Chapter 144: Annihilating the Saint

Before the words even finished, he moved.

There was no earth‑shattering aura, nor any resonance with the laws.

He simply stepped forward, and then, facing the slashing violet sword beam, he thrust out his fist.

A fist that looked plain and even a bit soft and feeble.

Everyone who saw this froze in shock.

"That kid… is he scared stiff?"

"Using a fist to hard‑hit a Half Saint's full‑power strike? Does he think he's an ancient saint body?"

A chorus of snickers and contempt rose from the crowd.

Even the Tai Chu Elder who had acted twisted a cruel smile at the corner of his mouth.

He seemed to already picture the next second: this clueless kid, body and fist alike, being sliced by his own sword beam into a cloud of blood.

His only worry was that old man.

But it seemed the other party had no intention of striking!

When that pale, even slightly delicate‑looking fist actually collided with the thousand‑zhang long violet sword beam.

The expected spray of flesh and blood never materialized.

Time seemed to stand still at that moment.

Under the horrified gazes of everyone present.

The violet sword beam, capable of cleaving mountains and tearing the heavens, upon touching Gu Yuan's fist shattered like fragile glass, fragment by fragment!

It offered no resistance at all!

From the tip, cracks spread like a spiderweb at lightning speed, and in the blink of an eye covered the entire thousand‑zhang blade!

Then…

"Crack—"

A crisp, dream‑like shattering sound rang out.

The once‑imperious violet sword beam disintegrated in mid‑air with a thunderous burst, turning into countless violet specks that drifted down in a lavish cascade.

Like a dazzling fireworks display.

Beautiful to the point of suffocating.

And terrifyingly suffocating!

"This… this… this is impossible!"

The cruel smile on the Tai Chu Elder's face froze solid.

His eyes bulged, fixed intently on the fist still frozen in a punching pose, and behind it, the young face bearing a hint of a mocking smile.

A roaring thunderstorm raged in his mind, as if a hundred thousand heavenly bolts detonated simultaneously.

How could this happen?

His own full‑power strike… shattered by a single fist?

This defies logic!

This violates the cultivation world's laws!

How could a minor cultivator from the Four‑Poles Secret Realm possess such terrifying power?!

He must have misread!

It's an illusion!

It must be an illusion!

Yet before he could recover from the massive shock,

the fist that shattered his sword beam did not stop.

Undiminished, it bore an indescribable terror, cutting through the rain of light, spanning space, and rapidly magnified within his pupil!

Fast!

Too fast!

So fast that even this Half Saint couldn't muster a single thought of evasion!

He could only watch helplessly as the fist drew ever closer to his face, nearer and nearer…

"No—!"

A harrowing, desperate, fear‑filled scream roared from the Tai Chu Elder's mouth.

Then, it abruptly stopped.

Bang!

A muffled sound, like a watermelon being smashed, rang clearly beyond the dead‑silent ancient forbidden land.

Bang!

The dull echo reverberated through heaven and earth.

Under everyone's stunned gaze, the once‑imperious Supreme Elder of the Tai Chu Sacred Land, a three‑thousand‑year‑old Half Saint powerhouse, had his head explode like a watermelon struck by a hammer!

Red and white splatter everywhere.

The headless body twitched stiffly in the air, then helplessly fell toward the ground below.

One punch!

Just one punch!

A Half Saint who could be a founding ancestor of a sect in the Zang Di Star Domain was gone… just like that!

No corpse remains!

No, there is still a body.

But what difference does that make?

The entire venue fell silent, not even a sparrow's chirp.

A dropped pin could be heard.

Everyone seemed to have been hit with a paralysis spell, frozen in place, motionless.

They each gaped, eyes wide as bronze bells, their expressions frozen in that instant of shock and bewilderment.

In their minds, aside from that dull explosion of a head bursting and the red-white matter spraying everywhere, nothing else could fit.

Dead?

Taichu Elder…… just died like that?

By that kid who looks like he's only at the Four Extremes Secret Realm, one punch…… blew his head apart?

This thought raced wildly through everyone's minds, yet they could not believe it was true no matter what.

This is absurd!

This completely overturns cognition!

This utterly exceeds their understanding of the world!

A cultivator at the Four Extremes Secret Realm, crossing two major secret realms and eight minor realms altogether, killed a Half-Saint with a single punch?

What kind of Arabian Nights tale is this?

Even if it were the legendary invincible-at-equal-rank, heaven-defying ancient holy body, at this realm it absolutely could not do such a thing!

This kid…… just what kind of monster is he?!

Gu Yuan, who had just slapped a Half-Saint to death with a casual gesture, clapped his hands as if nothing had happened.

He turned his body, his gaze slowly sweeping over everyone present.

That gaze remained as plain and clear as ever.

But at this moment, in everyone's eyes, it was more terrifying than the stare of a demon god from the Nine Abyssal Hell.

Anyone whose gaze he swept over lowered their head in shock, their bodies trembling uncontrollably, lacking even the courage to meet his eyes.

The holy masters and elders who had previously clamored to take him as a disciple and seize him as an "immortal seedling" now wished they could find a crack in the ground to hide in.

The color drained from their faces, leaving them deathly pale.

Cold sweat, like a stream, slid down their foreheads, soaking their robes.

Their guts turned green with regret!

What the hell did they just do?!

If killing a Half-Saint is as easy as slaughtering a dog, then killing them would be just like playing!

They actually wanted to capture such a killing god and take him back to refine pills?

This isn't some old man hanging himself because he's tired of living, is it?

Especially those from the Yaoguang Holy Land and the Jiang family, their legs went weak, barely able to stand.

They had just brought out the Holy Maiden and the Imperial Scripture as bargaining chips.

If this provoked the other side's grudge and they came knocking…

They simply couldn't imagine the consequences!

Gu Yuan's gaze finally fell upon that hot-tempered elder who had been the first to jump out and accuse Gu Cangsheng, the elder of the Huoyun Cave.

That burly man, a Half-Step Great Ability cultivator, shuddered violently the moment his eyes met Gu Yuan's.

With a "plop," he knelt directly on the ground.

"Senior… senior, spare my life! Senior, spare my life!"

Tears and snot streaming, he kowtowed frantically for mercy, pounding a pit into the ground.

"It's the junior's fault for not recognizing Mount Tai! It's the junior's dog mouth that can't spit out ivory! I beg the senior, in consideration of the junior's hard cultivation, to spare the junior a dog's life!"

He now has not a trace of the dignity of a Half-Step Great Ability cultivator; he's simply a coward who's been scared out of his wits.

Gu Yuan looked at him without speaking.

He merely slowly raised his right hand.

Then he extended a single finger.

Seeing this motion, the Huoyun Cave elder's pupils contracted sharply, his face showing endless despair.

"No——!"

Gu Yuan's finger shot out a golden divine power under everyone's gaze, directly piercing that elder's dantian qi sea.

"I sever your soul and spirit; I hope that if you have a next life, you'll grow a memory."

Gu Yuan's voice was as flat as if stating a trivial matter.

"Those of my Gu Family are not for just anyone to point at and criticize."

Then…… his finger extended again, pointing at everyone present.

He spoke slowly, his voice not loud, yet like a heavenly thunder from the Nine Heavens, it exploded in each person's heart.

"Who else?"