Chapter 270: Surrender, and I

Chen Mu's eyes instantly sharpened.

He glanced down at Zhu Jiuchuan, tossed into the grass, eyes wide open and mouth stuffed with a cloth, making muffled "wuu wuu" sounds at the commotion.

Without hesitation, Chen Mu raised his hand and delivered a precise knife-strike to Zhu Jiuchuan's nape.

Zhu Jiuchuan's eyes rolled back; he didn't even groan before fainting.

Chen Mu swiftly retrieved a spare, sturdy rope from his palm space and bound the unconscious Zhu Jiuchuan like a rice dumpling, wrapping him seven or eight times from head to toe, securing him firmly to the roots of several large trees, then carefully camouflaging him with fallen leaves and dry branches.

Having finished, he took a deep breath, his figure slipping soundlessly from the shrubbery like a ghost, locking onto the direction the two pursuers had fled, pushing his lightness skill to its limit as he stealthily pursued.

……

Boom—!

A deafening roar echoed, accompanied by the groaning of bones under unbearable strain.

Di Chunlei fell like a severed kite, crashing hard onto a steep slope, his momentum carrying him onward, rolling in a trail of dust and shattered rocks into the deep ravine below.

He barely managed to brace himself with his hands, but couldn't suppress the sweet taste rising in his throat—he spat out a mouthful of blood, his face instantly pale as paper, his chest stained dark red.

Yet the crisis was far from over!

In the air, a three-meter-long, solidly condensed dark blade aura had already torn through the air, shrieking shrilly as it slashed down at terrifying speed.

Where the blade aura passed, the air seemed split open, leaving behind clear traces of vacuum.

Di Chunlei's pupils contracted; ignoring the churning agony in his body, he rolled violently sideways and backward.

Boom!

The dark blade aura grazed his body as it struck the ground—with a thunderous crash, the hard mountain rock split like tofu, carving a trench several feet deep and meters long; shattered stones and soil rained down on Di Chunlei, making him even more battered.

"Cough… cough…" Di Chunlei knelt half-upright, racked by another violent cough, blood froth oozing from his lips.

In the next instant, he snapped his head up, a ruthless glint flashing in his eyes—he growled, clenched his right fist, and poured blood-colored true qi wildly into it, smashing it upward!

A condensed blood-colored punch aura shot out like a cannonball, piercing the air straight toward the figure in midair.

Yet Ren Dongxing, hovering in midair, wore only icy indifference on his face.

He casually swung his peculiar curved blade, and a darker blade qi, released later but arriving first, struck the blood-colored punch aura with pinpoint accuracy.

"Ssshh!" The blood-colored punch aura dissolved and vanished as if encountering its mortal enemy.

"Surrender. I'll give you a quick death."

Ren Dongxing gazed down at Di Chunlei, trapped like a cornered beast in the ravine, his voice utterly flat.

Di Chunlei spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva, then sneered with unmasked contempt, "Hah… Surrender? Become a dog for the Jiuyou Sect? Ren Dongxing, are all you Jiuyou Sect people this damn hypocritical?"

"Obstinate fool."

Ren Dongxing's eyes turned icy; he said no more, and swung his curved blade again.

Instantly, countless curved blade afterimages appeared in the air, layered and overlapping, indistinguishable between real and illusory—like a woven net of death descending upon Di Chunlei!

Before the blade shadows even reached him, their bone-chilling blade intent made Di Chunlei's skin prick with pain.

Di Chunlei gritted his teeth and pushed his body technique to its limit, dodging and weaving through the narrow ravine.

He narrowly avoided the first two blade shadows, but the third, the fourth… the unceasing blade momentum had already sealed off every escape route!

"Puff! Puff!"

Despite his desperate dodging, two sharp blade auras struck his back and shoulder blades—his protective true qi shattered instantly, deep wounds gaped open, blood gushing forth.

He was hit as if by a giant hammer, spewing more blood and crashing hard into the ravine floor, denting the ground into a shallow crater.

Fortunately, Di Chunlei was from the Juling Sect, his body refined by secret methods, its strength rivaling ordinary spiritual weapons—otherwise, those two cuts would have split him apart.

Yet Ren Dongxing's curved blade was a Low-grade Mystic Weapon!

Far superior to spiritual weapons, it also carried an extremely stubborn yin-cold true qi that continuously eroded Di Chunlei's wounds and meridians, making him shiver with cold and slowing his movements further.

Ren Dongxing clearly had no intention of giving Di Chunlei another chance—he stepped through the air, raised his curved blade again, and dark light gathered along its edge as a more condensed, more terrifying dark blade aura began forming, ready to deliver a final, lethal strike against the motionless Di Chunlei!

At this critical moment—

"Shhh!"

A blazing, majestic, and utterly piercing crimson sword qi erupted without warning from the side forest!

This sword qi appeared with shocking suddenness, moving faster than lightning, imbued with an aura of incinerating all things and purging evil—its target: Ren Dongxing in midair!

It was Chen Mu, who had stealthily arrived!

Enhanced by his Perfection Realm's "Hidden Sword Art," this strike concealed every trace of its initiation.

Only when the sword qi was upon him did Ren Dongxing suddenly realize!

"What?"

Ren Dongxing's face changed instantly—he sensed the terrifying power within the sword qi and its fiery, suppressive intent toward his own cultivation—forcing him to abruptly abort his final strike on Di Chunlei and hastily raise his blade to block!

"Boom—!"

The crimson sword qi clashed violently with the dark blade aura, exploding in a deafening roar.

Caught off-guard, Ren Dongxing's blade aura shattered instantly under the yang-dominated sword qi, his protective true yuan torn apart—he was flung backward by the violent shockwave.

Worse still, the piercing sword intent and scorching fire aura within the sword qi struck his spirit like invisible needles, causing sharp pain and dizziness in his mind.

"Thud!"

Ren Dongxing fell from the sky like a meteor, crashing heavily into the wasteland below, creating a crater several meters wide, dust swirling.

Struggling to rise, he couldn't hold back—he spat out a large mouthful of blood, his face instantly ashen.

Chen Mu struck and did not relent!

Giving Ren Dongxing no chance to breathe or think, his figure shot from the forest like lightning, and his Xian Long Sword swung again!

Shhh~

Huuhhong!

Brilliant flames wrapped around the blade as the Supreme Yang "True Martial Purifying Sword Art" unleashed another sword qi, tearing through the sky—the searing heat seemed ready to ignite the very air.

This sword strike happened to be a perfect counter to Ren Dongxing's yin-cold-attribute blade light and true qi.

Ren Dongxing had just climbed out of the pit, his qi and blood churning within, his true essence in disarray; facing this faster and fiercer second sword, he could only barely raise his blade to block horizontally.

"Clang—"

"Boom~!"

The great crash of metal striking metal was accompanied by the sound of true qi exploding.

The curved blade in Ren Dongxing's hand trembled violently, his Hukou split open, blood streaming down.

His whole person was once again sent flying by the sword like a torn burlap sack…