329: Chapter 329 The sword severs the severed arm, and the bloodthirsty slaughterer escapes.

The light from the fist was so piercing that one could not open their eyes; rubble hovered above the scorched earth, and the air was compressed into visible ripples.

Blood Butcher knelt on the ground, half his body sunk into a fissure, his right arm unable to lift, black blood hanging from the corner of his mouth, yet his eyes stared fixedly at Chen Wuwang, like a trapped beast making its final counterattack.

"Come on." Chen Wuwang stood inside the cockpit of the "eye of wuwang" mech, his voice emerging from the speaker array, cold as iron, "Let your backup watch how you were beaten to your knees."

He slowly raised his right arm, his fist aimed at Blood Butcher's crown, the energy core humming to its limit, a blue-white beam of light rotating in the center of his fist, ready to strike in an instant.

Just at that moment—

"Swoosh!"

A silver light slashed in diagonally, so fast it didn't even leave an afterimage.

Blood Butcher's right shoulder exploded violently, his entire arm flying off at the shoulder, carving an arc in the air; the blood spraying from the stump hadn't even hit the ground before it was shredded into a blood mist by the high-speed Sword Qi.

"Urghhh—!!!" Blood Butcher roared, his voice tearing at his throat, his whole body pitching forward, nearly falling into the fissure.

Chen Xiaodao stepped through the air and landed, the Mechanical prosthetic limb on his left shoulder flickering with faint blue electric arcs, his right hand holding a longsword pointing diagonally at the ground; not a drop of blood touched the tip, but the blade was wrapped in a layer of pale green shimmer that flowed slowly as if it were alive.

"What are you snatching for?" Chen Wuwang looked down at him, his tone not angry, but rather a bit helpless.

Chen Xiaodao looked up, his eyes as cold as ice, "I have waited three years for this sword strike."

He walked forward two steps, stood to the lower right of Chen Wuwang's mech, and looked up at the massive metal war body:

"You say technology is the rule, I say the sword is the law. The life he owes must be repaid with the sword."

Chen Wuwang was silent for two seconds, then suddenly laughed: "Fine, then you finish it off."

He withdrew his fist, the mech's six wings slowly folded, the energy field dissipated, and the rubble hovering above the ground crashed down with a "clatter."

Blood Butcher lay on the ground, supporting himself with his left hand, the flesh at his severed arm mangled, yet he gritted his teeth and didn't make another sound.

He looked up, his blood-red eyes sweeping over Chen Wuwang, then fixed on Chen Xiaodao, his voice hoarse: "You... one uses machines, the other uses heterodox sword techniques... what kind of cultivators are you?"

"Cultivators?" Chen Xiaodao sneered, stepping forward, his sword tip pressing against his neck, "When you killed my entire village, why didn't you ask yourself what kind of thing you were?"

The corners of Blood Butcher's mouth twitched, then suddenly grinned, his mouth full of blood: "Heh... alright, then kill me. But if you don't kill me today, I will surely slaughter your entire clan in the future! The Blood Demon Sect will not let you go—"

"Shut up." Chen Xiaodao kicked him in the waist, knocking him flat onto the ground.

He turned his head to look at Chen Wuwang: "Patriarch, keeping him alive makes this place too dirty."

Chen Wuwang stood on the mech, looking down at Blood Butcher from above, data streams flashing across his Mechanical Prosthetic Eye, finally stopping at the entry "Target's vital signs fluctuating abnormally."

"Just leave him with a breath," he said, "Living is more painful than dying."

No sooner had he finished speaking—

Blood Butcher suddenly erupted!

Not in an attack, but his whole body suddenly opened wide, and a mouthful of essential blood sprayed from the tip of his tongue, turning into three twisted blood talismans in the air.

He slammed his left hand into his own chest, forcibly pushing his heart forward an inch; fresh blood gushed out, and a foul-smelling blood aura exploded, instantly forming a thick cloud of blood mist that obscured their vision.

"Blood Escape!"

He roared the two words, his body beginning to blur, his skin peeling off in pieces, turning into blood threads that merged into the mist.

The wound on his severed arm actually stopped bleeding, instead contracting and closing, and his whole body seemed to evaporate as it pulled a twisted blood shadow toward the north.

"Want to leave?" Chen Xiaodao raised his sword, ready to pursue.

"Don't chase." Chen Wuwang reached out to stop him, the mech's arm barring his way, "Blood Escape is a forbidden technique; he used his Origin essential blood, so he won't get far, but if you chase him, you will be infected by the residual blood poison."

Chen Xiaodao stopped, veins bulging on the hand holding the sword, staring at the rapidly receding blood shadow, his eyes cold enough to kill.

The blood shadow tore through the clouds, heading north, leaving a crimson trail behind like a gash torn across the sky.

As the wind blew, most of the blood mist dissipated, leaving only a pool of black blood and the severed arm on the ground, its fingers still twitching slightly.

"Just let him run like that?" Chen Xiaodao said in a low voice, his tone pressed extremely low.

"He ran." Chen Wuwang jumped down from the mech, his metal boots stepping on the scorched earth with a dull thud, "But he didn't escape unscathed."

He walked over to the severed arm, crouched down, and used a dagger to pick up a thread of blood; his Mechanical Prosthetic Eye scanned it for a moment, and the corners of his mouth curled up:

"His right arm had been trained in the 'Blood Refining Nine Heavens', which is the core hub of his Cultivation Technique. Now that it's gone, it's equivalent to crippling thirty percent of his power. Plus, the backlash from the Blood Escape has likely ruptured at least seventy percent of the Meridians in his body."

"But he still ran." Chen Xiaodao stared at the northern horizon, where the red mark had faded until it was almost invisible.

"A dog running for its life will always turn back to bite," Chen Wuwang stood up and clapped his hands, "But we are not afraid of a dog's barking."

He turned to look at Chen Xiaodao, his tone softening slightly: "That sword strike just now was not bad."

"Sword Intent Fusion with magic frequency, the sword speed increased by forty percent." Chen Xiaodao looked down at his sword, the green light gradually fading, "It's just that the energy consumption is a bit high; the mechanical arm can't handle three consecutive strikes."

"I'll have Tiezhu add an energy storage module for you later." Chen Wuwang nodded, "But the timing you chose was excellent; it was exactly at the moment I withdrew my hand. Any earlier by a second, and my fist wouldn't have been retracted, and your sword would have been deflected; any later, and he would have completed the Blood Escape."

"I know." Chen Xiaodao said indifferently, "I was waiting for you to loosen your strength."

The two were silent for a moment, the wind sweeping ashes across the battlefield; among the broken rocks, one could still see a few enemy corpses, some already charred black, others split in two by the Sword Qi.

"He said earlier that the Blood Demon Sect won't let us go." Chen Xiaodao suddenly spoke up.

"They never intended to let us go." Chen Wuwang sneered, "From the moment he first sent people to bomb the Medicinal Field, they never intended to stop."

"Then what's next?" Chen Xiaodao looked up, "He ran, but he will come back."

"He will." Chen Wuwang looked in the direction of the Qiming Plain, where five spiritual energy towers were still operating, their faint lights flickering, "So he will definitely find help, bring more people, and use more underhanded methods."

"Then we wait." Chen Xiaodao gripped the sword hilt, "Wait for him to come, then sever another one of his legs."

"More than that." The corners of Chen Wuwang's mouth curled up, a flash of blood-colored spiritual patterns appearing in his eyes, "We want him to know what it means—that the hunter and the prey have long since swapped positions."

He raised his hand, pointing in the direction where the blood shadow had disappeared to the north: "What he took away today wasn't his life, but his humiliation. Next time we meet, I won't just want his life; I want his entire Blood Demon Sect kneeling to serve as fuel for the Chen family's mines."

Chen Xiaodao didn't speak, just slowly raised his sword, the tip pointing to the sky, the green light reappearing, reflecting in his eyes like an undying flame.

In the distance, the wind stopped.

On the scorched earth, only two figures remained, one tall and one short, one still and one moving, standing on this battlefield where the slaughter had just ended, neither moving.

Blood Butcher had fled.

But the vendetta had only just begun.

Chen Xiaodao looked down at the severed arm at his feet, suddenly raised his foot, and crushed it fiercely.

The sound of bone shattering was very crisp.

He looked up, his voice as cold as iron: "Today I severed your arm, one day I will take your dog life—I will surely avenge this!"

As his words fell, the wind rose again.

Broken ashes filled the sky, obscuring the distant horizon.