Slaughter

"Game time? You actually called this game time?" A force faintly threatened to burst from the Smiling Old Man's body. "Your grandpa's egg! I have roamed the world, and who has not feared me? Even emperors would tremble at the mention of my name, yet this brat says I am playing a game with him."

Did he think he had come to be his nanny? Game time—damn it. The Smiling Old Man had originally thought he had seen through Ren Jie, but he had not expected this brat to...

"Your grandpa's egg! You brat are deliberately trying to provoke me, hoping to learn more from me. Aren't you afraid I'll kill you?" As he spoke, the Smiling Old Man suddenly retracted every trace of his aura. Though he stood there, in that instant, it was as if he did not exist. There was no killing intent whatsoever, yet it gave off an even more terrifying feeling.

An assassin—a being who truly existed for the purpose of killing.

"If you can come and go freely even in the Ren Family, killing me would be easy enough." Ren Jie's heart sank as well, because this feeling was truly unpleasant, as if Death had already fixed its gaze upon him and the King of Hell had passed judgment on him. He did not deny that his words had deliberately provoked the Smiling Old Man in hopes of gaining more information, but he did not say much else either. He walked straight up to the Smiling Old Man and stuffed the Profound Yin Sword case into his hands. "A bet is a bet. Come on, let's begin. Don't you want to experience what it feels like to repair a High-Grade Spirit Artifact?"

"Your grandpa's egg..." The Smiling Old Man instantly returned to normal, becoming a living, breathing person again as he cursed in anger.

Then he looked at the Profound Yin Sword in his hand and cursed, "What the hell is there to repair? The moment it is opened, the Yin Sha energy will immediately scatter. This thing does more harm than good—throw it as far away as you can, and the sooner the better. Besides, while I know a little about artifact refinement, I am only somewhat better than those refiners who forge ordinary iron. At best, I can barely be called a mid-level spirit artifact refiner. At my strongest, I only relied on my power and good materials to forcibly refine a Middle-Grade Spirit Tool. Repairing this thing is ten times harder than refining one from scratch. Even a Top-Tier Spirit Artifact Refiner would have no way..."

"A bet is a bet. Why so much nonsense? Do what I say. Otherwise, how can this be called the moment to witness a miracle?" Ren Jie waved his hand, telling the Smiling Old Man to stop talking and quickly do as instructed.

Another "a bet is a bet" suppressed the anger that had been about to erupt from the Smiling Old Man again. Fine. You father and son are both damn impressive.

I have already explained it clearly. I would like to see how you, brat, can repair a High-Grade Spirit Artifact that has already failed in refinement. You really think you are capable of everything? If you can repair a High-Grade Spirit Artifact at your age and become a Celestial Artifact Refiner capable of refining a Transcendent Treasure, then you are a hundred times greater than your father.

"Before opening the seal, first use mana to condense a formation, then temper it with your Natal True Flame. Since this is an almost-completed High-Grade Spirit Artifact, there is no need to refine it separately. The first things to control are these: first, the Yin Sha energy absolutely cannot be allowed to disperse. It must remain at its strongest state. During refinement..." Ren Jie did not want to waste time and had already begun directing the Smiling Old Man.

Although Ren Jie's major realm had improved again, he had only taken a small step forward. In artifact refinement, he could not actually see through even a High-Grade Spirit Artifact. However, because he had specifically comprehended the repair method for the Profound Yin Sword during the Five Great Sages' discussion of the Dao, the most detailed repair method for the Profound Yin Sword was now in his mind.

As Ren Jie guided him step by step, the Smiling Old Man moved with incredible speed, completing each requirement Ren Jie gave him.

Gradually, around the Smiling Old Man's body, the Yin Fiend Power within the Profound Yin Sword was drawn out and formed a unique circulation. It felt like performing an organ transplant on a living person. Once a trachea left the body, it would die. The Profound Yin Sword was one step away from completion but could not be finished, and it was in precisely such a state. While sealed, it still gave off fluctuations at the level of a Middle-Grade Spirit Tool; once opened, it would die.

Ren Jie's first step was to have the Smiling Old Man use his formidable power to gradually circulate the sealed Yin Fiend Power, allowing the Profound Yin Sword to remain in a sealed state even after it was opened, preventing it from collapsing at once. Only then could further alterations be made.

What followed were complex internal alterations. Since the Profound Yin Sword had been ruined in refinement, there had to be many errors in the refining process. Anyone daring to refine a High-Grade Spirit Artifact could not be too incompetent, so such errors were extremely subtle and difficult to find. Without a realm far higher than theirs, it was simply impossible to discover them. This was one major reason why repair was harder than refining anew. Yet Ren Jie clearly knew where the problems lay and directly instructed the Smiling Old Man to correct them.

After only a few points had been modified, the aura of the Profound Yin Sword had already changed. Ren Jie then had the Smiling Old Man continue refining it and repair its other aspects.

Details—ever smaller details, details that even Top-Tier Spirit Artifact Refiners would struggle to notice. It was these tiny details that had ultimately caused the failure of the Profound Yin Sword's refinement, and now Ren Jie had found even those flawed places. Only minute corrections were needed; there was no need to add any other materials.

Time passed bit by bit. At first, the Smiling Old Man had found it amusing, thinking that this brat truly did not know his own weight, fantastically dreaming of repairing a ruined High-Grade Spirit Artifact. But gradually, he himself became deeply immersed in it.

Ren Jie was merely telling him what to do. Ren Jie had not yet reached this realm; although he could explain things in great detail, he did not truly know how to perform them. But the Smiling Old Man was different.

So the repair power could be controlled this way. It was simply miraculous.

The Natal True Flame could actually be controlled in stages like this. It could actually...

Without realizing it, the Smiling Old Man discovered that there were many things within this process from which even he could learn. Though they were repairing a High-Grade Spirit Artifact, it involved extensive knowledge of power control, formations, runes, and more.

"Good, draw it in at the end. Right—before the refinement is fully completed, if possible, use your power to carve the four dots from a die onto the sword's hilt." At the instant Ren Jie gave the final reminder that the repair was about to be completely finished, even the Smiling Old Man was startled.

Only now did he suddenly wake up. Less than two hours had passed in total, yet it was nearly complete.

Complete. It was truly about to be fully repaired. Damn it, and he had personally repaired it himself. Was... was this real?

Even the Smiling Old Man could scarcely believe that it was real, but the facts lay before him, leaving him no choice but to believe.

A Celestial Artifact Refiner? A Celestial Artifact Refiner who could forge Transcendent Treasures, Transcendent Treasures sufficient to protect a nation—could this brat truly be...

At the final moment, his heart was filled with shock, yet he did not dare let his mind wander. Even he was now wholly immersed in the task. This was a magnificent feat he had never imagined he could accomplish. Though he was powerful enough, this was not something he excelled at.

"Boom... hum..." A final sword cry soared into the sky. In an instant, all the Yin Sha energy gathered, and the Profound Yin Sword was finally, completely repaired. As that Yin Sha energy fully merged into the sword, four round dots could clearly be seen on its hilt.

Although he had repaired it with his own hands, the first thing the Smiling Old Man did after the High-Grade Spirit Artifact was restored was look at Ren Jie as though he were looking at a monster.

"Your grandpa's egg! Tell me quickly—are you really a Celestial Artifact Refiner?"

Celestial Artifact Refiners were legendary figures within the Bright Jade Dynasty, an existence at a legendary height.

Ren Jie reached out and took the Profound Yin Sword from the Smiling Old Man's hand, looking at it with great satisfaction as he said, "If I were already a Celestial Artifact Refiner, I would not need to be like this now. In Jade Capital City, even if I could not walk sideways, I would be close enough. This is merely a repair method I obtained by chance."

The moment the Smiling Old Man asked that question, he had already felt it was impossible. Celestial Artifact Refiners were incomparably noble. If this brat truly were one, countless powerful experts—super powerful experts—would follow him at the mere word.

"Hmph, your nose is quite sharp. You noticed the slightest movement. Someone is coming. Let's go." The Smiling Old Man had originally wanted to ask how Ren Jie could possibly know such a comprehensive repair method. With such a complete repair method, even someone weaker than him could repair it so long as they had reached the Yin Yang Realm. But at that moment, he sensed people rushing over. With a wave of his hand, he brought Ren Jie soaring into the sky in an instant.

This time, Ren Jie did not feel the half-asleep, half-awake, muddled sensation he had experienced the previous times. He clearly noticed a warm layer of power enveloping him and the Smiling Old Man as they streaked rapidly through the air.

Just as the Smiling Old Man took Ren Jie away, several powerful auras swiftly arrived from the sky, though most were flying quickly through the air with the aid of Magical Treasures.

"What is going on? I clearly sensed the presence of a High-Grade Spirit Artifact just now."

"In such a wilderness, could someone be refining an artifact here?"

"It does not seem like artifact refinement. Strange."

"Although I did not break through again today, at least the Profound Yin Sword has been repaired. Thanks." As he spoke, Ren Jie placed the Profound Yin Sword into his Storage Bag. For the time being, Ren Jie was using the Storage Bag Chang Lao Si had brought him. He found having one extremely convenient, which made him want even more to reach the True Qi Realm as soon as possible and open the Family Head Ring he wore.

"What do you mean, you didn't break through again today?!" Hearing the faint disappointment in Ren Jie's tone, the Smiling Old Man abruptly stopped in midair. He was furious. This brat was saying that what he had prepared this time was not as good as Battle Eight Directions Annihilation, and he was actually disappointed that it had not helped him break through.

"Your grandpa's egg! Do you think breaking through is as easy as eating and drinking? You break through whenever you want? Breaking through one layer in a single night—who do you think you are?!" The Smiling Old Man had been holding in a bellyful of anger for a long time.

This time, Ren Jie truly had not meant to anger the Smiling Old Man. He merely stated the truth. "My cultivation these past two days had also brought me a little luck and insight, and I was already on the verge of another breakthrough. If it could truly have been like cultivating Battle Eight Directions Annihilation before, I should have been able to break through."

Damn it. Upon hearing that, the Smiling Old Man truly regretted it. He should have brought a thousand Bewitching Demon Monkeys and thrown this brat among them to see what he would do.

This damn little bastard—wasn't this like pointing at a monk and cursing a bald donkey? Others would wet their pants at the sound of his name; no one dared meet him. Yet not only had Ren Jie made him repair something for free, he even complained that the cultivation he had prepared was too easy and lacked pressure...

Not enough pressure, huh? Fine...

Suddenly, the Smiling Old Man sharply turned his head toward the southeast. It was the darkest hour of the day, yet his gaze seemed to pierce through distance and see somewhere far, far away.

"Killing a few little demon monkeys was not exciting enough, was it? You brat have a lot of nerve, do you? Then let me see exactly how strong your ability to endure is..." As the Smiling Old Man spoke, he took Ren Jie and shot toward the southeast in the next instant.

Sun Family Town was a small town of over three hundred households and more than two thousand people. At this moment, everyone was still asleep.

Yet at the easternmost end of Sun Family Town, within the great courtyard of Sun Zhu, the wealthiest man in town, cries of pain and terror rang out.

"Ah... ah... You are not human... You even kill children... He was just born, you... ah..." Nearly fifty-year-old Sun Zhu was a second-layer True Qi Realm cultivator. In his earlier years, he had traveled the outside world, then later returned to Sun Family Town and became its richest man. Sun Zhu was kind and charitable, earning the title Sun the Benevolent. Everyone within several hundred miles knew that anyone in trouble who sought Sun the Benevolent's aid would surely receive generous help. But at this moment, Sun Zhu clutched a seven- or eight-year-old girl in a nightgown in one arm as he continuously retreated, his abdomen already pierced through.

There was not a single survivor left in the entire Sun Family great courtyard. Corpses covered the ground—from eighty-year-old elders to children who could not yet walk. Of the more than one hundred members of the Sun Family, even his grandson, who had only recently passed his first month, had been killed by this person. Had Sun Zhu's granddaughter Sun Rui not run to him and told him something had happened, Sun Zhu might not even have had time to organize any resistance.

"You... who exactly are you? Disaster should not extend to one's family, much less when I, Sun Zhu, have never provoked anyone. I have not walked the jianghu for more than twenty years..." Blood continuously flowed from Sun Zhu's abdomen. The longsword in his hand had broken in half, and his body bore dozens of wounds, yet his left arm still tightly held his terrified, trembling granddaughter, who clung desperately to his arm. He had many children and grandchildren, but the one he loved most was this youngest granddaughter. Though she had been born in a small town, Sun Rui did not carry the slightest rustic air.

Yet amid this terrifying slaughter, she had long since been frightened senseless. Her body trembled constantly, but even in such terror, her eyes remained fixed on the demon massacring the Sun Family.

Sun Zhu could not understand it. Back then, because he did not want to live a life of blood and storms, because he wanted a peaceful life and did not wish to risk his life striving for anything, he had retired after unexpectedly obtaining a fortune. More than twenty years had passed in the blink of an eye. He had never had any enemies, yet today someone had suddenly come to his door to exterminate his entire family.

"Master, run... Bang..." The last two guards at the Body Refining Realm Ninth Layer were directly cut in half by the other party. At the moment they were killed, a tall, thin man in tight black clothing, with a faint smile on his face, slowly approached without any haste.