Why Aren't You Laughing Anymore? Don't You Like Laughing?

"Senior brother, save me!"

He cried to the black-robed figure for help, but it was already too late.

Li Yang's sword entered through the Baihui point at the crown of his head and emerged from the Huiyin point between his legs.

His entire body was split down the middle, his soul instantly shredded by killing intent and sword intent of terrifying sharpness.

Li Yang liked killing this way.

After years of dealing with fiends, he knew that decapitation did not always kill them instantly, and a severed neck would spray copious amounts of blood.

This method avoided that. With the arteries and heart severed simultaneously, blood pressure instantly dropped to zero, leaving no spray.

Blood simply flowed quietly from the cut surfaces of the Puppet-Crafting Evil Cultivator, like water from a toppled bucket.

With practiced ease, he stripped away all the man's cultivation resources, then burned everything clean with a fireball.

From the killing to the burning, the entire process took no more than a single breath.

Once again, he charged with his sword.

"Sir, you've already killed my junior brother. Why must you insist on fighting to the death?" the black-robed figure asked darkly.

"No, no, no!" Li Yang corrected her. "The evil he committed was his own. The evil you committed belongs to you.

"Besides, your desires have been satisfied. Shouldn't mine be satisfied too?"

"Damned Sword Maniac!"

Barely a moment later-

Li Yang set his sights on the bloodthirsty female cultivator, but she decisively attacked the burly man instead.

A cloud of blood mist engulfed his body.

"Better a fellow Daoist dies than this poor Daoist. Fellow Daoist Jiang, I'm sorry!"

"You bitch!"

The burly man had no choice but to turn around.

He was powerful and had ample combat experience.

But against Li Yang, he was quickly dragged into a fight pushed to its absolute limits.

It was a life-for-life exchange, a style of fighting that decided life and death in the shortest possible time.

In that struggle, he only managed to deploy a single trump card before Li Yang drove a sword between his brows and shredded his head.

Seeing Li Yang kill enemies above his realm as easily as eating and drinking, the black-robed figure and the bloodthirsty female cultivator, who had thought they had escaped death's jaws, felt their hearts turn cold.

"I've heard that a Qi Refining sword cultivator has appeared within the Great Qian Dynasty in recent years, specifically hunting people like us. It must be him!"

"A pity! If Demon Scion Gu Zang were here, how could he be allowed to act so arrogantly?"

"Enough talk," the black-robed figure said after a moment's thought. "You cultivate the Blood River Path. Hurry up and use your blood escape!"

The bloodthirsty female cultivator looked troubled.

"I've only just begun to master it. I'm not proficient yet. You have to buy me time."

Gritting her teeth, the black-robed figure turned and unleashed all her human puppets, including three at the Foundation Establishment Realm.

"You've gone too far! But I'm not someone you can slaughter as you please!"

Yet the magical battle she had imagined never occurred.

Li Yang did not play by the usual rules at all.

This was not his first time dealing with puppet-crafting Heretic Cultivators. He refused to get tangled up with the human puppets, aiming his sword straight at the black-robed figure.

"Stop him!"

The black-robed figure formed sinister hand seals and activated a Soul Banner, releasing hundreds of vicious ghosts to attack.

Li Yang had his own method for dealing with Soul-Refining Banners, too.

He immediately pulled a blazing golden jade sphere from his Storage Bag, hurled it forward, and detonated it-

Boom!

This was a disposable Spirit Artifact Li Yang had commissioned, capable of instantly unleashing a blast of supremely yang, unyielding energy.

The nearby ghosts instantly evaporated, while the rest recoiled in terror from the yang energy.

Clang!

His sword sang. With a single strike, Li Yang cut down two Foundation Establishment human puppets.

Nothing else stood between him and the black-robed figure.

"Meet your death!"

After killing three people in succession, the killing intent in Li Yang's eyes burned even fiercer.

His sword grew more powerful as well, for his killing intent became ever more terrifying with each kill.

The reason he could so easily kill enemies above his realm was precisely that he had killed enough. The sword intent attached to his attacks could pierce through their defenses.

"You lunatic!"

Usually, she was the one who brought terror to others. Even ordinary cultivators gave her a wide berth.

After all, Heretic Cultivators were ruthless, and their methods chilled people to the bone.

Yet now, facing Li Yang, she too felt fear taking root.

Clang-crack!

A single sword strike left a crack in her shield.

Only now did the black-robed figure personally experience Li Yang's utterly terrifying offensive power.

People always said sword cultivators were unrivaled in offense. She had never believed it before, but now she had no choice.

Clang-boom!

Another sword strike landed, shattering the shield outright and sending the black-robed figure flying.

"It's ready!"

Just then-

The bloodthirsty female cultivator shouted, her entire body beginning to turn into blood mist.

Delighted, the black-robed figure immediately activated a precious Five-Element Escape Talisman and escaped toward her.

"Heh heh heh! You can't kill me!"

She merged into the blood mist and let out a sinister laugh.

"You think you're the only one with an escape talisman?"

Li Yang followed close behind, activating an escape talisman and appearing just outside the blood mist.

Gripping his sword with both hands, he poured liquefied spiritual power into the blade in a wild surge.

He raised it above his head, then brought it down with savage force-

After reaching the pinnacle of Qi Refining, Li Yang's strength had increased tremendously.

He unleashed an enormous slash radiating the crimson yang attribute, further empowered by razor-sharp killing intent.

That single stroke cut away nearly half the black-robed figure's body and slammed her heavily into the ground.

The blood mist churned violently as well.

What a powerful blood escape! That woman must be a prodigy of the Blood River Path. Li Yang could no longer sense her life force or killing intent, so she had clearly abandoned the black-robed figure and fled alone.

What he did not know, however, was that the wildly churning blood mist was not normal at all. There was far too much of it. His sword had struck her squarely and turned her into blood mist.

"Go on, laugh! Why aren't you laughing anymore? Don't you like laughing?" Li Yang landed.

He plunged his sword into the black-robed figure's chest, and the killing intent in the blade made her howl in agony.

"Don't... don't kill me! I'm willing to serve you as my master! I have secrets! I know lots of secrets! Spare me, and I'll do anything!" The black-robed figure revealed her true face. She was, in fact, an ugly woman.

"I don't need that. I was just curious whether people who treat others with such cruelty show the same fear as ordinary people when facing their own deaths." Li Yang shook his head. "Now I know the answer."

Li Yang had already planted his foot on her head. Her skull cracked under the unbearable pressure.

"Demon Scion Gu Zang and the others are going to intervene in the matter of that person from the Ning Lineage..."

Before she could finish, however, Li Yang's foot had already stamped all the way down.

That ugly head burst like a watermelon dropped onto the ground.

Before she died, she confirmed one thing: this Sword Maniac truly had no interest in the affairs of Yongning Commandery. He was only interested in killing her.

"Junior brother! Are you all..." Ning Xinyao hurried over. At the sight, the words caught in her throat like a fishbone, and she swallowed them back down.

She was beginning to understand why their master valued this ninth junior brother so highly.

With cultivation at the pinnacle of Qi Refining, he had easily killed four Heretic Cultivators at the Foundation Establishment Realm.

Such a feat could be called peerless anywhere!

After all, Heretic Cultivators were the hardest opponents to deal with, their methods sinister and heedless of consequences.

So why had they become so easy to kill in this junior brother's hands?

Sensing the terrifying killing intent surging from Li Yang, she momentarily could not tell who the villain really was.

"Junior brother, Junior Sister Shen Lou'er..."

Li Yang finished looting the black-robed woman's corpse and glanced at her. "Senior sister, you really do talk a lot."