A Fierce General

Soldiers are decisive and efficient; they don't procrastinate at all and just get to work.

Gao Ao roared angrily, and the demon king beneath him also let out a wild howl. The Tiger Demon leaped forward, and the general on his back thrust his long spear straight at Li Fan's face.

Li Fan didn't engage him. He made a hand seal and rode away on his Sword Light. He ignored the general chasing after him, even as the bald-headed bastard cursed him. He used his Frost Stone to move in a zigzag pattern, dodging the Martial God's attacks and trying to create distance to escape.

After all, the only reason he was stopped was because he didn't know what the other person wanted. What if it was a girl coming to him for dual cultivation? Or maybe she was offering him a magic weapon because he was handsome? Since he was here to cause trouble, he might as well hide for now and observe the rhythm of this guy's attacks.

To be fair, the Gao family's strength was not bad. I don't know if it was due to their natural strength or the wrong medicine they took since childhood. They charged in like tanks, with amazing momentum. Moreover, their attack range was wide, their attack speed was quite fast, and their mobility was not bad. Although they were still a little bit weaker than Li Fan's Sword Light, their attack came in a vain and they were quickly outmaneuvered by Li Fan.

Gao Ao was also furious. In fact, his mount, the giant tiger, was also Nascent Soul Stage demon. With a short burst of speed, it might not be impossible for it to catch up with Jian Wan. However, Li Fan was cunning. He took advantage of the fact that the tiger was just a beast and that there was a fully armed plate-armored man on its back. So he deliberately moved left and right, jumping back and forth, changing his speed from fast to slow, which severely exhausted the demon's stamina. He wanted to wear down the opponent's mount until it was exhausted, and then use his sword escape at top speed to create distance and get away.

Of course, Li Fan could have easily fought head-on and even had a chance to kill his opponent instantly, but it wasn't necessary and wouldn't have been worthwhile.

Now that we're back in the Taiji Realm, every bit of killing energy we use is precious. If we fight too fiercely, we'll have to dismantle our True Essence and slow down our progress, Divine Transformation even more distant. The Blood Infant is too full to digest, so this person is only passable, not quite trash, but not worthy of a fight. Besides, it's not worth it to activate the Moon Soul Golden Dragon White Star in a one-on-one fight. Li Fan also has his pride.

So Li Fan first observed his opponent, created a model to simulate the opponent's attack range and move list, and then made an assessment.

The vanguard of the Gao family's vassal army in front of me is clearly a first-rate and formidable general, a peerless war god on the battlefield. He is fully equipped with precious Martial God, divine weapons, and demonic pets, and cannot be treated as ordinary trash. Moreover, he is obviously most skilled in close combat. A head-on confrontation would probably play right into his opponent's hands. Of course, we should drag it out for a while and wear down his morale before we can make our move.

Of course, given Li Fan's current strength and the reference to the Nascent Soul Stage of the Xianbei tribe, Li Fan estimated that he could probably go head-to-head and fight them head-on. However, after careful consideration, he felt that defeating them in one move was still a bit of a stretch. If he used the true power of the Ghost Hand, he could tear off the opponent's head within five moves without much of a problem.

However, close combat carries the risk of injury. Li Fan's protective Heavenly Garment True Qi refinement is currently insufficient. To be on the safe side, he also needs to condense the Fiery Ice and Fiery Charcoal Protective Armor and be prepared to escape at any time. Each of these moves consumes a significant amount of energy.

Seeing that Li Fan dared to charge forward and fight while flying on his sword, the opponent might have some other tricks up their sleeve to counter the flying sword's decapitation strike. If they also had some ultimate move or self-destruct technique hidden, it wouldn't be impossible for them to turn the tables on Li Fan.

Moreover, if one of them is killed, the Heavenly Soldiers Army, Wangwu Mountain, and other forces might cause a lot of trouble afterwards.

As I said before, close-quarters combat is too costly, and the reward is completely disproportionate to just one point of satisfaction. Unless the opponent intentionally feeds you kills, it's really not worth fighting. But this coward started swearing right from the start, and I really don't want to let him go alive. He's truly a useless character...

Regardless, Li Fan led Gao Ao around for half an incense stick's time, defusing the opponent's momentum. He also took the opportunity to inspect the surrounding battlefield beforehand, confirming that Fourth Department were no other experts or traps lying in ambush. Only five hundred personal guard cavalry were resting on the ground. They were all elite troops at roughly the Divine Essence Body realm, heavily armored cavalry, each rider riding four horses. Half of them were currently putting on their armor. They had probably been riding lightly equipped, heading north.

It seems that Gao Ao did not deliberately ambush him, but rather bumped into him by chance, recognized Frost Stone's Sword Light, and started fighting.

"Hey bald guy! Stop right there! Give me a good fight!!"

Gao Ao's stamina is truly impressive, his voice booming like thunder. But he's also incredibly angry. If Li Fan were truly focused on escaping, he could draw his powerful bow and snipe from a distance. But Li Fan isn't creating distance; he's just reckless, not stupid. What if he abandons his spear for a bow, and the monk turns and charges to counterattack? Wouldn't that catch him completely off guard?

Seeing that his opponent didn't seem to have set up any killing traps to surround him, Li Fan thought for a moment and prepared to make his move. So, while focusing on controlling his sword, he took out a yellow talisman and a vermilion brush from his sleeve, tried the method Li Wugou had taught him to activate a killing trap, wrote a talisman, threw it into the sky, and shouted,

"Gao Ao and Fak fight for the sword pellet and Frost Stone token—a life-or-death struggle!"

However, the talisman didn't actually block out the sky and was blown away by the wind, its whereabouts unknown.

Tch... I guess I really have to use my real name...

Upon hearing this, Gao Ao was furious, shouting, "Hey! It was clearly you, you thieving bald man, who stole my magic treasure, and now you want to start a blood feud with me! How shameless!"

Li Fan laughed heartily, "Look at all the shouts you've made, this sword pellet doesn't even bother to answer you. It just goes to show that divine weapons and magical treasures belong to those who are destined to possess them. If you want them so badly, come and snatch them with your own abilities. No need for all that nonsense about 'your' or 'his'."

Gao Ao was furious. "Then why are you running away! Come and fight me!"

Li Fan rolled his eyes at him. "You were the one who wanted to steal my sword pellet, not me. What good would it do me to kill you?"

"Alright, you bring out some Cultivation Method as a wager. As long as they're worthy of this sword pellet, I'll play along."

Gao Ao was so angry his nose almost twisted out of shape. "You bald monk, you're asking for death! Fine! I'll use what I have..."

"The Grand Commander is the vanguard of the army! He should prioritize military affairs! How can he let personal matters jeopardize military matters!"

At this moment, a dark-skinned, unremarkable young military officer suddenly stepped forward and stopped the commander-in-chief.

Although this person was only at the Golden Core stage of the Divine Essence Body realm, he possessed considerable courage and composure. It seemed that he was the one who had just directed the cavalry to don their armor and form ranks.

To Li Fan's surprise, Gao Ao, with his explosive temper, actually held back, glaring fiercely at Li Fan. "Fuck you, huh! I'll remember you! I'll come back and deal with you after I've killed all the barbarians! You just wait!"

Then he actually rode the Tiger Demon, leaving Li Fan behind, and descended from the clouds to return.

Huh? What the heck? In most novels, when this kind of plot is triggered, doesn't it mean they have to fight their way up to the Gao family patriarch and wipe out the entire family? How come it ends like this? Oh, you come and go as you please, you come up here, curse me out, leave me hanging, and then say we'll fight again tomorrow, or we'll talk next time. Are you kidding me?

Seeing that the other party seemed to really want to escape, Li Fan naturally couldn't let him return to the army's cover. He stopped discussing the bet and rushed forward, slapping his palms together, Pifeng Biyue- Covering Palm strike at Gao Ao's shoulder.

Gao Ao laughed in fury, "Well done!"

He swept his spear across the ground, roused himself, and a gust of wind swirled around him. It was as if a layer of iron wind arose from the surface of his armor, forcefully deflecting the palm strike from Li Fan.

"Oh? Dou Department Techniques?" Li Fan recognized him the moment he made a move. This Gao Ao had entered the Dao through martial arts, possessing not only formidable battlefield killing moves but also the Dou Department Techniques of the Ancient Immortal Palace.

He had also read a similar fragment of the Dou Department technique manual, bestowed upon him by the Penglai Divine Palace. However, it seemed to be nothing more than Dao Breath the qi generated by martial arts techniques, attaching it to armor and weapons to increase their power and defense. To be honest, it was rather old-fashioned and lacked originality. Moreover, compared to the Heavenly Garment True Qi, which provides protection throughout the entire fight, one had to generate the qi first before it could be used, which limited its weaknesses. Therefore, Li Fan didn't practice it much.

But now, seeing Gao Ao use it, the protective gale of the Dou Department) was able to repel his palm strike, and the armor underneath was completely undamaged. Perhaps it would be quite practical for close combat in battle formations.

Similarly, the Overlord Spear swept across, releasing a Dou Department spear blade that slashed straight at Li Fan's chest like a wind blade!

Li Fan dodged on his sword, but deliberately delayed his attack by a beat, using his newly refined Heavenly Robe to protect his true qi. However, the blade sliced open his sleeve.

With just this one change of move, Li Fan could see that Gao Ao indeed had the capital to be arrogant. As expected of the Martial God Body, his destructive power in a head-on battle was probably even stronger than that of a Xuanmen Immortal. And Li Fan realized that Gao Ao's Heavenly Garment True Qi was indeed far from sufficient.

So Li Fan pretended to be 'shocked' when his sleeve was cut off, and turned to run away.

Gao Ao burst into wild laughter and turned back to chase after him.

"Grand Commander! Uncle!" The dark-faced young military officer was quite clever; he saw through Li Fan's feigned defeat at a glance, but no matter how anxious he was, it was useless. Gao Ao had already taken the bait and chased after him.

"Where do you think you're going, you bald monk!" Gao Ao chased after him with his long spear, swinging it wildly. The sharp points of the spear whizzed past Li Fan's ears, piercing holes in his protective aura.

Li Fan didn't retaliate, but just kept fleeing, luring the vanguard general away from the hundreds of elite soldiers. At the same time, he continuously slowed down, creating the illusion that he had exhausted his magic power and could no longer control the sword, allowing Gao Ao to gradually catch up.

"Take this! Tiger Roar Overlord Slash!!" This Gao Ao was truly a fierce general. Once he got hit in the head, he didn't care about anything else. He roared and swung his long spear like a windmill, performing a spear flourish, and then gathered his strength at the tip of the spear to amplify it.

But with such a long wind-up, such a large opening, and such a loud shout, it would be a miracle if Li Fan could actually be hit.

Without even turning his head, he pointed behind him with his backhand, unleashing a powerful finger strike with the Dalu Jing Tian Finger Yin Style, which pierced the eye of the Tiger Demon beneath Gao Ao's crotch!

In fact, with this upgrade, many of Li Fan's techniques received enhancements, greatly increasing their power. The Ghost Hand only gained the power of the Tai Su Dao Body from the addition of one wolf and two fish, so the increase was not the greatest. The move with the greatest increase after all the Five Mountain Gods Nascent Soul Stage was actually obtained from Luo Feng Patriarch. It can unleash all the power of the body to a single point and fully benefit from the Dalu Jing Tian Finger enhancement!

This Dalu Jingtian Yin Finger is silent and invisible when activated, specifically designed for sneak attacks. Li Fan's finger struck out unexpectedly, immediately piercing a bloody hole in the Tiger Demon's eye. The tiger screamed in pain, turned its body to the side, and twisted its head away.

Affected by his mount, Gao Ao suddenly lost his balance, his waist stiffened, and he held the long spear horizontally, remaining rigid for a moment.

Li Fan seized the opportunity, turning around and unleashing a flurry of attacks with both hands. The Six Forms of Yin Yang, Wind, Rain, Obscurity, and Light shot towards Gao Ao's face. At the same time, he controlled the Sword Light, circling around Gao Ao, maintaining a distance of three to five zhang between them. This way, he wouldn't let the long spear easily pierce him, nor would he be too far away to allow his opponent to unleash a powerful attack, and he certainly wouldn't rush too close to avoid forcing his opponent to fight to the death.

In short, he maintained a safe distance throughout, yet remained within the range of Jing Tian Zhi Li's strikes.

Against such a powerful general with high health, armor, and physical defense, the Heavenly Finger, which can break through the body's qi and ignore defense to strike the internal organs, is obviously an effective damage skill. Even if the opponent can resist the attack on acupoints for a while by relying on their physical strength, if they take too much damage, their meridians and acupoints will become blocked, their qi and blood will be obstructed, and their strength will be greatly reduced.

Although Gao Ao lacked strategic acumen, he was a seasoned veteran of many battles. After sweeping his spear twice without even touching a hair, he realized Li Fan's fighting style. Did he, the dignified Grand Commander of the Heavenly Soldiers Army Vanguard, have no pride? Could he really let someone dodge and solo him without taking any damage? He immediately threw away his long weapon, pulled out a ring-pommel sword, shouted loudly, and leaped into the air, abandoning the giant tiger, and pounced on Li Fan to slash!

Li Fan still avoided close combat, instead using Sword Light to envelop himself and retreat, delivering three consecutive finger strikes to Gao Ao's heart from a distance. The blows caused Gao Ao's face to bulge with veins, blood to spurt from his mouth and nose, and his skin to turn red and crack. He was clearly severely injured.

But he was, after all, a brute with the Martial God Body, and his blood was thick. Despite suffering severe internal injuries, his internal organs and meridians were clearly riddled with holes and in a complete mess, he still managed to gather his sword energy and unleash three slashes and two strikes, slicing through Li Fan's heavenly robes. The final sword energy was about to slash at Li Fan's face when he gathered his Fiery Armor in his palm and slapped it away with a claw.

"You thief! Who... who are you...?"

Gao Ao forced himself to exert his internal energy, and by this time his face was covered with what looked like dozens of earthworms crawling on it. He had reached his limit. After asking just this one question, his blood vessels burst, turning him blue and purple, and he fell headfirst off the cloud.

Li Fan didn't reply, and suddenly tossed something away.

Just as Gao Ao's Tiger Demon mount pounced on the wind, intending to snatch its master and escape, it inexplicably turned its head, leaned in front of Li Fan, and reached out to grab the plate that had been thrown out.

So Li Fan reached out and grabbed, unleashing the power of his Ghost Hand, tearing the tiger head off with a ripping sound.

"This method is still the most efficient, but it's better to be safe than sorry, since it won't take much time anyway."

Li Fan tossed the demon tiger's corpse to Qiongqi to gnaw on, then his Sword Light flashed down to inspect Gao Ao.

This thief, despite being struck by so many Heavenly Finger Strikes, is still alive. He is indeed Martial God with thick skin and flesh. Although he fell from the sky and was hit on the head, bleeding profusely, it was mainly because he had forcibly circulated his energy and caused his blood vessels to burst, resulting in blood flowing from all seven orifices, making him look extremely miserable.

Of course, he is in a terrible state now. All his meridians are sealed, and without miraculous medicines and the help of renowned doctors, he would be a cripple.

"Please, sir, show mercy!"

Before long, the dark-faced young general arrived on horseback. He immediately saw the bald man stripping Gao Ao of his armor and felt a chill run down his spine. However, after observing for a moment and realizing that Gao Ao was still alive, he finally mustered his courage and stepped forward.

"Please, divine being, show mercy! Spare my uncle's life! The Gao family will surely repay you handsomely!"

"Oh? How much reward are you going to offer? If you're a true brother, your whole family can come and chop me up!"

Li Fan pulled up the Heaven-Shaking Bow and tested it. He didn't know what kind of beast sinew or divine wood it was made of, but the strength was quite good.

The dark-faced young general forced a bow, "My Gao family is a local military clan, guarding the borders for the country. Having learned our lesson this time, how dare we hold a grudge against the Real Immortal? We beg you to spare your life, Uncle, in consideration of our years of diligent service in pacifying the borders, driving out the barbarians, and resisting the invasion of bandits."

"Oh, you're quite the smooth talker. Are you also the son of a Heavenly General?" Li Fan glanced at him sideways with his bow.

This dark-faced youth actually had some courage. "I am Gao Jin, and my father is a Heavenly General. I am the second son in my family. This time, upon hearing that the Left Wise King's army had invaded the border, I followed the Grand Commander to fight against the Hu Barbarians. My uncle is impulsive and doesn't know how to speak properly. He has offended the immortal. I hope you will be merciful and spare his life."

Li Fan chuckled coldly, "You thugs are used to wielding knives and killing people. If I didn't have any skills, I would have died under your blade long ago. Why would I care about offending you?"

However, I am a very kind and benevolent person, and I always leave people a way out. I can let Gao Ao off the hook, but I still have to punish him a little.

"Alright then, since your Gao family is so powerful, why don't you just casually take out one million strings of cash to help the displaced people caused by the northern barbarians' invasion? Consider it a way to save this scoundrel's life. Is that acceptable?"

Gao Jin immediately bowed and said, "I will obey your orders, Master!"

They agreed quite readily. If it weren't for the fact that they still had to resist the Hu Barbarians, Li Fan would have slapped them all to death long ago. It seems that the Gao family is indeed protected by destiny. Regardless of their personal morality and character, they are indeed full of talented people and their luck is at its peak. If they can survive this calamity with the Xianbei, they might really have a chance to succeed.

Li Fan kept his word, flicking the unconscious Gao Ao with his toe, kicking him to Gao Jin, and then flying away.