Chapter 126: Certain Death, Embryonic Breath | Thanks to the Silver Grand Patron, White Clothes Stained with Frost Y

This sword strike carried a mental shock, its will as sharp and unyielding as steel, locking down the surrounding space. It was not, however, the true intent of the Thunder Sword.

Instead, it was the Four Seasons Sword Intent that Xiao Nan had recently comprehended. Although his mastery was not yet profound—much like Jiang Yu, he had grasped only a sliver—the methods of a Grandmaster of the External Realm are far beyond what ordinary people can imagine.

As he unleashed the strike, Xiao Nan felt his mental energy drain away as if a sluice gate had been opened; in an instant, eighty or ninety percent was gone, nearly exhausted. His physical vitality also suddenly withered, leaving him weak. His face turned deathly pale, yet his eyes ignited with fire.

Slaying a priest protected by divine radiance would be a death wish for anyone else. But for Xiao Nan, it was different. Deep within the recesses of his mind, the bronze mirror shuddered slightly. The golden light waves surrounding the white-furred wolf-barbarian dissipated into nothingness. A filament of sword intent flashed with lightning speed across the priest's neck, continuing onward to strike the giant Beast God statue of wood behind him.

With a series of crashing explosions, the statue collapsed. The white-furred head of the barbarian priest flew into the air, a look of disbelief still lingering in his eyes. In the ancestral grounds of his tribe, during a ritual to honor the gods, he—the sole High Priest—had actually been killed by an ordinary human who had not yet grasped transcendental power. It was utterly absurd. In that moment, he felt not even a shred of anger, only bewilderment.

Xiao Nan, naturally, would not stay to offer him enlightenment. Amidst the spray of blood, a cluster of golden light patterns, thick as a child’s fist, flickered like a phantom and submerged into the space between his brows.

His mind cleared instantly. His mental energy surged, as if a wild tide had been stirred up. From near and far, countless streams of information poured into his heart like a torrent of light. Without turning his head, he could perceive the rage and terror on the face of the wolf-barbarian chieftain, and the expressions of pain and despair among the countless barbarians. Before the roars could reach his ears, an boundless, malevolent aura threatened to engulf him. Xiao Nan even glimpsed a colossal threat approaching from the distant horizon: a pair of enormous, golden eyes, devoid of humanity, cold and cruel.

His body trembled violently, like a sieve in the wind. It felt as if he were merging with the very heavens and earth, with vital energy rushing in to meet him. Thousands upon thousands of pores opened across his skin, crazily inhaling the essence of the surrounding world. His body seemed to have developed a spirit of its own, undergoing a strange, spontaneous metamorphosis.

Xiao Nan was ecstatic. At a time when he had just slain a powerful foe, his mental energy had progressed, and his physical potential had been unlocked. It was truly a timely blessing. Most importantly, he was not actively practicing the Four Seasons Sword Technique, nor was he intentionally drawing upon the world’s vital energy; his body was simply breathing on its own, peaceful and overflowing with vitality. The internal injuries previously inflicted by the chieftain’s blade healed completely in the span of half a breath.

"Fetal Breathing Realm."

Even at this critical juncture, a sense of satisfaction surged within him, irrepressible. The cluster of divine energy he had obtained from slaying the wolf-barbarian priest was seven or eight times larger than what he had acquired in the Yuanjiang City villa district. The benefits to his body and mind were indescribable. He even suspected that if he were to simply calm his heart—without even training, just sleeping a few times—the power of this Fetal Breathing would naturally propel his body into the First-Grade warrior realm.

...Qin Shuang’s mental energy must be at this level. No wonder she was always acting so arrogant. In her heart, she probably viewed all the students sitting in the classroom as trash, completely beneath her level.

...Facing the desperate, frantic blade-light of the beast-barbarian chieftain, Xiao Nan leveraged the momentum of his sword strike. Without pausing, he bypassed the half-collapsed Beast God statue like a swimming fish. Dust kicked up under his feet as he dashed through an exit and surged out of the valley.

Yes, this was the only path to survival. The terrain of the Yin Wind Valley was unique; where there was an entrance, there was naturally an exit—and more than one. The reason Xiao Nan had not chosen to retreat the way he came, nor head toward the area with the spacious dwellings, was because he had set his sights on the back door of the shrine.

The most dangerous place is the safest direction. By conventional logic, this area was guarded by the priest and the chieftain—the strongest combatants. No one would be foolish enough to try and escape through there. But Xiao Nan had formulated his strategy from the very beginning. He used advancement as a form of retreat; what looked like a desperate struggle was actually a ploy to draw the two strongest members of the wolf-barbarian tribe into the fray. The moment of attack is precisely when one’s weaknesses are exposed.

After taking a heavy blow, using a trick to grab a barbarian as a human shield, and exploiting the enemy’s cognitive blind spot to bypass the chieftain... he had unleashed his ultimate sword intent, catching them off guard, and decapitated the wolf-barbarian priest at close range. Xiao Nan had moved with calculated precision, every strike intended to kill, leaving the barbarian chieftain completely unable to react. Even at the moment of death, the priest had never imagined that the opponent’s goal was never a desperate last stand. From beginning to end, his only thought had been to escape the valley.

"Good! A feint to the east while attacking to the west—decisive and ruthless. Truly commendable..." Wang Yuanzhi could no longer sit still. He stood up and paced back and forth, his eyes unable to tear themselves away from the light screen for even a second. As for Li Shaohua, what was he doing now? Killing tree-barbarians? Or bear-barbarians, or tiger-barbarians? Who cared? Seeing the scenery around Xiao Nan shift into a vast forest with lush green grass, no longer the gloomy valley from before, Wang felt an indescribable thrill. He wished he were there on the scene, fighting side-by-side with him. It had been many years since he had felt such passion.

"Principal Sun, what is his name?"

"Xiao Nan." Sun Zhongli almost rolled his eyes; he had heard the name mentioned before. It seemed that hearing a name and actually committing it to memory were two different things. Only now did he truly take note of it.

"Surname Xiao? Are there any experts named Xiao in Yuanjiang Prefecture? Actually, yes."

"He is the child of Xiao Zhenjiang’s family," Sun Zhongli said with a complex look in his eyes, his voice muffled.

Wang Yuanzhi slapped his forehead in confusion. "Xiao Zhenjiang was brave, certainly, but he was a stubborn man with no such cunning strategies. Besides, Xiao Zhenjiang has been trapped in the Wall of Sighs for ten years; there has been no word of him. Even if he had returned, he would have taught his family the Tiger Soul Blade, not the Four Seasons Sword."

Gradually, the two men stopped talking. As Xiao Nan escaped the valley, the wolf-barbarian tribe began to boil over like an exploding pot. The tall chieftain with the golden chest fur roared in a frenzy, his body glowing with a shimmering red light as he gave chase without pause. Behind him, more than forty wolf-barbarians brandished their weapons, howling with bloodshot eyes. Further back, a massive, dark mass of warriors followed.

One can do something once, but not twice. With the enemy in a state of absolute fury, Xiao Nan had no intention of looking back. He buried his head and ran, thinking that as long as he reached the radiation zone, he would be much safer. The badge on his chest remained intact; he did not believe the military at the camp would fail to react to such a scene. If they truly sat by and watched him be hunted down and killed by the barbarians, then it could only be said that humanity in this world deserved to perish long ago.