It turned out... Tang Jie was the impossibly powerful Bull Devil King standing before them!
"Wh... how could it be him?" True Person Heyun was unable to believe it.
Tang Jie, like him, was from Qingyuan Town. He had once visited him under Tang Tianhao's guidance, hoping that he would take Tang Jie as his disciple. However, Tang Jie had no spiritual root and lacked the aptitude to become a cultivator.
Afterward, Tang Jie practiced martial arts at home almost every day. The number of times True Person Heyun saw him could be counted on one hand, and the most they had ever spoken was yesterday, because of Tang Tianhao.
Yet what True Person Heyun had never expected was that Tang Jie, who had always seemed like an ordinary young man in his eyes, was actually the Bull Devil King before him—so powerful that no one could withstand even a single one of his strikes!
Although he did not want to believe it, when all the clues were pieced together, True Person Heyun found that he had no choice but to believe it.
The emotions in True Person Heyun's heart were indescribably complicated. Though he was unwilling to admit it, the young man who had once wanted to take him as his master had already surpassed him in strength!
"Ahh! It... it hurts!" The white-clothed maiden was briefly dazed, but the excruciating pain from her shoulder made her cry out. Blood flowed from the wound, soaking her white dress before trickling down her arm and dripping onto the ground with a pitter-patter, like raindrops falling from the eaves.
The white-clothed maiden's body trembled and swayed from the pain, and tears nearly spilled from her eyes. She had been born extraordinary, possessing a superior spiritual root and receiving the adoration of all. When had she ever suffered such a severe injury? Her body shook from the pain, both arms completely limp and unable to move, let alone form hand seals to cast spells!
Tang Jie was somewhat speechless that he had defeated a cultivator so easily, but it was perfectly normal when one thought about it.
A cultivator's strength lay in wielding magical treasures and casting spells. A cultivator in the Qi Refining Stage had a body stronger than an ordinary person's, but only to a limited degree. They could not compare with martial artists!
As long as one gave one's opponent no chance to cast a spell or wield a magical treasure, defeating them was quite easy.
Not to mention that the throwing knives Tang Jie had specially practiced with were meant to deal with cultivators. With Tang Jie's strength and skill, a throwing knife he hurled could probably reach the speed of sound within fifty meters, and its killing power was strong enough to pierce metal!
Caught off guard, it was only natural that the white-clothed maiden—whose strength he did not even know—would be struck.
In fact, if Tang Jie had not been unwilling to kill innocent people indiscriminately and had aimed at her vitals, the white-clothed maiden would already have perished like Black Cliff, the evil cultivator from before!
"This..." Even Daoist Qingsong was dumbstruck by the sight. The white-clothed maiden was a cultivator at the peak of the Qi Refining Stage, an existence at the very top of the Qi Refining Stage. Yet before she could do anything at all, Tang Jie had already wounded both her arms?
A cultivator at the peak of the Qi Refining Stage had been effortlessly defeated by a mortal martial artist. If word of this got out, it would probably become after-dinner gossip among countless cultivators.
"This Bull Devil King really doesn't know how to show mercy to a beauty!"
"Exactly! How could he bring himself to hit such a beautiful woman?"
Quite a few men felt that Tang Jie had been too ruthless after seeing this scene. The white-clothed maiden had done nothing, yet he had cruelly struck down a flower of beauty.
As for Li Changshou and the others, they were utterly astonished. They had never expected the white-clothed maiden, a cultivator, to perform even worse than an ordinary soldier!
"Ahem, ahem... Miss Yun, let me handle this. Step back for now," Daoist Qingsong said with a dry cough, trying to make the atmosphere less awkward as he decided to act personally.
The white-clothed maiden's body trembled from the pain. At last, she recovered her senses and clenched her pearly teeth. "You... don't act!"
"Bull Devil King... I will definitely make you pay!" the white-clothed maiden said word by word, her voice still trembling.
She was a member of the Yun family, a gifted cultivator, yet she had suffered such unbearable humiliation today. She could imagine what would happen when this matter reached her family, as well as the pointing and whispering of those clan members.
"Hmm?"
Tang Jie's expression changed slightly. He saw the blood on the maiden's arms suspended in the air as if supported by an invisible force, forming an abstruse pattern!
"Whoosh!"
Tang Jie did not know what it was, but he did not hesitate. He drew another throwing knife and hurled it out like lightning. This time, he struck far harder than before, aiming at the maiden's lower abdomen and determined to make her completely lose her ability to fight with this one blow!
"Come forth, Little White!"
However, the maiden's hair flew wildly, and a heaven-shaking roar suddenly rang out from within the blood-colored pattern!
"Roar!"
The violent roar shook people's eardrums with pain. The blood-colored pattern seemed to open a portal, and a colossal white beast stepped out from within. Facing the throwing knife shooting toward it, it snapped down with lightning speed and actually caught the knife between its teeth, preventing it from advancing even an inch.
"This is... a demonic beast?"
Tang Jie stared blankly at the enormous white beast before him. It was a white giant wolf nearly two meters tall, its body covered in white fur. It was exceptionally majestic, with sharp fangs and keen teeth, while a ghostly green light glimmered in its eyes.
Demonic beasts were powerful creatures that lived only in certain remote, deep mountains and ancient wilderness ranges. They were worlds apart from ordinary beasts!
The white-clothed maiden actually possessed the means to control demonic beasts?
"I was careless..." Tang Jie thought helplessly. He had not intended to kill her before, so he had only planned to make the white-clothed maiden lose her fighting ability like the other soldiers. He had never expected that even after crippling both her arms, she would still be capable of summoning a demonic beast!
"Crack!"
The white giant wolf seemed like a colossal beast emerging from the ancient wilderness. It bit down hard, and the metal-forged throwing knife snapped with a cracking sound like a branch. Shattered into several pieces, it crashed to the ground, while its ghostly green eyes fixed on Tang Jie with unconcealed coldness.
"A demonic beast? Miss Yun is highly valued by the Yun family! They actually gave her a Snow Shadow Wolf? An adult Snow Shadow Wolf is a peak first-tier demonic beast, with a sliver of a chance to advance to the second tier."
Daoist Qingsong was also somewhat startled when he saw this.
Cultivators possessed beast-taming techniques, but adult demonic beasts were generally too fierce and difficult to tame. One had to raise a young demonic beast from childhood and build a bond with it. For a cultivator, a powerful demonic beast was undoubtedly a tremendous aid!
"Bull Devil King, I'm very grateful that you didn't go all-out just now, so I promise you this: surrender now, and I'll guarantee your safety! I'll also do my best not to pursue what happened today," the white-clothed maiden said to Tang Jie after summoning the Snow Shadow Wolf she had raised since childhood. She gradually calmed down, taking a deep breath to suppress the pain from her wounds.
The white-clothed maiden also understood that if Tang Jie had not held back just now, she would already be dead. Thus, she promised Tang Jie that as long as he surrendered, she would guarantee his safety and would not pursue his disruption of the execution today!
"This..." Li Changshou opened his mouth, but ultimately said nothing. The white-clothed maiden was a cultivator, and her background was extraordinarily impressive. If she truly intended to shield Tang Jie, she might indeed be able to spare him the consequences of what he had done today.
However, Tang Jie merely stared at her without saying a word. His attitude had already made everything clear!
The white-clothed maiden sighed. "Then I'm sorry... Little White is a demonic beast. If it starts fighting and its ferocity is roused, even I won't be able to control it. You'd better pray for yourself!"
The Snow Shadow Wolf's enormous body was larger than some adult tigers. At this moment, it restlessly scraped its claws against the ground, its razor-sharp talons gouging out one furrow after another. They were terrifyingly sharp.
"Gulp... What kind of monster is that?"
"It's huge!"
The pedestrians outside the execution grounds watched the white giant wolf that had appeared from thin air and could not help retreating. It was their first time seeing a creature like a demonic beast!
"A demonic beast... No matter how strong a martial artist is, he can't contend with one!" Seeing this, Tang Tianhao grew anxious and worried.
Just as an ordinary person could never defeat a wild beast with bare hands, even a martial artist armed with blades and swords could not defeat a demonic beast!
A demonic beast's speed, strength, and defensive power were all far beyond those of a martial artist. Even if blades and swords struck its body, they might not be able to tear through its muscles and hide. The white giant wolf before them was a peak first-tier demonic beast, equivalent to the peak tenth level of Qi Refining!
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