“I can hand it over, but to whom?” the middle-aged man said while fighting.
He was clearly trying to trick them into turning on each other or at least sow suspicion.
He knew none of them were fools and would not trust his words easily, but it might make them wary and test this newcomer.
Lin Xiao did not reply. He charged straight into the fray, seized the opening, and swung his black profound iron staff down heavily on the man.
The middle-aged man snorted coldly and raised his broadsword to block.
Clang!
A loud metallic clash rang out. The broadsword was jolted backwards.
Lin Xiao’s iron staff, along with the back of the sword, smashed straight into the man’s head.
Splat!
Blood sprayed everywhere. The man’s skull shattered instantly.
“…” In that moment, all four attackers froze in stunned silence.
One blow, and he was dead?
Wasn’t that a bit too brutal?
Hang on, the cultivation this guy was showing was only ninth-layer Martial Lord?
A ninth-layer Martial Lord had killed a fifth-layer Martial Emperor with a single strike. Just where had this monster come from?
If he did not look middle-aged, they would almost have connected him to that famous storm-bringer of the region, Lin Xiao.
After all, their cultivation levels matched perfectly.
“Too much talk!”
Lin Xiao muttered under his breath. Seeing no Buddhist light shoot out from the corpse, he immediately took the man’s storage ring, sent his divine sense inside to check, and a surge of delight rose in his heart. “A sarira!”
What the man had obtained was actually a sarira.
He had effortlessly acquired another sarira this time.
“Everyone, if you don’t want to die, I suggest you leave this place at once,” Lin Xiao said to the four remaining attackers.
“Hmph. No matter how strong you are, can you really take all four of us? Everyone, attack!” the Sacred Heaven Sect disciple shouted at once.
His own cultivation was third-layer Martial Emperor, but his combat strength was impressive, enough to fight across one full realm.
The other three were at third or fourth-layer Martial Emperor. Facing someone who might simply have an unusually strong body, they were not yet ready to flee without a fight.
Running away like this would be far too humiliating.
Above all, they were not willing to give up the sarira so easily.
At the Sacred Heaven Sect disciple’s shout, the other three immediately unleashed powerful attacks on Lin Xiao.
Dazzling sword and blade lights, accompanied by mighty fluctuations of power, surged towards him.
Lin Xiao dodged swiftly, evading two of the attacks while swinging his iron staff. A huge arc of black energy shot out and collided head-on with the incoming blade and sword lights.
Boom!
They were already close to each other. The forces clashed instantly, erupting into rolling shockwaves that swept fiercely towards the two attackers.
Lin Xiao ignored them and charged towards the other two opponents.
His speed was astonishing. In a flash, he was right in front of one of them, swinging the iron staff down with crushing force.
“Not good!” A middle-aged attacker panicked at the sudden speed, hurriedly thrusting his sword to meet the staff.
Splat!
Blood burst forth. The man’s chest caved in under the iron staff. His entire body was smashed violently into the ground, kicking up a cloud of dirt.
Clearly, he was no longer breathing.
“What!” The youth fighting on the same side as the buried man turned pale with horror when he saw his companion killed with one blow.
The opponent’s combat strength was terrifying. He himself stood no chance. Teaming up had been utterly useless.
“I, I surrender! Please spare me!” the youth cried out desperately.
But the fight had already begun. Lin Xiao gave him no chance. He rushed forward and swung again. Even though the youth tried to block, his body exploded into chunks of flesh and blood. He died on the spot.
After collecting the storage rings of the two dead men, Lin Xiao flew towards the Sacred Heaven Sect disciple and his remaining companion.
The two had already been sent flying by the earlier shockwave and were gravely injured.
Seeing Lin Xiao bearing down on them, the middle-aged man lying on the ground revealed terror in his eyes and screamed, “No!!!”
Splat!
His cry was cut short as his head burst apart.
Lin Xiao immediately turned towards the Sacred Heaven Sect disciple on the other side.
“You, you can’t kill me! I’m a disciple of the Sacred Heaven Sect. If you kill me, the Sacred Heaven Sect will never let you go!”
The disciple was now terrified and begged for his life.
“I told you to scram earlier and you didn’t listen. Too late now!” With those words, Lin Xiao ended him with another swing of the staff and took his storage ring.
The fighters in the other two battles also noticed what was happening here and frowned deeply.
“Everyone, if we keep fighting each other, we’re all going to die!” the Ji family fifth-layer Martial Emperor youth said gravely.
His three opponents hesitated. The man wielding the iron staff was simply too powerful. He had wiped out five people over there in moments.
If he came for them, they would probably suffer the same fate.
The same went for the other group of four.
“Friends, why don’t we deal with him first, then fight over the treasures afterwards?” one of the men being besieged by three others suggested.
His strength was comparable to the middle-aged man who had just been killed after obtaining a sarira.
If they kept fighting amongst themselves, he would likely be the first target of that iron-staff maniac.
At that moment, everyone exchanged glances and nodded.
“Kill!” The middle-aged man and the Ji family fifth-layer Martial Emperor youth took the lead and charged straight at Lin Xiao.
Since both of them possessed sariras, they were in the greatest danger and had no choice but to act first.
By leading the charge, the others would not suspect them of trying to escape.
Once they moved, the other six who had been attacking them followed suit and attacked Lin Xiao together.
“Very well. Then all of you can prepare to die!”
Seven swords formed from spiritual power condensed in front of Lin Xiao. He only refrained from revealing his identity when he was not confident of killing everyone.
Now that he was certain he could eliminate every person present, there was no need to hold back. He would end this quickly.
“Sixth-grade advanced spiritual power? He’s a spirit controller?” The eight charging attackers were shocked.
“No, his spiritual power is extremely strong. Attack now!” the Ji family fifth-layer Martial Emperor youth shouted immediately.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Seven spiritual-power swords shot forth at incredible speed towards seven of the attackers.
At the same time, Lin Xiao unleashed a punch of chaotic reversal energy. The chaotic primal force gathered like a water spout and blasted through the air towards the Ji family youth.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The group hastily raised their defences. Shockwaves erupted one after another.
Five of them saw their defences instantly shattered by the spiritual-power swords. The slightly weakened swords pierced straight through their chests.
Those five died on the spot.
The besieged fifth-layer Martial Emperor middle-aged man and another fourth-layer Martial Emperor were not pierced through, but the terrifying shockwaves still left them heavily injured, blood staining their clothes and pouring from their mouths.
As for the Ji family fifth-layer Martial Emperor youth, his defence was shattered by Lin Xiao’s fist energy, which then slammed into his chest.
At the last instant, golden light suddenly flared from his body. He had forged a golden body. The weakened fist energy struck him and turned into a massive shockwave that sent him flying far away, but it did not pierce through him.
All the same, he was gravely wounded.
After all, Lin Xiao’s primal force possessed the combat strength of a sixth-layer Martial Emperor.
Even Lin Xiao was slightly surprised. That fellow had obtained Buddhist light and forged a golden body at the fifth-layer Martial Emperor realm. The defence was indeed impressive.
“Lin Xiao! You’re Lin Xiao!” the Ji family youth cried out in alarm as he flew backwards.
Dual cultivation of essence and spirit, with primal force cultivation and combat power matching Lin Xiao perfectly.
His spiritual power could also fight across realms, and although it was one grade higher than the rumours suggested, such overwhelmingly powerful dual cultivation had not appeared in the entire region for ages.
Aside from Lin Xiao, there was probably no one else.
“You guessed right!” Lin Xiao replied coldly and shot forward.
At the same time, two more spiritual-power swords formed and streaked towards the two heavily injured middle-aged men who were still alive.
“No!!!”
Their terrified screams rang out, followed instantly by two wet thuds as the swords pierced through their bodies.
“He must have obtained a sarira too!”
No Buddhist light emerged from the corpses, and joy surged in Lin Xiao’s heart.
Compared to Buddhist light, he preferred sariras.
Sariras could enhance evil power. If he refined enough of them, he might make enormous progress, perhaps even upgrade his dantian.
Buddhist light could strengthen his demonic physique, but reaching the Second Nether stage was still far off.
Moreover, while being hunted, passively refining Buddhist light would cause a brief delay and might allow the Ji family youth to escape.
Sariras, however, could be stored and refined later at his convenience. Nothing could be better.
Lin Xiao flew forward, used his spiritual power to collect the middle-aged man’s storage ring first, then continued streaking towards the Ji family youth.
Whoosh!
At that very moment, a powerful aura suddenly surged from the horizon. A figure accompanied by vast, oppressive might hurtled towards them.
