Beneath the earth, greenish flames flickered on the altar.
Li Yuan crushed the Netherworld Cult disciple's throat with a motion as crisp as snapping a dead branch. He tossed the limp corpse aside. It struck the stone wall covered in sinister runes with a dull thud, breaking the altar's deathly stillness.
The two remaining men, Poison Fang and the Li Family Guard, watched their pupils contract sharply.
Too fast! From the moment Li Yuan sprang into action to the Netherworld Cult disciple's death, barely a breath had passed. The cursed tendrils that would have left an ordinary Aperture Opening Realm warrior scrambling couldn't even make him pause for an instant. They melted away like snow beneath the blazing sun.
The Li Family Guard was the first to react. He had survived his share of bloody fights, and though startled, he didn't panic. He let out a low, furious roar and drew his sword in one smooth motion! The blade was long and narrow, tracing a bleak arc through the air. As his qi and blood poured into it, the edge hummed, carrying an unyielding force that seemed ready to cleave through anything as it slashed straight at Li Yuan's face! It was the Li Family's Shadow Splitting Light Sword style, though wielded with a saber instead of a sword—and all the more vicious for it!
At almost the same moment, Poison Fang moved too. The centipede-shaped scar on his face twisted into a savage grimace as he slid sideways and back like a ghost. He wasn't fleeing; he was searching for the perfect angle of attack. The thin, willow-leaf-shaped blue-black dagger in his hand glided out without a sound. Rather than stabbing straight ahead, he slashed toward Li Yuan's lower back, his angle treacherous and venomous. Its blue-black gleam clearly