BOOM!
As fist and palm collided, a terrifying force swept across the field. Chen Fan exerted strength through his fist and actually sent Cao De—who had struck first with the force of a rainbow—staggering back several steps with a single punch!
Chen Fan's fist gave off sizzling sounds. Bloodfiend Power was trying to invade his body, but he blocked all of it outside his flesh.
The Bloodfiend Qi that could easily turn demons into puddles of foul blood could not even damage his skin and flesh!
Cao De steadied himself and stood with his hands behind his back. His palm trembled slightly. That punch had contained neither the killing force of heaven-and-earth essence nor the destructive power of internal true qi. It had been pure brute strength—yet brute strength so terrifying it reached the extreme!
Not only had that brute force ignored the defense of his Bloodfiend True Qi, it had even split the web between his thumb and forefinger, drawing a steady stream of blood!
Was this even a human, or some demon wearing human skin?
Cao De cursed inwardly.
When Lu Xuening and the others saw Chen Fan send Cao De, a Divine Aperture Realm martial artist, flying back with one punch, their jaws nearly hit the ground!
"H-How could he use brute strength to directly contend with a Divine Aperture Realm martial artist's true qi?"
"What profound and unfathomable cultivation method did he practice to achieve such a thing?"
Huang Chengyue spoke in astonishment.
"He does not practice any profound or unfathomable cultivation method. He simply relied on a Body Tempering Fist at Great Perfection to force his way to the peak Divine Treasury Realm."
"Can a Body Tempering Fist at Great Perfection truly grant someone the power to fight above their realm?"
To be honest, Lu Xuening had her doubts as well. But none of them had ever seen what a Body Tempering Fist at Great Perfection looked like, so they could only fill in the blanks with their imaginations.
"A Body Tempering Fist at Great Perfection is simply something unheard of and unseen!"
"He only joined the Brocade Guard last year. It has been no more than a year, yet he cultivated the Body Tempering Fist to Great Perfection and raised his realm to the peak Divine Treasury Realm. It is simply unbelievable!"
"He is a peerless genius among martial artists. Looking across the entire Dragon Abyss Prefecture, you would not find a martial artist more gifted than him. For such a person to come from our Ping An County Brocade Guard Precinct is truly a blessing that has fallen from the heavens!"
Huang Chengyue could not help sighing with emotion.
"Even if he used a Body Tempering Fist at Great Perfection to reach the peak Divine Treasury Realm, he still should not possess the strength to contend with a Divine Aperture Realm martial artist. I suspect that he may possess a special physique or bloodline that was not fully awakened at birth, which is why no one knew of his talent."
"Now, as his martial cultivation continues to rise, his special physique or bloodline is gradually awakening, granting him strength far beyond others of the same realm while still in the Divine Treasury Realm!"
Lu Xuening guessed.
On the battlefield.
Chen Fan and Cao De fought fiercely. Neither used the weapons in their hands; instead, they traded blow for blow, fists striking flesh. Cao De's hands glowed crimson, suffused with red light—this was Bloodfiend True Qi, possessing terrifying corrosive power. Once it entered the body, it could destroy the five viscera and six bowels, bringing death in an instant.
Yet although he left countless palm prints across Chen Fan's body and corroded his magnificent Flying Fish Robe into beggar's rags, not a single wisp of true qi entered Chen Fan's body.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Cao De launched another assault on Chen Fan. His Bloodfiend Palm struck Chen Fan's chest, producing a sound like a great bell and ceremonial drum. Chen Fan withstood Cao De's attacks with his physical body alone, without the slightest pressure!
"Had enough?"
"My turn!"
Chen Fan unleashed the Heaven and Earth Millstone Fist. In that instant, it was as though heaven and earth had been born alongside him, and all things had become one with him.
He could sense heaven-and-earth essence surging between heaven and earth. Though there was not a shred of true qi within him, when he threw this punch, he could draw upon heaven-and-earth essence to empower himself, vastly increasing the might of his fist technique!
CRACK!
Chen Fan threw another punch into Cao De. The enormous force sent Cao De flying backward. He spat blood in midair, crashed heavily to the ground, then immediately struggled back to his feet.
Cough, cough, cough!
Cao De coughed violently several times and spat out another mouthful of blood. Fragments of internal organs were even mixed within it. A large portion of his chest had caved in, and who knew how many bones throughout his body had broken. His body was already utterly ruined.
He knew that he had lost today's battle, completely and utterly.
Even if Chen Fan had stood there and let him attack, he could not have broken through Chen Fan's defenses. How laughable was that?
The Bloodfiend True Qi he had always been proud of could turn martial artists of the same level into pools of pus and blood, yet it could not even break Chen Fan's skin. He nearly believed that he had cultivated a fake Blood Fiend Art!
"A body-tempering martial artist!"
"I understand now. You are a legendary body-tempering martial artist?"
"Though no true qi flows from your body, your physical body has already surpassed that of the vast majority of Divine Aperture Realm martial artists."
"Temper the physical body, cultivate the martial path through body tempering, shatter the void with the flesh, remain undying through the ages, and ultimately reach the level where the flesh becomes holy. At last, I have witnessed it!"
"What a pity that the Blood Fiend Art has been damaged. Only the cultivation method remains intact; the Bloodfiend blade technique and methods of using true qi recorded afterward are gone. Otherwise, it would still be uncertain whose corpse would lie on the ground today."
"Chen Fan, you cannot kill me!"
"No one can kill me!"
"The lives taken by my hand—I will repay them."
"In this world, no one can kill me."
"To hell with you, heavens!"
"Today, I, Cao De, grant you, Chen Fan, the position of Brocade Guard Centurion!"
"Hahaha!"
Cao De staggered before Chen Fan, laughing wildly as he drew the Meteorite Iron Blade from his waist, slit his own throat, and collapsed before Chen Fan.
"What body-tempering martial artist? What flesh becoming holy? What the hell are you barking about?"
Chen Fan stared at Cao De lying in a pool of blood, utterly bewildered as he spoke speechlessly.
Cao De, who had not yet fully drawn his last breath, could not help widening his eyes at those words, disbelief filling them. He wanted to say something, but no matter what he did, he could no longer open his mouth.
In the end, with a head full of question marks, he set foot upon the Yellow Springs Road!
"Cao De ran rampant through Ping An County for over twenty years. Who would have thought he would meet such an end?"
"A dignified Brocade Guard Centurion should have died on the battlefield fighting demons. His death has brought shame upon the Brocade Guard!"
"Still, he had the courage to take his own life in the end, so he at least preserved a final shred of dignity."
Huang Chengyue looked at Cao De's body in the pool of blood and spoke with a complicated expression.
"What courage? He merely weighed the pros and cons and made the right choice, winning himself a dignified death."
Lu Xuening had already seen that Chen Fan faced Cao De, a Divine Aperture Realm martial artist who had opened three apertures, with complete ease. Cao De's all-out attacks were like scratching an itch for Chen Fan.
Cao De's trump card, that terrifying Bloodfiend True Qi, was completely useless against Chen Fan. During their exchange, several punches from Chen Fan had already shattered the bones throughout Cao De's body and crushed his five viscera and six bowels.
If the fight continued, Chen Fan might truly hammer him into pieces, punch by punch!
Thus, to leave himself an intact corpse, Cao De decisively chose suicide!
Those heroic words he spoke before his death were merely an attempt to make himself appear more dignified.
Centurion Cao truly was a man of dignity!
Chen Fan picked up the Meteorite Iron Blade Cao De had dropped on the ground. This blade was clearly even better than the thousand-forged Embroidered Spring Blade made of black iron in his hand. Unfortunately, from beginning to end, Cao De had never drawn it against him.
Perhaps Cao De had not cultivated any profound blade technique and believed that attacking with the Meteorite Iron Blade was inferior to the Bloodfiend Palm he had painstakingly trained!
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