357: Chapter 357 They really don't learn their lesson.

Sword light poured out from the projection of Arena Realm No. 97, as cold and clear as the moonlight of the Nine Heavens.

Li Xuanxiao finally drew his sword, named "Qiu Hong." Wherever the sword light passed, the wildly spinning Golden Fiend Sword Blades came to a standstill one after another.

He did not look at Nangong Yan, who was acting as if facing a great enemy, nor did he care about the Red Hand Hall Guest Elder. He simply thrust his sword toward a certain spot in the Void Realm.

This strike seemed very slow, slow enough to see every inch of the trajectory the blade carved.

Yet it was also fast to the extreme, surpassing both thought and sight.

"Rip!"

A sharp sound pierced through the screen's barrier, faintly echoing out.

That patch of Void Realm suddenly twisted, and a blurry gray shadow stumbled out—it was none other than that Red Hand Hall Guest Elder!

A thin slit appeared on the front of his robes at his chest, with dark red blood seeping out. His eyes were filled with horror; he clearly hadn't expected his concealment technique to be so vulnerable before Li Xuanxiao's sword.

At the same time, another focal point, the Lava Purgatory Arena of No. 93, had also reached its decisive moment.

Xiahou Ba and Nangong Xiao clashed head-on, both being jolted back.

Xiahou Ba laughed wildly. There was a scorch mark on his chest, but his Battle Intent burned even more fiercely.

Nangong Xiao's face was ashen, and the flames on his long spear dimmed significantly.

And Han Xiao, who had been watching quietly all along, finally took a step forward.

The sword casket on his back opened a crack. No sword flew out, but a majestic Sword Intent spread, instantly suppressing the raging lava within the Arena Realm.

He looked calmly at Xiahou Ba and Nangong Xiao, his meaning self-evident: it was time to end this.

On the viewing platform, almost everyone's attention was drawn by these Peak duels, their breaths held as they waited for the final collision.

Except for a very few people.

Ye Tian remained focused on the projection, immersed in Li Xuanxiao's brilliant sword strike.

Meanwhile, the two ripples behind him had approached to within a zhang.

"They truly never learn their lesson..." Ye Tian shook his head. In fact, he had sensed the two Red Hand Hall assassins long ago.

The reason he hadn't acted immediately was that he wanted to see what kind of tricks they were trying to play, or if they had any other hidden cards.

Ye Tian tilted his head three inches to the left.

"Swoosh!"

In the next instant, that Pitch-black Death Light grazed his right temple, singeing a few strands of hair as it shot into the empty space ahead, silently corroding a small hole into the hard ground of the viewing platform, with black smoke rising from the edges.

And that Soul-Rending Ripple just barely grazed the edge of his head. Although it made his Divine Soul sway slightly and brought a wave of nausea, the vast majority of its power missed.

The pupils of the two Red Hand Hall assassins constricted!

This joint sneak attack of theirs had claimed the lives of countless targets with higher cultivation than them; it had never failed!

How could this Ye Tian avoid it so easily while seemingly completely off-guard?! Was it a coincidence? Or...

"Have you seen enough?" a calm voice came from behind them!

The hair on the two assassins' bodies stood on end. They hadn't even seen how Ye Tian had turned around or moved!

Their vision blurred, and the figure that should have been in their sight had already vanished.

A moment later, Ye Tian appeared three steps behind their flank, still with his back to the arena projections, facing them.

"Red Hand Hall..." Ye Tian spoke. "Did the Nangong Family invite you? Or the Beiming Family?"

Even as he spoke, he raised his right hand and made a slashing motion toward the two assassins.

An Arc-shaped Qi Blade manifested out of thin air, cutting toward the two assassins.

The moment the two assassins saw it, an unprecedented fear exploded from the depths of their Souls!

They felt that their True Essence was actually difficult to mobilize in the face of this Qi blade!

"This is Chaos Power?!" the Sea Transformation assassin shrieked.

He finally understood where that strange corrosive power inside his body from a few days ago had come from!

This wasn't a Lightning Technique; it was Chaos, something far more high-level and fundamental than lightning! The employer's intelligence was absurdly wrong! This Ye Tian had hidden himself too deeply!

He desperately circulated his True Essence, finally managing to form a thin layer of ink-colored Shadow Armor on his body. His palms flashed with dark light as he tried to devour the Qi blade.

The other assassin also roared, burning his essence blood as he transformed into afterimages, scattering in all directions in an attempt to confuse and escape.

However, it was useless.

The hazy gray Qi blade swept through.

The "Shadow Armor" shattered easily. The moment the dark light touched the Qi blade, it was instantly annihilated.

Dozens of afterimages froze simultaneously after the Qi blade passed, then shattered, leaving only one true body stalled in place, his face still frozen in a distorted expression of frantic escape.

"Squelch..."

With two soft sounds, the Sea Transformation assassin's arms were severed at the shoulders. The cuts were smooth, with no blood spraying out; only a layer of hazy gray light clung to them, corroding the vitality at the stumps and preventing regeneration.

He let out a blood-curdling scream, his aura instantly withering by more than half as he stumbled back, looking at Ye Tian as if seeing a demon god.

The other assassin's legs were silently separated from below the knees, and he flopped to the ground. The color drained from his face, leaving only boundless despair; the speed he took such pride in had become a joke before this Qi blade.

Everything happened too fast.

From the assassins' sneak attack to Ye Tian's tilt of the head to avoid it, to his appearance behind the assassins and his slash of the Qi blade, the entire process took only a few breaths!

Only now were the majority of people on the viewing platform startled by the Sea Transformation assassin's shrill scream, turning their heads in astonishment toward the Liuli Xuan Sect's area.

"What happened?!"

"Is that... Ye Tian? Was there a sneak attack?!"

"It's assassins from the Red Hand Hall! Aren't they supposed to be inside the Arena Realms?!"

"Ye Tian made a move? What was that just now? I think I saw a flash of gray light..."

"Hiss... A Sea Transformation First Layer had his arms severed?!"

The cruel grin on Nangong Lie's face instantly froze. Nangong Yang's pupils constricted, and the teacup in his hand shattered with a "crack," spilling tea everywhere.

They never imagined that their carefully planned certain-kill strike would be so nonchalantly dismantled and even countered!

What was even more terrifying was that the gray power Ye Tian displayed was completely outside their intelligence!

Bei Minghong's silver-gray eyes turned solemnly toward Ye Tian's direction for the first time, his gaze falling on the slowly dissipating afterimage of the Qi blade, a flicker of emotion crossing his icy face.

On the highest Imperial City Main Observation Platform, Prince Rong raised an eyebrow slightly, a hint of surprise in his eyes, but he made no move, simply watching quietly.

Li Xuanxiao, having just forced back the Red Hand Hall Guest Elder A with a sword strike, seemed to sense something. He looked up toward the viewing platform, a look of surprise also flashing through his eyes.

Qin Pojun, Ghost Girl, Xiahou Ba, Han Xiao, and the others also cast their gazes over during gaps in their fierce battles or because their fights had ended, their expressions varied.

"Junior Brother Ye!" "Ye Tian!"

Feng Xuan, Elder Qinglan, and Elder Xing Tiexin finally reacted. Both shocked and enraged, they instantly shielded Ye Tian in their midst, their True Essence surging as they warily scanned the surroundings, especially in the direction of the Nangong Family.

Tang Yun's face was deathly pale, cold sweat dripping from his forehead. His hand holding the "thunderclap awl" trembled slightly, his heart filled with lingering fear.

In that moment just now, he hadn't even seen how Ye Tian had done it!

That gray Qi blade... had made even his Soul tremble! At this moment, he was incredibly grateful that he hadn't let his greed get the better of him earlier; otherwise...

"On the Imperial City Viewing Platform, under the feet of the Son of Heaven, who dares to commit such a murderous sneak attack?!" Elder Qinglan's face was covered in frost, her voice icy as her gaze pierced toward the Nangong Family.

Elder Xing Tiexin's beard and hair bristled even more. His Sea Transformation Second Layer Peak aura erupted violently, locking onto the two heavily injured Red Hand Hall assassins on the ground.

The atmosphere of the entire viewing platform suddenly plummeted to the freezing point.

"Cough, cough..." The Sea Transformation assassin who had his arms severed coughed up several mouthfuls of black blood laced with gray Qi. His breath was weak, but a flash of madness crossed his eyes as he rasped, "Ye Tian, you... you've hidden yourself so deeply! Chaos... it's Chaos! You won't have a good..."

Before his voice could fade, Ye Tian's brow furrowed slightly, and his fingertip moved almost imperceptibly.

A strand of Sword Qi quietly entered the man's forehead.

The assassin's body stiffened, the light in his eyes quickly dimmed, his head slumped, and his breath was cut off.

Seeing this, the other legless assassin's eyes filled with even more despair. He grit his teeth hard, and a stream of black blood seeped from the corner of his mouth as he also died on the spot, clearly having crushed a poison hidden in his mouth beforehand.

Dead men tell no tales.

"Bastard!" Nangong Lie stood up abruptly, his red hair flying. He pointed at Ye Tian and shouted harshly, "You little animal! How dare you kill someone in broad daylight on the Imperial City Viewing Platform, right before everyone's eyes! Do you have no respect for the dignity of the Imperial Family?!

"Prince Rong, this boy is inherently cruel and has repeatedly violated the rules. I request your Highness to punish him severely to uphold the law!"

He was shifting the blame, trying to muddy the waters.