Blood dripped from the saber tip!
It fell onto the rubble, splashing into flowers of blood.
"Hiss..."
A chorus of sharp intakes of breath broke the silence. Everyone's eyes were filled with disbelief.
Even the weakest of the men in black was in the Xiantian Realm. The Stone-Breaking Army accepted no trash. An elite force like this had swept all before it and never met its match.
Today!
Liu Wuxie had taught them a vivid lesson: the Xiantian Realm was not invincible. So what if they wielded black crossbows? With the Ghost Pupil Technique, he could easily see the trajectory of every bolt.
Deacon Qi's chest heaved violently, and his eyes nearly popped out. He rubbed them hard, but the corpses on the ground told him that all of this was real.
The Xu Household guards gripped their sabers tightly. Before they knew it, sweat had soaked their clothes. A cool breeze blew past, and they shivered.
"Good, very good. I originally thought killing a piece of trash would only dirty my hands. I'll make you wish you were dead, and your entire Xu Household will be buried with you."
Having lost ten Stone-Breaking Army soldiers, he would have no way to explain himself when he returned. Killing Liu Wuxie would not be enough to quell his fury. The Xu Household had to be buried with him.
Scarlet seeped into the black-clad commander's eyes. A suffocating killing aura spread across the surroundings as his presence rose steadily. At the third grade of the Spirit Cleansing Realm, he could at most serve as a commander of a thousand in the Stone-Breaking Army.
"Young master, run! We'll hold them back!"
Deacon Qi suddenly roared. Long saber in hand, he was about to rush out to stop the black-clad commander and let Liu Wuxie escape.
"Every last one of you will die today! None of you will escape! Kill them all!"
At the black-clad commander's order, the remaining forty soldiers charged. Their Xiantian might descended like a towering cage. The horses neighed, and two broke free of their reins and fled toward the outside of Phoenix Roosting Gorge, unable to withstand the onslaught of killing intent.
"Deacon Qi, protect all the guards. Leave these men to me!"
With that, Liu Wuxie became a streaking meteor and vanished from where he stood. Like a tiger charging into a crowd, he swept his short saber up, its movements like an antelope hanging by its horns, leaving no trace to follow.
Saber Qi arced like a rainbow, sweeping the rubble off the ground into a hurricane. Sand and stones flew, striking the cliffs on either side with a series of bangs.
Deacon Qi froze, then quickly understood. He unleashed his Xiantian might and stood with the fifteen guards, ready to meet the enemy at any moment.
The black-clad commander did not move. He stood quietly in place, his brows knitting ever tighter.
"Shhk! Shhk! Shhk!"
Blood spurted. Every slash was flawless, without a single opening to be found. The men in black fell one after another, their eyes filled with despair before they died.
It gave the illusion that they had willingly run into Liu Wuxie's short saber rather than been killed, like moths flying into a flame, bringing about their own destruction.
The Xu Household guards trembled all over. It was not the men in black who frightened them, but the power Liu Wuxie had unleashed, which sent chills rising from the depths of their hearts. He had already surpassed ordinary humans. Only a god could do this.
The deaths continued. As the blade passed through their bodies, a powerful suction came from the Heaven-Devouring Divine Cauldron in his Dantian. It traveled along the long saber, and one man in black suddenly became a sheet of human skin, every bit of essence in his body gone.
Then!
A drop of liquid spilled from the Heaven-Devouring Divine Cauldron and flowed into his Dantian. Violent power exploded.
"Devouring matter and transforming it into Spiritual Qi. To think killing people works too."
A hint of madness appeared in Liu Wuxie's eyes. If he killed all these men and accumulated enough liquid, he should be able to break through to the third layer of Innate Realm!
This sight horrified everyone present, including the black-clad commander. Only evil creatures devoured human Essence Blood.
"The young master... is he human or a devil...?"
The guard's face was filled with panic. Only the Devil Race ate people, and Liu Wuxie's methods were little different from eating people. A living person had just turned into a sheet of human skin. It was horrifying beyond belief.
"Stop talking nonsense. Of course the young master is human."
Deacon Qi slapped him. How could there be any mistake about such a fully grown living person? If he belonged to the Devil Race, they would recognize him at a glance.
The slaughter continued. Liu Wuxie spun and vanished from where he stood, his feet treading the Seven Stars. Three figures appeared on the battlefield, attacking three areas at once. Only speed pushed to its utmost could accomplish this.
The black-clad commander finally moved. His large hand clawed straight toward Liu Wuxie's neck with incredible speed, using his Spirit Cleansing might to crush him with overwhelming force.
Few of the forty men in black remained. In just three breaths, roughly thirty had been slain, leaving only a handful gritting their teeth and holding on.
"Brat, I'll grind your bones to dust and scatter your ashes! Everyone in your Xu Household will be buried with you! The men will be killed, and the women sent to brothels!"
The black-clad commander spat the words through clenched teeth, his rage reaching its utmost.
At those words, Liu Wuxie suddenly stopped, his eyes devoid of emotion. "You've succeeded in enraging me. I'll show you what it means to wish you were dead."
A dragon had a reverse scale. Touch it, and death would follow!
Liu Wuxie was the same. The Xu Household had raised him, and he had long since regarded it as his own family. His father-in-law, in particular, treated him as his own son. He would forever remember that kindness.
The black-clad commander's words sent merciless killing intent pouring from Liu Wuxie's body. He was like a god of slaughter descending upon the world.
Abandoning the other men in black, he turned into an afterimage and streaked toward the black-clad commander.
His short saber slashed down through the air. There was no technique to speak of, only simplicity and directness. Its presence seemed higher than the heavens, making the black-clad commander's expression change.
The palm drew ever closer. Only ten meters separated them, a distance crossed in the blink of an eye.
Clang!
The black-clad commander's palm knocked Liu Wuxie's short saber back, producing a towering ripple that surged outward. The horse-drawn cargo carts on either side nearly overturned.
His feet skidded along the ground as he retreated roughly ten meters before barely regaining his footing.
The black-clad commander's eyes narrowed. Although he had not used his full strength in that palm strike, only seventy percent, it had been enough to kill someone at peak Innate.
Liu Wuxie shook out his arm, a wicked smile appearing at the corner of his mouth. He truly did not think much of the third layer of the Spirit Cleansing Realm.
The two stood proudly in place, their gazes locked. Each saw boundless fighting spirit in the other's eyes.
"You've truly made me see you in a new light. A mere second layer of the Xiantian Realm, yet your strength rivals Spirit Cleansing. How did you do it?"
The black-clad commander took a deep breath, suppressing his killing intent. Matters had reached this point; it would not end until one of them died.
Fighting above one's level was nothing unusual. Cultivating an exceptionally powerful cultivation method or profound martial skills could both achieve this.
Crossing minor realms was somewhat unusual. Crossing one or two major realms was enough to defy the heavens.
How had Liu Wuxie done it?
No one knew, including the Xu Household guards. In their memories, Liu Wuxie had always been trash, a wastrel, a prodigal son.
If someone like this was trash, they were not even as good as trash.
"How could a frog at the bottom of a well know the bright moon in the heavens?"
Liu Wuxie gave a contemptuous smile. An immense force erupted beneath his feet, launching him forward. Skimming along the ground, he raised a hurricane, his short saber whistling through the air as he came within three meters of the black-clad commander.
"I'll capture you alive and get the answers I want from your mouth!"
The black-clad commander spread all five fingers, which emanated a chilling presence. He had cultivated an exceptionally powerful palm technique.
The two instantly clashed, exchanging blows. Every collision produced a dull boom.
Clang!
Boom!
They separated once more. The rubble on the ground had disappeared, leaving a large open space. Drops of blood ran down the black-clad commander's right arm and splashed onto the ground.
"What a fast saber!"
Those in the Spirit Cleansing Realm had True Qi protecting their bodies. Someone in the Xiantian Realm could not break through his defenses, yet Liu Wuxie had easily torn through his protective barrier and pierced his arm.
Not only was his saber fast, but his saber technique was even stranger, and his strength was impossible to fathom.
A drop of blood trickled from the corner of Liu Wuxie's mouth. Although his saber had pierced the commander's arm, he had not come out unscathed either. A palm had struck his chest, disrupting his breath.
Relying on his powerful physique, he had barely withstood that blow. Anyone else would already have been a corpse.
The Grand Desolation Heaven-Devouring Instruction circulated, and rolling Spiritual Qi poured into Liu Wuxie's body. The black-clad corpses lying on the ground continually disappeared, becoming sheets of dried human skin. The essence within their bodies turned into liquid, replenishing Liu Wuxie's Dantian.
The liquid flowed into his limbs and bones. The stifled feeling disappeared, and his presence grew even stronger.
The black-clad commander's expression changed drastically. What kind of domineering cultivation method was this? The speed at which it devoured Spiritual Qi was terrifying.
"You're a demon!"
With a cry of alarm, he charged at Liu Wuxie, his hands like flood dragons, giving him no chance to continue devouring Spiritual Qi. If he kept devouring it, the one to die would certainly be the commander.
If word spread that a mere Xiantian Realm cultivator had forced him to this point, it would surely shake the Great Yan Imperial Dynasty.
The five remaining black-clad soldiers stood beneath the cliff, trembling in terror. Their comrades had all disappeared, reduced to human skins.
Over their years of fighting on battlefields, what cruelty had they not witnessed? Yet the sight before them overturned everything they knew.
Taking a deep breath, Liu Wuxie's right eye suddenly began to change little by little, growing more profound. An uncanny luster shone deep within his eyeball. It was barely noticeable without close scrutiny; only at close range could one discover that his eye was releasing a strange curtain of light.
He used the Ghost Pupil Technique to end the battle as quickly as possible. He could not drag things out any longer, lest new complications sprout.
The black-clad commander suddenly shuddered all over, as though some mysterious power had locked him in place. Unable to move, his eyes involuntarily turned toward Liu Wuxie.
This power was too strange. He could neither see nor touch it, and even he did not know whether it truly existed.
A mighty surge of soul power shot from Liu Wuxie's soul sea, traveled through his meridians, and poured into his eye, piercing through space.
The instant their gazes met, the black-clad commander knew he had been wrong, utterly wrong. He finally knew where this power came from.
Realizing something was amiss, he immediately closed his eyes and retreated, but he was still a step too late.
"Aah!"
A piercing scream escaped his mouth. His eyes had gone blind, bloody tears flowing from them. He clutched his head and wailed where he stood, then suddenly chopped down with both hands. A black-clad soldier standing nearby happened to take the blow and was torn into pieces, leaving no intact remains.
The sudden turn of events caught everyone off guard, including the Xu Household guards.
The two had not even touched. Why had the black-clad commander screamed?
And his eyes looked as though sharp spikes had pierced them, leaving two pitch-black holes. They were utterly horrifying.
A soul power attack!
Only Liu Wuxie himself understood it best. His soul power had easily pierced the black-clad commander's soul sea, damaging it beyond recovery in the immediate future and leaving it in a state of chaos.
Seizing this opportunity, he vanished from where he stood and raised his short saber, thrusting it toward the man in black's Dantian. There was still much information he needed to get from him. He could not kill him yet.