Chapter 7: Sword Radiance!

"H-He was crippled, wasn't he? How could he possibly cut my sword in half!" Derek Zimmerman stared at the broken blade in his hand, doubt crashing through his mind. Then his expression twisted into something ugly. "I'm in the Life Palace Realm! Even if his cultivation recovered, so what? He can't be my match!" "Fatal Sword!" Gripping the snapped weapon, he lunged at Murray Scurr again, throwing everything he had into the strike. With a Low-grade Yellow Rank Battle Technique behind it, he refused to believe he couldn't kill a Murray who had only just started cultivating again. Derek charged in. Murray's eyes flicked with disdain. A Low-grade Yellow Rank Battle Technique, and he thought it could take Murray's life? "Whoosh!" The instant Derek reached him, Murray pivoted sharply and slipped past the slash with effortless ease. "So fast!" Derek's pupils shrank. That reaction speed… could someone who had only recently restarted cultivation do that? "Hah!" A sudden, icy gust swept in. A lethal chill clamped around Derek's whole body. He didn't dare hesitate. He raised his blade and chopped down with all his strength! "Thk!" That chop severed his own hand. "Hngh!" His arm hit the ground. Pain surged up a heartbeat later, and then his chest turned cold. "I-I'm in the Life Palace Realm…" Derek lowered his head, disbelief hollowing him out as he stared at the sword that had pierced straight through his chest. Blood poured from his mouth. He was in the Life Palace Realm. How could he die by the hand of someone who had been crippled? "Even Henry Zimmerman, the Zimmerman family's top genius, will end up under my heel. And you think you're enough?" Murray said coldly. He yanked the blade free. Derek's eyes burned with unwillingness as he collapsed, his life draining away in seconds. "Derek!" The woman of the Zimmerman Family went deathly pale and clapped a hand over her mouth. She didn't even dare cry out. Murray was just as terrifying as he had been before. Steward Ketill and the others stood there, stunned beyond words, nothing left in their eyes but shock. When Murray turned toward them with a sword dripping blood, they all retreated on instinct. The genius Murray from the past had returned, and they had never been anything but people meant to be trampled beneath his feet. "His Elixir Field wasn't dug out?" The doubt hit them hard. If his Elixir Field had truly been destroyed, how could he still be this savage, to the point that even a Life Palace Realm cultivator had no power to resist? "The Family Head wouldn't lie to us about something like that. The Eldest Young Master achieved Twin Life Palace too. The only possibility is that he recovered his Elixir Field." With that single conclusion, bitterness flooded Steward Ketill's chest. Was this what a genius was? Someone no one could keep down, someone who climbed back up even after being crushed. "Maybe that's what a genius is." Steward Ketill drew a deep breath. Regret flashed through his eyes, then froze into ice. "Murray Scurr, your talent is enough to earn anyone's respect. If the family had you leading it, it would surely rise to greatness. It's just a pity…" "You strayed onto the wrong path. You violated a respectable woman. The family can't tolerate you!" "Still smearing me with that ridiculous excuse?" Murray let out a harsh laugh. Hatred flared in his eyes. Marcus Scurr, that old hound. Murray would pay him back in kind and ruin him until he had nothing left. "Murray Scurr, Young Master Evan has already achieved Twin Life Palace. His cultivation advances by leaps and bounds. Under his leadership, our clan will prosper. As a member of the clan, you should have the resolve to sacrifice for the family!" Steward Ketill barked, face cold. Did Murray still not understand? No matter how talented he was, could he compare to Twin Life Palace? "Sacrifice? What a joke. A colossal joke!" Murray's anger snapped tight. How could words like that come out of the mouths of people like them? "I gave the family ten years. I was loyal to Marcus Scurr, that old hound, for ten years. And what did I get? My Elixir Field and my heart, carved up and handed to his two sons. Any debt of gratitude I ever owed, I already repaid!" "You want me to sacrifice? They think they deserve it?!" "Ungrateful trash!" Steward Ketill roared. "The Family Head is your adoptive father! Without him, would you have what you have today?" Murray's smile turned razor-thin. Killing intent surged out of him like a tide. "Why are a few dogs still yapping here?" A vicious glint rose on Steward Ketill's face. Murray's strangeness left him unsure he could take him cleanly, so he had tried to shake Murray's emotions and dull his edge. He hadn't expected a teenager to have such unyielding will. "Since you refuse to repent, don't blame us!" "Do it!" Their auras exploded. Every one of them was at the Third-stage Life Palace Realm. As they closed in, Murray drove his power into motion. Inside his Sword Meridian, the Small Sword trembled violently! "Whoosh!" "Flying Star Strike!" Steward Ketill attacked first, unleashing the family's Battle Technique, Flying Star Strike, a Mid-grade Yellow Rank technique. He wouldn't make Derek's mistake. He meant to kill Murray in a single blow. But before Murray, Flying Star Strike was no different from Derek's Fatal Sword. "Lawless Sword Art, Absolving Sin!" Murray growled the words under his breath and slashed out. In the darkness, a brilliant radiance burst into being. "Light…" The woman of the Zimmerman Family stared, mouth falling open. How could there be light? The instant Steward Ketill saw the Sword Radiance, his pupils constricted. His first thought wasn't fear, but confusion. He knew Sword Energy, but something stronger, Sword Radiance, lay beyond what he understood. "Clang!" Steel crashed together. Sparks sprayed through the night as both figures blasted backward. "Damn… what kind of Battle Technique is that?!" Steward Ketill skidded across the ground, carving out two deep pits before he stabilized. His right hand shook uncontrollably. That single strike had been terrifying. "Sword Radiance?" Murray steadied himself and stared at his blade, joy igniting in his eyes. He had actually produced Sword Radiance. Its power surpassed Sword Energy by a whole tier! "So fighting stronger opponents lets me control Sword Intent even more." He lifted his gaze to Steward Ketill, excitement sharpening his features. He licked his lips. They wanted to use him as a stepping stone. Then they could be his whetstone tonight. "Lawless Sword Art!" Murray charged in again. Steward Ketill's pupils tightened, and when the Sword Radiance flared once more, his heartbeat seemed to stall. "Murray Scurr, what Battle Technique is that?" "You actually dared to hide a Battle Technique! Disloyal and unrighteous to the family!" Murray's technique genuinely frightened him. If they had possessed something this powerful, they would have broken out of Tranquil City long ago. This bastard had dared to keep it for himself! "Trash like you think you deserve my Battle Technique?" Murray thundered. They had treated squeezing him dry as if it were only natural. Who did they think they were? "You think having that technique means you can beat us?" Steward Ketill roared, face contorting. He and the other stewards attacked together. "Hand it over, or we'll make you wish you were dead!" Even if Murray's strength rivaled the Third-stage Life Palace Realm, they were all Third-stage Life Palace Realm. They would take him down, no matter what it cost. "Clang, clang, clang…" In the woman's eyes, sparks kept bursting in the black night. Shadows flickered and collided, moving so fast they whipped up a gale. She could have run then. Yet in the face of that battle, her legs went weak. She didn't even have the strength to flee. Under the combined assault, Steward Ketill and the others tightened the ring, shrinking the encirclement bit by bit. Victory seemed close enough to taste. "The eighth drop of Origin Liquid is complete!" "The ninth drop will condense soon too. I can't kill them yet. Once the tenth drop of Origin Liquid condenses and my Life Palace forms, then they can die!" While they believed triumph was within reach, Murray was drowning in wild elation.