[Skull-Crushing Hand Black Pupil]

Mountains rose in rugged ranks, and a long bridge spanned the river.

At the bridge entrance.

A roadblock had been set up.

More than a dozen burly men, reeking of banditry, wielded blades and axes as they stopped a merchant caravan trying to cross the bridge.

The air

was thick with the stench of blood.

Several bodies hacked into pieces lay on the ground. They were the guards who had resisted from within the caravan.

With the guards gone,

the rest of the group had been forced together by the bandits, squatting on the ground and trembling.

But there was one exception.

Wu Dao stood behind the crouching crowd, his nine-foot, mighty frame cloaked in black. His build, like that of a savage bear in the forest, stood out conspicuously.

He wore a bamboo hat that hid his unusual black-and-gold eyes. Through its black veil, he glanced at the dozen or so bandits at the bridge entrance, mildly surprised:

These vermin are pretty strong this time.

A dozen or so bandits.

Their leader was a fierce man with thick limbs, a powerful physique, and the broad back and sturdy waist of a tiger.

A black eyepatch covered one eye. He carried an enormous spiked club and had more than a little of the Black Wind Stronghold chief's air about him.

He certainly lived up to that imposing presence.

After all,

he was at the Divine Strength Realm!

Most of the other bandits were at the Rigidity and Flexibility Realm, with a few at Internal Strengthening. Every one of them was a skilled fighter capable of taking on a hundred ordinary men.

Now this is interesting.

Wu Dao gazed into the distance, toward the far end of the long bridge. Through the clouds and mist, he could just make out a magnificent city dominating the plain.

Lancang City!

The White Whale Martial Arts Hall's headquarters!

It was only a few dozen li away, yet a powerful band of mountain bandits still prowled about unchecked. That was highly unusual.

After all, once you entered Lancang City, all you had to do was pay the White Whale Martial Arts Hall a certain protection fee, and your life and property would be safe.

These bandits had set up roadblocks so brazenly, robbing merchants and seizing their goods. They were practically trying to steal the White Whale Martial Arts Hall's business.

Where did they get the nerve?

Or was it...

Someone lending it to them?

Wu Dao had his suspicions, but he didn't dwell on them. The outcome was the same either way.

"Hey, I'm talking to you! Are you deaf? Take off that bamboo hat! You're a big guy, so how come you don't know how to read the room?"

A loud, insolent curse rang out, pulling Wu Dao back from his thoughts.

Wu Dao glanced over.

A dark-faced man at the Rigidity and Flexibility Realm was cursing and shouting at him. His mouthful of yellow teeth was utterly disgusting.

It was no wonder he was so arrogant.

These past few days, to make it easier to learn about this world and avoid drawing attention to himself,

Wu Dao had kept his blood and physique suppressed, drawn all his immense spiritual pressure back into his body, and worn a bamboo hat to hide his appearance.

It wasn't that he enjoyed playing the pig to eat the tiger.

It was just that, with his strength as it was now, if he didn't conceal it at all, he'd cause a commotion wherever he went. People would stare at him like he was a monkey in a zoo, and it drove him crazy.

What's more,

the Huanglong Temple behind Mao Ba might still be investigating him, so it wasn't wise to become "famous" just yet.

Once he joined the White Whale Martial Arts Hall, it wouldn't matter.

Over the past few days, Wu Dao had also learned how powerful the Huanglong Temple was. Though it was an aloof Immortal Dao sect "on the mountain,"

it couldn't exactly do as it pleased throughout Guangqing Prefecture. The White Whale Martial Arts Hall wasn't afraid of them.

The people of Huanglong Temple wouldn't openly target a Cocoon-Breaking Expert from the White Whale Martial Arts Hall over a vague suspicion.

For all these reasons,

in outsiders' eyes,

Wu Dao was just a "big, dumb fellow" with an unusually large build.

As a result, during this period,

whenever Wu Dao took a back road, there was a good chance he'd run into bandits trying to rob him and make an easy profit.

In the end,

Wu Dao was the one who made an easy profit off them.

After a few days,

his bundle was nearly stuffed full of banknotes. They were worth an estimated ten thousand taels of silver or more—enough to buy a mountain of fine medicinal herbs.

And now,

someone else was about to give him money.

It was a little noisy and annoying, but who could turn down money that came for free?

"Damn it, pretending to be deaf, are you? You'd better really be deaf, or I'll cut off your ears and have them with my wine!"

Seeing Wu Dao standing there without a word, the dark-faced man felt he'd lost face in front of his leader. He rolled up his sleeves, covered the distance in a few strides, and punched through the air, landing a solid blow on Wu Dao's chest.

A martial artist at the Rigidity and Flexibility Realm

tempered his body after strengthening it through various martial arts techniques. Such a fighter had more than a thousand jin of brute force!

And the strength of someone at the Rigidity and Flexibility Realm had fully come alive. They knew how to use skill to unleash their greatest killing power.

With a punch thrown in rage,

even a tiger would be knocked flat.

Clearly,

the dark-faced man meant to kill Wu Dao. To him, killing someone seemed as ordinary as eating or drinking.

But

this time, he'd kicked an iron plate.

An iron plate in the literal sense.

Thud!

Crack!

The dark-faced man's furious punch slammed into Wu Dao's chest. It felt like striking an indestructible iron plate. The rebound snapped the bones in his hand on the spot, sending pain searing through him.

"Ah, my—"

The dark-faced man was about to howl and pull back.

But before he could cry out and withdraw his right hand,

Wu Dao's pectoral muscle gave a twitch.

Crack—

Boom!

A tremendous force rebounded into the dark-faced man's arm. His bones and flesh shattered inch by inch, then burst into a cloud of blood, spraying bone and flesh fragments across the faces of several nearby bandits.

"Ah! My hand! My hand!!"

His bloodcurdling scream drowned out the river roaring beneath the bridge.

Clutching his bleeding right shoulder, the dark-faced man rolled around on the ground like a slaughtered pig. After a few cries, he passed out from the pain.

Crack!

Wu Dao stepped forward as casually as if he were taking an ordinary stride, but his huge foot crushed the dark-faced man's chest, grinding his internal organs into pulp.

"Ah!!"

At the sight of such a bloody, savage scene,

some of the timid women among the merchants screamed, rolled their eyes, and fainted. Their trousers were soaked through with urine.

Neigh! Neigh!

The caravan's dozen or so horses seemed to sense the savage aura of a ferocious beast. They whinnied in panic, their legs giving way as they all fell to their knees.

Whoosh~

Just then,

a mountain breeze swept by.

It lifted the veil of Wu Dao's bamboo hat, revealing his inhuman black-and-gold eyes and the two rows of triangular black-steel shark teeth behind his grin.

"Oh no, it's Skull-Crushing Hand Black Pupil! He's too tough! Brothers, run!"

The bandit chief at the bridge entrance, the one in the black eyepatch carrying the spiked club, saw Wu Dao's terrifying black eyes. His one remaining eye nearly bulged out of its socket. With a shriek, he turned to flee.

Skull-Crushing Hand Black Pupil...

What the hell?

Wu Dao was stunned. Since when did he have that nickname? But now wasn't the time to think about it.

Boom!

Dragon-Elephant Stomp! The earth shook!

Seeing the bandits trying to scatter and escape,

Wu Dao stomped down hard. The black stone pavement at the bridge entrance heaved like waves, and the scattered bones of the dark-faced man shot up from the ground.

Whoosh~

Wu Dao's massive hand tore through the air, sweeping up the scattered bones in a single motion. His Subtle Mastery-level spiritual perception instantly locked onto the bandits fleeing in every direction.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Under the force of Heroic Realm strength, the bone fragments flew like high-speed shells, breaking the sound barrier and tearing through the air with successive sonic booms.

In the blink of an eye,

the dozen or so bandits hadn't even made it twenty meters before their heads burst open one after another, spraying clouds of blood. Red and white matter flew everywhere.

Their headless bodies

still followed the commands of their nerves, running quite a distance before finally toppling to the ground.