That Back, Transcendent Like a Saint

The Hundred Battles Art had reached perfection, the Wind Severing Saber Technique had reached mastery, and Saber Intent had just taken form.

Lying on the ground, Jiang Li felt as though he had truly lived through a fifty-year Nanke Dream. His entire body shuddered involuntarily.

When he came back to himself, he felt as if endless vigor and strength filled his body. Even the pain from before vanished in an instant.

He slowly climbed to his feet, yet no one around him noticed anything unusual.

To them, Jiang Li was merely a pitiful wretch about to become exotic beast fodder.

What they cared more about was who would become the second person to enter the Beast Fighting Arena.

"Three minutes are almost up. Kid, if you don't want to go out on your own, I can just break your legs and throw you out."

Seeing Jiang Li rise, the burly man gave another cold warning.

"Break my legs? With a cowardly, death-fearing piece of trash like you!?"

Jiang Li's voice silenced the entire lounge. Everyone else looked at him with disbelief written across their faces.

"This kid's gone mad. He was getting beaten up just a second ago, and now he still dares provoke Li Tie like this."

"Li Tie is a Ninth-Rank Martial Artist who can hold his own against the fighting beasts in the arena. This kid is afraid he's about to suffer badly."

People nearby whispered among themselves, unable to understand Jiang Li's suicidal behavior.

"What did you say?"

Li Tie shot to his feet again, his face twisted savagely.

But before his words had even faded, Jiang Li moved. He took a fierce step forward, so fast it seemed as though he had smashed the air before him aside.

Before Li Tie could react, Jiang Li formed his hand into a saber and slashed out.

Wind Severing Saber Technique!

A saber that could sever the wind—its power and speed were plain to see.

Even though it was merely a Ninth-Rank martial art, Jiang Li had cultivated it to perfection. Its might needed no explanation.

Bang!

Before anyone else could react, Jiang Li's palm-saber struck Li Tie squarely in the chest. In an instant, Li Tie's chest caved in, and he was sent flying, crashing straight into the lounge wall.

Then his body slid down, leaving behind a streak of blood.

The scent of blood made everyone's scalps tingle. They abruptly turned and looked at Jiang Li again as though he were an exotic beast, their faces filled with terror.

Clearly, Li Tie was beyond saving.

With just one move, he had instantly killed Li Tie, who could contend with fighting beasts?

What level of cultivation did this young man possess?

Jiang Li himself had not expected it. He had only used half his strength—not even his full power.

He looked at Li Tie with a calm expression. Though it was his first time killing someone, he seemed to feel nothing at all.

Without the Yellow Book, without spending lifespan to cultivate techniques and martial arts, he would undoubtedly have died miserably in the Beast Fighting Arena.

If an enemy threatened his life and he still showed mercy, Jiang Li could not imagine how foolish such a person would have to be.

Therefore, Li Tie deserved to die.

Those who seek to kill me, I will surely kill!

"One minute remaining!"

The lounge broadcast issued its reminder, jolting the other seven people awake.

According to the order, after Li Tie came a slovenly middle-aged man of thirty-eight or thirty-nine. He was trembling all over, his face turning pale, then green.

Jiang Li looked forward once more. With a thought, the Yellow Book appeared.

A new line of text emerged.

[Kill one enemy, gain twenty years of cultivatable lifespan.]

Cultivatable Lifespan: 1031

Li Tie was nearly forty years old, yet killing him had yielded only twenty years of cultivatable lifespan.

In other words, the cultivatable lifespan represented the roughly twenty years Li Tie had spent arduously cultivating throughout his life.

"The longer one cultivates and the higher one's cultivation, the more cultivatable lifespan one gains. Thinking of it that way, gathering eleven hundred years of cultivatable lifespan doesn't seem that difficult."

"Right, killing people isn't the only way to gain cultivatable lifespan. Killing exotic beasts works too. With my current strength, killing Ninth-Rank exotic beasts shouldn't be difficult either."

Jiang Li could not help but let out a sigh of relief. The pressure he had been under eased considerably.

"Sir, there's still one minute left. Let Old Li enter the Beast Fighting Arena instead. I have a seventy-year-old mother above me and a thirteen-year-old daughter below me."

"Please, I'm begging you!"

At that moment, the slovenly middle-aged man ran before Jiang Li, dropped to his knees, and began knocking his head fiercely against the floor as he pleaded.

Old Li, the man he had mentioned, immediately sprang to his feet and cursed, "You old gambling addict, you want me to die in your place? Dream on."

"Brother, don't believe him. According to the order, he should be the one entering the Beast Fighting Arena."

"Or... you only need to say who should go, and I, Old Li, will absolutely support you."

"That's right. Just say who should go, and we'll send them."

As soon as those words were spoken, everyone joined in, currying favor with Jiang Li.

With a thought from Jiang Li, the Yellow Book vanished before his eyes. Then he looked toward the scruffy middle-aged man and Old Li.

"Enough!"

His voice was neither loud nor harsh, yet the entire lounge fell silent at once.

Jiang Li glanced at the dead Li Tie and said coldly, "I killed him because he wanted me dead."

"I won't appoint anyone to go die because I don't want to become cut from the same cloth as him."

The words left everyone in the lounge stunned.

Jiang Li swept his gaze across the room. Wherever his eyes passed, no one dared meet them.

In one corner stood a lean figure draped in a cloak, making Jiang Li's gaze pause briefly.

But it was not the person who concerned him—it was the saber laid beside them.

Jiang Li walked over and said to the person, "Friend, lend me this saber."

With that, he picked up the saber, turned, and headed toward the Beast Fighting Arena. The sight left everyone wearing expressions of utter disbelief.

The light from the Beast Fighting Arena shone over Jiang Li, stretching his shadow ever longer.

At the same time, his calm voice rang out from the passageway and fell upon everyone's ears.

"A single Ninth-grade Fighting Beast has frightened you all this badly."

"In that case, I'll just go kill it."

When his voice fell, Jiang Li reached the end of the passage, picked up a beast-fighting mask from the side, put it on, and strode out without hesitation.

Fighting Beasts!?

To him, they were all lifespan.

According to the original owner's memories, most Ninth-grade beasts outside the city traveled in packs, while only a few fought alone.

Besides, although he had just cultivated his martial arts and cultivation technique to great mastery, he still lacked combat experience.

With such a low-risk, high-reward opportunity—and lifespan to gain—how could he possibly give it to someone else?

What he did not know was that this act had left everyone in the lounge rooted to the spot.

At that moment, his not especially broad back seemed lofty as a mountain, transcendent as a saint.

The friend from whom he had borrowed the saber could not help but raise their head slightly, revealing a pair of cool, clear eyes.

After all, not even Li Tie's death just now had drawn the slightest reaction from this person.

Beast Fighting Arena.

Jiang Li wore the beast-fighting mask. It carried a faint fresh fragrance—the scent of the Beast Luring Orchid, enough to draw the attention of Ninth-grade exotic beasts.

In other words, once one put on this mask, the Fighting Beast would hunt the participant down without rest until one side died.

There would not even be a chance to catch one's breath, and this was precisely the most thrilling spectacle of the entire Beast Fighting Arena.

"Take a look! Our first participant today actually looks so frail that a gust of wind could knock him over."

The surrounding stands were a cacophony of noise as the host roused the crowd with an impassioned voice.

"By custom, the first participant is often the most pitiful one. Look at this poor fellow—he may already be trembling in terror."

"Come on, let's take a guess. How long can he last against our ferocious Fighting Beast? Thirty seconds? One minute? No, no, no—perhaps he won't even last thirty seconds! Hahaha!"

"And now, let us welcome the true star of our Beast Fighting Arena—the Ninth-Rank Giant Lynx!"

As his voice fell, the gate opposite Jiang Li slowly opened, revealing a pair of dim green eyes within.

Giant Lynx!?

Jiang Li met those dim green eyes through his beast-fighting mask. A giant lynx?

But as the Giant Lynx emerged from the gate, Jiang Li's expression gradually turned to shock.

It stood over two meters tall, covered in mottled brown fur, even larger than the biggest lions and tigers on Earth.

On its broad paws were five sharp claws, each nearly the size of a human palm.

This was a lynx!?

At that moment, Jiang Li finally understood why the people in the lounge had been so terrified.

Fortunately, Jiang Li quickly steadied himself. As terrifying as this Giant Lynx was, he was no longer the ordinary man he had once been on Earth.

With that thought, Jiang Li's hand settled on the hilt of the saber in his grasp.

Thick saliva dripped from the Giant Lynx's mouth as its dim green eyes locked tightly onto Jiang Li.

With a bang, the enormous beast over two meters tall charged at Jiang Li in a gale. It was so fast that in just four seconds, it crossed a distance of more than a hundred meters.

Amid the spectators' clamorous shouts and the host's mockery and ridicule, the giant lynx raised its sharp claws and viciously swatted them at Jiang Li.

Jiang Li gripped the hilt, his eyes narrowing slightly. As the giant lynx's claws came crashing down, he fiercely stepped forward.

With a tearing hiss.

It was as though the air itself had been ripped apart. At lightning speed, he evaded the giant lynx's claws.

The giant lynx clearly had not expected that the food in its mouth would actually be able to dodge.

But in the next instant, the blade in Jiang Li's hand...

Was drawn!

A silver-black longsword left its sheath. Jiang Li gripped it in both hands, the strength of his sinews and bones erupting in unison. The blade swept across the giant lynx's lower abdomen.

Beast hide was tough, yet before Jiang Li, it was like paper pasted together.

When the giant lynx hit the ground, it rolled and convulsed amid a great spray of blood. Only then did Jiang Li slowly return his blade to its sheath.

Everything flowed like drifting clouds and running water, as though forged by nature itself.

Jiang Li slowly exhaled as well. His bright eyes shone like sun and moon; his blood and qi surged within him, his bones burned, and his blood ran hot.

A ninth-rank mutated beast—the giant lynx.

Slain with one stroke!

A faint smile appeared on Jiang Li's face.

In contrast, the once-noisy spectators, along with the host who had mocked, teased, and ridiculed him, all fell silent.

Outside the Beast Fighting Arena, among the three thousand seats, nothing remained but a deathly silence.