Routed-A Formidable Enemy Strikes?

The black-clad men stopped in their tracks again, staring blankly at the sword-wielding youth in their midst, who looked like a god and a demon!

In just a few breaths, two more of their Dou Shi leaders had died!

One of them had even been a Nine-Star Dou Shi!

Zhou Changqing gave them no time to stand there stunned. Heavy Sword in hand, he attacked the black-clad leader who had dodged him earlier.

Hiss!

Clang!

Whoosh!

"What are you idiots standing around for? Attack together! I refuse to believe his inner armor can withstand all our attacks!"

The black-clad leader dodged again and again, struggling desperately to hold on, but within seconds, one of his arms was severed!

Enduring the pain, the black-clad leader glared at his stunned companions and roared.

Jolted back to their senses, the black-clad men resumed their attacks, but the terror in their eyes and the trembling hands gripping their blades made it clear that they were afraid.

Their resolve had already crumbled!

The three remaining black-clad Dou Shi leaders were now locked in combat with Zhou Changqing. While dodging the Heavy Sword, they unleashed Dou Techniques against his defensive membrane with all their might, trying to break through.

The other black-clad men, all Dou Zhe, looked for openings to strike whenever Zhou Changqing attacked their leaders.

For a time, a cacophony of clanging rang through the courtyard!

Under the combined assault, the pale golden membrane around Zhou Changqing began to dim, seemingly unable to hold out much longer!

This gave the black-clad men hope, driving them to attack even more furiously.

The three black-clad leaders, in particular, had wised up. They refused to confront Zhou Changqing head-on, using their speed to keep him occupied and create openings for the others.

But they failed to notice that, from the beginning until now, Zhou Changqing's eyes had remained as calm as still water, save for a hint of excitement. There was not a trace of anxiety in them.

Once the dozen or so black-clad men had more or less gathered around him, a sharp gleam flashed through Zhou Changqing's eyes.

The next second, he circulated his Dou Qi and channeled it into the metal-attribute magic core in the Heavy Sword's guard.

The metal-attribute energy within the magic core rapidly flooded the Heavy Sword's core artifact patterns!

In an instant, dazzling golden light enveloped the Heavy Sword!

"Watch out! Dodge!"

The instant that golden light flared, the strongest of the three black-clad leaders, an eight-star Dou Shi, felt his heart shudder as he remembered a crucial function of magic core weapons!

Ranged attacks!

Caught between one shock after another, terror, and renewed hope, they had forgotten that vital detail!

Unfortunately, by the time the black-clad men heard the eight-star Dou Shi's warning, it was too late.

Whoosh!

Splurt! Splurt! Splurt!

"Aaaah!"

A dazzling golden arc of sword energy, roughly five feet long, shot from the Heavy Sword and slashed in one direction!

In an instant, all six or seven black-clad men in its path were sliced in half at the waist by the razor-sharp sword energy!

A chorus of agonized screams followed!

"Run!"

At the sight of such carnage, one of the black-clad men's mental defenses collapsed. He shouted and fled toward the courtyard's exit!

Once someone took the lead, a chain reaction followed. The remaining seven or eight black-clad men raced away in different directions!

This man was a monster!

Their attacks couldn't break his defenses, and one hit from his sword meant death!

There was no fighting him!

Seeing this, Zhou Changqing did not give chase. Instead, he kept the three black-clad leaders firmly tied down, denying them any chance to retreat.

They were merely a bunch of small-fry Dou Zhe. Let them run, so long as these three big fish did not escape.

Damn it! No! I'm not dying here! To hell with this mission!

The one-armed eight-star Dou Shi narrowly dodged a slash from the Heavy Sword. The fear in his eyes deepened as he frantically tried to think of a way to escape!

When he caught sight of the other two black-clad Dou Shi out of the corner of his eye, a plan instantly formed in his mind!

As Zhou Changqing attacked one of the black-clad Dou Shi, the eight-star Dou Shi suddenly lunged at the other!

"I want to live. Sorry!"

His gaze hardened. The eight-star Dou Shi struck swiftly, grabbing his companion with his remaining right hand before hurling him toward Zhou Changqing!

"Steward Pu! What are you doing?"

Splurt!

A terrified cry and the sound of a blade cutting into flesh rang out behind him. The eight-star Dou Shi's heart shuddered, but he raced toward the courtyard wall without looking back!

"You think you can come and go as you please? What do you take this place for?"

Just as the eight-star Dou Shi was about to vault over the wall and escape, a calm voice sounded behind him.

Shhk!

Before he could react, the Heavy Sword pierced straight through his chest!

The black-clad eight-star Dou Shi stiffened. Lowering his head, he stared wide-eyed at the sword tip protruding from the center of his chest, feeling his strength rapidly drain away.

"That... speed... you... aren't... a Dou... Zhe... you're... a Dou... Dou Shi..."

"Spare... spare... me... I can... can... tell you... who..."

Blood seeped from the corners of his mouth as the eight-star Dou Shi begged for mercy in a broken voice.

"Sorry. You should have said that sooner. Go in peace."

Whoosh!

The blade was pulled free. The eight-star Dou Shi shuddered, then crashed to the ground, never to rise again.

Shaking the blood off his sword, Zhou Changqing surveyed the corpses strewn across the courtyard. He felt both a little nauseated and a headache coming on.

"What a hassle. Looks like I'll have to trouble Sister Ya Fei tonight."

"But was this Che'erluo's doing? Six Dou Shi and over a dozen Dou Zhe—that should be almost half his forces, shouldn't it? Sending a lineup like that just to capture me... he really thinks highly of me."

Zhou Changqing might have slaughtered those black-clad men earlier as easily as mowing grass.

But that was only because they did not fully understand his Magic Core Armament, nor did they know he had already broken through to Dou Shi and reached the peak of four-star Dou Shi.

With a force like this, if they had avoided confronting him head-on, he could have killed slightly less than half of them at most before the six Dou Shi wore him down to death.

After all, neither the energy in the magic cores embedded in his Magic Core Armament nor his own Dou Qi was limitless.

Of course, even if they had chosen to wear him down rather than clash with him directly, such a prolonged commotion would eventually have forced them to withdraw.

That was why Zhou Changqing had not been worried.

Ultimately, his Magic Core Armament was simply too absurdly powerful, unlike the other weapons and equipment the Dou Qi Continent had known before.

Second-tier Magic Core Armament alone was enough to let Zhou Changqing, a Dou Shi with a fairly ordinary foundation, fight six Dou Shi and a crowd of Dou Zhe single-handedly.

Such a terrifying increase in combat strength was far more than twofold. It was likely several times over.

Shaking his head, Zhou Changqing stopped dwelling on it and walked toward a black-clad leader nearby, who lay motionless on the ground with both legs severed, seemingly dead.

But before he could take more than a couple of steps—

An inexplicable sense of terror instantly surged from the depths of his soul through his entire body!

"Activate!"

Without the slightest hesitation, the metal attribute Dou Qi throughout Zhou Changqing's body surged wildly. As he reinforced his Dou Qi Veil, he also poured it into another suit of inner armor beneath the one under his clothes!

Clang!!!

Pfft!

Boom!

In an instant, a terrifying force struck. Just as Zhou Changqing managed to activate his defensive membrane, it slammed into his back!

A deafening metallic crash followed, shaking the entire courtyard!

Under that tremendous force, Zhou Changqing hurtled through the air and smashed into the courtyard wall!

The instant Zhou Changqing struck it, the courtyard wall collapsed with a thunderous crash!

Shattered stones flew everywhere as clouds of dust billowed up!