Chapter 719: The Butcher's Blade, the Calligrapher's Brush

In front of the butcher shop, there was a murderous aura as if a storm were about to break.

The Butcher suddenly raised his head, his half-closed eyes snapping open like a fierce tiger glaring, his violent nature unmistakably revealed; a terrifying, soul-shaking might emerged from thin air, sweeping out as if it were tangible, rushing toward Yu Liancheng. Yet, this hurricane dissipated into nothingness three feet before reaching the latter.

"Are you here to pick a fight!?"

His voice was as steady, heavy, and powerful as the man himself, yet it seemed to carry a scent of blood that even the vast oceans could not wash away.

Yu Liancheng stood with his hands behind his back and smiled: "If you don't want to be picked on by others, it is best to pick on others first."

"That may be the logic, but you don't go pick on that scholar, yet you come to pick on me—could it be you think I am weaker than that scholar?" The Butcher seemed somewhat angry and stomped his meat cleaver hard onto the chopping block. With a *crack*, a fissure instantly appeared on the block, and it was hacked clean through. The grease and wood shavings beneath the block were likewise easily sliced apart.

The momentum of the blade was like water from the heavens, flowing without end. The meat table was also severed into two pieces, and immediately following, a deep trench appeared in the blood-soaked ground; this fissure was extremely dark, impossible to see the bottom of, yet one could faintly hear the sound of gurgling water, as if it were an underground river.

What a terrifying blade this was.

It seemed capable of slaughtering all things, reaching straight from the human world to the Yellow Springs.

No matter who saw such a blade, and knew that such a blade might land on them at any moment, they should be filled with fear and panic.

But Yu Liancheng did not; his expression was calm, and he even curled his lips into a mocking smile: "The blade is a good blade, but you seem to have forgotten that a person is not pork on a chopping block."

"In my eyes, everyone in the world is pork on a chopping block." The Butcher spoke word by word, every syllable filled with incomparably intense confidence.

"Hard to say." Yu Liancheng shook his head.

"Then come and try!"

The Butcher swung his blade at Yu Liancheng.

Without a doubt, the Butcher was powerful. As someone who could survive from the last Eternal Night and linger on for countless years under the Perception of Haotian, he could be said to be an existence standing at the very peak. The meat cleaver in his hand was also no simple object; it possessed the weight of a mountain and the sharpness to cut through gold and jade. Since the day this blade was forged, countless experts had died beneath it.

Even those who could withstand the first strike were few and far between.

For nearly a thousand years, this blade had almost never killed anyone, its edge kept hidden.

But when the Butcher took up this blade again, intending to kill, it was undoubtedly the most terrifying strike in the world.

Now, this blade had been swung, and it was indeed terrifying to the extreme; even that Temple Head in the South Sea would never dare to underestimate its edge.

The clouds in the sky were sliced in two.

The Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi of the entire small town became violent, whipping up surging waves.

Heaven and earth seemed to turn upside down at this moment, and light and darkness lost their original colors.

Boom!

Half of the small town collapsed and shattered under this strike, turning into ruins and presenting a scene of desolation.

Hundreds and thousands of ordinary people were screaming; some were buried under buildings, while others were turned into inconspicuous mists of blood in this strike.

And before the Butcher, there appeared a terrifying blade mark a hundred zhang long and several zhang wide, like a bottomless abyss capable of swallowing everything, dark and lightless, with no bottom in sight. Yet, a rumbling sound emerged from the abyss, faintly like an underground river surging and churning.

What a terrifying blade!

In heaven and on earth, perhaps one could never find a more terrifying strike than this.

"I said, a person is not pork on a chopping block."

Yu Liancheng's figure appeared once more before the Butcher; that terrifying, extreme strike had not even managed to cut a single hair of his: "Perhaps you once had the arrogance and dominance to view all living things as pigs and dogs, able to slice the sky open with one strike. But now, you yourself are merely a dog of Haotian, a dog that only knows how to bite and bark, and wag its tail for pity."

"What is wrong with being a dog? Being a dog allows for eternal life. If you let me have eternal life, I can be your dog too."

As if touched on a sore spot, the Butcher's slightly fleshy face twisted slightly, and he roared: "The reason you can accuse me is because you have not experienced the Eternal Night. Experiencing those thousands of years where the world was shrouded in darkness and cold—yesterday you were a loving couple, and the next day you might become two stiff, frozen skeletons, or one living person and a pot of meat soup."

While speaking, the Butcher continuously raised his hand and swung his blade.

Every strike was incomparably violent, leaving trench after trench in the earth.

No matter what stood before this meat cleaver, it was sliced open as if it were pork on a chopping block.

"In the last Eternal Night, all things withered. Except for me and the Drunkard, all people and animals died; even the plants withered away completely. That was a world of death. Only those who have truly witnessed death can understand the preciousness of life."

"I want to live on, I want eternal life. As long as I can have eternal life, I can abandon everything except life itself—abandon dignity, abandon freedom, being a dog is fine too. Now Haotian will grant me eternal life, and you are the only stumbling block before my eternal life. So, for the sake of how hard I have worked for eternal life, you... just go die obediently!"

"

Boom!

Dust flew, and another huge trench appeared between heaven and earth. The trench was filled with blade intent; any mortal who touched it would be instantly torn apart by the blade intent, without a single piece of intact skin.

Swinging his blade continuously, the Butcher panted slightly, his arm aching. Under his violent blade momentum, the area of several hundred zhang was a mess; the small town had turned into broken walls and ruins, and the once bustling prosperity had returned to a wasteland. Nine out of ten residents of the small town had perished under the Butcher's blade, and the remaining commoners were screaming and crying, filled with fear and unease.

Under the Butcher's blade, ordinary humans were less like pork on a chopping block and more like a dense nest of ants, hundreds or thousands of which could be crushed to death at will.

"To be a dog so righteously, that is truly rare." Yu Liancheng's figure appeared before the Butcher again, still completely unscathed.

Last year in the Sword Pavilion, Yu Liancheng reached Knowing Destiny with a flick of his finger. Since then, he had read through the "Sha Scroll" and witnessed existences above the Five Realms such as the Great Teacher, Fuzi, and the Peak Master of the Scripture Lectures; his cultivation realm naturally leaped past the Five Realms.

Above the Five Realms are various wondrous realms, one of which is called "No Distance," where one can traverse heaven and earth and roam ten thousand miles in a single thought.

Of course, according to Yu Liancheng's estimation, this "No Distance" should only be usable within the Haotian world; once entering other worlds, due to the difference in the laws of heaven and earth, even if it could be used, its power would be greatly diminished.

Integrating "No Distance" into the Inch-by-Inch Path of the Gui Cang Nine Paths allowed Yu Liancheng to take his movement technique to a higher level. As for a brute like the Butcher, in his eyes, he was no different from the Peak Master of the Scripture Lectures; as long as he did not want to engage head-on, it would be difficult for the Butcher to even touch his clothes.

"Why won't you die! Why won't you die!"

"Why won't you die!"

"

The Butcher gripped his blade, staring fixedly at Yu Liancheng, his face full of ferocious killing intent, as if he wanted to swallow him alive.

"Because I am still alive." Yu Liancheng smiled slightly.

"Cough, cough!"

Just then, a series of coughing sounds rang out.

Opposite the meat shop, the sound of rubble and bricks shifting came from beneath a collapsed wall; a hand reached out from the pile of debris, and immediately after, the middle-aged scholar stood up from the ruins.

"No, my calligraphy."

"The brush, ink, paper, and inkstone I bought from the Pen Ink Pavilion."

"Ah, this is top-grade Biluo Peak tea."

The middle-aged scholar was on the verge of tears; he suddenly turned to look at Yu Liancheng, gnashing his teeth and saying: "Yu Liancheng, I want you to pay for this. Thirty-two calligraphy scrolls, a set of brush, ink, paper, and inkstone from the Pen Ink Pavilion, and two taels of Biluo Peak..."

Yu Liancheng shrugged: "None of my business, the Butcher hacked it."

"If you hadn't come to the small town and provoked the Butcher, how would he have been willing to strike?!" The middle-aged scholar suddenly raised his arms and shouted: "Townspeople, tell me, should he pay for it?"

"Pay!"

"Pay!"

One by one, the surviving townspeople slowly turned their heads, looking at Yu Liancheng with expressionless faces.

Pools of ink flowed out from beneath the walls, transforming into the merchants, believers, and scholars who had originally been crushed to death. They also looked at Yu Liancheng with expressionless faces.

The soaring birds suddenly stopped, the rats in the dark corners crawled out, and even the ants looked up at Yu Liancheng from their anthills.

All people and things seemed to have turned into dull, marionette puppets, staring straight at Yu Liancheng, devoid of their own thoughts or will, as if their emotions had been stripped away.

Or perhaps, they were fictional to begin with.

"Yo, Old Wang, your Talisman Dao seems to have made progress again, you've Leap Five Realms?!" Yu Liancheng felt the terrifying Fu Intent whistling toward him and laughed: "Was it because you were beaten by me back then, felt the shame, and then became brave, so your Talisman Dao improved greatly? Or perhaps, it is once again Haotian's mercy, bestowing upon you power above the Five Realms, and you have also become a dog of Haotian."

"Yu Liancheng, this is my Fu Intent World; today is your death day." A brush appeared in the middle-aged scholar's hand, his expression stern and filled with killing intent.

It turned out that this scholar was Wang Shusheng, the Divine Talisman Master second only to Yan Se.

After Wang Shusheng was defeated by Yu Liancheng on Mogan Mountain in the past, he joined the Xiling Divine Palace; there had been no news of him for some time, but it was unexpected that he had already stepped into the realm above the Five Realms.

And he had gone a step further in the Talisman Dao, reaching a level that was unfathomable to gods and ghosts.

The people and things in this small town were almost all manifested by the Divine Talisman under his brush.

That is to say, the moment Yu Liancheng stepped into the small town, he had already entered the Fu Intent World.

And to be able to reach this step, it was likely Haotian's favor. Although that Haotian was hiding, her will was everywhere.

"My death day? I'm afraid you haven't woken up yet." Yu Liancheng stomped his foot, and the already Broken ground shook once more. Bricks and stones flew, swept up into the sky, and were then wrapped by an invisible force, transforming into a baring-fangs-and-brandishing-claws stone dragon that headed toward Wang Shusheng amidst a roar.

"Let me wash your face for you."

A face-washing of scattered stones.

Wang Shusheng's expression changed, and the life-bound brush in his hand danced wildly, stirring the Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi.

Clatter!

Black chains extended from the void, binding the four claws of the stone dragon, but the black chains shattered into a pool of ink in an instant.

Seeing the stone dragon pouncing toward his face, Wang Shusheng began to write wildly again. Amidst a boom, a stone wall rose from the ground, blocking in front of him.

The stone dragon crashed into the stone wall; amidst a series of rumbles, the stone wall was smashed through, and the stone dragon also shrank by a large margin, finally being slashed apart by Wang Shusheng's brush and ink.

"Are you sober now?" Yu Liancheng smiled.

Wang Shusheng's face turned cold, and he slashed his life-bound brush across his chest; his clothes tore, and fresh blood splattered.

The tip of the brush was saturated with the hot blood from his heart, drawing a character in the air. When this character was completed, it seemed to transform into a vortex, and all the colors in the small town surged toward this blood-red character. Finally, the character became increasingly vivid, while the entire small town turned into the simplest black and white, like an ink wash painting.

Even the individual figures in the small town were drained of color, becoming increasingly sluggish and rigid.

The Fu Intent World was completely finished.

The entire small town became a world unto itself, isolated from the Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi.

At the same time, the Butcher raised the blade in his hand, and the crisscrossing blade marks on the ground immediately emitted thousands upon thousands of wisps of blade intent, the aura supple yet extremely sharp.

All the blade intent formed a semicircle, wrapping the Butcher, Yu Liancheng, and Wang Shusheng inside.

Thus, a Blade Intent World was formed.

The Butcher's seemingly violent blade swings earlier were actually each calculated, allowing the blade intent to cover a hundred zhang, forming the Blade Intent World.

Fu Intent World.

Blade Intent World.

The two worlds merged together, simultaneously strangling toward Yu Liancheng.

"Die!

"

Chirp, chirp!

Suddenly, the sound of cicadas rang out.

This cicada sound only appeared within a three-zhang radius centered on Yu Liancheng, without a single bit leaking out.

Outside the three zhang, a barrier as thin as cicada wings emerged.

The Fu Intent and blade intent struck like a violent storm; the barrier deformed and twisted, yet it was ultimately unable to break through this thin cicada-wing membrane.

Yu Liancheng looked at the Butcher and Wang Shusheng, his brows slightly furrowed.

It was not because he was worried about falling into the trap carefully woven by the two, but because he suddenly thought of a question.

The Butcher and the Drunkard were the only two survivors of the last Eternal Night, and the two had always been inseparable.

And now, the one appearing with the Butcher was Wang Shusheng, so where had the Drunkard gone?

A powerhouse above the Five Realms who possessed the Wuju Realm and could travel ten thousand miles in a single thought. No matter where he appeared, it was very headache-inducing.

Chirp!

The cicada sound grew loud, rising straight into the clouds, as if it were about to tear the firmament apart.

"Forget it, I'd better solve these two guys in front of me first." Yu Liancheng's eyes suddenly narrowed.

Dahe Kingdom.

Mogan Mountain.

Someone was climbing the mountain.

That person wore an ordinary cloth shirt, had ordinary features, a few wrinkles at the corners of his eyes, yet his skin was extremely delicate, and his hair was somewhat gray; if one looked closely, one would discover that those black hairs revealed a sense of youth, making it impossible to tell exactly how old he was, and it was hard to say whether he was old or young.

A wine gourd was tied to the person's waist, swaying gently with the spring breeze.

It could be seen that he liked to drink very much.

All the way up the mountain, the drinking never stopped.

His expression while drinking was extremely bold, like a whale inhaling seawater, yet that wine pot never once hit bottom, with wine constantly pouring out forever.

He is a drunkard.

……