Free Web NovelChapter 235: Chapter 224: The War Begins 6
Han Sanmian showed no mercy. Since they were now his enemies, it was best to eliminate them completely.
The power gathering at his fingertips grew stronger and more dazzling.
He raised his finger high.
"Devouring two at once will be a bit of a strain, but it’s your own fault for provoking me at a time like this."
In truth, suppressing Master Yunxia and Han Xiaoyue at the same time—especially Han Xiaoyue, with the extremely chaotic and violent consciousness within her—was a huge burden for him.
SWOOSH!
He abruptly swung his finger, slashing down toward Han Xiaoyue.
But in the next instant...
ROAR!!
Han Xiaoyue’s massive body suddenly vanished. It didn’t dodge or move—it exploded.
It completely shattered, blowing apart into hundreds of densely packed, grayish-white fragments.
Each fragment scattered into the surrounding air. In that moment, time seemed to freeze.
In mid-air, all the grayish-white fragments simultaneously sprouted vine-like spikes.
SCHLICK!!!
Hundreds of slender spikes pierced through Han Sanmian’s body like lightning, pinning him in mid-air.
SPLAT!
A massive amount of blood gushed from the holes in Han Sanmian’s body. He gradually reverted from his ultimate martial form back to his original human shape.
"You... are courting death!!!"
The next moment, the colorful crystal on his forehead once again erupted with a ring of rainbow-colored electrical arcs.
With a CRACK, the hundreds of body fragments Han Xiaoyue had split into were all pulverized, turning into white smoke.
Only a single piece landed on the ground, where it quickly melted and reformed into her human shape.
On the other side, Master Yunxia was also struck by the second wave of rainbow arcs. He convulsed violently and spat a huge mouthful of blood.
"Damn it!!" Han Sanmian’s face began to turn pale from excessive blood loss. He wasn’t angry about the blood gushing out, but the blood that Han Xiaoyue had just devoured!
This time, he was truly injured.
"Die!! You two insects!!"
For a third time, the colorful crystal on his forehead began to glow.
At that moment, Han Xiaoyue, having devoured some of his blood, snatched up Master Yunxia and flashed away to escape.
Freed from the temporal restriction, her speed returned to its original hundred-plus meters per second.
But in Han Sanmian’s eyes, this level of Body Technique was like watching something in slow motion.
"Go!" he commanded, his eyes glaring.
The colorful light contracted, condensed, and then erupted.
SHHIIINK!!!
Everything fell silent.
The expected explosion of rainbow arcs never came. Instead, a slender, silver blade pierced through his skull from behind, running him straight through the center of his colorful crystal.
Han Sanmian hovered blankly in mid-air, unable to move.
"When...? How!? Why... didn’t my Divine Decision... sense anything!?" He struggled, trying to turn his head to see who had ambushed him.
Even without its domain fully deployed, it should have been impossible for anyone to get this close to him without his Divine Decision sensing them.
After all, within a ten-kilometer radius, he could clearly perceive any disturbance, no matter how slight, through his Divine Decision. Even here in the Fog Area, where his sensory range was reduced to a tenth of its normal size, that still left a radius of one kilometer.
’Why... Why couldn’t I sense anything at all!?’
"That’s because I hadn’t arrived yet at the moment you were sensing for me," a hazy, indistinct voice spoke from behind Han Sanmian.
’Because he was too fast... does that mean... he crossed my entire sensory range in a single instant and appeared right in front of me!?’
Before Han Sanmian could process the thought, SHING, the Longsword was pulled free, taking a spray of blood with it.
A small sword hole now marked the center of his brow, and his body fell like a bird with a broken wing.
THUD!
He crashed into the sandy ground, creating a small crater. He was no longer breathing.
Lin Hui stood in mid-air, lightly flicking his Longsword.
"You’ve worked hard, Master Yunxia. And you too... Han Xiaoyue."
His expression was relaxed as he put away Ruyi.
Only then did Master Yunxia slowly recover from his stupor. He looked up at Lin Hui in the air, his body so limp he had no strength to break free from Han Xiaoyue’s grasp.
Han Xiaoyue’s head twisted a hundred and eighty degrees to look back at Lin Hui in the sky.
A trace of bewilderment flickered in her eyes.
For a moment, she didn’t recognize the man standing in mid-air as Lin Hui at all.
’I always suspected Lin Hui was hiding something, but for it to be this ridiculous? Killing a Blood Ancestor in one strike!?’
’I was just passing by and saw Master Yunxia getting beaten, so I stepped in to save him. I only did it because he’s one of Lin Hui’s people, a master from the same Qingfeng Dao camp.’
’But what’s happening now?’
’Wasn’t that guy Lin Hui just an Inner Power Martial Artist!?’
’He hasn’t even reached the Circulation realm; I confirmed that myself, multiple times.’
’Even though I can’t cultivate Martial Arts, I’m extremely familiar with the systems. And since we’re together day in and day out, there’s no way I could have been wrong about whether he was at the Circulation or Summoning realm.’
’But now...’
"Who are you!?" Han Xiaoyue stopped in her tracks, whirling around to stare at Lin Hui.
’There can only be one explanation. This Lin Hui isn’t the real Lin Hui.’
"Daoist Master, if you’d arrived any later... Miss Han might have been fine, but I definitely wouldn’t have lived to see another dawn..." Master Yunxia said weakly from within her arms.
"I was just waiting for the right moment," Lin Hui said with a faint smile.
"I’m just glad you made it in time, or this would have been a real disaster. Still, for the Moon Tower to lose an Elder... this is a major event, far beyond anything before..." Master Yunxia said, steadying himself as he landed.
"Who told you the Moon Tower lost an Elder?" Han Xiaoyue said gravely. "Don’t tell me you think a single blow like that could kill a Blood Ancestor?"
Hearing this, both Master Yunxia and Lin Hui paused, turning to look at where Han Sanmian had fallen.
The body was still there, motionless, showing no signs of activity.
Just as the two were about to ask again, suddenly, Lin Hui’s eyes narrowed as he looked up high into the sky.
There, in the mist hundreds of meters above the ground.
A mass of dark red blood was rapidly converging, coalescing, and forming a new humanoid body.
At the center of the body’s brow, a colorful crystal shone with a brilliant, dazzling rainbow light.
It was Han Sanmian!
"As long as my divine will is unextinguished, I am immortal!" Han Sanmian spread his arms, and the blood swirling around him condensed like ribbons into a set of black and red robes.
"However, that last strike of yours actually managed to damage a part of my divine will. That strange power... it decomposes everything, dissolves everything..." Han Sanmian’s gaze now fell upon Lin Hui.
That single strike still made his head ache.
If not for that, he would have reformed his body and gathered his power the instant after he was killed.
He wouldn’t have had to wait this long at all.
"So, we have to go for a second round?" Lin Hui said with a frown.
"To be precise, if you can’t completely crush his divine will, you’ll have to kill him at least a dozen times to destroy his fundamental structure and prevent him from reforming," Han Xiaoyue said gravely.
"What a pain," Lin Hui said.
"That’s why they’re called Blood Ancestors. A city only produces a dozen or so over a thousand years," Han Xiaoyue said with a sigh of resignation.
"You two go on ahead. I’ll handle things here." Lin Hui said no more, rising into the air to float opposite Han Sanmian.
’I’m someone who hates trouble, which is why I chose to launch a surprise attack while he was injured. I even used my Wind Disaster power to prevent him from faking his death.’
’And yet... even after being so cautious, aiming for the head and punching a hole straight through his forehead, I still couldn’t kill him.’
’This is ridiculous!’
"I was hoping for a chance to take it easy. Looks like I’ll have to fight a tough battle after all." He drew Ruyi again, holding it diagonally at his right side.
"No matter. We can treat this as an opportunity for me to learn the details of your growth," Han Sanmian said with a small smile. "It’s basic etiquette to understand the history and background of a dish before dining."
"You’re certainly confident," Lin Hui laughed as well.
"I am not confident, I am joyful," Han Sanmian said. "The thought that after today, that mysterious power of yours will belong to me forever... it fills my heart with delight..."
"Based on your performance so far? You’re still a long way from being able to ’dine’ on me," Lin Hui said coolly.
"Before, of course not. But you probably don’t know why we are revered as Blood Ancestors," Han Sanmian said.
"Why is that?"
"That is because," Han Sanmian smiled, "this current state, composed entirely of blood, is our true power!!"
"You talk too much," Lin Hui sighed. "I’m getting a little tired of this."
"Arrogant whelp!! Then let me devour you in one go—"
CLANG!!
In the next instant, Han Sanmian’s vision blurred. His body felt as if it were struck by lightning as a burst of silver light exploded in front of him, and he was sent flying backward like a cannonball.
’What is this speed!!?’
His expression changed drastically as he simultaneously deployed the domain of his Nine Layers Divine Decision.
SHHHHHHH!!
In an instant, the nine domains took control of the cognitive nerves of all life within a several-kilometer radius.
The nine domains: perception of time, distance, area, color, hardness, touch, speed, temperature, and texture.
The nine-layered domain instantly formed nine onion-like layers of gray, translucent film that enveloped the surroundings.
"Come! Everything you see will now—" Han Sanmian hadn’t even finished shouting when he saw a blue figure streaking toward him from the distance like a bolt of lightning.
All nine layers of the domain’s film were pierced one by one before the figure, popping like soap bubbles. There was no resistance whatsoever!
A distance of over a thousand meters was covered in the blink of an eye.
Han Sanmian was still in the recovery animation from deploying his domain, with no time to react at all.
SPLAT!
The second time.
Lin Hui’s sword pierced the colorful crystal on Han Sanmian’s brow, ran through his head, and then, with a casual flick, lopped it off.
The head was sliced in two and fell.
His long hair had completely transformed into translucent blue conduits of wind disaster. A faint colorful light flickered on his brow. Behind him floated three golden, distorted characters.
With no hesitation or delay, he had activated his Qingyuan Body on the spot, combined the Three Seals, and unleashed terrifying speed to instantly finish Han Sanmian once again.
Pitted against his Wind Disaster Affinity, the Divine Decision’s domain was instantly pierced and decomposed, its cognitive modifications completely nullified.
"Damn you!!!"
For a third time, Han Sanmian’s body fell from another point high in the sky. While still in mid-air, he unfurled his ultimate martial form. Three heads and six arms appeared, his True Power erupted, and his crystal unleashed arcs of divine will. Holding nothing back, he lunged at Lin Hui.
"The weak always think anger will increase their chances of victory."
Lin Hui had already raised his Longsword horizontally, a bright blue light shining in his eyes.
His Typhoon Swordsmanship was now fully unleashed.
The mist above them churned, rapidly coalescing into a massive, slowly rotating vortex.
An immense, heavy pressure instantly yanked down on Han Sanmian’s lunging body, causing his speed to plummet by more than half.
His body and even the crystal on his brow were suppressed by this heavy, fate-like pressure, becoming sluggish and dim.
"This is...!?" Han Sanmian’s expression changed dramatically. "’Taking heaven as one’s will! The heart of heaven is my heart!’ No, that’s not it! This is...!?"
How could his personal divine will possibly compare to the will of the heavens, drawn down by the Typhoon Swordsmanship?
With a single surge of pressure, the rainbow-colored electrical arcs were extinguished in the blink of an eye.
"Farewell." Lin Hui’s figure slowly vanished from his spot.
SHHIIINK!!
In less than a second, streaks of silver sword light frantically pierced through Han Sanmian’s body hundreds of times.
There was no person to be seen, only the flashing of light.
