Black and White Twin Fiends

"Boom!"

A terrifying burst of blood and qi erupted, as fearsome as a hidden dragon soaring to the heavens. Even though Gu Han merely rose casually, his immense power caused this several-meter-long boat to tremble and creak, as if it might shatter at any moment.

"No! Impossible! Gu Han, you clearly drank the Ten Fragrance Soft Bone Powder I slipped into your wine. With such a heavy dose, even if you were a master on par with the Barbarian King A Yanda, you should be limp and weak, collapsing to the ground by now. How can you still stir your blood and qi and possess such formidable strength!"

Watching Gu Han radiate a powerful aura, the Old Boatman and the Delicate Maiden's faces changed drastically. They cried out in unison, their expressions filled with disbelief.

"Ha! And I thought who it was. So it's the infamous Black and White Twin Fiends, husband and wife. You two certainly have guts—knowing my strength, you still dared to make a move on me. A mere Ten Fragrance Soft Bone Powder might work on ordinary martial artists, but using it on this Gu is a waste of effort!"

Gu Han let out a cold laugh and said no more.

By now, his physical body, tempered through the complementary training of two worlds' martial arts, had long since been gradually perfected, far surpassing those of the same rank.

In fact, if comparing only physical bodies—setting aside internal qi—even the First-rate Masters of the Yue Kingdom, who could condense true qi into protective gang qi and slash out ten-zhang-long blade or sword auras with a wave, were far inferior to him. Only the legendary Innate Masters, whose bodies were purified by the world's spiritual energy, might still hold an edge over him.

So, calling him immune to all poisons might be an exaggeration, but achieving an effect similar to the "Nine Yang Divine Skill" in the martial arts novel "The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber" from his first life—where one becomes impervious to a hundred poisons—was well within his reach.

"Die!"

Gu Han's thoughts churned, but his face remained impassive. He had no intention of explaining himself to the pair. Instead, he flipped his palm, instantly darkening the space around him by several feet, as if overturning the very heavens and earth, and struck first toward the Old Boatman.

This palm strike was the "Heaven-Overturning Palm," one of Patriarch Bodhidharma's three supreme martial techniques!

Now, after months of cultivation, though Gu Han was far from even minor mastery, he had barely achieved entry-level proficiency, enough at least to execute it.

"Zhaodi, don't worry about me—run!"

Seeing that Gu Han truly seemed unaffected by the Ten Fragrance Soft Bone Powder and was bearing down on him with a fierce palm strike, the Old Boatman recalled the rumors about him. His eyes nearly split with terror as he shouted to the "Delicate Maiden" on the other side, urging her to jump into the river and flee. At the same time, instead of retreating, he charged forward to meet Gu Han.

"Hmph! Such a devoted couple—pity that today, you both die!"

A flash of killing intent gleamed in Gu Han's eyes. Showing no mercy, he ignored the figure of the delicate woman diving into the river, accelerated his palm, and in the next instant, it met the Old Boatman's.

"Pfft!"

A sound of blood being spat rang out. The moment Gu Han's palm connected with the Old Boatman's, a spray of blood arced through the air, tracing a graceful trajectory. Then, the Old Boatman was struck, his bones shattered and tendons snapped, reduced to a pulp of flesh, dead on the spot.

On the other side, in the river, a dark shadow speeding away from the boat paused briefly at the sound, but quickly resumed swimming outward.

"Where do you think you're going!"

Gu Han stared at the shadow in the river, stomped his foot, and a long, slender bamboo pole flew into his hand. He then hurled it with all his might.

"Whoosh!"

With Gu Han's boundless strength behind it, a sound of air being torn apart rang out. The slender bamboo pole, in that instant, seemed to transform into a steel javelin, carrying unparalleled sharpness as it shot into the distant river. It pierced straight through the dark shadow in the water, then continued with undiminished speed, plunging into the riverbed's silt, burying itself several feet deep before finally coming to a halt.

"Splash!"

On the calm river surface, about a hundred meters from the small boat, as the bamboo pole entered the water, a patch of crimson stained the river, revealing a woman's corpse—her eyes filled with unwillingness and terror, a massive bloody hole in her chest.

And so, the infamous Black and White Twin Fiends, renowned in the martial world for having ambushed and killed several Internal Qi Realm masters, met their end!

"Black and White Twin Fiends."

At the bow of the small boat, Gu Han stood with his hands behind his back, gazing at the two corpses nearby. He shook his head, his heart undisturbed, without a single ripple.

This wasn't because he was a cold-blooded killer, but because along this journey, he had encountered far too many people trying to ambush him by various means—an endless, unceasing tide.

After all, no one knew when it started, but a rumor had spread through the martial world that he carried the final and most precious inheritance of the Treasure Pearl Temple. And as the months passed, the more people he killed and the stronger his displayed power grew, the more people in the martial world believed this rumor.

The Black and White Twin Fiends weren't the first, and by the looks of it, they certainly wouldn't be the last.

"Come, let's see today's haul."

Looking at the two corpses, a hint of delight crept onto Gu Han's face.

Others could kill him for his wealth, and he could kill them for theirs.

In fact, over these past months, by turning the tables on those who came to kill him, Gu Han had reaped no small amount of benefits.

Aside from the first few waves of bandits, those who dared to come after him later generally weren't lacking in skill.

Though none of them could withstand even a single punch or kick from him in pure combat, they occasionally carried items that piqued his interest or even proved highly useful.

Take the Black and White Twin Fiends before him, for example.

This couple's martial strength was mediocre—barely reaching the Blood Tempering realm—but in the martial world, their reputation surpassed many Internal Qi Realm evil masters, rivaling even the great demons of the Great Accomplishment of Internal Qi.

That was because they had too many tricks up their sleeves. Legend had it they inherited the legacy of the Shadow Poison Sect, a sect that once dominated the Yan Kingdom a century ago. They were especially skilled in the Disguise Technique and poison-making, particularly their signature poison: the Ten Fragrance Soft Bone Powder!

This poison appeared as a white powder, odorless and tasteless, easily dissolved in various wines and dishes. Its effects were extremely potent—often, just a qian or so could scatter all the internal qi of an invincible martial arts master, leaving them limp and weak, worse than an ordinary person.

Back in the day, the Shadow Poison Sect had relied on this precious poison to dominate for a time, intimidating all directions, and countless masters had fallen to it. Unfortunately, their actions grew too arrogant, and they recklessly harmed martial artists, leading to their annihilation by a coalition of major sects.

A century later, no one knew how this pair had obtained the Shadow Poison Sect's inheritance again, but they used it to rise to prominence at the mere Blood Tempering realm, suppressing countless Internal Qi Realm evil masters.

Curious, Gu Han began to search their bodies.