Chapter 223 – Liu Daoyuan!

“Liu Daoyuan, you killed seven of my Four Tiger Style disciples, severely injured two others, and even stole our true skill legacy and visualization diagram. Today, you will pay for this in blood!”

A burly elder, towering like a fierce tiger, stepped forward, his voice cold and eyes fixed icily on Liu Daoyuan. A wild, raging aura surrounded him.

“Liu Daoyuan, you wrecked the grounds of thirteen sects in one night. So many harbor resentment and blame towards you… I even spoke up for you. But this is how you repay me…”

A middle-aged man with sunken cheeks and a goatee, his face flushed with anger, trembled violently as he pointed at Liu Daoyuan, shouting, “You slaughtered thirteen of my Sparrowhawk Sect disciples, leaving only one survivor who had his eyes gouged out for witnessing your face…if you want my sect’s legacy so badly…”

The goateed middle-aged man’s hands shook as a torrent of killing intent erupted from him. He gritted his teeth and said, “I will personally teach you today!”

“Liu Daoyuan!…”

One sect leader after another stepped forward to denounce Liu Daoyuan’s ruthless deeds, their voices filled with fury, coldness, hatred, and murderous intent.

These voices struck the direct disciples of the Crane Style like bolts of lightning.

They were shocked, stunned, and eventually…could hardly believe that the Liu Daoyuan standing before them, his back turned towards them, was still the teacher they remembered.

If it were only one or two people making these accusations, it could have been dismissed as targeting or slander against the Crane Style.

But with so many people, so many sects stepping forward, and with such genuine emotion…this matter seemed…

“Teacher…”

Zhuang Xiujie looked at Liu Daoyuan’s back, her voice strained as she asked softly, “Is this… true?”

When Zhuang Xiujie asked this, the shadowy figure seemed to shudder slightly.

Or perhaps it was just her imagination.

Silence.

Several seconds later.

Zhuang Xiujie did not hear the answer she wanted.

There was only a slightly weary, old voice that sounded, calm and unruffled.

“Leave now.”

Zhuang Xiujie and the other Crane Style direct disciples stood there, stunned, unsure of what they had just heard from those words.

“Liu Daoyuan…”

The Penglai Holy Envoy with braids took two steps forward. An indescribable glint of satisfaction flickered in his eyes as he looked at Liu Daoyuan and spoke, “You are vile, shameless, and tyrannical… Now, even your direct disciples do not respect you. When you committed those heinous crimes, did you ever think a day like this would come for you?”

Liu Daoyuan remained expressionless, his long brows lowered.

From the moment he was surrounded, accused, and insulted by the crowd until now, he seemed to be in a state of unperturbed calm.

However, this attitude only fueled the anger of others. The experts from various sects had cold glares, their eyes gleaming with murderous intent, almost unable to restrain themselves from leaping forward to tear him apart.

Liu Daoyuan began to undress.

He slowly removed his loose outer garment, revealing a white short-sleeved attire underneath.

He casually tossed the outer garment behind him, and Liu Si caught it steadily.

Liu Daoyuan adjusted his clothing lightly, raised his head slowly, and with the mechanical electronic eye’s lens rotating, he looked at the Penglai Holy Envoy, who was sneering at him, and spoke calmly, “Who I am, Liu Daoyuan, and what kind of person I am… is not for you to judge.”

“Uh…”

The braided man’s expression froze, and he stood there stunned for several seconds.

In the next moment, his face contorted with killing intent, and his tone turned icy.

“Liu Daoyuan, you deserve death!”

“I deserve death.”

Liu Daoyuan spoke indifferently. Yet from his emaciated, almost withered body, an inexplicable aura began to radiate bit by bit, slowly flowing out.

“But… it won’t be you bunch of worthless fools who take my life.”

“Isn’t this all about fighting? Why waste so many words. You all want my head. Fine then…”

Liu Daoyuan took a deep breath. His shriveled body suddenly began to expand and grow robust, as if inflated.

An incredibly powerful aura suddenly spread out, and a nearly ten-meter-tall invisible white crane soared into the sky.

The terrifying aura enveloped the area.

For a moment, the faces of everyone in the room, including the braided man, changed simultaneously, showing expressions of shock, horror, and disbelief.

In the next second, Liu Daoyuan’s old voice, filled with an undercurrent of arrogance, wantonness, defiance, and dominance, echoed throughout the scene.

“I wanted to use the strength of you worthless fools… to completely step into the Legendary Realm!”

“Boom!”

As his energy burst forth, the massive white crane’s True Intent spread its wings, the sound of its crane cry shaking the sky in an instant.

…..

“Hmm?!”

Pei Ye, sensing something, swiftly turned his head. The previously leisurely expression vanished, and his eyebrows furrowed slightly.

“The old bastard wants to break through amidst this chaos?”

Pei Ye quickly withdrew his hand from the chest of a person lying on the ground.

Bloodshed and corpses lay in his wake.

He shook the fresh blood from his fingers, narrowed his eyes, and stared fixedly in a certain direction before swiftly leaping high like a great bird, rushing toward the source of the energy burst.

A towering black-robed man followed closely behind.

Soon, both of them reached a high vantage point, from which they could perfectly overlook the battlefield below at a 45-degree angle.

They took in the fierce battle unfolding on the train station platform.

Pei Ye watched quietly. With his keen senses, he could see a giant white crane on the battlefield, cutting through the enemies like a wolf among sheep, clearing a path with each wing flap, talon swipe, and pecking motion.

“Impressive, teacher. Without my intervention, you might really succeed…”

Pei Ye murmured softly, his expression suddenly becoming sinister and twisted.

“But that’s not what I want… Teacher!”

With that, Pei Ye unexpectedly closed his eyes and spread his arms wide, as if embracing the air.

With this motion, countless semi-transparent, ugly, and peculiar black moths rapidly poured out from his body.

These moths swiftly surged forward, swarming toward the battlefield with a rustling sound.

No one on the battlefield could sense the presence of these moths.

The black moths silently merged into the bodies of those attacking Liu Daoyuan the moment they touched them.

A more intense killing intent and anger immediately surfaced in their eyes. Their auras seemed to grow stronger, and their moves became increasingly vicious, ruthless, and frenzied…

Standing atop the high ground, Pei Ye was surrounded by countless black moths, with a myriad of eerie currents swirling around him.

He watched the escalating battle below, as if observing a grand performance that he himself had orchestrated, reaching its climactic moment.

His expression was maniacal, the light in his eyes growing ever brighter, and the grin on his face becoming more exaggerated and eerie.

“Let this fire burn even brighter…”

The shadows left in his heart from that rainy night fifteen years ago would be completely shattered and driven away by him today.

This time, no one would stop him.

….

“Are they all dead?”

“Alright, I understand.”

Lu Yuan cut off the communication with Sackford, his face remaining calm, but his eyes growing colder.

“How much longer until we reach Pan City?”

The Red Bear beside him clearly sensed the change in his mood.

It was like magma flowing beneath a thick layer of ice.

On the surface, it appeared calm.

But who knew…

When the terrifying force beneath might suddenly erupt?

“Half an hour… No, twenty-five minutes!”

Red Bear quickly and precisely gave a time estimate.

“Can it be faster?”

“Reporting to Lord… this is the fastest we can go.”

“Are there any organization members nearby we can call upon?”

“I’ve already arranged for nearby members to head there, but the earliest they will arrive in Pan City will be around the same time as us.”

“What’s the situation over there now?”

Red Bear’s tone faltered, pausing for a second, before he took a breath and reported in a low voice: “Someone impersonating Crane Style sect leader Liu Daoyuan has slaughtered many disciples of various sects participating in the martial arts League… Right now, the Crane Style … is being besieged by dozens of sects…”

The sound of heavy “thump—thump—thumps” filled the air.

After Red Bear finished speaking, he immediately felt the atmosphere around him grow oppressively tense, reaching a critical point.

He could distinctly hear his own heartbeat and feel the beads of sweat rolling down the sides of his face.

Finally…

The nearly stifling silence was broken by a calm voice.

“Show me the live feed.”

“Yes, sir.”

Relieved, Red Bear quickly pulled up the real-time footage and presented it to Lu Yuan.

He stepped aside, watching as Lu Yuan’s expression remained stoic while he quietly reviewed the surveillance footage.

His face betrayed shifting emotions.

Unable to restrain himself, Red Bear stormed into the cockpit, lowered his voice, and asked urgently, “Can we go any faster? Think of something!”

…

“Boom!”

Liu Daoyuan’s right hand formed into a claw, and he struck forward with a seemingly simple palm thrust.

His mechanical prosthetic arm moved more flexibly than flesh and blood, driving straight towards his opponent and lightly pressing against their chest.

“Crack—”

The opponent’s chest instantly caved in, sending them flying backward like a cannonball.

Delivering this move, he didn’t pause for even a moment. He swiftly raised his hand again, securely catching an oncoming arm from the side that was gripping a broken blade…

With every breath.

At least eight True Intent level fighters simultaneously attacked him from eight different directions, each targeting a critical point on his body.

At least half of these attacks gleamed with the cold light of cold weapons.

His opponents seemed to have completely abandoned the principles and ethics of Ancient Martial Artists, driven solely by a singular desire… to end his life.

Liu Daoyuan’s face remained expressionless as the martial arts moves of the Sky Water Stream Crane Style unfolded in his hands, radiating an unprecedented brilliance.

Each move was executed with seamless naturalness, an indescribable finesse that seemed to turn the mundane into the extraordinary.

The ten-meter white crane that once hovered above him had vanished, replaced by an inexplicable force field that encircled him in a thin, flowing layer.

With the augmentation of this force field, his moves became extraordinarily lethal, far surpassing the capabilities of an average True Intent level martial artist.

“Boom”

Liu Daoyuan casually sent an old man with a red face and wild hair flying with a single punch, causing him to vomit blood and stagger back.

The attackers finally began to falter, their faces showing obvious shock and fear one by one.

“Damn! This Poison-Handed Crane Demon wasn’t this strong before the Tournament started. How in just a few days has he become like this? Did he take some elixir or something?”

“Could it be that today he plans to leverage us to ascend to a grandmaster?”

“Pah!”

Suddenly, someone spat loudly and stepped out from the crowd with a twisted expression.

“A grandmaster? Him? He wishes!”

The braided man, Penglai Holy Envoy, wielded an iron whip tinged with scarlet red, his entire being radiating killing intent as he pointed at Liu Daoyuan and spoke loudly, “Moreover, he’s missing limbs and is disabled. To truly unite True Intent, inner strength, and the martial body into the Grandmaster Field, taking that final step… that’s nothing but a pipe dream! Haven’t you noticed that his prosthetic limbs are severely damaged and about to break completely?”

The braided man sneered disdainfully at Liu Daoyuan’s slightly distorted prosthetics, crackling with small sparks of electricity.

He suddenly waved his hand, his tone sinister:

“If he can’t take that step, the backlash will be severe… He won’t last long!”

“Kill! Kill all the Crane Style members first, then we’ll deal with him!”

The attackers’ eyes lit up upon hearing this and immediately scattered in different directions, rushing towards Liu Daoyuan’s direct disciples.

Seeing this, Liu Daoyuan’s serene eyes flickered, and he dashed out like a hurricane.

He swiftly moved across the battlefield.

After consecutively striking down several opponents trying to harm his direct disciples, he suddenly noticed a gap in his defense. In that instant, a scarlet whip lashed out at him like a venomous snake.

“Now, together!”

The braided man’s cold voice echoed, and several figures sprang up simultaneously, converging on Liu Daoyuan.

“Bang—”

A nearly tangible white crane phantom erupted violently, sending several figures flying backward.

Just as everyone was once again awed and shocked by Liu Daoyuan’s might…

Liu Daoyuan, standing proudly in the center of the battlefield, suddenly faltered and spit out a mouthful of blood. The aura surrounding him instantly dissipated, and his entire presence weakened significantly.

Seeing this, the braided man wore a sinister smile and lightly commanded, “Attack.”

….

Moments later, the battle ceased.

Broken and twisted mechanical limbs were carelessly scattered on the ground like trash.

Liu Daoyuan leaned against a stone pillar in the middle of the platform, his hair and beard in disarray, and his clothes almost entirely soaked in blood.

He lowered his head, quietly half-sitting on the ground.

Though he had lost all four limbs, he stubbornly refused to collapse, with only his faint breathing proving he was still alive.

“Tap—tap—”

The braided man, holding the scarlet whip, slowly walked toward Liu Daoyuan, step by step.

He looked somewhat disheveled himself, having even sustained some injuries.

But none of that affected his mood at this moment.

He wore a smile on his face.

For some reason, the thought of extinguishing the last breath of the man who now lay like a broken mannequin filled him with unspeakable pleasure.

The braided man reached Liu Daoyuan, looking down at him coldly from above.

He casually flicked the scarlet whip against Liu Daoyuan’s chest, causing a thin booklet to fall to the ground with a soft thud.

“[Overlord Fist Sect’s General Principles]…”

The braided man softly read the words on the cover, then smirked and nonchalantly said, “Liu Daoyuan, caught red-handed. Do you have anything else to say?”

Not far away, amidst several wounded direct disciples of the Crane Style, the gravely injured Liu Si spoke weakly and intermittently, “…The night the Young Sect Master stormed the place with the Old Sect Master… the Old Sect Master’s heart impediment was broken…he was likely to become a Grandmaster…

But unfortunately, he failed due to his incomplete body, suffered a backlash, and has been spitting blood ever since… The Overlord Fist Sect’s Legacy was purchased by the Old Sect Master at a high price… from a disciple of the Overlord Fist Sect…”

In an instant, the direct disciples of the Crane Style standing around Liu Si were struck dumb, as if hit by lightning, unable to utter a word.

Unfortunately, Liu Si’s voice was too faint; besides them, no one else heard it.

And even if someone did hear it, at this moment, it hardly mattered.

“Liu Daoyuan, Liu Daoyuan, you truly deserve this. You should have died!”

The braided man squatted down, picked up the thin booklet from the ground, and lightly tapped it against Liu Daoyuan’s cheek, sneering, “Everyone wants you dead. You should have died fifteen years ago…”

Liu Daoyuan slowly raised his head, his lips trembling as if he wanted to say something.

The braided man squinted, leaning in slightly, trying to hear what he had to say.

As he got closer, he suddenly heard a “pah” sound,

A mouthful of bloody phlegm splattered all over his face.

“Haha… ha…”

Leaning against the pillar, Liu Daoyuan laughed heartily at the disheveled braided man.

With each laugh, more blood gushed from his mouth, uncontrollably, like a fountain.

“You!”

For a moment, the braided man’s killing intent surged to the extreme. He quickly stood up, raising the scarlet whip high in the air.

Simultaneously, from a high vantage point nearby, Pei Ye, clad in a trench coat, stretched luxuriously and said contentedly, “Finally, it’s my turn.”

“Die!”

The braided man’s eyes flashed coldly as he aimed to strike Liu Daoyuan with his scarlet whip.

At that very moment…

“Whoosh—”

A deep blue beam of light streaked across everyone’s vision, and with a “boom,” a massive fireball erupted somewhere behind them.

“Uh…”

The braided man stared dumbfoundedly at his mysteriously vaporized right hand.

If he recalled correctly, just a second ago, the part of his arm above the elbow was still there.

This sudden turn of events left everyone on the field, including Pei Ye who was ready to make a heroic entrance from afar, momentarily stunned.

But before they could collect themselves…

“Whoosh-“

A second deep blue beam of light shot across the sky.

“Boom!”

This time, it exploded so close that it nearly detonated amidst the crowd.

The explosion’s shockwave sent the members of the Ancient Style sect into a frantic scramble.

Before the panic could fully settle, a trembling voice rang out, “The Holy Envoy, he…”

All eyes turned toward the braided man.

When they saw the scene, everyone’s pupils constricted in shock, and their expressions froze in horror.

There stood a headless body, missing half an arm, right in front of Liu Daoyuan.

Hot blood gushed from its neck, like a fountain.

At that very moment, a series of rapid footsteps resounded from nearby.

The crowd turned toward the sound.

Suspended in the air were seven or eight flying shuttles.

Marching toward them was a large group of exceptionally well-armed and well-equipped Yellow Bear members, numbering in the hundreds.

Leading this group of Yellow Bear members was a tall, handsome young man dressed in black.

With a neutral expression, he walked briskly, casually tossing a massive, over one-meter-long silver-white energy rifle to a burly man with thick eyebrows, who was clad in a Red Bear uniform behind him.