Chapter 156: Chapter 154: Assassinating a Celestial Shattering Realm

The Elders from the Paradise Celestial Palace followed the fluctuating trail of Primordial Power for a good ten miles or so. Then... the fluctuations suddenly vanished.

The men exchanged glances. One of them, Bu Jingfeng’s master, Hai Tongtian, hesitated for a moment before saying, "Fan out and search. Keep a distance of three miles between us."

The others nodded silently. The weakest among them was at the Celestial Shattering Realm, so they were confident that even if they couldn’t win a fight, they wouldn’t be killed. They weren’t particularly worried.

Without a sound, the men dispersed and began to search the area.

After all, even the newest among them had lived here for at least a century. They knew every inch of this land like the back of their hands, so they were certain their target could not escape their search. Besides, with their power, closing a distance of three miles would take but a single breath.

All four of them vanished into the dense forest.

Hai Chensha was Hai Tongtian’s junior brother. He had broken through to the Celestial Level seventy years ago, reaching the Celestial Shattering Realm, and by now, he had reached the peak of that realm. If not for the intruder who had infiltrated the Paradise Celestial Palace and gone on a killing spree, he would likely still be in seclusion. As for the young women on the platform, at least a tenth of them were his prey.

Therefore, he harbored an exceptional hatred for the hidden assassin. He couldn’t wait to find the man and torture him until he begged for death.

The Paradise Celestial Palace had innumerable methods of torture.

He released his Divine Sense and searched cautiously. Suddenly, he detected an extremely faint fluctuation of Primordial Power. Instinctively, Hai Chensha wanted to call for the others, but after a moment’s thought, he kept his mouth shut.

This person had already killed four Celestial Level disciples of the Paradise Celestial Palace. Just now, in the Fairy Kiln, he had killed a Celestial Level steward and four or five High Tier, Earth Level palace maids. He had thrown the Paradise Celestial Palace into chaos, and the Sect Leader had flown into a thunderous rage and posted a bounty.

Whoever killed the damn assassin would be rewarded with ten Upper-grade Spirit Stones!

One had to understand, the entire Paradise Celestial Palace didn’t possess many Upper-grade Spirit Stones—fewer than a thousand in total!

They had plenty of Mid-grade and Low-grade Spirit Stones, but a single Upper-grade Spirit Stone was worth five hundred Mid-grade ones! Even a high-ranking Elder like him only received an allowance of fifty Mid-grade Spirit Stones a year. It would take him ten years to match the value of a single Upper-grade Spirit Stone!

’If I can kill this person by myself, I’ll make a huge fortune!’

As Hai Chensha thought this, he began to conceal his aura and move slowly toward the source of the Primordial Power fluctuations. At the same time, the Black Shark Skin Scabbard Ancient Sword on his back slid silently from its sheath.

His eyes fell upon a pile of dead branches and rotting leaves, and a cold, mocking smile touched his lips. ’I thought I was up against some incredibly powerful Martial Artist,’ he thought, ’but now it seems he’s just at the Celestial Shattering Realm! Nothing special!’

’He’s just skilled at escaping; that’s the only reason he could cause such a stir in the Paradise Celestial Palace. Heh heh... Kid, you were destined to die by my hand and make me a rich man!’

With that thought, Hai Chensha gritted his teeth and unleashed his full aura. The surging Primordial Power in his body poured into the sword in his right hand. In an instant, the blade turned crimson and ignited with a deep blue flame. It shot out like a bolt of lightning, stabbing toward the pile of dead leaves as he roared, "Die!"

Suddenly, Hai Chensha felt a chill crawl up his spine. ’Not good!’ he thought. As a Martial Artist at the peak of the Celestial Shattering Realm, his reactions were incredibly swift. In the very instant he forcibly halted his attack and spun around, swinging his sword, a faint purple stream of Sword Qi pierced his Protective Gang Qi and ran straight through his heart.

If he hadn’t turned, the Sword Qi wouldn’t have struck his heart so perfectly. Clearly, his opponent had anticipated everything.

Hai Chensha’s mouth fell open. The face that met his gaze was impossibly young, with a faint, mocking smile playing on its lips. He opened his mouth wider, trying to shout something, but his strength was already draining rapidly from his body.

THUD. Hai Chensha’s body collapsed to the ground, his eyes still wide open, unable to rest in peace.

Qin Li swiftly picked up the sword Hai Chensha had been using. It was clearly an Ancient Treasure Sword. He tossed it into his Storage Ring without a moment’s hesitation, and his figure vanished once more.

A breath later, the other three Elders arrived on the scene. The moment Hai Tongtian saw his junior brother’s corpse, he let out a pained cry, "Junior Brother!"

He rushed forward, clutching Hai Chensha’s body and weeping uncontrollably.

The other two Elders were also aghast. With their power, they could tell at a glance what had happened: he had been killed by Sword Qi piercing his heart.

And... from the front!

What did this imply? It meant the assassin was countless times more powerful than they had imagined! To be able to launch a frontal assault and instantly kill a Martial Artist at the peak of the Celestial Shattering Realm... even someone at the Celestial Integration Realm might not be capable of such a feat!

’Could it be... that person is at the Celestial Embracing Realm?’

The two Elders reached the same conclusion. They looked at each other and saw the horror mirrored in the other’s eyes.

Tears streamed down Hai Tongtian’s aged face. He and his junior brother had joined the Sect together as children. Their bond, forged over more than one hundred and fifty years, was as strong as that of blood brothers. He had never imagined a day would come when they would be separated forever by death.

"Junior Brother, rest easy. Your big brother will avenge you! I swear it!" Hai Tongtian rose to his feet, his eyes bloodshot. He unleashed the full might of his power—he, too, was at the peak of the Celestial Shattering Realm!

The other two Elders, meanwhile, were at the Middle Level of the Celestial Shattering Realm.

"We can’t split up. The enemy is far too strong," one of the Elders said gravely.

With red eyes, Hai Tongtian nodded. He then gritted his teeth and vowed, "When we catch that man, I will rip out his tendons and grind his bones to dust! I’ll make him endure ninety-nine days of inhuman torture before I finally kill him! I will avenge my junior brother!"

The other two Elders nodded grimly. "As it should be!"

The three of them were much more cautious now. The enemy’s strength was undeniable; if they split up again, another one of them might be picked off. A Martial Artist at the peak of the Celestial Shattering Realm hadn’t been able to withstand a single blow. While they were all confident, they weren’t suicidally arrogant.

"Should we inform the Sect Leader?" one of the Elders asked hesitantly.

"Ten Upper-grade Spirit Stones. Don’t you want them?" Hai Tongtian said coolly, his voice hoarse. "At most, the enemy is at the Celestial Integration Realm. I refuse to believe he’s reached the Celestial Embracing Realm! As long as he hasn’t, the three of us together have a good chance of capturing him!"

The other two nodded. Indeed, three of them against a single Celestial Integration Realm Martial Artist was a fight they were quite confident they could win.

However, what puzzled the three of them was that the fluctuations of Primordial Power seemed to have vanished completely. They couldn’t sense them at all.

The three of them scoured the area for a full hour but found no trace. They were so thorough they wouldn’t have missed an ant on the ground, yet they couldn’t find a single footprint.

"What now?" one of the Elders asked, looking at Hai Tongtian.

A glint flashed in Hai Tongtian’s eyes, and he suddenly cried out, "Watch out!"

The Elder opposite Hai Tongtian reacted instantly, leaping into the air. But he never expected that an incredibly cold stream of Sword Qi would be stabbing down at his head from directly above!

The Elder’s leap had, in effect, served his own head up for the killing blow. In that moment of extreme danger, he executed a Thousand-Jin Drop. He spat out a mouthful of blood, but he managed to dodge the fatal strike.

At that moment, Hai Tongtian and the other Elder both drew their swords and charged the enemy who had finally revealed himself.

But Qin Li seemed to have been prepared. A dagger glowing with an eerie blue light suddenly appeared in his left hand. As he thrust with his right-hand sword, the dagger silently stabbed toward the Elder’s ribs. To dodge Qin Li’s fatal sword strike, the man had no choice but to endure the dagger’s blow.

The body of a Celestial Shattering Realm Martial Artist was as tough as steel!

With a CRACK, the dagger in Qin Li’s hand actually shattered from the impact!

At the same time, however, the dagger managed to leave a shallow, bloody scratch on the Elder’s ribs.

After this one strike, Qin Li immediately threw the broken dagger at the other Elder, dodged Hai Tongtian’s terrifyingly powerful sword strike, and swiftly retreated, floating away into the distance.

"You’re not getting away!" Hai Tongtian and the other Elder roared, chasing after Qin Li’s retreating figure.

The Elder who had been scratched by the dagger was about to give chase as well, but when he tried to circulate his energy, a wave of dizziness washed over him.

’Not good, I’m poisoned!’

He was about to open his mouth to shout but was horrified to discover his very blood seemed to go numb. His limbs grew stiff, and he couldn’t move at all!

It was a poison that killed on contact with blood!

The Elder’s arm was stretched high, but in the blink of an eye, he toppled to the ground. A massive amount of Primordial Power drained frantically from his body. In just a few moments, a mighty expert of the Celestial Shattering Realm had been killed by a potent poison.

If Qin Li had known just how potent the poison was, he might have kept the dagger. It felt like a bit of a waste to use on such scum.

Qin Li, however, was now in a rather sorry state. He hadn’t expected the two behind him to chase him so frantically, completely disregarding the cost to their energy. From the looks of it, they wouldn’t rest until he was dead.

Four mighty experts of the Celestial Shattering Realm had failed to catch one impossibly young man, and one of them had even been killed in the process!

If word of this got out, they might as well die of shame.

What the two pursuers didn’t know was that of their group of four Celestial Shattering Realm Elders, two were now dead. They were, however, beginning to feel that something was amiss, as the other Elder had not followed close behind.

But they had no time to dwell on it. All their hatred was completely focused on the damned, freakishly powerful young man ahead.

Right now, Qin Li was less than a mile ahead of the pair. At such a short distance, hiding would be difficult. And if he simply tried to flee, even if he suppressed all fluctuations of his Primordial Power, their freakishly powerful Divine Sense would be enough to track him.

Just as he was pondering this, a wide, turbulent river with swirling whirlpools on its surface appeared up ahead. Seeing it, Qin Li’s eyes lit up. He leaped high into the air and, with a SPLASH, dove into the river.