"Let's not make this any more difficult than it has to be," said Squad Leader Guang as he reached Yuan. "Extend your arms and offer your limbs to me. If you struggle, I might accidentally cut more than I was ordered to."
Yuan calmly looked at the Squad Leader and said, "Aren't you even the slightest bit curious why I am the only one alive when everyone else is dead?"
"What?" Squad Leader Guang frowned at his words. Now that Yuan mentioned it, he definitely found it odd that a mere True Immortal survived, while everyone else had supposedly perished.
Yet, when the Squad Leader examined Yuan with divine sense, he couldn't find anything out of the ordinary about him. Hell, even the clothes Yuan wore were ordinary clothes.
"I'll give you the same warning I gave to the last group," Yuan suddenly said. "Leave if you don't want to die."
"That's not possible," said Squad Leader Guang. "I don't know what happened to the Sixth Squad or how you killed them, but it won't work on our Second Squad, as we're not only stronger, but we have more experience than they do."
Yuan shrugged and said, "In that case, cut my limbs if you can."
Yuan suddenly extended his arms outward, almost as if he were asking to be handcuffed. Squad Leader Guang narrowed his eyes suspiciously. Something felt off about the situation, but he had no time to ponder.
Without hesitation, he took out his sword and swung it at Yuan's arms with the intent to cut them.
However, the instant his sword struck Yuan's arm, it was violently repelled, and the Squad Leader felt as though he had just hit a slab of metal.
"What the—?!"
Squad Leader Guang looked at his Mythic-grade sword with wide eyes and a confused face. The other soldiers who also witnessed it were just as puzzled.
"What's wrong? I thought you were going to cut my limbs?" Yuan's voice resounded, snapping the Squad Leader out of his daze.
Although he didn't understand what had just happened, he still went for a second strike. This time, he enveloped his sword with Enhanced Sword Aura and swung it with all of his might.
The sword struck Yuan's arm once more, but this time it didn't rebound. Instead, it simply stopped, frozen in place, unable to pierce even a fraction of his skin.
"Impossible!" Squad Leader Guang exclaimed in shock.
"What a pity." Yuan shook his head. "I gave you two chances, but you still squandered them. Now, it's my turn."
Hearing Yuan's words, Squad Leader Guang subconsciously retreated, his body soaked in cold sweat.
After retreating from Yuan, he noticed that Yuan was now holding a sword, as if it had materialized from thin air. Just as Squad Leader Guang exhaled in relief for having pulled back in time, a strange sensation crept up from beneath him, causing him to look down.
"?!?!"
When he looked down and saw the massive sword gash across his chest, Squad Leader Guang's eyes widened in utter disbelief.
'When the hell did he?!' he cried inwardly.
"Hey," Yuan suddenly called out to him.
When the Squad Leader lifted his head to look, Yuan swung his sword in his direction, which startled him a bit. However, they were miles apart, and Yuan didn't seem to have employed any techniques. "What are you—AHHH!"
In the midst of his sentence, the Squad Leader screamed in agony as the sensation of being slashed by a sword assaulted him. He looked down again, and this time, he was horrified to find all four of his limbs severed.
"That power—the Power of the Void!" the commander of the Second Squad exclaimed, his voice trembling with disbelief. "And to strike from such a distance… he must've reached Advanced Void Understanding!"
"A True Immortal with Advanced Void Understanding?! That's ridiculous!" "Heavens! Who the hell is that bastard?!"
The soldiers couldn't fathom how an Immortal could attain something even a Cultivation God would struggle to achieve.
In fact, fewer than ten individuals have ever reached such a realm since the Primordial Era.
'This is a good chance for me to test out my Void Manipulation,' Yuan thought to himself.
"Squad Leader Guang! Retreat!" The commander suddenly shouted.
Without hesitation, the Squad Leader immediately started flying back to the formation.
"And where do you think you're going?"
However, Yuan didn't allow it and struck again using Void Manipulation.
When Yuan swung his sword, it seemed to the soldiers as though he were striking nothing but empty air. Yet, in the next instant, Squad Leader Guang's body split cleanly in two, almost as if he'd been attacked by a ghost.
"This bastard!" The commander trembled in anger.
"Second Squad, kill that bastard and avenge Squad Leader Guang!" The soldiers hesitated for a brief moment before they started charging at Yuan.
Over ten thousand soldiers closed in from every direction, yet Yuan didn't appear the slightest bit concerned.
With a calm smile, Yuan began slashing his sword in rapid succession, each motion as effortless as breathing. With every swing, soldiers fell where they stood, perishing without even realizing they had died.
Without at least a basic grasp of the Power of the Void, evading or blocking his strikes was simply impossible.
In other words, the soldiers were no different than sitting ducks at this moment, and the only advantage they had over Yuan was their numbers.
By the time they reached him, Yuan had killed over a thousand soldiers. "Kill that bastard!"
"Don't give him the chance to use Void Manipulation!"
The soldiers charged at Yuan, bombarding him with martial techniques.
Seeing this, Yuan used Void Manipulation on himself, disappearing into the void.
"Where did he go?!"
The soldiers started looking around frantically.
A few seconds later, Yuan reappeared behind one of the soldiers and beheaded him before he could react.
"He's over here!" One of the nearby soldiers warned the others.
However, Yuan disappeared into the void again before they could take any action.
Although Yuan could only traverse short distances with his current mastery of the Power of the Void, it was more than enough to throw the soldiers' formation into complete chaos.