Chapter 73: Courting Death?

The black-robed elder let out a twisted grin, as if he was savoring the moment, and then he took a deep, deliberate breath.

Through his Qi Sight, Li Yanchu saw an overwhelming deathly qi swirling around the elder, as if countless wronged souls and lingering obsessions were wrapped around his body. It felt like this elder was someone who had been dead for a very, very long time, now crawling out from his coffin to walk the earth again.

“I’ve been asleep for ages, and I only came out for a bit of fresh air. I never thought I’d run into some brat who doesn’t know his place. Let me teach you a lesson today!”

The elder’s eyes were icy, his withered face brimming with murderous intent. At that moment, he took just half a step forward. But in that instant, his entire aura transformed. It was as if the very heavens and earth had vanished, leaving only him in existence.

The ground beneath him erupted in a blast of sand and stone, and each shard suspended in the air for a breath before shooting toward Li Yanchu with deadly force.

Seeing this, Li Yanchu frowned, immediately expanding his qi shield to its maximum strength.

Clang!

Clang!

Clang!

The black-robed elder's intense and rapid strikes pounded against Li Yanchu’s qi shield, unleashing a relentless chorus of metallic clashes.

And yet, in just three breaths, the qi shield shattered! Li Yanchu let out a sharp yell, gripped the Jiaoslayer tightly with both hands, and unleashed a saber light as fierce as a hurricane.

Boom

!

Suddenly, the black-robed elder appeared right in front of Li Yanchu as if he had teleported, and struck with a palm that sent him flying.

Crack

!

Li Yanchu slammed into a massive support pillar, snapping it in two, thereafter the entire structure collapsed around him in a cloud of dust and debris.

The black-robed elder wore an expression of cold indifference, his eyes filled with venomous hatred. Spreading his five fingers wide, he gave a sudden inhale, and Li Yanchu was instantly pulled out from the ruins.

Instantly, Li Yanchu stabbed the Jiaoslayer into the ground, resisting the pull of that immense and inexplicable force.

“You’re just struggling in vain!” the black-robed elder sneered.

Beneath his withered appearance burned a furious rage; even the monk from Lingxi Temple hadn’t forced him to this point.

A trickle of blood slid from Li Yanchu’s mouth after his internal organs shifted from the blow. Still, he gritted his teeth and yanked his saber from the earth.

Six Yang Force! He poured all his Six Yang Force into the saber and brought it crashing down with all his might.

However, the black-robed elder merely waved a hand, and a wall of hardened sand and stone infused with terrifying force surged forward to meet the strike. Once again, Li Yanchu was thrown back!

At that moment, a flash of sword light shot in from outside, aiming straight for the elder’s back.

“Exorcize evil!”

With a hand seal, Bai Hongtu directly summoned the flying sword meant to slay demons and exorcize evil. Then, a dense, nearly tangible shroud of deathly qi surged from the black-robed elder, blocking the flying sword in an instant.

Bai Hongtu’s expression remained cold, and a flicker of sword light glinted in his eyes.

“Break through!”

The flying sword pierced forward once more, drawing within a chi of the black-robed elder.

“Interesting. The younger generation these days really doesn’t know their limits,” the black-robed elder sneered.

𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

At this time, Bai Hongtu’s hands moved quickly, forming seals. The flying sword pressed in again, this time drawing within half a chi!

Seeing this, a glint of surprise flashed in the elder’s murky eyes. He hadn’t expected this.

However, he was only surprised for a moment. His gaze turned condescending, and his voice was as cold as ice as he said, “What reckless juniors... Today, I’ll kill you both. No loose ends.”

In an instant, the world around them was flooded with suffocating deathly qi, as if the gates of the Underworld had burst open. Within this suffocating domain, the black-robed elder was the undisputed ruler.

“Is that so?” Li Yanchu’s voice suddenly rang out.

Right after, he unleashed the Five-Lightning Talisman, which was enhanced three times!

“Five-Lightning Pure Yang, True Law of Heaven and Earth, exorcize evil and destroy!”

Boom

!

From the heavens, it was as if divine lightning began to descend, turning the void into a celestial lightning pool of judgment.

In that instant, a single bolt of lightning came crashing down! The entire sky was engulfed in blinding white light, and it was too bright to open one’s eyes.

Lightning arts is the ultimate yang force of Heaven and Earth. It annihilated all evil cultivators, filthy yin spirits, corpse qi, ghost qi, and deathly qi alike.

“Kill!”

The black-robed elder had no time to react. The dense deathly aura around him was instantly torn apart by the radiant divine lightning.

“You think you alone can defeat me? You old bastard!” Li Yanchu’s mocking voice rang out. His figure moved like lightning, sweeping ten zhang across in a single motion.

Shing

!

The Jiaoslayer tore through the night, unleashing a brilliant arc of saber light. He slashed straight at the black-robed elder’s neck.

Clang

!

The heavens echoed with a sound like a great bell and drum.

The razor-sharp Jiaoslayer struck the elder as if hitting solid metal, and sent him flying through the air. Ever since that terrifying aura within him had awakened, his body had become incredibly hard and unyielding. But Li Yanchu pressed forward with his saber once more!

The elder, having taken the full blast of the Five-Lightning True Law, had his soul severely damaged. His mind was reeling; he never imagined that within Wei City, there’d be a young expert of this caliber!

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Li Yanchu’s saber strikes came down like a fierce, unstoppable torrent upon the elder, while Bai Hongtu’s flying sword danced alongside each blow relentlessly and precisely. Even with a body as tough as stone or iron, the black-robed elder couldn’t withstand such ruthless and overwhelming attacks.

Finally, he bled. The liver spots on his body darkened, and his flesh began to decay. The deathly qi clinging to him grew heavier and heavier, as he was simply too old and both his body and soul had long approached decay. And now, under this onslaught, that collapse was only accelerating.

A flicker of black mist surged from the black-robed elder’s body as he spat out a mouthful of blood and essence, which transformed into a shadow and fled into the darkness.

The severely wounded saber master Chai Lie clutched his chest, his face full of shock as he stared at the scene before him. The black-robed elder’s strength was supposed to be unfathomable, yet he had just fled.

But what happened next filled him with even greater fear. Li Yanchu immediately activated Art of Pursuit, following the lingering aura of the black-robed elder. The damage from the Five-Lightning True Law carried pure yang energy, which the elder couldn’t expel in such a short time.

“Old geezer, get the hell out here!”

Having said that, Li Yanchu slashed toward a nearby patch of shadow with his saber.

Boom

!

A thunderous explosion shook the area, and the entire wall was blown apart by the saber’s light. Then, Li Yanchu followed with a powerful punch, unleashing yet another earth-shaking impact.

BOOM

!

Finally, the black-robed elder’s figure reappeared. His body, once as solid as metal or stone, had been broken. His spine was directly shattered by Li Yanchu’s Divine Astral Hands!

“Weren’t you going to kill me? Come on then!” Li Yanchu barked coldly, and brought his fist crashing down again. The ground trembled, and cracks split across the nearby walls.

A deep crater opened in the earth, with spiderweb-like fissures spreading out in all directions. The black-robed elder’s body was utterly destroyed by Li Yanchu’s crushing blows!

Chai Lie, once a ruthless saber master infamous for his cruelty, now stood frozen with his face etched with disbelief and terror. He could no longer sense any trace of the black-robed elder’s aura.

Such a formidable expert actually died at the hands of a mere junior!

Chai Lie struggled to his feet, gritting his teeth through the intense pain. Taking advantage of the others being distracted, he quietly tried to slip away.

If someone highly skilled in martial arts yet completely unrestrained by morality like him were to escape, he would surely bring a storm of bloodshed upon Wei City!

“Trying to run?”

Immediately, Li Yanchu infused his arm with Six Yang Force and hurled the Jiaoslayer straight at him. The heavy, razor-sharp saber flew with a fierce whistling wind and nailed the escaping rogue warrior to the ground, who died on the spot.

Seeing this, Bai Hongtu let out a low whistle, forming a seal with his fingers and sheepishly recalling his flying sword. “Good grief... that was basically a flying saber.”

He walked over and glanced at the corpse of the black-robed elder, which was in such a horrifically mangled state that it was almost unbearable to look at.