"How is this possible?!"
The Prefecture Overseer of Nanping was shocked at the sight before him, and the head of the messaging group watching the battle couldn't help but cry out in surprise as well.
"Heh heh..."
A sinister laugh echoed from behind the Prefecture Overseer.
It turned out that when Lin Li used the Heaven-Shattering Sword to break the water prison and sever the water dragon, he had already entered his Like a Fish in Water state!
Normally, even with his air-walking ability, Lin Li's speed wouldn't be so overwhelming as to completely escape the notice of someone two levels higher in cultivation, like the Prefecture Overseer of Nanping.
However...
At the moment when the water prison and water dragon were shattered, water had splashed everywhere!
With the Like a Fish in Water state maximized by the presence of water, combined with his air-walking ability, Lin Li's speed became so incredible that it seemed like teleportation, allowing him to move right behind the Prefecture Overseer in an instant.
The moment the Prefecture Overseer heard Lin Li's chilling laugh, he was shocked and instinctively tried to fly forward while summoning a water shield for defense.
But...
It was already too late!
Lin Li's sword plunged directly into the Prefecture Overseer's back!
Bloodlust!
Poison!
Soul Extinguishing!
Soul Devouring!
All four of Ye Fan's passive skills activated simultaneously!
[You have absorbed the blood essence of the Da Jing Dynasty's Prefecture Overseer of Nanping, a Nascent Soul stage level six cultivator, gaining 6,666 points of energy.]
...
In just an instant, the Prefecture Overseer lunged forward, breaking free from Lin Li's attack range.
However.
It was too late!
The poison effect blocked his spiritual power flow and sapped his physical strength!
The bloodlust effect drained a significant portion of his vital essence in an instant!
The soul extinguishing effect severely damaged his soul!
But most terrifying of all...
Was the soul-devouring effect from Ye Fan, now a lower-grade spiritual treasure.
In that moment, the Prefecture Overseer felt as though a part of his Nascent Soul had already been devoured!
It was as if his cultivation and soul were being consumed in real-time!
Pfft!
Blood gushed from his back. His severely damaged soul and Nascent Soul made it impossible for him to channel his spiritual energy to suppress the poison. He coughed up a mouthful of black, poisonous blood and clutched his chest, shouting in disbelief, "Why?! My Nascent Soul is..."
At that moment, his mind was reeling, his soul disoriented, and his terror knew no bounds. His combat power had plummeted compared to what it was moments before.
On the other hand, Lin Li was rapidly gaining energy, thanks to Ye Fan's absorption of the Prefecture Overseer's soul, Nascent Soul, and blood essence!
Lin Li, already at the peak of the fourth level of the Nascent Soul stage, found his cultivation rapidly increasing under the surge of energy. He quickly broke through to the fifth level!
With Lin Li's strength rising and the Overseer's diminishing, Lin Li's power had nearly caught up to his enemy's, even without entering a slaughter state or using his air-walking or Like a Fish in Water techniques.
But now, standing before his enemy, Lin Li showed no mercy!
His entire body radiated intense, blood-red energy, disturbing the air around him.
His crimson eyes gleamed with endless killing intent!
The Butcher's Aura!
In an instant, a dark red wave of energy surged from Lin Li's body!
This was the Butcher's Aura, a skill Ye Fan had gained after evolving during the Holy War of Baixing Kingdom!
The moment the wave of aura reached the head of the messaging group, his pupils shrank, and he fainted instantly, collapsing to the ground.
At the same time!
The already gravely weakened Prefecture Overseer was struck by the Butcher's Aura and suddenly felt as though the enemy before him wasn't just a person...
But a Shura demon that had crawled out from the depths of a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood!
The terror was so overwhelming that he couldn't even muster the will to resist. It felt as though his life was about to be snatched away by this terrifying Shura demon!
As the Prefecture Overseer fell into this mental illusion, Lin Li rushed at him once again—
"For your corruption, your betrayal of the innocent, pay the price you deserve!"
By the time Lin Li spoke these words, the Prefecture Overseer's mind had already collapsed!
His face was filled with terror, his complexion pale, and tears streamed down his cheeks. Even snot flowed from his nose as he begged, "P-p-please! I was wrong. I shouldn't have done it! Please, spare me!"
Before he could finish, Lin Li swung his sword horizontally!
In an instant, the Overseer's head flew through the air, blood gushing from his neck like a fountain!
[You have killed the Prefecture Overseer of Nanping, a Nascent Soul stage level six cultivator of the Da Jing Dynasty, gaining 668,913 evolution points.]
"Six hundred sixty-eight thousand nine hundred thirteen evolution points!"
Ye Fan's spirit stirred. "It seems that as the host's cultivation improves, my ability to accumulate evolution points grows even faster!"
"It's not like when Lin Li was just at the Qi Refining stage, where it took forever to gather enough evolution points to evolve even once!"
Now, with the points gained from this kill, Ye Fan had over two million evolution points in total!
And to evolve from a lower-grade spiritual treasure to a middle-grade one required six million evolution points.
"If a single Nascent Soul stage level six cultivator can give me nearly 670,000 evolution points... I'll be reaching middle-grade spiritual treasure status soon enough!"
Ye Fan was excited.
Lin Li, on the other hand, stood silently as the Prefecture Overseer's headless body fell from the sky. The fierce aura around him gradually subsided, and his bloodlust faded.
But...
He was suddenly overcome with a deep sadness and sorrow.
Tears welled up in Lin Li's eyes and began to spill down his cheeks.
Back then...
His father, who had been wholeheartedly loyal to the nation, was falsely accused of rebellion, and his entire family was massacred!
The image of his mother holding his sisters as they were ruthlessly slaughtered by Mo Wentian!
The flames that consumed the Lin family estate when it was destroyed!
He remembered himself as a child, crying, bleeding from his heart, his mouth covered by a retainer, struggling desperately as he was forcefully taken away from the chaos.
One childhood trauma after another resurfaced in Lin Li's mind, leaving him standing motionless in the sky, weeping uncontrollably!
This...
Was only the second time Lin Li had cried in the decades since that day.
Not even when he had faced countless crises, suffered unimaginable pain, or come close to death had he shed tears.
But this time...
Lin Li cried bitterly.
"Father! Mother!"
"Sister... Little Sister!"
"Did you see this from the afterlife?"
"I... have avenged you!"
By this point, other cultivators from Nanshan Spirit Mountain had arrived, drawn by the commotion. They found the head of the messaging group unconscious on the ground, knocked out by the Butcher's Aura.
More importantly...
They discovered the decapitated corpse of the Prefecture Overseer of Nanping!
Gasp!
"The Prefecture Overseer!"
"He's dead!?"
The cultivators looked up at Lin Li, still hovering in the air, but none dared to speak—how could they? Even the Prefecture Overseer had been defeated so miserably. Were they supposed to interrupt Lin Li and court death?
And so, Lin Li stood there in the air, weeping for a long time.
Meanwhile, the rest of the messaging group members hurriedly returned to report what had happened, sending word through their magical communication devices to Yongkang City, the capital of the Da Jing Dynasty.