon patterns upon it moving like living creatures.
Outside the battle armor, the solid phantom of a golden bell formed, protecting him firmly within.
Double-layered defenses, stacked!
Facing the purple thunder saber qi sweeping down like a blanket over the sky.
Shen Che neither dodged nor evaded. His fists rose with effortless weight, punching out again and again.
Every punch made the air erupt with a dull boom.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
Dense sounds of metal clashing rang throughout the scene.
Those streaks of saber qi, each capable of splitting steles and shattering stones, were smashed apart one by one beneath Shen Che's fists, exploding into purple motes that filled the sky.
Yet there were always a few fish that slipped through the net, slashing onto Shen Che's body.
But whether it was the Dragon Scale Battle Armor or the golden bell phantom, both merely rippled.
The saber qi struck them without even leaving a white mark.
Lei Lie's strongest ultimate move could not break his defense!
Lei Lie was completely dumbfounded.
What the hell kind of defense was this? Even a turtle shell was not this hard, was it?
During the gap in Lei Lie's frenzied attacks, Shen Che's true qi circulated at high speed, and twelve silver-white meridians flickered faintly beneath his skin.
True Meridian Realm!
At the sight of those twelve true meridians, Lei Lie's movements stiffened for an instant.
A True Meridian Realm martial artist had forcibly withstood the forbidden killing move of a Primordial Qi Realm expert at the limit?
Who would believe that if it got out?
He felt as though his entire worldview had been pressed to the ground and rubbed back and forth.
"Impossible!"
Lei Lie let out an unwilling roar, pouring every last ounce of strength into the Meteor Thunder Blade.
Shen Che paid no heed to his impotent fury.
His fists continued to punch out, one heavy blow after another.
That terrifying force of recoil traveled through the body of the Meteor Thunder Blade, transmitting into Lei Lie's arm again and again.
Crack!
A crisp sound of bone breaking rang out.
The bones in Lei Lie's right arm, the one holding the saber, were violently shattered.
Bright red blood sprayed from the pores of his arm, forming a mist of blood.
Clang.
The treasured saber wreathed in purple lightning flew from his grasp and embedded itself diagonally in the ground some distance away.
"Puh—"
The backlash of the secret technique and the severe injury to his arm erupted at the same time.
The violent aura around Lei Lie deflated as rapidly as a punctured ball.
His entire body collapsed to the ground, coughing up mouthful after mouthful of blood mixed with fragments of internal organs.
Terror completely seized his heart.
This thought became his only instinct.
Lei Lie exhausted his final shred of strength, turned around, and fled.
Shen Che stood where he was. He drew his left foot back half a step, slowly pulled his right fist to his waist, and assumed a strange stance.
Vajra Zen Fist: Zen Arrow!
He punched through the air at Lei Lie's fleeing back.
There was no sound, no flash of light.
Yet an invisible fist force tore through the air, striking later despite being launched first.
Lei Lie, who was fleeing for his life, suddenly stiffened.
He lowered his head and looked at the transparent hole in his chest, as wide as a bowl.
His life force receded like the tide.
Thud.
Lei Lie, the Thunder Blade ranked thirty-first on the Earth Ranking, fell headfirst to the ground and made no sound again.
[Time Value absorbed +3000]
The system prompt sounded in Shen Che's mind.
Inside and outside the inn, there was deathly silence.
The surviving assassins and martial wanderers were silent as cicadas in winter, not daring even to breathe loudly.
An Earth Ranking expert had died just like that?
Beaten alive by a youth who appeared to be only at the True Meridian Realm, with just a few punches and kicks?
Everyone rejoiced that they had not stubbornly rushed forward earlier.
Otherwise, it would not have been Lei Lie's single corpse lying on the ground now, but corpses strewn all over the ground.
Before you continue