Killing You with a Talisman Would Not Be a Waste

Lu Baizhong stood on a low ridge at the end of the riverbank, one hand on his sword and the other behind his back.

His moon-white long robe remained motionless in the wind, as if even the wind dared not disturb the area three feet around him.

The silver-white longsword at his waist was still sheathed, but faint arcs of electricity were already dancing on the scabbard, the hissing sound mixed with the wind, almost indistinguishable unless one listened carefully.

Then, his indifferent gaze remained unchanged, but the long sword at his waist was already drawn!

The speed at which the sword was drawn was unbelievable.

Even with Chen Lingxi's sharp eyesight, he couldn't even see the gesture of the man drawing his sword; he only felt a sudden flash of light before his eyes.

A pale golden sword light streaked across the sky, slashing toward his throat.

The sword light wasn't particularly thick; it was as thin as a stretched golden thread. Yet, wherever it passed, the air was scorched and burned, and the Void crackled with pale golden lightning, like countless tiny lightning snakes dancing wildly in the Void.

This is an extremely exquisite Qi-Conducting Sword Sutra!

This sword strike came too fast, too suddenly.

Chen Lingxi didn't even have time to draw his sword. He could only push his Golden-Soup Blood Qi to the limit, protect himself with Golden-Body Astral Shield, and stomp his right foot on the river rock, retreating violently backward.

The river rock could not withstand the force of the stomp, and a deep crack appeared in the middle, sending fragments of rock flying everywhere.

The pale golden sword light grazed past Chen Lingxi's chest. Before the blade even reached him, the lightning emanating from the sword had already scorched a black mark on his robe.

The Golden-Body Astral Shield was torn open like paper by the lightning, and a searing pain spread from his chest!

Chen Lingxi a muffled groan, and before he could regain his footing, the second sword had already arrived.

Lu Baizhong remained in the same posture, one hand behind his back, but he slightly twisted his right wrist.

Dozens of fine, pale golden sword lights, as thin as hair, burst forth from the unsheathed longsword, each one incredibly fast, shooting towards Chen Lingxi from all directions.

The sword light intertwined into an impenetrable net of lightning, completely sealing off all his escape routes in all directions.

At that moment, Xi Mu suddenly raised his right hand and clenched his fist in Void.

The mist within a radius of several hundred feet surged and instantly condensed into an ice wall three feet thick and ten feet high in front of Xi Mu's palm.

Dozens of pale golden sword lights struck the ice wall, exploding into a series of dazzling golden-white light.

Ice shards flew like rain, but the sword light was blocked by this ice wall!

The curiosity in Lu Baizhong's eyes finally intensified.

He tilted his head, looking at the ice wall that had condensed from the mist, then glanced at Xi Mu, who stood behind the ice wall with an expressionless face, and suddenly chuckled.

"The Grand Ink Condensing Mist Scripture of Edict Cloud Posthouse?" he muttered to himself, a hint of surprise in his voice, then shook his head. "No, it should be the Mist-Devouring Art from the Xi Family's Whale-Swallowing Method."

As he spoke, he held the long sword horizontally in front of his chest.

The pale golden lightning on the sword suddenly intensified at that moment.

"In that case," Lu Baizhong raised his head, a serious look flashing in his eyes for the first time, "Then cut them all down."

As soon as he finished speaking, he moved with lightning speed, his long sword slashing down with devastating force.

This sword strike was completely different from the previous two.

When the sword was unleashed, the light on the entire riverbank dimmed for a moment.

A beam of pale golden lightning, as thick as a bucket, shot out from the sword, carrying terrifying, world-destroying power, and crashed into the ice wall that Xi Mu had created.

Wherever the lightning passed, the sand and gravel on the riverbank melted under the intense heat, and the reeds turned to ashes before the lightning even reached them. Even the air itself was torn open by a visible vacuum rift!

Chen Lingxi sensed such powerful energy; even though it was an enemy, he still felt that Lu Baizhong, who wielded the Thunder Arts Sword Scripture, was incredibly strong!

He retreated, Xi Mu, like a ghost, protected him in front of him, striking out with both hands and flicking his fingers in quick succession.

A thick fog blanketed the area, layer upon layer, blocking the path of the thunder.

Each spell embodies the full cultivation of a cultivator at the Qi Circulation Sixth Floor, and each one is enough to shatter a martial artist at the Golden Body Perfection into dust.

But before that bolt of lightning, these spells were as fragile as paper.

The lightning shattered through layers of ice barriers, its momentum undiminished, and hurtled straight towards Xi Mu.

Xi Mu's empty face was expressionless. He simply raised his right hand and made a cursory gesture with his five fingers in front of him. A very thin, almost transparent ice membrane silently spread out about a foot in front of him.

The ice membrane appeared fragile, but in reality, it contained most of the remaining spiritual energy in Xi Mu's Qi Sea. Every inch of it had been compressed and condensed hundreds of times, making it far more resilient than the ice walls and shields from before.

The thunderclap struck the ice membrane, finally pausing slightly.

Where the lightning collided with the ice membrane, a dazzling golden-white light erupted. The ice membrane melted at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the remaining lightning, after penetrating the ice membrane, became much thinner. It struck Xi Mu chest, blasting him backward and sending him flying. He crashed heavily into a cliff dozens of feet away, sending rocks tumbling down.

At that moment, Chen Lingxi.

He had kept his knife pressed down, not out of fear, but because he was waiting.

Wait until Lu Baizhong's attention is drawn to Xi Mu, wait until his thunderous attack has lost some of its edge, and wait for an opportunity to get within three zhang of Lu Baizhong!

He drew his sword the instant the lightning exploded.

The moment the Gold-Slaughtering Saber was drawn from its sheath, the pale gold patterns on the blade suddenly blazed brightly, and fine, hair-like bolts of lightning snaked and coiled along the edge.

At the same time, the azure light of the Azure Edge Method clung to the blade, and the Purple True Treasure Aura burst forth from his mouth, causing the Golden-Soup Blood Qi to surge like a tide.

Thunder, cyan light, purple light, and Golden Blood intertwined, condensing on the blade into a nearly tangible four-colored blade!

He pushed the power circulation method of the Mountain-Crushing Force to its limit, alternately activating the Qi and Blood circulation methods of the Sea-Calming Form Stance and Jade-Severing Stance.

The Golden-Soup Blood Qi burst forth from deep within the bones of the body, converging entirely on the right arm.

He shot forward like a cannonball, shattering the river rocks beneath his feet, and hurtled straight toward Lu Baizhong.

The Sixth Form of the Evil-Slaying Saber Method - Fatal Strike!

A flash of light swept across, the four-colored blade drawing a beautiful yet terrifying arc in the air, aimed straight for Lu Baizhong's neck.

Lu Baizhong's brows finally twitched slightly.

He neither retreated nor dodged.

With a gentle turn of his longsword, the pale golden lightning on the blade receded like a tide, replaced by an extremely deep and thick dark aura.

Swords clashed.

Thump!

A dull, muffled thud!

Chen Lingxi felt a terrifying force of recoil coming back from the blade, as if he had struck a mountain.

The force of the Mountain-Crushing Force was completely rebounded, flowing down the blade and into his right arm, causing his tiger's mouth to split open and blood to flow down the hilt.

The Golden-Body Astral Shield flickered violently before this recoil, almost shattering.

The force propelled him backward for more than ten feet, his feet carving two deep furrows in the riverbed before he finally regained his footing.

Lu Baizhong simply lowered his wrist slightly, thus dissipating all the force of the knife strike.

His youthful face, with its rosy lips and white teeth, showed not a trace of strain.

"The difference between the two floors meant that if it weren't for Xi Mu, I wouldn't even have had a chance to draw my sword."

The difference between the Qi Circulation Sixth Floor and the Fourth Floor of Qi Circulation was fully revealed at this moment.

Moreover, Lu Baizhong is no ordinary Qi Circulation Sixth Floor.

His spiritual Killing Power, infused with lightning, was far more powerful than Xi Mu's!

Lu Baizhong looked down at the long sword in his hand, then looked up at Chen Lingxi, and suddenly shook his head.

There was no contempt or mockery in that head-shaking gesture, only a pure and undisguised disappointment.

"Is that all?" he spoke, his voice still clear and melodious like the striking of jade chimes, but his tone was as indifferent as if he were talking about something unrelated to himself. "That person sent me to kill you, and I thought he was some interesting character."

He casually twirled his longsword, the tip pointing diagonally at the ground.

The dark aura had faded from the sword, and pale golden lightning shone brightly again, even more intensely than before.

The lightning spread from his right hand holding the sword to his entire right arm, and then from his right arm to half of his body. From a distance, he looked like a strange statue, half golden lightning and half moon white, standing on the ridge at the end of the riverbank, his robes fluttering and lightning blazing, his power unmatched.

"That's enough," Lu Baizhong said. "The sooner we kill them, the sooner we can go back."

Before he finished speaking, he disappeared.

That's too fast!

So fast that Chen Lingxi's eyesight could only catch a faint golden afterimage streaking through the air, so fast that even Xi Mu's Qi Circulation Sixth Floor perception could barely detect its trajectory.

Lu Baizhong transformed into a human-shaped bolt of lightning, covering a distance of dozens of feet, and in an instant, he had closed to within three feet of Chen Lingxi.

He held his longsword high above his head, the pale golden lightning on the blade shining brightest at that moment.

Even before the sword strike landed, Chen Lingxi already felt the terrifying, world-destroying pressure.

The riverbank beneath his feet trembled, and the fine sand, drawn by the sword's force, floated up from the ground, hovering in Subtle Insight.

The air was distorted and warped by the lightning emanating from the sword, and everything in sight was shaking, trembling, and groaning.

Chen Lingxi a deep breath and instead of retreating, advanced.

He knew he couldn't back down or avoid it.

The force of this sword strike had already locked him firmly in place.

The only chance of survival is to confront Xi Mu head-on.

He held the Gold-Slaughtering Saber horizontally in front of him, his left hand pressing on the back of the blade, and the stream of spiritual liquid in his Qi Sea surged wildly at that moment.

He pushed the Six-Qi True Method to its limit; the spiritual energy roared, surged, and burned.

The azure light of the Azure Edge Method emanated from the blade, even more intense than before.

The Purple True Treasure Aura burst forth from his mouth, condensing into a purple beam of light as thick as an arm, which coiled and flowed around the blade.

The Golden-Soup Blood Qi erupted from deep within his bones, condensing into a Golden-Body Astral Shield several inches thick on his body.

The Mountain-Crushing Force, the momentum of Sea-Calming Form, the Jade-Severing Stance, the Qi-Joining Momentum —all the Qi and Blood circulation methods in the Seven Forms of Ceasing War were activated simultaneously at this moment.

The Golden-Soup Blood Qi in the body, like a volcano that had been suppressed for a long time, finally erupted at this moment.

At the same time, Xi Mu had already crossed the fog and arrived, his body also surging with spiritual energy!

[Mist-Refining Ice Palace].

Using spiritual energy as a guide, all the water vapor and mist within a radius of several hundred feet were drained and condensed into an indestructible ice crystal barrier, which adhered to Chen Lingxi's body like an invisible armor.

He covered every inch of his skin and every vital part with an extremely thin and tough layer of ice crystals.

The instant the Mist-Refining Ice Palace took shape, Thunder-Hiding Sword Light struck down.

Lu Baizhong raised his longsword high and slashed down suddenly.

The golden-white sword shadow, about ten feet long, fell like a real thunderbolt from the heavens, slashing down at Chen Lingxi.

Where the sword flashed, a visible crack was torn in the sky, its edges gleaming with a blinding golden-white light. The air was thick with a scorching aura, as if the heavens and earth themselves had been burned with an unhealable wound by this sword.

The sword's shadow slashed at the Mist-Refining Ice Palace.

In that instant, the world fell silent.

All sound disappeared.

Immediately afterwards, a terrifying shockwave exploded from the point where the sword and ice clashed, sweeping out in all directions.

The sand and gravel on the riverbank were stirred up by the air currents, and the surface of the Yuan River not far away was pressed down by the air currents, sinking several feet, and the river water flowed back, stirring up towering white waves.

The Mist-Refining Ice Palace trembled violently before the sharp edge of the sword light.

But it didn't break in the end.

The Mist-Refining Ice Palace, Movement Method that Xi Mu condensed with all his cultivation at the Qi Circulation Sixth Floor, withstood the sharpest moment of Thunder-Hiding Sword Light!

Most of the lightning sword shadows were swallowed, melted, and dissolved by this ice barrier; only less than 20% of the remaining power penetrated the ice layer and struck Chen Lingxi.

Even this less than 30% of the residual power struck Chen Lingxi as if she had been struck by lightning.

He felt a burning force pouring into his chest.

The Golden-Body Astral Shield shattered in less than half a breath before being struck by this power, scattering golden light in all directions.

That scorching power pierced through the protective barrier, through the skin, through the ribs, and poured straight into his internal organs.

His body was blasted backward by the force, like a kite with a broken string, tumbling countless times in the air before crashing heavily into a pile of rocks at the end of the riverbank.

Chen Lingxi struggled to lift her head and looked towards Lu Baizhong on the other side of the riverbank.

Lu Baizhong remained standing on that ridge, motionless.

The longsword in his hand had returned to its original silvery-white color, and the layer of pale golden lightning on the blade had completely dissipated, leaving only a few extremely fine and faint arcs of electricity jumping at the tip of the sword.

For the first time, a faint look of surprise appeared on his youthful face, which was rosy-cheeked and had white teeth.

"It actually managed to block one of my swords." He tilted his head, his gaze first falling on Chen Lingxi, then shifting to Xi Mu, who had broken free from the cliff not far away, his body charred black but still gathering magic. A playful smile suddenly appeared on his lips.

"It's a pity." He shook his head gently, his tone carrying a genuine sense of regret. "You can't play with me any longer."

Chen Lingxi struggled to his feet from the pile of rocks, his right hand still gripping the hilt of the Gold-Slaughtering Saber tightly.

But his eyes were calm, showing neither fear nor hesitation.

His gaze traveled over a distance of several dozen feet, landing on Lu Baizhong's nonchalant young face, and then on Lu Baizhong's right hand clasped behind his back.

The fingers of that hand were casually tapping the back of its hand, one tap after another, as if counting some extremely boring rhythm.

Chen Lingxi suddenly understood.

From beginning to end, Lu Baizhong never used his full strength. Those sword lights, that thunderclap, and even that Thunder-Hiding Thunder Sword were all just casual moves he made.

It's like an adult playing with a child; they seem to be fighting back and forth, but in reality, the adult isn't even using 30% of their strength.

He was just playing around.

Chen Lingxi took a deep breath.

He originally thought that with Xi Mu, who was at the same level as Lu Baizhong at the Qi Circulation Sixth Floor, plus his many other strengths, even if he couldn't defeat Xi Mu, he could still escape from his hands.

But now it seems... even within the same realm, there are strong and weak, and the gap between them is enormous.

"Fine, killing you with a talisman won't be a waste!"

Chen Lingxi's spiritual energy surged, and she raised her head to meet Lu Baizhong's gaze.

The spiritual energy flowed into the talisman he wore close to his body!

The Qi began to spread.

Lu Baizhong's pupils contracted slightly.

The talisman had not been fully activated; in just an instant, the world changed.

In that instant, the world changed color.

The Yuan River suddenly reversed course, a tornado appeared in the Void, and spiritual energy fluctuated wildly!

Lu Baizhong's expression finally changed.

"They actually have something to rely on?"

Lu Baizhong gritted his teeth, and lightning rose from his body in the blink of an eye, revealing a small mark between his eyebrows.

Faced with this Xi Yu Talisman, Lu Baizhong also had to show his true strength!

only...

The world suddenly changed!

Suddenly, a terrifying surge of Qi and Blood erupted from the distance!