Chapter 46: Crushing the Fangyu to Pieces

Fang Yu looked battered and miserable, with blood visible in multiple places. A loud buzzing rang in his mind, and his ears felt deafened, unable to hear clearly as he fled in panic alongside two companions.

The clothes on his body had been entirely shredded by the explosion, revealing the soft armor beneath that gleamed brightly.

At a single glance, it was obviously extraordinary.

"Damn those Five Poisons Cult, you commit every evil imaginable, you deserve to be struck by lightning!"

Fang Yu cursed as he fled.

Bang!

Suddenly, one of the men behind him let out a miserable scream, spitting a mouthful of blood as his body was sent flying sideways. He slammed heavily against a huge boulder ahead with a crisp *crack*, breaking bones and tendons, dying instantly.

Fang Yu and his remaining companion were terribly startled and hastily looked back.

Only to see Chen Xuan's hands striking wildly directly toward them.

"It's you, Sword-IsNot-Me!"

"No, you are Chen Xuan, you are the Widowmaker!"

The two cried out in alarm.

They hurriedly churned their internal energy, meeting Chen Xuan head-on.

Bang! Bang!

Muffled thuds echoed out. The palms of the two men collided with Chen Xuan's double palms. Instead of violent winds scattering, they felt the internal energy within their own bodies leaking out frantically, vanishing into thin air.

Their faces turned pale with shock.

"You can drain people's internal energy!"

"Chen Xuan, your Five Poisons Cult commits every evil deed, aren't you afraid of retribution?"

Fang Yu shrieked in terror.

Chen Xuan channeled the Heaven-Absorbing Grand Magic to its full extent, grinning hideously. "Retribution? Even if there is retribution, it should be yours! You drugged Jiang Haiying and Zhao Xiaoyu, murdered them to silence them, and dumped their bodies at the bottom of the lake. Today, I am here to seek justice for them!"

Fang Yu's arms trembled, his meridians swelled with pain, and his internal energy poured out even faster.

With a cry of alarm, he hastily swung his other palm to strike the man on his left.

The man on the left also hurriedly raised his hand to strike back.

Bang!

Their palm forces collided, scattering violent winds and generating a massive force that blew both of their bodies away, forcibly breaking them free from Chen Xuan's dual palms and slamming them into the distance.

Yet, upon crashing into the ground afar, the two men immediately noticed their palms turning pitch-black, a darkness that spread toward their arms and chests. The potent poison had followed their retreating internal energy and directly invaded their bodies.

Panicking even more, the two stumbled to their feet and fled.

Chen Xuan moved with extreme speed, unleashing the Eight-Step Cicada-Chasing technique to instantly catch up to one of them. He snapped the man's neck with a twist, casually tossed the corpse aside, and then caught up to Fang Yu, delivering a fierce kick that sent Fang Yu's body flying through the air.

Bang!

Fang Yu crashed into the ground far away, crying out in agonizing pain.

The lethal poison had already invaded his chest, causing him excruciating suffering.

"Spare my life, don't kill me, please spare me! I know I was wrong, Chen Xuan, our family has had an only son for nine generations, nine generations! I beg you to spare me..."

He wailed mournfully.

"Spare you? Little punk, I have no grudges against you, yet you almost got me killed just now, and you still want me to spare you? Even if I spared you, you'd definitely still go around harming innocent women. Let's confiscate your committing tools first!"

Chen Xuan's figure flashed, instantly charging forward.

Before Fang Yu could react, his lower body was grabbed firmly, turning his face pale white with absolute terror.

"My, it's round as a marble."

Chen Xuan let out a weird chuckle.

Bang!

Ah!

Fang Yu let out a miserable, piercing scream, his eyes rolling back as he passed out cold from the sheer pain.

Following this, Chen Xuan threw a punch straight at his nasal bridge, thoroughly ending his life.

"I can't stay in this place any longer. Screw whatever ghost mission it is, I'm slipping away first."

He immediately fled into the distance.

...

Not long after Chen Xuan departed, a group of figures rapidly rushed over from afar. Each of them looked utterly battered with disheveled hair, tattered clothes, and coughing up blood intermittently. At the head of the group was none other than Li Zehai.

His internal Qi was completely chaotic with blood visible in multiple places, and a layer of black vapor wriggled across his skin. Though he had narrowly survived the explosion, the surrounding poisonous smoke had still invaded his wounds.

He suddenly stopped, quickly sealing several acupoints before striking his own chest with his palm. With a *pfft*, he spewed a mouthful of dark, black blood, and his complexion recovered a fraction.

"Five Poisons Cult!"

He gnashed his teeth, trembling with rage.

Suddenly, his eyes flashed as he noticed several corpses lying ahead. With a flicker of his body, he appeared close by.

"Fang Yu!"

Two beams of purplish light shot from his eyes.

"It's the Widowmaker! The Widowmaker Chen Xuan has been here," someone nearby exclaimed in shock.

"Fang Yu's death method is identical to Young Master Cui's!"

"Why does this damned Widowmaker always grab people by *that* place? Does he actually have some kind of bizarre fetish?"

Someone cursed aloud.

Li Zehai's face instantly darkened as his gaze swept across the surroundings.

"The traces on the ground haven't faded yet; he hasn't been gone long. You guys stay here, I'll go after him!"

Whoosh!

His body flickered as he gave chase ahead.

Chen Xuan fled the entire way, and though he deliberately avoided leaving traces, Li Zehai was no ordinary man. Having reached the Profound-Opening realm, capable of exerting a trace of human mystical power, discerning minute details was his most basic requirement.

The two of them, one running and one pursuing, both moved at lightning speed.

At first, Li Zehai thought he would catch up to Chen Xuan very quickly, given that Chen Xuan's strength was out there and hardly considered formidable.

Yet he chased for tens of miles in one breath without catching a glimpse of Chen Xuan.

Along the entire route, Chen Xuan acted as though he had never stopped for even a second.

In the blink of an eye, the chase continued until dusk, and then from dusk deep into the night, until many traces on the ground became blurry and difficult to discern.

Li Zehai's internal injuries grew increasingly severe. He suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood and came to a halt, his face turning livid with fury.

"Dammit, this brat has been running this whole time, doesn't he ever need to rest?"

His injuries were quite heavy, having been previously invaded by the poisonous smoke. Although he had used his internal energy to force out the toxic blood, a portion of the poison still remained deposited inside his body. As he chased relentlessly all the way, those toxins flared up once more, causing his blood and Qi to feel like they were burning, making him intensely uncomfortable.

He knew it was utterly impossible to catch up to Chen Xuan today.

"Abominable!"

He cursed inwardly, turned around to find a mountain cave, hid inside, and began expelling the poison with all his might.

...

In the distance.

Chen Xuan sprinted all the way, still without halting in the slightest.

This was his consistent cautious style: until he completely fled the territory of the Five Poisons Cult, he must never stop.

Countless novels he had read in his past life told him that the closer it was to this moment, the easier it was for accidents to happen, and the more critical the juncture, the more he needed to raise his vigilance by a hundred and twenty percent.

He sprinted through the night, swallowing all the Qi-Restoring Pills and Healing Pills that Qian Dachai had given him.

In the blink of an eye, he ran until dawn.

This overnight dash covered at least two hundred miles.

He finally stopped, glanced back, panting heavily with a pale face.

"This should be safe now. Damn the Five Poisons Cult, damn the righteous alliance, damn the mission, I'm never coming back..."

Two hundred miles—surely that was well outside the Five Poisons Cult's sphere of influence by now, right?

He looked around in all directions, found a mountain cave, darted straight inside, and prepared to rest.

Having not slept all night, coupled with the grueling trek on foot, he was already on the verge of complete exhaustion.

Pouring Five-Poison Water and Intestine-Corroding Powder outside the cave entrance, he sat cross-legged on the ground, using meditation to replace sleep.

Time passed swiftly.

Soon, it reached midday.

Chen Xuan opened his eyes, brilliant flashes bursting within them as he regained his spirited demeanor once more.

This was the benefit of cultivating internal martial arts: the body and mental state could easily return to their peak condition.

He rose to his feet, looked at his tattered clothes, and muttered, "I need to find somewhere to change clothes first and have a good, hearty meal."

Suddenly, he glanced at his right arm, his eyes flashing with delight.

When did the indigo hue on his right arm fade so much?

He rolled up his sleeve and looked at it repeatedly, growing happier the more he inspected it.

It had definitely faded, becoming more than twice as light as before.

At this rate, it seemed it might disappear entirely.

He had actually thought it would never return to normal.

"Wait, will there be any aftereffects?"

A thought suddenly stirred in him, and he circulated his internal Qi, channeling it toward his right arm and hand.

It circulated a full circle quickly without any discomfort.

Chen Xuan was filled with joy once more.