Chapter 1561: No One Can Match Him

To Shang Shuqing, the Nine Saints were legendary figures akin to gods. Facing someone like that, how could she possibly not feel afraid at all?

At the very least, her eyes were filled with tension now. Yet she still shook her head. "I'm not afraid."

Niu Youdao saw her nervousness and answered with a smile. He did not say anything more that might add to her pressure, merely turned back toward the window and watched the fighting inside the town.

Yun Ji and Guan Fangyi stood nearby as well. Only Guan Fangyi no longer possessed her former coquettish vitality. Instead, there was a faint bleakness and listlessness about her.

Even Yun Ji was somewhat tense. Guan Fangyi, by contrast, seemed completely untouched by Wu Chang's arrival. She was unusually quiet and silent.

Behind them was the entrance to a secret passage prepared in advance.

Yin'er was there too, sleeping on a table. Faint silver markings were already beginning to surface across her face.

For some time now, Niu Youdao had deliberately stopped dissolving the aberrant demon power inside her. He was merely keeping it under control, holding Yin'er right at the verge of transforming into a demon...

The thunderous fighting ended quickly.

With Yuan Cong and the others taking action, the dozens of attackers were cut apart like melons and vegetables, beaten into complete disarray.

They were no match at all. Most died, while a small number fled in haste.

Frightened horses also bolted out of the town, some still dragging wagons behind them.

Yuan Cong and the others did not pursue. Standing on the rooftops, they looked out over the wilderness and saw a man in a black cloak approaching.

He seemed to walk neither fast nor slow, yet every so often his figure flickered closer, as though shrinking the earth beneath his feet to inches.

"You people go first."

Standing in the street, Yuan Gang raised his saber and gestured to the frightened escorting soldiers.

The troops guarding the wagons immediately broke into a run and fled toward the edge of town.

Outside the town, Wu Chang continued forward at the same unhurried pace. Seeing how quickly his men had been defeated and driven out, he confirmed his earlier judgment.

He had sent these people in first because he wanted to know whether those targets were truly here, so he could decide his next move according to the situation.

One fleeing cultivator flashed to Wu Chang's side and reported in terror, "Sacred Venerable, they're too strong. We are no match for them at all."

Wu Chang ignored him.

His figure suddenly flashed.

In the next instant he had entered the town and landed atop a roof.

Yuan Gang sprang forward in a long stride and landed on another rooftop opposite him. A street separated the two.

Figures appeared one after another on the surrounding roofs, forming a loose encirclement around Wu Chang.

Yuan Gang, Yuan Cong, Zhuge Chi, Gong Lince, Yan Zhutian, Wen Hua, Xi Haitang, Kunlin Shu, Wang Zun, Zhao Xiongge, and Ao Feng were all present.

All eleven had revealed themselves.

Some among them were afraid. A few had even privately resolved that if anything went wrong, they would flee.

"So you really are all here."

Wu Chang slowly lifted a hand and pushed back his hood, revealing his face and long hair streaming in the wind. His cold gaze swept around him.

"Eleven. You've got nerve. But with just you, you're still not qualified. Where are the others? Why haven't the Holy Rakshasa and Luo Fangfei come?"

Most of the people present were beneath his notice.

Nor had he expected to kill every last one of them without allowing a single escape.

He had only a few targets he absolutely had to eliminate.

Kunlin Shu came first.

Only after him did he place the Holy Rakshasa and Luo Fangfei.

Yuan Gang, by contrast, ranked last.

So long as he killed those few, the rest were not worth worrying about.

And now that matters had reached this point, one of the reasons Wu Chang had personally exposed himself and come here was precisely to test these people's true depth with his own hands.

Yet neither the Holy Rakshasa nor Luo Fangfei had appeared.

That made him more confident.

It seemed there truly was something wrong with the Holy Rakshasa and Luo Fangfei.

He had suspected as much for some time.

Wu Chang himself had remained with the Jin army all along. After Lan Daolin and Du Wuxu died, these people had still hidden themselves and refused to come find him.

Now his suspicions were only growing stronger.

Was it normal for the Holy Rakshasa to have nearly been dealt with by a group of insignificant soldiers and rabble?

And Luo Fangfei had suddenly transformed into a demon fox. Who knew what problem might exist there?

If his suspicion was correct, it was hardly bad news.

"The eleven of us are enough."

Yuan Gang raised a hand and tore away the false face covering him, revealing his true appearance.

Wu Chang barely regarded him.

He had already measured Yuan Gang's depth at Qiyun Sect.

The same was true of Kunlin Shu, Zhuge Chi, Yuan Cong, Ao Feng, and Wang Zun. All of them had entered his Boundless Demon Domain, and he had weighed their strength personally.

In his eyes, Zhuge Chi, Yuan Cong, Ao Feng, and Wang Zun simply did not pose a threat.

His gaze shifted and landed on another man removing his false face.

Kunlin Shu's fighting spirit blazed. With obvious satisfaction, he tore away the disguise and stared fixedly at Wu Chang.

"Kunlin Shu?" Wu Chang asked.

He had never seen the true faces of Ao Feng, Wang Zun, or Kunlin Shu and could not distinguish them directly. He could only judge from Kunlin Shu's build.

Hum!

Flames ignited around Kunlin Shu's body, providing his answer.

Wu Chang gave a slight nod. "Very good."

His gaze moved again and settled on yet another man tossing aside a false face.

This one he recognized.

Zhao Xiongge.

Wu Chang gave a cold snort. "You came too. Last time I investigated, you hadn't broken through to the Nascent Soul Realm yet. You only just broke through. Why rush here to throw your life away?"

Zhao Xiongge finally revealed the grief and fury he had suppressed for so many years.

He pointed at Wu Chang and shouted, "Wu Chang! The debt for the Saintess has waited all these years. Today we can finally settle it!"

Wu Chang said, "A shameless pair of adulterers. A dignified Demonic Sect Saintess ruined her chastity and violated the sect rules. You still have the face to bring it up?"

"As Right Envoy of the Demonic Sect, I was responsible for enforcing the sect's punishments. What did I do wrong?"

"I allowed you to live until today, yet instead of thanking me for sparing you, you dare overestimate yourself and seek revenge?"

"If you want vengeance, come!"

The instant the words left his mouth, Wu Chang moved.

He did not target Zhao Xiongge.

Nor did he target Yuan Gang.

He did not dare rush Yuan Gang head-on while that saber remained in his hands.

Wu Chang had personally seen the destructive power of that blade and would not take it directly.

Instead, he suddenly charged toward Kunlin Shu.

Hum!

Flames erupted explosively.

At the center of the surging inferno, Kunlin Shu instantly divided into dozens of identical figures.

Nearly half the town was swallowed by fire.

Faced with Wu Chang's charge, Gong Lince and Xi Haitang did not dare intercept him directly. Instead, they flashed aside to either flank, clearing a path as Wu Chang rushed toward Kunlin Shu.

Watching from the window, Niu Youdao's eyelids twitched.

Wu Chang plunged into the flames and suddenly thrust both arms forward.

Black mist burst from his body like some thousand-armed demon.

Dozens of demonic claws attacked dozens of different Kunlin Shus at the same instant.

However many illusion-bodies Kunlin Shu created, Wu Chang simply swept across all of them at once.

It was a sudden and vicious assault.

The method was much like what Wu Chang had used in Jin Jue's army camp when he seized and killed more than a dozen commanders simultaneously.

Watching the exchange, Niu Youdao's pupils contracted.

He had questioned Lü Wushuang in detail about Wu Chang and everything she knew of his abilities.

Yet Lü Wushuang had never once mentioned Wu Chang using a technique like this.

Something was wrong.

Niu Youdao immediately turned to Shang Shuqing. "Begin."

Shang Shuqing nodded and closed her eyes.

Her lips moved in a murmur.

"General Long, where is the army?"

Zhao Xiongge had already shot into the sky.

Inside the raging flames, dozens of demonic claws hissed and smoked as the fire corroded them. But the flames could not destroy those claws quickly enough.

Hidden among his illusion-bodies, Kunlin Shu was badly startled.

Caught completely off guard, he thrust out both palms in panic to meet the claw striking toward him.

The movement instantly exposed his true body.

Boom!

The firelight shook.

Kunlin Shu spat out a mouthful of blood and was blasted backward.

He smashed through more than a dozen buildings in succession. Stone and timber exploded through the flames.

The difference in cultivation between the two sides was simply too great.

One man had enjoyed the cultivation resources of all beneath Heaven for many years.

The other had only recently stepped across the threshold into the Nascent Soul Realm.

And the strike that hit Kunlin Shu had not even come from Wu Chang's true body.

The instant Wu Chang located the real Kunlin Shu, he flashed after him to kill him.

"Cold light across ten thousand li—one sword shatters a city!"

A gigantic blood-red amber sword descended from the heavens.

It crashed downward with the force of thunder, like a crimson meteor striking the earth.

Zhao Xiongge's voice rang from within the sword, hard and resonant.

He was deliberately drawing Wu Chang's attention to relieve Kunlin Shu.

Wu Chang spun around.

Bang!

His palms clapped together and caught the enormous blade between them.

The sword's descending force was so tremendous that even Wu Chang was driven downward beneath the impact.

He crashed to the ground.

Half his body sank into the earth, and the ground split in all directions beneath his feet.

The immense shockwave extinguished the fires across the town and destroyed half of it.

Yuan Gang, saber in hand, had been surging with vital force to resist the surrounding flames. Now he turned his head from side to side.

The fire had suddenly gone out.

Tiles and rubble flew everywhere around him.

Caught in the roaring wind, he dropped along with the collapsing building beneath his feet.

The tip of the gigantic sword stood less than half an arm's length from Wu Chang.

Any farther and it would have cut him open from chest to abdomen.

Yet the blade was now held firmly between his palms.

Inside the blood-red amber sword, Zhao Xiongge's face twisted with effort.

He meant to expend every scrap of cultivation he possessed to cut Wu Chang down.

Outside the town, sharp successive booms erupted across the open wilderness.

The earth exploded in every direction, opening one dark hole after another.

From each one, a black dragon streaked with pinpricks of red light shot into the sky.

Flocks of crows erupted from beneath the ground like tornadoes breaking through the earth, ten vast pillars surging heavenward.

Wu Chang snapped his head around.

Shock finally appeared on his face.

"Crow Generals!"

Seeing Wu Chang apparently trapped by Zhao Xiongge, Yuan Cong and Zhuge Chi flashed in at once.

They seized the opening to attack his back together.

"Get away!" Zhao Xiongge roared.

Only he knew the truth.

His attack could not advance another inch.

He had not trapped Wu Chang at all.

Worse, Zhao Xiongge had seen the faint cold smile at the corner of Wu Chang's mouth.

Wu Chang was deliberately holding this stalemate.

It was a trap.

But it was already too late.

Wu Chang twisted both arms as though wringing apart the gigantic blood-red amber sword.

Clang!

The sword shattered.

"Go."

Wu Chang followed with one palm.

Amid the violent explosion, Zhao Xiongge's body, momentarily thrown out of balance, was struck at close range by palm-force projected through the air.

He flew backward into the sky, spraying blood.

Wu Chang had already swept out like a wisp of smoke.

A mass of black mist erupted from the crater behind him and in an instant became a gigantic smoke-wreathed palm, black and hard as vajra.

Yuan Cong and Zhuge Chi dodged desperately to either side.

The edges of the giant palm still caught them.

Both were blasted away, coughing blood as they tumbled through the air.

In the blink of an eye, four of the eleven had already been injured by Wu Chang.

Watching from the window, Niu Youdao's expression grew grave.

The Wu Chang who had come today seemed stronger than Lü Wushuang's judgment had suggested.

Before this operation, Niu Youdao had specifically questioned Lü Wushuang about how these people would fare if they joined forces.

Guan Fangyi's attention finally shifted fully to the battle.

She and Yun Ji both looked shocked.

They had discovered that practically no one present could withstand even a single strike from Wu Chang.

For Shang Shuqing, watching a scene like Heaven and Earth collapsing before her eyes, the shock was even greater.

[End of Chapter 1561]