Staring down at He Liang’s corpse, Qin Lu felt not a single ripple of emotion in his heart.

“Brother Qin, look out!”

Lu Xian’s panicked warning screamed from beside him.

Even without the reminder, Qin Lu sensed the tall cultivator charging at him again.

It was as if he had entered bullet time; every detail around him snapped into crystalline clarity. He abruptly raised his right hand, splaying his fingers wide.

The spiritual energy within his body surged through his meridians, drawn instantly from his dantian to converge in his palm. In a split second, a blinding white radiance erupted from Qin Lu’s hand, drowning the alley in sudden, searing brightness!

“He actually has it!”

The tall cultivator cried out in shock, jerking his head aside to escape the blinding glare.

Though he looked down on this mob of weaklings attacking an early-stage Qi Refiner, he hadn’t ignored He Liang’s earlier warning. Seeing Qin Lu adopt that specific stance, he instinctively turned away to dodge.

But the moment he evaded the light, a spike of pure dread pierced his heart. Without hesitation, he squeezed his eyes shut and slashed his heavy blade forward blindly!

Whoosh!

A fireball the size of a boulder was cleaved cleanly in two by his blade!

BOOM—!

The bisected fireball slammed into the ground, blasting two deep craters into the earth and igniting a roaring blaze.

“A Grandmaster-level 【Fireball Technique】?! Impossible!”

The tall cultivator’s eyes widened in shock.

A fireball of that magnitude required at least late-stage Qi Refining cultivation to unleash. Yet this kid was clearly only at the fourth layer of Qi Refining…

“Damn it!”

Seeing the attack fail to draw blood, Qin Lu felt a wave of frustration. This was a combo move he had painstakingly researched and developed: the 【Illumination Technique】 plus the 【Ignition Technique】.

He hadn’t expected it to fail on its first live deployment.

Qin Lu scrambled to his feet. The slash across his chest was painful, but it wasn’t a fatal injury. He glanced toward the other side of the battlefield. Lu Xian and another black-robed figure were locked in a fierce struggle, seemingly evenly matched with neither able to gain the upper hand.

Qin Lu and the tall cultivator faced each other warily.

The tall cultivator’s arm trembled slightly; the force required to split that massive fireball had taken a toll. After a moment’s thought, he let out a loud laugh.

“Hey, kid! To possess such powerful skills… are you interested in—”

BANG!

Before he could finish his sentence, Qin Lu’s finger flicked.

Having witnessed the power of this move before, the tall cultivator’s heart seized. He threw himself sideways. But at such point-blank range, even a late-stage Qi Refiner couldn’t dodge entirely.

An eerie, invisible bullet of compressed air slammed into his gut.

CLANG!

A sharp metallic ring echoed from the tall cultivator’s midsection, accompanied by a flash of golden light.

A defensive magical artifact!

Despite the block, panic flooded the cultivator’s face. This kid’s attack hit hard enough to make his artifact vibrate violently!

“Hey! Wait!” the tall cultivator cried out in alarm, hurriedly raising his hand to signal a truce.

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

Qin Lu paid no heed to his words. He unleashed the 【Finger Flick Technique】 in rapid succession, firing at the enemy like a semi-automatic heavy sniper.

The tall cultivator’s expression twisted in horror. While scrambling to dodge, he hastily slapped a golden defensive talisman onto his chest.

A shimmering golden barrier sprang up, encircling his body.

But before he could relax for even a few seconds, the barrage of 【Finger Flick Technique】 strikes hammered him again.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

CRACK!

After three consecutive hits, the golden shield shattered into dust.

With his defenses stripped, true terror finally dawned on the man’s face. He twisted his body, desperate to turn and flee.

But Qin Lu wasn’t about to let a loose end escape.

Gritting his teeth against the searing pain in his chest, he gave chase, his hand continuously firing invisible shots.

Two more strikes shattered the tall cultivator’s personal defensive magical artifact!

“Urgh!”

Taking the heavy blows directly to his body, the tall cultivator vomited a mouthful of blood and collapsed onto the ground in a heap. He looked up at Qin Lu charging toward him and urgently raised a hand.

“Brother, stop! I’m from the Black Market’s Jue Ming Pavilion—”

BANG!

Before he could finish speaking, his head exploded.

The entire battle process hadn’t been particularly long; in fact, barely a minute had passed.

“Huff… huff!”

Qin Lu gasped for air. After confirming the tall cultivator was dead, he immediately pivoted and sprinted toward Lu Xian, who was still locked in fierce combat nearby.

Just as he approached…

“Don’t kill me! I surrender! Spare my life!”

Seeing his leader fall, the last black-robed man let out a desperate roar, pleading frantically for mercy.

Pfft!

With one final 【Finger Flick Technique】 from Qin Lu, the terrified black-robed man was silenced forever, killed on the spot.

……

As the smoke cleared, not a single one of the four black-robed men remained breathing; all were dead.

The entire street fell into a heavy silence once more.

Adrenaline fading, Qin Lu’s legs gave out. He slumped onto the ground, his face pale as he gulped down air through his mouth.

“Brother Qin! Are you alright?!”

Lu Xian rushed over to support him.

Qin Lu shook his head slightly, indicating he wasn’t critically injured. He knew this weakness and exhaustion were caused by both his wound and having completely drained his dantian in that explosive burst of violence.

Lu Xian looked around at the several corpses and their miserable ends. He swallowed hard, his voice trembling as he asked, “Brother… Brother Qin… how… how did you kill them all?”

Qin Lu let out a bitter, dry laugh. “I’ll explain later…”

Lu Xian nodded gently. Then, snapping back to reality, he spoke with urgency. “We need to leave, now! If the Wuji Sect officials catch us killing people in the Fangshi… we’ll be expelled from the city for sure…”