"I can't believe that even Brother Fang You couldn't last against Zhuo Qingxu!" Feng Cun's face was ugly as he watched on.
His strength was roughly equal to Fang You's. If Qingxu could defeat Fang You so easily, he could naturally defeat Feng Cun as well.
"Zhuo Fengyun is obviously not Zhuo Qingxu's opponent..." Lan Yutong observed the field calmly. "It's inevitable that Qingxu will attack Fengyun again. Fellow disciples hurting each other, making mistake after mistake—this will result in him truly being expelled from the Zhuo house. Junior Sister Xu, please act."
Her companion's face lit up with a slightly excited smile. "Good! I don't like this boy anyway. He doesn't look in a mirror to see his own worth. A toad wanting to eat swan meat, pursuing Senior Sister like that. I'll let him understand how big the gap is between him and you, Senior Sister."
"Haha, why trouble Junior Sister Xu? It's just Zhuo Qingxu—I can handle him alone!" Jin Wu laughed, not wanting to miss the opportunity to show off.
Regardless of the fact that Qingxu was already fighting Zhuo Fengyun, he shouted angrily: "Zhuo Qingxu, your methods are so vicious! No wonder the Zhuo family wants to clean house! You'd better let me capture you and take you back to the Zhuo family to face judgment!"
"Endless abuse seekers?" Qingxu thought grimly.
He had easily defeated Zhuo Fenglei and Fang You by relying on his mysterious swordsmanship from Earth's Sword Saint techniques. But his cultivation was only at early Marrow Cleansing, while Zhuo Fengyun was already at peak Marrow Cleansing—the advantage had shrunk. Adding Jin Wu, who was at Impurity Refining, the situation suddenly became severe.
"Flowing Gold Earthquake!" Jin Wu roared.
With his full strength unleashed, a sound like rushing water seemed to ring within his body. Like a terrible beast suddenly erupting, he came with suffocating pressure.
His sword cut through the air with a slight explosion in the void, as if tearing the very atmosphere.
Clang!
Qingxu reacted quickly, easily blocking the trajectory of this sword with his own blade.
But he had underestimated the power level that erupted from someone who refined internal organs.
As the air blast dispersed, Qingxu's expression suddenly changed. A slight sound of bones cracking rolled up his shoulder from his sword wrist. The terrible force almost broke his entire arm.
Buzz!
At the critical moment, Qingxu used Dongyang Sword Sect's method of regulating qi and blood strength. He instantly guided this shock force through his whole body, then stepped down into the ground.
The solid bluestone floor cracked beneath his feet as his body retreated six steps, his right hand holding the sword completely losing sensation.
"Good chance!" Zhuo Fengyun's eyes flashed as he saw Qingxu's weakness. He stabbed forward with his sword, creating a sharp whistle in the air.
In an instant, he reached Qingxu's front, the blade aimed straight for his heart.
Killing intent!
With Zhuo Fenglei crippled by Qingxu, Fengyun truly intended to kill!
Qingxu's eyes became fierce as winter ice. Facing Zhuo Fengyun's lightning-fast sword, he only had time to twist his body.
The sword cut across his chest, scratching a bloody mark, but as he twisted, his left hand faced Fengyun's stabbing blade. He pinched his fingers into a sword shape and struck Fengyun's chest.
Crack!
The sound of breaking bones echoed clearly.
There was the sound of Qingxu's broken finger bones, but more was the crushing of ribs in Zhuo Fengyun's chest.
More than that, the strength of this finger went straight through his body and severely struck Zhuo Fengyun's heart.
Though it didn't break his heart completely, it shocked his entire system. The strength in his whole body seemed to be hollowed out.
Dongyang Sword Sect—Pulse Severing Technique!
The pulse severing technique stopped Zhuo Fengyun, and Qingxu's right hand, which had faintly recovered a trace of consciousness, suddenly lifted.
Zhuo Fengyun's right hand, still extended from his stabbing thrust and too late to recover, was met by Qingxu's sword.
"Stop!"
"Slash!"
"Ahhh!"
A shout and a scream rang through the alley simultaneously.
Zhuo Fengyun, the strongest of the Zhuo family's young generation, had half his arm severed by Qingxu's sword. Blood shot from his upper arm and scattered on the ground.
"Bastard!" Seeing that Zhuo Fengyun was still badly injured even with his help, Jin Wu suddenly lost face. He roared, and the sword in his hand shook again, cutting down boldly.
However, Qingxu now understood the strength of someone who refined internal organs. When Jin Wu pursued with his sword, Qingxu's body flew backward.
His second-level Sword Dao talent let him almost instantly understand most of the characteristics of this swordsmanship. Then, before Jin Wu could attack again, his body had already stopped and turned to attack!
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The sound of intersecting metal suddenly rang continuously. Qingxu turned defense into attack, using storm-like strikes to completely suppress Jin Wu's momentum, giving him no time to accumulate strength.
"This... how could this be... Brother Jin Wu has already begun refining his internal organs, stepping into the Impurity Refining realm..." Jin Lan looked at her brother, who had always dominated Yunhuang City in her mind, now being suppressed by Qingxu. She was suddenly tongue-tied.
"Junior Sister Xu, what are you waiting for?" Lan Yutong said coldly. "Why don't you help Young Master Jin capture Zhuo Qingxu? Zhuo Fengyun's injury won't last much longer!"
A chill flashed in her starlike eyes.
The Zhuo Qingxu who had followed her like a pug, suddenly showing such dreadful potential, made her deeply uneasy.
Only she knew how she had really treated Zhuo Qingxu. At that time, he had been so infatuated with her that she was almost free to beat, scold, and command him at will.
However, this morning's reunion made her understand that Zhuo Qingxu was no longer the obedient Qingxu of before.
At age twenty-two, this eldest son of the Zhuo family—who had been valued enough by Nalan Fei, the true disciple of Hunyuan Heaven Sect, to be given an inner disciple token—once he was no longer decadent and his accumulated talent emerged, was still enough to surpass any young hero in Yunhuang City.
"Yes!" With Lan Yutong's urging, her companion quickly agreed.
She was only an outer disciple. Only by being valued by Lan Yutong, who had a promising future, could she hope to enter the inner sect or even become a true disciple. She had heard the deeper meaning in Lan Yutong's tone and dared not neglect it.
Whoosh!
Her body flew forward as she directly attacked Qingxu.
"Stop! What do you think you're doing? Bullying the few with many?" Zhuo Yunqing was shocked by the fierceness of her brother severing Zhuo Fengyun's half arm. Now, seeing the woman attack, she suddenly woke up, shouted, and jumped forward with her sword.
However, at best her strength was similar to Zhuo Fenglei's, half a step inferior to Fang You's. How could she stop someone at peak Impurity Refining?
With a peak aura of completely refined organs surging from the attacker, her unsheathed sword struck with the power of thunder at Zhuo Yunqing's intercepting blade.
"Get lost!"
Bang!
Air waves erupted.
If Qingxu had been shocked by Jin Wu's sword when he had just begun refining organs, Zhuo Yunqing's precise control of strength was far inferior to Qingxu's. How could she resist the sword of someone at peak Impurity Refining?
Zhuo Yunqing, who had rushed forward to intercept, flew backward at the same speed she had charged forward, maybe even faster.
Her internal organs were almost completely displaced under this sword strike. While still in the air, she spat out a mouthful of blood, her aura falling rapidly.
She had taken a severe internal injury!
This scene fell into Qingxu's eyes and made his expression suddenly cold.
Though Zhuo Yunqing's words had been sharp and sarcastic that morning, she had not hesitated to stand up and fight side by side with him when they were intercepted by Zhuo Fengyun, Zhuo Fenglei, and the others.
How could she not be considered one of his allies? Now this woman had struck her down with one sword, her life and death unknown...
Killing intent suddenly emerged.
"Sacred Art!"
At this moment, Qingxu activated the ability he had inherited from the Chaos Temple.