Is that all for Chapter 12?
Zhao Qian didn't waste any more words.
He set off, his body hunched as he walked toward Ye Haocheng, one step at a time.
His pace was slow and light, his footsteps silent, like a phantom walking through the dark night.
As he moved...
"Sss... sss..."
Wisps and strands of white spiritual energy, finer than hair and almost invisible to the naked eye, began to burst continuously from his withered fingertips!
These white spiritual threads drifted and wove through the air like venomous snakes with lives of their own.
Silently, they gathered from all directions, quietly surrounding the area where Ye Haocheng and Leng Yi stood.
An inescapable net woven from Three Thousand White Silks was quietly taking shape!
Every single white thread was as sharp as a divine weapon and incredibly resilient, containing a sinister power that could corrode spiritual energy and defile the soul.
Once ensnared, even a Martial Emperor expert with skin of bronze and bones of iron would be strangled alive, ending with their soul completely obliterated!
However, faced with this lethal trap that would make any Martial Emperor Realm expert's scalp tingle with fear...
Ye Haocheng's expression remained unchanged.
He didn't even strike a defensive pose, merely watching the approaching Zhao Qian with a playful, mocking gaze, as if watching a play.
"Old dog."
He suddenly spoke. His voice wasn't loud, yet it reached Zhao Qian's ears clearly.
"Do you really think that today, you have me completely cornered and can definitely finish me off?"
Hearing this, Zhao Qian's hunched body paused slightly.
He raised his sinister eyes, looked at the fearless expression on Ye Haocheng's face, and let out a disdainful sneer.
"Little bastard, death is at your door and you still want to be stubborn?"
His gaze shifted from Ye Haocheng and glanced contemptuously at the expressionless Leng Yi beside him.
"This old servant admits that this guard of yours indeed has some skill."
Zhao Qian's tone was filled with lofty arrogance.
"To be able to cripple that group of trash under Xiao Ce in an instant, his cultivation must be at least that of a Martial King. It's just a pity..."
He shook his head, looking at Leng Yi as if he were already a dead man.
"He followed the wrong master."
"In front of this old servant, what does a mere Martial King amount to?"
Zhao Qian's voice suddenly became cold and conceited!
"Even this old servant can no longer remember how many Martial Emperor Realm experts have died under my 'Three Thousand White Silks'!"
"He is just the next one!"
Listening to Zhao Qian's incredibly arrogant words, Ye Haocheng wasn't the least bit nervous; instead, he nodded thoughtfully.
"Mm, you old dog, you are indeed strong enough."
He seemed to be seriously evaluating the other party's strength.
"Otherwise, you wouldn't be called the number one person below the Martial Saint Realm in the Great Chu Dynasty."
Hearing this, a look of smugness couldn't help but surface on Zhao Qian's old face.
This was the title he was most proud of in his life!
However, before he could enjoy his pride...
Ye Haocheng's tone suddenly shifted!
A flash of extreme amusement and pity suddenly flickered in those pitch-black eyes!
He stared at Zhao Qian and said word by word.
"What a pity..."
"No matter how strong you are, old dog, in the end, you are still only in the Martial Emperor Realm!"
These words were like a clap of thunder, exploding in Zhao Qian's mind!
Only in the Martial Emperor Realm?!
What arrogant phrasing!
The smugness on Zhao Qian's face instantly froze!
He was no fool!
From Ye Haocheng's pitying gaze and those nonchalant words, he suddenly sensed a terrifying implication that made his soul tremble with fear!
A thought—one he himself found utterly absurd yet could not suppress—surged wildly from the depths of his heart!
Could it be that guard?!
Zhao Qian's sinister pupils instantly contracted to the size of needles!
For the first time, his face revealed a look of unbelievable horror!
He snapped his head up, but at the very moment his gaze swept over...
He was shocked to find that the cold figure who had been standing quietly behind Ye Haocheng had long since vanished from his original spot!
An intense sense of mortal danger, like a bursting dam, instantly submerged Zhao Qian entirely!
Not good!!!
At this moment, Zhao Qian no longer possessed a shred of his previous certainty and arrogance!
His old face turned deathly pale from extreme fear and became completely distorted!
"Ah!!!"
He let out a scream that didn't sound human, and the spiritual energy within his body erupted frantically without reservation!
"Three Thousand White Silks! Defend!"
He frantically activated his divine ability. The thousands of white spiritual threads that had already spread out to form a surrounding net now retracted and converged toward him at an incredible speed!
In the blink of an eye, the three thousand incredibly tough white threads condensed around him into an airtight defensive wall shimmering with a cold white light!
Just as this defensive wall woven from Three Thousand White Silks was completed!
A strand of sword qi...
A strand of sword qi, fast as lightning yet with its aura restrained and seemingly unremarkable, appeared before him without warning.
This sword qi was very ordinary.
It had no earth-shattering power, no edge that tore through the void; it was just simple and unadorned.
It looked like a casual strike from a martial master who had just begun learning the way of the sword.
Under Zhao Qian's terrified gaze!
*Puchi—*
A soft sound rang out, like a hot knife cutting through butter.
His proud, indestructible Three Thousand White Silks were as fragile as paper before that sword qi, being sliced open with ease!
How is this possible?!
Zhao Qian's mind went blank!
Before he could even react from the shock...
A cold figure appeared before him silently, as if teleporting.
It was Leng Yi!
On Leng Yi's expressionless face, his eyes were cold, devoid of any human emotion.
He looked at the horrified Zhao Qian right in front of him and slowly raised his right hand.
He didn't use any divine abilities, nor did he use any weapons.
He simply struck out with a palm.
This palm strike looked light and airy, without a hint of worldly force.
But in Zhao Qian's perception, this palm seemed to contain the weight of the entire world!
Zhao Qian wanted to resist, wanted to flee, but his body felt as if it were completely locked down by an invisible and terrifying aura; he couldn't even move a finger!
He could only watch helplessly as that seemingly ordinary palm passed through his severed defense and unhurriedly pressed against his chest.
*Bang!!!*
A dull roar like a giant drum sounded!
In that instant, Zhao Qian felt as if an immemorial divine mountain had violently crashed into him!
An irresistible, overbearing, and terrifying force surged into his body like a hot knife through butter!
*Crack, crack...*
The meridians and bones within his body snapped inch by inch before this power!
His majestic Martial Emperor Realm spiritual energy, cultivated over hundreds of years, was instantly shattered and evaporated like snow under a blazing sun!
*Pffft—Wah!!!*
A large mouthful of blood mixed with internal organ fragments sprayed from Zhao Qian's mouth, raining down a pathetic mist of blood in the air.
His entire aura plummeted at a cliff-like speed!
This single palm strike had actually directly crippled his hundreds of years of bitter cultivation!
Zhao Qian's body flew backward like a kite with a broken string.
Finally, with a *thud*, he fell heavily at Ye Haocheng's feet like a dead dog, slumped and barely breathing.
Ye Haocheng slowly lowered his head, looking down at this once-arrogant but now wretched old eunuch with a cold and indifferent gaze.
He slowly raised his foot.
Then, he stomped down.
*Bang!*
With the sole of his foot, he ruthlessly pressed Zhao Qian's proud head deep into the cold, dirty mud!
Ye Haocheng leaned down and, in a voice only the two of them could hear, laughed softly in his ear with endless mockery:
"That's it?"
"The number one person below the Martial Saint Realm?"
"You old dog... you're not all that!"