262: information

"Substitute counterattack?"

Xiao Shi’s eyes narrowed.

He knew this was a powerful technique that lured enemies with a substitute. When the enemy eliminated the substitute, the attack that eliminated it would be reflected back.

Now, the sabre strike that had shattered the entire substitute was directly reflected back.

In response,

Xiao Shi seemed to have been prepared, holding his sabre horizontally in front of him.

Clang!!

With a loud clang of metal,

the reflected sabre light struck the Blood-colored Evil Blade in Xiao Shi’s hand.

At the same time,

two figures, swift as lightning, charged out from behind Xiao Shi.

One of the figures was none other than the true body of the one-eyed big man.

His eyes were filled with rampant killing intent, and a hint of mockery.

In his hand, he held a thin thread, like an ox’s hair.

The other person also held a similar thread.

They pulled the threads, wrapping them around Xiao Shi from both the left and right sides.

Not only that,

in front of Xiao Shi, a Soul Awakening Stage Martial Soul Realm practitioner from the Demonic Path forces also appeared.

The three of them formed a pincer movement.

They pulled the long, thin threads in their hands, encircling Xiao Shi.

Powerful soul force was attached to the threads, giving them astonishing cutting power. As they were pulled, they emitted a sharp whistling sound as if tearing through the air.

They were clearly not planning to bind Xiao Shi with the threads.

Instead, they intended to use the threads to… directly slice his body into pieces!

It was evident.

They had planned this from the start.

They deliberately used the one-eyed big man’s substitute to lure Xiao Shi into a trap.

Once Xiao Shi defended against his own reflected attack, he would inevitably be unable to make other responses.

He would only be cut to pieces and annihilated by their rapidly tightening threads!

However, just as they thought victory was assured,

the sabre light reflected towards Xiao Shi was suddenly shattered by the Blood-colored Evil Blade in Xiao Shi’s hand.

It then split into three sabre lights, which whistled towards the three individuals forming the pincer movement, at an astonishing speed.

"Hmm?"

The three of them froze simultaneously.

This was not quite what they had imagined.

They had originally thought that the opponent would have to use all his strength to block the sabre light reflected towards him.

But now, they had a feeling that the opponent seemed to have anticipated his own attack being reflected back.

As a result, this reflected attack not only failed to trouble him but instead transformed into his means of counterattack.

In fact, when Xiao Shi saw that the Fiend Qi impact was ineffective, he had already sensed that something was amiss.

Although he didn't know it was a substitute counterattack,

he had prepared a contingency for it.

The three sabre lights he now shattered each possessed astonishing speed.

This caused the three Demonic Path forces members to be unable to use the thin threads in their hands to cut Xiao Shi’s body. They could only first block the sabre lights sweeping towards Xiao Shi.

Each of the three unleashed powerful attacks, fiercely colliding with the sweeping sabre lights.

They all defended with full force, holding nothing back.

However, the power of these three rampant sabre lights far exceeded their estimations.

Upon contact,

they only felt that the power contained within the sabre lights was incredibly astonishing, and the fierce sabre Qi ignored their defenses, infiltrating their bodies.

Chii!

Numerous thin lines simultaneously emanated from the bodies of the three of them.

When these thin lines spread throughout their entire bodies,

Puff!

They were as if cut into numerous pieces, their flesh and blood falling off their bodies in chunks.

Xiao Shi stepped forward.

He quickly picked up the items that had dropped after the three men died.

With his current strength,

killing these Soul Awakening Stage Martial Soul Realm practitioners was basically effortless.

However, the opponent's previous substitute counterattack still put him on alert and made him cautious.

"These people, on their own territory, will more or less receive some buffs, and they might have some strange techniques. I still can't be too careless."

Xiao Shi thought to himself.

Even a lion uses its full strength to hunt a rabbit.

If he were careless, some unexpected situations might arise.

At the same time,

rumbling sounds began to come from afar.

Accompanied by powerful energy fluctuations.

Clearly, the other Prison Guards had also found their respective targets and were engaged in fierce battles.

Many members of the Demonic Path forces in the city began to scatter and flee.

Those below the Martial Soul Realm simply couldn't participate in this level of combat.

They could only run away.

And these Prison Guards, in their pursuit of targets, primarily focused on capturing Martial Soul Realm members of the Demonic Path forces.

There was no need to capture those below the Martial Soul Realm.

After Xiao Shi dealt with these three Martial Soul Realm members of the Demonic Path forces, he also cut off their heads as proof of his kills. He could later use these heads to claim merits.

Whoosh!

He moved.

He didn't linger there, quickly searching for other Martial Soul Realm practitioners in the city.

Not long after,

he successfully found a lone Martial Soul Realm practitioner.

With his previous experience, to prevent the opponent from being a substitute, he first used the Fiend Qi impact from the Evil Blade to test him.

Seeing that the opponent was not affected by the Fiend Qi impact,

he realized that this was also a substitute.

"Presumably, this kind of substitute is a powerful technique of the Sanguinary Blood Valley."

Xiao Shi thought to himself.

This kind of substitute was completely indistinguishable from the real thing with the naked eye.

However, if one possessed Soul Consciousness… one only needed to sweep it with Soul Consciousness.

One could see through it.

It was only effective against practitioners below the Soul Consciousness Stage.

For powerful individuals with Soul Consciousness, it would basically have no effect.

After realizing it was a substitute,

Xiao Shi naturally wouldn't attack.

He knew that the opponent’s true body must be hidden nearby, waiting for an opportunity.

His gaze directly locked onto a nearby civilian house.

The area was empty.

There weren't many places to hide.

The opponent could only be hiding inside this civilian house.

Immediately,

Xiao Shi didn't hesitate.

He moved.

He directly smashed through the wall of the civilian house and rushed inside.

"Hmm?"

When Xiao Shi rushed into the civilian house,

the sight before him made his eyes narrow.

Inside the civilian house, there was far more than just one person; there were a total of seven people!

All seven of them were Soul Awakening Stage Martial Soul Realm practitioners.

They were accumulating some kind of power, and they were all stunned by Xiao Shi’s sudden intrusion.

Clearly, they hadn't expected the opponent to see through the substitute and charge in.

Boom!!

A huge roar made the entire ground tremble.

A patch of bushes collapsed.

Many birds perched on trees in the forest, startled, flew high into the sky, chirping and flapping their wings, quickly flying away.

"Are we going to keep fighting?"

Beneath the swirling dust,

the middle-aged man in a blood-colored battle robe stared at Xiang Zizhen in front of him.

Xiang Zizhen silently sensed his surroundings.

After not detecting any anomalies,

he raised his hand.

His entire right hand was intertwined and enveloped by a white ripple of power.

When he pressed his entire right hand onto the ground,

this area immediately formed a white circular barrier.

Ensuring that their subsequent conversation would not be heard outside the barrier.

"Is there any news?"

Xiang Zizhen looked at the Sanguinary Blood Valley Master and asked in a deep voice.

"Where is what I want?"

The Sanguinary Blood Valley Master, however, stared intently at Xiang Zizhen.

Xiang Zizhen reached out and threw a storage bag.

The Sanguinary Blood Valley Master caught it, quickly checked it, and after ensuring there were no problems, he nodded with satisfaction and said,

"About a month ago, he passed by our Sanguinary Blood Valley."

Xiang Zizhen nodded slightly.

"Continue."

The Sanguinary Blood Valley Master continued,

"Ten days ago, someone saw him appear on Ten Thousand Corpse Island…"

"I think you know better than I do what that means."

Xiang Zizhen frowned at this.

He fell into deep thought.

"If there's nothing else, I'll be leaving first."

The Sanguinary Blood Valley Master finished speaking and turned to leave.

However, before leaving,

he suddenly remembered something.

He grinned.

"Oh, right."

"I feel it's necessary to remind you…"

"Those wolf cubs in my Sanguinary Blood Valley are not simple. It's not an easy task to capture them. You'd best return quickly and look after your people."

"I'm afraid if you return too late, you'll only be able to collect their corpses!"

Xiang Zizhen gave him a indifferent look.

"You don't need to worry about that."

"Your people aren't simple, and my people aren't as fragile as you imagine."

The Sanguinary Blood Valley Master shrugged.

"Whatever."

"Anyway, I've already abandoned the Sanguinary Blood Valley. Whether they live or die has nothing to do with me."

After speaking,

the Sanguinary Blood Valley Master moved.

He quickly disappeared from Xiang Zizhen's sight.

Xiang Zizhen watched the departing figure.

He was not surprised by the Sanguinary Blood Valley Master's decisive abandonment of his own faction.

He knew well that these Demonic Path forces members inherently had no emotional attachment to their own factions.

Their existence was solely focused on profit.

As long as there was enough profit, they would have no lingering attachment whatsoever and could abandon everything.

Even the faction they themselves had founded.

They could discard it without a second thought.

Xiang Zizhen's thoughts now were more focused on the important information he had obtained from the other party.

"Heading to Ten Thousand Corpse Island so early…"

"It seems he doesn't intend to drag this out with me."

"Does he want a quick decisive battle?!"

A sharp glint flashed in Xiang Zizhen's eyes.

Boom!!

Just then,

a huge tremor suddenly came from the direction of the Sanguinary Blood Valley in the distance.

It interrupted Xiang Zizhen’s thoughts.

"Hmm?"

He turned to look.

He felt a powerful aura fluctuation.

Recalling the Sanguinary Blood Valley Master's words earlier,

he frowned slightly.

It seemed the other party wasn't exaggerating. These Martial Soul Realm practitioners of the Sanguinary Blood Valley indeed possessed some special and extraordinary techniques… There were only ten Soul Awakening Stage Martial Soul Realm practitioners in the Sanguinary Blood Valley in total.

Aside from the three Xiao Shi had killed earlier,

the remaining seven were all gathered in this civilian house at this moment.

"Excellent!"

"This saves me the trouble of searching everywhere."

Xiao Shi’s gaze suddenly sharpened.

He was preparing to take them all out at once.

According to his plan, he intended to kill half and capture half.

In terms of killing, he wasn't worried at all.

However, in terms of capturing, the difficulty would be slightly greater than killing.

Xiao Shi was worried that if he didn't hold back,

he might very likely kill them directly.

"Don't think about holding back for now; break them up first!"

Currently, these seven gathered Martial Soul Realm practitioners were sitting around a completely black furnace.

The entire furnace somewhat resembled an alchemy furnace.

With white bones as fuel and soul force as fire.

Under continuous cooking,

a powerful energy was constantly accumulating within the furnace, growing stronger and stronger.

Xiao Shi felt that if they continued like this,

the power within the furnace would very likely exceed the Soul Awakening Stage and reach a higher level.

Immediately, he moved.

As he continuously approached, he raised the Evil Blade in his hand and struck downwards.

He directly unleashed seven blood-colored sabre lights.

Sweeping towards these seven Soul Awakening Stage Martial Soul Realm practitioners.

And each sabre light was filled with Fiend Qi impact.

He intended to first use the Fiend Qi impact to affect their minds and spirits, interrupting their current state.

However, when these Fiend Qi impacts surged in front of the seven people,

Om!

The furnace in front of the seven people suddenly vibrated.

The Fiend Qi surging towards the seven people was directly absorbed by the furnace!

All of it was absorbed into the furnace.

As a result, none of the seven people were affected by the Fiend Qi.

Xiao Shi frowned tightly at this.

He had never encountered such a situation before!

Moreover, he noticed… that after the furnace absorbed this Fiend Qi, the aura within the furnace seemed to have grown considerably.

As if he had provided nourishment to the furnace!

Making the power within the furnace even stronger.

The entire furnace vibrated, conveying a desire for more.

Aside from that,

when the sabre lights unleashed by Xiao Shi reached the front of the seven people,

a layer of light shield simultaneously appeared on all seven of them.

Although after the sabre lights struck the light shield, the entire light shield directly shattered into light fragments and exploded under the vibration.

However, this layer of light shield on their bodies had blocked Xiao Shi’s strike for them.

All seven of them looked at Xiao Shi with horrified expressions.

They hadn't expected the opponent to shatter the light shield on their bodies so easily.

This caused fear to rise in their hearts.

If not for this layer of light shield on their bodies… none of them were confident they could withstand the opponent’s strike.

Now that they no longer had the protection of the light shield,

if the opponent continued to attack,

they would be in danger!

Thinking of this,

one of them unhesitatingly took out a bell and quickly shook it.

Not far from Xiao Shi’s location,

two Soul Consciousness Stage Prison Guards were battling three other Soul Consciousness Stage powerhouses from the Sanguinary Blood Valley.

Although they were outnumbered by one person,

these two Prison Guards were both elites of the Soul Consciousness Stage.

Even fighting two against three, they were not at a disadvantage at all.

However, just as they were fiercely clashing,

an urgent ringing sound suddenly entered the minds of these three Soul Consciousness Stage Demonic Path forces powerhouses.

Making their expressions change simultaneously.

Whoosh!

One of the Soul Consciousness Stage powerhouses moved without hesitation.

He left the battlefield at the fastest speed, heading to another location.

The other two Soul Consciousness Stage powerhouses also, with tacit understanding, took out powerful treasures from their bodies to hold back the two Prison Guards, not giving the two Prison Guards a chance to go and support.

All of this happened in a brief instant.

When this person took out the bell and shook it,

Xiao Shi sensed that the other party was calling for help.

Killing intent flickered in his eyes.

He raised the Evil Blade in his hand, preparing to unleash his full power to annihilate them.

Boom!!

A black shadow suddenly smashed down from above.

Blocking Xiao Shi’s path.