Boom!!!
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Countless swords rang out as sword energy swept in every direction!
"Myriad Swords! You fiend, don't you dare run!"
Thousands of gleaming swords soared into the air, forming a ferocious sword dragon that lunged at the black-haired youth nearby, who was desperately holding off the Sword Formation.
Feeling the flying swords bearing down behind him with earth-shaking force, Xiao Han fled for his life.
"Bastard! I cultivate the Dao too! You've got the wrong person!"
The sword lights behind him refused to let up. Xiao Han was so frantic he could hardly keep from cursing. "You damn bearded lunatic, why are you attacking me without even checking who I am?!"
"Bah! You insolent fiend! I could tell at a glance you weren't human!
"The Demonic Qi on you is even more terrifying than that of the Thousand-Year Demon Kings. Do you take me for a fool, someone you can easily trick?!
"If you count as human, then those thousand-year-old demons who've slaughtered countless people must count as human too!"
The man chasing Xiao Han while controlling countless flying swords and cursing him out was tall and burly, with a thick beard covering his face.
He had a leopard's head and round eyes, a swallow's jaw and bristling whiskers. His fierce expression made it obvious he was no good man.
If the burly, bearded man hadn't looked a little like the famous veteran actor Wu Ma, he could have gone straight to the Three Kingdoms next door and played Zhang Fei!
After seeing that familiar face and getup, Xiao Han knew without even thinking that this was Yan Chixia!
As luck would have it, Xiao Han had summoned the Demon Armor and killed a pack of wolf demons who'd tried to rob him just moments ago. Then Yan Chixia had happened to show up and witness the overwhelming Demonic Qi left behind as the armor departed.
Boom!!!
A sword beam carved a crack more than ten meters long into the ground!
Yan Chixia had attacked with a sword beam the moment they met, without a word. It had scared Xiao Han so badly that his scalp tingled, and he hadn't even gotten the chance to explain. All he could do was run.
One gave chase while the other fled, circling around the great forest.
Sword energy shot in all directions, and Yan Chixia's flying swords blasted dozens of trees to splinters. Craters appeared across the ground, one after another.
The once-smooth road had become a pockmarked wasteland in their struggle, like a battlefield that had endured a relentless barrage of land mines.
"You're so young, yet you have such terrifying Demonic Qi. You must have killed countless people. I will kill you today. There's nothing more to say!"
"Damn it! I've never killed a good person! Demon Armor, you've really screwed me over!"
Demon Armor: Who's calling me? (ФωФ)?
Xiao Han pushed his footwork to the limit, darting and leaping about, but Yan Chixia still couldn't hit him.
"This is ridiculous! You're so young, so where did you learn such incredible lightness skills?!
"Sword Formation! Return!"
Xiao Han was too fast, and his whole body was as slippery as an eel. He'd kept up the chase for half an hour, and maintaining so many flying swords was wearing Yan Chixia down, formidable cultivation or not.
With no other choice, Yan Chixia recalled the flying swords and switched to attacking with Palm Thunder!
"Heaven and Earth Have No Limits, Borrowing the Law of Heaven and Earth!"
He bit his fingers and drew two bloody Taiji symbols on each palm. As he chanted the Magic Incantation, Palm Thunder blasts rained down on Xiao Han as if they cost nothing.
"Ha! Hah! Ha! Hah!"
"Meet your death!"
"Stop running!"
"Damn it! Yan Chixia, you're using Palm Thunder like an AK47! What's wrong with you?!"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! This isn't an AK47, it's a Grenade Launcher in AK47 form! Damn it!"
Yan Chixia's barrage of destruction left the forest utterly devastated. Trees were blasted apart at the trunk, and splinters flew in every direction.
Countless birds took flight in a panic. Rabbits, foxes, mice, and other animals fled as well.
Any passerby who saw the scene would have thought a fearsome burly man was hunting down an innocent youth.
Yan Chixia had blasted dozens of Palm Thunder strikes at Xiao Han in just three minutes. Even though Xiao Han needed his help, he was starting to lose his temper.
"Stop! I have something to say!"
He pushed off with his toes and leaped a long way straight ahead. Then he quickly turned around, stretched out a hand toward the bearded man, and shouted:
"Stop!!!"
"Huff—huff!
"Kid, are you still trying to make excuses?"
After chasing him for so long, even Yan Chixia was tired. He bent over, braced his hands on his thighs, and panted.
On top of that, he was carrying a large Sword Case, a Dharma Bow, and a quiver of Dharma Swords. Moving around was already difficult. The only reason he'd managed to chase Xiao Han for so long was the Martial Path skills he'd developed while pursuing criminals before he began cultivating the Dao.
"We're both exhausted. Can we stop and rest for a bit first? Huff—huff—" Xiao Han bent over too, sweat streaming down his forehead. He braced one hand on his thigh and waved the other at Yan Chixia, his fingers trembling slightly.
In fact, Kai Dad's out-of-combat passive had already kicked in.
Feeling his exhaustion slowly fade, Xiao Han shook his head with a quiet laugh. Yan Chixia's Daoist Magic was profound, but it couldn't make up for its short duration.
"Fine! I'll stop chasing you, you little brat! You'd better not run, huff—huff—"
The burly, bearded man straightened up and glared at Xiao Han. "You'd better give me a good reason not to kill you, fiend. Otherwise, I'll risk my life today to rid the world of you!"
"Yan Chixia! You say I'm a fiend, so take a look at the cultivation technique I practice. Is it a demonic technique?!"
As he spoke, Xiao Han released the Dou Qi aura within him, imbued with the Zhenyuan properties of the Danyuan Technique.
Yan Chixia examined it closely. Xiao Han's Zhenyuan was calm and balanced, and seemed to contain a touch of righteous energy. It had none of the cold, sinister, and crooked feeling of the Demonic Path.
Anyone who wasn't blind—even a novice who'd only just begun cultivating—could tell that this was an orthodox Mysterious Sect Magic Formula! And a particularly impressive one, at that.
But appearances could be deceiving. Yan Chixia snorted. "Maybe you're using some kind of illusion. When I rushed over, I could feel terrifying Demonic Qi fading away from you in the distance. You can't fake that!"
"Namo Siddhi, Siddhi, Susiddhi, Siddhikara, Rakuya Kuten, Sanmama Shiri, Ajama Siddhi Svaha..."
Faced with Yan Chixia's doubts, Xiao Han kept a straight face as he pulled the Immovable King Mantra from his fourth-dimensional butt and began reciting it word by word.
Looking at the Buddhist scripture, which was every bit as impressive as the Diamond Sutra in his own hands, Yan Chixia felt as though his whole world had been turned upside down.
Damn! Since when could Demon Sect scum also practice the great Buddhist arts? Wouldn't the conflicting energies kill them?
Even more incredible, after reciting the Immovable King Mantra, Xiao Han used the scripture's Buddhist light to scan his entire body. Apart from his complexion becoming a little rosier, he hadn't suffered so much as a scratch. He even looked healthier.
If a demonic cultivator had been bathed in the scripture's Buddhist light like that, he'd have been in agony even if he hadn't been seriously injured.
After using the Immovable King Mantra to verify his identity, Xiao Han turned to the bearded man. "Hero Yan, that Immovable King Mantra should prove that I'm not a Demon Sect cultivator, right?"
After watching Xiao Han scan himself for authentication, Yan Chixia was already more than half convinced. He wasn't a suspicious man by nature, but the Demonic Qi that had leaked from Xiao Han was simply too terrifying. He couldn't afford to let his guard down.
Yan Chixia drew the Xuanyuan Sword and walked toward Xiao Han, sizing up the Black-Clad Youth. "Kid, I have one last question.
"I believe what you said just now, but what was that terrifying Demonic Qi that burst out of you?"
Xiao Han rolled his eyes. If Yan Chixia believed him, he wouldn't have drawn the Xuanyuan Sword before approaching.
So Xiao Han lowered his head and pondered for a moment, flipped through the script in his mind, then quickly adjusted his expression and pretended to sigh.
When he raised his head again, his face was full of pain and regret.
"Hero Yan, would you be willing to hear my story?"
"Get on with it."
Xiao Han stood with his hands behind his back and turned his back to Yan Chixia. A sorrowful aura emanated from him.
"My story begins fourteen years ago.
"My hometown was a place called Muye Daozhe Village. Its people had practiced the Dao for generations, and over the course of more than a thousand years, it had produced countless great Daoist masters.
"And when speaking of Muye Daozhe Village, I have to mention its founder: a Daoist cultivator born with an immortal body. I don't know his given name, only his Daoist title: the Daoist Immortal known as
"Master Zhujian.
"That master was not only a Daoist disciple; his Buddhist cultivation was also extraordinary!
"He combined Buddhist techniques with his cultivation, and his power was earth-shattering! In the end, by practicing both Buddhism and Daoism and incorporating the Yimu Technique, he cultivated the Buddhist manifestation of the Thousand-Hand Buddha. No one before or since has ever matched his achievements!
"He was given the epithet 'Thousand-Hand Zhujian'!
"And the source of the Demonic Qi within me was a Demonic Weapon sealed by Master Zhujian more than a thousand years ago—
"the Demon Armor!"
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