You're in My Way

"Pfft."

The standard-issue saber cleaved through flesh and severed the neck vertebrae.

A child's head, its hair tied into two little buns, rolled across the dirt.

The headless body crashed to the ground. Blood gushed from the cleanly severed neck, splashing across the black Mysterious Iron armor of the soldier in front.

The armored soldier's face remained expressionless. He didn't even blink. He raised his steel-reinforced boot, planted it on the headless corpse, and pulled his saber free from between the bones with one hand.

He flicked his wrist, shaking the blood from the blade.

Then he slid the saber back into its sheath.

The soldier turned around.

Behind him lay a village where every last living thing had been killed.

Over a thousand bodies were strewn across the streets, courtyards, and beside the well.

The elderly, adults, women and children—even the livestock and poultry—had all been killed with a single stroke.

There had been no needless torture, nor any acts of rape or looting.

Around the village stood over a hundred soldiers clad in the same pitch-black heavy armor as him.

Fresh blood stained every suit of armor.

Every soldier breathed at the exact same rate, stood in the exact same posture, and even held his saber at precisely the same angle.

They were as if carved from the same mold.

More suffocating still, the blood coursing through these soldiers' bodies was as heavy as lead and mercury. Every heartbeat rumbled like distant thunder.

The Blood Washing Realm.

In the cities outside, experts at this level were powerful enough to found their own sects. Here, they were merely the lowest-ranking foot soldiers.

The Great Yan Dynasty's Heavenly Punishment Guard.

"Report."

A Heavenly Punishment Guard centurion strode into the middle of the village.

He knelt on one knee, clasped his hands, and bowed to a Dragon Blood Horned Horse clad in heavy armor before him.

Seated astride it was a burly man in purple-gold armor adorned with a devouring beast, his face as sharply hewn as if carved with a knife and chisel.

The commander of the Heavenly Punishment Guard, Gu Qianxing.

Mid-stage Divine Sea Realm.

"Reporting to the commander: within a hundred miles of the border, all living things in one hundred and thirty-seven villages and four towns have been completely exterminated."

The centurion's voice was as cold as a machine. "Not a blade of grass remains."

Gu Qianxing sat astride his horse, holding the Coiling Dragon City Breaking Halberd, a thousand-jin weapon.

He looked down at the blood flowing beneath his feet, his eyes radiating an aloof, absolute indifference.

"Back to your unit," Gu Qianxing said.

"Yes, sir!" The centurion rose and blurred from sight, instantly rejoining the formation behind him.

Gu Qianxing lifted his head and looked past the corpses strewn across the ground.

Ten li away stood a vast fortress built entirely of Obsidian.

Heavenly Chasm Fortress.

Behind the fortress lay a terrifying sea of lightning, woven entirely from violent purple thunderbolts.

The lightning flashed, roaring with deafening crashes.

Heavenly Chasm Thunder Pool.

It was the only route connecting Great Wind Snow State to the Divine State beyond.

Any ordinary person who touched it would die. Even a Blood Washing Realm martial artist would be struck to a crisp in an instant if he tried to cross without a lightning-repelling treasure specially made by the Imperial Court.

Gu Qianxing turned his horse and rode toward Heavenly Chasm Fortress.

The fortress walls, the gate, even the wilderness on either side—

They were blanketed in black.

Ten thousand Heavenly Punishment Guards had formed an exceptionally tight military formation, surrounding the entire fortress so completely that not even a drop of water could escape.

Ten thousand Blood Washing Realm martial artists!

Their ten thousand torrents of blood, heavy as lead and mercury, converged above the fortress into a visible, solid cloud of blood-red killing intent.

Killing intent soared into the sky; not a single bird remained.

Gu Qianxing rode to the front of the formation, turned his horse, and faced the army of ten thousand.

He took a golden token radiating an awe-inspiring Dao aura from his robes.

The Divine State Martial Marquis Token.

"The Martial Marquis has arrived in Great Wind Snow State."

Gu Qianxing's voice, infused with the mighty true essence of the Divine Sea Realm, rolled like thunder, exploding beside the ears of every Heavenly Punishment Guard.

"The Prefecture City has been destroyed and its official seal crushed. This is the greatest disgrace since the founding of the Great Yan Dynasty!"

"The Martial Marquis has ordered us to seal off the Heavenly Chasm Thunder Pool! Spread a net from heaven to earth!"

Gu Qianxing raised the Coiling Dragon City Breaking Halberd in his hand and pointed it at the sole official road leading to the fortress.

"If that criminal dares to come, kill him on the spot and grind him into meat paste!"

"Kill! Kill! Kill!"

Ten thousand Heavenly Punishment Guards roared as one.

Ten thousand sabers left their sheaths in unison.

The roar shattered the clouds, and the fierce killing intent ground the stones on the road into powder.

Thirty li from Heavenly Chasm Fortress.

On the official road.

Sun Yu walked forward with his hands behind his back, his pace neither hurried nor slow.

He wore the cool-white Brocade Robe he had found in Xiao Tiannan's Storage Bag. It was spotless.

His long black hair hung loose behind him.

His embroidered boots touched the road without making a sound.

He didn't use Swimming Dragon Steps to hurry along.

Nor did he release any true essence to conceal his presence.

He simply walked straight down the middle of the road, alone.

After three li, Sun Yu stopped.

A village lay ahead.

No cooking smoke rose. No dogs barked.

The pungent smell of blood rolled toward him along the road.

Sun Yu entered the village.

He saw the bodies piled across the streets.

He saw children cut in half with a single stroke, and old people pierced through the heart.

The cuts were incredibly clean, and the blood around the wounds had already dried black.

Every one had died in a single blow.

The killing techniques of a military formation.

Sun Yu expressionlessly stepped over a corpse blocking his way.

He continued forward.

Five li later, he reached a second village. The scene was just as horrific.

Ten li farther on, a town of over ten thousand people had become a city of the dead.

Its gates had been smashed down by brute force, and the streets were strewn with severed limbs. The blood from the corpses had gathered into a dark red stream, trickling through the town's drains.

Sun Yu walked through the town, stepping through the blood.

Not a drop of it stained the hem of his cool-white Brocade Robe.

Asura Gang Qi swirled over his body, incinerating every trace of filth that came near.

Dark red demonic rings turned slowly in Sun Yu's black eyes.

He understood.

They were trying to stop him from hiding his aura and blending into a crowd, to stop him from disguising himself.

Instead, they had simply slaughtered every living thing within a hundred miles of the border.

They had wiped out everything and created a dead zone, an absolute vacuum.

Anyone who appeared in this dead zone would be the target.

"Figures. Imperial Court dogs."

Sun Yu's mouth curled into a vicious grin.

"When they get to work, they're even more straightforward than the beasts in the Demon Abyss."

He felt no anger.

He had no particular feelings about these dead commoners.

Sun Yu lifted a hand and casually dusted the sleeve of his Brocade Robe.

Then he set off again.

His pace remained steady, his speed unchanged.

He didn't take a detour through the deep mountains and forests to find a way around.

He left the town and stepped back onto the straight official road leading directly to Heavenly Chasm Fortress.

He would walk out through the main gate.

Whoever stood in his way, he would trample to death.

Before Heavenly Chasm Fortress.

Gu Qianxing sat astride his horse, eyes half-closed, his Divine Sea Realm senses spread like a vast net over the ten li ahead.

Suddenly—

His eyes flew open.

His gaze flashed like lightning, stabbing toward the far end of the road.

In the distance—

A cool-white figure slowly appeared on the horizon.

One person.

No protective treasures. No mount.

He simply walked step by step along the bloodstained road, coming straight toward the army of ten thousand fully armed Heavenly Punishment Guards.

"Commander! Target spotted!"

A centurion on the fortress wall shouted.

"All troops, stand ready!"

Clang!

Ten thousand Heavenly Punishment Guards stepped forward in perfect unison.

The heavy-shield troops at the front slammed their two-zhang-tall Mysterious Iron shields into the ground.

Behind them, the spearmen thrust their five-zhang-long steel lances through the gaps in the shields, their spearpoints aimed ahead.

The crossbowmen drew their strings, and ten thousand Armor-Piercing Heavy Crossbows rose at once.

The military formation came to life. The blood and qi of ten thousand Blood Washing Realm martial artists connected in an instant.

The blood-red cloud of killing intent above the fortress churned wildly, transforming into the phantom image of a massive blood-red tiger. It silently roared at the white-robed figure ahead.

Sun Yu drew closer and closer.

Three li.

Two li.

One li.

He completely ignored the steel wall ahead, radiating an overwhelming pressure.

His gaze passed over the army of ten thousand and Heavenly Chasm Fortress.

It fixed on the purple Thunder Pool behind the fortress, where destructive lightning flashed without pause.

Five hundred paces.

Gu Qianxing raised the Coiling Dragon City Breaking Halberd high.

The pressure of a mid-stage Divine Sea Realm expert, combined with the killing intent of the army of ten thousand, crashed down on Sun Yu like a tangible tsunami.

"Stop where you are!"

Gu Qianxing's voice shattered the dead trees beside the road.

"You destroyed the official seal and razed the Prefecture City."

"Defying the natural order—you're guilty of the ten most heinous crimes!"

Gu Qianxing stared at Sun Yu's cold face, his eyes blazing with killing intent.

"The Martial Marquis orders us to kill you on the spot!"

As his words fell—

"Fire!"

An officer in the formation roared.

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

Ten thousand Armor-Piercing Heavy Crossbows released their bolts at once.

The twang of their strings merged into a single sound, like thunder rolling from the Ninth Heaven.

Ten thousand heavy crossbow bolts, forged entirely from refined steel, their tips tempered with deadly poison and their tails engraved with armor-piercing runes.

They tore through the air, emitting shrill, piercing whistles.

They transformed into a black metal storm that blotted out the sky.

With terrifying, unstoppable force, they poured down upon Sun Yu!

The rain of arrows covered every inch of space within a hundred zhang of Sun Yu.

It was enough to turn a mountain peak into a beehive in an instant.

Sun Yu stopped.

He raised his head and looked at the black rain of arrows crashing down from the sky.

With utter casualness, he drew his right hand out from behind his back.

His five fingers spread.

His palm faced upward.

"You're in my way."

Sun Yu's voice was not loud, yet it strangely pierced through the shrieking storm of arrows and carried clearly into Gu Qianxing's ears.

The next instant.

Sun Yu's five fingers suddenly clenched!