After the dust settled.
At the center lay a crater several meters across. Mao Ba's Golden Bell Shield had left only his crooked neck exposed; the rest of him was buried inside!
The might of a single punch—terrifying beyond belief!
This was the power unleashed when the human body's potential was fully liberated after entering the Heroic Domain!
Within his Steel Body, every organ, muscle, and microscopic tissue had tensed and converged into a single force!
If the power of an ordinary Unified Force practitioner was like a high-explosive bomb, then every punch and kick Wu Dao unleashed after entering the Heroic Realm was comparable to a small missile strike!
"Ugh..."
Mao Ba, who had yet to recover from his injuries, had taken the blow head-on. Even with the Golden Bell Talisman protecting him, he spat out a great mouthful of hot blood, feeling as though his internal organs had been shattered!
Crack! Crack!
But what terrified Mao Ba even more was the sound of the golden bell shattering beside his ears.
Just one punch!
One punch had broken the Golden Bell Talisman, which even a peak Unified Force practitioner giving it everything he had could barely damage!
This proved one thing beyond all doubt—
Wu Dao had indeed entered the Second Rebirth realm!
Danger! Danger! Danger!!
An endless aura of death filled his heart.
This was an overwhelming difference in power!
Any scheme would come to nothing!
But.
Mao Ba still held on to a sliver of hope.
The Golden Bell Talisman's greatest strength wasn't its defense!
After all, once a tortoise shell broke, you still died.
The talisman's true power lay in turning an opponent's strength against them. Once it reached its limit, it would return all the power it had absorbed to its opponent!
Mao Ba was gambling!
He was betting Wu Dao wouldn't notice anything strange about the Golden Bell Talisman!
Unfortunately!
This time, he had bet wrong!
After reaching Subtle Mastery, a person's Vitality and Spirit resonated with the world. Within the little world of the body, even the tiniest change rang out as clearly as thunder!
How could Wu Dao fail to notice the golden bell before him continuously compressing and gathering power, like an electromagnetic cannon about to fire?
The moment his next blow landed—
It would explode!
But would that help?
"Desperate struggles!"
With that thought,
Wu Dao sneered and clenched his fist again.
The perfect muscles across his body rose and coiled like dragons and serpents. His internal organs tensed as immense strength gathered into one, and he brought down another earth-shaking Whale Hammer Style blow!
Boom!
The earth trembled again, the soil rolling like a dragon turning over. One layer was churned to muck, then countless clods were thrown into the air. A violent gale formed from the compressed, surging air blasted outward, carrying dust that stained the surrounding forest brown.
Crack!
The second punch!
The force instantly surpassed the Golden Bell Talisman's limit, and it shattered with a deafening crash!
"Die!!"
At that very instant,
Mao Ba roared, and with a thought, the fragments of the golden bell condensed into a golden arrow as thick as a thumb and shot toward Wu Dao's head!
That arrow!
It had compressed the power of Wu Dao's two full-strength blows.
And Mao Ba had released it with a single thought!
Mao Ba didn't believe Wu Dao could dodge it!
However.
Did Wu Dao need to dodge?
Even though his Subtle Mastery had already alerted him, he had no need to move!
Clang!!
It was like an iron nail shot against a steel plate!
The golden arrow pierced through a layer of Wu Dao's iron-hard scalp, then couldn't advance another inch. It stopped against his skull, as hard as the finest steel, leaving behind only the faintest mark.
Bones were the load-bearing beams of the human body!
The perfectly evolved Stealing Heaven's Secret System naturally prioritized the evolution of the bones, allowing the body to control its strength perfectly!
Under these circumstances,
How could a Heaven Stealer be injured by his own power?!
Unfortunately.
Mao Ba had no idea.
Conceited and self-important!
"Had enough?"
With a thought, Wu Dao's damaged scalp wriggled like an ironworm and healed. He grinned at Mao Ba, whose face had turned ashen, and bared a savage smile!
Mao Ba was at the end of his rope.
Like a fragile mage who had used up all his spells, now facing a fully armored warrior with a devastating attack.
All he could do was wait to die!
But he wasn't willing to accept it!
He had once dreamed of roaming the world with a sword. How could his blade be broken the moment he set out?
With that thought,
Mao Ba gritted his teeth and resorted to his last card—
"Wait! If you kill me, then in the future..."
Thud!
A giant foot stomped down, shaking the earth!
His fine head burst open like a watermelon.
Mao Ba would never finish what he had been saying.
And so,
in the battle at Canyun Mountain,
every participant—
except Wu Dao, died!
What had happened in the mountains
would remain buried there forever. Heaven knew, earth knew, and Wu Dao knew.
No!
Someone else knew!
A fierce glint flashed in Wu Dao's black-and-gold eyes. He bent his knees, blasted the ground apart beneath his feet, and shot toward the forest in a violent gust, chasing after the three Fist Masters who had fled.
His Subtle Mastery perception!
Every trace and clue appeared clearly in his mind!
After only a dozen breaths, Wu Dao, trailing a violent wave of air, caught up with the three Fist Masters fleeing in panic.
There was no needless talk!
Not a trace of mercy!
After a brief bout of brutal slaughter, the three were torn to pieces, dead beyond any doubt!
If Mao Ba hadn't returned to the scene,
Wu Dao wouldn't have taken their lives.
Unfortunately...
They had Mao Ba to blame.
Mao Ba was a disciple of Huanglong Temple.
Judging by the wariness in Zhao Wei's voice earlier,
it wasn't hard to see
that Huanglong Temple was a major power in Guangqing Prefecture, no weaker than the Four Seas Gang.
More importantly,
Huanglong Temple was full of Immortal Cultivators whose methods were mysterious and unpredictable!
If word ever got out that he had killed Mao Ba, it would be like kicking a hornet's nest!
For a long time to come,
he would be living in fear!
Wu Dao would never allow any "what ifs."
If he had the ability to snuff danger out in its cradle, he wouldn't trust human nature. He had to uproot the weeds and leave no roots!
Whoosh~
A cool mountain breeze swept by.
Wu Dao glanced at the bits of flesh and blood covering him. He was about to return to where Mao Ba had died when he remembered Mao Ba's last words.
With a thought,
his immense mental power swept through every part of his body, inside and out, missing not the slightest detail. Soon, he discovered something amiss.
"Heh. This trick again."
Wu Dao let out a cold laugh.
Under the scrutiny of his mental awareness,
a mark had somehow appeared in his brain, bypassing his mental senses. It looked like a tumor and resembled a tiny Yellow Dragon.
Before entering the Heroic Realm,
he might have been helpless against it.
But Wu Dao could now use his powerful mental awareness to control every inch of his body and operate on himself.
This petty trick
was nothing to him!
With a thought,
he cut off the Yellow Dragon Mark's supply of nutrients, sealed his qi and blood, and controlled his microscopic tissues to "cut it out." His skull cracked open, and he expelled the mark before his skull swiftly healed.
Smack!
Wu Dao clenched his iron palm around the expelled Yellow Dragon Mark and probed it with his mental awareness. Inside, he could make out a tiny, phantom "Mao Ba."
Squish!
His iron palm closed, sparks flying!
The tumor-like Yellow Dragon Mark was crushed into a pool of blood.
After dealing with the hidden danger,
Wu Dao didn't leave at once. Instead, he carefully tidied up the battlefield again, concealing the traces he had left behind.
Finally,
he set everything ablaze. The raging flames reduced every bit of Huilong's remains and belongings to ashes!
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh~
The wind howled through the mountains, fanning the flames. Before long, thick smoke billowed up toward the sky, but Wu Dao, who had set the fire, had already vanished from the mountainside.
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