Killing formation

After a long while, the great formation stopped raging.

It began to settle down.

Ling Qiuzi had been watching the sky nervously the whole time. Those two bolts of lightning earlier seemed to have frightened her.

"Has this never happened before?"

Lin Tian's voice was calm as he asked casually.

"It has, but it was never as violent as this time."

Ling Qiuzi's expression eased, and she sat back down on the stone chair.

Lin Tian nodded and continued asking:

"With so many people here, Li Musheng only gives you fifty Sub-Pills each month?"

Ling Qiuzi shook her head and replied:

"When I arrived, he gave us fifty-two at a time, then fifty-one. Yesterday, there were only fifty."

Lin Tian's hands paused.

"If you don't take a Sub-Pill, roughly how long can you live?"

A trace of pain appeared in Ling Qiuzi's eyes as she said softly:

"A man at the Qi Refining Realm Fourth Layer arrived with me. He only lasted thirty-odd days and died during his first outbreak of pill poison."

"If I hadn't taken a Sub-Pill yesterday, I probably would have died during yesterday's outbreak of pill poison."

As she spoke, Ling Qiuzi knelt directly before Lin Tian and said respectfully:

"If not for you, young master, I might have died yesterday. You saved my life."

Lin Tian said nothing.

Knock, knock, knock.

A clamor of knocking rang out.

Lin Tian looked toward the courtyard gate, where he could hear several people breathing.

"Senior, could you open the gate? We've only just arrived and simply want somewhere to stay. Please take us in."

Ling Qiuzi instantly grew flustered and said loudly:

"Sorry, this place is already full. Please look elsewhere."

Outside the gate, the voices grew quieter.

Gradually, they fell silent.

Ling Qiuzi finally relaxed, as though a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

But a little while later...

Outside the gate, that person's voice rang out again.

"There should only be three people in there, right? They all seem to be at the Body Opening Realm."

Then several other mocking voices sounded.

All at once, a clamor erupted.

Fear appeared on Ling Qiuzi's face, and she looked helplessly toward Lin Tian.

"All of us brothers are at the Body Opening Realm. Even the three of you together are no match for us. Leave on your own, or we won't be polite."

Outside the courtyard, the man's voice grew flippant.

Inside the room, the little girl poked her head out.

She seemed to have noticed what was happening too, her little face filled with anxiety.

Lin Tian's gaze darkened. Gripping the Heavenly Sword, he rose.

"Young master... we should just leave..."

Ling Qiuzi had still wanted to dissuade him.

Then she suddenly remembered Lin Tian's sword strike yesterday and fell silent.

With unhurried steps, Lin Tian walked to the courtyard gate.

Suddenly, he looked next door.

Through the wall, Lin Tian could hear it.

Someone's breathing had grown a little heavier.

They were probably watching him.

Creak.

The courtyard gate opened.

Five people stood scattered about, looking at Lin Tian with ill intent in their eyes.

"Heh, so it's just some green brat. You can leave."

As one man spoke, he looked at Ling Qiuzi inside the courtyard and chuckled.

"She's pretty. She stays."

As he said this, the other four men exchanged glances, all smiling.

Ling Qiuzi's slender, pale hands involuntarily clenched. She hurriedly stood up, her little face deathly white.

Lin Tian stood quietly, showing no intention of leaving.

"Brat, we know you can't kill anyone here, but we can torture you. We can cut off your limbs and turn you into a human stick."

Seeing that Lin Tian had no intention of leaving, one man threatened him.

"Good."

Lin Tian nodded, and the men instantly grinned.

"What an interesting suggestion."

Lin Tian grinned, a flash of cruelty erupting in his calm eyes.

His entire expression descended into madness.

Clang!

The Heavenly Sword left its sheath, and Lin Tian slashed.

Splash!

Blood instantly spurted out, and the man closest to Lin Tian stiffened.

"Aah!"

He screamed, his expression instantly contorting.

That strike had severed both his legs.

"Damn it, get him!"

The other four were startled and hurriedly took their stances.

Two of them were powerfully built, clearly body refiners.

Light flared around their bodies as they punched toward Lin Tian.

"Ants."

Lin Tian scoffed, lightly moving his right hand.

The Heavenly Sword, suffused with azure light, hissed through the air.

It was like an azure dragon roaming the nine heavens.

His whole body moved lightly.

He stood amid the four.

Beneath the chill in his eyes lurked violence as he constantly calculated the openings in their defenses.

Two used their fists, one wielded a saber, and one held an axe.

Swish!

A diagonal slash met the broadsaber.

Crack!

With a crisp sound, it cut the man's long saber clean in two.

"My saber!"

The saber wielder's expression changed drastically. Without his saber, he had almost no fighting strength left.

He was just about to move away from Lin Tian.

Agonizing pain shot through his legs. Lin Tian had severed both of them as well.

"Aah!"

He screamed as Lin Tian seized him by the neck.

Lin Tian leaped into the air and severed both his arms with two more strikes.

"Heh heh."

Lin Tian gave a savage laugh, carrying the man's upper body as he fought the remaining three.

"You deserve to die!"

Terror flickered in the other three men's eyes.

They dared not hit the man in Lin Tian's hand, yet still had to guard against Lin Tian's attacks.

"Aah, aah, aah! Kill me! Kill me!"

The saber wielder, reduced to half a body, screamed.

He was a martial artist. Even losing all four limbs would not kill him.

But if he remained here, only death awaited him.

The other three, who could still fight, watched with eyes stretched almost to bursting.

They truly wanted to kill the saber wielder.

But they did not dare.

If they killed him and happened to send the formation into a frenzy, they would certainly die.

Swish, swish!

Lin Tian kept swinging his sword, the Heavenly Sword majestic as a roaming dragon.

After a series of linked strikes...

All three men had been wounded.

"Stop fighting! Run!"

One man spoke and was just about to flee.

"You've left an opening."

An icy voice rang out.

Squelch!

Lin Tian severed the man's left arm.

"Aah!"

He screamed and fled swiftly, not daring to look back.

Tap, tap!

Behind him, the sword-wielding demon was still charging after him.

Swish!

A swing through the air sent a streak of azure Sword Qi slashing out.

Squelch.

The man's legs dropped uncontrollably to the ground.

They had been severed.

As for the other two, they leaped straight into the neighboring house and fled.

Before long, two screams rang out.

Two mutilated bodies were thrown out of the courtyard, one after the other.

Their arms and legs had all caved in, blood spraying out.

The courtyard's owner had probably crushed their limbs.

"What kind of place is this?!"

"I'm doomed to die!"

The men lay sprawled here and there on the ground, wailing.

Lin Tian dropped the constantly screaming saber wielder and returned the Heavenly Sword to its sheath.

His eyes inadvertently swept over the neighboring courtyard.

Without thinking further, he walked into his own courtyard.

He closed the gate.

Ling Qiuzi and the little girl poking her head out of the room both stared at him in horror.

"My lord, you..."

Ling Qiuzi wanted to say something, but she was already at a loss for words.

Lin Tian washed his hands and sat back down on the stone chair.

He began eating.

"When I first arrived in town, I saw a little girl hiding in a bun shop. She tempted me to eat poisoned buns. I cut off one of her arms, and then she unleashed an extremely powerful pressure. But she stopped halfway through chasing me. Do you know her?"

Lin Tian asked.

That girl had given him an extremely strange feeling.

"Huh?"

Ling Qiuzi snapped out of her daze, seemingly not having heard what Lin Tian had just said.

Outside the courtyard, the men were still screaming, disrupting her thoughts somewhat.

Lin Tian repeated his question.

"I don't know."

Ling Qiuzi shook her head and said.

"Big brother, are you talking about Xiaohong?"

The little girl hid inside the room, with only her head poking out.

Seeing Lin Tian look toward her, the little girl couldn't help shrinking back as she continued:

"Xiaohong was really good to me. When I first arrived here, she was the one who protected me, but she wasn't missing an arm."

Lin Tian fell silent and asked no more questions.

Meanwhile.

In a courtyard in Blood Town.

The garden was well tended, planted entirely with flowers and grasses commonly found in the forest.

A scattering of fallen leaves covered the ground.

Two handsome men were diligently tending it.

Inside the main courtyard, three men with delicate features stood stiffly at attention.

Their expressions were nervous as they looked toward a side room lit with red candles.

From time to time, a woman's soft, sweet voice drifted out of that room.

Before long, the sounds stopped.

A man emerged from the room, supporting himself against the wall.

A seductive-looking woman dressed in red walked languidly out of the room.

Barefoot, she walked over to the three men with graceful movements.

"Lady Hongyu, these are a few fine pieces of merchandise your subordinate picked out today."

The white-robed man who had been sweeping hurried over to Hongyu and spoke respectfully.

"You bastard!"

Hongyu slapped the white-robed man across the face.

"What do you take me for? You dare bring this sort of merchandise before me?"

The white-robed man's expression turned panicked, and he dropped straight to his knees.

"Lady Hongyu, these really are the best few from today's batch."

He begged for mercy.

Hongyu snorted coldly and planted her delicate foot directly on his head.

She glanced at the three men and waved her hand.

"Get out, get out, get out."

As though a great weight had been lifted from them, the three hurried away in a panic.

"Where's that young man who arrived here yesterday?"

Hongyu asked, unable to help running her tongue over her red lips.

"That man refuses to come. Your subordinate is in the Body Opening Realm, with roughly the same strength as him. I'm afraid I can't beat him."

The man with his face pressed against the ground spoke hurriedly.

"He won't come?"

Hongyu raised an eyebrow, the flush gradually fading from her beautiful face.

"How interesting. Just thinking about that young man's looks leaves me a little intoxicated."

As she spoke, a trace of intoxication appeared in her eyes.

"There's no hurry, though."

"I want to see him kneeling before me when his pill poison erupts, begging softly for mercy."

Pressing a delicate finger against her red lips, Hongyu grew more intoxicated the more she thought about it.

Her supple body couldn't help trembling.

"Ah!"

A sweet moan escaped her lips.