Chapter 44: The Wolf Tide Ends, Killing Intent Emerges; Zhao Family Assassins Launch a Sneak Attack

In the open space outside the gap in the fence, the Blood-Marked Wolves were spread out in a fan-shaped attack formation.

Countless green pupils floated in the dim rain like a field of ghost fires.

The seven male wolves at the very front lowered their bodies, the dark red demonic markings on their backs shimmering as they were soaked by the rain.

Gripping his blade, Lin Chen walked out through the gap.

He did not retreat to defend, nor did he rely on a strategic position.

He took the initiative to meet them head-on.

His boot soles stepped into the mud outside the fence; the sewage wet his cowhide armor, making a dense slapping sound.

The seven male wolves charged simultaneously within the same breath.

Seven grayish-brown afterimages tore through the curtain of rain, saliva flying from their fangs as their sharp claws dug a series of deep pits into the muddy ground.

Lin Chen's pace did not falter.

Jueying Seven-Kill Blade, Third Form.

The blade's edge brushed against the rain, drawing an upward diagonal line from his right waist.

The moment True Qi poured in, a layer of greenish-white ripples surfaced on the blade's face.

The blade's light collided with the first male wolf.

It cut into the wolf's body from the left shoulder, passed diagonally through the chest cavity, and exited from the right ribs.

The entire body was split into two pieces.

Internal organs and bone fragments mixed with hot blood, slamming into the mud to create two dark red masses.

[Slayed the low-level Yao Beast, Blood-Marked Wolf, that was plaguing the human world, protecting the peace of the region. Merit Evaluation: Excellent! Reward: +300 Points!]

The blade's momentum did not stop.

The sheathing motion of the Third Form seamlessly transitioned into the horizontal sweep of the First Form.

With a twist of his waist, his long blade drew a full moon in front of him.

Within the circle of the blade, the necks of two pouncing male wolves snapped simultaneously.

The wolf heads spun out, rolling in the muddy water.

The headless wolf bodies charged two more steps by inertia before crashing down.

[Reward: +300 Points!]

[Reward: +300 Points!]

The claws of the fourth male wolf struck his left shoulder.

The black sharp claws scratched three white marks on the cowhide outer armor but failed to pierce it.

The protective Qi and blood of the Blood Refining Realm Late Stage made this level of attack no different from scratching an itch through a boot.

Lin Chen pulled back his left elbow, the tip of it accurately striking the wolf's bridge of the nose.

The muffled sound of bone shattering rang out.

His right hand thrust the long blade forward, the tip piercing through the wolf's eye socket into the cranial cavity.

[Reward: +300 Points!]

The final three male wolves pounced simultaneously from the left, right, and front.

Lin Chen's footwork shifted in the mud, each time his boot sole landed, it stamped out a deep pit.

The Fifth and Sixth Forms of the Jueying Seven-Kill Blade were executed consecutively within a single breath.

Blade lights interlaced.

Three muffled tearing sounds overlapped.

Three wolf bodies were dismantled in different postures.

Shredded meat and severed limbs flew through the rain.

[Reward: +300 Points!]

[Reward: +300 Points!]

[Reward: +300 Points!]

In less than ten breaths, all seven male wolves had been slain.

A brief commotion broke out among the wolf pack.

The wolves in the back rows crowded together, their green eyes churning with bloodlust and fear.

The beast-luring incense was still driving them, but the tragic deaths of their kind made them instinctively hesitate.

Lin Chen gave them no chance to hesitate.

Raising his blade, he charged into the center of the wolf pack.

The blade's edge wove through the dense wolf bodies; every strike was accompanied by the muffled sound of flesh and bone breaking.

Using the Divine Movement Step among this group of Yao Beasts was like a fish in water.

Whenever a Blood-Marked Wolf pounced, he would either sidestep to dodge while delivering a strike, or use his boot sole to kick the wolf's belly, using the force to leap toward his next target.

Wolf blood soaked through his Dark Green Martial Attire, only to be washed into streaks of dark red by the rain.

His cowhide outer armor was covered in scratches, but not a single one had truly been penetrated.

His breathing remained steady throughout.

The heavy True Qi provided by the Xuanhuang Immovable Body flowed continuously.

At the edge of his vision, the 300-point rewards flashed frantically, as dense as the rain.

He no longer bothered to count.

His entire mind was focused on the long blade in his hand.

The seven killing moves of the Jueying Seven-Kill Blade rotated repeatedly, each cycle taking the lives of five or six Yao Beasts.

The wolf corpses on the ground piled higher and higher.

Blood merged into streams.

When Lin Chen pulled his long blade from the chest cavity of the thirty-first Blood-Marked Wolf, there was no longer any living thing standing before him.

The ground was full of mangled corpses and severed limbs.

Stinking heat rose from the pile of corpses, mixing with the cold rain to form a thin mist.

Lin Chen stabbed the tip of his blade into the mud, using it to support his body.

He looked back, his gaze sweeping toward the village.

From the window cracks of the Stone Mill, several pairs of terrified and tearful eyes were staring intently at him.

Old Master Zhang's wrinkled face was pressed against the window frame, his mouth opening and closing without making a sound.

Just as Lin Chen was about to sheath his blade, a low-frequency vibration suddenly came from the mud beneath his feet.

The vibration did not come from the ground itself, but rather the heartbeat of some living creature.

His gaze instantly locked onto the densest pile of wolf corpses twenty paces behind him.

Something was moving at the bottom of the corpse pile.

A dozen wolf carcasses were pushed aside from below by a massive force, sliding to the sides.

A massive grayish-white figure stood up from the pile of corpses.

This wolf was a full size larger than all the previous Blood-Marked Wolves, its shoulder height almost level with his own.

The demonic markings on its back were not dark red, but a deep silver-gray, the patterns converging into two vortex designs above its eyes.

Its pupils were dark gold vertical slits.

A Wolf King.

This beast had been hiding at the very bottom of the pack from the start, using the corpses of its own kind as cover, waiting for its prey to become exhausted.

Lin Chen pulled out his long blade, its surface covered in mud.

He ground his boot sole against the earth, adjusting his stance for a strike.

The Wolf King's dark gold vertical pupils locked onto him.

It did not howl; it merely lowered its massive head, its sharp claws slowly extending.

The dead silence lasted for less than two breaths.

The Wolf King moved.

Its speed was more than twice as fast, its massive body turning into a silver-gray lightning bolt in the rain.

The angle of its front claw strike was extremely tricky; it didn't go straight for the chest or abdomen, but instead swiped at his right wrist which held the blade.

Lin Chen's eyelid twitched.

This beast actually knew to attack the wrist holding the weapon!

He rotated his wrist inward, changing his grip on the long blade from a standard to a reverse grip.

The back of the blade knocked against the surface of the Wolf King's front claw, erupting in a sound like clashing metal.

A massive force, far exceeding that of a regular Blood-Marked Wolf, poured through the blade, shaking him back half a step.

His boot soles plowed two deep grooves into the mud.

Lin Chen's brow furrowed slightly.

The strength of this beast was already approaching the Blood Refining Realm Late Stage.

The Wolf King's strike missed, but its offensive did not stop. Its silver-gray body circled at high speed, claws and fangs attacking continuously from different angles.

Every collision carried the power to shatter stone monuments.

Lin Chen was forced back three consecutive steps, his long blade weaving a defensive light screen in front of him.

Jueying Seven-Kill Blade, Seventh Form: Attack within Defense.

The blade's edge suddenly changed direction at the end of the defensive arc, cutting into the gap in the Wolf King's attack from an impossible angle.

The blade tip carved a three-inch-long wound on the Wolf King's left front leg.

The silver-gray fur split open, and blood that was almost black gushed out.

The Wolf King's speed faltered for an instant because of this strike.

That's enough.

Lin Chen's left foot kicked hard against the mud, the Divine Movement Step exploding as he instantly cut into the Wolf King's left blind spot.

He switched his grip back to standard.

Jueying Seven-Kill Blade, First Form, carrying all the True Qi he could currently mobilize, slashed toward the Wolf King's neck.

The blade's edge cut into the thick muscle and ground through the hard cervical vertebrae.

The sound of bone breaking carried far through the rain.

The Wolf King's massive body convulsed in the air, its front claws scratching weakly a couple of times.

Its head slid off from the severed neck, slamming into the muddy water and splashing blood-red.

The dark gold vertical pupils slowly dimmed in the muddy water.

[Host slayed the Blood-Marked Wolf King that was plaguing the human world, protecting the peace of the region. Merit Evaluation: Extraordinary! Reward: +1000 Points!]

One thousand points.

Lin Chen pulled out his long blade and flicked off the bone fragments.

He stood in the center of the wolf corpses, letting the rain wash away the layers of blood and filth on his body.

His breathing was even, his heartbeat steady.

He closed his eyes, his consciousness sinking into the System panel.

The points from the previous slaughter had all been credited.

[Current System Accumulated Total Points: 12,700 points.]

Twelve thousand seven hundred points.

Lin Chen opened his eyes, rain sliding off his eyelashes.

Without the slightest hesitation, he issued a command in his mind.

“Consume 6,000 points to deduce the fourth level of the Xuanhuang Immovable Body!”

A blue light screen exploded in his vision, turning into countless light spots.

A heat flow several times more violent than before erupted from the depths of his Dantian Qi Sea.

It was no longer a trickle, but a flood peak.

The flood peak, carrying Qi and blood boiled to the limit, washed through every meridian.

The walls of his Meridians let out muffled sounds, like a riverbank bearing the impact of a flood.

Lin Chen's knees buckled, nearly causing him to kneel.

He gritted his teeth, stabbing his long blade into the mud beside him and quickly forming a hand seal with his left hand in front of his chest.

The earthy yellow halo on his skin's surface was more than three times denser than last time, shining brightly in the dark rain.

Every inch of muscle fiber was being reshaped and torn.

The sound of dense cracking and reorganization came from deep within his bones.

The barrier that stood between Blood Refining Realm Late Stage and Perfection vibrated violently.

Cracks spread.

In the next instant, the barrier shattered!

[Xuanhuang Immovable Body Fourth Level Deduction Perfected!]

[Host's cultivation has successfully broken through to the Blood Refining Realm Perfection!]

A mouthful of heavy, turbid air puffed from his throat, condensing into a straight white line in the cold rain that traveled half a zhang before dissipating.

He slowly stood straight and spread his hands.

As he moved his knuckles, a series of firecracker-like pops rang out.

The Qi and blood in his body were so thick they almost solidified; every heartbeat was like the beating of a great drum.

Blood Refining Realm Perfection.

Only one step away from the Ningdan Realm.

Lin Chen pulled out his long blade, rinsed it in the rain, and sheathed it.

He turned around and walked toward Zhang Family Village.

He had only taken three steps.

The air behind him was suddenly torn apart.

Three black shadows emerged from the rain curtain, landing within five zhang behind him in a triangular formation.

They were dressed in night-traveler clothes and wore faceless iron masks with only two small holes for the eyes.

The three of them attacked simultaneously.

Three poisoned short blades stabbed toward his heart, left ribs, and the back of his neck from three different angles.