Power Exposed

Finally, the Giant Snake's struggles grew weaker, its piercing cries turning into intermittent whimpers. Its massive body convulsed a few more times before collapsing completely, its dark golden vertical pupils devoid of all light, emptily reflecting the blood-stained green sky above.

In the forest, only heavy panting and a thick, cloying smell of blood remained.

Li San leaned on his bent blade and staggered to Wang Wu's side. They exchanged a look, their eyes holding no relief at surviving, only a cold, shared understanding of their accomplished goal, and a hint of imperceptible... joy?

"It's done," Li San panted, his voice hoarse.

"Mhm," Wang Wu remained taciturn, his gaze like a cold probe sweeping over the collapsed Zhao Si, and the heavily wounded Yan Xiao Liu and Ye Yun who was supporting Yan Xiao Liu nearby.

Li San followed Wang Wu's gaze, the unhealthy flush on his face from killing a powerful enemy quickly fading, replaced by a bone-chilling coldness and undisguised killing intent. He grinned, revealing blood-stained teeth, a smile that looked particularly ferocious and terrifying against his blood-smeared face.

"Yeah, it's done," he repeated Wang Wu's words, his voice suddenly turning cold, like ice shards in midwinter. "Now... it's time for the real business."

The real business?

Yan Xiao Liu's heart plummeted. An ominous premonition, like a cold venomous snake, instantly coiled around his heart!

Li San, carrying the thick-backed saber stained with dark green snake blood, its blade twisted, walked step by heavy step towards the collapsed Zhao Si, who had wet himself and was trembling like a leaf in the autumn wind.

Seeing Li San approach, especially meeting his cold, cruel, and utterly emotionless eyes, Zhao Si was terrified out of his wits! A powerful will to survive erupted, giving him a final burst of strength. He forced a smile onto his face, more grotesque than a cry, his voice shaking uncontrollably:

"Brother San! Brother Wu! Esteemed sir! A true master among masters! Little brother... little brother has truly had his eyes opened today! So... so amazing! Divine power unparalleled! Unrivaled in the world! Little brother is utterly impressed! I'll be at your beck and call from now on, like a horse or a cow..." He stammered incoherently, desperate to use the most sickening flattery to buy a sliver of life.

However, his words were cut short!

Because Li San moved!

Without any warning, without any superfluous action! The twisted, snake-blood-stained thick-backed saber, in the dim light, drew a sharp and resolute arc!

"Squelch!"

The sound of blade cutting flesh and bone, dull and heart-stopping!

The fawning smile on Zhao Si's face hadn't even fully solidified before his eyes, wide with terror, instantly filled with extreme shock, confusion, and disbelief! He felt a coolness on his neck, and then his vision began to spin... He seemed to see his own headless body still kneeling on the ground, hot blood gushing from its neck...

"Gasp... gasp..." His head rolled to the ground, his lips twitching uselessly a couple of times before finally losing all light.

Li San watched Zhao Si's fallen body and rolling head with cold indifference, his eyes unblinking. He flicked the blood off his blade, breaking the dead silence with a murmur that sounded like a devil's whisper, tinged with a false apology:

"Brother Zhao, I'm truly sorry. What we brothers have to do... cannot be known by others. So, I can only trouble you to take the first step." He paused, his gaze turning to Yan Xiao Liu and Ye Yun like a viper's, "Don't worry... they'll be joining you soon."

"You... you guys...!!!" Yan Xiao Liu's eyes widened in fury! The immense shock and anger even momentarily overshadowed the physical pain! He had watched Zhao Si's throat being slit! Watched Li San's indifference, as if crushing an ant! Watched them instantly shed all pretense and reveal their ferocious fangs! He struggled to sit up, but his injuries flared, causing him to cough violently, blood once again spilling from the corner of his mouth, "Why... we're together... Zhao Si he..."

Li San, holding the dripping saber like a reaper, approached Ye Yun and Yan Xiao Liu step by step. A cruel smirk played on his lips as he interrupted Yan Xiao Liu's question, "Why? Heh heh..." His gaze, like a poisoned hook, was locked onto Ye Yun's face, which was eerily calm, almost indifferent. He said, word by word, "If you want to blame someone, blame this kid next to you... his surname is Ye!"

Surname Ye!

These two words exploded in Ye Yun's mind like thunder! As expected! Their target was him! Yan Xiao Liu and Zhao Si were merely innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire, or rather, witnesses that needed to be eliminated! Their snooping and instigation along the way was to lure him into the depths of these Sunset Mountains! To kill him! And it was because of his surname!

A cold glint flashed in Ye Yun's pupils! Countless thoughts raced through his mind! Enemies? A treasure hunt? Or... that buried secret?

"Cough cough..." Wang Wu's low, warning cough sounded like muffled thunder, interrupting Li San, who seemed about to continue.

Li San stiffened abruptly, as if jolted awake. He smacked his forehead in annoyance, but a more ferocious smile spread across his face. "Tsk, almost said too much. But..." He looked at Ye Yun and Yan Xiao Liu again, like looking at two cold corpses, "When I send you to hell, it doesn't matter if I say a little more or a little less!"

Before he finished speaking, killing intent surged in Li San's eyes! He stopped wasting words, and the twisted, dripping saber in his hand, with a piercing whistle through the air, stirred up a bloody wind as it swung down towards the heavily wounded Yan Xiao Liu, who was almost defenseless, and Ye Yun, who was shielding him. This strike, imbued with his killing intent towards Ye Yun and his ruthlessness in eliminating obstacles, was meant to cleave them both in two!

Yan Xiao Liu closed his eyes in despair! He knew Li San's strength too well! Even in his prime, he would have been no match for him! Let alone now, when he was gravely wounded and near death? And with the unfathomably powerful and menacing Wang Wu beside him! A dead end! This was a desperate situation with no chance of survival!

"It's over..." This was the only thought in his mind.

However!

Just as the life-taking saber was less than three feet from Yan Xiao Liu's head! As the cold blade edge even made his scalp tingle!

"Clang--!!!"

A collision sound, far crisper, louder, and even possessing a strange rhythm than any previous clash of metal, suddenly rang out! Like a morning bell and an evening drum, it instantly dispelled the shadow of death that enveloped Yan Xiao Liu's heart!

The expected pain of being split open did not arrive!

Yan Xiao Liu's eyes snapped open!

What greeted his eyes was a scene he would never forget!

Ye Yun, who had been kneeling in front of him, supporting him, had somehow straightened up! In his hand was not some divine weapon, but a standard steel long saber! Yet, at this moment, this ordinary saber seemed to possess a life of its own!

Ye Yun's movements were faster than Yan Xiao Liu could comprehend! As if with a mere flick of his wrist, the ordinary saber, at an angle that was as elusive as a celestial deer and as subtle as the finest touch, precisely and diagonally upward! There was no earth-shattering momentum, no wild surge of internal energy, only extreme precision and an... indescribable, abyssal sense of calm power!

The saber blade, accurately and steadily, used its flat side to block Li San's thick-backed saber, which was imbued with internal energy and swung down with the force to split mountains!

The two blades met!

The imagined scenario of the long saber being instantly broken, along with Ye Yun being dismembered, did not happen!

The ordinary long saber, like divine iron rooted deep in the earth, remained motionless! Not even a slight bend! Instead, Li San's thick-backed saber, as if it had struck millennia-old profound ice, the immense recoil force surged back along the blade!

"Buzz--!"

The thick-backed saber let out a pained groan! Li San felt an unimaginable force transmitted from the hilt, causing his tiger's mouth to instantly split and bleed profusely! His entire arm went numb and ached intensely, making it almost impossible to grip the hilt! His charging momentum was forcibly stopped in its tracks, and he even took an involuntary step back!

"What?!" The sinister grin on Li San's face instantly froze, replaced by unparalleled shock and horror! He stared at Ye Yun as if he had seen a ghost, his sharp eagle eyes, for the first time, filled with disbelief and a hint of... fear!

"Oh?!" Wang Wu, who had been observing with the cold detachment of a statue, suddenly let out a surprised exclamation! For the first time, a look of extreme solemnity appeared on his sinister face, like a viper discovering its prey! His sharp, knife-like gaze instantly locked onto Ye Yun, as if trying to see through him from the inside out!

He had completely misjudged him before!

This "Brother Ye," who had been silent all along, with restrained aura, and appeared unremarkable... was actually a master hiding his strength! His concealment was deep, his strength far beyond imagination!

The air in the forest seemed to freeze after that crisp clash of blades. The smell of blood, the smell of snake, and the invisible, bone-chilling killing intent intertwined, forming an even more deadly net. And Ye Yun, holding his saber, calmly met the shocked and murderous gazes of Li San and Wang Wu, like a volcano about to erupt, containing destructive power in its silence.