Fierce Battle

Jiang Yuan forced his opponent back with a hook, his peripheral vision catching Gu Chang'an beheading Zheng Zhen with a single blade strike, causing him to grin with a cold sneer.

Bringing his twin hooks together, he flicked his wrist and spun backward, putting distance between himself and the enemy.

He muttered in a low voice, "Good lad, well done."

Though soft, the praise came from the heart.

Jiang Yuan had always thought of himself as the most experienced and ruthlessly decisive person in this team, holding no real respect for Gu Chang'an.

At this moment, however, he completely cast aside that slight contempt.

Not only was Gu Chang'an immensely strong with a savagely peerless blade technique, but more importantly, he was calm and meticulous.

He had long since perceived Zheng Zhen's problem without ever showing a hint of it, then decisively counterkilled at the most critical juncture of the battle, both overawing the hearts of others and cutting off future troubles.

A lingering fear rippled through Jiang Yuan's heart.

If Zheng Zhen had been allowed to continue lurking, their team would sooner or later have been dragged by him into a place of utter damnation.

The enemy would precisely grasp their movements, troop strength, and even launch a sneak attack from behind at a crucial moment.

By then, forget victory, even surviving would have been difficult.

What made Jiang Yuan respect him even more was Gu Chang'an's calm underlying murderous intent—

Not everyone could decisively dodge and counterkill on the spot the very instant they were backstabbed.

Had it been him, he would likely have already perished beneath a blade.

Jiang Yuan looked at Gu Chang'an's back with a complex gaze, which ultimately turned solemn, inwardly regarding the other man as his true backbone.

Meanwhile, on the other side—

"Ahahaha!!!"

Liang Hu roared to shake the heavens and earth, his pair of bloodshot eyes staring fixedly at Gu Chang'an as fire practically spewed from them.

Zheng Zhen was a dark chess piece he and Daoist Chai had painstakingly planted, an inside man, a pawn.

If used properly, he would have been enough to disrupt the tempo of the entire eradication operation and buy time for the main force.

Yet now, this pawn had been casually decapitated by Gu Chang'an.

"You!!" Gritting his teeth, Liang Hu swallowed a Blood Burst Pill, his spiked club heavily striking the ground. "You little bastard, I'm going to chop you into minced meat!!"

With a stomp of his foot, the earth shook violently, and his figure instantly lunged before Gu Chang'an, the spiked club carrying a violent True Qi as it smashed down overwhelmingly with enraged momentum!

Gu Chang'an met him with a cold gaze as the Shattering Mountain Blade soared into the air, its aura like a sea of mountains, rising to counter the strike with a single blade!

"Come on!" he shouted sharply, "Let's see who chops who!"

Gu Chang'an swung his blade to block Liang Hu's heavy blow, the shattered stones bursting beneath his feet as his figure was forcibly beaten back three steps.

His gaze was sunken and cold, the Shattering Mountain Blade in his hand trembling slightly. The force of that strike, akin to a thousand-jun thunder hammer, made the web between his thumb and forefinger ache dully.

After swallowing the Blood Burst Pill, this Liang Hu's physique had soared to 325.

It was above his own, but not by too much.

"Heh! Little bastard, aren't you quite capable? Consider yourself lucky if you can take three of my moves without dying!"

Liang Hu laughed wildly, his spiked club dancing once more to stir up gale-force winds like thunder, sweeping horizontally across as the ground suffered like a fierce plow and dust soared into the sky.

Gu Chang'an neither dodged nor evaded, holding his blade horizontally across his chest with steps as steady as a mountain.

"Well timed!" he roared, the Shattering Mountain Blade bringing forth a ferocious blade Qi akin to collapsing mountains and fracturing crags, slashing straight down!

Boom—!

Blade and club collided, an explosive roar bursting forth as the blast of energy swept outward, the surrounding trees snapping in succession and the ground sending out a shockwave that drove back friends and foes alike.

The two immediately resumed combat, the blade like startling thunder and the club like startling wind, one fast and one fierce, violently colliding along the mountain path.

Gu Chang'an nimbly wove through the fray using the Flowing Wind Steps, utilizing the Shattering Mountain Blade to meet the ferocious attacks head-on. In the blink of an eye, he sliced through several places on Liang Hu's sleeves as fresh blood flew.

Yet relying on his hard qigong armor for protection, Liang Hu suffered many blade marks without injuring his tendons or bones, growing only wilder the more he fought and laughing insatiably.

"Just this bit of strength? And you still want to kill me?!" Liang Hu laughed loudly, his blood qi churning, his body flushed red like copper and wielding his club like a dragon.

Gu Chang'an's gaze, however, grew increasingly calm.

He knew that fierce though Liang Hu was, his internal energy was scattered and his blood qi manic—it was merely a temporary surge after taking medicinal pills, and once the momentum passed, that would be the moment his flaws burst forth.

He spoke in a low voice, "All bluff and bluster. When your strength exhausts, that shall be the day your life meets its end!"

On the other side, Li Hongye held a steel long whip, her movement technique as nimble as a light swallow weaving through the forest.

The person she faced was Pei Xuan of the Startling Snake Sword.

The thin sword in Pei Xuan's hand was like a spirit snake, his strikes leaving no trace and shifting infinitely. A single sword thrust brought forth several phantoms intertwined with wisps of chill, resembling a venomous snake darting its tongue, ready to pierce the heart unawares.

Yet Li Hongye was completely unruffled, her gaze focused and stern as her long whip coiled up through the air like a rolling iron dragon, lashing downward amid a clanging din to squarely intercept Pei Xuan's offensive.

"No matter how venomous a snake is, it'll still break its bones if it runs into an iron whip!"

She sneered, the long whip clinging to him like a shadow, each form faster than the last. The iron whip lashed out with explosive sounds, sealing off Pei Xuan's multiple shifts in stance.

Pei Xuan's expression shifted slightly. He originally excelled in speed and trickery, but alas, Li Hongye pressed forward step by step, every strike carrying a towering internal energy that forced him to parry in a flurry and retreat step by step.

"Hmph, woman, you really are annoying!"

Gritting his teeth, Pei Xuan drastically altered his sword stance, the bizarrely piercing sword form "Snake Crawls Nine Nether" thrusting out as his figure turned from illusory to real, the sword momentum extremely tricky.

Li Hongye spun her figure, the long whip striking the ground to rebound and using the leverage to seal his throat. The iron whip transformed into a crescent moon, sweeping across a thousand troops and forcing Pei Xuan into a hurried retreat once more.

Not far away, Jiang Yuan and Duan Lie were also engaged in a fierce battle of fire and blood.

Duan Lie was stripped to the waist, his muscles knotted all over like a body cast from forged steel.

His giant axe danced like a mountain avalanche and a tsunami, holding mighty force as the ground cracked inch by inch beneath his feet.

"Come! Jiang Yuan! Aren't you quite capable of fighting? Watch me split you apart with one axe!"

Jiang Yuan did not reply, his twin hooks moving like lightning with cold lights bursting forth. Each hook-strike was like lightning tearing through the sky, cleverly dodging the axe's edge and specializing in severing flaws.

"You can't break my defense!" Duan Lie laughed loudly, his hard qigong making him practically impervious to blades and spears.

Yet the corners of Jiang Yuan's mouth curled up slightly into a cold smile:

"Can't break it? Then try and see!"

Suddenly, he used a fake move to lure the enemy, his left hook leaving his hand and spinning outward to slash at Duan Lie's shoulder.

Duan Lie instinctively raised his axe to parry. The next instant, Jiang Yuan's right hook leveraged the momentum to advance, piercing a hook straight into the vulnerable spot beneath his armpit!

And this vulnerability beneath the armpit happened to be the vital gate of Duan Lie's hard qigong.

"Ugh, ah!" Duan Lie roared, abruptly retreating as blood poured from the wound like a waterfall.

Jiang Yuan snorted coldly, "Let's see if you can still be arrogant. Breaking you is like breaking rotten wood."