A Blood Sacrifice to the Heavens, Yu's Response! Visitors from Beyond the Mist Sea! (Double Chapter)

In a secluded alley not far from the Yang residence, a dozen corpses lay silently on the ground. Some had bloody splits between their brows, others had holes in their throats, and still others had been pierced through the heart by a sword-

They had all died so swiftly that barely any smell of blood lingered in the air. Only two gray-clad figures remained. Their expressions changed drastically as they darted away in opposite directions.

Twanging!

A note rang out like silk tearing. An invisible blade of air visibly ripped through the currents. One gray-clad man felt an icy chill across his face, and his pupils reflected a woman in a shimmering court dress, holding a pipa-

The next instant, his throat turned cold. As his consciousness blurred, he felt himself flying. The last thing he saw was a headless body toppling backward, its appearance strangely familiar.

Whoosh!

A strand of sword light drifted over like a gentle breeze, gathering the flying head into its glow. Amid the blossoming radiance, a valiant young man lightly turned his wrist. His sword quivered, and its force blasted the head apart.

Before blood could spray through the air, a man in Confucian robes descended, one large hand gripping the other gray-clad man by the throat. Frowning, he spread his free sleeve like an opening air sac, drawing in the bursting flesh and blood along with sand and soil from the ground.

Then he shook his sleeve, and a dark, fist-sized ball of mud dropped to the ground with a thud.

"Brother Yu, your swift sword has climbed to new heights. Congratulations. But next time, could you use it a little more... elegantly?" The man in Confucian robes glanced at the valiant young man and tossed his captive into the alley.

The young man