Though Su Yun could not see, an image appeared in his mind: a fierce, savage Crocodile Dragon tearing through the mire of a great marsh, opening its blood-drenched jaws and biting at him!
Yang Sheng had already cultivated Great Furnace Transformation to the sixth level. The true strength of the sixth level lay in enduring the tempering of cultivation, making the body stronger and allowing the heart to supply more blood to every part of the body.
Coupled with abundant vital essence, one's qi and blood could manifest.
What Su Yun "saw" in his mind was not Yang Sheng's body, but the impact of Yang Sheng's qi-blood aura upon his senses.
Because he was not seeing with his eyes, the image in his mind was somewhat abstract, a riot of colors like a child's clumsy brushwork wildly smeared across a page.
Yet that did not prevent him from clearly grasping Yang Sheng's position and movements.
The instant Yang Sheng made his move, the four fox demons behind Su Yun sprang out almost simultaneously and charged to meet Yang Sheng!
Flower Fox and the other three fox demons also cultivated Crocodile Dragon's Roar. Though they had trained for only a short time, Su Yun had taught them the four great thunderclaps, and their attainments were anything but ordinary.
The four fox demons' cultivation was still weak. Flower Fox was at the third level of Great Furnace Transformation, while Li Xiaofan, Hu Buping, and Qingqiu Yue were all at the second level.
The aura formed by the circulation of their qi and blood was likewise reflected in Su Yun's mind.
Through his perception of qi-blood aura, he "saw" Yang Sheng's Crocodile Dragon with utmost clarity. Within that Crocodile Dragon, where its heart should be, stood a Heaven-Earth Great Furnace. Flames blazed within it—that was Yang Sheng's vital essence!
Great Furnace Transformation used vital essence as fuel. Yang Sheng's furnace essence had reached the sixth level, and its six layers of furnace fire shone purple, red, orange, yellow, white, and blue.
Su Yun could clearly "see" the six colors of the furnace flames.
As vital essence circulated and the furnace flames rubbed together, Crocodile Dragon Thunderclaps rang from Yang Sheng's chest. Yet what Su Yun saw was clouds above the Crocodile Dragon's heart colliding and grinding together, erupting in flashes of lightning and peals of thunder.
The Crocodile Dragons formed by Flower Fox and the three little fox demons' qi-blood auras were far less distinct, and the Heaven-Earth Great Furnaces at their hearts bore far fewer layers of flame.
Moreover, Yang Sheng's Crocodile Dragon was much larger, roughly two zhang long, while Flower Fox and the three little fox demons' Crocodile Dragons measured only eight or nine feet.
To others, Yang Sheng's battle with the four foxes looked like one man facing four foxes, the four darting, leaping, and striking again and again. But in Su Yun's "eyes," four smaller Crocodile Dragons were surrounding a great crocodile and tearing at it!
Everyone in this battle—one man and four foxes—used Crocodile Dragon's Roar. They practiced the same combat art, yet their applications of its moves were entirely different.
Flower Fox and the three little fox demons used conventional moves, every stance and technique clear and distinct.
Though rage had consumed them and they wanted to kill Yang Sheng to avenge their companions of Huqiu Village and Mister Wild Fox, their moves remained perfectly ordered.
Yang Sheng, however, used the Unbound Moves of Crocodile Dragon's Roar.
When he unleashed those Unbound Moves, Su Yun's expression finally changed.
In Su Yun's "vision," the great Crocodile Dragon formed by Yang Sheng's aura changed completely. It became elusive and impossible to predict!
Yang Sheng's right hand met Hu Buping's Dragon Fights in the Field, yet what he used was half a Unbound Move from Crocodile Dragon Emerges from the Abyss.
In Su Yun's "vision," Yang Sheng's right hand transformed into the head of a surging, lunging Crocodile Dragon, its blood-drenched jaws gaping wide!
At the same time, Yang Sheng's left hand met Qingqiu Yue's Divine Crocodile's Tail Sweep. His left hand used half a move of Crocodile Dragon's Roll instead, clawing apart Qingqiu Yue's technique, seizing her leg, and crushing its flesh into a bloody mess.
Elsewhere, the qi and blood Yang Sheng unleashed outside his body employed Dragon Fights in the Field, interrupting Flower Fox's Dragon Roaming the Winding Marsh!
Flower Fox shifted his move, only to have the Crocodile Dragon formed from manifested qi and blood bite down on his head. The next instant, that Crocodile Dragon would unleash Crocodile Dragon's Roll!
Li Xiaofan's attack, meanwhile, landed squarely on Yang Sheng's back—but it did not succeed.
Yang Sheng's back swelled as he used the Unbound Move Crocodile Dragon on the Spine. When Li Xiaofan's attack struck his back, the muscles and tendons there spasmed violently, flinging Li Xiaofan away!
In that instant, within Su Yun's "vision," Yang Sheng resembled a monster with four or five Crocodile Dragon heads, striking in every direction!
The next moment, Hu Buping was struck in the chest and flew backward with a howl, crashing into Huqiu Village with a boom and knocking down a cluster of small houses.
Qingqiu Yue was swung up and smashed heavily into the ground!
Li Xiaofan's fox claws bent and twisted one by one. Yang Sheng's back slammed into him and sent him flying away.
Among the four foxes, Flower Fox possessed the deepest vital essence and the greatest strength, yet even he was powerless before Yang Sheng!
Just as Crocodile Dragon's Roll was about to twist his neck apart, Su Yun suddenly stepped forward and used Crocodile Dragon's Roll as well, rescuing him.
Yang Sheng had failed to save Tong Fan from Su Yun's hands, but Su Yun could save Flower Fox from Yang Sheng's.
"Junior Su Yun, Crocodile Dragon's Roar's teacher did not teach you for very long, did he?" Yang Sheng turned around. The other three foxes had each fallen to the ground, grievously wounded and unable to rise.
Su Yun's face was grave as he released Flower Fox.
Yang Sheng said blandly, "I can tell that you have felt your way into some applications, but without the guidance of a renowned teacher, if you rely on groping about alone, you will never learn the essence."
Su Yun's expression shifted slightly. He immediately moved, transforming into Dragon Roaming the Winding Marsh and retreating at high speed.
In his "vision," the monstrous Crocodile Dragon formed from Yang Sheng's qi and blood, with four heads, was pouncing toward him like Gods and Devils!
"Teacher Shuijing truly never taught us this kind of application."
Su Yun's thoughts raced. Though Qiu Shuijing had left in a hurry and had not taught them the Unbound Moves of Crocodile Dragon's Roar, studying the Divine Crocodile Transforms into a Flood Dragon and Crosses Tribulation Diagram within the Immortal Diagram had given him a deeper understanding of the six great moves of Crocodile Dragon's Roar than even Qiu Shuijing possessed!
In his mind, he rapidly ran through the six great moves of Crocodile Dragon's Roar, turning them into six diagrams.
Within every diagram, a Su Yun continuously practiced that move.
Then, with a splash, the six diagrams imagined in Su Yun's mind broke apart once more. Each move divided into six Unbound Moves, making thirty-six diagrams in all.
Each of those thirty-six diagrams contained a Su Yun continuously practicing Unbound Moves, trying to master every one as swiftly as possible.
Imagining was difficult. Mastering them was even more difficult.
To change his habits in such a short time, break apart the six great moves into thirty-six Unbound Moves, freely combine those thirty-six Unbound Moves, make all four limbs execute different Unbound Moves, and at the same time direct qi and blood freely through all four limbs—this was almost impossible!
Yet Su Yun's Spiritual Abilities were also something almost impossible to achieve, and yet he had accomplished them.
His Yellow Bell made him calculate different divisions of time at every moment, maintaining the operation of Yellow Bell's instants, seconds, hours, days, months, and years with absolute precision, allowing no error whatsoever.
At the same time, he used Yellow Bell to restrain his actions, ensuring that every movement was precise to the instant and second. This had forged his powerful control over his own body!
That was why, when he killed Tong Fan in the Ghost Market, his Crocodile Dragon's Roll had spun two more rotations than Yang Sheng's. It was also why he could save Flower Fox from Yang Sheng's hands!
Su Yun retreated continuously like a Crocodile Dragon. Suddenly, with a bang, his back struck a great tree, and Dragon Roaming the Winding Marsh was immediately obstructed.
His legs seemed to lose all their bones, winding around the trunk like a Flood Dragon gliding lightly through the water. In an instant, his entire body slipped from before the tree to behind it.
Shedding his form and transforming into a Flood Dragon.
At that moment, he no longer gave the impression of a clumsy Crocodile Dragon, but of an incomparably nimble Flood Dragon!
The instant his body slipped behind the tree, Yang Sheng's hands unleashed Crocodile Dragon's Roll and bit into the trunk, twisting violently. With a crack, the great tree was mangled in two, splintered wood flying everywhere!
Amid the flying splinters, Su Yun turned. His right leg unleashed an Unbound Move of Divine Crocodile's Tail Sweep, sweeping toward Yang Sheng's face.
A dragon-tail tattoo abruptly appeared on his right leg, making it resemble a thick, powerful dragon tail!
At the same time, his spine trembled thirty-three times, shaking away the splintered wood that had fallen onto his back and protecting it.
Crocodile Dragon patterns emerged across his back. The Crocodile Dragon continuously shook its body, issuing thunderous roars!
Even as his right leg smashed into Yang Sheng's face, the five fingers of his left hand spread apart, and qi-blood patterns of a Crocodile Dragon opening its jaws surfaced upon it.
Before Su Yun's right leg had even touched the ground, his left hand had already unleashed Crocodile Dragon Emerges from the Abyss, gripping Yang Sheng by the throat!
He had almost simultaneously used the Unbound Moves of three techniques—one to defend himself, two to attack Yang Sheng—catching Yang Sheng utterly off guard.
Yet Su Yun's heart suddenly sank.
When his right leg struck Yang Sheng's face, it felt as though Yang Sheng's head had merely tilted slightly. When his left hand gripped Yang Sheng's throat and exerted force, it was like clutching crocodile hide; with a turn of his body, Yang Sheng broke free.
Meanwhile, the splintered wood striking Su Yun's back burned with searing pain.
"Our vital essence cultivation differs too greatly." Su Yun retreated and silently said to himself.
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