Su Yu swept his gaze around, his eyes settling on the green-haired zombies.
Without hesitation, while the red-haired monster was occupied by that Spirit Refinement expert, Su Yu stamped his foot and charged toward the green-haired zombies.
[Killed a mortal realm fifth layer green-haired zombie. Gained 50 Slaughter Points.] [Killed a mortal realm sixth stage...] ... [Slaughter Points: 500]
"System, allocate points."
"Put them all into the Spirit-Seizing Art!"
[Consumed 500 Slaughter Points. Spirit realm technique "Spirit-Seizing Art" advanced to minor accomplishment!] [Spirit Refining Realm breakthrough. Current cultivation: Spirit Realm, second level!] [Remaining Slaughter Points: 150]
Hum.
A resounding peal like great bronze bells rang out from the depths of his mind.
The space within his sea of consciousness expanded exponentially. His mental power, originally as fine as gossamer, rapidly thickened and condensed.
Extremely violent soul power gathered between his brows.
The veins on his forehead throbbed. The intense tearing sensation made Su Yu bite through the tip of his tongue, and the rusty taste of blood spread through his mouth.
His divine sense was no longer a fragile tool for detection, but a tangible weapon of attack.
In just a single breath.
Su Yu completed a leap in cultivation that would have taken ordinary people years, even decades.
He held his black-and-gold saber in a reverse grip with one hand and strode toward the monster.
The masked woman stood atop the stone pillar.
She noticed that rather than retreating, Su Yu was approaching of his own accord.
Courting death.
A mere mortal realm martial artist-even if he had managed to stab the demon earlier, that had only been by catching it off guard.
Now that the monster was berserk, even a glancing blow would turn him into a heap of pulp.
"Fall back! Your paltry strength won't help at all. You'll only throw your life away!"
Fine beads of sweat had already seeped from all ten fingers of the masked woman's hands. Under the monster's frenzied struggles, cracks began to appear in the mental shackles.
Crack.
The monster's right arm broke free. Its red-haired claws gouged five deep furrows into the ground.
Su Yu did not hesitate.
He activated Wandering Dragon Steps. His figure became a streak of dark-gold light, hurtling straight toward the monster's left side.
Anxiety and fury assailed the masked woman.
This brat was a complete and utter lunatic.
She bit through the tip of her tongue and spat a mouthful of blood essence into the air. She forcibly changed her hand seals.
"Bind!"
The mental shackles on the verge of collapse tightened once more, forcing the monster's newly raised right arm back to the ground.
Right then, Su Yu closed in on the monster's massive body.
Less than three feet separated them. The overpowering stench of decay was enough to make one retch.
He did not swing his saber. Instead, he put it away and directly mobilized the soul power in his sea of consciousness that had just broken through.
All his divine sense at the spirit realm second level became an invisible war spear of utmost sharpness, stabbing straight into the monster's enormous, faceless head.
Standing atop the stone pillar, the masked woman suddenly swayed.
In that instant.
She clearly sensed an exceptionally terrifying mental storm erupt from within the youth.
"Spirit Realm, second level, Spirit Refinement!"
"No, this divine sense is at least as strong as the spirit realm fourth level?!"
The masked woman's heart shook violently.
Meanwhile, the already restrained monster suffered a devastating mental blow at that moment.
The invisible war spear directly shredded its damaged sea of consciousness. Its control center was paralyzed on the spot.
"Roar..."
It let out an exceptionally shrill scream. Its massive body began convulsing violently, and the force of its struggling limbs instantly diminished by well over half.
A fatal opening appeared in its defenses.
Enduring the swelling pain in his head, Su Yu poured the Prison-Suppressing Spiritual Qi within him into his right arm without reservation.
His left leg extended forward. The muscles in his waist and abdomen twisted to their limit.
Vajra Demon-Subduing Fist.
This punch compressed not only the physical strength of the peak of the mortal realm ninth layer, but also carried his newly advanced spirit realm second level divine sense.
His Qi and blood condensed over his fist into a dark-gold branding iron, driving viciously into the wound that had been cut beneath the monster's left armpit.
Squelch.
His entire right arm sank into the monster's torso, and the violent force of his punch exploded inside its chest.
Violent Demon-Suppressing Spiritual Qi frantically shredded the surrounding flesh.
The dark-red heart burst apart under the shock wave of the punch.
Crack.
The monster's spine snapped crisply, breaking in the middle.
Its shrill scream cut off abruptly. Its massive body stiffened, then crashed heavily into the debris-strewn ruins.
Dust billowed into the air, and its red hair shriveled at a speed visible to the naked eye.
[Killed a Spirit Realm, fifth-level Body Refinement demon puppet. Gained 500 Slaughter Points.] [Remaining Slaughter Points: 650]
The system notification sounded in his mind.
Su Yu pulled out his right arm and planted his black-and-gold saber against the ground, propping up his exhausted body.
He gasped for breath. The clothing on his right arm had been completely corroded away, and the surface of his skin was covered in charred burns.
The entire scene was utterly silent.
The night wind scattered the dust in the courtyard.
The dozen or so Demon Suppression Guards on the perimeter all stood frozen like statues.
Tang Shan gaped, his jaw nearly dropping to the ground.
Dead?
A youth from Nanhe County, barely eighteen years old, had shattered the heart of a spirit realm fifth level demon with one punch.
He had even achieved a Spirit Refining Realm breakthrough during battle, something others could not accomplish in their entire lives.
That was an achievement even Tiannan Commandery's greatest geniuses dared not hope for. He was practically an asura fiend that had swallowed a demonic beast's inner core whole.
Everyone's understanding was crushed to pieces at that moment.
As long as this youth did not die, the martial landscape of the entire Great Qin Empire would undergo drastic changes because of him.
The masked woman leaped down from the broken stone pillar, landing steadily twenty feet in front of Su Yu.
She, too, was in a state of extreme shock.
In her projections, forcing this monster to retreat through their combined efforts would already have counted as a resounding victory.
Yet the youth before her had killed the monster outright in the most savage, most brutal fashion.
Such monstrous talent for breaking through in battle, and such a combat instinct that met death without flinching, were in no way inferior even to the sect prodigies and younger generations of secluded lineages.
Even those people could not have delivered such a clean, decisive kill at the same cultivation level.
That divine sense, far surpassing others at his level, was especially difficult for her to believe.
To think a true dragon of this caliber could soar out of a mire like Nanhe County.
Su Yu raised his head.
He looked straight at the woman in the white mask before him.
His right hand slowly closed around his saber's hilt. The last trace of Prison-Suppressing Spiritual Qi within him began to circulate.
This woman's origins were unknown.
Although they had just joined forces against an enemy, there was no kindness without reason in these troubled times.
She was a Spirit Realm, third-level Spirit Refinement expert. He could not afford to be careless.
The two faced off across the enormous demon corpse.
The air grew thick once more.
Tang Shan's heart, which had only just settled, instantly leaped back into his throat. He struggled up from the ground, grabbed the battered saber with its rolled edge, and shuffled two steps forward.
Even if he was no match for her, he could not let Su Yu stand at the front alone.
The masked woman made no move to attack, her hands hanging at her sides.
Through the two small holes in her white mask, she quietly watched Su Yu.
"What is your name?"
There was a measure of inquiry in her question.
Su Yu did not answer.
His saber tip scraped a white groove half an inch deep into the bluestone paving with an ear-piercing screech, ready to spring into action at any moment.
"Nanhe County's Demon Suppression Bureau cannot protect you. The Demon God Cult behind the Liu Family will soon send people to investigate."
The masked woman took a step forward.
"Go to the commandery city, or the provincial city. That is where you should be!"
The woman turned her hand, and a token forged from black iron appeared in her palm, engraved with the traditional character for "shadow."
"Cough, cough!"
Just then, two weak coughs came from beneath the rubble nearby.
Lin Xiao, who had been gravely wounded and unconscious, pushed aside the broken wooden beam above his head and struggled into a sitting position.
He wiped the black blood from his mouth.
His gaze passed through the collapsed courtyard wall and fixed on Su Yu and the woman wearing a white cat mask.
"Shadow Guard Invitation Token!"
"You're with the Shadow Guard?"