Chapter 496 – The Lifespan Stealing Demonic Blade, Frightening And Cunning Li Yuan - Part 3

Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!

Soft wingbeats fluttered faintly in the air, barely audible and nearly invisible.

A small insect soared high above the Jade Capital, trailing far behind Shi Shanbai.

Li Yuan was using Phantom Body, making him virtually impossible to detect, at least by someone of Shi Shanbai’s level.

The insect twisted through alleys and rooftops, snaking through the Jade Capital for over an hour until they reached a quiet courtyard tucked away in a secluded part of town.

From the outside, it looked unremarkable. But inside? Utter silence. Not a soul in sight.

Shi Shanbai didn’t use the front door. He climbed the wall.

Behind it were two rows of old trees, gnarled and swaying gently in the wind. At the far end stood a wide hall—once, perhaps, used as a martial arts training ground, now long abandoned and repurposed as a private residence.

The owner had made no renovations. The large hall remained empty, offering a vast open space far removed from the entrance, a perfect meeting place.

Shi Shanbai approached with practiced ease and stopped before the door. He stood straight and called respectfully, “Mister Mountain, I’ve come here to make a report. A development has occurred in the Jade Capital, one that favors us.”

A voice answered from within. “Speak.”

Shi Shanbai replied, “The two loyal souls, Gao Kaiping and Fish Guts, seem to have sensed something unusual. They’ve both relocated to Coldwind Gorge near Qilin Mountain.”

The voice inside asked, “How do you know this?”

“I have a mole,” Shi Shanbai said confidently. “Planted right beside the Empress Dowager. Absolutely trustworthy. He passed the message to me in secret.”

There was a pause.

Then the voice inside said, “There is no such thing as absolutely trustworthy.”

Shi Shanbai smiled faintly. “Begging your pardon, Mister Mountain, but this one is only seventh rank. I’ve bound him with human-skin manacles, a ghost item. People can lie, yes...but ghosts cannot. Ghost items always work.”

Suddenly, Shi Shanbai felt it. Something was wrong. The air behind him had begun to glow.

And intense, scorching heat poured across his back. A golden light, dazzling and merciless, warped the air like a desert mirage.

Then a massive shadow fell over the courtyard, blotting out the sun.

It was

enormous

, swallowing the sky above. The courtyard dimmed at once.

A suffocating force crashed down like a mountain, making the old trees on both sides tremble violently as if caught in a hurricane. Leaves tore free in clouds whirling upward. But they didn’t make it far. Midair, they burst into flames.

No warning. No reason. Everything was incinerated.

Shi Shanbai slowly turned his head. And what he saw in his pupils was

pure nightmare

.

A towering golden giant, expression stiff and empty, yet twisted by something evil. And behind it, barely visible, was a blurred, faceless figure, hands deathly pale.

In that pale right hand, a pitch-black blade was being pulled slowly from the void.

BOOM!

The next instant, the golden giant raised its hand and brought it crashing down.

The palm hadn’t even landed yet, but the air alone shattered the roof tiles with thunderous cracks, as if the house itself were being torn apart by unseen force.

The roof caved in, exposing the startled face of the yellow robed man sitting inside.

And the golden giant? It grinned.

Shock on one face. A twisted grin on the other. Flash and gone.

The enormous palm came down with no hesitation, no mercy, and from its shoulder to its lips, a cyclone of withered flame gathered, swirling violently as the blow descended.

Mister Mountain didn’t hesitate. He bolted.

His body dipped low, and he vanished into the earth.

He couldn’t fly, but he

could

move underground, thanks to his mastery of earth-aligned skills. It wasn’t true teleportation, but it was fast and slippery.

In just a blink, he had tunneled over a kilometer away.

But even that distance wasn’t enough.

The area was too remote, too quiet. Even a kilometer and a half away, he was still isolated.

And the moment he reappeared, a firebomb dropped from the heavens.

A compact sphere of compressed flame came hurtling from the sky, blazing like a miniature sun.

He had no time to slip away again. The ground beneath him was no longer viable for earth escape. The withered flame had scorched it into ash and charcoal.

With no other choice, he slapped the ground, launching himself toward the very edge of the blast.

As he moved, he flung out three earthen banners with a snap of his sleeves.

The banners spun wildly, forming a barrier that flared to life just in time to shield him from the brunt of the inferno.

He gritted his teeth, eyes darting in every direction. There would be no second chance. The earth around him looked like normal soil, but it wasn’t; it was all dead, burnt to a crisp. Useless.

The battle had now entered a war of attrition.

Mister Mountain ran for his life. Fast. Desperate.

Above him, the golden giant loomed, raining down death from above.

Its mouth opened, and a cone of high-temperature withered flame burst out. It was sharp and searing like a giant blowtorch.

Wherever Mister Mountain ran, the fire followed.

The giant began to move, its titanic footsteps quaking the earth.

And then, as if noticing a small ant scurrying beneath its feet, it suddenly stomped...right down onto Shi Shanbai.

Shi Shanbai had no time to react. The withered flame engulfed him, and his protective charms exploded one after another in a chorus of snapping sounds as his spiritual artifacts shattered like glass.

The difference in power was simply too vast.

With just that one stomp, every safeguard Shi Shanbai had was obliterated. His body was bathed in fire. Arms outstretched toward the heavens, struggling, defiant, then reduced to charred bone.

Then, not even that, Shi Shanbai was simply reduced to dust on the wind.

Meanwhile, Mister Mountain was running out of time and options.

He could feel the noose tightening around him with every step.

He needed to get into a crowded area. If this thing kept killing indiscriminately, it would become a public enemy. The Jade Capital’s entire military would be mobilized against it. And maybe, just maybe, they could buy him time to escape.

“Damn it!” He grit his teeth. No matter how cautious he’d been, this thing had still found him.

Shi Shanbai had only reached out once in the past month. Once.

And Shi Shanbai was always careful. Always meticulous. He wouldn’t have come here unless he was certain nothing could go wrong. So how? How had the enemy still found him?

High above, Li Yuan’s figure ascended into the sky.

The golden giant shimmered—half-real, half-illusory—like a god carved from sunlight. Its withered flames blazed endlessly, roaring like the wrath of the heavens.

Li Yuan hovered in the sky, right between the golden giant’s eyebrows, quietly watching the yellow robed man scurry in panic below.

Without a word, he summoned the Red Sleeve Blade.

The black sword vibrated with a low hum, floating steadily above the sea of withered flame. Forged from that very flame and bound by Li Yuan’s blood, the blade remained utterly unaffected by the searing heat around it.

With two fingers, Li Yuan pointed. The black blade shot out like lightning, slicing across a kilometer and a half in a single breath, aimed straight at Mister Mountain.

The yellow robed man saw the blade coming but didn't even flinch. He focused on his banners, desperately maintaining their circulation, prolonging what little defense he had left.

The black blade pierced through the protective aura, and a chilling presence followed in its wake, causing Mister Mountain to stiffen slightly.

And in that instant, a piercing scream rang out in Li Yuan’s mind.

Lifespan! Lifespan! Lifespan!

The Red Sleeve Blade shuddered violently, like a shark that had caught the scent of blood.

Master! Please, give me lifespan! I’m begging you!

Yan Hongxiu had gone mad. Her voice was frantic, almost delirious with hunger.

Li Yuan's eyes narrowed. With a silent flick of his hand, he poured three thousand years of his own lifespan into the blade.

Since it hadn’t directly touched Mister Mountain, he remained unharmed for the moment. But the effect on his banners was immediate.

The banners dimmed. Their luster faded rapidly, as if aged by centuries in a heartbeat. The protective shield flickered and weakened drastically.

From above, the golden giant inhaled. Then it exhaled, another compressed firebomb hurtled downward with terrifying force.

Crack...! BANG!

The shield shattered. The banners were flung apart. And then, the black blade and withered flame rained down on Mister Mountain.

But what happened next...surprised Li Yuan. At that very moment, the yellow-robed man stopped running. He gave up.

In truth, during the earlier clash, he had already burned through the last of his major spirit stones. What remained, one or two small reserves, wouldn’t be enough to change the outcome.

So he simply dropped them, stood in the flames, and looked up with a smile.

“Your strength is overwhelming, Senior. I admit defeat,” ” he said calmly. “But I’ve left my soul’s essence sealed in my sect. Even if you kill me now...in a few years, I’ll be reborn.”

Mister Mountain stood tall and defiant..

“...” Li Yuan didn’t bother responding. He simply brought the black blade down. He didn’t know how much lifespan the man had left. But the maximum lifespan the Red Sleeve Blade could sever in one strike...was 10,000 years.

So he gave ten thousand, and the blade took ten thousand from both Li Yuan and Mister Mountain.

Instantly, the yellow robed man began to wither. His body shrank. Flesh charred. Bones cracked. His life unraveled in an instant.

And in his final breath, something changed. His eyes lifted, and all defiance vanished. It was replaced by sheer, unfiltered terror. He saw something. Something he hadn't expected. And he screamed.

"Nononono! NOOOOO!!!"

But it was too late.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

Far away, on a mist-shrouded jade platform within the Eastern Sea, a single drop of blood, hidden deep in the sacred grounds, withered to dust.

At the same moment, in a tightly sealed hidden chamber, locked inside a jade box and protected by dozens of talismans, a pristine, vibrant drop of lifeblood suddenly shriveled, turned black, and—

POP!

It exploded.

Rotten liquid splattered the inside of the box.

The essence was gone. There would be no revival.