Chapter Thirty-One: A Killing Spree

"Seeking death!"

Su Yu freed his left hand and pressed it into the void. A massive palm print coalesced and slammed down, swatting away the large surge of silver light. At that precise moment, Lan Feiyu seized the opportunity to retract his twin swords, exhaling a massive mouthful of vital energy to restore them to their peak. With a single thought, he unleashed his ultimate technique:

"Twin Swords in Unison!"

A purple sword and a cyan sword rapidly merged, transforming into a rainbow of light over fifty meters long that cut across the void.

Feeling the threat directed straight at his brow, Su Yu’s expression turned solemn. He grasped the air with his left hand, and the Taibai Sword Qi condensed to meet the attack.

His head snapped toward Leng Hong. A mirror flew out, spinning rapidly until it faced him. A beam of white light shone down, pinning Leng Hong in place. Su Yu turned his head back and shouted:

"Radiance Transformation!"

The Yāorì (Sun-Masking) Sword suddenly flared; infinite solar light exploded and quickly transformed into scorching white True Sun Fire, imbuing the blade.

"Taibai Splitting Light Sword!"

The Yāorì Sword shuddered, rapidly splitting into thirty scorching sword beams that surged toward Lan Feiyu like a deluge.

*Clang!*

The sword aura and the combined twin swords collided instantly. The sword aura shattered, but the sword rainbow slowed for a mere heartbeat before surging forward.

*Bang!*

Su Yu’s protective aura shield twisted violently. The twin swords circled him, instantly shattering his 18,000-defense shield. The Black Water Profound Bead triggered just as Su Yu activated his Dharma robe’s defenses.

"Now!"

In that fleeting moment, the thirty Taibai Splitting Light sword beams reached Lan Feiyu. Like ten thousand arrows piercing the heart, they instantly shattered his protective treasure light, knocked away the orb hovering above his head, tore through his protective shield, and shredded his Dharma robe. The scorching white sword beams pierced his body, erupting in three instances of 2,000 damage each—a clean one-shot kill.

The base damage of the flying sword was 2,500. With the "Radiance Transformation" Daoist technique active, it dealt an additional 100% True Sun Fire damage, totaling 5,000 damage.

Each sword beam dealt 2,000 damage (40% of the total). Thirty beams combined for a terrifying 60,000-damage burst, which bypassed the defensive treasure, the shield, and the robe to kill him instantly.

Lan Feiyu’s "Twin Swords in Unison" was a burst attack equal to the sum of both swords multiplied by 300%. However, his base sword technique level wasn't as high as Su Yu’s; with fifty levels of high-tier sword techniques and a Tier 6 flying sword, his damage was only around 1,000.

The combined attack dealt 2,000 damage, and with the 300% multiplier, it was a 6,000-damage burst.

This was extremely fierce; normally, it would take two or three volleys to kill Su Yu. Unfortunately, the speed of the combined swords was too high, and Lan Feiyu could not control them precisely. Previously, each strike dealt five or six segments of damage, but after merging, the speed was so fast that he could only land three segments before they passed each other, requiring him to turn around.

In the time it took to turn, he had already been one-shotted by Su Yu’s burst.

After finishing off Lan Feiyu, Su Yu turned to Leng Hong. The man was filled with shock; recovering from the immobilization, he immediately turned and fled.

But how could his flight speed compare to a flying sword? The Yāorì soon caught up, circling him to shatter his defenses. Two more rotations, and his head fell to the ground.

The output was simply too fierce. It was equivalent to a hundred levels of high-tier basic sword techniques combined with a Tier 6 flying sword—for a first-year freshman, it was more than a level above the rest.

"Four kills."

"Six more, and the rewards will double."

According to Guild Leader Ding, one kill was worth 50 contribution points and 50 taels of silver. Ten kills were worth 500 guild points and 5 taels of gold, and doubling that meant 1,000 guild points and 10 taels of gold.

Additionally, as a freshman, he received a 100% bonus to guild contribution, totaling 2,000 points.

It was a pity the gold didn't get a 100% bonus; otherwise, he’d be making a fortune.

The flying sword gathered the loot from the two, and Su Yu opened it casually. He paused, looking surprised as he picked up a Daoist scripture woven with gold thread.

*Mustard Seed Concealment Method*: A stealth secret technique. "Life is like a mustard seed containing Mount Sumeru; the heart is like a speck of dust hiding the great thousand worlds." Five levels total.

Attributes: Lowers one’s own presence, converges aura within the void of a mustard seed.

Cultivation Requirements: None.

The first level required 10 million cultivation points and 50 points of Dao practice.

"This, I can train in."

However, he lacked the necessary Dao practice for now; he would have to wait until he returned.

Aside from this scripture, the rest of the loot was garbage. Neither of them had dropped their defensive treasures. Su Yu didn't mind; he never expected to get good items from killing others anyway.

He took a pill to restore his mana, refined his flying sword again, and after resting for a few minutes, he took off into the air and continued forward.

After several encounters, he had a clear assessment of his current strength: unless someone possessed a Tier 7 or higher Dharma robe or flying sword treasure, they were essentially no match for him.

The burst from the Taibai Splitting Light Sword was too violent; without sufficient defense, it was impossible to withstand.

Two minutes later, he spotted a figure in a valley behind a small hill, but the person belonged to his own guild.

Ten minutes later, on a nameless hill, he saw two members of the Thunderhawk Guild coming toward him.

As soon as they met, Su Yu unleashed his ultimate technique. Thirty sword beams rained down, killing one instantly, and he finished the other with his masterful swordsmanship.

"Six kills."

Su Yu had long since abandoned gathering spirit herbs; there was nothing good anyway, and it certainly didn't pay as well as guild rewards.

One kill was a stable 50 taels of silver, and with more kills, he could get 1 tael of gold or more per head. This was far more profitable than the back-breaking work of herb picking.

The more he killed, the bolder he became. He had started out cautious, but now he flew through the air brazenly, keeping his speed at about half, intentionally baiting enemies to attack him first.

Unfortunately, those who could enter were not fools. Two hours passed, and he only encountered one idiot who tried to ambush him; the others he had killed were ones he had tracked down himself.

With a sword-flight speed of 1,794 kilometers per hour, he was absolutely invincible among the freshmen. As long as he spotted them, no one could escape.

Flying in one breath to the edge of the secret realm, Su Yu turned and flew east.

He skirted the edge, flying for another three hours until he reached the northeast corner of the realm, then headed south.

The exploration time agreed upon by the three guilds was 24 hours, enough for him to circle the entire realm.

While searching, Su Yu occasionally discovered remnants of artificial traces in certain valleys, such as collapsed buildings or stone pillars covered in vines. But the secret realm had been abandoned for who knew how many thousands of years; these traces had long rotted away or been swallowed by vegetation, and one wouldn't notice them without looking closely.

Based on these traces, he guessed that the realm originally had designated zones.

After flying over five thousand kilometers south along the edge, a large lake of over a hundred square kilometers appeared ahead. As he passed high above, he saw a green dragon over a hundred meters long swimming in the water, repeatedly opening its mouth to swallow specks of blue light.

*Green Flood Dragon (Elite): Boss, Level 121, Aquatic, Dragon.*

"One of the hundred-level monsters that crawled in from the Yuan River?"

Su Yu paused for less than a minute before leaving, without a hint of hesitation.

He didn't even need to think; such a hundred-level boss was not someone he could provoke; he was certainly no match for it.

Regardless of whether it was an Elite or Terror template, a level exceeding one hundred was equivalent to a human cultivator who had passed the Heavenly Tribulation. Their strength underwent a qualitative change, and they possessed a tier suppression over lower-level cultivators, making them nearly impossible to solo.

He left the lake and continued south. Ten minutes later, he heard the sound of muffled thunder ahead, and flashes of lightning appeared in the mist from time to time.

He flew over quickly and soon saw several people locked in battle.

To be precise, it was three people hunting down one.

The one being hunted was an acquaintance of Su Yu, Wei Xia, who had taken second place in the previous small exam. He held a thunder hammer, continuously erupting thick bolts of lightning.

The three pursuers seemed to be from the same guild. Individually, they were no match for him, but together, it was a different story.

One of them possessed a high-tier defensive treasure—a blue barrier of light that spread to cover nearly an acre, simultaneously protecting the other two.

The other two lacked high-tier treasures, but with their companion’s protection, even Wei Xia’s high-tier treasure couldn't touch them.

Su Yu sent a voice transmission to Wei Xia from afar:

"Need help?"

Wei Xia responded immediately:

"Yes!"

"Be careful, he has a high-tier defensive treasure. The defense is extremely high."

"Understood!"

Su Yu extended his right hand, sword light gathered, and he flicked his wrist. The Yāorì Sword transformed into a rainbow and shot into the sky.

"Someone's coming."

Zhang Tianlei was the first to notice the sword light flying from behind and asked in a low voice:

"Can you handle it?"

Xiao Yuan laughed, "This is a high-tier treasure with 120,000 defense. What could possibly break through it?"

"Don't worry about me, focus on finishing the one in front."

The two teammates relaxed and continued to channel their treasures to suppress Wei Xia.

The flying sword arrived in the blink of an eye, suddenly flaring as it burned with True Sun Fire.

"Radiance Transformation!"

"Taibai Splitting Light Sword!"

The Yāorì shuddered and split into thirty sword beams that bombarded them like a deluge. The instant burst of 42,000 damage struck the massive light barrier, creating a huge indentation.

Defensive treasures above Tier 4 had inherent damage-reduction traits. The higher the grade, the higher the reduction; a Tier 7 treasure reduced damage by 30%.

"What the hell!"

The defense, which had been maintained at around 110,000, plummeted by more than half, leaving only about 70,000. Xiao Yuan was startled and quickly poured mana into the treasure to restore the defense.

But by then, the Yāorì Sword had already struck again. The flying sword, trailing True Sun Fire, tore through the air and circled the barrier, causing the defense to leak away like a bursting dam.

"Quick, pour your mana into the treasure! His burst is too strong!"

The other two were shocked and hurriedly poured their mana in, only then did the restored defense finally exceed the incoming damage.

"It's a good thing this is an area-of-effect defensive treasure that allows everyone to contribute mana, or we’d be done for."

No sooner had the thought crossed his mind than a rolling thunder echoed from afar. Looking up, he saw Wei Xia—who they had been suppressing—seize the moment their treasures were focused on defense to lift his thunder hammer and unleash his ultimate technique.

Infinite lightning exploded into a vortex. A thick pillar of lightning shot into the sky, and dark clouds gathered across the horizon, spreading to over a dozen acres in seconds.

"Come, Thunder!"

Accompanied by heaven-shaking thunder, bolts of lightning reached down from the clouds.

A hundred thunders bombarded the top, while the flying sword circled the massive barrier, cutting back and forth. The treasure’s light twisted and deformed, and its defense shrank visibly to the naked eye.

*Bang!*

Without surprise, the barrier shattered. Bolts of lightning crashed down, and the flying sword circled once, tearing through the protective aura and severing Xiao Yuan’s head.

The remaining two tried to flee in opposite directions, but as the flying sword moved left, the heavenly lightning gathered on the figure to the right.

The sword crossed back and forth twice, and the figure on the left fell as a corpse in two pieces.

On the other side, the thunder roared for five or six seconds, forcibly breaking through the remaining defenses and killing him.

Su Yu commanded the flying sword to retrieve the loot. Wei Xia flew over and bowed from a distance:

"Brother Su, I owe you my life. If you need anything in the future, feel free to come to me."

"It's nothing."

He wasn't foolish enough to pretend to be magnanimous and say he didn't need it.

"Shall we go together?"

"Let's go."

The two rested for a while, restored their mana, and continued on their way.

"Your swordsmanship has advanced even further than three months ago."

"A slight breakthrough."

"Too modest. This is much stronger than last time. In the second small exam half a month from now, I won't be your match."

Mid-air, the two chatted idly as they flew.

"Your talent for swordsmanship is too strong. Have you considered joining a sect? With your talent, even an Immortal Sect is a possibility."

"Of course I have. What about you?"

"I have too, but while my family background is good, my own talent is average—my highest aptitude is 21, and my comprehension is only 16. Joining an Immortal Sect is extremely difficult, and even if I did, it would be hard to advance further. That’s why my father arranged for me to join the nearby Danxia School. With my talent and a high-tier treasure, I have a chance to become a disciple of a loose immortal big-shot within the Danxia School."

"That sounds pretty good."

"But it doesn't compare to an Immortal Sect."

Su Yu remained silent.

There was no way to respond to that. He couldn't exactly say that the Danxia School could compare to the Xuanzhen Immortal Sect; that was not something to be said lightly.

In the world of *Bì'àn*, sect names could not be chosen randomly. Some names were reserved only for top-tier sects, such as "Immortal Sect," "Buddhist Sect," or "Demonic Sect."

On Blue Mountain Island, there were many sects, but not all were allowed to use the term "Immortal Sect."

Only a sect with a True Immortal-level powerhouse still alive, possessing a complete lineage of Daoist techniques pointing directly to the True Immortal realm, and having extraordinary foundations could be called an Immortal Sect.

Only Orthodox and Heterodox sects could be called Immortal Sects or Major Sects; Buddhist schools could be called Buddhist Sects, and Demonic paths could be called Demonic Sects.

To claim the title of "Sect" without the strength was an act of usurpation and would invite disaster.

As far as Su Yu knew, there were only four sects on the Blue Mountain Archipelago that could call themselves such: the Xuanzhen Immortal Sect, the Jiuxiao Immortal Sect, the Fantian Buddhist Sect, and the Yinsha Demonic Sect. Aside from these four, the hundreds of other large and small schools were merely ordinary sects.

These sects varied in strength; the strongest weren't much worse than the Immortal Sects, lacking only a True Immortal to anchor them, with other mid-to-high-level powerhouses being quite comparable.

And the weakest sects... well, they weren't exactly weak either.

Perhaps some small sects didn't even have Earth Immortal powerhouses, but they were still sects, with hundreds of loose immortals—not something a guild could easily challenge.

One must aim to join a major sect—powerful, well-organized, and capable of protecting one if trouble arose.

If the sect were too small and one offended a powerful demon king, the entire sect might be wiped out in the aftermath, which would be truly tragic.

As the two chatted, they reached the southeast corner of the secret realm. As they turned the corner, Su Yu suddenly realized:

"In our journey so far, we haven't seemed to run into anyone else, have we?"

Wei Xia paused, then laughed:

"That’s quite normal. Average people wouldn't run to the edge of the map. Besides, we’ve been in the dungeon for five or six hours now. Who knows how many have died? I doubt even half are still alive. With only 150 people in a secret realm of several thousand square kilometers, it’s not surprising if we don't run into anyone."

"That's true."

"By the way, how many kills have you collected?"

Su Yu thought for a moment and replied:

"I think about 14."

"That many?"

"Is that a lot?"

Wei Xia looked speechless:

"Assuming half have died, that's 150 people. You’ve killed nearly a tenth of them yourself—isn't that a lot?"

"Uh... I suppose so."

Wei Xia was speechless again, but after a while, the two bored travelers continued their idle chatter.