A Halberd Across the Sky

Ruthless watched coldly as the assassins under his command were cut down one after another by Liu Qingni. His gray eyes seemed devoid of emotion as he merely clenched one hand!

Every corpse lying on the ground exploded with a bang.

The Green Plague Corpse-Explosion Poison spread in an instant. Wherever it passed, towering ancient trees withered at once, while the grass and plants across the ground rotted and oozed pus.

Rather than panic at the sight, the remaining Lovesickness Tower assassins revealed fanatical expressions and charged forward instead.

They used their own flesh and blood to build a human wall, sealing off Liu Qingni's routes of advance and retreat.

Some went even further!

They drew their blades and slit their own throats, throwing their corpses into the rolling poisonous mist like fuel added to a fire, causing the poison fog to surge in density and its corrosive power to grow ever more terrifying.

Liu Qingni was instantly plunged into grave danger!

"What a pack of madmen!" Su Qingyang said, slightly surprised.

The next moment, his figure vanished from where he stood. When he reappeared, he was already carrying Liu Qingni back onto the branch of the ancient tree.

Such a movement!

Took no more than an instant!

It was as though separate photographs had leaped from one frame to the next!

There was simply no way to catch his path of movement.

Liu Qingni landed on the thick branch, her chest heaving violently, undisguised lingering fear still in her eyes.

"Their methods are so vicious... I never expected these Lovesickness Tower assassins to be so utterly careless of their own lives." She suppressed her ragged breathing, her voice heavy.

"I fear every assassin here had taken the Green Plague Corpse-Explosion Poison beforehand."

"With this kind of fighting style, where they perish together with their enemy, even if they succeeded in their assassination today, they would still certainly die themselves."

Liu Qingni's tone was grave. Though she had been prepared for the poisonous mist, she had never imagined Lovesickness Tower would be this insane.

These assassins had, to some extent, even extinguished their instinct to survive. Compared to ordinary death warriors who did not begrudge their lives, they were several times more cold-blooded and terrifying.

Assassins like these!

How could they not make one's blood run cold?

"To hire assassins of this sort, who exactly is the target?" Su Qingyang said gloomily. "I fear that everyone living outside who has been identified as the Sixth Prince is their target for slaughter."

Frost covered Liu Qingni's lovely face as she tightened her grip on the black sword. She had thought of that possibility as well.

"Su Chang'an has cultivated his power in the Imperial Capital for many years. Too many people have placed their bets on him. Some do not want him dead, and he himself would never be willing to watch power fall into another's hands."

"Heh! It seems the position of prince truly is irresistibly tempting!" Su Qingyang chuckled softly.

Below them, the miserable green poisonous fog churned and rolled, sweeping toward the ancient tree along the slope. Hundreds of dead eyes on the ground locked tightly onto the two figures atop the branch, killing intent surging like a tide.

Su Qingyang merely raised an arm and flicked his sleeve.

In an instant, a violent gale erupted, sweeping through the entire mountain forest.

The surging airflow seemed capable of shaking heaven and earth. The turbulent green mist was caught and torn apart by the gale, all of it swept into the distance, unable to approach the ancient tree by even an inch.

When Ruthless, who had remained icy and indifferent all along, saw this, his gray pupils suddenly contracted, his face filled with disbelief.

"Leave the rest to me!" Su Qingyang could no longer be bothered with them. With a turn of his palm, a pitch-black heavy halberd appeared in his hand.

The Black God Halberd appeared!

The long halberd stretched across the sky as vast, boundless blood energy surged upward and poured down. A crimson column of haze shot into the air and spread across the heavens like red clouds veiling the entire firmament.

Su Qingyang took one step forward and actually stood in midair, towering above the mountain forest.

"Die!"

The long halberd swept across the sky, tearing through space as it cleaved forward.

Blood energy surged like sunlight, spreading layer upon layer, like tides rolling through a sea of clouds, crashing down upon every assassin below.

"Run!"

The fighting spirit in the hearts of those Lovesickness Tower assassins, who had feared neither death nor danger, shattered at that moment.

Even though they had long prepared to perish together with their enemy, when faced with such terrifying power, all that remained in their hearts was the instinct to flee.

Because to mortal beings, this was an irresistible natural catastrophe!

The Black God Halberd, wreathed in terrifying blood energy, smashed down in a single strike!

Splat!

Heaven and earth flashed bright for an instant, then dimmed into darkness once more!

As that halberd descended, its snow-bright blade erupted with a hundred zhang of sharp radiance. Wherever it passed, everything was blasted into flying ash. The dark forest and towering ancient trees were reduced to cinders in an instant.

The ashes drifted down like fluttering black snow.

Su Qingyang's figure emerged in midair, casually holding the Black God Halberd in his right hand as he stood there.

The air froze for a moment.

"Gulp..."

Liu Qingni swallowed with difficulty. Her right hand, which gripped the black longsword, was trembling uncontrollably.

At that moment, as far as the eye could see!

The Lovesickness Tower assassins who had surged in like a tide moments ago had vanished completely. Corpses, poisonous mist—everything had been wiped from existence.

They had evaporated without leaving a trace.

Even the mountain beneath them had been split open by that single halberd strike, leaving behind a gorge of immense depth. The entire peak seemed to have been cleaved in two!!

Wild winds roared out through the rift, faintly forming a sweeping storm.

The rocks touched by the blood energy seemed to have their very light melted away as they burned, leaving behind a lava-like crimson glow before turning to ash in an instant.

From afar, it was enough to make one's heart tremble!

Grandmaster! A Grandmaster!

Liu Qingni took a deep breath and closed her eyes, concealing the tremor in them!

Could the power of a Grandmaster truly reach such heights?

She had never seen a Martial Dao Grandmaster make a move, but having lived in the Imperial Capital, she had heard vague descriptions of Grandmasters' strength.

Yet now, she felt that even a Martial Dao Grandmaster, no matter how terrifying, could not be much more fearsome than this!

If she possessed such power, could she break free of her shackles, truly escape the cage, and roam freely between heaven and earth?

A wild tide surged through Liu Qingni's heart.

Seeing Su Qingyang's power with her own eyes once more nearly gave her the urge to kneel in worship. It also made her more certain than ever that she had to cling tightly to Su Qingyang's thigh.

"The Black God Halberd did not disappoint me. It managed to bear part of my power."

Naturally, Su Qingyang had no idea what Liu Qingni was thinking. He was still marveling at the Black God Halberd's sturdiness. With a turn of his palm, he put away the heavy halberd and drew his blood energy back into his body.

Just then, a faint glint flashed past, like sunlight reflecting off an object.

Su Qingyang's gaze sharpened as he looked toward the place where Ruthless had died. He had been vaporized into ash by the terrifying aftershock of blood energy.

The heat raised by that halberd strike had been far too high.

Yet even under such power, something had still survived.

This piqued Su Qingyang's interest. He beckoned with one hand, and two strange objects shaped like gray pupils flew over and landed in his palm.

Su Qingyang could not tell what use they had. After thinking for a moment, he simply drove a thread of blood energy into them.

Crack!

With a soft sound, something like a seal on the surface of the objects shattered. The two gray pupils bloomed with light, spreading out a curtain of illumination.

Within it, images continuously flickered.

Su Qingyang's expression turned solemn, and he immediately called Liu Qingni over.

The two of them looked toward the light screen together, and both their expressions darkened.

What the screen replayed was the entire process of the battle at the wooden stockade—the poisonous mist surrounding them, and his halberd splitting the mountain.

"What is this?" Su Qingyang asked, turning the gray pupil-shaped objects in his hand.

Liu Qingni furrowed her delicate brows and pondered for a long while before saying, "It should be one of the Strange Relics spoken of in the martial world."

So-called Strange Relics were not ordinary weapons or pills, but unusual treasures formed from heaven and earth's spiritual energy, special phenomena, or cultivators' unique cultivation techniques.

Each possessed its own unique supernatural ability.

Some could store objects, some could transmit voices, and some could record images or spy upon traces.

These Strange Relics were scarce in the world and impossible to purchase even with money. Most were controlled by the top sects, the Secret Bureau, or the royal treasury.

"A Lovesickness Tower assassin carried a Strange Relic capable of recording images. It seems the person behind this assassination intended to watch the entire process."

Liu Qingni's voice turned cold.

Su Qingyang rolled the gray pupils in his hand as he silently pondered.

At that moment, dense footsteps came from the distant mountain forest.

A large group surged over from afar. A middle-aged figure dressed like a scholar emerged from the woods, stepping on flying leaves as he leaped lightly and swiftly through the air.

He seemed to glide across the void, reaching them in the blink of an eye.

Liu Qingni immediately became vigilant, holding her black sword across her body as she took him for another enemy.

The middle-aged man arrived before them with a cold, arrogant expression. He was about to say something when he suddenly saw the terrifying fissure in the ground.

Those marks had nearly torn the entire mountain apart!

The middle-aged man froze where he stood. Was it still too late for him to turn back?

But Su Qingyang looked toward him, and a terrifying aura instantly pressed down on him like a mountain.

Thud!

The middle-aged man immediately went with the flow and dropped to his knees. Trembling, he shouted, "The Black Cloud Sect Master, together with the entire sect, welcomes the Grandmaster's arrival!!"

There was no need for any hesitation!

No need for any doubt!

Other than a Martial Dao Grandmaster of legend, he could think of no second person in the world capable of splitting mountains and cleaving seas, creating such a terrifying scene.