Seeing the young man before them was only at the second realm, the many cultists suppressed the fear in their hearts and slowly closed in.

Yu Fei swept his longsword forward, and his many foes immediately halted, warily watching his next move.

These men talked a big game, but Yu Fei’s killing three of them in a row had left them deeply shaken. When Yu Fei only feinted, one of them—a bald man—could no longer contain his terror. He raised his sword and charged at Yu Fei, the others right behind him.

Yu Fei remained motionless, sword in hand. With his neural reactions enhanced sevenfold, he clearly saw the expressions of his attackers shift from nervous fear to confusion. It wasn’t until the blade was about to fall upon his head that they could no longer suppress their savage grins.

"Yu Fei, watch out...!" Li Mengyao cried out in alarm.

"Mmph..." A group of captured personnel from the martial arts bureau and several martial arts teachers squirmed anxiously on the ground. Their hands and feet were bound, and with their mouths stuffed with ragged shoes, they couldn’t make a sound. Seeing Yu Fei standing there in a daze, they grew frantic with worry.

As the blade fell, his heightened neural reaction speed allowed Yu Fei to see even the tiny nicks dotting its edge. The sword had clearly seen too many hard-fought battles. Its owner hadn’t had time for maintenance; the blade was a little dull.

At the last possible second, Yu Fei activated his Ruyi Shen Jin. His body twisted at an impossible yet perfect angle to dodge the attack. With an upward thrust, his Cyan Lotus Sword traced a cold gleam of light as it pierced the heart of the enemy before him.

He then used the spatial properties of his Illusory Sword Intent to leave a phantom image behind, pulling his Cyan Lotus Sword free as he continued his charge.

The five men behind only saw a flash of cold light before the bald man was struck dead, collapsing in agony. They instinctively halted, only to see the young man standing dazedly in the same spot. Unwilling to miss such a golden opportunity, they roared and plunged their weapons into his figure.

"Got him... Die... Heh heh heh..."

"The feel... it’s not right...?"

"What?"

Yu Fei’s phantom image slowly dissipated. The ecstatic expressions on the men’s faces froze. When had these low-level grunts from the Illuminati ever witnessed such a bizarre sight? It completely overturned their understanding of martial arts.

Lying in wait to the side, Yu Fei used his Illusory Sword Intent and struck in an instant.

"Formless Sword Qi—unleash!"

Streaks of swift, red Sword Qi burst forth like a blooming blood lotus, as quick as darting fish. Relying on the thought-activated nature of Ruyi Shen Jin, Yu Fei pushed his Body Technique to its absolute limit. He moved like a bolt of lightning through the five closely-packed cultists. His supreme neural-reaction speed allowed him to precisely control every strand of Sword Qi, ensuring none of them missed their mark.

In a flash, five crimson streaks of Sword Qi wrapped around their necks. Five stunned heads popped into the air like champagne corks, and blood sprayed three feet high. The splattering blood dotted Yu Fei’s white tank top like red plum blossoms.

Yu Fei stood with his sword, his gaze fixed on the two remaining enemies. His face was pale, his sharp aura fully unleashed. His murderous gaze was like a sharp arrow, piercing them to the core.

The cultist at the front numbly stumbled two steps forward. The hand gripping his blade trembled uncontrollably, and a strange roar escaped his lips. The rapid succession of events had clearly pushed his fear to the breaking point.

Yu Fei vaguely remembered this one. He was the first who had tried to flee. But now, as if recalling something, the man’s eyes turned red, and with a roar, he raised his blade and charged.

He was an initiated member of the Bright God Sect. There was no turning back for him; surrender meant death.

But this hesitation was exactly what Yu Fei needed. Unleashing five streams of Formless Sword Qi at once had left his Qi Blood utterly depleted. He barely had the strength to stand and desperately needed time to recover.

Having recovered slightly, Yu Fei shifted his gaze to the last enemy, the one dressed differently from the other cultists. He looked right past the charging third-realm Martial Artist as if the man were nothing more than a harmless white rabbit.

This was Yu Fei’s strategy. His Qi Blood was depleted and his combat strength was less than a tenth of its peak. He needed to intimidate his foe.

The man before him had clearly been driven mad by fear. He charged with the ferocity of a rabid dog, but his attacks were wild and without form. Especially with the aid of [Super Speed Reaction] and [Dongyou], he was no match at all.

Sure enough, just as the enemy’s blade fell, Yu Fei took a small step to the side and swung his sword in a horizontal arc. The man’s throat was slit.

The two moved with such coordination it was as if they had rehearsed this dance of death for ages. Yu Fei’s movements were elegant and confident. Juxtaposed with the corpses of the cultists littering the ground, the scene possessed a sort of mad, alternative beauty.

The entire scene fell silent. Everyone stared at Yu Fei, their expressions dazed, stunned, and utterly bewildered.

From the moment he’d rescued Jiang Yifan from a dire predicament and then cut down three more cultists, he had given everyone there a glimmer of hope. In that instant, all the survivors felt a surge of gratitude and excitement. They didn’t know how Yu Fei had appeared, or how he was able to kill three cultists in a row.

No one questioned it. Yu Fei was a genius, and geniuses could do what ordinary people could not.

But when Yu Fei was then exposed, surrounded and attacked by eight cultists, they couldn’t help but worry. Especially when he stood there like a fool, waiting for the blades to fall. That sight had made everyone’s hearts leap into their throats.

But everything that happened next, in a flash of lightning, completely shattered their perception of reality.

Forget the bizarre sword strike that killed the first enemy.

Forget the phantom image that was impossible to tell from the real thing.

And what was that blood-red lotus that had suddenly erupted? It had instantly killed five third-realm experts!

As for the last guy, killed in a single strike? At that point, it was only natural.

They were in a stupor because what they had just witnessed went beyond cognition, beyond the science of martial arts itself.

Lying on a table and covered in blood, Jiang Yifan stared at Yu Fei, who looked like a god and a demon rolled into one. ’Was this really the same guy who beat me up last year?’ he wondered. The memory felt hazy.