In Hundred Refinements City, on the ruined street outside the Hundred Fragrance Pavilion, the black-robed elderly man's figure slowly lifted into the air.
His black robes blended into the night behind him, the wide sleeves drifting without wind. His withered hands hung from the sleeves, knuckles protruding, giving off a cold iron-grey light.
In that moment, the True Qi of heaven and earth from all around funneled toward his body like a great drain, casting an immense shadow in the sky above that looked as though it had torn through the heavens and earth.
His clouded eyes blazed with a fearsome brightness, as though ten thousand malevolent spirits were housed within, and they were fixed rigidly on Li Musheng sitting on the roof of the Hundred Fragrance Pavilion.
In an instant, the terrifying martial killing intent radiating from the black-robed elderly man was so overwhelming that the air all around had frozen and stilled, as though hundreds and thousands of invisible blades, charged with sky-piercing murderous force, were all pointed directly at Li Musheng.
"You do not look like the Hundred Refinements Peak Master to me."
Li Musheng glanced at the black-robed elderly man rising into the air below.
Hearing this, the elderly man said nothing, and only looked down at the bodies of the First Wife and the others in the street furrow below, the killing intent on his body surging like a raging gale and crashing waves.
In the next instant, he drove both arms forward, and rolling, murky martial True Qi erupted from him, condensing in an instant into ten thousand ghost hands before him, which then surged forward to engulf Li Musheng.
The elderly man in black clearly had absolutely no interest in words. On his way to Hundred Refinements City, he had already learned from the Hundred Refinements Peak disciple carrying the message everything that had happened in the city.
The only thing he needed to do now was kill Li Musheng. Otherwise he could not give Zheng Yunfeng any account of himself, and could not bear the overwhelming fury of a man who had lost his wife and children in a single night.
In that moment, the elderly man in black fixed his gaze on the Hundred Fragrance Pavilion engulfed in sweeping murky True Qi, his own killing intent refined and condensed into what felt like a great blade ready to leave its sheath at any instant.
If Li Musheng somehow managed to slip free of his killing technique, he would be ready to deliver a fatal blow the moment any opening appeared.
Yet, just as he sealed off and locked down the area around the Hundred Fragrance Pavilion with his aura, Li Musheng's voice suddenly reached his ear, "Send a message to your Peak Master. If he does not come soon, before the other eight peaks receive my transmission, I may have to go back on my word."
And the moment those words fell, the elderly man in black saw the air before him shimmer faintly, and Li Musheng's figure appeared within it.
At that sight his expression changed sharply, and he immediately moved to retreat, only to discover in terror that his body was as though filled with iron and lead, completely unable to move even a fraction.
Li Musheng shook his head, and with a casual wave of his hand, the countless rolling murky True Qi ghost hands gathered behind him were scattered as though by a sudden gust of wind, and vanished without a trace in an instant.
...
A short while later, the elderly man in black had a hole pierced through his forehead by a single finger, and his face still bore the frozen expression of agony and terror from the Life and Death Talisman's torment as he fell in a straight, rigid plummet into the street furrow below.
Immediately after, Li Musheng channeled True Qi into a jade tube he held, and a blazing silver flame shot skyward, lighting up a special pattern in the night sky above all of Hundred Refinements City for the span of several breaths before slowly fading.
"I have heard this is the signal Hundred Refinements Peak only sends when something of great magnitude has happened. Now the Hundred Refinements Peak Master really ought to be on his way."
Li Musheng sat on the roof of the Hundred Fragrance Pavilion and looked up at the night sky. This signal was extremely rare, and the other eight peaks of Falling God Peak in the surrounding area could likely see it as well.
At the same time, on the small hill outside Hundred Refinements City, the hemp-robed elderly man and Lin Xunner both stood motionless in the darkness, looking like clay and wooden figures.
A short while ago, having seen the elderly man in black enter the city, they had felt a wave of overwhelmingly terrifying martial killing intent shoot into the sky.
The two of them had initially assumed that with the Hundred Refinements Peak Chief Elder's formidable strength, second only to Zheng Yunfeng, what followed would be a world-shaking martial duel inside Hundred Refinements City.
Yet what neither of them had anticipated was that the heart-chilling killing intent and fearsome aura had appeared as quickly as it vanished.
In the span of just a few breaths, every trace of killing intent and aura had disappeared entirely.
They had not even detected any sign of the person facing the Chief Elder making a move before Hundred Refinements City had already returned to its usual quiet.
"This..."
The hemp-robed elderly man was just about to speak when a silver flame suddenly erupted from within Hundred Refinements City, lighting up almost half the night sky above the city.
"What signal is that?"
Lin Xunner stared at the blazing silver light in the sky, a puzzled look crossing her face. The hemp-robed elderly man shook his head.
Though they had made a thorough study of Falling God Peak before setting out for their revenge, this kind of unique signal was something they had never seen before, nor ever heard of.
So the two of them watched in silence as the signal in the sky faded, then exchanged a glance in the darkness.
"Do we still need to go into Hundred Refinements City?"
Lin Xunner suddenly asked, her expression shifting with unreadable thoughts.
The Chief Elder of Hundred Refinements Peak's aura had vanished so abruptly that it was clearly not because he had chosen to stand down.
They had effectively witnessed firsthand, from outside the city, the strength of the person inside Hundred Refinements City.
And someone capable of dealing with the Hundred Refinements Peak Chief Elder so easily had martial strength even more staggering than they had previously imagined.
Hearing this, the hemp-robed elderly man shook his head, and then looked toward Hundred Refinements City with a furrowed expression, saying, "Perhaps we should not. Before, I may have had some small confidence that I could escape from young Master Li if it came to that. Now I have not even a trace of that confidence left."
Lin Xunner's eyes flickered, then she gave a slight nod, saying, "That signal just now was clearly no ordinary thing. Hundred Refinements City has already become a place of dangerous currents. If Zheng Yunfeng learns of the Chief Elder's death, he will likely have no choice but to come in person to avenge his wife and children."
At those words, the hemp-robed elderly man suddenly came alert, realizing he had been so thoroughly stunned by what had happened in the city that this point had not yet occurred to him.
Now that Lin Xunner had said it, he finally grasped that Hundred Refinements City was about to become extremely dangerous.
"We must hide. We have to hide."
The hemp-robed elderly man's expression turned grave, and he immediately seized Lin Xunner and moved into the hillside.
Going into Hundred Refinements City was now entirely out of the question. If Zheng Yunfeng truly descended upon Hundred Refinements City, an existence at that level of the Heaven-Human realm could lay waste to countless bystanders with even the slightest display of power.
And while Li Musheng's martial strength was genuinely formidable, if he found himself facing Zheng Yunfeng, he could not remain concealed as he had been doing before.
That being the case, even from outside the city, the two of them would certainly be able to see Li Musheng make his move with their own eyes, thereby confirming everything that had gone before.