Chapter 218: Kill! Kill! Kill!

Dalong Mountain.

The northeastern foothills, deep within the dense forest.

Hou Ping was leading his men, following two giant hounds with keen senses of smell, as they struggled through the underbrush.

Suddenly, the two giant hounds stopped in their tracks, their nostrils flaring violently, a low, muffled "whine" rumbling in their throats, on the verge of barking out a warning—

"Whoosh!"

"Whoosh!"

Two barely audible gusts of wind split the air, and something seemed to flash past at extreme speed in the darkness!

"Pop! Pop!"

The next instant, the heads of the two giant hounds burst open like overripe watermelons, splattering red and white all over the caught-off-guard Hou Ping.

"Who's there? Get the hell out here!"

Hou Ping, both shocked and furious, let out a sharp roar as he retreated explosively, signaling his men to spread out and stay on guard.

What answered him was an even denser, sharper volley of cutting sounds through the air.

Several streaks of silver could be seen darting rapidly through the dim twilight, like living spirits of death—

They were the willow-leaf flying darts controlled by Chen Mu!

These flying darts, empowered with incomparably sharp Metal-attribute true Qi, moved at speeds the naked eye could barely follow, precisely slicing across the throats, hearts, and other vital points of the Red Jiao Society members one after another.

"Urgh—"

"Pshhh!"

"Help—!"

……

Screams rose and fell in quick succession, and the elite Red Jiao Society members fell in rows, like wheat cut down by a scythe.

Hou Ping, both shocked and furious, swept his spiritual sense frantically around him, trying to lock onto the enemy hidden in the shadows.

However, the very instant his focus peaked—

"Hum!"

An invisible, formless, yet needle-sharp terrifying force ignored his protective true Qi and stabbed viciously into his mind!

"Ah—"

Hou Ping let out an utterly wretched scream, feeling as if his entire skull was about to explode. His consciousness instantly went blank, blood seeped from every orifice, and his body staggered backward uncontrollably.

Soul-Shocking Pierce!

The very instant his mind lost its guard and his opening gaped wide open, a dense shower of pale-gold Metal-attribute sword Qi materialized out of thin air, engulfing him like a raging storm!

Hou Ping endured the soul-rending agony, hastily swinging his short blade to parry, but his moves were already in disarray, and his protective true Qi was on the verge of collapse.

And Chen Mu was waiting precisely for this chance!

A formless, invisible sword Qi imbued only with the utmost sharpness and biting cold—the Yin Sword of the *Two Forms Sword Qi*—streaked through the air without a sound, and in Hou Ping's despairing, terrified gaze, pierced straight through his brow in an instant!

Hou Ping's body stiffened, the light in his eyes dimmed rapidly, and he toppled over rigidly.

At the same time, those deadly willow-leaf flying darts continued to dance through the forest, efficiently reaping the lives of the remaining Red Jiao Society members.

Apart from three leaders, who had reacted swiftly and whose cultivation had already reached the Early Innate Stage, scattering and fleeing deep into the dense forest, the hundred-man squad Hou Ping had brought had been utterly annihilated!

Chen Mu's gaze was icy. His body flashed like lightning, and without the slightest hesitation, he gave chase toward those three fleeing Innate leaders.

His speed far surpassed theirs. Within only a few breaths, he caught up to them one by one, flicking out sword Qi or willow-leaf flying darts to cut them all down among the mountains and forest.

【Corpse discovered. Pick up?】

"Yes!"

……

The card was in hand.

With no time to deal with the corpses at the scene, Chen Mu shifted direction, pushed his speed to the limit, and wove through the forest like a phantom, racing at full speed toward the southeast.

……

Dalong Mountain.

The southeast, within the mountain forest.

Zhu Li had just faintly heard some unusual sounds and distant screams from the north. Frowning, she was about to send two of her men to investigate.

Suddenly…

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"

Fierce cutting sounds tore through the air without warning from every direction!

Before the men she had brought could even react, over a dozen of them had flowers of blood burst open at their throats or chests, and dropped dead without a sound.

"Ambush! Watch out for hidden weapons!"

Zhu Li, both shocked and furious, instantly had her long whip dancing in an airtight curtain around her body. At the same time, her figure flickered like a phantom among the trees as she tried to pinpoint the attacker's location.

Yet those eerie flying darts appeared and vanished unpredictably, their angles impossibly tricky, and they kept shooting down the men around her, screams ringing out without end.

Zhu Li's face twisted with rage as she bellowed, "You gutless rat hiding your head and tail! Get out here right now!"

She had no idea that Chen Mu, through "Earth遁," had silently concealed himself within the earth beneath her feet, all the while sensing every one of her movements and fluctuations of Qi on the surface.

The instant Zhu Li, having searched in vain for a long while, paused ever so slightly and warily scanned a certain direction—

"Boom!"

The ground beneath her feet exploded violently!

A cold, lonely sword-light, accompanied by a figure that seemed to have shot up from the Nine Underworlds, erupted from underground with terrifying speed.

The Lone Star Sword, carrying an icy killing intent, thrust straight at Zhu Li!

The ambush was far too sudden, and its angle was deviously vicious to the utmost.

Zhu Li's pupils contracted sharply, her face filled with utter shock and disbelief. She wanted to dodge, but it was too late!

"No—"

The piercing scream cut off abruptly.

The sword-light, like slicing through tofu, rose from below and split her entire body neatly in two from the middle!

"Splash~"

Accompanied by a strange sound, fresh blood and entrails splattered across the ground, the scene incomparably bloody.

The remaining members of the Red Jiao Society, witnessing this terrifying scene, were scared out of their wits, crying out in panic as they scattered and fled.

Chen Mu's face was expressionless. With a thought, the willow-leaf flying dart once again transformed into a death-dealing silver light, weaving at extreme speed through the forest, slaughtering every last remaining enemy—including the four Early Innate Stage leaders who tried to escape in the chaos—leaving none alive.

【Corpse discovered. Pick up?】

"Yes!"

With the card in hand, Chen Mu decisively turned and vanished.

Having put some distance between himself and the killing ground, he stopped to rest, took out the Energy Card, and used it to recover his stamina.

A moment later.

His figure flickered, and he shot off toward the south side of Dalong Mountain.

The southern valley.

Yu Chenghe, his beard and hair all white, had originally stood still like a pine, directing his subordinates in a meticulous search.

Suddenly, he raised his hand, signaling everyone to stop, then tilted his head slightly, pricked up his ears, and listened intently to the sounds in the distance.

"Did any of you hear something?" he asked his subordinates beside him, his brows slightly furrowed.

It seemed to be a short shout, coming from the southeast, but with the mountains and trees in between, it wasn't clear, and it had been too brief.

His men exchanged uncertain glances and shook their heads one after another.

"Reporting to Elder Yu, we did not hear anything unusual."

A flicker of doubt passed through Yu Chenghe's eyes as he pondered inwardly.

'Could it be that Hou Ping or Zhu Li's side found the remnants of the Baihuo Sect?'

Just as his attention wavered, wondering whether to send someone to contact the other elders—

"Whoosh~! Whoosh~! Whoosh~!"

The piercing sound of something tearing through the air shattered the valley's silence without warning.

Streaks of silver thread, glinting with lethal light under the moon, shot out from the dark forest like living ghosts.

"Puchi!" "Puchi~"

"Ah!"

The sound of blades piercing flesh and the short screams rang out almost simultaneously.

Yu Chenghe's elite subordinates didn't even manage to see where the attack came from before they dropped dead one after another, like harvested stalks of rice, each with a tiny blood-hole at a vital spot.

"Enemy attack! Form up!"

Yu Chenghe was both shocked and furious, his white beard stirring without wind.

He reacted extremely fast, his figure suddenly leaping from the ground, soaring and circling in the air like a vigorous immortal crane, his sharp gaze instantly sweeping toward the direction the darts had come from, trying to lock onto the hidden killer.

Below the Earth Platform Stage, he prided himself on having few rivals in lightness skill and perception.

However, just at the instant his figure reached its highest point and his focus was intensely searching for the target—