Chapter 108: One Sword Slays a Grand Perfection Expert of the Wandering Realm

As the voices of the fifth and the leader faded, they addressed Jian Mie:

"Boy, it is truly unexpected that the sixth would die at your hands without even drawing his battle weapon. The contempt the fifth showed you was his own undoing, but I shall reclaim the humiliation he suffered on his behalf."

From the moment these men revealed their malicious intent, Jian Mie had maintained a faint, enigmatic smile. This smile, which bordered on being intentionally inscrutable, only served to fuel his opponents' growing rage. Jian Mie’s eerie, wicked grin was a direct inheritance from Li Hao. Regardless of the situation, good or bad, he would always wear that same faint smile. The distinction between Li Hao’s wicked grin and Jian Mie’s lay in their intent: for Li Hao, the grin marked the moment he decided to kill, and its disappearance signaled the strike. For Jian Mie, as long as he was engaged in combat, that eerie expression remained fixed. Only when they smiled at those closest to them were their smiles truly genuine.

Li Hao possessed another avatar that also frequently wore a smile—a white-robed one, deeply influenced by the love within the world, capable of transmuting everything, whether good or bad, into positive energy. It was a mindset of knowing that a blessing in disguise is often hidden within misfortune.

The fifth, seeing Jian Mie still smiling after killing the sixth, felt that Jian Mie was deliberately provoking him. If rage could incinerate a person, Jian Mie would have died a thousand times over. Alas, the fifth's fury served no purpose other than to lead him toward his own destruction. Jian Mie, unconcerned with the fifth's thoughts, tilted his lips slightly, furrowed his brow, and fixed a gaze upon him that radiated a light no one dared to meet directly. Even as he observed his opponent, he remained vigilant.

Before the fight even began, the fifth’s composure had already crumbled under the weight of Jian Mie’s unsettling smile. Unable to bear it any longer, and incensed by Jian Mie’s silent, piercing stare, the fifth barked in frustration: "Boy, you are courting death!"

As the words left his lips, the fifth channeled the laws of heaven and earth within a thousand-foot radius into his long blade. He slashed toward Jian Mie with the force of a mountain-splitting, river-severing blow, intent on cleaving him in two.

In that instant, Jian Mie executed the Phantom Mirage Step, teleporting a step to the left. The fifth, convinced he had split Jian Mie in half, watched as the corpse he had struck vanished into thin air. Simultaneously, Jian Mie appeared to the left of the blade. Having evaded the attack, Jian Mie did not counterattack; instead, he continued to use the Phantom Mirage Step to retreat until he was well outside the fifth's striking range.

When the fifth saw his blade strike only an afterimage, a wave of shock crashed through him. "Such uncanny speed," he thought. "No wonder the sixth was killed by a single sword strike before he could even react."

Realizing his error, the fifth swung his blade toward Jian Mie’s legs, a strike so powerful it seemed impossible to avoid.

"Another afterimage."

The fifth grew even more horrified as his second attack missed. Jian Mie reappeared directly in front of him. As the fifth looked up, he found Jian Mie’s smile even more pronounced, causing his skin to crawl. Desperate, the fifth lunged forward, thrusting his blade directly at Jian Mie’s chest. The strike was at full speed, piercing straight through—yet it was, once again, only an afterimage.

Huangfu Shengqi, watching from the sidelines, felt his heart tighten. He was stunned by the grace and speed of Jian Mie’s movement, realizing that even with his own cultivation at the middle stage of the Soul-Forging Realm, he could not keep up with Jian Mie without using his own Lightning Phantom techniques. He feared that Jian Mie’s constant evasion was unwise; surely, he would eventually be exhausted and left at the mercy of his foes.

Only Li Hao, watching the battle unfold, understood Jian Mie’s strategy. He had grasped it the moment Jian Mie began to move, and he deemed it the most intelligent course of action.

The fifth, having pierced yet another afterimage, could not understand why Jian Mie refused to strike back. He remained convinced that Jian Mie could not escape their encirclement. But Jian Mie had never intended to run from the start—not without making them pay a price for their arrogance.

The fifth was entirely unaware that he had walked straight into a trap. His full-speed thrust, missing Jian Mie’s chest, instead surged toward his own companion. Caught off guard, the other youth had no choice but to raise his own long blade in a frantic defense. As the two collided, and while they were both caught in the chaos of their own momentum, Jian Mie appeared beside the fifth.

Before the targeted youth could even voice his alarm, and before the others could shout a warning, Jian Mie’s God-Demon World-Ending Sword swept through the air. The fifth’s head was severed in a single stroke, rolling to the ground with eyes still wide in shock.

The scene unfolded too quickly for anyone to react. Before the warnings of "Look out!" or "What are you doing?" could be fully uttered, the fifth was gone. In the split second of their horror, Jian Mie struck again, driving his massive, crimson blade through the center of the other youth's brow. The sword, larger than the youth’s entire head, cleaved it in two.

Having killed three, Jian Mie broke the encirclement and took to his heels without a word. By the time the others realized what had happened, the red-clad youth was gone, leaving only fading crimson afterimages in his wake.

The leader of the group cursed in rage: "Cunning brat! I will not let you escape today! Second, Third, after him!"

Watching this, Li Hao smiled inwardly. "You have not brought shame to your master."

Li Hao knew that once Jian Mie utilized the Phantom Mirage Step to break free, even these cultivators at the Great Completion of the Outing Realm, five minor realms above him, would be unable to catch him for a long time.

Li Hao withdrew his consciousness from the Chaos Primal Pearl and returned to his senses. Lin Xueyou was the first to ask, "Brother Li Hao, how is the situation?"

Zhen Ba, Kui Hu, Li Zhan, Qin Zhen, and Lu Yao all looked at him with anticipation. Li Hao replied, "Jian Mie encountered some people with ill intentions who coveted the God-Demon World-Ending Sword. But he is safe for now."

The group breathed a sigh of relief. Lin Xueyou, being the most observant, caught the nuance in his words. "Brother Li Hao, what do you mean by 'safe for now'?"

Li Hao explained, "A young cultivator at the Completion of the Outing Realm and five at the Great Completion of the Outing Realm surrounded him. Jian Mie killed three of them and then made his escape. He is out of immediate danger, and should he encounter trouble again, I will be the first to know, so there is no need to worry."

"Ah!" The group gasped in disbelief, stunned by the revelation that Jian Mie, who was only at the early stage of the Outing Realm, had managed such a feat.

After a long silence, Qin Zhen asked, "Young Master, tell us—how did he do it?"

Even the composed Zhen Ba and Lin Xueyou were burning with curiosity. Li Hao waved his hand, gathering the laws of heaven and earth to manifest a memory orb, replaying exactly what he had witnessed. As the group watched the battle unfold—from the childish, taunting dialogue to the breathtaking, heart-stopping combat—they were left in a state of profound shock.

Once they saw Jian Mie successfully escape, they slowly regained their composure. Lin Xueyou looked at Li Hao with a gaze of utter disbelief. When Li Hao asked why she was staring, she replied, "You are all monsters!"

"Indeed," the others agreed. "All monsters."

As time passed and their bond grew, the atmosphere became more relaxed. With their curiosity satisfied, they continued their journey. Meanwhile, Huangfu Shengqi followed in the wake of the three surviving youths, tracking Jian Mie into the distance.

Jian Mie knew his own limitations. His cultivation strength was ten times that of an average genius, but even with the enhancement of the God-Demon World-Ending Sword, he could at most rival an opponent at the late stage of the Outing Realm. Only with the unparalleled Phantom Mirage Step could he dance around a practitioner at the Completion of the Outing Realm. He had never intended to rely on brute force; he knew that if he fought head-on, even with his sword, he could barely defeat the one who underestimated him, but any of the others would have been too much to handle.

He had acted with the speed of a thunderbolt to fell the sixth, and from that moment on, he had watched the situation with cold, calculating eyes, waiting for the perfect moment to strike and run.