Bang!
Bang! Bang!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Wang Dingtian's heavy fists struck like cannon fire, each blow blasting a great hole into the ground.
Li Yan barely dodged every crushing strike, each escape fraught with peril.
Wang Dingtian was thoroughly enjoying himself. This was exactly how he wanted to toy with Li Yan—forcing him little by little onto the road to death and into the abyss of despair, then slowly tormenting him amid that endless despair before finally killing him outright.
But the price of this torment was not small.
Within the stronghold, nearly fifty people had already died beneath Li Yan's blade. It felt strange—Wang Dingtian clearly held an overwhelming advantage, yet he was also the one suffering the losses.
But Wang Dingtian did not care about such losses in the slightest. Right now, he only wanted to toy with this damned brat to his heart's content.
Li Yan did not care either. How could he not know what Wang Dingtian was thinking? Yet the more Wang Dingtian acted like this, the more relaxed Li Yan became.
Go on, play. Keep playing if you have the nerve. You'll have plenty of time to cry soon enough.
Though he did not know why the Ice Heart Qi Condensing Powder had failed to work, the Muscle Softening Powder had truly been scattered throughout the air here.
Other than himself, who had taken the antidote, everyone else was bound to fall victim to it.
Unless Wang Dingtian possessed some ability to be immune to every poison, he would definitely be hit this time.
As for Wang Dingtian being immune to every poison?
What a joke. If he truly had that ability, why would he be a mountain bandit chief?
Before long, there were no living people left before Wang Dingtian's door apart from the two of them. Li Yan was preparing to leave this courtyard and continue harvesting lives elsewhere, but Wang Dingtian had grown tired of it.
I'm trying to toy with this brat, yet he's chopping my men up like vegetables—and he hasn't spared a single one!
He had already witnessed this brat's murderous nature before, but seeing it now, it was indeed far more vicious than he had imagined.
Still, it had taken no small effort to build his band into such a force. Moreover, the Fierce Wind Bandits had been established by the three brothers together. He could not simply stand by and watch all these men be slaughtered.
Since that was the case, he would first cripple this brat's limbs, then slowly roast him over a brazier!
The next moment, Wang Dingtian fiercely surged with power and threw a punch straight at Li Yan's leg.
Boom!
A muffled crash rang out, and the ground shattered, yet the expected sound of bones breaking and tendons snapping never came.
"What?"
Wang Dingtian stared in astonishment at Li Yan, who had landed some distance away and slit another bandit's throat with a slash.
"What did you do?"
What had he done?
Li Yan sneered inwardly. He had done nothing!
Quite some time had passed since his arrival. During all that time, Wang Dingtian had remained within the range covered by the Muscle Softening Powder, continuously inhaling it into his body.
Combined with Wang Dingtian's constant circulation of his cultivation, the drug's effects had begun to emerge.
Without noticing it, his attack speed had already slowed considerably. Even if he wanted to speed up now, his body could no longer suppress the drug's effects.
"Hmph, don't think that reaching the Qi Condensation Realm means you're qualified to challenge me. To deal with you, I only need—"
Before he could finish, Wang Dingtian felt his legs go weak, and he dropped straight to his knees.
"This... poison?"
Wang Dingtian struggled to stand again, only to discover that his legs would not obey him at all. He could not move them in the slightest.
"First Boss Wang, I really don't know whether you're genuinely stupid or whether rage can truly make someone lose their mind. With all these people on the ground letting me slaughter them, if it wasn't poison, could it be that there's something wrong with your brain?"
"Damn it!"
He tried desperately to rise, but found that it was not only his legs. At this moment, even his arms could not muster the slightest strength, and he could only collapse limply onto the ground.
"Hehe, First Boss Wang, Meridian Opening Realm strength truly is formidable. Even with Muscle Softening Powder that can make a Qi Condensation Realm cultivator collapse at a whiff, you still managed to chase me for a quarter of an hour... But as the old saying goes, now it's my turn!"
With saber in hand, Li Yan walked step by step toward Wang Dingtian.
He was not some brainless villain who would babble nonsense and allow an accident to happen, but throwing out a few insults while walking was still fine.
Watching Li Yan approach step by step, Wang Dingtian tried desperately to get up, but his body did not budge in the slightest.
"Hehe, Wang Dingtian... fortunes turn in cycles. What a pity—you can't escape!"
The next instant, a saber came slashing down viciously.
The blade cleaved down, rushing straight for Wang Dingtian's neck.
But in the next moment, interwoven golden and silver radiance erupted from Wang Dingtian's body, followed by the clash of metal.
The blade stopped one finger's breadth from Wang Dingtian's neck and could not advance another inch, making Li Yan frown.
"Hehehehe, brat, I thought you were something special. So this is all you've got?"
"This poison should be designed specifically to target the body, right? But you overlooked something—I cultivate the Golden Armor Silver Soldier Art!"
"My amount of True Qi may be lower than that of normal Martial Arts, but it is sufficiently condensed, and my defense is exceptionally strong. Your saber technique is passable at best, but don't even think of harming a single hair on me!"
Yet Li Yan paid no attention whatsoever to his nonsense and raised his saber again.
This time, Li Yan circulated the True Qi within his body. As he breathed, he lightly tightened his grip around the hilt. This next strike would not only use the Hundred Battles Saber Technique, which had reached Return to Truth, but also the technique of Hundred Blades: Bloodbath.
When the blade descended, Wang Dingtian's pupils could not help but tremble.
He could clearly sense just how powerful this strike was. If not for the enormous gap in realm between Li Yan and himself, and the vast difference in the quality of their True Qi, he feared he would not even be confident of blocking this blow.
Clang!
An even louder metallic clash rang out, yet Waning Moon still failed to touch Wang Dingtian's neck. This time, however, the blade stopped only half a finger's breadth from his throat, unable to advance even the slightest bit further.
"Ha... Hahahahaha! Brat, it's useless. The gap in cultivation is not something your little tricks can erase. Let me tell you, with my True Qi cultivation, it won't be long before I force this poison out of my body. When that happens, it will be your time to die!"
"If I were you, I'd hurry up and—"
"You're afraid."
Those three calm words cut Wang Dingtian off.
Li Yan looked down at Wang Dingtian from above, a mocking smile gradually curling across his lips.
"Weren't you shouting about avenging your brothers before? What, are you scared already?"
"Are you afraid that, like those two brothers of yours, I'll cut off your head with one slash and leave you without even an intact corpse?"
Those casually spoken words were like two sharp blades driven viciously into Wang Dingtian's heart.
"Damned brat, what nonsense are you spouting? Why would I fear a mere Qi Condensation Realm cultivator like you? Utter nonsense!"
"Hehe, is that really so?"
Li Yan sneered and slowly raised his saber again. "If that were the case, why would you tell me to leave? Why would you tell me that you're about to purge the poison?"
"Wouldn't it be far more satisfying to quietly force out the poison, then skin me alive and tear me apart?"
"Putting on such an act can only mean one thing: you're afraid!"
The smile on Li Yan's face grew increasingly unrestrained. He raised his saber completely above his head, and at the same time, a faint arc of electricity flickered into view along the blade.
"On the path of martial cultivation, if you do not advance, you retreat. Your heart is in chaos, so you have already lost. Killing you will take no more than a few strikes."
"But today, you're about to witness something new, because this is also my first time using this strike... Thunderous Strike: Ten Thousand Jin Slash!"