Chen Xuan remained motionless, not dodging at all. His right eye, resembling a yin-yang fish, slowly rotated, his vision filled with a mysterious energy as he prepared to unleash a fatal blow.
"It's over!"
Just as the sword energy was about to strike him, there was a sudden *dong*, like the clear sound of a bell. The blade stopped abruptly, unable to advance any further, and the world seemed to fall into silence.
At that moment, a nearby branch was cut by the sword's energy, and a leaf fluttered down. However, halfway through its descent, the leaf froze in midair, as if trapped in some kind of field.
The bald man furrowed his brow. How had the speed of his sword slowed? Or rather, it felt as though it had come to a complete stop.
Before he could make sense of the situation, a flash of golden light appeared before his eyes. In an instant, Chen Xuan was right in front of him, moving as if he had crossed space itself, the storm of blades seeming as if it were nonexistent.
Chen Xuan's eyes glowed red, and the black yin-yang fish in his pupils spun eerily, radiating a sinister and malevolent energy.
The bald man's eyes flashed with cruelty. Sure, Chen Xuan's speed was surprising and unexpected, but as a Soul Emperor at level sixty-nine, he was even faster.
Though he didn't know how Chen Xuan had suddenly closed the distance, it no longer mattered. The boy was asking for trouble.
"Kid, daring to confront me head-on is the most foolish decision of your life!" The bald man roared, his arms glowing white as they transformed into blades, slashing fiercely at Chen Xuan.
An ambush might have offered a slight chance, but showing up in front of him? That was nothing short of seeking death!
*Dong!*
Another clear bell-like sound echoed, eerie and distant, as though coming from another world yet so close at hand.
The bald man's hands, still glowing with destructive power, froze in mid-motion, unable to move. It felt as if a vast, invisible force had enveloped him, rendering him completely immobile.
Not only were his hands seemingly imprisoned, but even his thoughts and every cell in his body experienced a brief moment of stillness, as if time itself had frozen in this space.
The bald man was momentarily dazed, unsure of what had just happened.
When he regained his senses, Chen Xuan's grass-cutting sword had already pierced forward, its blade crackling with lightning, swift and decisive.
The bald man's face changed drastically, and a wave of fear of death washed over him, paralyzing him.
At that moment, he was terrified. No one is unafraid of death, especially the stronger one becomes, the more they fear it.
"My fate is mine, not the heavens'! You cannot kill me!"
The bald man roared, frantically fighting back. His soul power surged, his entire body brimming with a massive force. He stomped hard on the ground, shattering it beneath him, trying to leap away and dodge the fatal strike.
However, the blade was already too close—just a mere fraction of a distance away.
*Puff!*
Blood splattered. There was no miracle. The long sword pierced through the bald man's chest again, the violent lightning following the wound into his body.
The raging lightning rampaged through his body like a thunderstorm, wreaking havoc.
In an instant, his internal organs were destroyed, bleeding profusely, and then evaporated by the lightning, leaving them charred and blackened.
After driving the sword into the bald man, Chen Xuan used his Flying Thunder God technique to leave the area, avoiding any desperate counterattacks.
The sword remained embedded in the bald man's body, piercing through him entirely, still crackling with violent thunder.
His whole body twitched uncontrollably, as if having a seizure. His skin turned black and charred, white smoke rising from it as the intense lightning cooked him from within, even emitting the scent of burnt flesh.
The bald man was nearly electrocuted to death, his blood evaporated, and his internal organs severely damaged, unable to produce even a single drop of blood.
Chen Xuan kept a safe distance, watching carefully from afar to avoid any unexpected moves. If the man managed to drag him down to die together, there would be no place to cry.
During the earlier ambush, if Chen Xuan had used his lightning technique and attached the Chidori Current, the fight would have ended much sooner.
"Hm?"
Chen Xuan suddenly felt a cool sensation on his face. He wiped it with his hand, only to find his palm covered in blood.
A sharp pain followed in his eyes, as if being stabbed by thousands of needles, making him wince in agony. It was excruciating, both physically and mentally.
He knew this was the side effect of his Mangekyo Sharingan, caused by overexerting its power.
Even as the bald man twitched from the electric shock, Chen Xuan didn't underestimate him. This was a genuine Soul Emperor—ten times stronger than regular opponents. Unfortunately for him, he had lost due to a lack of information about Chen Xuan's abilities.
"Sigh, I pushed myself too hard," Chen Xuan muttered, shaking his head as his Mangekyo Sharingan reverted to its normal three-tomoe form.
This was the power of his other eye, an ability related to time. In battles with those at his level, it consumed little of his eye power.
However, the bald man, being just shy of a Soul Saint, had forced him to use far more energy than usual. Under normal circumstances, his power would have lasted five times longer, but now, it could barely restrain the man for even a moment.
Several minutes later, the lightning finally dimmed, and the bald man had turned into a blackened corpse, still emitting smoke, dead beyond doubt.
Chen Xuan couldn't help but acknowledge the man's terrifying vitality. Despite his internal organs being ravaged by lightning, he had held on this long—a truly absurd feat.
Luckily, Chen Xuan had injected enough soul power into his attack, or else the thunder might not have lasted as long.
"This Flying Thunder God technique is truly incredible. Combining it with ninjutsu and swordsmanship makes for a top-tier combo," Chen Xuan marveled. Even he found it overwhelming, and he had only been practicing it for a month—there was still plenty of room for improvement.
If he faced someone with similar abilities, the fight would be incredibly tricky. Even he found his own abilities to be a hassle, let alone an opponent.
In terms of raw power, the bald man was five or six times stronger than Shui Nian, a weakling. Chen Xuan thought that if the bald man had unleashed his full strength without hesitation, everything within five to six hundred meters would have been flattened.
Even though his opponent was strong, nearly on par with a Battle Soul Saint, Chen Xuan had come out of the fight mostly unscathed. The man's powerful soul skills couldn't even touch him.
Chen Xuan mused that if ordinary soul masters could master the Flying Thunder God technique, they could easily defeat opponents ten levels higher than themselves.
"Huh?"
As Chen Xuan approached the body, he froze in surprise. The bald man, now reduced to charcoal, was pitch-black, but something in the middle of his corpse was glowing—a faint white light seeping through.
"No way, am I this lucky?" Chen Xuan was stunned. He had a pretty good idea of what it was.
Drawing his grass-cutting sword, he swiftly slashed twice at the charred remains, cutting away the burnt flesh to reveal the glowing object.
"I knew it!" Chen Xuan's eyes gleamed. It was indeed a soul bone.
The soul bone had a strange shape, resembling a fan with a long bone in the center, somewhat like a spine, emitting a holy white glow.
"This should be a torso bone," Chen Xuan observed, studying it carefully.
Since the bald man had been able to absorb it, this soul bone was undoubtedly of the light attribute, well-suited for an assault-type soul master.
Light attribute martial souls were rare and unsuitable for Chen Xuan, but he still pocketed it. Judging by the aura it emitted, it was at least twenty thousand years old.
The bald man had carried more than a dozen soul storage devices, but unfortunately, they had all been destroyed by the lightning, taking many treasures with them.
Chen Xuan stowed away the soul bone and dashed off, heading in the direction where he sensed Zhu Zhuqing and Yi Yi.
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