Blood Blade Attack

Liu Qing's corpse slammed stiffly onto the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust as warm blood seeped down through the cracks between the bluestones.

The surrounding Martial Artists stared wide-eyed in shock. The greed that had been written across their faces moments ago was instantly doused by fear. Their hands gripping their weapons trembled uncontrollably, and they hardly dared breathe.

"Hero Liu... is he just dead like that?" someone asked in a trembling voice, unable to believe it.

"One move! He didn't even get a chance to fight back!"

"Who the hell is this kid? Not only is he impervious to blades and spears, his inner strength is this fierce too. That Skull-Crushing Hand is way too wicked!"

A low buzz of discussion rose and fell through the crowd, yet not a single person dared take even half a step forward.

Wang Xuan's attack had been clean, decisive, ruthless, and utterly one-sided. The sight made everyone's scalps tingle.

Ding Dian stood behind Wang Xuan, looking at the corpses strewn across the ground and the terrified people of the martial world. His emotions churned.

He had roamed the martial world for most of his life and seen plenty of vicious criminals and savage bandits, but this was the first time he had encountered someone as young as Wang Xuan, whose martial arts were so outrageously domineering and whose attacks showed no mercy at all.

Wang Xuan casually flicked the blood from his hand. His icy gaze swept across the crowd before him, and though his tone was calm, it carried an unquestionable pressure. "Who else wants to die?"

His voice was not loud, yet it was like a boulder crashing into a still lake, instantly silencing the entire scene. Steward Gao shrank to the very back of the crowd, his face as pale as paper and his calves cramping. He wished he could crawl into a crack in the ground. He wanted to run, but feared Wang Xuan would notice him, so he could only stand frozen where he was.

In that deathly silence, a sharp whistling sound suddenly tore through the air from a distant rooftop. With a piercing whoosh, it cut through the air.

A bright yellow figure flashed over from the distant roof ridges, as swift as a shooting star chasing the moon.

He did not touch the ground at all. Instead, he stepped directly on the heads and shoulders of the Martial Artists below, using them as footholds. His figure drifted in a bizarre blur. Every time he landed, some unlucky soul cried out as he was stomped flat onto the ground, his bones nearly shattered.

"It hurts like hell! Who stepped on me?!"

"It's an expert! Move! Don't get trampled to death!"

The crowd immediately descended into chaos, shoving and retreating. In a few leaps, the man arrived before them. Only then did they see that he was a monk in a bright yellow robe, with a gleaming bald head and eyes as vicious as those of a starving wolf. In his hand was a crooked Burmese Saber, its blade gleaming with an eerie blood-red chill and carrying a faint stench of blood.

"Blood Blade! It's the Blood Blade Ancestor!" An old martial artist with graying hair screamed in horror, his voice cracking as his whole body shook.

"Good heavens! That fiend from the Blood Blade Sect? Why is he here too?"

"It's over, it's over! With that fiend here, forget the Divine Illumination Scripture. We'll be lucky if we can leave alive!"

The Blood Blade Sect was notorious throughout the martial world. Its disciples committed every evil imaginable, from rape and kidnapping to plunder and murder, while the sect leader, the Blood Blade Ancestor, was even worse.

The Blood Blade Ancestor did not spare these minor rabble a glance. His vicious eyes fixed firmly on Ding Dian behind Wang Xuan. He licked his cracked lips and let out a strange chuckle. "Chrysanthemum Swordsman Ding Dian? I've been looking for you so long I was about to go mad! Hand over the Secret of the Linked Cities and the Divine Illumination Scripture now, and I'll grant you a quick death!"

The moment he finished speaking, he gave no one time to react. His body suddenly twisted in midair like a diving hawk, and the curved saber in his hand carved out a mournful blood-red arc with a shrill howl. Yet it was not aimed at Ding Dian—it slashed directly at Wang Xuan, who stood in the way!

This slash was both swift and vicious, its angle absurdly strange. Like a venomous snake striking with its tongue, it targeted the dead angle in one's defenses, impossible to evade.

Wang Xuan's eyes narrowed in alarm. This old monk is no weakling. His saber technique is even stranger!

He did not dare underestimate his opponent. In an instant, he pushed his Lesser Vajra Indestructible Body to its limit. A warm yellow glow spread across his right hand as he drove the Great Monument-Breaking Hand to full force. Without dodging or retreating, he met that bloody saber light with a palm strike.

A direct clash—without yielding an inch!

"Clang—!!!"

A sharper, more piercing explosion of metal rang out than any before it. Sparks flew in every direction, and the blast made the ears of everyone nearby ring.

Wang Xuan felt a sharp pain shoot through his palm. A cold, bizarre surge of inner force crawled along the blade like a venomous snake, drilling madly into his arm and wrenching pain through his meridians. Looking down, he saw that his palm, which had always been impervious to blades and spears and which even a ghost-head broadsword could only leave white marks upon, had been cut open by a thin wound. Several drops of blood seeped from it.

His skin had been broken!

Since entering this Plot World, this was the first time he had bled—the first time anyone had managed to break through his Lesser Vajra Indestructible Body!

The Blood Blade Ancestor did not fare well either. That slash had not felt as though it struck flesh; it was more like hitting a piece of diamond tempered a thousand times. An immense force surged back through the saber, numbing his arm and overturning his blood and qi. With no foothold in midair, he was sent flipping backward by the force of the collision.

He deftly turned two somersaults in the air, barely dispersing the force before landing steadily on the ground. As he looked at Wang Xuan, his eyes held both shock and an even deeper greed.

What a domineering body-tempering art!

"What a tough body-tempering art!" The Blood Blade Ancestor grinned strangely. "Kid, what the hell did you cultivate? You can actually take my Blood Blade head-on? Too bad you haven't mastered it yet. You still bled!"

Wang Xuan looked at the wound in his palm, which had already healed without leaving even a scar. Then he slowly raised his head to look at the Blood Blade Ancestor, his gaze turning utterly cold, devoid of the slightest warmth.

He rolled his wrist and said calmly, "Blood Blade Ancestor? Your saber is decent."

The demonic Blood Blade killed and drank blood, its edge peerless!

"Heh heh, now you know how formidable I am, right?" The Blood Blade Ancestor ran his curved saber over his bald head, his tone arrogant. "Be sensible. Hand over Ding Dian and the Divine Illumination Scripture. I can see you've got talent for martial arts, so I'll take you as my disciple and make sure you can swagger through the world from now on!"

"Take me as your disciple?" Wang Xuan sneered, his smile full of mockery. "You? Are you worthy?"

The Blood Blade Ancestor's face darkened at once, and the vicious light in his eyes intensified. "You refuse a toast only to drink a forfeit! Since you're courting death, I'll slaughter you along with him and take your body-tempering art for myself!"

Before his words had faded, he moved. The eerie movement technique of the Blood Blade Scripture unfolded instantly, and his entire body drifted over like a ghost. The curved saber in his hand transformed into a mass of bloody afterimages, hacking toward Wang Xuan from countless unbelievable angles.

This time, Wang Xuan no longer met the attacks head-on. He alternated between the Water-Skipping Technique and the Wild Goose Movement Technique, his body nimble as the wind as he weaved and dodged through the dense saber light. Occasionally, he raised a hand to block, but only briefly. Even while evading, he carefully observed the Blood Blade Ancestor's saber technique.

This Blood Blade Scripture truly was bizarre. Its saber paths were tricky, every strike aimed at the throat or heart. It emphasized speed, ruthlessness, strangeness, and venom, specializing in breaking body-tempering arts. Combined with the peerlessly sharp, snake-like Blood Blade, once it touched its target, wounds often appeared at impossible angles.

Both men possessed cultivation at the Post-Heaven Eighth Layer. The shockwaves produced by the collision of their inner forces forced the surrounding Martial Artists to retreat again and again, terrified of being drawn in. None dared even breathe loudly.

Ding Dian clenched his fists and stared nervously at the battle, growing anxious within. He had never expected that just after leaving the Heavenly Prison, he would encounter a notorious fiend like the Blood Blade Ancestor.

Meanwhile, Steward Gao used the chaos to scramble backward on his hands and knees, wanting only to escape this dangerous place as quickly as possible.