Monarch Of Time

Chapter 1061 Shadow over Iron Dawn (5)

Ma Renwu’s furious shout still echoed through the cracked walls when the old man’s footsteps finally came to a halt.

For a long moment, silence just filled the chamber.

Shun Long just stared at Ma Renwu for a while before eventually shaking his head in disappointment. Then, for the first time since he’d stepped foot into the underground chamber, he opened his mouth and said in an unexpectedly clear voice—one that didn’t fit the appearance of an aged elder at the end of his life.

”I was planning on keeping this up for a little while longer, but it seems like you are right.” He turned his gaze to the ceiling and muttered slowly, his tone as detached as if he was commenting on the weather. ”The city guard has already realized that something is wrong and are sending people to investigate. So let’s end this.”

Before Ma Renwu could respond, the old man’s eyes narrowed... and he took another step forward.

Again, there was no space fluctuation.

No surge of qi or aura.

Just an impossible blur of motion.

And just like that, he’d vanished again.

Ma Renwu had already expected this, and yet his eyes still widened in horror.

Just how damn fast was this old man?

His movement looked similar to his first strike, but this time, Ma Renwu could tell he was even faster than before. Much faster, actually. To the point where even his eyes couldn’t keep up with his figure!

In the blink of an eye, the azure-robed ’elder’ had already reappeared in front of the Ma family patriarch, his golden eyes staring right at his neck. At this point, Ma Renwu could tell that his opponent was really planning to take his life.

This time, the black sword in the old man’s hand wasn’t just cold steel. Sparks of white lightning had begun to crackle across its surface, like lightning serpents coiling around the edge of the blade.

”You wanted to see my Dao?” the old man asked, his voice still calm. ”Here it is.”

Fzzzzzzt!

As his voice rang out, the black sword moved. Its edge looked like a bolt of black lightning surrounded by white snakes, as it moved with uncanny precision towards Ma Renwu’s neck.

Ma Renwu barely had time to react.

He, an early-stage Dao Emperor, not only found himself on the back foot against a Dao King and was losing in terms of speed, but even his life was now in danger.

But the middle-aged patriarch knew he had to survive this. He couldn’t possibly fall here.

He roared, and almost immediately poured everything he had into his defenses. The silver sword in his hand burst into flames, even brighter and stronger than before.

Even the entire underground room dimmed in contrast!

And yet, Ma Renwu knew, this wouldn’t be enough to stop that black sword.

He layered his earthen armor again, reinforcing every inch of his body, and he even activated his trump card. The strongest martial skill he had in his possession, a Saint high-grade skill called ’Earthen Tomb’!

In the blink of an eye, the armor around his body had already changed color, turning into a much darker shade of brown. It compressed around him like a thick shell, not leaving even his eyes exposed. Well, he didn’t really need them, anyway. He wasn’t using them to track the old man, anyway. It was his soul sense that did all the heavy lifting.

”This strike... if I block this, I can still hang on!”

But the black sword was already upon him.

CRACK!

The moment Shun Long’s sword met Ma Renwu’s, the silver sword shattered like brittle glass.

The star-rank weapon that had accompanied the Ma patriarch for more than a millennium and was reinforced by his Dao of Fire... was cleaved in half in a single strike!

Unfortunately, there was no time to feel shock. Because in the very next instant, the black sword surged forward, now aimed directly at his neck.

BOOM!

The sound that followed wasn’t the ringing of steel but the gradual collapse of his earthen armor!

CRACK-CRACK-CRACK-BOOM!!

Ma Renwu’s Saint-grade martial skill only held for half a breath before splitting open like a fractured boulder! The black sword, still wreathed in white lightning, pierced through the patriarch’s strongest defense skill, and a heartbeat later, it finally reached his neck.

The thick armor crumbled.

The flames vanished.

And then, the light in the Dao Emperor’s eyes filled with disbelief, fury, and desperate will... flickered out.

For a moment, the underground chamber was completely silent.

Then-

Ma Renwu’s headless corpse collapsed on the ground with a thud, like a puppet that had its strings cut.

And just like that, a Dao Emperor had fallen. In his personal chambers, Ma Renwu had been beheaded by a single, clean sword strike!

...One that was imbued with the ’Dao of Heavenly Tribulation’.

Shun Long just looked at the man’s corpse for a moment and let out a sigh. He crouched and picked up his spatial ring before he spread out his soul sense again.

He knew that the city guard had already noticed the commotion and would soon arrive. It was only a matter of time before they did.

Now that his spiritual strength was equivalent to an early-stage Sovereign, Shun Long was able to cover half of Iron Dawn with it, so he’d been keeping tabs around the entire Ma estate from the moment he stepped into Ma Renwu’s room.

Still, he didn’t leave right away. He just pondered for a moment. At this point, he had to admit that the result of the battle had surprised him quite a bit.

Ma Renwu was a bona fide Dao Emperor, and one that was close to the middle stage, and yet he was as helpless as a peak-stage Dao King during their fight. Shun Long had only used the power of his ’Monarch’s Eternal body’, his Sword Aura, and his ’Dao of Heavenly Tribulation’, and yet this was more than enough to take the patriarch of the Ma family down. Even the black sword he’d used during the fight was only a random 1-star sword he’d picked up inside the ’City of Immortals’... but even that didn’t seem to make a difference.

For a moment, he even considered whether he would be able to fight a rank 4 Dao Emperor if he used his ’Dao of Time’ and ’Dao of Space’ during the fight, but in the end, he just shook his head and let out a sigh.

Ultimately, he knew, it wasn’t that Ma Renwu was weak... that’s what an average Dao Emperor was like. It was he who was too strong. He was infinitely close to the Dao Emperor realm, and average Dao Emperors like that wouldn’t pose him a challenge.