Tang Dynasty Demon Suppression Division

"Ugh!"

Li Yuan grunted, staggered backward, and almost fell to the ground.

Lu Ming gave him no chance to catch his breath, following him like a shadow, and thrust out his sword again, aiming straight for Li Yuan's dantian, showing no mercy.

Li Yuan gritted his teeth, his eyes flashed, and he suddenly held the nameless knife horizontally in front of his chest to block.

"clang!"

The swords clashed, and the nameless sword was knocked out of his hand, tumbling several times in the air before embedding itself in the ground several feet away.

Li Yuan was now wide open, with nowhere to retreat. Behind him were six experts watching him intently, while in front of him, Lü Ming's sword strikes were relentless, each move deadly.

At the critical moment, Li Yuan's figure suddenly became ethereal, and under the cover of the sword's force, he was forced to shift his position. The long sword grazed the edge of his body and pierced through his right chest.

"puff--!"

Li Yuan spat out a mouthful of blood, flew backward, and crashed heavily to the ground.

"Brother Li!"

Wu Yu turned her head and saw it, letting out a heart-wrenching scream.

Lu Ming slowly walked up to Li Yuan, looking down at him with a hint of regret in his eyes as he held the long sword that was still dripping blood. "Li Yuan, your path ends here."

He raised his sword, aiming it at Li Yuan's throat.

Seeing this from afar, Ji Fanghua let out a piercing cry: "No!"

She recklessly activated her spatial teleportation, trying to rush into the tent, but the Ice Soul Python King swept its long tail, sending her flying backward.

Everyone could only watch helplessly as Lü Ming grinned and raised his long sword, powerless to do anything about it.

"die!"

The longsword, imbued with an unwavering killing intent, pierced towards Li Yuan's throat.

In that split second between life and death, a strange light suddenly shone in Li Yuan's eyes.

It was neither starlight nor firelight, but a mysterious light as black as night.

The moment the light appeared, everything around them froze. The sinister smile on Lü Ming's face froze, and the black mist swirling around his longsword stopped flowing.

Even the shouts of battle outside the tent disappeared, and the dust floating in the air froze in mid-air.

Time stood still.

The power of time is Li Yuan's most mysterious talent, but before, his cultivation level was too low, so he could only slow down the flow of time, and the duration was extremely short.

After entering the Condensation Realm, his understanding of the laws of time deepened, and he was able to truly stop time.

However, this pause is extremely short-lived. When facing opponents with lower cultivation levels, he can easily pause for more than ten breaths. But when facing a master like Lü Ming who has entered the Dao realm, the opponent's Dao aura will automatically resist the interference of the laws of time. The time he can buy is at most three breaths.

Three breaths is, for an ordinary person, the time it takes to blink three times.

But for a master like Li Yuan, it was enough to save his life.

This was his trump card, which he couldn't use lightly, so he had been holding back, waiting for this opportunity to get close.

As time stood still, Li Yuan made a grasping motion with his right hand, and the nameless blade several feet away emitted a buzzing sound, transforming into a streak of light and flying into his hand.

"Flame Silence!"

He let out a shout, and crimson flames erupted from the blade, transforming into a human figure—the weapon spirit, Yan Ji.

"Buzz!"

A ray of starlight descended from the heavens, and a vast and ancient power surged into his limbs and bones, instantly filling his nearly depleted dantian.

The power of the five elements within his body erupted, and five-colored light intertwined and wrapped around his body, instantly surging to its peak with unparalleled momentum.

"Blazing flames engulf the heavens!"

Li Yuan's figure transformed into towering flames, and at that moment he seemed to merge with the nameless sword.

Man is knife, knife is man!

He transformed into a crimson fire meteor, carrying an aura of incineration, and slashed towards Lü Ming's chest with his blade.

This slash filled the entire sky and turned the earth red.

The three breaths ended.

Time has returned to normal.

Lu Ming's vision blurred, and before he could understand what was happening, a scorching heat that made his scalp tingle rushed towards him.

A crimson blade of light descended from the sky, the flames burning on it seemingly capable of incinerating the heavens and earth.

"What is this?"

Lu Ming's pupils contracted sharply. He had no time to think and instinctively held his sword horizontally to his chest, hastily mobilizing all his inner energy in an attempt to block this earth-shattering strike.

"boom!!!"

A deafening roar resounded as crimson flames and black killing intent collided violently, erupting in a dazzling light.

The tattered tent was completely torn to shreds, and the surrounding cultivators were all shocked, spitting blood and flying backward.

A terrifying power emanated from the sword, its scorching heat unstoppable, and it even carried a vague Daoist aura.

His prized killing intent was easily torn apart by the impact of that force.

"Snap!"

A crack appeared on the black longsword, and then the crack spread like a spider web, quickly covering the entire blade.

"impossible!"

Lu Ming let out a roar, staring incredulously at the sword in his hand.

The next moment, the longsword shattered with a crash, turning into countless black fragments that scattered in all directions. Li Yuan's sword momentum did not diminish, and he slashed fiercely into Lü Ming's chest.

"puff!"

Lu Ming spat out a mouthful of golden blood and flew backward like a kite with a broken string, carving a deep trench in the ground until he crashed into a sand dune and barely came to a stop.

A sharp pain shot through him. Lu Ming looked down, his eyes wide open. On his chest was a deep, bone-revealing knife wound that stretched from his left shoulder to his right rib. The skin around the wound was charred black and was still sizzling.

Fresh blood gushed from the wound, staining his official robes red.

The entire room fell silent.

Everyone was stunned, staring in disbelief at the scene.

Lu Ming, the Jiedushi of Hexi who had entered the Dao Realm, was actually killed by a young man in the mid-stage of the Condensation Realm with a single strike.

This completely overturned their understanding.

Li Yuan stood there, his face as pale as paper, his hand holding the knife trembling incessantly. That last strike had almost exhausted all his mental energy.

Time stopped, communication with the Dark Star occurred, and the simultaneous use of man and sword not only drained his true energy but also exhausted his mental strength, making it difficult for him to even stand.

But he still stood straight, his gaze solemn, staring intently at the distant sand dune. He knew, of course, that Lü Ming was not dead.

A cultivator who has entered the Dao realm possesses incredibly strong vitality; how could they be killed so easily?

"Bang!"

The sand dune suddenly exploded, and Lü Ming stood up from the rubble. He looked extremely disheveled, his official robes were torn, his hair was disheveled, and the knife wound on his chest was shocking.

His eyes shone with a terrifying intensity, a mixture of anger, humiliation, and murderous intent.

"Good...very good..."

Lu Ming glanced down at the wound on his chest, then slowly raised his head to look at Li Yuan, revealing a ferocious smile: "Since entering the Dao Realm, I have never suffered such a serious injury."

"Li Yuan, you are very good."

He reached up and wiped his chest, his hand covered in blood.

Lu Ming put the blood to his lips, licked it, and gave a sinister smile.

"You think that's the end of it?"

His voice was frantic, "You think you can kill me with that one stab?"

He stomped his foot suddenly.

A violent aura erupted, and at the wound, black killing energy wriggled like living things, weaving into strands of black silk that forcibly stitched the wound together.

His aura was still rising, filled with a dangerous scent.

"Secret method, bloody killing!"

Lu Ming's voice seemed to come from the deepest hell.