Killing a Late-Ninth-Rank Exotic Beast with One Punch, and You Call Yourself a Swordsman?

At the same time.

In the mountain forest.

"An early-ninth-rank exotic beast can't even scrape my skin."

Li Mo glanced at his own fist.

Everyone said that when striking a snake, strike seven inches from the head.

But just now, he had deliberately wanted to test where the limits of his physical body lay.

The result was that, without even using the power of his qi and blood, he had shattered that python with the little wings in one punch.

Strangely enough.

Li Mo had never even killed a chicken before.

Yet the first time he killed an exotic beast, there was not the slightest tension or discomfort in his heart. When he threw his punch, he had been calm and unruffled, as if he had already had countless similar experiences.

"Is this also a benefit brought by the Profound Gate Immortal Physique?"

Li Mo could not help wanting to complain.

It seemed that aside from practicing the sword, he picked up anything else extremely quickly.

He shook the blood from his fist.

"Moon-Gazing Cliff..."

Li Mo checked it against the map.

Then he took out the Green Steel Sword and walked toward the depths of the forest.

Within the vast dense forest, scattered shouts could be heard.

From time to time, he could also see newly inducted disciples fighting exotic beasts.

Li Mo did not linger.

Along the way, he encountered a few more early-ninth-rank exotic beasts, but their outcomes were the same as the Winged Snake from before.

All were killed in a single sword strike. Li Mo had not even used any sword techniques.

Very soon, he arrived at the area marked on the map as "Brook Stone Forest."

Strangely shaped stone pillars stood one after another, like dried-up trees without branches. Between them ran a river more than ten meters wide.

"This river flows down from Moon-Gazing Cliff."

"I only need to go upstream."

Li Mo pondered in his heart.

Footsteps came from ahead. When he raised his eyes, he saw an inner sect steward dragging back a sheep-shaped exotic beast clad in scales, with black horns.

An old friend.

Black-Horned Sheep.

Never mind that it often appeared on the dining tables of Autumn Water Pavilion. In truth, this was a late-ninth-rank exotic beast. Though herbivorous, it was exceptionally aggressive and exceptionally strong.

Yet now it had been slain by a single sword strike.

"Ying Bing killed it?"

Li Mo recognized it at once.

A clean, decisive sword cut had sealed its throat. The wound had even been frozen over, without a single drop of blood flowing out.

Perhaps before the Black-Horned Sheep died, it had not even known it was going to die.

"That's right. It is indeed the work of True Disciple Ying."

The steward nodded.

He stood where he was, watching Li Mo just like that, and no longer moved a step.

Li Mo was first somewhat puzzled, but then his brows relaxed.

He felt it too.

The next instant.

Suddenly, a huge black shadow surfaced in the water and leapt high into the air.

It was actually an enormous turtle with a bumpy, uneven back!

A late-ninth-rank exotic beast, the Spine-Back Turtle.

Turtle blood could be used in medicine, turtle meat was extremely delicious, and even the turtle shell was a fine material. The bathtubs in Autumn Water Pavilion used it as their raw material...

Of course, as a late-ninth-rank exotic beast, the Spine-Back Turtle also had an extremely vicious temperament. In waters where it resided, there would basically be no other fish.

"Both are late-ninth-rank exotic beasts."

That inner sect steward watched from the side with great interest.

These two true disciples had joined Clear Abyss Sect at the same time, and both had climbed to the hundredth step of the Heaven-Ascending Stone Steps.

Disciple Ying could kill a Black-Horned Sheep in one stroke.

He wondered how this Disciple Li would fare against a Spine-Back Turtle.

Of course, though they were both late ninth-grade mutated beasts, the Spine-Back Turtle would definitely be harder to kill. If it pulled all four limbs into its shell, a Blood-Qi Realm martial artist could probably only stand there and glare helplessly.

Just as he was thinking that, Li Mo, across from him, had already moved.

The Green Steel Sword suddenly bloomed with dozens of sword lights, each strike wrapped in blood-qi held back and not yet unleashed.

"Not bad swordwork."

A trace of admiration inevitably showed in the inner sect deacon's eyes.

Even among the past true disciples of Clear Abyss Sect, this sword technique could be called stunning.

If he had not seen Ying Bing's swordwork, he would probably have been even more surprised.

Sensing danger, the Spine-Back Turtle opposite him let out a low growl and immediately tucked its four limbs back in.

The dozens of feather marks formed by Fire Crane Thousand Feathers exploded across the turtle shell, instantly leaving it covered in tiny notches.

And it was not only the turtle shell that had been nicked.

Several rice-grain-sized chips had also been broken out of the Green Steel Sword.

Li Mo: "..."

This sword was an ordinary weapon issued by the sect. Logically speaking, it was more than enough to kill a ninth-grade mutated beast.

Unfortunately, he had run into a hard-boned iron turtle.

If he had used just a bit more force earlier, the turtle shell might not have been cut open, and the sword would have snapped first.

"Roar..."

The Spine-Back Turtle seemed to lose its nerve. It turned and fled toward the water again.

"Don't run!"

Li Mo chased after it without the slightest hesitation.

You came at me all fierce and ferocious just now, and now that you've chipped my weapon, you want to leave?

"Disciple Li!"

"That beast is cunning!"

The deacon had only just spoken when Li Mo had already chased it into the water.

Watching a string of bubbles rise, anxiety surged in the deacon's heart.

Once it was in the water, the Spine-Back Turtle was more than ten times harder to deal with. Even a peak ninth-grade mutated beast would not dare tangle with this thing underwater.

Li Mo's swordwork was indeed good.

But in this water, he probably could not bring out even fifty percent of his ability!

Just as he decided that if the situation looked wrong, he would immediately go down to save him, gurgle, gurgle—boom!

The river surface suddenly exploded with muddy waves, and a massive figure was flung up into the air.

Li Mo's figure followed closely behind.

His entire body was like a meteor striking the earth as he flew down.

The Spine-Back Turtle's pupils were filled with terror, as if at that moment, it had already smelled the scent of death.

But this time, it could not return to the water. It could only use the same old trick and tuck its four limbs and head back into its shell.

"!"

The inner sect deacon watched with his own eyes, his mouth gaping wide.

The Spine-Back Turtle had been thrown up out of the water?

But this was not over yet.

The next moment, something even more terrifying happened.

This time, Li Mo did not use his sword. Every muscle in his body was tensed to the limit.

The Six Harmonies Fist's mastered state of Six Harmonies Connected as One, the blood-qi force of ten meridians, was driven to the extreme, and it even carried the martial killing aura of the Extreme Weapon Slaughter Body.

He threw a punch!

That fist landed on the turtle shell.

The turtle shell was like a fragile eggshell, smashed inward and shattered by sheer force.

The force even passed through the turtle shell, shaking a wide web of spiderweb cracks into the ground.

"I really..."

"I want to be a swordsman!"

Little Li clenched his fists, his heart filled with boundless grief and indignation.

Hearing his furious roar, the steward's already stiff face began twitching wildly.

He looked over and saw dark-red blood slowly flowing out from the shattered turtle shell.

The Spine-Back Turtle had clearly been punched to death.

And it had died anything but peacefully.

Looking at Li Mo again, the clothing on his arms had completely burst apart, his entire body steaming with scorching-hot vapor, the muscles revealed by accident looking as if they had been cast from gold and iron.

You... a swordsman?

The Spine-Back Turtle had been hammered to death by you, but if it were still alive, it would have jumped up to protest.

After the time it took to drink a cup of tea, the corpses of two strange beasts were laid beneath the platform at the entrance.

One of them—everyone knew what it was the moment they looked. This was a Black-Horned Sheep, and it had definitely been killed by Ying Bing.

But when they saw the "lump" behind it, the elders, in their haste, actually failed to recognize what species it was.

"This is a Spine-Back Turtle?"

"Reporting to the elder, it was when it was alive."

"This..."

The expressions on the elders' faces were more marvelous than the next.

Ying Bing was astonishing. Up until now, against every strange beast she had faced, she had killed them with one precise sword strike.

It was as if she knew exactly where the strange beasts' weaknesses were.

As for Li Mo... they truly did not know how to evaluate him.

"Niece Shang Wu, you're sure you taught him sword arts, right?" Xue Jing confirmed again.

"What would I lie to you for?"

Shang Wu sniffed lightly with her delicate nose.

The inner sect steward also testified, "Disciple Li did indeed use a sword, and his swordsmanship was exceptional. It was just that the quality of his weapon was too poor, so he couldn't break open the Spine-Back Turtle's shell."

"When he smashed the Spine-Back Turtle to death with one punch, he was still shouting something like wanting to be a swordsman."

"..."

Did that not mean his fist was even harder than a turtle shell?

The elders fell into silence once more.

After a long while, Elder Han He finally spoke slowly.

"When the trial is over, let Li Mo go to Divine Blade Cave and pick a weapon. Among named weapons, swords are the most numerous, and one more won't be missed. If he truly doesn't find anything he likes, he can go choose two from this old man's private collection too."

"Hmph, as if we need your permission."

Shang Wu lifted her chin and said, "That whoever, tally the scores!"

The steward standing in front of the scoreboard wiped his sweat, then raised his brush and wrote and marked on the board.

Everyone glanced over.

On the scoreboard, Li Mo and Ying Bing had almost crushingly thrown everyone else far behind them.

The gap between the two of them was very small.

Ying Bing was leading only by a slim advantage of 5 points.

As for third place...

Wang Hu?