The mere Little Sword Saint, Lu Jiu, naturally had no chance of stabbing Annie. On the contrary, for some inexplicable reason, he took a kick from her.
And, unsurprisingly, not only had he failed to see when Annie had kicked him, but that kick had also shattered his dantian and crippled all his inner force. His power had scattered on the spot, and from then on, he might well be worse off than an ordinary person.
And so!
Under everyone's startled cries and utterly astonished gazes, Little Sword Saint Lu Jiu, who had been lunging at Annie with his sword, collapsed stiffly into the muddy ground beside the shoulder pole of a farmer who had just been carrying manure. His gray martial outfit was soaked in filth, and his ten fingers dug convulsively into the dirt as if he were enduring some tremendous pain.
The reason he was like that was, of course, that he was suffering the needle-sharp agony of his qi dispersing from his dantian.
His dantian should have been filled with inner force surging like a great river. But now, it was like a ruptured waterskin, like a burst balloon. In the blink of an eye, the inner force he had cultivated for half his life had drained away, and his life's cultivation had been destroyed!
"You—"
Only after realizing what had happened to him did he force himself to raise his head, enduring the agony and the stench enveloping him. A series of beastlike growls rumbled from his throat:
"Witch!"
"Witch of the Mount Hua Sect!"
"You..."
"How dare you cripple my martial arts?!"
As he spoke, he struggled to get up and do something, but his knees were completely powerless now that his cultivation had been broken. He had just managed to stand before stumbling,