Chapter 1744: Annihilation

Though the long-handled giant hammer looked clumsy, Li Yan hadn’t sensed the strike until it was almost at his waist. As his Divine Sense caught the attack, a violent shudder ran through him. Because he had seen this artifact before—it was the one that had sent Ming Qi flying.

‘That woman really is dead!’

The moment this thought occurred to him, the shudder brought him back to his senses. Ever since he saw Xie Xingzhi’s corpse and heard that voice, he had lost his usual composure. This had slowed his reactions, and he had almost been hit.

‘There was something wrong with that voice…’

But he had no time for further thought. A thick, powerful figure burst through the rain, lunging at him once more. Though the figure was bulky, he moved with incredible agility, like a water python. It gave Li Yan the illusion that the previous strike hadn’t come from this man.

The man’s eyes flickered with surprise when the strike missed.

‘The master said his mind was affected. How is he still so difficult to deal with?’

He was frustrated. Today, all of his assassinations had been detected early by his targets. But he had no way of knowing that the man before him had carved out his path to immortality through countless hidden kills. Since stealth was now pointless, he would just kill the man directly. From beginning to end, the man didn’t speak, but he exuded a heavy aura of pressure.

Li Yan immediately engaged him. Their clash sent rainwater flying in every direction. Two figures moved rapidly through the night, the sound of explosions constant, accompanied by bursts of light that pierced the dark rain…

As Li Yan fought his assailant, three figures suddenly appeared before a Man-shaped passage. Behind them, at the entrance of the passage, four corpses were now hanging.

If Li Yan had the chance to look, he would have seen that not only were there three figures before a nearby entrance, but another corpse had been added to those hanging above: an old man. It was Yang Zun, his face filled with infinite terror and regret. However, Ming Qi’s body was not among those hanging there…

“Hmm? What is going on with Shi Ying?”

The person in the middle of the three figures spoke, his voice full of dissatisfaction. After dealing with the others at the core, they had emerged to surround the last target once Shi Ying engaged him. But just before they could attack, the leader—the one with the highest cultivation—noticed that something was wrong with the battle below. Within a certain range, his Divine Sense couldn’t see the situation clearly.

Before the other two could respond to his question, a massive boom erupted from below.

Boom!

Accompanied by this sky-piercing explosion, a blinding blue light shot toward the heavens. In the darkness, countless blue pillars of rain appeared…

The three above didn’t hesitate. With a flicker, they shot toward the ground. Before they arrived, their Divine Sense saw a thick figure burst through the rain from the darkness, having been thrown far into the distance.

The three figures landed and ignored the thrown figure, instantly surrounding the area where the blue light was flashing. Under the blue glow, their faces were revealed: a middle-aged man and two young cultivators, a man and a woman.

The moment they surrounded the area, a towering aura erupted from them, locking onto the central space. The middle-aged man, in particular, exuded a monstrous aura that made the surrounding space creak under the pressure. Under his weight, the other two cultivators, though they were late-stage Spirit Transformation experts, were forced to retreat. Their heads spun and their chests felt tight, their auras becoming erratic. They knew this pressure wasn’t aimed at them, but at the enemy.

However, the middle-aged man’s expression soon changed. The aura at the center of the blue light was dissipating at an incredible speed. This area was strange; even at such a close distance, he couldn’t accurately sense the situation inside.

At that moment, the thick, powerful figure flew back from the darkness.

“Cough, cough… you… you came a bit too fast. The… the man realized you were here and immediately chose to… to self-detonate!”

As the voice fell, the thick figure emerged from the rain, appearing not far behind the middle-aged man. By the fading blue light, one could see his face was rugged, but blood was currently seeping from his seven orifices. The scarlet blood ran down his face in streaks, making him look like a vengeful ghost in the dark. Even his features looked different from usual.

The middle-aged man merely scanned behind him with his sense, ignoring the man’s words as he kept his focus locked on the front. After five or six breaths, the blue light vanished completely, and they could finally see the situation inside. But the area they had locked onto was empty; nothing remained.

“Shi Ying, what happened just now? Where are his things?”

The middle-aged man slowly turned around. He stared into the eyes of the battered Shi Ying with a cold, sinister gaze. Under that stare, Shi Ying shuddered. His mangled face was full of cowering terror, and his speech was halting.

“He… he had a strange artifact that could block Divine Sense within its range… But… but his own sense didn’t seem… didn’t seem to be restricted. This prevented me from using my full strength. Before… before, while we were fighting, he suddenly chose to self-detonate. I only managed to leap away at the last second. Then… then I sensed your auras. I assume… I assume he knew he couldn’t escape and chose to kill himself. Everything on him… must have been destroyed and scattered…”

By the time Shi Ying finished, his voice was low. He didn’t dare meet the middle-aged man’s gaze and kept his head down.

“An artifact that can block a Void Refining cultivator’s sense? What kind of artifact was it?”

The middle-aged man’s tone changed. It seemed the artifact was more important than the cargo the target was carrying. The other two assassins were also moved; so their leader’s sense couldn’t penetrate the area either. Such an artifact was far too precious. They had assumed the area was covered by an array. No wonder they couldn’t see the center until now; it was because the artifact’s aura had vanished.

“It looked like a yellow leaf, about the size of a copper coin! But it was likely… destroyed by the man himself!” Shi Ying quickly explained.

As he spoke, he caught a glimpse of the Man-shaped passage. He saw four people hanging there, but that didn’t match the number of people trapped here…

The middle-aged man extended his Divine Sense again, searching his memories for an artifact matching Shi Ying’s description.

‘I have heard of such artifacts. Though I have encountered them before, their effect against a Void Refining expert’s sense shouldn’t be this good. Damn… why didn’t I arrive a step earlier!’

The middle-aged man was filled with regret. He shouldn’t have let his subordinates handle the hunt; he should have come to capture the boy himself. But how could he have known that a mid-stage Spirit Transformation cultivator possessed such a precious treasure?

The middle-aged man soon withdrew his sense. Aside from the wind and rain, there were no fragments of any artifact, and even the blood and flesh from the self-detonation had been washed away. A self-detonation from a late-stage Spirit Transformation cultivator was incredibly powerful, and the artifact had surely been refined by the owner. Thus, destroying it was a matter of a single thought.

As for the other treasures on the man, he didn’t need to destroy them individually; he only needed to destroy the storage artifacts. Once those were destroyed, everything inside would be lost to another dimension. He didn’t suspect Shi Ying’s words, because based on his own cultivation, he could confirm that everything the man said was true. He had only been able to see the center after a short delay, which was consistent with the gradual dissipation of an artifact’s power. It couldn’t be faked.