"Hong Yu, long ti no see!"
A faint, placid smile was on Hong Hu's face.
But within his narrowed eyes, a cold, icy glint flickered.
Hong Hu had arrived nearby much earlier, secretly observing Hong Yu's lone battle against the seven great prodigies for quite so ti. His opinion had shifted from an internal 'He's nothing special' when Hong Yu decisively killed Chen Hao, to a growing unease as he killed two more and struck down Lin Tao. It culminated when Hong Yu, by his own power, crippled the Half-Step Earth Soul Realm Lin Tao and forced Wang ng to flee in disgrace.
To say Hong Hu's heart was rely 'unsettled' would be a gross understatent.
This was shock.
Utter and complete shock.
With Hong Hu's strength, he could kill not just two, but even five or six cultivators at the Half-Step Earth Soul Realm. But the problem was, how old was Hong Yu? And what was his cultivation realm?
Hong Yu, with his cultivation at the Late Ninth Layer of the Essence Realm, had managed to slay five great prodigies and cripple the Half-Step Earth Soul Realm Lin Tao with a single strike.
This terrifying ability to fight across realms left Hong Hu, who himself enjoyed the reputation of a celestial prodigy, deeply shaken.
Hong Hu clearly rembered that when he was at Hong Yu's cultivation realm, the best he could do was defeat a powerhouse at the Peak of the Ninth Level. As for a cultivator at the Half-Step Earth Soul Realm, while he could contend with one for a short while, he was by no ans their match, let alone capable of crippling them.
Beyond the shock, what Hong Hu felt more keenly was anger and jealousy.
'I'm supposed to be the strongest Celestial Pride Son after the Four Kings! What right does a re mber of a branch family have to be stronger than ?'
Hong Hu's fists clenched unconsciously, the killing intent in his heart growing stronger bit by bit.
"Hong Hu? We et again, don't we?"
Hong Yu let out a soft breath, offering a perfunctory greeting.
His gaze, however, swept over the two people beside Hong Hu. To the left was a graceful figure in a black cloak—the very sa mysterious woman who had caught Hong Yu's particular attention at arena number eight. To Hong Hu's right stood a middle-aged man in black robes. His face was emotionless, but his eyes, fixed on Hong Yu, churned with a bloodthirsty light.
Under the middle-aged man's stare, Hong Yu felt a chill run through him, as if he had been plunged into an ice cellar.
'This guy is radiating a heavy Evil Qi,' Hong Yu thought, his brow furrowing. 'And the richness of his vitality and blood far surpasses that of Wang ng and Lin Tao. It seems he, like Hong Hu, is a powerhouse in the Earth Soul Realm. Didn't the rules of this martial gathering forbid powerhouses from the various families from entering the Abyssal Mountain Range? Who is this Earth Soul Realm expert? Why is he here, and why is he with Hong Hu?'
Looking at the middle-aged man in black, Hong Yu felt a faint sense of unease.
The middle-aged man seed to notice Hong Yu's gaze. He grinned, revealing a set of yellowed teeth. His sinister voice was grating. "Hello there, my dear Ninth Young Master!"
"Hm?"
Hong Yu was abruptly startled.
The matter of him becoming the Ninth Young Master was, for now, a rumor circulating within the Hong Family. Under the Third Elder's control, not many outsiders knew about it. For this person to expose his identity so directly, he must also be from the Hong Family.
As the number one family in Shishui City, the Hong Family was also responsible for upholding the rules of the Cyan Nether Sword Sect's martial gathering. They were ant to lead by example and also had a duty to police the event. If they discovered a powerhouse from another family had entered the mountain range and compromised the fairness of the competition, that family would face punishnt from the Cyan Nether Sword Sect.
Hong Yu's thoughts raced, and his expression changed slightly. He had already thought of a certain possibility...
Hong Tiande!
Only Hong Tiande, who was in charge of this martial gathering, could have secretly sent an Earth Soul Realm powerhouse into the Abyssal Mountain Range. And he wouldn't have gone to such lengths just to help Hong Hu win first place. After all, Hong Hu was already the strongest competitor in the gathering; such an act would be completely unnecessary.
In that case, the middle-aged man's purpose for entering the Abyssal Mountain Range was obvious: to target one of the Ten Great Celestial Prodigies.
Hong Yu quickly ruled out the others. If any of the other prodigies were to die, their families, even if they didn't dare to seek retribution openly, would certainly investigate secretly and discover that another Earth Soul Realm powerhouse had entered the mountains. There was only one person whose death would absolutely not be investigated by their family.
That person...
...was himself!
"Oh my, it seems our Ninth Young Master has already figured a few things out, has he?" The middle-aged man seed to be a master of reading people, looking at Hong Yu with a half-smile. "Tsk, tsk. To be able to cripple a Half-Step Earth Soul Realm cultivator with just a cultivation at the Late Ninth Layer of the Essence Realm... your talent is truly enviable!"
"Who are you?"
Hong Yu asked in a low voice, his nerves stretched taut.
"Allow to introduce myself. My na is Hong Qi, the Seventh Elder's chief Assassin!" Hong Qi said coldly, his eyes narrowed as he licked his lips with a scarlet tongue.
"An Assassin?"
Hong Yu's expression shifted.
He had heard that every Elder-level powerhouse in the Hong Family had a Death Warrior who was trained from childhood. These Death Warriors were fearless, their thods brutal and terrifying. Devoid of humanity, they obeyed only their master's commands. Whenever an Assassin struck, their target had absolutely no chance of survival.
Hong Yu frowned. "Hong Tiande sent you to kill ?"
"Heh heh, of course I'm here to kill you. What, you think I ca to protect you?" Hong Qi took out a pair of specialized gauntlets forged from a strange, silvery tal and put them on. He flexed his hands, creating a tallic SCRAPE. He walked toward Hong Yu with a savage grin. "My master already knows you're the one who murdered Young Master Luan. He sent to send you off to the next world, to comfort Young Master Luan's spirit in heaven!"
"Hong Tiande is a Law Enforcer for this gathering, yet he dared to send you in here! That's knowingly breaking the law! Isn't he afraid of punishnt from the Cyan Nether Sword Sect?" Hong Yu shouted sharply.
Hong Qi sneered disdainfully. "Punishnt from the Cyan Nether Sword Sect? The only people who've seen are you and Lin Tao. As long as I kill you both, who's going to know I was ever here?"
"And you're so sure you can kill ?" Hong Yu narrowed his eyes.
Hong Qi burst into laughter. "Hahaha! It seems that last battle has inflated your confidence to the point of ignorance. Do you have any idea how vast the gap is between the Half-Step Earth Soul Realm and the true Earth Soul Realm?" After a pause, Hong Qi flicked his finger, and a trace of fiery red Elental Power shot from his gauntlet, landing on the ground nearby.
With a SIZZLE, a puff of green smoke rose, and a patch of grass over ten square ters was corroded into black mud.
"See that? This is the might of the Power of Primordial Spirit, far superior to the crude thods of the Half-Step Earth Soul Realm that rely on borrowing Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi." Hong Qi clicked his teeth, making a grating sound. "Alright, that's enough talk. Next, I'll let you savor the taste of death!"
BOOM!
Hong Qi shot forward, his fists wreathed in fiery red Elental Power.
The mont the Power of Primordial Spirit appeared, the surrounding air seed to stagnate, and a heavy Evil Qi filled the forest. Death Warriors were fearless because they had been familiar with death since they were children. Hong Qi, for example, had been selected by Hong Tiande only after he survived by killing all the other children in a group of over one hundred orphans.
The Evil Qi emanating from his body was unbelievably intense.
His blood-red fists, carrying a strong corrosive property, reached Hong Yu in the blink of an eye.
"My Primordial Spirit has the Corrosive Attribute! Even the Power of Primordial Spirit from another Earth Soul Realm powerhouse would be corroded by mine. Die, kid!" Hong Qi laughed savagely.
Gazing at the blood-red Power of Primordial Spirit, Hong Yu glanced at the large patch of corroded black mud on the ground, his expression exceptionally grave.
But he did not hesitate!
He swung the Long Spear in his hands, creating a Spear Shadow Treasure Wheel to protect himself. BANG! BANG! The sounds erupted as Hong Qi's gauntlets collided with Hong Yu's Long Spear, sending out dazzling sparks. Hong Yu used all his strength for every block, but Hong Qi seed completely at ease, even leisurely.
"No wonder you could defeat a Half-Step Earth Soul Realm cultivator. You've got so skills after all. Heh heh heh, I'm done playing with you. Ti to die!"
Hong Qi's movents paused for an instant before he struck again.
"Blood Cloud Palm!"
The blood-red Power of Primordial Spirit instantly swelled.
The red Power of Primordial Spirit, which had rely been wreathing his specialized gauntlets, expanded threefold in an instant. The fiery red Power of Primordial Spirit moved like a liquid, slowly shifting and changing shape. In the blink of an eye, two cotton-like clouds of blood appeared on his fists as he struck toward Hong Yu.
The Power of Primordial Spirit flowed over the blood clouds. With every pulse, the surrounding air grew stagnant, feeling almost viscous.
Watching the soft, fluffy-looking blood clouds approach, Hong Yu's heart pounded in his chest. He sensed a fatal threat from these two clouds. Hong Qi's experience in killing was imnse; he had already calculated all of Hong Yu's escape routes, forcing him to et this attack head-on!
"Enchantress, do you see?" said the spectating Hong Hu, crossing his arms and sneering. "No matter how much of a genius he is, daring to oppose is a death sentence."
From beneath the cloak ca Enchantress's hoarse voice. "Master is wise and mighty, with unparalleled talent. Hong Qi's Blood Cloud Palm is a Top-Level Martial Skill that has reached the Realm of Perfection. Hong Yu will surely be defeated!"
"Hahaha, I just love the way you talk!"
Hong Hu laughed without restraint.
This was the feeling he loved most: personally witnessing the indignation and final, desperate struggles of a falling Celestial Pride Son.
'So this is the true power of an Earth Soul Realm powerhouse? Such formidable Power of Primordial Spirit... '
'Strength... I still lack absolute strength. I must break through to the Earth Soul Realm as soon as possible and open the First Layer of the Profound Celestial Tower. Little One once said that opening the First Layer would grant a transformative reward, one that would let leap over the Dragon Sect...'
'But right now, the most important thing is to resolve this crisis. It seems I have no choice but to use that move!'
Hong Yu's mind raced.
His gaze sharpened. He took a deep breath of the foul, tallic air, his brow shot up, and he let out a roar like a clap of thunder. "You're not worthy of taking my life!"
The explosive shout bood like rolling thunder through the mountain forest, startling a flock of birds in the distance.
Hong Yu moved his legs in a strange footwork pattern, stepping like the Seven-Star constellation. As smooth as flowing water, he bent his arm, holding the spear with one hand. The Long Spear slid back along his arm. Hong Yu gritted his teeth and bit the tip of his tongue, the sharp pain forcing his nerves into a state of heightened focus. The Profound Skill within him spun madly to its absolute limit, and one-third of the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi that had been brewing in his Lower Dantian was instantly drained.
"Break... Annihilation!"
The fiery red Long Spear and the two blood clouds t in mid-air.
In that instant, everyone's nerves tensed. Even Hong Hu, who had been laughing wildly just monts before, held his breath, his eyes fixed on the confrontation. After this move, the winner and loser of this battle would be decided. How could he not pay close attention?
The two terrifyingly powerful moves clashed like a needle's point against a razor's edge.
BOOM!
A deafening roar unleashed a massive wave of energy, sweeping out and blowing away everything on the ground within a hundred-zhang radius. The powerful shockwave sent the few corpses and the heavily injured Lin Tao flying far away, tumbling a good seventy or eighty ters.
Sand flew and stones rolled as a cloud of dust filled the sky, obscuring the two combatants.
"Who? Who won?"
"The one who died has to be Hong Yu!"
Hong Hu clenched his fists tightly, his eyes glued to the thick dust cloud, not daring to blink.
"AARGH!"
A pained cry suddenly ca from within the dust cloud. As Hong Hu stared, an utterly wretched figure was sent flying backward out of the haze. Hong Hu's eyes went wide, and he felt it suddenly beco difficult to breathe...
"Who is it?"
PS: Fulfilling my promise, there will be three updates today! This is the first one!
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