Chapter 34
Chapter 34: The Destruction of the Blackclad Stronghold (Part 2)
The headless corpse crashed to the ground with a heavy thud. That bizarre sword strike frightened everyone out of their wits.
Even Hu Yidao sucked in a cold breath. He had not seen Li Xingge make a single motion with his sword.
A strike without so much as a tell—who wouldn’t fear that?
He took a deep breath. “Family Head Li, you’ve already killed the man. Can’t this matter end here now?”
“End here? Ridiculous! Hu Yidao, now it’s your turn!”
Li Xingge chuckled lightly.
“Li Xingge, don’t push people too far!”
Hu Yidao could no longer endure it and let out a low, muffled roar.
He, Hu Yidao, was a tyrant of one region in his own right, yet he had been driven into such a state by a mere youth.
But in Li Xingge’s eyes, Hu Yidao’s fury was nothing more than a joke.
“Kneel, and live. Fight, and die!”
It was the same line as before, yet somehow even more infuriating.
“You really think I’m afraid of you?”
Hu Yidao’s eyes turned bloodshot as powerful qi-and-blood energy spread from his body.
He gripped a blood-red saber in his hand, while astonishing battle intent surged from every inch of him.
Hu Yidao struck first.
This slash carried his towering fury with it, a thunderous blow that came hacking straight toward Li Xingge.
If this had been before Li Xingge’s breakthrough, then facing Hu Yidao’s all-out killing strike, he would probably have had to muster his full attention to deal with it.
But now, in Li Xingge’s eyes, Hu Yidao’s speed was simply too slow.
With a few light backward steps, as effortless as a dragonfly skimming water, Li Xingge evaded Hu Yidao’s full-force slash.
Hu Yidao’s strike missed and landed on the Mountain God statue, which stood more than thirty meters tall, cleaving it in two on the spot.
Dust and smoke instantly filled the entire square.
“Hu Yidao, your sabersmanship really isn’t much.”
With his hands behind his back, Li Xingge slowly walked out of the dust cloud.
Seeing Li Xingge completely unharmed and utterly unscathed, Hu Yidao looked as if he had seen a ghost.
“This... how is this possible?”
“You are still too weak.”
Li Xingge shook his head.
“Bullshit!!!”
Completely enraged, Hu Yidao charged at Li Xingge once more.
His overbearing saber art came in like a raging tide, each blow fiercer than the last, each strike more tyrannical than the last.
And yet, time and time again, Li Xingge avoided them with casual ease, as though an adult were toying with a child.
Another slash missed, and the two crossed past one another.
“Is that all?”
Li Xingge murmured.
To be fair, Hu Yidao’s strength was among the best of those in the same realm. The Grand Elder had not been unjustly defeated at his hands.
But against Li Xingge, it still was not enough.
The gap between their realms was as great as the distance between clouds and mud.
“You’ve played enough. My turn now.”
Li Xingge spoke softly, and an invisible ripple of force spread out from his body.
In an instant, fierce winds howled into life. Sand and stones were swept up from all around, spinning madly with him at the center.
The air was filled with a piercing, oppressive shriek.
Within that vortex, Li Xingge’s aura climbed higher and higher. In no time at all, it had reached its peak.
Hu Yidao planted his saber against the ground and dropped to one knee, panting as he stared at Li Xingge, who looked like a god descended from heaven.
Sensing that overwhelming aura of utter despair, Hu Yidao suddenly understood.
A bitter smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
“Hahahaha! Minor Accomplishment in the Qi-Blood Realm... Is this the difference between a genius and an ordinary man? Thieving old heavens, how unfair you are! How utterly unfair!”
Hu Yidao raised his saber toward the sky and howled upward in madness.
At that moment, he had truly gone mad.
His life could be called legendary. Born the son of a farmer, he had relied on nothing but a single saber to hack out a road to the heavens for himself.
He had entered the Physical Body Realm at twenty-one and advanced into the Qi-Blood Realm at forty-seven.
He had once believed himself to be one of those rare geniuses born once in ten thousand.
If not for his humble origins, how could that brat ever have become famous before him?
But today, the cruelty of reality had trampled his pride into the dirt.
So in front of a true genius, he was still nothing more than a roadside ant that could be crushed underfoot at any moment.
“Hu Yidao, I’ll give you one more chance. Serve the Li Clan, and I can spare your life.”
Hu Yidao was quite strong, and Li Xingge found himself moved to value talent.
If he could bring Hu Yidao under his command and then use certain methods to control him, he would be adding a major fighting force to the clan.
Li Xingge’s words pulled Hu Yidao back from the brink of madness.
He looked at Li Xingge and bared his teeth in a grin. “Li Xingge, there are only two hard things about me in this life—my cock and my backbone. If you want me to be your dog, impossible!”
The dense power of qi and blood began to burn.
The scorching heat was so intense that even the air seemed to distort under its searing force.
Hu Yidao’s aura began rising at an unbelievable speed.
At the same time, his face began to age at a rate visible to the naked eye.
His original middle-aged appearance turned into that of a decrepit old man in only a few breaths.
“Better to die standing than live kneeling!”
Hu Yidao roared, pointing his saber at Li Xingge, his pupils filled with endless madness.
“You’re courting death!”
Li Xingge had finally taken mercy on someone for once, yet this Hu Yidao refused to appreciate it and had actually chosen to burn his qi-and-blood power.
Li Xingge was not some brain-dead protagonist who would stand around waiting for his enemy to finish charging up his ultimate move.
Zhanxu left its sheath with a sharp sword cry.
Li Xingge shot forward like a bolt of lightning. Seeing this, Hu Yidao hurriedly swung his saber up to block.
The two passed by each other.
Man and blade shattered together, and a fine head shot into the air.
Zhanxu returned to its sheath. The blood staining the blade was silently absorbed by the sword itself, and vaguely, it seemed to have gained another trace of spirituality.
The corpse, as huge as a small mountain, crashed heavily to the ground, sending dust everywhere.
The remaining leaders witnessed the scene and were filled with such rage that their eyes nearly split.
“Avenge the Chieftain!”
The Second Commander, his eyes red, was the first to charge at Li Xingge.
Apart from a tiny handful, the others did not hesitate in the slightest. Like moths flying into a flame, they rushed forward wave after wave.
“Overestimating yourselves.”
Li Xingge let out a cold laugh.
He raised both hands, then swung them down sharply.
In an instant, flying sand and rolling stones turned into death-reaping specters, slaughtering the gathered leaders as easily as harvesting stalks of rice.
Looking at the corpses strewn all across the ground, Li Xingge’s face showed neither sorrow nor joy.
As for the bandit lackeys who came rushing over after hearing the commotion, the moment they saw the bodies on the ground, they were scared out of their wits.
They threw away their armor and weapons and fled in every direction across the mountains, terrified that if they were even a step too slow, that life-reaping Yama would kill them as well.
Li Xingge had no interest whatsoever in killing those little lackeys.
His real target was the Blackclad Stronghold’s treasury. After so many years of evil deeds, the stronghold had surely amassed no small fortune.
Even he felt rather tempted by that wealth.
His gaze shifted toward a corner, where a figure was huddled with his head lowered, trembling uncontrollably.
Li Xingge slowly walked over.
The moment that man saw Li Xingge approach, he dropped to his knees and began kowtowing frantically as he begged for mercy. “My lord, please, don’t kill me! Don’t kill me!”
“Take me to the treasury.”
Li Xingge said with a smile.
But to that man, Li Xingge’s smile was even more terrifying than a devil’s.
“Y-Yes... My lord, please follow me.”
The treasury was not hidden at all. It was inside a stone cave in the back mountain.
Li Xingge shattered the heavy stone door with a single palm strike and stepped inside.
Within the crude stone cave, gold, silver, pearls, and jewels were piled up like mountains. There were also some rather valuable cultivation manuals, secret texts, and spirit medicines.
There were many kinds of treasures, but very few of them were useful to a Qi-Blood Realm cultivator.
Then again, that made sense. If Hu Yidao could have used them, he would have done so already.
After stepping out of the treasury, Li Xingge placed one palm against the stone wall outside.
With a loud boom, a massive slab of rock collapsed, sealing shut the passage into the treasury.
After finishing all of that,
Li Xingge’s figure slowly vanished into the darkness.