"Run!"
The two remaining assassins turned and sprinted into the distance without the slightest hesitation.
Su Yu had killed their second brother, who was in the same realm as them, in such a short time. Clearly, his strength far exceeded their expectations.
Staying would be no different from courting death!
"Think you can escape?"
Su Yu stomped down hard.
Bang!
A half-foot-deep crater burst open in the stone steps, sending rubble flying.
He had already become a streaking afterimage, closing on the nearer fleeing figure.
Sensing his approach, the assassin had nowhere left to retreat. He gritted his teeth, turned, and slashed.
Su Yu flicked his wrist, sending his black-gold saber sweeping fiercely upward at an angle.
Perfection-level Gale Saber Technique!
Clang!
The blades met with a crisp metallic clash.
The next instant, the assassin's hundredfold-refined steel saber snapped on the spot, sending half its blade spinning into the night sky.
In terms of hardness alone, the black-gold saber in Su Yu's hand far surpassed ordinary blades.
The black-gold edge continued unchecked, slicing upward along the ruined hilt and sweeping across the assassin's throat in an instant.
Flesh curled open. His windpipe split.
The assassin clutched his neck with both hands and crashed onto his back, disbelief written across his face. His body convulsed violently a few times, then went still.
[Slayed a mortal realm fifth layer martial artist. Gained 50 slaughter points.]
Su Yu flicked his wrist, shaking the remaining blood off his black-gold saber.
Its tip hung toward the ground, pointing straight at the last survivor, Ying San.
His two early fifth-layer companions had lasted less than three breaths between them before becoming corpses.
I can't escape! There's no way I can escape!
Ying San's eyes flickered, his gaze gradually turning vicious.
"I'll stake it all!"
As he gritted his teeth, blood bloomed from the tip of his tongue, and the Spiritual Qi inside him erupted out of control.
Blood-Burning Secret Technique activated!
Forcibly overdrawing his blood and vitality, he raised his strength another level, bringing it infinitely close to the mortal realm sixth stage.
He held two refined-steel spikes in a reverse grip, their lengths coated in sticky, dark green venom.
A pungent, foul stench rapidly spread through the air.
"Su Yu! That's Gut-Severing Powder! One drop of blood and it seals your throat! Dodge!"
Leaning against the ruined doorframe, Tang Shan noticed what was happening. His pupils instantly contracted, and he immediately shouted at the top of his lungs without hesitation.
Too late.
Ying San crushed the floor tiles beneath his feet. His speed doubled as he lunged straight at Su Yu's face.
Rather than dodge, Su Yu stepped forward.
The tremendous strength granted by reaching the entry level of Suppressing Prisons and Subduing Demons was surging wildly through his body, and he had been struggling to find somewhere to vent it.
Peak fifth layer, plus deadly poison.
Enough to serve as a whetstone.
Instead of retreating, he advanced, driving his body straight into the two poisoned spikes.
"Die!"
Wild delight flashed in Ying San's eyes as he drove the spikes viciously into Su Yu.
Squelch!
The next instant, the spikes pierced flesh, sending two sprays of blood splashing out.
"Something's wrong!"
Yet Ying San's pupils contracted. He could clearly feel that the spikes had only broken the skin on the surface of Su Yu's body without penetrating deeper.
It was as though something had jammed the spikes in place. They would not go any farther.
Before Ying San could think further, Su Yu raised his hand and threw a punch, unleashing his perfection-level Vajra Fist in one motion. Like a cannonball, it tore through the air and smashed heavily into him.
Bang!
Ying San flew straight backward like a cannonball, only slowly coming to a halt after slamming into a boulder.
Su Yu glanced down at the skin punctured by the twin spikes and saw a mass of dark green liquid flowing from the wounds.
As a supreme-grade cultivation technique, Suppressing Prisons and Subduing Demons was extraordinarily domineering. Let alone mere Gut-Severing Powder, even more sinister poisons could not harm him.
Not only that, but its defensive power was also astonishing. Su Yu felt it was no worse than that of body cultivators at the same level.
With the test over, he stepped down and appeared before Ying San in an instant.
He did not even use his saber. He drew back his right arm and spread his fingers.
There were no fancy moves, only pure, savage physical strength.
He swung a full backhand slap straight at Ying San's face.
Enduring the excruciating pain, Ying San raised his broken arms in an attempt to block.
Smack!
A dull sound of bursting flesh rang out.
The slap landed squarely on Ying San's left cheek.
His left cheekbone and jaw collapsed across a large area on the spot.
Half a mouthful of shattered teeth sprayed out with clots of blood.
Ying San spun three and a half times in midair and flew more than ten meters backward.
Boom!
Like a dead dog, he crashed into the boulder beside him, breaking it down as dense cracks burst across its surface.
Holding his saber point-down, Su Yu strode closer, his military boots treading through the filthy blood on the ground.
Ying San slid limply down the fractured stone stele.
That slap had shattered more than half the ribs in his chest.
"The Liu Family sent me. Spare me..."
"Spare..."
Ying San begged frantically for mercy.
Clearly, however, it was futile. Su Yu ignored him outright.
"The Liu... the Liu Family won't..."
When begging failed, Ying San tried to threaten him. Bloody foam kept spilling from his mouth, yet he still tried to invoke the master behind him to save his life.
"Shut up!"
Su Yu raised his leg.
And brought his foot down.
The hard sole of his military boot ground heavily into Ying San's caved-in chest.
Crack!
The broken rib fragments were forcibly stamped inward, piercing his heart.
Ying San twitched twice, then died.
[Slayed a mortal realm fifth layer martial artist. Gained 50 slaughter points.]
Su Yu crouched and searched the corpse with practiced ease.
A cowhide money pouch, several banknotes, and a porcelain bottle containing two Blood-Coagulating Pills.
Tucking everything into his robes, Su Yu went over and searched the other two corpses from top to bottom.
The assorted loot included more than three hundred taels in banknotes.
Of course, the real prize was not this junk.
He summoned the system panel.
[Host: Su Yu] [Cultivation: mortal realm fourth layer] [Martial arts: Vajra Fist (perfection), Gale Saber Technique (perfection), Suppressing Prisons and Subduing Demons (supreme grade · entry level)] [Slaughter points: 200]
Two hundred points.
Now he had something to back him up.
These points were enough to push Suppressing Prisons and Subduing Demons up another level, or forcibly raise his cultivation.
Tang Shan clutched the edge of the ruined wooden door tightly, taking a long while to prop himself upright.
His Adam's apple bobbed as he forced down a dry mouthful of bloody saliva.
Mortal realm fourth layer.
Taking poisoned spikes from a peak fifth-layer fighter head-on with his body.
Crippling someone with a single slap.
Tang Shan had considered himself a genius of Tiannan Commandery. Now, that pride was shattered by the figure standing with his back to him.
Could martial arts even be practiced like this?
"Su..."
He had only just opened his mouth and forced out a single word.
Roar-!
An exceptionally deep, strange roar suddenly erupted from the deepest part of the ancestral hall.
A fierce wind swept a thick, pungent stench of decay out through the entrance.
Its oppressive presence far exceeded the mortal realm fifth layer!
That was definitely not a disturbance any ordinary low-level demon could cause.
Su Yu slapped the system panel away with the back of his hand and flicked the blood droplets from his saber tip.
His gaze passed over the scattered corpses and locked straight onto the solid wooden doors at the far end of the ancestral hall, which remained shut year-round.
Bang! Bang!
Brute force from within was battering the thick wooden planks furiously, making them shudder violently.
Amid flying wood splinters.
The gap between the doors was forced half a foot wide.
Two enormous, deathly pale, thick bone claws suddenly emerged from the darkness and gripped the edges of the doorframe.