Kill Without Blood

The elder's withered body shot into the sky like a cannonball.

In mid-air, his hair and beard flared out wildly as he slammed his right hand downward. The void violently trembled and distorted. A massive, hundred-zhang dark cyan hand, formed by the mad compression of majestic spiritual power, carried a world-destroying wind pressure. It squeezed the air into visible shockwaves as it viciously slammed down toward the crown of Ye Xuan's head!

The might of this palm was such that, let alone a Soul Formation cultivator, even a peer in the Void Refinement realm would be smashed into a puddle of meat paste if they were the slightest bit careless!

Ah! Master, watch out! Ying'er was so frightened that the color drained from her face. She let out a desperate shriek, instinctively squeezing her eyes shut and hugging her head tightly.

The cultivators watching from the periphery also couldn't bear it and turned their heads away, unwilling to witness the tragic sight of flying flesh and blood.

However, right at the hair's breadth of a moment when the giant palm was less than three zhang from the top of Ye Xuan's head, and the fierce winds had already thrown his robes into disarray.

Ye Xuan moved.

He didn't even reach for the sword on his back, nor did he spare a single glance at the sky-obscuring giant palm above him.

Deep within his eyes, a profound black and white light suddenly flared. The surface of the originally hard rock beneath his feet rippled like water without warning, and a massive black and white Yin-Yang Fish pattern instantly spread out as if it were tangible!

Immediately following, a vast, ancient cry of a Kunpeng, spanning across eons of time, suddenly exploded from the void and soared straight into the highest heavens!

There was no earth-shattering explosion, and no one could even see clearly what had just happened.

The crowd only felt their vision blur, leaving a blinding streak of interwoven gold and black light lingering on their retinas.

A stream of light seemed to completely ignore the spatial laws of this realm. Like a phantom, it directly pierced through the crushing giant spiritual hand, and even passed through the layers of the absolute kill restriction arrays laid down by the Big Dipper Sword Sect at the entrance, as if entering an uninhabited land!

Rumble!

Losing its target, the giant palm viciously bombarded the ground. The earth trembled violently, and a terrifying crater over a dozen zhang deep was smashed open. Shattered stones pierced the air, and dust and smoke shot up into the sky like a mushroom cloud.

But when the fierce winds blew away the dust and smoke, at the bottom of the crater, apart from churning dirt, there was absolutely no one.

Where is he? How is this possible?

The Void Refinement elder's figure froze in mid-air. His eyes nearly popped out of their sockets, and the furious rage on his face was instantly replaced by extreme astonishment.

His massive divine sense swept frantically across a ten-mile radius, only to find that the white-robed youth's aura had completely vanished from the spot, as if it had evaporated into thin air!

E-Elder... he is... he's inside!

A disciple responsible for the array felt his legs give way and collapsed onto the ground. With trembling, pale fingers, he pointed toward the depths of the canyon behind them.

Everyone turned their heads in unison.

Through the pale mist torn apart by astral winds, the crowd could vaguely see that on the inner side of the canyon hundreds of zhang away, the white-robed youth had his hands behind his back. He was leading that green-skirted young girl, strolling with a maddeningly leisurely posture.

His relaxed, strolling demeanor made it seem as though the earth-shattering killing blow from just a moment ago was nothing more than an insignificant draft of wind to him.

As if sensing the gazes of the crowd, Ye Xuan stopped in his tracks and slowly turned around.

His clear voice, wrapped in pure spiritual power, smashed clearly into the ears of everyone present like a volley of cannon fire:

This grand array of yours is utter trash.

Your palm technique, old dog, is too slow.

You want my spirit stones? Then reincarnate as a begging beggar in your next life. If I'm in a good mood, I might just reward you with two low-grade spirit stones.

Having said that, he threw his head back and burst into an unbridled roar of laughter. He turned, took the hand of the dumbfounded Ying'er, and with a sweep of his large sleeve, his figure completely submerged into the rolling mist, leaving only an incredibly dashing silhouette to the tens of thousands of people outside.

Silence.

Outside the canyon, there was a deathly silence. There was only the howling sound of astral winds.

Immediately after, as if a ladle of ice water had been poured into a boiling wok of oil, the crowd completely exploded, erupting into an uproar that pierced the clouds!

Holy shit! Who is that? He actually went in right under the nose of a Void Refinement mighty figure!

What terrifying speed! Was that Shrinking the Earth into an Inch or teleportation? He didn't even trigger the sect protection array!

Hahaha! That was so damn satisfying! Well scolded! This is the unbridled elegance that us sword cultivators should possess!

Listening to the unrestrained discussions around him, the complexion of the Big Dipper Sword Sect elder in mid-air turned from ashen to purple-black, and finally flushed to the color of pig liver.

He was trembling violently from anger, his chest heaving heavily. He suddenly threw his head back and let out a hysterical roar, shaking loose rubble from the cliffs on both sides so that it tumbled down:

Investigate! Go investigate this for me! Send a message to the core disciples inside. Even if you have to dig three feet into the ground, you must find this little animal for me!

I am going to forcefully extract his divine soul and suppress it beneath the sect's Nine Nether Yin Fire, letting him suffer torment day and night, unable to live, unable to d—

Before his voice faded, the elder's withered Adam's apple bobbed up and down sharply.

That vicious curse was as if snipped right out of the air by an invisible pair of scissors, turning into a series of bizarre gurgling sounds like leaking air.

He suddenly felt an indescribable abnormality coming from his neck.

What's... going on...

The elder's cloudy eyeballs suddenly bulged outward, his pupils shrinking to the size of pinpricks.

He subconsciously raised his withered right hand, trembling as he reached for his neck.

Where his hand touched, there was no expected tough protective astral qi, only a patch of warm slickness.

He stiffly lowered his head, staring fixedly at his palm. Against the backdrop of the Broken Sword Gorge's pale mist, a blinding streak of dark red in his palm looked exceptionally bewitching, even emitting steam.

Blood.

It was his own blood.

As a dignified early-stage Void Refinement mighty figure, his physical body had long been tempered thousands of times. Ordinary magical treasures couldn't even harm a single hair on his body, so how could he possibly bleed?

In an instant, a terrifying thought that made his soul tremble madly struck through his sea of consciousness like profound lightning from the nine heavens.

He recalled the profound, interwoven black and white light that had flared in the depths of the white-robed youth's eyes before he vanished.

That was absolutely not some teleportation relying on a magical treasure, nor was it some Shrinking the Earth into an Inch escape technique!

That was a sword strike!

Fast! Too fast! So fast that it completely surpassed the capture of the naked eye and transcended the perception of divine sense.

That momentary stream of light had not only ignored the outer sect protection absolute kill array and pierced through his overwhelmingly arrogant giant spiritual hand, but it had also directly passed right through his body!

That young man hadn't even drawn the sword on his back!

Merely relying on a negligible wisp of astral qi generated when his movement technique swept past, in the fleeting moment of a passing shadow, he had sliced open his proud protective true essence as if it were nothing.

What kind of monster... is he... exactly...

The elder opened his withered lips, wanting to roar out this earth-shattering news.

However, as his throat vibrated with effort, an extremely thin red line abruptly surfaced on his neck.

Squelch!

An extremely faint, yet bone-chilling sound of tearing silk echoed in the deathly silent mid-air.

Under the horrified gazes of tens of thousands of sword cultivators below, the old man's face, originally twisted in fury, suddenly emitted a sharp crack. A bloody line split open, running straight from the center of his brows down to his chin.

One line, two lines, ten lines, a hundred lines!

In just the snap of a finger, the old man's withered body and the dark-patterned star sword robe engraved with high-level defensive formations shattered like fine porcelain struck from the inside. Densely packed bloody threads, resembling a bizarre red lotus spiderweb, instantly crawled over every corner of his body.

"No... save..." The old man's remaining half-lip trembled violently, his eyes finally revealing endless fear and regret.

Bang!

A profoundly muffled explosion of flesh and blood echoed out! The old man could not even let out a final, shrill scream before his entire body exploded without warning in midair, tearing into pieces!

His head, torso, and limbs were instantly sliced into tens of thousands of fingernail-sized chunks of flesh by the terrifying sword intent that had been lurking in his body, only to completely erupt at this moment.

A sky full of blood rain mixed with stark white bone fragments poured down like red hail, crashing down headlong onto the group of already pale-faced disciples of the Big Dipper Sword Sect below.

"Elder!" Several deacon disciples, their faces drenched in warm flesh and blood, let out heart-rending screams. Their legs gave way, and they fell to their knees in the foul-smelling gore covering the ground.

But it was not over yet.

In the center of the flying chunks of meat, an inch-tall miniature figure shimmering with dark cyan light and looking exactly like the old man teleported out in utter terror. That was the old man's Nascent Soul!

As a Void Refinement realm cultivator, as long as his Nascent Soul was not destroyed, he could possess a body and be reborn.

At this moment, the face of this Nascent Soul was written with extreme resentment and panic. Its two small hands frantically formed incantations, wanting to burn its origin source to cast a blood escape art and flee this nightmare-like hell.

However, before the Nascent Soul could turn into a streak of blood light and escape, a strand of destructive black-and-white sword qi, like a maggot clinging to bone, violently drilled out from deep within the Nascent Soul's glabella!

The Nascent Soul let out an incomparably shrill and miserable wail.

In the next instant, under the strangulation of the peerlessly tyrannical black-and-white sword qi, it exploded with a bang like a fragile wisp of blue smoke, turning into a sky full of dim motes of light that completely dissipated in the biting astral winds.

Body and soul completely destroyed!

Dead without even a trace of a mark left for reincarnation!

At this moment, the entire periphery of Broken Sword Gorge plunged into a deathly silence more terrifying than the abyss.

Tens of thousands of cultivators were like puppets collectively drained of their souls, stiffly raising their heads and staring blankly at the rain of blood and flesh in the sky that had yet to fully conclude.

The Void Refinement realm mighty figure who had just been acting so high and mighty, casually slaughtering rogue cultivators like wild dogs, just... died like this?

Furthermore, no one knew exactly how he had died.

Clang.

A weapon dropped from someone's trembling hands, unable to hold on any longer, fell onto the rocks and produced a crisp echo.

This crisp sound completely shattered the arrogant majesty of the Big Dipper Sword Sect.

Beneath the grand banner at the entrance, hundreds of originally haughty disciples who had sealed off the entrance tightly were now shaking like leaves, as if they had just been fished out of an ice cellar.

The deacon disciple who had just been pointing his sword at Ye Xuan and clamoring for him to hand over twenty thousand spirit stones now had his eyes rolled back. A large patch of foul-smelling yellow liquid seeped through his crotch, and with a thud, he fainted stiffly among the severed limbs of his companions.