C7 The Sword Breaking Style Broke Through!

Huah Yunfei and his companions tracked the Blood Immortal Bug out of the city, heading westward.

Ten miles from the city, they found themselves in a sparsely populated wilderness.

Xie Feiyu and Xie Yu utilized their exceptional light-body techniques to traverse mountains and rivers with ease, moving at an astonishing speed. Their movements were not only swift but also possessed an ethereal grace, as if they were transcending the mundane world.

Huah Yunfei, whose only training was in the offensive technique known as the Dao of Annihilation, had no experience with light-body techniques. Despite this, he kept pace with his companions. His robust foundation, built upon a top-grade High-grade Thunder Spirit Stone, allowed him to harness the explosive lightning spirit energy within him, propelling him forward as if he had boundless stamina.

Nevertheless, Huah Yunfei's control over his body needed refinement. His movements became somewhat clumsy when navigating complex terrain, especially when making high leaps or low dives.

After a thirty-kilometer chase to the west, they spotted a figure wearing a dark green robe and a long saber at his waist just outside a dense forest.

The figure, aware of Huah Yunfei and his friends' pursuit, did not pause but accelerated into the forest, vanishing down a narrow path.

The Blood Immortal Bug, without a moment's hesitation, darted into the forest after him.

Despite the old adage to avoid entering forests, the trio could not risk losing sight of the Blood Immortal Bug, as it was their last link to finding Huah Yunfei's father.

They followed the bug deeper into the forest for another mile, only to find it circling an open area, seemingly at a loss for direction. There was no sign of the horse-faced middle-aged man anywhere.

"The Blood Immortal Bug is lost," Xie Yu remarked, her cheeks flushed from the prolonged exertion. She pouted in disappointment, "I can't go on. It's been ages since I've run this far. Please, let me rest a bit. Otherwise, you might never see Yu again."

As she spoke, Xie Yu leaned against a towering ancient tree, its girth as wide as a water bucket, intending to rest.

But before her back could even graze the trunk, Huah Yunfei pushed her aside.

Xie Yu was immediately annoyed. "Hua, what's the big idea? Just because the lady favors you, doesn't mean you can act recklessly..."

Her complaint was cut short, however, as she couldn't finish her sentence.

In the instant Huah Yunfei pushed her away, his silver-gray, elongated blade had already plunged into the trunk of the ancient tree.

The unexpected sight of Huah Yunfei's sword piercing the tree was nothing compared to the eerie scream that erupted from the ancient tree upon being stabbed.

With a snap, Huah Yunfei withdrew his blade from the tree.

Xie Yu was astonished to see that the blade Huah Yunfei had thrust into the ancient tree was now coated with bright red blood.

As Huah Yunfei extracted his sword, the surface of the ancient tree's trunk rippled like flowing water, and suddenly, a fresh corpse of a young man emerged and thudded onto the ground.

The corpse's eyes were wide open, its face contorted, and its mouth agape, clearly shocked by its own death.

The body was clad in a dark green robe with a serpent pattern, a narrow, elongated wound in the chest still oozing blood.

Yet, this was not the middle-aged man with the horse-like face.

"You... you wanted to save me..." Xie Yu looked at Huah Yunfei, her cheeks flushing even redder, her embarrassment heating her face.

"No need for thanks. I wasn't sure where I had offended you earlier, so consider this my way of making amends," Huah Yunfei said with a half-smile.

As soon as Huah Yunfei's words fell, a figure descended silently from above, like a green bat, his hands gripping a long blade. The blade descended sharply, aimed directly at Huah Yunfei's head.

But the blade was still a good ten feet from Huah Yunfei's head when Xie Feiyu, who had been silent and seemingly contemplative since their arrival, suddenly unleashed a flash of silver from his sleeve. A sword light, swift as a whip, burst forth, slicing through the air.

The crystalline tip of the sword gently tapped the center of the figure's forehead before swiftly retracting into Xie Feiyu's sleeve.

The figure above Huah Yunfei's head experienced a piercing pain in his brow as his entire body was obliterated by the overwhelming Sword Intent emanating from the blade. In a mere moment, he was reduced to a lifeless body, without even a chance to utter a cry of agony.

Such was the disparity between the Golden Core Realm and the Foundation Establishment Realm. While Huah Yunfei's strikes might catch an enemy off guard, allowing for a startled cry, Xie Feiyu, at the Golden Core Realm, could dispatch an adversary in utter silence.

Following the demise of the two, human voices began to emerge from the trees around them.

"Can they see where we are? Have they spotted us?" a youthful voice asked in a frenzy.

"Don't let them deceive you. They haven't noticed us at all. It was purely by chance," retorted another voice, stern yet anxious.

"Yes, it had to be by chance," a third person agreed.

Listening to the conversation from within the tree trunks, Huah Yunfei's heart bore a cruel smile. "Hmph, a group of fools adept in Wood Spiritual Qi, thinking that by relying on their Wood Spiritual Bodies and mastering techniques to blend with the trees, they become invisible to others."

"But they are unaware that my eyes can penetrate all that is imbued with Spiritual Qi. Your bodies, concealed within the tree trunks and brimming with a Wood Spiritual Energy far denser than the trees themselves, are completely exposed to my sight."

To lower the enemy's guard, Huah Yunfei purposefully adopted a highly cautious demeanor, scanning his surroundings with feigned nervousness. He turned back to Xie Feiyu with a tense face and said, "Miss Xie, are they still around? I can't sense them at all. Maybe... we should take this chance to flee, to hope for survival at daybreak."

Upon hearing Huah Yunfei's words, a person hidden in the tree trunk in front of him felt a surge of elation. Swiftly invoking a secret technique, he appeared almost flush against the tree trunk behind Huah Yunfei. With great care, he lifted his gleaming blue, poison-tipped dagger, aiming it directly at Huah Yunfei's back.

Just as he was about to thrust his sword, Huah Yunfei suddenly reversed his grip and stabbed backward, his blade piercing the tree trunk behind him with unerring accuracy.

The man, elated with his assassination plan, suddenly felt an icy chill in his chest, and with that, his consciousness and actions were permanently extinguished.

"Your expression just now was so over the top," Xie Yu chuckled at Huah Yunfei, seemingly having forgotten her own near-death experience, "But if such antics can deceive them, it just goes to show how weak they really are."

"I thought I was giving a good performance, but it turns out they were just easy targets," Huah Yunfei replied with a wry smile.

It was only then that the group hiding within the tree trunk realized that their opponents could indeed detect their positions.

After confirming this, a chilling voice emanated from the tree trunk, "Well then, let's reveal ourselves and attack them together. We still have twelve people. Seven will join me in engaging the woman at the Golden Core Realm. The remaining four, working in pairs, will quickly eliminate the other two and then come to our aid."

No sooner had the voice faded than twelve dark green figures burst forth almost simultaneously from the crowns, trunks, and branches of the Ancient Trees.

Eight of them encircled Xie Feiyu, maintaining distance and holding their attack. Although none of the eight had reached the Golden Core Realm, being entangled by eight experts at the peak of the Foundation Establishment stage made escape, let alone victory, exceedingly difficult for Xie Feiyu.

Xie Yu and Huah Yunfei, each facing off against two Foundation Establishment experts, were hard-pressed to defend themselves.

This was a stark contrast to the earlier ambush; when it came to actual strength, Huah Yunfei was at best on par with one of his adversaries.

In an instant, Huah Yunfei's arm was slashed, leaving a bloody gash.

A piece of Xie Yu's left sleeve was also sliced off.

Amidst the clashing of metal, Huah Yunfei was steadily driven back by his two assailants, one old and one young.

"My Sword Breaking Style has shown some success at the Qi Refining stage; breaking a low-grade weapon might be within reach. However, since the Sword Breaking Style has yet to advance, breaking the opponent's weapon is out of the question, unless I can achieve another breakthrough with the technique."

Huah Yunfei's gaze was locked onto the two weapons in his adversary's grasp. He observed the aura of Spiritual Energy that pervaded the ice blade, sparking a sudden revelation within him.

"The advanced chapter of the Sword Breaking Style states that to achieve another breakthrough, I must discern the flaws in my enemy's Spirit Weapon and strike precisely at those weaknesses. A Spirit Weapon of equal rank will crumble, and even one of a higher rank can be shattered. So, what exactly constitutes a flaw in a Spirit Weapon?"

Huah Yunfei was reminded of his father's description of a Supreme Weapon.

A Supreme Weapon is created when the materials for forging are perfectly merged with Spirit Stones.

"That means the more seamlessly a Spirit Weapon is infused with Spiritual Energy, the more powerful it becomes. Therefore, the flaw in a Spirit Weapon must be..."

With lightning-fast thoughts, Huah Yunfei executed a swift stroke with his weapon, striking the back of the elder's long blade in a flash.

The elder's mid-grade Spirit Weapon was no ordinary blade; its spirit energy had spread to nearly every part of the blade except for a segment on the back.

"Stabbing the blade's back with its tip? Ha, you're quite the intriguing youngster!" The elder chuckled at Huah Yunfei's unusual strike. "Regrettably, I cannot spare you."

But before his words could fully resonate, the blade's tip collided with its back, emitting a sharp clang.

In the wake of that sound, the elder's long blade, centered around the struck back, began to fracture like a spiderweb. It then shattered into countless metallic fragments, scattering across the ground like glass hit by a stone.

All that remained was the hilt, densely webbed with cracks, still clutched in the elder's hand.

Witnessing the shattered Spirit Weapon long blade at his feet, Huah Yunfei felt a surge of elation. "It's just as I suspected; the so-called flaw of a Spirit Weapon is indeed the area not covered by its internal Spiritual Energy. Haha, my Sword Breaking Style has advanced once more."

While the elder and the youth were fixated on the countless shattered pieces of Spirit Weapons scattered on the ground, Huah Yunfei's slender blade made a swift, light stroke across the elder's neck.

"Thank you for helping me uncover the secret of the Spirit Weapon," Huah Yunfei said, observing the vivid plum blossom of blood that had suddenly appeared on the elder's neck. As the elder's body began to weaken from blood loss, Huah Yunfei murmured to himself, "Unfortunately, I cannot spare you either."