Ning Duanjiang, Ning Canghe, Meng Qianyue, and Meng Zhenshan-all four Organ-Nourishing Realm experts were dead.
Lu Chen stood among the corpses and slowly drew back his right fist.
Scarlet-gold blood energy still wreathed his body, golden flames burning silently against his skin. The phantom of the Three-Legged Golden Crow behind him had yet to fade. The scorching winds sweeping through the mountain pass seemed to fall under some unseen suppression as they passed him, parting to either side.
Not far away, dozens of warriors from Green Prefecture stood frozen.
They were experts from the Ning and Meng families who had come from the other mountain passes after receiving the signal. Even the weakest was in the Sinew-Piercing Realm, while those standing at the front ranked among the finest Bone-Forging Realm warriors of the two families.
Yet now, not one dared step forward.
They stared at the four corpses on the ground, then at Lu Chen, bathed in scarlet-gold flames. The ferocity they had shown during the encirclement was gone from their faces, leaving only terror they could not conceal.
"Elder Ning and the two Meng elders... they're all dead?"
A Ning warrior's voice trembled, his Adam's apple bobbing as he swallowed with difficulty. He could not believe that four Organ-Nourishing Realm experts had joined forces to hunt a single Bone-Forging Realm warrior, only for the four elders to end up dead.
The first few to arrive had witnessed the final battle with their own eyes.
The two Meng elders had worked together almost flawlessly, one attacking and the other defending, yet Lu Chen had still crushed them head-on. Most terrifying of all, Lu Chen had caught Meng Zhenshan's desperate final hammer strike with one hand, then killed him with a single punch.
That sight had utterly shattered their will to