"Good heavens, Thousand Blades Flying!" Wu Chengtian could not help blurting out. "What on earth did you run into?"

There was no need for Ling Tianyou to answer; the figure pursuing him had already burst into view. And when the others saw clearly who it was, they were startled all over again—for the thing chasing him was no mighty spirit beast as they had imagined, but a man they knew all too well: Xue Jianming.

"Wei Zhao? Duanmu Yu? You two are actually still alive?" Xue Jianming was the first to be struck dumb. He had, after all, kicked Wei Zhao and his companion into the River of Divine Consciousness with his own two feet and had been quite certain they were dead beyond any doubt. Yet here they stood, whole and unharmed!

"Disappointed?" Wei Zhao's expression was unreadable, the corner of his mouth lifting ever so slightly. He glanced at Ling Tianyou, drenched head to toe in blood, and said, "Seems you are a busy man indeed. Not content with making trouble for us, you gallop off without pause to make trouble for this young sect master here. Could it be that you fear you will not be able to beat Thousand Blades Flying in the future, and so you mean to strangle the threat in its cradle?"

That single offhand sentence laid bare Xue Jianming's intentions. His face changed at once. Ling Tianyou's position was no trifling matter; should this affair come to light, it would surely draw the fury of the entire Thousand Blades Sect, and that would spell enormous trouble for him.

With his cultivation at the full perfection of the Golden Core, he had assumed that killing a mere Ling Tianyou—a man only at the peak of the late Foundation Establishment—would be simplicity itself. Never had he expected Ling Tianyou to somehow flee all the way here. Thousand Blades Flying, it seemed, was truly no ordinary thing.

Even that alone would have been bearable; Xue Jianming did not mind exerting himself a little further, and silencing a man by murder was no burden on his conscience. But what stood before him now was Wei Zhao and his companions.

Having joined the Center's key cultivation program and shot up in one stroke to become a master at the full perfection of the Golden Core, Xue Jianming had been utterly pleased with himself. He had, by and large, ceased to regard anyone as his equal—after all, in theory, he was now stronger than everyone by a vast margin.

Yet when he arrived here, he discovered that Bing Wushuang had at some point likewise risen to the full perfection of the Golden Core, her absolute strength no less than his, perhaps greater. And Wei Zhao, whom he had written off as a mere novice, could actually transform into a flood dragon and beat the Brain-Eating Worm so savagely that the creature could not even recognize its own mother. Xue Jianming suddenly realized that he had perhaps been a touch too naive...

And now, Wei Zhao and Duanmu Yu—the two who ought to have died in the River of Divine Consciousness—stood before him again, looking hale and hearty, without so much as a scratch. And as ill luck would have it, they had arrived at the exact moment he was hunting Ling Tianyou down. What was he supposed to do now?!

"I must say, your luck is about as rotten as it gets." Xue Jianming gave a cold laugh and steeled his heart. There was no other choice. If he wanted to leave no hidden danger behind, he would have to go on a killing spree today. Ling Tianyou had to die. Wei Zhao and his companions had to die. Not one living witness could be left.

The thought was mad enough, but Xue Jianming truly had the means to carry it out. Apart from Wei Zhao, whose depths he could not gauge, he held an overwhelming, absolute advantage over everyone present. Most crucially, this was the Fire Bat Cave, and the spot where he stood happened to block the only exit.

As for the teleportation array—that thing took time to operate. From the spirit jade being readied to the transmission being initiated, it required at least the time it took to burn half a stick of incense, and that was more than enough time for him to kill everyone present seven or eight times over.

"Is that so? I rather fancy our luck is quite good." Wei Zhao smiled faintly, unperturbed, and turned to look at the blood-soaked Ling Tianyou. "You all right?"

"Not dead yet, for the moment..." Ling Tianyou was swaying on his feet now, unable even to stand steady. Still, he managed to force out a grin—a grin uglier than a sob, yet one had to admit the fellow was stubborn beyond belief.

"Good. Then you will owe me a favor." Wei Zhao nodded and started toward Xue Jianming. Leng Leng and the others moved to follow and lend a hand, but he waved them back.

Xue Jianming was strong, no doubt about it—but he had picked the wrong moment to come.

Had this been when they first arrived, Wei Zhao would truly have had no way to deal with him. But now? Things were altogether different.

Watching Wei Zhao walk toward him of his own accord, Xue Jianming could not help but feel puzzled. Then he sneered, "Strange things happen every year, but this year takes the prize. Surely you do not think that little bit of strength of yours can intimidate me? Have you still not grasped the situation, Junior Uncle Lin of the Cangwu Sect of North Island?"

"Tell me—who has failed to grasp the situation?" Wei Zhao's smile was neither quite a smile nor quite not. He walked up to within a single pace and stood still, then raised his hand and dealt a slap.

Leng Leng and the others showed no particular reaction, but Ling Tianyou, watching this scene, was thrown into a panic. He had been hunted the whole way here, and he knew the terror of Xue Jianming's strength all too well. He hurried to warn, "He is at the full perfection of the Golden C—"

But before the last two words could leave his mouth, Xue Jianming had already been slapped to his knees by Wei Zhao. Wei Zhao turned his head and looked at Ling Tianyou. "What?"

"Uh... nothing..." Ling Tianyou choked the last two words back down, nearly biting off his own tongue in the process. He stared at the scene before him, dumbstruck, his mind a complete jumble.

Ling Tianyou was merely shocked. Xue Jianming, however, was the one at the receiving end, and he had been slapped senseless.

He was a master at the full perfection of the Golden Core, and Wei Zhao was merely at the full perfection of Foundation Establishment! Even if the man had an endless parade of tricks, even if his strength defied all common sense, this was simply too horrifying!

A master at the full perfection of the Golden Core, slapped to his knees by a man at the full perfection of Foundation Establishment?!

Stunned for a good while, Xue Jianming scrambled to his feet, his face full of disbelief. But before he could make sense of what had just happened, Wei Zhao raised his hand and slapped him again.

Bang! This time Xue Jianming did not merely drop to his knees—he was sent sprawling flat. The look he now turned on Wei Zhao was one of boundless shock. He had clearly sensed the other man's movement and had been ready to dodge. For a master at the full perfection of the Golden Core to evade another man's slap should have been the easiest thing in the world. Yet he had not dodged.

He did not know what strange means Wei Zhao had employed, but he had truly been as if bewitched, and in the end he had failed to evade it.

"You—" Xue Jianming was in a complete panic now. But before he could get the words out, he had barely staggered to his feet when Wei Zhao, without a word, slapped him a third time, and the illustrious master at the full perfection of the Golden Core promptly hit the deck again.