Chapter 119: The Man in White

“It seems you are destined to die after all. Heh heh. You practice such a vicious technique— even if I wanted to spare your life, I could no longer do so.”

Lin Dapao chuckled, then slowly drew a bronze sword from his waist. At first glance, it looked as though the blade had been strung together from coins, and its entire surface was covered in verdigris.

“The Soul-Devouring Sword! How is that possible?!”

The moment the little old man saw the bronze flexible sword in Lin Dapao’s hand, he sucked in a sharp breath. The Soul-Devouring Sword was far too famous. Its first master had been Revered Elder.

Long ago, while traveling through the Kunlun Mountains, Revered Elder discovered a cave at the summit. There was nothing inside except a sword embedded in a stone platform. At the time, Revered Elder did not know how formidable the sword was. He had intended to pull it free, only to suffer its backlash.

One had to understand that, at the time, Revered Elder’s strength had already reached the pinnacle. Almost nothing in the world could injure him. Yet, unexpectedly, he had been wounded by a broken sword.

The sword looked truly dilapidated. Its entire body was covered in green patina, and some parts of the blade were even chipped. Nevertheless, this battered weapon had managed to injure him.

After that, Revered Elder remained in the cave for more than ten days. When he grew hungry, he went out to find wild fruit. When he became thirsty, he drank from the mountain spring. After more than ten days of effort, he finally subdued the sword.

From then on, whenever Revered Elder drew that sword, rivers of blood were sure to flow. It had practically become a law.

The sword’s second master was a peerless hero of his generation. It was because of him that the weapon finally revealed its true form once more. Even so, it would not display that form unless the situation became truly desperate, for the sword’s murderous aura was simply too intense.

So far, apart from that peerless hero, no one had been found capable of controlling all of the sword’s forms with ease.

“Heh heh. Since you know this is the Soul-Devouring Sword, you must have already guessed what awaits you!”

With those words, Lin Dapao’s body suddenly moved. The Soul-Devouring Sword in his hand shot toward the little old man, carrying with it the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. The little old man was almost trapped in certain death, but his experiences over the years enabled him to narrowly evade the strike.

Although he escaped the fatal blow, the Soul-Devouring Sword still sliced away a large chunk of flesh from his shoulder. The muscles on the little old man’s face twitched. Then he drew a deep breath and raised the red skull in his hand once more.

A torrent of red mist erupted. This time, it came faster and more violently than before, instantly enveloping Lin Dapao.

Not a single living creature wrapped in the Red-Poison Ghost Mist had ever survived. The little old man had absolute confidence in this technique. He took a step backward with great satisfaction and stood quietly in place, watching Lin Dapao within the red fog. His face was filled with smug delight.

A flash of azure light burst forth.

A long blue sword suddenly emerged from the red mist, startling the little old man, who hurriedly raised the skull in his hand to shield his chest. But the sword came too quickly, and its angle was extraordinarily treacherous. It slipped past the skull and plunged directly into the little old man’s left shoulder.

That was not the end of it. The blue sword suddenly twisted.

With a sharp metallic clatter, the skull was forcibly snapped in two by the sword. Only then did the blade withdraw, having accomplished its task.

“How— how— how— how is this possible?!”

If he could not understand where that blue sword had come from, the little old man would never rest in peace. He staggered backward several steps and only managed to steady himself after grabbing hold of a table. His eyes remained fixed on the red mist he had just released.

The fog gradually dispersed, revealing Lin Dapao’s tall figure. He stood there with a wicked smile.

“How are you unaffected by the Red-Poison Ghost Mist?!” the little old man roared, staring at Lin Dapao with wide eyes. His expression made him look as though he wanted to swallow Lin Dapao alive.

“I can explain that.”

A calm voice suddenly rang out inside the KFC.

Revered Elder rose to his feet, brushed the remaining fragments from his hands, and walked to within two meters of the little old man. He stopped there and said with a genial smile, “The Red-Poison Ghost Mist was once acknowledged by the world as one of the most vicious techniques in existence. I was curious about its power, so several decades ago, I went to visit its final master.”

“I must say, you have not grasped the essence of the Red-Poison Ghost Mist at all. You have only learned its superficial tricks. In that battle, I nearly died beneath the Red-Poison Ghost Mist.

“When its final master unleashed it, the area within a hundred meters was completely shrouded in red fog. Inside it, you could not even see clearly from a distance of a few dozen centimeters. At the same time, you had to resist both the deadly poison carried by the mist and the unpredictable attacks of its final master.”

A rare intoxication filled Revered Elder’s eyes, as though he had become lost in the memory of that battle.

“In the end, however, I still killed him with my own hands. During our fight, I created an inner cultivation technique specifically designed to counter the Red-Poison Ghost Mist. Heh heh. As fate would have it, my disciple has a strange and eccentric temperament and enjoys studying all sorts of useless things. On a whim, I passed that technique on to him. I never expected it to come in handy today. Heh heh.”

After saying this, Revered Elder slowly closed his eyes. He looked tired. He yawned and said to Lin Dapao, “I’ll leave this place to you. I’m going back to sleep for a while. On a night like this, I should be sleeping soundly in bed, yet I came all the way here to waste time arguing with you people.”

With that, he casually pushed open the door of the KFC and vanished into the endless rainy night.

“Damn! What a show-off!”

Only after making sure Revered Elder had left did Lin Dapao finally curse aloud. But this was not the time for him to do anything else. There was still a little old man waiting before him.

“Old man, how about we discuss something?”

Lin Dapao had completely lost the imposing bearing he had displayed moments earlier. He put away the Soul-Devouring Sword, walked over to the little old man, and threw an arm around his shoulders.

The little old man knew that death was inevitable, so he simply resigned himself to his fate. Moreover, the sword wound to his shoulder had completely destroyed his fighting strength.

One of the Soul-Devouring Sword’s abilities was to inflict severe damage upon the human soul. The moment the sword merely grazed you—even if it only cut through a layer of skin—your soul would suffer grievous injury.

Unless your soul was powerful enough to resist the devouring force transmitted by the sword, even if you were fortunate enough to survive, your cultivation would be utterly ruined.

At that moment, the little old man was one of the lucky ones. Although he had been struck by the Soul-Devouring Sword, he had not died. However, his cultivation had been destroyed, leaving him completely powerless to resist.

“What do you want? Kill me or cut me apart—do as you please. Just stop dragging this out!”

This time, it was the little old man’s turn to put on airs. But when Lin Dapao heard him, he laughed.

“Well, aren’t you a tough one! Brother, you’re Song Nianqiang, right? Come over here and let’s discuss how to deal with this old bastard!”

The way he addressed him made a complete mess of their seniority. Fortunately, Lin Dapao’s master was not there; otherwise, he would certainly have beaten Lin Dapao senseless.

“What do you think we should do? Look at him—he’s old, and life hasn’t been easy for him. How about we let him go?”

Song Nianqiang was obviously only teasing the little old man when he said this. Unexpectedly, Lin Dapao nodded.

“Good idea. Let’s do exactly that!”

With that, he kicked the little old man out of the building.

Outside, the torrential rain continued to pour. Lightning tore across the night sky. As the little old man stumbled through the downpour, barely able to conceal his excitement and the elation of having escaped death, a man in white suddenly appeared before him.

“Who are you?! What do you want?!”

At that moment, the little old man looked every bit like a beggar. Before losing his abilities, he had possessed an elegant, otherworldly bearing. Now, that carefree grace had naturally been replaced by utter wretchedness.

“You should not be allowed to remain in this world, because you made one mistake. Heh heh. Why am I wasting my breath saying this to a beggar?”

The man in white seemed to be talking to himself, yet he also seemed to be speaking to the little old man.

A gleaming cleaver suddenly appeared in his hand. At a glance, it was clearly a rare and excellent weapon. He walked slowly toward the little old man and looked down at him as he sat collapsed in the muddy water.

Then, the man in white suddenly smiled.

It was a sinister, deeply sinister smile.