Daily life of a cultivation judge

Lai Lei held on to his sword, with a faint silver light flashing in his eyes. He still maintained the same peaceful and graceful aura, despite the tenseness of the situation, while the grey flames of the shadow flame hawk seemed much more vibrant.

They passed halfway through the plain with no incident, it was only when they were almost at the edge that a change finally happened.

Lai Lei tightly gripped his sword as he narrowed his gaze and took a small deep breath. A silver line suddenly flashed in his eyes and he lept off the shadow flame hawk's back swinging his sword horizontally.

Boom!

A thunderous explosion sounded that parted the hot mist from the plain as sprays of blood suddenly appeared with cleanly sliced yellow flamed thorn chameleons appearing seemingly out of nowhere.

"Fellow Daoist, it can't be that you were hunting the yellow flame-thorned chameleon, and I happened to interrupt your strike, could it?" Lai Lei said as he softly landed on the ground with his gaze fixed on the black-robed person standing a few hundred meters away from him.

The black-robed person had concealed their face with a mask that was made in the image of a spider's abdomen and legs. It was a mix of red and black.

Lai Lei had a nigh imperceptible frown on his face, as it could feel some sort of isolation power being released by the mask. It seemed to isolate everything about the person, about the only thing Lai Lei could tell about the person, was that they were at the quasi-palace stage, the same as him, and the only reason he was able to glean that, was from their earlier clash.

The black-robed person didn't respond to Lai Lei as he pulled a chained deer horn knife. As he pulled it, the motion created a deep tear to the ground. It sliced through it easily like a hot knife through butter.

"Top tier monarch grade weapon, quasi palace stage cultivation, an artifact that can isolate their presence even from me. Whoever that person is, their background isn't simple, and by the looks of it, the attack was deliberate, clearly they seemed to have been waiting for me.." 

Lai Lei took slow steps forward which prompted the black-robed person to tighten their grip over the chain connecting two deer knives.

Lai Lei's robes fluttered gracefully as his sword let out a gentle hum.

The pupils of the black-robed person constricted as they detected a sharp piercing sensation surrounding their entire body when the hum sounded. When the person's gaze fell on Lai Lei, even though Lai Lei still had the same charming peace loving look to him, the person felt a tyrannical force of destruction being released from Lai Lei.

"Are they done with the preparation yet? I don't know how long I can hold on against him. Holding on for five minutes seems impossible even with the help of the dragon flame pills. I'll need to use the talisman.."

Just as a black jade talisman appeared in the black-robed person's hand, Lai Lei flicked his sword in rapid succession.

Cascading moon slashes

White wind cutter slices immediately bombarded the black-robed person as it sliced through everything in its path.

The black-robed person who looked just about ready to detonate the black jade talisman in his hands, was immediately put under defensive pressure that he could not even spare a momentary thought toward the talisman in his hand. 

Within seconds, the person was already walking a tightrope between surviving and being sliced apart. 

The person was cycling the double-horned deer knife chain so fast that it created a blur in their movements, but even then, they struggled to keep Lai Lei's lightning-fast attacks at bay. Slash marks appeared on the black-robed person's body, little by little.

With every attack from Lai Lei, the black-robed person felt like their body had been smashed by a sharp mountain. The resulting force caused their blood to churn with their organs shifting in the process and some of their bones dislocating.

"This can't be...it's barely been a minute.." fearfully thought the black-robed person as they felt the speeds and the weight of the attacks from Lai Lei continuously increase with every passing moment. Their body was already riddled with cuts, their breathing grew labored with the metallic scent of their bleeding body pervading the area.

"I can't hold on.."

The black-robed person sacrificed one of their legs by leaving it undefended so they could get a chance to detonate the talisman by their hand. 

However, the black-robed person felt the chain suddenly drop as a cold sensation filled one of their hands, and when they looked over, they saw three of their fingers fly slowly in the air as the talisman slowly fell from their grip.

Before they could register what had happened their whole arm was next to fly.

"SENIOR BROTHER NOOW!!!!!!!" the black-robed person who had remained silent all this time finally opened their mouth, and it was to yell for dear life.

"It even isolates the gender of their voice..." muttered Lai Lei in shock as he heard the androgynous voice come from the black-robed person.

He still could not tell their gender or even age.

The black-robed person who expected something to happen after their yell was left in shock when they saw different parts of their body being cleanly dismembered leaving only their torso intact, and just as they thought they were going to survive, they saw a sword pierce straight through their glabella. Even in death, they were still in disbelief.

"If you have partners then there's no need to keep you alive.." Lai Lei muttered as he bent over to pick up the spider abdomen's mask of the black-robed person's body.

However, he immediately paused and dodged to the side where a black lightning streak flashed by.

When he looked up, he saw fourteen black-robed people standing ahead of him with the same type of mask that isolated their sense of self.

A black rusted dagger coated in black lighting was at the center of the group. Lai Lei could tell that the dagger was special and it required eight of the fourteen people before him to maintain.

He could intrinsically feel if he was nicked just slightly by the dagger, he would suffer fatal injuries. 

Without hesitation, five talismans instantly appeared in his hands that he immediately detonated, launching them toward the group as he used a silent voiceless transmission to send a message to the shadow flame hawk.

"Shadow, run the way we came from and fly as fast as you can. Use the eagle bracelets like you were taught to launch a distress signal.."