Thud, thud, thud!
Footsteps sounded from the darkness.
Zhou You took a deep breath. At last, the final moment had arrived. He steeled himself and grabbed his spear and sword.
"Hungry Tiger Zhou You?"
A voice came from ahead. A man emerged from the darkness, still appearing middle-aged, but now carrying the aura of an Earth Sect martial artist.
In the era of the Myriad Manifestations Martial Sage, there had been no technique for preserving one's youthful appearance.
Zhou You and Liu Jingguo were both aghast. The other party had appeared three times in the guise of a middle-aged man, yet had respectively been at the Late Strong Martial, Human Sect, and Earth Sect stages. In other words, he had broken through these realms at astonishing speed, spending only a few years in total.
With such talent and aptitude, he was undoubtedly a Martial Saint.
Even more astonishingly, this middle-aged man remembered the name Zhou You had given during the previous round and had even taken the initiative to ask.
"That's right, it's me. Are you Xiang Lang?"
"That's right, I'm Xiang Lang. Your companion isn't human. Stay away from her!"
Seeing that they could converse normally, Zhou You said a few more words. "She was harmed by a phantom creature's schemes and afflicted with a vicious illness. She cannot control herself."
"Phantom... how is that character written?"
The middle-aged Xiang Lang seemed deeply interested. Abandoning his usual habit of attacking the moment they met, he began speaking peacefully with Zhou You.
Though he did not know what had caused this change, Zhou You thought it was better than fighting. He patiently showed him the strokes of the character "phantom."
Although many variant forms had emerged in later generations, Zhou You's mastery of seal script had already reached the pinnacle,