A flash of killing intent suddenly crossed Su Yueli's eyes.
Xiaohei, fitted over her right hand, seemed to sense its master's state of mind, and a faint blood-red glow shimmered on its fist blades.
In the next instant, the road beneath Su Yueli's feet cracked and cratered. Carrying the full blood qi of her Delusion Breaker Rank, she threw a ferocious punch straight at the young man in front of her.
The young Cangyun Sect cultivator was momentarily stunned, clearly not expecting this mortal woman to attack him so directly.
But after all, he possessed a Third Realm mid stage immortal cultivation, giving him a natural psychological advantage over secular martial artists.
Seeing this, the young man sneered disdainfully. “An ant trying to shake a tree. You're courting death!”
He didn't even bother to sacrifice a magic treasure. Instead, he calmly raised his right hand, his internal mana surging as he prepared to condense a spiritual energy barrier to shatter this ignorant mortal.
However, in the next moment, the smile froze on his face.
In the blink of an eye, Su Yueli was already right in front of him.
Her speed was so fast it practically bypassed the limits of human vision. The savage wind whipped up by her punch stung the young man's face.
The cultivator's mind went completely blank. This was absolutely not a speed any ordinary martial artist could possess!
In this life-or-death moment, terror filled his eyes as he desperately tried to connect with the protective magic treasure inside his storage bag.
But Su Yueli's right fist was already hurtling toward his head, accompanied by a piercing, air-rending shriek.
The two layers of hidden force from the Mountain-Shaking Heaven-Shattering Force erupted violently at that very second.
Bang!
A muffled explosion rang out. Before the young man's protective mana could even form, his entire head was shattered into a mist of blood by the terrifying concussive force of the fist blades, bursting like a ripe watermelon.
The headless corpse swayed and collapsed into the pile of rocks with a heavy thud.
Su Yueli pulled back her fist and stood there, staring at the red and white splatter on the ground. For a moment, she was somewhat dazed.
“Huh? Wait... why is he so squishy?”
She blinked, looking at her hands in disbelief.
This was a Third Realm mid stage cultivator.
Back when she was a Tenth Realm Martial God, fighting a peak Second Realm demon beast would be a grueling battle of life and death, requiring every ounce of her strength just to barely kill it.
Yet now, facing an even higher Third Realm mid stage cultivator, she had actually killed him in a single punch?
Su Yueli shook the blood off her fist blades, pondering to herself.
It seemed that once a cultivator's physical body lost the protection of their mana barrier and magic treasures, they really weren't much stronger than a mortal martial artist.
On top of that, the opponent had been far too arrogant just now and hadn't even had time to mount a proper defense. Furthermore, after stepping into the Delusion Breaker Rank, her strength had indeed undergone a qualitative leap.
“My mind said I knew it, and my hands hit the mark pretty well,” Su Yueli muttered. She then turned her head to look at the convoy behind her.
At this moment, Manager Lin, Old Zhang, and the remaining martial artists were still frozen in place.
Their mouths hung wide open, their eyes staring at the headless corpse as if their eyeballs were about to pop out.
Killing an immortal master with a single punch completely shattered their worldview.
“Stop dazing off. Let's move,” Su Yueli said, pulling at her collar as her cold voice echoed across the road.
Manager Lin shuddered, finally snapping out of his stupor.
The way he looked at Su Yueli now was no different from looking at a deity. He didn't dare utter another word of nonsense, scrambling on all fours to direct the convoy. “Quick! Hurry! Move at full speed and get out of here!”
At this point, who cared about anything else? If they didn't leave now, and other cultivators arrived, they probably wouldn't be able to leave at all.
Whether it was the aftershocks of a battle or the cultivators taking their anger out on them, either scenario would be enough to kill them several times over.
The convoy rumbled into motion once more, but this time, all the martial artists instinctively distanced themselves from Su Yueli.
Along the way, the crowd whispered among themselves, the shock and fear in their eyes completely impossible to hide.
Su Yueli walked at the very back. She didn't leave the group immediately. Instead, she doubled back and walked over to the corpse of the Cangyun Sect disciple.
Crouching down, she searched the body with practiced ease.
She untied the storage bag from his waist. Fortunately, it wasn't a space ring; otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to open it without spiritual energy.
But as she swept her gaze inside, Su Yueli's face instantly fell.
Lying scattered inside were a few hundred low-grade spirit stones, two bottles of first- and second-grade healing pills, and a bronze mirror magic treasure that looked somewhat dull, seemingly meant for defense.
“Bah, pauper. An outer disciple only has this much to his name.”
Su Yueli cursed under her breath, casually stuffing the storage bag into her robes.
This place was too close to Tianyuan City. Once the Cangyun Sect discovered their disciple's life plaque had shattered, they would react very quickly.
She had to leave the convoy as soon as possible and find a hidden place to lie low.
...
Just as Su Yueli expected.
At this moment, in a dense forest dozens of miles away, inside the Cangyun Sect's temporary camp.
Elder Han was sitting cross-legged on a giant boulder, resting with his eyes closed. Among the row of natal soul plaques floating before him, one suddenly let out a crisp crack and exploded into a cloud of powder.
Elder Han snapped his eyes open, his face incredibly dark. “Disciple Nephew Li's soul plaque shattered? Wasn't he inspecting mortal convoys near the South Gate Plains?”
The faces of the surrounding Cangyun Sect disciples also changed drastically.
“To dare kill an inner disciple of our Cangyun Sect, that damned guest from Room Eight must be over there! Let's go check it out!”
Elder Han barked a low command. The flying sword beneath his feet suddenly glowed with a blinding light, and he shot into the sky like an afterimage.
The several disciples behind him also summoned their magic treasures and followed closely.
Within moments, several powerful streaks of immortal escape light landed on the rocky road where Su Yueli had committed the murder.
With a grim expression, Elder Han walked over to the headless corpse and crouched down to examine the wound carefully.
When he saw Disciple Nephew Li's neck, which was completely pulverized with even the bones turned to powder, his brow furrowed deeply.
“There are no traces of residual mana at all. The bones are completely shattered. He had his head blown off by a single punch of pure, brute strength.”
Elder Han stood up, a trace of suspicion and uncertainty flashing in his eyes. “This doesn't look like a cultivator's handiwork... instead, it looks like it was done by those Ji Dao martial artists from the secular world.”
He then closed his eyes and released his divine sense, carefully scanning every inch of land within a radius of several miles.
A moment later, he opened his eyes, frowning.
Other than the residual shockwaves of the fist force, there was absolutely no trace of a cultivator's residual mana at the scene.
A martial artist's blood qi was completely different from a cultivator's mana. Once concealed within the body, without any fluctuations of spiritual energy, it was extremely difficult to pinpoint them over a wide area using divine sense.
Elder Han turned his head and commanded the remaining six inner disciples behind him, “The opponent is most likely a Ji Dao martial artist who has concealed their blood qi. The six of you, split into pairs, search toward the east, west, and north respectively. I will personally pursue to the south.”
Remembering something, he instructed, “This thief was able to instantly kill a cultivator in a single punch, so their strength cannot be underestimated. If you find any suspicious traces, light the transmission lantern immediately to send word. Remember, do not engage in battle on your own!”
“We obey!”
The six Cangyun Sect disciples replied in unison. They then summoned their magic treasures one after another, dispersing into several streaks of light.
The pair responsible for searching the west consisted of two Third Realm disciples.
Flying low over the wasteland on their dharma treasures, the two searched with their spiritual senses while whispering to each other.
“Junior Brother Li was at the Third Realm mid stage, after all. How could he die so miserably at the hands of a mortal martial artist without even having time to crush a transmission talisman? It's truly unbelievable.”
The slightly chubby cultivator beside him sneered and speculated, “Junior Brother Li probably let his guard down too much and was ambushed by that woman using some cheap secular hidden weapon. Even if a martial artist trains to the absolute limit, without mana to nourish their physical body, they're still as fragile as paper.”
“If we brothers run into her later, we'll just unleash our flying swords and magic treasures from a hundred meters away. We won't give her any chance to get close. Let's see how she tries to turn the tables then.”
“You're right, Senior Brother. To be safe, we'll just blast her to death with spells directly.”
The two exchanged glances, a hint of arrogance flashing in their eyes, as they continued to follow the tracks across the wilderness.
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