10 Steps to Kill a Man

At the beginning, Wang Wu knew that his actual combat power was inferior to Li Shiyin's, so he decisively used the tactic of dragging the battle, just entangling Li Shiyin without directly confronting her head-on, like a quagmire, trapping Li Shiyin and buying time while waiting for her to make a mistake.

His strategy worked very well. Seeing that Qin Ran could not hold on any longer, Li Shiyin did become anxious and started to make mistakes...

But he did not take into account that some people collapse under pressure, while others gradually become stronger as the pressure mounts. Brought back from the brink of death, when the pressure reaches a certain level, they have an awakening.

Li Shiyin was this kind of person.

Some people collapse under pressure, their bodies smashed to pieces beyond recovery. Others tear through the pressure, rising up to meet the challenge, breaking out of their cocoon like a butterfly!

Under the tremendous pressure, Li Shiyin instead found a way to break the deadlock. With great courage, she used her own combat power to take out the opponent's support.

One must understand, she was still fighting with Wang Wu. Recklessly shooting out Starlight Beam greatly weakened her own combat power. It was an extremely dangerous maneuver. The slightest mistake would give Wang Wu a chance to seize the opportunity and take her life.

Yet she did it anyway!

And she succeeded!

Then Wu Qing was heavily injured and fell to the ground, fate unknown. Wang Wu lost his cool!

He even took the initiative to attack several times, forgetting that his actual combat power was far from comparable to Li Shiyin's. Even without the boost from Calling Starlight now, he was still no match for her. He forgot about that and attacked on his own initiative.

But what about Li Shiyin?

When she noticed Wang Wu was losing his composure, she actually started pretending to be weak on purpose, continuing to lure Wang Wu to attack.

Wang Wu attacked frantically. The angry roars of the Lionheart Flame Beast, the fiery rage of his great blade slashing out, he forced Li Shiyin back with slash after slash. The more she retreated, the more he advanced, believing he had the advantage and was suppressing Li Shiyin. The more he advanced, the more he felt that victory was imminent...He must avenge Wu Qing; he must distinguish himself!

And so...

He made a fatal mistake. Li Shiyin caught a huge opening and ran him through with her sword!

Then it was a downpour of blades, a wild storm. Seeing Li Shiyin's face like frost, devoid of mercy, he no longer had the strength to lift his blade. Covered in blood, his blade dropped to the ground as he...

Died!

Li Shiyin sent Wang Wu on his way, as her master had instructed!

On the gravel wasteland beneath the volcano, Wang Wu's corpse lay among the hardy weeds, soaked in blood. The fierce winds blew as the blood-soaked Li Shiyin appeared before Zhang Shan.

Zhang Shan looked at the girl in front of him. The scorching winds of Li Ben Mountain made him feel cold. He realized this girl was different than the innocent and easily fooled girl from two days ago.

Gripping his sword, he unconsciously took a step back.

Two days ago, she was a naive and romantic genius from a great sect. Now, she was a berserk reaper emerged from hell itself!

What had happened to her these past two days?

She had forged a sword in that time.

Time passed, the starlight returned, and the blood-soaked Li Shiyin, bathed in starlight, went on the attack against Zhang Shan once more. Zhang Shan had already been scared out of his wits. Unable to withstand two exchanges of blows, he was again bisected by Li Shiyin's sword, bringing her face to face with Wu Qing and Ma Ze.

"Wu Qing uses the wood element..."

She remembered her master's words, took out an Earth Flame Pill from her Universe Bag, stirred her mystic power, and activated the unseal rune. The Earth Flame Pill shot out and exploded between Wu Qing and Ma Ze. In an instant, scorching flames blasted forth, an astonishing fiery storm surged out.

Seeing that his foolish disciple finally used an external object, Qin Ran felt very gratified. Then...

He relaxed his control of the Air Water Man, allowing Ma Ze to retrieve his sword.

In the next moment, the scorched Ma Ze, still aflame, flew out from the fire. Riding his sword, he rose into the air, one foot on the sword, another sword floating above his head. Though burned, the rage still blazed in his eyes, now bloodshot, an extremely terrifying sight.

Seeing Ma Ze like this, Qin Ran nodded to himself, "It seems Wu Qing is already dead."

"I will take you with me!" Ma Ze roared furiously. Grasping his twin swords, he activated the floating sword above his head, "Ten Thousand Swords Spell!"

In a flash, the sword above his head quivered and shook out illusory shadows. Lose focus for a second, and a myriad of swords would hover in the air, some real, some false, some solid, some ephemeral. Dizzying to behold, it was as if ten thousand sword shadows filled the sky.

"Ten Thousand Swords Spell?" Qin Ran thought to himself, "No wonder he is called the Thousand Swords Immortal."

He looked again towards Li Shiyin, wanting to see how this foolish disciple would break this deadlock.

He saw that the Li Shiyin on the ground looked up at the dense expanse of swords in the sky, all pointed towards her, preternaturally sharp, as if they were made of sword energy. She watched them for a few seconds, then the corners of her mouth curled up mockingly.

"Master always said I was a fool, but it looks to me like the one in the sky is the real fool..." she thought. "Clearly only at the Foundation Establishment Stage, yet still trying to pull off ten thousand sword energies. Worried that others don't know his sword energies are fake."

Thinking this, the starlight around her body grew more concentrated. She rotated her sword-wielding wrist, then abruptly turned back, putting her full strength behind throwing her Qingxing Sword directly at Ma Ze's face.

Seeing that the woman on the ground was not only unafraid of his sword formation, but instead threw her own sword to attack him, Ma Ze let out a cold laugh. "Then go to your death!"

He focused all of his swords together and collided with the oncoming Qingxing Sword.

But unfortunately, as Li Shiyin had assessed, he really was a fool. Not only did he fail to fool anyone else, but he had fooled himself.

When you fool enough people, you start to believe your own swords are real sword energies. He forgot that due to his incomplete mastery of sword techniques, the dispersed swords were actually ninety percent illusory swords.

So when the Qingxing Sword collided with the Ten Thousand Swords, it was as if they collided with thin air. Without slowing in the slightest, only at the very end, right as it reached Ma Ze's face, was there a hint of resistance. But how could Ma Ze resist Li Shiyin's monstrous strength?

The Qingxing Sword plunged through Ma Ze's abdomen, leaving only the hilt protruding.

Qin Ran watched as Ma Ze fell from the sky and recalled that night when amidst the wolf pack, Li Shiyin precisely shot the wolf king. So it was no fluke, but another example of his foolish disciple's skill.

His foolish disciple had taken out another one. Qin Ran said nothing, circulating his mystic power to weaken the defensive bubble in the air. Liu Er tore through the bubble and plummeted from midair, landing right in front of Li Shiyin.

"And another one..." Li Shiyin sighed.

One after another, one after another, each one stronger than the last...

Moreover, carefully thinking back, she had always fought them one-on-one.

Li Shiyin was no fool. Staring at the man before her, his expression grieved and enraged as if he would swallow her alive, she finally understood everything was unfolding according to her master's plan.

The entire situation was under her master's control. In fact, her master had at least nine methods to deal with these five people, not even counting the poison arrays beneath Li Ben Mountain that hadn't even been activated yet.

This was her master deliberately controlling things, using these five people as experience treasures for her.

"Is it also part of master's plan that I now have to fight this physique cultivator Liu Er barehanded without my sword?" Li Shiyin had to wonder.

"Furious Immortal Demon Fist!!"

The Liu Er before her roared to the heavens. Jet black skin covered his bulging muscles and protruding veins, filling his whole body with berserk power. His figure flickered as he shot straight at Li Shiyin.

"Starlight..." Li Shiyin softly exhaled, no longer thinking about anything else. The flickering starlight around her body intensified, as if starfire had ignited. Striding to meet Liu Er's fist head-on, her own fist smashed out!

Bang!

Like metal on stone, a muffled thud rang out across the wilderness...