Chapter 163: Chapter 160: All Kinds of Tempering
The world fell silent.
A deathly quiet descended.
The band of Tribulation Cultivators, who had been charging like tigers descending a mountain, froze when they saw their leader slain in the span of a single breath.
They stared at the two halves of his corpse on the ground, from which blood gushed endlessly.
Everyone stopped in their tracks.
Their mad dash...
...came to an abrupt halt.
’What just happened?’
’In a single instant...’
’...their leader was instantly killed?’
It wasn’t just them.
Behind them, the caravan guards, who had been certain they were about to die, were also stunned motionless.
’That was a master of the Seventh Layer Realm!’
’How could he be so outrageously arrogant one moment, unleashing a terrifying aura that paralyzed us all,’
’and be lying on the ground in two pieces the next?’
The others were stunned,
but Shen Changchuan was not.
Indeed,
the person who had appeared was none other than Shen Changchuan!
The reason for his current appearance
was, naturally, to conceal his identity as much as possible.
Even with his Perfection Level Transformation Technique, Shen Changchuan had taken plenty of extra precautions with his disguise.
After all, no one could say whether being severely injured in a fierce battle might disrupt his Magical Power and cause the Transformation Technique to fail.
There were other potential accidents that could expose his identity as well.
Therefore, to conceal his identity as thoroughly as possible,
Shen Changchuan had taken ample precautions.
Adopting the alias Zhang Qingyuan, the name of a protagonist from a novel he had read in his past life, was part of it.
The conical hat on his head was part of it.
The longsword at his side was part of it.
Furthermore,
using Perfection Level Magic in battle that he had never used while being ’Shen Changchuan’ was also part of it!
Moreover,
Shen Changchuan had also purchased a mask in Qing City, one as thin as a cicada’s wing, which he wore over his face.
As a result,
his entire aura, from the inside out, had undergone a heaven-and-earth-shattering change!
He was almost like a cyan-robed knight who had walked straight out of a martial arts novel.
Even people familiar with him
would likely be unable to recognize the Shen Changchuan of today.
At this moment,
seeing the band of Tribulation Cultivators fall into a dead silence,
apparently unable to accept that their leader had been instantly killed as they stood there dumbfounded,
Shen Changchuan did not hesitate for a second.
Gale Swift Shadow Technique!
In that instant,
the Magical Power in Shen Changchuan’s body circulated, and his entire form turned into a gray bolt of lightning, flickering like a phantom.
In the blink of an eye, he crossed several dozen yards, abruptly appearing in the midst of the Tribulation Cultivators as if he had teleported!
SHIING!
The longsword rang out.
In a flash,
Rapid Lightning Sword Shadow!
SWISH SWISH SWISH SWISH...
As Shen Changchuan’s figure, like a blurry wisp of black smoke, flickered several times through the crowd of Tribulation Cultivators,
at that very moment,
countless, incredibly sharp Sword Shadows tore through the sky. Faint blue lights flashed and vanished, piercing through the bodies of the Tribulation Cultivators, who were still standing dumbstruck, unable to react!
In a single moment,
ten, then twenty, beams of sword light blossomed amidst the stunned crowd!
Immediately after,
Shen Changchuan’s figure flashed into view behind the group of Tribulation Cultivators.
He came to a stop,
flourished the sword in his right hand,
and to the clear ring of steel, slowly returned the bright, cold blade to its sheath.
Time itself seemed to freeze at that moment.
In the eyes of every guard,
the only thing still moving was the sight of Shen Changchuan slowly sheathing his sword.
Until,
the cold blade slid completely home into its scabbard.
SPURT SPURT SPURT...
With a series of wet thuds,
the twenty or thirty Tribulation Cultivators who had been charging wildly just moments before,
erupted in fountains of blood from their necks, torsos, and waists.
One by one, they collapsed to the ground.
Of all the Tribulation Cultivators present,
not a single one was left standing!
The onlookers
remained frozen, staring blankly at the scene.
They were so horrified their minds could barely process what they had seen.
A few breaths later,
several figures soared through the air, rushing toward the scene.
The caravan manager and the escort’s Seventh Layer Realm experts had arrived!
But upon seeing the horrifying mountain of corpses in a Sea of Blood,
they all stopped dead in their tracks, staring in utter shock.
A series of sharp intakes of breath could be heard.
"Hsss!"
’How much time has passed?’
’From the guard’s shout of an enemy attack to us reacting and rushing to support them, it can’t have been even ten breaths of time!’
’What’s more,’
’we clearly sensed it.’
’The aura erupting from the attacker belonged to someone at the Seventh Layer Late Stage!’
’An expert of that Cultivation Realm would’ve taken even us a great deal of effort to defeat.’
’And yet,’
’in not even a few breaths,’
’the entire enemy force was annihilated?!’
’How was that even possible?’
’It’s unimaginable!’
’Incomprehensible!’
Countless gazes filled with shock, admiration, and disbelief converged on Shen Changchuan in his guise as the Cyan-robed and Conical-hatted Swordsman.
Shen Changchuan paid the surrounding gazes no mind.
’Right now,’ he thought,
’it’s best for me to play the part of a cold and distant swordsman.’
’Minimizing interaction...’
’...will undoubtedly lower the risk of exposing my identity.’
’It just so happens that I’ve barely left my carriage these past few days.’
’To outsiders, I already appear to be a somewhat reclusive and aloof swordsman.’
Having finished the slaughter,
he gave the caravan manager a slight nod,
and without waiting for a reply, turned and made his way back to his carriage.
His figure flickered a few times,
and then he was back inside.
"Huuuh..."
"Gather the spoils from the ground and deliver them to that Lord."
"Re-form the lines, quickly! We’re moving out!"
The head caravan manager let out a long breath,
calming his shaken Heart Spirit and rapidly issuing commands to the people around him.
He felt no ill will toward Shen Changchuan for his somewhat cold attitude.
Over the past few days,
the man had shown that this was simply his temperament.
Every night, during the bonfire feasts when he gathered with the other guard captains for a meal, he had extended an invitation to him.
But he had been refused every single time.
’He appears to be someone solely focused on the Sword Dao,’
’who looks down on such social gatherings.’
’I can only attribute it to the quirks of a truly skilled individual.’
Talented people
are always afforded more tolerance.
Besides,
the man’s immense strength had unquestionably added a great deal of security to this transport mission!
"Hsss, I never imagined that man was so powerful! A Seventh Layer Late Stage Cultivator, gone in just two or three breaths!"
"With strength like that, if he were to fight me, it’d be over in just a couple of moves!"
"Yeah, he’s too strong! Is this the hidden power of the great Shen Clan? I doubt even an Eighth Layer Late Stage Cultivator is much stronger than that!"
"Incredible, just incredible!"
"Looks like this transport run should be smooth sailing from here on out."
The few Seventh Layer Realm experts who had come as reinforcements muttered amongst themselves in low voices.
Their words were filled with amazement.
The caravan manager paid them no mind.
At that moment,
a single thought flashed through his mind:
’That plan, the one that seemed so utterly ridiculous... it might actually be possible to pull it off after all...’
