Xie Mu was already numb with shock!
Originally!
He had thought that with seven people joining forces, even if they could not contend with Huang Dao, they could at least gain the upper hand and suppress him.
"Put some strength into it!"
Yet the affairs of the world were impossible to predict.
Huang Dao pressed all seven of them down and beat them.
He extended two slender, jade-like fingers, each knuckle clearly defined, and lightly caught the treasure sword thrusting through the air. With a flick of his fingertips, an invisible force rippled outward like waves.
Ma Bao immediately felt an immense force strike him. His body nearly staggered, and the longsword in his hand almost flew free.
Ma Bao, the palace's seal-bearing eunuch, was a First-Rate Realm swordsman in the martial world, famed as Sword Like a Flood Dragon.
He was only one step away from entering the Master Realm.
Yet at this moment, before Huang Dao, he appeared so utterly unable to withstand a single blow.
Had the six behind him not promptly channeled their palm force to help him shed most of the impact, his entire arm would likely have been shattered already.
Seeing this, the seven of them could not help but feel a chill rise in their hearts.
They attacked together.
Six different currents of force blended together, circling Huang Dao as though drawing a ring around him.
Huang Dao stood with one hand behind his back, every inch the bearing of a Master Realm expert.
With a smile at the corner of his lips, his figure within the room became dreamlike and illusory, seeming to divide into three.
"Heavenly Demon Movement Technique!"
Everyone present was shocked.
They were stunned to discover that this was the Demon Sect's Heaven-Destroying Sect's secret technique, never passed down to outsiders—the Heavenly Demon Movement Technique.
It was said that once cultivated to its highest realm, one body could become three, unfathomable to gods and ghosts. Huang Dao's display before them was the finest proof.
The strongest among the seven, the Master Realm expert who used palm techniques, also revealed a grave expression.
He knew deeply that Huang Dao's strength was unfathomably deep. If they did not turn the tide quickly, the seven of them might all die here today.
He did not dare speak of victory; he only dared consider fleeing from the Demon Master.
He had once fought Great Grandmasters as well, and knew only that they had long ceased to be ordinary men.
They transcended all reason!
Thus, he struck first!
His body followed his palms. In an instant, six palms stacked atop one another, carrying fierce winds as they blasted toward Huang Dao's chest.
Ma Bao spun around and drew his sword, sword-light coursing all over Huang Dao's body.
The seven worked together seamlessly, every move a killing strike.
However!
Huang Dao strolled leisurely amid their attacks as though wandering through a tranquil courtyard, handling everything with effortless ease. Every strike he made dissolved their offensive at precisely the right moment.
Huang Dao remained composed as he leisurely commented:
"Your palm technique may have been learned from Jiang Xiaoyue, but you have gained only its form. You must understand: his training of palms in water was merely an outward appearance. The true essence lay in tempering the heart and cultivating one's nature when the water's ripples were still. You have only touched the surface."
Jiang Xiaoyue was one of Great Qing's four Great Grandmasters.
Huang Dao continued:
"Your swordsmanship is quite remarkable. Given time, you might perhaps enter the Master Realm. But today, you encountered me... what a pity."
"I will not waste any more time tangling with you. Tonight, I came only to slay a dragon."
The moment those words fell, Ma Bao's heart clenched sharply!
He had to send word out as quickly as possible, let His Majesty know of the danger here, and have him descend the mountain.
Though ten thousand Imperial Forest Army soldiers were stationed in the mountains, they could not deploy their formations in this narrow terrain.
A Great Grandmaster could come and go as though entering an uninhabited land.
Huang Dao lightly stamped his foot, and the seven felt their minds suddenly jolt.
The Master Realm expert famed for his palm techniques felt a surge of ominous foreboding rise in his heart, inwardly crying that things were bad.
His mind was filled entirely with thoughts of fleeing for his life!
His heart was filled entirely with regret!
How had he been so muddleheaded as to confront a Great Grandmaster? Was that not courting death!
How could glory and wealth compare with this old man's life?
However, it was already too late.
Huang Dao's five fingers had already clamped over his head, completely blocking his vision.
The Master Realm expert was terrified beyond measure. Endless fear surged over him like a tide, and he struggled to open his mouth and beg for mercy.
"Spare... my life."
Huang Dao gave a light tug. Blood flowed from the Master Realm expert's seven apertures, and his head rolled to the ground.
Huang Dao smiled when he heard that.
"Spare what? Speak louder next time. I could not hear you."
The remaining six witnessed this scene, and their hearts and gall bladders split apart in terror.
They hesitated no longer, turning and fleeing in every direction.
Yet Huang Dao merely smiled faintly, his fingers gently flicking as though playing a zither, threads of spiritual light faintly shimmering.
In the blink of an eye!
Five of them had been separated from their heads, collapsing into pools of blood.
Only Ma Bao remained in the room!
After exchanging several moves with Huang Dao, the longsword in his hand had already been shattered by the shockwaves, and he could no longer raise his entire arm.
He sat collapsed on the ground, unable to move any longer, his eyes filled with shock.
How could a Great Grandmaster be this strong, instantly killing two Master Realm experts and four First-Rate Realm experts?
His expression suddenly turned strange.
"Above... the Great Grandmaster Realm!"
He remembered what his master, Chen Sanzhong, the Nine-Thousand-Year-Old, had once said: the gate to the Innate Realm had now opened.
Beyond the Great Grandmaster Realm lay the Innate Realm.
Huang Dao smiled.
"Correct. Unfortunately, there is no reward."
The reason he had not killed Ma Bao was that he intended to use him to find that emperor.
Xie Mu sat to one side, sighing heavily.
"This... you people are just feeding yourselves to him!"
Just then!
A figure pushed open the door.
Huang Dao's gaze shifted slightly. He had actually failed to notice someone approaching.
He looked intently toward the newcomer.
The dark clouds scattered across the sky, allowing a patch of moonlight to shine in.
Beneath the moonlight, a Daoist quietly appeared. He was handsome, with heroic features that pressed upon the eye.
The Daoist's gaze swept over the chaotic corpses strewn across the ground, and a flicker of surprise passed over his face.
He then stopped where he was to conduct a brief resonance, patted his chest, and muttered to himself:
"Good thing, good thing!"
"I did not arrive too late. If the old emperor died on Mount Zhongnan, that would be rather unfortunate."
"Big Brother would definitely chew me out."
The Daoist's gaze turned toward Huang Dao, Ma Bao, and Xie Mu.
He was somewhat unable to make sense of the situation and was clearly rather confused.
Ma Bao had already recognized the newcomer and hurriedly shouted:
"Run!"
"Young Marshal, leave quickly! Inform His Majesty that this man is the Demon Master Huang Dao. He has come to assassinate him."
The newcomer was none other than Lu Yu, known within the Lu Family Army as the Young Marshal!
Ma Bao knew that Lu Yu's martial cultivation was not low. Perhaps if he withdrew in time, there would still be a sliver of hope for survival.
However, Huang Dao merely gave a soft laugh and slowly said, "I am afraid it is already too late."
Xie Mu sighed as well upon hearing this. He naturally knew Lu Yu's name, but he knew even better how formidable the demonic Huang Dao was.
Only then did Lu Yu grasp the situation between friend and foe.
He looked at the middle-aged scholar in the room and said unconcernedly:
"Eunuch Ma, relax, relax."
"We will win."
Ma Bao sighed and shook his head. "A Great Grandmaster is no longer something human strength can contend against!"
Lu Yu rolled his wrist and assumed an ancient, simple boxing stance.
An incomparable aura emerged.
Like a mountain, like a great peak!
Like a sea, like an abyss!
Ma Bao's pupils suddenly constricted at the sight, his voice trembling.
"This... this is the Great Grandmaster Realm!"
Huang Dao's brows also drew tightly together. An unprecedented gravity appeared in his eyes as he said in a low voice:
"Having stayed out of the martial world for more than twenty years, heroes have indeed emerged one after another."
"Then let me weigh your measure!"
As he spoke, a faint glow flickered in Huang Dao's palm. His eyes were as deep as a lacquer-black night, and the surroundings seemed to sink into darkness.
Lu Yu also shed his earlier laziness, his gaze growing calm.
"Ten years on the battlefield, brushing against life and death time and again, yet my resolve never changed. This fist was comprehended within the army. It drives straight at the enemy's front, advancing without turning back."
"Its name is: Break Ten Thousand Armies."
Threads upon threads of spiritual energy gathered, and within the room there unexpectedly arose the image of a thousand troops and ten thousand horses galloping and crashing past!
Ma Bao could no longer see the momentum of the two men's clash.
Yet inwardly, he still did not think highly of Lu Yu.
After all, Huang Dao had already been in the Great Grandmaster Realm twenty years ago, and had now advanced even further.
"Boom!"
The Daoist temple's roof was forcibly punched through with a massive hole. Countless roof tiles crashed down, while rolling dust obscured all sight.
The sky full of stars was revealed, the moonlight rich and bright.
Witnessing this scene, Xie Mu's throat bobbed as he swallowed, unable to believe this was the work of human strength.
Ma Bao's eyes were even more filled with anxiety and urgency. In this clash between Great Grandmasters, who would emerge victorious and who would lose?
The dust dispersed!
Lu Yu patted the dust from his clothes, looking entirely at ease.
On the other side.
Huang Dao was now in a thoroughly miserable state, collapsed in the shadows at the corner of the wall. Scarlet blood spilled from his mouth, and his blade-like gaze remained locked tightly upon Lu Yu.
"Who exactly are you?"
Lu Yu smiled. "Too lazy to tell you."
Ma Bao stood to one side, dumbstruck.
Lu Yu turned back and said to him, "I told you, it was a guaranteed win."
Xie Mu was equally stunned. He had never imagined that the Lu Family's Young Marshal would be this fierce!
Seeing that Huang Dao was seriously injured and lacked even the strength to stand, Ma Bao hurriedly said:
"Young Marshal, please finish off this demon."
Lu Yu was unconcerned as he walked toward Huang Dao step by step.
Huang Dao gave a sorrowful smile.
"Who would have thought it? I, Huang Dao, am actually going to die here, only one step short!"
"Such is the will of Heaven!"
Seeing that his good brother Huang Dao was likely doomed, Xie Mu felt somewhat sad in his heart.
Xie Mu suddenly remembered!
"Young Marshal, just now, an evil monk wanted to kill the Young Protector."
The moment Lu Yu heard this, his body stiffened. A sharp aura burst forth from him.
In an instant, he arrived beside Xie Mu, his gaze like lightning as it shot straight at him.
Intimidated by Lu Yu's gaze, Xie Mu tremblingly repeated what he had just said.
Lu Yu ignored everything else and shot out of the room.
He rushed to the mountain peak and leaped down from the cliff.
At this time, the bright moon hung high overhead.
Lu Yu's eyes were filled with killing intent.
Please keep reading. This chapter is nearly 3,000 characters, my lords, please keep reading.
This humble one offers his thanks.
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