Next, Fang Xuan casually tapped the black sword in his hand against the ground.
"Thud."
Centering on where the black sword struck the earth, an overbearingly peerless momentum spread out in an instant.
"Crack! Crack-crack—!"
The array patterns on the ground were like a spiderweb crushed by immense force, instantly filling with dense, sprawling cracks.
Then, under the terrified gazes of the crowd, it shattered inch by inch and was annihilated!
"Pfft—!"
The Spirit-Locking Mirror suspended in mid-air also exploded, turning into countless shards that flew in every direction.
Mentally linked to it, Shen Qingqing felt as if she had been struck by a heavy blow; she coughed out a large mouthful of blood, her face turning pale as paper as her aura withered instantly.
Only the cold drizzle continued to fall.
The few surviving demonic cultivators, including the one-eyed leader, all froze in place.
This... how was this any kind of weakened void core?
This momentum, this strength that effortlessly broke the array and destroyed the artifact... it was even more terrifying than some golden core elders they had seen!
Fang Xuan didn't look at the terrified demonic cultivators.
His gaze fell on the bleeding and withered Shen Qingqing, whose face was filled with despair and madness.
Then, he turned his head toward the one-eyed leader.
"Now, it is time for you to fulfill your promise."
The one-eyed leader shuddered, instantly understanding Fang Xuan's meaning.
He was being dragged into this to kill Shen Qingqing by his own hand.
But if she was killed, she was killed; as long as the corpse was destroyed, he could take the spirit bone and flee. When the time came for someone to be held accountable, they would look to his superior first—Fang Xuan.
Ferocity flashed in his eyes as he spun around, striking before Shen Qingqing could even recover.
"Puchi!"
The madness and spite on Shen Qingqing's face froze instantly.
She slowly lowered her head, looking in disbelief at the hand protruding from her chest.
"You... you all..."
She opened her mouth to speak, but only bloody froth surged out.
The muscles on the leader's face twitched as he violently pulled his hand back, tearing out her heart at the same time.
The heart continued to throb in his hand.
Finally, her body crashed heavily to the ground, splashing blood-mixed rainwater before falling completely silent.
The remaining demonic cultivators looked at Shen Qingqing's corpse on the ground, all of them as quiet as cicadas in winter, trembling with fear.
.......
"Senior, Shen Qingqing is dead. Now hurry and kill Ning Xian to get the spirit blood!"
The leader panted heavily, shaking the flesh and blood from his hand as he looked at Fang Xuan with burning eyes.
If he killed Ning Xian and then secretly pocketed the spirit bone for himself... it would be perfect!
Listening to this, Ning Xian's cold face remained expressionless.
She didn't know Fang Xuan's full plan, but she wouldn't misunderstand him; she just needed to play along.
Thus, she slightly adjusted her posture, looking up to glare fiercely at Fang Xuan.
With her lips pursed, she took on a tragic stance, as if prepared to fight to the death and take her enemy down with her.
Fang Xuan, "..."
Watching Ning Xian's effort to look "fierce," he only felt that his senior sister's acting was... perhaps a bit too fake.
Her eyes were cold enough, but she should at least shout a few curses.
This sense of tragic indignation that screamed "come and hit me, I'd rather die than submit" looked, no matter how one viewed it, like a puffed-up kitten.
.......
Coming back to his senses, his gaze fell back on the leader as he spoke calmly, "No rush."
The one-eyed leader froze, saying urgently, "Senior! Delay leads to trouble! Although this place is remote, that commotion just now wasn't small. There's no guarantee others won't notice! We should finish this quickly—"
His words came to an abrupt halt simply because Fang Xuan glanced at him.
Though the gaze wasn't sharp, it made a chill rise from the soles of his feet, forcing him to swallow the rest of his urging.
"Then... I'll destroy the corpse first to avoid leaving a trail!"
The leader quickly changed the subject, looking at Shen Qingqing's corpse, which still had some warmth despite the gaping hole in its chest.
Destroying the evidence was also part of the plan.
"Mhm," Fang Xuan responded non-committally.
Receiving permission, the leader acted immediately.
He walked to Shen Qingqing's body, his hands forming seals as he chanted under his breath. A sinister suction force emanated from his palms, enveloping the corpse.
At a speed visible to the naked eye, Shen Qingqing's body shriveled up, her skin losing its luster and clinging tightly to her skeleton.
The flesh and blood, along with her remaining spiritual power, were forcibly drained. Within a few breaths, she had turned into a hideous desiccated corpse.
With only a layer of skin covering the bones, the sight was truly horrifying.
Having finished this, the joy in the leader's eyes grew even more intense.
The corpse was destroyed; next was...
He licked his lips, his eyes burning as he looked at the position of the spine on the desiccated corpse.
A faint, warm jade light shimmered there—the transplanted spirit bone!
He reached out, impatient to extract the spirit bone.
Fang Xuan merely glanced into the distance.
They were here.
The demonic cultivator destroying the corpse would serve as complete evidence that a demonic cultivator had murdered Shen Qingqing.
As for these demonic cultivators themselves, they were naturally the scapegoats; not a single one could be left alive.
Just as the leader's fingers were about to touch that section of the spine—
"Swoosh!"
A sound of something cutting through the drizzle rang out.
A pitch-black sword light flashed from the mouth of the scabbard and vanished.
The greedy smile on the leader's face didn't even have time to turn into shock before that black light swept across his neck.
Without pausing, it swept through the other demonic cultivators who had just breathed a sigh of relief and were preparing to crowd around to see the treasure.
Time seemed to stand still for a moment.
The drizzle continued to fall.
The leader's hand remained frozen in mid-air, his fingertips only an inch away from the spirit bone.
And then—
"Pfft!" "Pfft, pfft, pfft...!"
Several lines of blood sprayed simultaneously from the necks of all the demonic cultivators.
The leader tried in vain to cover his throat, but his body pitched forward uncontrollably, crashing down heavily beside Shen Qingqing's desiccated corpse before falling silent.
The other demonic cultivators fell like cut straw, one after another, their blood mixing into the muddy rainwater and spreading rapidly.
In the blink of an eye, aside from Fang Xuan and Ning Xian, there was not a single living thing left standing in this burial mound.
Rate on N.U.
