Chapter 204 - 203: Counter-Kill
"How is this possible?!"
The three Grandmasters’ initial shock had turned to horror, even a sense of absurdity.
They had joined forces and attacked with all their might, yet they still couldn’t break through.
They couldn’t even force him back a single step!
A flicker of anxiety crossed Elder Dao’s eyes. If this dragged on, something unexpected might happen. He had to use an external force to shatter this damnable stalemate. "Quick! Someone go get the authorities!" he shouted hoarsely.
In Jingshan County, the County Magistrate was only at the Spirit Realm First Level.
On a battlefield as brutal as this, he wouldn’t even survive a single exchange.
But the arrival of the Government Office would change the nature of the situation entirely.
Elder Dao was clearly trying to use the government’s power to sow chaos.
But Chen Li would not let him have his way.
The very instant he shouted...
An intimidating glint suddenly erupted from the eyes of Chen Li, who had been holding a steady defense.
An aura ten times more terrifying than before, one that made their very Divine Souls tremble, instantly swept through the Drunken Creek Pavilion.
"V-Void Transformation?!"
Elder Dao, Grandmaster Zheng, and Grandmaster Tong all cried out in disbelief at the same time.
The rhythm of their attacks was instantly thrown into chaos, and even the circulation of their Inner Qi grew sluggish under the sudden, immense pressure.
The three of them finally understood. From the very beginning, he had been hiding his true strength.
However, Chen Li gave them no time to process this revelation.
"Die!"
A cold, sharp cry rang out.
The Qiankun Ruyi Staff in Chen Li’s hand seemed to come alive, its black shaft instantly covered in a faint, shimmering light.
His body remained motionless. With just a flick of his wrist, the staff transformed into a black bolt of lightning that tore through the air, shooting straight for Grandmaster Zheng in front of him.
The speed of the strike was beyond what the naked eye could follow.
Its power, too, was on a completely different level from before.
Grandmaster Zheng’s vision blurred. The aura of death had already locked onto him completely.
Terrified beyond belief, he desperately channeled his Inner Qi. His Longsword erupted with a blinding, cold light as he executed his Defensive Sword Technique in an attempt to block.
CLANG! CRACK!
Amid a deafening crash, metal shattered.
The moment it made contact with the Qiankun Staff, Grandmaster Zheng’s Longsword shattered inch by inch.
The staff continued unimpeded, smashing heavily into his chest.
Grandmaster Zheng’s chest visibly caved in. He coughed up a great mouthful of blood as his body flew backward uncontrollably.
Like a kite with a snapped string, he slammed hard into the thickest load-bearing pillar in the center of the hall.
BOOM!
An earth-shattering crash followed.
The massive hardwood pillar, seemingly unable to withstand the aftershock of the blow, snapped on impact.
Wood splinters rained down.
The breaking of the load-bearing pillar was the last straw that broke the camel’s back.
The Drunken Creek Pavilion was already on the verge of collapse. Now, its structure tilted violently, and roof tiles and rafters poured down like a waterfall.
At that moment, one entire half of the Drunken Creek Pavilion began to utterly collapse.
Smoke and dust shot into the air, filling the entire space.
"Tong, watch out!"
Elder Dao roared the warning, simultaneously swinging his saber at Chen Li’s flank with all his might in an attempt to relieve his ally.
The flash of his saber was deadly as he unleashed all the killing moves of his Seven Kills Saber Technique.
Chen Li snorted coldly. Without even looking, he swept his staff backhandedly.
The staff’s momentum was as heavy and immense as a mountain!
BANG!
Elder Dao’s scimitar clashed with the staff once more, but this time, the force he felt was ten times greater than before.
An irresistible force surged toward him, making his blood and qi churn. The webbing of his thumb split open, and he nearly lost his grip on his scimitar.
The immense force sent him stumbling backward, completely unable to get any closer.
And in that fleeting instant, Chen Li locked onto Grandmaster Tong, who was trying to evade the collapsing structure.
Grandmaster Tong had seen Grandmaster Zheng’s gruesome fate, and his heart was filled with cold dread. Seeing the building about to fall, his first instinct was to retreat and escape.
However, Chen Li was not about to give him that chance.
The Qiankun Ruyi Staff followed him like a shadow, thrusting straight toward the back of Grandmaster Tong’s heart.
Its speed was inconceivable!
Sensing the vicious gale approaching from behind, Grandmaster Tong roared and swung his twin hammers backward with all his strength.
The Copper Hammers whistled through the air, their momentum immense.
CLANG!
The staff first shattered one of the Copper Hammers, then, without losing any momentum, easily pierced Grandmaster Tong’s Protective Gang Qi and ran him through the back of his heart.
Grandmaster Tong’s forward momentum froze. His eyes bulged as he looked down in disbelief at the tip of the staff protruding from his chest.
He opened his mouth, but no sound came out—only blood, which gushed forth.
Then, the light in his eyes rapidly faded. His body went limp and pitched forward, his life extinguished.
The second Divine Hall Grandmaster had fallen!
With the deaths of Grandmaster Tong and Grandmaster Zheng, the Drunken Creek Pavilion’s final supports were utterly destroyed.
Broken beams and the collapsed roof came crashing down.
RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!
Amid a continuous, deafening roar, the entire Drunken Creek Pavilion was reduced to a pile of ruins.
Bricks, tiles, wooden beams, and furniture buried everything, kicking up a cloud of dust that rose like a grayish-yellow curtain.
A disheveled figure struggled to burst out from the edge of the ruins and into the sky. It was Elder Dao.
His clothes were tattered and caked with dust and blood, and a trickle of blood ran from the corner of his mouth.
At this moment, he had lost all will to fight. Only a single thought remained in his mind.
’Flee!’
However, he had only risen a few dozen feet into the air, not yet clear of the ruins, when he suddenly felt his entire body seize up.
It was as if he had been plunged into an invisible, incredibly viscous mire; his movements instantly became sluggish.
A cold dread originating from the depths of his soul pierced his sea of consciousness like countless icy needles.
He struggled to turn his head, his pupils reflecting the scene that would be his last.
Beneath the night sky, above the ruins.
A faint, almost imperceptible shadow leaped from between Chen Li’s brows. Initially no larger than a soybean, it hovered motionlessly in mid-air.
The next moment.
The tiny shadow suddenly expanded, as if it had broken free from some invisible restraint, and it grew larger in the wind.
In the blink of an eye, it had transformed into an eight-foot-tall figure.
The figure’s face and form were indistinct, but its body flowed with radiant light, as if condensed from the purest Heaven and Earth Qi.
In its hand, the Dharma Aspect held a Black Stick condensed from blazing, divine light.
Without the slightest hesitation, the figure swung the Black Stick.
With a force that seemed to tear at space itself, it ignored the distance between them and brought the stick down on the head of the fleeing Elder Dao.
Ape Strike Skill.
Dharma Soul Slash.
"No...!"
Elder Dao let out a desperate roar.
But it was all in vain.
The dark figure’s movements were simple and elegant as it brought the staff down in a seemingly casual strike.
There was no whistling wind, no explosive flash of light.
Elder Dao’s roar cut off abruptly.
All the light, fear, and unwillingness in his eyes instantly froze, then faded like an extinguished candle, going completely dark.
His airborne body lost all its strength. Like a puppet with its strings cut, he plummeted from several dozen feet in the air.
THUD. He smashed into the cold rubble below, kicking up a plume of dust.
The third Divine Hall Grandmaster, Elder Dao, had fallen!
The Jiang Family’s Honored Guests—those who had been lucky enough not to die in the collapse, either buried at the edges of the rubble or just now struggling free—had still been clinging to a sliver of hope for victory.
But when they witnessed Elder Dao being crushed like an ant, that final shred of courage completely crumbled.
"Run!"
It is unknown who shouted first.
Like startled birds, the remaining four or five Honored Guests scattered in a panic, fleeing into the dark alleys in all directions as if their lives depended on it, cursing their parents for not giving them two extra legs.
Chen Li’s Divine Embryo hovered in the air, its gaze sweeping coldly over the fleeing figures.
The figure flickered, transforming into a nearly invisible streak of light and giving chase at a speed far beyond what the naked eye could see.
A few short, bloodcurdling screams pierced the night, then were quickly followed by dead silence.
Above the ruins, the dust slowly began to settle.
Moonlight once again spilled down, illuminating a scene of utter devastation.
Chen Li’s physical body remained standing in the same spot, his clothes undisturbed, as if the earth-shattering battle that had just occurred had nothing to do with him.
At his feet lay the barely-breathing Jiang Hongyi, all four of his limbs shattered.
The excruciating pain seemed to have gone numb. Only his hollow eyes, staring up at the night sky, were steeped in a despair colder than death itself.
He had witnessed with his own eyes the annihilation of his family’s elite forces.
’It’s over!’
Jiang Hongyi closed his eyes, ready to die.
Chen Li stood with his hands clasped behind his back. His gaze did not linger on the corpses littering the ground but instead turned toward a deep shadow not far away. His voice was as calm as the still water of an ancient well.
"You’ve been watching the show long enough, County Magistrate... It’s time for you to come out and clean up this mess."
As his voice fell, the patch of shadow seemed to stir.
After a moment of silence, a figure slowly strode out of the darkness.
The moonlight faintly illuminated his Seventh Grade Official Robe, and his face gradually came into view.
It was none other than the new County Magistrate of Jingshan, Luo Pingyuan.
It turned out that earlier, as everyone was leaving the Drunken Immortal Inn, the food box Luo Pingyuan had his men distribute to Chen Li contained a secret letter hidden in a false bottom.
The letter was brief, yet it laid bare Jiang Hongyi’s entire purpose for this trip, the strength of his subordinates—including information on the three Grandmasters and their hiding place—and the impending plan to make a move against the Chen Family.
Luo Pingyuan’s face wore a perfectly crafted expression of awe and admiration. He stopped several dozen feet away, clasped his hands, and bowed deeply. His tone was sincere. "Elder’s Divine Skill is peerless and your Magical Power is boundless. You are truly a hero of our time. This junior is endlessly impressed."
The compliments were beautifully spoken, and his posture was extremely humble.
However, to the ears of the not-yet-dead Jiang Hongyi, that voice was more bone-chilling than ten-thousand-year-old ice.
He twitched violently, his eyes snapping open to lock onto Luo Pingyuan.
A sound like a broken bellows wheezed from his throat, full of extreme venom and resentment. He gasped out a ragged roar, "Luo Pingyuan! You... What are you wasting your breath on him for?! Quick... quickly, send someone to notify the Jingwu Bureau!"
A humble smile appeared on Luo Pingyuan’s face, but it was tinged with the sweet pleasure of revenge. "Father-in-law, it seems the Jingwu Bureau doesn’t involve itself in the feuds of the Jianghu, does it? What’s more, you were the one who plotted against Elder Chen first. It was attempted murder, and the evidence is irrefutable. Rest assured, Father-in-law. Your son-in-law once served as an observer at the Dali Temple; I’m an expert at drafting reports for cases just like this."
Before he could finish, a surge of blood rushed to Jiang Hongyi’s head, his eyes nearly splitting with rage. "Luo... Ping... Yuan! You ungrateful animal! You bastard! A wolf that can’t be tamed! The Jiang Family treated you so well! We married our legitimate daughter to you, funded your studies and cultivation, spent countless silver coins on you... And you conspire with an outsider to harm me?! You will not have a good death!"
The smile on Luo Pingyuan’s face instantly vanished, replaced by an unconcealed, icy coldness. "Treated you well? At this point, Father-in-law, why continue to deceive yourself?
"In all my years with the Jiang Family, when have I, Luo Pingyuan, ever had a shred of dignity? I was nothing more than a prize possession, a convenient tool to be used. Ordered about, insulted at the slightest displeasure... Is that the ’kindness’ of the Jiang Family?"