“He burrowed underground?”
“He ran? Can he actually get away?”
“Whether he can or not, the kid has dragged enough people down with him. Damn… killed six, wounded five. The boy is absolutely ruthless. And he’s only sixteen! If he survives this, how terrifying will he be after a few more years of cultivation?”
“How could he possibly survive? Jiang Xiaotian chased after him, and so did Jiang Changfeng and his men. Even the two Profound Nether Realm experts from Yunmeng Pavilion went down. He can only run so fast. Can he really escape?”
“Tsk tsk, far too ferocious, simply too ferocious!”
“This trip was worth it. Definitely worth it!”
With Jiang Han and the others vanishing underground, a wave of chatter rose once more. The battle moments ago had been so intense that the crowd hadn’t even dared to breathe. They had held their breath and stared wide-eyed, terrified of missing a single spectacular exchange.
Now that Jiang Han’s group was gone, the crowd had no way to follow them underground to watch the fight. They could only wait patiently for the outcome, gathering together to gossip with animated expressions.
Sitting high in the large tree, the pretty young girl with twin buns furrowed her brow. She stopped drinking her wine, her eyes flickering continuously as if she was struggling with a decision.
In the distance, Han Shiqi had not joined the underground pursuit. Instead, he paced furiously near the carriages, jumping with rage and occasionally cursing out loud.
Including Han Renfeng, four of the men he brought had been slain. The remaining seven had all charged down the hole to hunt Jiang Han.
The tunnel was narrow; adding him to the chase wouldn’t make much difference, and he had no desire to crawl through the dirt anyway. He could only wait here for news.
Time ticked by, bit by bit!
Half an incense stick’s time later, movement finally stirred within the tunnel. A figure crawled out, completely covered in dirt and ash. It was the Profound Nether Realm expert from Yunmeng Pavilion.
The moment he emerged, he collapsed limply to the ground. Unable to speak a single word, he merely gasped frantically for air.
Not long after, the second Profound Nether Realm expert crawled out behind him. The moment he appeared, he gasped weakly, “Hall Master, it’s bad… That bastard set up sleeping smoke down there. I fear most of the brothers who went down won’t be coming back!”
“What?”
Han Shiqi’s expression shifted drastically. In the distance, the members of the Jiang clan were completely stunned with terror.
Jiang Xiaotian, Jiang Changfeng, and the others had gone down that hole. Could it be that none of them would return?
“Sleeping smoke?”
“None of them are coming back?”
“Heavens above, that kid Jiang Han had prepared for this all along. Too ruthless, far too ruthless!”
An uproar swept through the surroundings once more. If Jiang Han actually managed to bury Jiang Xiaotian and the rest down there, the spectacle would be unimaginable.
The Jiang clan likely wouldn’t recover its vitality for at least twenty years.
…
In truth, the moment he plunged into the earth, Jiang Xiaotian sensed something was wrong.
Beneath the surface lay an intricate web of countless intersecting tunnels, extending in all directions. Furthermore, the passages were quite spacious.
Clearly, Jiang Han had dug these tunnels long in advance. Could he have excavated so many simply to guarantee his escape?
He didn’t dwell on it. Only one thought burned in his mind: he absolutely could not let Jiang Han get away. If he failed to kill the boy today and allowed him to flee, it would invite endless disasters in the future, and he would have no way to answer to Han Shiqi.
He sprinted forward at maximum speed, with Jiang Changfeng and the rest closely trailing behind. They could hear heavy footsteps echoing in the tunnel ahead, proving that Jiang Han was just in front of them.
After running for a short time, everyone realized something was amiss…
A faint musty odor lingered in the tunnel. At first, they assumed it was simply the stifling, thin air of being a zhang underground, mixed with the stench of rotting tree roots. They hadn’t paid it much mind.
After sprinting for several dozen zhang, they all began to feel dizzy and lightheaded. Only then did they realize there was a deadly problem.
“There’s sleeping smoke! Retreat-“
The Profound Nether Realm expert from Yunmeng Pavilion bringing up the rear was experienced and well-traveled. He was the first to recognize the danger.
Shouting a warning, he immediately turned and bolted back the way they came. By the time he scrambled out of the hole, his body was utterly drained of strength, collapsing to the ground like a boneless maggot.
“He burned Winter Yin Grass… Run!”
Shocked into awareness, Jiang Xiaotian roared and instantly held his breath.
He didn’t run back. With so many people trying to turn around in such a narrow passage, they would all likely pass out before anyone could crawl to safety.
He chose to dash down a different tunnel branch. While frantically circulating his profound power to neutralize the smoke’s toxins within his body, he desperately searched for an exit.
“Ah-“
“Jiang Han, you will die a miserable death!”
“Jiang Han, even as a ghost, I won’t let you off…”
“Jiang Han, I was wrong! Don’t kill me! Don’t kill me!”
Soon, he heard a series of agonizing screams and furious curses echoing from behind. His heart sank. He knew Jiang Han had turned back to slaughter them.
Jiang Changfeng and the others were likely doomed. The smoke was extremely potent, and the air down here was already incredibly thin. Even now, Jiang Xiaotian felt his profound power falling into chaos. His entire body felt soft and sluggish, as if he were dead drunk.
I have to dig up, otherwise I’m going to die here!
Jiang Xiaotian swung his longsword, slashing madly at the ceiling of the tunnel. Slabs of packed earth were ground into dust by his blade. He couldn’t stay down here any longer; he had to break through to the surface.
He couldn’t hold his breath forever. The longer he remained underground, the greater his chances of dying. His only hope now was to carve a path to the outside while Jiang Han was distracted massacring the others.
Screams continued to echo through the tunnels. Jiang Xiaotian’s eyes practically bulged with rage, his heart bleeding with every cry.
Jiang Changfeng and those men were the absolute elites of the Jiang clan. If they all died, the family would suffer a catastrophic blow, unable to recover its vitality for twenty or thirty years. Follow the newest chapters on novelping.com.
Holding his breath for so long made Jiang Xiaotian’s head spin even faster, and the arm swinging the longsword grew alarmingly weak.
Waves of dizziness crashed against his mind. Gritting his teeth, he bit down hard on his own tongue, using the sharp pain to force himself awake. He continued to swing the longsword with all his might, carving a vertical shaft upward.
I’m through!
Just as he was on the verge of passing out, his longsword finally pierced through to the surface.
A ray of light filtered down, followed immediately by a rush of fresh air hitting his face. Jiang Xiaotian’s spirits jolted awake, and he felt a sudden urge to weep tears of joy.
Swish!
At that exact moment, the piercing shriek of a long blade tearing through the air rang out from below, accompanied by a chilling wave of Killing Intent.
Jiang Xiaotian was so terrified that his soul nearly shattered. Frantically churning his profound power, he launched his body upward with explosive speed.
Boom!
His body finally smashed through the surface, rocketing into the sky amidst a shower of dirt and torn turf.
But following right behind him was a lethal flash of blade light. The long blade slashed perfectly between his legs. A geyser of blood sprayed into the air as Jiang Xiaotian let out a lung-tearing shriek of agony.
Crash!
Jiang Xiaotian’s body slammed heavily back down to the earth, and dropping right beside him was a blood-soaked figure.
Having swung his blade upward to butcher Jiang Xiaotian’s lower half, Jiang Han naturally hadn’t been able to dodge the resulting rain of gore. His head and shoulders were drenched in crimson.
“…”
The spot where Jiang Xiaotian had burst from the ground wasn’t far from the south gate of Jiang Family Town. Looking at Jiang Xiaotian’s mangled lower body and the half-blood-drenched Jiang Han, the crowd fell completely silent.
Even Han Shiqi was stunned. Watching Jiang Xiaotian rolling on the ground, clutching his lower body and screaming, his eyelids twitched violently. A cold chill crept up his spine…
Jiang Xiaotian’s lower body had been hacked to a pulp. His pelvis was split wide open, his intestines spilling out across the dirt. Even if he could somehow be saved, he would be nothing more than a eunuch for the rest of his life.
Buzz-
Jiang Han’s figure flickered. Leaving an afterimage in his original spot, his true body materialized directly beside Jiang Xiaotian.
With a vicious swing, he dragged his long blade heavily across Jiang Xiaotian’s throat.
Jiang Xiaotian was in so much agony he was already half-unconscious; how could he possibly react in time? His neck was cleanly severed, and his head rolled away to the side.
Jiang Xiaotian didn’t even get the chance to live as a eunuch. He had been publicly executed by Jiang Han!
Jiang Xiaotian was dead!
Swish-
Jiang Han flicked his long blade. The profound power rippling from the steel shattered the blood on its surface into a fine crimson mist, scattering it to the winds.
He leveled the tip of his blade at Han Shiqi. With a face as calm as still water, he asked in a freezing tone, “Han Shiqi, you old dog. Do you dare fight me?”