Suddenly!
Shen Xiuhan abruptly withdrew his sword stance!
He ducked!
Clawing his right hand into a hook, he tore outward from an angle like a heavenly eagle snatching a snake, aiming straight for Liu Sanxian's jaw!
『Heavenly Eagle Wind-Tearing Hand: Eagle Beak Snatching Snake』!
“Seeking death!” Liu Sanxian bellowed, his eyes flaring with fierceness.
The muscles in his right arm bulged. With his muscles and bones ringing in unison, he gripped the pitch-black long flute in his palm like a short rod of refined iron, wrapping it in greyish True Qi as he slammed it down.
Boom!
With this strike, Liu Sanxian held absolutely nothing back!
The air was whipped into an ear-piercing shriek!
Forced into such a corner by an Anjin Rank junior, he was utterly consumed by shame and fury, wishing nothing more than to smash the person before him into a pulp.
Facing this wrathful blow capable of shattering stone monuments, Shen Xiuhan had long anticipated it.
He abruptly withdrew the feint he had thrust forward.
He slid his upper body half a step to the side at an almost imperceptible angle, like a fish evading a raging torrent.
At the same time, Shen Xiuhan formed a claw with his left hand. Narrowly evading the downward-smashing rod, his five fingers clamped onto the soft flesh of Liu Sanxian's waist with the precision of an eagle's talons.
Immediately after, he ripped backward with immense force!
Riiip!
“Argh!” Liu Sanxian let out a miserable shriek, his face contorting in agony.
A sharp pain flared in his waist as a chunk of flesh, along with his clothing, was torn clean off by Shen Xiuhan.
Simultaneously, a wave of bizarrely cold qi surged frantically into the wound, burrowing toward his internal organs like a venomous serpent.
Pale-faced, Liu Sanxian gritted his teeth. Hurriedly condensing True Qi in his right palm, he endured the agonizing pain and shoved forward!
Boom!
A blast of palm force erupted!
Midair and unable to withdraw his stance in time, Shen Xiuhan had no choice but to cross his arms to block the strike.
Rip!
The clothes at his shoulder were shredded into rags by the fierce wind, and the stinging pain on his skin sent his blood qi churning.
But upon landing, he rooted his feet to withstand the impact, his body merely swaying twice.
Liu Sanxian, however, fared far worse.
The excruciating pain in his waist was unbearable. The bizarre cold qi acted like a freezing poison, instantly leaving half of his body numb and aching, even sluggishly impeding the flow of True Qi through his meridians.
He hurriedly redirected his True Qi to his waist wound, desperately sealing off the strange cold qi.
Meanwhile, the internal injury in his chest—inflicted from afar by Gongsun Bei—ruptured once more!
The pain from both his old and new injuries overlapped, causing the veins on his temples to throb violently as cold sweat poured down his face.
“What a Moonlight Sword... What a Shen Xiuhan!” Suppressing the shock in his heart, Liu Sanxian finally calmed down, any trace of contempt completely vanishing.
Shen Xiuhan's audacity to intercept and kill a Huajin Rank expert alone was by no means a suicidal whim; he had to have significant confidence.
Right now, with his precious artifact ruined and himself severely injured, if he fought with any carelessness, this alley would become his final resting place today.
I must end this quickly!
A ruthless glint flashed in Liu Sanxian's eyes as he raised the long flute to his lips.
The mournful, weeping notes of the flute echoed out, drifting through the narrow bluestone alley.
The soundwaves seemed almost tangible, washing into Shen Xiuhan's ears layer upon layer. In an instant, his vision blurred, his head grew heavy, and the scenery before him began to warp and distort!
He seemed to stand inside a magnificent palace with carved beams and painted pillars, the floor covered in exquisite brocade, and ethereal maidens beckoning him forward...
“Is this... an illusion music technique?” Shen Xiuhan's heart jolted. Coldly snorting, a speck of golden light flashed deep within his left eye!
『Muxu Eye』!
The splendid palace before him dissolved layer by layer like thin mist!
In the southeastern direction, three faint golden weaknesses were mapped with absolute clarity in his pupils.
“Found you!” Cold light erupted from Shen Xiuhan's eyes. Instead of retreating, he advanced.
Stomping his foot down, the bluestone ground cracked with a sharp sound, blasting the accumulated water into a cloud of white mist. Like an arrow shot from a bow, he shot toward Liu Sanxian in an instant.
“What?!”
Liu Sanxian had been quietly circling while playing the flute, hoping to deceive Shen Xiuhan's senses with his illusion and close in behind him for a fatal strike.
But he never expected that Shen Xiuhan would break free from the illusion instantly, thrusting a claw wrapped in fierce wind straight toward the old injury on his chest that Gongsun Bei had inflicted.
“How dare you!” Liu Sanxian reacted incredibly fast. At the absolute critical juncture, he decisively abandoned his flute, shrinking and spinning his body to narrowly dodge the lethal claw aimed at his chest.
Simultaneously, grey True Qi surged in his right hand. Using his palm like a blade, he hacked down viciously at Shen Xiuhan's forearm.
But his weaknesses had already been fully mapped by the golden light in Shen Xiuhan's eyes; this move was anticipated from the start.
Shen Xiuhan retracted his right arm instantly, causing the palm strike to slice through empty air, brushing past his sleeve.
In the next instant, he leaped into the air. He drove his right knee upward like a battering ram, carrying a fierce and unmatched force as he slammed it toward the main bone of Liu Sanxian's chest.
『Thirty-Six Paths Sky-Collapsing Kick: Mountain-Crashing Kick』!
“Not good!” Liu Sanxian's face fell dramatically!
Having no time to wonder how his opponent could target his injuries with such pinpoint accuracy, he could only hastily retract his hand. Tensing his right elbow like iron, grey True Qi surged out as he attempted to block the incoming knee!
Bang!
Knee and elbow collided violently, producing a dull, drum-like boom.
The immense force caused both of their bodies to shudder violently, the shockwave whipping up ripples in the water beneath their feet.
Shen Xiuhan felt as if his knee had struck solid iron, the rebounding force causing his blood qi to churn.
Liu Sanxian also groaned. An excruciating pain shot through his hastily blocking elbow, and his body stumbled backward involuntarily.
Shen Xiuhan had been waiting for this exact moment!
Leveraging the rebounding force, he sprang back half a step, and his long-prepared left arm finally moved.
The refined iron sword, its blade already spiderwebbed with minor fractures, materialized in his hand once more.
A streak of blazing white light instantly spread from the hilt, swallowing the entire blade.
Before the falling rain could even touch the blade, it was shredded into a powdery mist by the invisible, razor-sharp aura.
Liu Sanxian's pupils contracted violently, the hairs all over his body standing on end.
“Sword-glow... It's too close!”
Leaning his upper body backward, he stomped his foot down and launched himself backward in an instant.
Simultaneously, he yanked out the nearly severed Ghost Pipa once more to shield his front.
Only after doing all this did Liu Sanxian breathe a slight sigh of relief.
However!
Right at that moment, a scene he would never forget for the rest of his life unfolded.
Not far away, the white light on the sword blade suddenly flared wildly, like a trapped dragon breaking free from its shackles, flickering violently.
“Hah!” The sword-wielding youth let out a sharp cry, his long sword drawing a fierce arc in the air, releasing a clear, dragon-like chime.
In the next instant!
A crescent of sword-qi, as large as a ship's sail and as thin as a cicada's wing, detached from the blade and floated before Liu Sanxian's eyes with near-ghostly speed.
“S-Sword-qi?!” Liu Sanxian's eyes were filled with horror. Shrieking in shock, his voice became high-pitched and distorted.
For the first time, genuine terror surfaced on his face, and deep despair instantly flooded his eyes.
“My life is over!”
Slash!
The sword-qi sliced through the Ghost Pipa without any resistance.
The high-grade precious artifact, which had cost him countless efforts to refine, was split in two like soft black tofu, its remnants clattering to the ground.
Immediately after, the remaining momentum of the sword-qi did not diminish!
It cut through the layer of greyish True Qi in front of Liu Sanxian, exposing the palms he had hurriedly pushed forward behind his barrier.
Under the sheer sharpness of the sword-qi, his ten fingers snapped off cleanly like dry twigs. As blood sprayed everywhere, the sword-qi sliced diagonally across Liu Sanxian's chest.
*Splat!
Liu Sanxian's body was instantly severed into two halves.
His upper torso slid down at an angle. Organs, shredded flesh, and blood mingled with the rainwater, instantly spilling all over the ground.
“Aaagh!!!” Though severed at the chest by the sword-qi, he did not die immediately, letting out agonizing, blood-curdling shrieks from his mouth!
Meanwhile, the sword-qi that had passed right through him still carried residual power, slamming violently into the high brick wall behind him.
Boom!
The high wall collapsed in an instant, sending stone fragments flying and dust billowing into the sky.
A massive stretch of stone walls collapsed with a deafening roar, shaking the entire long alley.
After the tremendous noise, the sword-qi finally dissipated into nothingness.
Crack! Crack!
The refined iron sword in Shen Xiuhan's hand could no longer withstand the strain, and the fractures across the blade suddenly spiderwebbed!
Then, it shattered into pieces, clattering to the ground as a heap of scrap iron.
His chest heaved violently. Tossing the hilt aside, he stared at Liu Sanxian, who was gradually losing all signs of life, and felt a profound sense of relief!
Finally!
The Nine Anhuai Fiends!
The Fourth Fiend, the Ghost Sound Fiend—
The Huajin Rank expert, Liu Sanxian—
Slain!
Exhaling a long breath of turbid air, Shen Xiuhan regulated his breathing for a moment before stepping forward quickly, swiftly ripping the storage bag off Liu Sanxian's corpse.
Rate on N.U.
