Chapter 283 The Golden Core Cultivator Killed by a Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivator

A gray fog pressed down on the ground, the mud mixed with slag and monster hoofprints, and the air was filled with a fishy, ​​damp, rusty smell.

Li Changfeng stepped on his flying sword and slowly descended from mid-air.

He brought quite a few people with him this time. The Li family's private army, war zone observers, two mopping-up teams, plus three live-streaming drones specifically for filming—the scale was impressive. The drone hovered overhead, its lights shining down, even the puddles on the ground gleamed white.

"A low-level beast horde has been detected 300 meters ahead, at the edge of the abandoned mine."

"There is an anomaly in the core fluctuations, suggesting that a third-tier headed beast may be lurking."

A report came through the headset.

Li Changfeng's expression remained unchanged as he glanced ahead.

"A low-level beast pack dares to make me come down here personally?"

The Li family steward beside him quickly smiled obsequiously, "Young Master, it's precisely because we have a third-tier leader that it's so suitable. People in the war zone are watching. The cleaner today's battle is fought, the smoother the takeover of command will be later."

Li Changfeng didn't say anything more, he just raised his hand.

A series of dense roars soon came from the edge of the abandoned mine ahead.

A dozen or so gray-armored wolves were the first to emerge from the fog, their fangs bared, moving as fast as a series of black shadows. Behind them, several rotten-armored hounds with bone spurs on their backs charged straight at the crowd, stepping over the slag.

It's just a low-level monster.

Before Li Changfeng could even make a move, the private army had already opened fire.

The psionic rifle swept across, leaving a blue-white trail of flame, and the two gray-armored wolves at the front were instantly knocked back. The pack, however, did not retreat; instead, they charged forward faster, clearly being propelled forward by the stronger aura from behind.

The ground shook violently the next moment.

In the abandoned mine, a black-maned boar nearly five meters long burst out, smashing through the rubble. Its body was covered in gray-black bone armor, and its two tusks pointed forward like scimitars, with white breath coming out of its nostrils.

Third order.

But this third-tier demonic beast is clearly problematic.

Although the demonic energy on the black-maned boar was barely at the threshold of the third rank, its aura was extremely weak, as if it had been fed drugs to stimulate its blood and qi beforehand and had been deliberately weakened by bloodletting, forcibly maintaining a state that looked intimidating but was actually weak.

This is not the kind of Tier 3 ferocious beast you would normally encounter on the front lines.

It's more like a "sample" that the valve manufacturer prepared in advance.

It could both support the spectacle of "a third-tier demon beast being publicly beheaded," making Li Changfeng's debut look impressive enough, and minimize the risk of things getting out of control. Even the location where it appeared, the direction in which the beast horde was driven, and even the timing of Li Changfeng's attack were mostly calculated in advance.

Li Changfeng finally made a move.

His flying sword trembled beneath his feet, propelling him half a zhang higher. With a flick of his right hand, three streaks of azure sword light slashed out one after another.

The first blow landed on the black-maned boar's head, sparks flying, leaving only a shallow, bloody gash.

The second blow landed on its left shoulder, splitting its carapace and splattering blood.

The third nail drove into the ground, blocking its path forward.

The black-maned boar cried out in pain, its head thrown back and howling wildly. Its body suddenly twisted, and instead of continuing to charge at the front line, it pounced on Li Changfeng, who was in mid-air.

The live stream suddenly tensed up.

No one expected that Li Changfeng's three sword strikes would fail to kill the third-tier demon beast.

His expression darkened slightly.

However, being a "Golden Core level combatant," the sheer power he wielded was considerable. The array patterns on the surface of his bright silver armor lit up one after another, and cyan spiritual energy surged outwards like water. He raised his hand and pressed down, and a semi-transparent cyan sword shield directly blocked his path.

boom!

The black-maned boar crashed into the sword and shield.

The ground exploded, and debris flew everywhere.

Li Changfeng didn't retreat, but his Adam's apple moved very slightly, and the veins on his right arm bulged out.

The impact was more severe than he had anticipated.

However, it's not apparent from the scene.

He used the impact to steady himself, and his flying sword slashed out from the side, stabbing into the old wound below the boar's neck.

puff!

The sword finally cut to the flesh.

The black-maned boar screamed and rolled away, crashing into half of the mine pit. It twitched a few times before going still.

The surroundings fell silent instantly.

The Li family steward on the shuttle breathed a sigh of relief, raised his hand to signal the drone to zoom in, and prepared to send the image of Li Changfeng stepping on the corpse of a third-tier demon beast to the big screen.

This debut, at this stage, is at least decent.

Li Changfeng slowly sheathed his sword, his breathing somewhat rapid, but his face remained calm.

Others might not realize it, but he knew in his heart that those few blows were not easy.

His spiritual pressure was sufficient, his true essence was sufficient, and his battle armor and flying sword were top-of-the-line, but when he actually moved, the "golden core" that had been forced out of his dantian always felt weak. It was as if he had taken a breath, but there was always something in the middle, making it not smooth enough.

But it's enough for those people outside.

Just as he was about to speak, he heard footsteps coming from the gray fog ahead.

Not urgent.

It's not chaotic.

Step by step, they walked out from the other end of the abandoned mine pit.

It was a man, covered in blood and grime, his clothes tattered beyond recognition, a chunk of flesh torn from his left shoulder. In his right hand he held a high-frequency vibrating knife, the blade badly curled, with bits of flesh still clinging to its edge.

What's most striking about him are his eyes.

It was so cold that no one even had the slightest interest in watching the spectacle.

"Who goes there?!"

Li's private army immediately turned their guns around.

The man ignored them, only looking at Li Changfeng, and then glancing down at the corpse of the third-tier boar on the ground.

"After being beaten like this, they still dare to come out and put on a show."

The air seemed to tighten as soon as he said that.

The expressions of the Li family members standing nearby immediately changed.

Li Changfeng's eyes turned cold, and he slowly turned his head away.

"What did you say?"

The man raised his knife and casually flicked the blood off the tip.

"I'm telling you, your moves are all flashy and fancy."

"If you were really sent to the front lines, you'd be the first to die."

Li Changfeng smiled.

It's the kind of laughter that comes from being angry.

A Foundation Establishment cultivator, especially one covered in injuries, dared to step on his face in front of so many people and the live stream camera.

"You're asking for it."

The words had barely left his mouth when he moved.

The cyan flying sword flashed and slashed down at the man's head.

The opponent didn't take the blow head-on; instead, he ducked and slid away, almost skimming the mud. The flying sword missed its target, instantly creating a long trench in the ground. Using the splashed mud and water, the man approached, raising his hand to deliver a slash aimed straight at Li Changfeng's waist.

Li Changfeng didn't take this strike seriously at all. He activated his protective spiritual energy, and the semi-transparent sword shield opened up.

clang!

The vibrating blade slammed into the sword and shield, sparks flying.

The opponent's right arm went numb from the shock, and he almost dropped the knife.

"Is that all you've got?"

Li Changfeng sneered and pressed down with a backhand palm strike.

The blue palm print struck down, and before the man could dodge completely, he was hit on the left shoulder. He tumbled out and crashed into a pile of rubble, blood immediately spilling from the corner of his mouth.

The Li family steward, high in the sky, suddenly brightened up.

That's right.

The harsher those words were, the more satisfying it is to retaliate now.

But the next second, the person stood up again.

The movements were slow, even a little shaky.

But after he stood up, his eyes remained the same, unchanged.

He glanced at Li Changfeng's open sword and shield, and suddenly grinned.

"So you're afraid of getting close."

Li Changfeng's heart sank.

These words struck a nerve, like a knife piercing his sore spot.

Before he could speak again, the man pounced on him once more.

This time it's faster and dirtier.

He avoided direct confrontation with the flying sword, instead sticking close to it, using the pit walls, rocks, and dead beast corpses to constantly cut at the corners, each strike aimed at the most vulnerable point of Li Changfeng's protective sword and shield.

A knife.

Two cuts.

Three knives.

Each cut was light, yet each one scraped the same spot.

At first, Li Changfeng was able to keep his composure, but as he continued to circulate his true energy, the feeling of weakness became more and more obvious. Especially with this kind of high-frequency close-range combat, he had hardly experienced any real life-or-death battles. His sword was fast, and his techniques were not weak, but he always felt a bit slow.

When it really comes down to a fight, skill level is one thing, but hand is another.

His technique clearly hadn't been practiced in piles of dead bodies.

"Get out of here!"

Li Changfeng finally became somewhat enraged and pressed down with both his flying sword and palm strikes, intending to kill the man in one fell swoop.

But at that very moment, the person opposite suddenly raised his left arm.

His already injured left arm offered no protection whatsoever, and he was forced to stand against the thinnest point of the sword and shield!

laugh--

The cyan sword energy instantly spun into it.

The skin and flesh rolled back, and fresh blood splattered.

But he seemed to feel no pain at all. Using the momentum of the impact, he moved forward instead of retreating and rammed into the other side!

boom!

That wasn't the crisp sound of magical artifacts colliding, but the muffled sound of flesh and blood clashing against a protective sword and shield.

The distance is too close.

Li Changfeng's originally smooth and rounded cyan sword and shield was abruptly jolted by this life-or-death collision, causing the spiritual light on the shield's surface to suddenly become disordered, and a ring of fine cracks immediately appeared around the edge.

Li Changfeng's face turned pale instantly.

For a normal Golden Core cultivator, this is nothing.

But he's different.

His forced-out elixir couldn't withstand such a sudden shock. The flow of true essence stagnated, and the sword and shield, which had been fully supported, momentarily weakened.

That is, in this very instant.

The man bumped into him.

The knife didn't arrive first.

People arrived first.

His left arm was a bloody mess, stuck in the laceration, while the protective sword energy cut his shoulder and chest to shreds. Meanwhile, the broken knife in his right hand had already plunged into the seam of his armor at the neck!

puff!

The blade was halfway in.

A high-frequency oscillation sounded.

Li Changfeng's face froze, his mouth agape as if he wanted to say something, but blood had already gushed out first.

He reached out to push the other person away.

But the person opposite him twisted the hilt of his knife with a frighteningly practiced movement.

Click.

The neck bone is broken.

Li Changfeng's body went limp, and he fell directly into the mud.

The bright silver armor, now covered in mud and blood, which had been gleaming in the camera's lens just moments before, now looked like a joke.

The surroundings were deathly silent.

The drone is still filming.

Everyone saw it.

The Li family's newly promoted "Golden Core level combatant" made his debut in his first battle, first taking down a third-tier boar, and then, right before everyone's eyes, having his throat slit by an unknown Foundation Establishment cultivator.

The first to react were Li's private army.

"Fire!"

"Stop him!"

But that person didn't linger in the fight at all.

He drew his knife, wiped the blood off Li Changfeng's armor, and turned to leave.

The movements are slow.

You could even tell that he was nearing his limit.

But no one dared to be the first to rush forward.

Because those few blows were too ruthless and too accurate.

Anyone could tell that this person wasn't here to gamble.

He was watching for Li Changfeng's weaknesses, calculating each strike carefully before killing him.

The battlefield erupted completely only after the man disappeared into the gray mist.

……

At the main venue in Kyoto, the screen was still frozen on the moment Li Changfeng fell to the ground.

The applause, congratulatory speeches, and war zone orders that were originally prepared were all stuck in mid-air.

No one spoke.

Nobody knew how to say it.

The "thirteen high-end combatants at the Golden Core level" that the three major clans had been boasting about for half a month shattered for the first time during this live broadcast.

The black market in the yellow zone reacts faster.

Within minutes, all sorts of news exploded like spilled oil.

"That Golden Core cultivator from the Li family got killed!"

"Foundation Establishment cultivators kill Golden Core cultivators!"

"Those powerful families, all they produced was shoddy work!"

Inside the broken bar in Bloodstone Town, the one-eyed hunter stared at the screen, unable to come to his senses for a long time.

"Brother Ding...you were absolutely right."

Old Ding downed the small amount of cheap liquor in his glass in one gulp, but his eyes remained fixed on the fog in the screen.

"I didn't just say I was right."

"This kind of stuff shouldn't have been sent to the front lines in the first place."

He wiped his mouth, his voice not loud.

"Those who truly survive on the front lines, who didn't crawl through piles of corpses?"

"Spiritual pressure can be built up, and so can pomp and circumstance."

"But once you see real blood, it's all fake."

……

This death wasn't just about Li Changfeng.

They even uncovered a corner of the truth about this batch of counterfeit "golden pills" from the valve industry.

Soon, the Coordinating Agency and the military took action.

The newly promoted "Golden Core Level" combatants of the temporary powerhouses were suspended from taking direct control of high-risk war zones.

Reassess resource allocation.

Investigate the flow of high-level resources under the guise of wartime research and development.

Meanwhile, the fire in the yellow zone, which was already being suppressed, was now blown out completely.

The front lines are not a place for powerful clans to put on a show.

Stop handing over war zones to paper-based boundaries.

Stop using the blood of the entire league to make them look bad.

The wind direction changed instantly.

Deep within the gray fog of the 30th high-risk isolation zone, the nameless Foundation Establishment cultivator had long since disappeared.

All that remains are corpses on the ground, blood in the mud, and drone footage still buzzing in the sky.

......