When Li Xun's head appeared over the ridge more than twenty li from the Demon Thunder Monastery, the shrieking echo from that direction still hadn't faded.
His face was dark and cold, giving no sign that only moments ago he had slain one of the Tongxuan Realm's most notorious killers.
For a rookie cultivator, that might have meant instant fame overnight. For Li Xun, it meant nothing.
The truth was, from the moment that man had slipped into the temple unnoticed and began watching him, the past two days of Li Xun's hard work had already gone to waste.
So even the Heaven-Evading Thorn is acting as a scout. How many of Vermilion Hook Sect's Nine Killers have come? Li Xun had already guessed the dead man's identity. The Emptystep Escape truly lives up to its reputation. But after today, what will become of the title 'Two Blades, Four Edges, Three Little Hooks'?
A chilling smile crossed his face. The true combat strength of his two shadow puppets was being steadily unlocked as their intelligence revived.
The Heaven-Evading Thorn ranked among the "Four Edges," one of the Tongxuan Realm's elite. Yet under the sudden strike of the two puppets, he died cleanly and without a struggle.
At this rate, give it another ten or twenty years, and who in the Tongxuan Realm could withstand even a single blow from him when caught off guard?
That thought eased the frustration in his chest. He was about to start working on a new plan when the distant cry of swords rang out. Startled, he turned toward the sound and caught sight of a row of sword-lights streaking across the sky not far away.
Li Xun's eyes were sharp. One glance at the leading figure in that streak of sword-light, and his eyes widened.
"Tì Wujiu? The Heavenly Vigorous Sect?"
He had good reason to be surprised.
What he saw was none other than Clear Origin Master, Tì Wujiu, one of the Heavenly Vigorous Sect's three Grand Instructors, a peerless expert whose standing was second only to the sect leader, Master Dayan.
Rumor had it his cultivation had already surpassed Dayan's, making him the foremost figure in the Heavenly Vigorous Sect and one of the most promising candidates in the past century to ascend to the rank of True One Grandmaster.
Five years ago, Li Xun had crossed paths with him while still a rising talent of the Mingxin Sword Sect. Because of what had happened then, he had taken a particular interest in the man and remembered him clearly.
But that wasn't the real issue here. A man like the Heavenly Vigorous Sect's top swordsman wouldn't come to this place to gather herbs, admire flowers, or pay a friendly visit.
The sword-lights of the Heavenly Vigorous Sect flew incredibly fast. In the blink of an eye, they vanished from Li Xun's sight, streaking southward.
And in that direction lay the Demon Thunder Monastery.
Li Xun cursed under his breath, knowing things had just gotten more complicated.
As he was considering how to respond, the air above the forest suddenly shuddered again. This time it was followed by a rapid series of piercing detonations. Several heartbeats later, the shockwaves rolled through, tearing across the canopy. Branches and leaves thrashed violently, the sheer force of it enough to make the heart pound.
Even though these were only aftershocks, the fragments of information they carried on the wind were rich and telling.
From that string of explosions alone, Li Xun could tell that at least twenty people were involved. The crashing collisions of their surging true breath, the shifts in the flows of qi mechanism, and the sweeping storms of primordial qi they stirred up created endless variations in the vast space around them. Even catching the barest glimpse of that clash was enough to set one's blood racing.
A faint flush crossed Li Xun's pale face. With his current cultivation and experience, he could already sift through the tangled stream of information and pick out the most important detail. Two masters of at least the True Person level had already crossed swords.
One side's true breath was vast, upright, and unshakable, surging with majestic force. That could only be Tì Wujiu, who had just passed by. The other was narrow and sharp in nature, with dark, twisting undercurrents. It looked very much like the "Seven Ghosts Seize the Sea Break." That would make him none other than Yuan Nan, Spirit Lord of the Underworld Monarch Sect.
He lifted his gaze to the sky. Sure enough, in the farthest reaches of sight, the color of the heavens seemed to have deepened. From a single central point, wave after wave of both tangible and intangible gales blasted outward in all directions.
As expected, righteous and demonic never stand together. One word of disagreement, and they start fighting…
Such a spectacular duel was rare in the Tongxuan Realm. Without thinking, he pushed off and sped toward the source.
It was less than twenty li away; hardly more than an instant's travel. Yet when Li Xun reached the edge of the battlefield, the Underworld Monarch Sect experts led by Yuan Nan were already in retreat.
Tì Wujiu and Yuan Nan faced each other across the distance, holding their ground. But the Underworld Monarch Sect's people quickly melted into the dense sea of forest.
If it were a question of Yuan Nan not being able to match Tì Wujiu, Li Xun could believe it.
Clear Origin Master was filled with Vast Righteous Qi, supremely great and firm, and naturally resistant to all evil methods and demonic arts. Yuan Nan might be a formidable figure in a demonic sect, but against Tì Wujiu, even if he brought ten parts of his strength to bear, he would be lucky to keep seven. Given that his cultivation was already a shade lower, the outcome was even more one-sided.
Still, to lose this quickly? That was strange. If he thought it wasn't worth risking everything against Tì Wujiu before the ancient temple's secrets were uncovered, then he shouldn't have attacked in the first place. With the two sects' arts so perfectly countering each other, a frontal clash was far less profitable than striking from the shadows at the right moment.
That was Li Xun's own thought. But it was as if Yuan Nan could read his mind, for he proved the point almost immediately.
Just as Yuan Nan was slowly retreating and about to disappear into the forest, a figure suddenly appeared in midair, dropping like a thunderclap and streaking downward.
Its target wasn't Tì Wujiu, but the group of disciples several hundred yards away from him.
Perhaps this was what you'd call "a cost-effective move."
But the Heavenly Vigorous Sect wasn't made up of fools. At the first sign of trouble, a capable cultivator stepped forward to intercept.
Unexpectedly, the descending figure split into two, slipping past the intercepting cultivator in a bizarre arc without slowing its charge.
Before the disciples on the ground could react, one of those figures split again into two, while the other split into three. Five figures in all fanned out in a curve and, as they crisscrossed, they tore apart the Heavenly Vigorous Sect's previously solid formation in an instant.
Li Xun tilted his head for a better look and gave a soft "Oh?"
Clone Escape?
This basic escape technique could almost be called an illusion technique. The fact that the Underworld Monarch Sect could reverse the principle, condensing five people into one, then suddenly scattering them, was impressive in itself, regardless of the finer points of skill.
Still…
For someone of a Nether General's rank, pulling a stunt like this takes real nerve...
The newcomers were indeed the Underworld Sect's Five Nether Generals, each one at a level between the Transformation of Infant stage and the True Person stage, with no shortage of cultivation depth.
Their intentions were obvious. They meant to tear open the Heavenly Vigorous Sect's defenses and strike at its weakest point, giving the sect a harsh and immediate warning.
The first half of the plan went off perfectly. The Five Nether Generals' crisscrossing maneuvers left the pursuing cultivators dazzled, and in that moment of confusion at least three gaps opened for infiltration. At a sharp whistle from one of them, three of the Nether Generals dove straight down.
Some quick-thinking cultivators wheeled around to intercept, but the three moved in a shifting pattern of feints and advances. The defenders could block one, even two, but there was no stopping the third.
The last Nether General moved with uncanny speed, slipping straight through the turbulent clash of two opposing streams of qi. His target was already fixed. A female cultivator in a purple robe, delicate and refined in appearance.
She's the most unfamiliar face. Must be a rookie just down from the mountain for training, he thought.
His gaze swept past the two companions standing at her side.
They were well-known in the Tongxuan Realm. Two of the "Four Gentlemen" among the Heavenly Vigorous Sect's third-generation disciples, the Bamboo Gentleman and the Pine Gentleman. Both were formidable in their own right. In a normal, head-on fight, they might have been troublesome opponents, but the Nether General was confident he could kill the purple-robed woman before they could coordinate a pincer attack.
The thought of such a flower-like beauty being torn to pieces by his hand sent a thrill through him.
But to his surprise, as he charged in, the two Gentlemen moved with perfect synchrony. Each taking a step back and leaving the woman completely exposed to him.
That unnatural reaction set off alarms in his mind. But it was already too late.
With a ringing clang, a short sword hidden at her ribs sprang free by some special mechanism. Her slender fingers pinched the hilt lightly, and violet light burst upward into the sky.
The Nether General watched the short sword, barely a foot long, spin deftly and lightly between the woman's fingers. He was at once surprised and amused. Was this really the Heavenly Vigorous Sect, famed for its forceful, vigorous style?
The next instant, he paid the price for his foolish distraction. The woman gripped the hilt with all five fingers, and suddenly the air around him seized up. It was as if a great net had drawn tight, its tough, fine strands biting into him from every direction, making his whole body ache.
Then he saw the sword's tip aimed straight between his brows. Violet fire seemed to ripple along the foot-long blade, like the torrent beneath a thousand-foot cliff, swift as wind and cloud, majestic and unstoppable. Yet not a trace spilled outward. It was all compressed into the narrow length of steel, rumbling with restrained power.
A powerful sense of danger surged through him. With a sharp, piercing cry, he ignored the pain lancing through his body and twisted aside to dodge.
But in the middle of that cry, a soft, melodious murmur from the woman slipped into his ears.
The sound was pleasant enough, but the next heartbeat brought a thunderclap above his head. The violent shockwave rattled his mind, and he instinctively glanced back. A violet starburst tearing through the air toward him.
A sizzling hiss followed, like red-hot iron plunged into icy water, with a muffled, hoarse cry of pain buried in the sound.
Centuries of combat instinct kicked in. At the critical moment, he thrust out his hand, meeting that rare and deadly weapon with nothing but flesh and bone.
The blade slid through his palm as if cutting through rotted wood.
The Nether General let out another hoarse cry of pain, but it only roused his bloodlust. His fingers clenched inward with crushing force, and using a secret technique, he turned the agony into fuel, instantly boosting his strength by twenty percent. If the woman lacked experience and thought that crippling one of his hands would win her the fight, she would be walking straight into his killing blow.
But did she really lack experience?
The moment he gathered his strength, he felt the short sword in the wound at his palm suddenly stir to life. Its razor-sharp edge seemed to treat the surrounding flesh, sinew, and bone as if they didn't exist, gliding as though it were moving through empty air. With effortless precision, it traced a perfect circle.
As the blade turned, hundreds of streams of qi mechanisms were drawn in, twisting the primordial qi into a powerful vortex. With a sudden wrench, the air erupted into a burst of blood mist. Shreds of flesh and splinters of bone sprayed outward only to be instantly consumed by violet fire, leaving not the faintest trace behind.
No one could watch their hand and forearm be ground into nothing and remain calm.
The Nether General was no exception. In the instant the blood mist bloomed, his mind went blank. And so he never saw it. How, behind the screen of mist, the purple-robed woman turned, vanished into the void, and reappeared behind him.
Warning shouts rang out from every direction, but before he could react, the searing blade traced a light stroke across the back of his neck.
The heat was so intense it felt like an icy chill. That cold edge pierced skin, severed blood vessels, split the spine and windpipe, and then slid out through the front of his throat. In that single instant, all his life was sealed away.
….
TLer: Who do you think this woman is?