I Can Merge Techniques

He abruptly dropped the blood-colored greatsword and arrow and clutched his head with both hands. His massive body convulsed violently as he fell uncontrollably to one knee, overcome with pain.

’Is... Chu Fan’s arrow poisoned?’

’No! Zhang Lie’s hand, the one that caught the arrow, looks completely normal. So why is he clutching his head and screaming in agony?’

Such thoughts flashed through the minds of the Demon Suppression Captains, leaving them utterly bewildered.

Then—

"ROAR!"

As if a corner of his soul had been brutally torn away, the Blood Shadow Sect Leader let out an even more ferocious roar.

He didn’t even bother to pick up his greatsword. Bare-handed, he once again charged madly toward the masked woman!

Having descended completely into madness, Zhang Lie was now like a mutated fiend pushed to the brink of fury. His only instinct was to tear every living thing in his sight to shreds!

However, according to the Divine Sense of Li Mubai and the others, Zhang Lie’s speed had slowed significantly after taking that arrow from Chu Fan.

Even the peerlessly violent aura surrounding him had weakened considerably, losing its former ferocity.

WHOOSH!

The masked woman remained unfazed. She dodged Zhang Lie’s powerful, heavy-handed punch with a simple sidestep.

Then, as if using the Shrinking Inches technique, her figure flickered twice, crossing dozens of yards in an instant to appear like a phantom right before Chu Fan!

"...Hold on a second!"

Chu Fan obviously hadn’t anticipated her terrifying speed, and a look of astonishment flashed across his face.

He subconsciously hit the ground with a THUMP, preparing to use his old trick and activate his defenses.

But before his Shenxiao Imperial Golden Shield could even activate—

The woman had already struck out from a distance. A seemingly gentle Palm Seal drifted through the air and landed upon his chest.

BOOM!!!

There was no world-shaking flash of light, only absolute destruction and deathly silence.

With Chu Fan’s fallen body at the center, the ground instantly collapsed, disintegrated, and was annihilated!

An indescribable, terrifying power spread madly in all directions.

The vast Cold Crow Valley was utterly obliterated by that one seemingly casual palm strike!

The surrounding cliffs collapsed with a great RUMBLE. Boulders rained down, and in an instant, the deep gorge—along with the still-roaring monster, Zhang Lie—was buried completely.

The Blood Shadow Sect remnants who had survived the Demon Suppression Bureau’s initial assault and were still cheering from the valley’s edge didn’t even have time to scream. They were utterly consumed by the sudden cataclysm, leaving not a single trace behind.

A single palm strike, and a valley overturned.

Dust and smoke billowed into the sky, blotting out the sun.

The masked woman turned in mid-air, stepping on nothing but void as she landed gracefully upon a lone, surviving boulder at the edge of Cold Crow Valley.

Her robes fluttered, unstained by a single speck of dust, as if that world-destroying strike had nothing to do with her!

"..."

Li Mubai and the others stared dumbfounded at the apocalyptic scene unfolding before them. They fell utterly silent, their hearts reeling with a shock that was beyond words.

That palm strike was far more terrifying than her earlier sword attack!

It was pure, unadulterated, unreasonable... an absolute power capable of leveling anything in its path!

A single palm that could overturn the heavens, reducing all to ruins.

This pure, unreasonable, absolute power—a force capable of flattening anything—weighed upon the hearts of every surviving Demon Suppression Captain like an invisible mountain, suffocating them.

Li Mubai’s face was ashen. The qi and blood in his body roiled uncontrollably, and he could barely keep it in check.

He asked himself honestly: even after taking the forbidden drug "Fleeting Beauty" to push his strength to its absolute peak, and even after deploying his strongest defensive Profound Weapon, he still would have struggled to survive that deceptively casual palm strike.

This woman in the Ghost Face Mask... her strength might not yet match that of Princess Zhaohua, but it certainly wasn’t far behind.

Regret and guilt, like two venomous snakes, gnawed at the hearts of Li Mubai and the others.

They had thought their ally, Chu Fan, was the key to turning the tables.

Instead, they had led him into a deathtrap with virtually no chance of survival.

An irrepressible hatred and grim determination ignited in the eyes of Li Mubai, Nangong Yue, and the others.

They might die, but even in death, they had to leave an indelible scar on this woman!

At that moment, the woman on the boulder shifted her gaze. From across the flattened expanse of Cold Crow Valley, her eyes locked onto Nangong Yue on the opposite side.

In that instant, Nangong Yue felt the very air around her solidify. A bone-chilling killing intent clamped down on her like invisible shackles, rooting her to the spot, unable to move a muscle.

It felt as if a massive boulder was crushing her chest. Even breathing became difficult, and every thunderous heartbeat felt heavy as a drum.

’This is bad...’

Her heart sank.

Her personal sword was a Profound Weapon, but it was designed for offense, unlike Li Mubai’s Qiankun Mirror, which possessed life-saving teleportation abilities.

Being targeted by an expert of this caliber, her fate seemed sealed—it was a dead end.

A look of tragic determination settled upon her cool features.

Nangong Yue’s hand caressed her sword hilt. A chill spread from her fingertips as the Primordial Qi inside her began to burn furiously, pushing her power to its limit regardless of the cost.

She prepared to pour every last bit of her cultivation into unleashing the most brilliant and devastating sword strike of her life.

Even if she were to fade away like a firework, she would first have to bloom in the darkness, if only for a fleeting moment of brilliance.

However, just at this critical juncture, at the very precipice of life and death!

From deep beneath the collapsed and flattened Cold Crow Valley, two entirely different yet equally immense auras erupted at the exact same moment!