"Ah..." Bai Yan never expected Liang Xiaoke to possess such formidable combat prowess, able to repel his young master with a single punch. A gasp escaped him as he rapidly retreated, even as Bai Zhan, Bai Ye, and Bai Ting, three Grandmasters, simultaneously drew their blades and slashed toward Liang Xiaoke's body...

Faced with those three battle-sabers imbued with potent True Essence, Liang Xiaoke showed no sign of flinching. Instead, his grab toward Bai Yan tightened. Bai Yan started, astonished that this man would ignore the three incoming strikes from his companions, rapidly condensing his True Essence and raising a hand to parry Liang Xiaoke's impending grasp...

"Crack..." With a sound, Liang Xiaoke's bone-white, grasping hand shattered the True Essence shield Bai Yan had gathered around his body. It bypassed Liang Xiaoke's arm and plunged directly into the crown of Bai Yan's skull. Bai Yan's seemingly robust skull yielded as if it were soft tofu, his five fingers sinking in easily. An immense suction force emanated from Liang Xiaoke's grip. Bai Yan didn't even manage a scream; his soul was violently sucked into Liang Xiaoke's body, every last drop of his jingqi absorbed, leaving behind nothing but a foul husk...

At this moment, the blades of Bai Zhan, Bai Ye, and Bai Ting finally struck Liang Xiaoke's body. Bai Zhan's blow landed squarely on Liang Xiaoke's left shoulder, burying half the blade deep enough to graze the bone. Pale white flesh peeled back on either side, and scarlet blood seeped from the wound, a horrific sight...

Bai Ye was even more vicious, sweeping his blade across Liang Xiaoke's lower abdomen, tearing open a long gash. Not only did bloody flesh spill out, but his multi-colored intestines were also exposed...

As for Bai Ting, his blade pierced straight through Liang Xiaoke's chest, a direct impalement. A crimson arrow of blood immediately jetted out from Liang Xiaoke's sternum...

Bai Zhan, Bai Ye, and Bai Ting had merely attempted a diversionary tactic to save Bai Yan, never imagining that Liang Xiaoke would prioritize killing Bai Yan even at the cost of his own life...

A shockwave of terror hit them, followed by a surge of regret—regret that even if they killed Liang Xiaoke now, they would lose Bai Yan, their closest comrade...

"Heh heh..." But before they could mourn their fallen partner, they saw Liang Xiaoke, who should have been utterly dead, grin mockingly at them...

Then, two fangs suddenly sprouted from the corners of Liang Xiaoke's mouth, catching the cold light, and a streak of cyan demonic marking appeared across his face...

Before they could comprehend what was happening, Liang Xiaoke suddenly brought down a hand-chop toward the three of them. Terror gripped their hearts, and they swiftly retreated backward...

Liang Xiaoke did not press the attack immediately. Instead, he reached back, pulled the battle-saber still embedded in his sternum free, twisted it violently until it resembled a piece of twisted metal, and tossed it aside. To the astonishment of the onlookers, he cupped his left hand around the intestines that had fallen out and stuffed them back into his belly. With his right hand, he scooped a handful of fresh blood from his bleeding chest wound and brought it to his lips...

This utterly bizarre spectacle instantly turned the faces of the onlookers pale, even Bai Jingfei was left slack-jawed, watching this unfold. Was this still human?

Intestines spilled out, and he simply put them back as if unharmed—perhaps, determined martial artists could manage that. But to have one's heart pierced through and remain standing, even consuming one's own blood... this was absolutely beyond human capability...

A grayish-white light began to emanate from within Liang Xiaoke's body, flowing over the three massive wounds. Then, the gashes started to knit back together at a speed visible to the naked eye...

In mere breaths, he was completely restored, pristine. If not for the bloodstains clinging to his garments, the crowd might have believed the entire sequence was a mere hallucination...

Just then, behind the shattered rockery nearby where Sima Xuan had been thrown, the swirling dust began to settle. Sima Xuan, covered head-to-toe in grime, staggered to his feet, coughing lightly, which brought up a mouthful of blood. Looking utterly wretched, he pulled a protective heart mirror made of Mithril from his robes, only to find the resilient metal utterly pulverized. Seeing Liang Xiaoke’s blood-stained fangs and the demonic mark on his brow, a cold sweat broke out down his spine...

Ye Jingyu’s face also showed a flicker of surprise. Though he knew Liang Xiaoke's strength had advanced significantly, he hadn't expected this level—slaying a Grandmaster in the blink of an eye and forcing three others into full retreat. His regenerative capacity, in particular, was easily a hundred times stronger than before...

Bing Ming, Hu Yanmeng, and even the heavily injured Chi Yixiu and Hu Yanqi were staring dumbfounded. Despite having witnessed countless spectacles, such a shocking scene left them momentarily paralyzed...

"Heh heh..." A cold, sinister smile stretched across his face. He then brought the finger-bone, smeared with Bai Yan's brain matter, to his lips and sucked it clean with a vicious sound before pulling it away. Immediately, flesh and blood began to sprout back onto the bone-white digit, and his body took a slow, deliberate step forward...

Bai Zhan, Bai Ye, Bai Ting, Bai Da, even Bai Jingfei and the other Grandmaster, Bai Wu, all took a step back, expressions etched with stark terror...

They were all Grandmasters and understood that Liang Xiaoke's power didn't greatly surpass their own. Yet, facing a monster who was unharmed even after having his heart destroyed, and who remained utterly composed—that was inexplicable and terrifying...

People fear the unknown. Everything about Liang Xiaoke completely overturned their established reality, leaving them with no choice but fear...

Especially upon seeing the two fangs Liang Xiaoke bared, still glistening with blood. The six of them felt icy cold sweat running down their backs, every hair standing rigidly erect...

"Today... you all must die..." A savage grin twisted Liang Xiaoke's lips as an enormous power surged from within him. His body began to inflate rapidly, instantly growing to a height comparable to Chi Yixiu. His clothes tore completely, unable to contain the expansion. Black demonic markings erupted across his naked body, and the mark on his forehead spread, completely covering his face. His arms elongated significantly, and his fingernails grew to nearly an inch long, turning jet black, needle-sharp, and gleaming with a sinister, cold light, resembling the claws of a monstrous beast. The fangs in his mouth now extended almost three inches long...

His eyeballs had turned a faint, deep blue, radiating an intensely eerie and malevolent light...

Corpse King...

Seeing all this, only those two words flashed through Ye Jingyu's mind...