Dusk

Ouyang Feng rapidly pressed his acupoints to stop the bleeding of his wound, glaring malevolently at Wang Ming ahead and thinking to himself: The swordsmanship just now is quite extraordinary, deceiving human vision, along with that technique of instantaneous acceleration—he cannot be matched by brute force.

His eyes glanced briefly at the longsword-wielding Wang Ming opposite him, then re-focused intently on the blade before turning to look at the mountain peak in the west, a trace of a sinister smile instantly appearing on his face.

Next, Wang Ming continuously launched attacks against Ouyang Feng using Illusion Sword, yet Ouyang Feng refused to engage in combat altogether, fleeing far away to put distance between them.

"Ouyang Feng, you are supposed to be a grandmaster of your generation, yet you are so gutless. Upon seeing Mr. Wang, you only run away. What face do you, such a cowardly scoundrel, have to contend for The First Under Heaven?" Seeing Ouyang Feng constantly dodging and fleeing, Huang Rong spoke up to mock him, wanting to use a provocation to make him impulsively engage in combat.

From Huang Rong's perspective, Wang Ming was beating Ouyang Feng down, slicing off two of Ouyang Feng's fingers with a single sword stroke while taking a palm strike and coming out completely unharmed.

Yet how could she know that Wang Ming had actually taken a loss?

That palm strike was blocked by Wang Ming's protective technique consuming one-fifth of his Indestructible Vajra Body true qi, whereas Ouyang Feng losing two fingers had little impact on his combat strength.

How could Ouyang Feng not know Huang Rong's intentions? He refused to fall for it at all, simply dodging frantically.

By now Wang Ming had also reacted, turning to look at the western mountain peak where only a tiny bit of the sun remained.

Dusk was approaching.

Wang Ming also halted his offensive momentum and adopted a defensive posture, unable to help inwardly cursing: This old scoundrel is truly formidable, seeing through the mystery of this swordsmanship so quickly. This is clearly to stall for time and wait for the sun to set.

Illusion Sword was a swordsmanship that utilized light and vision to erupt in an instant; although it could be used without sunlight, it was incomplete and unable to achieve the level of challenging opponents of superior ranks.

Ouyang Feng kept stringing Wang Ming along. Whenever Wang Ming didn't want to fight, Ouyang Feng would deliver a thoroughly despicable palm strike from afar, and when Wang Ming wanted to get down to business and fight him, he would run away at flying speed like a contemptuous wretch, almost driving Wang Ming hopping mad.

Wang Ming and Ouyang Feng were evenly matched in Lightness Skill, and coupled with the fact that Ouyang Feng was already in the Innate Realm, there was simply nothing to be done about him—he was as annoying as a dog-skin plaster.

The two probed each other from afar for another dozen or so rounds.

Dusk had arrived...

"Hahaha! Huang family lass, didn't you say I wouldn't dare fight him head-on? Now I'll fight you to see!" Ouyang Feng suddenly changed his combat style and attacked Wang Ming fiercely.

Wang Ming failed to adapt to this suddenly altered style for a moment and was caught off guard, several times coming within a hair's breadth of being hit in vital spots.

"Your swordsmanship has already been seen through by me. With the sun setting, let's see how you can run wild—go die! Haha..." Ouyang Feng spewed trash talk while attacking.

"Ah!" Hearing this, Huang Rong in the distance let out an immediate gasp of surprise and understood in an instant. She was originally an extremely clever young woman, also hailed as the female Zhuge, and coupled with the fact that she also practiced Illusion Sword, how could she not know the impact of the setting sun on the swordsmanship? She inevitably began to worry about Wang Ming.

At this moment, Li Mochou's gaze was also flickering, two thoughts constantly battling in her mind as she tangled internally: Should I take advantage of the fact that Master still has combat strength to hold off Ouyang Feng and flee immediately? Or not run and wait for the outcome?

Li Mochou's greatest skill was not her Ice Soul Silver Needle, nor was she skilled in the Five Poisons Divine Palm—it was greasing the soles of her feet. She was extremely tactful; whenever she saw someone powerful, she would not provoke them, and if they had a background, she would let them off whenever possible.

Seeing that the battle situation was unfavorable, her figure slowly walked behind Huang Rong and the others, making it convenient for her to flee at any time.

Ultimately, after an internal battle between heaven and humanity, she still decided to live and die together with her master, Wang Ming.

This was not because she had suddenly become affectionate and loyal, but rather because whenever she thought about greasing the soles of her feet, the infallible, scheming demon-like image from when Guo Jing's mother was rescued in the desert surfaced in her mind, suppressing the urge to run away.

"Palm Breaking Style!"

Ouyang Feng's confident palm strike was easily and unassumingly broken by Wang Ming with a single sword stroke, leaving no time for him to be stunned as a sword thrust within a hair's breadth of piercing his throat.

He had thought this sword strike was merely a coincidence, but the dozen or so rounds of combat that followed utterly disgusted him. Every single move was jammed by Wang Ming at his flaw to deliver a sword strike, as though Wang Ming possessed foreknowledge.

This "Palm Breaking Style" cracked all manner of fisticuffs, palms, and finger techniques—long fist and short strike, grappling and acupoint pressing, eagle claws and tiger claws, Iron Sand Palm, and various other hand-to-hand combat skills.

Toad Skill also belonged to the category of hand-to-hand combat skills.

Ouyang Feng was also inwardly irritated: Where on earth did this fellow get so many unorthodox swordsmanship techniques? Why have I never seen them before? It's as if he popped out of thin air. Why are all his sword techniques offensive moves? Is there no end to this?

Nine Swords of Dugu was originally all attack and no defense; every single move assaulted what the enemy was bound to save, naturally eliminating the need for defense.

With Ouyang Feng's martial arts moves being broken one after another, he could no longer maintain his composure.

Suddenly, Ouyang Feng supported himself on the ground with both hands, lunging forward like a dog.

Wang Ming was both astonished and amused, thinking to himself: I had long heard that Ouyang Feng's "Reverse Nine Yin Manual" martial arts are extremely bizarre, but seeing it with my own eyes is indeed startling—a dignified Five Greats master crawling on the ground like a dog.

The Gentleman Sword thrust out, jabbing toward Ouyang Feng's waist. Who would have thought that Ouyang Feng would suddenly flip and roll over, dodging the edge of the Gentleman Sword and pinning half of its blade beneath his body, then smoothly rolling forward. Unable to hold onto the pinned sword, how dared Wang Ming let Ouyang Feng get close to him? He decisively abandoned the Gentleman Sword. Ouyang Feng abruptly leaped into the air, his feet kicking out in rapid succession. Wang Ming was startled and retreated hastily in panic.

How could Ouyang Feng allow Wang Ming to escape easily? He flew forward to continue the close-quarters combat.

Wang Ming was completely outmatched, fighting and retreating simultaneously until he unconsciously drew close to the spot where Li Mochou and the others were.

"Master, catch the sword!" Suppressing her urge to flee, Li Mochou still threw her own last remaining sword, the "Lady Sword", from afar to Wang Ming.

Wang Ming leaped into the air to catch the Lady Sword, and just as he wanted to use "Nine Swords of Dugu" to deal with Ouyang Feng, he didn't know how to execute the sword strike.

After a brief moment of bewilderment, Wang Ming was instantly dumbfounded—the martial arts this fellow used were simply too bizarre. At this moment, the moves Ouyang Feng employed were even more eccentric, bizarre, and peerlessly weird. His body occasionally stood upside down, occasionally stood upright, and sometimes even supported itself with one hand while his body held horizontally straight, crossing palms with the enemy using only a single hand.

At times, he would even spit a mouthful of saliva laden with innate true qi right at you; although it couldn't kill anyone, getting hit by it hurt, and the crucial part was how disgusting it was.

This "Nine Swords of Dugu" was extremely formidable, but it couldn't withstand Ouyang Feng refusing to play by the rules, as these bizarre moves of his left no trace to follow. This invisibly caused the "Nine Swords of Dugu" to lose its threat.

"Nine Swords of Dugu" was something Sword Demon Dugu Qiubai had summarized into nine formulas after reviewing all the martial arts moves under heaven and then systematically breaking them. As long as one was familiar with these nine formulas, in combat one could achieve the feat of anticipating the enemy's moves in advance and targeting the opponent's weak spots with every single strike.

Yet Ouyang Feng's bizarre moves could basically be considered the realm of formlessness spoken of by Feng Qingyang.

"Mr. Ouyang, your martial arts are indeed remarkable. This First Under Heaven title is yours—shall we call it a truce right here?" Sensing he could not defeat Ouyang Feng, Wang Ming began to yield.