Chapter 176: Total Annihilation

"You guys, can't." Tie Da Jian swung his sword, cutting Qin Yi to the ground, lowly scolding, his long sword sweeping up a fierce wind that slashed toward Qin Yi's waist.

Qin Yi rolled with intense blood qi all over his body, like a snake wriggling left and right close to the ground, clumsily dodging Tie Da Jian's consecutive slashes.

He stared wide-eyed, shouting helplessly, his heart filled with shock, anger, and fear.

Tie Da Jian was clearly at the half-step Life Pool realm in cultivation, yet his magical power fluctuations were several times stronger than Qin Yi's.

This can only prove that the cultivation method Tie Da Jian practiced is far superior to Qin Yi's heretical secret art; during the Chonglou Realm's breakthrough of the Thirty-Three Heavenly Locks, Tie Da Jian laid a foundation thousands of times stronger than Qin Yi's, otherwise such a result would be impossible.

Qin Yi darted about like a bloody spiritual snake over the ground, while Tie Da Jian relentlessly pursued, chopping and slashing. Qin Yi's movement was overly agile, Tie Da Jian's steps were steady, but his speed slightly lagged.

Just as Qin Yi seemed about to burst out of Tie Da Jian's attack range, a low growl came from not far away.

Shan Dun burst out of the poisonous mist, his both hands heavily slamming the ground.

The earth rumbled, and the rock layers violently trembled.

Twelve stone tablets, each several meters tall, about a meter thick, and several meters wide, shot up from the ground, lining up in a row to block Qin Yi's face. Qin Yi, his body pressed to the ground and sliding rapidly, panicked and had no way to escape, his head smashing into a stone tablet spewing yellow strong light.

The stone tablet emitted a dull thud; Qin Yi felt dazed, his forehead split open in a large gash, and a large amount of blood spurted out.

Before he could even jump up, Tie Da Jian was already a step before him, his heavy sword bringing a fierce gale down violently.

Qin Yi let out a strange cry, suddenly turning into a streak of blood light, skimming the ground in an attempt to escape.

Shan Dun let out another muffled grunt, his both fists heavily pounding the ground; the yellow light on the stone tablets flowed, and the gravity around Qin Yi suddenly increased dozens of times, causing his body to suddenly stiffen.

The heavy sword struck Qin Yi's body, cleaving him in half at the waist.

On the high cliff wall, Lu Ji steadily held a specially made single-barrel long tube hunting rifle, and with a "dong" fired a shot.

The specially made golden projectile struck Qin Yi's brow, blood plasma splattering; the projectile burst into a ball of fire, enveloping Qin Yi's entire head, instantly burning it to ash.

Lu Yan didn't notice Qin Yi being besieged; he tightly chased the white light transformed from the white jade arrow, and after a few breaths caught up behind Wu Tie.

Wu Tie suddenly turned his head, a returning spear thrust bringing a piercing tearing-through-air sound straight at Lu Yan.

Lu Yan let out a strange laugh, waving both hands, two black sword lights spewing black qi, spinning as they slashed onto the White Tiger Fissure.

The White Tiger Fissure let out a tiger's roar; two strange hiltless black short swords violently trembled, wobbling and striking the White Tiger Fissure, with a "crack" being cut into four sections.

Lu Yan stared wide-eyed in bewildered shock.

Although these two flying swords were not ancient treasures or divine weapons, they were fine implements he had bought after spending nearly all his wealth; over the years he painstakingly polished them with his blood and sweat, and, following the maker's instructions, gradually infused them with several rare yuan-energy metals.

Even against ordinary copper walls and iron barriers several dozen feet thick, these two flying swords could pierce through in a single strike.

This spear, however, was as easy as cutting paper, effortlessly severing his two flying swords that had consumed countless efforts.

Ancient treasure!

Divine weapon!

Cannot be blocked!

Lu Yan had originally been charging forward at full speed to pursue and kill, when the White Tiger Fissure, bearing a soul-shaking tiger roar, thrust straight at him; he let out a muffled grunt, his evasion light suddenly stalled, then he fled backward with all his might.

From full-speed forward to full-force retreat, Lu Yan suffered a magical backlash and reversed essence blood, spitting out a mouthful of old blood far away.

The White Tiger Fissure inch by inch approached Lu Yan's chest, while Lu Yan bit by bit hastily retreated via evasion.

The obedient girl sitting on Wu Tie's shoulder suddenly raised her little hand, her eyes flashing a hint of mysterious dark light, and softly uttered a strange incantation.

The surrounding air violently trembled for a moment; at that instant, Lu Yan suddenly felt his heart had become like a huge wooden fish, and the shaman maiden's incantation was like a thin wooden mallet lightly tapping that wooden fish.

A light shake, the force not strong, but the echo lingered, continuous and unending; wave after wave of faint sound vibrations continually shook the inner wall of the wooden fish, making the whole wooden fish resonate nonstop, the sound growing louder, the shaking stronger.

With a miserable howl, Lu Yan's heart suddenly shrank to the size of a cherry, then abruptly expanded to the size of a small wine jar, then shrank again to cherry size... repeating three times, his heart vessels cracked in countless places, large amounts of blood continuously spurting out.

Lu Yan's evasion light speed suddenly slowed; he opened his mouth, spitting out mouthfuls of blood, powerlessly watching Wu Tie's spear in his hand flash like lightning as it thrust past.

The White Tiger Fissure pierced Lu Yan's body; its huge tiger head emitted a tiger roar, and a grim battlefield muster killing intent surged straight to Lu Yan's brow, striking everywhere his not-so-large, not-so-solid Life Pool fissures.

Life Pool damaged, the soul's origin immediately suffered heavy injury; Lu Yan's vision went black, and wracked with intense pain he fell from the air.

"Pa-pa-pa-pa," before Lu Yan even hit the ground, over a dozen finely crafted triple-edged daggers flew out from the darkness, stabbing not too deep nor too shallow into his arms, thighs, buttocks, and other thick-muscled yet non-vital spots.

The force of these daggers was limited; although they were made with a special triple-edged armor-piercing design, they only pierced into Lu Yan's flesh a little over an inch deep, and since they struck mostly fleshy areas, this injury amounted to nothing.

However, the daggers were coated with rotting bone marrow.

Moreover, following Wu Tie's guidance, more complex toxicity was blended in, making the rotting bone marrow even more strange, domineering, and persistently hard to cure.

Upon entering the body, where the daggers touched flesh, it immediately emitted a "hiss-hiss" sound; large areas of flesh rapidly rotted, oozing copious pus and blood. Lu Yan screamed in agony, his body writhing like a snake.

Blood light flickered at his brow, a vast expanse of blood light rapidly spreading, quickly enveloping the stone crevices within a radius of a hundred meters.

Strands of blood-colored poisonous snakes weakly surged from the blood light, hissing shrilly as they looked left and right, seeking enemies to devour.

Life Pool damaged, Lu Yan's divine ability power greatly diminished; originally his blood light could cover several li, now only a hundred-meter radius remained under control, and the condensed blood-colored poisonous snakes were also extremely weak in momentum, appearing utterly harmless.

As the blood light just spread, directly above Lu Yan's head, a hundred-meter-long stalactite hanging from the stone crevice ceiling suddenly snapped off at its base.

The plump stone flying disk sat on the broken stalactite's base, gritting its teeth and loudly shrieking, its whole body rolling in earth-yellow strong light, light continuously pouring into the stalactite, making its texture become crystal clear and translucent like a top-grade yellow jade.

The stalactite's hardness increased severalfold, its density increased more than tenfold.

A hundred-meter-long stalactite suddenly became weighing several million catties, especially its tip becoming extraordinarily sharp, the fine point entirely like a spearhead several meters long.

"Dong!"

The stalactite struck Lu Yan's chest with extraordinary precision.

A streak of blood light burst from Lu Yan's surface, struggling to block the stalactite's impact.

The blood light violently trembled, layers of blood light continually being shattered, then new layers continually emerging from within Lu Yan's body.

His heart violently spasmed, his whole body's blood vessels nearly collapsing, Life Pool riddled with fissures, magical power nearly exhausted, and over a dozen bowl-sized blood cavities appeared on his body, pus blood mixed with deadly poison rampaging…

With such severe injuries, Lu Yan's will to survive was extremely strong.

He screamed hoarsely, blood light layer upon layer surfacing around his body, gradually condensing into a blood-colored lotus the size of a water tank.

This is a highly profound body-protecting divine ability from Lu Yan's primary cultivation manual, the Blood Shadow Classic; even when he was in the Chonglou Realm, he never fully comprehended it, never managed to successfully cultivate this advanced technique.

At this life-and-death juncture, in this near-certain death situation of being slain, Lu Yan suddenly had a flash of inspiration, indeed forcefully breaking through the bottleneck, and in one go cultivated this body-protecting divine ability to the minor accomplishment stage.

The blood-colored lotus spun rapidly, the blood light within possessing extremely strong corrosive power; the stalactite fell from high altitude, the hundred-meter-long stalactite segment by segment being completely corroded away by the blood-colored lotus, great plumes of green smoke shooting up to the sky, and in the blink of an eye the stalactite was left only a few meters long.

"You can't kill me, Duo Li Ya said…… as long as the three of us join forces…… we will definitely win!" Lu Yan shouted hoarsely.

Having accomplished the bodily divine ability, the temporary breakthrough also brought him a slight benefit; inside his body it was as if a tiny spring had appeared, newly born magical power trickled out continuously, constantly pouring into the cracks everywhere in the life pool.

Whoosh—!

Two curved blades interlocked, like a windmill's blades flashing with black firelight, they flew spinning out of the darkness.

The surface of the finely forged curved blade was covered with flickering runes, strands of black flame carrying terrifying heat; wherever the blade passed, the ground's rock layers rapidly melted, leaving behind a trail of molten rock about a meter wide, glowing red.

The curved blade swept past Lu Yan's neck in a spinning slash, a strand of black flame jetted from his throat, his hoarse cry abruptly cut off, then his whole body erupted in black firelight, quickly burning to a wisp of ash.

The curved blade belonged to Yan Hanlu; the black flame, however, was that single strand of Cangyan flame that the Lu family relies upon as the foundation of their house.

The three great families of the Cangyan Realm sealed off the entire realm to rest and recuperate; only three direct-line core clansmen followed Wu Tie outside, and the three families also exhausted their fortunes to equip those three clansmen to the teeth.

Yan Hanlu unexpectedly obtained a Cangyan fire seed that the Lu family reluctantly produced.

This is a spirit‑fire seed forged from earth‑core magma over hundreds of millions of years; following Wu Tie these days, Yan Hanlu has achieved success in cultivating the Formless Bone Devil Classic, and only in the past few days did she finally fuse the Cangyan fire seed with herself.

Henceforth, every move and stance of Yan Hanlu carries a terrifyingly hot strand of Cangyan flame; although her cultivation is not high, her lethality has become extremely fearsome.

Thud—!

The huge stalactite crashed heavily to the ground, blasting out a deep pit several meters deep.

Shi Fei, sitting cross‑legged at the base of the stalactite, suddenly cried out "Oh oh oh!"; his round, plump white face twitched violently, and in an extremely embarrassed reflex he reached back to touch his own tailbone…

However, given his physique, trying to stroke his own tailbone was… difficult.

"Sh… shock… injured… my… tailbone…" Shi Fei's big face twitched as two streams of hot tears poured down: "Too high, too heavy, the shock was too severe… my bones are cracked, cracked…"

Old White poked his head out, sneaking furtively from the shadows.

Upon confirming that Lu Yan was indeed dead beyond doubt, Old White, his face full of anguish, rushed over and began circling the stalactite.

Those dozen or so exquisite daggers were specially forged by the Lu family of the Cangyan Realm for him; now they were first melted into molten iron by the Cangyan flame, then smashed down by the stalactite—those finely crafted daggers!

"Good‑for‑nothing! Good‑for‑nothing!" Old White sighed heartbrokenly: "My daggers…"

"My tailbone… my butt…" Shi Fei struggled to rise from the stalactite, wobbling over to its edge and then jumping down with difficulty. As his feet touched the ground, his bulk shuddered and the tailbone that had just been cracked by that impact sent a fresh wave of intense pain through him.

Whoa~~~ Oh~~~ Oh~~~!

Shi Fei covered his lower back with both hands, craned his neck, and let out an extremely pleasurable moan.

Wu Tie descended from midair, glanced at the pit beneath the stalactite, shook his head with a smile: "A prophecy? He said that if the three of you chased me together, you could kill me…… but you came alone—what does that count as?"

"Besides, I'm not alone—I have all these comrades." Wu Tie laughed, cracking his mouth: "So that fellow's prophecy wasn't wrong…… it's just the same as letting out a fart!"

Light footsteps approached.

The Demon Chapter King walked over carrying Luo He's corpse, his face one of disbelief, staring blankly at Wu Tie as he said: "I killed him, I really killed him…… I struck him down face‑to‑face, killing a Life Pool Realm cultivator……"

The Demon Chapter King said dully: "I…… actually managed to kill a Life Pool Realm cultivator? Wu Tie, you had me entangle one of them, just to stall their steps…… I, I never imagined I could actually kill one……"

Wu Tie also widened his eyes, staring blankly at the Demon Chapter King.

He walked up to the Demon Chapter King, took Luo He's corpse, and pressed a finger against Luo He's brow.

The touch felt soft and insubstantial; Luo He's life pool had completely collapsed, and the potent toxin secreted within the Demon Chapter King's body could even corrode the life pool of a Life Pool Realm cultivator.

"Quite impressive. But remember, they are merely the weakest of the Life Pool Realm." Wu Tie recalled Sun Zuo's breakthrough to the Life Pool Realm—so few, just tens of thousands of light strands condensing into a life pool…… Is that a life pool, or a life 'cup', a life 'teacup'?

"Exactly, they are the weakest of the Life Pool Realm." Tie Da Jian also returned, carrying the half‑body of Qin Yi.

"From the perspective of an inner‑disciple of a great power like the Six Dao Palace, Tie Da Jian seriously analyzed: 'Their cultivation methods are extremely crude; they didn't lay a solid foundation even in the Chonglou Realm…… So…… I'm also puzzled as to how they managed to break through to the Life Pool Realm.'"

Wu Tie laughed and clapped his hands: "Anyway, regardless of anything, this is a great victory…… Let's first find a place to rest, then we'll figure out our next move……"

Wu Tie's complexion looked a little strange.

He had personally seen that the members of the Blood Curved Blade had also been completely wiped out.

What should he do?