Swoosh!
Zheng Yan's sword strike was both fast and fierce, seemingly tearing through the air itself, leaving a white trail in its wake.
As everyone in the arena watched closely, thinking that the next second would see Gu Chen become another lost soul under Zheng Yan's sword, a scene that shocked them into silence occurred.
With the treasure blade slipping from his grasp, the long sword thrusting forward, and death looming, Gu Chen astonishingly made no move to dodge or evade but stretched out his bare hands to intercept Zheng Yan's treasured sword.
"Overestimating yourself!"
Zheng Yan let out a cold laugh, thinking Gu Chen had been scared witless. After all, that was a treasure blade capable of slicing through iron as if it were mud, not something flesh and blood could withstand, even if it was the lowest quality of inferior treasured weapons.
"It's over!"
Luo Feng was also greatly shocked, not understanding why Gu Chen would make such a choice.
Just as everyone thought Gu Chen's hands would be severed first before his life was taken, they saw Gu Chen's expression turn icy as he, with a snap, actually caught the treasured sword stabbing towards his chest securely between his hands.
"How is that possible?!"
Witnessing this, let alone the others, even Zheng Yan himself was stunned.
At that moment, Gu Chen, clad in mysterious black clothes, his face icy, had a faint layer of golden light shimmering around him. This was a phenomenon that only occurred when he pushed his Horizontal Training to its current limits.
Indeed, the treasure sword was extremely sharp, any hard object was like paper before it, but fortunately, Gu Chen's Horizontal Training was effective, allowing him to block the sword without incident.
Although that was the case, Gu Chen could feel the long sword in his palms emitting bursts of sharp aura, cutting through his skin and flesh, with droplets of blood flowing down along the blade to the ground.
But this was a minor injury compared to what would have happened if Zheng Yan's sword had pierced through his chest.
Zheng Yan naturally saw the blood on the blade, but he still found it hard to comprehend how flesh and blood, a pair of bare hands, could possibly withstand his treasured blade.
Under normal circumstances, shouldn't Gu Chen's hands have been chopped off at the first encounter?
Zheng Yan's mind was filled with questions at this moment, but Gu Chen obviously was not going to provide answers.
The next moment, seizing the opportunity while Zheng Yan was still dazed, Gu Chen stepped forward, closing the gap between them, and ferociously struck at him with his palm.
"You!"
"Run...!"
As soon as the demonic apparitions appeared, several martial artists who were too close were drained of their vitality and died.
Seeing this, the crowd became even more frantic, scrambling towards the exit, abandoning all thoughts of techniques, treasures, and wealth in the face of their fear of the apparitions, focusing only on escaping with their lives.
The disciples of the Sunset Sword Sect also panicked, unsure of what to do. Chen Song hurriedly led them to Zheng Yan, his expression filled with alarm as he said, "Elder Brother Zheng, what should we do, there are demonic apparitions, we should run."
Zheng Jinan's face was cold as he glared at Chen Song, then cast a look towards Gu Chen not far away. After hesitating for a moment, he finally chose not to continue the fight.
Even if he could kill Gu Chen, the influx of demonic apparitions could mean danger for himself as well.
In Zheng Jinan's eyes, as a disciple of the Sunset Sword Sect and ranked twelfth on the list of rising stars, his future was bound to be bright. He wasn't comparable to the likes of a petty thief like Gu Chen; it wasn't worth endangering himself just for the sake of killing Gu Chen.
"Let's go!"
At Elder Brother Zheng's command, Chen Song immediately felt a great sense of relief, having truly feared that Zheng Jinan would insist on settling a life-and-death struggle with Gu Chen.
Afterward, Zheng Jinan took the lead, rushing out with the disciples of the Sunset Sword Sect. Along the way, many martial artists, thinking the Sunset Sword Sect was strong, tried to follow them to escape, but Zheng Jinan's fierce glare forced them to back off.
At that time, Luo Feng came to Gu Chen's side and whispered, "Brother Gu, let's hurry and leave too."
"No rush."
Gu Chen looked at the rampaging demonic apparitions in the hall, a smile actually appearing on his lips, leaving Luo Feng momentarily stunned.
Thinking he had misheard, Luo Feng was about to ask again but saw Gu Chen's figure flash as he charged directly toward those demonic apparitions.
Luo Feng opened his mouth, the words he wanted to say getting stuck in his throat. He knew that most martial artists, upon seeing demonic apparitions, would choose to avoid confrontation and retreat. It was the first time he had seen someone looking so eager—almost impatient—to face them.
In Luo Feng's eyes, Gu Chen's demeanor was like that of a dog seeing... well, in any case, Luo Feng was extremely surprised and somewhat vexed.
"Sigh, forget it, who asked me to be an upstanding paragon of justice?" Luo Feng sighed and then also charged forward, helping Gu Chen battle the demonic apparitions.
There were quite a few demonic apparitions, but most of them were only at the Cultivation Realm. Gu Chen found them easy to kill. In his eyes, these were all walking points of cultivation experience, so how could he not be pleased?
Gu Chen was enjoying the fight when he caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye and saw Luo Feng killing demonic apparitions on the other side. He suddenly felt helpless and even had the urge to swear loudly.
He knew Luo Feng was trying to help him, but this kind of help was, to Gu Chen, better left ungiven.
Then, Gu Chen's gaze shifted and he spotted a demonic apparition at the Pulse Opening Realm. In order to prevent Luo Feng from getting there first, Gu Chen quickly rushed toward it.