538: Chapter 538 The King of Life-Eating Insects!

At this thought...

The faces of those elders turned several shades paler.

But soon enough.

Andre was the first to regain his senses.

He narrowed his eyes, his gaze fixated on Ye Chen.

"You are very strong."

"But don't be arrogant."

"In this world, there is always someone stronger, and there is always a higher heaven!"

Hearing this, Ye Chen couldn't help but laugh: "I know that, but it's certainly not you."

"Hmph!"

Andre let out an angry snort, "You're in the Golden Core Stage, aren't you? This old man is also..."

Ye Chen picked his ear and interrupted Andre.

"Are you telling me this..."

"...because you're in a hurry to die?"

Before the words even finished echoing.

He stomped his foot.

In the next second.

His figure vanished from the spot.

Andre's pupils contracted sharply, and a chill rushed from his spine straight to the crown of his head.

Subconsciously, he wanted to retreat, to dodge, to defend.

But it was too late.

Ye Chen had already appeared before him, close enough to touch.

Their faces were less than a foot apart.

Everyone's expression changed completely.

They hadn't even seen how Ye Chen moved.

There were no afterimages, no air waves, and no fluctuations of true qi.

It was like... teleportation.

Vanishing out of thin air, appearing out of thin air.

But before anyone could think further, Ye Chen's right hand was already raised.

He held that short blade in his hand, the edge still stained with Chejier's blood.

A flash of cold light.

The short blade stabbed toward Andre's abdomen!

Andre's expression changed; he exerted sudden force with his feet, propelling his body backward like a projectile.

"Chila—"

The edge of the short blade grazed his abdomen, tearing a long gash in his black robe and revealing a silver-white inner armor underneath.

A shallow scratch was left on the inner armor, sending sparks flying.

Andre retreated seven or eight steps, each step leaving a deep footprint in the ground!

Once he stabilized himself, he looked down at the inner armor on his abdomen, his face so gloomy it looked like it could drip water.

Ye Chen could actually break through his defense with a single strike?

If not for this close-fitting soft armor, that strike just now would have sliced open his belly.

"Ye Chen!"

Andre looked up, his eyes burning with fury, "You have no martial ethics!"

Holding the short blade, Ye Chen tilted his head.

"How am I lacking martial ethics?"

"Could it be that if I want to kill you, I have to give you a heads-up first?"

Andre choked.

"You..."

"You what?"

Ye Chen interrupted him.

"The nine of you surrounded me—was that to have a reasonable discussion?"

"When you sent Elder Wei A-Guer to kill me, were you being ethical?"

"When you made Karl drink the Holy Water, were you being ethical?"

"When your Holy Sect fed insects with the essence blood of tens of thousands of living people, were you being ethical?"

With every sentence, Ye Chen took a step forward.

With every step, Andre's face grew a shade paler.

When Ye Chen finished his last sentence, he was standing less than three meters away from Andre.

Andre's breathing became rapid.

He found himself actually being forced into silence by a young man in his twenties.

It wasn't because he was in the wrong.

It was because the invisible pressure coming from Ye Chen was like a great mountain pressing on his chest, making every word he spoke require immense effort.

"What? Nothing to say?"

Ye Chen smiled, spinning the short blade in his hand, "If you won't speak, then I'll just have to keep stabbing you."

Before the words even finished echoing.

His figure vanished once again.

This time Andre was prepared; the moment Ye Chen vanished, he crossed his hands in front of his chest. The true qi in his body surged frantically, forming a faint golden protective true qi around him.

"Bang!"

Ye Chen's short blade struck the protective true qi, letting out a dull, thunderous roar.

The protective true qi vibrated violently, humming like a bronze gong struck by a giant hammer.

Andre was shaken until his arms went numb, and he retreated several steps again, the stone slabs beneath his feet crumbling into powder.

But Ye Chen didn't give him a chance to catch his breath.

As one strike missed, a second strike was already slashing down.

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

One strike after another, fast as lightning and dense as a rainstorm.

Andre did his utmost to resist, but his protective true qi vibrated incessantly under the hacking of the short blade, and cracks began to surface one after another.

His face went from gloomy to pale, and from pale to an ashen iron-grey.

He realized he simply couldn't block it...

The power Ye Chen displayed was incredibly bizarre; every time it struck the protective true qi, the strength would increase manifold!

That's right.

It was increasing.

Growing stronger as the battle progressed!!!

Andre was terrified; he stepped back repeatedly, trying to open up some distance.

But Ye Chen gave him no chance at all.

Every time Andre retreated, Ye Chen stuck to him like a maggot on a bone, the short blade never leaving the three-foot radius around him.

Their figures moved rapidly through the residential garden; everywhere they passed, stone benches shattered, flowerbeds collapsed, and the stone slabs on the ground were trampled into a mess.

The black robe on Andre's body was torn in seven or eight more places, revealing the silver-white inner armor.

The inner armor was already covered in blade marks, and fine cracks had even appeared in some spots.

And Ye Chen...

From beginning to end, his breathing hadn't even faltered.

Holding the short blade, the smile on his face remained unchanged, as if he were playing a game of cat and mouse.

The elders stood there, their faces pale and their legs weak.

They wanted to go up and help, but they simply couldn't intervene.

The speed of Ye Chen and Andre was startlingly fast; in their eyes, only a black and a white afterimage remained darting through the garden, with the occasional boom of blade meeting true qi.

Igor gritted his teeth, his fists clenched so tightly his nails almost dug into his flesh.

He wanted to rush forward, but logic told him that with his strength, rushing in would just be adding another body to the pile.

Even Andre was being suppressed and beaten; what could he do if he went up?

Be a target for Ye Chen?

Elder Wei A-Guer stood to the side, the expression on his face extremely complex.

He had known long ago that Ye Chen was strong—strong enough to slap him into immobility.

But he hadn't expected Ye Chen to be strong to this extent.

Andre, the Sect Leader of the Holy Sect, a powerhouse at the early Golden Core Stage, actually only had the power to parry and no strength to counterattack before Ye Chen.

That short blade in Ye Chen's hand was practically alive.

"Bang!"

Before anyone could react, there was another loud crash.

Andre's protective true qi finally couldn't take it anymore; after Ye Chen's blade slashed down, it shattered like glass, turning into countless golden fragments that flew in all directions.

Andre's body was sent flying backward by the shock, tumbling twice in the air before crashing heavily onto the ground and sliding several meters, plowing a deep trench into the earth.

He struggled to climb up from the ground, a trace of blood leaking from the corner of his mouth. The silver-white inner armor was covered in cracks, and several places had completely shattered, revealing charred skin underneath.

His hair was disheveled and his robe was in tatters; where was there even a hint of the Holy Sect Leader's poise?

He looked just like a beggar who had just crawled out of a trash heap.

Ye Chen narrowed his eyes and spoke indifferently.

"That's it?"

"Early Golden Core Stage?"

"Are you sure you're not a fake?"

Andre looked up, his eyes bloodshot.

Shame.

Endless shame.

He was the Sect Leader of the Holy Sect, an early Golden Core Stage powerhouse, a figure of some note in the entire Kunlun Ruins.

But today, before a young man in his twenties, he was beaten until he had no power to fight back, like a stray dog.

"Ye Chen!"

He gritted his teeth, his voice full of hatred, "You forced my hand!"

Ye Chen raised an eyebrow: "Oh? You still have a trump card?"

Andre didn't answer.

His right hand reached into his robe and pulled out a palm-sized jade box.

The jade box was pitch black all over and covered in runes.

Andre opened it directly.

A terrifying pressure surged from the box, as if a ferocious beast that had slept for ten thousand years had opened its eyes.

Everyone's expression changed.

The elders subconsciously retreated several steps, their faces filled with horror.

"That is..."

"The Life-Eroding Insect King!"

"The Sect Leader is actually going to use the Life-Eroding Insect King!"

Elder Wei A-Guer's face turned as pale as paper; his legs went weak, and he almost collapsed onto the ground.

The Life-Eroding Insect King!

That was the Holy Sect's greatest secret, their most terrifying trump card.

It took a hundred years of effort and the essence blood of hundreds of thousands of living people to nurture this single one.

Legend had it that the Life-Eroding Insect King possessed the power to devour everything; once released, within a hundred-mile radius, the essence blood of all living creatures would be sucked dry by it.

Successive Sect Leaders of the Holy Sect had looked for a suitable host, but not a single person could withstand the terrifying power of the Life-Eroding Insect King.

But now, Andre could no longer care about that.

If he didn't kill Ye Chen today, the Holy Sect would be finished.

Andre aimed the jade box at his own mouth and tipped it abruptly.

In the next second.

A multi-colored insect slid out of the jade box and fell into his mouth.