Spirit Ruin, Sword Coffin, Blind Swordsman

As You Ming traveled through the void, he closed his eyes and rapped his knuckles against his head, as if wrestling with some dilemma. Then something occurred to him. His eyes sprang open, and he wheeled around, shooting off in another direction.

You Ming’s every step covered a hundred li, but to him, it was nothing. Occasionally, he would grab a murky mass of qi and swallow it, only to purse his lips and lament that it didn’t taste good.

At times, pieces of space would drift past, and he’d reach out and shatter them with a flick of his slender fingers. He didn’t care if there were ancient ruins or people inside. He just thought it was fun.

Whenever he thought about how Su Xuan had assigned him to investigate the Abyssal Demons, a headache crept in. He felt he wasn’t good at such things.

After an indeterminate stretch of time, thoroughly bored, You Ming lay back in the void, closed his eyes, and shot off like a corpse.

Passersby saw a glowing “corpse” streaking through the void.

One elder followed out of curiosity. When he spotted the flowing lights on the corpse’s robes, his eyes gleamed with greed, and he used a sprint technique to give chase. You Ming’s eyes stayed shut, his breathing imperceptible, so the elder felt no fear. If anything, he grew more excited.

He reached out to take You Ming’s clothes. You Ming’s eyes sprang open. He grinned and attacked.

Pfft!

With his fingers straight and rigid as a blade, he pierced clean through the old man’s head. He stood up and burst into laughter, waving the old man’s body about with a squinting grin. “This is fun! Hahaha! Doesn’t matter how many times I do this—it never gets old!”He tugged the old man’s leg off and tossed it behind him.

One by one, he tore the old man’s limbs off as he traveled. After he flung the head, he lay down and pretended to be dead again.

He wasn’t so lucky this time. No one came for a long while. Frustrated, he sat up and pursed his lips. He propped his chin on one hand, tapping his knee in thought.

He looked up and noticed a speck of dust unlike the rest. He rushed over and felt a gust of energy repel him.

His expression turned cold. He slapped the speck, sending it tens of thousands of zhang away.

That speck of dust was the hidden base of an ancient clan, the Liu family. The Liu family’s realm stretched more than a thousand li wide, but the whole world seemed to tremble as buildings tilted and collapsed. Pitch-black tears ripped through the realm. Dozens of figures shot into the air, and the man at the forefront frowned. “What happened? Who found us?”

Outside the realm, You Ming muttered, “It’s only been two thousand years. That bastard Liu Peiyuan should be on his knees welcoming me!”

You Ming straightened up, licked the red-and-white substance from his fingers, and formed a hand seal. Blood-colored light blazed to life. The Liu family’s realm, ten thousand zhang away, flew into his hand.

As the blood-colored light intensified, a terrifying array took shape. It split down the middle like a beast opening its gigantic jaws. Within a hundred li, even the void trembled.

The boundary around the Liu family’s hidden realm cracked, shattering with a sound like a beast biting into human bone.

The situation forced the boundary to become visible. The space within the realm warped. A blood-colored tear, a thousand zhang long, ripped through the realm itself.

Within the realm, Liu Xiaochen, the patriarch of the Liu family, stood with clenched teeth. His Combined Body Realm aura surged, and a green vein pulsed on his sweat-slicked forehead. Over twenty people stood behind him, the weakest at the half-step Illusory Refinement Realm.

They all looked at the sky with great anxiety. The elders shouted at the younger members to hide. Every cultivator at the Nascent Soul Realm and above watched in grim silence, braced for a powerful enemy.

The crack wriggled open, and a figure in black robes stepped inside. He didn’t seem to see Liu Xiaochen or the others at all. He just looked around, as if searching for something.

The dismissal angered Liu Xiaochen. He unsheathed the sword at his waist, pointed it at the intruder, and shouted, “Who dares trespass into the Liu family’s realm?! State your name!”

You Ming, still facing sideways, turned his head slowly. He looked at the plump, middle-aged man, then at the sword in his hand. He snorted. “You’re noisy.”

A blood-colored line flashed past.

Liu Xiaochen’s hand was severed at the wrist. Blood sprayed from the stump, and he went pale.

You Ming took the sword, gripping the hilt in his left hand and the tip of the blade in his right. He pressed lightly, bending it like a bow.

A terrifying, indomitable aura erupted from him.

Every airborne cultivator dropped from the sky, and everyone was driven to their knees. His aura pressed down on them like a mountain.

Boom!

The treasure sword exploded, its countless fragments flying towards Liu Xiaochen.

Pfft pfft pfft pfft!

Liu Xiaochen stood rooted in place as the fragments pierced into him. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to move—he couldn’t.

You Ming gave a chilling smirk. He raised his left hand and wiggled his fingers, attaching five blood-colored threads to Liu Xiaochen’s severed wrist.

To the crowd’s horror, Liu Xiaochen placed his left hand in his own mouth and, bit by bit, began pulling his jaw downward.

Within a breath’s time, two long, bloody tears split from the corners of his mouth. His eyes widened as the sound of tearing flesh filled the air. He’d stopped breathing. His eyes were filled with terror. No matter how hard he fought, his body refused to obey.

His eyes turned bloodshot, brimming with tears.

You Ming’s voice was ethereal and bright, like a teenager’s voice. He chuckled. “When you speak to me… you’ve got to kneel first.”

Thud!

Liu Xiaochen slammed into the ground, half his face smashed in.

You Ming burst into laughter. “This is fun. This is very fun!”

Just as he was about to torture Liu Xiaochen to death, an old man’s sigh echoed through the sky.

You Ming pursed his lips and looked toward a tall mountain in the distance. He called teasingly, “Peiyuan~”

The mountain trembled. Boulders tumbled down the slopes.

Boom! Thud!

The mountain peak exploded, and an aura from an ancient era emerged.