This bizarre scene frightened the leader of the martial artists almost to the point of wetting himself, and he immediately tried to stand up and run.
However, he quickly realized he could no longer control his own body, as his legs defied his will and walked in the opposite direction.
This scared the leader so badly that his face turned completely ashen.
Before long, he saw a young man with an extraordinary aura, holding a long sword and looking at him faintly.
This nearly frightened him into fainting on the spot, but before he could pass out, a voice echoed in his mind:
"Defeat the young man in front of you, and you live."
These words seemed to offer the drowning leader a final straw of hope, and he stammered repeatedly, "I can! I can! As long as Senior spares my life, I'll do anything!"
The moment the leader finished speaking, he felt the powerful force controlling him dissipate, and his "mutinous" body returned to his own command.
Without a moment's hesitation, he grabbed his broadsword, forced down the terror in his heart, and charged with a frantic expression toward Lin Yichen, who stood not far away. This was his only hope of survival.
In his eyes, his opponent was merely a Level 4 Martial Artist. As a Level 9 Martial Artist, there was simply no way he could lose.
Seeing this, Lin Yichen merely smiled. He had kept this fellow around simply to test out his newly acquired Spiritual Psionicist close-combat techniques; after all, he was too lazy to go looking for new test subjects, and since one had delivered himself to the door, it naturally shouldn't be wasted.
To avoid a lack of challenge, Lin Yichen only imbued himself with an amount of Mental Power equivalent to his own actual level—around that of a Level 4 Martial Artist.
Watching the fellow charging at him, he immediately executed the "Rainbow Piercing the Sun," transforming his entire body into a streak of red light. Without the slightest pause, Lin Yichen's sword passed straight through the leader's neck.
The leader's head and the Earth-tier long sword in his hand snapped apart simultaneously, and the soaring head still bore that frantic look it had in life.
Seeing this, Lin Yichen frowned. A Level 9 Martial Artist, and that was it?
Killing a martial artist five levels higher than himself with a single blow and zero pressure came as somewhat of a surprise to Lin Yichen. Yet judging by the power of his sword light just then, it should have reached the threshold of a newly advanced Martial Master. This was somewhat absurd, considering he had only used Mental Power equivalent to a Level 4 Martial Artist.
Presumably, this was due to the blessing of the Emperor's Scripture. After cultivating the Emperor's Scripture, the strength of Lin Yichen's spiritual psionic power had undergone a qualitative leap compared to before; otherwise, he wouldn't be able to fight opponents above his realm even when he was at the Martial King stage.
Satisfied with this experiment, Lin Yichen nodded slightly. The power of this close-combat technique slightly exceeded his expectations. With this, his weakness of having a low martial dao cultivation and shattering at the slightest touch was completely eliminated.
He then used his Mental Power to retrieve the storage pouches of all these individuals. After a quick look and finding a pile of mostly useless junk, he casually tossed them into the System's storage space—at least they could be traded for some money.
With this done, Xu Shiyue, who had been unconscious not far away, woke up. Lin Yichen swept his divine sense across the surroundings, and upon confirming there were no creatures capable of posing a threat to her, he left a wisp of spiritual psionic power on her body and vanished from the spot.
That wisp of psionic power could automatically protect her for a period of time when she was in danger—completely enough time for Lin Yichen to sense it and rush over.
Unless some shameless Martial Sage or Martial Deity decided to personally step in and slap Xu Shiyue to death with a single palm. If that were truly the case, Lin Yichen rushing over would likely only result in serving as an extra side dish for the opponent to pick their teeth with.
Meanwhile, Xu Shiyue slowly opened her pretty eyes. Regaining her composure, she immediately cast a vigilant gaze around her, and upon finding no one there, she let out a long sigh of relief.
Yet she was stunned when she noticed her own condition: her previously exhausted vital energy was now full and overflowing, her internal injuries were completely healed, and even her cultivation had advanced to that of a Level 5 Martial Artist.
Unconsciously, Xu Shiyue raised a hand to touch her porcelain-white forehead, where she still felt a lingering, familiar aura. Someone must have passed by and saved her.
"Who could it be?"
When familiarity crossed her mind, the first person Xu Shiyue thought of was Lin Yichen, though she quickly shook her head with a faint blush.
"What am I thinking about? How could Lin Yichen possibly appear out here at this hour? He should still be resting right now, shouldn't he? It must have been some kind-hearted senior passing by..."
Thinking of that fellow who was probably still sleeping soundly, the corners of Xu Shiyue's mouth curved upward, and she let out a sudden giggle. At that moment, even a hundred blooming flowers would have been eclipsed by her smile.
Realizing she was acting a bit unseemly, Xu Shiyue quickly patted her blushing face. Glancing around to ensure nobody was watching, she breathed another sigh of relief.
If anyone had seen her acting like a lovesick maiden, she would probably have considered moving to another planet to live.
After steadying her state of mind, she looked at the Striped-Eyed White Tiger still lying in a pool of blood. Xu Shiyue stepped forward immediately to extract the beast core. Originally, the tiger skin was also worth a bit of money, but looking at the battered and mutilated hide of the Striped-Eyed White Tiger, Xu Shiyue abandoned the idea of skinning it.
Then, as if thinking of something, Xu Shiyue's gaze slowly drifted downward toward the Striped-Eyed White Tiger's lower body, followed by a swift and decisive slash of her blade...
With that task finished, Xu Shiyue shouldered her fully packed rucksack and headed toward the exit of the Forest of Annihilation. The warm morning sunlight fell upon her stunning visage, making her look as beautiful as a painting, almost unreal.
Meanwhile, deep within the Forest of Annihilation, the atmosphere was far from relaxed.
Upon finding the cave of the Death Silence Thunder Eagle, the three Grandmaster Level figures barged straight in.
After all, in their eyes, the Death Silence Thunder Eagle was merely a Grandmaster-tier fierce beast, entirely unworthy of their esteem. The reason three Grandmasters had come was precisely to prevent there being a pack behind this Death Silence Thunder Eagle.
As it turned out, the Death Silence Thunder Eagle of the past had been a "law-abiding" and honest eagle. Although it occasionally killed martial artists, those were always trespassers who violated its territory, and it had never stepped a single step outside its domain.
Yet recently, it had frequently grown active outside its territory, snatching any martial artists it encountered. In these short three days alone, nearly a hundred people had been captured.
When things are abnormal, demons are sure to be at work. Therefore, just to be safe this time, three Grandmasters had been dispatched directly.
As soon as the three entered the cave, they were hit by a wave of thick, bloody stench, and they quickly noticed the dozen or so captured martial artists.
Sensing that those individuals still had vital signs, they immediately let out a sigh of relief, though they soon noticed the pitch-black, demon corpse lying among the crowd.
"Hisss!" ×3
All three sucked in a cold breath in unison. They were far too familiar with demons. Those wicked scoundrels who loved living in the darkness were the very definition of utter evil, to whom human life was worth less than a blade of grass.
Given even a shred of opportunity, they could annihilate an entire city in an instant, leaving no survivors.
Naturally, an ordinary demon would not have caused the three of them to turn pale; the crucial point was the brilliant purple hue crowning the head of the demon on the ground.
Purple represented a high-level demon, meaning that this demon corpse on the ground had been at least at the Martial Venerable Level during its lifetime. If the creature were still alive now, the three Grandmasters probably wouldn't even be enough to fill its gaps between teeth, and they likely would have perished the very instant they stepped inside.