The fruit in your hands has caught the eye of our Soaring Heavens Alliance. If you know what's good for you, hand it over obediently. Otherwise, be careful not to lose your life.
At some point, more than a dozen men and women with unfriendly expressions had appeared behind Lin Bai.
Although there were more than a dozen of them, their martial cultivation was not high: five were at Martial Dao Fourth Stage, seven at Martial Dao Third Stage, and two at Martial Dao Second Stage.
"Soaring Heavens Alliance?" Lin Bai asked doubtfully.
Along the way, Lin Bai had encountered quite a few people in the Azure Spirit Mountain Range and had also heard about the Soaring Heavens Alliance.
There were two major alliances in the Azure Spirit Mountain Range: the Demon Slayer Alliance and the Soaring Heavens Alliance.
Both alliances had been formed specifically to hunt demonic beasts. By joining one, a person could obtain a great deal of information, such as which places in the Azure Spirit Mountain Range were dangerous, where demonic beasts gathered, and where demonic beasts at the True Martial Realm could be found.
With this information, one would not have to blunder around the Azure Spirit Mountain Range like Lin Bai was doing now.
Originally, Lin Bai had planned to find an alliance to join after obtaining the Spirit-Bearing Fruit, learn the whereabouts of some high-level demonic beasts, and hunt them.
The leading man of the Soaring Heavens Alliance impatiently shouted at Lin Bai, "I fucking told you to bring the fruit over. Are you deaf? Didn't you hear what I said?"
Lin Bai's expression turned cold. He tucked the three Spirit-Bearing Fruits into his chest and said, "You want the fruits? Come and take them yourself!"
The Spirit-Bearing Fruits had taken Lin Bai more than half a month of painstaking wandering through the Azure Spirit Mountain Range to find. He would never hand them over so easily.
Lin Bai said coldly, "I advise you to leave now, and I can let bygones be bygones. But if you insist on courting death, I don't mind sending you on your way!"
"Hahaha, is this guy sick in the head? You're only at Martial Dao Fourth Stage, while we have five Martial Dao Fourth Stage warriors. What are you going to fight us with?"
"You're killing us! He actually wants to kill us?"
"Brothers, since he doesn't know how to appreciate favors, let's show him just how formidable our Soaring Heavens Alliance is!"
After a contemptuous laugh, the warriors of the Soaring Heavens Alliance all walked toward Lin Bai with mocking gazes and leisurely steps.
In their eyes, with five Martial Dao Fourth Stage warriors on their side, how could they possibly fail to deal with a single Martial Dao Fourth Stage warrior?
Lin Bai was already a dead man.
"Stubborn to the end!" Lin Bai drew the Spirit Severing Sword!
"Kill!"
"Black Beard Heart Pierce!"
"Raging Bull Fist!"
"Autumn Wind Swordplay!"
"Army Sweeping Strike!"
"Asura Palm!"
The dozen or so warriors of the Soaring Heavens Alliance charged at Lin Bai as if they were surrounding and killing a demonic beast.
"Since you're all here to court death, I'll grant your wish!"
"One Sword Bloodspray!"
A sword light swift as lightning swept through the crowd.
"Ah! Ahh!"
"Spare my life!"
"Hero, spare my life!"
With a single sword strike, Lin Bai instantly killed three Martial Dao Fourth Stage warriors.
"Rivers of Blood!"
A vast expanse of sword light crashed down, and Lin Bai cut down all the remaining warriors beneath his blade.
Blood Weeping Swordplay was, after all, a Yellow Rank Ninth Grade martial skill, and its might could not be underestimated. Even the White-Headed Eagle, whose martial cultivation was a realm higher than Lin Bai's, had still died by Lin Bai's hand.
It was easy to imagine just how formidable Blood Weeping Swordplay was.
As for the swordplay, fist techniques, and palm techniques used by these Soaring Heavens Alliance warriors, they were basically Yellow Rank First Grade or Yellow Rank Second Grade martial skills—utterly mediocre.
After killing the other warriors of the Soaring Heavens Alliance, Lin Bai found that only their leader remained alive. He had suffered merely a minor injury.
The leading man looked around and saw that all the allied warriors had been killed. He sneered. "Kid, do you know that one of your feet has already stepped into King Yama's Hall? In the Azure Spirit Mountain Range, no one has ever dared to oppose our Soaring Heavens Alliance!"
"I never wanted to oppose you. You were the ones who insisted on courting death!" Lin Bai replied coldly.
"Courting death? I don't think so. Maybe we'll see who lives and who dies. It's just as well that these warriors are dead. Then the spirit fruits and treasured sword on you will belong to me alone."
Not only did the leading man feel no sorrow for the dead warriors, but a ferocious smile even crept across his face.
Suddenly, Lin Bai had a premonition. Could this leading man have deliberately let Lin Bai kill those warriors?
"Heh heh, Sky Dragon Fist!"
The leading man let out a cold laugh. The muscles throughout his body bulged, and a violently surging, restless power flooded into his arm.
He threw a vicious punch. A high, resounding dragon roar swept out in all directions as rolling sound waves came crashing forward.
"Pfft—"
Caught off guard, Lin Bai was struck in the chest by the leading man's punch. He flew backward and then climbed up from the ground, his mouth filled with blood.
"A Yellow Rank Seventh Grade martial skill. As expected, it's formidable! You bastard, being able to die beneath my trump card means you can at least die with a smile on your face!" After striking Lin Bai with one punch, the leading man did not hesitate in the slightest. He charged forward again, and his fist wind descended upon Lin Bai like the heavens collapsing.
"Sky Dragon Fist, Second Form, Flying Dragon Ascends the Sky!"
The leading man leaped toward the heavens with force that pierced the clouds. Then, descending from the sky, his punch was about to kill Lin Bai!
"Go to hell!"
After throwing such a vicious punch, the leading man was certain that Lin Bai would die without a doubt.
"Blood Weeping Swordplay, Third Form, Bloody Tempest!"
Boom!
The two collided. At the instant their enormous powers met, an impact shattered all the grass within ten meters.
"How is this possible!" Seeing Lin Bai withstand his punch, the leading man was frightened out of his wits. He then said in utter shock, "Your swordplay—your swordplay is at least Yellow Rank Ninth Grade! Otherwise, how could you possibly stand against Sky Dragon Fist?"
"Do you have any last words? If not, then go on your way." Lin Bai's expression hardened as he charged forward.
The leading man finally began to panic. "You dare kill me! You really dare kill me? I'm a disciple of the Soaring Heavens Alliance, and I'm even a hall master under the Soaring Heavens Alliance. If you kill me, the Soaring Heavens Alliance will never rest until you're dead!"
"I advise you to obediently hand over the fruits, cripple your own dantian, and sever both your arms. Perhaps I can ask the leader of the Soaring Heavens Alliance to leave you with an intact corpse!"
Relying on the support of the Soaring Heavens Alliance and his own high position within it, the leading man did not fear Lin Bai in the slightest. Instead, he threatened him.
"Enough noise!" Lin Bai said impatiently before thrusting his sword straight at the man's throat.
The man hurriedly continued, "Don't kill me! Don't kill me, hero! I'm the illegitimate son of the leader of the Soaring Heavens Alliance. As long as you don't kill me, I can ask my father to give you countless treasures and countless spirit medicines!"
Pfft—
Lin Bai had no interest in listening to the man's rambling nonsense. With a decisive sword thrust, he pierced the man's throat and ended his life.
"They must be warriors drawn here by the White-Headed Eagle's screams."
"I wonder how many other warriors heard the White-Headed Eagle's screams..."
"This place is no longer safe! I'll find somewhere to refine the Spirit-Bearing Fruits first."
Before leaving, Lin Bai stripped the warriors of every valuable possession they had.
Then he left this great mountain.
Not long after Lin Bai departed, a group of Soaring Heavens Alliance experts rushed to the mountain. When a middle-aged man with graying hair saw the leading man, who had just been pierced through the throat by Lin Bai's sword, tears streamed from his eyes.
"Tian'er!"
The middle-aged man with graying hair cried out in anguish.
At this moment, a refined scholar whispered beside the middle-aged man's ear, "Leader, I inspected the bodies. The other brothers, like Hall Master Yang Tian, were all killed by a single decisive sword strike!"
"This person should be a sword cultivator, and the sword technique he used is no low-grade skill. It's at least a Yellow Rank Seventh Grade martial skill!"
The middle-aged man with graying hair wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes and shouted furiously, "A sword cultivator with a Yellow Rank Seventh Grade martial skill or higher—there can't be more than ten people like that in the Azure Spirit Mountain Range!"
"Search for him! Even if we have to dig three feet into the ground, find him for me! I'll tear him limb from limb!"
"Yes!" the scholar replied.