Fierce Battle

Lü Yue's round face tightened, his expression grim enough to make the air around him seem to congeal.

The experts of the Sun and Meng Families fighting nearby also seemed to instinctively sense something, moving away from the central area where the two stood.

The Eagle Claw Master understood the instant he saw Lü Yue.

This was no convoy transporting illicit jade artifacts at all, but a plot and trap deliberately laid by the Meng Family to strike back at them.

At this point, he had neither the time nor the energy to determine whether Sun Chuanshan had also been deceived and given them false information, or whether Sun Chuanshan had deliberately betrayed them.

Having come this far, they had no choice but to fight in earnest. As for whether they could escape, he still held onto a sliver of hope.

As the old saying went, to capture bandits, first capture their king. If he could defeat this young man, perhaps he could lead his brothers away unscathed.

Having recognized each other's identities, the two reacted alike, springing toward one another almost at the same time.

While still in midair, they had already begun a fierce exchange.

The Eagle Claw Master still employed the Great Strength Eagle Claw Hand. His techniques were practiced and his claw arts fierce. Moreover, it seemed he had specially tempered these fleshy claws with some secret method. Once he circulated his power, they took on an unnatural bluish sheen, carrying the savage force to rip apart metal and tear jade stone to pieces.

The moves he used were not particularly complicated, relying mainly on broad, sweeping motions—slashing sideways and chopping vertically, pushing forward and deflecting backward. Yet they possessed the air of great skill appearing effortless, and under the infusion of his formidable strength, they stirred up howling gusts from his claws.

Whenever they struck the round pillars supporting the ruined temple, five distinct claw marks appeared in an instant, displaying their power.

Though Lü Yue was still young, he showed no fear before such a formidable foe. His eyes burned with fighting spirit.

A faint radiance shimmered over his bare palms, thick Internal Energy coursing through them. He countered each move with another, without the slightest trace of spectacle.

Yet with seemingly casual strokes, he dissolved every attack from the Eagle Claw Master.

Moreover, the powerful force in his palms surged into the other man's body like an endless raging tide.

The Eagle Claw Master only felt streams of condensed force, like arrows loosed from a bowstring, spreading through the meridians of his arms and throughout his body, wildly disrupting his use of Internal Energy. His Qi Meridian stalled, leaving half a move empty, and he was sent flying.

Behind his mask, his face was filled with shock. He had never expected this young man's Internal Energy to be so strange and so powerful.

He clearly remembered that the other's whip technique had been nimble as a snake, ingenious and ever-changing, as natural as moving one's own arm and fingers—truly exquisite.

He had thought Lü Yue was a master skilled in soft force, but now that they had crossed hands, his attacks were hard, fierce, and domineering—actually three parts more ferocious than even an Eagle Claw Master like himself, whose art had reached great completion.

All thoughts of underestimating him vanished at once. He fiercely drew up a breath of primordial qi from his dantian and forced out the hidden force that had been driven into his body. His clothes were pierced by strands of condensed force as he stepped forward again.

His twin claws crossed, claw centers facing downward. With bent elbows, he lunged forward, aiming directly for Lü Yue's heart.

Lü Yue neither dodged nor yielded. He pushed forward in a bow stance, four fingers held together and his thumb curled inward, meeting speed with speed...

For a time, the battle erupting between the two actually overwhelmed the melee of dozens of people around them.

Their powerful Internal Energies collided with peals like thunder, drawing repeated glances from many nearby.

Among the experts accompanying Lü Yue on this trip was Wang Tao. With a shift of his feet, he avoided his opponent's thrusting Long Sword, then stamped a palm strike onto the man's chest. The opponent instantly fell and could not rise. He was not severely injured, but he had already lost the ability to fight.

Clearly, he handled an opponent of this level with ease.

Wang Tao, too, was drawn by the formidable spectacle of the clash. Finding an opening, he knocked down another opponent and watched the battle from the corner of his eye, secretly praising, "The young steward's Formless Primordial Unity Skill has already inherited the old steward's true teachings. At such a young age, he has already reached this level. It seems the blue will surpass the indigo in the future—no empty claim."

Lü Zhong had served three generations of masters in the Meng Family for decades, pouring out his heart and blood. His status was far beyond that of an ordinary servant. He was a formidable figure whom even Meng Jizu, the current Earl of Nan'an, treated with solemn respect.

What he relied on was not flattery, but extraordinary ability and exceptional martial arts.

The Formless Primordial Unity Skill was a supreme art cultivated by Lü Zhong. At its highest level, it could reach the pinnacle of the Innate Realm. Though it could not compare to a grandmaster-level divine art such as the Red Flag Order, it was still exceedingly remarkable.

Furthermore, this skill was particularly unusual. Whether it produced Internal Energy or true qi, it was formless and without appearance, yet combined hardness and softness. Once one grasped its essence and spirit, its power was boundless.

Lü Zhong had once used this Formless Primordial Unity Skill to battle an expert of the seventh aperture of the Innate Realm after only just entering the Innate Realm himself. At the price of being wounded, he ultimately killed him.

One had to know that the first stage of the Innate Realm was the Nine Apertures Realm. Each aperture was a separate heaven, representing a new realm and a new level of combat strength.

Lü Zhong had effectively crossed six minor realms to slay his opponent. Such battle prowess was truly terrifying.

Naturally, Lü Yue did not possess battle prowess like Lü Zhong's. Leaving aside the gap in their martial realms, there was also quite a difference in their understanding and mastery of this divine skill.

But there was no denying that Lü Yue's martial arts were already terrifying. More terrifying still was the vast, boundless future before him.

Compared to him, people like the Eagle Claw Master and Wang Tao might still be able to exchange blows with Lü Yue and contend against him for now. But as time passed, they might not even have the qualifications to stand before him.

That was reality.

Lü Yue naturally had no idea that others already viewed him as having reached such heights. At this moment, he was wholly focused on dealing with the Eagle Claw Master.

His Internal Energy held an absolute advantage, while strange and ingenious techniques emerged one after another. Compared with the Eagle Claw Master, who relied solely on hard techniques and brute force, he surpassed him by several levels. After merely thirty moves, he had already seized complete control.

Of course, that was mainly because they were fighting at close range and both had hard, aggressive fighting styles, allowing their relative strength to be decided in such a short time.

Had it been the hidden-weapon expert from that day, moving about with lightness skill and harassing him with concealed weapons, Lü Yue would not have been able to take him down so quickly. He could only have waited for an opportunity.

It could be said that combat and realm strength were not equal signs.

By now, the Eagle Claw Master sensed ill fortune. He knew that he would likely be unable to escape this calamity today, and that his brothers around him probably had no chance of escaping either. In his despair, he directly resorted to a move meant to perish together.

When Lü Yue's palm struck toward his forehead, he neither dodged nor evaded. Instead, he gritted his steel-like teeth, gathered all the force in his body into his right claw, and clawed toward Lü Yue's face.

That claw tore out several afterimages that seemed almost solid, transforming into flying eagles that swarmed toward Lü Yue's face.

If he took this move head-on, even if Lü Yue somehow survived, blindness and disfigurement would be unavoidable.

Naturally, Lü Yue would not choose to perish together with this man.

Besides, he had no intention of killing him at all. He only wanted to capture this group and force them to reveal whether they had taken the Earth Spirit Pearl.

If he killed the man, how could he answer to Young Master Meng Zhao?

Thus, at the critical moment, Lü Yue changed his move on the spot, withdrawing his palm strike and passing by the Eagle Claw Master.

Changing moves in the midst of battle like this tested a martial artist's personal ability to the utmost.

Had Lü Yue made even the slightest error, those eagle claws would have torn him to pieces in an instant.

At the same time, as they passed one another, Lü Yue spun around and struck from behind with a palm, planting it solidly on the Eagle Claw Master's back.

With a crisp slap, he sent the man flying.

After landing, the Eagle Claw Master lay on the ground, unable to rise. Blood seeped from the corner of his mouth. He was clearly badly injured and no longer capable of fighting.

As for the other martial artists of the Sun Residence, they too were defeated and captured one after another by the Meng Family's experts. Not a single one escaped.

This battle was a complete and resounding victory.

Lü Yue had not disappointed Meng Zhao's expectations. After two days of preparation and thorough planning, he had captured the entire group in one sweep.