60: Chapter 60 Blood Fiend

"He was clearly still stuck at the fourth layer of Qi Refining, stagnant for several years with zero progress. What on earth has he experienced this past year?"

"Ning Chuan! I am Ning Hao!" A fellow clansman Cultivator hurried forward with a look of utter astonishment, "You've disappeared for a full year without a trace, how could your cultivation have advanced by leaps and bounds to such an extent?"

Faced with his clansmen's questioning and surprise, Ning Chuan did not even lift his eyelids.

He slightly raised his head, his spine straight as a ramrod, unruliness and arrogance written all over his brows and eyes as he greedily enjoyed the various gazes of horror, envy, and shock from everyone present.

Dormant in the Ning Family for several years, ignored, obscure, he had endured cold glances and contempt.

Today, he had finally relied on his strength to break free from mediocrity, becoming a rising star upon whom the entire Ning Family pinned high hopes.

As expected, in this world, strength alone was the only absolute rule to establish oneself!

The next instant, Ning Chuan curled his five fingers into claws, raising his iron claws—which gleamed with a cold, metallic luster—into the air. His sharp claw tips pointed directly at the Wang Family members off the stage, and his cold, unyielding voice resounded throughout the entire martial arts arena:

"I, Ning Chuan! Today, I challenge the Wang Family! Among the Disciples of the Shou generation, is there anyone who dares to step onto the stage and fight me?!"

Wang Chongyang looked at this youth, and the worry in his heart grew even stronger.

"This boy gives me a very strange feeling. He is clearly only in the Qi Refinement Stage, so why do I feel a sense of danger when making eye contact with him?"

Wang Yaozu remained silent. It was only natural to accept the challenge when someone from the Ning Family came calling, but when did such a figure like Ning Chuan emerge from the Ning Family? What was even stranger was that looking at the reactions of the Ning Family members, they clearly carried surprise as well.

The moment the words fell, a slender figure from the Wang Family side stepped out, landing steadily in the exact center of the arena.

"Wang Family, Wang Shoucheng, requests battle!"

The azure-edged sword was unsheathed, ringing out clear and sharp as a biting green light slashed across the midair.

"Well done, Shoucheng, make a name for yourself."

Wang Yaowen had not noticed anything unusual. When looking at Wang Shoucheng, his face wore a proud expression. "Did you see that? This is my son, and he is also in the Late Stage of the Qi Refinement Stage."

Wang Chongyang pondered for a moment and sent a voice transmission to remind him, "Shoucheng, do not be careless. This child is very strange; even if you are no match for him, do not forcefully hold on."

Wang Shoucheng was stunned. This voice was Sixth Grandpa? Sixth Grandpa reminded him personally?

"Grandson understands."

Taking a deep breath, he gripped the longsword in his hand tightly. His clear eyes gathered a sharp edge, and his sword tip steadily aimed at the strangely-aurad Ning Chuan ahead. Word by word, with strength and clang, he announced his name once more: "Wang Family's Wang Shoucheng, to test your high skills!"

Ning Chuan still did not say much, only sweeping over with a pair of dark, gloomy eyes, hiding undisguised contempt in the depths of his gaze.

The referee's drumbeat exploded thunderously, and the martial competition began!

Wang Shoucheng knew full well that his practical combat experience was far inferior to Wang Shouyi's, so he did not dare to rashly launch a forceful attack. He took the lead in darting out, launching an attack from five zhang away in front of Ning Chuan.

The azure sword twirled out layers of sword flowers. The azure Qi condensed into a ribbon-like stream, carrying the wind of breaking through the air. With seventy percent defensive posture to secure his body and thirty percent offensive posture to probe, his Moves were steady, meticulous, and airtight.

Clang! The sound of their collision exploded harshly.

Ning Chuan's iron claw Moves looked crude and casual, yet with a light, casual block, he steadily intercepted the fierce sword light.

Great Elder Ning Shengkui, watching from the sidelines, saw a brilliant light flash in his eyes. "Such a tyrannical bloodline energy! Could Ning Chuan have even cultivated a Body Refining technique? Our Ning Family truly has hidden dragons and crouching tigers."

Wang Shoucheng's figure flickered slightly, his silhouette instantly turning ethereal. Twirling to change his Move, his longsword slashed diagonally downwards, its sharp edge heading straight for vital points.

Ning Chuan nimbly sidestepped to dodge it, and his iron claws swept horizontally in smooth succession. A fierce and tyrannical force rushed right at his face, forcing Wang Shoucheng to retreat several steps in succession, the bluestone slabs beneath his feet trembling slightly from his steps.

In the dozen or so Moves at the start, the two of them exchanged attacks and defenses.

Ning Chuan's claw techniques lacked any exquisite ingenuity or clever design; his Moves were crude and domineering, and his speed was not extreme to the limit. It seemed he possessed no overwhelming advantage.

Wang Shoucheng felt slightly relieved in his heart, secretly settling his mind: It seems this person's Aura is merely strange; in terms of Move foundations, he is on par with me.

After steadying his mind, he was no longer conservative. His sword momentum slowly spread out, the sword light becoming increasingly fierce and nimble, making his offense and defense more and more composed.

Off the stage, Wang Yaowen looked at his son on the stage, who was calmly fighting back and moving forward and backward with proper measure. His tightly furrowed brows relaxed slightly, and he nodded inwardly.

But just as Wang Shoucheng's sword momentum spread out and his offensive increased to ninety percent, preparing to vie for supremacy with all his might, the opposing Ning Chuan suddenly smiled.

That smile was extremely cold, surging in the depths of his eyes with the dark, treacherous joy of a dormancy that had succeeded.

Hum— Suddenly, the situation on the arena underwent a drastic change!

A thick, hideous, dark red bloody light suddenly surged and burst forth from all the bones and limbs of Ning Chuan, exploding like a breached sea of blood.

A faint smell of blood quickly permeated the entire arena, fishy and chilly, crawling into everyone's mouths and noses.

The complexions of several Loose Cultivators watching from the front row instantly turned pale, the hairs all over their bodies standing on end. They hurriedly raised their hands to tightly cover their mouths and noses, retreating in panic and disgrace, their eyes filled with terror.

The bizarre bloody light collided with the azure Qi lingering on Wang Shoucheng's sword, and a horrifying scene suddenly occurred—

The pure Righteous Path Qi actually met the bloody light like a dying candle facing a fierce wind, being frantically devoured and dissolved. Starting from the tip of the sword, it dimmed and scattered inch by inch, disappearing by more than half in the blink of an eye.

Wang Shoucheng's pupils constricted sharply, his heart instantly sinking to the bottom, and an extreme sense of crisis rose in his heart!

He immediately retracted his sword to step back, wanting to extricate himself and retreat, but that dark red bloody light was incomparably tricky. It had already rapidly spread along the cold sword body, instantly wrapping around his wrist!

An arresting, bone-chilling, and evil, aberrant power surged tyrannically along his Meridians straight into his Dantian Qi Sea!

In a split second, the pure Qi circulating within Wang Shoucheng's body abruptly stagnated, like a frozen river whose flow was cut off.

The rapidly spinning Qi vortex within his Dantian was as if tightly choked by an invisible giant hand. Its rotation speed became slower and slower, more and more sluggish, and his whole body's strength rapidly drained away.

Sixth Layer of Qi Refining Peak! Sixth Layer Middle Stage! Sixth Layer Early Stage!

His cultivation Realm plummeted visibly to the naked eye!

This was not a true regression of cultivation, but rather solid, real cultivation suppression!

That sense of powerlessness and panic where one's entire strength was drawn out layer by layer, having cultivation but nowhere to deploy it, and having to watch helplessly as one was carved up like fish on a chopping board—it was far more desperate and terrifying than flesh wounds!

"It's an evil technique! This person has cultivated a yin-fiend evil technique!"

Someone off the stage finally saw through the clues, shrieking out loud as gasps spread across the entire audience.

Great Elder Ning Shengkui's complexion turned thunderously pale, all color draining completely, and the blood in his entire body turned ice-cold in an instant!

Evil Cultivator? Ning Chuan was an evil Cultivator!!