Come On, Let's Hurt Each Other!

The Blood Rage skill check succeeded. Lu Bei dragged She Xuan and her group into capture range, and a mighty aura bore down on them like an invisible blade pressed against the backs of their necks. The icy killing intent seeped into their bones, making them shudder.

Like the Liu brothers, all their attributes were cut in half, and their combat strength plummeted like an avalanche. Even She Xuan and the burly man, the two with the highest cultivation, could not escape the intimidation. Their basic attributes all fell to varying degrees.

Within his line of sight, Lu Bei rose with his saber in hand, his clothes stained with blood, making him look like an asura. Bloodlight densely covered the Black Gold Straight Saber in his hand. One glance was enough to make their eyes sting deeply from its razor-sharp aura.

The faint, elusive Saber Intent was impossible to put into words, but the killing intent had been fully unleashed, naked and impossible to conceal.

In the blink of an eye, Lu Bei vanished from where he stood. Only a blurred afterimage carrying a cold, gleaming blade rushed straight at them.

The air made a sound like silk being torn apart. The sharp shriek was so piercing that it made their scalps prickle.

Four seconds.

"Not good! He's a Demonic Cultivator!!"

The burly man was badly shaken. He felt the blade's radiance envelop every vital point on his body—his heart, liver, lungs, and kidneys, even his back and the nape of his neck. None could escape being severed in two.

He could not dodge and could not defend. In that case, he would meet it head-on.

The burly man let out a low roar. His face was swiftly covered in fine scales, while his body swelled violently until his clothes bulged. He crossed his Sharp Claws before his chest and lunged fiercely to seize the blade.

Demon Cultivators possessed formidable physiques. After awakening their bloodline power, their muscles, bones, and flesh and blood were tempered until they rivaled steel, becoming even sturdier than solid rock.

Bang!

Cold radiance clashed. The burly man's eyes bulged, and the steel teeth in his mouth shattered. The blade's radiance crushed his ten Sharp Claws into fragments, then continued its momentum and slammed heavily into his chest.

Under the terrifying force, the clothes over the burly man's chest instantly turned to dust. His astonishingly tough scales burst apart in a mist of blood, while the clothes on his back exploded piece by piece. His tall body held for only a moment before being sent flying.

The burly man soared high into the air. His muscles twitched uncontrollably midair, while the relentless force tore apart his tendons and bones, producing a continuous crackle like beans popping.

Three seconds.

"Hang in there. He can't keep this up for long."

She Xuan's eyes transformed into golden snake pupils, and her legs became a cyan serpent's tail. When she opened her mouth and exhaled, hundreds of fine needles as thin as ox hairs shot out at high speed, almost impossible to see with the naked eye.

Too slow.

An afterimage flashed. Lu Bei appeared on the other side. The Liu brothers hurriedly raised their weapons to defend, but after a flash of White Light, two heads soared into the air.

At that moment, the other three team members attacked together. All three were skilled in combined attacks, their fists, palms, and claws balancing offense and defense. Their successive attacks were airtight, layered upon one another like a towering wall crashing down on Lu Bei.

Step forward, bend low!

Charge, swing the saber!

Lu Bei charged at high speed. His figure was as swift as lightning between motion and stillness, afterimages flickering into a single line. In an instant, he broke through the three-man encirclement and carved a bloody path out.

The berserk blade forced the air to tremble and collapse into an arc, resembling a fist that kept growing larger. Accompanied by a rumbling sonic boom, it smashed into the three men.

Their bodies rose limply into the air, blood pouring from their seven orifices. Their bone marrow felt as though it were being stabbed by a chaotic barrage. With three consecutive bangs, three clouds of blood exploded, and they were already dead before hitting the ground.

Two seconds.

Only then did the burly man, who had flown high into the air, crash back to the ground. His tendons, bones, and muscles trembled chaotically as he roared and charged toward Lu Bei.

Lu Bei had fixed his eyes on the target the moment the burly man landed. His figure flashed through the three clouds of blood. At high speed, the blood mist rolled and stretched behind him, and in the blink of an eye he arrived before the burly man.

The blade carved the way.

Blinding White Light cleaved straight down at the burly man's crown.

The burly man instinctively tilted his head aside, avoiding the choice between whether his iron head or the blade was harder. The blade struck down fiercely, ripping through the scales defending his body, then breaking his shoulder bone and embedding itself deeply.

The burly man's eyes filled with blood. Already wounded, he suffered another injury, and the qi and blood throughout his body nearly scattered from the impact. Blood spilled from his mouth as he gripped the blade tightly with both claws and stared at Lu Bei with a ferocious grin.

One second.

She Xuan arrived beside Lu Bei like a ghost. Her hand, covered in fine scales, suddenly darted out, reaching straight for the ribs beneath Lu Bei's armpit, exposed because he held the saber with both hands.

Judging by her savage momentum, she seemed intent on ripping out Lu Bei's heart, liver, spleen, and lungs all at once.

Lu Bei swept his eyes toward her, planted himself in a horse stance, and activated the Dark Tide skill. One hand gripped the saber and pressed it down heavily, while the other clenched into a fist and punched straight toward She Xuan's wide-open chest.

Come on, let's hurt each other!

Lu Bei's eyes sharpened. Wearing blue equipment, he made no attempt to defend himself, but in She Xuan's eyes, this was his final struggle to drag her down with him.

The blood he had vomited earlier could not have been fake. She Xuan firmly believed that he had only one breath left.

It couldn't be wrong. Demonic Cultivators were all like this.

As for whether she could withstand his final strike, She Xuan made a quick calculation. Her transformed soft body countered the forceful fist technique, and using softness to overcome hardness would allow her to dispel at least most of the impact. At worst, she would suffer a serious injury.

Trading injury for his life was worth it.

Bang!

Two muffled impacts rang out simultaneously.

She Xuan's outstretched claws tore through Lu Bei's clothes, leaving four claw marks on his chainmail.

Lu Bei's straight punch sank into her heavy frontal armor, breaking her breastbone with the impact. The remaining force spread outward, shaking the mountains and sending waves surging everywhere. It also left She Xuan's entire body limp and numb, making her heart stop for several beats.

Reduced to zero. Five seconds had ended.

She Xuan lowered her head and coughed blood. Her snake pupils narrowed to slits. Seeing Lu Bei draw his saber and slash toward her, she suddenly whipped her serpentine tail toward the burly man.

The burly man rolled his eyes back and fell. Reluctantly, he crashed into Lu Bei, making him stagger. The saber swept sideways and lost its accuracy, leaving only a huge gash in She Xuan's tail.

What was going on? Why was he getting more spirited the more they fought?

Wasn't he supposed to be dying?!

She Xuan was horrified. She let out a low cry of pain. Her injuries were too severe for her to continue fighting, so she adopted the tactic of temporarily avoiding his edge, throwing down a smoke bomb before swimming away with her slender waist and long tail.

She clearly had no legs, yet her speed was astonishing. In the blink of an eye, she reached the exit.

Lu Bei pulled out a throwing knife and hurled it toward the exit. Hearing the wind behind her, She Xuan swayed her body as bonelessly as a serpent, dodging all the flying weapons. A second before the explosive flames erupted with a roar, she vanished into the darkness beyond the exit.

"What a vicious woman!"

Lu Bei stared toward the exit and checked his Personal Panel. His health had recovered by more than half, but the violent rise and fall of his basic attributes had left his hands somewhat weak. For the moment, he abandoned the thought of pursuing her while he had the advantage.

"You..."

"What kind of cultivation technique is this? Could it be the Soul Devouring Blood Stealing Technique of the Demonic Sect?"

The burly man lay prone on the ground. His injuries were too severe for him to stand, and the light in his eyes was gradually dimming as his voice grew weaker and weaker.

Lu Bei pondered for two seconds. The world appeared increasingly real in his eyes. He did not want to engage in pointless slaughter, so...

It was a real dilemma.

Slaughter and experience argued back and forth. Amid this psychological struggle over whether the choice of humanity should be noble or base, neither side could gain the upper hand. Just then, a voice stood up and shouted at Lu Bei:

"He's in agony. Don't torment the living after killing them—give him a quick death!"

Clang!!

The straight saber swept across, taking away the burly man's last trace of vitality.

He had solo-killed six people and heavily wounded one in no more than five seconds. Lu Bei returned with a glorious record, reached Zhu Bo's side, and immediately removed his Qiankun Bag.

"Brother Lu..."

Shocked by Lu Bei's ferocity as he slaughtered his way through the battlefield, Zhu Bo came back to himself and gave a bitter laugh. "I never thought that in the struggle between the two sides, you would be the one to gain the upper hand... So be it. Even a three-year-old child buying a coffin knows to prepare early. I had already made my preparations. Dying by your hand is still better than... ow, ow, ow..."

"You're the only one who talks so much. If you want to die, find someone else. Don't dirty my hands."

Lu Bei poured a bottle of Detoxification Pill into Zhu Bo's mouth, stopping his self-pity. Then he turned Luo Ban over and likewise forced a mouthful of Detoxification Pill down him with rough efficiency.

"How is it? Can the poison be neutralized?"

"The demon snake's innate poison is too potent. It can't be neutralized in a short time." Zhu Bo lay flat, bit a Hemostatic Pill to pieces, and applied it to the wound on his back.

"As long as it keeps you alive, that's enough. She ran too fast, so we can't get the antidote." Lu Bei shrugged. While treating Luo Ban's injuries, he discovered that Luo Ban had been poisoned more severely than Zhu Bo and inwardly muttered that this was troublesome.

"I'll search their Qiankun Bags. Maybe they have some special medicine. Brother Bo, Brother Luo is unconscious, and I'm seriously wounded and beyond treatment. You'll have to test the medicine."

"No problem. I'll try."

Zhu Bo shook his head without arguing. A moment later, he asked doubtfully, "Brother Lu, are you a Demonic Cultivator?"

Lu Bei found several Demon Cultivator secret arts in the burly man's Qiankun Bag. As he flipped through them, he explained, "What kind of eyes do you have? I'm a proper Dao Cultivator, a Frontside Figure."

A Frontside Figure's hands move much faster when searching a Qiankun Bag than yours do.

"Ah, I see..."

Zhu Bo's head hurt. He scratched it vigorously and changed the subject. "Brother Lu, you truly have sharp eyes. You saw through the Liu brothers selling out their friends for glory and didn't take the antidote. Otherwise, we would have been doomed this time."

"Of course. Those two old bastards had shifty eyes. I could tell at a glance that they were born traitors. You can trust anyone before trusting them."

Lu Bei humbly admitted it. At the time, he had been rushing to lose health and charge up his ultimate move. To save time, he had even punched himself. How could he possibly have taken the antidote?

Besides, what was with the Liu brothers? He had even been guarding against Zhu Bo, let alone those two backstabbers.