Deep in the forest, the light was dim, and stark white bones lay buried beneath the rotting leaves.
A cloyingly sweet fragrance mingled with the wind, along with the teeth-grating sound of chewing.
Su Yu stopped. Through the thorny brambles, a half-collapsed, dilapidated temple came into view.
On the stone steps, Yue Rao planted her bare foot inside a Demon Suppression Guard's chest cavity, blood staining her toes red.
The two horrific puncture wounds through her neck were healing at a visible rate, new flesh writhing.
Two enormous, deathly white creatures crouched at her feet: Mortal Realm eighth layer, partially demonized Bone Apes.
Their spines protruded in rows of bone spikes. Holding human legs as they feasted, they detected the scent of the living.
Yue Rao looked up, violet brimming in her eyes. She licked the blood from the corner of her mouth, her smile sinister.
"Squad Leader Su."
"Those useless fools from the Liu Family couldn't stop you after all."
The two Bone Apes dropped the severed limbs and slowly stood upright. Their two-meter bodies cast broad shadows, and low growls like scraping metal rolled from their throats.
A bloody wind struck Tang Shan's face. His knuckles whitened around his saber, his nails digging into his flesh.
Mortal Realm eighth layer.
Once a demon of this level went berserk, even an ordinary Mortal Realm ninth layer cultivator would probably have to take it seriously.
Su Yu said nothing. He merely raised his right hand to his saber hilt and pushed with his thumb. The black-and-gold saber slid half an inch from its sheath, cold light spilling out.
"Slaughter them."
Su Yu's voice was calm, as though he were talking about slaughtering two chickens.
"Just enough to make a round number."
The instant his words fell, two pits exploded in the ground.
Su Yu vanished. There was no probing attack, much less any fancy footwork, only a straight-line charge of absolute purity.
His black silhouette smashed through the air with a piercing shriek, closing on the Bone Ape on the left in an instant.
Roar!
Enraged, the Bone Ape swept both arms across.
Its thick arms, covered in white bone barbs, smashed down viciously with monstrous strength enough to shatter a millstone.
Tang Shan instinctively closed his eyes.
It was over.
But the expected sound of shattering flesh and bone never came.
Su Yu neither dodged nor evaded. His left foot drove into the rotten soil like an iron stake.
His major-accomplishment Suppressing Prisons and Subduing Demons roared into motion. He raised his right arm high and unleashed his ultimate-realm killing move, Vajra Demon-Subduing Fist, blasting his fist forward like a cannonball.
A head-on clash!
Clang!
A tremendous boom like a great bell reverberated through the forest as the Bone Ape's mountain-splitting, rock-shattering strike collided violently with Su Yu's right fist.
Su Yu did not budge. The bluestone slabs beneath his feet cracked inch by inch, the fractures spreading more than three meters.
The Bone Ape froze for a moment. It felt that what stood before it was not a human, but a humanoid tyrannosaurus!
"Didn't eat?"
Su Yu looked up, a red glint flashing in his eyes.
The five fingers of his left hand hooked like claws, darting out like lightning to clamp tightly around the Bone Ape's wrist.
He yanked hard.
Crack!
A teeth-grating crack of bone rang out. That brute force actually dragged the Bone Ape's enormous body off balance.
His left fist gathered strength, then blasted out again.
Boom!
The fist slammed into the Bone Ape's chest without any flourish.
Pfft!
A cloud of bloody mist burst from its back.
The Bone Ape did not even have time to scream. Its breastbone shattered completely, and its heart was directly pulverized into a puddle of flesh.
Its enormous corpse crumpled limply.
Su Yu shook the filthy blood from his hand and turned toward the other one.
That Bone Ape was afraid. Its animal instincts screamed warnings: this two-legged beast before it was more like a demon than they were.
It let out a strange cry, turned, and charged toward the ruined temple's perimeter wall, attempting to flee.
"Running?"
Su Yu gripped his saber hilt in reverse, but did not draw the blade.
He simply swung the sheathed saber up, treating it like a heavy club, and hurled it at the back of the Bone Ape's head.
Whoosh-
The black-and-gold saber tore through the air.
Bang!
The sheath struck precisely, and the Bone Ape's head exploded like an overripe watermelon.
Red and white matter splashed across the ruined temple's broken walls. Momentum carried the headless corpse forward several steps before it crashed to the ground.
Instant kills.
Two Mortal Realm eighth layer creatures had not lasted two exchanges against Su Yu.
[Slayed a Mortal Realm eighth layer Bone Demon. Slaughter Points gained: 80] [Slayed a Mortal Realm eighth layer Bone Demon. Slaughter Points gained: 80] [Current Slaughter Points: 160]
The notifications in his mind were music to his ears. Su Yu walked over and pulled his saber from the wall.
Just then, the shrubs at the edge of the woodland toppled.
Liu Ying rushed in, panting, with the remaining dozen or so Demon Suppression Guards.
"Su Yu! How dare you-"
Her rebuke cut off abruptly. Liu Ying froze in place, her eyes nearly popping from their sockets.
The ground was a scene of devastation.
Two enormous headless beast corpses were still twitching, black blood gushing wildly from their severed necks.
The intense stench of blood made it hard to keep one's eyes open.
Yet Su Yu, whom she had been certain would die, was leisurely taking a handkerchief from his robes to wipe the brains from his saber sheath.
Su Yu?
Those were Mortal Realm eighth layer Bone Demons!
Liu Ying's throat went dry. A chill shot from her tailbone straight to the crown of her head.
Had she faced those two beasts, death would have been her only outcome.
But now...
Su Yu had disposed of them like trash.
What about Liu Xiong?
A terrifying thought exploded in her mind.
There probably wasn't even a scrap of Liu Xiong left.
Su Yu wiped his saber clean and casually tossed the filth-covered handkerchief beside Liu Ying's feet.
Without even looking her in the eye, he carried his saber up the stone steps. Every step fell as though trampling on their hearts.
Yue Rao's smile had already frozen on her face. Until her injuries healed, those two Bone Apes had been her last reliance.
Gone, just like that?
As Su Yu approached, Sha Qi so dense it had almost taken physical form struck her in the face.
Yue Rao's heart trembled.
She swiftly adjusted her expression. Her eerie violet eyes instantly became clear again, her gaze rippling with seductive charm.
Her fingertips gently hooked open her collar. Her robes slipped down, exposing a broad expanse of creamy, snow-white skin and a deep cleavage.
An unusual fragrance suddenly erupted.
Mind-Disordering Fragrance.
A secret technique of the Ghost Shadow Sect, specifically meant to breach a martial artist's mental defenses.
Tang Shan's eyes instantly glazed over. Drool spilled from his mouth, and he involuntarily took two steps forward.
The Demon Suppression Guards farther away breathed even more heavily, their eyes bloodshot.
"Lord Su, what a cruel heart you have."
Yue Rao's voice was soft and sweet, with a hook in it.
She stepped lightly on bare feet, moving to meet Su Yu, her breath fragrant as orchids.
"This little woman has no choice either."
"If my lord would only show mercy..."
She extended her jade-like arm, trying to rest it on Su Yu's shoulder.
"The Ghost Shadow Sect's secret techniques, even this body of mine-if my lord wants them, you may take them all..."
Su Yu stopped and looked down at this woman preening and posing.
His brows furrowed slightly.
Yue Rao secretly rejoiced.
Men really were creatures ruled by their lower halves.
"Your body."
Su Yu spoke.
Yue Rao's eyes were silken with allure, and she was just about to press against him.
"Stinks."
The words were bone-piercingly cold.
Yue Rao's expression instantly froze.
A trace of disgust flashed through Su Yu's eyes.
Suppressing Prisons and Subduing Demons operated at full power. To her, Yue Rao's seduction technique might as well not have existed.
"Since you can't speak like a human."
Su Yu turned his wrist, raising his black-and-gold saber high.
"Then shut up."
There was no tenderness toward a beauty, much less the slightest hesitation.
Wrapped in violent wind pressure, the saber cleaved straight down at Yue Rao's exquisitely lovely face!
If that strike landed, her head would definitely fall.
Yue Rao screamed, her beautiful face draining of color. Just as the blade was about to touch the tip of her nose-
Whoosh!
A gray shadow darted from the ruined temple's darkness with extreme abruptness.
Clang!
Metal rang against metal.
Su Yu's wrist trembled slightly, and he retreated half a step.
A pitch-black, serpentine short sword firmly braced against his saber.
The sword's wielder was a hunchbacked old man.
His gray robes were tattered, his face covered in age spots, his yellow teeth broken and incomplete.
He stood before Yue Rao, a vicious gleam flashing in his cloudy old eyes.
"Young man, your temper is too fiery."
The old man chuckled, his voice as hoarse as scraping sandpaper.
"This girl belongs to our Ghost Shadow Sect. You can't touch her."
Mortal Realm ninth layer.
Su Yu narrowed his eyes, clearly seeing the blood Qi above the old man's head. Though unsteady, it far surpassed the eighth layer.
A Slaughter value of nearly a hundred glowed searing hot on the system panel.
"How about giving me some face?"