You Block My Path

"Pfft."

The standard-issue saber sliced through flesh and severed the cervical vertebrae.

A child's head, styled with a topknot, rolled into the mud.

The headless corpse crashed to the ground, blood gushing from the clean-cut wound, splattering onto the pitch-black, heavy Xuan Iron armor in front of it.

The armored soldier's expression was blank; he didn't even bat an eyelid. He lifted his steel combat boots, stepped on the headless corpse on the ground, and pulled out the saber stuck between the bones with one hand.

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

The saber was sheathed.

The soldier turned around.

Behind him lay a village utterly wiped out.

Over a thousand corpses were piled haphazardly on the streets, in the courtyards, and by the wells.

Old men, young adults, women and children, even domestic animals and poultry, all met their end with a single stroke.

There were no unnecessary tortures, nor any acts of rape or plunder.

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

Fresh blood stained the armor on each of them.

The breathing rate, stance, and even the angle of their grip on their saber hilts were perfectly synchronized.

They looked as if they had been cast from the same mold.

Even more suffocating was that the blood coursing through the veins of these hundred-plus soldiers was heavy as lead and mercury, each heartbeat emitting a low rumble.

Blood Washing Realm.

Experts who could establish their own sects in cities outside were merely the lowest-ranking grunts here.

The Great Yan Dynasty, Heavenly Punishment Guard.

"Report."

A Heavenly Punishment Guard captain strode to the center of the village.

He knelt on one knee, cupped his fists, and bowed his head to a Dragon Blood Horned Horse clad in heavy battle armor.

Seated on the horse was a burly man wearing purple-gold beast-devouring armor, his face chiseled as if by a knife.

The Heavenly Punishment Guard Commander, Gu Qianxing.

Mid Divine Sea Realm.

"Reporting to the Commander, within a hundred-mile radius of the border, all 137 villages and 4 towns, all living beings have been completely purged."

The captain's voice was as cold as machinery: "Not a blade of grass left."

Gu Qianxing sat on his horse, holding a Coiling Dragon City Breaking Halberd weighing a thousand jin.

He looked down at the flowing blood at his feet, his eyes filled with an extreme, condescending indifference.

"Return to formation," Gu Qianxing uttered two words.

"Understood!" The captain rose, his figure flickered, and he instantly merged into the troop formation behind.

Gu Qianxing raised his head, his gaze sweeping over the corpses, and looked forward.

Ten miles away stood a massive fortress built entirely of obsidian.

Heavenly Chasm Fortress.

Behind the fortress lay a terrifying sea of lightning, woven from wild, purple lightning.

The lightning flashed, emitting deafening thunderclaps.

Heavenly Chasm Thunder Pool.

This was the only necessary passage from the Great Wind Snow State to the outside Divine State.

Mortals who touched it would die instantly. Even martial artists in the Blood Washing Realm would be instantly charred to a crisp if they tried to force their way through without a lightning-repelling artifact specially made by the Imperial Court.

Gu Qianxing turned his horse's head and rode towards the Heavenly Chasm Fortress.

On the fortress walls, in front of the gate, and even on the desolate land on both sides.

A dense mass.

Ten thousand Heavenly Punishment Guards, forming an extremely tight military formation, had completely surrounded the fortress.

Ten thousand Blood Washing Realm experts!

Ten thousand Qi and Blood currents, heavy as lead and mercury, converged, forming a visible, materialized bloody Sha cloud above the fortress.

Sha Qi soared to the heavens, and birds vanished.

Gu Qianxing rode his horse to the front of the formation, turned his mount, and faced the tens of thousands of soldiers.

He took out a golden token from his embrace, emitting a terrifying Daoist aura.

Divine State Martial Marquis Token.

"The Martial Marquis has personally arrived in Fengxue Prefecture."

Gu Qianxing's voice, mixed with the profound True Essence of the Divine Sea Realm, boomed like rolling thunder in the ears of every Heavenly Punishment Guard.

"The Prefecture capital has been destroyed, the official seal ruined. This is the greatest humiliation since the founding of Great Yan!"

"The Martial Marquis has decreed: Seal off the Heavenly Chasm Thunder Pool! Set up a net to catch all evildoers!"

Gu Qianxing raised the Coiling Dragon City Breaking Halberd in his hand, pointing directly at the only official road leading to the fortress.

"If that scoundrel dares to come, kill him on sight and grind him into meat paste!"

"Kill! Kill! Kill!"

Ten thousand Heavenly Punishment Guards roared in unison.

Ten thousand sabers were unsheathed simultaneously.

The sound waves shattered the clouds, and the sharp killing intent ground the scattered stones on the ground into powder.

Thirty miles from the Heavenly Chasm Fortress.

On the official road.

Sun Yu walked forward with unhurried steps, his hands clasped behind his back.

He wore the cold white brocade robe he had found in Xiao Tiannan's Storage Bag, spotless.

His black hair was casually spread over his shoulders.

His brocade boots made no sound as they stepped on the official road.

He did not use the Swimming Dragon Steps to hasten his journey.

Nor did he release any True Essence to conceal his presence.

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

After walking three miles.

Sun Yu stopped.

A village appeared ahead.

No cooking smoke, no barking dogs.

A strong smell of blood wafted towards him along the official road.

Sun Yu entered the village.

He saw corpses piled up in the street.

He saw a child cut in half with a single blow, an elder with a pierced heart.

The cuts were extremely clean, and the blood at the wounds had already congealed and turned black.

All were killed with a single strike.

Military formation killing techniques.

Sun Yu stepped over a corpse blocking his path with a blank expression.

He continued forward.

After another five miles.

The second village, the same tragic scene.

After another ten miles.

A town with a population of tens of thousands had become a dead city.

The city gates had been violently blasted open, and the streets were littered with severed limbs and dismembered bodies. The blood of the corpses had formed a small, dark red stream, flowing slowly through the city's drainage ditches.

Sun Yu stepped through the blood, crossing the town.

The hem of his cold white brocade robe remained unstained by any blood.

The Asura Gang Qi flowed around his body, incinerating all filth that approached.

The dark red demonic rings in Sun Yu's pitch-black eyes slowly rotated.

He understood.

This was to prevent him from hiding his presence and blending in with the crowd, to prevent him from disguising himself.

The enemy had directly killed all living beings within a hundred-mile radius of the border.

They had wiped them all out, creating an absolute vacuum of death.

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

"As expected of the Imperial Court's dogs."

Sun Yu's lips curled upwards, revealing a sinister grin.

"They do things even more directly than the Demon Beasts in the Devil Abyss."

He did not feel angry.

He felt no particular emotion for the dead civilians.

Sun Yu raised his hand and casually brushed off the cuff of his brocade robe.

Then, he began to walk.

His steps were still steady, his speed unchanged.

He didn't choose to take a detour through the deep mountains and old forests to find a shortcut.

He walked out of the town and once again stepped onto the straight official road leading directly to Heavenly Chasm Fortress.

He intended to go through the main gate.

Anyone who stood in his way would be trampled to death.

In front of Heavenly Chasm Fortress.

Gu Qianxing sat astride his horse, his eyes slightly closed. His Divine Sea Realm perception spread out like a vast net, tightly covering a ten-mile radius ahead.

Suddenly.

He snapped his eyes open.

His gaze was like lightning, piercing directly towards the end of the official road ahead.

In his field of vision.

A cold, white figure slowly appeared on the horizon.

One person.

No magical artifacts to protect him, no mount to carry him.

He walked step by step, treading on the blood-stained official road, directly towards an army of ten thousand fully armed Heavenly Punishment Guards.

"Commander! Target sighted!"

On the city wall, the Hundred-Household officer responsible for lookout shouted loudly.

"All troops, stand by!"

"Clang!"

Ten thousand Heavenly Punishment Guards simultaneously took a unified step.

The heavy shield-bearers in the front row slammed their two-zhang tall Black Iron giant shields onto the ground.

The spearmen in the rear extended their five-zhang long refined steel spears through the gaps in the shields, their tips pointing directly forward.

Crossbowmen nocked their bolts, and ten thousand armor-piercing heavy crossbows were raised simultaneously.

The army formation activated, and the Qi and Blood of ten thousand Blood Washing Realm martial artists were instantly connected.

The blood-colored Sha clouds above the fortress churned wildly, transforming into the phantom of a colossal blood-red tiger, letting out a silent roar at the white-robed figure ahead.

Sun Yu walked closer and closer.

Three miles.

Two miles.

One mile.

He completely ignored the steel great wall exuding a terrifying pressure in front of him.

His gaze passed over the ten thousand-strong army, over Heavenly Chasm Fortress.

It directly locked onto the purple lightning pool behind the fortress, which was constantly flashing with destructive lightning.

Five hundred paces.

Gu Qianxing raised the Coiling Dragon City Breaking Halberd in his hand high.

The pressure of a mid-stage Divine Sea Realm cultivator, mixed with the military Sha Qi of the ten thousand-strong army, descended upon Sun Yu like a materialized tsunami.

"Halt, intruder!"

Gu Qianxing's voice shattered the withered trees on both sides of the official road.

"Destroyed official seals, annihilated the prefecture."

"Rebellious and unforgivable, guilty of ten heinous crimes!"

Gu Qianxing stared at Sun Yu's indifferent face, killing intent erupting in his eyes.

"The Marquis has ordered: kill on sight!"

As the words fell.

"Fire!"

Within the army formation, a general roared.

"Boom boom boom boom boom!"

Ten thousand armor-piercing heavy crossbows simultaneously pulled their triggers.

The sound of the bowstrings vibrating together was like thunder from the nine heavens.

Ten thousand heavy crossbow bolts, forged entirely from fine steel, their arrowheads quenched with potent poison, and their tails inscribed with armor-piercing runes.

Tearing through the air, they emitted an extremely sharp, piercing shriek.

Transforming into a sky-obscuring, black metallic downpour.

With a terrifying, all-consuming momentum, they rained down upon Sun Yu!

The arrow rain covered all space within a hundred zhang around Sun Yu.

Enough to instantly turn a mountaintop into a sieve.

Sun Yu stopped walking.

He raised his head, looking at the black arrow rain smashing down from the sky.

Extremely casually, he drew his right hand out from behind his back.

His five fingers spread open.

His palm facing upwards.

"You are blocking my path."

Sun Yu's voice wasn't loud, yet it strangely pierced through the whistling arrows, clearly reaching Gu Qianxing's ears.

The next instant.

Sun Yu's right hand, all five fingers, clenched fiercely!