One Sword Slashes a Grandmaster

Early the next morning, the forces controlled by the Yellow Heaven Cult began posting notices all over the city, then herding the townspeople toward the marketplace.

"You three, come with us."

Early that morning, a man working for the Yellow Heaven Cult came to Bi Changsheng's courtyard to take them away.

"Sir, where are you taking us?"

The three people in the courtyard had no idea what was going on. At Bi Changsheng's meaningful glance, Uncle Fu stepped forward to ask.

"Don't ask so many questions. Hurry up and come with me."

The man had no intention of answering and repeated himself stiffly.

At this, Uncle Fu and Liu Zhengqing both looked to Bi Changsheng, seeking his opinion.

Though Bi Changsheng could tell from the man's expression that this was definitely no good thing, he still decided to wait and see. He nodded at the two of them, and the three followed the man out.

The moment he stepped outside, Bi Changsheng discovered that it was not just them—every household had been called out. The man led Bi Changsheng's group to the mouth of the alley and handed them over to another squad of more than twenty guards before returning to summon more people.

At the same time, Bi Changsheng saw people posting something everywhere. With his sharp eyesight, he naturally made out the contents clearly.

"So in the end, there was no escaping it."

After reading the notice, Bi Changsheng secretly prepared himself to act. With his temperament, there was no way he would place his life in someone else's hands.

Still, it would be best if he did not have to fight. With his current strength, he could not yet easily crush all of Lin'an City, so he needed to proceed cautiously.

Some of the others also saw the contents of the notice and immediately began to panic. The Yellow Heaven Cult had apparently anticipated this; among the twenty-odd men, the one leading them was a martial artist. The moment even the slightest disturbance arose in the crowd, it was ruthlessly suppressed.

Seeing how overbearing the Yellow Heaven Cult was, the people could only silently accept their arrangements. Once the group had grown to several hundred, they led Bi Changsheng and the others to the marketplace.

By then, the place was already packed to the brim, and many more people were still being driven over by the Yellow Heaven Cult.

Lin'an City had originally been a small county town with a permanent population of over thirty thousand, but after the successive upheavals from before, its population had sharply dwindled to just over twenty thousand.

As noon drew near, everyone in Lin'an City had been gathered by the Yellow Heaven Cult at the marketplace, which gradually became unbearably crowded.

At that moment, Chen Pengfei led Bai Yingfei and the others onto the execution platform in the marketplace.

"The time is about right. Send people to bring up a hundred first. For the first batch, pick the old and the young—fifty elderly and fifty children."

After ascending the execution platform, Chen Pengfei gave Bai Yingfei his orders.

"Yes."

Upon receiving the command, Bai Yingfei immediately went to make arrangements.

A squad began charging into the crowd, selecting targets. Children who caught their eye were snatched directly from their relatives' arms, while the elderly were simply dragged away. Some relatives of those selected tried to resist, only to be forcibly suppressed.

"You, get up there too."

By sheer coincidence, although Bi Changsheng's group was not standing particularly close to the front, one of the Yellow Heaven Cult members spotted Uncle Fu. He came over, grabbed Uncle Fu, and tried to drag him toward the execution platform.

Seeing Uncle Fu being pulled away, Liu Zhengqing was about to resist when Bi Changsheng stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. Uncle Fu obediently followed the Yellow Heaven Cult man up, shaking his head at Bi Changsheng and Liu Zhengqing to signal that they should not act rashly.

Uncle Fu had always regarded Bi Changsheng's safety as more important than his own life. In his mind, the Yellow Heaven Cult had True Qi Realm experts, and Bi Changsheng was surely no match for them.

"Don't worry. Uncle Fu will be fine. I guarantee it."

After giving Uncle Fu a reassuring look, Bi Changsheng turned to Liu Zhengqing.

"Mm."

Though he trusted Bi Changsheng, this concerned Uncle Fu's life and safety, and Liu Zhengqing could not calm his heart.

To better observe the situation and respond in time, Bi Changsheng pulled Liu Zhengqing and squeezed closer toward the execution platform.

"Disciples of the Divine Fist Sect, listen up. If you do not voluntarily show yourselves before noon and obediently hand over the underground palace inheritance—"

"Then starting at noon, I will kill one hundred people of Lin'an City every half quarter-hour, until everyone in Lin'an City has been slaughtered."

Once his subordinates had assembled the hundred people, Chen Pengfei circulated his true qi and shouted.

Carried by the force of his true qi, his voice spread through more than half of Lin'an City.

Boom!

The moment he spoke, the crowd instantly exploded into an uproar.

Before coming here, most people had not known why they were being brought here. Chen Pengfei's words now revealed the fate awaiting them.

Most of them collapsed outright. Some knelt to beg mercy from the Yellow Heaven Cult; some hurled curses at the disciples of the Divine Fist Sect; others stared blankly ahead, their hearts as dead as ashes.

Intimidated by the martial artist's might, no one dared step forward to fight to the death. An atmosphere called despair began spreading through the crowd.

Half an hour earlier, "Senior Brother, what should we do?"

There was no way Fu Ziping and the others could have failed to notice the enormous commotion caused by the Yellow Heaven Cult. After discovering the contents of the notice, the three began discussing a countermeasure.

"We absolutely cannot stand by and watch as the Yellow Heaven Cult massacres the entire city's people."

"The Yellow Heaven Cult's main target is the underground palace inheritance. I'll go over there alone later and hand it over to them. The two of you needn't go."

After pondering for a while, Fu Ziping made his decision.

"No. When the time comes, the Yellow Heaven Cult definitely won't spare you, Senior Brother."

The other two both opposed Fu Ziping going alone into danger.

"Do as I say. Are you two no longer willing to listen to your senior brother?"

Fu Ziping was rarely so forceful with them.

Over at the marketplace, the closer it drew to noon, the deeper the despair in everyone's hearts became.

Noon had arrived, yet there was still no sign of any Divine Fist Sect disciples.

"Do it."

Chen Pengfei gave the order flatly.

"Stop!"

The moment Chen Pengfei gave the command, Bi Changsheng had already been preparing to act. Unexpectedly, a familiar voice rang out just then.

Fu Ziping emerged from a corner and swiftly made his way to the execution platform.

After a heated argument, Fu Ziping had finally persuaded Jiang Ziyue and Duan Ziming to let him come alone. He had also compromised, having them hide at a distance and react according to the situation.

"Where is the underground palace inheritance?"

Though only Fu Ziping had come, Chen Pengfei did not care about the other two. All he cared about was the underground palace inheritance on Fu Ziping.

"I hid the underground palace inheritance somewhere only I know. You must promise me that if I give it to you, you will spare these innocent people of Lin'an City. Otherwise, you will never obtain the underground palace inheritance."

"Fine, I promise you."

Chen Pengfei agreed readily.

After seeing Chen Pengfei agree, Fu Ziping turned and vanished. Some time later, he reappeared with the very same plain ring Bi Changsheng had seen before in his hand.

"Erase the ownership mark, then hand it over to me."

The moment he saw the ancient ring, Chen Pengfei's gaze locked tightly onto it.

Fu Ziping did as instructed, erased the ownership mark from the ring, and tossed it to Chen Pengfei.

"Now you can release these innocent citizens of Lin'an City, right?"

The instant Chen Pengfei caught the Storage Ring, he hurriedly bound it to himself. A glance inside revealed that nearly all the inheritance and treasures from the underground palace were there, especially the Condensing Gang Pill he had yearned for so desperately, resting within intact.

"Ha ha ha! At last, my wish has been fulfilled!"

With his goal finally achieved, Chen Pengfei threw back his head and laughed.

Then Chen Pengfei swung out a great hand of true qi, slamming it toward Fu Ziping.

"You mean to go back on your word?"

Fu Ziping hurriedly mobilized all the qi and blood in his body to counterattack, throwing a punch at the great hand of true qi. Unfortunately, the gap in strength between them was too vast. Fu Ziping was sent flying several meters and crashed to the ground, unable to rise for a time.

"You actually expect people of our Yellow Heaven Cult to keep their promises?"

Chen Pengfei had originally intended to honor his word. But now that the Condensing Gang Pill was in hand and his life was no longer in danger, he suddenly changed his mind.

Chen Pengfei took out a palm-sized array disk from his robes. Inscribed within it was a blood sacrifice formation, capable of producing a Blood Qi Great Pill through blood sacrifice. The Blood Qi Great Pill had many uses, the most direct being that it allowed whoever consumed it to rapidly raise their Cultivation Level.

The Yellow Heaven Cult had stirred up unrest in Jin'an Prefecture precisely so they could conduct blood sacrifices on a massive scale and obtain enough Blood Qi Great Pills.

In Chen Pengfei's eyes, if not for Fu Ziping and the others, he would have obtained the Condensing Gang Pill long ago. The Spirit Stones embedded in this array disk could still sustain one blood sacrifice, so Chen Pengfei had changed his mind. Only by using Fu Ziping as a blood sacrifice could he vent the hatred in his heart.

Though the Yellow Heaven Cult's blood sacrifice targets in Jin'an Prefecture were mostly martial artists, whenever there were not enough martial artists, they would use large numbers of ordinary people to make up the difference.

"Continue."

Having made up his mind, Chen Pengfei ordered his men to continue killing those on the execution platform.

Bi Changsheng, standing amid the crowd and watching this string of sudden changes, knew that this time, he truly had no choice but to act.

With a flicker of his body, Bi Changsheng was already standing before the Yellow Heaven Cult member on the execution platform who was about to chop off Uncle Fu's head. Using his fingers as a sword, Bi Changsheng slashed across the man's neck. The Yellow Heaven Cult member was instantly separated from his head.

"Young Master."

Seeing Bi Changsheng rush forward, Uncle Fu called out to him worriedly.

Bi Changsheng gave Uncle Fu a reassuring look. He picked up the long blade dropped by the Yellow Heaven Cult member, using the blade as a sword, and erupted with qi and blood as he pointed his sword at Chen Pengfei.

Everyone was stunned by this sudden turn of events.

"Qi and Blood Furnace!"

When Chen Pengfei saw Bi Changsheng erupt with qi and blood, he cried out in alarm. At that moment, a layer of dark-red qi and blood coiled around Bi Changsheng's body like roaring flames. Those near him felt waves of heat rolling toward them and hurriedly retreated several meters.

After more than half a month of cultivation, although Bi Changsheng had been limited by his cultivation method and had not broken through to the True Qi Realm, he had perfected the Late Qi and Blood Realm and reached another level.

The Qi and Blood Realm differed from other realms. After reaching the Late Qi and Blood Realm, there was still room to advance. By breaking through one's limits, one could cultivate to the Qi and Blood Furnace Realm, where qi and blood burned like flames.

Above the Qi and Blood Furnace was the Qi and Blood Wolf Smoke Realm, where qi and blood surged straight up three zhang. Above the Qi and Blood Wolf Smoke was the legendary Qi and Blood Dragon Realm, where qi and blood soared straight up nine zhang.

Ordinary people could attempt to break through to the True Qi Realm once they reached the Late Qi and Blood Realm. Only peerless talents with gifts as exceptional as Fu Ziping's would choose to keep breaking through their limits and lay down an even stronger foundation.

Yet even with Fu Ziping's talent, he was at most confident of entering the Qi and Blood Furnace Realm. Whether he could reach the Qi and Blood Wolf Smoke Realm depended on whether he had the opportunity. As for the Qi and Blood Dragon Realm, it had not appeared in Great Gan for many years and had become a legend.

"You must be that rat that has been hiding in Lin'an City all this time. You actually dare to show your head at a time like this?"

Though the Qi and Blood Furnace Realm was said to be capable of contending with the True Qi Realm, it could only contend against the weakest martial artists at the initial stage of the True Qi Realm. Chen Pengfei himself was at the late stage of the True Qi Realm, and even among those at the late stage, he was far from weak.

In his eyes, Bi Changsheng posed no threat whatsoever. After a moment of surprise, he quickly calmed down.

"Naturally, I came to kill you."

Bi Changsheng answered truthfully.

"Arrogant!"

Bi Changsheng's words enraged Chen Pengfei. He mobilized his true qi and threw a punch, the immense true qi seeming to transform into a venomous dragon drill as it bored toward Bi Changsheng.

Meanwhile, Bi Changsheng circulated Jade Burn within his body to the limit his current physique could withstand. A full hundred years of Lifespan were burned away. An unprecedented surge of immense power erupted, rapidly strengthening Bi Changsheng's qi and blood. The qi and blood surrounding his body swiftly rose, directly breaking through the three-zhang realm of Qi and Blood Wolf Smoke before rapidly reaching the nine-zhang realm of Qi and Blood Dragon.

But the enhancement had not yet ended. Reinforced by that immense power, Bi Changsheng's qi and blood directly broke through the nine-zhang realm of Qi and Blood Dragon, transforming into a long rainbow of qi and blood and reaching an unprecedented height.

Bi Changsheng controlled the powerful qi and blood, brewing it again and again within his right hand. The enormous pressure made the veins on his right hand bulge. Once the qi and blood in his right hand had been stacked thirteen times, Bi Changsheng swung his sword.

Sword Thirteen!

This was the powerful sword move Bi Changsheng had comprehended from the perfected Thirteen Swords of Qingfeng. He first stacked thirteen layers of power within his body, then unleashed them with a single sword strike. Bi Changsheng named it Sword Thirteen.

Jade Burn pushed to its limit, combined with Sword Thirteen, was the strongest strike Bi Changsheng could unleash at this moment.

As Bi Changsheng swung his sword, a Blood Qi Sword Qi that soared into the heavens burst from the ground. Before this sky-piercing sword qi, the tiny venomous dragon drill shattered at the first touch.

Chen Pengfei could only watch in terror as the soaring Blood Qi Sword Qi cleaved his body in two.

After severing Chen Pengfei, the sky-piercing sword qi did not lose momentum. It continued on, destroying more than a dozen houses a hundred meters away before gradually dissipating.

Under Bi Changsheng's full-powered sword strike, Chen Pengfei, a late-stage True Qi Realm elder of the Yellow Heaven Cult, was slain outright.