Ten Steps to Kill One Man

Xiao Chen swept across the northeastern domain of the death world like a storm, a single sentence his truest epitaph: "Ten steps to kill one man; a thousand miles, I leave no trace. When the deed is done, I vanish—name and body forgotten."

He moved in bursts of a thousand miles, bypassing small cities entirely, but every great city he entered, he crushed with irresistible force. No Yellow Diamond king could withstand him; slaughtering the rulers of the upper echelons was like reaching into one's own pocket for a prize. No fire-seed creature, no matter how powerful, could oppose him. He moved through the domain like a specter through an empty hall.

Yes—Xiao Chen had opened an indiscriminate slaughter across the entire northeastern region. Wherever he passed, tens of thousands of fire-seed beings trembled in dread. The stronger ones among them feared him most, terrified that he would reap their fire-seeds.

The stronger they were, the greater their fear.

In a single day, Xiao Chen breached five great cities in succession, cutting down every city lord. Not one of them managed to escape.

Each city stood a thousand miles from the next. Xiao Chen drove north at breathtaking speed. As he passed, every powerhouse within range felt their heart seize with terror. In the central Giant City, they received one plea for aid after another. Many city lords along his path simply abandoned their cities and fled.

Wind and lightning could not match his pace. He killed his way north without pause.

Another great city blocked his way. Once he broke through this one, he would face the Giant City itself.

Xiao Chen charged across the blood-red earth like a wind, like a bolt of lightning. He stopped before the towering city wall and roared: "Kneel and surrender! I will spare your lives!"

"The… the rumor was true! A Yellow Diamond ancestor has come to kill us…" The fire-seed creatures guarding the wall trembled in terror, turned, and fled into the city.

Some of them frantically tried to close the gate. But how could a mere city door stop a Yellow Diamond? Xiao Chen strode forward, struck out with a single palm-blade, and the great gate exploded into dust.

Every creature in the main avenue fell into panic. Most chose to kneel; a few of the stronger ones scrambled away in chaos.

Xiao Chen did not massacre indiscriminately. He walked down the avenue at an unhurried pace, following the escaping city-guard captains as they fled straight toward the lord's manor. They were leading him directly to their master, saving him the trouble of searching.

At the lord's manor, he met fierce resistance—the city lord's personal guards were utterly fearless. But against a Yellow Diamond powerhouse whose entire body seemed cast from molten gold, their defiance was pale and useless.

Xiao Chen took one step and shattered several fire-seed beings. The Hand of the Supreme Being was indestructible; every skeleton turned to ash beneath his palm, body and soul annihilated together, their white bone-dust drifting through the air like flour.

"A superior evolution…" Xiao Chen was surprised. The master of this manor was actually a Purple Diamond skeleton—yet its fire-seed radiated the power of a Yellow Diamond second-order. A failed superior evolution, he realized. Some colored-diamond beings suffered accidents during growth, damaging their fire-seeds and losing their talent for higher-tier evolution.

The moment this powerful fire-seed being saw Xiao Chen, it chose not to fight. It spun and fled, racing toward the Giant City at its utmost speed.

Xiao Chen abandoned the city and gave chase. This was exactly what he wanted—a guide. After all, there was only one Giant City; if he veered off course, he would waste precious time. Great cities dotted every direction, so missing one meant he could always find another. But he needed someone to lead him straight to the Giant City.

What he fought for was time.

A Yellow Diamond second-order was already a supreme expert on the outer fringes of the continent. In the eastern domain, aside from the three superior kings, almost no one could oppose such a being.

But when a true Yellow Diamond king—one who had achieved a perfect, superior evolution—appeared, even an equal-tier opponent was thoroughly suppressed.

Wind and lightning could not match them. Sun and thunder were their stride.

The two powerhouses raced one after the other toward the Giant City. A thousand miles meant nothing to beings of their caliber.

The Purple Diamond skeleton poured everything into its flight for survival. No one knew how much time had passed before a vast, majestic city appeared on the horizon—its towering walls stretching like a mountain range.

Though still far away, Xiao Chen could already feel the city's immense presence. It bore the marks of time and purification, standing for millennia without falling.

When the Purple Diamond turned its head, a sinister, cold smile crept across its face. The Giant City certainly had its own guardian experts. If it could reach them and join forces, the outcome of this battle would be far from certain.

"You think I will die?" Xiao Chen's voice came from behind, suddenly cold. He burst forward, closing the gap in an instant. "Thank you for guiding me. Your mission is over."

The Purple Diamond was enraged. Only now did it realize it had been used. But it refused to surrender; it would not die without a fight. It was a powerful Yellow Diamond second-order existence, and hope was within sight—how could it abandon everything now?

It fought with everything it had!

Purple light soared to the heavens; divine fire blazed. It charged like a savage tiger, its body coiling like a divine dragon as it rose into the air and stamped its feet toward Xiao Chen's neck. It knew the strength of a Yellow Diamond skeleton, so it aimed for the most vulnerable spot.

Xiao Chen nodded inwardly. This creature was indeed formidable—both feet wreathed in fierce divine flame, showing a deep mastery of fire-seed manipulation.

But what of it? They stood at the same tier, yet their power was incomparable. Xiao Chen's golden fists shot skyward—no cleverness, just raw force—meeting those Purple Diamond feet head-on.

Blinding radiance burst forth. Purple light condensed into tangible form, briefly blocking Xiao Chen's fists. Though it was crumbling rapidly, it bought the Purple Diamond a crucial instant. The skeleton stepped through the void, using the tremendous reaction force to hurl itself backward toward the Giant City.

It must be said: its combat experience was rich. It used divine fire-seed light and its opponent's own strength to accelerate its escape.

But today, it had not met an ordinary opponent. It had met a Yellow Diamond superior-evolution king.

A hundred zhang from the city gate, a golden-red streak caught up to it. A blade of golden light cut through the sky and blocked its path.

"Kill!"

At that moment, the Giant City's gate swung open. Two powerful fire-seed beings led an army charging out. They had seen the two figures outside and came to support the Purple Diamond.

The Purple Diamond truly saw hope. It no longer fled; a cold smile spread across its face as it launched a fierce counterattack.

But then—a vast, heavenly sound shook the air. Its soul felt as if it were dissolving. Its sternum shattered; its skull cracked.

Before it could react, a golden palm descended. It watched its own skeleton crumble into purple powder, only its skull seized by the enemy. Then it knew nothing more.

Xiao Chen refined the Purple Diamond's fire-seed on the spot, right before the eyes of the two experts who had come to reinforce from the Giant City.

The Giant City was one of the three royal cities of the eastern domain. Who dared to be arrogant here? It had never happened. But the two experts who had come out did not dare to say a word. They turned and fled back into the city.

They had already received many pleas for aid; they knew how terrifying this Yellow Diamond king truly was.

The Giant King had personally left the city to deal with him—yet this demon had instead fought his way here.

Xiao Chen did not charge. He walked forward steadily, not even hurrying as he watched them close the gate.

"Today, I will open a great slaughter within the Giant City!" His spiritual fluctuation boomed like thunder, spreading through the entire city.

Xiao Chen did not head for the grand gate. Instead, he charged directly at the towering, mountain-like city wall. He had come to break the Giant King's stronghold; he would leave his mark on this monumental wall.

Like a meteor from beyond the heavens, Xiao Chen transformed into a golden rainbow and crashed into the wall. The Hand of the Supreme Being struck again and again, blazing golden light like a sun that had split open, blindingly bright.

Boom!

When Xiao Chen's Hand of the Supreme Being struck, a section of the wall dozens of meters high collapsed into rubble. He did not stop. Palm after palm fell, his golden bone-hand indestructible, knocking down three hundred meters of the massive wall in an unstoppable onslaught.

This was not just an attack—it was an attempt to destroy the city itself.

The fire-seed beings inside trembled. A Yellow Diamond king had torn down a huge stretch of the wall that had stood for millennia. Terror spread like wildfire.

Xiao Chen strode into the city.

To his surprise, no expert came to stop him. They seemed to know they could not win; no one was willing to throw their life away.

Xiao Chen laughed aloud. He charged straight toward the center of the Giant City. Even if he could not obtain a powerful fire-seed, this expedition would be worth it. He had already refined the fire-seeds of six great city lords on the road.

Now, conquering the Giant City was like slapping the Giant King across the face. It was a perfect conclusion to his purpose.

The lord's manor was magnificent and imposing, a sprawling complex of towering halls. Once there, Xiao Chen held nothing back. His golden bone-hand crashed down; hall after hall, pavilion after pavilion shattered and fell, dust rising to the sky.

„How dare you!“

The experts who had remained behind could no longer bear it. If the lord's manor—the city's symbolic heart—were destroyed, the Giant King's fury upon his return would be terrible. They did not want to face that nightmare.

Four powerhouses emerged from four directions and attacked Xiao Chen together.

„Ha ha…“ Xiao Chen laughed. Seeing Yellow Diamond second-order fire-seed beings, he felt not a trace of fear—only the thrill of a hunter spotting prey. He fought all four at once.

At the same time, fearless armies of fire-seed beings poured in from every direction, surrounding the manor completely.

Charging through thousands of fire-seed creatures, Xiao Chen's golden bone-hands blazed with intense light. He swept horizontally, cleaving a broad swath; he struck vertically, cutting a clean line. The Hand of the Supreme Being devastated all around him, smashing everything in its path.

Every creature it touched burst apart with a shattering sound. White bones flew everywhere like falling snow, the lord's manor blanketed in bone-dust.

No one could withstand the terrifying attacks of a Yellow Diamond king. Each sweep of his golden bone-hand cleared a vast area; many fire-seed beings were annihilated in an instant.

In the midst of this, Xiao Chen smoothly killed one Yellow Diamond second-order expert, refining its fire-seed mid-battle.

The fire-seed beings gathered in greater numbers, madly charging into the manor. Xiao Chen had never seen a battle on such a scale—all around him, an endless sea of bones threatened to bury everything.

At this moment, the power of the Weng Syllable showed its worth. A vast, heavenly sound shook heaven and earth, spreading in all directions.

The fire-seed creatures around him seemed to have been struck by a thousand-jun hammer. They shattered inch by inch, crumbling into white bone-dust that fell like snow. Within ten zhang of him, no creature could approach.

This was the power of the Weng Syllable—perfect for a chaotic melee, capable of sweeping all before it.

His soul was not yet pure enough to unleash the Syllable's full potential, but it was more than enough to handle ordinary fire-seed beings. Within ten zhang of him, none could survive. Golden light, thick as mist, shrouded that space. Every charging creature that entered it exploded into nothing.

Even the three surviving experts dared not come close. Those ten zhang had become a domain of destruction, a demonic prison that slaughtered all life.

At that moment, Xiao Chen was like an invincible Yellow Diamond god of war, irresistible!

Blazing golden light illuminated the entire domain. The lord's manor was utterly razed by the Hand of the Supreme Being, transformed into a field of terrible ruins.

Of the four experts who had remained behind, three were killed. The rise of a Yellow Diamond king was unstoppable!

The central square, the great buildings—all were smashed by Xiao Chen. He was systematically demolishing the city.

Restoring the Giant City to its former glory would require an immense effort.

The stars appeared; night fell. A bright moon hung in the sky, casting its pale light down upon the city. Large parts of the Giant City had already been destroyed, many buildings reduced to ruins.

The last of the four guardian experts had fled. Xiao Chen searched the entire city but could not find him. However, in a hidden underground vault beneath the lord's manor, he uncovered ten large bottles of Life Source Liquid.

This was a massive harvest. Xiao Chen had been planning to purify his soul in the near future; he had not expected to collect so much of this precious auxiliary liquid.

He stored all the Life Source Liquid in his spatial ring and left without a trace of hesitation. He knew the Giant King would likely return soon—and this outcome would be a devastating blow to that superior king.

A day and night of furious assault, slaughtering the masters of six great cities, then conquering the Giant City itself—he had fought across ten thousand miles. The result was magnificent.

He could well imagine the sight of an enraged Giant King.

Barely half an hour after Xiao Chen left, a great beam of light shot across the sky from the distant southeast. Before the figure had even arrived, a terrifying pressure of a supreme expert swept across the land, vast as the sea, rolling in all directions. Every living thing on that bloody earth trembled in fear.

A colossal roar shook heaven and earth, carrying for hundreds of miles. The aura of a king pressed down on all sides!

An enraged Giant King had returned—but he was too late. On the road, he had already learned that six great cities had fallen. Now, seeing the Giant City itself in ruins, he felt as if he might vomit blood.

"Roooar!"

The Giant King went berserk. Even as powerful as he was, he had never suffered such a loss. He was always the one scheming against others, crushing any who dared resist. He had never imagined that a single mistake would lead to such a catastrophe.

News spread instantly through the night, carried far and wide by screeching birds. The entire northeastern domain shook with the report!

All the upper-echelon fire-seed beings stared in disbelief. This Yellow Diamond king was utterly ruthless—a complete eradication! He had fought all the way to the Giant King's home base, sweeping through the vast territories under his rule. Regardless of the ultimate outcome, the impact alone was immeasurable!

And at that very moment, the focus of all that discussion—the Yellow Diamond king—was racing through the moonlit night. He had circled around a massive region and was now moving in the opposite direction of the Giant King's path of return. He planned to intercept the seven great experts who had accompanied the Giant King into battle but had lagged behind and not yet returned.

This was a mad and daring decision. An enraged Giant King was extremely dangerous; if he discovered this move, the result would be terrifying. But the chance to advance to Yellow Diamond third-order in a short time might well lie within those seven experts.

Death and opportunity walked hand in hand.