But what terrified him most was the gradual dissipation of his own Xuan Qi; his Dantian was in utter chaos. Forget having time to fight back—even if he did, with his current power level, he stood no chance against the opponent.
The enemy’s speed was simply too fast! Moreover, he was overwhelmed by panic.
Xuan Qi was his only reliance. But now, that sole reliance had vanished! He had even forgotten to circulate his energy to protect his body, simply absorbing the brutal blows passively!
Bang! The man in red recoiled from a strike, but before he could even cry out, another heavy blow landed squarely on the back of his head! He stumbled two steps forward, only to find his enemy already waiting there. Instantly, a storm of countless punches and kicks rained down upon him.
This person’s speed was utterly spectral. The man in red felt every single part of his body being assaulted simultaneously. And every impact struck a spot capable of instant death!
This individual’s understanding of the human body was frighteningly intuitive! It seemed random, yet every strike targeted the most agonizing pressure points—the very places a martial artist most dreaded being hit!
The man in red’s consciousness was blurring. The only thought echoing in his mind was: This person understands the art of killing even better than members of my Blood Sword Hall. Who is this person?!
The other two Heavenly Profound assassins watched the sudden shift in battle with horror. They angrily moved to render aid, but the moment they tried to summon their Xuan Qi, they discovered the tragic truth: more than half of their internal power had vanished without them noticing. Realizing they had been afflicted by some inexplicable, potent poison, panic seized them. They could no longer afford to rescue their companion and instead desperately tried to circulate the residual Xuan Qi within their bodies, hoping to force the poison out and restore their fighting strength. But the more urgently they pushed their techniques, the faster the remaining Xuan Qi dissipated. How could they not be terrified?
In that moment of nameless dread, numerous figures lurking in the surrounding darkness suddenly materialized like ghosts, surging forward with the swiftness of crashing thunder!
A brilliant golden light shimmered around each of them! Completely unrestrained, they charged fearlessly toward the Earthly Profound, Jade Profound, and even Heavenly Profound experts who far outmatched them. Swords and sabers swept down at the attackers’ heads, as if, in their eyes, there were no true experts, only sheep awaiting slaughter!
In truth, the highest cultivation among this newly arrived group was merely Peak Golden Profound. Before being poisoned, these men would have seemed less than mere livestock to the red-robed assassins—they would have been mere ants! After all, the lowest cultivation among those assassins was Jade Profound, or higher!
But now the tables had turned dramatically. The creatures normally treated as ants had transformed into bringers of instant death!
The overbearing Poisonous Fragrance had plummeted their cultivation levels to be nearly equal to their current foes, and the decline was still rapidly accelerating. Every single one of them was paralyzed by the realization; all will to fight had evaporated!
The Poisonous Fragrance had completely crushed the morale of this notorious band of cold-blooded killers!
When a powerhouse loses the strength they prided themselves on and which sustained their very existence, their mindset can often become worse than that of an ordinary person!
Everyone focused solely on escape, instantly descending into a panicked swarm.
Conversely, the stout men radiating golden light possessed spirits soaring high, utterly fearless of death!
In perhaps one or two breaths, these two groups crashed together like a volcanic eruption!
Every one of these new combatants wore faces that were grim, utterly devoid of expression. Compared to the assassins, who were once famously cold-blooded and bloodthirsty, the expressions on these men’s faces now seemed far more cruel and chilling. Facing the panicked, chaotic attacks of their foes, they barely bothered to dodge or parry. They braced themselves, charging straight ahead; they used their shoulders, their chests, to absorb the enemy’s onslaught, while simultaneously driving their weapons deep into the bodies of their opponents!
It was a desperate exchange: trading life for life, injury for death!
A method of combat reaching the ultimate degree of ruthlessness!
To be ruthless enough to yourself is the only way to be more ruthless to your enemy!
The battle ignited quickly, but it ended even faster. Nearly half the fighting was over simply with that initial collision. This was because any assassin struck by these great men, once the skin was broken, would instantly have their entire body turn black, and within the next moment, cease breathing, losing their life!
Their weapons were all coated with an incredibly potent, overbearing poison! A poison so swift—meeting the blood meant instant death—that even Earthly Profound experts couldn't endure it for long before the Xuan Qi vanished!
This was the very stock of poison Jun Mo Xie had prepared when forcing the toxin out of Jun Wu Yi, now finding its true purpose! The swords and blades of these men had been soaking in the venom overnight! This poison was a mixture of dozens of the world’s deadliest toxins, guaranteed to claim a noble’s life upon contact!
The more than two hundred stout men divided the battlefield into sectors. Each four or five men targeted one assassin. The lead man acted as a meat shield, absorbing the enemy’s attack with his bare body, allowing the remaining three or four to swarm forward, instantly tearing the weakened enemy to shreds!
Even the few Earthly Profound experts who managed to resist for a moment were rapidly consumed by the swift-acting poison, dying almost instantly from the toxin!
This entire horrific scene was witnessed by the two Heavenly Profound experts who were desperately trying to purge the poison from their systems. Even with the composure inherent to Heavenly Profound masters, their eyes twitched, and cold sweat streamed down their faces!
“This… are these even men? These people, they treat their own lives—or rather, their comrades’ lives—as worthless? Fighting to the death on a battlefield is understandable, but this lack of subtlety, this sheer brutality?!”
One of them watched as an Earthly Profound assassin cleaved a man’s shoulder nearly to the hilt. It was undoubtedly a mortal wound; with just a fraction more force, the limb would have been severed. Yet, this fellow didn't even twitch an eyebrow. He actually twisted his shoulder violently, wedging the blade stuck in his body tighter, while the others charging with him roared and, in an instant, shredded the living Earthly Profound expert into flying chunks of flesh!
Another man had his lower abdomen pierced by a longsword—a fatal injury—yet he maintained a look of utter blankness. He even used both hands, one desperately clamping down on the sword lodged in his gut, while the other seized the wrist of the opposing red-robed Earthly Profound assassin. With a savage grin, a flurry of broadswords and longswords descended simultaneously, resulting in yet another pile of shattered meat…
And another…
And another…
These men! They were more desperate than outlaws!
Outlaws, at best, only gambled with their lives; when facing true life-or-death moments, they would still feel fear, still hesitate. But these burly men had genuinely achieved a state of ignoring death, and instead, bringing death to their opponents!
The fifteen high-level Earthly Profound assassins and the forty Jade Profound Blood-Robed assassins were all annihilated in the brief span of a blink! Even more brutally, none of these fifty-five men retained an intact corpse! Every body was mutilated beyond recognition, far more gruesome than what had happened to Zhou Jianming earlier!
For an assassin, dismemberment is an understandable way to confirm a kill. But knowing is one thing; witnessing, and witnessing so many instantaneous, pulverized deaths in succession, was profoundly shocking!
A chilling sensation washed over the two Heavenly Profound assassins: it was exactly like the feeling when their brother and he entered the Heavenly Punishment Forest seeking herbs and encountered that pack of wolves. But the men before them were even more terrifying than wolves! Such a surging, immense killing intent, murderous aura, and vital aggression—how could this be confined to the realm of mere assassins? Even the most bloodthirsty and savage Xuan Beasts in the Heavenly Punishment Forest might not achieve this!
Then…
With a scream that reached the absolute zenith of despair, utter wretchedness, and extreme sorrow, it was abruptly silenced! The two turned just in time to see their leader—the Heavenly Profound assassin who had just killed Zhou Jianming—having both arms severed. Before the severed limbs could even hit the ground, his mouth, eyes, and nose were smashed into terrifying, bloody hollows.
The instant the two turned to look, his torso was kicked upward with a thud into the air. What followed was a frantic, torrential barrage of furious strikes, every impact landing precisely on fatal points such as the throat, heart, Dantian, and head. With the eyesight of these two, they could clearly see that not a single blow missed these critical targets! To maintain such accuracy amid such a dense flurry of strikes was enough to make anyone tremble!
They trembled not only at the precision of the technique but also at the sheer, cold-blooded cruelty. Any single one of those strikes to the vital points would have been fatal, yet the assailant struck them all, clearly intending to shock them into oblivion!
Finally, with a teeth-grinding crack, the motion stopped. The Heavenly Profound assassin, moments before so imposing, had been reduced to a complete ‘human stick.’ Standing before him was a black-masked figure like a demon god. The figure’s right hand was extended straight out, the fist effortlessly punching through the assassin’s chest. It emerged from the back, the tightly clenched fist holding a shard of the still-beating heart…
It hung there in the air!
The hair on the bodies of the two remaining Heavenly Profound assassins stood straight up!
This could no longer be described merely as cruelty, brutality, or cold-bloodedness!
This was outright madness! Pure, unadulterated perversion! A perversion that surpassed the limits of human endurance!
This man, naturally, was Jun Mo Xie. Realizing that stalling was no longer an option, Young Master Jun decided to strike first! However, after making his move, he discovered something that made him feel immensely vexed. Extremely vexed, in fact.
The Great Assassin King, never having held any perverse taste for torture or prolonged abuse, strictly adhered to the assassin’s maxim of achieving the objective in one strike. To engage in such drawn-out slaughter was due to an unavoidable, unspoken constraint!
Even with the effect of the Poisonous Fragrance, the enemy’s power had plummeted to an unbelievable degree; even with the enemy having zero will to fight, and even though he had initiated the entire engagement with a perfect ambush, setting the pace with speed—
The physical durability of a Heavenly Profound expert was simply too high! Although Young Master Jun himself had progressed rapidly, reaching the Jade Profound Realm, the gap between him and his foe remained vast. Such intensive bombardment would have pulverized someone else into dust and bone fragments, yet this guy, after taking it all, only managed a few pained howls!
(It’s only the third [of the month], and this is the second explosion of action! I wonder if my brothers and sisters will show me some favor? I need Monthly Votes! [To be continued])