Chapter 34: Annihilation

Chapter 34: Chapter 34: Annihilation

Alarm bells screamed in Yuan Shi’s mind. He’d never imagined Chen Yue would dare to charge back at him. It was too late to change his attack. In his haste, he could only commit to the mistake, swinging his blade in a horizontal slash.

The brilliant flash of the blade skimmed past Chen Yue’s ribs, tearing his robes but failing to draw a single drop of blood.

Chen Yue ignored the blade’s flash as if he’d already calculated the distance to a tee.

As he dodged the blade, he unleashed the right fist he had been holding in reserve.

The punch was silent, yet it carried a suffocating pressure that made the heart pound. It shot straight for Yuan Shi’s throat!

Too fast! Too close!

Yuan Shi’s pupils constricted. Chen Yue’s speed was far beyond his imagination. He had no time to bring his blade back to block. Acting on pure instinct, he barely managed to raise his left arm to shield his neck while desperately throwing his head back.

"CRACK!"

The sharp crack of breaking bone shattered the silence of the alley!

Yuan Shi’s left hand, like rotten wood struck by a sledgehammer, instantly shattered, the bones in his fingers and palm twisting grotesquely.

The fist’s momentum was unbroken, its power undiminished!

The terrifyingly powerful fist smashed through the mangled hand and landed squarely on Yuan Shi’s neck.

"Urk—!"

The flesh of Yuan Shi’s neck visibly caved in, a sickening, muffled thud making one’s skin crawl. His eyes bulged, shot with blood, filled with ultimate terror and disbelief.

A thick mist of blood sprayed uncontrollably from his mouth and nose.

Yuan Shi’s tall frame crumpled backward as if every bone had been removed from his body. His long blade fell to the ground with a CLANG.

His body still twitched faintly on the ground. His eyes remained wide, fixed on Chen Yue. Even in death, he couldn’t understand how he, a master of the Refining Flesh Realm, had died at the hands of someone in the Skin Refining Realm.

Without a second glance at Yuan Shi’s corpse, Chen Yue stomped on the hilt of the blade, flicking it up into his hand. The blade was heavy and its edge was sharp—far better than the one he’d bought on the black market.

Chen Yue raised his head, his calm gaze fixed on the far end of the alley.

Some ten paces away, Zhou Yi and Jia Ge had already halted their pursuit.

The two of them stood frozen like statues, their faces masks of indescribable shock.

It had all happened too fast. From Yuan Shi’s burst of speed, to Chen Yue’s sudden counter-charge, to Yuan Shi being killed with a single punch—the entire sequence had taken no more than a few breaths.

’An expert of the Refining Flesh Realm, dead just like that? Killed so cleanly, without any chance to fight back?’

’Even if Yuan Shi had been careless, even if Chen Yue had capitalized on his Body Technique and the element of surprise, this outcome was still utterly unbelievable!’

’This isn’t someone who just broke through to the Skin Refining Realm! This is a ravenous beast in sheep’s clothing! His strength, his speed, his timing, the viciousness of his attack... none of it is possible for someone in the Skin Refining Realm!’

Cold sweat beaded in the palm of Zhou Yi’s blade hand. Jia Ge’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed nervously, retreat already glinting in his eyes.

However, before they could make a move, Chen Yue was already charging, dragging the long blade behind him. The tip scraped against the rough alley floor, kicking up a shower of sparks with a deafening shriek of metal on stone.

’Run?’

Zhou Yi and Jia Ge’s hearts sank as they recalled the ghostly Body Technique Chen Yue had just displayed. ’Can we even escape? The moment we turn our backs, he’ll cut us down from behind!’

"We fight! Two fists can’t beat four hands. I refuse to believe he can take both of us on!" A vicious glint flashed in Zhou Yi’s eyes as he suppressed his fear and roared.

"Kill him!"

Jia Ge’s own ferocity was ignited. With a furious roar, he crushed his urge to flee and joined Zhou Yi. One on the left, one on the right, they brandished their blades and lunged at the charging Chen Yue.

Two brilliant arcs of light, one from the left and one from the right, scissored toward Chen Yue, sealing off his escape routes and threatening to dice him to pieces.

Chen Yue’s expression was glacial. In the instant before the twin blades struck, his footwork from the Floating Light and Shadow Technique shifted again. His body moved like a willow catkin in the wind, side-stepping just half a pace to narrowly avoid Zhou Yi’s downward chop aimed at his head.

At the same time, the long blade he’d been dragging on the ground suddenly swung upward in a reverse arc.

"CLANG!"

The ear-splitting ring of metal on metal exploded through the narrow alley.

Chen Yue’s reverse slash struck the weak point on the side of Zhou Yi’s descending blade. The immense force contained within the blow, combined with the inertia of the long blade’s swing, erupted in an instant.

Zhou Yi felt a terrifying, overwhelming force travel up his blade. His entire right arm went numb in an instant. The web of his thumb split open with excruciating pain, dripping blood.

He grunted, sent stumbling backward by the immense force. He took four or five staggering steps—THUD THUD THUD—before his back slammed hard against the alley wall, finally halting his retreat. His Qi Blood roiled in his chest, and his right arm trembled so violently he could barely hold his blade.

Meanwhile, Chen Yue gathered Protective Gang Qi in his left palm and struck out at Jia Ge’s incoming slash.

"BAM!"

Jia Ge felt a bizarre, concussive force travel up his blade. It not only deflected the majority of his strength but also sent a numbing shock through his wrist, causing his Sword Momentum to falter and his blade to go wide.

In that instant, as Jia Ge’s attack was spent, Chen Yue’s left palm, having just knocked the blade aside, continued its trajectory and struck Jia Ge’s unprotected left shoulder.

"CRACK! SQUELCH!"

The sickening sounds of shattering bone and tearing flesh rang out almost simultaneously. Jia Ge’s left shoulder caved in, countless bones broken. A piercing agony shot through him, and he couldn’t help but let out a shrill scream as his entire body was thrown backward through the air.

Chen Yue pushed off his right foot. Before Jia Ge even hit the ground, he had already caught up to him. His left hand shot out like lightning and clamped over Jia Ge’s mouth, wide open in a silent scream, smothering the sound completely.

At the same time, the muscles in Chen Yue’s left arm bulged as he slammed the mid-air Jia Ge down with vicious force.

"BANG!!!"

The back of Jia Ge’s head smashed solidly against the hard flagstone pavement. Blood instantly gushed from the wound, spreading rapidly into a dark pool on the ground.

Jia Ge’s body convulsed violently a few times. The whites of his eyes showed, and a bloody gurgle escaped his lips. Soon, he fell still, only his limbs twitching unconsciously now and then.

Deathly silence returned to the alley.

The night wind whistled past the alley’s entrance with a mournful cry as the stench of blood rapidly filled the air.

Chen Yue slowly released the hand covering Jia Ge’s mouth and stood up. The layer of Gang Qi on his left palm gradually dissipated.

Zhou Yi leaned against the cold, slick wall, his right arm hanging limply at his side. Warm blood continued to seep from the gash on the web of his thumb, dripping from his trembling fingers.

He stared at the expressionless young man standing with a blade not far away. A storm raged in his heart, and a boundless fear, like a cold, venomous snake, coiled tightly around it.

’What the hell... is that an Alchemy Master?!’

’What kind of Alchemy Master has Martial Arts like that?’

’Instantly countering and killing Yuan Shi, withstanding a combined attack from me and Jia Ge, then crippling and killing Jia Ge in two moves!’

’Is this the power someone in the Skin Refining Realm with "some skill" is supposed to have, according to the intel?’