Chapter 403: One Sword, One Kill

The moment his words fell, the middle-aged man moved!

Without warning, without preparation, his towering form shot from the third-floor window like an arrow released from a taut bow, or a hawk diving upon its prey.

His speed left a faint afterimage in the air.

Even as he hung midair, his right hand had already formed a finger-blade and slashed downward toward Chen Mu's position.

"Ssshhhh—"

A bizarre blade of light, three zhang long, exquisitely condensed, and dark red bordering on black, materialized out of thin air.

This blade was not mere true energy—it seemed fused with viscous blood qi, chilling deathly miasma, and the piercing wails of countless vengeful spirits and ghosts.

As the blade emerged, the surrounding air temperature plummeted; sunlight dimmed slightly, and a nauseating stench of blood mixed with bone-deep icy death instantly engulfed a radius of dozens of zhang around Chen Mu.

The blade locked onto Chen Mu's life force, carrying a malevolent intent to sever vitality and corrupt the soul, tearing through the sky as it descended straight upon him.

Before the blade even reached him, the spiritual pressure and corruption surged like a tidal wave—any ordinary Third Bloom Peak cultivator would have lost their will, their movements slowed to a crawl.

Earth Altar Realm, Five Qi Ascending Peak!

And not some newly broken-through one.

His true energy was far more condensed, his blade intent far more cruel and vicious than any of the previous Bridge or Third Bloom cultivators.

Facing this ferocious, malevolently dominant slash, Chen Mu's gaze remained as still as a deep well, even tinged with faint indifference.

"Shhh!"

He simply raised his Dragon-Trapping Sword and, with effortless simplicity, slashed upward directly at the descending dark red blade.

No earth-shattering roar, no complex or arcane maneuvers.

Only the blade's edge slicing through air, drawing forth a sword qi of extreme condensation, crimson with faintly swirling five-colored luster.

Yet this seemingly simple strike unleashed an aura instantly surpassing what he had shown when slaying the Third Bloom cultivators.

The sword momentum was vast, pure, and tightly condensed, carrying a unique resonance of perfect harmony and vanished sharpness.

True Martial Exorcism Sword Art, Level Five!

With his cultivation advancing and his understanding of the Three Stages of True Martial Sword Intent deepening, Chen Mu's mastery of the Way of the Sword had grown by another third.

He had fully comprehended the True Martial Exorcism Sword Art, gaining even greater control over this supreme technique.

The middle-aged man, rushing in with his blade, sensed the difference in the sword's aura the instant Chen Mu raised his sword.

The cruel grin and murderous intent on his face froze like a frozen lake, then shattered instantly into boundless shock and disbelief.

"True Martial Sword Intent, Third Stage?"

The middle-aged man growled.

He screamed silently in his mind, his pupils shrinking to needle points.

A lethal sense of danger, like a cold venomous snake, instantly coiled around his heart, making every hair on his body stand on end!

He wanted to retract his blade, to retreat, to activate a life-saving secret technique.

But it was already too late.

He had charged too fast, his blade strike too fierce; locked in by the life-force binding, he was now an arrow on the string—must be fired.

Yet Chen Mu's counterattack was faster! Crueler! More precise!

The crimson sword qi, empowered by True Martial Sword Intent, struck after but arrived first, hitting with perfect accuracy the very core of the dark red blade, where its power was most concentrated.

"Ssshh—"

No expected violent explosion, no evenly matched stalemate.

The dark red, malevolent blade vanished the instant it touched the crimson sword qi—like a red-hot iron plunged into snow, emitting a piercing melting sound.

The deathly miasma, blood qi, and wailing spirits within the blade were as fragile as dust before the pure yang sword intent of the Third Stage, which purified all evil.

The blade dissolved and vanished at visible speed.

The crimson sword qi dimmed only slightly, its momentum unchanged, like a meteor slicing through night sky, following the path of the blade's collapse, surging upward straight toward the middle-aged man's body!

"No! —"

The middle-aged man roared in desperate, furious defiance, frantically activating his defensive true energy while twisting his body to its limit, trying to dodge this fatal strike.

He even spat out a mouthful of his life essence, forming layers upon layers of crimson protective shields before him.

But before absolute power's crushing dominance, all of it was futile.

"Puch!"

The crimson sword qi tore through the layered blood shields like a hot knife through butter, slicing past the middle-aged man's desperately dodging body.

Time seemed to freeze in that instant.

The middle-aged man's forward momentum halted abruptly, frozen midair.

He looked down, disbelieving, at his chest—

There, a smooth sword cut stretched diagonally from his left shoulder down to his right rib.

The cut began as a thin line, then rapidly widened.

"Ugh…"

He opened his mouth, as if to speak, but only spat out several mouthfuls of dark red blood mixed with shattered organs.

The light in his eyes flickered like a candle in the wind, swiftly dimming and extinguishing.

The next instant, his entire body split cleanly in two along the sword cut, splitting apart to either side, organs and blood cascading down like a waterfall, staining a small patch of the street below red.

The two halves of his corpse fell lifelessly, landing with a dull thud.

Nearby, the few Yin Kui Sect primordial cultivators who had survived with grievous wounds were already terrified into paralysis, collapsed on the ground, lacking even the strength to flee.

Chen Mu slowly sheathed his sword, his gaze calmly sweeping over the middle-aged man's remains and the surrounding battlefield, littered with destruction.

【Corpse detected. Collect?】

"Yes."

The card was in hand; he quickly checked it.

Soul-Enhancing Card!

Chen Mu shot out several bolts of qi, slaying the terrified minor thugs, then picked up the cards.

He turned, gave a slight nod toward a window on the second floor of the inn, then his figure blurred into a faint blue shadow, vanishing swiftly at the end of the long street.

At the window upstairs, Qin Liangjing had witnessed every moment, his heart shaken beyond words.

Earth Altar Realm, Peak of Five Qi Aligning…

Under Chen Mu's sword, he couldn't even withstand a single strike?

True Martial Sword Intent?

And third heaven?

He stared at the direction Chen Mu had vanished, clenching his fist tightly; in his eyes, beyond gratitude, a blazing fire ignited.

"Brother Chen's strength is precisely the goal we warriors strive for. This debt, Qin Mou shall repay with my entire life!"

Qin Liangjing knew he must leave immediately—this place had been fully exposed.

Taking a deep breath, Qin Liangjing suppressed his roiling qi, slung a simple pack, and slipped quietly out the back door of the inn, his figure soon swallowed by the complex tide of Wulong Fucheng's crowds.

…

After parting from Qin Liangjing, Chen Mu sped northward, his target clear.

Wulong Prefecture.

Wulong Prefecture was only two hundred li from Lingwu City, under the jurisdiction of the Giant Spirit Sect, making it a direct sphere of influence of the Giant Spirit Sect.

After the outbreak of the Zheng-Mo Great War, though the atmosphere remained tense and defenses were strict, no demonic forces had yet dared to appear openly or instigate large-scale chaos here—relatively speaking, it was a rare haven of stability.