NOVPUB
Chapter 951 - Starting a Killing Spree
Only three days remained before the promised date to regroup with Fiery.
After reaching the ninth level of the True Profound Realm, Liu Wuxie took a day to consolidate his cultivation.
His consecutive breakthroughs had cost him nearly one hundred million high-grade spirit stones, leaving him completely drained.
Such an astonishing expenditure was only possible thanks to the four treasures. Without them, the cost would have been unimaginably higher.
The space around him began to collapse and distort. As he made his breakthrough, he finally started to comprehend the profundity of the Spatial Dao Art. It was much easier for him to perform, and he could also influence a much wider area.
Suddenly, the imprint he had left on Fiery flared with heat, and he sprang to his feet. He knew Fiery must've been caught, trapped with no way to escape.
He didn't even have time to collect the array flags before transforming into a streaking comet, executing Soaring Dragon, and rushing toward the imprint.
With his newfound comprehension of the Spatial Dao Art, the distorted laws could no longer pose a great hindrance to him.
......
Meanwhile, over a thousand people were gathered in a desolate plain, forming a large encirclement.
At the center was a majestic qilin enveloped in flames, surrounded by people on land or in the sky. They had sealed off every possible escape route.
Fiery tried to break through the encirclement multiple times, but each attempt only increased its wounds. Its fur was dyed red with blood, still emanating the aura of a divine beast billowing across the plain.
The weaker cultivators dared not approach. Dozens of charred corpses lay strewn across the ground, burned alive by the qilin's flames.
It was a brutal scene. Even the ground had turned into molten lava under the intense heat.
The surrounding cultivators didn't dare to approach and could only rely on dao techniques to attack.
Whenever Fiery couldn't counter them, they would unleash a barrage of attacks, carving new wounds on its body.
......
As Liu Wuxie drew closer, he picked up on Fiery's increasingly labored breathing; the prolonged battle had severely exhausted its energy.
Only a short distance remained before Fiery could regroup with Liu Wuxie—but if he didn't arrive on time, Fiery would be slain by the vile horde.
The four assassins were hidden among the crowd, and most of Fiery's wounds were their doing. Their attacks were cunning and precise, leaving wounds each time they struck.
Fiery let out a roar that echoed across the plain. The roar formed into shockwaves, sweeping up the loose rocks off the ground and swirling into a black cloud.
The cloud obscured the vision of the nearby cultivators, and they could only fight by relying on their divine senses.
Taking advantage of the chaos, Fiery charged toward a gap in the formation.
"Attack! Don't let it escape!" Roars echoed from the crowd as everyone moved to intercept Fiery.
They already knew this qilin was Liu Wuxie's companion. If they could capture it alive, they could force Liu Wuxie to hand over his treasures.
Everyone swarmed forward, unleashing countless dao techniques that blanketed the sky and knocked Fiery back just when it had managed to dash a few dozen meters ahead.
When Fiery collapsed on the ground, it could no longer rise again due to its severe injuries. It lay on the ground, gasping for breath, its blood soaking the earth beneath.
A chorus of laughter erupted from the surrounding cultivators as they began closing in on the qilin.
"I want the hide!"
"I want the beast core!"
"I want the head!" Everyone made their calls on Fiery, ready to rip it apart.
The four assassins quietly descended to the ground, just ten meters away from Fiery, with their swords raised in defense. They didn't dare to be careless, afraid the qilin might have a trump card.
They waited an entire minute before sighing in relief, certain the qilin couldn't rise again.
For some reason, everyone in the area seemed fearful of the four figures clad in the distinctive attire of Black Plume Pavilion assassins.
There wasn't a single person who didn't know of the Black Plume Pavilion. But no one knew where their headquarters were nor who the pavilion master was. The Black Plume Pavilion was shrouded in mystery.
As the four crept closer toward the qilin, a blazing streak tore across the sky, a rare sight of a shooting star in broad daylight. However, it wasn't a star but a person.
"Capture it!" the leader commanded and raised a beast pouch.
Just as he was about to make his move, a colossal palm descended from the sky.
"Great Five Elemental Palm!"
The force crashed down like a millstone, enveloping a radius of several thousand meters, catching everyone by surprise.
No one saw it coming as they had lowered their guard, knowing that the qilin was injured, but they didn't expect someone to attack them at that moment.
"It's Liu Wuxie!" someone cried out, recognizing the Great Five Elemental Palm that Liu Wuxie had once performed in the Heavenly Spirit Celestial Academy.
"Retreat!" Everyone scattered in panic, especially those at the True Profound Realm or the low levels of the Spirit Profound Realm. They knew they couldn't withstand the Great Five Elemental Palm's crushing force and could only back down.
Those quick enough managed to escape to safety, but those who couldn't react in time found themselves unable to avoid the colossal palm.
The four assassins' expressions changed, and they were surprised by Liu Wuxie's sudden arrival. They didn't hesitate to slash at the descending palm before retreating. They felt threatened by it.
When the colossal palm struck, blood and mangled flesh splattered in all directions. The earth beneath it caved in, leaving behind a massive palm-shaped crater—littered with over a hundred broken corpses.
Liu Wuxie didn't hold back as he had made up his mind to kill everyone present, regardless of their gender or age.
It was horrifying to see over a hundred people killed in one strike. Even those who fled in time staggered, many wetting themselves.
Liu Wuxie extracted the energy and laws from the corpses, injecting them into Fiery's body to aid in its healing. With another wave, he kept Fiery in the beast pouch as it needed time to recover.
As he descended from the sky, he spoke no words, but his eyes said everything. They burned with unspoken rage. Fortunately, he had arrived just in time. Though Fiery was gravely wounded, it had survived.
If Fiery had died, he would probably have lost it and slaughtered every soul in this world.
These people had just been preparing to butcher the Qilin and divide its corpse. Now, they couldn't even stand straight. Their legs trembled as they met Liu Wuxie's gaze, haunted by the memory of that colossal palm descending from the heavens like divine judgment.
Liu Wuxie slowly turned to look at the culprits, the four assassins. Fiery wouldn't have suffered such heavy injuries if it weren't for them. Moreover, he wouldn't have taken the misdirection approach if not for their pursuit; this was all their fault.
"Black Plume Pavilion, very well!" Liu Wuxie said through his clenched teeth. He knew he would have to kill them to find out who had issued the Soaring Bloom Order on his head.
"You all deserve to die!"
Then, he swept his gaze over the cultivators in the surroundings. He summoned the Heretic Blade and pointed at them, prepared to unleash a massacre.
The surrounding cultivators hailed from the various clans and sects across the Central Plains.
"What arrogance! You want to kill us all?! What a joke!" sneered a disciple clad in the uniform belonging to the Profound Cloud Sect with scorn.
Even if Liu Wuxie was strong, he was just one man. As the old saying went, two fists can't fend off four hands. With so many people present, even someone from the Earth Profound Realm would have to flee.
"You! Die!" Liu Wuxie uttered, and that Profound Cloud Sect disciple burst into a blood mist.
No one knew how Liu Wuxie had managed to do it. There was no sign, no warning—almost as if he had planted a spiritual talisman inside the man long ago. But everyone knew spiritual talismans were rendered useless in the sacred ground, not to mention that the person was over fifty meters away.
No dao techniques or ripples of soul force were unleashed, and the Profound Cloud Sect disciple had died just like that.
"He has mastered spatial art!" Gasps rippled through the crowd. The laws governing the sacred ground were vastly different from those of the True Martial Continent, making the execution of spatial arts nearly impossible.
The fact that Liu Wuxie could wield it so freely meant he had grasped the true essence of spatial art. Those who were clamoring earlier fell silent; some even began to retreat, quietly trying to escape.
"Die!" Liu Wuxie knew he couldn't slay everyone but wouldn't show mercy. He would kill as many as he could.
He shot out like a comet, plunging into the crowd. He wasn't in a hurry to deal with the Black Plume Pavilion's assassins. He knew they wouldn't flee since he was their target.
For them, fleeing would only result in a death sentence from the Black Plume Pavilion's upper echelons.
The four assassins stood silently as they watched Liu Wuxie begin his slaughter. Each time someone fell, they trembled slightly as Liu Wuxie was killing too fast. They could only watch as cultivators around him fell like wheat before a scythe.
"Run!" someone screamed.
No one cared about treasures or a divine beast at this moment; nothing was more valuable than staying alive. They had given up all resistance after Liu Wuxie struck fear in them.
A cultivator at the higher level of the Spirit Profound Realm was cleaved cleanly in half, but the massacre didn't stop as Liu Wuxie continued to cut down whoever stood in his way.
"Golden Flame Strike!"
"Frost Dao Art!"
"Heavenly Dragon Seal!"
"Earth-Binding Chains!"
"Great Five Elemental Palm!" Whenever Liu Wuxie executed a dao technique, his attacks would blanket the battlefield, spreading across tens of thousands of meters.
Those who fled couldn't escape the Earth-Binding Chains and the Heavenly Dragon Seal.
As the death toll rose, those who had lost their courage collapsed to the ground, paralyzed in fear.
The Frost Dao Art was now far more terrifying. After absorbing the Winter Crystal Leaf, its power had increased tenfold.
The battlefield within a ten-thousand-meter radius had transformed into a wasteland. Over seventy percent of the cultivators had turned into ice sculptures.
