"Deacon Tianxiong, when we entered the city today, I seemed to hear the sound of firecrackers, gongs, and drums—sounded like someone holding a wedding. I sent a spiritual insect to follow them and noted down the address. Deacon Tianxiong, would you like us junior brothers to accompany you tonight to practice some Dao arts?" a disciple of the Black Mountain Sect asked fawningly.
Hearing this, Chu Tianxiong broke into a satisfied smile. "Liu Wei, was it? You know how to get things done; I'll keep you in mind. When we cultivate tonight, I'll let you have the first taste of that bride."
The crowd erupted in raucous laughter.
Yet, remembering something, a vicious look surfaced on Chu Tianxiong's face. "That eldest disciple of Seven Colors Peak, Qi Yuan, truly went too far today! If he didn't have a good master, I would have made him understand what a calamity of bloodshed and a living hell really mean!"
"Deacon Tianxiong, I've heard that Qi Yuan has something wrong with his head. Why bother stooping to the level of a fool, Senior Brother? Once we unify the Great Shang cultivation world, you can treat that idiot however you please."
The night gradually deepened.
Right then, a rhythmic knocking suddenly came from the front gate.
The Black Mountain Sect members in the courtyard ceased their chatter.
Chu Tianxiong looked toward the front gate and said, "Liu Wei, go check."
Liu Wei rose and walked to the gate.
When he pulled the door open, a masked man appeared in everyone's sight.
The mask was exceedingly crude, completely flat without so much as the outline of facial features.
Seeing the visitor, a mocking glint appeared in Liu Wei's eyes. "What are you doing here?"
The masked man drew a kitchen cleaver. Speaking slowly in a slightly raspy voice, he said, "I'm a bit hungry. Planning to kill some fish to eat."
"A lunatic?" Liu Wei was taken aback.
Noticing what was happening at the gate, Chu Tianxiong called out, "There are fish in the pond. Let him in."
Liu Wei chuckled. "Deacon Tianxiong is being charitable—he's bestowing a fish for you to eat."
Inside the courtyard, someone asked, "Deacon Tianxiong, why let him in?"
Chu Tianxiong replied, "It's boring staying here; might as well find some amusement. The guy is raving mad, but his skin... is quite fair."
They were bold and powerful, not at all worried about running into trouble they couldn't handle. Furthermore, they detected no dangerous aura on the masked man.
Cleaver in hand, the masked man stepped into the courtyard.
Patriarch Baiji was cultivating in the inner courtyard, while the rest looked upon the masked man with mocking expressions.
Once the masked man walked up before them, Chu Tianxiong suddenly called out, "Take off that mask. Let me see what you look like."
The masked man paused. After a long moment, he spoke, sounding very hesitant: "Do you really want to see?"
"Haha, what, you won't show us? Don't tell me you're hideously ugly?"
"If you're ugly, I'll give you a brand-new face!"
The Black Mountain Sect members laughed uproariously, looking thoroughly sinister under the moonlight.
"Sigh. Before I put on this mask today, I told myself that anyone who sees my face will meet a bad end."
"What kind of bad end? Tell me, let's hear it!" Chu Tianxiong sneered.
However, right at that moment, something nobody anticipated occurred.
The masked man raised his cleaver.
A flash of white light streaked past, far too fast for anyone to react.
Chu Tianxiong's massive head fell directly to the ground.
The grin was still frozen on his face, fixed in that very instant.
Everyone present was stunned.
It had happened too fast, too abruptly.
Looking at Chu Tianxiong's fine severed head, the masked man remarked thoughtfully, "So your calamity of bloodshed was destined to come from me. Crossing paths with me was your catastrophe. If there's a next life, reincarnate as an ant. I'm kindhearted—I never scald ant nests with hot water."
The others were dazed, furious, and appalled.
"Deacon Tianxiong!"
"Insolence!"
"Treacherous scoundrel!"
Though terror gripped their hearts, the disciples quickly recovered their wits and lashed out at the masked man together.
Seeing this, an easygoing smile appeared in the masked man's eyes. "Monsters in games don't have health bars, and you don't have health bars either. What's the difference between you and mobs?"
"Oh, wait, there is a difference."
"You scream, so I don't have to voice it myself."
"Indeed, heaven gave me talent, surely to be put to use; every one of you shrieks in pain right on cue!"
"It rhymed! I'm truly a genius!"
Amid everyone's bewilderment, confusion, terror, and towering fury, he wielded his kitchen cleaver like the most graceful of dancers.
The blade rose and fell.
Wildly hacking in the Summer Eight style.
"Ahhh!"
"Run!"
"Who the hell are you?!"
In the blink of an eye, the majority of the Black Mountain Sect disciples present were dead.
Only four or five remained, shivering violently.
Right then, an exasperated, furious roar echoed from the inner courtyard.
"Audacious mongrel!"
Patriarch Baiji, who had been cultivating, finally stirred and took action.
Seeing this, the surviving Black Mountain Sect disciples beamed with the joyful surprise of having cheated death.
Terrifying as this masked man was, he was definitely not a Golden Core!
With Patriarch Baiji's thunderous roar, a beam of core light shot toward the masked man.
Seeing this, the masked man hefted his kitchen cleaver and roared at the top of his lungs, "Heaven-Cleaving Sword-Drawing Technique!"
This was his very first time unleashing this ultimate skill in reality!
A tough mark—gotta pop the ult.
He leaped into the air, moonlight cascading over his white robe.
The outline tracing his figure faintly glowed with white light. His entire silhouette appeared ethereal, with only the glowing contour looking exceptionally solid.
In Patriarch Baiji's eyes, it was as if a kitchen cleaver had slashed out from the moon itself.
A boundless, unimaginable wave of blade light surged straight toward Patriarch Baiji.
For some reason, an expression of terror actually surfaced on Patriarch Baiji's face.
One had to know, he was an Origin Core cultivator!
The other party... was definitely below Origin Core.
Crushing everything in its path, the blade light instantly engulfed Patriarch Baiji's core light.
In the very next instant, that blade light sliced straight through, shattering Patriarch Baiji's protective core light as well.
Patriarch Baiji, who had stepped out in such magnificent splendor, was slain by a single strike.
His round Golden Core shattered into a tiny, pitted sphere riddled with countless holes at that very moment.
The masked man paused, dumbfounded. "That's it?"
He knew he would win, but he hadn't expected it to be so effortless.
Perhaps he was simply too strong.
Perhaps his knife was rather good.
Or perhaps...
Looking at the tiny Golden Core on the ground, he murmured, "His Golden Core was too small, and his core light was pathetic—couldn't even take one hit from me. Seems when I form a core in the future, I'll need to form a bigger one, and with a lot more core light."
As he spoke, he looked up at the moon in the sky.
"At the very least, my core light has to be as abundant as the moonlight, right?"
Meanwhile, the few remaining stragglers trembled incessantly, some attempting to flee straight away.
Seeing them, the masked man chanted, "I'm Homelander, and wiping out whole families is what I love best!"
With that, he cleaved out with his blade, leaving those few stragglers dead as can be.
Looking at the corpses littering the ground, the masked man walked slowly toward the pond.
"Time to catch a fish and head back for a meal."
Saying this, he rolled up his pant legs, washed the kitchen cleaver clean by the water's edge, and caught a snakehead.
Chapter 30