High-Martial World: System Arrives 30 Years Late-Chapter 61: Severing the Demon Staff, Luring the Tiger Away from the Mountain
Su Mu had a few habits, one of which was to consider the worst-case scenario when he noticed something unusual.
What if behind the iron gate aren’t Number Eight and Number Nine, but Demon Cultists.
If Demon Cultists could kill two people and fight six Third Level Martial Artists in such a short time, it meant there was at least one, possibly more, Fifth Level Martial Artists inside.
The person who dared to come alone was at least a Fifth Level Martial Artist.
As for a Sixth Level Martial Artist...
It’s too late to escape now, so he had only one chance to strike. If he couldn’t severely injure the opponent while they were off guard, he might have to stay here tonight.
Su Mu took a deep breath, his eyes fixated on the iron gate before him, footsteps approaching.
...
"Everyone, fall back?!!!"
Huh?
What does that mean...
The six members of the Martial Arts Association team were all confused. They turned their heads, waiting for an explanation, but what greeted them was a sharp and domineering aura.
In the next moment.
In their eyes, the otherwise unremarkable Su Mu with a handsome face suddenly changed his temperament; he was no longer gentle and silent, but rather like a sharp blade on the verge of being unsheathed.
Clang!
Amidst a few sparks, the blade slid against the scabbard, emitting a crisp, low hum.
Suddenly, Su Mu exuded a concentrated aura of sharpness. He gripped his saber with both hands; the blade momentum gathered in the long saber in his hands. Amid the sound of the saber’s hum, he stepped forward and swung the saber using the Surging Waves Saber Technique.
This was definitely the most spectacular strike the six members of the Martial Arts Association team had ever seen in their lives.
The accumulated Blade Qi, nurtured over many days, was unleashed without reservation at this moment, merging with the blade momentum. The saber appeared to spit out a blade light visible to the naked eye.
For a moment, the Blade Qi surged!
A cold glint flashed. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮
Sizzle!
The thick iron gate, over three meters tall in front of them, was sliced open, the cut as smooth as a mirror. The figure behind the door, holding a staff, froze in disbelief.
"This... is this blade momentum?!"
No one could answer his confusion.
Thud.
The broken staff in the hand of the person behind the door fell to the ground, making a dull sound like a giant beast landing, its weight heavy.
Soon, the Qi and blood membrane outside the person’s body shattered, and a line of blood from top to bottom suddenly widened.
A flash of blood, a horrifying scene unfolded.
The figure stumbled forward a few steps, then from head to toe, fresh blood gushed out. His viscera and intestines burst open, and before everyone’s terrified eyes, the person was split into two halves.
...
"Blade momentum is indeed powerful."
"That was close..."
Su Mu’s eyes gleamed with brilliance. He hadn’t expected to kill the intruder with a single strike. The power enhanced by the combination of blade momentum, the Surging Waves Saber Technique, and the Sword Nurturing Technique far exceeded Su Mu’s own estimations!
Taking a few deep breaths, he looked at the corpse. On the body of this dead tall, thin man, he noticed a Qi and blood membrane, which meant the one he killed was a Fifth Level Martial Artist.
Now, he no longer needed his superpower with half of his combat strength to take down a Fifth Level Martial Artist directly!
Soon, he retrieved two tokens from the body, engraved with the characters eight and nine. Losing the test tokens meant elimination.
Only the tokens were visible, and most likely Number Eight and Number Nine were dead...
Wow.
Someone couldn’t help but vomit at this moment, and then the six people behind him couldn’t stop vomiting. These elite members of the Linjiang Town Martial Arts Association, even having executed criminal tasks, had seen many crime scenes.
But they had never witnessed such a brutal scene; Su Mu had chopped both the iron gate and the person into two with just one strike, and it unfolded so plainly before their eyes.
At this moment, they couldn’t help but wonder, who was the real Demon Cultist?
After slaying the intruder, Su Mu did not rashly enter the abandoned factory. After quietly taking the Space Ring from the dead person, he withdrew and turned to face the six people behind him.
The six people shuddered all over and took a step back in unison.
"Immediately contact the dock and the City Lord, and say that Number Eight and Number Nine are dead, a Martial Arts Association team wiped out..."
"Then request support."
The mood of the six was exceptionally heavy upon hearing the first sentence, but after hearing the next, they were all stunned.
They swallowed hard, hesitantly looking at Su Mu, then at the severed iron gate and the Demon Cultist cut in half. Did such terrifying strength really still require support?
Seeing the six stunned in place, Su Mu frowned.
"What are you still standing there for?"
"Ah, okay, I’ll request support right away."
Under Su Mu’s gaze, the six shivered in fear, feeling immense pressure.
...
On the other side, Fierce Beast Mountain Range.
Lu Lin swung his saber, sending two heads flying.
"City Lord Lu, what are you doing?" Hong Yi raised an eyebrow, his tone filled with anger.
Tonight, their group had finally encountered two Third Level Demon Cultists. He wanted to extract the exact whereabouts of the others from them, but Lu Lin cut them down with one stroke.
"Demon Sect scum, they deserve to die!" Lu Lin panted heavily and only calmed down after a while. "Apologies, just thinking about Vice City Lord Chang being killed by them, his eyes gouged out and tongue cut off... I really couldn’t hold back."
Liu Ming remained silent, while Liu Ying’s gaze fell on the two heads. The dead Demon Cultists died with their eyes open, unable to rest in peace.
"According to the informant, the other Demon Cultists are not far ahead..."
At that moment, the emergency pager rang, and a hoarse voice came through.
"What? Number Eight and Number Nine are dead?"
"A Fifth Level Demon Cultist appeared at the Black Market?"
Hong Yi felt anxious, "City Lord Lu, let’s go ahead and take a look first!"
"Alright, let’s go investigate!" City Lord Lu’s expression changed.
The four Fifth Level Martial Artists hurried on their way and soon arrived outside a wooden hut in the depths of the mountain, but the place was already deserted.
For a moment, Hong Yi and the Liu Family Siblings looked grim. They never expected to come up empty-handed, realizing that the Black Market was the real hiding place of the Demon Cultists.
"Let’s head towards the Black Market!"
...
Outside the abandoned factory.
Su Mu sat cross-legged, hands caressing his saber. After a dozen minutes, he let out a breath and opened his eyes. During this time, the factory was deathly silent; most of the Demon Cultists had likely retreated.
At that moment, he stood up, "Let’s go inside and have a look."
Walking into the factory, a stench of blood assaulted their senses.
Plop.
A mass of blood and flesh fell from above, blossoming like a blood flower on the ground.
The third floor of the factory was a sea of red, with a headless corpse still present. On closer inspection, it wasn’t that it lacked a head; the ground was covered with chunks of flesh that once made up the head.
"This is Number Nine."
Su Mu instantly recognized the identity of the corpse. Following the blood trail on the ground, the six quickly found an underground passage.
"Where does this passage lead to?"
The six members of the Martial Arts Association squad looked at each other in amazement. The factory had been abandoned for years; they had no idea there was such a secret passage inside.
"Mr. Su, this might be a sewage outlet."
"Then it leads to the riverside... the dock?"
Su Mu thought of this possibility quickly. Soon, a convoy of armed vehicles arrived at the scene, setting up a cordon around the abandoned factory.
Linjiang Armed Forces Department Head Gong Wu couldn’t sit still upon learning that two assessment personnel had died. He was the first to arrive at the scene.
Soon, the entrance was cut open, and the smooth-as-a-mirror cut of an iron door, along with two halves of a dark red, flame-patterned broken staff, caught his eye, causing him to pause in shock.
Could it be...
"That’s right, this is... the Demon Staff!"
Gong Wu looked at the Demon Cultist cut in half on the ground with shock. This person was a documented Demon Cultist, notorious for the Demon Staff. According to statistics, no less than fifty Martial Artists had died at this person’s hands.
Among these were horrifying records of participating in the ambush and killing of two Fifth Level Martial Artists. Moreover, this person had the gruesome habit of extracting and devouring hearts after every kill. Even Gong Wu would not dare to face such a ruthless person alone.
Yet, this savage character died just like that, and in such a brutal manner. Looking at the terrified expression the Demon Staff bore before death, it seemed to have died without any chance of resistance.
Who on earth did this?!!!
That Number Four examiner, Zhang Wei?
A Fourth Level Martial Artist reversing a slash against a Fifth Level, and it was a crush?
This is just too terrifying.
Gong Wu’s throat moved as he swallowed a large gulp of saliva, then walked into the abandoned factory. Seeing Gong Wu’s arrival, Su Mu stood up and handed over two tokens.
"These are the tokens of Number Eight and Number Nine. The corpse belongs to Number Nine; the bodies of Number Eight and the others were taken away by them, possibly through this underground passage." Su Mu succinctly stated the situation.
"Who are you?"
"I am Number Ten, Su Mu."
"You’re just... Number Ten?"
As the words fell, Gong Wu’s urgent pager rang once more.
"What did you say, the City Lord’s Mansion was attacked?"
The two strode out of the abandoned factory. In the darkness, a blaze was faintly visible, with thick smoke rising—it was clearly in the direction of the City Lord’s Mansion.
"Damn it!"
Gong Wu clenched his fist, his expression instantly becoming gravely somber, realizing that he had fallen for a feint to lure the tiger away from the mountain!
