Frenzied Slaughter!!!

Beneath the shroud of night. *Roar!* Deep within an endless forest, four cultivators clad in the disciple robes of the Tianhua Sword Sect were besieging a ranked great demon—a brute bull whose hide shimmered with specks of golden light, its eyes blazing red-gold. *Snort! Snort!* The bull was soaked in blood, its spine slashed open and weeping crimson. "Cheng Yi, I didn't expect your swordplay to have improved again recently," said one of the youths. A handsome youth, as fair-complexioned as a pretty boy, chuckled. "Heh, just a minor insight." "This Dragon Bone Bull really has formidable vitality. It's been wounded so badly, yet it still hasn't gone down." "Don't worry, leave this finishing blow to me." As Cheng Yi spoke, he flamboyantly reached up to smooth his hair, which was not out of place to begin with. The bull charged straight at him, but with an ethereal shift in footwork, he flickered aside and dodged it instantly. Grasping his three-foot green blade, he gathered momentum and unleashed his sword. The blade traced afterimages in the air, slashing straight into the bull's wounds! *Splurt!* *Thud!* *"Roar!..."* A shrill, mournful bellow echoed across the night sky as the massive bull crashed to the ground. The female cultivator beside him immediately looked at the youth with idolizing eyes, her face flushing as she said in a soft, delicate voice, "Brother Cheng Yi is so handsome... and your swordsmanship is so superb! I truly wonder which junior sister will have the good fortune to become Dao companions with you in the future." Nearby, another youth's lip twitched at her words. He exchanged a glance with the fellow disciple beside him, though neither said anything. Cheng Yi had indeed contributed the most to hunting down this ranked demon. Still... he was simply too vain, and his showiness rubbed them the wrong way. Unable to suppress the smirk playing at the corners of his mouth, Cheng Yi sheathed his sword and directed the two men, "You two strip off the dragon bones. Junior Sister and I will take a rest." The two did not reply, lowering their heads to begin butchering the demon beast's carcass. Yet just as the woman was throwing herself into Cheng Yi's arms, an inscrutable sneer drifted down from the treetops. "I'm afraid becoming Dao companions is out of the question. Would you settle for dying together as doomed lovers?" Cheng Yi was alarmed. With his cultivation at the third tier of the Mystic Immortal realm, he hadn't sensed the slightest trace of the speaker's presence! "Who is it?! Come out!" *Clang!* His longsword cleared its scabbard. Cheng Yi's gaze turned grim and solemn as he swept his eyes across the surroundings with extreme vigilance. The female cultivator raised her eyes toward the treetops beside them. Instantly, her pretty gaze filled with utter terror, and her face drained of all color. Her shoulders trembled, her fingers shook, and a puddle of liquid even formed beneath her. Her knees buckled, and she collapsed in a heap upon the ground. Her mouth hung wide, whimpering silently, unable to produce a single sound. Cheng Yi and the other two followed her gaze up into the canopy. There, bathed in the cold moonlight, a man clad in blood-red robes stood atop a branch, his face hidden behind a hideous mask. He looked down upon them from above, holding a menacingly forged sword whose bone scabbard radiated a chilling frost beneath the moon. Lightning and flames intertwined as they drifted through the surrounding void, casting Li Guanqi's figure into that of a terrifying fiend! Beneath that fanged ghost mask, a pair of blood-red eyes seized the soul. Cheng Yi's expression warped drastically. Gone was his earlier vanity and nonchalance; his legs were knocking together in fear. He wanted to run, but the woman was clutching his pant legs in a death grip, and his legs felt as heavy as lead, unable to budge even an inch. "Li... Li Congxin..." Over the past month, the name Li Congxin had been uttered far too many times within the Tianhua Sword Sect. Three inner core disciples at the sixth tier of the Mystic Immortal realm had attacked him together, only to be slaughtered and have their severed heads strung up outside the sect's main gate. This incident was hardly a secret in the Tianhua Sword Sect. If the storm hadn't died down recently, they never would have dared to band together to hunt demon beasts outside. *Crack! Crack!* Two jade slips suddenly shattered, yet to Cheng Yi's horror, eight strange, azure inscribed talismans were already hovering silently in the surrounding void! The transmissions from the jade slips were completely intercepted. Cheng Yi's heart turned to ashes. His throat bobbed involuntarily, his mouth parched. Faced with death, he chose not to mount a futile struggle... it was meaningless. Immortal primal energy surged, shaking away the grime and dust from his clothes. He smoothed his hair, stiffened his neck, and looked up at Li Guanqi, trembling as he said, "Chop... chop quickly... I'm afraid of pain." *Boom!* A torrent of lightning raged across the clearing as the Xueming Sword flashed from its sheath! The afterimages of sword light were swift to the absolute extreme. A breath later, only four corpses remained on the ground. Li Guanqi was obedient to the request; his strike was both swift and merciless. Cheng Yi felt only a cold nip at his neck before losing all consciousness. At the same time... Atop the highest peak of the Tianhua Sword Sect, a terrifying aura erupted with a thunderous roar! In an instant, the skies churned, swept by flashing lightning and rolling thunder. Chen Tianhua bellowed in fury, "All disciples outside the sect, return to the mountain at once!" "Guest elders and deacons, follow me!" Li Guanqi collected the corpses and set a blaze that incinerated the entire scene into nothingness. After departing without a sound, he noticed that the glowing points of light on his tracking talismans were beginning to move rapidly! A cold sneer crept onto the corners of Li Guanqi's lips. "Reacting this fast?" Yet, since Li Guanqi had dared to make his move, he had naturally prepared for every contingency. *Boom!* The cultivation art within Li Guanqi operated at full throttle. Immortal primal energy roared and surged through his meridians, and as his blood and vitality churned, dragon scales surfaced across his skin. The Demon King Physique activated, its divine patterns spreading over his flesh. Li Guanqi held a prepared Xuanyuan Pill under his tongue. As the talisman on his back ignited into ash, his figure vanished in an instant. When he reappeared, he was standing squarely within Donghua City! Two Tianhua Sword Sect disciples who crossed his path froze in sheer disbelief. They had never seen Li Guanqi look like this, and they were far less clever than Cheng Yi had been; neither deduced his identity. The crowds on the street scattered in panic, many cultivators fleeing for their lives. The moment Li Guanqi appeared, he brought his strength to its absolute zenith. With a terrifying cultivation comparable to the peak of the seventh tier of the Mystic Immortal realm, slaughtering these outer disciples of the Tianhua Sword Sect was no different from butchering dogs! In the span of a breath, with merely two sword strikes, he cut both of them down! The blood-red hue of his robe deepened. Looking up at the city-defending barrier gradually rising across the sky, Li Guanqi let out a cold laugh. Silver light enveloped his body, and he vanished from the spot in an instant. Seeing this, the cultivators soaring into the air in hot pursuit hastily drew out jade slips to send transmissions: "Reporting to the Sect Master! That fellow is dressed in blood-red robes and wearing a red-faced, fanged mask. In his hand... he carries a longsword sheathed in bone!" One cultivator approached the headless corpses, only to discover in shock that the bodies were desiccated—every drop of flesh and blood had been completely drained! He hurriedly relayed this information back to the sect! Having received the word, Chen Tianhua had already arrived in the mountain ranges. Observing the traces of battle and the scorched earth, he narrowed his eyes. "That sword... is indeed on you!" Chen Tianhua waved his hand, projecting illusions of spiritual light. The disciples currently outside were racing back toward the sect at breakneck speed. Yet in those few short breaths, another four disciples had fallen! Chen Tianhua's face was dark as pitch. He had no way of knowing where Li Guanqi would strike next. "Scatter! Using the sect as the center, spread out in all eight directions to intercept and escort the disciples! Whoever encounters him must report to me immediately!" "Today, I will kill him!"