Chapter 544 - 326: Slaying
Chapter 544: Chapter 326: Slaying
Li Yunzhou’s expression turned exceedingly grim!
Ranked fifty-second on the Lingyun List, he had actually failed to ambush Xu Yang, who was ranked ninety-eighth. A tremendous force surged from the opponent’s saber, jarring his wrist so hard it went completely numb.
"What terrifying strength," he thought.
Looking at Xu Yang’s body, which glinted with a metallic luster, he finally understood why the Lingyun List’s introduction had highlighted his exceptional Body Refining Talent. The sheer toughness of Xu Yang’s Physique was likely not much weaker than an ordinary Spiritual Soldier.
"What is Li Yunzhou doing?"
Outside the arena, Treasure Pavilion Master Shen Qianshan’s expression darkened.
The Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion had not formed an alliance with the Xiao family or the Kong family, nor had Li Yunzhou teamed up with Huo Xiaochen and his group. He simply could not fathom why Li Yunzhou would launch such an inexplicable sneak attack on Xu Yang.
The ambush itself was one thing, but more importantly, he had failed to do any damage, forging a bitter enmity for absolutely no reason. In a massive free-for-all like this, the smartest approach was to keep a low profile and outlast the chaos, or perhaps eliminate the weaker competitors. One should never provoke a powerful enemy unnecessarily.
Tao Xiancai shook his head. "I don’t know either. Perhaps he and Lin Jingyu are close friends in private."
Only Fang Xinghai felt a pang of secret regret. Li Yunzhou had been so close to completely crippling Xu Yang.
"He wants to kill me!" Xu Yang thought, murderous intent exploding in his heart.
His enhanced senses had clearly captured the lethal intent radiating from Li Yunzhou. This guy was absolutely out for his life.
"Is this the doing of the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion or Li Chuyang? It is probably the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion," he deduced. "If my guess is right, this is Fang Xinghai’s handiwork. I thought it was strange when he took the initiative to greet me the other day, and it seems I hit the nail on the head. Seeing my outstanding talent, he wants to nip me in the bud."
"Brother Xu has such a powerful Physique," Li Yunzhou said with a laugh.
Since his first strike had failed, he concealed his murderous intent and put on a smiling face, acting as if the previous attack had merely been a friendly test of strength.
"And Brother Li has such thick skin," Xu Yang replied, his face mirroring the same bright smile.
As he spoke, the Burning Separation Saber swept forward in a vicious horizontal slash.
"Li Yunzhou, kill him for me! I, Lin Jingyu, will owe you a favor!" Lin Jingyu roared from a distance. He had tried to rush over and fight Xu Yang several times, but Sun Tao had blasted him back every single time, preventing him from taking a single step past the line.
"Take care of yourself first!"
Behind Sun Tao, the imagery of a rising and falling great sun flickered. With fierce and biting sword light, he forced Lin Jingyu back once again.
CLANG!
Saber and sword clashed, detonating a violent shockwave of air. Li Yunzhou’s arm went numb as he stumbled back several paces. Xu Yang’s physical strength was truly terrifying. In this kind of head-on collision, he was absolutely no match for him.
Xu Yang took a massive stride forward and unleashed another incredibly domineering slash.
"Did you think this is all I am capable of?" Li Yunzhou scoffed coldly. Behind him, his Martial Dao Imagery slowly began to manifest.
In an instant, the temperature of the surrounding air plummeted, as if plunging into the dead of winter. Frost and ice crystals rapidly crawled across the ground. As a genius ranked fifty-second on the Lingyun List, he had naturally comprehended his own Martial Dao Imagery. However, it was not of the top-tier star or Divine Beast category, but merely a mid-tier mountain and river imagery.
A surge of black tide undulated behind him, radiating a freezing temperature capable of chilling all things. The nearby combatants enveloped by this biting cold could not help but shiver violently.
A crescent-shaped sword light slashed outward, perfectly intercepting Xu Yang’s saber strike.
This time, Li Yunzhou finally held his ground. Amplified by his Martial Dao Imagery, his sheer power had finally caught up to Xu Yang’s. Now, it was just a matter of whose Technique was more profound.
"You have some skill, but not much!"
Xu Yang was not the least bit surprised. Li Yunzhou had long been nurtured by the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion and was a genius ranked fifty-second on the Lingyun List. Comprehending Martial Dao Imagery was entirely expected.
What he was considering right now was whether to expose the fact that he had cultivated the Extreme Prison Heaven-Slaying Technique to the Fourth Layer in order to quickly decapitate his foe.
"Using the Golden Gang Skill should be enough!" he decided.
His cultivation of the Golden Gang Skill had already been exposed by the Celestial Strategy Academy, so this was the perfect opportunity to use it openly. Combined with the Third Layer of the Extreme Prison Heaven-Slaying Technique, the Eight Ferocious Hidden Dragon Strength, and the Wandering Dragon Void Step, killing Li Yunzhou should not be a difficult task.
With that thought in mind, the Golden Gang Skill roared to life. Specks of golden light surfaced on his skin, rapidly spreading across his entire body.
"Great Success in the Golden Gang Skill!" Li Yunzhou’s expression shifted slightly as Xu Yang’s aura surpassed his once more.
Xu Yang’s body expanded slightly, turning entirely golden as if cast from pure gold. His bulging muscles stood out in stark relief, looking as though he had donned a suit of Golden Armor. His imposing aura was boundlessly tyrannical.
BOOM!
Xu Yang took a heavy stride forward. Infused with Gang Yuan, Fenli tore through the air, bringing with it a piercing, howling wind.
A vicious gale slapped his face. Li Yunzhou looked thoroughly grave. As he raised his longsword to block, the sheer force of the blow drove him three steps back, leaving deep footprints in the solid ground.
"Bastard. If he gets eliminated, let’s see how he plans to clean up this mess," Shen Qianshan spat, his face covered in a gloomy shadow. Given the strength Xu Yang was currently displaying, eliminating Li Yunzhou was entirely within the realm of possibility.
"It seems Xu Yang’s talent is even above Li Yunzhou’s," Tao Xiancai remarked. He left it at that, choosing not to elaborate further.
However, Shen Qianshan’s expression only grew darker. If it had not been for Fang Xinghai, Xu Yang would have been recruited by their Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion.
A light layer of sweat beaded on Fang Xinghai’s forehead. He clenched his fists, praying desperately that nothing bad would happen to Li Yunzhou. Otherwise, he would be in massive trouble.
"Xu Yang’s strength is actually above Li Yunzhou’s!"
In the arena, the factions allied with Lin Jingyu and Huo Xiaochen looked terrible. Both Xu Yang and Sun Tao’s strengths had wildly exceeded their expectations. Sun Tao could rival Lin Jingyu, and Xu Yang could suppress the Lingyun List’s fifty-second ranked Li Yunzhou. Today, not only would their side fail to eliminate these people, but they would also suffer disastrous losses in the process.
Four disciples from the Yellow Maple Valley had already been eliminated by Xu Yang, and Sun Tao had taken out several from the Iron Sword Sect.
Now, even Li Yunzhou was at risk of being ousted. He and Xu Yang had exchanged seven or eight blows, and he had been completely suppressed the entire time. Xu Yang’s simple and brutal slashing attacks left Li Yunzhou struggling just to defend himself, unable to execute any proper Techniques. That majestic, unyielding strength made every single strike feel like a crushing mountain bearing down upon him.
Coupled with his powerful physical body, which completely ignored the force of recoil, Xu Yang’s onslaught grew fiercer by the second. Li Yunzhou, on the other hand, felt as if his arm was going to shatter. It was gradually losing all sensation, and he could barely hold his sword steady.
"Fang Xinghai has screwed me over!" Li Yunzhou thought. "If this keeps up, he’s going to eliminate me."
Thoughts of retreating sprouted in Li Yunzhou’s mind. He no longer cared about crippling Xu Yang; he only wanted to shake him off and safely survive this round.
Making his decision, the Martial Dao Imagery of churning waves surged behind him. He channeled every ounce of Gang Yuan in his body into his blade. A sweeping blast of frigid air erupted as a massive, thick pillar of sword light bombarded toward Xu Yang.
Without the slightest hesitation, he turned and fled, not even lingering to see the result of his strike. As far as he was concerned, even if this sword could not wound Xu Yang, it would at least force him to back off.
"Trying to run?" Xu Yang’s eyes turned icy, and lethal intent exploded from his body.
Gang Yuan detonated beneath his feet, accompanied by the faint, echoing roar of a dragon.
Wandering Dragon Void Step!
Like a wandering dragon, his body abruptly vanished from its original spot. The sword light containing freezing power struck nothing but empty air, tearing a terrifying gorge into the earth as snow-white ice crystals frantically spread across the ground.
But Xu Yang was already gone. Transforming into a streak of sheer saber light, he instantly caught up with the fleeing Li Yunzhou.
Extreme Prison Heaven-Slaying Technique!
A flash of silver saber light tore through the air, lashing out as fast as lightning.
"Oh no!"
Li Yunzhou, who had just turned around, went pale with shock. His senses captured the bone-chilling murderous intent and the saber light that was already mere inches away. He desperately tried to swing his sword up to defend, but the silver saber light had already sliced cleanly through his Protective Gang Yuan and swept right across his neck.
"What a fast blade!"
He only had time for that single thought before his vision abruptly tumbled. A headless corpse appeared in his sight, a fountain of blood violently erupting from its stump.
"I’ve been killed!"
In his final moment of consciousness, Li Yunzhou finally realized that his own head had been severed. The very next second, everything faded to black.
THUD!
The blood-soaked head struck the ground, kicking up a small cloud of dust. The sound was not loud, but it exploded like a crack of thunder in the hearts of everyone present.
Li Yunzhou, ranked fifty-second on the Lingyun List, had been killed!
His head had been lopped right off by the ninety-eighth ranked Xu Yang. For a moment, all the surrounding combatants abruptly halted their fights.
They had long noticed that Li Yunzhou was losing ground, but none of them had ever imagined that Xu Yang could actually kill him—or that he would dare to do so. After all, Xu Yang had spared the lives of the Yellow Maple Valley disciples earlier.
"He’s dead!"
Luo Ying’s face was etched with sheer terror, his back drenched in cold sweat. Earlier, he had felt that Xu Yang was being far too ruthless. Only now did he realize that Xu Yang had actually been showing mercy. If not for the slight connection between their Sects, they would likely be dead right now as well.
"How interesting!" Chu Nangui, standing suspended in mid-air, could not help but cast his gaze downward. The ninety-eighth rank had just slain the fifty-second. If it were not for the rules he had established, how could he have ever witnessed such a spectacular battle?
"Good kill!" Sun Tao shouted in approval.
"Xu Yang, you dare to kill someone?" Lin Jingyu cried out, shocked and furious. He had never expected Xu Yang to actually decapitate Li Yunzhou.
"He was trying to kill me. Why wouldn’t I dare kill him?" Xu Yang scoffed. Did they really think he was a pushover?
He had spared Luo Ying and the others earlier out of concern that both the Yellow Maple Valley and the Purple Sun Sect were located in Fufeng County. If he sparked an all-out war between the Sects, it would inevitably involve Xu Qing, who was still at the Purple Sun Sect.
He had no such reservations about Li Yunzhou. The Cold Water Sect was countless miles away from the Purple Sun Sect. Even if they wanted revenge, they would never target the Purple Sun Sect. As long as they came directly for him, he was completely unafraid. Once he entered the Celestial Strategy Academy, the Cold Water Sect wouldn’t be able to reach him anyway.
Moreover, Luo Ying and Huang Xiao had borne no lethal intent toward him; they had simply wanted to eliminate him. Li Yunzhou, however, had genuinely come to take his life.
"How about that? I told you Xu Yang was holding back. If the Yellow Maple Valley and the Purple Sun Sect didn’t have that connection, your disciples would all be dead by now," Yue Zhong said, glancing coldly at Huang You.
Xu Yang’s murderous intent had even taken him by surprise.
Huang You’s expression was incredibly ugly. Right now, he was not thinking about whether Xu Yang had shown mercy, but rather the fact that Xu Yang would now team up with Sun Tao after killing Li Yunzhou. He deeply regretted not stopping Lin Jingyu and Huo Xiaochen from forming their alliance in the first place.
"How is this possible? How could he possibly kill Li Yunzhou?"
Fang Xinghai stared in utter disbelief. Wasn’t Li Yunzhou a genius ranked fifty-second? How could Xu Yang have killed him?
"If he hadn’t tried to run, he might not have died," Tao Xiancai said, shaking his head. "If Li Yunzhou hadn’t exposed his back, Xu Yang wouldn’t have been able to sever his head with a single slash. Of course, the main reason was that no one had anticipated a fiercely aggressive fighter like Xu Yang to possess such terrifying speed. He had been holding back his trump card the entire time."
"You were the one who ordered Li Yunzhou to kill Xu Yang, weren’t you?" Shen Qianshan asked, his face so dark it looked ready to freeze over. He glared furiously at Fang Xinghai.