15 - (Spoiler in title)

As Xu Xin stared at the group of people in front of him, he saw that fear and wariness registered on their faces as they looked at him incredulously.

They didn't even understand how he had done what he had just done, but the fact was that he had, and they couldn't even stop it from happening, let alone beat him in a fight.

He then reached behind his back, swiping at the spot where the boy's sword had struck him.

His hand came back out covered in blood, but he didn't seem to care as he spoke calmly.

"Consider me impressed. But a tiny nick isn't enough to beat me. It's not even enough to hurt me."

After saying this, he charged back at the group of people, of which one was recovering and one was unconscious, leaving only two able to fight.

As he reached them, the boy once again swung out with his sword while the girl slashed with her knife.

However, this time, instead of dodging or attacking like before, Xu Xin simply stopped dead in his tracks, just outside the range of the boy's sword, letting it pass right in front of his chest, less than half an inch away from it, making him even feel the wind from the blade.

However, just as it finally passed him, Xu Xin continued forwards towards the boy, and the boy didn't have the time to reverse the momentum of the sword, so he was struck by Xu Xin's palm, which directly struck his chest.

Instantly, Xu Xin's watery inner energy entered into his body, disrupting his flow of inner energy and spreading from the point of impact. However, this wasn't Xu Xin's full attack.

From this hit, the boy was pushed back several feet and knocked off balance, and Xu Xin then charged towards the girl with the knife, who had also missed her attack.

She had a clear white colored inner energy, meaning that she had the element of wind, which would improve your speed and sharpness.

However, she was completely countered by Xu Xin, who reacted too fast for her to hit him, cancelling out both the speed and the sharpness of the wind element, making it utterly useless in this fight.

Xu Xin then simply let her swing her knife towards him again, seeming to make no attempt to stop it, and he simply held up his arm, letting the knife hit it.

Xu Xin was a terrifying opponent, and he had a purpose in everything he did.

He purposely let the knife hit his arm, and it sliced into it, going straight to his bone, but when it hit his bone, it stopped dead in its tracks, completely stuck in his arm, only getting more stuck as time went on because his icy inner energy froze it in place.

There wasn't even any blood from the cut as he simply swung his other fist at the girl's wrist, instantly breaking her grip from the knife and even severely damaging her wrist while doing so, making it useless for the duration of the rest of this fight.

He then used his arm with the knife in it to grab her arm and pull him towards her, slamming his other fist straight into her face with enough force to instantly daze her and break her nose.

By now, there was only one person left capable of fighting, and it was the boy with the sword, the leader of the group. However, his previous confidence had been replaced by fear at this point, and he knew that there was no chance whatsoever for him to win this fight.

At this moment, Xu Xin once again spoke.

"Do you yield?" His voice adopted a deep and terrifying tone, like that of a demon god speaking to a mortal child, and his eyes seemed to pierce straight into the boy's soul, invoking a primal fear within him as he sensed a sliver of unnaturally terrifying killing intent emanated from Xu Xin.

Unconsciously, he took a step back after hearing this, and his expression registered fear for everyone to see as Xu Xin's eyes locked onto his, seemingly trying to see all his secrets and his deepest, darkest thoughts.

His demeanor was like that of a king, one that ruled by inspiring fear and awe into his subjects, keeping them in line through strength and wisdom.

After a moment, the boy stuttered, "I... I y-yield..."

Then, without any warning whatsoever, Xu Xin's cold demeanor instantly disappeared as he walked over to the girl with the brass knuckle gloves with a kind smile on his face, putting his hand on her back and instantly controlling the inner energy in her body, forcing it out of her.

Finally, Xu Xin felt comfortable with the amount of inner energy contained within his dantian, meaning that he could stop fighting if he wanted to, but why would he do that?

Suddenly, he sensed a bit of danger, and instantly stepped to the side without any thoughts.

The knife coming his way missed him, but he swung out his arm, catching it midair, as if time moved in slow motion for him.

"I swear, I'm sick of people trying to kill me without any warning!" Suddenly, a killing intent that seemed to be forged from the fires of hell erupted, invading the minds of everyone present as a shiver went down their spines from instinctual and agonizing terror.

With this, he instantly turned around and threw the knife as hard as he possibly could, and it instantly met its target, going straight into the girl's head as she fell over, dead, frost slowly covering her face.

The audience went completely silent, but this silence was broken very quickly by Xu Xin's resounding voice filled with killing intent.

"Consider this a warning to anyone that thinks of trying to sneak attack me! I will show no mercy to those who try to kill me, so fuck off unless you think you can beat me in a fair fight!"

The stunned silence lasted for another few seconds before the killing intent suddenly vanished into thin air, as if it had never existed at all in the first place.

Xu Xin then started to leave the arena, leaving everyone completely stunned.

However, he didn't get very far before an enraged voice rang out, booming in the ears of everyone present.

"How dare you kill someone!!! You, little boy, will be punished for your crimes!!!" This voice came from the old man who had challenged Xia Yue just a couple days prior, and he instantly charged at Xu Xin with balls of flame surrounding his body.

Xu Xin simply stopped and turned around, looking at the old man with a smile, as the killing intent once again erupted from his body like a tsunami of blood and bones, with a bloody fog emanating from his body.

He spoke softly, but everyone here was able to hear him, "You don't know your place, old man. You are not in a position to punish me yet, so fuck off with your arrogance."

Xu Xin shot a glance at Xia Yue, and she realized what he meant. He was using this opportunity to let her gain his favor, and he might agree to come with her if she helped him right now.

She hesitated for a few moments before finally taking out her bow and shooting at the old man, a silver arrow full of power flying through the air.

Just as the man was about to reach Xu Xin, he had slowed down due to Xu Xin's words, when he suddenly felt a mortal danger, and he dodged to the side as he barely managed to avoid his heart being pierced by that silver arrow, though it still stuck deeply into his body, causing immense pain.

Before he had a chance to react, however, another arrow stuck into his leg, causing him to fall to the ground and roll before finally landing at Xu Xin's feet.

It was at this moment that Xia Yue spoke up, "He is under my protection! If you touch a hair on his head, you will be hunted down by the entire royal army. Here, as a captain of the army, my word is law, so FUCK OFF!!!"

Her dominance had reached the absolute maximum as everyone shivered at her words. Her meaning was obvious. If anyone above him in strength attacked him, she would protect him and kill the one who tried to attack him.

And about her word being law, that was indeed the case, as whatever a captain of the army said was indeed the law in any place other than the core city.

This meant that if she wanted to protect him, even someone directly stronger than her had to carefully consider it if they wanted to attack him here.

This day had instantly escalated beyond what people could ever hope to see in their lives, and the entire arena was dead silent when all this happened.

Xu Xin bent down, and as he stood in a squat, he looked at the old man straight in the eyes, and his smile suddenly turned into a blank expression, like that of a mannequin. No emotions could be seen on his face as he simply stared at the old man, but something else was happening.

The old man, though not scared of this boy, suddenly felt as if he was looking at a monster, someone far more terrifying than he could imagine, someone who could eat him alive and spit up his dried bones.

Xu Xin was staring at him, and in the depth of Xu Xin's eyes, the old man could see pain and death like nothing he had ever experienced, and it scared him.

Xu Xin's emotionless voice then rang out, "I killed her because she tried to kill me, yet you tried to punish me without consideration for this fact.

The next time you act up, regardless of what she says or does, you will be crippled for abusing your power to attack a junior, more than an entire realm below you, unprovoked.

This will be your only warning, and I advise you to heed it, old man."

His voice was so quiet that the old man could barely hear him, but he realized that what Xu Xin said was correct, and this was indeed the case, further intimidating him. At this point, Xu Xin didn't even need to do anything but bring attention to this fact in order to have the old man crippled, which terrified him.

This meant that the progress of his entire life thus far was in Xu Xin's hands, and if he acted up, regardless of whether Xu Xin lived or died, he would be crippled

The law was that those of the spirit realm couldn't attack those of the martial arts path realm unprovoked, especially not if there was such an immense gap in strength between the two.

Considering that he killed the girl in self-defense, it was considered unprovoked, therefore inciting the law at only a word from Xu Xin.

Xu Xin then stared for a second longer before standing up and walking away calmly, under the gaze of all those in the arena, leaving behind the old man, too ashamed to show his face, but secretly, even more terrified of someone like Xu Xin.

Xu Xin calmly went back to his house, where he was secretly annoyed that he left the arena. He planned to have a few more fights today, but he knew that nobody would be willing to fight with him now that this had happened.

But even so, he didn't feel any regret whatsoever for killing the girl, as she had tried to kill him first, and he truly did it out of self-defense, and though he could have defended himself without killing her, he obviously wouldn't do that since he wanted to make his attitude of no tolerance known.

It was known long ago that he had no remorse, and even less restraint, when it came to killing people, hence the terrifying level of his killing intent. He had gone through several bloodbaths in which he singlehandedly wiped out entire villages and sometimes even cities.

Nobody here could compare to him in this aspect, even someone like Xia Yue, who was a captain of the army, hence why she was so shocked the first time she sensed his killing intent.

He then started to peacefully cultivate, but once he did, he was disappointed to find that his progress had slowed down massively, and it would take him at least a month to break through at this point.

(Title: Killing)