The entire battlefield fell silent in an instant.
More than a dozen Highgods had been killed simultaneously by a single strike—it was simply unbelievable!
"How is that possible?" Lin Lei's eyes widened in shock. "Even a soul attack could only target one person at most. How did all those Highgods fall from the sky at the same time? What just happened?" A deep regret washed over Lin Lei.
He regretted not watching that strike more carefully.
"Run!"
"Run!"
The divine clones that emerged from eight of the Highgods' corpses fled in terror in every direction. Having witnessed that terrifying sword strike, they had not even a shred of courage left to resist.
"Too powerful. Too terrifying."
These Highgods truly felt the terror of death.
"Flee?" Leermons watched the eight divine clones escape with an indifferent gaze, a cold smile touching the corner of his lips.
Suddenly—he drew his sword!
In an instant, eight streaks of black sword light sliced through the sky, sweeping past the eight divine clones fleeing in different directions. The clones continued hurtling forward, but their bodies were cleanly split in two before plummeting from the sky.
Blood splattered across the heavens.
"That strike!" Lin Lei's pupils contracted sharply as his mind frantically replayed the sword strike.
That terrifying, nearly invincible strike!
In Lin Lei's mind, the sword technique played out like lightning—sword intent so fast it reached the absolute limit, like a volcanic eruption. The instant the sword was drawn, the technique burst forth naturally... completely unstoppable. Everything the sword's shadow touched was utterly destroyed.
"Is this the Path of Destruction?" Lin Lei shook his head. "Not quite... it seems like..."
In his mind, Lin Lei continued trying to break down the technique, delving deeper and deeper in his analysis. But the more he studied it... while he gained some small insight, the more questions arose.
At this moment, the leader of the bandit group—that brawny man in red robes—had long since fled. Earlier he had been shouting for the attack, but it was always his subordinates who charged forward while he himself stayed well behind, never entering the fray. When he saw that apocalyptic sword strike, he immediately chose to—flee!
"What a terrifying fellow—to kill over a dozen Highgods with a single strike!" The red-robed man's heart was filled with dread. "If I'd been even a moment slower, that demon would have killed me too. How did those two old men manage to hire such a powerful demon?"
The red-robed man narrowed his eyes slightly. "This demon is so powerful—I'm afraid this time we'll need to ask the young master's teacher, 'Master Feng,' to act personally."
"Hmph." The red-robed man glanced back. "Those fools—they thought Viona's money was so easy to earn? They got their pay, but they won't live to spend it. What a waste, though. The twelve Highgods the young master gave me are all dead too."
This red-robed man was Viona, a subordinate of Iñigo.
As for the army of bandits, they too had been assembled by Viona, who used money to recruit several large bandit groups into a single force. After all, Viona had arrived with twelve Highgods of his own, while all those bandit groups combined only had seven or eight.
On top of that, Viona had offered them especially generous sums of money.
The bandits naturally joined up. Over the past few days, they had already carried out many joint robberies.
"Get back quickly. Have that kid notify the young master immediately." Viona flew straight toward his residence.
With his two divine clones stationed in different locations, communication was naturally extremely fast. Iñigo could easily and swiftly track the whereabouts of Lin Lei's metallic lifeform.
With nearly all the bandit leaders killed—and especially after Leermons' devastating strike completely shattered the bandits' will to fight—they fled in terror in every direction. In the blink of an eye... not a single bandit remained.
"They sure ran fast!" Bei Bei snorted.
"This Leermons..." Solomon stared up at Leermons in the sky, equally stunned. Leermons' expression remained as cold and detached as ever, as though nothing of consequence had just occurred. Indeed, for Leermons, this kind of minor challenge was nothing at all.
"Lin Lei?" Dilia called out softly.
But Lin Lei, completely absorbed in the shock and revelation of that sword strike, did not notice Dilia's voice at all.
"Huh? What's wrong with the boss?" Bei Bei also noticed something off about Lin Lei. Beside him, Nisi smiled and said, "Bei Bei, I think your boss got so scared by Leermons' strike that he's gone dazed." Nisi deliberately teased with a grin.
Bei Bei glared at her. "What do you know? The boss has probably gained some kind of insight."
At this moment, Lin Lei also returned to his senses.
"Lin Lei, are you alright?" Dilia asked upon seeing his strange expression.
"I'm fine." Lin Lei quickly smiled and shook his head. "I was just thinking about something—I thought I might be able to break through. But I was wrong." He glanced at Leermons in the distance, a trace of shock and bewilderment still lingering in his eyes. "That strike..."
Lin Lei was also a sword user—even his soul took the shape of a sword.
He had a uniquely deep feeling for sword intent.
"I've barely scratched the surface of the Laws of Fire—I haven't even achieved godhood yet. I probably guessed wrong." Yet Lin Lei firmly engraved those eight lightning-fast sword strikes into his memory. With his current strength, he could not yet fathom the profound mysteries within that swordplay.
Solomon smiled faintly. "Lin Lei, surprised by Leermons' strike? Indeed, that strike has definitely reached an extremely high level of the 'Path of Destruction.'"
"The Path of Destruction?" Lin Lei raised an eyebrow.
"What? You couldn't feel that aura of destruction?" Solomon asked.
"I felt it." After saying that, Lin Lei said nothing more.
"Lin Lei felt it, and yet he's still surprised?" Solomon was slightly puzzled, though he kept his thoughts to himself.