MTLNOVEL Chapter 22: WTF is that Sword Art?!
Within the shadowed confines of the lodge, the chaos of Pay Ling's escape left a palpable tension. The room was a wreck—broken furniture, scattered debris, and the faint scent of blood lingering in the air.
Lee Sagwon, Chou Ease, and Miu Toanh leaned on one another, struggling to their feet. They moved slowly, applying medicine to their bruises and cuts, their faces tight with pain.
Midway through their quiet recovery, the enforcer squad disciples arrived, their presence sharp and intrusive. But the trio crafted a story of half-truths and deft misdirection, convincing the enforcers to leave.
Now, they were venomously plotting how to deal with Pay Ling. "That fucking cunt really know how to fight. We should have waited until while he's asleep." one grumbled.
"No use sniveling like a kicked pup now. We've already made our move, and he's gone," Miu Toanh, the hothead, snapped. "He's a newbie, unfamiliar with the place, dirt-poor—where's he gonna run? He's probably still on Ghost Shade Peak. Tomorrow, we'll send people to scour every inch until we drag him out!"
"Once we find him, I'm gonna torture him, find out how he cultivated that High-grade Iron Bone," Lee Sagwon said, his voice low and menacing. His broken leg, splinted and treated with a healing pill from his grandfather, was healing quickly—it would be fully restored in just a few days.
"This filthy lowborn scum came from nothing, yet he's so damn tough—there's gotta be some shitty secret behind it!" Lee Sagwon, usually the best at masking his feelings, cursing badly. The terror and humiliation of Pay Ling breaking his leg fueled a deep, seething hatred in his heart.
Before he could finish, the trio sensed the lodge's defense ward being deactivated. Before they could react, the door crashed open with a loud BANG!
They froze, still wondering the sudden intrusion, when a ghostly figure darted in—straight for Lee Sagwon.
Pay Ling's face was calmly blank, his blade flashing down with a shrill whistle aimed directly at Lee Sagwon's head.
Despite his injuries and shocks, Lee Sagwon kept his composure. His hands moved in a blur, snapping through a series of seals to summon his two phantoms. They let out a soul-shaking wail, their eerie cries echoing through the room.
However this same attack that had just crippled Pay Ling earlier now had no effect—he didn't even blink. The Blade of Life Hater continued its deadly arc, unstoppable and relentless.
At the critical moment, Miu Toanh kicked Lee Sagwon square in the gut, shoving him aside just in time.
SLASH!
A severed arm's thrown into the air. Then Pay Ling grasp it firmly.
WAAAAHH——
A scream of raw agony tore from Lee Sagwon's throat as he clutched the bloody stump of his severed arm.
The sudden twist was too abrupt. Even with Miu Toanh's quick reacting, Lee Sagwon had only narrowly escaped death—but not without losing an arm to the Life Hater.
"Pay Ling!" Chou Ease shrieked, his voice trembling with rage. "You dare come back here?!" Copper-rust patterns flared across his skin as the Green Ghost Battle Body reactivated. Both fists swung at brutal force, targeting Pay Ling's chest and dantian.
"You really think your little stroke of luck makes you the king of the outer sect?!" Miu Toanh barked, hauling Lee Sagwon to his feet. He flipped his wrist, shoving a blood-red pill into Lee Sagwon's mouth, then turned to Pay Ling with a snarl. "Filthy peasant, you're asking for death—DIE!"
Blood poured from Miu Toanh's eyes, nose, ears, and mouth as three air-blades formed before him. They shot toward Pay Ling, their paths erratic and lethal.
Despite the deadly onslaught from Chou Ease and Miu Toanh, Pay Ling's face remained eerily calm, even as his mind raced with panic. He disregarded their attacks, his blade moving with ruthless precision as he continued slashing at Lee Sagwon.
At the same moment, Pay Ling's spiritual energy surged through his dantian, flooding into his left palm—the hand clutching Lee Sagwon's severed arm. As if responding to a call, the arm's pores cracked open, releasing a swirling blood mist that spiraled upward like a crimson ribbon, coiling and twisting.
It hesitated for a moment before lunging aside, wrapping itself around the Blade of Life Hater. Then, in a flash, the arm withered and disintegrated into dust, disappearing into the breeze as though it had never been there.
Bang!
Chou Ease's fist slammed into Pay Ling's chest with bone-rattling force.
Then the system chimed without hesitation.
~ Ding! System Notification Chime
[AllFullOS: Version 1.0.0]
> External attack detected.
> Cultivation session status: TERMINATED
> Host control: RESTORED
> Thank you for using the All-Smart Full-Host Cultivation System™ (AllFullOS v1.0.0)
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Yes, just like last time, the system had fled cleanly, leaving Pay Ling to fend for himself.
Pay Ling had no time to curse the brain-dead system. He leaped back, narrowly dodging Chou Ease's second punch—but the three air-blades were another matter. In a split second, he prioritized protecting his vital areas, twisting to avoid the throat and knee shots. With a swift motion, he swung the Blade of Life Hater to intercept the last slash.
Clang!
The air-blade shattered completely, and Pay Ling didn't budge an inch. A thrill of satisfaction shot through him—Miu Toanh's air-blades used to numb his wrist and tear his palm, but now, with the Blood Fiend Sword Art cultivated, he could block them effortlessly!
Without hesitation, he ignored the trio's taunts, dodged Chou Ease's next attack, and followed the system's earlier strategy—slashing at Lee Sagwon again.
Pick the low-hanging fruit!
With an arm already cut off, Lee Sagwon was the perfect first target to eliminate!
Besides, Lee Sagwon's phantoms' wail attack didn't faze the system-controlled Pay Ling—but they'd wreck him if he lost control. If he fainted and dropped the blade again like earlier, he'd be as good as dead!
Lee Sagwon, crippled by a broken leg and fresh arm loss, was a shadow of his former self despite Miu Toanh's life-saving pill. Seeing the blade descend, he instinctively moved to command his phantoms to wail—but recalling their earlier failure, he feared wasting precious time and losing his life. Clenching his teeth, he scrambled aside in a frantic roll.
But he wasn't a body cultivator. Even at his peak, he couldn't outpace Pay Ling, a well experienced mountain-traverser—let alone now.
Lee Sagwon only managed to crawl two steps before the Blade of Life Hater sliced through his neck. Like his arm, his head was sent flying, blood gushing from the stump.
"Sagwon!!!" Chou Ease and Miu Toanh's eyes bulged with rage. The trio had stuck together since joining the sect. Though they'd done plenty of bad things, they shared a genuine camaraderie. Seeing Lee Sagwon beheaded before their eyes—how could they not burn with fury?!
Chou Ease's mind buzzed, blood rushing to his head. With a roar, he charged like a rabid wolf, fists flailing wildly.
But Miu Toanh's eyes flickered, his face twisting in horror.
Not a single drop of Lee Sagwon's erupting blood hit the ground—or anything else! It all answered an unseen call, coiling and swirling before being sucked wholly into the blood mist coating the Blade of Life Hater!
The mist deepened to a vivid crimson, then detached, lunging at Lee Sagwon's corpse. In an instant, the fresh body shriveled into a husk! The blood glow flared, returning to the blade. The mist thickened, a shadowy figure forming within—Lee Sagwon's face.
But soon, the mist boiled violently, tearing his face into pieces. A shrill wail echoed before the figure vanished entirely into the fog.
Miu Toanh blurted in shock, "What the FUCK is that sword art?!"
Pay Ling had no time to answer—hell, he was stunned himself. No wonder it came from Fairy Lith—this Blood Fiend Sword Art was brutal beyond belief! Completely different from his earlier clumsy wielding, the blade now moved like a phantom, unpredictable and deadly, forcing the desperate Chou Ease into a panicked retreat.
Seeing this, Miu Toanh knew things had spiraled completely out of control. A ruthless glint flashed in his eyes. Gritting his teeth, he pulled out the Dao Fulu he'd nearly used earlier, channeling spiritual energy into it.
Pay Ling's pupils shrank. He charged at Miu Toanh, but Chou Ease—knowing the Dao Fulu's devastating power—went berserk, throwing himself in the way.
Slash!
Pay Ling's blade hacked down, carving a gruesome gash across Chou Ease's chest. Blood splattered across Pay Ling's face, but he had no time to finish Chou Ease off. He rushed toward Miu Toanh, who stood with the Dao Fulu glowing with bone-chilling sword qi, poised for a devastating strike!