He moved. In the blink of an eye, he vanished from the view of the hundred pirates. Though they were all at the Star Great Saint realm or higher, they couldn't detect a single thread of his energy. He was simply gone.
At that moment, a bloodcurdling scream tore through their ranks.
"Ahhhhh!"
Everyone's head snapped towards the sound, only to see one of their brothers dead, his head sliced clean from his body and tumbling away into the void.
Huai and Wuhe both smiled faintly. But Ling Tian, Bai Mo, and the other protectors watched the scene in absolute horror. The little boy they had dismissed was anything but simple.
One after another, screams echoed in the silent void as pirates fell, their heads separated from their bodies before they even knew what hit them. The space around them became a grim scenery of headless corpses.
Kaelen gulped hard, his eyes wide with terror as he watched his men being slaughtered like cattle.
Kaelen roared at his remaining subordinates, "Go! Everyone, kill that child no matter what! He... he actually killed my men!" he snarled, gritting his teeth in a fury.
Ling Tian felt a pang of worry for the child and started to move, but Elder Bai Mo put out a hand to stop him. "Young Master, look at them," the elder murmured, his voice tight with awe. He pointed toward Huai and Wuhe. "They haven't even moved."
Ling Tian's gaze followed. The formidable blade-wielder and the mysterious veiled man stood perfectly calm, observing the slaughter as if it were a casual display. When Wuhe caught Ling Tian's eye, he even offered a faint, chilling smile, leaving the young master utterly confused.
On the battlefield, Xie Yan was a phantom. He moved with flawlessly precise movements, a unique footwork technique taking shape with every step. Forged from the principles of the Eternal Sutra and the Eternal Divine Technique, he named it the "True Dragon Footsteps" . A method that allowed him to ignore the constraints of space, and one day, perhaps even time itself.
With calculated, beautiful cruelty, he cut down one pirate after another until only a hundred of the original three hundred remained.
Kaelen couldn't take it anymore. The massacre had to stop. "Stop!" he bellowed. "Stop this instant, or I'll kill you a miserable death..."
He never finished the sentence.
A soft chuckle echoed from directly behind him. A searing pain erupted on his cheek. If he hadn't instinctively moved a fraction of a second earlier, his head would have been split in two. Blood, cold with his own shock, trickled from the fresh wound.
He spun around to see the boy, who had appeared from the void without a sound. "Who... who are you people?" Kaelen demanded, his voice trembling with a horror he had never known. "At first, I couldn't detect your cultivation, but now I see it clearly. You're only a Star Venerable! How can you kill my men so easily?"
Xie Yan laughed, a sound far too old for his young face. "Hahaha! Now you know you've messed with the wrong people. And you, an ant, wanted to kill my master? You can't even touch me, and you dared to dream of touching him?"
Yan's smile turned predatory.
"Just for thinking that, I'll take your eyes from your head. I'll cut out the tongue that disrespected my master."
Kaelen felt a surge of disbelief. He, a notorious pirate feared across the star systems, was being threatened by a mere child. A child whose cultivation was an entire realm below his own. It was not just incredible; it was impossible.
Yan moved again. This time, his movements were visible flickering glimpses of a blood-red phantom. But seeing him and stopping him were two entirely different things. He would appear for an instant, a blur of motion, only to vanish and reappear in a random spot, taking another life with each materialization.
He materialized before the very pirate who had demanded Huai's treasures. "Do you still want my master's belongings?" Yan asked, his voice deceptively calm. "Then take my scimitar first." He slashed. The pirate was so overwhelmed by the boy's sudden appearance that he had no chance to even form a reply before his head was separated from his body.
Elder Bai Mo watched, a chill creeping down his spine. "A killing machine," he whispered in horror. "A little boy who doesn't even flinch while killing countless people..."
"No, you're wrong," an answer came from his young master, Ling Tian. Bai Mo and the other protectors turned to him, their faces questioning.
Ling Tian sighed, his eyes fixed on the unfolding massacre. "Didn't you hear what he said? They disrespected his master. This is his revenge."
Understanding dawned on the protectors. They finally grasped the motive behind the little devil's continuous slaughter.
Ling Tian continued, his gaze drifting towards Huai and Wuhe. "He respects his master that much. It means his master is anything but simple. A person who could raise a twelve-year-old to be this terrifying cannot be an ordinary person."
A protector gulped, his mouth dry. "But... which one of them is his master?" He looked between Wuhe and Huai, unable to perceive their cultivation, as if they were beings obscured by the very laws of heaven.
"The one in the white veil," Ling Tian said without a moment's hesitation.
"Young Master, how are you so sure?" Bai Mo asked, confused.
"Because he has barely moved since the beginning," Ling Tian explained. "The one with the blade only acted because someone attacked the veiled person. He must be someone of immense status."
Bai Mo and the others nodded, their gazes returning to Yan, who was still reaping the lives of the unlucky pirates one by one.
Another fifteen minutes passed. In that time, Yan had taken nearly half their remaining lives, leaving only fifty terrified cultivators.
At this moment, Huai's calm voice cut through the void. "Yan. Don't play with them. Just kill them already."
Kaelen and his remaining men heard this and wanted to scream. Playing? That was just playing? Then what does he call real killing?
Yan immediately bowed in his master's direction, his voice booming with respect. "Yes, Master! As you wish!"
He turned to the last fifty pirates, and all traces of playfulness vanished from his face. "Now that my master has ordered me to do this quickly, I will stop playing," he announced. "But I will offer you one last piece of advice: do not provoke someone you cannot afford to offend."
His scimitar began to glow. A powerful aura erupted around him as he raised the blood-red blade, and his voice echoed across the vast emptiness of space.
"True Dragon Blademanship: First Form!"
"True Dragon's Thousand Slash!"
He slashed his scimitar towards the remaining men. They scrambled, trying to evade, but to their horror, they found the attack was locked onto them. There was no escape; the blades would track them relentlessly.
A thousand dragon-shaped blade shadows materialized around Yan. Kaelen looked at the technique in utter horror. Even he, a peak Star Sovereign, knew he could not evade such an attack.
As Yan's slash completed its arc, the thousand blades descended. One by one, the remaining fifty pirates were chopped into minced meat, which then dissolved into a fine blood mist and evaporated into nothingness.
Kaelen's legs gave out, and he thumped to the ground. His eyes were wide with disbelief as his body shook uncontrollably with fear. All thoughts of reputation and pride vanished.
"Mercy!" he stammered, his composure completely shattered as he began to cry. "Your Highness, please show me mercy!"
Yan looked down at the groveling pirate, his expression as cold as the void. "The moment you ordered your subordinates to kill my master, your fate was sealed. Even if I don't kill you, someone else will." He glanced meaningfully at Wuhe.
Wuhe just smiled back, a silent confirmation.
Beside him, Huai sighed. "You've completely destroyed his innocence. What have you been teaching him?"
Wuhe crossed his arms over his chest, his gaze meeting Huai's. "Nothing," he answered with a serene smile. "Just how to properly respect his elders."
Huai felt a headache coming on. He already knew Wuhe loved him so fiercely he wouldn't allow a single hair on his head to be harmed. Now, Wuhe had created another masterpiece in his own image.
"Now I'll have to try and fix this one," Huai murmured, mostly to himself. "Or else this disciple of mine will turn into another you."
Wuhe chuckled, unfazed. "So what? As his master, you're already half his parent. It's only right that he should protect you."
Huai looked at him with wide eyes, then rolled them. "Heh! If I do as you say, does that mean I should divide my love for you in two? And use one half to care for my child?"
Wuhe's smug expression instantly dropped. He had never considered that. His only thought had been to teach Yan how to protect Huai in his absence. Now, a surge of immense jealousy washed over him, his face twisting as if he'd been punched.
Huai chuckled softly. "Don't worry, my love. My love for you won't change, no matter what."
Like a puppy praised by its owner, Wuhe's mood immediately brightened. He started to move in for a hug but was stopped by Huai's subtle gesture, reminding him they had an audience.
Rebuffed by his lover, Wuhe's simmering frustration found a new target. He glared at the pathetic Kaelen with pure rage. "Kill him, Yan!" he commanded.
Yan nodded to his Grand Elder and moved.
Seeing Yan approach, a final surge of desperate adrenaline hit Kaelen. He scrambled to his feet, brandishing his own blade for a last stand.
The fight was a mockery. In just a few moves, Kaelen's body was covered in deep gashes, while Yan remained completely untouched, not a single scratch on him.
Anxiety turned to sheer terror in Kaelen's heart as Yan's cold voice cut through his panic. "This is for pointing your finger at my master." With a flash of the blood-red scimitar, Kaelen's right arm was severed from his body. "Ahhhhhh!" he screamed as his weapon clattered uselessly into the void.
Before the scream even faded, Yan's scimitar swung again, and Kaelen's left arm flew off.
"Ahhh! What did I do wrong?" the pirate shrieked, his mind broken. "Why are you killing me?"
Yan laughed, a chilling sound. "Wrong? Have you forgotten how many innocent humans you've slaughtered? Did you show them any mercy?"
The scimitar moved again. One of Kaelen's legs was cut off at the knee. "Ahhhhhhh!" he screamed, collapsing to the ground in a writhing heap.
Yan walked calmly towards him, grabbed his tongue, and with a single, slick motion, cut it out. Kaelen couldn't even scream properly now, only a muffled, gurgling "Mmmmmm!" of pure agony.
"I told you," Yan said, his voice devoid of emotion, "I would take your tongue for disrespecting my master."
He then raised his scimitar one last time and gouged out Kaelen's eyes. He left him there, a mutilated wreck, to bleed out in the cold, silent void. Kaelen could never have imagined he would die such a horrific death.
With the last of the pirates dispatched, a heavy silence descended, broken only by the sight of Ling Tian, who immediately straightened up and performed a deep, formal bow towards Huai and Wuhe. "Greetings to Your Highnesses," he said, his voice filled with profound respect and awe.
He then turned and, to the surprise of his own men, gave an equally deep bow to the twelve-year-old boy. "Greetings, Your Highness."