Chapter 78 - "Show me what trick you had planned."

Hei Yeming froze as he heard his brother’s screams lose more and more strength before finally ceasing altogether.

"Come on..." Qingyi’s cold voice entered his ears, causing him to shiver.

"Show me what trick you had planned. You didn’t go into this fight thinking you’d win with just this pathetic strength, did you?" Qingyi waved his hands lightly, wiping away the blood that covered them before picking up his sword from the ground.

Looking at the destruction in front of him, he couldn’t help but shake his head.

The path of cultivation was truly cruel.

A few months ago, Qingyi was just a young man serving his master, coming from a much gentler world and never having seen human blood.

But now, his kill count was well into the hundreds and yet he felt nothing. Not even a single tremor in his heart.

The only thing that unsettled him was the sight of his Elize wounded - all those corpses were irrelevant in the face of a single strand of her hair.

Yeming struggled against his body, trying to get up.

Tears streamed down his face as his lips parted, a soft grunt soon turning into uncontrolled laughter.

"Ah..." His voice filled with anger as he roared. "Do you want to see our latest fucking trick? Very well!"

He shoved his hands into his robes, pulling out a pill similar to the one his brother had tried to use before being killed by Qingyi.

It was deep red, covered in black spots. Without hesitation, he threw it into his mouth and swallowed it.

His body began to change immediately. His eyelids turned red and, from his flaming aura, threads of dark, disgusting Qi emerged.

"Is that... Demonic Qi?" Qingyi’s eyes widened.

It was exactly the same Qi he had sensed from Tianming, only slightly weaker.

Observing that power, Qingyi immediately understood their plan.

They wanted to test him first, see the limit of his power and, if necessary, use those pills.

Unfortunately for them, Qingyi’s power was even greater than they expected, and Hei Langya didn’t even have time to take his pill before he was killed.

’It would be really problematic if both of them had gone full force from the start...’ Qingyi thought.

Those were cultivation enhancement pills, already naturally rare and extremely dangerous, while demonic enhancement pills were even more vicious.

Not that he expected bandits to measure risks with these things.

Erasing useless thoughts from his mind, he focused his eyes on Yeming again.

His body had swollen grotesquely past two meters, his eyes wide as he roared: "I WILL KILL YOU!"

His massive figure exploded at speed towards Qingyi, raising his sword over his head before dropping it on the young man.

A metallic clang echoed as his sword met Qingyi’s, whose legs sank into the ground as Yeming pushed even harder.

"Powerful..." Qingyi muttered, feeling his arms tremble. "But not powerful enough!"

In the next moment, his lightning sword Qi exploded, its blade slowly sinking into Yeming’s blade, whose metal soon began to turn red.

With a final surge of power, Qingyi’s sword completely cut through Yeming’s weapon, sinking into his shoulder.

"Ugh... fuck!" Yeming tried to back away, the ground beneath his feet cracking as he jumped.

"You’re not going anywhere!" Qingyi appeared right below him, his blade tearing through Yeming’s legs.

Even with his body strengthened with demonic Qi, it still wasn’t enough to stop Qingyi’s blade.

The pill had greatly increased Yeming’s power, to a level where he probably wouldn’t lose to any cultivator below the eighth stage of the foundation realm.

But unfortunately for him, with his new combat technique, spiritual roots and bloodline level, Qingyi could easily compete and even win against cultivators at the peak of the foundation realm.

"Do you know why you’re going to die suffering?" Qingyi asked, as Yeming’s crippled body fell heavily.

He tried to struggle, but not even all the Qi he could extract from that pill was enough.

"It’s for the same reason that your brother died in agony." Qingyi stepped on Yeming’s head.

Slowly, he increased the force of his stomp, ignoring Yeming’s desperate attempts to free himself by punching and grabbing Qingyi’s foot.

With one last thrust, Qingyi’s feet sank completely into Yeming’s head, his last pained cry being silenced as his skull was crushed.

"Ah..." Qingyi sighed, looking at the destruction around him.

The Red Claw gang wasn’t entirely finished yet and he had to fight hard against the urge to just run into their headquarters and kill everything in front of him.

But he held back, he didn’t even know where they were located, and taking care of Elize was his priority.

Hastening his steps, he returned to the temple courtyard, his eyes falling on Elize who, still drenched in blood, was cultivating peacefully.

Her aura had stabilized and her beautiful purple eyes opened, meeting Qingyi’s.

She stood up, using all the strength she still had in her body to throw herself into Qingyi’s arms.

She didn’t say anything, nor did she have the strength to do so, just sinking her face into his chest.

"I’m sorry, love..." Qingyi shuddered before returning her hug, stroking her hair.

Raising his face, his eyes met those of Yueli.

The blue-haired beauty was slightly flushed, but after a moment’s hesitation, she finally approached.

Qingyi carefully grabbed her wrists before also pulling her into his embrace, the two beauties snuggling in his arms.

"I think we have a lot to talk about..." Qingyi whispered.

"Yes..." Yueli turned her face slightly, watching Elize.

"Can we do this in the hot springs? I’m filthy..." Elize smiled tiredly, drawing a laugh from Yueli and Qingyi.

"What are you laughing at? You’re filthy too!" Yueli puffed out her cheeks before being shushed by Qingyi’s lips.

"Should we clean up this mess first?" Qingyi asked, looking at the pile of corpses around them.

"Hm... the girls do that, they don’t have weak stomachs." Yueli turned away from Qingyi, finally going into the throne room and releasing the anxious and worried priestesses.

"’Big sister Yueli, what happened?"

"Where’s big sister Elize?"

"Big sister Elize, is everything all right?"

The girls left the temple, their eyes shuddering at the scene of destruction around them.