Within the entire transaction hall, perhaps only Li Hong of the Yaowang Gang truly understood the nature of those few beams of golden, dazzling light. The people of the Nan family had demonstrated this technique before him; it was the defensive spell, the Vajra Shield. Once cast, even precious swords and sharp blades could not harm the three Celestial Masters in the slightest. However, their function was purely defensive. To kill the masters from the Nine Great Gangs present, they would need to rely on other sorceries.

Li Hong was exceptionally thrilled. If they could just hold out for a moment longer, the three Celestial Masters would unleash more powerful spells to wipe out the upper echelon of the Nine Great Gangs. He roared, "Hold the line firm! The dominance of my Yaowang Gang over the Pingzhou martial world hinges on this battle!"

Under the protective circle of over a dozen top experts from the Yaowang Gang, Nan Tianxiong, the Patriarch of the Nan family, swiftly formed a hand seal, raising his right index and middle fingers, and began channeling his full power into another offensive spell.

"Wind Blade Technique!"

The words were slowly uttered from Nan Tianxiong's mouth, a low, raspy sound that accompanied the spell incantation, giving rise to a monumental pressure of wind surging skyward, like a hurricane preceding a torrential storm, filling the entire hall with a gale.

The leaders of the Nine Great Gangs, witnessing the horrifying might unleashed by this spell, exchanged terrified glances, their hands gripping their blades and swords, freezing their steps forward.

Within the raging wind, faintly crimson wind blades began to bloom around Nan Tianxiong.

One wind blade, two wind blades, seven wind blades.

These incomparably sharp little wind blades, each merely the size of a small willow leaf and radiating a faint red glow, formed a ring of blades. They moved with incredible speed, circling within a foot of Nan Tianxiong's body, whistling as they spun in mid-air. The sheer presence of these bizarre wind blades was enough to make one's heart seize with dread.

To conjure more wind blades at once, forming a formation for mass slaughter, Nan Tianxiong desperately drew upon the mystic energy within his body. By the time he released the seventh wind blade, his face was flushed a mottled purple-red, his body trembling, swaying as if ready to collapse.

He had practiced the Wind Blade Technique for forty or fifty years just to be able to control seven such blades simultaneously.

His mystic energy extraction had reached its limit. If he didn't release them immediately, he feared he would lose control of all seven wind blades.

"Go!"

Nan Tianxiong shouted, pointing with his right hand. The seven wind blades, as if possessing sentience, shot furiously toward the direction of the crowd he indicated.

Shhhk!

Shhhk!

Shhhk!

The small formation of seven wind blades swept through the fighting crowd in the hall like a sudden gale, carving a bloody path. Anyone in the path of the wind blades, whether a top master or an unparalleled expert, whether chairs and draperies, or precious swords and sharp blades, was sliced apart by the keen edges as easily as if they were brittle paper.

"Big Brother, watch out!"

Xiao Qiu, the unparalleled martial arts fanatic whose usual demeanor was simple and dull, suddenly displayed a terrifying light in his eyes upon seeing the wind blades shoot towards his elder brother, Xiao Xia, the leader of the Dongyang Salt Gang.

He let out a deafening, explosive roar that made the hall vibrate, his internal qi expanding until his body bulged, transforming into a sudden gust of wind as he moved to stand in front of Xiao Xia. He swung the heavy, two-hundred-and-fifty-jin iron-black cudgel gleaming with metallic luster in his hand, the entire man resembling a colossal, enraged Vajra as he brought the weapon down upon the wind blades.

CRACK!

The ten-foot-long iron-black cudgel met three of the wind blades, and as if cutting tofu, it was severed into several pieces by the blades.

Then followed several shhhk sounds, stirring up a spray of blood!

Xiao Qiu, the martial arts fanatic, stumbled and dropped to one knee, staring blankly at the broken pieces of his iron-black cudgel in his hands.

Xiao Qiu's heart was twisted with agony. He remembered practicing his supreme skill in his youth, when he had used this very iron cudgel to smash a ten-thousand-jin boulder into completely pulverized dust. In his young adulthood, he had used this cudgel to defeat hundreds, even thousands, of famous martial arts masters in Pingzhou, striking terror into all who heard of him. In his prime, he had swept through the Dongyang Salt Gang, securing his brother's seat as the Gang Leader. In Pingzhou, there was nothing his iron-black cudgel could not smash.

Xiao Qiu felt a deep, piercing pain.

He looked down at his chest, where several cuts appeared—remarkably smooth and neat openings that pierced through his ribs from the front to his back. Blood was gushing out profusely, pooling on the floor.

Xiao Qiu felt a degree of confusion. His protective true qi could usually deflect even steel blades; how could he be bleeding? He tried to cover the wounds with his large palms, but the blood could not be stemmed no matter how hard he tried. His eyelids grew heavy, feeling as though pressed down by a thousand-jin stone. He knelt straight down in the pool of blood and lost consciousness.

Xiao Xia, the leader of the Dongyang Salt Gang, also stood behind Xiao Qiu, his gaze vacant. Several wind blades had pierced through him simultaneously; he was beyond saving. His younger brother, this time, had not managed to shield him from the descent of death as he had done for decades.

Of the dozens of experts from the major gangs engaged in fierce battle in the hall, at least half were struck by the furious sweep of the seven wind blades, falling to the ground screaming—those lightly injured, or those dead on the spot.

Every single person struck by a wind blade bled profusely. They painfully fumbled for medicine bottles to stop the flow, but even the highest quality styptic medicine proved useless. The damage inflicted by spells was immune to worldly remedies.

The wind blades spun through the hall for a full two circuits, piercing the hundred or so people inside back and forth twice in the blink of an eye, before gradually dissipating.

Having unleashed the small Wind Blade Formation, Nan Tianxiong's mystic energy was completely depleted. He collapsed onto the ground with a thud, his face ghastly pale, even the protective Vajra Shield showing signs of instability, threatening to dissolve at any moment.

He hastily used his trembling hands to retrieve a pill vial from his robes, took out a pill, put it in his mouth, crushed it, and swallowed it down. He then pulled out a spirit stone and gripped it tightly, drawing upon its mystic energy to replenish what he had expended. Activating the Wind Blade Technique at his second level of the Qi Condensation stage had cost him immensely. He knew it would likely take a full day to recover completely.

The situation in the hall had drastically reversed. The surviving leaders of the major gangs were paralyzed with horror, and a deathly silence descended. The Ten Great Gangs, which had held an absolute advantage in numbers, had been nearly annihilated by Nan Tianxiong's small Wind Blade Formation.

Six of the ten Gang Leaders had been directly sliced apart by the wind blades. Even Xiao Qiu, the martial arts fanatic of unparalleled skill, could not withstand the cutting force of Patriarch Nan Tianxiong’s wind blades and died instantly. Of the top experts, elders, hall masters, and venerated figures from the major gangs, at least half were dead, and most of the survivors were nursing serious injuries. Very few were untouched.

This was the most brutal massacre inflicted upon the upper echelons of the Ten Great Gangs of Pingzhou in hundreds of years.

The hearts of the leaders of the Ten Great Gangs were splitting with grief; the sorceries of the Nan Celestial Masters were too terrifying—they simply could not be overcome by sheer numbers. And this was only the action of one elder Celestial Master; the two younger Celestial Masters had not yet acted.

"Go!"

Tie Yuyang felt a chill of dread. Seeing the situation reverse so swiftly, he knew the cause was lost. He gritted his teeth, pressed a dripping wound on his left arm, and yelled toward an elder of the Huoyun Gang beside him. He smashed through a window and fled down the street to escape.

The surviving high-ranking members of the gangs dared not remain in the tavern surrounded by the corpses of their leaders. They followed suit, breaking through the doors and windows of the third floor of the Yongfu Tavern, landing on the county town streets, and escaping under the cover of night, planning to reunite with their respective forces before making new plans.