The air in Blackstone’s market grew thick, charged with a tension that pressed against every chest.
Liam stood in the center of the street, Silverleaf loosely in hand, its edge faintly shimring in the sunlight.
He looked as if he had simply strolled into the square by accident. But around him, the crowd had already scattered, retreating into alleys and behind shuttered stalls.
And in front of him stood Fang Cheng, the one called Blackstone’s Iron Spear, commander of the City Lord’s elite guard. The armored n flanking him were no ordinary guards and their presence alone had turned the marketplace into a suffocating cage.
But before Fang Cheng gave the order, another presence cut through the air.
From the far side of the street, a new squad arrived, moving in tight formation. Their attire was markedly different — darker robes reinforced with fine mail, embroidered with the mark of a roaring serpent. At their head walked a man with eyes filled with raging hatred.
His steps were unhurried, yet each one rang in the ears of the onlookers like a tolling bell. His expression was cold and unreadable, but his low voice sounded like thunder when he spoke:
"You... are the one who killed my sons?"
This was Xuan Zhi, patriarch of the Xuan family, one of the strongest clans in Blackstone. And the corpses of his sons still lay in his estate, throats pierced by steel.
Liam’s expression remained calm. His eyes were sharp, but his voice was almost casual as he replied, "Yes."
The single word fell like a blade into silence.
Xuan Zhi’s face contorted, veins standing out on his temple as his aura burst outward. The sheer force of it sent dust and pebbles skittering across the street.
The pressure was suffocating, like a mountain descending upon all in range. Even his own n staggered back, their knees buckling under the invisible weight.
The elite guards Fang Cheng had brought with him grunted, armor groaning under the pressure.
But Liam stood as if nothing had changed, his shirt barely fluttering under the storm.
Fang Cheng stepped forward, his voice steady as he cut through the oppressive aura. "Patriarch, enough. Do not crush your own n before the fight even begins."
With a flick of his hand, Fang Cheng extended his own aura outward, a firm wall that pressed against Xuan Zhi’s. The pressure lifted slightly from the elites and guards, enough for them to breathe again.
Xuan Zhi’s chest heaved with fury, but after a long mont he exhaled harshly, retracting part of his pressure. He turned to Fang Cheng, who clasped a hand on his shoulder.
"Calm yourself," Fang Cheng said in a low voice. "He will pay. Not just with his body, but with the truth of his existence and origin. We will tear him apart until we find out how he was able to kill the young masters as a mortal. And if he’s a demonic cultivator as he already presu, a fate worse than death awaits him."
Xuan Zhi’s jaw clenched, but he nodded. But the coldness in his eyes didn’t fade.
He turned to his n and gestured with two fingers. "Surround him. Break every bone in his body, but keep him alive. I will see him scream before the day ends."
The order was clear. His n, hardened warriors, surged forward, spreading in a half-circle to encircle Liam.
From the alleys, whispers grew frantic.
"Twenty against one!"
"He’s finished. If it was , I would had found a way to escape from the city instead of casually walking around."
"Shh! Don’t let them hear you!"
But Liam heard what they were saying clearly. He even smiled faintly, a humorless smile. He glanced at the encirclent forming around him and chuckled softly under his breath.
"So much honor," he said, his voice filled with ease. "To treat a mortal like with such seriousness. Surrounded on all sides... I’m honored."
His words stung, as so of the elites sneered and others grit their teeth. Fang Cheng’s eyes narrowed, reading the mockery in Liam’s calmness.
"Enough," Fang Cheng barked, with a sharp voice, as he raised his hand. "Attack!"
The order cracked like a whip. More than twenty n roared as one and charged at Liam, their weapons flashing like a storm of steel and their coordinated movents forming a cage of blades converging from all sides.
But Liam didn’t move. His eyes sharpened, and his telekinetic field expanded outward like a net cast across the battlefield. Every detail flooded his mind — the scrape of boots, the arc of blades. He could also sense the rhythm of heartbeats. It was all mapped perfectly within twenty ters around him.
He waited and just as the first spear thrust in, Liam moved. Silverleaf whistled down, cutting clean through the shaft and into its wielder. Blood sprayed as the man collapsed, his scream cut short.
And then chaos erupted.
Liam spun, using his telekinesis to snap three swords off course mid-swing. His blade arced through the gap, slicing into the shoulder of one man and cleaving down to the ribs of another. Both collapsed, their blood staining the stones.
A halberd whistled for his head. Liam ducked low, his free hand lashing out. Invisible force surged, wrenching the weapon from its owner’s grip and driving it backward into the man’s chest. The body fell with a wet thud.
The formation collapsed almost instantly.
To the crowd, it was like watching a storm rip through wheat. Steel clashed, screams split the air, and blood sprayed in violent arcs. But Liam moved with terrifying calmness, as he flowed through them like water through cracks.
Another spear lunged at him and he sidestepped, slashed upward, and the man’s arm fell, severed at the elbow.
Two sabers ca in from both sides. His telekinesis yanked one attacker forward into the other, their blades sinking into each other’s flesh before they could even scream.
Within seconds, the street was a cacophony of steel, screams, and the sickening sound of tal tearing through flesh.
"Impossible!" one guard shouted, terror creeping into his voice as he swung wildly.
Liam caught his wrist mid-swing with invisible force. The man froze, his body trembling violently as Liam slowly rotated his arm until bones snapped like dry twigs. The man shrieked before Silverleaf ended him.
Bodies piled up the street and the cobblestones had turned slick with blood. And through out all these, Liam didn’t sustain a scratch.
He stood in the center of the carnage, with calm breath, his sharp eyes staring at the last man standing, as blood dripped down his blade.
The last man standing looked around in horror at the carnage of his comrades. His knees buckled, and his sword clattered from his trembling hand. But before he could beg for rcy, a shard of broken steel — guided by invisible force — drove clean through his throat, and he dropped to the ground.
Silence filled the marketplace as the entire squad lay dead, their corpses sprawled in mangled heaps around him.
The crowd stared in frozen awe, unable to comprehend what they had just witnessed.
Xuan Zhi’s face had turned ashen, his lips trembling with rage and disbelief. His sons’ killer had just slaughtered more than two dozen elite n as if they were nothing.
Even Fang Cheng’s composure cracked. His brow furrowed, as he clenched his jaw. He couldn’t believe it. This person in front of him really took down more than twenty n that were at least in the late stage Qi Refining to early stage Foundation Establishnt.
Just how did he do it? And he still doesn’t look tired. It was even more bizarre that the person in front of him has no shred of cultivation. Even if he was a hidden expert, it was impossible for him to not reveal even a hint of his cultivation, no matter how perfect his control over it was.
Liam had no idea what was going through their minds, but he could guess. He looked at the two n calmly and his voice cut through the silence like a knife, as he spoke, "Is that all?"
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