“Rat, this old man will kill you!!!”
Amid the nearly dissipated shockwaves, Lu Shan, falling downward, roared in fury. As the primary target of Lin Xiao’s strike, despite possessing the grand physique of a Martial Venerable, his elemental shield was almost useless. He was battered and bloodied, grievously wounded.
A grand and dignified Martial Venerable, nearly blown to death—how could he possibly endure such a disgrace?
“Oh, is that so?” The next moment, a light chuckle sounded as Lin Xiao’s figure suddenly appeared before Lu Shan.
Lin Xiao had long known that even such a powerful attack might not kill a Martial Venerable outright. Thus, he’d forsaken the deeply rooted Martial Monarch Mei Taiyang, choosing instead to target Lu Shan, a first-tier Martial Venerable, for the strike.
Then, seizing the perfect moment as the shockwaves faded, he rushed to Lu Shan’s side.
“You!” Seeing Lin Xiao appear so abruptly, Lu Shan spat blood in rage. Immediately after, his face twisted into horror, for Lin Xiao moved like lightning, his longsword slashing toward him with unmatched ferocity.
“Then go die!” With a thunderous shout, the blade sliced toward Lu Shan’s throat.
“No!” Lu Shan let out a roar of bitter unwillingness. A grand and dignified Martial Venerable, about to be slain by a mere Heavenly Martial junior—what an utterly humiliating way to die.
The next moment, his voice cut off abruptly, blood sprayed, and his head soared through the air.
On Lin Xiao’s slaughter bracelet, countless black dots appeared, dense and overlapping.
By now, the explosion’s aftershocks had fully dissipated, and the scene froze. Everyone witnessed Lin Xiao’s sword cleave Lu Shan’s head clean off.
A Martial Venerable, a cornerstone of any faction, was a tremendous loss—and now, one had been brutally slain by a Heavenly Martial youth.
Moreover, after sending the head flying, Lin Xiao casually snatched Lu Shan’s storage ring with a single hand—effortlessly graceful and smooth…
“Roar!”
At that moment, the blood-soaked Mei Taiyang bellowed, a towering aura erupting from him, his terrifying momentum surging rapidly.
“Trouble!”
Lin Xiao’s brows furrowed tightly. He retreated at full speed, urging the green corpse puppet to disengage and fly back to him with all haste.
“Whoosh!”
In mere moments, while the fifth-tier Spirit Controller was still reeling in shock and fury, the puppet retreated to Lin Xiao’s side. With a flip of his hand, Lin Xiao stored it in his storage ring.
Then, he withdrew every Martial King essence pill from his storage ring—fifty or sixty in total—and infused them into the Void Sky Phoenix Wings.
Originally, Lin Xiao had planned to loot some Heavenly Shift Stones to take with him, but after killing a Martial Venerable, the Martial Monarch’s rage erupted. Mei Taiyang was now desperate, resorting to any means to restore his strength. If he succeeded, Lin Xiao would be in grave danger—he had to flee immediately.
“Zoom!”
With all fifty or sixty Martial King essence pills powering them, the Void Sky Phoenix Wings glowed with brilliant golden light. With a tremor, the void seemed to tear apart, and Lin Xiao shot southeast like a streak of gold.
Roar!!!
Mei Taiyang’s furious roars echoed behind him, one after another, but they faded in a flash. The Void Sky Phoenix Wings’ speed was simply too great.
While retreating, Lin Xiao probed the Martial Venerable’s storage ring with his divine sense. As a Martial Venerable, its contents were bound to be astonishing.
Sure enough, he found a thousand Martial King essence pills within—a fortune so vast it was staggering.
The wealth of a single Martial Venerable was truly immense.
He’d robbed multiple Martial King factions to gather just a hundred pills, yet this Martial Venerable possessed a thousand.
At that moment, he keenly sensed danger approaching again—a sovereign aura rolling toward him with overwhelming force. A thunderous shout boomed through the void: “Lin Xiao, I’ll grind your bones to dust!!!”
“What!” Lin Xiao’s expression shifted dramatically. He hadn’t expected Mei Taiyang to restore his Martial Monarch realm so swiftly and catch up already.
Without hesitation, he withdrew all thousand Martial King essence pills from the Martial Venerable’s ring and infused them into the Void Sky Phoenix Wings.
“Swish!” The wings blazed with radiant golden light, enveloping Lin Xiao. Instantly, the void seemed to blur, and the terrifying Martial Monarch aura vanished without a trace.
The speed left even Lin Xiao stunned. He couldn’t fathom how fast the Void Sky Phoenix Wings had become, fuelled by the astronomical wealth of a thousand Martial King essence pills.
Though it pained him to expend such riches, escaping a Martial Monarch’s pursuit made it worthwhile.
He could well imagine Mei Taiyang’s expression—fury at its peak, having just caught up only to see him slip away again.
After an unknown duration, the essence pills’ energy was fully depleted, and the Void Sky Phoenix Wings gradually slowed. Lin Xiao’s vision began to clear.
Before him stretched a verdant forest and grassland, boundless and green, with a path below where two youths walked.
Both around twenty years old, they exuded impressive auras. Sensing Lin Xiao’s arrival, they turned sharply.
“Who are you?” Their faces darkened, wary of his sudden appearance.
After a slight pause, Lin Xiao waved a hand, retracting the Void Sky Phoenix Wings. They were too conspicuous—best to avoid drawing envy and trouble.
Fortunately, the two youths didn’t seem particularly fixated on the wings.
“Brothers, I’m Lin Xiao, just passing through with no ill intent,” Lin Xiao said, descending from the air with a faint smile.
“Heh, so you’re a Holy Origin Academy disciple too!” After assessing Lin Xiao’s cultivation, the white-robed man smirked with arrogance.
“Your slaughter bracelet is pitch black—some trick must be hiding your kill points, but I wager they’re substantial. Useful for climbing the ranks,” the sharp-faced man said, eyeing Lin Xiao’s bracelet with greed.
“You’ve taken a fancy to my slaughter bracelet?”
Lin Xiao’s expression cooled slightly. They hadn’t noticed the Void Sky Phoenix Wings or targeted them—yet they coveted his slaughter bracelet?
It struck him as unbelievable. Were they planning to use it to impersonate Holy Origin Academy disciples and enter the Holy City?
“Exactly. Tell me your precise kill points and hand over the bracelet. We’ll let you go,” the white-robed man said with disdain.
“Heh…” Lin Xiao chuckled. His slaughter bracelet wasn’t masked by any trick—it was the result of killing a Martial Venerable.
A low-tier Martial Venerable was worth a million points, turning the bracelet dense with black dots, nearly a solid mass.
“You two aren’t Holy Origin Academy disciples, are you? What good would this bracelet do you? Why bother?” Lin Xiao asked, feigning puzzlement.
“We aren’t Holy Origin Academy disciples?” The white-robed man’s disdain grew thicker as he laughed, “What ignorance. Who says we aren’t? Enough rubbish—hand over the bracelet.”
