The Battle

I got him!

The Heart Severing Path moved with lightning speed. In an instant, it struck the pervert's heart directly. The force was so powerful that it left a perfectly fitted dent in his chest, but Liu Tian showed no sign of satisfaction.

The moment his fist touched that body of muscle, Liu Tian clearly felt something slippery and soft. It was as if he hadn't struck flesh at all, but something as squishy as cotton and as slick as oil.

Before Liu Tian could make another move, a powerful force rebounded from his knuckles.

Sensing danger, Liu Tian quickly retreated, putting nearly ten meters between them. This creep with the perverted face really was just as he looked—not an ordinary person at all.

"Hey there, unfamiliar honey. You sure did land that punch," Snake said, sticking out a tongue that was long and slender like a snake's, though he was clearly human. He licked his lips and spoke in four different tones. "That solid punch hit my little heart, honey. You've made me so happy. I can truly feel your love!"

"Could you hit me a little harder, put a little more feeling into it, and make me even more excited?"

"And can you enjoy the pleasure of fighting me, too?"

That leering gaze and lewd behavior made it clear that this was a pervert whose words matched his actions. And this pervert apparently had invincible strength. Liu Tian's attacks seemed completely unable to hurt him. He was practically invincible—invincible!

But Snake's show of invincibility didn't scare Liu Tian. The reason was simple: the former greatest under heaven was his master, and the current greatest under heaven was his senior brother. So how could Liu Tian be frightened by some random nobody he'd run into on the roadside—even if it was a pervert?

Tian Dao had once told him in casual conversation that in this world, whether it was a demon, Secret Martial Arts, or Heavenly Martial Arts, no one was absolutely invincible. If they seized the right moment, even an unarmed ordinary person had a chance—however slim—of killing a powerful opponent.

"And, my disciple, remember this: there is absolutely no one in this world who can take the full force of the ultimate techniques of the Heavenly Martial Killing Dao without a scratch. I know the Heavenly Martial Killing Dao better than anyone, and even your senior brother, Bai Cinan, the strongest of you all, couldn't do it."

If even Tian Dao and Bai Cinan couldn't manage it, could some pervert who'd appeared out of nowhere on the roadside really pull it off? Even if it was obvious at a glance that the creep practiced a martial art that trained the body to withstand blows.

But did practicing such an art mean he could ignore Tian Dao's life's work? Had Tian Dao, with his sturdy build, never practiced any body-hardening arts? Was he really ignorant of them?

Impossible. Absolutely impossible. There was no logic to it.

The combat power in this world hadn't become that absurd—not yet. And Tian Dao's Thirteen Guardians of the Horizontal Refinement weren't for show, either.

So it was easy to figure out what was going on.

The only reason Snake seemed completely unharmed was that Liu Tian hadn't actually hit his target.

Thinking it through cooled Liu Tian's anger after his breakthrough had been interrupted, and reason returned to the fore. But he didn't let it show.

Instead, he roared, "You perverted bastard! I'm gonna smash you to bits! Eat this stone!"

Then Liu Tian picked up several small stones from the ground and flung them with the technique of throwing concealed weapons. Since the Heavenly Martial Killing Dao was the culmination of Tian Dao's lifelong martial arts, it naturally covered how to channel force into concealed weapons as well.

Liu Tian wasn't particularly skilled at it, but he could use it to some extent. At the very least, he could accelerate the stones to his current limit and accurately hurl them at Snake's heart while Snake stood there without dodging.

Just as they both expected, the stones came fast and hard, but clearly couldn't get past the limits of Snake's bodily defenses. They merely grazed his skin and slid smoothly to the ground.

But the instant the stones brushed his skin, Liu Tian moved. Having regained his composure, he couldn't unleash the thirteen layers of power from before. But since he only needed to test his theory, he didn't need that much strength—strength so great he couldn't even control it perfectly.

Heavenly Martial Killing Dao: Two Dragons Emerge from the Sea!

Before the stones had even hit the ground, Liu Tian turned his hands into claws and struck out with one hand after the other, aiming at Snake, whose name he still didn't know.

His strength was clearly no greater than before, and he wasn't using the two strongest ultimate techniques of the Heavenly Martial Killing Dao. His attack was far less deadly than the previous one, yet it made Snake's expression change drastically. He had no choice but to retreat.

But it was already too late! Snake hadn't expected someone so young to have such courage and determination. Liu Tian left five scratches on his body. They were shallow, but they marked something important: Snake had been hurt.

Liu Tian's theory had clearly been right.

"You're the first person to see through the weakness of my martial art in such a short time!" Perhaps because he'd been hurt, Snake's voice turned serious, taking on a deep, masculine tone. The air of a grandmaster settled over the pervert. "My name is Snake. I'm a practitioner of the Kabul Giant Snake Fighting Technique. Unknown brat, tell me your name and style. I'll make you my finest collectible and treasure you."

"Finally getting serious?" Seeing Snake announce his name and his demeanor turn grave, Liu Tian settled into a stance, ready to fight. Since he had started this fight and accepted it, then whatever the reason, he would see it through and win with honor. "Heavenly Martial Killing Dao. Liu Tian."

"Heavenly Martial Killing Dao?" A pale battle pattern resembling the joints of a snake's bones appeared on Snake's head, with the snake's head by his right ear and its tail by his left. Snake bent forward slightly, then slowly straightened, like a giant python rising upright. Even his originally pitch-black pupils were replaced by cold, emotionless vertical slits. "So you're the second genuine successor of the Heavenly Martial Killing Dao I heard about earlier, the one with the surname Liu? So it was you all along. No wonder you smell so good!"

"Ahahahaha! Wonderful! Wonderful! Simply wonderful!" Though he laughed, his face showed no sign of amusement. The man who called himself Snake slowly exhaled like a serpent. "I never imagined I'd be so lucky as to make the true successor of the Heavenly Martial Killing Dao one of my collectibles. This is just..."

Before he could finish, the man who went by Snake shot forward like lightning, lunging at Liu Tian like a giant snake striking its prey.

Liu Tian could almost hear the giant snake hiss. A battle between two fighters with a vast gap in strength began in that instant...