Cultivation: Start From Simplifying Martial Arts Techniques

Chapter 648 - 648: Who Killed You?

Chapter 648: Who Killed You?

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

All the savvy practitioners emerged and noticed the strangeness within the city. Only the ordinary folks remained hidden indoors at this moment, not daring to utter a sound, nor to make any reckless movements.

For them, these eerie occurrences were inexplicable entities, certain death if caught in their gaze.

Instead, staying quiet like this offered a glimmer of hope.

Their chances of survival entirely depended on luck.

A faint glimmer shimmered in Chen Fei’s brow as he scanned the surroundings, then his gaze settled on the far end of the street.

A figure stumbled along, moving slowly, yet each step made a dull thud upon the ground, as if treading on the hearts of the people.

Hearts involuntarily clenched, a deadly threat looming over everyone’s mind.

The figure’s steps suddenly faltered, raising the blade in hand.

It was only at this moment that the crowd noticed the figure clutching a half-person-height blade. The blade was weathered, with a massive gap particularly noticeable at the edge.

Until the blade moved, everyone subconsciously disregarded it.

And the figure’s appearance became clear to all.

Clothes stained with blood, a face devoid of emotion but eyes filled with unfathomable ferocity.

As the butcher raised the blade, the sense of deadly threat emanating from him suddenly vanished, as if this butcher had lost all his menace in an instant.

The Combined Aperture Tempering realm practitioners scattered, realizing the extraordinary power within this mysterious realm.

On their journey to the Bewilderment City, they had encountered similar situations several times. Now, seeing this butcher, no one acted rashly, fearing they might fall into some strange rule.

After a brief observation, they planned to join forces later to slay him!

But the complexion of one Combined Aperture Tempering realm practitioner in the crowd changed abruptly. In his perception, the threat posed by the butcher escalated to an unprecedented level, as if the blade had plunged into his chest.

In the next moment, the blade in the butcher’s hand descended from above.

There was no fluctuation in breath, only a slight trembling of the world’s elemental energy.

The Combined Aperture Tempering realm practitioners frowned slightly, then suddenly turned their heads towards the southwest, where an early-stage Combined Aperture Tempering realm practitioner had collapsed to the ground, devoid of any aura.

“Boom!”

With a muffled sound, the person’s body split in half, but blood and elemental energy had long since disappeared, leaving only an empty shell behind.

A dignified Combined Aperture Tempering realm practitioner had inexplicably perished just like that.

Chen Fei’s eyes held a hint of surprise. Among all those present, only he probably understood what had happened.

After the eerie blade was bizarrely swung in the distance, the lines related to that Combined Aperture Tempering realm practitioner in Chen Fei’s monochrome vision of the heavens and the earth shattered.

Chen Fei’s Heavenly Eyes could glimpse some semblance of causality, meaning that the Combined Aperture Tempering realm practitioner’s death was because his future had been severed.

Without a future, naturally, there would be no life.

“No, if it’s really like this, isn’t this strangeness stronger than even the peak of Combined Aperture Tempering realm practitioners?”

Chen Fei frowned. The Evils within this mysterious realm were indeed formidable, but they surely weren’t unreasonable to this extent.

If a future could be severed with the swing of a blade, what’s the point of practicing martial arts? One might as well offer their neck for the executioner’s blade.

“It’s the elemental energy of heaven and earth!”

Chen Fei’s mental strength within his sea of consciousness fluctuated violently, and the world before him abruptly paused. Then, time seemed to reverse, and everyone returned to their positions just before the moment the butcher raised his blade.

The butcher also retreated to his original position, then lifted the blade once again.

As Chen Fei’s gaze shifted, he looked towards that Combined Aperture Tempering realm practitioner and noticed the sudden thickening of elemental energy around him, which then pressed down upon him.

The elemental energy that should have surged out from the Combined Aperture Tempering realm practitioner’s Combined Aperture Tempering realm aperture was forcibly suppressed back, followed by a fluctuation, and the Combined Aperture Tempering realm practitioner was split in two.

Chen Fei raised his head as the vision vanished. This was the retroactive function of the Heavenly Eyes; time wasn’t actually reversing. But it was enough for Chen Fei to understand the principle behind the butcher’s killings.

Fear often stems from the unknown.

“The elemental energy of heaven and earth is abnormal, be vigilant against it!” Chen Fei whispered.

Upon hearing Chen Fei’s words, a few late-stage Combined Aperture Tempering realm practitioners felt a sudden realization. Their internal energy erupted, pushing aside the elemental energy around their bodies.

While they couldn’t absorb this elemental energy, forcibly repelling it posed no issue.

Though the other Combined Aperture Tempering realm practitioners didn’t understand the reason, they followed suit without hesitation.

Simultaneously, countless attacks converged, pressing towards the butcher. At this point, they couldn’t allow the butcher to continue attacking, lest they faced unforeseen consequences.

“Boom!”

The entire Bewilderment City shook violently. Despite the fact that this mysterious realm continuously absorbed the elemental energy from the Combined Aperture Tempering realm practitioners’ bodies, weakening their current strength compared to the endless sea, the impact was still significant.

But even with so many Combined Aperture Tempering realm practitioners gathered, it was still a terrifying force. The streets of the Bewilderment City were instantly pierced, and the surrounding buildings were leveled to the ground.

Yet, as the dust settled, the butcher showed no signs of injury whatsoever, continuing to stagger forward at the same leisurely pace.

The faces of the crowd changed. Was this strangeness immune to their attacks? Then how were they supposed to fight back?

If they could only be attacked by the strangeness while being unable to resist, then the only option now was to flee.

But being within this mysterious realm, even if they could escape for a moment, where could they run to when the strangeness slowly gathered around them again?

Many people looked towards Chen Fei. Despite Chen Fei only displaying the realm of an early-stage Combined Aperture Tempering realm practitioner, it was he who had just spoken up to warn them.

Chen Fei’s gaze was about to speak, when suddenly he felt a hand land on his shoulder.

“Master, would you like to follow me?”

A soft voice echoed in Chen Fei’s ear, and with the words, the hand began to exert pressure gradually, as if intending to crush Chen Fei’s shoulder directly before relenting.

Meanwhile, in the distance, the butcher, after taking a few steps, suddenly stopped again, raising the blade high in his hand.

The faces of everyone turned slightly pale, and a few even entertained thoughts of escaping from this place first.

Though they knew escaping wouldn’t solve the problem, when faced with a life-or-death crisis, fleeing was almost an instinctive response.

“Master, would you like to follow me?” The voice behind Chen Fei rang out again, its soft tone turning sharp, as if countless steel needles were piercing into people’s minds, stirring recklessly.

“You’re quite persistent!”

A surge of force erupted from Chen Fei’s shoulder, instantly pushing the hand away. Chen Fei turned to look behind him, where a figure dressed in luxurious attire stood silently behind him.

Chen Fei remained expressionless as he swung his sword.

“Screech!”

A sharp screech emanated from the mysterious bride, and in the next moment, she trembled violently before dissipating into black smoke.

This time, Chen Fei didn’t suffer from the backlash as he did the first time.

After being hit for the first time during the daytime, Chen Fei had already caught on to the clues. However, back then, he knew too little about this mysterious realm and didn’t want to engage in futile battles.

At that time, killing these Evils wasn’t the priority; understanding and escaping from this mysterious realm were.

But now that this strangeness persisted in following him, Chen Fei had no choice but to eliminate it completely.

“Attack now while it’s attacking; it’s vulnerable to our attacks at that moment!”

“The butcher’s blade has already fallen most of the way,” Chen Fei said in a deep voice.

The Combined Aperture Tempering realm practitioners around him reacted without hesitation, launching another round of attacks on the butcher.

This time, the butcher didn’t simply withstand all the attacks without any change. Instead, he let out a tremendous roar. However, his power was far from enough to contend with so many Combined Aperture Tempering realm practitioners.

In the next moment, the butcher’s body was torn apart by numerous attacks, dissolving into black smoke and disappearing completely.

The faces of the Combined Aperture Tempering realm practitioners around them couldn’t help but relax slightly, but only Chen Fei stared at the spot where the butcher had vanished.

The strangeness had been slain, but there was a fundamental source behind it, and now this source had been directly absorbed by the mysterious realm.

If Chen Fei’s previous conjecture was correct, this fundamental source of strangeness would become nourishment, aiding the creation of the Mountain Sea Realm by the Fallen Heaven Pavilion.

In other words, regardless of the outcome of the battle between them and the strangeness, the ultimate beneficiary would be the Fallen Heaven Pavilion.

Hundreds of miles away,

Elder Sun Congshu of the Heaven Wind Sect knelt on the ground, his body supported by the blade of his sword, preventing himself from collapsing completely.

Sun Congshu lifted his head and looked forward. A flash of sword light passed, and Sun Congshu’s head flew up in an instant, his entire aura dissipating into nothingness.

Fifteen minutes later, a pearl fell into the hands of Elder Tan Bingxiu of the Fallen Heaven Pavilion. Inside the pearl was condensed the essence of Sun Congshu’s cultivation.

At the pinnacle of Combined Aperture Tempering realm practitioner realm, with three flowers atop their head, the condensed essence possessed astonishing power.

“Who should we awaken? Many disciples died before!” Guo Xuanji said in a deep voice.

By slaying an Combined Aperture Tempering realm practitioner at the pinnacle of their realm and condensing their essence, only one person could be awakened, because only the power of the three flowers could shake the soul.

“Awaken Daoheng. He still has some potential in cultivating the Dao of Evil,” said Si Huayuan, pondering for a moment.

“Agreed!”

Guo Xuanji nodded and took a few steps forward, holding the pearl in his hand. The colossal figure of the Thousand-Eyed Ghoul manifested, and Guo Xuanji handed over the pearl.

One of the eyeballs on the Thousand-Eyed Ghoul burst open, releasing the residual soul aura of Chen Daoheng, which quickly merged with Sun Congshu’s essence.

The surrounding elemental energy of heaven and earth surged, pouring into Chen Daoheng’s soul.

The elemental energy that Chen Fei and the others couldn’t absorb was effortlessly manipulated by the people of the Fallen Heaven Pavilion.

Not far away, on an altar covered with array patterns, a blurry figure sat cross-legged. Countless elemental energies descended from the sky, poured into its body, and then dispersed from it, pervading the mysterious realm.

Guo Xuanji waved his right hand, and a faint light floated from the figure on the altar, landing in Chen Daoheng’s soul. Chen Daoheng’s soul condensed rapidly, and after a moment, it finally took on a human form.

“Ah!”

Chen Daoheng opened his eyes and let out a scream, still immersed in the moment of being slain by Chen Fei before his death, filled with unwillingness, resentment, and various emotions.

The part of his soul that had resided within the Thousand-Eyed Ghoul was unaware but constantly assimilating information with Chen Daoheng’s main soul. Therefore, Chen Daoheng completely remembered what had happened before.

After a moment, Chen Daoheng calmed down. Seeing his three seniors, his expression regained a hint of composure, but more so, confusion.

“Who killed you?” Elder Tan Bingxiu’s voice echoed around..