Chapter 424: The Cost

The middle-aged man's expression changed sharply. His figure retreated in an instant while the crescent-moon blade in his hand cut down toward the direction the staff had come from.

In an instant, fierce winds howled from every direction, heaven and earth resounding with a deep hum, as though the savage, overwhelming edge of the blade meant to split the sky itself in two.

The middle-aged man retreated more than ten zhang in the blink of an eye, looked down at his own bloodied, mangled palm, then snapped his gaze back up toward the Nine Star Yellow Spring Formation laid out by the assembled Heaven-Human experts.

That single strike of his had very nearly torn a massive rift through the sky itself. What met his eyes now was nothing but churning, chaotic currents, with no sign of the blind man anywhere.

As one of the Yellow Spring Tribe's Nine Great Guardians, the middle-aged man's heart still pounded with residual fear. Had he reacted even a fraction slower, the blind man's bamboo staff would not have merely pierced his palm, it would have run straight through his heart.

"This man is extraordinarily dangerous. Protect the Young Master and retreat to the Yellow Spring Tribe immediately."

The middle-aged man hesitated no further, calling out at once to the assembled Heaven-Human experts maintaining the formation below.

At those words, the Yellow Spring experts glanced at the middle-aged man's bloodied palm and hesitated no longer either, maintaining the formation while protecting Young Master Jinchuan within the palanquin and retreating at full speed.

The blind man's ghostly, untraceable movements had killed two of their number without a sound right under the noses of this many experts, and had even severely wounded a guardian of formidable cultivation. His strength was clearly far beyond what any of them had imagined, and not something they could match in direct combat.

At the same time, Young Master Jinchuan's face within the palanquin had turned distinctly unpleasant. Though protected by a host of Heaven-Human experts, the thread of killing intent locked onto him from afar still remained.

Even the power of the Nine Star Yellow Spring Formation could not block out even a fraction of the blind man's killing intent directed at him.

"You still haven't answered this young master's question. Who exactly sent you to kill me?"

At this point, Young Master Jinchuan suddenly punched through the top of the palanquin and leaped out, scanning the surroundings under the formation's protection in search of any trace of the blind man.

Just as his words fell, the blind man's figure appeared atop the roof of a building beside the street, less than a dozen zhang from the retreating Yellow Spring group.

The blind man's pale eyes faced the direction in which the Yellow Spring group was retreating, the blood-soaked bamboo staff still in his hand, and he spoke slowly, "I know what you're worried about, but you don't need to be. The person who hired me to kill you is already dead."

With that, the blind man vanished from where he stood once more.

At the same time, the middle-aged man, also retreating while protecting Young Master Jinchuan, changed expression sharply again, immediately circulating the vast true qi within his body and raising his crescent-moon blade to block from above.

The void above shuddered faintly, with no sign of the blind man appearing, but a bamboo staff seemed to materialize out of nothing and descend with deceptive lightness.

In the next instant, a thunderous boom like an exploding peal of thunder rang out. The blind man's unassuming bamboo staff, in a single strike, destroyed the crescent-moon blade in the middle-aged man's hand that had been blazing with the radiance of the noonday sun.

The blade shattered into pieces and scattered, a single fragment alone reducing a wooden building dozens of zhang away to fine powder in an instant.

At the same time, a powerful killing intent surged from the bamboo staff, pressing down on the middle-aged man below like a collapsing mountain.

The middle-aged man wanted to block it with everything he had, but with his crescent-moon blade destroyed and his blade intent shattered, he was already severely wounded and could not possibly defend himself.

He could only stare wide-eyed in disbelief as the blood-soaked bamboo staff pierced into his body, his own mouth suddenly erupting with fresh blood as he crashed thunderously down toward the street below.

At the sight, whether it was the Heaven-Human experts who had laid the Nine Star Yellow Spring Formation or Young Master Jinchuan himself, every one of them was struck with shock.

None of them had ever imagined that one of the Yellow Spring Tribe's Nine Great Guardians could fail to withstand even two strikes from this blind man, falling so quickly.

At the same time, the middle-aged man, pinned to the street by the bamboo staff that had driven straight through him, stared up in disbelief at the air above, where the blind man's figure was once again slowly materializing.

"How is this possible? Your strength has grown even greater than before."

"Or have you... been concealing your true strength the entire time?"

The middle-aged man forced the words out with great difficulty, the blind man's bamboo staff still embedded in his chest, blood spreading slowly from the wound across his body.

And within the staff was a substantial, terrifying killing intent that was continuously strangling the life force within him.

At those words, the blind man, hovering in the air, bent down to look at the middle-aged man below. He could naturally sense that the man was secretly circulating his arts, straining to resist the killing intent.

But he paid this no mind whatsoever, and instead explained calmly, "When it comes to killing, it's either you die or I live. Holding back is simply not an option."

"It just so happens I have a particular quality. The more determined I am to kill someone, the stronger I become. And the more people I kill, the same thing happens."

With that, the blind man simply raised a hand toward the man below and twisted it. The staff embedded in the middle-aged man's chest immediately turned with a violent wrenching motion.

"No."

The middle-aged man let out a terrified roar, but in the next instant his entire body was ground into pulp by the terrifying force of the twisting staff, leaving nothing whole behind.

At the sight, Young Master Jinchuan and the assembled Yellow Spring experts, retreating rapidly in the distance, all felt an inexplicable chill run through them, fear surfacing on their faces.

That a Yellow Spring guardian of such standing had died so easily at the blind man's hands was clearly a profound shock to everyone present.

"Faster, faster. He cannot be allowed to catch up."

Someone called out urgently, and the group pushed their speed to its absolute limit, protecting Young Master Jinchuan as they fled into the distance.

At this point, the blind man drew the staff back into his hand from a distance, turned to face the direction Young Master Jinchuan's group had fled, and showed not the slightest urgency.

"Don't worry. I will take your life before you make it back home."

The blind man's voice drifted lightly into Young Master Jinchuan's ears. At those words, Young Master Jinchuan's eyes darkened. The thread of killing intent that had been locked onto him from the very start felt like a guillotine blade hanging over his neck.

It seemed as though the man could kill him at any moment, yet refused to take his life immediately, as though playing with him the way a cat toys with a mouse.

"How much did that person pay you to kill me? I'll offer ten times that."

Young Master Jinchuan looked back toward the blind man and suddenly spoke in a low voice.

The blind man, walking through the air, followed unhurriedly behind Young Master Jinchuan's group, considered for a moment, and said, "If I remember correctly, what they paid me was just a pot of wine."

"A pot of wine?"

Young Master Jinchuan's expression went blank, then he seemed to find it almost funny, his eyes turning cold, "What a madman. Is this young master's life worth no more than a pot of wine?"

At those words, the blind man shook his head, "It wasn't ordinary wine. There's only that one pot left in the entire world. Now that she's dead, no one will ever brew it again."