Chen Mo's heart pounded with terror, and even Chen Yin Fu beside him was so frightened that his face turned pale.
The nearby servants who were collecting the corpses saw this, and their faces drained of color. They stopped what they were doing, ran off into the distance, and watched Liu Mazi tremble.
"Father, get back!"
Chen Mo immediately pulled Chen Yin Fu behind him to protect him, then shouted at the servants, "Everyone, spread out. Don't go near him."
At Chen Mo's words, the servants scattered in every direction, keeping their distance from Liu Mazi.
"Uncle Zhou, you get back too. Let me borrow your saber." Chen Mo went up to Zhou Liang and took the saber from his hands.
Chen Mo knew full well that no matter what had happened to Liu Mazi, he had to kill him tonight.
Zhou Liang looked horrified. "Liu Mazi had a huge hole poked through his forehead just now, yet he can still stand up and kill people. This is highly unusual. He must have fallen under some sort of evil spell. Second Young Master, you must be extremely careful."
"I know."
Holding the saber, Chen Mo approached Liu Mazi one step at a time.
With every step forward, Chen Mo grew more wary. He stopped when he was about a dozen meters from Liu Mazi.
The Training Ground was poorly lit, but Chen Mo could still make out Liu Mazi's appearance with his extraordinary eyesight.
His face was ashen, utterly devoid of color. His eyes were dim and lifeless, his limbs stiff. He didn't look conscious.
Even so, Chen Mo was still deeply astonished.
He knew this was a world where the uncanny ran rampant, and that all kinds of bizarre sorcery existed. But a man with a huge hole stabbed through his head could still stand up?
It was simply too unbelievable.
Although Chen Mo prided himself on being able to take on three Liu Mazis, he still felt a chill crawl down his back.
Just then—
Crack!
Liu Mazi suddenly raised his head. His eyes turned as red as blood, and he swept his gaze across the entire Training Ground before fixing it on Chen Mo.
It was as if he could see Chen Mo.
The next moment, Liu Mazi gripped his flexible sword and charged wildly at Chen Mo.
He was so fast that he moved far faster than he had in life.
Chen Mo was startled.
Fortunately, he had the strength to back him up, so he didn't panic. He raised his saber and slashed forward with all his might.
The fourth form of the Fuyang Saber Technique, Spring Breaker!
In an instant, their weapons clashed with a clang. Chen Mo's webbed hand went numb from the shock as he thought, He's stronger than when he was alive, and more agile too.
Before Chen Mo could catch his breath, Liu Mazi's flexible sword changed direction and shot toward him like a swimming snake. It was fast and vicious, and the trembling blade let out a piercing whine.
Chen Mo didn't dare be careless. He unleashed another swift Spring Breaker.
Saber clashed against sword, and the two passed each other once more.
Seeing Liu Mazi block his attacks twice, Chen Mo's blood surged. He gripped his saber and unleashed a flurry of furious blows, while Liu Mazi moved nimbly, fending him off with his flexible sword.
In an instant, snowflakes drifted across the Training Ground beneath the night sky. Blades flashed and swords flickered, punctuated now and then by thunderous explosions.
Though the saber carried tremendous force, the flexible sword was resilient. Its bends and vibrations let it dissipate force with remarkable ease. For a time, Chen Mo couldn't bring Liu Mazi down.
What unsettled Chen Mo most was that Liu Mazi wasn't afraid to die—he didn't even seem to feel pain. Chen Mo's blade had carved more than a dozen deep gashes into his body, and several large bowls' worth of blood had spilled out, yet Liu Mazi paid it no heed and kept fighting for his life.
This suicidal fighting style put Chen Mo under enormous pressure.
Liu Mazi could throw his life away, but Chen Mo couldn't.
"This fellow is creepy. I can't let this drag on. I have to end it quickly."
Chen Mo felt a powerful sense of unease and didn't dare delay. Nor did he insist on avoiding every injury. When Liu Mazi's flexible sword thrust diagonally toward him, Chen Mo dodged only seven or eight tenths of it, then whipped his saber back in a Spring Breaker aimed at Liu Mazi's neck.
Squelch!
A steaming human head abruptly tore free from its neck, flew four or five meters into the air, then crashed into the snow and rolled several times before coming to a stop. It left a trail of blood wherever it went.
And because Chen Mo had gone for a quick victory, abandoning the safest approach, the flexible sword had slashed a fairly serious wound across his chest. Fortunately, the cut wasn't deep, and Chen Mo had deliberately kept it away from any vital spots. It hadn't damaged his muscles or bones.
Everything had been within Chen Mo's calculations.
Phew!
Only when Chen Mo saw Liu Mazi's headless corpse topple stiffly into the snow did he finally breathe a sigh of relief.
His head's gone. Surely he can't get back up now, right?
Chen Mo stared at the headless corpse for a while. Seeing that it still hadn't moved, he turned around and called Ma Tie over. "Ma Tie, go collect the body..."
Before he could finish speaking, the words caught in his throat, and a chill ran down his back.
He heard a noise from the snow behind him.
He whipped around and saw Liu Mazi's headless body charging toward him at full speed.
It was even faster than before. It seemed able to see him, and its attack was aimed with unerring precision.
A nameless terror gripped Chen Mo.
"Quit your tricks! Let's see how long you can keep leaping around!" A fierce determination rose in Chen Mo's heart. Without a word, he charged forward using the footwork of the Fuyang Saber Technique. As Liu Mazi's flexible sword drew near, Chen Mo shifted sideways, accepting another light wound to his chest as he drove his saber into Liu Mazi's chest.
Even then, Chen Mo didn't stop. He shoved Liu Mazi's body backward for a dozen paces and pinned it hard against a pine tree. Boom! The century-old pine shook violently, and snow tumbled from its branches with a loud patter.
After the strike, Chen Mo took three steps back and stared fixedly at Liu Mazi's headless body.
Just then, Ma Tie shouted from behind him, "Young Master, watch your back!"
What else was behind him?
Chen Mo didn't understand at first, but he knew Ma Tie wouldn't warn him for no reason. He turned to look, only to see Liu Mazi's head rolling rapidly across the snow toward him. When it reached him, it sprang more than two meters off the ground, opened its mouth wide, and lunged straight for Chen Mo's neck.
"Damn..."
Chen Mo was genuinely frightened, but his training instincts had etched the response into his muscle memory. He immediately struck the flying head with his palm.
Blazing Sun Toxin!
Sizzle!
Fire Poison erupted. A scorched palm print appeared on the head's face, and the smell of burning flesh filled the air. Then it dropped limply to the ground and finally went still.
Chen Mo still didn't trust it, so he stomped the head into a smashed watermelon. Rank, foul-smelling brain matter splattered everywhere.
Just then, noise came from behind him again. Chen Mo turned to look and saw Liu Mazi's headless body pull out the saber and swing it viciously at him.
It could still move?
And without a head, how could it attack me so precisely?
Suppressing his confusion, Chen Mo dodged Liu Mazi's saber and followed with Blazing Palm, slamming a palm charged with Blazing Sun Toxin into Liu Mazi's chest.
Sizzle—
The sound of meat frying crackled through the air.
As the Blazing Sun Toxin poured into Liu Mazi's body, he seemed to be struck by some tremendous stimulus. His limbs stiffened and began to twitch awkwardly. After a few spasms, it was as if his life force had been cut off; every last bit of strength left his body, and he finally collapsed limply to the ground.
His limbs still twitched stiffly, but he no longer had the strength to fight back.
Chen Mo looked at the center of his right palm, red-hot from the strike, and murmured to himself, "Liu Mazi must have been controlled by an evil spell, which is why he refused to stay dead and attacked me like a madman. Blazing Sun Toxin just happened to counter Evil Spirits, which is why it finally brought him down."
Chen Mo let out a long breath.
In the end, he still had to rely on Blazing Palm.
His other martial arts were fine against martial-world bandits, but useless against Evil Spirits. Even with powerful blood and qi, he could only intimidate weak ghosts. Against a powerful ghost, it wouldn't help at all.
Luckily, he'd gone to the Lei Family Martial Arts School earlier and learned this technique.
Otherwise, he might not have made it through tonight so easily.
Though this was a martial technique from Black Mountain Stronghold and wasn't supposed to be taught to outsiders, this was his own territory, and the night was deep. As long as he disposed of Liu Mazi's corpse, no one would know he'd used Blazing Palm.
That raised the question.
After Liu Mazi fell under the spell, why had he fixated on Chen Mo alone?
It was downright terrifying.
Who was using sorcery behind the scenes to target him?
Chen Mo suddenly remembered something Liu Mazi had said to Lu Wei earlier... His scalp went numb.
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