Removing the Armor

A thunderous boom rang out. Fire waves and bolts of lightning scattered in all directions.

Wu Tie let out a muffled groan as Shi Lingqing smashed him flying dozens of meters. He crashed headfirst before the steps of the great hall.

The blood-flame lightning Shi Lingqing had transformed into shot skyward. After circling several hundred meters overhead, it spun rapidly like a massive drill and came howling down at Wu Tie.

Wu Tie was still dazed from the previous blow and had yet to recover from the violent impact when Shi Lingqing dove from the sky and slammed into him again.

The ground shook violently. Dirt erupted more than ten meters into the air all around them. Wu Tie groaned. Even through his armor, the collision made his organs churn, and he spat out a stream of blood.

A huge pit over ten meters across was blasted into the earth. The pond before the great hall was caught in the impact as glittering sprays of water soared into the sky. Lotus leaves and petals were shattered to pieces and scattered far away.

Wu Tie lay spread-eagled at the bottom of the several-meter-deep crater, his head tilted as he looked at Shi Lingqing.

Having seized part of Grandma Hong's life essence and then used wicked arts to steal Shi Dian's awakened innate divine ability, Shi Lingqing's strength had surged dramatically in an extremely short time, far surpassing Wu Tie, who had only just broken through to the first level of Foundation Establishment.

Seeing how naturally and effortlessly she darted and flew through the air, Wu Tie had no way of judging what realm she had reached.

"What comes after the Foundation Establishment realm?" Wu Tie's head buzzed, and he could not focus.

After being pinned down and beaten by Shi Lingqing for so long, his head had suffered far too severe a concussion. Countless stars danced before his eyes, and his skull felt heavy as he fought the urge to vomit.

"This body-hugging armor of yours is very good." After one heavy strike, Shi Lingqing borrowed the rebound to rise dozens of meters into the air. Standing upon a faint cloud of fire, she slowly descended and looked down at Wu Tie from above.

"I think it should be mine." Shi Lingqing smiled seductively. "Your armor is mine. Your spear is mine. The Ancient Treasures in the great hall are mine. This Ancient Sage's remains should be mine as well."

"Hehe, if you are willing, you can be mine too." Shi Lingqing looked at Wu Tie with a smile. "By chance, Qiao is dead, and Ding is dead too. I had originally intended to make them my confidants... As for Shi Dian, there is no need to mention him. A household slave who coveted his master deserved to die..."

"You are different. You obtained Ancient Treasures and an inheritance. Your luck is quite good. I like lucky people."

"You are quite handsome too. Though you are a little young, I do not mind..."

"Are you willing to become mine?"

Shi Lingqing smiled at Wu Tie.

Wu Tie staggered to his feet. Tilting his head, he looked at Shi Lingqing and seriously thought back over everything that had happened since Shi Lingqing, Luolin, and the others entered this secret realm.

One event after another flashed through his mind. Wu Tie sighed.

"You people are too frightening. Your affairs are too complicated." Wu Tie gripped his spear tightly and pointed it at Shi Lingqing. "I am afraid I will end up like Shi Dian, suddenly killed from behind by you one day."

"I want to live more simply..." Thinking of the peaceful life he had once led at the Wu Family stone fortress, Wu Tie said in a low voice, "Once I have the power to take revenge, once I avenge Father and my brothers, I will return to my family's stone fortress..."

Wu Tie recalled Wu Zhan's endless talk about his hopes for his sons. Smiling, he said, "I will find one or several kind and pure women, have children with them, and continue the bloodline... Sorry, but you are not pure at all."

Wu Tie had no idea how devastating those words were to a girl who thought so highly of herself.

Especially since he was several years younger than Shi Lingqing.

He had said Shi Lingqing was not a pure woman.

The saying went that children spoke without restraint. Words spoken from Wu Tie's heart carried even greater destructive power.

Shi Lingqing's face turned iron-blue. With an enraged shriek, she shot toward a cluster of crystals more than a meter thick and repeatedly struck it with her palms.

Amid thunderous blasts, the crystal cluster erupted with dazzling light. No matter how Shi Lingqing exerted all her strength, the crystals did not budge in the slightest and suffered no damage whatsoever.

Wu Tie stared blankly for a moment. Looking at Shi Lingqing's hysterical actions, he laughed. "Were you trying to break one off and use it to smash me? Hehe, looks like you wasted your strength. Isn't there something here that is much easier to get?"

Still smiling, Wu Tie looked back at the great hall behind him.

Shi Lingqing let out a long shriek. Somewhat bedraggled, she left the crystal cluster and charged to the entrance of the great hall. She wrapped both arms around a stone pillar as thick as an embrace beneath the eaves and gave it a savage heave.

The pillar, over ten meters long, snapped. Shi Lingqing raised it high, cursed loudly, and viciously swung it into Wu Tie.

With a tremendous boom, the stone pillar shattered. Wu Tie was blasted over a hundred meters away by the brutal blow, crashing headfirst into a cluster of crystals. His body rebounded dozens of meters, and he lay twitching, unable to move for a long while.

Old Tie, lying on the ground, slightly raised his head and sighed softly. "As expected of a disciple I painstakingly trained... He has thirty percent of my skill at mouthing off... Heh, what a foul mouth!"

Wu Tie lay on the ground, unable to move for a long time. Thin streams of light flowed across his body-hugging armor. Amid faint hissing sounds, the armor turned into flowing metallic liquid and slowly peeled away from his body.

With a thud, the body-hugging armor became a pallid metal sphere the size of a human head and softly fell to the ground.

Wu Tie froze.

Shi Lingqing looked at the pallid metal sphere in shock and delight. "Ha? Without that armor, can you still escape my grasp?"

Wu Tie looked at Old Tie in alarm. "Old Tie..."

Old Tie did not move at all. He lay there like a heap of broken copper and scrap iron.

Wu Tie's cry drew Shi Lingqing's attention. She looked at Old Tie, suddenly swung both hands, and sent two arm-thick bolts of lightning wreathed in bloody flames howling down upon him.

Old Tie was struck rolling all over the ground, lightning flashing from his entire body.

Like a dead object, he rolled and bounced across the ground without any reaction or sound.

"Dead?" Shi Lingqing smiled faintly. After studying Old Tie carefully for a while, she finally relaxed.

With a soft laugh, Shi Lingqing slowly walked toward Wu Tie.

Wu Tie struggled to rise with his spear in hand. Gritting his teeth, he looked at Shi Lingqing and unconsciously kept retreating step by step. He knew perfectly well that he could not possibly be a match for the current Shi Lingqing.

"Are you afraid?" Shi Lingqing smiled at Wu Tie and continued closing in step by step. A glimmer of moisture shone in her eyes as an indescribable aura of seduction quietly spread from her. "Why be afraid? Actually, as long as you kneel before me now..."

Shi Lingqing stretched out her bare foot and laughed softly. "Look at my foot, so fair and tender... If you kneel down, lick my foot, and promise to serve me wholeheartedly from now on, please me, and obey every command I give, I can let you enjoy every pleasure a man can imagine..."

Shi Lingqing narrowed her eyes. The moisture in them seemed about to ripple over. "What our Longevity Cult excels at most is satisfying every desire hidden in everyone's heart... Whether man or woman... Whatever your heart desires, we can satisfy it..."

"Submit to me and join the Longevity Cult. You will not regret it... I think highly of your potential, handsome young master!" Shi Lingqing smiled smugly.

Wu Tie drew a deep breath and said in a low voice, "You are not pure at all... You could even be called a very, very bad woman... So..."

A figure flashed before his eyes. Shi Lingqing suddenly appeared in front of Wu Tie.

Wu Tie instinctively thrust his spear forward. With a faint tearing sound, the spearhead nearly grazed Shi Lingqing's shoulder as it slid past.

Shi Lingqing swung both hands. In the blink of an eye, dozens of slaps struck Wu Tie's face viciously.

Wu Tie's head was knocked violently from side to side. The soft flesh inside his mouth was torn open by his teeth, and blood gushed out. Blood sprayed several feet from the corners of his mouth, while more blood and saliva streamed down, staining his upper body bright red.

The dozens of slaps nearly knocked Wu Tie unconscious. Then a sharp pain exploded in both shoulders. Shi Lingqing mercilessly slammed both palms onto his shoulders, shattering them.

"A young master who does not suffer a little will never know regret." Shi Lingqing's smile was radiant. "You still have a little time to think it over properly. Will you submit to me, or die here?"

"If you wish to submit to me, lick my foot... And hand over the ancient inheritance you obtained." Shi Lingqing looked at Wu Tie with greed in her eyes. "You are only at the first level of Foundation Establishment, yet your physical strength could easily suppress Luolin and the others, whose cultivation was far above yours..."

"Your inheritance should be mine. Only I, Shi Lingqing, the final victor, am qualified to enjoy all this."

"The Ancient Treasures in the great hall, the Ancient Sage's remains, your armor and spear, and the inheritance you obtained..." Shi Lingqing grabbed Wu Tie by the neck and strode impatiently toward the great hall. "Everything is mine... Only I, the one who laughs last, am qualified to enjoy it all."

"Young master, handsome young master, think carefully. Should you not give your inheritance to me?" Shi Lingqing lifted Wu Tie and gently kissed his cheek. "I do not want to use violence on you..."

Though she said that, Shi Lingqing drove a fist into Wu Tie's lower abdomen.

A tremendous force struck him. His organs convulsed violently, and the piercing pain made tears stream wildly from Wu Tie's eyes. His stomach churned, and he spewed another mouthful of blood mixed with gastric fluid. His mouth was filled with the taste of blood and an indescribable strange flavor.

Some of the gastric fluid surged back into his nasal cavity. The sour pain was unbearable. His nose burned in agony, his body convulsed violently, and thick fluid kept spurting from his nose and mouth. The pain nearly made him faint.

Standing at the entrance of the great hall, Shi Lingqing glanced at the thousand-meter-tall Ox Hero and swallowed with difficulty.

"You are mine. Wait for me." Reaching out, she made a grasping motion at Ox Hero's enormous body. Then Shi Lingqing chuckled softly, clutched Wu Tie by the neck, and dragged him into the great hall, unable to move or make a sound.

On the prayer mat, the last remaining golden skeleton sat cross-legged. Strands of dim luminous mist continuously sprayed from the cracks covering its body, gradually dissolving into the air.

On the damaged golden lotus, wisps of dim golden mist tightly wrapped around the piece of Bone Crusher.

The thumb-sized piece of Bone Crusher slowly rotated, like a caged bird that had eaten and drunk its fill, in no hurry to escape the golden lotus's confinement.

Wu Tie struggled to widen his eyes and stare at the piece of Bone Crusher floating above the golden lotus.

It was this strange piece of Bone Crusher that had drained half his blood.

The shameless thing had actually run off after feeding.

Shi Lingqing threw Wu Tie to the ground, raised her foot, and viciously stomped on his knee. Wu Tie jerked violently and let out a miserable cry.

Shi Lingqing brutally crushed his knee. His shoulders had also been shattered. Now he lay prone on the ground, unable to move, only barely able to raise his head and watch what Shi Lingqing would do next.

Walking carefully to the golden lotus, Shi Lingqing crouched down and stared at the piece of Bone Crusher excitedly.

"What a strange Ancient Treasure. Though I do not understand what it is, it must be... very valuable."

Shi Lingqing said gently, "The Ancient Sage outside, this cavern, the incomparably hard crystals within it, this great hall, and the golden skeletons inside... If I am not mistaken, they all existed for its sake."

"Then what exactly are you?" Shi Lingqing looked at the piece of Bone Crusher and cautiously reached out her hand.

"What benefits can you give me?" Shi Lingqing was trembling all over with excitement.

Wu Tie lay beside her. Shi Lingqing's clothes had been completely burned away by bloody flames, leaving her body fully exposed. Wu Tie saw countless goosebumps rise across her skin and every hair stand on end. Clearly, her emotions had been stirred to their utmost limit.

Just as Shi Lingqing's hand was about to touch the piece of Bone Crusher, she suddenly stopped.

"These Ancient Treasures, especially those untouched by human hands, all carry unpredictable risks." Shi Lingqing turned and smiled at Wu Tie, nodding slightly. "Our Longevity Cult has explored three ancient ruins in the Azure Flame Domain and obtained four Ancient Treasures, but over a thousand elite disciples were killed or injured."

"I do not want to die here." Shi Lingqing's smile was brilliant. "I still have a wonderful life to enjoy... But if you die, it will not cost me anything. Of course, I will shed a few tears for you. After all, young master, you are so handsome."

Shi Lingqing roughly seized Wu Tie by the neck. Her sharp fingernails sliced open his throat without hesitation, and she brought the wound close to the piece of Bone Crusher.

The piece of Bone Crusher suddenly struggled. Amid faint cracking sounds, more than half the pale glow restraining it in the golden lotus was torn apart. The piece of Bone Crusher abruptly attached itself to Wu Tie's wound, and blood throughout Wu Tie's body suddenly surged as vast quantities rushed frantically toward it.

"Ah, it drinks blood." Shi Lingqing's body trembled violently. She laughed excitedly. "Good thing, good thing I did not touch it carelessly."

"Oh, young master, your blood vessels have all shriveled up. Your blood is about to be sucked dry, isn't it? Ah, you must hold on. Before this treasure is satisfied, you absolutely cannot let anything happen to you!"

Shi Lingqing smiled at Wu Tie. Light rippled in her eyes, so watery they seemed ready to drip.

Wu Tie's body convulsed as the piece of Bone Crusher continuously drained his blood. Darkness suddenly swept over his vision, and he completely lost consciousness.

The blood remaining in his body had already crossed the danger line and reached a life-threatening level.