Elderly Martial Saint: Sixty Times the Cultivation Speed ​​at the Start

Yi Yang stood still, watching the suddenly appearing figure without letting his guard down.

There was no wind in the valley, but the stench of blood lingered in the air. Yi Yang gripped Xuan Yuan, the flesh on the web of his right hand gaping open, several cuts oozing blood. Blood flowed down the hilt of the sword, dripping into the cracks in the rocks.

A man in silver armor stood in front of him.

The man sheathed the spear in his hand, the silver tip untouched by blood, while Ye Hanqian's blood was scattered in mid-air.

The other person turned their gaze over, their sharp eyes, so intense that one dared not look directly at them, were fixed on Yi Yang.

"I am Jiang Zhongtian," the man said, his voice calm yet carrying an undeniable air of authority. "Deputy Garrison Commander of Hengyue, a crucial town."

The two names echoed in his ears. Yi Yang's fingers tightened around the hilt of his knife.

Hengyue, a crucial town—this was the destination written on the transfer order he received. Deputy Inspector—that was the title of the highest-ranking official in the entire Hengyue town.

He was very familiar with this name. Lu Quan'an had mentioned him in Suining Prefecture, and before leaving Qingzhou City, Yan Wuyuan had also emphasized this person to him in the side courtyard.

He ranked 278th on the Da Yu Hidden Dragon List.

A master who has reached the pinnacle of the Profound Realm.

That is, his direct superior in Yiyang.

Yi Yang turned the blade to his side, straightened his back, clasped his hands in a salute befitting a subordinate to a superior.

"This humble official, Yiyang, greets Lord Jiang."

Jiang Zhongtian waved his hand, indicating that he didn't need to be so polite.

No need for formalities.

He didn't look back at Ye Hanqian's remains nailed to the boulder, but turned to face the direction of Wanfeng County.

"One more person is coming," Jiang Zhongtian said, "someone from the Wu Kingdom."

Yi Yang followed his gaze and saw nothing but continuous mountain walls.

"He's on his way here, you handle it yourself." Jiang Zhongtian said, taking a step forward.

His feet were suspended in mid-air, and then his figure flashed and disappeared without a trace, without even stirring up a single pebble on the ground.

Yi Yang stood still, his eyes fixed on the spot where Jiang Zhongtian had just stood, but the other party had disappeared without a trace.

If Yi Yang hadn't been certain that he had just seen the other person, he would have thought he was hallucinating.

He sheathed Xuan Yuan's sword behind his back, reached into his robes with his left hand, pulled out a porcelain bottle, poured out two pills to replenish his true energy, swallowed them, and thought to himself:

Why is Jiang Zhongtian here?

"Was he secretly observing the battle, or did he just happen to be passing by?"

"Why didn't you continue attacking after killing Ye Hanqian, but instead went into hiding?"

"What is the true purpose of this powerful figure on the Hidden Dragon Ranking?"

A series of questions flashed through his mind, but before he could ponder them, his divine sense detected a powerful and somewhat frenzied aura rushing into the valley at an extremely fast speed.

Yi Yang's internal energy had not recovered much, but his spiritual sense had not been greatly depleted when dealing with Ye Hanqian. He walked behind a rock about half a person's height and sat down on the leeward side.

Close your eyes, slow your breathing as much as possible, and let the medicine take effect.

The western suburbs of Wanfeng County.

Huang Yi left in a hurry.

He waited in the woods outside the city for an hour. According to the original plan, Ye Hanqian would lead the Nine Evil Cult members to cause trouble in the city, lure Yi Yang out of the city to deal with him, and he would be responsible for providing backup and taking care of Ug who came out of the city.

As a result, the city was in complete chaos, and there wasn't even a sound from birds outside the city.

Huang Yi untied the bamboo tube hanging from his waist and poured out the tracking insects inside. Five black flying insects lay motionless on his palm, their antennae still and their wings pressed against their backs.

The tracking Gu lost its target's vital energy response.

He poured the insect back into the bamboo tube and cursed in the Wu language.

He turned his head and waved to the six followers of the Witch Kingdom behind him.

"Go into the city. Keep a close watch on them. If Ug shows up, don't make a move, give the signal."

The six attendants dispersed and blended into the flow of people heading towards the city gate.

Huang Yi pulled up the hood of his cloak to cover his face, then turned and ran towards the western valley.

These members of the Nine Evil Sects have no skills other than boasting. It took them so long to deal with a Da Yu military officer in the late stage of the True Qi Realm.

He crossed several ravines, trudged along the gravel path, and found his way into the valley. He stepped into the valley entrance.

A strong smell of blood hit me.

Huang Yi slowed his pace, his right hand casually resting on the hilt of the curved sword at his waist. He took twenty steps forward. Three headless corpses lay on the ground, all dressed in black. Limbs and severed bodies were scattered everywhere.

The three leaders of the Nine Evil Sect all perished here.

Huang Yi's gaze passed over the three corpses and looked at a towering rock wall at the back of the valley.

A person hangs from a huge, dark gray rock. Their long dress is torn to shreds. The left half of their body is mangled into a bloody pulp, and a gaping hole has been opened in their right chest.

Huang Yi quickly took two steps forward and stopped three zhang away. He recognized the black gauze dress; it was Ye Hanqian's dress.

This usually arrogant and domineering Blood Envoy of the Nine Evil Cult is now dead.

Seeing this scene made Huang Yi feel a chill run down his spine, and the hairs on the back of his head stood on end.

The other party was a Blood Envoy of the Profound Realm, whose strength was no weaker than his own. Just a few days ago, he was putting on airs in the cave, but now he was just a pile of rotten flesh.

He turned his neck and looked around. The bluestone slabs on the ground were cleaved with countless deep grooves by the sword energy, there were large pieces of broken stone on the rock wall, and blood was everywhere.

He didn't see the body of his target, Yi Yang, nor the bodies of the enemy. This was a big problem.

He was about to draw his scimitar.

From behind a pile of rubble not far away, came the faint sound of shoes rubbing against stones.

With a powerful leap, Huang Yi propelled himself several feet backward, spinning in mid-air as his scimitar was drawn, flashing with a cold light.

He landed quickly, the tip of his knife pointing in the direction from which the sound came.

Yi Yang emerged from behind the rocks. His gray cloth shirt was torn in seven or eight places, with charred edges from blood corrosion.

Yi Yang's left hand hung at his side, while his right hand held the long black sword, the tip of which touched the ground, leaving a shallow mark.

Huang Yi's gaze swept over Yi Yang.

The skin beneath his clothes was torn open, and blood was still seeping out. The man walked unsteadily, and the fluctuations of his internal energy were extremely weak. He could barely stand by using the knife in his hand as a crutch.

Judging from the situation, it seems that the battle depleted his internal energy.

Upon seeing the enemy's appearance, Huang Yi's heart, which had been hanging in suspense, settled back down. He straightened up and twirled his scimitar in his hand.

He glanced at Ye Hanqian's remains on the rock wall, then turned back to look at Yi Yang.

"This is really interesting." Huang Yi grinned, revealing his thick white teeth, and said in the official language of Da Yu, "That stupid woman always bragged to me about how capable the Nine Evils Sect was, but she couldn't even handle a Da Yu military officer who had just entered the Profound Realm. She just threw her life away here for nothing."

He reached up and pulled the hood off his head, then tossed it aside.

Yi Yang didn't reply. He moved his right hand, which was gripping the knife, up two inches, his knuckles bloodless from excessive force. He adjusted his stance and looked at Huang Yi.

"Don't force yourself." Huang Yi took a step forward, sword in hand. "You were capable enough to kill Ye Hanqian. But right now, you can't even hold a sword properly."

He ripped open the animal skin jacket from his chest and threw it to the ground.

On his exposed bronze chest were several eerie dark blue totems.

With each deep breath, the lines on his skin emitted a dark blue glow, his muscles bulged, and his bones cracked. His height seemed to increase by half a foot.

This is a barbarian rune passed down from the Witch Kingdom, which can squeeze out potential and enhance physical strength in a short period of time.

Huang Yi stared at Yi Yang, then strode forward step by step with his thick thighs.

"It's good that she's dead." Huang Yi said as he walked away. "All the credit will be mine. After killing you and dealing with Ug, I won't give her a single penny of the reward from the royal court."

He walked to a position ten steps away from Yiyang.

Yi Yang's chest heaved. His breathing was heavy, with a faint gurgling sound.

Huang Yi didn't stop walking. The soles of his boots made a clear cracking sound as they stepped on the gravel.

"You look so pathetic, like you're at your last gasp."

Five steps.

Huang Yi kept talking nonsense, his right hand holding a curved sword behind his back, his left hand with the five fingers together and the veins on the back of his hand bulging.

Three steps.

Huang Yi's face, which was full of mockery, turned fierce.

The bluestone slabs beneath his feet were crushed to pieces. Using the recoil from the stomp, he pressed forward with immense force, his left fist striking out without warning, aiming straight for Yi Yang's face.

He did not use a knife.

He planned to use this powerful punch, imbued with the power of barbarian runes, to smash the head of this Great Yu military officer, who had even exhausted his true energy, into a bloody pulp.

"You don't really think I'm an idiot, do you? That I'd just stand there and give you time to recover?"

The force of the punch hit him in the face, blowing Yi Yang's loose sideburns backward.

Yi Yang's eyes opened completely in that instant, and a divine light shone in his eyes.

He neither retreated nor dodged, and didn't even raise the long sword in his right hand.

Within his sea of ​​consciousness, the nine-foot-tall golden-haired giant ape bared its fangs and let out a silent roar.

The "Mind Monkey Guarding the Will Technique" at its perfect state unleashes a vast surge of divine consciousness.

This force was unpretentious; following Yi Yang's gaze, it forcefully entered Huang Yi's brow and penetrated his sea of ​​consciousness.

Huang Yi's left fist was still half an inch away from Yi Yang's nose.

His body was frozen in that half-inch of empty space.

It felt like a mountain had collapsed in my mind. All thoughts, senses, and consciousness were forcibly severed by this tyrannical and unreasonable divine power.

Huang Yi's vision went blank, and his ears went completely silent. The world vanished. There was no room for thought.

Yi Yang gripped the hilt of the sword tightly with his right hand and raised it upwards. The Xuan Yuan black sword smoothly and steadily sliced ​​across Huang Yi's neck from left to right.

The blade sliced ​​through rough flesh, severed the throat, and snapped the hard cervical vertebrae. Not a sound was made.

Huang Yi regained consciousness. He was about to bring down his left fist, which was suspended in mid-air, when he realized that his vision was wrong.

He saw a headless corpse standing in front of him, wearing dark pants and shirtless.

The corpse stood frozen in place, its left hand raised. The blue markings on its chest looked familiar; they were its own body.

Huang Yi's face was filled with resentment and disbelief.

He himself... a dignified warrior of the Witch Kingdom who had manifested at the Profound Realm, actually...

He was killed by an opponent who had exhausted his true energy?

Then, his gaze began to spin. He saw the hazy sky, the rocks at the edge of the valley, and finally fell onto the dusty ground.

Huang Yi closed his eyes and never opened them again.

Yi Yang sheathed his sword and stood there.

But the next moment, his body swayed violently, and he had to use the Xuan Yuan Blade to support himself on the ground to avoid falling.

This attack on his spiritual senses drained his last bit of mental strength.

At this moment, both his true energy and his divine sense were completely exhausted.

An unprecedented feeling of weakness washed over me like a tidal wave.

Just as Yi Yang was struggling to hold on, trying to take out pills from his storage ring to recover.

A familiar figure appeared silently once again in the valley.

Jiang Zhongtian emerged from the shadows.

His sharp eyes swept over the corpses of the servants on the ground, and then landed on the swaying Yi Yang.

A barely perceptible hint of approval flashed in his eyes.