Chapter 59 There Are Even Stronger Experts

Yan Ju suffered the lightest injuries, yet his eyes were filled with the deepest despair.

He had already prepared himself to make the ultimate sacrifice in exchange for a chance for his junior brother and sister to escape, but who could have foreseen that Bao Chao would be so overwhelmingly powerful that even sacrificing himself was beyond his grasp.

Their lives and deaths were not even theirs to control.

Yun Liao wore a bitter expression, lamenting:

"I never imagined our luck would truly be this wretched."

"How in the world did this old monster wander into this God-forsaken place?"

Hua Lanyue sighed twice, yet words failed her completely.

She could only grip her twin butterfly daggers tighter, bracing herself for a desperate, do-or-die struggle.

Bao Chao stood amidst the rain, looking down at the three of them with utter contempt.

Ants were simply ants.

Within the palm of his hand, these three pitiful insects could do nothing but submit to his mercy.

Bao Chao slowly raised his hand.

Clutched firmly in his grip were precisely three face veils.

Yan Ju and his companions were suddenly startled, instinctively reaching up to touch their faces.

The veils they had worn to conceal their identities had somehow been snatched away by Bao Chao without them ever realizing it.

In that instant, their faces were completely exposed.

Yet, it hardly mattered anymore, for none of them had long to live.

"Master, shall I kill them or keep them alive?"

Bao Chao directed this question toward Yang Jingye.

Inside the study, Qiu Zhuo watched this scene unfold in absolute astonishment.

Though he possessed no martial arts training himself, he could easily perceive that Bao Chao was a terrifying powerhouse of unfathomable might!

No wonder Yang Jingye had remained utterly calm from the very beginning.

With such a formidable martial artist by his side, one truly had nothing to fear.

This realization deeply shocked Qiu Zhuo.

The hidden foundation and power of Yang Jingye once again far exceeded his highest expectations.

Yang Jingye let out a hearty laugh as he looked toward Qiu Zhuo:

"Well?"

"Didn't I tell you? With Master Bao here, who could possibly harm me?!"

At this point, Qiu Zhuo could do nothing but nod repeatedly.

The fear he held toward Yang Jingye grew even deeper within his heart.

Yang Jingye waved his hand, and two maidservants immediately helped him rise from his chair.

He spoke in a booming voice:

"Since these petty thieves have indeed been confirmed as members of the One Origin Sect, there is no need to keep them alive."

"Master Bao, when cutting the weeds, one must—"

Before Yang Jingye could finish his sentence,

Suddenly!

"Rumble, rumble, rumble!!!"

A deafening thunderclap exploded across the heavens.

Simultaneously,

Bao Chao’s expression underwent a drastic and violent change:

"Not good!"

"There is another master here!"

Before his voice had even faded, Bao Chao slammed his feet into the ground with explosive force and spun around rapidly.

By the looks of his posture, he was actually hurtling straight back toward Yang Jingye.

It was as if, at this very moment, he was compelled to return to Yang Jingye's side without a single moment's delay.

A trace of confusion flickered across Yang Jingye's face—

Abruptly—

"Bang!!!"

The roof of the study shattered instantly.

A heavy black mass plummeted fiercely amidst a cascade of broken roof tiles!

Before Yang Jingye could react in the slightest,

that heavy black object crashed directly down upon the crown of his head.

"Crack!"

The crisp sound of shattering bones rang out sharply.

The heavy black object appeared to be hollow, and Yang Jingye's head was suddenly swallowed entirely inside it.

Yet the tremendous downward momentum of the heavy object shattered Yang Jingye's collarbone and shoulder bones instantly, the sheer weight pressing down with such force that his knees buckled, driving him straight to the ground.

His kneecaps were pulverized!

It was a weapon forged from black iron, resembling a colossal iron helmet or a massive cauldron, the outer rim lined with a terrifying, bone-chilling array of sharp blades.

At the very top of this weapon, a thick black iron chain was securely attached.

The crushing weight of the weapon pinned Yang Jingye down, rendering him utterly incapable of standing.

"Master!"

Regaining their senses, the four maidservants rushed forward in a desperate attempt to rescue Yang Jingye.

The moment these four maidservants made their move, Qiu Zhuo was shocked to discover that they were martial artists as well!

The next second,

as the iron chain rapidly retracted, the blades along the inner rim of the terrifying weapon snapped shut with vicious speed.

"Slash!"

The razor-sharp inner blades generated a tremendous shearing force, instantly cleanly severing Yang Jingye's neck.

Yang Jingye's head was drawn back up into the interior of the weapon, flying straight toward the gaping hole in the roof.

The immense force with which the weapon departed left the four maidservants completely powerless to stop it.

One of the maidservants even had her wrist sliced off by the outer ring of blades!

Yang Jingye's headless corpse knelt upon the floor, blood gushing violently from his severed neck.

Standing nearby, Qiu Zhuo was splashed full in the face with warm, arterial blood before he suddenly snapped out of his trance and bolted away in shrieking terror.

Everything had transpired far too quickly, lasting only a fraction of a breath.

By the time Bao Chao rushed back, Yang Jingye's head had already been taken away.

"Vile scoundrel!"

"The One Origin Sect actually left behind a hidden trump card?"

"Damnable wretch!"

Bao Chao glared up at the massive hole in the roof, his face turning ashen with rage, his teeth grinding in fury.

He assumed he had fallen for the One Origin Sect's diversionary tactic of luring the tiger away from the mountain, using a few juniors to draw him out while the true lethal strike remained concealed in reserve.

Yet Bao Chao could not fathom for the life of him how the enemy's presence had managed to elude his perception for so long.

As a fifth-rank expert, his senses were exceptionally acute.

The moment Yan Ju and the other two entered the county office, he had already intercepted their movements.

However, the adversary who had just slain Yang Jingye seemed to have materialized out of thin air directly upon the roof of the study.

By the time he perceived the threat, it was already far too late to fall back and defend.

"Scoundrel!"

"Do you truly believe you can escape?"

Bao Chao stomped his foot against the ground, his body launching violently into the air as he charged toward the gaping hole in the ceiling.

Yang Jingye was the Asura Sect's most generous patron, providing vast amounts of financial backing over the years.

It was precisely for this reason that Bao Chao, an elder of the Asura Sect, had personally come to ensure Yang Jingye's safety.

Now, Yang Jingye had been murdered right before his eyes; not only was this a humiliating slap to the face of the Asura Sect, but it had also severed their ultimate cash cow.

How could Bao Chao possibly swallow this rage?

Just as Bao Chao was about to vault through the roof,

The next moment,

"Bang!!!"

The roof tiles shattered once more, and a figure plummeted downward amidst the pelting, torrential rain.

Simultaneously, a massive black greatsword came slashing down fiercely toward the top of Bao Chao's head!

The assassin who had murdered Yang Jingye had not fled at all; instead, he was launching a proactive counter-attack!

"Whoosh!"

Carrying the downward momentum of the fall combined with the ferocious strength of the slash, the greatsword moved at blinding speed, whipping up a howling gale of fierce wind.

Bao Chao was greatly startled.

Suspended mid-air, he should have had no leverage whatsoever to maneuver, yet his body suddenly twisted with the fluid grace of a soaring crane, forcibly shifting his entire frame sideways through sheer force of will.

The greatsword missed Bao Chao completely.

However, one of the maidservants below was not nearly as fortunate, taking the full brunt of the falling blade directly upon her head.

With a single stroke, the maidservant was cleaved straight down the middle into two halves!

"Bang!!!!!!"

The assassin landed with bone-shattering weight.

His mass appeared extraordinarily heavy, the impact striking the ground with a thunderous crash that sent spiderweb-like cracks rippling across the stone floor.

The assassin slowly rose to his feet.

When everyone finally caught a clear glimpse of his appearance, they could not help but draw in a sharp breath of cold air.

The figure stood at least two meters tall.

He wore a pointed conical iron helmet, a metallic skull mask, shoulder pauldrons, and a dark-gray robe.

In one hand, he wielded a massive, heavy greatsword.

His other hand, however, was a mechanical prosthesis lacking a palm, replaced entirely by a beast-headed iron box.

An iron chain extending from the beast-headed iron box connected directly to the peculiar weapon that had taken Yang Jingye's life.

That weapon resembled both a steel round shield and a gigantic helmet, yet everyone present understood its true purpose was the reaping of human lives!

The torrential rain pouring down through the hole in the roof relentlessly pelted his helmet, mask, and pauldrons, scattering explosive clusters of water droplets.

With the appearance of this figure, an aura of icy coldness, crushing weight, and gloomy chill permeated the entire study.

Bao Chao landed two zhang away, staring gloomily at the skull-masked man as he demanded:

"Which senior of the One Origin Sect are you?"

"Do you dare state your name!"

Bao Chao was intimately familiar with all the renowned figures of the One Origin Sect, and none of them matched the man before him.

This left only two possibilities.

Either this person was a hidden asset of the One Origin Sect, kept concealed to execute specialized missions, or this individual was an outside reinforcement hired by the sect.

In the small courtyard,

Yan Ju, Yun Liao, and Hua Lanyue were utterly dumbfounded.

Having previously believed themselves to be facing certain death, they had already resigned themselves to perish.

Yet in the blink of an eye, the situation had undergone an astonishing reversal.

The three of them found themselves momentarily unable to process the sudden turn of events.

Hua Lanyue even blurted out in a low voice:

"Senior Brother, could this be the senior expert invited by Master to secretly assist us?"

Guided by Bao Chao's words, she genuinely mistook the skull-masked man for a high-ranking expert from their own sect.

Yan Ju and Yun Liao exchanged bewildered glances, completely at a loss.

Clearly, up to this moment, they remained entirely clueless about the true state of affairs.

At this very moment,

the metal-masked man grasped his greatsword and began walking slowly toward Bao Chao...