You Have Been Surrounded by Me!

Many of these martial world folk had brought their own rations.

Enduring the scorching heat, they trekked all the way into the Azure Mesa Desert.

Along the way, they ate in the wind and slept in the dew, finding any spot to lie down and sleep at night.

They had assumed that after living in the desert all these years, your conditions must have been equally harsh.

But when they saw you living comfortably in an oasis villa,

with the Extinction Sect's breathtakingly gifted Saintess in your arms,

their eyes turned green with envy.

The last scraps of respect they had held for your combat strength vanished into thin air.

"Damn it, you really deserve to die!!" they cursed viciously as they gnawed on shriveled white-flour buns.

They nearly ground their back teeth to pieces.

But they did not dare do anything to you.

They knew Lin Jingzhi and the entire Extinction Sect stood behind you.

You stood at the second-floor window, looking at the dense black mass of people gathered not far away.

Wan Qingluan stood beside you.

You slapped Wan Qingluan's firm, upturned butt. "Having big shots backing you really feels great!"

Wan Qingluan slapped your butt as well, then gave it two squeezes with her tender little hand. "Husband, you actually don't have to accept the challenge."

Of course, you knew you did not have to accept it.

But you also knew that with the condition of your eighty-seven-year-old body, you could no longer break through to the Marrow Washing Realm through cultivation.

You could only gamble with your life, seeking an opportunity between life and death.

"Qingluan, are you afraid I'll die?"

Wan Qingluan looked at you tenderly. "No."

You raised a brow. "No?"

A trace of fervor flashed in Wan Qingluan's eyes. "Husband, I'm actually looking forward to your death."

You froze for a moment, then asked hesitantly, "Why?"

"I really want to know what will happen if a husband who fears no death truly dies!"

Wan Qingluan's voice was cool, but her tone was excited. "Will some powerful existence behind you step in to save you, or will your death itself bring about unimaginable consequences?!"

Wan Qingluan stared fixedly at you, her eyes intoxicated. "I really want to know!"

Your expression was indifferent.

A few breaths later, you burst into laughter.

You pulled Wan Qingluan into your arms and kissed her fiercely.

When your lips parted, Wan Qingluan's soft red lips had been bitten bloody by you.

Wan Qingluan lightly licked the striking red blood from her lips.

The corners of her mouth curled up slightly, and the way she looked at you became even more crazed.

You held her face, your voice low. "As expected of my crazy woman! Crazy—let's all be crazy. A little craziness is good!"

You kissed her again, and Wan Qingluan responded with burning passion.

The two of you were utterly intoxicated, drowning in it.

Outside your oasis, several hundred martial world folk watched helplessly as you and Wan Qingluan flirted lovingly at the second-floor window.

One young female martial artist rolled her eyes. "Pah, wicked heretics!"

The next day.

Mao Mingfeng arrived on time.

The two of you stood facing each other.

Several hundred people formed a distant circle around you to watch the battle.

The ink-black Soul Awakening Blade gleamed coldly in your hand.

Mao Mingfeng's longsword trembled slightly as he felt immense pressure.

You were the first to flash forward and attack.

Surging True Qi swept forth.

The Soul Awakening Blade came crashing down with the force of thunder.

Mao Mingfeng knocked aside your attack with a single sword strike.

The two of you exchanged blow after blow.

In the blink of an eye, several hundred moves had passed.

Gradually, some sharp-eyed martial artists saw that Mao Mingfeng was beginning to struggle.

His True Qi was impartial, balanced, and gentle.

But with the Heavenly Desire Formless Art empowering you,

your True Qi's nature had transformed into something violent and fierce.

Once you gained the upper hand, he would retreat one step, then step after step.

Sure enough, Mao Mingfeng's True Qi ran dry, and he fell completely into a disadvantage.

The faces of Mao Mingfeng's friends and family watching the battle immediately turned ugly.

"Mingfeng! Pull yourself together, don't disgrace yourself!"

"Mingfeng! Don't give up! Don't underestimate the bond between us, damn it!!"

Just as he was about to be hacked to pieces by your blade,

Mao Mingfeng suddenly swallowed a handful of pills.

By consuming his source foundation,

he restored himself to peak condition.

The pressure on you suddenly surged.

Seeing the tide turn, his friends and family immediately beamed with joy.

"Mingfeng! Well done!!"

"Hit him! Hit him!!"

Mao Mingfeng struck with sword after sword, his offensive crashing in like tidal waves.

Mao Mingfeng became increasingly lost in the fight.

Gradually, he only attacked and did not defend.

You seized the opportunity.

A long-charged stream of True Qi shot forth.

It struck Mao Mingfeng squarely in the face.

"Ah—"

Mao Mingfeng's offensive faltered, and you drove your blade into his heart!

Mao Mingfeng's final instinctive strike likewise slashed open your abdomen.

Your internal organs were faintly visible.

Blood gushed from Mao Mingfeng's heart.

Within two breaths, he fell stiffly to the ground.

"Mingfeng—!"

"Master!!"

Mao Mingfeng's friends and family cried out in shock.

They rushed forward, embraced Mao Mingfeng's corpse, and wept bitterly.

The other spectators around them were stunned.

You had actually crossed three major realms and forcibly fought your opponent to death!

There had been an element of luck involved.

But the result was right there for all to see.

Everyone had to acknowledge it.

In a life-and-death battle, sometimes what one fought over was precisely that bit of luck.

Beyond that, what shocked them even more was

that you, only at the Bone Tempering Peak Stage, could actually use True Qi Release.

Moreover, its released power was enormous—enough to threaten Essence Refinement martial artists.

Lin Jingzhi and several Apex Grandmasters looked at one another.

They had never heard of such a thing.

Lin Jingzhi recalled that Miao Liwu could also achieve True Qi Release ahead of time.

But Miao Liwu had only been able to use True Qi Release at the Divine Organs Realm, merely one realm ahead of schedule.

Yet you had done it a full three realms early.

Shock finally covered Lin Jingzhi's usually composed face.

You stood to one side, clutching the massive wound in your abdomen and gasping heavily.

At last, you sensed signs that the bottleneck at the Bone Tempering Peak Stage was loosening.

Before you could even rejoice,

some among Mao Mingfeng's friends and family noticed that you were in poor condition.

So, casting martial morality to the wind, they turned and attacked you.

"Dog bastard! Give us your life!!"

Although their realms were not particularly high, and there were no Essence Refinement martial artists among them,

there were simply too many of them—chaotic fists could still beat an old master to death.

And you were seriously wounded.

You could only rely on your movement technique to dodge continuously.

Your situation was hanging by a thread.

At any moment, you could be beaten to death by the mob.

At this moment, Wan Qingluan, standing in the distance, threw you a bag of healing pills.

You caught it and tossed the pills straight into your mouth.

The wound on your abdomen actually began to heal slowly, visibly to the naked eye.

You glanced at Wan Qingluan. "Didn't you want to see me die? You soft-hearted woman who says one thing and means another!"

More than half your injuries had recovered.

Your movement technique became even more ghostly.

These more than two hundred people simply could not touch you.

You shouted at the two hundred-plus people around you, "Listen up! You have already been surrounded by me. Surrender at once!"

Relying on their numbers, these two hundred people turned a deaf ear to your warning.

One of their leaders shouted, "Don't be afraid, everyone! Before his True Qi runs out, he might not be able to kill all of us!"

Seeing that they remained stubbornly incorrigible, you became quite angry.

"Fine, fine, fine! Not only will you not surrender, you even dare fight back against me!"

You darted, spun, and leaped, beginning to reap heads without end.

You did not act arrogantly, for these people were not rotten fish and spoiled shrimp.

There were even quite a few troublesome figures at the Divine Organs Peak Stage among them.

Cautiously, you cut down more than forty people.

You felt that more than half your True Qi had been consumed.

Then another thirty-plus people fell beneath your blade.

Of the more than two hundred people, nearly half had now died.

Though that sounded like a great number,

those who died had all been Bone Tempering or Marrow Washing martial artists.

Among the Divine Organs martial artists, you had only cut down one early-stage and one mid-stage fighter.

Your True Qi was once again nearly depleted.

Like a dried-up well, it longed for the nourishment of water.

You swallowed an Inner Divinity Pill in one gulp.

Your True Qi swelled to fullness once more.

Under these extreme circumstances, the bottleneck in your cultivation loosened a few more degrees.

Joy appeared on your face as you charged into the crowd once more.