“A sound-based soul skill!!”

One of the students cried out; the enemy was capable of a sound-based soul skill! And even more terrifying...this incoming energy was even stronger than theirs! That was saying something considering how proficient the two students were in sound-based soul skills.

Already, the screeching of the winds was assaulting their heads with stabbing pains, forcing them to clutch at their ears in pain.

“Swish! Swish! Swish....”

Blade after blade fell down from the skies to assault the two students. Try as hard as they might, the barriers of elemental energy around them was already broken down after repeated blows.

“Swoosh!!”

A sudden noise that was different to the blades of wind attacking them from all sides was heard by one of the students. Eyes widening, the student tried his best to turn and protect himself from the incoming attack, but...

It was too late! A figure in green flickered into sight ten steps behind the student, revealing himself to be Gui Su with a long sword ready to strike.

The student Gui Su appeared behind went rigid. His neck slowly revealing a red line on it, the man then spat out a mouthful of blood!

“Senior Zhao!!”

The other student cried out in horror as he watched his senior fall dead to the ground. A silent scream on his mouth now, the remaining student turned around to try and run away.

“Meow!!”

Out of nowhere, the meowing of a cat could be heard. The student running away had caught Gui Su’s attention and whipped his head to look at him. A small black shadow could be seen flitting forward, and then the student felt something cold travel across his throat...

“Pcht...” Blood splattered out from the cut in his throat. Like his senior, the student’s eyes bugged out wildly before he too fell to the ground, lifeless.

The howling winds soon came to a stop, ushering the area back into a state of natural silence as Gui Su merely stared at the two corpses in front of him. “They overestimated themselves!” He muttered to himself.

Taking the two space rings from their corpses, Gui Su looked to the area where Bai Yunfei and the others had been. He hummed, thinking about something before leaping up the mountain and then into the nearby forest.

Not long after he disappeared, a ripple of space started to appear in the pocket. A moment after, a figure in black walked out from behind it.

This was clearly a newcomer to the pocket. He wore completely black robes with a hood that covered his face just like how Gui Su had. The first thing he did was look around the place. On the first look through, his eyes fell upon the two corpses not too far away.

He quirked an eyebrow in surprise. Studying their corpses a moment longer, a small grin appeared then on his face. “Haha, so the kllings have already started? That’s good...”

As he was talking to himself, something in the corner of his eyes to his right caught his attention.

“Whoosh! Whoosh!”

Two soul cultivators, one female and one male, were coming into view on the mountain peak nearby.

The black-hooded man’s eyebrow remained high in the air still at their entrance. The clothes they were wearing matched the clothes of the two corpses down there.

“Junior Zhao! Junior Tai!!”

One of them cried out. The two of them recognized the corpses on the ground, evidently.

The black-hooded man did nothing but stare with a smile as the two soul cultivators ran down to where the corpses were.

“Junior Zhao! Junior Tai!!” The taller one of the two soul cultivators howled. His entire body shook with anger and frustration as he held onto their corpses. Eyes filled with hatred, he swung over to meet the stare of the black-hooded man there. “Was it you?! Did you kill them?!”

Their corpses were still very warm. That meant their deaths hadn’t been very long ago.

Much to his credit, the black-hooded man didn’t falter on the glare of the other person. He merely smiled and nodded his head to speak.

“It was I.”

—That....that was his answer!

“Then you can die!!”

The tall student howled, not at all caring for the strange person in front of him. The other person had already ‘confessed’, so there was no need to do anything but fight!

Howling, the student flew forward to pounce at him like an infuriated tiger chasing its prey!

His howl even sounded very much like what a tiger would sound like, and the air was visibly shaking with how loud it was. A giant halberd appeared in his hand when he shook it, and in a flash of gold light, the man swung his weapon down onto the hooded figure!

“Senior Jin!”

His female companion cried out. Not only was her companion rushing recklessly, there was something strange about this hooded figure.

But it was too late for her to call him back. Gritting her teeth, she took out a green longsword and ran forward to provide support.

The hooded-figure didn’t look like he had any intentions of evading the man. His feet remained stuck in place, but his right arm shook slightly to take out something.

A black five-inch double-sided ‘needle’.

It twirled around his fingers swiftly like a person might twirl a baton for some sort of rhythmic practice. After several rotations, the person sent it flying towards the incoming person with a flick of his wrist.

The needle flew out just as the golden halberd was dropping down on the person!

Rather than evade the halberd, the hooded-figure merely raised his left hand up to stop the blade with the palm of it!

“Crack....”

The ground beneath his feet splintered under the force of the downward swing of the halberd. But the hooded-figure was completely unharmed by it!

The man attacking him was a Peak Late-stage Soul Exalt. That combined with his huge burst in strength would’ve by all rights sliced straight through the other person’s hand!

While that was going on, the seemingly unimportant black needle continued to fly towards the other man’s face. Whatever damages it could do seemed unimportant with how it was aimed at the left side of his abdomen and how his barrier of elemental metal would stop the needle. No matter how much the man looked at it, this black needle wouldn’t do a thing to him..

But....the needle slipped through his barrier! It was as if the barrier didn’t even exist! From there, it flew into the person’s abdomen and straight out from the other side! Not only had the barrier failed to stop the needle, so did the soul armament the man was wearing!

Ordinarily, wounds like this wouldn’t be much. The size of the wound was practically negligible as a ‘superficial wound’, and even commoners would probably think it was a mosquito that had bitten them.

But this needle was very clearly not something that would fit under ‘ordinary’ situations....

𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

The man’s face went rigid the moment the needle entered his body. The soulforce in his body came to a slugged halt, and from where needle entered, a black wisp of energy started to flow out from it....

“Bang....” The elemental energy of the person exploded out of existence a short second after, and with a plop, the person fell face forward onto the ground!

“Senior Jin!!”

His female companion cried out in fear from behind. She had been trying to attack the hooded-figure from the other side with her sword when her senior was attacked. As she screamed, there was a squelching sound as a black line came out from the man’s forehead!

It was a black needle!

Calm-faced, the hooded-figure brought his right hand up to stop the blade of elemental energy the female shot at him. Another wave of his hand later, the black needle flew forward.

There was a thud as the female followed her senior and succumbed at the hand of the hooded figure...