Chapter 519: Consecutive Slashes — The Six-Armed, Blue-Faced Fiend, and the Tai Xu Inferno |
Beishuo had a hidden trump card, this was inevitable!
After all, they had a legacy spanning over a hundred years, and Yang Zun had been deeply entrenched in the Four Feudatories territory for a long time. If Beishuo City could be taken down so easily, Xia Hong would actually feel less secure inside.
Yang Zun not showing himself could still be barely explained by his injuries being too severe. But the fact that the three Sun Manifestation Level members of the Yang Clan didn't come out to help defend the city was simply too unreasonable.
Combined with what Xia Chuan had said—that all Yang Clan blood relatives had been summoned by Yang Zun into the Lord's great hall last night—Xia Hong could almost be certain that Yang Zun, driven into a corner, was definitely concocting some sinister art or secret method in an attempt to turn the tables.
"Yang Zun only has Jade Bones aptitude, but that six-armed skeletal phantom of his is clearly different from ordinary people. No accident, it should involve factors fused with an Abomination. That is to say, this sinister art or secret method of his is most likely related to his skeletal phantom..."
In a brief moment, Xia Hong had already flown to the airspace above the Lord's great hall at the very center of Beishuo City. Sniffing the bloody scent wafting from the great hall below, a faint, cold smile surfaced on his face.
Fifteen years ago during the Mirror Immortal Camp incident, he had just broken through to the Warmth Realm. His strength was now completely different from what it was back then. The level two Smelting Furnace from that time had also become the current level five Yang Xu Cauldron.
Xia Hong could easily sense it. Within the Lord's great hall below, there were currently only six Sun Manifestation Level auras. The weakest among them should be the severely injured Yang Zun. Among the remaining five, the strongest one had an exceptionally feeble aura; no accident, it was Chu Xuanling with his severed arms. Of the remaining four, three had chaotic auras, likely the three Sun Manifestation Level individuals who had fled from the north and south gates. The most normal one stood beside Chu Xuanling, clearly that person from Chencang who wasn't responsible for city defense.
"Willing to lose the city gates just to pull off this act. Let's see what kind of commotion you can stir up..."
"Lord Leader Xia, since you have already seized the city, why must you pursue total annihilation?"
Five people flew out from within the hall. The leading elder had a pale face, with two empty sleeves hanging from his shoulders. The four following behind the elder all appeared middle-aged.
Hearing Chu Xuanling's words, Xia Hong ignored him. He merely glanced with a raised gaze toward the Lord's great hall behind him, then chuckled lightly, "You're helping Yang Zun buy time, aren't you?"
Having his thoughts directly exposed by Xia Hong, Chu Xuanling's face darkened as he spoke coldly, "Lord Leader Xia, Great Xia's current strength is indeed decent, but before my Chencang, it's still not quite enough to look at. I advise..."
"How strong Chencang's strength is, I'm not very clear about. But that many people from Chencang are quite despicable, I can confirm that."
Interrupted by Xia Hong, Chu Xuanling's expression froze momentarily. Knowing Xia Hong was referring to the Tiger Nursing Forest incident, he was momentarily at a loss for words, unable to speak for a moment.
"Audacious! How dare you be so insolent before the dignity of my Chencang Feudal Town!"
It was Chu Xuanling's direct clan member, Chu Renjie, behind him who, hearing Xia Hong disparage the feudal town, immediately roared in anger.
Chu Qingshan also closely followed, sneering, "The lowly Southern Foothills, ignorant of the grandeur of our feudal towns, yapping wildly here..."
Whoosh!
That final "barking" word from Chu Qingshan ultimately never left his mouth.
Because Xia Hong suddenly raised the Dragon Sparrow Saber, drawing a sharp blade edge that pierced through the air and directly sliced across his neck.
Xia Hong did not hold back. Before swinging the saber, the blood-red Sacred Mark at the center of his brow had already appeared. 117 Jun of immense force—even a casually drawn blade edge was not something Chu Qingshan's mere 8 Jun strength could withstand.
As the saber edge passed over his neck, Chu Qingshan's face didn't even change much. He only felt a chill at his neck, then saw his own body before his consciousness was completely extinguished.
"You..."
Chu Xuanling, Chu Renjie, and the other two Sun Manifestation Level individuals from Chencang stared at Chu Qingshan's headless corpse, instantly dumbfounded.
Among the Sun Manifestation Level individuals who came to the Southern Foothills with them, it wasn't that none had died. Many had died that very night at Tiger Nursing Forest. But at that time, ashamed to plunder an underage child, they stubbornly refused to invoke Chencang's name.
The present situation was different. Chu Xuanling had just publicly invoked Chencang's name, yet Xia Hong showed not the slightest apprehension and still directly killed someone.
"With just the few of you, you're worthy of talking to me about feudal town dignity? Chencang's strength may be strong, but is it you who are strong?"
Xia Hong looked down at the Lord's great hall below, his pupils slightly narrowed. Then, without further ado, he directly charged toward Chu Xuanling and the other three.
Thud...
This was not a battlefield. Chu Xuanling and the other three were probably intimidated by Xia Hong's sudden violent killing. They didn't land immediately. As Xia Hong surged forward again, among the four, only the normally conditioned Chu Renjie had time to dodge.
Chu Renjie didn't just save his own skin either. He violently pushed the armless Chu Xuanling away. The two dodged left and right, narrowly and perilously avoiding Xia Hong's saber strike.
But the remaining two were not so fortunate.
Xia Hong's blade edge directly pierced through one person's skull. The other, thinking he had escaped death, had just shown relief on his face when, unexpectedly, Xia Hong's left hand moved like lightning and directly seized him.
Thud... Crack...
One pull, one slash. Xia Hong's movements were clean and decisive. The relief hadn't even vanished from the second person's face before his body was directly severed in two, his consciousness completely extinguished.
"Run!"
Chu Xuanling finally recognized reality, realizing he most likely couldn't escape. He actually let out a fierce roar toward his nephew Chu Renjie, then charged recklessly toward Xia Hong regardless.
"You think you can save someone!"
Watching this uncle and nephew pair, one fleeing and one fighting desperately, Xia Hong almost had the illusion that he had become the villain. But an illusion was just an illusion. He had no intention of letting anyone escape, directly turning to chase after Chu Renjie.
Even at his peak, Chu Xuanling was no match for Xia Hong, let alone now with both arms crippled, his strength reduced by fifty or sixty percent. Even with a desperate effort, his speed was completely on a different level from Xia Hong's.
As for Chu Renjie, even less needed to be said. He only had 7 Jun strength, inferior even to the recently deceased Chu Qingshan. Even with quick reactions and rapid fleeing, Xia Hong instantly closed in on his back.
As the blade edge approached, the aura of death flooded his nostrils. Only then did intense regret rise in Chu Renjie's heart—regret for going to Tiger Nursing Forest, for opposing Great Xia, even for coming to the Southern Foothills territory.
Thud...
Unfortunately, everything was too late!
The last remaining five Sun Manifestation Level individuals from Chencang in the Southern Foothills territory were killed one after another in less than ten breaths, leaving only Chu Xuanling.
Chu Xuanling's desperate charge met empty air. Witnessing his nephew die before his eyes, an unnatural flush of crimson surged onto his pale face. His eyes fixed fiercely on Xia Hong as he roared, "Killing direct lineage descendants of a Fang Bo is the foremost crime in the Four Feudatories of Mo'ao Chuan! No matter how strong your Great Xia is, you can only lord it over a corner of the Southern Foothills! I'll wait! I'll wait for you to come accompany us in death!"
"Heh..."
Xia Hong directly sneered. The year before last, when he was in Linchu County City, he had heard of this unreasonable Mo'ao Chuan law. He had scoffed at it back then. How could Chu Xuanling possibly think to scare him with it now?
"Even if your so-called Fang Bo came today, he couldn't protect you!"
With a cold snort, Xia Hong's body abruptly surged forward. In an instant, he stood before Chu Xuanling. The sharp edge drawn by the Dragon Sparrow Saber shot forth, directly slicing across Chu Xuanling's waist, cleanly bisecting him.
Clang...
After finishing the kill, Xia Hong gently shook the blood off the saber blade, then looked down at the great hall below and said slowly, "The act has gone on long enough. Come out!"
Whoosh...
As his words fell, a heavy, rough breathing sound immediately came from within the great hall.
Ssss...
Then, a surge of towering cyan smoke suddenly erupted from the main entrance and windows on all four sides of the great hall. The cyan smoke was astonishingly dense, enveloping the entire hall building in less than two or three breaths.
Not only that. After covering the hall, the cyan smoke continued to rise section by section. In a flash, it rose another hundred meters, almost reaching Xia Hong before it stopped growing.
By the time the cyan smoke stopped growing, its coverage area had reached a height of two or three li in radius. Never mind the Lord's great hall, almost the entire central district of Beishuo City was covered.
"You knew I was doing it on purpose?"
Above the smoke, Xia Hong sensed a colossal entity slowly awakening within the cyan smoke. His pupils grew slightly grave for a moment. Hearing Yang Zun's low question, he chuckled lightly, "Wasn't it just wanting me to kill Chu Xuanling and these other Fang Bo lineage descendants, to thoroughly create a grudge with Chencang..."
Pausing here, Xia Hong continued, "From the very beginning of the siege, I knew you had already recovered. After feeding so many blood relatives to satiate that Abomination within your skeletal phantom, do you think you have a chance now?"
"Ah!"
Whoosh...
Yang Zun's roar, tinged with grief, had just reached his ears when two enormous cyan hands pierced through the smoke, abruptly grabbing toward Xia Hong's body.
Clang...
Xia Hong seemed to disregard Yang Zun, but his mind had long been focused on the colossal entity within the cyan smoke. The instant the two giant palms attacked, he directly raised his saber to block. A powerful wave of heat instantly erupted from within his body.
Boom...
As the heat wave rose, the sky-filled cyan smoke immediately sizzled and crackled. The cyan smoke seemed to ignite, spontaneously catching fire and continuously spreading in all directions, quickly extending outward for nearly a hundred meters.
As the hundred-meter flames shot into the sky, the colossal entity within the cyan smoke also fully revealed its form.
It was a giant, thirty zhang in body length, emanating cyan light all over.
Calling it a giant wasn't quite fitting. It had six arms sprouting from its shoulders. Its forehead bore two pitch-black sharp horns five or six meters long. A pair of crimson pupils bulged outward. Its lower cheeks on both sides were swollen, its mouth seeming to hold something. Only when it opened its mouth could one see the dozens of pale, sharp, long fangs.
This was, through and through, a six-armed, cyan-faced evil Abomination!
"Xia Hong, you slaughtered my brothers, killed my people, destroyed my town's legacy! Today I must kill you, I must kill you..."
Yang Zun's voice was already somewhat abnormal. The entire sentence contained both his own timbre and a rough, deep, extremely alien and discomforting hoarse voice.
Bang...
After two arms were blocked by Xia Hong, two more arms suddenly grabbed from the left and right sides.
The power of both palms was exceptionally terrifying. Although Xia Hong propped them up with his legs, the collision of air currents from the combined attack still exploded into a terrifying shockwave. The airwave spread outward for several li, almost completely overturning all the houses in the central city area.
Whoosh...
Four arms restrained Xia Hong. The final two arms, gripping a silver-tipped spear, suddenly burst from the smoke, directly thrusting toward Xia Hong's head.
"Over 200 Jun... I really underestimated you..."
Whether it was when the six-armed, cyan-faced evil Abomination revealed its true form earlier or when he was later restrained by four arms, Xia Hong's expression showed no change whatsoever. Only when this spear thrust came did a trace of gravity finally appear on his face.
Boom...
Xia Hong did not hesitate, directly swallowing the Bone-Burning Pill he had been holding in his mouth.
The Bone-Burning Pill's potency activated extremely quickly. Once entering his stomach, a stream of heat immediately surged through his bones. Simultaneously, the air temperature around his body rose even higher than before.
As the long spear reached his body, Xia Hong fiercely kicked with his legs, first directly knocking away the two arms restraining him. Then, his body retreated, allowing the Dragon Sparrow Saber to break free from Yang Zun's other two arms. Finally, he raised the saber vertically, his body darting forward like lightning, actually meeting Yang Zun's spear thrust head-on without deviation.
Clang...
Spear tip and saber blade collided abruptly in mid-air. Heat waves shot skyward. The shockwave pushed away the air currents in all directions. The cyan-faced evil Abomination Yang Zun had transformed into and Xia Hong's body actually became deadlocked in mid-air.
Neither could overcome the other...
"Wishful thinking!"
Seeing the shock rising in the cyan-faced evil Abomination's crimson pupils, Xia Hong instantly guessed its thoughts. With a cold sneer, his body suddenly ascended. Raising the Dragon Sparrow Saber over his head, he slashed mightily toward the giant long spear in the evil ghost's hands.
Clang...
With one slash downward, the hands of the cyan-faced evil Abomination gripping the spear instantly sank several meters.
Bang!
Yang Zun naturally wouldn't wait passively for death. He had six arms in total; how could he be intimidated by Xia Hong's single slash? While the saber blade was descending, his other four palms had already fiercely slapped toward Xia Hong.
Since the blade edge had already struck the long spear, it naturally proved Xia Hong did not dodge the four giant palms. One of the giant palms solidly struck him.
Struck by the giant palm, Xia Hong's body was sent flying backward dozens of meters, but that was all.
Xia Hong's body only froze for a brief moment. The next second, he leaped up again, raising his position over ten meters higher than during the first slash, then directly dove downward, the Dragon Sparrow Saber slashing down once more.
Before Yang Zun's giant palms could retract, the second blade edge was already upon him. His pupils slightly narrowed, intense killing intent rising on his face. All six arms gripped the long spear together. He did not choose to block but met Xia Hong head-on, needle against needle.
Clang...
A tremendous sound erupted. This time, their bodies became deadlocked again.
Extreme force collision resulting in such an outcome meant the power of this strike from both sides was actually evenly matched.
Realizing this, Yang Zun's expression grew increasingly frantic, reflected on the cyan-faced evil Abomination as an increasingly ferocious and terrifying visage.
But before his franticness could manifest, Xia Hong, whose body was frozen in the deadlock, used the recoil force from the long spear to suddenly rapidly retreat and ascend. His position quickly elevated. In an instant, he had actually risen above the cyan-faced evil Abomination, reaching a point over a hundred meters above it.
"Ha..."
Seeing the airwave created by Xia Hong's third slash almost tearing space apart, Yang Zun's pupils abruptly constricted, clearly already sensing the aura of danger.
He roared furiously, kicked off the ground with his legs. The cyan-faced evil Abomination's body abruptly rose dozens of meters and was still continuously climbing, obviously trying to regain the high ground for his body.
Unfortunately, he reacted too slowly.
Xia Hong's first two slashes were preparations. The third slash first used his recoil force to retreat and ascend, calculating with intent against his unpreparedness. How could he possibly react in time?
When his position was still a final ten-plus meters away from Xia Hong...
The blade edge had already descended.
Xia Hong gripped the saber hilt with both hands simultaneously, exerting force from his waist, fists, and body at the same time. With wide, sweeping motions, his arms bulging, the air current drawn by the blade actually directly rubbed against the air, creating a several-meter-wide flaming blade edge.
Crack...
The third slash finally descended.
Caught off guard and flustered, Yang Zun ultimately chose to have all six arms simultaneously grip the long spear, raising it overhead to block hard. Unfortunately, unlike the second slash, this time their bodies did not deadlock. Instead, the situation directly became one-sided.
The giant long spear directly snapped. Xia Hong's blade edge, from top to bottom, directly cleaved onto the cyan-faced evil Abomination's head.
"Ah..."
A crisp sound of bone shattering rang out, accompanied by Yang Zun's agonized and disbelieving, terrified wail of extreme pain.
It wasn't over yet—
Boom...
As the large saber slashed downward, the cyan smoke originally burning within a hundred-meter radius in the air actually began to rapidly spread outward with an extremely terrifying momentum. As the bone-cracking sound rang out, the flames actually spread outward for several li.
"Ah... Ah... Ah... What is this, what is this, what kind of fire is this..."
As the flames completely spread out, the cyan-faced evil Abomination's wails of agony intensified severalfold. Yang Zun's original voice grew fainter and fainter. Instead, that initially rough, deep, hoarse voice quickly gained the upper hand until, finally, it completely became dominant.
"Void fire... How do you have the Taixu Karmic Fire... Spare me, spare me, Lord spare me! I know how to enter the Dark Realm! With the Taixu Karmic Fire, entering the Dark Realm allows infinite soul refinement, achieving the supreme revered form! Spare me..."
The cyan-faced evil Abomination's eyes looked at the sky-filling great fire around it, as if suddenly realizing something. Its originally ferocious face suddenly became covered with fear. Turning its head to look at Xia Hong, after a few exclamations, it actually began to beg for mercy.
And Xia Hong, upon hearing its exclamations, his gaze suddenly became uncertain and flickering.
The Dark Realm. This was already the third time he had heard of it.
The first time was when the White Dew Abomination begged for mercy and mentioned it. The second time was from the mouth of Master Wusheng of Dajue Temple four years ago.
Now, he actually heard it again from the mouth of this Abomination on Yang Zun's body.
Infinite soul refinement, supreme revered form. From the literal meaning, one could roughly guess it was related to revered form realm cultivation. Judging by the cyan-faced evil Abomination's begging posture, the supreme revered form should be some incredibly remarkable realm.
But none of this was enough to interest Xia Hong.
His mind was now completely filled with only the four words: "Taixu Karmic Fire."
This cyan-faced evil Abomination recognized the fire of the Yang Xu Cauldron?
This concerned the origins of the camp system on his own body!
Xia Hong looked at the cyan-faced evil Abomination wailing incessantly, a trace of hesitation faintly appearing on his face.
As for Yang Zun, he was already beyond Xia Hong's consideration.
Yang Zun definitely had to die. But whether to kill the cyan-faced evil Abomination or not, he really needed to consider carefully.