Chapter 23: Shock and Awe

"You dare threaten us?!" Su Shinyan yelled in heart-palpitating fury. His fury was so tremendous that his eyes gleamed with killing intent as he stared at Yan Zaizen. The others apart and Ying Sumian's hunter group shuddered at the sight of those eyes. The killing intent of a late-Essence Formation cultivator was not to be underestimated.

He pointed towards Yan Zaizen and shouted, "Men, kill hi-"

He was interrupted by Su Fengyan, who upon grasping the situation, turned immediately around and ran away urging her full Qi capabilities. This action caused everyone, including Yan Zaizen, to be in complete disbelief and utter shock.

"What…?" Su Shinyan was bewildered, and his originally handsome face looked absolutely lost and ugly as it was mixed with surprise and burning fury. He turned to witness his sister already a bit away, continuing to urge her movement art to its maximum, and he felt like with each step she took her mastery of the art increased.

"..."

Everyone was stunned speechless.

"S-sis...sister?!" It took him a second before he could gather his bearings and shouted towards her direction.

"Run!" Was her only response, her voice filled with urgency.

They turned to look towards Yan Zaizen once more. However, all they saw was him with a slight smile on his face.

"Zero."

Hearing this, the group of men, including the quiet formation specialist, expression changed. The formation specialist was the most decisive out of the bunch, retrieving and shattering a small light-green pearl in his fist. His entire body was enveloped by surging wind Qi, and he vanished from everyone's eyes.

"An escape talisman?!" One of the men who were closest to the youth, couldn't help but exclaim. However, it was the last thing he said in this life.

A shadow appeared in front of him, a slim hand reached out as if it just broke through space and shot for his throat. The man was at the initial-Essence Formation, therefore had good instincts and reaction, but the speed was far too quick for his senses.

Yan Zaizen grasped the man's throat in his hand and mercilessly crushed.

CRUNCH!

The man's neck exploded in a mess of flesh and blood. His eyes were wide in disbelief, and his head leaned sideways, no longer having the support of his spine. Yan Zaizen's robe was coated in blood, and his eyes revealed a fierce battle intent that could not be hidden.

In truth, Yan Zaizen always had a merciless and fearless streak. When he saw Han Genji murder those Soaring Cloud Experts, he was simply shocked and horrified at the fact it was done in such a clean and concise way. He was no soft marshmallow. He knew that in the cultivation world one must kill or be killed, and cultivation was filled with nine parts death and one part life. Fights were as common as the clouds, and clans were decimated daily.

If you don't have the ability to fight, then you'll die.

However, he was never strong enough.

Now, he was.

Yan Zaizen didn't pause for a second, his eyes revealing his intention to kill. He bolted towards another initial-Essence Formation cultivator within the group. He knew that if he was surrounded or allowed them to set up some sort of formation, it'll likely be an incredibly difficult fight from then on.

Su Shinyan's eyes shrunk. The death of his ally was surprising to him, but he was an experienced hunter, and thus his reaction rebound was rather fast. "Set up Hexagonal-Cross Formation!" He ordered. He roared as his body exploded with lightning-Qi, looking like a lightning god descending from the heavens, he pulled out a bright yellow saber and executed a profound movement art.

It was Yan Zaizen's turn for his eyes to shrink. Su Shinyan's explosion caused him to pause from surprise. An aura-based art? He could feel his muscles and body feeling numb, and despite the lightning-Qi not actually coming into contact with him, he could feel its stinging sensation.

Su Shinyan's robust body appeared right in front of Yan Zaizen's path, intercepting almost instantly.

Such speed?! Yan Zaizen shock grew, however, he didn't dare allow himself to continue his pause. The aura Qi-Art of Su Shinyan was making his body feel number with each passing micro-second, and he couldn't let this continue. His eyes filled with an unusually icy-cold light. No longer holding back, he exerted his full strength, punching towards Su Shinyan with everything he had. The wind sheared from its path, and howling whistled, his fist almost instantly appeared before Su Shinyan.

Frightened, Su Shinyan saw that the fist contained power he couldn't dodge, but didn't retreat. Instead, he urged the full force of his armor, weapon, and Qi in unison. "Lightning Ruination!" He thundered, the lightning glow in his saber exploded outwards to meet this incredible fist.

BOOM!!!

They collided. An explosion so deafening that the world went silent afterward resounded. Su Shinyan was sent flying, his armor shattered, his saber destroyed, and his hands a mangled mess. Like a kite with a broken string, he was propelled far into the forest and disappeared. His life and death unknown.

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Yan Zaizen, however, was sent back a few dozen meters away. His fist was dripping with some blood and surrounded by remnant lightning-Qi, but he was relatively fine. Inwardly shocked by his explosive power, he couldn't help but think to himself if his assumption on his previous strength was off.

This delay of the collision, however, was sufficient enough for the group of well-trained hunters to execute the Hexagonal-Cross Formation. They each held a vibrantly glowing stone filled with wonderous energies, whilst standing in a small-shaped hexagon. The one facing Yan Zaizen, a mid-Essence Formation cultivator was the leader, while the rest acted as support and stood behind.

The Hexagonal-Cross Formation was a rank three unified formation that allows the leader to draw upon the Qi of the rest to execute attacks that are several times more powerful than normal.

"Time to die!" The mid-Essence Formation cultivator declared.

Yan Zaizen snorted coldly at his declaration and started to focus his soul energy.

A formation was insidiously difficult to deal with, and unless broken, he'll be in for one hell of a fight. The leader of this group had the Qi of five other Essence Formation cultivators funneling into him, enhancing his abilities, and making his aura rise to something between peak-Essence Formation and initial-Qi Unification - Half-step Qi Unification. This level of strength exceeded Su Shinyan's by quite a bit.

With this, he decided to take a risk. He didn't know if it'll work in any degree, but if it did, this would make the fight so much easier.

"Pneuma Disruption!" He shouted inwardly, his charged soul energy shot towards the leader of the group with an imperceptible speed. Soul Arts were incredibly powerful because of their incredible speeds that even Origin Core Realm Cultivators couldn't dodge, and unless one had cultivation into the soul, it'll be incredibly difficult to deal with without prior preparations or a strong cultivation base.

The soul energy reached the leader in a blink, his eyes almost instantly turned absent-minded. Almost immediately, he lost control of the formation, and the other five were subsequently expelled due to the chaos. Each of them coughed blood and displayed a hint of weakness. When the formation backfired, everyone involved suffered a disastrous and unified fate.

Yan Zaizen underestimated his soul strength. Even though the Soul Art he used couldn't even be considered at the stage of Initial Success, the foundation of it was pretty much understood. Invade your opponent's soul, wreak havoc. His soul cultivation was at the Perfect Nascent Soul while his opponent didn't possess any.

He couldn't even defend against this reckless assault of Yan Zaizen.

His soul fire was bombarded and snuffed out in a second, immediately sentencing him to a comatose state of death. His body may live for a short while, but he was undeniably dead.

Yan Zaizen didn't let his excitement at this discovery delay his initial goal - eradication!

His body propelled forward to reach an initial-Essence Formation cultivator, his fist whirled and smashed upon his chest. His chest cavity caved in. His body flew and smashed directly into a nearby tree, only stopping after the violent collision that left the tree snapped in two.

He didn't stop for a second, continuing with this ferocious momentum.

His right leg kicked out with explosive force, smashing against the cranium of a mid-Essence Formation, inducing a soul-rendering scream followed by a bloody explosion. The bone fragments, blood, and brain matter sprayed on another cultivator. The sudden impact sent him on his butt, and Yan Zaizen did not leave this display of carelessness unexploited.

A short dash and a roaring fist to the head later left the man without a life.

A hellish scream echoed, as one of the members realized the circumstance and turned tail. His attempts to run didn't escape Yan Zaizen's eyes and appeared directly behind him, his slightly skinny hands were placed on the man's head. Seeing Yan Zaizen's hands appear, one on his mouth and another on the back of his head so suddenly, he wanted to say something.

SNAP!

A twist of his wrists turned the man's head a complete 360°.

The other two were dealt with quickly enough, incapable of running. It may have been long to describe, but the entire set of events from Su Fengyan's escape to the last two's deaths only took less than a minute. Yan Zaizen demonstrated his natural killer instincts as a cultivator, truly merciless, but considering the hunter group's intentions, they should've known that this could happen.

He looked towards Su Shinyan's direction but realized he was gone. Even his spiritual sense couldn't locate him.

"Cold-blooded." Yan Zaizen remarked. Leaving his teammates to die and running off truly felt malicious. Still, Yan Zaizen didn't chase. He felt too lazy to do so. However, he wasn't too lazy to perform the age-old tradition of takings his spoils of war. He looted every one of their bodies, and even their cracked armors were taken.

Looking at his gains, he couldn't help but smile with a little bit of happiness. Most of this came from the fact that he now possessed a spatial bag! Before, he had to fashion a bag out of skin and scales, but now he could just store everything. A large reason for his actions had to do with obtaining these bags.

Unfortunately, the Meteor Ring still didn't allow him to take things away or store things into it. If it did, he wouldn't even be in his situation of having too many things and nowhere to store it. A soft sigh resounded as he remembered how there was a treasure on his finger that he had no access to.

He turned to witness the startled expression of Ying Sumian's group. Realizing the rank four entrapment barrier disappeared with the formation youth, he felt relieved. With a slight smile and a chuckle he suggested, "We should leave."

He genuinely wanted to get back home.

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