Chapter 762: A Sudden Killing Strike

“Kid, since you’re looking to die, I’ll be happy to oblige.”

Yuchi Jie felt that his dignity had been gravely provoked by Ye Xuan.

He roared, his face twisting savagely. A sharp claw materialized in his hand, and with a thunderous noise, he swiped at Ye Xuan.

This was actually an Eighth-Level Profound Soldier. As he attacked with the claw, the entire passage instantly filled with countless afterimages, and ghostly wails echoed, making the whole corridor feel frigid and sinister.

The dense afterimages coalesced under Yuchi Jie’s control into a massive claw shadow nearly ten feet wide. The space within the shadow was completely frozen and constricted. Yuchi Jie clearly intended to use it to trap Ye Xuan completely before capturing him.

Ye Xuan was an Artifact Refining Master. One glance at the iron claw and he knew that good materials had been wasted in a shoddy refinement.

The iron claw glinted with cold light, and as it howled through the air, Profound energy flowed freely through it, forming small, stable vortexes of starlight that didn’t dissipate. This Profound Soldier was definitely forged from a top-tier Tier Eight material: Starfall Meteoric Iron.

‘Unfortunately, the refiner wasn’t skilled enough. They turned it into a mere iron claw, and a poorly made one at that. What a waste.’

A look of panic appeared on Ye Xuan’s face, as if he were stunned by the claw shadow Yuchi Jie had unleashed. He hastily brandished his Sword of Judgment. Instantly, countless rays of blue, electric sword light poured out, forming a river that crashed against the massive claw shadow.

A loud BOOM was heard, followed by the SIZZLE of cascading lightning and the piercing sound of metal clashing. Ye Xuan’s body was sent flying, crashing heavily toward one of the Yuchi family elders at the side.

“Haha, kid! You could have flown anywhere, but you had to come right to me. Now die!”

Seeing this, the Yuchi family elder laughed heartily and threw a palm strike.

Ye Xuan seemed panicked. Seeing the elder’s palm strike, he looked flustered and swung his Sword of Judgment toward him in a frenzy.

“You think I’m Yuchi Jie? Hehe, that heavy sword looks pretty good. It even has a lightning attribute. I’ll be taking that.”

The elder thought nothing of it. His hand, which was originally a palm strike aimed at Ye Xuan, smoothly changed into a claw, nonchalantly grabbing for the blade of Ye Xuan’s Sword of Judgment.

In his mind, given Ye Xuan’s cultivation level, he could easily snatch the heavy sword with a single light grab. But the moment his hand touched Ye Xuan’s heavy sword, his expression changed drastically.

An incredibly sharp surge of Profound energy erupted from the heavy sword. This Profound energy was terrifying, carrying an indescribable sharpness as it pierced into his palm.

He hastily tried to pull his hand back, but it was too late. The black heavy sword followed like a shadow, viciously striking his hand. Before his horrified eyes, it instantly pulverized his palm.

The excruciating pain made the hair on the elder’s body stand on end. He looked up and saw that Ye Xuan, whose face had been a mask of panic, now wore a cold, mocking expression. The fierce black heavy sword, like a bolt of black lightning, stabbed toward his Profound Sea.

‘Not good.’

An intense sense of crisis rose in his heart. The elder was shocked and tried to retreat hastily, attempting to dodge the Sword of Judgment’s attack.

But to his surprise, the moment he shot backward, Ye Xuan’s figure lunged forward. Ye Xuan’s speed exploded in an instant, far surpassing his own. The black heavy sword in his right hand, like a speeding arrow, pierced into the elder’s Profound Sea.

His protective Profound energy and the defensive armor on his body were like a fragile sheet of paper, completely unable to stop the Sword of Judgment’s advance.

“You…”

A look of despair filled his eyes. He couldn’t understand why Ye Xuan—the same Ye Xuan who had just been on the run from Yuchi Jie—had suddenly become so powerful, so fast that he couldn’t even dodge.

But he would never get the chance to understand.

Terrifying lightning power exploded in his Profound Sea. He could only watch helplessly as this horrifying force instantly consumed his body.

The entire process seemed to happen in slow motion, but it was over in an instant. The moment Yu Chi Bugong and the others saw the despair in the elder’s eyes, they knew something was wrong.

But before they could intervene, the light of Ye Xuan’s sword had already pierced the elder’s abdomen. The next moment, the elder’s entire body erupted into a cloud of blood mist, slain by a single strike from Ye Xuan, leaving nothing behind.

“How could this be?”

In that instant, everyone was stunned.

While the members of the Yuchi family were still in shock, Ye Xuan didn’t hesitate. SWOOSH! With a thought, Xiaohai and Erhei instantly appeared in the passage and rapidly attacked the other two elders.

The two elders were startled, not expecting two Demon Beasts to appear out of nowhere. However, their reactions were extremely fast. They both drew their weapons to counter-attack. The Martial Emperor attacked by Xiaohai instantly summoned a battle saber and viciously chopped down on Xiaohai’s head.

CLANG! Sparks flew. Even before coming to this abyss, Xiaohai had been unafraid of attacks from a Second Layer Martial Emperor. After being nourished by Evil Qi and Demon Stones, its strength had increased even more. The elder’s hasty strike couldn’t even crack a single scale on Xiaohai’s head. Without stopping, Xiaohai’s body slammed into him.

SPLAT!

As if struck by a high-speed meteor, the elder’s body exploded like a rotten watermelon, instantly disintegrating into a spray of blood mist.

The other elder’s fate was even more tragic. He slapped his palm against Erhei’s body, but it was like hitting a great mountain; Erhei didn’t budge an inch. At the same time, it opened its mouth and spat a cloud of poisonous mist onto his face.

HISS!

White smoke rose as the elder let out a bloodcurdling scream. He fell heavily to the ground, clutching his face and writhing in agony. He clawed desperately at his face, trying to dig out the poison, but all he gouged out was his own rotting flesh.

Just a moment later, the elder stopped screaming. His entire head had been completely corroded away, leaving nothing behind.

In the blink of an eye, just the blink of an eye, all three Yuchi family elders had fallen. Only Yuchi Jie and Yu Chi Bugong remained.

It was only then that Yu Chi Bugong finally reacted.

“Die!”

He roared in disbelief. A black battle-axe suddenly appeared in his hand. The massive axe conjured a colossal axe shadow in the air. The shadow, several dozen feet tall, filled the entire passage and came crashing down on Ye Xuan with a deafening rumble.

The instant the battle-axe fell, an astonishing spatial binding force swept out, enveloping Ye Xuan completely. The void around him felt as if it had turned into a swamp, thick with restrictive power.

It had to be said, as the Patriarch of the Yuchi family, a Triple Peak Martial Emperor who had broken through the altar’s Restriction, Yu Chi Bugong was formidable. Even though he had been slightly injured by the Demonic Qi invasion earlier, the moment he attacked, his power was still earth-shattering and astonishingly potent, far surpassing that of a Tier Eight Second Layer Martial Emperor.

Before his breakthrough, although Ye Xuan wasn’t afraid of a Third Layer Martial Emperor, he might not have fared well against a veteran expert like Yu Chi Bugong. The domain binding of a Triple Peak Martial Emperor alone would have been enough to force him to be cautious. But now that Ye Xuan had broken through to become a Tier Eight Martial Emperor, he was no longer the man he once was and felt no worry at all.

CRACK!

From within his body, an invisible spatial power spread out. The space that had been bound by Yu Chi Bugong’s Domain Realm boundary began to crackle like glass under pressure. Under the assault of Ye Xuan’s own domain, it continuously collapsed, gradually losing its hold.

At the same time, a massive, mountain-like boulder appeared before Ye Xuan and slammed into the axe shadow.

As Ye Xuan summoned the Zhenyuan Stone, the Domain Realm boundary that Yu Chi Bugong had cast on him shattered with a BANG, completely collapsing and dissipating.

“How is this possible?”

Yu Chi Bugong cried out in alarm, his eyes filled with horror. ‘How could a mere First Layer Martial Emperor like Ye Xuan possess such a terrifying Domain Realm boundary? This completely defies my understanding.’

A Martial Emperor’s Domain Realm boundary was related to two things. The first was the Martial Artist’s cultivation; the stronger their Profound energy, the more solid the boundary. The second was their comprehension of spatial principles; the more one mastered spatial principles, the more terrifying their Domain Realm boundary would be.

In terms of Profound energy strength, Yu Chi Bugong was confident that he completely surpassed Ye Xuan. As for comprehension of spatial principles, he didn’t believe that a newly broken-through First Layer Martial Emperor could possibly compare to him, a Triple Peak expert who stood at the very pinnacle of the Martial Emperor realm.

But everything happening before him completely overturned his understanding of the world.

At this point, Yu Chi Bugong couldn’t afford to be shocked. The fact that his Domain Realm boundary had been shattered by Ye Xuan had already planted a seed of dread in his heart. He pushed his Profound energy to its absolute limit, bringing his axe shadow down fiercely on the Zhenyuan Stone that Ye Xuan had summoned.

DONG!

Like a meteor striking a mountain peak, a blinding light erupted at the point of impact between the axe shadow and the Zhenyuan Stone. A shockwave, like a volcanic eruption, swept through the passage.

Off to the side, the already dumbfounded Yuchi Jie was blasted by the shockwave, spitting out a mouthful of blood. He was slammed heavily against the passage wall, his bones groaning weakly, his face ashen.

Even Yu Chi Bugong was forced back two steps.

In contrast, Ye Xuan hadn’t moved an inch. A faint, cold smirk played on his lips as he controlled the Zhenyuan Stone to firmly block Yu Chi Bugong’s descending black axe, his expression aloof and icy.

“You…”

Yuchi Jie wiped the blood from his mouth and staggered to his feet, his eyes filled with confusion and terror. The strength Ye Xuan was displaying now was horrifying; killing him would be effortless. ‘So why did he fight so fiercely against me just now?’

On the other side of the passage, Yu Chi Bugong’s expression was ugly, his face contorted with rage as fury blazed in his eyes.

He harbored the same question as Yuchi Jie.