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"Screech, screech!"

Seeing Wang Yin charging straight at him, a rare look of panic flashed in the Shaman Witch's eyes as he continuously let out piercing bone whistles.

Invisible sound waves condensed in the void, seemingly transforming into poisonous arrows capable of taking a life!

However, Wang Yin moved like a nimble snake, advancing in curves, ducking and weaving to evade the invisible corrosive force. He suddenly appeared before the Shaman Witch and thrust his spear, intending to impale the foreign demon.

Pfft!

A splash of blood appeared on the Shaman Witch's right hand, and the bone whistle fell. It was Wu Ming, who had seized the opportunity and shot an arrow, nearly killing the opponent.

"You... all of you will die!!!"

The Shaman Witch glared venomously at Wang Yin and Wu Ming, cursing them in stiff, awkward Great Xia language. Ignoring his injured right hand, he directly took down his Magic Drum and struck it with force!

Dong!

A more terrifying drum beat than before echoed. Wu Ming instantly felt his blood freeze, as if hearing the wails of wronged souls. Stars exploded before his eyes, and he nearly fainted.

Wang Yin's condition was even worse.

The spear he was about to thrust drooped limply, blood seeping from his nose and mouth, and two streams of blood trickled from his ears!

This single strike had injured two great martial artists simultaneously!

However, this did not seem to be a common move. Wu Ming saw the Shaman Witch stagger after striking the drum, almost falling to the ground.

He let out a cold chuckle and took a black scorpion from his waist pouch, flicking it towards Wang Yin's face.

"Ah!"

Amidst a scream, Wang Yin couldn't dodge in time. The scorpion stung him directly on the face, and he immediately collapsed to the ground, falling silent.

"What a venomous creature!"

Wu Ming felt as if a thousand pounds of weight were pressing down on him, trapped in a nightmare from which he couldn't awaken. He saw the Shaman Witch's sinister eyes already fixed on him. The fire behind them was subsiding, and the figures and shouts of Hu people cavalry reappeared.

"Move! Move!"

Wu Ming yelled desperately in his heart. His blood and qi surged to their peak at that instant. Suddenly, with a crack, as if something had shattered, a wisp of extremely pure True Qi appeared in his dantian and quickly circulated throughout his body.

"True Qi Realm!"

Feeling his mobility restored, and even his physical body strengthened, Wu Ming immediately knew he had broken through in his martial arts.

It seems what the Shaman Witch used just now was a wide-area attack, and the closer you are, the greater the damage. Although Wang Yin is in the True Qi Realm, he was too close and bled from all seven orifices. For me, at a distance, it was just a temporary disturbance of blood and qi, which I could suppress after breaking through to True Qi...

Wu Ming's mind raced. Outwardly, he appeared to be slowly walking towards the grinning Shaman Witch, but his face was filled with panic as he watched the opponent pull out a two-tailed centipede.

"Han people... you will die a most miserable death..."

The Shaman Witch reluctantly put away the Magic Drum, holding the centipede forward and sneering, "I will peel off your entire skin to use as material for the Magic Drum..."

"I'll peel yours instead!"

Wu Ming suddenly looked up, a brilliant smile on his face. He nocked an arrow onto his bow and fired a wolf's tooth arrow.

Without hesitation after the first shot, he nocked and fired again.

The two wolf's tooth arrows arrived almost one after the other. The Shaman Witch could not have imagined that Wu Ming could still move. He retreated rapidly, a blood-red layer appearing on his body, deflecting the first wolf's tooth arrow, but he could not dodge the second!

Pfft!

A splash of blood appeared on his neck. The Shaman Witch fell to the ground, his mask falling off to reveal a cold and sinister face. "No... impossible..."

"Squeak, squeak!"

Now utterly defeated, his aura weakened, the venomous creature in his hand turned on him. The two-tailed centipede hissed and bit his thumb, killing him instantly.

[Killed Shaman Witch, gained 300 Merit Points!]

"What a shame..."

Hearing the Main God Hall's notification, Wu Ming glanced at the charging cavalry not far away and the Shaman Witch's corpse on the ground from which countless insects were crawling. He retreated unwillingly and quickly disappeared into an alley.

Although the Shaman Witch's blood drum and whistles looked like good items, and he might have had some witchcraft manuals on him, the dense layer of small black insects truly made Wu Ming's skin crawl.

After finally defeating the opponent, it would be incredibly foolish to be ambushed and killed while looting the corpse.

Amidst the chaos, Wu Ming easily moved through the manor. He suddenly arrived behind a luxurious courtyard, dug away the soil, and lifted a stone slab.

"You're here!"

In the dim light, the beauty's eyes shone like stars.

"Mm!"

Wu Ming quickly looked around, then struck out with both palms, pushing down a brick wall. In an instant, he flashed inside, covering the stone slab as he went.

Rumble!

A loud noise erupted from the ground, clearly sealing the entrance.

In the darkness, only Huang Ying's presence beside him, carrying a fragrant scent, allowed Wu Ming to exhale a long breath.

"Is the Hu leader dead?"

Huang Ying asked.

"Naturally died... Next, we'll wait here until the time limit arrives!"

Wu Ming diligently regulated his breathing, recovering his depleted stamina, while his ears constantly strained to pick up sounds from outside.

Amidst the slight heatwaves, voices like "The Hu people are gone!" "The fire is spreading!" and "Save people, put out the fire!" kept coming, yet Wu Ming's mind remained as still as a deep well.

These past few nights with Huang Ying were not, as Qin Hu imagined, spent in wild revelry, but rather in surveying the terrain and digging cellars.

As for the fire outside, it was naturally set by him in secret.

The entire Da Qing Village had an outer perimeter akin to a slum, with houses made of grass and wood, which naturally caught fire easily. The area Wu Ming chose, however, was the wealthy district within the village, similar to the ancestral hall and the Village Head's mansion, located in the center. These were brick and tile structures, not prone to fire. The villagers also mostly gathered here. To survive, they naturally had to work hard to extinguish the flames, thus minimizing the impact on themselves.

Huang Ying remained silent, not questioning why they were hiding.

After all, first Qin Hu's betrayal, then Wu Ming setting the fire – even if it was for the good of the Da Qing Village villagers, it would surely incite outrage if spoken of, and they could even be beaten to death.

But not setting the fire was also not an option.

If the Hu people achieved a great victory, they would inevitably slaughter even more brutally.

Furthermore, Wu Ming was well aware that if simply hiding and lying low could see them through, they could have just been cowards from the start.

Therefore, the Hu people's Shaman Witch must possess the ability to search for living beings. They had to set a trap and eliminate it, otherwise, it would truly be like catching a turtle in a jar.

Under the current chaos, whether the Hu people or the villagers won, they wouldn't be able to do anything to him.

The chaos continued for the entire night.

Until the next day, through the ventilation shaft, Wu Ming could still hear a large amount of crying, mixed with voices like "Catch that pair of scoundrels!" and "Burn the outsiders to death!" Clearly, Qin Hu's affair had been exposed along with his own actions, making them the target of the villagers' anger.

"Aren't you angry?"

Huang Ying's voice came, "If not for your decisive action, perhaps everyone in Da Qing Village would not have survived today!"

"I expected this long ago, so why bother worrying?"

Wu Ming closed his eyes, "If Miss Huang Ying still has the strength, perhaps you should rest more. After all, there's still some time to endure!"

The cellar naturally had some dry rations and water prepared, enough to get through the remaining time without issue, but Wu Ming still habitually conserved his strength in case of major changes.

At this moment, his mind focused, and he could feel wisps of True Qi generating in his dantian, circulating through his limbs and bones.

"It's truly a blessing in disguise... I never thought that even after holding the Shaman Witch in high regard, its strength would still exceed my imagination..."

Wu Ming mused inwardly.

He had considered almost everything this time, the only miscalculation being the Shaman Witch's astonishing strength, and even its ranged area attacks!

If not for Wang Yin taking the hit, and his own timely breakthrough, he would have been on the verge of death.

"But... I've finally reached the True Qi Realm!"

Wu Ming lowered his qi to his dantian, feeling a power several times stronger than before, and felt a sense of relief.

In this world, the martial path began with the Body Refinement Realm, which had nine stages: Mind Settling, Skin and Flesh, Muscles and Bones, Internal Strengthening, True Qi, Innate, External Gang, Internal Gang, and Extreme Transformation.

Mind Settling was the beginning of the path. The subsequent Skin and Flesh, Muscles and Bones, and Internal Strengthening were all processes of continuously refining the body's acupoints, cultivating blood, bones, muscles, and even the foundation of internal organs.

The previous wastrel, with his abundant resources, had actually completed his foundation. He was merely lacking in experience and temperament, which caused him to be stuck at the Internal Strengthening stage, unable to generate True Qi for a long time.

Now, with Wu Ming in his place, breaking through amidst a life-or-death battle was a natural and smooth progression.

In the darkness, time passed unnoticed, making it a rather arduous experience.

Wu Ming, however, found joy amidst hardship, studying his own martial progress:

"After generating True Qi, a martial artist possesses superhuman strength in every move. The next step is to continuously cultivate and strengthen the True Qi, filling the dantian, acupoints, and meridians, purifying the entire body. This is the process of the acquired returning to the innate!"

"But... must I follow the martial path? A tank warrior has no future. Should I go back and check out Daoists and Qi Refiners... No! With the Main God Hall here, can't I walk any path I want? As long as I have enough reward points! No, merit points!"

"Young Master Wuming?!"

Just as Wu Ming was lost in thought, Huang Ying's low voice came from beside him, soft and gentle, yet trembling, carrying an indescribable quality.

"What is it?"

Wu Ming was slightly startled, then felt a scorching hot body press into his arms, and heard the beauty whisper in his ear, "For saving my life... this concubine truly has no way to repay you, so I can only..."

Having lived two lives, Wu Ming was no longer a man of strict morals. Moreover, between life and death, desires were most easily ignited in men.

He did not refuse at this moment, and his hands began to explore her body with unrestrained movements...

As Huang Ying yielded to him, and they were about to go further, a grand and vast voice sounded at an inopportune moment:

[Main Quest Complete! Reincarnators return!]

In an instant, a dizzying sensation washed over him. Wu Ming could only silently give the Main God Hall a middle finger in his heart before his vision went black.

"Where... is this?"

Wu Ming stood in the void, looking at the scene around him, which resembled the beginning of creation, before the chaos had even parted. His heart stirred again, "No Huang Ying. It seems we're returning to our respective exclusive spaces?"

[Quest Complete! Beginning settlement!]

A voice that shook his soul echoed, and a light screen instantly appeared before Wu Ming.

He suddenly looked up and saw, above the primordial chaos, a magnificent palace of light, grand and vast, indescribable in any language, standing proudly. It seemed eternal, transcending the universe!