Chapter 47: Evidence

Death?

The thought flashed through Xia Wuyuan's mind in an instant.

As a grandmaster facing a daemon at the martial paragon tier, dying under this fist would be the most natural outcome! But if death was unavoidable, then he would die with purpose!

He could die, but he had teammates behind him, teammates who were also grandmasters like him. So even if he died, he would counterattack and injure the daemon before the end. He would create the opening Yaoguang needed to finish the monster!

"Kill!" A cold gleam burst from Xia Wuyuan's eyes. He no longer dodged, letting the thunderous punch crash toward his skull. He knew that fist would make his head burst instantly, yet his resolve didn't waver at all.

With absolute decisiveness and almost tangible killing intent, he thrust the triangular spike forward, the point aimed straight at the daemon's throat!

Having a longer reach gave him an advantage! Though the daemon had swelled into a three-meter giant, his massive punch was still no better than Xia Wuyuan's thrust. If his fist shattered Xia Wuyuan's head, that spike would pierce the daemon's throat. It was an exchange of lives.

The daemon understood Xia Wuyuan's intent. Yet, even in his berserk state, with murderous aura leaking from every pore, he did not choose to take the blow head-on. Or rather, Xia Wuyuan's suicidal tactic had long been within the daemon's calculations.

As his right fist blasted forward, his left hand swept across. The scaled fist opened into a palm, slapping aside the triangular spike with brutal force. The palm swung around like a massive grinding wheel and hammered toward Xia Wuyuan's skull.

If that palm landed, the damage would be no different from taking the punch directly, crushing his skull.

However, just as both hands lashed out, leaving him unable to guard against anything else, something flickered at the edge of his vision. It was a sword light that was so fast it was nearly invisible.

It appeared before his eyes like a flash of white and expanded rapidly. Empowered by core jin, the sword strike moved faster than any ordinary martial artist could ever track.

If the daemon had focused his full attention on the sword, he might have reacted in time. But he had already decided to kill Xia Wuyuan first, then casually finish off the other grandmaster he barely acknowledged. He had never imagined that the other grandmaster would erupt with such power.

The daemon roared, rotating his left hand to clamp down on the Chengying Sword. Using the scales and hardened flesh of his palm, he forcefully grasped the blade.

Blood sprayed from his palm. Yet the moment he gripped the sword, his expression transformed. The already-blinding speed of the blade surged again.

Yaoguang's entire body ignited like a furnace, qi and blood boiling. The sword roared like a raging dragon breaking free. It tore out of the daemon's grasp and pierced straight into his chest.

The jin stored within the sword erupted violently. The resulting wound left a gaping, bloody crater in the daemon's chest! The vital structures around the heart shattered completely. Rather than simply piercing the daemon, it could be said that the sword had blasted through him.

On the other side, Xia Wuyuan, pushed to the limit by adrenaline, reacted with impossible speed. Having been knocked to the side together with the triangular bayonet, he spun through the air following the daemon's force. His body twisted 180 degrees before he lashed out with a powerful backward kick, slamming his heel into the daemon's chest.

It was a rabbit kicking an eagle.[1]

The kick alone could not seriously injure the daemon, but it forced his berserk frame to stagger backward. That one step back thwarted his counterattack against Yaoguang. The Chengying Sword, having pierced his heart, was pulled free again.

Unfortunately, Yaoguang did not have the strength left to unleash another jin-filled thrust. He sprinted forward, body lunging in a sharp burst. As he closed the distance, his left arm pushed outward.

It was not a violent punch or strike, but a push!

He had run out of jin after unleashing core jin and using Star Ignition to awaken every last reserve in his body. And he knew he could not rely on fist jin alone to kill a non-human-level daemon in his true form. So he directly aimed at the daemon with the large-caliber handgun clenched in his left fist.

He had a sword in his right hand and a gun in his left.

The instant Xia Wuyuan's kick made the daemon lose balance, Yaoguang was ready to fire. The muzzle locked onto the creature's brow from barely half a meter away.

In the daemon's widened, ferocious eyes, he saw the reflection of the weapon. A blinding, lethal flash erupted from the barrel as the daemon roared.

The gunshots that followed drowned out the daemon's furious roar.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Yaoguang fired six times, emptying the magazine!

At a distance of less than half a meter, with a grandmaster pulling the trigger and aiming for the skull, not a single round missed.

Blood sprayed into the air as six special rounds pierced through the daemon's head!

Its three-meter giant body toppled backward under the impact. The instant the last bullet left the chamber, Yaoguang discarded the empty pistol. His body soared toward the enemy in a fierce, aerial pounce.

The Chengying Sword's blade flashed like a streak of cold lightning as it swept across the daemon's exposed throat the moment it fell backward.

It traced a crescent arc that was precise, swift, and razor-sharp!

Those traits layered together, allowing Yaoguang to behead the ferocious, tenacious daemon in one decisive strike.

As Yaoguang flipped over the daemon's collapsing body and landed steadily several meters away, the head and torso crashed heavily into the ground one after the other, kicking up a cloud of dust.

With that, the fully transformed daemon stationed at this critical site was utterly slain.

A long breath of air escaped from Xia Wuyuan behind him.

As the tension drained away, Xia Wuyuan dropped out of his battle state, feeling a wave of deep exhaustion as the adrenaline rush subsided. Only rapid breathing helped replenish oxygen, speeding metabolism enough to push back some of the fatigue.

Yaoguang also adjusted his qi and blood. But at the fifth tier, his control over the body far surpassed Xia Wuyuan's. Even the backlash from unleashing core jin and triggering Star Ignition settled rapidly as he guided his qi and blood to circulate and speed up his recovery.

While he could not return to peak condition immediately, he would never risk being weakened for a long time, unlike most grandmasters or martial paragons who used the same secret technique.

After a brief adjustment, Yaoguang walked to the daemon's corpse and activated the strange treasure he had named the Soul-Capturing Bead.

At the same time, Xia Wuyuan finally regained his composure. He looked at the beheaded daemon whose body was gradually shrinking back toward human form, still struggling to believe what he saw. "This daemon... He absolutely had martial-paragon-tier strength! We... killed a martial paragon?!"

"Mhmm," Yaoguang replied calmly.

This was not the first time he had encountered a daemon who had fully transformed into a fiend. But the one earlier had clearly been weaker than this one.

After absorbing the daemon's soul fragment, Yaoguang raised his head. "Was everything recorded clearly?"

"Clear enough," Xia Wuyuan answered solemnly. "There was something like this hiding behind divine blood..."

"Make sure to blur my appearance," Yaoguang said.

Xia Wuyuan paused, then understood exactly what he meant. "You think..."

"It's exactly what you're thinking," Yaoguang said in an even tone.

Xia Wuyuan fell silent for a long moment before nodding firmly. "I will keep it a secret. But... if things really are as you suspect, and even that level has been infiltrated, then no matter how I cover for you, the secret won't stay hidden for long if they decide to investigate."

"It doesn't matter," Yaoguang replied.

In two more months, he would surpass the limits of the human body and become a martial paragon. At that point, he would have far fewer concerns.

Martial paragons were existences that did not fear dying as long as they avoided direct heavy firepower or artillery bombardment. Even offending Dayu's royal family would not put their lives at risk!

After a moment, he said, "Go support Yue Xingzhou. Make sure he covers all of our tracks and doesn't destroy evidence against the daemons by mistake."

Xia Wuyuan nodded. The gunfire at Baisheng Chemical Plant had already stopped. That battle was nearing its end. He rushed toward the plant, while Yaoguang followed at a calm, steady pace.

As they returned, Yaoguang raised the Soul-Capturing Bead again. He guided his psychic mind, and at once, images unfolded before him.

The first images came from the daemon who had died before transforming. His soul fragment showed him diligently delivering bottles of refined divine blood to his buyers.

There were many buyers, and every one of them held lofty positions within Tiannan. Even Su Chiming did not have access to that circle.

Next came the memories from the more powerful daemon they had just slain. Within moments, Yaoguang had found the key information.

"Zhao Sheng!" he said. The overall leader of all daemons in Tiannan Province was the deputy governor, Zhao Sheng. He was the daemon Yaoguang had been hunting, the mastermind behind the divine blood trade.

But beyond that, the daemon's memories showed something far more shocking, something branded deeply into the daemon's soul.

"These daemons... were manufactured?!"

1. This is a Chinese saying meaning that, in times of danger, the weaker may release a move that beats the stronger one. ☜