Chapter 149: A Severely Injured Grandmaster-Level Demon and Ghost

Lu Yan sneered and said, "Everyone, do not trust Gao Wanping. This man is the real murderer; he has already killed several people along the way and seized their evil crystals. Join forces with me to kill him, and a search will prove it. All the evil crystals on him will be yours—I don't want a single one."

The four martial marquesses had no intention of fighting at all. Instead, they stepped backward. One of them said, "We have no interest in participating in the two of you's personal grudges. As for who is doing the killing, we are in the dark, and we will not breathe a single word of this to the outside world."

They were no fools. A single glance at the scene told them that Lu Yan and Gao Wanping had just engaged in a fierce battle.

Gao Wanping was ranked sixteenth on the Martial Marquess Leaderboard, yet Lu Yan had managed to fight him and appeared completely uninjured, which clearly showed he was no weakling either. Neither was someone they could afford to offend.

Speaking as they retreated, the four turned around and bolted.

Murderous intent flickered in Gao Wanping’s eyes. His initial impulse was naturally to silence them permanently.

However, even if he could kill those four, he could not kill Lu Yan, meaning the truth would eventually come out.

In the end, he did not strike, reigning in his murderous intent.

"You have impressive methods, my friend. We shall settle our score next time we meet."

Gao Wanping gave Lu Yan a deep look, turned around, and left.

Lu Yan watched him go in silence, likewise choosing not to strike.

His speed surpassed his opponent’s, and he still held his trump card—the avatar—which he had yet to deploy.

Yet the avatar possessed only sixty percent of his main body’s strength. A sudden strike might catch an opponent off guard, but he lacked absolute certainty that he could kill Gao Wanping with it.

If he failed to kill him, the secret of the avatar would be exposed.

The avatar was his greatest secret; unless he had absolute certainty, Lu Yan was unwilling to use it.

*"My current weakness is insufficient cultivation. At the third tier of the Martial Marquess realm, it’s enough to handle average fifth-tier marquesses, but encountering those on the Martial Marquess Leaderboard is still somewhat pushing it. Gao Wanping is only ranked sixteenth on the leaderboard; I wonder how strong the top few really are?"*

Lu Yan pondered to himself.

Some innate martial physiques could grant a person five times the vitality of an ordinary man. When cultivated to the peak of the Martial Marquess realm, coupled with formidable martial arts, their combat power would be terrifying indeed.

He decided that once the matters in Ridge King City were settled, he would fully focus on advancing his cultivation first, before considering martial arts techniques.

After a moment, once he confirmed that Gao Wanping had gone far away, Lu Yan picked up his iron bow, retrieved a few arrows that had not shattered from the ground, tucked them into his quiver, and continued deeper into the mountains.

Soon, dawn broke completely, scattering ten thousand rays of golden sunlight.

The visibility within the mountain forest suddenly opened up.

Roar!

Ahead, a roar suddenly echoed.

"It's a fiend."

Lu Yan’s spirits lifted. He moved swiftly forward and spotted several martial marquesses jointly besieging a fiend.

This fiend was covered in wounds and clearly couldn't hold on much longer.

Lu Yan’s attention, however, was not on the fiend, but on the three martial marquesses besieging it.

Liu Yuansong!

An old acquaintance.

The other two martial marquesses were not from the Liu clan, but were likely clan martial marquesses who had pledged allegiance to the Liu family.

Lu Yan stood motionlessly among the tree branches.

Soon, Liu Yuansong and the other two killed the fiend and dug out its evil crystal.

"Should we continue deeper?"

One of the martial marquesses asked, casting his gaze toward Liu Yuansong. Clearly, among the three, Liu Yuansong was the leader.

Although Liu Yuansong's cultivation was not high, his status was right there—he was of the Liu clan's bloodline.

"Our cultivation isn't high enough; going any deeper is too dangerous. Let's just look for stray fiends here in the outer perimeter. If we gain something, all the better; if not, we'll return to Ridge King City."

Liu Yuansong said.

He was a veteran of the jianghu and had not been blinded by greed.

The three nodded and leaped away in a certain direction.

Lu Yan quietly followed behind them, then drew an arrow, pulling his bow like a full moon, and loosed a shot.

This arrow was aimed squarely at Liu Yuansong.

A battle between him and the Liu clan was bound to happen sooner or later.

Therefore, since he had run into martial marquesses of the Liu clan, Lu Yan had no intention of showing mercy.

By weakening their strength first, fewer people on his side would die in the future conflict.

The arrow pierced through the air like a streak of brilliant rainbow.

It was too fast—so fast that Liu Yuansong found it nearly impossible to evade.

By the time he heard the sound and reacted, it was already too late.

Thud!

The arrow pierced straight through his back, burst out from his chest, and buried itself deep into an ancient tree trunk.

Liu Yuansong’s eyes widened in disbelief. He pressed both hands against his chest, and then collapsed to the ground with a heavy thud, motionless.

The other two martial marquesses were struck pale with fright, but they did not lose their heads in panic. Instead, they pressed back-to-back, staring cautiously at their surroundings.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

Lu Yan loosed two arrows in rapid succession, targeting one of them.

This person possessed the highest cultivation among the three, standing at the third tier of the Martial Marquess realm, and wielded a long spear.

Spotting the trajectory of the arrows, he swung his spear with all his might. With a crisp clang, he deflected one of the arrows.

The immense force stored within the arrow exploded upon impact, causing the man's hands to violently go numb. Unable to keep his grip, the long spear flew out of his hands.

Then, the second arrow arrived.

The second arrow was something he could no longer fend off. With a squelch, the metal arrow shot straight through his chest, passed clean through his back, and buried itself deep into the chest of the second martial marquess.

The remaining martial marquess stared blankly at the shaft protruding from his chest, let out a resentful, despairing roar, staggered a few steps, and collapsed to the earth.

Three arrows, three consecutive kills.

Once all three had fallen, Lu Yan leapt out from hiding, searched their bodies briefly, and retrieved two evil crystals.

Furthermore, both were evil crystals from first-tier martial marquesses.

For ordinary martial marquesses, fiends were extremely difficult to kill, possessing tenacious vitality that required either overwhelming numbers to wear down or vastly superior cultivation to suppress entirely.

People like Lu Yan and Gao Wanping were, after all, the minority.

Next, Lu Yan picked up Liu Yuansong’s right hand, dipped it in blood, and wrote four and a half characters on the ground: Gao Wanping killed me.

The character for "me" was left unfinished, with only half of it written, yet its meaning was instantly clear at a glance.

Having set the stage, Lu Yan quickly departed.

In the blink of an eye, another two hours passed.

During these two hours, Lu Yan did not encounter a single martial-marquess-level fiend.

"What is going on? Could those fiends have all run far away?"

Lu Yan frowned.

The evil crystals he currently possessed were far from enough to secure a top-three spot.

Lu Yan planned to scout ahead for a few more hours; if there were still no gains, he would simply have to turn back.

At that moment, however, he faintly heard the sounds of talking coming from ahead.

Moreover, one of the voices sounded quite familiar to him.

Lu Yan quietly crept closer, peered forward, and his gaze shifted.

Indeed, it was an old acquaintance.

Li Wenxuan.

Aside from Li Wenxuan, there were four other martial marquesses, all belonging to Li Wenxuan's faction.

Murderous intent surfaced in Lu Yan's eyes.

Should he kill Li Wenxuan right here and now?

He had already killed Li Wenxuan’s son; the relationship between the two of them was destined to be irreconcilable.

If Li Wenxuan ever found out that Li Cangxin died at his hands, he would undoubtedly seek revenge.

Instead of waiting for that, it would be better to eliminate him now.

Li Wenxuan was only ranked thirty-sixth on the Martial Marquess Leaderboard; if he went all out, he was fully capable of killing him.

Right now presented a golden opportunity, for once they returned to Herb City, killing Li Wenxuan would become exceedingly difficult.

Lu Yan quietly gripped the hilt of his saber, intending to strike.

Yet the very next moment, he released his grip, pressed himself flat against the ground, and held his breath, not daring to make the slightest sound.

Because he saw a group of people approaching rapidly not far away.

The elder leading them was none other than the head of the Li family, Li Xingyuan.

Behind him followed Li Wenxin and five other martial marquesses.

"Ancestor."

Li Wenxuan’s voice rang out.

"Wenxuan, come with us. There is a grandmaster-level fiend ahead that has been heavily injured and is on the verge of death. Another grandmaster and I plan to join forces to surround and kill it. If we guard the perimeter, we might be able to pick up easy scraps. If we manage to obtain a grandmaster-level evil crystal, securing a spot in the top three is guaranteed."

Li Xingyuan’s voice echoed.

"Understood, Ancestor."

Li Wenxuan’s voice replied, followed immediately by the sound of hurried footsteps fading into the distance.

Confirming that the group had moved far away, Lu Yan slowly revealed himself.

"A heavily injured grandmaster-level fiend?"

Lu Yan muttered to himself, then shook his head.

He decided not to go and meddle in this excitement.

To say he felt no temptation toward a grandmaster-level fiend's evil crystal would be a lie.

Yet a lean camel is still bigger than a horse.

How could the scraps of a grandmaster-level fiend be so easily picked up?

If you covet its evil crystal, it will take your life.

Lu Yan chose a different direction to proceed in.

A dozen miles later, Lu Yan spotted several groups of people all hurrying toward the same direction.

Lu Yan stepped forward to intercept a team and inquire, only to learn that in that direction lay an ancient battlefield where countless martial arts experts had fallen in ages past. It was saturated with thick, foul miasma, and massive numbers of fiends had flooded into the place to resist the human martial marquesses.

"No wonder I didn't run into a single fiend along the way; so they all went to the ancient battlefield."

Dawning comprehension struck Lu Yan, and he decided to go take a look as well.

He followed behind that team; the group didn't mind, as countless people were heading toward the ancient battlefield anyway.

After traveling another dozen or so miles, the terrain opened up. Vegetation gradually grew scarce, and Lu Yan spotted numerous figures lingering in a certain area.

Ahead of these people lay a sprawling, chaotic expanse of rolling hills. Jagged rocks piled everywhere; craters and protruding mounds dotted a pitch-black earth where not a single blade of grass grew. The scope was vast, stretching endlessly beyond the horizon.

Arriving among the crowd, Lu Yan overheard people whispering quietly, learning that the expanse ahead was indeed the ancient battlefield. In bygone eras, it had been a region of soaring peaks and lush foliage, but a brutal, devastating war had leveled the mountains and left behind piles of rubble. Countless powerhouses had perished there, their lingering resentment and murderous intent intertwining to banish all greenery and breed rampant foul miasma.

Vast numbers of fiends resided within.

Yet for fiends, entering such a place was like fish taking to water; they could harness the foul miasma, and their combat power would be amplified.

The reason human martial marquesses had not rushed inside was not only because of the miasma, but also due to the presence of grandmaster-level fiends within.

Grandmaster-level fiends?

Lu Yan swept his gaze across the crowd and, as expected, spotted Li Wenxuan, Li Wenxin, and the others among them.

*"...I deliberately tried to avoid them, yet after coming full circle, I still ended up in the same place as them."*

Lu Yan felt rather speechless.

However, after scanning the surroundings once more, he failed to spot Li Xingyuan.

Could Li Xingyuan have already entered that ancient battlefield?

Clearly, Lu Yan had guessed wrong. A short while later, he watched as Li Xingyuan and another elderly man arrived side by side.

"Brother Li, within this ancient battlefield lie two grandmaster-level fiends, though one is already heavily injured and on the verge of death. The two of us joining forces should be able to handle them. What do you say? Shall we head inside and slaughter our way through?"

The elderly man asked.

"Naturally. If both grandmaster-level fiends were at their peak, you and I might harbor some reservations, but with one of them heavily injured and dying, the two of us are more than enough. Let's make our move."

Li Xingyuan spoke with absolute decisiveness.

Shortly after, Li Xingyuan’s voice rang out clearly: "Brother Ouyang and I will enter the battlefield together to hunt down the grandmaster-level fiend. All of you are to guard the perimeter. Should any fiends attempt to escape, execute them without mercy—do not let a single one slip away."

"Understood!"

Numerous voices answered in unison.

Swish! Swish!

The two grandmasters leaped forward like giant birds gliding through the air. Upon landing, they were already two hundred meters away, and after a few bounds, they vanished completely into the depths of the ancient battlefield.