A Chaotic World

When the demon saw that Lu Tianzi was rapidly approaching, he instinctively brought his sword up to guard his head.

The image of Lu Tianzi splitting his companion's face into two had been etched too deeply into his mind. He simply could not help but dread ending up with the same fate. But by doing so, the demon had naturally left his entire body completely exposed.

Lu Tianzi was definitely not someone who would miss such an obvious mistake.

He dexterously changed the trajectory of his sword, slashing downwards instead. Seeing the path of the incoming sword, the demon immediately snapped out of his daze and hurriedly moved to adjust his guard, but it was already far too late.

"Ahhh!" the demon roared in pain as Lu Tianzi's blade connected.

Blood spurted out from the demon's shoulder as the demon's sword landed on the ground.

But it was not that the demon had let go of his sword in pain, letting it fall to the ground. In fact, his fingers were still gripped tightly around the hilt of the sword.

However, the top end of his upper arm was no longer connected to his torso.

With a single swing of his sword, Lu Tianzi had cleanly amputated the demon's entire right arm!

It was just a moment of carelessness due to the shock from his companion's gruesome death, but in the hands of Lu Tianzi, this small mistake had become one that completely turned the tide of battle!

The demon stumbled a few steps before falling to his knees, moving into a fetal position as he supported his forehead against the ground. He groaned in agony, seeking to endure both the physical and psychological torture of having a limb directly taken from him.

But at this time, nobody had the time to pay him any attention.

After severing the demon's arm, Lu Tianzi turned around only to see Nanhong Wuze's sabre already halfway through the air, slashing right at him!

Lu Tianzi's eyes narrowed.

Borrowing the momentum from turning, Lu Tianzi brought his sword up to match the sabre in mid trajectory. With the two other demons now out of commission, he was no longer forced to keep running!

Bang-!

It was yet another violent collision that sent out a shockwave in all directions, mercilessly knocking the groaning demon over onto his side.

In the aftermath of the clash, both parties stood where they were, their weapons pressed against each other's in a seemingly tied contest of strength!

"You sure are domineering against them! Why don't you fighting me instead?!" Nanhong Wuze shouted.

His rage had already reached the limit!

Right before his eyes, he actually allowed a mere Advanced Essence Building realm human martial artist to take out his three companions!

This was a disgrace that could only be washed away by blood!

"That is exactly what I want to say as well. Weren't you very domineering earlier? Why have you turned so much weaker now?" Lu Tianzi sneered. "As you are right now, even if there are ten more of you, I will gladly kill them all!"

"What did you say?!" Nanhong Wuze was about to explode when realisation suddenly struck.

They were tied in a contest of strength right now?

How was that possible?

Just a while ago when they fight had just started, he was definitely still able to overpower his opponent! Even though the human martial artist had managed to stabilise himself with his sword after stumbling a few steps back, that was still too big a difference as compared to now!

Currently, even a slash containing all of his strength was no longer enough to force back the human martial artist!

Just what was it that had resulted in such a drastic change?

Was his opponent hiding his true strength earlier?

No, that was impossible! Even the strength that he displayed earlier was already beyond the limits of ordinary Advanced Essence Building realm martial artists!

It was simply not logical for him to be this strong!

But if that was not the case, then what was it?

At this moment, Nanhong Wuze's thoughts suddenly returned to the time when Lu Tianzi threw out a cloud of powder at him. Nanhong Wuze had been sure that he had retreated in time, but was he mistaken after all?

Nanhong Wuze immediately investigated his own body with his perception, and as expected, he discovered some foreign bodies flowing through his bloodstream!

So that was why!

It was not because the human's strength had increased, but because he was poisoned, resulting in his strength dropping instead!

However, not to mention expelling the poison, even if Nanhong Wuze wanted to drive his Slaughter Essence to temporarily suppress this poison, now was not exactly the best opportunity to do so.

With his sabre still locked against the sword of the human martial artist, if he were to draw away a part of his Slaughter Essence right now, then he would instantly suffer a disadvantage!

If things were to take a turn for the worse and this disadvantage led to an opening, then judging from how sharp the opponent's decision making had been, there was no way that he would get away unscathed!

But even if he disregarded that, drawing away a part of his Slaughter Essence to temporarily suppress the poison was not a feasible idea.

His current state had already deteriorated to a point where his maximum strength would only be sufficient to match his opponent on equal terms.

By drawing away a part of his Slaughter Essence to temporarily suppress the poison, his total strength would fall even below that, meaning he would then be weaker than his opponent.

In contrast, by choosing to expel the poison, his available strength would temporarily fall to a point that was insufficient to match his opponent. But after the poison was successfully expelled, he would likely recover his original strength that was above that of his opponent.

At this stage, that seemed to be his only shot at victory.

But would he be able to survive until his strength returned?

Nanhong Wuze had not been completely unaffected by the gruesome fates of his three companions.

The first one had his throat sliced open.

The second one had his face sliced open.

The third one had his arm sliced off.

But the key thing here was that all of them had only suffered a single wound!

This meant that his opponent did not make any unnecessary moves. As long as he was given an opening, he would definitely make full use of it, dealing maximum damage to kill or incapacitate his target!

Or at least, he was able to do so against Advanced Essence Building realm martial artists.

Would his opponent be able to do the same against a Peak Essence Building realm martial artist like himself?

Nanhong Wuze had his doubts.

After all, the difference between each boundary was not a small one!

Just then, Nanhong Wuze felt his sabre being pushed back slightly.

Shit!

He was still getting weaker! Damn poison!

Nanhong Wuze cursed in his head. He was out of time.

With his strength gradually weakening, if he still did not do anything, then he was doomed to lose!

But no matter what, he had to disengage before trying to expel the poison.

By redirecting the force of his opponent's blade, Nanhong Wuze skilfully broke off his sabre from Lu Tianzi's sword and rapidly retreated.

He needed time to expel the poison in his body, but how could Lu Tianzi not realise his intention as well?

Lu Tianzi immediately raced after him, slashing out once again with his sword!

"Tch!" Nanhong Wuze frowned as he dodged.

Since the start of the battle, this was the first time that Nanhong Wuze had chosen to avoid a head on clash!

He had wasted no time in drawing his Slaughter Essence to suppress the poison, and was definitely incapable of matching Lu Tianzi's sword at the moment. Thus he truly had no choice but to dodge.

Seeing the proud and aggressive Nanhong Wuze resort to taking evasive measures, Lu Tianzi had more or less confirmed the state of his opponent's body. That gave him even more confidence to continue his pursuit!

One was constantly attacking, while the other was constantly retreating.

This was the exact same scenario as the start of the battle, only that their positions were now completely reversed!

Previously, Nanhong Wuze had the aid of two of his companions, but Lu Tianzi was still able to successfully keep him at bay.

Now, Lu Tianzi was alone, but Nanhong Wuze was weakened by the poison. On top of that, Nanhong Wuze had to further sacrifice a large part of his Slaughter Essence to expel the poison as soon as possible.

This threw him into a position of even greater disadvantage than the one Lu Tianzi was previously in!

Furthermore, Lu Tianzi had an unrivalled martial talent that brought with it an extremely keen sense of battle.

Earlier, this allowed him to catch on to small details and aided in his evasive measures.

Then, it allowed him to expose the opening in the demons' formation to launch a counter attack.

Now, it served to prevent Nanhong Wuze from successfully escaping his sword!

Clang-!

Nanhong Wuze could no longer continue to evade, and was forced to block as Lu Tianzi stabbed forward ferociously.

The sound of metal striking metal sounded out as Nanhong Wuze's guard was completely blown apart!

Stab-!

The second stab from Lu Tianzi came immediately, but Nanhong Wuze was actually able to turn his body at the last second, preventing the attack from hitting his vitals.

The sword pierced into Nanhong Wuze's left shoulder, drawing blood as it left.

It might have been a wound, but it was not deep.

Nanhong Wuze was right. Lu Tianzi was truly unable to kill a Peak Essence Building realm martial artist with a single strike!

But then the next attack came.

Nanhong Wuze's hastily recovered guard was blown away once again, and then the following slash drew a line diagonally across Nanhong Wuze's entire torso, splitting his clothes into two at the same time.

Then the third attack, followed by the fourth…

By now, Nanhong Wuze was already left in a tragic state. His naked upper body was completely drenched in blood. There were multiple open wounds, each with deep red blood pouring out of them. His eyes were glazed over, and his legs had slowed.

Having been reduced to his current state, Nanhong Wuze no longer stood a chance.

In the end, Nanhong Wuze's plan had failed. He was eventually unable to buy enough time for his body to recover to its peak state.

Seeing Nanhong Wuze in this state, Lu Tianzi no longer bothered wasting any words on him.

With a powerful thrust, Lu Tianzi stabbed his sword right through the demon's heart, drawing a spray of blood as it was retracted.

"Urgh!"

Nanhong Wuze choked on the blood that was spilling out of his mouth, his face full of unwillingness!

He had never wanted to come on this trip in the first place, only reluctantly agreeing after the guardian promised him a suitable reward for his troubles. But now that he had agreed to come here as a guardian for his companions, he did not slack off for a single moment.

In fact, he had proposed to take the extra step and lie in ambush instead of staying on the comfortable horse carriage.

When Nanhong Wuze first saw that it was only a human at the Advanced Essence Building realm, he had been filled with anger, frustrated that his companions had been done in by someone with a relatively low cultivation realm. That was why he had rushed forward without much consideration, wanting to overpower the opponent with overwhelming strength.

However, the end result was that he had suffered the exact same fate as those before him!