Chapter 227 - 226: Total Annihilation
The shadowy figure was, of course, Chen Li.
After annihilating Liu Yuanqi’s family that day,
he had forced Liu Yuanzhao to take part. It was merely a way to bind him to the deed, preventing him from exposing Chen Li.
After all, the Liu Family’s internal strife was their own private matter.
And Liu Yuanzhao’s branch of the family was still alive and well.
No one could say for sure if there were other reasons for the massacre beyond the Divine Secret Skill, the Vein-Severing Soul-Breaking Finger.
In truth, Chen Li had never expected Liu Yuanzhao to draw the Jingwu Bureau’s attention away from him.
However, unlike when he killed Tu Sandao,
this time, he had no direct motive for the murders, which allowed him to evade a great deal of scrutiny.
Of course, there was still one glaring loose end.
Liu Zongying.
Outsiders might not know about the Liu Family’s dirty laundry, but as a Liu himself, Liu Gongchang was undoubtedly aware of it all.
Any investigation would inevitably lead back to Lingxi.
Although Liu Zongying hadn’t recovered his strength and could thus be cleared of suspicion,
the case was now in the hands of the Liu Family, which forced Chen Li to be cautious.
Thus, he had come up with the idea to lay another ambush at the abandoned temple.
By killing Liu Gongchang and his men, he could ensure the Jingwu Bureau would never connect the case to Liu Zongying, and therefore, never trace it back to him.
Chen Li turned a deaf ear to Liu Gongchang’s questions, his Qiankun Ruyi Staff spinning like a wheel in his hands.
With every strike, an officer of the Jingwu Bureau suffered broken bones and torn tendons, dying on the spot.
Screams of agony, the crunch of shattering bones, and the clatter of falling weapons filled the air.
In just a few breaths, more than half of the Jingwu Bureau’s men were dead or wounded.
Knowing this was a life-or-death moment, Liu Gongchang took a deep breath. He channeled all his life’s Power into his blade, its edge pulsing with over a foot of condensed Gang Qi as he swung it down at Chen Li’s head.
Chen Li swept his Qiankun Ruyi Staff upward to meet the blow. The staff’s black body glowed with an inner light. Though it made no grand display, its power was unstoppable.
"CLANG—CRACK!"
A dull, explosive clang of metal on metal rang out.
The moment it met the Black Stick, Liu Gongchang’s sharp Sword Gang shattered inch by inch like a fragile sheet of ice.
A tremendous backlash surged up the blade’s hilt, instantly splitting the webbing between his thumb and forefinger and drawing blood.
Unable to withstand the force, the long blade, forged from a hundred times refined steel, snapped in two.
"Pfft!"
Liu Gongchang’s blood roiled in his chest. A metallic taste filled his throat as a mouthful of blood rose, but he forced himself to swallow it back down.
He stumbled back dozens of steps, his eyes wide with incredulous horror.
A Void Transformation Grandmaster!
The enemy’s strength far exceeded his estimations.
’Since when did my third brother’s family make an enemy of a Void Transformation Grandmaster?’
Still reeling from shock, he saw Chen Li’s staff bearing down on him again.
Knowing he couldn’t afford a direct confrontation, he decisively threw the half-Broken Blade at Chen Li’s face while his body drifted backward.
After creating some distance, his ten fingers danced rapidly, like butterflies flitting through flowers.
Vein-Severing Soul-Breaking Finger.
Inner Qi surged from within Liu Gongchang to his fingertips, transforming into streams of incredibly condensed, pale green Qi Strength that shot through the air.
The Qi Strength was sharp and fierce, like invisible Sword Qi, aimed straight for the major Acupoints on Chen Li’s body.
For a moment, the abandoned temple was filled with the hiss of wind from his fingers as an interwoven net of Qi Strength enveloped Chen Li.
Chen Li swung his staff, easily knocking the Broken Blade aside.
Faced with the dense barrage of Finger Strength, his body swayed slightly. He spun his staff, forming a screen of afterimages to block the attacks.
However, the Power of the Finger Sword was cunning and bizarre. The attacks didn’t fly straight; some even curved in mid-air, making them impossible to defend against completely.
In a moment of carelessness, Chen Li allowed one stream to slip through a gap in the staff’s afterimages.
"PFFT! PFFT!"
Chen Li’s movements faltered slightly as he felt a numbness in the Jianjing acupoint on his left shoulder.
A stream of Qi Strength instantly penetrated him, feeling like a fine needle piercing a crucial point in his meridians.
The originally smooth flow of his Inner Qi immediately stagnated.
’No injury?’
’It just sealed my Acupoints?’
Chen Li’s brow furrowed slightly. ’Looks like the power of this Qi Strength is far weaker than I imagined.’
He immediately circulated his Inner Qi to break through the sealed acupoint.
The vast and mighty Inner Qi of the Void Transformation Realm instantly shattered the Jie Mai Finger Strength.
However, in a battle between experts, victory and defeat are often decided in an instant.
In the brief moment Chen Li’s Inner Strength was occupied with clearing the acupoint,
a glint flashed in Liu Gongchang’s eyes. He seized the fleeting opportunity.
His ten fingers flicked continuously, unleashing a torrent of sharp Jie Mai Finger Strength like a sudden storm. The attacks were faster and came from even more cunning angles.
PFFT! PFFT!
Chen Li had just cleared the previous acupoint and hadn’t yet fully restored the circulation of his qi and blood when his right arm’s Quchi, his chest’s Shanzhong, his back’s Hunmen...
in an instant, another seven or eight major Acupoints were struck by the Finger Strength.
This time, the Finger Strength attacks stacked, and their sealing power was even stronger.
Chen Li felt the circulation of his qi and blood suddenly become sluggish, as if invisible threads were wrapped around his meridians, making his Inner Qi difficult to move.
He had no choice but to divert his focus, mobilizing more Inner Qi to forcibly clear the blockages.
But Liu Gongchang pressed his advantage, pushing his Vein-Severing Soul-Breaking Finger to its absolute limit.
Finger-afterimages flickered as Qi Strength tore through the air, weaving an invisible net.
PFFT! PFFT! PFFT! PFFT...
In the space of a few breaths, more than twenty streams of Jie Mai Finger Strength had struck vital Acupoints all over Chen Li’s body.
Although each stream of Finger Strength was being rapidly dissolved by Chen Li’s potent Inner Qi,
new attacks landed before the old ones faded. The cumulative effect of the stacked layers temporarily pinned Chen Li in place.
The aura around him fluctuated noticeably. He was clearly using all his strength to fight against the countless streams of Finger Force sealing his Acupoints, unable to move freely for the moment.
"Heh..."
Seeing this, Liu Gongchang let out a short, soft chuckle, a look of clear satisfaction spreading across his face.
’So this is all a Void Transformation Grandmaster amounts to!’
"Who are you? Why have you made an enemy of my Liu Family? If you answer truthfully, perhaps I can spare you some physical suffering."
Liu Gongchang’s tone was level, but he didn’t dare let his guard down, his fingers continuing their relentless assault without pause.
Seeing their thousand households commander in control of the situation, the surrounding Jingwu Bureau Standard Bearers and Small Banners grew bolder. They closed in, drawing their blades and swords to form an encirclement, ready to capture him at the first opportunity.
"Speak! Confess, now!"
"How dare you remain silent when Lord Thousand Households is questioning you?"
"If you know what’s good for you, spit it out! Save yourself the pain!"
"State your name!"
A chorus of shouts erupted as the cold glint of steel blades surrounded Chen Li.
Seeing him remain silent, Liu Gongchang frowned. "This thousand households’ patience is limited. If you don’t start talking, today will be your last."
However, just as Liu Gongchang believed he had the situation completely under control,
Chen Li suddenly let out an extremely soft, cold sneer.
"You think you’re worthy?"
Before the words had even faded, the soybean-sized speck of Divine Sense within his Divine Hall Acupoint erupted with a brilliant light.
The next moment, that speck of Divine Sense expanded rapidly, instantly transforming into a majestic, seven-foot-tall spectral War Ape.
It stepped out from between Chen Li’s eyebrows, breaking free from the constraints of his physical body and becoming a streak of light barely visible to the naked eye.
Ignoring all physical distance, it shot toward the Ancestral Acupoint between Liu Gongchang’s eyebrows, aiming straight for his Divine Hall Acupoint.
"A Divine Sense Secret Skill?"
The look of satisfaction on Liu Gongchang’s face instantly froze.
He didn’t dare hesitate for a second. He knew his own feeble Power of the Divine Soul was no match for this condensed War Ape Divine Sense.
His survival instincts made him abandon all offense in an instant, and he turned to flee.
But in the instant he turned, the War Ape Divine Sense had already raised its Qiankun Ruyi Staff. It swung the staff in a simple arc, devoid of any earth-shattering momentum.
A vast and boundless pressure suddenly descended.
VMMMM!
A nearly inaudible vibration that nonetheless pierced straight to the soul seemed to ring through the air.
Ape Strike Skill.
A battle on the level of Divine Sense was far swifter than a physical fight.
Liu Gongchang let out a blood-curdling shriek.
His Divine Soul’s phantom image used its last ounce of strength, attempting to transform into a gray-black streak of light and escape his Divine Hall Acupoint.
But it was all in vain.
The Qiankun Ruyi Staff grew as it swung, its afterimage like an inescapable net cast across heaven and earth.
"BZZZT!"
A faint, strange sound, like shattering glass, echoed.
The fleeing Divine Soul phantom was struck by the Qiankun Ruyi Staff.
Like a shattered illusion, it broke apart inch by inch, dissolving into countless dim specks of light before being utterly annihilated.
Liu Gongchang, who had been turning to flee, suddenly stiffened. His rapid retreat came to an abrupt halt.
The light in his eyes receded like a tide, leaving them vacant and lifeless. The last expression on his face was one of terror.
Then, his body pitched forward stiffly, hitting the ground with a THUD. He was dead.
In a flash, both his body and Divine Soul were extinguished.
This shocking turn of events, which had happened in the blink of an eye, left the surrounding Jingwu Bureau officers completely stunned.
They had no idea what had just happened.
All they saw was Lord Thousand Households suddenly turn around, then collapse to the ground as if all his strength had vanished, dead.
One moment, they had the upper hand; the next, their commander had died a mysterious and violent death.
"Lord Thousand Households!"
"What happened?!"
"What... what kind of technique was that?!"
"Run!"
An immense terror instantly seized everyone.
It’s unclear who reacted first, but with a single shout, the remaining Standard Bearers and Small Banners scattered like frightened birds and beasts, fleeing madly in all directions without a second thought.
"Thinking of leaving? It’s a bit too late for that."
A cold voice rang out.
The aura around the immobilized Chen Li suddenly pulsed.
The Jie Mai Finger Strength was instantly washed away by a surge of immense Void Transformation Gang Qi.
His movements were instantly restored.
With an indifferent gaze, he took a single step, caught up to a fleeing Standard Bearer, and swung his Qiankun Ruyi Staff without obstruction.
At the same time, two ghostly figures shot out from the temple ruins. It was Shu Qi and Bai San.
Their expressions were cold as they intercepted several of the Jingwu Bureau Standard Bearers who were leading the retreat.
A one-sided slaughter began.
Wherever the shadow of Chen Li’s staff fell, a man went down.
Shu Qi and Bai San were also seasoned veterans, more than capable of handling these panicked men who had lost their will to fight.
A short while later, silence returned to the abandoned temple.
Other than Chen Li and his two men, there was no sign of life.
"Burn it all."
Chen Li searched Liu Gongchang’s body, finding only a few silver taels and nothing else. He gave the order calmly.
Soon, Bai San and Shu Qi arrived, driving two oxcarts.
They were loaded with dry firewood and a barrel of cooking oil.
The three of them quickly dragged all the corpses onto the firewood pile and doused them with the oil.
Chen Li took out a flint, lit a branch, and tossed it onto the pyre.
The flames instantly roared to life.
Watching the fire, Bai San licked his lips and asked tentatively, "Master, should we bait another wave of people?"
"No need."
Chen Li shook his head.
With so many officials dead, the Court would surely be enraged.
It would be far too dangerous to remain here.
After the fire died down, he had Shu Qi and Bai San crush all the remaining bones, put them in sacks, and throw them onto an oxcart.
"Let’s go back."
Chen Li hopped onto the oxcart, his figure melting into the night.
Bai San and Shu Qi exchanged a look, not daring to say another word, and quickly got into the other oxcart to follow.