So What If I'm Here? Can You Kill Me?

As the radiance emanating from the King Seal grew ever more intense, Qisha's aura began to climb with it. He knew that if he did not stake his very life now, he would never last until Li Guanqi and the others arrived. Yet the moment he killed the man, Qisha did not press his advantage. Instead, he fled at top speed!! *Whoosh!!* By now, Qisha's speed was astonishingly fast. Though shocked, Liu Xiong and the others remained hot on his heels. "Be careful! Don't get too close to him!" "With his current strength, he won't be able to maintain the Seven Kills King Seal for long. All we need to do is wear him down." Qisha sped through the air, his gaze flickering as his vitality was rapidly devoured by the King Seal. Liu Xiong was right; as long as they bided their time and stalled, his defeat was absolute. Yet... Qisha had never intended to slaughter all of them. All he needed to do was reach Ziyun Pass as fast as he possibly could!!! Liu Xiong's group fanned out in an encirclement, trailing Qisha from a distance. The moment Qisha withdrew the power of the King Seal, the surrounding assassins would charge forward without hesitation to wound him. As a result, Qisha was forced to ensure he remained a constant threat at all times, keeping the King Seal's power active. A hundred li from Ziyun Pass, Qisha had pushed himself to the absolute limit. There were even moments along the way when he nearly gave up. "Captain, the other two squads are in position, forty li away from us." Liu Xiong's eyes flickered. Glancing up at the fleeing silhouette in the distance, he sneered, "It's time to end this." With a wave of his broad hand, the surrounding assassins lunged toward Qisha in an instant!!! Seeing them come, Qisha forcibly mustered his immortal essence and slashed his blade out!!! Empowered by Heart Slay, those three slashes instantly inflicted severe injuries on one of the black-robed men. Yet he was powerless to ward off the remaining attacks. Though he raised his blade to parry, he was blasted back, fresh wounds torn into his flesh so deep that bone showed through. Just as Liu Xiong felt victory was assured, he noticed that every wound Qisha sustained had somehow avoided a vital point. What was more, every time he took a hit, he used the force of their blows to propel himself away even faster!! Those eyes, tranquil as still water, held not the slightest tremor of emotion—as though the wounded body were not his own. With every passing breath, he was calculating everyone's moves!! Realizing this, Liu Xiong decided to wait no longer. By his estimation of the time, the other two squads would be more than enough to encircle Li Guanqi and Han Feng. The short blades at Liu Xiong's waist flew into the air. Clasping both grips, the man vanished on the spot!!! With his back turned, Qisha suddenly felt a suffocating murderous aura that made every hair on his body stand on end. Without time to think, he whipped his blade around in a reverse strike toward the man!!! *Clang!!!* Liu Xiong blocked before his chest with both short blades, yet the glowing blade beam of Heart Slay actually phased through the blades and slashed toward him!! Liu Xiong truly was a top assassin of the Heavenly Immortal realm. At the very instant that illusory blade beam reached him, he pulled back his blades and twisted sideways to evade!! The short blade in his left hand shot into the air. Twisting mid-evasion, Liu Xiong spun aloft and unleashed a vicious whip kick with his right leg!! *Bang!!* His foot slammed against the pommel of the short blade, sending it shooting forward like a missile to instantly pierce straight through Qisha's shoulder! The terrifying force hurled Qisha's body backward, pinning him firmly to an ancient tree in the distance. Qisha flew diagonally through the air, his back slamming into the ancient tree and blasting a deep crater into the trunk. Blood gushed from his mouth, his internal organs feeling shattered by the concussive force. Reversing his grip, he yanked the short blade from his shoulder with his left hand. But in the next breath, a chilling blade light flashed before him!!! Qisha glared fiercely, hurling the short blade he had just ripped from his shoulder with his left hand as he ducked low!! He plunged his long blade into the ancient tree and slid downward in rapid descent. A flash of blade light passed, slicing an entire swath of ancient trees behind him in two at the waist. Liu Xiong tilted his head slightly and reached out, catching his short blade in his hand. "You're still a bit too green." Two thin steel wires then extended from his wrists and latched onto the pommels of his short blades... Witnessing this, Qisha's pupils constricted!! Every assassin captain in Xutian Palace possessed their own lethal mastery. And Liu Xiong's most famous technique was wielding dual short blades attached to steel wire! A long saber was unsuited to his methods, while daggers lacked the reach he favored in combat, making these short blades the ideal weapon for him. Liu Xiong's expression turned slightly feral and excited as both short blades flew from his hands in an instant. The short blades blasted outward like concealed throwing daggers, moving at blinding speed. Wind roared past Qisha's ears. With no time to think, he slashed twice in reverse, barely managing to hit the blades and deflect them away. Yet he did not dare let down his guard for a second. The deflected blades whipped back along an uncanny trajectory, striking again!! In the distance, Liu Xiong flicked his wrists. The steel wires snapped in an arc, causing the deflected blades to reverse direction instantly and hurtle back toward Qisha!! Qisha could only flee while struggling desperately to defend himself. Under these circumstances, he did not dare activate the power of the Blade Husk. Even if he managed to escape, the secret would be exposed. Liu Xiong was exceedingly swift, tugging and snapping the steel wires faster and faster. The short blades tore through the air, their attack speed more than double what it had been when he wielded them directly!! *Clang!!!* Qisha slashed his blade against a wire, yet not even a nick was left on it. Instead, the short blade that had just swept past snapped right back because of the collision!! Qisha arched backward, but the edge of the blade sliced away a piece of flesh from the tip of his nose. Before he could react, the other short blade thrust upward violently from below!! *Squelch!!* The blade plunged through Qisha's abdomen, and with a vicious jerk, tore open a gaping wound a palm-span wide. Qisha's face was deathly pale, his lips chapped and peeling, and his bloodshot eyes were losing focus. He looked up at the darkening sky, not knowing how much longer he could hold out... Ziyun Pass. Around the mountain pass, peaks towered on all sides, with sheer precipices rising thousands of fathoms high, like cliffs carved by a giant blade! A biting, desolate chill hung over the land. Another half an incense stick of time passed, and a blood-drenched Qisha was hurled out of the dense forest. His body flew backward like a cannonball!! *Boom! Boom!!* Boulders shattered as he smashed through several massive rocks before finally coming to a halt. *Thud! Thud!!* Two dull thuds rang out. Qisha's shoulder blades were impaled by the two short blades, pinning him ruthlessly against a pale-white boulder!! The blades bit deep into the stone. By now, Qisha's body was riddled with wounds. His flesh had been hacked apart, exposing ghastly white bone beneath. *Swish! Swish! Swish!* One black-robed figure after another appeared in midair. Liu Xiong looked down at Qisha with an amused gaze. "If you hadn't betrayed Xutian Palace, it's hard to imagine what terrifying heights you might have reached in the future. "What a pity..." The man grabbed the head of the utterly spent Qisha, gazing at the crisscrossing scars on his face, and murmured, "What a pity... from the moment one soaks in the Death Pool, no one ever leaves Xutian Palace!" With those words, Liu Xiong felt the time was right. With a snap of his hand, he wrenched free one of the short blades and brought it sweeping down toward Qisha's neck!!! Feeling the sharp blade qi shearing through the void, the scene before Qisha's eyes seemed to slow down. Yet he had not an ounce of strength left to lift a hand in resistance. *I'm so unwilling to die like this...* *Just a little more.* His eyelids grew heavier and heavier, slipping shut despite himself. Yet at the very instant his eyes were about to close, the deafening roar of thunder shattered the air beside his ears!!! A crimson sword descended from the heavens!!!!! *CLANG!!!!!* The sword shattered the short blade in a single blow, its terrifying sword intent interposing itself between the two men!!! Silver light flashed upon Qisha's back, and a ferocious mask appeared before Qisha's eyes. Liu Xiong's pupils shrank to needlepoints, staring at the sight before him in utter disbelief!! "How could he be so fast?! This is... the fluctuation of an inscribed talisman!!" Between them, an inscribed talisman materialized out of thin air, its burning ashes drifting lazily. Li Guanqi looked upon the mortally wounded Qisha, cold killing intent glinting in his eyes. His left hand gripped Red Lotus, while his right hand made a grasping motion, instantly transferring Qisha into the Xumi Treasure Hall. "Pengluo, keep him alive!" "You got it!" *Buzz!!!!!!* "Qisha!!!" Lin Wujiu shot forward at breakneck speed, appearing in the distance accompanied by three Heavenly Immortals with every bounding leap. Liu Xiong gripped his remaining short blade tightly, his gaze turning grave to the extreme as he stared at Li Guanqi. "You're finally here." Standing with sword in hand, Li Guanqi looked down at Liu Xiong with proud disdain, completely ignoring the surrounding black-robed men. "So what if I'm here? "Can you kill me?"