Four men dressed in fine clothing surrounded them, their faces twisted into lewd smiles.
"Speak, where did Zhao Ping hide with the demon core?" The leader, a man, stepped on Zhou Yue's shoulder, his iron whip already broken and discarded.
Zhou Yue gritted her teeth, refusing to speak, her eyes burning with rage.
"Not talking, huh? Fine!" Another youth, with a sharp mouth and sallow cheeks, crouched down and grabbed Yue Yin's chin.
"It's not like you two have much of a demon core anyway. Why not have some fun with us big brothers? Maybe we'll spare your lives?"
"Get lost!" Yue Yin jerked her face away, tears welling in her eyes.
"Tsk, quite feisty, aren't we." A third, burly man grabbed Zhou Yue by the collar.
"This big, fat cow must feel amazing to the touch!"
"I prefer this long-legged cutie," a fourth, tall and thin man licked his lips, his finger tracing Qí Qí's cheek.
"When she's begging me under me later, I wonder if she'll still keep that ice-cold expression?"
"Then I'll take this little loli!" The sharp-mouthed youth grinned and reached for Yue Yin's clothes.
"Even though she's small, she's got plenty where it counts..."
"Beast!" Zhou Yue roared in anger, struggling to get up, but the sword tip kept her pinned.
Just as the four men were laughing wantonly:
"Big brothers!" A timid voice suddenly came from the woods.
The four geniuses whipped their heads around, seeing a boy, covered in dirt and dust, crawl out of the bushes, bowing and scraping with a fawning smile.
"Who are you?" The burly man frowned.
"I, I know where Zhao Ping is!" Lù Chén shrank his neck, appearing cowardly and timid. "But he has helpers, I didn't dare get close..."
The leader grabbed Lù Chén by the collar. "Really? Where is he!"
"Don't rush, big brother! I, I'm scared..." Lù Chén's legs trembled. While lowering his head, he quickly signaled to the three women.
The three women's pupils contracted slightly; they understood immediately.
"Hahaha, what a scaredy-cat?" The tall, thin man sneered. "Big brother, let him go. I doubt he'd dare to play any tricks."
The swords pressed against the three women's necks shifted slightly.
Seeing this, Lù Chén suddenly straightened his back, the fawning expression vanishing from his face.
"Of course, I wouldn't dare play tricks," he said with a cold smile.
"Because I'm going to send you straight to hell!"
Before he finished speaking, Lù Chén flashed forward, instantly positioning himself in front of the three women.
The four men hadn't even reacted when they heard three crisp clangs. The magic swords at the women's necks snapped into two pieces!
"Brother Lù Chén!" Yuè Yīn cried out in surprise.
"Careful!" Zhōu Yuè quickly warned, "All four of them are at the Foundation Establishment Realm!"
The four men finally snapped back to reality. The leader narrowed his eyes. "So you're Lù Chén? The wild man Wǔ Yuèyáo is looking for?"
"Wild man?" Lù Chén flicked his ear. "I'm your father."
"You're asking for death!"
The burly man roared in fury, Foundation Establishment Realm spiritual energy converging madly on his fist, forming a ferocious tiger's head phantom. The air was squeezed out with a piercing screech.
This punch alone was enough to shatter ten thousand jin of giant rocks!
Lù Chén stood unmoving, a cold smile on his lips.
He pulled his right fist back, veins bulging on his muscled arm. Golden light from the Immortal Golden Body flowed beneath his skin.
*Boom!* As their fists met, a visible shockwave swept out, snapping trees within a ten-zhang radius.
With the sound of sickening bone cracks, the burly man's entire arm twisted into a bizarre arc. White bone shards pierced flesh and skin, and he flew backward like a sack of rags, crashing through three large trees before stopping.
"What?!" The remaining three men's pupils contracted sharply, their triumphant expressions freezing instantly.
Lù Chén shook his wrist, his knuckles cracking crisly. "Forgot to tell you, I specialize in beating Foundation Establishment cultivators."
"Arrogant!" The tall, thin man shouted, conjuring a white spiritual energy blade at his fingertips. A three-zhang sword beam poured down like a silver river.
The sword strike was as fast as lightning. Before the blade even arrived, its sharp sword qi had already cut a bloody gash on Lù Chén's face.
"A mere parlor trick."
Lù Chén's figure suddenly blurred, his entire body transforming into a distorted black shadow that sank into the ground.
The tall, thin man's sword strike missed, bisecting a giant rock behind him.
"Shadow Devour!" A sinister voice whispered in his ear. Before the tall, thin man could turn, Lù Chén erupted from his shadow.
An elbow strike, carrying immense force, slammed heavily into his back. Accompanied by the clear sound of a spinal fracture, the tall, thin man spat out blood mixed with internal organ fragments, dying instantly.
"Old Third!" The sharp-mouthed youth's eyes bulged with rage. Knowing he was outmatched, he turned to flee.
Lù Chén smiled coldly and raised his hand. "Nine Tribulations Thunder Seal!"
A bolt of lightning as thick as a water bucket descended from the sky. The sharp-mouthed youth turned into charred coke before he could even scream.
In a blink of an eye, only the Scar-faced man remained on the field.
This Foundation Establishment cultivator, so arrogant moments ago, was now trembling like a sieve, his pants soaked.
"Y-you're what kind of monster?" he stammered.
"You're only at Qi Refining tenth layer..."
Lù Chén slowly wiped the blood from his face, suddenly revealing a harmless smile. "Don't worry, my spiritual energy is depleted. I won't kill you for now."
"R-really?" The Scar-faced man's eyes lit up with the will to survive, his expression as innocent as a child's.
The next moment, his face contorted into ferocity!
"Die!"
A blood-red long sword was drawn from nowhere. The blade was covered in strange patterns, and as it unsheathed, it erupted with sky-piercing malevolent energy.
"A spirit artifact!" Qí Qí exclaimed, her pretty face turning pale.
The Blood Fiend Saber traced a seductive arc, the very space around it distorting slightly. The power of this saber strike was enough to kill a third-layer Foundation Establishment cultivator!
"So what if it's a spirit artifact?"
Lù Chén's pupils contracted, and lightning surged from his right fist. With the Nine Tribulations Thunder Seal activated to its fullest, his fist transformed into a pitch-black thunderbolt, crashing head-on with the blood saber!
*Boom!* The explosion's shockwave leveled the area within a thirty-zhang radius.
Lù Chén felt a terrifying force travel up his arm. His chainmail armor shattered with a crack, and a gaping wound, deep enough to see bone, was torn across his chest. He was sent flying backward, crashing through seven or eight ancient trees before stopping.
"Cough, cough!" He spat out a mouthful of blood and looked up. The Scar-faced man had vanished. Only a few scorched pieces of meat remained where he stood.
The blood saber was embedded in the ground, its patterns still emitting an eerie red glow.
"Brother Lù Chén!" Yuè Yīn rushed over crying, her small hands trembling, afraid to touch his horrific wounds.
Zhōu Yuè picked up the broken iron whip, gritting her teeth. "Wǔ Mèi dared to send someone with a spirit artifact? This is a blatant violation of the assessment rules!"
Qí Qí stared at the blood saber, her voice grave. "Spirit artifacts have formation patterns carved by refiners; they are incredibly powerful and expensive. Ordinary cultivators at the Foundation Establishment Realm couldn't possibly possess one.
This Blood Fiend Saber alone is worth at least five thousand spirit stones. It seems Wǔ Mèi has gone to great expense this time."
Lù Chén forced himself to stand and pulled out the vibrating blood saber. The moment it entered his hand, a brutal killing intent surged into his mind, which he suppressed with the Immortal Golden Body.