Enemy Approaches

Fang Mushan stared fixedly at the burly man before him, over six feet tall and covered in knotted muscle, with a trace of envy on his face.

For someone to undergo such changes after advancing so quickly in such a short time, there could be no explanation other than True Blood.

"I never imagined someone with True Blood would be a servant of the Jiang Family. What an absurd joke."

Fang Mushan slowly sat down and watched Xu Yunfan continuously admire his own body.

Xu Yunfan said, "Has it occurred to you that I might simply be extraordinarily talented, which is why I cultivate so quickly?"

Li Haomiao, in the corner, gave a derisive snort.

"If you didn't have True Blood, Jiang Yu and that lot would have beaten you to death in the cave already."

Xu Yunfan's mouth twitched. He truly did not understand how True Blood could provide such an enormous advantage on the path of martial arts. While it gave his system a layer of cover, it also stirred his curiosity.

If a single thread of True Blood could let him master martial arts in one month, then what kind of cultivation speed did those with nearly pure True Blood possess?

"True Blood is really that powerful? It can bring a martial art to mastery in such a short time?"

His expression became exceedingly complicated. Everyone in Jade Capital said he was exceptionally gifted and strong enough to lift a cauldron, but compared to a True Blood Practitioner, he was as different as clouds and mud.

For an ordinary martial artist, mastering even a relatively uncomplicated external cultivation art required at least ten or twenty years of painstaking practice.

Even though Xu Yunfan was about to enter the realm of external cultivation mastery, tempering the body was not something that could be accomplished overnight. While mastery in external cultivation could bring a qualitative transformation to one's body, it still required time.

Unlike Xu Yunfan. He had still been rather thin when he entered the cave, but when he emerged, he had become a burly man over six feet tall.

Looking at those bulging muscles, how could he possibly seem like someone who had suffered in Ningguta?

Li Haomiao shook his head as he watched. "True Blood defies reason. Fortunately, he only has a single thread. If it were pure blood, then one month... might be enough to nurture qi."

"How do you know?" Fang Mushan asked.

Li Haomiao glanced at him and slowly closed his eyes. After a long while, as though recalling something, he said, "My surname is Li."

At first, Fang Mushan paid it no mind. Then his expression froze. Just as he was about to question him, an incomparably crisp sound of a branch snapping suddenly rang out beyond the underground cave.

Crack!

Fang Mushan shot to his feet, his expression grave.

"The alarm has been triggered."

Xu Yunfan raised his brows and slowly straightened.

Animals would not casually step on branches. If something had made that much noise, it was most likely a person.

Among hunting techniques, the placement of warning traps was an exceptionally subtle art.

"Damn it!"

Master Xu looked at the snapped branch beneath his feet, his face darkening as he spat viciously.

He had not expected the other side to set such an ingenious trap.

He turned to Yang Gan beside him. The faintly idiotic look in the man's eyes made him deeply uncomfortable.

"Master Yang, should we still investigate this underground cave?"

Yang Gan gave a cold snort. Just as he was about to speak, his pupils contracted.

In an instant, a thick, powerful hand burst from the earth and clamped around Master Xu's ankle like an iron pincer.

Below the cave, Xu Yunfan met Fang Mushan and Li Haomiao's astonished gazes, a slightly embarrassed expression appearing on his face.

"I deliberately dug this section thinner. I thought that if prey stepped on it and weighed enough, it might fall straight through. That way, we'd have something to eat."

Anyone who stepped into such a trap without noticing it probably was not very strong.

As he spoke, Xu Yunfan sank his waist and hips. The toes of his bare feet dug down forcefully, and his heels suddenly drove into the soil.

A vast force surged up from the ground like a roaring tide, rushing through his thighs and waist before pouring into his arm.

The muscles of his outstretched arm bulged high, veins protruding like little snakes.

Under the surge of his blood and qi, his skin even faintly took on a bronze sheen.

Boom!

Master Xu had only just lowered his head when the ground beneath him vanished, opening into a huge hole. An unstoppable, mighty force dragged him down, leaving him no time to react.

Thud!

Master Xu crashed heavily into the underground cave. His chest tightened, and he sprayed a mouthful of blood.

His eyes widened. Enduring the searing pain, he tried to draw the sword at his waist. At the same time, his right leg snapped up like lightning, driving at Xu Yunfan's waist and ribs from an extremely tricky angle in an attempt to force him back.

If Xu Yunfan retreated, Master Xu, with his eight-character mustache, would immediately seize the opportunity to escape his desperate predicament.

Should he grab the incoming leg, or step forward and block it with a raised knee?

Xu Yunfan's mind turned, and he determined that neither method would work. The moment he took the attack, he would give his opponent a chance to counterattack.

Master Xu's adaptability was truly vicious!

Xu Yunfan made up his mind. He should be able to endure it.

The Crimson Flame Copper Body Art tempered the body and possessed the strengths of hardened external cultivation.

He ignored it completely and let the man's right leg slam heavily into his waist and ribs.

Clang!

A dull sound like bronze and iron colliding abruptly rang out.

Master Xu's face instantly turned deathly pale. Pain shot through the bone in his shin, and he blurted out, "Hardened external cultivation?!"

Before he could finish, a massive hand reached toward him like dark clouds blotting out the sky, directly covering his face and completely obscuring his vision.

Xu Yunfan clenched his five fingers viciously. The muscles in his forearm swelled, veins standing out one after another as though they were about to burst through his skin.

Crack, crack, crack!!

Before Li Haomiao and Fang Mushan's utterly stunned eyes, Master Xu's head was crushed into a lump by Xu Yunfan's bare hand, and all signs of life vanished.

Xu Yunfan straightened and looked through the hole he had torn open, meeting Yang Gan's eyes as he stood above at its edge.

He could clearly see the disbelief and shock in Yang Gan's eyes.

He knew this boy. That day, he had stood silently in the corner of the mine cave. Yet today, he stood tall, dragged Xu Yun, Captain Xu—who had attained mastery in external cultivation—into the underground cave with one hand, and killed him with lightning speed.

"Hardened external cultivation?"

Yang Gan spoke coldly. He truly had not expected the lackey he had dismissed to be standing before him now with a body tempered to mastery in hardened external cultivation.

With Xu Yun dead, the remaining twenty-odd soldiers immediately flew into a rage. Drawing their weapons, they prepared to charge forward.

By then, Fang Mushan had already leaped out of the underground cave. Charging into their formation alone at incredible speed, he lowered his body and closed in. With a lift of one arm, he sent a soldier flying high into the air.

His physical strength was truly terrifying. With a swing of both arms, he could easily bring down a fierce horse.

The soldiers whose attention had been drawn to him and who rushed to attack were utterly helpless before Fang Mushan.

Fang Mushan moved with explosive speed. Closing in, he snatched a spear from one soldier's hand as easily as taking something from a bag.

In an instant, his aura changed completely, like a crouching beast finally baring its fangs, its sharp edge fully revealed.