Lin Xiao froze where he stood, still holding his saber raised. That was a body-refining martial artist at the Spirit Realm Second Level.
Crippled with a single punch?
How many trump cards was Su Yu still hiding!
Such terrifying explosive power and that bizarre gravitational field defied all reason.
Lin Xiao breathed heavily.
His assessment of this young man rose once again to an inconceivable height.
In the distance.
Tang Shan's Adam's apple bobbed.
He stared fixedly at the figure enveloped in a blood-red field.
This was a true monster, with endless trump cards to reveal, always able to crush his enemies in the most desperate moments.
The Demon Suppression Guards shrouded in despair all gaped.
Everything they knew was overturned at that moment.
Liu Tianjue had been invincible one second, only to be blasted away by a single punch the next.
Amid the rubble.
Liu Tianjue was not dead yet.
The vitality of a Body Refinement Spirit Realm expert preserved his last shred of consciousness.
Spitting bloody foam, he desperately tried to climb to his feet.
One foot pressed hard against the ground.
Charred black blood kept welling from the horrific fist imprint in his chest.
His internal organs had already been smashed into mush.
Behind them.
In the direction of the dry well, a second enormous claw covered in red hair clamped tightly onto the rim.
An enormous head dripping black slime slowly emerged above ground level.
A foul-smelling gale swept across the grounds, whipping the dead leaves in the courtyard high into the air.
Su Yu shook the blood off his right hand, pulled the black-gold saber from the ground, and ignored the red-haired monster about to break free of its seal behind him.
He took a step forward. The blood-red gravitational field beneath his feet moved with him, plowing a deep furrow through the hard bluestone ground.
Saber in hand, Su Yu walked toward Liu Tianjue amid the rubble.
The blood-red gravitational field over the bluestone paving continued crushing the broken bricks along his path, grinding them to powder under its immense pressure.
Liu Tianjue's remaining left hand clung tightly to a broken stone pillar. Large patches of dark cyan flesh peeled away, exposing stark white finger bones.
The black-gold saber dragged along the ground with a sharp, grating screech.
"Stop!"
Liu Tianjue violently coughed up a mouthful of black blood mixed with fragments of his organs, desperately dragging himself backward.
Bloody bubbles still seeped from the sunken fist imprint in his chest.
Su Yu maintained a steady pace. His blade was only three steps from Liu Tianjue's neck.
"Kill me, and all of Nanhe County will be buried with the Liu Family!"
Liu Tianjue's chest heaved violently, his throat wheezing like a leaking bellows.
"With that beast in the well?"
Su Yu raised his saber's tip and pressed its edge against Liu Tianjue's throat. A bead of blood instantly seeped through his skin.
"Do you really think my Liu Family held its ground in Nanhe County for a hundred years with nothing but these few hundred private soldiers?"
Liu Tianjue suddenly raised his voice, filled with an utterly bizarre fervor.
"Three years ago, my son Qingyun caught the eye of the Demon God Cult's Seventh Elder and became his personal disciple!"
"He left for a Demon God Cult stronghold just yesterday."
"You slaughtered my entire family."
"Once Qingyun finds out, he will tear out your tendons and pull out your bones, then imprison your soul in Nine Nether Mystic Fire to torment it for a hundred years!"
Su Yu's wrist paused briefly as his mind rapidly worked through the possibilities.
A Demon God Cult elder. A personal disciple.
That sounded like a hefty sum of Slaughter Points!
He turned the saber over.
The flat of the blade slammed into Liu Tianjue's right cheek, the crack of his shattering cheekbone ringing out clearly.
"I'll be waiting for him to come to his death!"
Liu Tianjue froze on the spot. He had imagined Su Yu reacting in terror, weighing the pros and cons, or even kneeling to beg for mercy, asking only that the Liu Family spare him.
This was the one reaction he had never expected.
Anticipation.
Upon hearing the title of a Demon God Cult elder's disciple, this youth at the Mortal Realm Ninth Layer had actually reacted with anticipation.
"You little bastard, you have no idea what lies above the Spirit Realm-"
Without giving Liu Tianjue another chance to speak, the black-gold saber sliced through his neck bones without resistance, sending his head rolling.
Blood spurted two feet high, splashing over the ruined walls beside him.
[Slain: Spirit Realm Second Level body-refining martial artist. Slaughter Points gained: 300] [Current Slaughter Points: 320]
The gray, translucent panel flashed through his vision.
Su Yu raised his right foot and kicked Liu Tianjue's headless corpse over, then wiped his saber clean on the tattered brocade robe.
Rumble.
At that very moment, the entire ancient bluestone well in the rear courtyard exploded. Shattered stone mixed with black slime shot in every direction.
A Demon Suppression Guard more than ten meters away failed to dodge in time. A drop of slime splashed onto his shoulder, instantly corroding through his refined iron armor.
His flesh blackened and rotted at a visible pace. The Demon Suppression Guard dropped his saber and fell to the ground, rolling and screaming in agony.
In fewer than three breaths.
His entire body dissolved into a puddle of foul-smelling black water.
A deathly silence fell over the grounds. Everyone stopped moving.
At the center of the ruined dry well, an enormous dark figure slowly straightened to its full height, standing over ten feet tall.
Half-foot-long scarlet hair covered its entire body, writhing in the night wind and giving off a nauseating corpse stench.
The monster's head was enormous, devoid of facial features except for a bloody maw that occupied more than half its face.
Interlocking fangs filled its mouth. Thick black liquid dripped from them, corroding deep pits into the ground.
Spirit Realm Fifth Level. A presence of pure destruction.
A demon of this level was utterly beyond the limits of Nanhe County's fighting strength.
Holding his saber in one hand, Tang Shan advanced his right leg half a step. The muscles in both legs spasmed instinctively under the terrifying pressure of the Spirit Realm Fifth Level.
Metallic clatters rang out one after another as the dozen or so Demon Suppression Guards on the perimeter all collapsed onto the ground.
Weapons lay scattered everywhere.
The pall of despair instantly enveloped the entire courtyard.
This was not a battle.
This was a one-sided slaughter.
"Retreat!"
Lin Xiao shouted sharply. Gripping his heavy sword, he charged out of the Demon Suppression Guards' formation against the flow.
He drove his Spirit Realm Second Level True Qi to its limit, and a pale blue layer of sharp light appeared over his heavy sword.
"Everyone, fall back beyond the courtyard walls!"
Lin Xiao roared without looking back. Though he knew there was little hope, as a captain of the Demon Suppression Bureau, he would never retreat at a time like this.
The monster's featureless head turned slightly. Its gaping maw opened, unleashing an ear-splitting roar.
The sound waves became tangible surges of air. Three remaining houses nearby collapsed under their impact.
Roof tiles shattered.
Gritting his teeth, Lin Xiao forced his way forward against the sound waves until he was thirty feet from the monster.
He kicked hard against the ground and leaped into the air, gripping the sword hilt with both hands.
The pale blue sword light surged to five feet in length, heading straight for the crown of the monster's head.
The monster made no move to dodge, merely raising its red-haired right claw.
Clang.
The saber hacked heavily into the monster's open palm. There was no spray of blood as imagined; it failed to sever even a single red hair.
The monster caught the blade of a Spirit Realm Second Level expert's full-force strike in its bare hand.
Alarmed, Lin Xiao frantically poured the Spiritual Qi within him through the sword hilt.
Yet the blade did not budge. At that moment, the monster abruptly closed its five fingers.
Crack.
The heavy sword forged from refined steel shattered into dozens of metal fragments on the spot.
An extremely cold, violent force surged back up the saber's hilt. A rapid succession of cracking sounds came from the bones in Lin Xiao's arms.
The monster immediately followed with a casual slap.
The red palm imprint instantly pierced Lin Xiao's protective Spiritual Qi and struck the very center of his chest.
Bang.
Lin Xiao flew backward, smashing through two courtyard walls in succession while still airborne.
He slammed heavily into the plaque of the Liu Family's main hall, snapping the thick golden-thread nanmu plaque in two.
Lin Xiao hit the ground and spat out three mouthfuls of black blood.
The standard-issue iron armor over his chest broke apart, and a large section of his breastbone caved in.
He twitched twice, then lost consciousness completely.