Chapter Ninety-Four: Slaughter in the Soaring Cloud Realm

“Hahaha…” Seeing his brother fly over, Zhou Wanhǔ ceased his pursuit. After all, in his current state, his injuries were only worsening with every passing moment.

But as long as he was still alive, that was good enough. Laughing loudly, he quickly retreated to a position beneath Zhou Wanlóng.

At this moment, his elder brother had already shaken off the demon birds and demon monkeys. Though he looked rather battered, the eldest brother was a practitioner at the Soaring Clouds stage. This brat now had nowhere left to run.

Lin Qingyun, too, was rising into the air, riding his sword. Practitioners at the Heart of the Zither stage could only fly by controlling objects, and their speed was no match for those at the Soaring Clouds stage. Seeing Lin Qingyun dare to ascend like this before his elder brother, Zhou Wanhǔ couldn’t help but laugh even harder.

It was well known that the so-called flight by object manipulation in the Heart of the Zither stage was deeply flawed—utterly different from the true sword-flight of Soaring Clouds sword cultivators. In short, it might look impressive, but in actual combat, it was mostly a liability.

“Does he have a death wish? Soon enough, he’ll find neither life nor death! Brother, he’s got Soaring Clouds armor, and he has a storage artifact. He’s taken all the corpses—our people, demon monkeys, and even the monkey king—collected them all just now…”

Zhou Wanhǔ, still laughing, glared at Lin Qingyun with venomous intent.

Zhou Wanlóng hadn’t expected this fellow to have collected every corpse—his own men’s, as well as the demon monkeys’. Zhou Wanhǔ, who had been fighting furiously all this time, hadn’t really considered it much.

He simply felt that all the spoils had been taken by this upstart. Catch him, and everything would belong to them.

But Zhou Wanlóng heard these words like a thunderstrike.

Soaring Clouds armor was one thing, and the equipment and wealth of his men another, but a storage artifact capable of holding all these demon monkeys and nearly a hundred corpses—such a treasure was priceless. In all the legends and rumors he’d heard, even among the strongest cultivators, he’d never heard of anyone possessing such a storage treasure.

A storage artifact of a few cubic meters was already extraordinary—what kind of treasure was this?

Zhou Wanlóng said nothing. The rage, killing intent, and hatred in his eyes were now overtaken by shock and greed.

Clearly, he had underestimated this man. But no matter—he was still only at the Heart of the Zither stage, at the foundation of cultivation.

“Trap!”

A moment’s shock, then Zhou Wanlóng wasted no more words. He had to restrain this man immediately and find a way to claim all the treasures he carried.

At this point, in Zhou Wanlóng’s eyes, the man before him was a treasure trove incarnate.

With a mighty shout, scales flew from his body—scales formed an encasing barrier around Lin Qingyun, while a flying sword slashed directly for Lin Qingyun’s legs.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Lin Qingyun simultaneously controlled two flying swords, blocking Zhou Wanlóng’s attack.

Though sword-flight at the Soaring Clouds stage was more powerful, Lin Qingyun’s spirit was no weaker than Zhou Wanlóng’s. Controlling his swords, he even managed to suppress Zhou Wanlóng’s assault.

As the scales closed in, Lin Qingyun pointed his finger. Tiny sparks of starlight scattered forth.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The seemingly insignificant embers landed on the scales and instantly ignited. These specially refined scales, immune to ordinary flames, now burned fiercely.

“What’s happening…”

Zhou Wanlóng was utterly caught off guard. He urged the scales to spin, even plunging them into the swamp below.

But it was no use—the burning scales were completely destroyed.

“Ugh…” Zhou Wanlóng grunted. One of his prized high-grade magic tools—the one he had forged at great cost from the scales of a Soaring Clouds demon beast—was destroyed just like that.

His treasured item, reduced to ashes.

What kind of fire was that?

Zhou Wanlóng had no time to ponder. He realized that simply controlling treasures to fight at a distance would not grant him an overwhelming advantage.

This man’s spiritual will was exceptionally strong—almost on par with his own—and he possessed an abundance of treasures.

Before Lin Qingyun, a dignified Soaring Clouds cultivator like himself seemed a pauper by comparison.

Zhou Wanlóng’s wounds were actually quite serious. He had just fought a brutal battle, slaying several monkey kings and hundreds of demon monkeys. If this dragged on, he might not outlast his opponent after all.

Activating his protective aura, he shot forward like an arrow, instantly closing the distance.

With a wave of his hand, he gathered his strength. The spiritual energy within a hundred meters seemed to be drawn to him, and his palm pressed down, compressing the air within a hundred-meter radius, threatening to crush Lin Qingyun within it.

Without a protective aura, without a condensed golden core, without the Soaring Cloud’s indestructible body—how could he hope to stand against a true Soaring Clouds cultivator?

“Half-crippled Soaring Clouds cultivator, what are you putting on airs for? Break—!”

But unlike these battered and spent opponents, Lin Qingyun’s leg wounds had already healed for the most part. If not for some lingering Soaring Clouds energy that was difficult to purge, he would have been fully recovered.

Even so, his fighting power was barely affected.

The battle with Zhou Wanhǔ had not been satisfying, but now, facing Zhou Wanlóng—a true Soaring Clouds cultivator—though he could not unleash his full strength, this was the perfect opportunity to train.

As long as his opponent could not finish him off instantly, Lin Qingyun had nothing to fear.

In his previous life, with all his advantages, he had never fully realized his potential simply because he hadn’t experienced enough life-and-death battles. Power had come too easily—when it truly mattered, that became his undoing.

At this moment, Lin Qingyun drew a high-grade pair of gauntlets, lacking a protective aura but relying on the artifact’s shield to guard his vital points, and unleashed a wild barrage of punches.

He blasted open a gap and closed in on Zhou Wanlóng in an instant.

“Is… is this still the Heart of the Zither stage…?”

Below, Zhou Wanhǔ watched Lin Qingyun unleash technique after technique, fighting his elder brother to a standstill, wielding treasure after treasure. He was stunned.

Only now did he realize that Lin Qingyun had never fought at full strength before.

Now Zhou Wanhǔ felt real fear. If they didn’t kill this man immediately, he alone could destroy both brothers without any need for the forces behind him to intervene.

“Wait for me…” Zhou Wanhǔ growled, swallowing a pill to recover quickly and rush to his brother’s aid against Lin Qingyun.

But the more he urged his strength, the more he sensed something was wrong.

His whole body began to go numb, and suddenly, an intense pain flared from his scalp—the very spot where Lin Qingyun’s flying sword had grazed him earlier.

Pain wracked his body. He tried to move, tried to channel his powers, but could do nothing.

“Ah… why… it hurts so much…”

“Damn it—the flying sword, there’s something wrong with it…”

“Brother, brother, help me, save me…”

Only now did Zhou Wanhǔ realize the truth.

The sword wound was poisoned, and not with any ordinary venom—the antidote he’d just taken was useless.

A potion could cure, but a potion could also kill—medicine and poison are two sides of the same coin.

The poison he’d used on Deputy Captain Wang was one kind; the toxin smeared on his flying sword now was another, both prepared in advance.

In a lawless place like Hanze, he had come exceedingly well prepared.

“Wanhǔ…” Zhou Wanhǔ’s cries of agony naturally drew Zhou Wanlóng’s attention.

Though he often cursed Zhou Wanhǔ, he had looked after him since childhood. Eldest brothers are like fathers—no matter how disappointing the younger, he was still family.

“Hand over the antidote! Give me the antidote!” Zhou Wanlóng’s rage exploded.

But Lin Qingyun was not afraid of a man who had lost his composure.

Though injured himself, he seized the opportunity.

As his opponent lost his wits, Zhou Wanlóng struck at Lin Qingyun’s chest, forgetting that Lin wore advanced Soaring Clouds armor. Lin Qingyun shattered his protective aura, blasting his nose flat and sending him flying, his face torn and broken.

Having broken through the Soaring Clouds defense, Lin Qingyun pressed the attack.

Zhou Wanlóng had never experienced life-or-death close combat while simultaneously dueling with flying swords. He either relied on his sword artifacts or fought up close—never both at once.

Thus, he failed to notice that, as he was sent flying, one of Lin Qingyun’s flying swords silently circled behind him.

“Aaah—boom!”

By the time he realized something was wrong, the flying sword had pierced the aura he had just reformed. He exploded with power, but still lost an arm.

Now, forget killing Lin Qingyun—Zhou Wanlóng, grievously wounded, turned to flee to Zhou Wanhǔ’s side, hoping to escape with him.

But Lin Qingyun’s flying swords shot forth, and as he drifted down from the sky, two swords sped ahead of Zhou Wanlóng. Without his aura shield, only a Soaring Clouds cultivator at the ninth tier or Sun-Illuminating stage could hope to resist high-grade artifacts with their flesh. Otherwise, the outcome was inevitable.

Had Zhou Wanlóng abandoned Zhou Wanhǔ and focused all his power on defense, perhaps he could have survived a little longer. But, choosing to save his brother at all costs, he was pierced by flying swords before he could reach him.

With a thud, Zhou Wanlóng crashed down before Zhou Wanhǔ, who was already barely alive.

At last, gazing upon Zhou Wanlóng’s corpse, Zhou Wanhǔ slowly closed his eyes.

Lin Qingyun spared no thought for brotherly affection. With a wave of his hand, he collected Zhou Wanlóng’s fallen sword, stripped both brothers of anything valuable, and did the same for the rest of the Wanlóng Demon-Hunting Squad, discarding the corpses after taking what was useful.

He went about this unhurriedly. The two brothers hadn’t forced him to use his trump cards, but he wanted to see if anyone else would emerge.

Would that literary manager, or anyone else from Gathering Zone Three, make a move?

He waited, watching to see if anyone else would reveal themselves.

Or perhaps the people from the Demon Cult—since they spoke of a blood sacrifice, they ought to be capturing people…

But, after a long while, nothing happened.

With nothing more to be done, Lin Qingyun could only leave for now, realizing that things were not as he had previously imagined.

In any case, he had made up his mind—if, in the end, he could discover nothing, he would simply spread the word and leave Hanze behind. That would only mean his opponent was too well hidden, or that someone powerful was orchestrating everything—beyond his ability to confront for now.