Morale

With a bang, Lu Shan and Li Qi collided.

Li Qi immediately felt a sharp ache in his shoulder—contrary to his expectation of a crushing blow, his opponent stood utterly unmoved!

His skin's tactile sense had already dulled, but this impact left him weak and sore.

Most terrifying of all, Li Qi could see that the duration bar of his Ox-Strength Technique had suddenly jumped from 8% to 25%!

Just that single collision had shortened the technique's remaining time by nearly twenty percent!

Li Qi was stunned. Was Lu Shan really this strong?

If he were, the Wave-Pushing Gang would have been wiped out long ago—how could they have held on until now?

But then, he noticed something.

On Lu Shan's body, there were also two progress bars.

"Array Enhancement: 84%."

"Charging: 56%."

The Charging bar was increasing at a rapid pace, clearly about to fill.

Ignoring the ache in his body, Li Qi forced another breath and rammed his head into Lu Shan.

Lu Shan seemed not to have expected Li Qi to recover so quickly; forced to shift his stance, he was driven back by the headbutt.

Seeing the Charging bar interrupted, Li Qi breathed a sigh of relief.

But the next moment, an "Attack: 100%" bar filled instantly, leaving him no time to react!

Lu Shan's fist came crashing down, smashing directly into Li Qi's nose.

With his thick skin and tough hide, Li Qi felt no pain.

No pain, but blood flowed.

As the nosebleed dripped, the towmen's faces lit up with surprise, and they burst into cheers, the fear in their hearts easing somewhat.

After this happened, Li Qi immediately saw "Array Enhancement: 84%" change to 78%.

It had actually regressed!

Was that even possible?

Li Qi quickly realized—it was morale!

The formation, the coordinated charge, everything that had happened, even tonight's march—all of it carried a faint military air.

Uncle Liu and the others might not recognize it, but Li Qi had watched numerous military parades; he understood the spirit of command and discipline, and could tell the difference between a rabble and a proper formation.

This array, wherever Lu Shan had learned it, was almost certainly tied to the military.

If it was tied to morale...

Then, ignoring his bloody nose, Li Qi decisively rolled like a donkey out of Lu Shan's attack range, grabbed a Mighty Gang towman from within the formation, and punched him squarely.

With a dong, crisp and clear, he drove the man's head straight into his chest cavity!

Lu Shan saw this and immediately understood what Li Qi was trying to do.

"How dare you!" he roared, charging forward to stop him.

But at the same time, Lu Shan was shocked—how could this bastard's insight be so sharp? How had he spotted the array's weakness at a glance?! He was just a towman—where did he get such knowledge?

Relying on his thick hide, Li Qi took a punch from Lu Shan. Though it left him sore and bruised, he deliberately acted unfazed, grabbed another towman, lifted him up, and tore his head clean off.

The bloody spine and the towman's scream, still lingering in the darkness, spread an aura of terror.

"Hehehe!" Li Qi bulged his eyes, let out a strange cackle, took a bite, and filled his mouth with blood, which dripped onto his clothes, making him look utterly horrifying!

With white vapor shooting from his nostrils as he breathed, his skin flushed red, and his bizarre laughter, he seemed like a demon.

Not a trace of humanity remained.

The progress bar on Lu Shan's body jumped straight to 97%.

Clearly, he too felt the array was about to end, and panic set in.

"Bastard! Die!" He picked up a stone from the ground, using it as a weapon, and ran at Li Qi, hoping to salvage morale.

But Li Qi didn't dodge this time—he charged straight ahead.

Li Qi took the hit without flinching. The stone struck him with Lu Shan's full force—a massive two-thousand-jin blow. Even with the Ox-Strength Technique's thick skin, it split his head open, blood streaming, stars flashing before his eyes, nearly knocking him unconscious.

As for the stone, it shattered into fragments, embedding themselves in his skin.

It was a serious wound.

But he forced himself to endure, deliberately letting out a roar. Rather than avoid the blow, he bit down hard on Lu Shan's nose and tore it off!

Half of Lu Shan's nose came away in his mouth!

"Aaaah!" Even the famed Shan Dazhuang couldn't help but howl in agony.

The other towmen were so terrified by the sight that their courage drained away, and some even fled in panic.

"Come back! Running now is suicide!" Lu Shan shouted through the pain at the towmen.

But that shout gave Li Qi an opening, and he drove a fist into the man's head.

Lu Shan reacted quickly, forcing his head aside, so the punch only caught his shoulder, making him stumble and drop low.

Even so, this broke the formation completely.

Li Qi watched the opponent's buff status bar hit 100%, then end instantly.

All the boat trackers felt the thread binding them snap.

Now they had lost all courage, scattering in every direction, scrambling and crawling, fleeing like startled birds.

The formation buff on Lu Shan's body also collapsed outright.

He had barely been able to contend with the Ox-Strength Technique before, but with the formation gone, his strength returned to normal—he couldn't even break through Li Qi's defense.

Yet he didn't just wait to die.

Grabbing his staff, he let out a roar. Even without the military formation, he still launched a deathmatch against Li Qi.

Such fighting spirit was nothing like what a boat tracker should have.

Li Qi wasn't afraid either. Now that the opponent's buff had ended, he definitely wasn't a match.

But the moment they actually clashed, Li Qi's eyes went wide as he was thrown straight to the ground!

Lu Shan's attacks were swift and fierce, clearly trained in proper combat. Though his physical condition was inferior to Li Qi's, his moves were broad and sweeping, brutal and lethal!

Li Qi was strong and thick-skinned, but he knew no martial technique, and for a time he couldn't gain the upper hand.

He tried his best to parry the attacks, but always struggled to hold his ground and got hit instead.

It was only thanks to his tough hide that Lu Shan couldn't actually hurt him.

In the end, martial technique was no match for sorcery.

But just as Lu Shan blocked another of Li Qi's strikes, Li Qi suddenly changed his move mid-swing. With the boost of his immense strength, he caught Lu Shan off guard and slammed him to the ground with a back throw!

Li Qi immediately followed up with a knife-hand aimed at his neck. If he could knock Lu Shan unconscious, this farce would be over.

But Lu Shan executed a kip-up, flipping back to his feet in an instant, dodging the blow just like before.

Yet Lu Shan's heart was pounding!

Li Qi had been so clumsy just moments ago—how had he suddenly started using technique?

He naturally had no idea why.

Only Li Qi himself knew.

He had begun learning to watch the opponent's progress bar in the heat of battle!

As long as he struck back when the bar was in the middle, he could seize the initiative.

In other words, it was called interrupting the cast!