573: Chapter 573 Dimensional Reduction and Crushing

Upon hearing this, Zhou Heng walked out from behind Qin Wangchuan.

He met the gazes of Sun Yue and the crowd of bandits, the sliver of timidity in his chest filled by surging anger.

"Four years ago."

"Zhao Biao from your stronghold, colluding with seven others—eight in total—intercepted and killed my father and the others."

"Including my father, that trip cost six lives."

The words fell.

Zhao Biao, hiding in the crowd, felt his heart sink abruptly.

They really were coming for him.

And these words confirmed Sun Yue's suspicions.

A trace of imperceptible helplessness flashed in the depths of his eyes.

Sure enough, it was trouble caused by this troublesome fourth brother again.

Making enemies everywhere, inviting disaster and causing trouble; he hadn't had a moment of peace all these years.

But complaints aside, when things came to a head, the person was his own brother; as the eldest brother, he could only take responsibility for this trouble.

With that thought, Sun Yue raised his hand openly and pressed it down, signaling the noisy crowd behind him to quiet down.

He then turned to Qin Wangchuan, his expression remaining steady and composed.

"So, Young Hero, you want me to hand over those eight people?"

"Yes." Qin Wangchuan nodded.

As soon as the words fell, a look of difficulty appeared on Sun Yue's Face.

"Young Hero, you may not know this. It is true that Zhao Biao is from my stronghold, but he broke the stronghold's rules years ago, and I expelled him some years back. He has long since not been in Duanhu Stronghold."

"Bullshit!"

Zhou Heng could no longer hold back; he stepped out from the crowd and pointed at Sun Yue. "He came back today! I saw it with my own eyes!"

Once these words were spoken, the bandits' side immediately became restless.

Three wet-behind-the-ears brats had killed their brother and now dared to spout nonsense in front of the whole stronghold; some were already unable to restrain themselves.

"Eldest Brother, why waste words with them!"

"Exactly! Just chop them up and feed them to the dogs—"

"Shut up!"

Sun Yue gave a violent shout, suppressing all the noise behind him.

At the same time, he quickly gave a look to Zhao Biao in the crowd.

Although Zhao Biao didn't fully understand, he subconsciously shrank deeper into the crowd, hiding himself more securely.

After finishing this, Sun Yue turned back to Face Qin Wangchuan.

The clamoring boy behind him was insignificant in his eyes.

The one he truly needed to deal with was the one in front of him.

"Young Hero's information is quite well-informed."

He was unhurried, not revealing a single flaw. "It is true that Zhao Biao set off to return to the stronghold today. It's just that I heard there were some mishaps on the road, so he hasn't reached the stronghold yet—"

Qin Wangchuan did not listen to him finish.

Although he did not recognize Zhao Biao, the look Sun Yue gave to the crowd and that figure hurriedly shrinking into hiding—nothing could be hidden from him.

Too lazy to listen to that rhetoric any longer, he directly raised his hand.

The next moment.

Zhao Biao, hiding in the deepest part of the crowd, felt his throat tighten abruptly, as if gripped tightly by an invisible hand.

His heels left the ground, and he, along with his blade, was lifted by that force, suspended in the air as he was pulled out from the crowd.

"E-Eldest Brother—!"

This scene fell into the eyes of Chen Yan, who was not far away, and he felt a violent shock in his heart.

He had been standing behind Qin Wangchuan, not daring to make a sound from beginning to end.

Was the person in front of him... truly a youth of similar age to himself?

With a wave of his hand, he had plucked a living person out of thin air from the heavy encirclement of hundreds of bandits, not even giving that bandit room to struggle.

What made his scalp tingle even more was—

All around were hundreds of people, dark and dense, with blades and spears like a forest, full of Killing Intent.

Yet the youth stood in the middle, his aura not losing the upper hand in the slightest; instead, he was like a lone moon surrounded by stars, suppressing the ferocity of the entire field into mere background.

Who on earth... was this sacred being?

Chen Yan's throat bobbed, but he couldn't say a single word.

Zhao Biao's scream of Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering pierced through the curtain of rain.

The invisible force not only dragged him all the way to in front of Qin Wangchuan but also suddenly pressed down.

His knees slammed heavily into the mud; with a dull crack, his kneecaps seemed to have been shattered on the spot.

The scream rose abruptly, but his whole body was still held down tightly, kneeling on the ground, unable to even lift his head.

The entire field was deathly silent.

The steady and composed expression on Sun Yue's Face cracked for the first time.

He, a dignified stronghold leader, had already lowered his status, kept a straight Face to deal with the other party, and given them plenty of Face.

Yet this youth didn't accept it at all, didn't even lift an eyelid, and had snatched the person from right under his nose in front of everyone.

Leaving no Face at all.

A surge of anger from having his Face so fiercely rejected rushed up from Sun Yue's chest.

He was just about to erupt.

Qin Wangchuan, however, didn't even look at him; he turned his head and asked Zhou Heng beside him.

"Is it him?"

Zhou Heng stepped forward.

Zhao Biao, who was pressed tightly into the mud by that force and unable to move, heard the commotion and managed to lift his eyes. He met Zhou Heng's Face, and a flash of bewilderment crossed his eyes.

But Zhou Heng recognized him.

After investigating for so long, he had finally seen the Immortal Master.

"It is him."

Zhou Heng gritted his teeth and nodded heavily.

Qin Wangchuan withdrew his gaze and calmly spat out three words.

"Do it."

Once these words were spoken, Zhou Heng and Sun Yue were both stunned.

Sun Yue was the first to come to his senses.

"How dare you—!"

He shouted sharply and charged up with his blade.

It was in that moment that Zhou Heng suddenly came to his senses.

The enemy was right in front of him; the moment he had waited four years for had finally arrived.

He did not hesitate; the long sword at his waist rang as it left its sheath.

The sword light flashed.

Zhao Biao's head, which hadn't had time to beg for mercy, flew up in response and rolled into the mud.

Blood splattered all over Zhou Heng's Face.

That was the enemy he had chased for four years and hated for four years.

Just like that, he died under his own sword.

Sun Yue, who had charged halfway, stopped abruptly.

He watched helplessly as Zhao Biao's corpse fell into the mud, forgetting to move for a moment.

"The first one."

In the silence, Qin Wangchuan's voice rang out, neither light nor heavy.

"There are seven more."

"Will you hand them over yourself, or shall I?"

This sentence jolted Sun Yue awake from his daze.

He snapped back to reality, the sorrow and anger surging in the depths of his eyes no longer containable, and he took a step forward, raising his blade.

"...Kill them for me!"

"Today, none of these three people can leave the mountain alive!"

The long-suppressed bandits awoke as if from a dream; with a shout, they swarmed in from all directions.

Hundreds of figures, eyes red, like a pack of hungry wolves that had smelled blood, charged desperately toward the three of them.

Blade light was like a forest, and the sound of killing shook the entire mountain peak.

Facing this overwhelming tide of people, Qin Wangchuan's expression did not change.

The next moment—

The sky split open.

A snowy, bright streak of light fell silently from the sky, spanning dozens of zhang, swallowing the sky-filling curtain of rain, along with the entire tide of people rushing at the front.

Over a hundred lives were wiped out in that instant.

Between heaven and earth, there was sudden, deathly silence.

Following immediately were the second and third.

The snowy, bright streaks of light fell consecutively from the Nine Heavens, never stopping.

With every streak that fell, swaths of people disappeared, not even having time to let out a scream.

The bandits charging at the back were nailed to the spot by this continuous slaughter, watching helplessly as batches of their companions were Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering before their eyes, the blood at their feet gathering into a river.

Amidst the Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering, some gradually began to sense something eerie from witnessing it again and again.

Those attacks...

Only landed on those who charged up.

Anyone who took a step forward or raised their blade to hack, without exception, was turned into a mist of blood.

I don't know who was the first to stop.

Followed immediately by the second, the third...

The tide of slaughter, at a speed visible to the naked eye, solidified and retreated inch by inch.

The remaining fierce bandits gripped their blades, frozen in place, none daring to take another step forward, their breathing even kept extremely light, for fear of disturbing the Killing Intent hanging over their heads that could fall at any moment.

In the deathly silence.

Qin Wangchuan had already stepped over the blood-mud and corpses covering the ground, walking toward Sun Yue's direction.

The bandits blocking the way automatically made a path.

Not a single person dared to move.

Not a single person dared to make a sound.

Everyone's eyes were wide, their Faces filled with terror etched into their bones, looking exactly like those people on both sides of the stronghold gate just a moment ago.

Sun Yue's whole body shuddered.

It wasn't that he hadn't seen experts.

But to be this strong, it was the first time he had ever seen it in his life.

In his shock, he even forgot to raise his blade.

Qin Wangchuan walked up to him and stood still, looking down at him.

"Hand over those seven people."

"Your stronghold can still remain."

This was a way to live.

And it was the only one.

However, as soon as the words fell.

A look of ruthlessness suddenly burst forth from the depths of Sun Yue's eyes.

The True Qi around his body surged to the extreme; with lightning speed, he slashed his blade down at Qin Wangchuan's head.

Qin Wangchuan did not dodge, nor did he retreat.

He just stood there quietly, letting that blade slash down on his body.

Clang—

The blade edge barely reached his body before it collided with a layer of extremely faint radiance, unable to get even a fraction closer.

That was his Protective Aura.

Both were protective, but the Protective Aura formed by spiritual power was worlds apart from the True Qi of this world.

That blade, which had exhausted all his nine-fold power, couldn't even press into that layer of radiance by half an inch.

Qin Wangchuan lowered his eyes, his gaze falling onto Sun Yue's frozen Face behind the blade.

"Wrong answer."