One Sword, Instant Kill—And You're the Strongest Sequence?

He casually picked up a pack of long biscuits and held it across his waist like a sword, as though he could unleash a shocking slash at any moment and destroy any enemy standing before Su Xing.

"Not bad. It really is an extremely powerful skill."

Su Xing set down the biscuits, tore open the package, and began eating them one by one.

He could feel his muscles gradually growing again, as if he had upgraded [White-Line Slash], blocks of marble emerging beneath his skin.

Yet his hunger had eased considerably.

Su Xing only felt a faint weakness, like having lunch at eleven in the morning and not eating again until eight at night. It did not bother him much, and a pack of biscuits was enough to tide him over.

Su Xing murmured, "This should be the effect of Sword Breathing..."

He could feel his body autonomously drawing in the energy between heaven and earth to replenish itself.

The losses caused by advancing his skills were gradually being restored, meaning Su Xing no longer had to stuff himself with heaps of food every time he leveled up as he had before.

Su Xing let out a breath of hot air.

He touched the area around his dantian and found that the sword there still looked the same as before. None of the energy that had entered him this time had gone into his dantian.

It seemed that—

Only upgrading [Sword Breathing] would allow it to keep growing.

"Once [Draw-Sword Stance] finishes upgrading this time, I still need to make [Sword Breathing] my main upgrade target. At the very least, I need to raise it to Lv. 6 first."

Su Xing muttered to himself.

Upgrading [Stance] this time was meant to make up for a weakness, but he still understood perfectly well that raising [Sword Breathing] was the highest priority.

The more points he invested, the more Su Xing discovered how comprehensive [Sword Breathing] was. It truly was the best choice for investing points.

And besides...

Su Xing was also very curious about what would happen once this sword fully took shape. Could he take it out of his dantian and play around with it?

"Hm?"

Just as Su Xing was thinking about [Sword Breathing], his brow suddenly furrowed.

Someone was watching him.

It was not that Su Xing had noticed someone staring at him. It was purely instinct. That instinct told him someone had been watching his room the entire time.

That gaze—

Did not come from inside the sword hall, but from outside it.

"Who is it?"

Su Xing pretended to have just woken up, rubbed his eyes, then walked over to the window and looked outside. Apart from the shattered moonlight scattered across the ground, he could not see a single figure.

However—

Su Xing's intuition only grew stronger.

His expression immediately turned cold. He took a few strides out of his room, went to the training hall, picked up a heavy sword, and headed outside.

The moment he entered the training hall, the feeling of being watched disappeared briefly. But when Su Xing stepped out of the training hall, it returned once more.

That meant—

The person watching Su Xing was indeed nearby.

Standing outside, Su Xing frowned. He had originally intended to use that feeling to locate the other person, but he suddenly found that the cold, eerie sensation had vanished, as if whoever had been watching him had been distracted by something else.

"What's going on?"

Su Xing waited where he was for quite some time, but the feeling never returned. After thinking it over, he decided to look around from somewhere higher up and see whether he could find the rat hiding in the shadows and peeping at him.

"I hadn't even come looking for you, yet you delivered yourself right to my doorstep."

On a hillside near the sword hall, a man in a black trench coat stared at the woman before him with a wicked grin. He pushed up the thick glasses on his face and spoke flatly.

His name was Lou Zhen. He had originally planned to observe the sword hall from this hillside and see whether there was a suitable opportunity to strike. Yet while watching, he suddenly discovered that this woman had appeared behind him at some unknown time.

If she had been an ordinary person—

He would have killed her on the spot.

She would have been free contribution points delivered right to him. But this woman was different. At a glance, he recognized her as Shen Ruyun, a member of a special organization and Su Yu's personal bodyguard.

She definitely was not someone he could kill in an instant.

"Shouldn't you be sleeping at this hour instead of peeping around out here?" Shen Ruyun brushed aside her loose long hair and said slowly, "Also, are you from the Spirit Cult?"

Her duty was to protect Su Yu.

At a time like this, when anyone with eyes could see the danger, she naturally would not sleep too deeply. The moment Lou Zhen's gaze fell upon her, she had already sensed it.

Her Sequence was wind.

She was especially sensitive to such things.

That was why she had quickly located Lou Zhen.

Shen Ruyun looked at the young man before her, wearing black-rimmed glasses and a black trench coat as he stood bathed in the night breeze. Waves of Sequencer aura no weaker than her own emanated from him, immediately confirming his identity.

"Heh, I am indeed from the Spirit Cult."

Lou Zhen smiled and nodded frankly, as though being a member of the Spirit Cult was something to take pride in.

"But you're not quite accurate enough. I'm the Spirit Cult's strongest assistant priest, Lou Zhen. As long as I kill you and take Su Yu away this time, I'll definitely be promoted to priest."

"What does your promotion have to do with me?"

"If you obediently come back with me, perhaps the law will still spare your life. Otherwise, you will die here today!"

As Shen Ruyun watched him speak so confidently, her willow-leaf brows drew together. Strands of pale cyan energy began gathering around her slender fingers before she slapped directly toward Lou Zhen's head!

Whoosh!

The still air suddenly began accelerating. Shen Ruyun's palm instantly turned completely cyan, accompanied by the sharp howl of the wind.

As someone from the special department—

Shen Ruyun naturally knew what Lou Zhen had done recently and how many people he had killed. Though he looked like a young man, she had no intention of underestimating him. The moment she attacked, she gathered all of her Sequence energy into her palm.

"Heh, too weak."

Lou Zhen sneered. Faced with Shen Ruyun's fierce palm strike, he showed no fear at all. He swung out his right hand and threw a punch at her.

The next instant—

Fist and palm collided!

Boom!

A crisp impact rang out. A ring of pale cyan ripples spread from where fist and palm met, then quickly vanished.

Under the tremendous force—

Shen Ruyun and Lou Zhen were both forced four or five steps back.

Lou Zhen had not even activated his Sequence, while Shen Ruyun had already used her Sequence energy. The balance between them had clearly begun to tip.

However—

A real battle was never that simple.

Fighting sounded simple: whoever was stronger won. Yet it was also incredibly complicated. Beyond obvious hard values such as strength, speed, Sequence rank, and Sequence energy intensity, reaction speed, combat experience, and most importantly, mentality, could all affect the final outcome of a battle.

Seeing that Lou Zhen had not activated his Sequence at all—

Shen Ruyun understood that this man was extremely arrogant.

Originally, she had intended to kill him after a hard battle.

But...

Killing an arrogant person was not so complicated.

Sometimes, if you suddenly attacked with your full strength, he would not even have the chance to reveal his true power before being easily killed.

Shen Ruyun lightly tapped off with her right foot. Her pink sneakers stood out unexpectedly in the darkness as she shot toward Lou Zhen like a cannonball.

Cyan-green Sequence energy surged over her right fist once again.

Seeing Shen Ruyun use the same move again, Lou Zhen's face immediately filled with disdain as he threw another punch in response.

Only—

This time, Shen Ruyun had held something back.

Their fists collided, producing another crisp impact. Shen Ruyun and Lou Zhen both retreated, but as Shen Ruyun fell back, the Sequence energy on her fist suddenly surged through her entire body before finally gathering into a wind blade as large as a person.

The wind blade was barely more than a meter away from Lou Zhen.

There was no way he could dodge it!

Bzzzt!

Accompanied by the sound of slicing, the wind blade slashed through Lou Zhen at tremendous speed. But Lou Zhen was also a battle-hardened Sequencer, and his reaction was just as fast. He shifted his entire body to the right, causing the deadly attack to only sever his left arm.