Blood.
A lot of it that it looked like it created a river in the cavern.
Standing among the numerous corpses of the Demonic Cultivators he had slain, Xi Shen looked like a vicious beast that had disguised himself as a prey to lure in a pack of eager and bloodthirsty wolves.
The savagery and brutality that was prominent in the Demonic Cultivators' eyes as they rushed at Xi Shen were replaced with terror and fear. In their eyes, this masked man that called himself the Faceless Hero was no longer a cornered prey, but a path that would lead them straight to meet King Yama in the underworld.
These Demonic Cultivators were people who weren’t new to the brutality of the cultivation world and hadn’t seen a small amount of bloodshed.
But as the spotless Xi Shen stood among the corpse of their dead companions, a shiver went down their spines and made their scalps tingle.
They were at the back of the group that rushed to Xi Shen, and they cursed in their hearts that they couldn’t have reached Xi Shen first to tear him apart themselves. But as they saw everyone in front of them being beheaded one by one by blinding blue flashes, their advances towards this reaper of death slowed down until they eventually come to a stop. Now they were slowly backing away, unwilling to get closer, it really felt as if they were only throwing their lives away if they approach Xi Shen.
His ability to kill them in droves was what got them more horror stricken than anything else. His strange Magic to conjure numerous Sword Qi and attack them was incomprehensible to them.
The attacks that came from behind him were completely halted when a Sword Qi beheaded that person before he could even approach five meters of him.
Those five meters seemed like a Domain that would bring death to anyone who entered it.
This masked man, despite being in the Sea Expansion Realm, was cutting down people of similar cultivation base like he was stepping on ants.
*Step*
Xi Shen took a step forward for the first time since the swarm of attacks, and the twenty or so Demonic Cultivators who had preserved their lives frighteningly took five steps back.
The burly man who had casually gone back to his seat to finish his tea, was already back at the edge of the Pavilion, looking at Xi Shen walking among the corpses of his subordinates.
The massacre had happened in the blink of an eye. Causing even him to be in disbelief at Xi Shen’s prowess.
“Wh-who is this person? Isn’t he only a cultivator in the Sea Expansion Realm?! How can he be so powerful? And what is that strange Daoist Magic, how can he create Sword Qi from thin air?! Isn’t that the only possible for someone in the Core Formation Realm, no, even then the amount this person can create is way too exaggerated!”
The Crown Prince who was keeping out of sight said in shock. He might only be a Crown Prince from a somewhat low-level City, but even he know what this masked person was capable of with his cultivation level was simply monstrous by normal cultivation standards.
The burly man's eyes narrowed into slits. Then, he slowly floated out of the Pavilion.
Down below, Xi Shen didn't take notice of his presence and simply gestured towards the twenty-four remaining Demonic Cultivators.
Seeing this, the twenty-four Demonic Cultivators cry out in a panic.
“Boss!! Help us!!”
They pleaded to the burly Core Formation Realm expert, but he didn't even look at them and only focused on Xi Shen using his ability.
Twenty-four Sword Qi materialize in mid-air, and the Demonic Cultivators immediately began retreating, heading for the various passages. However, all the twenty-four Sword Qi split up, and as if they had a mind of their own, stabbed into all of their heads killing them.
The burly man looked at his dead subordinates, but more specifically the Sword Qi which was beginning to dissipate after killing them.
After examining that, he snorted and said, “A bunch of useless fools. A hundred of you and you couldn’t even kill one person. Instead of fighting till the end and doing everything to kill him you instead tried to escape, what a disgrace to the Demonic Cult.”
His body then floated towards Xi Shen who had halted his steps.
Coming to a stop in front of Xi Shen, the burly man looked down at him and said, “It seems the Righteous Faction have produced another top genius. State your Martial Background. I have heard of all the top talents of the Righteous Faction but I never heard of you before. Are you from one of the Seven Major Clans, or the Academy Alliance, speak!”
Hearing this person’s demanding tone, Xi Shen only said, “Why should I tell you?”
Sneering at this, the burly man said, “I want to know the identity of which brat I’m going to kill. I can report it to my superiors and receive a hefty sum. As for me killing a top genius, all gloves are off in situations like these.”
After saying that the burly man charged down at Xi Shen.
Waving his hands, Xi Shen conjured twelve broadsword Qi which shot out at fast speeds at the burly man.
But upon reaching him, the burly man only waved his hand in a sweeping motion and destroy them all in an instant.
“Your Daoist Magic is powerful against cultivators in the same Realm as you since it allows you to create numerous Sword Qi endlessly. But they lack a stable structure because of their fast creation. Against Core Formation Fleshly body practitioner, your Daoist Magic is useless!!”
Smiling viciously, the burly man once again shot towards Xi Shen as quickly as he could.
“Blame your bad luck of encountering someone like me. Now DIE!!”
Expression complete fill with murderous intent, the burly man’s figure appeared in front of Xi Shen not giving him any time to retreat and conjure more Sword Qi.
An insurmountable pressure was felt on Xi Shen’s shoulders as this man bare down on him.
When the burly man’s fist came into a five meters space around Xi Shen, three Sword Qi instantly formed and slashed at the burly man.
However, they easily shattered and his fist continued towards Xi Shen’s head, wanting to completely obliterate it.
The burly man sneered in his heart when he saw Xi Shen’s last defenses were this weak. Xi Shen was obviously a long range attacker base on the fighting style he had observed. The burly man concluded that this person was too reliant on the power of his Daoist Magic and had developed a weakness to close combat skills given his lack of body build.
‘You Righteous Bigots trained your genius to rely on techniques and spells instead of training their physical combat skills. Now, look how your blunder is going to cost the life of this promising genius, haha!’
The burly man laughed in his heart as the image of Xi Shen's head exploding into brain matter appeared in his mind.
He prepared to have Xi Shen try and retreat like he knew he would, but…
“….??!!!”
Instead of retreating to attack at long range as he thought, the burly man saw Xi Shen getting into a horse stance and sending out a fist to meet his own.
Seeing this, the burly man was completely taken aback, but his fist didn’t lose momentum as he met Xi Shen’s own.
‘This is absurd! Trying to compete in strength when you look like a twig I can snap in half!!’
The burly man thought Xi Shen had gone mad in the face of death, but as his fist met Xi Shen’s, he saw Xi Shen’s body tremble for a moment, however, aside from his hand being nudged back a bit by his fist, nothing further happened to him, instead, a tremor suddenly ran through his arm and body that shook his organs intensely.
After coughing out a mouth full of blood, he was knocked out of the air, sent hurtling onto the ground, and rolled a few meters away.
Beneath Xi Shen’s feet, the ground suddenly started to crack and spider-web-like fissures spread out several meters around him.
The burly man rose from the ground and looked at Xi Shen. His arm was trembling and it was completely numb.
“You-you…”
In his shock, the burly man stutter out but Xi Shen's figure moved forward before he could finish.
Xi Shen sent out his fist towards the burly man’s abdomen. The burly man upon seeing Xi Shen taking the offensive gritted his teeth and became furious.
Shrugging off his shock from before, his aura of an early Core Formation Realm expert erupted from his body, and his muscles expanded before they tensed as he raised his hand to clash against Xi Shen once again.
Demonic Qi was swirling around his body and feeling the power coursing through his flesh and bones, he confidently met Xi Shen’s fist.
But once again the scene that previously happened, occurred again, however, the tremor that ran through his arm this time was stronger and it shattered the bones in his arm completely.
‘Thi-this is impossible! Why is this Sea Expansion Realm brat's physical strength so great?!!’
The burly man couldn’t understand what was going on.
Xi Shen struck out with his fist again, and the burly man's instincts told him to avoid a head-on collision.
His remaining hand parried Xi Shen’s fist, and side step, but he realized he had stepped into an unfavorable position where Xi Shen could send a direct kick to his abdomen. He braced himself for the kick but realized it never came
Xi Shen’s feet were planted firmly on the ground as he sent out another fist that the burly man blocked, but stumbled back from the heavy force.
Xi Shen’s fist attacks made him feel like he was being bombarded by a heavy boulder. Especially when he clashed head-on with him, at that time, he felt as if his fist was slamming against an immovable mountain made of Tungsten metal.
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