Chapter 44 - Three Blades
Wolf Fang had encountered countless experts throughout the years, but this was the first time he ran into such a tough opponent. Liu Wuxie could detect the flaws in each of his attacks and neutralize them. The longer he fought with Liu Wuxie, the more frightened he became. When he swept out the spiked club in his hand, the powerful momentum behind his attack caused air to vibrate, producing a thunderous sound.
“First move—Heavenly Blood Purgatory!” Liu Wuxie swung his blade down, throwing the surroundings into an ocean of blade aura that formed into a massive blood prison, trapping Wolf Fang in it with no way out.
Liu Wuxie’s first attack left everyone stunned, their eyes wide and their jaws hanging open in shock.
Wolf Fang darted back and forth, desperately trying to find a way out of the prison, but to no avail. Instead, the blade aura tore apart his defenses, leaving behind wounds on his body. It didn’t take long for him to be covered in blood, which made Tian Qihong’s face uglier.
“Absolute Annihilation!” Wolf Fang swung his spiked club with all his might, the muscles in his arm bulging as he summoned even more strength. He must have been using a martial technique that temporarily enhanced his physical abilities, though it likely came with a significant drawback.
As both sides drew closer, Liu Wuxie’s right eye changed, and he could even see the airflow clearly. He was invincible right from the start with Ghost Eye.
When Liu Wuxie’s blade clashed with the spiked club, sparks flew around, forming a shockwave. The shockwave was so powerful that those with low cultivation were sent flying away.
Wolf Fang staggered backwards, struggling to keep his footing. He took over a dozen steps back, each one leaving a deep imprint in the ground.
Liu Wuxie, on the other hand, landed lightly on his feet, as graceful as a dragonfly skimming across the surface of a lake. Those watching could clearly tell who had the upper hand in the fight.
“This is impossible!” Tian Qihong exclaimed. He couldn’t accept that Liu Wuxie and Wolf Fang were evenly matched. He thought that Wolf Fang was going easy on Liu Wuxie.
“Wolf Fang, our two clans paid you 1,000,000 gold coins. If you dare to hold back, do you really think our clans won’t wipe out your entire mercenary group?!” Wan Yiyun stepped forward, speaking on behalf of the Wan Clan. They couldn’t afford to fail in this mission. Wan Zhuoran, who Liu Wuxie had slapped, was his grandson. That was why he had personally joined the raid to seize the Xu Clan’s Iris Gold Mine.
Wolf Fang’s face was terrifyingly gloomy after being questioned. But he couldn’t possibly tell them that Liu Wuxie was like a beast, and he wasn’t as simple as he looked.
“If you two dare to say another word, I’ll slaughter your two clans first!” Wolf Fang bared his fangs. He had enough of those two. How could he possibly accept being commanded by two cultivators in the Xiantian Realm when he was in the Spirit Cleansing Realm?
Wan Yiyun immediately shut his mouth, not daring to utter another word. If Wolf Fang betrayed them at this moment, it would be disastrous to their two clans.
“We will keep quiet, but you must show results since you’ve accepted our money. Kill that brat quickly! We’re racing against time and can’t afford any accidents.” Tian Qihong demanded, his only concern being the swift elimination of Liu Wuxie and Xu Yishan.
“Wolf Fang, are you starting to regret your decision?” Liu Wuxie sneered, raising his blade once more. This time, the aura he exuded was even stronger than before. He had declared that he would kill Wolf Fang within three moves, and one move had already been made.
Wolf Fang responded with a snort, but his expression betrayed his true feelings. He couldn’t afford to fail, or he would be finished. He swung his spiked club at Liu Wuxie’s legs, the trajectory of his attack deceptively tricky. As someone who often walked the line between life and death, he had developed a technique focused on killing. Each swing of his club caused the air around him to vibrate and produced a thunderous rumble.
“Is this still the young master we know? Isn’t he a little too strong?” The Xu Clan’s guards’ attitude against Liu Wuxie changed. After all, no one here could receive an attack from Wolf Fang head-on, including Xu Yishan.
“What happened in Azure Billow City in the past few months? Why do the Wan and Tian Clans want to destroy our Xu Clan?” The Xu Clan’s guards began to whisper among themselves, trying to piece together the events that had led up to this moment.
As wind and dust blew, Wolf Fang brought out his strongest attack. He was enveloped in a light golden energy, and he released a roar like a beast.
“Oh no! That’s Wolf Transformation!” Deacon Hu exclaimed. As Wolf Fang grew up with wolves since he was a child, he came to possess the abilities of wolves. If he awakened his bloodline and underwent Wolf Transformation, his strength would experience a huge boost, and he could resort to some means of the wolf clan.
After undergoing Wolf Transformation, Wolf Fang was in his strongest state, with sharp fangs protruding from his mouth. He was also covered in golden fur that belonged to alpha wolves.
Liu Wuxie frowned at this scene. Wolf Fang’s strength had doubled after undergoing Wolf Transformation, and his strength was now comparable to the seventh level of the Spirit Cleansing Realm. Even if Liu Wuxie could use Ghost Eye to slow things down, winning was impossible unless he could reach the fifth level of the Xiantian Realm. The true essence in his dantian had multiplied by ten-odd fold, and the purity of his true essence wasn’t any weaker than cultivators in the Spirit Cleansing Realm. But there was still some gap, even if his true essence was comparable.
For example, the true essence in Xiantian Realm was like water, while the true essence in Spirit Cleansing Realm could be comparable to rocks. What Liu Wuxie did was no different from using water to fight rocks.
As Liu Wuxie raised his blade to the sky, a powerful aura swept out, causing his clothes to flutter violently under the wind. As his true essence radiated from his body, everyone held their breath, not daring to even blink for fear of missing something.
“It’s time to end this, Momentous Gleam!” Liu Wuxie’s second attack was a fusion of the Blood Gleam Blade Art’s seven forms. This attack was nearly impossible to defend against, unless someone in the Marrow Cleansing Realm were to use their strength to forcibly break it head-on. After all, even Xu Yilin had fallen to this attack in the Xu Clan’s residence.
Without warning, Liu Wuxie vanished, causing Wolf Fang’s attack to miss its mark. When Wolf Fang’s club struck the ground, it produced a thunderous rumble and sent cracks spreading outwards, leaving a crater one meter deep.
This was because Liu Wuxie had pushed his speed to the limit and could no longer be tracked with the naked eye. His blurred footsteps made Wolf Fang dizzy and gradually lose his rationale. This was the biggest drawback in Wolf Transformation; Wolf Fang’s rationale had assimilated along with Wolf Transformation.
Liu Wuxie had used Ghost Eye but didn’t dare to use it at full power, for fear of exhausting all his soul energy. After all, there was still a tough battle after dealing with Wolf Fang. Even if he didn’t use Ghost Eye at full force, Wolf Fang had become transparent, and Liu Wuxie could see every single one of Wolf Fang’s cells. After all, Ghost Eye was known as the strongest eye technique in the Celestial Realm.
The blade drew an unusual trajectory in the air, and no one could figure out how Liu Wuxie managed to do it. The blade brushed past Wolf Fang’s arm, causing blood to splash as the spiked club flew away, crashing into a nearby house.
“Third move!” Liu Wuxie had crippled one of Wolf Fang’s arms in his second move, equivalent to removing Wolf Fang’s claws. His third move followed right behind, not allowing Wolf Fang to catch his breath.
Just like that, everyone watched as Liu Wuxie’s blade swiped across Wolf Fang’s neck. The attack seemed to leave no mark, appearing to be nothing more than an ordinary strike.
As Liu Wuxie and Wolf Fang passed each other, it looked as if they had simply switched places and nothing had happened. Three moves had passed, and everyone waited with bated breath to see who had emerged victorious.
Then, blood began to trickle down from Wolf Fang’s neck, the sound of the droplets hitting the ground echoing through the night.
“Your blade is fast!” Wolf Fang said, his voice tinged with pain as he emerged from his Wolf Transformation. His instincts had warned him that this raid would be dangerous. He had considered countless possibilities, including the possibility of being ambushed by Xu Yilin. But he had never imagined that he would meet his end at the hands of a young man considered to be nothing more than trash in Azure Billow City.
“It’s not that I’m fast, it’s that you’re slow,” Liu Wuxie said with a harmless smile on his face. But to those watching, his smile seemed like that of a demon, causing them to tremble involuntarily.
Wolf Fang’s body began to fall. This time, Liu Wuxie didn’t extract Wolf Fang’s essence, not wanting to draw too much attention to himself and risk rumors spreading about him being a monster. As for those who had witnessed his actions back in Phoenix Roost Gorge, he had already issued a gag order to keep them quiet.
“Wolf Fang is dead?” Wan Yiyun muttered, and he couldn’t accept this outcome. After all, Wolf Fang was in the fifth-level Spirit Cleansing Realm and one of the top ten experts in Azure Billow City.
Tian Qihong, on the other hand, was visibly afraid. He pointed at Liu Wuxie but couldn’t seem to find the words to speak.
“W-Who the hell are you?!” Tian Qihong stuttered, and he couldn’t conceal the fear in his heart. The Tian and Wan Clan’s disciples also looked at Liu Wuxie as if they were looking at a monster.
This included the Xu Clan’s guards, whose emotions had undergone ups and downs. The guards who mocked Liu Wuxie earlier could feel an invisible slap on their faces.
Xu Yishan was also stunned. He didn’t know what to do now and even forgot that the enemies were still in front of them.
“Someone who’ll take your lives. Are you satisfied with this answer?” Liu Wuxie sneered at the fact that they still had the mood to wonder who he was. He immediately disappeared because the other party was stronger than the Xu Clan in overall strength, so he had to kill as many people as possible to reduce the casualties of the Xu clan.
He wouldn’t bat an eye if the Xu Clan’s guards who mocked him died, but the Xu Clan would have to pay a huge sum to their families. So it would be a great blow to the Xu Clan’s finances if there were too many casualties, and the loyalty of these guards would also decrease after this incident.
Liu Wuxie was like a wolf among sheep, mercilessly slaughtering the disciples of the Wan and Tian Clans. They were still in shock from Wolf Fang’s death and had gathered together, making them easy targets for Liu Wuxie as he charged into their midst before they could scatter.
Blood began to spray as ten-odd heads flew. The blood dyed Liu Wuxie’s clothes red, and he charged back and forth, leaving behind a pile of corpses on the ground.
“Quick, run for your lives!” Wan Yiyun was the first to come to his senses and ordered everyone to escape. Liu Wuxie was too terrifying, and Liu Wuxie could butcher them all by himself. Even if Wan Yiyun was in the pinnacle Xiantian Realm, he was sent flying away by Liu Wuxie’s attack.
“Fire!” Deacon Hu has been waiting for this opportunity. He and fifty guards had taken up positions at the exit, giving them the advantage of higher ground.
As arrows rained down from above, the number of corpses on the ground grew. The disciples of the two clans were cut down before they could even take a few steps.
“Bastard, I’ll kill you!” Tian Qihong charged towards Liu Wuxie, determined to take him down with him. He grabbed hold of Liu Wuxie and shouted, “Everyone run! I’ll hold him off!”
“Where do you guys think you are going?!” Xu Yishan charged into the crowd with his sword drawn, adding to the growing pile of bodies on the ground. The enemy’s morale was shattered by fear, and they were unable to put up any resistance.