Martial Sage from the Vajra Skill

Chapter 306: Chapter 174: Questioning

BOOM! BOOM!

Gang Qi erupted, sending dirt flying as An Ping and the other two shot into the air almost simultaneously.

But they were barely a foot off the ground when a domineering figure, moving like a thunderclap, was already upon them, swatting out with both hands as if shooing flies.

The massive hands tore through the air with a dull thud. With two loud SMACKS, An Ping and Guo Huai were struck as if by lightning. They spat blood as the sound of shattering bones echoed, and they were slapped out of the sky.

"Ahhh...!"

An Ping’s body slammed into the ground, sending cracks spreading across the earth. He let out a heart-wrenching scream, his face a mask of terror and agony.

From that single Palm strike, his spine had been shattered, and he had lost all feeling in his lower body.

Nearby, Guo Huai was also screaming. His spine, too, had been shattered, leaving his lower body completely numb.

’Xu Yang. It’s Xu Yang! He’s reached Marrow Cleansing!’

Hearing the screams of Guo Huai and An Ping, Shen Liang felt a chill run down his spine, making his scalp tingle with fear.

’Those clothes... It’s definitely Xu Yang.’

He had already fled several dozen yards. He knew it wasn’t because he was faster than An Ping and Guo Huai, but because the masked man was letting him go.

’If it wasn’t Xu Yang, who else would kill An Ping’s group but not me? It must be him, sparing my life because I warned him before.’

He glanced back and saw the tall figure standing its ground, not giving chase.

’Otherwise, with his Marrow Cleansing Cultivation, he could have caught and killed me in an instant.’

’Thank goodness I never turned against him!’

Cold sweat soaked his back. Shen Liang looked at the screaming Guo Huai and An Ping on the ground and felt a wave of relief. If he hadn’t stayed on Xu Yang’s good side, he’d probably be one of the men screaming on the ground right now.

"I won’t tell anyone what happened today!"

With that low shout, Shen Liang fled without a backward glance. Xu Yang had hidden his abilities so well, and his Cultivation was terrifying. Shen Liang knew that if he breathed a word of this, he’d be the one to suffer for it.

’That idiot An Ping. He should be satisfied now.’

A hint of schadenfreude surfaced in his heart. With personalities like An Ping’s and Guo Huai’s, even if they hadn’t crossed Xu Yang, they would have eventually offended someone else they couldn’t afford to provoke.

He had wanted to part ways with them for a long time but had never dared to make a clean break.

Xu Yang withdrew his gaze from the fleeing Shen Liang and turned to the screaming An Ping and Guo Huai on the ground.

He truly had no intention of killing Shen Liang. Shen Liang had warned him in the past, and he couldn’t repay that kindness with malice. That was why he spared him today.

If Shen Liang kept his mouth shut about the killing of Guo Huai to the Guo Family, they could continue to be friends. If he told them, however, their slate would be wiped clean, and Xu Yang would feel no guilt in killing him.

Of course, the main reason for his confidence was that he no longer feared the Guo Family. They were just a minor family. Though they had two Bone Marrow Cleansing Martial Artists, neither had even reached the Marrow Cleansing Minor Achievement level.

If the Guo Family learned the truth and came seeking revenge, he could annihilate them with ease.

"Brother Xu, spare me! We’re friends!" Guo Huai pleaded, his face full of terror.

"Friends? Did you think I didn’t sense your killing intent back at the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion?"

Xu Yang leaned down, pulled the Ten-Perfection Rejuvenation Pills from Guo Huai’s robes, and stowed them away.

Guo Huai’s face went deathly pale. Only then did he remember that Xu Yang was a Bone Marrow Cleansing Master. His senses were unbelievably sharp, and his ability to detect killing intent was extraordinary.

They had assumed that by using Secret Transmission to communicate, Xu Yang would be none the wiser. Little did they know, the moment their killing intent was directed at him, it was no different than drawing a sword to his face.

"It was An Ping! I didn’t want to kill you," Guo Huai argued desperately.

CRACK!

Xu Yang couldn’t be bothered to waste words on him. He rose and stomped on Guo Huai’s chest. Amid the sound of cracking bones, his chest caved in, and his organs were forced out of his mouth. His eyes bulged as he died, unable to rest in peace.

"Brother Xu, spare me! I’ll never do it again! I was wrong!"

Witnessing such a brutal scene, An Ping was nearly frightened to death, his body trembling uncontrollably.

He never imagined that the mud-legged peasant he had tried to kill would turn out to be such a monster.

He had thought that by reaching Gang Qi Great Success, he was on the same level as Xu Yang and no longer had anything to fear.

Who could have known that Xu Yang had secretly reached the Marrow Cleansing realm?

"You don’t know that you were wrong," Xu Yang said. "You just know that you’re about to die."

After looting the silver and contribution points from Guo Huai’s body, Xu Yang sauntered over to An Ping.

Under the crushing pressure of impending death, An Ping’s Heart Spirit was on the verge of collapse. He pleaded relentlessly for mercy, dragging himself across the ground with his hands.

Xu Yang casually caught up to him and stomped down.

CRACK!

With the crisp sound of breaking bone, An Ping’s body was driven into the dirt. His hands twitched a few times before he, too, died on the spot.

Xu Yang then searched An Ping’s body, tossed the corpses into the woods by the road, and returned to the Purple Sun Sect.

’Not bad!’

After taking stock, he found his haul from the ambush totaled ten Ten-Perfection Rejuvenation Pills, eighty-three contribution points, and over six hundred taels of silver.

By evening, news had spread throughout the Outer Disciple sector: Guo Huai’s group had been ambushed and killed by an unknown master after the auction. Of the four experts at Gang Qi Great Success, only Shen Liang had escaped back to the Purple Sun Sect. Guo Huai, Tang Xiao, and An Ping had all been slain.

It was rumored that masters from the Guo Family had come to question Shen Liang, but they learned nothing. Because the killer had been masked, Shen Liang claimed to have no idea of their identity.

The next day, another piece of news made the rounds.

Cao Rong, the founder of Sharp Wind Hall, had also attended the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion’s auction yesterday. He, too, had not returned and was presumed dead.

"Haha! Serves him right! That bastard has finally followed Yun Feng and Gu Haoming to the grave."

Zhang Yong and Jiang Ping clapped their hands and celebrated, their faces wreathed in smiles.

With Cao Rong dead, the Sharp Wind Hall immediately disbanded. Although at their current Cultivation level, the few contribution points Sharp Wind Hall had extorted from them were negligible, the real issue had been the bullying—they had been treated like beasts of burden.