130: Murder to silence me? Did you even ask about my points?

The Gold-Robed Elder shuddered violently; the shadow of death completely enveloped him.

He dared not conceal anything further, nor did he dare to play any more tricks, preparing to divulge everything he knew.

However, he had not yet managed to utter a single word.

A sudden anomaly occurred!

A strange and subtle energy fluctuation emanated without warning from a dark corner of the square.

That fluctuation flashed and vanished, yet it precisely entered the Gold-Robed Elder's body.

"Urgh...!"

The Gold-Robed Elder's eyes widened instantly, and a painful, inhuman roar erupted from his throat.

Blinding red energy erupted violently from his body.

Beneath his skin, countless bizarre black runes writhed frantically, like living centipedes burrowing into his flesh.

He instantly transformed into a lantern emitting an ominous red glow, while a destructive aura began to brew frantically within him.

Even without knowing exactly what was happening, anyone with a brain could see it.

He was about to self-destruct!

There was no doubt about it; this was an attempt to silence the witness.

Chen Nian instantly assessed the situation.

However, trying to pull this stunt in front of him? In your dreams!

Chen Nian did not hesitate in the slightest, not even making a single unnecessary movement.

He raised his hand and casually slapped down toward the Gold-Robed Elder, who was already swelling and on the verge of exploding.

"Bang!" A soft sound echoed.

There was no earth-shattering explosion, nor any shockwave of ravaging energy.

The Gold-Robed Elder, who was about to become a source of destruction, was instantly slapped into a cloud of dispersing blood mist, just like a punctured water balloon.

Even the violent energy within his body was completely annihilated by that single slap, failing to stir up even the slightest ripple.

【Ding! Killed a Tier 5 Evil Cultivator, gained 12,851 points!】

The crisp System notification rang in his mind. The points had arrived.

Chen Nian nodded with satisfaction. That was close; he almost missed out on over ten thousand points.

At the same time, he clearly sensed a cold aura locking onto him from the corner of the square where the energy fluctuation had originated.

That aura was filled with shock, disbelief, and a hint of fear.

Clearly, the other party had never expected that their pride-and-joy silencing method would be so vulnerable before this man.

It couldn't even delay him for a single second.

Chen Nian, however, remained incredibly calm, as if he had merely done something trivial.

Still, he was somewhat surprised. To be honest, the methods of these cultists were truly ruthless; they didn't even spare their own people, silencing them without a moment's hesitation.

Of course, now was not the time to dwell on that. After a brief pause, that cold aura began to rapidly weaken and conceal itself.

Trying to run? A cruel arc hooked at the corner of Chen Nian's mouth. "Since you've come, don't bother leaving."

His figure flashed, and he transformed into a streak of light, difficult for the naked eye to track, shooting directly toward the direction from which the aura originated.

He was so fast that he left an afterimage in the air. The powerful airflow even parted the viscous pool of blood on the ground, exposing the blood-soaked stone slabs beneath.

In the blink of an eye, Chen Nian crossed the entire square and appeared in that dark corner.

As he approached, the scene became clear. A man shrouded in a special black robe was hiding in the shadows there.

A twisted spatial rift had already appeared behind him, filled with deep and chaotic Void Realm energy, and half of his body had already entered the teleportation rift.

There was no doubt he was trying to escape through the spatial rift. However, seeing Chen Nian approaching like a ghost, the black-robed man was clearly terrified, his Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering.

"How could he be so fast!" The black-robed man's heart was filled with incomparable shock, and his hands faltered for a split second due to panic.

But he quickly regained his composure; the instinct to survive forced him to unleash all his potential. He frantically channeled his energy, attempting to close the spatial rift completely before Chen Nian could act, sealing off this devil.

Under his influence, the spatial rift began to close rapidly. Seeing that it was about to shut completely, a look of ecstasy—the joy of surviving a catastrophe—appeared on the black-robed man's face.

However, at the very last moment before the spatial rift was about to close completely, a hand—a hand wreathed in pale golden light—casually reached out and grabbed the edge of the vanishing spatial rift.

"What?!" The black-robed man's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. Catching a spatial rift with bare hands? Was this something a human could do?

The violent spatial cutting force at the edge of the spatial rift was enough to instantly grind steel into powder. Was he insane?!

However, in the next second, the shock on his face turned into utter despair. Chen Nian's hand, which was gripping the spatial rift, was as steady as a rock.

He didn't even look at the black-robed man, simply channeling the power within his body. The power of the Prison Suppressing Divine Body roared into action! The power of the Mountain-Collapsing Fist condensed in his palms and fingers!

"Boom!" Brilliant golden energy erupted instantly from his body, enveloping him completely. His arm, in particular, which was gripping the spatial rift, appeared as if it had been cast from gold, radiating a terrifying, immortal, and indestructible aura.

Then, with his arm muscles bulging slightly, he pulled violently to both sides.

"Riiiip—!" A piercing sound, like fabric being torn apart, echoed throughout the silent square.

That spatial rift, which was about to close and should have been indestructible, was actually torn wide open by his sheer brute force!

Violent red energy surged out from the torn opening, but it was completely annihilated by the layer of golden protective energy the moment it came within three feet of Chen Nian's body.

The spatial rift was crudely widened, revealing everything behind it. The black-robed man responsible for initiating the teleportation now stood there blankly, his body as stiff as a statue.

He looked at Chen Nian, then back at his torn-open portal, his brain completely shut down. Behind him, there were several other members of the Eternal Life Cult, also dressed in black robes.

They had been waiting in anticipation for the teleportation, but now, just like their leader, they were all frozen in place, their faces etched with extreme terror and despair.

"What... what kind of monster is this? He can even tear open a spatial rift with his bare hands?" This had completely exceeded the limits of their understanding!

They had thought they were the hunters hiding in the shadows, the cleaners responsible for erasing traces. They never expected that, in the eyes of their opponent, they were no different from their slaughtered companions in the square—just lambs waiting to be slaughtered.

Watching them look as if they had seen a ghost, Chen Nian wasn't about to give them much time to be shocked or to think. He smiled cruelly and said indifferently, "Since you've come, you still want to run? Do you really think you can get away?"