Blade Light

"You were given so much time. I thought you might come up with some trick, but it was still the same old routine!"

A detached voice rang out without warning!

Hua Xiaomeng was startled!

She immediately tried to pull back and retreat!

Yet...

Her toes had just touched the ground!

Squelch!

A crimson longsaber twelve or thirteen meters long seemed to descend from beyond the heavens, piercing straight through her petite body.

It hoisted her into the air.

"I'm curious—what gave you the nerve to attack me? Did the people who fled back earlier not make it clear..."

"How strong I am?"

Su Qingyang spoke blandly. Bone-piercing cold swept over her like the frigid wind of Nine Nether, making Hua Xiaomeng feel as though she had fallen into an icy abyss.

"You damned... big brother!"

Cold sweat the size of beans dripped from Hua Xiaomeng's forehead.

Pain and humiliation intertwined, stirring a hint of sickly excitement within this Crescent-Moon Rank assassin.

Su Qingyang swept out an arm. The fearsome crimson longsaber on his right arm gave a resonant hum, about to split Hua Xiaomeng down the middle.

But in the next instant, Hua Xiaomeng suddenly burst apart in an eerie fashion, turning into a cloud of blood mist.

She slipped free from the crimson longsaber in a flash, darted a hundred meters away, then gathered herself once more into the form of that delicate young girl.

"Big brother really is ruthless!" Hua Xiaomeng licked the blood from the corner of her lips, making her appear all the more vivid and alluring.

"But unfortunately... you were too arrogant. You knew the noodles were poisoned, yet you still dared to eat them. You were simply courting death."

"With such a large dose of Cultivation-Destroying Powder, even a martial grandmaster's true qi would be shackled."

"How much of your strength do you have left now?"

Hua Xiaomeng giggled. Then, her gaze turned ruthless as she gave the order.

"What are you waiting for?"

"Attack together. Surround and kill him, wear him down, and capture him for me."

Having received the order, the many assassins hesitated no longer.

In an instant, densely packed figures rushed at Su Qingyang and Liu Qingni like blazing meteors.

Surging Sha Qi rose into the sky!

Several Houtian experts also sprang into action, their blades and swords flashing as they cast a net that covered heaven and earth!

Yet in the next instant...

The many charging assassins suddenly saw a flash of light before their eyes!

A saber qi like a crimson dragon crashed forth. Wherever it passed, at least a hundred assassins were struck by the slash.

Those hit did not even have time to spurt blood before the blade light ground them directly into flying ash.

The ashes drifted down like falling snow!

"Ridiculous!" Su Qingyang remained indifferent. How could ordinary poison possibly harm a Blood Refining Grandmaster? His internal organs were like a furnace; poison could only become nourishment.

He swung his saber!

The crimson longsaber casually swept sideways. The bodies of the foremost assassins were severed at the waist, their broken remains and scattered fragments rolling across the ground.

It was like a cat playing with mice.

Su Qingyang merely swung his saber normally!

Yet swathes of assassins fell like wheat stalks awaiting the sickle. One Houtian assassin's eyes nearly split with rage as he desperately circulated his inner force, trying to block the horizontally sweeping longsaber.

But the crimson longsaber was too fast!

The instant they met!

The weapon raised to block it melted and shattered at once. The gleaming blade swept through his body, carving open half of him from shoulder to waist.

The gap was simply too vast.

Even if Su Qingyang relied only on his own physical strength, the speed and force with which he swung that longsaber were not something any martial artist below grandmaster could withstand.

One step apart, yet as distant as the ends of the earth.

A hundred meters away, Hua Xiaomeng's eyelids twitched violently.

All her previous cunning composure vanished without a trace, replaced by towering terror!

Judging from that level of speed and strength... why did she feel as though he were a grandmaster?!

What was going on?!

Why had that damned Shadow not told her?!

If she had known sooner, would she have dared to provoke a grandmaster even in her wildest daydreams?

"Since you are merely a group of small fry, there is no need to continue wasting time here."

Su Qingyang said lightly, then suddenly vanished from where he stood.

Seeing Su Qingyang disappear in an instant, Hua Xiaomeng's eyes filled with deep terror. Without even looking back, she began fleeing madly.

An indescribable crisis of death enveloped her soul, giving her the absurd sensation of falling into hell!

A point of crimson blade light appeared at some unknown moment!

Then endless blade lights gathered together, transforming into an ocean of blade light churning with chilling killing intent, as though a tiny sun had suddenly risen from the ground!

Everything within a hundred zhang became an unending purgatory.

Time seemed to stop!

In the instant of a blink, the air silently split apart with a ripping sound, followed by layer upon layer of thread-thin blade light.

It filled the space for a hundred zhang around.

Only after an entire breath did the blade light finally recede.

Not until there was no trace of light left in sight!

Did Liu Qingni hurriedly look forward. She saw every Lovesickness Tower assassin in the field standing rigidly in place, frozen in the various postures they had held while charging, blocking, and fleeing!

None of them moved.

What was happening?

What had happened?

Liu Qingni felt only a wave of eerie unease!

At that moment, Su Qingyang's figure slowly emerged. The crimson longsaber gave a soft cry. He frowned slightly, and with a thought, drew it back into his body.

"Young master..." Liu Qingni stepped forward, just about to call out!

Then she saw a sight she would never forget for the rest of her life.

Without any warning, countless dense, overlapping saber marks appeared across the bodies of several thousand Lovesickness Tower assassins.

Their flesh, blood, tendons, bones—all were shattered by thousands upon thousands of blade lights. Their once-upright bodies resembled building blocks pieced together, or fine sand that would crumble at a squeeze.

A gentle breeze drifted through the market, soft as a tender palm lightly brushing across it.

Several thousand figures collapsed and scattered all at once.

The entire ground was covered in fine gray-white ash. The market that had been bustling with voices moments ago now held only remnants upon the ground—not a single living soul remained.

The world suddenly fell into an eerie silence.

"There's still one little ant trying to run away!"

Su Qingyang glanced in the direction Hua Xiaomeng had fled, smiled softly, and vanished from the spot once again.

Leaving only his voice to drift down beside Liu Qingni's ear,

"Miss Liu, wait for me a moment. I'll be back in no time!"

In the distance, Hua Xiaomeng's eyes were bloodshot. That blade-sea purgatory had terrified her out of her wits, and she fled for her life with every ounce of strength she possessed.

She immediately swallowed a crimson pill.

As the pill entered her stomach, even her eyes turned scarlet, and her fleeing speed surged severalfold in an instant.

"A grandmaster... that man truly is a martial grandmaster..."

"Why... how could this be..."

Endless terror and incomprehensible emotions filled her mind, throwing her thoughts into utter chaos and nearly causing her to suffer qi deviation.

Suddenly!

She stopped running.

Panic surfaced on Hua Xiaomeng's exquisite little face. What was she doing?

She had actually tried to escape before a grandmaster.

Terror had robbed her of her senses, making her do something so laughable.

"I don't want to die... My lord, spare my life!"

There was nothing behind her, yet she could not control herself as she fell to her knees and begged for mercy, her voice trembling.

Slap!

A warm, large hand gently settled on Hua Xiaomeng's little head.

"You are a bit smarter than I expected." Su Qingyang smiled softly, like a warm and kindly elder brother next door soothing a frightened little sister.

"My lord, I am still useful! I know many of Lovesickness Tower's secrets..."

Hua Xiaomeng's entire body stiffened. Her scalp went numb, and her delicate body trembled.

"Oh?"

"Then do you know anything about your Lovesickness Tower master?" Su Qingyang asked. He was quite curious about this mysterious master of Lovesickness Tower.