Spirit Ruin, Sword Coffin, Blind Swordsman

Boom!

A terrifying sword intent shot skyward, and the temperature plummeted. As Meng Wanshu slashed out, frost power spread in all directions.

Ice shards filled the air, and the dreadful sword light reined in its scattered energy, condensing to the absolute extreme.

Boom!

The man slowly extended his left hand, trying to catch the incoming sword light barehanded. He never imagined the woman before him would be so strong. The sword light swept in and severed his left hand along with his entire right arm.

Meng Wanshu felt the black-clad man falter, her heart in turmoil. She had never told anyone about the Heavenly Massacre Sea. Yet the man in black before her, wearing a crimson mask, was clearly from the same organization as before.

The man who had tried to assassinate her earlier was already dead, and his allies seemed completely unaware. If they had known she had the means to instantly kill a Combined Body Realm cultivator, they would never have come at her like this.

The mysterious man retreated at full speed, leaving behind only a severed arm. But Meng Wanshu had no intention of letting him escape.

“Seal the realm!”

Boom!Her aura surged to its peak. Vital force roared through her, and an enormous phantom ice flower materialized behind her. In an instant, everything between heaven and earth froze solid.

The ground, the buildings, the cultivators, the spirit qi—everything appeared to be frozen by an unseen force. The entire domain of the Xiao family was completely frozen over, and even the spatial rifts were instantly sealed shut.

Li Changqing, who had rushed over, appeared behind the mysterious man in a flash with a longsword in hand. Vital force erupted as several sword lights shot toward the man.

The man didn’t even turn. Behind him, pitch-black vital force gathered into a massive hand that annihilated the incoming sword lights at once.

The enormous black palm swung down at Li Changqing. He slashed it apart with a single stroke, but the man’s figure had already vanished.

Li Changqing erupted with devastating pressure, his hands forming seals in rapid succession. A strange, profound spirit light spread through the void like the trunk of a growing tree.

“Spirit Probe, Space Seal!”

Boom!

Terrifying pressure crushed down on heaven and earth, trying to force the man to reveal himself. The opponent’s strength was formidable, and his power was extraordinarily bizarre.

Hidden within the void, the man’s eyes flickered. This was different from the intelligence he had received. His gaze shifted. His left hand regenerated visibly, and he formed a twisted seal. Black qi flowed, and the severed arm embedded in the barrier began to dissolve.

The freezing power had sealed that arm within the barrier wall, but now, the broken limb melted into a pool of blood inside the ice.

Meng Wanshu froze. She whipped around toward the barrier sealing the Abyssal Demon.

One glance was enough to shock her. The Abyssal Demon’s body had turned liquid, gnawing at the man’s arm. And in doing so, it had broken through the seal.

Bang!

The frozen barrier shattered. The man lifted his hand and pulled the Abyssal Demon into his black robe. Forming seals with one hand, black qi swirled in his palm, and boundless dark mist appeared in the surrounding void.

Demonic qi condensed into countless chains and pitch-black walls, trapping Meng Wanshu and Li Changqing. Behind them, the blood-red barrier twisted and transformed into a curtain of black light that enveloped the man.

Everything happened far too fast. By the time Li Changqing broke through the demonic qi barrier, the man was gone. But before he vanished, he had fixed his gaze on Meng Wanshu and Ye Feng, looking deeply through the mask.

Buzz!

Bang!

Chaotic sword light shot out in all directions, and the bizarre black barrier shattered.

Meng Wanshu’s chest rose and fell with heavy breaths, her expression darker than ever. The man had escaped.

Her chest rose slightly as she withdrew her hand, releasing the frozen domain’s power.

Ye Feng arrived carrying the heavily injured and unconscious Xiao Chen, his expression grim. He asked in a low voice, “Wanshu, is there something you’ve been hiding from me?”

He wasn’t stupid. Judging from Meng Wanshu’s reaction, she had encountered that mysterious man before. It was likely a much more complicated situation than it seemed.

Meng Wanshu pondered for a moment, then spoke in a deep voice, “Send word that the barrier had to be sealed because someone in the Xiao family is breaking through. Nothing about what happened here gets out. Have the elders who aren’t seriously injured take charge.”

Li Changqing nodded and promptly left to make the arrangements. Meng Wanshu and Ye Feng exchanged a glance.

“Let’s go. We’ll talk after we get to the Xiao family’s main hall,” Meng Wanshu said.

When they arrived, the hall was utterly devastated. The roof was riddled with gaping holes, and the floor was a river of blood. More than a dozen corpses lay strewn about, and judging by their appearance, these were people of considerable status within the Xiao family.

Sensing a conspiracy, Ye Feng’s eyes narrowed.

The hall was no place to talk, so they headed to Xiao Chen’s private residence instead. Though called a separate residence, it actually covered an area of nearly a thousand zhang. Its distance from the main hall and surrounding peaks had spared many of the servants, who hid in underground cellars and survived.

The two didn’t disturb them and went straight to Xiao Chen’s cultivation room. After sealing the space, they placed Xiao Chen onto an ice lotus formed from condensed vital force. Only then did they allow themselves a moment of relief.

Everything that could be done had been done. The rest depended on when Xiao Chen would wake up.

Meng Wanshu sat silently on a chair to the side, while Ye Feng leaned against the wall with his arms crossed, also remaining silent.

Meng Wanshu spoke with a hint of apology, “Sorry, Old Li didn’t mean anything by it, don’t take it to heart.”

Ye Feng gave a self-mocking smile. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t care what others think about my arm. No matter what I become, Boss will never show the slightest disdain toward me. That alone is enough.”

He waved the topic aside. “I didn’t take it to heart, so you shouldn’t either. What I’m more concerned about is that man. Who exactly is he?”

Ye Feng frowned. “His strength is unfathomable, and his methods are stranger still, one after another. Wanshu, have you encountered him before?”

Suddenly, a crimson mask flew over. Ye Feng reached out and caught it, and his heart skipped a beat.

“Wait a minute... No, that can’t be right. We didn’t defeat that person just now. This mask... Could it be?!”

Meng Wanshu nodded, her expression grave. “When I was in the Heavenly Massacre Sea, this organization already had me marked for assassination. The one they sent was a Combined Body Realm cultivator. As for why they’re targeting me... I don’t know.”

Ye Feng lowered his gaze to the mask and sent a trace of vital force into it.

Buzz!

Blood light flared inside the mask. The glow condensed along the inner surface, forming two small characters.

“Sha, Upper Black!”

Ye Feng’s eyes narrowed at once. “Sha… is that the name of this organization?

“Upper Black… The grading system should have four tiers: Heaven, Earth, Black, and Yellow.”

Holding the mask, Ye Feng sucked in a breath. If his guess was right, the organization’s power was terrifying beyond measure. Even a Combined Body Realm cultivator was only at the Upper Black tier.