On one of the streets within Sword Heaven City, a man lifted his head to look at the sky and muttered indifferently,
"It's raining again, huh…"
He let out a soft chuckle before adding mockingly,
"Do you think it will be poisonous rain this time?"
Laughter rang out around him.
"Hahaha!"
The crowd laughed along. Earlier rumors about poisonous rain had once thrown the entire city into panic, yet nothing ever came of it. In the end, it became nothing more than a joke repeated every time rain fell.
However, this time, the laughter stopped abruptly.
A chill swept through the air, as if something were gazing down from the heavens. An oppressive silence enveloped the entire city. Even the sound of the rainfall felt strangely distorted.
Inside the shattered City Lord's manor, Ye Chen sat gasping for breath. Blood streamed down his face, twisted with madness.
"Ha… ha… die… die…"
Before he could regain his senses, a female voice suddenly echoed within his mind.
"Child, run now…"
Ye Chen froze as confusion surged through him. He had not yet understood the meaning of that warning.
Boom!!
An overwhelming force slammed down upon his head. Someone's foot crushed his skull into the stone ground with brutal force. The earth cracked open as his entire body was driven deep into it. Bones shattered loudly as pain exploded throughout his body.
Before he could even scream, a hand seized his right arm and yanked it upward while his head remained buried in the ground.
In the next instant, Ye Chen's spatial ring began to tremble violently. A vast power was about to erupt from within.
Yet with a light squeeze from that person's fingers, all of it dispersed instantly, as if it had never existed.
A voice rang out from inside the ring, filled with terror.
"A Saint Emperor… no… no… could it be a Half Emperor?!"
The voice quivered before turning into a long, shrill scream.
"Aaaaaaah!"
Massive spiritual energy surged forth as if being devoured, before being completely sealed back into the ring.
Silence returned once more.
All twenty one Saints turned their gazes toward Ye Chen in shock. Their faces drained pale in an instant.
No matter how closely they stared or how intensely they extended their spiritual senses, they could not perceive even the slightest trace of aura from that figure.
It was as though the young man before them no longer stood within the same dimension as they did.
A Saint from the Ye family forced himself to shout, anger and panic intertwined in his voice.
"Release my grandson at once!"
The instant that shout faded, the six Saints of the Ye family erupted with power simultaneously. Waves of Saint aura burst forth, twisting the surrounding qi into chaos. Their figures shot forward like lightning, intending to rescue Ye Chen at once.
However, just half a step before reaching their target, all six froze midair.
Their eyes widened. Terror was etched clearly across their faces.
Boom!
One body slammed violently into the ground. The impact cracked the stone floor outward in a wide circle. Almost at the same time, several other figures followed, crashing down one after another. Deafening impacts echoed across the courtyard.
The Saints of the Mu family who hovered in the sky suffered the same fate. The power within their bodies collapsed in an instant. One by one, they fell from the heavens as if forcibly dragged down.
The members of the City Lord's manor standing nearby were no different. Every one of them collapsed to the ground, the sound of bodies striking stone ringing out continuously.
Within a single breath, all twenty one Saints lay motionless. Blood poured from their mouths, noses, and even from the pores across their bodies. Veins ruptured. Muscles convulsed uncontrollably.
They struggled to cry out, yet could not move even their lips. The spiritual power within them had shattered completely, unable to condense again. Their bodies no longer felt as though they belonged to them.
As despair engulfed everyone
The white robed man vanished from his original position.
In the next moment, he reappeared beside Kang Hao's body. The severed head lay upon the ground, fresh crimson blood not yet dried.
The man in white calmly raised his hand and let a drop of clear liquid fall upon the head.
The droplet seeped through skin and bone without a sound, spreading a mysterious power throughout Kang Hao's body.
It was not healing.
It was a binding.
A shackle of life that would follow him for all eternity from this moment onward.
Next, the man in white used spiritual power to support Kang Hao's head. He then produced a single translucent crimson pill.
The pill radiated a brilliant red glow. Within it, crimson flames rotated slowly, like a living heart.
The instant the red pill was placed into Kang Hao's mouth
Thump…
Thump…
Powerful tremors spread outward from Kang Hao's lips, surged through his head, and then detonated directly within his soul.
Kang Hao, who should have been dead, had the veins across his scalp bulge violently. The life force that should have vanished was forcibly torn awake by something savage and merciless.
In that fleeting instant, the crimson pill shattered.
Red gold flames surged straight down his throat, incinerating every broken meridian and restoring them to perfect condition. Cracking sounds echoed violently within Kang Hao's skull.
Rumble!!
An enormous surge of vitality erupted wildly from his body.
The bones of his neck began to regrow with sharp cracking sounds. Dark red tendons spread outward and pulled tightly together. Flesh regenerated at terrifying speed. Fresh crimson blood burst forth before flowing backward into newly forming vessels.
Thump!
Thump!!
Organs and muscles were reconstructed one after another. The heartbeat of a newly formed heart rang out, heavy, powerful, and clearer than at any moment in his life.
The Saint power that had once shattered began to circulate again. Yet this time it was purer, denser, and vastly stronger than before. It was as if this body was no longer Kang Hao's former flesh, but a vessel reforged entirely from the flames of life.
The crimson fire slowly subsided, leaving behind a single figure standing amid the scorched scent of heavenly laws.
Kang Hao slowly opened his eyes.
A faint red glow reflected within his pupils before gradually fading back to normal. His first breath thundered outward, deep and forceful, like an ancient beast awakening from death.
The twenty one Saints lying motionless on the ground stared at the scene with trembling eyes.
This was not healing.
It was not resurrection.
It was the tearing apart of the law of death itself before their very eyes.
The blood colored flames gradually extinguished, leaving only a dense aura of life drifting across the courtyard.
The man in white stood not far away and spoke in a voice so calm it was almost indistinct.
"How does the new body feel. One that is superior to the previous one."
Kang Hao lowered his gaze to his palm. The newly born muscles twitched slightly. Power flowed within him so smoothly that his heart quivered. He let out a soft laugh before lifting his head.
"It feels far better than I ever was."
His naked body stood openly in the courtyard without the slightest thought of concealment. The smile on his face carried pure satisfaction, like a child who had just received a new toy.
Kang Hao glanced at the twenty one Saints still lying on the ground. Tilting his head slightly, he spoke.
"Are you going to kill them."
He paused briefly before grinning widely.
"If you plan to kill them, may I be the one to do it."
The man in white shook his head gently, his tone remaining calm.
"No need."
He flicked a glance toward those bodies and continued without the slightest ripple of emotion.
"I will refine them into pills and create twenty one new Saints."
Kang Hao fell silent for a moment before laughing in astonishment.
"Hearing that, my master seems truly capable… and extremely ruthless as well."
The man in white did not reply. He turned his back and spoke only a single sentence.
"Go find some clothes to wear. Looking at you makes me want to gouge my eyes out and wash them immediately."
Kang Hao shrugged and walked away in high spirits, leaving behind only the man in white, who vanished from his spot in the blink of an eye.