Whoosh—
Chen Xuan kicked off the ground, shooting like an arrow into the battle ahead.
His speed reached the absolute limit. Wherever he passed, the air was torn apart, releasing a shrill howl.
In an alley not far ahead, two groups were fighting with bloodshot eyes.
Blade light and sword shadows intertwined, blood spattered everywhere, and roars, screams, and clashing weapons mixed together, turning this once-peaceful alley into an asura battlefield.
They had all come for Treasure Pavilion's treasures. For a few pills and several banknotes, they did not hesitate to fight to the death.
Suddenly, they felt a terrifying aura descend from above, like an invisible mountain pressing down on their hearts and leaving them nearly unable to breathe.
Before they could react, several people were sent flying by a masked figure.
That figure was too fast. They could not even make out his face; they only felt an immense force slam into their chests, sending them flying backward like kites with snapped strings. They crashed to the ground with shattered bones and torn tendons, letting out miserable screams.
The two groups involuntarily stopped fighting and turned together to look at this unexpected intruder.
"Who are you?"
A blood-covered man wielding a longsword stared at the masked figure before him and demanded harshly.
Chen Xuan did not answer. His gaze swept across everyone present.
More than ten corpses lay on the ground. Some had been decapitated, while others had caved-in chests. Blood covered the ground. The six people he had sent flying were groaning on the ground; some clutched broken legs, others held their collapsed chests, their eyes filled with terror.
Sixteen people remained standing, divided into two factions that occupied opposite sides and eyed one another like tigers watching prey.
But now, all their attention was focused on this suddenly appearing masked man.
Most of their cultivation ranged from the Sixth Stage of Body Tempering to the Eighth Layer of Body Tempering. The strongest among them was merely at the Peak Eighth Layer of Body Tempering.
Such strength made them experts in the eyes of ordinary people, but to Chen Xuan, they were nothing more than earthen chickens and pottery dogs, too frail to withstand a single blow.
"Hand over the Marrow Cleansing Pill."
Chen Xuan spoke calmly.
As soon as those words fell, both groups changed expression.
The Marrow Cleansing Pill was a precious medicinal pill capable of cleansing the marrow and remaking the bones, improving one's aptitude. At Treasure Pavilion's auction, a single pill was worth over thirty thousand taels of silver.
They had fought and killed here precisely for the Marrow Cleansing Pill. Both sides had lost seven or eight brothers each—how could they possibly hand it over so easily?
"What the hell are you? You dare steal my things!"
A brawny man with a face full of flesh roared and swung his blade at Chen Xuan.
He was the leader of one group, with cultivation at the Peak Eighth Layer of Body Tempering. His full-power strike possessed more than a thousand jin of force. The blade wind howled, heavy and fierce. In the eyes of ordinary people, it was already as fast as it could possibly be, its light like a silver ribbon as it went straight for Chen Xuan's throat.
He put all his strength into this slash, determined to cut down this masked man who did not know the height of heaven or the depth of earth.
Chen Xuan did not even spare him a glance. He raised a fist.
That punch appeared slow, but it was actually swift as lightning. Before the brawny man's blade could touch his body, the fist had already smashed into the man's chest.
Bang!
A dull boom rang out, like a war drum being struck.
The brawny man did not even have time to scream before he flew backward and slammed into the wall behind him.
The wall was built from hard blue bricks, yet it was smashed into a huge human-shaped depression.
Blood sprayed from the man's mouth. Every bone in his chest was shattered, his organs ruptured, and he died on the spot.
His eyes remained wide open, as if he could not believe until death that his cultivation at the Peak Eighth Layer of Body Tempering could not even withstand a single punch from the other man.
Silence.
The alley instantly became as silent as the grave.
Everyone's faces turned deathly pale, as though they had seen a ghost.
Peak Eighth Layer of Body Tempering, killed with one punch?
What was this masked man's background?
A master of the Ninth Stage of Body Tempering, Huajin Realm?
"I'll ask one more time." Chen Xuan withdrew his fist, his tone calm, as if he had merely swatted a fly to death. "Who has the Marrow Cleansing Pill?"
His voice was not loud, yet it carried a suffocating pressure. The two groups looked at one another, but no one spoke.
Someone instinctively tightened their grip on their weapon, only to loosen it again moments later. Before an absolute gap in strength, any resistance was futile.
Chen Xuan's gaze swept over them like a blade scraping across skin, making everyone feel a sharp sting.
At last, his eyes fell upon a small, thin man dressed in black.
The man was huddled behind the crowd, one hand tightly pressed against his chest. His eyes darted about, making it obvious that he had a guilty conscience.
His cultivation was only at the Seventh Stage of Body Tempering, inconspicuous among this group, but Chen Xuan saw through him at a glance.
"You... come here."
Chen Xuan pointed at the man in black, his voice indifferent.
"I... I don't have it..."
The man in black shuddered all over and instinctively took a step back, his face as pale as paper.
His voice trembled with obvious fear, but the hand covering his chest pressed down even harder.
Chen Xuan did not say another word.
He could not be bothered wasting breath on such an ant. His body flickered, and he was already in front of the man in black, one hand clamped around his throat.
He moved with inconceivable speed. Everyone present only saw a blur before the man in black had already been subdued.
"Urgh... urgh..."
The man in black's eyes bulged as he futilely clawed at Chen Xuan's arm, trying to break free, only to find that hand as immovable as iron pincers.
His face changed from white to green, then from green to purple, his eyes filled with despair.
Chen Xuan squeezed.
Crack!
The crisp sound of breaking bone was especially piercing in the silent alley.
The man in black's neck was instantly crushed to powder. His cervical vertebrae snapped, his windpipe ruptured, and his body went limp like a puddle of mud.
Chen Xuan searched his robes and pulled out a white jade porcelain bottle. Then he casually tossed the corpse onto the ground. It lay there like a lifeless scrap of cloth. The entire process was clean and decisive, without the slightest hesitation.
Chen Xuan opened the stopper and took a sniff. A rich medicinal fragrance rushed into his nose, carrying a faint chill that refreshed his mind.
No mistake. It contained a Marrow Cleansing Pill, but there was only one.
Chen Xuan looked at the remaining people, his gaze sweeping over each of them like a blade. "Take out everything you have on you."
Some hesitated, but when Chen Xuan's gaze settled on them, their hesitation immediately turned into obedience.
They had no doubt that if they dared utter a single word of refusal, they would end up just like the man in black.
The one who refused to obey had already become a corpse.
The person before them was at least a Ninth Stage of Body Tempering, Huajin Realm martial artist—perhaps even an expert of the Zhuqi Realm.
Such an existence was not someone they could afford to provoke.
One item after another was placed on the ground—silver banknotes, gold notes, pill bottles, weapons, manuals... a dazzling assortment, all looted from the dead at Treasure Pavilion. Some had not even been checked to see what they were.
These people had taken advantage of Treasure Pavilion's chaos to make a fortune, only for Cheng Yaojin to appear halfway through and force them to hand over everything they had worked so hard to obtain.
Chen Xuan crouched down and inspected them one by one.
His movements were swift, but he carefully examined every item, not overlooking anything valuable.
Besides the one he had just obtained, there were another four Marrow Cleansing Pills on the ground, making five in total.
"Five Marrow Cleansing Pills."
Chen Xuan was delighted inwardly.
This truly was an unexpected windfall.
With these five Marrow Cleansing Pills, his bone structure and aptitude could rise from average to above average. He had climbed another step.
Besides that, there were two Pulse Breaking Pills, a treasured sword at the level of a Superior Weapon, and a Zhuqi Realm martial arts manual.
The Pulse Breaking Pill was a medicinal pill that could help martial artists open their qi channels. One pill could save a Zhuqi Realm martial artist several years of arduous cultivation.
The silver banknotes totaled over one hundred thousand taels, while the gold notes amounted to ten thousand taels. Together, they exceeded two hundred thousand taels—a massive windfall.
Chen Xuan put away all the valuable items and tucked them into his robes.
As for the ordinary weapons and low-grade pills, he did not think much of them and could not be bothered taking them.
Before you continue