"So that's how it is! I miscalculated," Yan Huo cursed himself in his heart. If he had known this earlier, he would never have come to Longshan. After observing for several days and seeing no movement, Yan Huo had assumed the two old cultivators had already gone into seclusion.
"Do you want to finish yourselves off, or should I do it for you?" The voice from the palace sneered.
"Hmph! I have a habit of never being passive. If you want to kill us, you'll have to see if you have the ability," Yan Huo retorted defiantly. With that, he formed hand seals, and the two swords, *Xue Ning* and *Zi Qing*, emerged, floating above his head.
The voice in the hall let out a wild laugh. "I didn't expect Chongyangzi the old monster actually left you a top-grade flying sword," it mocked. "But let me tell you, boy, no sword, no matter how powerful, can save you. Today, I'll show you the difference in strength."
A figure dressed in pure white appeared slowly in the doorway, and an overwhelming, terrifying aura surged out of the palace. Yan Huo felt as though the very air around him had solidified. The immense pressure almost brought him to his knees. The aura was so powerful that Yan Huo could only feel terror.
"What level of power is this!?" Yan Huo thought in shock.
"Come on, let me, Silver Horn, see how many moves you can last against me," the figure in white said lightly, a mere wave of his hand altering the flow of the air around them.
"Several moves!?" Yan Huo cursed under his breath. At this point, he felt that even a single move from the opponent could kill him a thousand times over. "So young, yet this monster is such a powerhouse!"
Although Yan Huo knew that cultivators couldn't be judged by their outward appearance, the sheer youth of the figure made it even more bewildering. This figure was clearly a mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivator, and compared to Yan Huo now, he was nothing more than an ant.
A Nascent Soul cultivator was a completely different realm from a Golden Core cultivator. Reaching the Nascent Soul stage meant undergoing the Nine Heavens Tribulation and being reborn with a Golden Body, capable of living for thousands of years and destroying mountains and rivers with a thought. This gap in cultivation could not be bridged so easily.
Yet Yan Huo was no longer the timid child who once hid in a mountain village, accepting whatever came his way. He knew that even without the restrictions on the mountain, neither he nor Hu Bai could escape this cultivator's overwhelming power.
*If I can't escape, then I'll fight to the death!*
"Come!" Yan Huo roared as a terrifying shockwave erupted from him. A blinding flash of white, green, and red collided in mid-air as the three swords clashed with a thunderous crash.
The impact sent a shockwave that made Yan Huo's face go pale, a thin trickle of blood running from the corner of his mouth. Silver Horn, on the other hand, looked surprised but amused, his eyes glinting with admiration. "I didn't expect you to survive my attack. Well, well, well!" Silver Horn chuckled.
In the realm of cultivators, their power was largely reflected through their weapons. The attack just now had shattered the flying swords, but the difference in cultivation was vast. If it had been a cultivator of Yan Huo's level, the medium-grade red sword would have been destroyed completely, but this was a Nascent Soul expert, and the result was very different.
Yan Huo's dantian and soul were severely wounded, but Silver Horn was unscathed.
*I can't wait to die!*
Yan Huo screamed inwardly, his hands quickly forming seals as he rapidly completed thirty-six hand gestures in an instant.
"Five Directions Formation, come assist. Illusion!" Yan Huo called out, a surge of energy enveloping him and creating a series of illusions.
"Heh, how boring," Silver Horn sneered. He didn't even move forward, simply watching as Yan Huo activated his formation. The illusion spread around them, but Silver Horn ignored it. Using his spiritual sense, he saw right through the shallow illusions. For a true top-tier formation, even the soul would be affected, but Yan Huo's skills were not yet at that level.
"Break!" Silver Horn's voice rang out. The illusionary formation crumbled in seconds, and before Yan Huo could react, Silver Horn's sword was already at his face.
*Shing!*
The sword sliced through the air, and with a shriek, Yan Huo's right arm was severed, falling to the ground. The speed of the attack had been so great that Yan Huo only managed to dodge in the nick of time, sacrificing his arm for a fleeting chance at survival.
"Haha! You dodged just in time! How does it feel, little boy?" Silver Horn laughed, mocking him. "Now you feel powerless, don't you? Even though you're in the Dao Foundation stage, you still managed to take one of my strikes. Interesting, interesting! If it weren't for you killing my disciples, I might have spared your life."
Yan Huo's silver mask had already fallen to the ground.
"Dammit! So this is how I die today?" The overwhelming pain made Yan Huo break into a cold sweat.
Just as Silver Horn laughed, a small white figure shot toward him with lightning speed. The figure almost reached Silver Horn's neck, but before it could strike, Silver Horn spun around in an instant and caught the figure by the throat.
"Heh! The cunning little fox, did you really think I'd forget you?" Silver Horn sneered.
"Even if I die, I'll bite you first," Hu Bai struggled and cursed as he was caught.
"Oh? Is that so? But you won't have the chance," Silver Horn said coldly, and with a twist, Hu Bai's neck snapped, his body going limp in Silver Horn's grasp.
"Senior Brother! No!!!" Yan Huo screamed in fury, his heart shattering as his loved ones and companions fell one by one. Xiu Ning, Zhang Feng, and now, Hu Bai, his brother, too.
"Aaaah!!!"
Yan Huo's cry echoed across the mountains, his blood-red eyes flashing with hatred.
With only one arm left and his dantian severely damaged, Yan Huo could no longer fight back.
"I'll die with you!" Yan Huo roared as his dantian began spinning uncontrollably, reaching a point where his body could no longer bear the strain. Layers of white light began to emanate from his body.
"Hmph! Trying to self-destruct!? No chance." Silver Horn moved quickly, appearing in front of Yan Huo in the blink of an eye. With a light press of his hands on Yan Huo's chest, he calmly spoke.
"Xuanmen True Qi, Break!"
There was a violent explosion of flesh, and Yan Huo's blood rained down, splattering across the pristine white jade floor.
Yan Huo's body disappeared, leaving behind only a lifeless, severed corpse.
"Is this what it feels like to die?" Yan Huo's soul flickered faintly as he remembered his gruesome death. However, he was unable to speak, or even move a finger, as he no longer had a body. His soul, though, remained conscious.
"Where am I? Is this the Underworld?" Yan Huo wondered weakly. The world around him was a vast expanse of white, and everything seemed dim and formless.