One Cut to Kill

The Starry Sky Alien Beast King was not the king of all Starry Sky Alien Beasts, but rather a title for a special breed that was much stronger than ordinary ones.

The greatest ability of this type of beast was to summon other Starry Sky Alien Beasts, rallying the power of their race to fight, which was why cultivators called them Beast Kings.

Their combat power far exceeded that of ordinary beasts, making them much more troublesome to deal with.

Xing Wuzhan's gaze fell on the giant beast, carefully identifying it for a moment.

It really is... a Starry Sky Alien Beast King.

Xing Qianchen furrowed his brows deeply:

In the past millennium, the Starry Vault Secret Realm has never encountered an entity of this level.

At this moment, however, Gu Changyuan's gaze lingered on that Beast King for a long time.

Not because of its strength.

But because it looked extremely similar to the Starry Sky Alien Beast King he and Xing Zixu had encountered back in the day.

Below, the Starry Sky Alien Beast King seemed to sense something.

It slowly raised its head, looking at Gu Changyuan and the others in the air.

Then, it opened its maw filled with sharp teeth and let out a deafening roar.

The sound waves spread out like a tangible force, making the surrounding air buzz and vibrate.

Immediately after, light flashed at the entrance of the secret realm behind it, and Starry Sky Alien Beasts of various sizes continuously surged in.

Some landed on four feet, while others spread their wings to fly. Densely packed, they instantly filled the entire clearing. Numbering nearly a hundred, their roars rose and fell, exuding a thick, bloodthirsty aura.

Gu Changyuan's expression remained unchanged, his eyes still indifferent. Without waiting for those beasts to scatter, he immediately struck.

The secret arts within his body revolved rapidly, and spiritual light surged from his fingertips. A majestic spatial force instantly swept out, landing precisely on the entrance of the secret realm.

With a muffled thud, the entrance where the beasts were pouring in was instantly sealed by an invisible barrier.

At the same time, the discovered secret realm entrance on the side of the Starry Sky Domain was also instantly shrouded in a dense concealment art. Under Gu Changyuan's control, it slowly shifted its position, completely hiding itself.

He raised his left hand again, this time aiming at the clearing.

A transparent light barrier spread from his palm, like an overturned bowl, enveloping the entire clearing along with all the Starry Sky Alien Beasts within it.

The beasts and the residential area were completely isolated from each other.

Only after doing all this did Gu Changyuan retract his hand, looking down from his high vantage point.

The corners of his mouth curled up slightly.

In the past, when my cultivation was low, I could slaughter you.

Now that my cultivation is high, crushing you to death is as simple as crushing ants.

He reached his right hand into the void. When he pulled it out, that crystalline purple dagger had already appeared in his palm.

The moment the dagger was unsheathed, an invisible coercion poured down from Gu Changyuan, like a reversed river of stars.

The coercion enveloped the entire clearing.

The hundred or so ordinary Starry Sky Alien Beasts below were instantly suppressed by the coercion. They fell to the ground, trembling all over, lacking even the strength to raise their heads.

Only the Starry Sky Alien Beast King remained standing stubbornly, its scales taut and the starry sky power within its body surging madly.

It tried to resist this coercion, but its body was also trembling slightly. Black blood spilled from the corners of its mouth, clearly injured by the sheer pressure.

Gu Changyuan looked down at it, his eyes devoid of any emotion.

He gripped the dagger tightly, and with a movement of his body, he appeared in front of the Beast King in the very next instant.

Fast.

So fast that even Xing Qianchen, an Immortal King, failed to catch his movements.

The Beast King instinctively swung its claw to block. The tip of its claw tore through the air, producing a sharp piercing sound.

Gu Changyuan turned sideways, dodging it.

The movement was not large; in fact, it could be said to be very small.

But it was this tiny shift that caused the Beast King's attack to miss entirely.

Then, Gu Changyuan raised his hand.

The dagger traced a purple arc of light, landing lightly on the Beast King's neck.

There was no earth-shattering explosion, no dazzling light.

Just a single strike.

A very light strike.

The Beast King's movements suddenly froze.

Its tooth-filled maw opened and closed, wanting to make a sound, but nothing came out.

Then, its head slowly slid off its neck.

It smashed into the ground, letting out a dull, loud thud.

The massive body of the Beast King crashed down.

The ordinary alien beasts, pinned down by the coercion, had endless fear well up in their eyes the moment they saw their King fall.

Some struggled desperately to flee, only to be blocked by the spatial seal.

Others simply went limp on the ground, completely drained of the strength to struggle.

Hovering above the clearing, Gu Changyuan looked down at the now headless Starry Sky Alien Beast King beneath him, feeling a trace of sentimentality in his heart.

In the past, when encountering a creature of this level in the Ruins of Disorder, he still needed to rely on endless spiritual energy as a backup, slowly whittling it down and grinding for a long time before he could slay it.

But now, he only needed a casual strike to kill it. The massive difference between then and now made even him sigh with emotion.

Sure enough, after one's strength improved, all difficult problems became insignificant.

To be honest, when he watched Xing Zixu fall in front of him back then, Gu Changyuan did not experience any intense emotional fluctuations.

But after returning to the Nine Heavens Realm, everything changed.

Reuniting with his disciples, watching them gather around him, listening to them recount the stories of this past millennium, and feeling that long-lost warmth.

Gu Changyuan felt as if he had recovered something.

Something that had been ground away by endless slaughter during his one thousand one hundred years in the Ruins of Disorder.

His heart had become soft once again.

Therefore, at this moment, thinking of Xing Zixu again, Gu Changyuan had a different feeling in his heart.

Xing Zixu was one of the very few existences in the Ruins of Disorder that he could call a friend.

Even though they had only known each other for a dozen days.

Even though for most of those dozen days, they were fighting side by side.

Yet, in just those short dozen days, Xing Zixu entrusted the Ancestor's token to him.

To actually trust someone he had only known for a dozen days so much.

Thinking back to every detail of his time with Xing Zixu, and recalling how the other party looked when entrusting the Ancestor's token to him on his deathbed.

At this moment, Gu Changyuan actually felt a somewhat strange emotion in his heart.

Regret, as well as a trace of relief.

The regret was that a close friend had fallen just like that; the relief was that he had not failed the other party's trust, and had ultimately come to the Starry Vault Clan, able to help him protect the Star Clan's legacy.

Gu Changyuan looked down at the crystalline purple dagger in his hand, his fingertips exerting a slight force as he gripped it tightly.

A moment later, he gently let go, putting it back into his storage space.

Using this dagger carrying Xing Zixu's trust to kill a Starry Sky Alien Beast King in one blow had also resolved a matter weighing on his mind.

As for this dagger, Gu Changyuan did not intend to use it as his regular weapon in the future.

There was no helping it; the dagger was too short and did not suit his combat habits.

He was already restraining himself greatly from throwing it like a dart to strike his enemies.