Dharma Artifact

When Yaoguang broke into Shangguan Jinlong's study, the Spirit Intent Martial Saint did not hesitate for a fraction of a second, firing seven shots in rapid succession. The ruthlessness and decisiveness of a man in power were displayed to the utmost in him. Moreover, the bullets in his handgun were clearly forged from specialized materials, boasting power far beyond ordinary firearms. Even though Yaoguang was currently clad in a 5S-class combat suit, he still had no intention of taking them head-on. With several quick shifts of his body, six of the bullets grazed past him and struck empty air, leaving only one that was unavoidable... The Shenying Sword slashed straight out. As it turned out, his guess was right. *Bang!* The moment Yaoguang tracked the trajectory and angle of Shangguan Jinlong's aim and struck the bullet dead-on with his sword, the high-energy explosive packed inside detonated immediately, unleashing a dazzling burst of flame mingled with blinding, intense light. In an instant, it was as if a flashbang had gone off inside the study. The searing brilliance made it impossible to look directly ahead. Almost the very instant his vision went white, the sound of tearing air rushed toward him. Yaoguang shifted his stance aside. Yet the perilous aura that swept in right behind immediately made him realize the truth. A feint. The first sound of tearing air had merely been a distraction. The moment he shifted aside, a tempest of ferocious power crashed forward, carrying a terrifying, murderous malice. Shangguan Jinlong... He had actually seized the moment when Yaoguang was disoriented by the flash to launch a head-on counterattack. Martial artists always held firm to the belief that the most formidable weapon in the world was themselves. As a Spirit Intent Martial Saint, Shangguan Jinlong was naturally no exception. Thus, upon being abruptly ambushed, rather than choosing to flee immediately and summon the other experts of his clan to surround and butcher Yaoguang, he had charged straight into danger, intending to rely on his own immense might to slay the arrogant assassin on the spot. This alone demonstrated how absolute Shangguan Jinlong's confidence in his own strength was. Unfortunately... Even an expert as mighty as Yaoguang knew well that the best swimmers often drowned, yet Shangguan Jinlong was so conceited that he believed his might was sufficient to dominate everyone, barring the select few in Chixing and Xuelong. As such, he could not fathom that someone could use a secret technique to construct a mental map—a memory palace—within their mind, perceiving every subtle shift and movement of the figures around them with flawless precision. Charging straight ahead, Shangguan Jinlong pushed his force to the absolute peak through his combat technique, throwing a world-shattering strike aimed squarely at Yaoguang's skull. Yet the Shenying Sword in Yaoguang's hand locked onto his body with unmatched accuracy, and at an even faster speed. With a thrusting strike, the razor-sharp blade tore through the airflow at blinding speed, kicking up a visible white sword-qi from the tip that roared as it pierced straight toward Shangguan Jinlong's form. An extra inch of length meant an extra inch of dominance! Wielding a sword, Yaoguang's attack range was clearly far greater than that of Shangguan Jinlong, who was lunging in with his bare fists. If Shangguan Jinlong did not dodge, by the time his punch smashed Yaoguang's head, Yaoguang's blade would have already skewered his body, ending his life on the spot. Thoughts raced through his mind, yet Shangguan Jinlong did not retreat. Instead, he deployed an exquisite movement technique, drifting like a falling leaf that seemed to be lifted by the gust of Yaoguang's sword-wind, weaving alongside the sweep of the blade. At the same time, he stepped forward, taking the risk to surge ahead as his force erupted, clearly intending to rely on close-quarters infighting to finish Yaoguang with a single lethal blow. This style of fighting... It did not look like that of a clan head, but rather a desperate outlaw who relished taking deadly gambles. *Buzz, buzz!* The blade thrusting through empty air trembled sharply, emitting a ringing chime before instantly sweeping horizontally in pursuit of Shangguan Jinlong's evasive form. At the same time, Yaoguang turned his left fist into a palm, thrusting it out head-on to intercept the punch crashing toward his skull. Dan jin erupted! *Boom!* Two identical forces of dan jin collided in midair, ringing out like muffled thunder. The terrifying shockwave instantly shattered the fragile glassware and porcelain across the study into powder, scattering debris all over the floor. Amidst the flying shards, Shangguan Jinlong's expression changed instantly. His punch had gathered momentum like a thunderbolt. Even though he had shifted his angle slightly to dodge Yaoguang's blade, causing a microscopic hitch in the flow of his force, the sheer might packed into this blow was still not something any Martial Saint—or even an expert of the Divine Realm—could withstand. Yet when his fist truly clashed against Yaoguang's palm, he clearly felt a surge of force that seemed slightly stronger than his own. It drove through his fist, surged up his arm, and invaded his body like an electric shock. Though not devastating enough to inflict fatal damage, this force interfered with the circulation of his internal energy and blood with pinpoint accuracy, leaving half his body slightly numb. "This method?! The Rebirth Society?!" Shangguan Jinlong's expression warped in horror. In the next instant, the sweeping blade seized the opening while his body was paralyzed and slashed ferociously toward his neck, the sheer force carried within it threatening to decapitate him in one clean stroke. Yet just as the sword was about to sever his head from his shoulders, a halo of blue light erupted from his person, forcibly blasting away the Shenying Sword as it struck him. Taking advantage of this reprieve, Shangguan Jinlong ignited his blood and vitality, dispersing the numbness lingering in his body. He retreated at full speed, bellowing at the top of his lungs, "Assassin!" "A repulsion shield?" Yaoguang instantly deduced what the blue radiance was. A defensive dharma artifact. The reason Chixing's Martial Saints were a notch above those of other nations was not just their combat techniques and experience, but most importantly, their array of advanced equipment. Equipped with such advanced gear, Chixing Martial Saints frequently managed to fight two Martial Saints from other nations at once. As the head of the Shangguan clan, one of Chixing's twelve great noble families, Shangguan Jinlong naturally possessed even higher-grade equipment, making it entirely reasonable for him to carry such a life-saving defensive treasure. *Swoosh!* The blade trembled, and the force under Yaoguang's feet erupted once more. Aligning his body parallel with the Shenying Sword, man and sword merged as one, shooting forth like an arrow loosed from a bowstring. As he lunged toward Shangguan Jinlong, he unleashed the Star Ignition secret technique. In an instant, his already blinding speed surged drastically, closing the distance to Shangguan Jinlong in a heartbeat. The razor-sharp edge brought with it a soul-chilling frost that left Shangguan Jinlong no time to react. "Ah!" Balanced on the brink of life and death, the Spirit Intent Martial Saint of the Shangguan family displayed peerless savagery. His eyes locked onto Yaoguang as the blood and vitality throughout his entire body fully erupted, causing his frame to swell and expand slightly. A punch packing force seemingly surpassing the peak of a Martial Saint and rivaling a Heavenly Being crashed outward. The moment the fist was unleashed, Yaoguang seemed to see a towering mountain collapsing downward, with countless boulders weighing hundreds, thousands, and tens of thousands of tons rolling down with the crumbling peaks, threatening to grind him to dust beneath the mountainside. This was... Fist intent?! A fist intent derived from pushing spirit intent to the ultimate peak! This kind of fist intent was not merely a simple spirit intent strike, but had already evolved to the level of a spirit intent secret technique. Just like Yaoguang's Great Sun Spirit-Suppressing Diagram. Facing such a technique aimed directly at their spirit intent, even a Grandmaster or Martial Saint—and indeed, even a Spirit Intent Martial Saint—would inevitably falter in mind and expose a flaw. However... Though Yaoguang's spirit intent was not exceptionally deep, he was still an authentic Spirit Intent Martial Saint through and through. Furthermore, he possessed a defensive spirit intent secret technique like the Great Sun Spirit-Suppressing Diagram. Shangguan Jinlong's mountain-collapsing fist intent was scattered on the spot by the brilliant majesty of the Great Sun Spirit-Suppressing Diagram. Not only did it fail to slow Yaoguang's sword in the slightest, but Shangguan Jinlong suffered a backlash from the Great Sun Spirit-Suppressing Diagram itself. He felt as though he had plummeted into a flaming purgatory, his soul scorched by boundless flames. "No!" Amidst a scream of terror and despair, his throat was skewered by the Shenying Sword. With a tremor of the blade, the head of the Shangguan aristocratic family's Spirit Intent Martial Saint was cleanly severed. The dying shriek cut off abruptly. "Clan Head!" Only now did furious shouts erupt from outside. Yaoguang sensed his surroundings for a brief moment, discerning that another Martial Saint was rushing toward the scene at high speed. However... Considering that he needed to leave these Martial Saints alive to foster internal strife within the Shangguan family, Yaoguang did not plan to slaughter every single person who rushed over. He pulled out his phone and snapped a photo for Shangguan Xiong. After quickly taking a few shots, his ears twitched, his frame wheeled about, and his sword shot forth like a dragon. Right at that moment, two Grandmaster-level experts burst into the study. Before they could clearly take in the scene inside, the Shenying Sword trailed phantom afterimages as it struck like lightning. Even though the two Grandmasters possessed lightning reflexes and physical bodies honed to the human limit, Yaoguang's blade was simply too fast. It was so fast that even with their focus strained to twelve-tenths, they could not clearly track it at first glance. The blade pierced through one Grandmaster's throat in an instant, its momentum unchecked as it swept toward the other. The second Grandmaster finally reacted. Letting out a low roar, his combat saber flashed in an arc, slashing toward Yaoguang's blade. Meanwhile, in his other hand... He held a gun. It was the exact same custom-made handgun Shangguan Jinlong had used. Clearly, the moment his saber parried Yaoguang's sword, what awaited the intruder was point-blank gunfire from this Grandmaster. At a distance of less than a meter, no matter how fast a Martial Saint's reflexes were, dodging a firearm would be nearly impossible. Even if Yaoguang killed the Grandmaster, the man's reflexive pull of the trigger would still drag Yaoguang down with him. Unfortunately... His plan was brilliant in theory. Yet at the very start of its execution, it went awry. His saber struck empty air. He believed he had tracked the path of Yaoguang's thrust, but in truth, that fleeting glimpse had captured nothing more than an afterimage left behind by the Shenying Sword. The moment his saber missed and he raised the handgun once more, the world around him spun violently, and his field of vision seemed to take flight... Faintly, he caught sight of a cold blade severing a body's head before sweeping through his rising arm without losing momentum, cleaving the limb holding the gun straight off through the air. At that moment, understanding finally dawned on him. *That's... my body...* ... *Thud.* The sound of the head hitting the carpet coincided with Yaoguang catching the handgun. Yaoguang examined the weapon. Having undergone firearms training, he quickly judged that while the gun looked unremarkable, its power was formidable. It was likely capable of blasting apart a Martial Saint's body. "Nice gun." He claimed the weapon directly as a trophy of war. Next, he patted down the Grandmaster's corpse and found three specialized magazines. Every single bullet bore marks of meticulous craftsmanship. Stowing the items away, he searched Shangguan Jinlong's body and retrieved a jade pendant. The moment the jade pendant touched his palm, his [Merchant] experience immediately surged, proving its extraordinary value. Nine times out of ten, this was the defensive dharma artifact Shangguan Jinlong had carried. Listening to the clamor drawing closer outside, Yaoguang stowed his gains, having no time for a thorough search. Glancing toward the window, he leaped into the air and crashed through the glass. Before the Shangguan family's elites could complete their encirclement, he vanished into the night.